Can we believe anything that Vladimir Putin says these days?

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At the close of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan yesterday, Vladimir held a press conference with the Russian journalists in his suite.

He gave a very detailed answer to the question of one journalist requesting information on the status of the war on the ground in Donbas. He said that he had just prior to this meeting spoken to Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff, who briefed him on the situation at each of the military commands – North, South, Center which he then repeated to the journalists. He declined to give time lines for accomplishment of the tasks before each group such as the capture of Slavyansk and Kramatorsk, saying that the war is very tough and he wouldn’t want to raise false expectations, but he assured his audience that Russia is advancing on the ground on all fronts in Donbas in a faster tempo than hitherto. There was a vague look of frustration on journalists’ faces with this evasion.

But evasion was the common characteristic of Putin’s responses to each of the questions put to him, even regarding the quite innocent matter of the plans for further developing the SCO: would it be by expanding to bring in new members or by creating greater alignment and coordination internally. Putin responded with words devoid of content.

The most striking feature of the press conference was with respect to prospects for negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. Here we heard the statements which led me to assign the given title to this essay. Putin said that Russia welcomed the efforts of all parties to assist with setting up meaningful talks with Ukraine, so long as this would not mean just spinning the wheels as hitherto. And then he added that he welcomed the further involvement of President Trump’s emissaries Witkoff and Kushner, who are ‘trustworthy men’ who enjoy the confidence of Trump, which is of decisive importance.   “Trustworthy men”? I do not believe that a single reader of these lines will agree. What can on say? Putin is licking Trump’s boots – again.

It is interesting that the question of negotiations was wrapped within a journalist’s remark that CIA director Ratcliffe had come to Moscow to deliver Washington’s insistent advice that the Russians sit down with Ukraine and the USA to end the conflict.  That this was Ratcliffe’s message was not denied by Putin, giving us at last an answer to the puzzle raised by the 8 hour visit to Moscow a week ago.

It is interesting to note news of today from the Kievan authorities as reported by The Financial Times. The mayor and other officials acknowledge that the constant Russian drone and missile attacks on the Ukrainian capital are disrupting entirely the economic and governmental functions. They expect these attacks to continue up to the Russian elections to the Duma on 18-20 September for the purpose of demonstrating to the Russian electorate that its government is doing something forcefully. Accordingly, the Ukrainians are putting in place measures to alleviate this hardship including carrying on the legislative work of the Rada in its underground bunker and allowing the metro to function in its open-air segments, as for example, on the Dniepr river crossings, even during air attack alerts. We know from many different sources, including this morning’s BBC, that Zelensky has just issued a threat that no one traveling to or inside Russia can ignore: he has declared Russian civil aviation airspace to be fair game in the war, warning airlines, insurers and the general public that planes will now be attacked by Ukrainian drones.

©Gilbert Doctorow, 2026

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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 “Can we believe anything that Vladimir Putin says these days?”

  1. Pingback: Wednesday Final Edition – Western Rifle Shooters Association

  2. So Putin keeps his own council, Trump sends an envoy who gets rebuffed, Kiev gets pounded and Zelensky has a cocaine fueled rant?

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  3. Honestly? I trust whatever comes out of Putler’s mouth more than any of the putrid vile filth spewed by cheeto-Jesus, or any of the MSM propaganda outlets.
    Seriously, who are you suggesting IS a trustworthy source? CNN?

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  4. It is plausible Putin didn’t know about Zelensky’s threat due to them occuring when he was having meetings with other heads of state in Bishkek. It is plausible though for Ratcliffe’s trip that the threats were main purpose of his visit to Moscow.

    In light of this, Putin’s response offering nothing beyond nihilism is pretty poor stuff from the head of state. Something along the lines of ” no they wont” or promising countermeasures to stop this from occuring wouldn’t have gone amiss. Expectation has to be for the media or government officials relay something more on it to the public in days upcoming, because just waiting for it to happen as if inevitable isn’t acceptable. How the risk is going to manifest itself has to be relayed ahead of schedule to Russians so they can make informed decisions. The authorities relying on it to happen as a propaganda device to rally round the public further against the Zelensky gang is a dangerous game to play.

    Drone swarms released into Russia and the rough area they are targeting are announced by ukrainian and western trolls on Twitter a good 2 to 4 hours before reaching the area. Drones themselves should be unlikely to hit passenger jets that fly a higher altitude and ballistic missiles, assuming the ranges of those handed out by the west are getting longer ,should nevertheless be unlikely to hit passenger airliners , assuming they aren’t deliberately trying to hit them, which would be a big waste of a ballistic missile.

    Russian airspace controllers have been very sensible in disrupting and cancelling flights by closing regional airspace throughout the last 3 years. So Drones being released in far higher numbers shouldn’t in theory much change the equation regarding air traffic and insurers who are already operating under accessed risk. So what it could be has to be figured out not after the event.

    Also rather pathetic was Putin’s wimpish answer with “the targets are secret” in response to when it was put to him to strike which British targets. It shouldn’t be a secret to the British themselves, and to not even offer a hint of menace is very weak. Answering the type of target they are looking at would hardly be divulging military secrets,so can only assume he meekly copped-out.

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