T
I haven’t read all of this but isn’t Putin being awfully quiet here?
The Russian economy is really bad right now, Putin is busy doing a purge of the oligarchs- the ultra rich who control that economy, and last month he decided to go after Kadyrov who was holding him in power with the threat of that muslim army Kadyrov controls. Kadyrov wisely hightailed it out of Russia for a brief stay in one of the Arabian countries. He's back home in his village for Ramadan and praising the honour of serving Mother Russia as of this week so they kissed and made up. Kadyrov heads up the province of Chechnya, aka the Chechens. A muslim terrorist state within Russia. Sunni. Not Shia like Iran.
Ukraine has a mineral deal possibly with the States- as of the past couple of days - at least it's proposed however Trump is now accusing Zelensky of backing out, and Ukraine just launched another drone attack into Russia.
If Z takes the deal it will put American business inside Ukraine and therefore Ukraine comes under American protection again. Trump thinks that would be enough to deter Putin. That's how Trump explained the deal. Doubt it will stop Zelensky.
Putin got on the wrong side of Trump in the last few days and annoyed him by attacking/defending take your pick- but apparently it's being viewed as escalating things while Zelensky is teetering on signing that mineral deal Trump wants. As long as Z and T stay besties but that is a relationship that is rocky at best.
Trump may have thought he and Putin were coming to an understanding, a sort of agreement, but Putin does whatever Putin wants for Mother Russia (and mother R is defined as mainly consisting of Putin. The people are the peasants, he is the Tsar)
It's a bit of a gong show in Russia at the moment apart from the perpetual on again off again bromance between Putin and Kadyrov. Putin and Russia are busy- killing Ukrainians, pulling assets out of Syria's Latakia port, and Putin just does not feel inclined to do whatever Trump wants on any given day of the week. Unless it helps Putin in some way.
Putin and the entire govt of Russia are still ticked off at NATO forces getting too close to their borders and continually doing exercises in nearby NATO countries and I STILL wouldn't rule out the 4 US soldiers who went missing (3 found drowned in a peat bog) on a training mission in Lithuania having been somehow killed by Russian operatives in that area. Belarus!
Lithuania is part of the former USSR Baltic Scandinavian countries who border Belarus - one of Russia's puppet regimes. Lithuania is NATO, and training by NATO in that area is considered provocation by Russia. Russia runs the place over the border in Belarus. That news story looked a lot like they were being used to make a quiet point without actively declaring war.
While Trump feels that Putin and he have a friendly working relationship, I'm sure that Putin is delighted to keep up appearances- Putin's always done well with his jovial chubby cheek smile and that is the side he often shows to the west. Friendly, obliging, ready to talk. That is one of Putin's best performances. Putin doesn't really care how Trump views him or the relationship with Russia at the moment.
He's enjoying the tariff war splitting the NATO alliance quite nicely. As far as Putin is concerned that is working to the benefit of removing NATO one way or another.
all that said, Putin isn't likely to come to Iran's assistence right now. They are on their own.
That's my take on the news out of Russia if it's a help.
