Look at the headlines: Russia vs. Ukraine; Israel vs. Gaza; the United States and Israel vs. Iran; North Korea vs. South Korea; China vs. Taiwan; Russia vs. Japan; Russia vs. Germany; the United States vs. Canada . . .
It’s a world at war with itself.
And when all is said and done . . . when (if ever) the dust settles . . . when there’s nothing left but the silence . . . we may be asking ourselves:
“What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty or democracy?”
The day after U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner concluded their meetings in Moscow and Kyiv with Presidents Putin and Zelensky, Putin sent his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, out front to tell reporters (and thus the world at large) where the Kremlin now stand vis-a-vis trilateral peace talks with Ukraine:
“As for the resumption of the trilateral format, you heard the statement from Kyiv yesterday. Mr. Kushner made such statements. We, too, do not rule out the resumption of this trilateral format, but it is still too early to speak of the venue and exact dates.” [Dmitry Antonov, Maxim Rodionov, and Andrew Osborn, Reuters, September 7, 2026.]
Dmitry “Dima” Peskov
While also declining to comment on the latest proposals, or what difficult issues remain to be ironed out, Peskov did say that a phone call between Putin and Donald Trump had not been ruled out by the Kremlin. *
* (Note: A later report from Kyiv said that Trump was expected to speak to both Putin and Zelensky by phone on Monday [Arpan Rai and Alex Croft, Independent September 7, 2026]. This was also confirmed by the White House; but it is now late Monday night (EDT), and I have seen no reports of any such conversation having taken place. Stay tuned for follow-up on this.)
Peskov then went on to say, in what I can only describe as the most eloquently constructed piece of crap I’ve heard in a long while:
“Undoubtedly, any attempts . . . represent a small step towards peace, and we truly hold the peace-building efforts of the American negotiators in very high regard. President Putin himself has said that he holds President Trump’s efforts in high regard, and that he is grateful to President Trump for his commitment to this path towards peace.” [Reuters, op.cit.]
BFFs
Sorry, Dima, but that just won’t cut it. We’re already well aware of the existence of the Putin-Trump Mutual Admiration Society. What we need now are not more dissembling and stalling; what we need are hard information, serious proposals, and genuine efforts at bringing Putin’s calamitous war to an end.
Labor Day has been an official U.S. holiday since President Grover Cleveland signed it into law in 1894. Its purpose was to pay tribute to the hard work of laborers who built the nation’s communities, infrastructure, and economy; and to this day, it celebrates the achievements, contributions, and strength of American workers.
But the life of the average worker is not always easy . . . and it’s become noticeably more difficult in recent years. While Eugene Debs — the controversial democrat-turned-socialist who unsuccessfully ran for president five times — is not someone I particularly admire or would normally quote, he did strike a meaningful note with this statement:
“I am opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched existence.”
Eugene V. Debs (1855 – 1926)
Regardless of your political leanings, if you are one of the millions who have worked all your life and still find it hard to get by, you don’t have to be a socialist to grasp the relevance of his words to our world today.
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As for the lighter side of Labor Day, it has also come to signal the unofficial end to summer in the U.S., traditionally celebrated with picnics and other gatherings of friends and families, and a three-day weekend for most workers. So let’s all enjoy the day, be safe, and look forward to the approach of autumn (my favorite season).
Their first stop was Moscow. Special envoys Steve Witkoff — who openly admitted being “scared” of traveling to Russia and Ukraine in the midst of an increasingly hot war — and Jared Kushner were met by their old friend Kirill Dmitriev and ushered into the room where they were welcomed by Vladimir Putin. Also in attendance was former Russian Ambassador to the United States Yuri Ushakov.
The purpose of the visit, to be followed by a meeting in Kyiv with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, was ostensibly to restart negotiations toward a peaceful settlement of the nearly five-year-old war. But I say “ostensibly” for a reason.
Because upon being greeted by Putin, Witkoff immediately set the tone of the meeting — not with a stern follow-up to the warnings delivered by CIA Director John Ratcliffe on August 25th — but with this obsequious bit of boot-licking:
“President Putin, thank you so much for having us. Me, Jared, Kirill, Yuri — we were talking about, when we retire, we’ll have all these incredible stories and memories, and yours will be right at the top of it all.” [McGill Media, September 6, 2026.]
