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.]

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.]

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.

And we’re still not hearing any of that.

But let’s see what Tuesday brings.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
9/8/26