A critical component of all diplomacy with the US now is how Trump feels about the interaction. Bad deals can’t be called out for what they are without risking Trump’s wrath and the inevitable retaliation that will follow. Understanding this, diplomats try to frame agreements that provide some appearance of victory for Trump while holding firm against proposals that would be detrimental to their interests.
Trump’s objective was to quickly end the war and normalize relations with Russia. The conditions of a peace agreement were of little consequence. Since Ukraine depends on allied aid and the US provided the bulk of the military aid, Trump believed he could force Ukraine into an unjust deal while giving Putin most of his demands. This led to the ambush in the oval office on February 28th and the suspension of intelligence and equipment deliveries for a week on March 3rd.
But Ukraine and its allies have an advantage because Russia cannot afford the political cost of stopping the war. On March 29th, President Stubb of Finland spent a day in Florida socializing with Trump. It helped that Stubb was a good golfer in his youth and that he and Trump teamed up to win a tournament staged by Trump’s golf club. Stubb was also able to explain how Russia does not negotiate in good faith and has no desire to support a ceasefire, despite their rhetoric with the US.
Three weeks after Stubb’s visit, the Pope died on April 21st. Two days later, Trump told Vladimir to stop the unnecessary attacks on Ukrainian cities and said that “things will happen” if the attacks continue. The Pope’s funeral created an opportunity for brief visits with Macron, Starmer, and most importantly, Zelensky. Equally important, Vance and Witkoff of the pro-Russian faction were not in Rome. Trump left Rome before a possible second meeting with Zelensky the next day, but he publicly stated that there was no reason for Putin to attack civilians with missiles and he wondered if Putin was just stringing him along and wasn’t interested in peace after all. He suggested that Putin might need to be coerced with more sanctions.
With the change in momentum, the minerals deal was finally signed, one that had better terms for Ukraine than the deal they were willing to sign in February. Ukraine currently earns a total of $1 billion a year from all of its natural resources although it holds trillions of dollars in untapped resources. But the minerals won’t be mined within Trump’s lifetime. Soviet-era maps of the resources have not been modernized or vetted. 99% of mineral exploration fails. Of the 1% that succeeds, 99% will never end up as a producing mine. It takes an average of 18 years to construct a mine that can operate for 30-80 years. Each mine also needs infrastructure (electricity, rails, etc.) to support operations. It is a century-long investment that will span the evolving politics of several generations. The deal does not exclude Ukraine from integrating with Europe, nor does it force Ukraine to pay for military aid that was provided in the past. It does not provide Ukraine with security guarantees but, importantly, the deal can be portrayed as a success and a sign of progress.
https://xxtomcooperxx.substack.com/p/dons-weekly-5-may-2025-part-4-russia
Comment: These guys figured it out. I always thought Zelenskiy’s original proposal for a mineral deal was based on this reading of Trump. Pretty damned slick in my opinion. I’m very surprised Putin and Lavarov didn’t employ this strategy. They started in a much better position with Trump than Zelenskiy. I guess they felt hemmed in by their own tough talk.
Yuri Shvets, a former KGB major based in Washington was one of the early spotters of Trump as a potential recruitment had this to say about Trump:
“In terms of his personality,” Shvets added, “the guy is not a complicated cookie, his most important characteristics being low intellect coupled with hyperinflated vanity. This combination makes him a dream for an experienced recruiter.”
By the way, I still don’t think the Russians ever formally recruited Trump as an agent. I still consider him uncontrollable and, therefore, unsuitable as a recruited asset. Colonel Lang agreed. But he can be manipulated.
TTG
Good Morning..Yes..The worlds Status Is Fragile..Intense..Pakistan,,India and
All Other Matters..that Require Solving..By All The Worlds Leaders..Through Various Means..Some Are Blunt Crude..and Irrational..Some are Solved Through Election..and Today…By The Vote of The Cardinals At The Vatican..For A NEW POPE….As I Sit Here. No Vote Yet..So I Am Curious To See How Its Turns Out..I believe There May Be a
Surprise who is Elected.There is A Old Prophecy By a Priest Named Malakai what The Line
of POPES Would Be and Their Names..The List..Ends Right now..and Says The Last Pope Will Be Roman..And He Will Take The Name…PETER….
JIM
LOL thanks for the latest euro-con laugh track.
” Equally important, Vance and Witkoff of the pro-Russian faction were not in Rome.”
Finland with the neocon spin worthy of MI6. Which of their 30 wars with the Russians did they actually win?