According to Witkoff, the American team “heard new ideas” from Putin. But he offered no details, saying only that it was hoped a new round of US-mediated Ukraine-Russia talks would be announced “in short order.” [Shahana Yasmin, Holly Bancroft and Suha Kidwai, Independent, September 7, 2026, 03:00 BST.]
Yuri Ushakov said that the U.S. side had “outlined a number of ideas regarding possible avenues for a settlement” — again, without any specifics. [Dmitry Antonov and Gleb Bryanski, Reuters, September 5, 2026.]
And Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said in an interview with the Vesti media outlet:
“The very fact that the meeting is taking place means that an atmosphere of trust does exist, at least through this channel of communication, and is strengthening. Usually, extended exchanges of such welcoming remarks appear when there are messages that the head of state considers necessary to send.” [Kanyshai Butun, AA.com.tr, September 6, 2026.]
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitri Peskov
All of which sounds like a lot of “hail fellow well met,” when we should instead have been hearing that Putin had been told his time for stalling was up and that he could either end the war on reasonable terms or pay the consequences.
But that might have adversely affected Donald Trump’s underlying purpose, which is to advance trade relations with his friend Vlad to their mutual benefit. So the diplomatic dance that has been the hallmark of all of the Witkoff-Kushner-Putin meetings continues.
Interestingly, Peskov also referred back to the Trump-Putin meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, last year, saying that “certain understandings” had been reached at that time, and stressing that:
“It is difficult to say at this point how applicable they are from both the Ukrainian and US perspective. But at least some elements of those understandings will always remain on the agenda.”[Id.]
But what do we know of the substance of those “certain understandings?” Nothing. In fact, both sides said at the time that no agreements had been reached, though numerous subjects had been discussed.
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Then the Washington contingent headed to Kyiv, apparently flying to Poland and proceeding from there by train — an interesting choice, but understandable in the face of all of those Russian drones and missiles flying around in Ukrainian airspace.
Zelensky, Witkoff and Kushner in Kyiv
Again, we don’t have details of their meeting with President Zelensky, though both Zelensky and Witkoff described the talks as “substantial.” Zelensky later told reporters that they had discussed security and economic guarantees for Kyiv, supplies of air-defense missiles, and a support package for Ukraine for the coming winter, among other things. [RFE/RL, September 6, 2026.]
He also said that there was talk of renewing trilateral negotiations among Kyiv, Moscow and Washington . . . for all the good they have done in the past, with Putin refusing to budge on his view of the “root causes” of the war.
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As I said, we haven’t been given detailed information as yet, and there may indeed be something substantive in the works. But from what little we have heard — and that little bit sounding eerily like an echo of what we’ve heard after every one of these high-level “negotiations” — where we are today seems very much like where we’ve been for the last two years, since Trump said he would end this war “on day one” if he were to be re-elected.
The United States currently has four living ex-presidents: Joe Biden, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. And here they are, in a rare photograph of all four together, looking very much like elder statesmen: smiling, well-dressed, and well-groomed, as always.
And here is their successor, with his signature smirk and one of his recent tonsorial experiments unfortunately caught by a passing breeze:
And then, just yesterday, we were treated to his newest look:
Wait . . . what?!! Where is the white-blond comb-over we all know and love . . . to ridicule? Is that just a dye job and a trim, or a wig? And more to the point . . . why??!!!
Personally, I couldn’t care less whether it’s his own hair or not. Women change their hair styles constantly, some even daily. There’s no reason a man shouldn’t try something different now and then. But shouldn’t the goal for someone constantly in the public eye be to look better, not worse?
This, on the other hand, looks like a man who can’t admit that he just turned 80, is balding, seriously overweight, and not in the best of health, but is trying to convince himself he’s still the young stud he once was (or thought he was). Or maybe he’s trying to project a presidential image of strength and vitality to the rest of the world. Either way, a new hairdo isn’t the answer. Unlike the biblical Samson, the rest of us humans do not derive our strength from unshorn locks.
Seriously . . . check out this distinguished group of European leaders:
Their faces, their posture, and their graying, receding hairlines project their years of experience and wisdom. They’re responsible for the future of our world — not competing in a Mister America contest.
