‘Judging Freedom,’ 14 May edition: EU Nonsense on Ukraine!

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We are all in waiting mode, expecting news on whether Trump is indeed going to be in Istanbul for peace talks to end the Russia-Ukraine war.  The latest word from the White House is that he may be there.  In that case, and only in that case, Vladimir Putin will also come to Istanbul. Zelensky has already said he will be in Istanbul regardless of who will be present from the other side.

In the meantime, my reading of the situation as I explained in this chat with Judge Napolitano is that Trump’s unconventional approach to mediation gives us no confidence of success.  He is sending to the talks his two envoys who hold directly contradictory positions on the preferred outcome:  Steve Witkoff, who is favorable to the Russians’ solution and General Kellogg, who is promoting the joint Ukrainian/European solution.  How this can be resolved is utterly unclear.   But why should it be clear given the fundamental illogic of the entire situation: namely that a co-belligerent aligned with Ukraine over the past three years, the USA, steps forward as a mediator or facilitator of peace.

As I say in the interview, the odd, even bizarre Trump approach to these negotiations cannot be laid at the door of his ‘business’ approach, since no corporate top executive would ever create the confusion that Trump seems to think essential to solving thorny problems. This at best is the behavior of an eccentric entrepreneur, for which I raise Elon Musk as another example, matching Trump. 

Somehow the Trump magic seems to have worked in achieving a cease-fire between India and Pakistan, a situation where the USA is also most closely aligned with one side in the conflict, India.

Of course, other topics also were dealt with in this chat, including the general feeling of prosperity in Russia, the inflation that is resulting from more cash to spend in everyone’s wallet, the very large monthly enlistments of soldiers to fight in the Special Military Operation and much, much more.

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Published by gilbertdoctorow

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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