Once a Kagebeshnik (officer of the Russian KGB), always a Kagebeshnik. And, when trying to analyze the words of Vladimir Putin, it is wise to remember that that is what, at heart, he was, still is, and always will be: a man trained to say and do whatever is necessary to achieve a goal.

So, when he says he will be ready to resume negotiations concerning the war in Ukraine when U.S. special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are finished with Iran and once more available to him, do we take him at his word?

And when he says that:

“Russia, however, as has been stated repeatedly, is ready for peace negotiations with Ukraine. It is ready to proceed on the basis of the agreements reached back in Istanbul, agreements which, I would remind you, were initiated at the time by the Ukrainian delegation.” [Arpan Rai and Alex Croft, independent.co.uk, June 25, 2026] . . .

. . . should we conclude that he is finally willing to admit that he is rapidly losing his “special military operation” — not to mention his own credibility — and is ready to make concessions in order to bring the war to a close?

That is what some people would like to believe. But I’m not getting my hopes up just yet.

To begin with, each time he has said he was ready to negotiate, his stance has remained unchanged: he has simply reiterated his demands that Ukraine cede some 20 percent of its territory to him, including Crimea; that they immediately hold new elections, despite the fact that their Constitution precludes it during wartime; that they forego their hoped-for accession to the European Union; and so on.

Furthermore, his reference to “agreements reached back in Istanbul” is meaningless, since those discussions ended in a stalemate. If an agreement had indeed been reached, the war would have ended months ago.

I could, of course, be wrong. But my gut tells me that Putin is once more stalling until he can get back to the table with the two witless envoys of the easily-manipulated Donald Trump. You see, it turns out that the closely-aligned leaders of the EU nations have been smarter and tougher to deal with than he had anticipated . . . and tougher than Trump, Witkoff and Kushner ever were.

It’s true that Russia is suffering, militarily and economically, from Ukraine’s spectacularly successful attacks on their oil and gas industries, supply lines, and other strategic targets. And Putin is feeling the heat — from Ukraine, from the EU, and internally from his own people.

But is he willing at last to make the concessions that would bring an end to the carnage? Or is this a last-ditch effort to talk Trump into resuming the role of lead negotiator in the hope that they will both be able to claim a victory and salvage some measure of dignity (and their jobs)?

Then maybe he and Trump could begin campaigning together to share next year’s Nobel Peace Prize.

We’ll see how this plays out. But first there’s that little matter of Iran to take care of.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
6/25/26