‘Judging Freedom’ edition of 29 October 2025: Putin’s Next Moves

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‘Judging Freedom’ edition of 29 October 2025: Putin’s Next Moves

Today’s discussion focused on the contradictions, the flip-flops in the positions of Vladimir Putin and of his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov these past two days over whether they have an understanding with Donald Trump over how the war will end or do not. The latest indications are that they see how Trump has back on his words in Anchorage and no longer is interested in finding a solution to the underlying causes of the war, only to achieving an immediate cease-fire, which Russia officially rejects.

We also considered how the new sanctions on Lukoil and Rosneft are likely to play out. As we know, the Indians have said they will no longer purchase Russian oil, which would indeed be a serious blow to the Russian budget. Russian television (today’s afternoon edition of The Great Game) is saying that the sanctions will be overcome thanks to side deals with India such as delivery of the oil by minor Russian oil producers acting as middlemen for the two sanctioned majors. Perhaps, but not in the next few days and the longer it takes to arrange the workarounds, the more damage will be done to Russian finances. Moreover, note that Lukoil have just announced plans to sell off all of their foreign operations in Europe within the 21 November set by Trump. If done, this surely will be achieved at fire sale prices, meaning a significant economic loss for Russia. Paradoxically I say that the sanctions are a message by Trump to Putin to end the war now by immediate destruction of Kiev because the longer it goes on the worse will be the losses from the sanctions. Finally, I note that the sanctions are a tool by Trump to wreck BRICS, which is one of his prime policy objectives because it drives a wedge between the founding members of BRICS.

(https://www.youtube.com/live/jhLsCsqkw9E?si=rfKchlnY3tQETFBc)

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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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One thought on “‘Judging Freedom’ edition of 29 October 2025: Putin’s Next Moves”

  1. Weren’t the Europeans buying Russian oil through India ? I would think that gas and diesel prices in Europe would rise with a reduction in supplies and suppliers.

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