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.
Rasheed and I were very lucky with the timing of today’s program, because there were dramatic changes in the situation of the Russia-Ukraine War coming out of the denial of confiscation of Russian state assets by Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever and out of the resignation of Andrii Yermak, the power behind Zelensky’s throne, following a raid on his house by the Anti-Corruption Agency in Kiev.
The chat is nearly an hour long and covers many issues going back to the 2013 Maidan demonstrations and 2014 overthrow of Ukrianian president Yanukovich and coming straight up to today and the outlook for political collapse in Kiev in the days to come.
Ukrainian capitulation in the coming weeks may be expected….thanks to Mr. Trump
I frankly admit that I have underestimated Trump’s capacity for duplicity that he has used to outmaneuver his opponents abroad in the EU, in Ukraine and at home in the USA, on Capitol Hill and in the media.
I have no doubt that Team Trump are behind the corruption investigation raid on the home of the power behind the throne in Kiev, Andrii Yermak, who was forced to resign late today. The fall of Zelensky on corruption charges cannot be more than days away.
Accordingly, I must revise my views on what happened at the US-Ukraine meeting in Geneva at the start of the week that produced a revised 19-point plan to suit the Zelensky gang which we were told would be foisted on the Russians. No, that was pure political theater and we may assume that the original 29- point plan developed jointly by Steve Witkoff for the American side and Kirill Dmitriev for the Russians will be the basis for the renewed US-Russian talks on ending the war that likely will take place next week in Budapest chaired by Trump and Putin.
This is all happening with blinding speed that has left the Trump’s opponents speechless.
However, one European leader did have something to say in the past day that also contributes to the foreseeable political collapse of Ukraine and possibly to the collapse of the war mongers who dominate present European politics. I have in mind the Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever who rejected von der Leyen’s insistent promotion of confiscation of frozen Russian state assets held in Euroclear now not only because of financial risk that the confiscation will be reversed in court challenges by Russia that will follow but, more importantly today, because the confiscation would work directly against the ongoing peace negotiations. So von der Leyen’s perfidy to European interests in peace on the Continent has been called out.
NewsX World: Putin announces military modernization
This midday interview on the Indian television station NewsX World featured several items from breaking news, including President Putin’s remarks at the ongoing Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) meeting in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Putin said that Russia will be making available to the CSTO Member States its latest military hardware that has proven itself on the field of battle. As I say here, providing ‘toys for the boys’ is a sensible way of raising loyalty among these former republics of the USSR and of keeping out of Central Asia, in particular, the meddling US, British and French spoilers.
I will be attending a conference on Eurasian security at the Russian Embassy in Brussels this evening and if there is any information of value to the Community that comes out of that event I will post it here tomorrow.
The other key item in this video concerns Erdogan’s response to President Macron’s efforts to bring Turkey into a British and French force that would be introduced into Ukraine ahead of implementation of a cease-fire to provide security to the Ukrainians.
Occasionally the production team at the Indian broadcaster News X puts me together with someone from the other side of the barricades, so to speak, to discuss the latest developments in the Ukraine war, now in the Ukraine peace talks.
Going back nine months or more, News X was just getting started filling its stable of experts for these programs and, frankly speaking, the first panelists they selected were rather primitive Ukrainian propagandists. I backed out of that format and was subsequently only interviewed on my own.
However, now I find that they have brought in some very good spokesmen for the other side of the issues of the day and it was an unexpected pleasure to engage in a debate of sorts with a mainstream kind of expert. Curiously, though we have very different big picture thinking, on the issues put to us by the moderator, especially with respect to the likelihood of von der Leyen’s getting her hands on the frozen Russian assets in Euroclear, we were singing from the same scores.
Pay no attention to the titles on the video. This is a news hour broadcast and the first 5 minutes deal with the breaking news in a great many different places. After that it is strictly Ukraine and the questions to me and my fellow panelist.
In today’s chat we discussed several very important issues of the day as a flood of news relating to the peace negotiations come out of Washington, Moscow, Abu Dhabi and the European capitals.
