LOS ANGELES (OC).–Speaking at the Black Sea resort of Sochi at a security conference, 72-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed the hysteria going on in the European Union about Russia threatening the NATO alliance. “If anyone still has a desire to compete with us in the military sphere, as we say, feel free, let them try, Putin said, telling a discussion group that Russia is ready for any contingency. Putin responded recently to Trump’s comments that Russia is a “paper tiger,” an insulting remark about the Russian military. Putin called the “militarization of the continent driven by hysteria. But he said he had no intention of attacking the U.S.-led NATO alliance.” Setting the record straight, Putin tried to reassure the European Union that Russia posed no threat to Europe, was prosecuting a war in Ukraine only. Trump has not succeeded in bringing peace to Ukraine.
Trump worked feverishly since taking office to bring peace to Ukraine, capitalizing on his past relationship with Putin to come up with a plan to end the war. Trump was 90% there to bring about peace when the European Union joined Ukraine in seeing Russia as a threat to the region. European leaders led by French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer joined Ukraine in refusing to accept any peace built off trading land-for-peace, in effect scuttling Trump’s peace plan. Once the EU joined Ukraine’s 47-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky in rejecting surrendering land-for-pace, the EU took on the primary role as benefactor to Ukraine. Putin knows that Trump wants no part of proxy war with the Kremlin. Putin says EU leaders have let hysteria dictate otherwise logical foreign policy.
Putin doesn’t see why the EU sees Russia as a threat, primarily the Baltic States and Poland, all because recently Russian accidentally encroached on Baltic and Polish airspace, only briefly in what looked like miscalculation. “The elites of united Europe continue to whip up hysteria,” Putin said. “It turns out that war with the Russia is almost on the threshold, they repeat this nonsense, this mantra over and over again,” Putin said, showing the kind to hysteria that’s led to the militarization of Europe. Putin dismissed any idea that Russia would attack a NATO country, something that’s not on his plate. Trump understood exactly what it could take to end the Ukraine War. But the EU and Zelensky did everything possible to sabotage his efforts, rejecting the idea of trading land-for-peace. So, the Ukraine War rages on with no end in sight.
Trump recently signaled he would supply NATO for a fee U.S.-made weapons to continue Ukraine’s battle with the Kremlin. Putin took note of that saying that it hurts U.S.-Russian relations, something Trump has worked to fix over the first nine months of his term. Trump has refused to jump on the sanctions bandwagon, a sure sign to Putin that Trump only supplies weapons to make the U.S. money, not because he believes in the current EU political agenda. Trump tended to blame Putin for not engaging in a ceasefire to work toward a permanent peace settlement. But with the EU joining Zelensky in refusing to negotiate with Putin on land seize in Ukraine with over three-and-a-half years of war, Putin realized that peace is not happening with the European Union. Putin wants to stop the war but only if Zelensky and the EU gets real on a peace deal.
Putin wants the EU to know that Russia is no threat to any NATO country. He has no intent of going to war with NATO, nor would it be in Russia’s national security interest. “Genuinely, I just want to say, cool down, sleep calmly, and take care of your own problems. Just take a look at what’s happening on the streets of European cities,” Putin said. European officials have been sold a bill of goods by Zelensky, constantly saying that Putin has his eyes set on more European territory. With that kind of brainwashing, what’s Putin supposed to do to prove that he seeks peace in Ukraine? Putin wants peace but not based on Zelensky’s plan of seeing Putin remove all his forces from Ukraine. Russia has a long history with Ukraine, unlike anything in Europe. Ukraine was once part of the Russian Empire and Soviet Union, with strong Russian communities in Ukraine.
Zelensky has promoted the fake narrative that Ukraine was part of Europe, saying that the war in Ukraine was the first conflict since WW II on the European Continent. But is Ukraine really part of Europe like Zelensky likes to pretend? Or has Zelensky gaslighted the EU to think that the EU’s own safey is at stake in Ukraine. How can the EU possibly think that Putin would end a lengthy, costly, bloody war without some payback? Trump understood Putin’s right to leave Ukraine with dignity, spending much of its blood and treasure battling Ukraine over the last three-and-a-half years. EU officials have led the current bout of Russian hysteria, when Putin has no such intention of taking on NATO. EU officials sold Trump short when he would have ended the war with dignity for Russia and Ukraine. All Zelensky thinks about is not admitting that he lost the war with the Kremlin.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
