I was listing to the Judging Freedom Podcast today and Judge Napolitano played a clip in which Putin, apparently, referred to the five on the train to and in Kiev, Zelensky, Merz, Starmer, Macron and Tusk as “idiots”. I didn’t hear the Russian – but one assumes it was a correct translation. (There is a Russian word for idiot which translates directly). The context was Putin saying that European leaders harm themselves when they try to harm Russia. In this way he said they are “idiots”. And indeed it is an embarrassing spectacle. We’ve discussed the stupidly of the EU-Ukraine position in recent posts. There are several strands to the folly. They are threatening Putin to “have a 30 day ceasefire” – for Ukraine to consolidate its position and re-arm, even to put in their pie-in-the-sky force to “enforce the peace”? But; why would Russia agree to such a plan, which flies in the face of all their openly stated war aims, when they have the upper hand on the battlefield? Do these European leaders really believe they are in a position to threaten Russia? (The only further sanctions which could have any force are secondary sanctions on Russian gas and oil – the Lindsey Graham plan. But, that is not in the gift of the Europeans to apply. And, indeed, it would be surprising if they supported them; since it would give Europe the unenviable choice of continuing to import Russian gas, which they are still doing in some volume, or continuing to trade with the US*). And, if they were in a position to threaten Russia, (which they are not), – have they not noticed that Russia is not going to be threatened? It shows a basic ignorance of Russian thinking. As we pointed out in our previous post, they accompany these rude threats with statements that affirm full support for Ukraine not making a single concession. Their “peace” does not address any of Russia’s concerns. These are idiotic ideas.
The Guardian is on the same level. The Guardian referred to Zelensky’s “seizing the initiative” in countering Putin’s offer of direct talks with a demand that Putin show up personally. [1] They report how Putin has “snubbed” him. [2] But, they must know, that this is just a piece of theatre from Zelensky who is trying to make the best of, for him, rather awful situation of being told by Trump to go to the talks without his planned ceasefire (the European plan to stem the losses and consolidate a fall-back position while giving no concessions to Russia) being a preliminary condition. (“Seizing the initiative” is the Guardian trying to help out Zelensky and spin his theatre into something plausible). In general, the Guardian is following the script which is written either in Kiev or London, (I tend to think Kiev is controlling London and Paris, but the consensus amongst war critics seems to be that London and Paris tell Kiev what to say), which is that Russia is sending a “low-level” delegation and this “shows they are not serious about peace”. In reality, as everyone knows full well, Presidents and Prime Ministers typically only meet when lower level delegations have met, resolved matters, and have something for them to sign, or at least agree on. Nor is it true that Russia’s delegation is “low level”. it contains a Presidential aide, who took part in the aborted March 2022 talks with Ukraine, the deputy Foreign and Defence Ministers and the head of military intelligence! The UK’s Foreign Secretary sneered about this “low level” delegation, “And of course, we watched closely as we head to these talks, noting the Russian low-level individuals who are coming to represent the Russian side” [3] You have to laugh. This is like Lammy saying a delegation of Angela Rayner, (UK Deputy Prime Minister) and Adrian Bird, DI, (Chief of Defence Intelligence), plus two other Ministers, not at the highest level, (the UK does not have many ‘Deputy Ministers’ so there are no direct equivalents), would be “low-level”. Lammy is effectively calling Adrian Bird, DI and Rayner “low-level”. In fact, as you would expect, the Russian team shows the precise opposite of what team Kiev, Coalition of the Willing and liberal media are saying. The team is entirely appropriate to the situation. A team who will be well enough briefed to assess whether there is any scope for progress in talks, and to discuss issues in depth, but, without direct decision making power. Do Zelensky, Starmer and the rest of them really expect after 3 years of war, you can just tell Putin to show up, have a quick discussion and sign something which, based on their own words, is not going to satisfy a single one of Russia’s war aims? What planet are they on?
* (Or, possibly, the extreme embarrassment of having the US make a ‘carve-out’ which allowed Europe to continue to buy Russian energy products while imposing secondary sanctions on China and India?)
Notes
- By proposing a direct meeting with Putin in Istanbul, Zelenskyy appears to be seizing the initiative, putting pressure back on the Russian leader – who rarely travels spontaneously – to either attend or back down. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/11/ukraine-ready-meet-russia-only-ceasefire-agreed-zelenskky
- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/15/ukraine-war-briefing-force-putins-hand-nato-leaders-told-in-turkey-as-he-snubs-peace-talks
- https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/may/15/ukraine-war-live-first-direct-talks-between-moscow-and-kyiv-in-three-years-set-to-begin-in-turkey?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with%3Ablock-6825b1ae8f08cd35c37191cf#block-6825b1ae8f08cd35c37191cf