But the deal gets better:
It takes 18 years to construct a mine? Damn, is Ukraine over-regulated or corrupt; or both? It will last a hundred years? Really? Golly we should reopen all those old gold rush mines, most of which certainly didn’t last 100 years.
” Yuri Shvets, a former KGB major based in Washington…” I wonder how much we had to pay to get this quality of KGB operative?
“It does not provide Ukraine with security guarantees” No sh** You got a piece of paper worth less than the one Chamberlain waved around. Did anyone notice the German election, the declaration that their largest political party is, well, you did see that news? Did you see what Hungary had to say about the EU’s latest announcement from Brussels, https://www.politico.eu/article/orbans-man-in-brussels-stalls-russian-energy-exit-plan/
But by all means Russia is falling. Oh, and suddenly Pakistan and India are shooting at each other.
Fred..TTG and Forum..Yes..We need to Repeat What Former KGB Agents have told the CIA..Most are Reliable..but always a few Sputniks…I have just
Caught up on TV News..Markets Are Down..The Wilting of Wallstreet..
Lots Of Agony..NO Euphoria….That could All Be Fixed Fast With Proper
Treatment..Of Goldilocks and The Tree Bears…
OT.. I Saw The Loss of Aircraft Landing on The Carrier
..He Was At Point of Landing ‘ I SAY The Pilot Was attacked by Jamming For 90 seconds..Just like the 90 second Jam of Air Control
In New Jersey… The Proof of That Tech/AI is Every Where..
Jim,
Bitcoin is back to $100K; the PM of the UK bent a knee to Trump with the “trade deal”. or Trump defeated by the UK. Just like 1814 minus the brits burning down D.C. (that’s Antifa’s job now).
Oh, and Columbia cuts a deal with the to settle lawsuits against an “elite” doctor who had for years been abusing patients. Lost in the coverage of the poor Palestinian protesters getting arrested on campus.
“Columbia Settles With Victims of Former Doctor for $750M”… “bringing total legal payouts to former patients to over $1 billion,”
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/05/08/columbia-settles-750m-over-former-doctors-sexual-assaults
your analysis is on-target. world leaders are figuring out how to game the shallow idiot – it’s their job. this makes being the most recent one to meet with him more valuable than ever. the stakes are far greater than his real estate deals (throw in some bitcoins) construct of diplomacy.
I foresee the “flood the zone” tactic being reflected back onto him (& to include his phalanx of youthful blondes, gang of corrupt hangers-on & nut-case ideologues) as he sucks up every bit of false fealty the world can muster – & that’s alotta ass-kissing. throw in some royalty & gold trinkets! far better (ratings-wise) than the scripted cabinet round-tables where unctuous prostration is merely uncomfortable to behold.
yeah… they’ve got his number – in only 100 days.
TTG – thought it was my duty to watch Scott Bessent setting out his stall:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjyI98Clzbo&t=331s&ab_channel=AssociatedPress
So I did. Took a stroll in Bessent’s upside down world. Turns out that all the things I’d thought the US had done to damage its own economy and industrial base had not been done by the US at all. They’d been done to the US. By foreigners who’d failed to observe the rules and had taken advantage of the US. The US as victim.
Now it’s time to put things right. Tighten up the rules – the IMF and the World Bank for example have allowed themselves to get a bit sloppy – and make sure the foreigners observe them for once. That’s what President Trump is doing right now and not a moment too soon. His carrot? Giving the foreigners healthier and more balanced economies. His stick? Deploying the purchasing power of the vast American consumer market.
That’s Bessent’s theoretical base. Bessent’s upside down world.
When confronted by a heap of nonsense the first question to ask is not “Does the theory hang together? Does it correspond to reality?” That way lies interminable argument and irritable disagreement. Better to accept that this is the world Scott Bessent lives in, quite happily by the looks of it, and ask “Does anything useful come out of Bessent’s jumble of confusion and misconception?”
I believe something does. China has a hopelessly unbalanced economy, long term, and instead of sending goods abroad for no ultimate return would do better to channel those goods to its domestic market, sending goods abroad only in such quantities as will enable them to buy fuel and raw materials. The Chinese know that and have been attempting to remedy the problem for some time.
America’s got a hopelessly unbalanced economy and should be manufacturing the goods it needs instead of running up impossible deficits by buying them abroad. The Americans know that and it’s one of the reasons they elected Trump.
Get the trading relationship back in balance – Scott Bessent likes the word “balance” – and both will do better.