I know it’s trivial, and we shouldn’t allow ourselves to get hung up on outward appearances. But he does. And the picture is out there, begging for commentary. What’s more, it did take my mind — and hopefully yours — off of the more depressing issues of the day for just a few moments.
Like Russia itself, its president, Vladimir Putin, has always been something of an enigma. Numerous theories have been posited, for example, as to his real reasons for invading Ukraine, and for his refusal to consider any compromise that might lead to an end of the war.
His stated purposes — to reclaim what he considers to be historically Russian territory, to “rescue” the people of Ukraine from an allegedly tyrannical “Nazi” regime, etc. — don’t hold water. More believable is that he is attempting to hold onto power and secure his legacy by proving his ability to elevate Russia’s political and economic standing on the world stage, and to re-create — if not the Soviet Union — then some version of the former Russian Empire.
“Tsar of All the Russias”
But as for his continuing to reiterate the same outrageous demands, and his efforts to project responsibility for the war onto his victim Ukraine, the answer may be simpler. With astonishing prescience, American political scientist, economist, and international relations scholar Francis Fukuyama wrote in an article published shortly after the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, that Putin’s rule over Russia would not survive a military defeat:
“He gets support because he is perceived to be a strongman; what does he have to offer once he demonstrates incompetence and is stripped of his coercive power?”
– Francis Fukuyama, “American Purpose,” c. March 2022.
Francis Fukuyama
Simply put, Vladimir Putin is desperate to hold onto his job. And isn’t that, in the long run, where all authoritarians end up?
This has been a week without news of the existing or any new political prisoners of the Putin regime.
Yet the people of Ukraine continue to be held hostage by a war they neither invited nor deserved. And there remain more than 20,000 Ukrainian children in Russian custody — many in the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, and countless others already “re-homed” in Russia — who are being indoctrinated as loyal Russian “citizens.”
Now it has come to light that some of these abducted children have also been sent to “summer camp” in North Korea.
According to a European Union (EU) document, a new round of sanction is being issued against Russian officials responsible for the transfer of Ukrainian children to the Songdowon International Children’s Camp, which is run by North Korean authorities, and which “participates in organized programs involving the transfer of Ukrainian children from temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine to North Korea.” [RFE/RL, September 5, 2026.]
Russian Children at Songdowon Children’s Camp
The EU document says that, while this is supposed to be “a cultural exchange,” in fact the camp “is directly involved in the unlawful transfer, ideological indoctrination, and militarization of Ukrainian children in coordination with the Russian Federation.” [Id.]
Public relations releases describe the camp as “promoting international friendship”; however, it was sanctioned by the U.K. in May of this year for “providing support for the government of Russia’s program for the forced deportation and re-education of Ukrainian children.” [Id.]
Meanwhile, U.S. special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are on an overseas mission, meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, in hopes of reopening negotiations to put an end to the nearly five-year-old war. One of Kyiv’s key demands for a settlement has been the return of its abducted children. Let us hope that it remains a principal issue for discussion this week.
Kushner, Witkoff and Putin in Moscow – September 5, 2026
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And let us also remember those political prisoners still languishing in Putin’s prisons and penal colonies:
Prisoners of War:
The 20,000+ Kidnapped Ukrainian Children The People of Ukraine
Immigrant Detainees in Russia:
Migrants from the Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan
Endangered Exiles:
Pavel “Pasha” Talankin Mikita Losik Yulia Navalnaya Oleg Orlov Countless Journalists and Other Dissidents
Political Prisoners:
In Afghanistan:
Mahmoud Habibi (Afghan-American) Paul Overby (American, missing since 2018)
Andrei Chapiuk Uladzimir Labkovich Andrzej Poczobut Marfa Rabkova Valiantsin Stafanovic Yuras Zyankovich
In Georgia:
Mzia Amaglobeli
In Russia:
The “Crimea 8”: – Oleg Antipov – Artyom Azatyan – Georgy Azatyan – Aleksandr Bylin – Roman Solomko – Artur Terchanyan – Dmitry Tyazhelykh – Vladimir Zloba
James Scott Rhys Anderson (British) Aleksandr Andreyev David Barnes (American) Yevgenia Berkovich Gordon Black (American) Hayden Davies (British) Yury Dmitriyev Anastasia Dyudyaeva Antonina Favorskaya Konstantin Gabov Robert Gilman (American) Stephen James Hubbard (American) Sergey Karelin Timur Kishukov Vadim Kobzev Darya Kozyreva Artyom Kriger Michael Travis Leake (American) Aleksei Liptser Svitlana Loi (in Ukraine) Mikhail Loshchinin “Madame Z” (in Ukraine) Grigory Melkonyants Boris Nadezhdin Nika NovakSvetlana Petriichuk Leonid Pshenychnov (in Russian-occupied Crimea) Ilya Remeslo Nadezhda Rossinskaya (a.k.a. Nadin Geisler) Lev Schlossberg Sofiane Sehili (French) Igor Sergunin Dmitry Shatresov Robert Shonov Grigory Skvortsov Eugene Spector (American) Joseph Tater (American, disappeared) Karina Tsurkan Arseniy Turbinin (age 18) Laurent Vinatier Robert Romanov Woodland (American)
You have not been, and will not be, forgotten. Stay strong.
