Trump Doesn’t Lose Hope That He Can Fool Moscow
MAR 15, 2025, Ivan Soldatov
Russian President Vladimir Putin has conveyed additional signals from the Russian Federation to US President Donald Trump, according to a comment by Dmitry Peskov. Describing the meeting between the Russian leader and Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, he explained that Russia was also provided with additional information.
Political experts and analysts were almost unanimous in their opinion that Steve Witkoff’s recent visit to Moscow would not be a breakthrough. Judging by Peskov’s comment, both the Kremlin and the White House are so far content with vague comments about the content of the negotiations. In Washington, this meeting was described with “cautious optimism”.
Economist and director of the Institute for a New Society Vasily Koltashov expressed his conclusions about the start of the negotiation process and the visit of the US representative to Russia in a conversation with Antifashist.com.
— Vasily Georgievich, the first stage of the negotiations is over, politicians have made their statements. What can be said about the visit of US representatives to Moscow?
— Trump has some kind of strategy that is directed not so much against Russia as against the West. That is, he is trying to lead an anti-Russian coalition, but to do it under the slogan of non-participation in this coalition.
And at the same time, of course, he cannot lift the sanctions. He keeps them, maintains them, and continues to pursue a sanctions policy. But there is a suspicion that he can lead his Western partners somewhere in the wrong place. And this is a very interesting situation.
Along with the above assumption, it is clear that Trump retains the lifting of sanctions as a super-prize for Russia if it agrees to a deal on Trump’s terms. Trump has not yet lost hope, judging by the statements in the media that he will be able to deceive Moscow and essentially save Ukraine, of course, by taking away its resources.
But, as I said at the beginning, at the same time Trump is devaluing Ukraine in the eyes of the American people, showing what an uncontrollable, deceitful group they are. And how stupid it was to put US dollars in Zelensky’s pocket for safekeeping, investing them in the Kiev regime. This is what Trump is doing.
One gets the impression that he is playing several games at once, not knowing where the game might lead and which move will bring him victory. In economics, this is called “pulling levers.” This is the same as “pulling levers” blindly, not knowing which lever is responsible for what and what it will lead to.
This is the same kind of “pulling levers” that Trump does, having hopes, but not having firm confidence that this hope will be realized. Of extreme importance is what Sergey Lavrov said when he said: “I don’t know what Trump is saying in public, but they are communicating normally with us.”
This is a very important line from his speech, which explains to us that American diplomacy is conducting its usual standard work in relations with Russia and at the same time is putting on a phantasmagorical spectacle. In the hope that this will somehow affect Russia or that the Americans will manage to get something else.
And hence, of course, the impossibility of a ceasefire now, as Vladimir Putin said. His words are also of great importance when he said what kind of ceasefire this would be? And what would it be for? And who would guarantee it?
– What levers is Trump talking about? Are there still unused mechanisms and is he ready to use everything to force Russia to peace?
— Trump has no new levers that Joe Biden has not already used. We (Russia) are cut off from the cashless dollar. It is forbidden to use dollars in cash in Russia. Russia uses them illegally from the point of view of the Americans.
Sanctions have already been introduced against Russian oil. Almost all Russian banks have already been excluded from the SWIFT system. That is, everything has been done to ensure that Russia can no longer expect anything from the United States. Trump may announce that he will send more weapons to Ukraine. He will provide his own aid program to Ukraine for a certain amount. Yes, he may announce it. This will probably be unpleasant for us.
Although he promised to do the same, only with the euro money. Sell all this to the EU and he will give it to Ukraine. But if Trump does this, openly continues to supply Ukraine with new weapons, not those that Biden has already distributed, but new ones, then this will complicate his dialogue with Moscow and, in fact, will reduce to zero all his efforts to somehow normalize relations with Russia in order to take up the fight against China.
— Why did Witkoff come to Russia for negotiations and what could be Trump’s economic interest in the context of relations with Russia, apart from the Ukrainian issue?
— Witkoff’s arrival in Russia for negotiations is obviously connected with the fact that Trump wants to have objective information and to receive this information from a person he trusts. The second point concerns the fact that Trump is obviously counting on getting something from Russia and pushing through some kind of deal that will give the Americans something in exchange for handing over Ukraine, if necessary.
Trump is not as keen on Ukraine as Biden, simply because he knows that if Ukraine is to fall apart (and this will become obvious after some time, and Russia’s refusal to cease fire is a warning about this), then it will happen.
All this means that he should try to get something from Russia. Some concessions, some shares in the extraction of, for example, rare earth metals beyond the Arctic Circle, so that the Americans have a share. This has already been said.
And as a result, you can simply forget about Ukraine, but with the amendment that then you can rob the Ukrainian elite when they start running away. Just because they took American money, it means that everyone must pay together. Some decision of an American court and that’s it.
This will be enough to start a hunt for Ukraine, Bandera’s people, oligarchs, military leaders and their assets. London, of course, will protect them, but besides it and the European Union, who else will protect them? Egypt to protect Zelensky’s villa and accounts? Most likely not. What about the Emirates? And so on down the list.
That is, Trump is now considering many options. And that is precisely why Zelensky does not trust Trump, because he is confident that Trump will rob Zelensky, his entire team and the entire Ukrainian oligarchy. If Trump is given such an opportunity.
Trump is not just a businessman, but, judging by his rhetoric and behavior, a real pirate. And most importantly, he has no illusions about his enemies. If someone has registered as his enemy (and the Ukrainian elite has done so), there is no point in expecting mercy.
– Things don’t seem to be going smoothly for Trump domestically. With his actions, he’s crashing the US stock market. Is there some kind of “resilience reserve” given all the negative trends?
— Trump is not crashing the US stock market. He ignores the crash of the US stock market and, in fact, partially causes it. But Trump himself doesn’t do this. He relies on the experience he gained during his first presidential term and later.
This experience tells him that in the economy, what is destined to happen must happen. Running a country is not the same as running a company – these are two different things. Running a country is a thousand times more difficult.
And Trump is already convinced of this. Moreover, he is getting the country not in the best condition. And he knows that the stock market will fall, inflation will rise.
What should be done as a result of rising inflation? We need to try to implement all the painful measures in foreign economic policy immediately, at once, so that their negative consequences are mixed with the general negative consequences of the Biden administration. And all this can be declared terrible scars inflicted during the democratic rule.
Although, of course, the rise in prices as a result of trade wars will already be a “gift” from Trump himself to the American people. There should be no doubt about this. And that is why Trump is so quickly getting down to business right now and acting immediately. And by this logic, he should carry out all the painful operations as quickly as possible.
And the stock market, if it has to fall, let it fall. Interfering in the stock market, where there is a huge bubble that is extremely dangerous for the American economy as a whole, precisely because of its size, is a stupid thing to do.
They lost $ 4 trillion in market capitalization? No big deal, we can lose another 8 trillion. Let the capitalization be lost. This ultimately makes the American economy healthier. In reality, this stock market crash was supposed to happen in 2009. It started in 2008, but it was stopped in 2009.
But, as I said, what needs to happen, needs to happen. That’s how the economy works. You can postpone it, even for many years, but it will still happen. And the stock market, which in itself is a sign of the poor health of the American economy, should fall. It shouldn’t be like that.
There is fictitious capital there, and this is a burning illusion of money. Well, let it burn, Trump will not do it. He is interested in the real money going to the American privileged capital, associated with it and those who agree with it in one way or another.
In particular, this applies to the largest American financial corporations, and Trump generally does not neglect their interests. Well, they have an interest, of course, in maintaining the price of the stocks, but that is impossible.