But whether Trump’s going to get that result with his bull in a China Shop way of negotiating – that’s another question. With any luck he’s playing a double game. Talking big to please the American electorate – the American electorate loves kick-ass talk when it come to foreigners – but behind the scenes getting some win-win negotiating done. Doesn’t at all look like that right now but there’s always hope.
……………………..
As for Ukraine, and setting aside the rights and wrongs of the conflict, by prolonging the conflict Trump doesn’t understand he’s playing right into the Russians’ hands. There are some concessions the Russians could make for him, to allow him to save face, but they no longer need to given that he’s continuing the war.
The Russian objectives are perfectly clear. They want to put it out of the power of NATO to use Ukraine as a battering ram. They want to avoid neo-Nazis running riot next door. They don’t want peace until they’ve gained those objectives. That is, any peace that leaves those objectives only partially achieved is of no use to them. It would leave open the possibility of NATO and the neo-Nazis coming back for another go later.
Closing down the possibility of any peace on those Russian terms merely ensures the Russians grind on until they’ve got their objectives – and Trump loses any chance of saving face.
Dumb, that. The Russians would like to normalise relations with the US and there are plenty of ways they could help Trump avoid losing face without compromising their objectives. Not, however, as long as the US is still in a state of war with them.
Trump’s objective is to get out of an unwinnable war without laying himself open to the accusation of being a Russian patsy. He’s not going the right way about it. He’ll end up with egg all over his face just as the Europeans are ending up. To the West, he’ll be the American President who “lost Ukraine”: most of us in the West still don’t know that we “lost” Ukraine on February 24th 2022 so we’ll think Trump did it.
Trump would have done better to adopt Bannon’s solution. Say straight out that the war was Biden’s mistake, that it was unwinnable, and he wants no part of it. That way, his RINO’s and the Europeans would still howl “Russian patsy” at him. But he’d have been clear of the mess well before the midterms. And the American electorate is famed for its short memory. Almost as short a memory as us Brits.
………………………
(Watched the Bessent yesterday evening. SWMBO – “Was that the one where you nearly went to sleep?” “Shshsh! Not telling TTG that.”)
EO,
It’s not just Bessent who will put you to sleep. Economics in general is a real snoozer, a velvet hammer. In my first week in college, I sat down in a class that I thought was Chemistry 101. I didn’t understand a damned thing. It was an upperclass macroeconomics course. I sat there for 10 to 15 minutes before I realized this was not chemistry, got up and walked out, telling the professor that I thought this was chemistry 101. The class got a laugh out of it.
Bessent and others are upset that the rest of the world are not the voracious consumers that Americans are. We see no vice in wanting and buying far more than what we can afford or need. Much of the trade imbalance is due to our insistence on buying so much shit we don’t need. There is no sense of contentment or sufficiency. Bessent complains that the Chinese people save too much. Since when is that a vice? Granted that accumulating wealth for the sake of accumulating wealth isn’t healthy, either. So what’s wrong with being content with enough. How about the Danish concept of Hygge, being happy with the simple things we have?
On the other hand, that burning desire to have more and more leads to technological progress. So many entrepreneurial endeavors depend on creating a market for stuff we never needed. We can’t all live in Amish communities, making or growing what we need and not desiring all the gewgaws the rest of us must have. Some of those gewgaws are pretty nice.
I can understand Russian desire that Ukraine not pose a threat to them,
and that they see a heavily militarized Ukraine as posing a potential threat.
(Yes, I also understand that Ukraine can make the same charge against Russia.)
But what I do not understand is why Russia cares
whether Ukraine has a neo-Nazi presence or not.
How or why does the presence of neo-Nazis in Ukraine pose a threat to Russia?
Any references or information on that?
Keith Harbaugh,
The neo-nazis in Ukraine are a greatly overblown threat. It is a Kremlin propaganda point. Neo-nazi or ultranationalist groups exist in many countries. Why such groups continue to cling to Nazi symbolism is beyond me. It does point to the continued effectiveness of the propaganda of Hitler’s Nazis. Even though they failed miserably and destroyed the very nation they sought to create, their symbolism is still adored by these neo-nazi groups.
Such groups exist throughout Europe, in the US and in Russia itself. In Ukraine, they reached the height of their power in 2014 and into 2015. They were at the forefront of the fight against the pervasive corruption throughout Ukrainian government and society. But by 2016 and certainly by the 2019, they lost all political influence. Neo-nazi parties are far stronger in Germany, France and other countries. That doesn’t mean that strong nationalism doesn’t hold sway in Kyiv. It certainly does and it has been strengthened by the war. Nationalism outside of neo-nazism is on the rise throughout the world.
