It’s mind-boggling, the way Vladimir Putin keeps dishing it out, and Donald Trump keeps lapping it up.

On August 15th, they held a so-called summit in Anchorage, Alaska, allegedly to seek a path to a solution of the “conflict” in Ukraine. As we soon learned, the only thing that came out of that trip was an indication that both parties would love to resume trade and technology exchanges. In fact, Putin said in Moscow the day after the meeting:

“Russian-American business and investment partnership has huge potential.” [Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic, August 16, 2025.]

Prior to the meeting, Trump had threatened damaging sanctions if Putin continued to stall on ceasefire negotiations. But instead of following through, he gave Putin another two weeks, echoing his Russian adversary’s words that peace talks should precede a ceasefire, and promising that there would be a direct meeting between Putin and Ukrainian President Zelensky, with or without Trump, in a matter of days.

Well, the two weeks are up. The idea of a bilateral or trilateral meeting was quickly shot down by the Kremlin, and the only words from Moscow have been . . . well, not so much words, as this:

And these . . .

these . . .

and these:

Dozens of men, women and children killed and injured by Russian missiles as they slept . . . slaughtered on the orders of a man in Moscow who swears that his military does not target civilians.

The same man who told reporters after meeting with Trump two weeks ago that Russia and the U.S. could do more business together — as, for example, between their Pacific coastlines — to which Trump replied:

“We look forward to dealing.” [Joe Wallace, Costas Paris, Alex Leary and Collin Eaton, The Wall Street Journal, August 26, 2025.]

While that all sounds nebulous at best, what was not revealed was that secret talks were already underway between the two countries’ biggest energy companies — America’s Exxon and Russia’s Rosneft — in hopes of finding a means of going back into business together.

Along with numerous U.S. and other Western companies that had been doing business in post-Soviet Russia, Exxon — despite the resulting heavy losses — withdrew from its venture with Rosneft following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022.

But around the time of Donald Trump’s inauguration in January of this year, discussions between the two energy giants gained new momentum. And in February, while ceasefire talks between senior U.S. and Russian officials were taking place in Saudi Arabia, Russia quietly hinted at investment opportunities for American companies, including in Arctic energy developments — which, of course, would be right up Exxon’s alley. [Id.]

And it has been reported that Exxon Senior Vice President Neil Chapman has met in Doha, Qatar, with Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin — who, as a close ally of Putin, is under blocking sanctions by the U.S. [Id.]

But with the right contacts, enough money, and a blatant disregard for legalities, it seems that no obstacle is so great that it can’t be overcome. So, while a deal between Exxon and Rosneft has not yet been engraved in stone (as far as is known), the mere fact that discussions are underway is an indication of the sort of off-the-record talks that have been taking place between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in recent months.

While the war rages on.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
August 30, 2025