I report on the very evident split between Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Vladimir Putin over the unconventional and now apparently failing procedure by which negotiations for peace are being held. Lavrov yesterday strongly criticized the use of back channels and entirely sidelining his own ministry which normally should be in charge of such important talks that require great secrecy and also great diplomatic competence on the part of the leading figures in the talks. Lavrov said that he has not seen the revised plan, now counting 18 points and so cannot comment but does not expect to see anything good in it, since the leaks allowed the wrecking team from Europe to nullify what was good about the original 28-point plan.
Today, President Putin’s special advisor on foreign relations Yuri Ushakov made a public statement to the effect that he has seen the revised plan and that it can be used as a basis for further talks. Let me be clear: Ushakov is a seasoned diplomat with a lot of relevant experience considering that he was the Russian ambassador to Washington from 1998 to 2008. But today he is a law unto himself, not a member of the diplomatic corps. He may be said to speak for Putin. And now we find that his position on the peace process is diametrically opposed to that of the Foreign Minister. This is a remarkable development in Moscow that one very rarely sees. What we may guess is that Putin’s prioritization on establishing good relations with the United States has drawn him into the backchannel solution, which now is going sour.
Judge Napolitano raised the issue of Ursula von der Leyen’s pack of lies and hypocrisy speech yesterday regarding the way forward on the peace talks. A two-minute excerpt from that speech was put up on the screen. The woman is very dangerous for the future of Europe. Let us assume that she has a very solid bomb shelter beneath the Commission headquarters. But that gives little comfort to the rest of us. Should she have her way, in a year or two Western Europe may look a lot like war ravaged Ukraine does today.
US’ 28-Point Peace Plan Empowers Russia, Diminishes Ukraine? | WION GAME PLAN
It was a pleasure this morning to have a 10-minute online chat with presenter Shivan Chanana of India’s largest English-language global broadcaster, WION, who have more than 9 million subscribers.
In keeping with the shifting currents in high politics in Delhi, which always walked a tightrope between the USA and Russia (formerly USSR), the broadcaster has shifted back and forth between favoring Mainstream commentaries on the Russia-Ukraine war from US military experts over the past several months and then coming back to me for a contrarian opinion as they did today. Please note that the single largest audience I have ever had in podcasts, more than 350,000 views, was precisely on WION at perhaps 9 months ago.
This link to a brief interview from yesterday has just arrived and I am pleased to share it with the Community. Pay no attention to the ‘China Warning’ heading because this is a news digest and the Russia-Ukraine War is the first topic on the interview agenda after the presenter reads off the top news of the hour.
Yes, as you will notice, my expectations from this latest Trump peace initiative are changing by the day. I emphasize that I have no angst changing my position when the object under examination changes, and the evolution of this initiative is anything but consistent.
Some are saying that Team Trump is overseeing a ‘bait and switch’ operation in which the Russians were offered one fairly acceptable 28-point plan and now instead they will be required to agree to a much less desirable Ukrainian-edited plan. That may be. But I think something more characteristic of Trump is underway: he is preparing for the parties NOT to agree to his mediated settlement and then will lower the boom on both – withdrawing US intel and military hardware support for Ukraine and imposing new draconian sanctions on Russia. This will allow him to wiggle out of the entire project of bringing peace to Ukraine and tell the Europeans to deal with it on their own.
I mention this as a possible explanation for the peculiar behavior of Dan Driscoll and Steve Witkoff in Geneva, letting the Ukrainians gut the original proposal and then smiling at the end and saying everything is very constructive.
RT International interview: Trump disappoints yet again…
The news coming out of the Geneva talks today between the US delegation headed by Marco Rubio, Steve Witkoff and Daniel Driscoll is shocking and upsets my optimistic expectations for peace arrived at on Friday and Saturday following the release of the 28-point Trump plan.
It is inconceivable that Trump can expect to get an approving from Moscow after its having been gutted by the Ukrainians acting in consultation with the European war-mongers. Putin’s wager on reestablishing good relations with the USA and neutralizing the Europeans appears to have been lost. Will he now throw in his and Russia’s lot with the Russian ultranationalists and escalate the destruction of Ukraine? Will he finally decapitate the regime?