On That Matter,,The nazi in Ukraine..Banner..
Flown By Russia..In Propoganda..To Inflame
The Russian People,,Who Lost Millions of
Loved Ones to the nazis in order to continue
with Ukraine..Putins..Personal..War.
Its The Same as the Commando on the Motor Cycle.
.Riding Past The Burned Russian..Truck..
JIM
I get all that Jim. It’s one of the sticking points. You have to know a fair bit about what’s been happening in Ukraine recently to know the facts. Few in the West know the facts and therefore few in the West believe Ukraine is in the grip of an extremist group that we’re using in order to “bleed” the Russians.
But that’s what the Russians believe. And because the Russians have military superiority in that region, and also because NATO has revealed itself as a paper tiger that could not prevail even if it tried, what the Russians believe is what counts over there.
They’ll plod on come hell or high water until they’ve got shot of the Budanov types who currently hold the whip hand in Kiev. No good telling me that Budanov and his sort are Glorious Freedom Fighters. Tell the Russians.
What I can tell you as indisputable fact is that they won’t believe you: and because they won’t believe you and because they have military superiority this is, whatever you or I believe or whatever most in the West believe, an unwinnable war.
Always has been. That’s why I’ve been arguing since ’22 we should stop insisting that our unfortunate proxies keep fighting it. Especially since most of the Black Sun characters take good care to keep clear of the fighting. They – and we – shove the Ukrainian PBI into the combat line to do it instead.
Do you not think there’s something wrong about the deal anyway? If we want to fight the Russians, fair enough. Have at it. But to stand back in safety while the proxies fight them for us, merely because it gives us the opportunity to bleed the Russians “for cents on the dollar”, is dishonourable.
This used to be a site where many of the contributors had been soldiers. Still is to an extent. Why should it fall to a civilian to tell soldiers what honour is?
@TTG
Care to exactly name these parties in France and Germany?
jld,
The National Rally in France and the AfD in Germany are far right, nationalist parties. They will deny they are neo-nazi in outlook, but they are. Although the RN in France has been toning down its positions recently.
They are not nationalist, they are patriots.
Marine Le Pen or Alice Weidel neo-nazi ?
Your leftist opinion is ridiculous.
Neo-nazi are “swastika” tattooed.
Your Ukrainian friends are.
Neo-nazi give street names to Nazi collaborators and killers of Poles and Jews.
Your Ukrainian friends do.
Neo-nazi talk about superiority of their “race”
Your Ukrainian friends do.
Neo-nazi paint nazi symbols on theirs army vehicles.
Your Ukrainian friends do.
And so on.
Te fact that ” Neo-nazi lost all political influence” is simply a joke.
They just morphed as a political force and infiltrated institutions.
That’s why comparing them to other neo-nazi groups is irrelevant.
aleksandar,
You can well argue that Marine Le Pen or Alice Weidel are not neo-nazi. Neo-nazism has become shorthand for rightwing nationalism and that is indeed what Le Pen’s party is… right wing nationalists. Do they consider themselves patriots? Of course they do. Even the real Nazis considered themselves patriots, as did Lenin’s Communist revolutionaries.
Keith – just off to do some much needed work outside but thought your query needed a reply.
Better to recognise that “neo-Nazi” is not a definition. It’s a catch-all term, like “Fascist”, that gets slung around ad lib. When looking at the Ukrainian ultra-nationalists “Banderite” fits better, though even that just identifies one of the strands and doesn’t really fit the eastern Ukrainian ultras. “Kolomoiski’s football hooligans with Wolfsangel tattoos who found themselves in the privileged position of being able to terrorise and loot Mariupol and elsewhere unchecked after 2014” would do to categorise them. It’s bit of a mouthful, that, so “ultra” or “Azov” will have to do for that brand of ultra.
This is the site consensus on the groups we’re talking about:-
“The Maidan Revolution occurred under conditions of anarchy and continued corruption. Under the cover of that anarchy, the right wing elements, the neo-nazis, white supremacists, anti-semitics and ultra nationalists gained ascendancy. They formed the right wing militias that threatened the lives of those in the east.
“The rebels had no choice but to fight for their lives. And they did. And it got ugly. “
The dispute here, therefore, is not whether these characters existed in 2014. Nor is there dispute about what they did at that time. The dispute is about what happened to them afterwards.
Some believe these ultras melted away in the succeeding years. They were only prominent in the early years and were later neutralised or absorbed into normal Ukrainian politics.
