It is now 20.30 Central European time and according to the latest online update from the Financial Times, the European leaders who have assembled in Brussels to find a solution to funding Ukraine for 2026-2027 remain locked in. The situation might be likened to the lock-in of the cardinals pending the white or black smoke rising from above their meeting place to signal that a decision on the next pope has been reached or not.
Indeed, that image is not misplaced: I find it hard to believe that von der Leyen will remain in power if she fails to beat down the European leaders today or, latest, tomorrow, and present the package of funding to Zelensky.
The stakes are very big, as noted in this interview on RT International.
What I can confirm is that Bart De Wever has held firm, continues to resist any threats or blandishments sent his way today by von der Leyen or by Zelensky, with whom he also met during the day. Perhaps Zelensky no longer has a spare $500 million in his suitcases to offer Bart the way he tried that kind of argument with the Slovak leader Fico some months ago for backing on NATO entry. Money seems to be in short supply in Kiev these days.
Belgians can stand tall today. And, grudgingly, I must admit that Italians also can stand tall, because it appears that Meloni for once is not giving us baloney, but is right at De Wever’s side. Italy as the 3rd largest economy in the EU still carries a lot of weight.
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 