I have a number of friends and relatives — some no longer with us — who were born in September. And in sending a birthday message to one who is turning 80 this year, I said (not very originally) that, despite some of the problems of advancing age, it’s still “better than the alternative.”
Then I discovered that famed British writer and humorist P. G. Wodehouse had reached that conclusion long before I did — and he said it with great style and wit:
“There is only one cure for grey hair. It was invented by a Frenchman. It is called the guillotine.”
P. G. Wodehouse (1881 – 1975)
Wodehouse lived to the age of 94, so it’s a good thing he was able to find humor in aging. Or maybe it was the attitude itself that sustained him for so long. I think I’ll try a little more of that.
I’ve been in love with Russia for as long as I can remember. My grandparents emigrated from there — the part that is now Ukraine — in 1905. The food they prepared for us was old-world style. Even as a teenager, my favorite composers were Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff. I have devoured the works of Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Pasternak; marveled at the treasures of St. Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum, Moscow’s Kremlin Armory, and Washington’s Hillwood Museum; and lost count of the number of times I’ve watched the film versions of War and Peace, The Brothers Karamazov, and Doctor Zhivago.
From “Doctor Zhivago” – 1965
As an adult, I studied the Russian language, history, and literature, and finally — in 1988 — took my first trip to what was still the Soviet Union. Those who follow my blog with any regularity know that I lived in Moscow for several months in 1993, when the Soviet Union no longer existed and Russia was excitedly becoming a more prosperous, democratic society.
So it has pained me to write about the return of totalitarianism under the Putin regime, his taking of political hostages, and especially his war of attrition against Ukraine — the homeland of my ancestors. But facts are facts. And — as I have had to do in relation to my own country recently — I constantly remind myself that the people of any nation cannot be judged by their leaders.
With all of these thoughts running through my head today, my brain has done one of its inexplicably circuitous maneuvers, depositing me back in 1988 and that first visit, with a friend from my Russian language class and as part of a licensed tour group, to the forbidden land behind the Iron Curtain.
It began — in what I should have taken as an omen — on our arrival at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.
After an exhausting trip from DC to New York and overnight from New York to Moscow (an eight-hour time difference), we arrived at Sheremetyevo looking like a bunch of . . . well . . . just what we were: bedraggled American tourists. We were greeted by Tamara, our official Intourist guide (one of a slew of government-controlled organizations directly answerable to the KGB), claimed our luggage, and headed for Passport Control.
There were two lines open, and I was steered to one that was presided over by a tall, blond, handsome young man with an appropriately stern facial expression. I put my passport, open to the front page, in the little tray at the base of the bullet-proof glass window. He picked it up, checked the visa, looked at the picture, looked at me, looked at the picture, looked at me, looked at . . . well, you get the idea. Then he asked, in his best, heavily-accented English, “This your photo?”
At the time, I was a 40-something, reasonably decent-looking redhead, not easily disguised, so yes, it was obviously my photo. I replied, in my best, American-accented Russian, “Yes, that is I.” My language professor was a stickler for grammar.
