Moon of Alabama

July 15, 2025

Trump Delivers Next Nothingburger To Ukraine

On July 3 U.S. President Donald Trump had a phonecall with the Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation:

President Donald Trump revealed the details of his conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday.
Trump told reporters before he boarded Air Force One for an "America 250" rally at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, "We had a call, it was a pretty long call, we talked about a lot of things, including Iran. We also talked about the war with Ukraine."

Trump shook his head and said, "I'm not happy about that," as the president remarked about the ongoing war he hoped to quickly end.

"No, I didn't make any progress with him today," Trump said when asked about a potential deal with Putin to end the Russian offensive in Ukraine.

Trump wanted to pause the war In Ukraine while Putin sees an advantage for Russian troops in the field and wants to continue the war until its root cause, the NATO march towards Russia, is eliminated.

Trump could not get his will. He was also under pressure from neoconservative parts of Congress to commit the U.S. to a longer war against Russia. They asked for shipping more weapons to Ukraine and for penalties against countries which continue to buy oil and gas from Russia.

Yesterday Trump gave in and decided (archived) to give another try to his predecessors failed Ukraine policy :

President Trump said he would help Europe speed more weapons to Ukraine and warned Russia that if it did not agree to a peace deal within 50 days, he would impose a new round of punishing sanctions.
Speaking from the Oval Office, where he met with NATO’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, Mr. Trump said the weapons would be “quickly distributed to the battlefield.” He also threatened to impose secondary sanctions, which are penalties imposed on other countries or parties that trade with nations under sanctions.

“I’m disappointed in President Putin, because I thought we would have had a deal two months ago, but it doesn’t seem to get there,” Mr. Trump said.

“It’s just the way it is,” he added. “I hope we don’t have to do it.”

Several additional Patriot air defense missile systems are supposed to be given to Ukraine by NATO countries which would buy new ones when the U.S. is able to deliver them (archived):

Cont. reading: Trump Delivers Next Nothingburger To Ukraine

Posted by b at 13:41 UTC | Comments (291)

July 14, 2025

Putin: The West's Conflict With Russia Is Not About Ideology

In an interview with the Russian TV channel Rossiya President Vladimir Putin gave some insight into Russia's changing perspective of the West.

There is unfortunately no transcript available yet. Various Russian media provid snippets of the talk in English language:

Contradictions between Russia, West arise from geopolitics, Putin believes - TASS
Britain, France, and other former empires, still blame the dismantling of their colonial might on Russia, the Russian president continued adding that he could still sense this historical negative attitude toward his country
Russia-West clash not about ideology – Putin - RT
The standoff is only about geopolitical interests, the Russian president has said
Putin Explains What Truly Divided Russia and the West - Sputnik

I have yet to find the full interview. But these tweets of Djole include some quotes and subtitled video excerpts:

In an interview with Pavlo Zarubin, a well-known journalist on Russian state television, Putin spoke about deep misunderstandings that, he says, he initially mistakenly attributed to ideological differences. But over time, he points out, it became clear that the background is not ideology, but something else - interest.
"I thought that the contradictions with the West were primarily ideological. It seemed logical at the time - Cold War inertia, different views of the world, values, the organization of society," Putin said.

"But even when the ideology disappeared, when the Soviet Union ceased to exist, the same, almost routine deviation from Russia's interests continued. And it was not because of ideas, but because of the pursuit of advantages - geopolitical, economic, strategic."
...
"The world respects only those who can protect themselves," he said. "Until we show that we are an independent and sovereign power that stands behind our interests, there will be no room for anyone to treat us as equals."

My very first thought when reading that was 'what took him so long'. During the Cold War I was indoctrinated with the fairy tale of Western freedoms versus the evils of eastern communism. But I for one have never accepted that view. Western animosity against Russia goes back many centuries. (Maybe even further back than the big schism of 1054). The fight against the 'evils of communism' was just a contemporary variance of it.

One might call that ideological but I believe that it always has been and is about greed. There is one side in this conflict which never seems to have enough and therefore aims for Russia's riches. What else explains Napoleon's march to Moscow or the British war in Crimea? (See Karlov1 who writes a bit more about the 'ideological' aspect of this.)

But why did it take Putin and Russia until 2022 to accept the consequences of this insight?

Posted by b at 12:52 UTC | Comments (388)

July 13, 2025

Palestine Open Thread 2025-157

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

Posted by b at 12:45 UTC | Comments (210)

Ukraine Open Thread 2025-156

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

Posted by b at 12:44 UTC | Comments (218)

The MoA Week In Review - OT 2025-155

Last week's posts on Moon of Alabama:

Jul 7 - Trump Caves Again Over Tariffs - Uncertainty Increases
Jul 10 - First Casualties From Trump's Increasing Tariff Craze
Related:
- Trump says he will impose 30% tariffs on the EU and Mexico from August 1 (archived) - FT
- Trump Just Did Lula a Massive Favour With His 50% Tariff Against Brazil - Naked Capitalism
- The week the costs of Trump’s tariffs became clearer (archived) - Washington Post
He is imposing rising input costs and uncertainty on the economy. The damage is starting to show.

Jul 8 - Ukraine - Drone Mass Production Lets Russia Gain Upper Hand
Related:
- A thousand drones and a million more to come: why Ukraine must tame its weapons "zoo" - Pravda.ua
- Almost 9 million Ukrainians live below the poverty line. (in Russian) - Strana
- If the Russians are Killing Ukrainian Civilians, Where are the Bodies? - Sonar21

Jul 11 - The Europeans And The U.S. Against Russia - Who Is Really The Patsy?
Related:
- Europe is losing – JPMorgan CEO - RT
The region’s economic competitiveness is dwindling, Jamie Dimon has warned
- Kaja Kallas is the real threat to Europe She personifies the bloc at its worst - Thomas Fazi / Unherd
- France's Parliament Calls Europe to Break with America and Partner with China - Arnaud Bertrand
- The European Green Deal Has Failed - Thomas Fazi / Compact

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Other issues:

Cont. reading: The MoA Week In Review - OT 2025-155

Posted by b at 12:44 UTC | Comments (231)

July 11, 2025

The Europeans And The U.S. Against Russia - Who Is Really The Patsy?

Karlof1, aka Karl Sanchez, points to his translation of the latest Dmitri Trenin piece:

Yesterday, Dmitri Trenin, Director of the Institute of World Military Economics and Strategy at the Higher School of Economics, wrote an op/ed for Kommersant, “The War Will Be Long,” which was picked-up translated and altered by RT for publication today. My practice is to provide the translation of the original because of RT’s past and present manipulations that I’ve denounced every time I encounter one. IMO, Trenin makes clear that Putin knows the Outlaw US Empire’s plans, which is the basic reason why Putin doesn’t yield anything to Trump. Here’s Trenin:
The war will be long
Dmitri Trenin on the intermediate results of the "special diplomatic operation"

...

The war will not end in 2025. It will not end after the end of hostilities in Ukraine.

We need to realize that the current conflict is not about Ukraine as such.

This is a proxy (so far) war of the West against Russia. And this confrontation itself is part of an ongoing world war, in which the West is fighting to maintain world hegemony. This will be a long war, and the United States, with or without Trump, will remain our adversary. At stake for us in this struggle is not the status of Ukraine, but the existence of Russia. [My Emphasis]