Putin and his 'siloviki' are toasting each other with glasses of vodka

The political 'hand grenade' that Trump threw at the Foreign secrataries of the EU, UK, and, more particularly, Ukraine, continues to reverberate around the world.

Using the 'mantra' of "peace ... peace ...", US president Donald Trump and Putin had a PRIVATE telephone conversation about the war in Ukraine

No doubt, this coversation followed a pattern similar to their meeting in Helsinki in 2018.

As Hannah Golden then reported of their PRIVATE Helsinki tête-à-tête in 2018,

"The meeting between Trump and Putin, which included translators, but no other aides or staffers, went overtime. The Wall Street Journal's Rebecca Ballhaus added that after the 90-minute mark, the two were supposed to be joined by staffers, but had not." (Elite Daily: 16 July 2018) (my emphasis)

Recall that in 1938, Neville Chamberlain met Hitler PRIVATELY on 3 ocassions, and

"... [at] Munich, Chamberlain got an international agreement that Hitler should have the Sudetenland in exchange for Germany making no further demands for land in Europe. Chamberlain said it was ‘Peace for our time’. Hitler said he had ‘No more territorial demands to make in Europe. " (The National Archives (Gov.UK)) (my emphasis)

 

Humanity's Archives : 6 years ago : YouTube

Fast foreward to 2024 and Trump, similarly, pronounced after his call with Putin that,

"US President Donald Trump has said he had a "lengthy and highly productive" phone call with Vladimir Putin on Wednesday in which the leaders agreed to begin negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. (Bernd Debusmann Jr., Mike Wendling, and James Waterhouse: BBC News: 13 February 2025) (my emphasis)

                                      

CBS News: 12 February 2025: YouTube

Furthermore,

"In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said he and the Russian president had "agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately".
…
Trump also told reporters at the White House that it was unlikely Ukraine would return to its pre-2014 borders but, in response to a question from the BBC, he said "some of that land will come back". (ibid: Bernd Debusmann Jr., Mike Wendling, and James Waterhouse)

 Reinforcing Trump's pronouncements that :-

• Ukraine returning to original borders before Russian invasion was ‘unrealistic,, and
•  NATO membership for Ukraine was also unrealistic,

former contributor for Fox TV News and current U.S. Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, re-stated Trump's pronouncements at his press conference following his call with Putin.

PBS News: 12 February 2025

Presciently, regarding the latest calls between Trump and Putin,  Emma Burrows (left) reported that,

"Putin is closer than ever to achieving his objectives in the battle-weary country, with little incentive to come to the negotiating table, no matter how much U.S. President Donald Trump might cajole or threaten him, according to Russian and Western experts interviewed by The Associated Press.

Both are signaling discussions on Ukraine -– by phone or in person -– using flattery and threats." (AP: 8 February 2025) (my emphasis)

No-one expected Trump to propose handing over to Putin Ukraine territory that is illegally occupied by Putin's armed forces.

Surely Putin must be pinching himself to feel whether he's dreaming or not.

As Adrian A. Basora (left) and Aleksandr Fisher (right) wrote in 2014,

" Putin and his surrogates have made it clear that the Kremlin’s goal is once again to establish its dominance over the lands once called Novorossiya
. Furthermore, it is clear that Putin hopes to push his control well beyond this region’s historic boundaries to include other contiguous provinces with large Russian-speaking populations." (Foreign Policy Research Institute: 2 May 2014) (my emphasis)

To-day, in 2025, it is precisely Trump's revealed "peace" formula for ending Putin's war in Ukraine that has is further whetting Putin's appetite of territorial expansion beyond Ukraine, causing deep concern amongst UK and European politicians.

Putin and his 'siloviki' are now toasting each other with glasses of vodka, thanks to Trump.

UPDATE: 14 February 2025: 07:39 GMT 

The political chasm between the EU and Trump, following Trump's "Ukraine capitulation-plan" to Putin, is fast emerging.

As reported by BBC News,

"French President Emmanuel Macron warns that a peace agreement to end the war in Ukraine that was in effect a capitulation to Russia would be "bad news for everyone", including the United States.

Macron tells the Financial Times, external that only Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky could negotiate on behalf of his country.
...
Macron also tells its European partners they need to "muscle up" on defence and the economy." (BBC News: 14 February 2025) (my emphasis) 

Trump and his current cabal of  'US AI oligarchs', believing as they do that they can upend the UK and Europes' political history by simply applying a rather crude economic 'quid-pro-quo' approach to politics, devoid of any moral framework, are beginning to have a rude 'political' awakening. 

Together, the UK and Europe are sleeping economic and political giants that Trump and his cohorts have awakened.

That first flush of power that Trump and his 'cabal of US AI oligarchs' believe they can simply impose upon the UK and Europe, together with imposing it upon the rest of the world, will soon begin to wane.

As the old saying goes, "The bigger they are, the harder they fall."     

                                                                                

        

 

(to be continued)