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Posted on 10/06/2026 6:44:35 AM PDT by delta7
Regardless of why Putin might have held off on this for so long, he’s now arguably motivated at least in part by the tantalizing possibility of reaching big-ticket resource deals with the US after the conflict ends, the details of which his and Trump’s envoys have been negotiating for over a year already.
The New York Times cited allegedly intercepted Russian communications to report that Russia plans to obliterate Ukraine’s power, heating, and water systems this winter. While their claim can’t be confirmed, it aligns with Putin mildly “escalating to de-escalate” over the summer in response to Zelensky’s strike campaign, which has taken the form of ramping up attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure. If the report is true, then Russia doesn’t just aim to sever Ukraine’s military logistics, but to bring Ukraine to its knees.
Putin has thus far eschewed this arguably due to his belief that Russians and Ukrainians are kindred people. Some have suggested that Russia might not have had the drone and/or missile capacity to do so earlier, however, whether due to low production till now and/or to hedge against the scenario of a hot war with NATO. In any case, Putin now seems to have made peace with the humanitarian consequences of ending the war on Russia’s terms sooner rather than later, or at least on as many of them as possible.
He might be motivated by more than just Ukraine’s “war of attrition” against Russia that began over the summer with American backing and interestingly enough France’s as well. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reportedly told his Russian counterpart over the summer that no business deals are possible so long as the conflict continues. Since then, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met with Putin to discuss such deals among other topics, after which Kirill Dmitriev traveled to the US to follow up on that.
For background, Putin boasted in late February 2025 that American companies “will make a decent profit” from investments in Russia’s resource industry, and Trump’s Special Envoy to Belarus John Coale recently confirmed that he received approval to pitch a Belarusian-like deal to Putin. It would involve sanctions relief in exchange for the release of “political prisoners”. Putin’s ally Alexander Lukashenko already agreed to several such deals and is now negotiating a massive potash one with Trump.
Just last week, Lukashenko also proposed a trilateral Belarusian, Russian, and US fertilizer plant deal, but that requires the US lifting its sanctions on Gazprom. Russian officials from Putin on down have called for the West to lift its sanctions on Russia, and while the US might lift some if Putin agrees to a Belarusian-like quid pro quo, the Ukrainian Conflict will first have to end for this to happen at scale. Their resultant resource-centric strategic partnership could then revolutionize the global economic architecture.
The Russian economy has survived the West’s unprecedented sanctions onslaught, largely due to the combination of its natural resources and national payment system, but its Economic Development Ministry expects only 0.6% GDP growth this year. United Russia’s landslide victory during last month’s Duma elections, the first since the large-scale phase of the Ukrainian Conflict began, gives Putin the mandate to do whatever is needed to win the war and deliver more prosperity to his people afterwards.
It’s therefore within the realm of possibility, consistent with Russia’s policy of demanding the lifting of Western sanctions, that Putin is motivated at least in part to end the conflict on as many of Russia’s terms as possible sooner rather than later so as to then reach big-ticket resource deals with the US. This imperative, which could revolutionize the global economic architecture and deliver more prosperity to his people, contextualizes the New York Times’ report about him planning to bring Ukraine to its knees.
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US know how companies operating in Siberia is a win win for the world.
The Russian population is exceeded by the single Indonesian island of Java.
Yup, Putin has been "holding back" going into the fifth year of the Ukraine invasion. Okay
I'm a Moscow-based American political analyst specializing in the global systemic transition to multipolarity.
“Wasn’t the Ukraine invasion supposed to be done in just a few days?”
I thought President Trump was going to end it in 24 hours.
Putin waited 5 years?
What kind of ludicrous claims is this! Why would you kill millions in a war over 5 years if you could end it in 3 days? You would have to be a complete moron to plan a 5 year trench war that depletes your entire reserves and damages your economy when you could take a target quickly.
Putin didn’t wait 5 years. For 5 years Putin has done everything he could, short of going house to house and conscripting Russians, to end this conflict from a military perspective. He hasn’t done the later, gone house to house, because he is afraid it will be his undoing.
Don’t expect this conflict is going to end soon at this point. Maybe, if Putin can get 40 million soldiers in the field, he might be able to end it ‘quickly’ or end himself ‘quickly’. The other possibility is Russia trading territory for peace with Ukraine for it’s war of aggression. That would likely be Putin’s undoing as well.
Ukraine is now officially a Russian quagmire. No end in sight, and only a question if Putin can mobilize enough people to ‘end it quickly’ or about how many resources and how many dead before a new Russian Administration cuts a deal.
The Davos/Globalist plan is to not allow a strong and united Russia in the first place.
Access to resources would be sooooo much easier if Russia were weak, or especially, if it were broken up and cronies, oligarchs, and corrupt bankers were in power there. Russia then could be subject to their controlled media, NGOs, and fake institutions of "European democracy."
They could then sit atop the massive trade flows
Russia of the 1990s was the IDEAL situation for the EU, its bankers and its political masters.
Its why they hate Putin with a red-hot passion.
And with that you can discount this as Russian propaganda. For four and half years Putin has been doing everything that he could to bring Ukraine to its knees. The suggestion that he has been holding off is laughable.
“The piece above is an attempt to make Putin/Russia appear less evil while transferring the evil label to Ukraine.”
That’s a load of crap.
The piece above is an attempt to make Trump more evil by suggesting that he is incentivizing Putin to quickly “bring Ukraine to its knees” so US/Russia can get on with their big-ticket resource deals.
I'm trying to find someone, anyone, in Russia (particularly in power) who claimed that. Have you?
Russia in 2014 was very weak, and in 2022, was less weak, but still not prepared for all-out war.
Russia's 2022 "decapitation strike" failed, or possibly, nearly worked - if we are to believe reports that Zelensky was ready to negotiate the status of the Donbas, until Boris Johnson and Anthony Blinken told Ukraine to keep fighting.
Putin and everyone around him recognized that long-term war with Ukraine was really war with NATO, and prudent planning meant being ready for every contingency, from a collapse of Belarus to threats from the Baltics to involvement of NATO troops.
This war can easily go on another 10 years, with Azov Ukrainians, supported by the West, fighting in bunkers all the way up to Poland's borders
What will really end this war? Regime change in Western Europe.
Jeez…. I thought it was 15 million Russians killed. While only 6,000 Ukrainians were killed.
Little Poot had been holding back. Didn’t we all know this ? He could have swatted Ukraine like a fly on day 1 but thought, nah, let me kill a few million of my own men first.
Even better would be Kamchatka as the 51st state! US companies operate much better under the US rule of law. Besides, since Asian Russia is inhabited with American Indians (that did not bother to migrate), perhaps President Trump could declare Eastern Oblasts as “Historically American Indian” territories. Putin would understand.
In just a few weeks at most.
putin puffery
“Russia has over 20 percent of the world’s natural resources, over $75 Trillion...”
... which is why The City of London and the European powers have been trying repeatedly to conquer Russia for the last century.
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