NATO Sec.-Gen. Flip-Flops On Normalization With Russia

On March 15 I mocked NATO Secretary General Rutte for his flip-flop over Ukraine's accession to NATO.

Here is another flip flop of his:

NATO Chief Says Russia Relations Should Be Restored Post War - Bloomberg, Mar 14 2025

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said relations with Russia should eventually be normalized once the fighting ends in Ukraine, while stressing the need to keep pressure on Moscow to ensure progress in ceasefire negotiations.

“It’s normal if the war would have stopped for Europe somehow, step by step, and also for the US, step by step, to restore normal relations with Russia,” Rutte said in an interview on Bloomberg TV Friday.

Just twelve days later ...

'This is not the time to go it alone,' NATO's Rutte tells U.S. and Europe - Reuters, Mar 26, 2025

While welcoming Trump's push for peace in Ukraine, Rutte said there would be no normalisation of relations with Russia once the war had ended.

"This will take decades because there is a total lack of confidence. The threat is still there," he told reporters.

Could we please have other people but fools ruling over us?

Was This 'Leak' Accidental Or Is It Pro-War Psyops?

There are several curious aspects of this 'leak' of internal communication of high ranking members of the Trump administration:

Top national security officials for President Donald Trump, including his defense secretary, texted war plans for upcoming military strikes in Yemen to a group chat in a secure messaging app that included the editor-in-chief for The Atlantic, the magazine reported in a story posted online Monday. The National Security Council said the text chain “appears to be authentic.”
...
The material in the text chain “contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Iran-backed Houthi-rebels in Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing,” editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg reported.

The Atlantic is the worst magazine in America. Its editor in chief, ..

.. Jeffrey Goldberg, dropped out of an Ivy League University to volunteer to be an IDF prison guard during the first Palestinian Intifada. In his memoirs, Goldberg revealed that he helped cover up serious prisoner abuse.

Goldberg is a neo-conservative who has yet to see a U.S. instigated war he dislikes. To trust his reporting is dangerous.

Here is how he tells the story:

Cont. reading: Was This 'Leak' Accidental Or Is It Pro-War Psyops?

English Outsider: Russia-U.S. Talks - A Change In The Picture

by English Outsider
lifted from comments

An interview with [former British diplomat] Ian Proud changes the picture.

I had thought, as did most, that the Russians had given up on the West and were just stolidly ploughing on with their 2022 objectives. Proud asserts that this is not the case and that the Russians are genuinely interested in rapprochement with the United States.

Whether Trump himself can offer that is still perhaps an open question. He faces flat opposition from the Europeans, who still wish the war to continue. The head of the BND said recently that it would be in Europe’s interest if the war lasted another five years and we see from the reactions of various European politicians that the only "peace settlement" they could support would be one that was not consistent with the Russian war aims. For some of them RF delenda est is the only end to this war that would leave them happy.

More importantly, Trump faces significant internal opposition. His attempts at administrative reform are bitterly contested. His ideological stance and that of his supporters is a throwback to earlier days of moderate American conservatism and is quite at odds with the stance that prevailed in the Biden era – it takes little insight to see there's trouble brewing there. His view of the war in Ukraine is also at odds with the view hitherto prevailing in the American political establishment. And the midterms are looming, elections that he must do well in if he is to keep a fractious Congress with him as he attempts to push through those administrative reforms.

The last thing Trump wants, as he seeks to push through his programme in the maelstrom that is American domestic politics, is the reproach that he "lost Ukraine". That the West was always engaged in an unwinnable war there, and that Trump is now recognising that reality, will be obscured by accusations that he is a "Russian patsy" or an "appeaser". We're already seeing that accusation openly levelled against him by the Europeans and by his own domestic opposition.

