WION (India): Trump, Putin Bonhomie in Tatters

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WION (India): Trump, Putin Bonhomie in Tatters

It was a pleasure and an honor to return to WION news commentary programming yesterday to discuss the latest developments in U.S.-Russian relations over resolving the Ukraine war.  WION is India’s largest global broadcaster in English with nearly 10 million subscribers.

As the headline attached to this video quoted above suggests, the starting point for our chat was Donald Trump’s latest remarks to reporters that he was outraged over new massive Russian drone and missile attacks on Kiev and other cities which violate the notion of continuing peace talks. Trump called Putin ‘absolutely crazy’ and said he could not understand what had gotten into the Russian leader.

Let us not mince words. I think I said clearly in my live commentary that Trump’s words were empty rhetoric. They were intended to shut up his domestic and foreign critics who demanded some strong response from the USA, hoping for an end to Trump’s peace efforts and full resumption of the war against Russia, both economic and kinetic, with redoubled American participation. That will not happen.

I also make reference in this video to the Russian warnings in advance of their latest missile and drone strikes that there would be revenge attacks for the unprecedented high level of Ukrainian drones being sent against their own cities, in particular against Moscow these past few days. To be sure, the Russians claim to have destroyed the thousand or more Ukrainian drones sent their way, but falling debris did cause injury and death to some civilians.

 I mention as well in the video the drone attack on President Putin’s helicopter during his visit to the Kursk region that was liberated several weeks ago from a Ukrainian occupation that began in August 2024.  Kiev’s murderous intentions against the Russian President will yet receive a suitable retaliation whatever Donald Trump and others in the West may say.  I will discuss this in greater detail in a separate essay later today.

Finally, I mention in the video the new direction in Western mainstream reporting on the war that now finally acknowledges the dire situation of Ukraine, militarily, financially, economically.  This issue, too, will figure in the essay to come.

©Gilbert Doctorow, 2025

Translation below into German (Andreas Mylaeus)

WION (Indien): Trump und Putin – die Freundschaft liegt in Trümmern

Es war mir eine Freude und Ehre, gestern wieder in der Nachrichtensendung von WION zu Gast zu sein, um über die neuesten Entwicklungen in den Beziehungen zwischen den USA und Russland im Hinblick auf die Beilegung des Ukraine-Konflikts zu sprechen. WION ist mit fast 10 Millionen Abonnenten der größte englischsprachige globale Sender Indiens.

Wie die Überschrift zu diesem Video oben andeutet, war der Ausgangspunkt für unser Gespräch Donald Trumps jüngste Äußerungen gegenüber Reportern, er sei empört über die neuen massiven russischen Drohnen- und Raketenangriffe auf Kiew und andere Städte, die gegen die Fortsetzung der Friedensgespräche verstießen. Trump bezeichnete Putin als „absolut verrückt“ und sagte, er könne nicht verstehen, was in den russischen Präsidenten gefahren sei.

Lassen Sie uns kein Blatt vor den Mund nehmen. Ich glaube, ich habe in meinem Live-Kommentar deutlich gesagt, dass Trumps Worte leere Rhetorik waren. Sie sollten seine Kritiker im In- und Ausland zum Schweigen bringen, die eine harte Reaktion der USA forderten und auf ein Ende von Trumps Friedensbemühungen und die vollständige Wiederaufnahme des Krieges gegen Russland hofften, sowohl in wirtschaftlicher als auch in militärischer Hinsicht, mit verstärkter Beteiligung der USA. Das wird nicht passieren.

Ich beziehe mich in diesem Video auch auf die Warnungen Russlands vor seinen jüngsten Raketen- und Drohnenangriffen, dass es Vergeltungsschläge für den beispiellos hohen Einsatz ukrainischer Drohnen gegen ihre eigenen Städte, insbesondere gegen Moskau in den letzten Tagen, geben werde. Zwar behaupten die Russen, die mehr als tausend ukrainischen Drohnen, die auf sie abgefeuert wurden, zerstört zu haben, doch verursachten herabfallende Trümmerteile Verletzungen und Todesfälle unter der Zivilbevölkerung.

Ich erwähne in dem Video auch den Drohnenangriff auf den Hubschrauber von Präsident Putin während seines Besuchs in der Region Kursk, die vor einigen Wochen von der ukrainischen Besatzung befreit wurde, die im August 2024 begonnen hatte. Die mörderischen Absichten Kiews gegenüber dem russischen Präsidenten werden noch eine angemessene Vergeltung erfahren, was auch immer Donald Trump und andere im Westen sagen mögen. Ich werde darauf später heute in einem separaten Essay näher eingehen.

Schließlich erwähne ich in dem Video die neue Richtung in der westlichen Mainstream-Berichterstattung über den Krieg, die nun endlich die desolate Lage der Ukraine in militärischer, finanzieller und wirtschaftlicher Hinsicht anerkennt. Auch dieses Thema wird in dem kommenden Essay behandelt werden.

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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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5 thoughts on “WION (India): Trump, Putin Bonhomie in Tatters”

  1. Every time trump says something derogatory about Russia or Putin, I think he’s blown the only chance the West has for peace, and to avoid a nuclear Holocaust.

    I then check to see what the good professor has to say, and of course he divines the real meaning and its intended audience.

    its a roller-coaster ride. I feel like an idiot for not seeing the obvious.

    Like

  2. WION journalist Eric Njoka is most impressive.
    Russia should announce to UN •> If German missiles attack Russia, their missile factory
    will be destroyed. Likewise those responsible for drone attack on Putin.

    a request,
    your observations of Berlin after visit.

    Like

    1. I think the destruction by whatever means Russia chooses of the central nato military command and intelligence communication centres, there are a few, in Germany will be far more decisively rewarding for the more than capable Russian forces to bury the current threat emanating from NATO in Europe once and for all..depending of course how grave the existential threat to the Russian Federation will have become.

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      1. Thank you for responding.
        The Pentagon would probably accept the destruction of Germany’s missile factories, but if Russia blows up some NATO command centers, the descendants of General Curtis Lemay and Dr. Strangelove will go bonkers. Déjà vu all over again.
        Glad to see you getting frequent coverage from International broadcasters.

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  3. you are not alone, Mark, in failing to discern method in the madness of Trump and his European vassals, sycophants I should say, who continue to provoke the Russian Federation in any mad way possible until there may be no stopping missiles raining on the European peninsula including the US mainland perhaps, unless the madness miraculously stops, but it is hard to believe in miracles nowadays..never mind, expect the worst, but hopefully Armageddon will be postponed again, hope so anyway!

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