I don’t think that’s correct. In the years up to 2022 their influence grew.
They didn’t run the country. They had neither the ability nor the numbers ever to do that. But the threat and often the use of extreme physical violence enabled them to dictate how the country should be run. I’ve mentioned Zolote, a key time when Zelensky first came up against them in a big way publicly, and that illustrates the sort of power they had.
These neo-Nazis, Banderites, ultras – whatever you care to call them – disappeared from sight in early ’22 as far as we in the West are concerned. Before that time there were dozens of newspaper articles and scholarly papers on them. After ’22 they got memory holed.
That’s the point of disagreement here, then. Do these people still exist or is the existence and increased influence of the Ukrainian ultras a slur put about by the Putin trolls?
You can make up your own mind about that. Or you in the States can. Live in Germany and you can find yourself harassed mercilessly by the authorities if you make up your mind the wrong way. I live in England where we’re not so heavily into the Fourth Reich stuff, so I think I’m probably safe in saying that to the best of my knowledge, and for an increasing number of its inhabitants, Ukraine is now a police state ruled by terror.
Why does it bother the Russians at all, you ask. Well, these are the people we use to run sabotage and assassination missions into Russia. Also to mount those “look no hands” drone and missile attacks into Russia. They also murder ethnic or pro-Russians within Ukraine itself on occasion and, as they have been doing for around ten years now, shell the civilians of Donetsk and surrounding areas.
If there was a group of people doing the equivalent out of Mexico the Americans would of course smile sweetly and forget about it all. But the Russians are so bloody unreasonable! They’ve decided to put a stop to it. For good.
…………………………………..
“Any references or information on that?”
Only what I’ve been submitting here for the past few years. Latest, if I recall accurately, is material from Panchenko and Havryshko. I selected those because they’re Ukrainians, one from the East and one from the West, so have a better grasp of what’s happening on the ground there than we can have.
The pre-2022 Guardian can be quite informative. The Israeli press still is sometimes. I remember submitting links to it in the past. Then there are the articles from those notorious Putin troll outlets, NYT, WAPO, and the London Times. They give chapter and verse on the use the West made of the ultras of Ukraine.
Now I must go and scythe the lawns. Yes, I said scythe. We environmentalists like to walk the walk sometimes and we have no neighbours to scoff at the somewhat ragged results. Though I notice guests looking sideways sometimes.
Hope I’ve answered your query. Maybe you could answer one from me. Any quick cure for backache? Something modish and organic would do. Hellish hard work, scything.
Thanks for your answer!
Ah yes, backaches.
I think the best thing to do is simply not put too much stress on it.
My back shudders at the very thought of scything 🙂
https://youtu.be/URJ31uqH07E
That sparked a memory.
In Germany scythes used to be made differently and sharpened differently. The blade would be peened (dengeln) to draw the steel out thin. Then touched up with a fine stone to end up with a razor sharp though fragile edge. Just right for cutting that difficult short grass. Maybe this technique, very different from how it used to be done round my way, was carried over to the States and later taken up by enthusiasts. That would account for that lovely clean cut.
Anyway, can’t match that video but it reminded me that time spent sharpening a scythe is never wasted. As for the hammer and sickle, Leith, what were you doing marching in Red Square yesterday with the best of them? I saw you there and thought, that’s your cover blown as well, comrade.
EO,
My father and grandfather used a scythe on our back yard. I used one a few times in my neighbor’s hayfields. Eventually they had a hay cutter for their tractor, but we still pitched the hay by hand atop a Model A Ford hay truck and then pitched it into the hay barn above the small heard of cows below.
EO –
You might have confused me with my great-uncle Douglas, the Wobbly and black sheep of the family. Grandma always said I looked like him. But I think the last time he was there was in 1921 or so. He’d never go there now unless it was to proselytize Putin’s neo-Nazis and bring them back to their socialist revolutionary roots.
Hope your backache is better.
EO –
Massage is best for bachache. Or get some sweet young thing to walk on your back.
But I thought a Soviet sickle to be more your style instead of a scythe?
an “unjust deal”. LOL
Another progressive social justice dork reveals his immature self. There are no “unjust” deals between full grown men. Only deals to which they agree, or don’t agree.
The rest of the article is the usual heap of mendacious opinions, pretending to be facts, that appeals to those with the worst cases of TDS.
