“Wouldn’t a partnership with American capitalism open the door to prosperity, and end the Russian nightmare that has lasted 100 years?
“Putin is running rings around Trump”, is a typical headline in the British media, the BBC and U.S. media as peace talks following the cruel and unjustified invasion of Ukraine by Russia continue.
“Putin holds all the Trump cards” and “Trump is a Russian asset”, say other “experts”. Pardon me for suggesting but that is as far from the truth as it is possible to get. When Trump Derangement Syndrome takes hold the infection is immediate and compelling. The mainstream media sees Trump drawing Putin in for ceasefire talks and immediately predicts defeat for this hated figure (Trump not Putin of course), and all restraint disappears as they smell humiliation for this most despised of political figures by our globalist politicians and journalists.
Far from being given the runaround by Putin, Trump, the West and above all Ukraine will emerge as winners. The key factor is Russia’s teetering economy, (see below) bled dry by the war and with much of its oil and gas markets destroyed. Even in a cruel dictatorship, public opinion matters and huge numbers of dead young soldiers returning home will be hard for the regime to explain away. A glorious victory might have justified it. But not this clear humiliation which, in my opinion, is on the cards.
Paper Tigers
Russian forces are clearly Paper Tigers. Putin’s much vaunted plan to restore the old Soviet Union will be trashed. Putin will get formal agreement on ownership of Crimea, but nobody seriously expected Ukraine to retain that. Russia’s forces have gained about 20% of Ukraine and most of this will be retained by Ukraine, in my view.
Far from holding all the military aces, Russia’s much-touted tank force was zapped by new technology, except for the ones that simply broke down. Three years ago when Russia launched its invasion nobody predicted this result. After all, this was one of the world’s Super-Powers launching its massive military on what was more or less a third-world country.
But we’ve seen the humiliation of the Russian army and its leader Vladimir Putin. Yes, this is the same Putin that our experts say is going to wipe the floor with Trump. The threat of a Russian, or USSR invasion of Europe was a horror scenario since the Cold War days, and Ukraine would be rolled over and fall within a couple of weeks by marauding Russian tanks. Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania would be next. Putin has said on the record that this is his ambition.
But the well trained, superbly equipped (both mainly by the U.S. and Britain) and highly motivated Ukrainians stopped them in their tracks.
Arms Resumption To Ukraine The Key
What now? Since Trump allowed the resumption of arms to Ukraine, the outcome has become clearer. Putin’s demand that no peacekeepers be allowed on Ukrainian soil is laughable. Ukraine will demand, quite rightly, that any agreement with Russia is behind defendable lines. That will almost certainly mean a return to previous borders. It will demand membership of the European Union. NATO membership will be on the cards soon. If Putin doesn’t like it what can he do? Nothing, in my view. Now that the U.S. weaponry started arriving on March 11, it will be possible to destroy the Russian forces if they attempt any aggressive move. So it won’t be long before Putin realizes he’ll have to withdraw. He’ll probably do this gradually, almost imperceptibly, but the humiliation will soon become apparent.
According to Reuters’ BreakingViews column, the Russian economy is teetering. Military spending accounts for 8% of GDP and 40% of federal government spending. Inflation is on the rise and the central bank’s main rate is 21%. BreakingViews said 20% of Russian manufacturers are now paying 2/3rds of their operating profit to service debt, up from 10% a year earlier. There’s a chronic shortage of labour cutting output to 80% of capacity, according to BreakingViews.
“By 2030, the shortage of workers (in the military or emigration) could reach 2 to 4 million, according to a Russian report citing consultancy Yakov and Partners,” BreakingViews said.
Game over for Putin
So the game is up for Putin. How can this be when the great and good globalists have claimed for years Trump is a Russian asset? That’s probably because they believed their own propaganda via the Steele dossier. This was a massively over-egged bunch of lies constructed by the Clinton campaign to thwart Trump’s surprise victory over Hillary in 2016. Even though the “report”, by Christopher Steele, a retired British MI6 officer, was comprehensively trashed as speculation and imagination, Democrats loved it so much they can’t bear to deny its conclusion that Trump was in the pay of the Russians. It was so convenient, and he was so awful it had to be true. It should be true.
The Ukrainian clincher in all this is the offer, now accepted, for the U.S. to invest hugely in its minerals in particular and the economy in general. There is no way Trump will accept a deal with Russia that might allow it to reignite its aggressive invasion and destroy this investment. So Russia will have to accept this. It doesn’t have the military or economic might to do anything about it.
There is one possible aspect of this that would be typical Trump and might explain his efforts over the years to play nice with Putin.
Richard Nixon and China
Remember when Richard Nixon made those secret overtures to China to try and persuade the Middle Kingdom to start a relationship? “Only Nixon could have done that,” said the experts when they realised they’d been outfoxed. Nixon of course was subject to the same blind and dumb hatred from the media and Democrats as Trump is now.
What if Trump, seeing Putin as a cornered rat desperate for an exit policy, could set up a deal which would finally bring the enemy nations together? Russians have over the last 20 years or so watched, with incredulousness and envy, China’s citizens gradually and relentlessly getting richer, as Russians stayed hungry and poverty-stricken.
Wouldn’t a partnership with American capitalism finally open the door to prosperity, and end the nightmare for the Russian people that has lasted more than 100 years?
Now that would warrant the Nobel Peace Prize, no?
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