Cont. reading: English Outsider: Russia-U.S. Talks - A Change In The Picture

Palestine Open Thread 2025-061

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Ukraine Open Thread 2025-060

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The MoA Week In Review - OT 2025-059

Last week's posts on Moon of Alabama:

• Mar 17 - Trump Bombs Yemen (Short Take)
• Mar 19 - Trump Seeks Russian Support For War On Iran
  Related:
  - Is Israel the Deep State? - Sam Hussein
  - Trump hypes up tensions with Iran - Indian Punchline
  - Scoop: Trump's letter to Iran included 2-month deadline for new nuclear deal - Axios
  - Trump & Putin Begin Addressing Cumulated Geo-Strategic Debris … Amidst Trump’s Ultimatum to Iran - Conflict Forums
  - Trump Shouldn’t Follow Netanyahu’s Lead - Limitless support for the Israeli premier’s policies endangers American interests. - American Conservative

• Mar 18 - Ever Predicted, Never Happening: Russia's Collapse
  Related:
  - Putin may well get what he wants in Ukraine - Aljazeerah
  - Plenary session of RSPP Congress (Putin on Sanctions) - Kremlin.ru
  - Russophobia At Peak! Why Europe Fears An “Existential Threat” From Russia & Is “Hell Bent” On Fighting Moscow? - Eurasian Times

• Mar 19 - Ukraine Still Rejects Temporary, Energy Related Ceasefire Deal
• Mar 22 - How Zelenski Is Trying To Sabotage Trump's Negotiations With Russia
  Related:
  - Stepan Bandera's Sinister MI6 Alliance Exposed - Kit Klarenberg
  - Will The Ukrainian Army Turn Its Bayonets on Kiev? - Gordon Hahn
  - Brimming with weapons, Ukraine is a gunrunner’s paradise in waiting (archived) - The Times
  
  - The Verkhovna Rada Committee approved a bill giving the National Guard the right to shoot people during rallies (in Russian) - Strana
  - Peskov on contacts between Putin and Trump, the price of Zelensky's words and Europe. (in Russian) - Kommersant
  - "There's only one way out of here — three or two hundred." Why do many Ukrainians not want to fight? Shura Burtin's report on the new fear of war that has gripped the whole country (in Russian) - Medusa

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Other issues:

Cont. reading: The MoA Week In Review - OT 2025-059

How Zelenski Is Trying To Sabotage Trump's Negotiations With Russia

Ukraine's (former) President Zelenski is trying to impede further talks between the U.S. and Russia. For this purpose he is avoiding to implement a temporary ceasefire an energy related targets as agreed on between President Trump and President Putin.

Zelenski does not like that deal. He continues to talk of a future ceasefire of all attacks on general infrastructure that may or may not happen in future while his army continues to attack Russian energy installations.

The Russian readout of the 150 minute phone call between the presidents includes this reference to an 'energy ceasefire':

During the conversation, Donald Trump put forward a proposal for the parties to mutually refrain from strikes on energy infrastructure for 30 days. Vladimir Putin responded favourably to the proposal and immediately gave the relevant order to the Russian troops.

The U.S. readout is less clear on the issue. It says:

This conflict should never have started and should have been ended long ago with sincere and good faith peace efforts. The leaders agreed that the movement to peace will begin with an energy and infrastructure ceasefire, as well as technical negotiations on implementation of a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, full ceasefire and permanent peace. These negotiations will begin immediately in the Middle East.

General infrastructure is a much wider field than energy infrastructure as it involves roads, bridges, public buildings etc. The much shorter U.S. readout is also not at all clear when the energy ceasefire should start even as Russia said that it already had started.

Trump then had a call with President Zelenski. The White House readout from that call says:

The two leaders also agreed on a partial ceasefire against energy. Technical teams will meet in Saudi Arabia in the coming days to discuss broadening the ceasefire to the Black Sea on the way to a full ceasefire.

This is way more compatible with the Russian view. The temporary ceasefire is about energy infrastructure. It is already ongoing. Further talks are only about expanding it.

This also consistent with the history of previous negotiations and agreements about a moratorium of attacks against energy infrastructure as documented here.

Steven Witkoff, Trump's negotiator in talks with Putin, also confirmed that the temporary ceasefire is about 'energy infrastructure' during an interview with Tucker Carlson (@55min).

Zelenski did not seem to agree with that view when he talked about his phone call with Trump (machine translation):

Cont. reading: How Zelenski Is Trying To Sabotage Trump's Negotiations With Russia

Palestine Open Thread 2025-058

News & views related to the war in Palestine ...

Ukraine Open Thread 2025-057

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Open (Neither Ukraine Nor Palestine) Thread 2025-056

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