The dust has finally settled on the Munich Security Conference of 2026, at which the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, presented the European leaders with a "slicker variation" of the "finger wagging" of Vance (left) at European leaders during the Munich Security Conference in 2025.
As US Vice president Vance then stated in his 2025 speech to European leaders,
"The threat that I worry the most about vis a vis Europe is not Russia, its not China, its not any other external actor.
And what I worry about is the threat from within" (video: The White House: 2025: YouTube)
Furthermore, he stated that,
"... Of all the threatening challenges that the nations here face, I believe that there's nothing more urgent than mass migration ... " (ibid The White House)
And in his recent speech to the 2026 Munich Security Conference; in his opening remarks, Marco Rubio (left) stated that,
"And in a pursuit of a world without borders, we opened our doors to an unprecedent wave of mass migration, that threatens the cohesion of our societies, the continuity of our culture, and the future of our people." (video: Alert News: 15 February 2026: YouTube)
Is it any wonder that, as reported by Sky News,
"While officials from the US, Ukraine and Russia were locked in talks in Geneva yesterday, Volodymyr Zelenskyy was criticisng part of Donald Trump's approach to peace.
Ukraine's president said Trump was exerting undue pressure on him to try to secure an end to the war.
In an interview with Axios, Zelenskyy said it was "not fair" that Trump kept publicly calling on Ukraine, not Russia, to make concessions.
"I hope it is just his tactics and not the decision," he said of Trump." (Sky News: 18 February 2026) (my emphasis)
As reported by Barak Ravid and Dave Lawler (left),
"The Ukrainian people would reject a peace deal that involves Ukraine unilaterally withdrawing from the eastern Donbas region and turning it over to Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky told Axios in an interview Tuesday." (Axios: 17 February 2026) (my emphasis)
As also reported by Tinshui Yeung (right),
"Zelensky has come under pressure from the White House to hold presidential elections, which have been suspended while the country is under martial law.
Asked about a Financial Times report that his administration was planning for elections as soon as May, Zelensky said it was "something new to me" and repeated that "nobody supports elections during the war". (BBC News: 14 February 2026) (my emphasis)
And in his frantic attempt to influence the "peace talks" in Geneva, Putin continues to unleash his "demented and genocidal" onslaught against the Ukrainian people.
"Russian forces pounded Ukrainian power infrastructure before a new round of peace talks, killing three energy workers and leaving tens of thousands of people without power and heat, officials said on Tuesday.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy condemned the overnight strikes on 12 Ukrainian regions that came under attack hours before the scheduled start of U.S.-backed trilateral talks involving Kyiv and Moscow in Geneva." (Reuters: 17 February 2026) (my emphasis)
Putin is now pulling out all the stops to save himself from being overthrown.
"Vladimir Putin is restructuring Russia's internal security apparatus in a move analysts believe is aimed at shielding his regime from dangers lurking within his own ranks.
…
The restructuring is widely seen as a defensive move by Putin, stemming in large part from Rosgvardia's poor showing during the Wagner Group's armed rebellion in June 2023, when the national guard "failed to engage Wagner forces during the Wagner mutiny." (Express : 13 February 2026) (my emphasis)
And to save himself from his accelerating implosion in the US, Trump's "glove puppets", JD Vane and Marco Rubio, are shielding him against the "fallout" from the Epstein files in the US, before the mid-term elections.
Like Putin, Trump is clutching at straws to save himself.