Tall-blond-and-handsome began again: looked at the passport, looked at me, looked at the passport, etc., and finally asked: “You sure this your photo?”
Enough, already. The impatient, impetuous, and somewhat Puckish American in me took over, and I smiled, replying: “Well, it’s not Raisa Gorbacheva.”
Oh, my God! What had I done? I began to wonder what the inside of a Russian prison looked like, and what the average sentence was for being an American smart-ass.
But miraculously, that startled young officer hesitated, forgot his training . . . and smiled. Barely managing to stifle an audible laugh, he choked out, “Hokay,” stamped my passport and waved me through. And I knew I had made his day.
Welcome to Moscow, Mrs. Gorbacheva— or whoever you are.
Raisa Gorbacheva (Definitely Not Me)
But then it was on to Customs. We had filled out the necessary forms on the plane, and I had dutifully declared the only valuables I had brought with me: some cash, and my favorite go-to jewelry: three gold chains of varying lengths, and one gold ring, all of which I was wearing in plain view.
When I handed the form to the Customs officer, he read aloud, “Three gold chains,” and I pointed to them around my neck. Check. Then he recited, “One gold ring,” and I held up my right hand to show him the ring. Check.
Looking at my face, he noticed the gold-colored hoops on my ears and asked, “Earrings?” When I said that no, they weren’t real gold, he shot back, with just a touch of a smile, “Oh . . . cheap, huh?”
I was beginning to think everyone in Moscow was a stand-up comedian. And we hadn’t even left the airport yet!
The entire two-week stay was one memorable exchange after another: the smarmy character who tried to convince me his car was a taxi, and the nice old man who congratulated me after he heard me tell the scumbag (in Russian) what he could do with his “taxi”; the government official who offered to exchange rubles for dollars (illegal in those days); the drunk in Sochi who kept blocking my path, to the amusement of the local bystanders; and the man who tried to lure my friend and me down an alleyway in Tbilisi, Georgia.
But then there was the woman — a total stranger — who drove us out of her way to our hotel in Leningrad when there were no taxis around, and wouldn’t accept payment for it.
And there were all of the random people we met — in the tourist attractions, the restaurants, on the Metro, or on the street — who were thrilled to meet Americans and wanted to know all about our lives in the outside world.
There was also the maid in our hotel who took the time to check on my friend the day she missed our excursion and stayed in bed because of an intestinal bug that had afflicted half of our group.
And the elderly lady — clearly a retiree — who was supplementing her pension by working at a public rest room, selling single squares of toilet paper for one kopek (about a penny) apiece. When I asked for five squares and handed her five kopeks, she was astonished — but even more so when I tipped her a ruble (100 kopeks) for herself.
One Ruble
I could go on indefinitely. In fact, I have done just that, in past posts. But thinking and writing about these experiences helps to remind me — and I hope it also reassures you — that, like people everywhere, the Russian people are not their government. They have their scoundrels, of course; but for the most part, they are a warm, generous, smart people who desire only to live their lives in peace and some measure of security. Just like the rest of us.
So, while I shall continue to castigate Vladimir Putin and his henchmen, and to support Ukraine completely in its battle against his onslaught, I cannot give up on the Russian people as a whole. Nor can I stop worrying about their safety in the face of Ukraine’s justifiable counter-attacks.
You can despise a country’s government, and still love its people. It is the very definition of ambivalence.
As Donald Trump and his minions in the White House and the so-called Justice Department continue to stall, deflect, and create distraction after distraction — such as that little war in Iran, the threats against Greenland, and the scar on the Washington landscape known as the White House Ballroom — Trump hopes that people will lose interest in the millions of Epstein files that have never been produced.
But, as former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich reminds us, there is a lesson to be learned from the Watergate scandal of the Nixon era:
“ . . . it’s not just the crime, it’s the cover-up that keeps the public enthralled.”
– Robert Reich, “Remember the Epstein files!” – September 4, 2026.
Robert Reich
And that earlier scandal, as you will recall, ultimately led to this:
Resigning in Disgrace
. . . as well as a number of Nixon’s co-conspirators doing hard prison time.
So here’s to the eventual futility of all the stalling, deflecting, and distracting. Keep it up, folks — because, as it turns out, there is nothing more fascinating than that which is purposely hidden.
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