Links to today’s interview segments from News X World and an excellent briefing on the Peace Plan by Ray McGovern
The producers at NewsX World were very fast off the mark this morning and have just posted on the internet the two interview segments from earlier today that I described in my latest essay on these pages.
Russian defenses intercept drones in unprecedented wave
Canadian PM Mark Carney & German Chancellor Friedrich Merz discuss Ukraine Peace Deal
I also use this opportunity to bring to the attention of the Community a just released interview with my friend and colleague in the Alternative Media, Ray McGovern, taken by Professor Glenn Diesen.
I recommend this because Ray sets out very clearly the sequence of events starting from the presidential summit in Alaska in mid-August that led to compilation of Trump’s 28-point peace plan, which now has been provisionally approved by Vladimir Putin as the basis for a settlement and awaits a final ‘yes’ from Volodymyr Zelensky. Ray pays special attention to how Putin explained this story during the well -choreographed opening minutes of last Friday’s weekly Russian Security Council session.
All of this is an essential context for our appreciation of the Trump document. He makes reference to the dire situation of the Ukrainians on the field of battle where they have suffered very serious losses of fortified cities like Kupyansk, Pokrovsk, Volchansk which have protected their hold on the Donbas from the start of the Special Military Operation to present.
What is missing from Ray’s explanation is the European context for Trump’s present demand that the Plan be signed before Thanksgiving, 27 November. Sitting as I do in Brussels, I am much more sensitive than my American colleagues in Washington or New York to the European dimension, namely war hysteria in the media and the ever more brazen, ever more irresponsible and provocative measures that the European heads of government are prepared to take to ensure that the war continues.
As I say, Trump’s Plan is as much a preparation for -regime change across Europe, for the ousting of the war mongers in power here as it is for a cease-fire and outbreak of peace between Russia and Ukraine. These issues are directly interlinked.
In these circumstances, it is foreseeable that at their next gathering in Brussels mid-December these same members of the European Council will do the unthinkable, will violate international law, will do what no one dared to do even in the midst of WWII and will confiscate the 185 billion euros of Russian state assets now frozen in Euroclear for the purpose of funding the war in Ukraine for two more years.
Conversation with Professor Glenn Diesen: Trump Neutralizes Europe with Peace Plan
In this 45-minute chat, we discussed why there is reason for optimism that Trump’s 28-point plan will achieve its several interrelated objectives. From the moment of its signing as the master plan for a to-be-negotiated detailed set of agreements between Russia, Ukraine, Europe and the USA this initiative will begin to dramatically clear the air, reduce tensions in the region and across Europe.
Assuming that it is accepted by both Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin within the 27 November deadline set by Trump, the signing will be followed immediately by a withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from all of the Donbas and withdrawal of Russian forces from all oblasts of Ukraine aside from the Lugansk, Donetsk, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. The withdrawal process will be accompanied by a full ceasefire. So far, so good, but that is only the very beginning of the process that will be set on its way.
Some of my peers have chosen to ignore the foregoing and speak of the Plan as something that will be discussed and discussed for months before anything happens. They are dead wrong. They are missing the reasons why Trump has set just 7 days for acceptance or rejection of the document by Russia and Ukraine. These are the same reasons why it apparently was drafted by respective emissaries of Trump and Putin outside the normal institutional channels. The point has been to catch Zelensky at the present moment of great weakness following the revelations a week ago of immense corruption among his close entourage and also amidst the deeply humiliating loss of Kupyansk and Pokrovsk to Russian forces, which show beyond any doubt that Ukraine’s hopes for holding the Donbass are illusory. The point has been not to allow the Europeans to reorganize a counter strategy to keep the war going built, likely, on confiscation of Russian state assets in Euroclear. The point has been not to give Britain and France time to send troops down to Ukraine and massively escalate the war.
I consider this interview as setting forth my final word on how Trump is setting the stage for regime change across Europe by removing the whole logic of a security threat from Russia which the warmongering leaders of 24 EU Member States have been using to consolidate their hold on power. Normalization of relations with Russia, revising the security architecture of the Continent puts paid to the ongoing distortion of the EU from a peace project to a war project.
Gilbert Doctorow 