Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Cradle,
The
Putin–Trump meeting dropped some important veils. It revealed that
Washington views Russia as a peer power, and that Europe is little more
than a useful American tool...
Alaska was not only about Ukraine.
Alaska was mostly about the world's top two nuclear powers attempting
to rebuild trust and apply the brakes on an out-of-control train in a
mad high-speed rail dash towards nuclear confrontation.
There
were no assurances, given the volatile character of US President Donald
Trump, who conceived the high-visibility meeting with his Russian
counterpart Vladimir Putin. But a new paradigm may be in the works
nonetheless. Russia has essentially been de facto recognized by the US
as a peer power. That implies, at the very least, the return of
high-level diplomacy where it is most needed.
Meanwhile, Europe is dispatching a line-up of impotent leaders to Washington to kowtow in front of the Emperor.
The EU’s destiny is sealed: into the dustbin of geopolitical irrelevance.
What
has been jointly decided by Trump, personally, and Putin, even before
Moscow proposed charged-with-meaning Alaska as the summit venue, remains
secret. There will be no leaks about the full content.
Yet it’s quite significant that Trump himself rated Alaska as a 10 out of 10.
The
key takeaways, relayed by sources in Moscow with direct access to the
Russian delegation, all the way to the 3-3 format (it was initially
designed to be a 5-5, but other key members, such as Finance Minister
Anton Siluanov, did provide their input), emphasize that:
“It
was firmly put [by Putin] to stop all direct US weapon deliveries to
Ukraine as a vital step towards the solution. Americans accepted the
fact that it is necessary to dramatically decrease lethal shipments.”
After that happens, the ball swings to Europe’s court. The sources specify, in detail:
“Out
of the $80 billion Ukrainian budget, Ukraine itself provides less than
around $20 billion. The National Bank of Ukraine says that they collect
$62 billion in taxes alone, which is a hoax; with a population around 20
million, much more than one million of irreversible battlefield losses,
a decimated industry and less than 70 percent of pre-Maidan territory
under control that is simply impossible.”
So Europe – as in the NATO/EU combo – has a serious dilemma:
‘Either support Ukraine financially, or militarily. But not both at the
same time. Otherwise, the EU itself will collapse even faster.’
Now compare all of the above with arguably the key passage in one of Trump’s Truth Social posts: “It was determined by all that
the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to
go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a
mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up.”
Add to it the essential sauce provided by former Russian president Dmitri Medvedev:
“The
President of Russia personally and in detail presented to the US
President our conditions for ending the conflict in Ukraine (…) Most
importantly: both sides directly placed responsibility for achieving
future results in negotiations on ending hostilities on Kiev and
Europe.”
Talk about superpower convergence. The devil, of course, will be in the details.
BRICS on the table in Alaska
In
Alaska, Vladimir Putin was representing not only the Russian
Federation, but BRICS as a whole. Even before the meeting with his US
counterpart was announced to the world, Putin spoke on the phone with
Chinese President Xi Jinping. After all, it’s the Russia–China
partnership that is writing the geostrategic script of this chapter of
the New Great Game.
Moreover, top BRICS leaders have been on a
flurry of interconnected phone calls, leading to forge, in Brazil’s
President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva's assessment, a concerted BRICS front to
counteract the Trump Tariff Wars. The Empire of Chaos, the Trump 2.0
version, is in a Hybrid War against BRICS, especially the Top Five:
Russia, China, India, Brazil, and Iran.
So Putin did
achieve a minor victory in Alaska. Trump: “Tariffs on Russian oil buyers
not needed for now (…) I may have to think about it in two to three
weeks.”
Even considering the predictable volatility, the
pursuit of high-level dialogue with the US opens to the Russians a
window to directly advance the interests of BRICS peers – including, for
instance, Egypt and the UAE, blocked from further economic integration
across Eurasia by the sanctions/tariff onslaught and the accompanying
rampant Russophobia.
None of the above, unfortunately, applies to Iran: The Zionist axis has an iron grip on every nook and cranny of Washington’s policies vis-à-vis the Islamic Republic.
It's
clear that both Trump and Putin are playing a long game. Trump wants to
get rid of the pesky two-bit actor in Kiev – but without applying old
school US coup/regime-change tactics. In his mind, the only thing that
really registers is future, possible, mega trade deals on Russian
mineral wealth and the development of the Arctic.
Putin also
needs to manage domestic critics who won’t forgive any concessions. The
desperate western media spin that he would offer freezing the front in
Zaporozhye and Kherson in exchange for getting all of the Donetsk
Republic is nonsense. That would go against the constitution of the
Russian Federation.
In addition, Putin needs to manage how US
business would be allowed to enter two areas that are at the heart of
federal priorities, and a matter of national security: the development
of the Arctic and the Russian Far East. All that will be discussed in
detail two weeks from now, at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.
Once again, follow the money: Both oligarchies – in the US and Russia – want to go back to profitable business, pronto.
Lipstick on a defeated pig
Putin, bolstered by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov – the undisputed Man of the Match, with his CCCP fashion statement –
finally had ample time, 150 minutes, to spell out, in detail, the
underlying causes of Russia's Special Military Operation (SMO) and lay
out the rationale for long-term peace: Ukraine neutrality; neo-nazi
militias and parties banned and dismantled; no more NATO expansion.
Geopolitically,
whatever may evolve from Alaska does not invalidate the fact that
Moscow and Washington at least did manage to buy some strategic
breathing space. That might yield even a new shot toward respect for
both powers’ spheres of influence.
So it’s no wonder the
Atlanticist front, from Europe’s old money to the bling bling novices,
is freaking out because Ukraine is a giant money laundering mechanism
for Eurotrash politicos. The Kafkaesque EU machine has already
bankrupted EU member-states and EU taxpayers – but anyway, that’s not
Trump’s problem.
Across Global Majority latitudes, Alaska
displayed the fraying of Atlanticism in no uncertain terms – revealing
that the US seeks a meek Europe subjugated to the strategy of tension,
otherwise there’s no EU military surge, buying billions worth of
over-priced American weapons with money it doesn't have.
At
the same time, despite covetous US oligarchic private designs on
Russian business, what Washington's puppet masters truly want is to
break up Eurasia integration, and by implication every multilateral
organization – BRICS, SCO – driven to design a new, multinodal world order.
Of
course, a NATO surrender – even as it is being strategically defeated,
all across the spectrum – remains anathema. Trump, at best, is applying
lipstick on a pig, trying to craft, with trademark fanfare, what could
be sold as a Deep State exit strategy, toward the next Forever War.
Putin, the Russian Security Council, BRICS, and the Global Majority, for that matter, harbor no illusions.