The war in Ukraine won’t stop because the Euro-crazies and the US crazies want Crimea returned to Ukraine, which simply isn’t going to happen. In fact, the desire to take Crimea from Russia is what NATO was up to when Russia proactively interrupted the staging phase of that operation by invading Ukraine. Trump, apparently, didn’t realize just how insanely dedicated NATO is to capturing Crimea. So deals cannot be made for that reason. The Euro-nuts made it clear, last week, that Crimea is the real prize they’ve been after since 2014. Everything else that appears in this sub stack article and all over the rest of TDS land is just smoke and mirrors to disguise the Crimea issue.
Eric Newhill,
I agree that Crimea and Sebastopol has always been absolutely critical to the Kremlin. That’s the Black Sea Fleet and control of the Black Sea. That’s why they took the Crimea in 2014. They had a real fear that Sevastopol would become a NATO naval base. The Kremlin was acting reasonably when they took Crimea as I’m pretty sure NATO was chomping at the bit to raise its flag over Sevastopol. The Kremlin now has Crimea and Sevastopol, although it is not of much use to the Black Sea Fleet at the moment. But they are not going to give it up in any peace deal, not if it could possibly become a NATO base. And I don’t see Ukraine taking it back by force. So the war will go on until something changes.
TTG,
Yep, That’s about the size of it.
The Ukrainians are good at warfighting, but simply cannot seize Crimea for NATO ( a bridge too far) and too small to decisively defeat Russia in the Donbas. Russian sucks at war fighting, but will not lose Crimea under any circumstances (probably would even go to tactical nukes if the risk of loss was high). NATO too small and too economically challenged to tilt the scales in favor of a Ukrainian victory, but big enough to keep the war going for the foreseeable future. Ukraine fools for doing NATO’s bidding. Russia fools for invading Ukraine in a half-assed manner. Learning about drones on the battlefield has been pretty cool though, for outside observers.
TTG,
” That’s why they took the Crimea in…”
I believe Catherine the Great took that a long time before. I also seem to recall the glory of the 600. Who won that particular European war against Russia, long before 2014?
Fred,
The Ottoman Empire held Crimea for hundreds of years. Even the Crimean Tatars declared it as independent when the Russian Empire fell. It Belonged to the Ukrainian SSR from 1954 and was then part of independent Ukraine. Very few countries recognize the current Russian occupation of Crimea as legitimate.
TTG,
Everyone is living on land seized from someone else. Maybe the Chinese are an exception. I’m not sure; don’t understand that history. But surely everyone bitching about “rules”, “legitimacy”, “fairness”, “justice”, etc. is on occupied territory by their own standards.
I find those arguments of “legitimacy” to be delusions of objective moral righteousness and pathetic, frankly. Just a high horse for empty and narcissistic fools – or manipulative parasitic weaklings – to ride around on, making more trouble even for themselves as much as everyone else.
The architects of such artifice understand that life is taking what you can get away with taking and mutually cooperating when met with equal strength. Only children and buffoons believe in whatever morality the architects assign to their actions. Social justice is nothing more than sneaky antisocial losers using their lawyerly mouths, propaganda or terrorism to parasitize what the smart, honest, tough and disciplined built.
TTG,
Constantinople was Christian for how long?
Why are you defending the administrative decision of the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1954? Whose army are the folks who want president for as long as he keeps extending martial law Zelensky’s government to control Crimea going to use to force the Russians to give it up?
Fred,
Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Why did Constantinople get the works?
That’s nobody’s business but the Turks.
Russia, recognized Crimea as part of Ukraine in 1991 in the Belovezha Accords, as well as in 1994 in the Budapest Memorandum and did not dispute that until 2014. Whose army is going to dispute the current Russian occupation? It will probably be the same army that wrested the Baltics out of Moscow’s grasp back in 1991.
I tried to add this comment to the post on China and trade, but comments there literally closed while I was typing in and editing this comment!
(I.e., the comment box there was initially open and allowed me to enter the text, but was closed when I submitted it.)
So here it is, here:
—–
I want to put in a strong plug for
The World Turned Upside Down:
America, China, and the Struggle for Global Leadership
by Clyde Prestowitz, 2021
https://g.co/kgs/xuXKpZQ
It gives easy-to-read explanations of
economic aspects of the U.S./China relation,
from the POV of both corporations and governments,
covering economic and political history,
as well as Prestowitz’s personal experiences with corporations and governments.
To give you the flavor of the book, here are excerpts from three paragraphs in its Chapter 3:
A fairly thorough summary of the book is in this review:
https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/book-review-world-turned-upside-down-america-china-struggle-global-leadership/