It has been a busy day. This evening’s chat with Professor of the University of Southwest Norway Glenn Diesen was a special treat.
Our discussion focused on the likelihood that Trump will wash his hands of the Ukraine conflict now that Zelensky has given him the perfect pretext by his refusal to acknowledge the loss of Crimea and his attempt to divert attention from this intransigence by directing attention only to a 30-day ceasefire.
As I have said elsewhere, Zelensky’s stubbornness comes from the fact that should he agree to territorial concessions to Russia he will be lynched by the radical neo-Nazi gang who since 2014 have been the force behind his throne.
My remarks in this interview are optimistic about Trump doing the right thing and shutting down military assistance and satellite intelligence to Kiev after he walks away. However, I note here that that the expert panelists and host Vyacheslav Nikonov on this evening’s Great Game talk show are less sanguine and fear that Trump will sanction Russia as well as Ukraine when he slams the door on the peace process.
Gilbert Doctorow's latest book, "War Diaries. The Russia-Ukraine War, 2022-2023" is a unique contribution to literature on the war thanks to the author's reports on the Russian home front written during his periodic visits to St Petersburg at a time when Russia no longer issued visas and nearly all Western journalists had left the country. Doctorow's two-volume "Memoirs of a Russianist" published in 2020 also constitutes a category of its own, consisting largely of diary entries rather than reminiscences written decades later.. Volume 2 focuses on the community of 50,000 expatriate managers working and living in Moscow during the 1990s, about which none of his peers has yet to write.
Gilbert Doctorow is a professional Russia watcher and actor in Russian affairs going back to 1965. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College (1967), a past Fulbright scholar, and holder of a Ph.D. with honors in history from Columbia University (1975).
After completing his studies, Mr. Doctorow pursued a business career focused on the USSR and Eastern Europe. For twenty-five years he worked for US and European multinationals in marketing and general management with regional responsibility.
From 1998-2002, Doctorow served as the Chairman of the Russian Booker Literary Prize in Moscow. During the 2010-2011 academic year, he was a Visiting scholar of the Harriman Institute, Columbia University.
Mr. Doctorow is a long-time resident of Brussels.
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Gilbert Doctorow 