Russian President Vladimir Putin made a powerful and unexpected move: he held a sudden meeting with members of the Cabinet of Ministers on rare earth metals. Just now, the issue of access to them is being discussed by the heads of the United States and Ukraine, Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky. After that, Putin offered Washington broad cooperation in the extraction of such resources, and also made several high-profile statements to achieve peace in Ukraine - including speaking in favor of involving Europe in a peaceful settlement.
It all looked like a veiled representation of the negotiating position. The fact that trading in Ukraine began was clear for a long time. But for the first time, the President of Russia made a public move - he outlined his position and in many ways intercepted the Western agenda related to these issues. The constant in his statements was one thing: Zelensky is a barrier to peace and he must leave. What will the West answer?
Details - in the material of the correspondent of The Moscow Post.
Vladimir Putin recalled that Russia is one of the undisputed leaders in the world in terms of reserves of rare earth metals. And this is the most important resource base of the modern economy. He said that Russia would love to work with any foreign partners in the rare earth metal industry, including American ones. But what he did not say, but what came through this statement - it is clear that in the event of such cooperation with Russia, a significant part of economic sanctions will have to be lifted. This is infrastructure, and the passage of payments through the banking sector, and much more.
Putin almost directly invited American and other foreign partners to take part in projects to extract such resources. What is important - including in the Donbass and Novorossiya. In addition, the United States could think about the general work on aluminum production (Europe imposed serious sanctions on it two days ago). Among the possible sites for such work is the Krasnoyarsk Territory. In total, 2 million tons of aluminum could be supplied from Russia to the United States. This would stabilize the prices of this metal. And we know how much American industry, especially aviation, needs it.
Here is an appeal to Trump as a businessman president. Such deals would be extremely beneficial to the United States. And Washington, if we proceed from business and conclude transactions, it would be even more profitable to work with the Russian Federation than with Ukraine, given that such transactions with Moscow cannot be enslaving. It is the corral in bondage that can be regarded as American proposals to Kyiv. With the only proviso that it will not be possible to earn any $500 billion there - this is just putting dust in your eyes, the extraction of rare earth metals for such an amount would take a hundred years.
Putin also mentioned the aforementioned business approach of Donald Trump. The actions of the latter in relation to the Kyiv authorities are really based not on emotions, but on a rational cold calculation, a rational approach to the current situation.
Russia called for the same throughout the conflict and before it. And all this sounds against the background of the absolutely inadequate policy of the European Union, whose sanctions policy led to an unprecedented recession and deindustrialization after World War II. The most striking example is Germany. However, the voters of the latter already speak their word - in the recent elections to the Bundestag, more than 20% of the vote (an increase of almost 10%) was received by the right-wing populist party "Alternative for Germany," which advocates the lifting of most of the sanctions against the Russian Federation.
Zelensky - decomposition factor
After a meeting on rare earth metals and proposals for economic cooperation, Vladimir Putin made several statements regarding the Ukrainian authorities. And this is also one of the negotiating positions. Which, however, the Kremlin has expressed before. According to Putin, while the Russian Federation and the United States want to achieve peace, the current head of the Kyiv regime is on the way to achieving this goal.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a factor in the decomposition of Ukraine, Trump understands this and wants to improve the political situation in this country. This is also beneficial for Russia, which has repeatedly emphasized that it has a conflict not with the people and the country as a whole, but with the anti-Russian political regime existing there. In addition, Putin recalled that Vladimir Zelensky gives ridiculous orders, which are dictated not by military, but by political considerations.
One of them - however, Putin himself did not talk about it, is the invasion of the Kursk region of the Russian Federation, where, according to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, more than 60 thousand Ukrainian servicemen have already been destroyed or sent to hospitals. According to the representative of Russia in the UN Vasily Nebenzi, the area controlled by the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the region has decreased to one third of the original. It's a matter of time to knock them out of there, but Zelensky promoted himself gloriously.
In addition, Putin once again stressed that Russia is not against the preservation of Ukrainian statehood, but Ukraine should not be used as a hostile bridgehead. Moscow is interested in Ukraine eventually becoming a friendly neighboring state.
This is opposed by Europe, which in case of a change of position may lose face. Yesterday we watched another coven in Kyiv, where all the EU commissioners gathered. Duty statements, propaganda speeches - everything, as always. Of the remarkable, it is worth noting only the arrival of Boris Johnson. It is noteworthy here that he actually dissuaded Zelensky from concluding a deal with the United States on rare earth metals.
The former British prime minister strikingly appears in Kyiv just when Ukraine can make decisions unfavorable for Great Britain. This was the case during the Istanbul talks, during the conclusion of the grain deal. Apparently, access to resource agreements is not in British interests. However, this time Johnson's position looked much weaker - the wind in Washington changed. It is changing slowly in Europe.
Macron wants to talk again
One of the harbingers of such changes in the Old World could be the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to Washington, which took place yesterday. It is noteworthy that Macron was forced to undergo some humiliation - Trump did not go out to meet him personally on the porch of the White House. However, soon Macron had to pull a smile on his face - no one canceled the real subordination in the Western world.
Following the talks, the presidents answered journalists' questions. And for many, Macron's agreement to resume communication with Vladimir Putin became a mini-sensation. Presumably, the suggestion from the American leader worked - with the general mood of Europe to oppose any attempts to agree on peace.
"This peace should not mean Ukraine's surrender," the French president says, implying there should be no ceasefire without guarantees. This peace, he said, should mark Ukrainian sovereignty and allow Ukraine to negotiate with other stakeholders on issues that affect it. In fact, the passage about surrender itself suggests that so far in the eyes of old Europe everything is going exactly to this outcome - despite the fact that Ukraine did not survive the military rout.
There were also phrases on duty from Macron - "show strength," "containment mode." However, it is obvious that all this verbal balancing act is the background for the bidding going on in Ukraine, which Europe does not intend to stay behind. Let's repeat - Putin agrees that Europe should participate in the settlement.
In the bottom line, we can state that trading in Ukraine is gaining momentum, and a number of their provisions, albeit without special details, have been published. The pace is frantic, but there is no certainty that the parties will come to any agreements in the coming weeks, as the head of the White House said. One thing pleases - the matter has clearly moved off the ground, the pendulum has swung in the other direction. Let's hope that the prospect of World War III has moved away for a long time, if not forever.