"As Ukraine's Foreign Minister during the most perilous year in Europe since the Second World War, I sat in rooms where distinguisehd men and women tried to make sense of Vladimir Putin.
…
Their arguments, solid as they sounded, failed for one simple reason; they tried to explain as if he were one of them. He is NOT."
" … the army is not Putin’s greatest foreign policy weapon. Nor is it oil and gas.
It is corruption. Corruption is how he penetrates other countries without sending in tanks." (cf: former Prime Minister of Hungary, Vicor Orban, current Prime Minister of Slovakia, Robert Fico, and current Prime Minister of Czech Republic, Andrej Babiš)
He wants free societies to doubt their values, their leaders, their alliances, the cost of resistance – even the very existence of truth. Corrupt the will, and everything else becomes easier. This is the rule Putin follows with ruthless consistency." (i Paper on MSN: 26 April 2026) (my emphasis)
Kuleba goes on to explain that,
"The fear of [the EU] cornering Putin, lest Russia weaken or even begin to fracture, has paralysed thinking for years. Too many have preferred a violent empire to an unstable one.
That is not realism. It is surrender dressed up as caution. Lasting peace is only possible with the fall of the imperial mindset that sustains it. (ibid Dymetro Kuleba)
The eyes of world are now fixated on Trump and Netanyahu's war with Iran, especially on events surrounding the Strait of Hormuz and its effects on world oil trade.
Yet Trump has thrown a lifeline to Putin by lifting the sanctions against Putin's oil-trade, and so helping him to try and stem Russia's continuing economic fall that threatens to completely engulf Putin.
As John Irish, Andreas Rinke and Dmitry Antonov reported,
" Ukraine and its European allies hit out on Friday at a U.S. temporary waiver to allow countries to buy sanctioned Russian oil and petroleum products stranded at sea, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warning it would fund Moscow's war machine." (Reuters: 13 March 2026) (my emphasis)
- "On April 15, the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent stated that the easing of sanctions against Russia is more it won't happen.
- April 17, USA sanctions were eased regarding the Russian Federation. The license allows the sale of Russian oil and petroleum products already at sea until May 16..
- On April 18, three Democrats in the U.S. Senate published a joint statement in which they condemned the administration of the US president Donald Trump for the decision to ease sanctions against Russian oil.
- Ambassador of Ukraine to the USA Olha Stefanishyna called on the American the administration to reinstate sanctions against Russian oil and petroleum products. (Liga.Net: 22 April 2026) (my emphasis)
But as the old saying goes, "Too little .... Too late."
"If you go back to the end of March that both the major ports in the Baltics, Primorsk and Ust- Luga, and the major Black sea port in Novorossiysk; for Russia's maritime oil, they have had to suspend production or cut it back at some point [because of Ukraine's succesful drone strategy against them].
These three ports handle 75% of Russia's maritme oil exports." (Frontline and Trump Report: 25 April 2026) (my emphasis)
Furthermore, Ukraine has finally received the financial lifeline from the EU that Victor Orban has, for the last few months, prevented.
As Paul Godfrey reports,
"European Union ambassadors meeting in Brussels on Wednesday backed a long-delayed $106 billion loan to Ukraine and a 20th economic sanctions package on Russia.
…
Leaders of the 27-member-country bloc ... [signed] off on the measures at an informal summit in Cyprus on Thursday." (UPI: 22 April 2026) (my emphasis)
Meanwhile, in Russia, 'siloviki' knives against Putin are simply no longer merely being sharpened. They are being brandished in 'full sight', which has left Putin 'holing up' in his bunker.
"You have this pathetic goblin in the Kremlin for 26 years [Putin], and he doesn't even speak with you. He hides from you and if, once again cornered, he says because of bad weather [that the Russian economic system is disastrously failing]" (Anna Danylchuk: 25 April 2026) (my emphasis)
No longer is Putin secure in the fact that Trump will always come to his rescue.
The mid-term elections in the US loom large, and Trump's control of the US Senate and Congress is fast slipping through his fingers.
For Trump, this is a foreboding of the US public descending upon his financial corruption, political incompetence, and the war he started with Iran.
Kubela is right in saying that,
"It is corruption. Corruption is how he [Putin] penetrates other countries without sending in tanks." (ibid Dymetro Kuleba)
The days of Putin are numbered.
UPDATE : 29 April 2026 : GMT 09:41
"A quarter century after the end of the cold war, the German social democrats are still providing ideological cover for the Russian Bear along with their cast-out brethren – the ex-communists of Die Linke party. These prominent German Putin-Empathizers (from Versteher or, literally “understander” in German) serve as Putin’s first line of defense against meaningful European sanctions for the Anschluss of Crimea." (Forbes: 5 April 2014) (my emphasis)
And as reported in the Economist in May of 2014 (blog entry : 20/02/2015 ),
"When Germans add the word Versteher (one who understands) to a term, they generally mix flattery with irony. So a Frauenversteher (one who understands women) is usually a man who boasts excessively about his knowledge of the opposite sex. The label is now being attached to so-called Russlandversteher or Putinversteher: members of the [German] elite or intelligentsia who gush with empathy for Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, on talk shows, in journals and at dinner parties." (Economist : May 10th 2014) (my emphasis)
Fast forward to 2026 and, in the words of Paul Gregory, Germany is still, "... providing ideological cover for the Russian Bear along with their cast-out brethren – the ex-communists of Die Linke party."
"German Chancellor Friedrich Merz (left) suggested on Monday that Ukraine may have to accept that parts of its [Ukraine's] territory could remain outside Kyiv's control in a future peace deal with Russia, linking such concessions to the country's prospects for joining the European Union." (Reuters: 27 April 2026) (my emphasis)
It would seem that the rampant Putinversteher mentality, prevalent in, " ... members of the [German] elite or intelligentsia who gush with empathy for Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, on talk shows, in journals and at dinner parties." in 2014 (ibid: Paul Roderick Gregory and The Economist ) still strongly thrives in Germany in 2026.
What German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is suggesting is nothing more than "blackmailing" Zelensky to accede to Putin in his violent attempted "theft" of Ukrainain land, by dangling in front of Zelensky accelerated EU membership for Ukraine, notwithstanding the fact that Ukraine is "regaining the land that Putin is trying to steal"
And whilst German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, "is suggesting is nothing more than "blackmailing" Zelensky to accede to Putin in his violent attempted "theft" of Ukrainain land", Konstantin Samoilov (left) informs us that,
"For the first time in 26 years, Vladimir Putin is speaking from a position of weakness, not strength.
And that is the signal ... the moment ... that is the beginning of the end. Not tomorrow, not next week, not forecast.
It has started. ..... and Putin knows, most of all". (Inside Russia: 29 April 2026: YouTube) (my emphasis)
Truly, the days of Putin are numbered.
