I did predict that the Witkoff-Kushner Dog & Pony Show in Moscow and Kyiv would amount to bupkus . . . but then, who didn’t?

Well, here they are, warmly greeting Vladimir Putin in Moscow as though he were Santa Claus:

And here they are again, arriving for lunch with some of their Russian buddies at an upscale Moscow restaurant displaying a wartime propaganda sign above the door that reads, “Все для победы!” — “Everything for Victory!”:

A day or two later, we see them in Kyiv with a very businesslike President Zelensky — our ally, our friend, and the brave man whose country has been devastated by four and a half years of bombardment by the tyrant whose demands the envoys were now delivering from Moscow:

Word has it that the terms they relayed to Zelensky were not just more of the usual from Putin, but had actually been expanded. In addition to his firm stance on retaining Ukrainian territory, barring Ukraine’s admission to NATO, and limiting its post-war security assurances, Putin has thrown in an additional requirement: that Ukraine amend its constitution to give special status to the Donbas region, which would then become Russian territory — along with some six million Ukrainians who would then become citizens of Russia.

Under Russia’s proposed terms, Ukraine would be required to declare neutrality, permanently abandon its bid for NATO membership and participation in other military alliances, ban foreign military forces from its territory, reaffirm its renunciation of nuclear weapons, reduce its armed forces by about 80 percent, waive all claims for war damages against Russia, and remove all sanctions and tariffs on Russian goods and services. [Kyiv Post, September 8, 2026.]

In other words, Vladimir Putin would win. He would be able to declare his “special military operation” a total victory, reinforce his image as the savior of Mother Russia, and keep his job for at least the next ten years.

A member of Ukraine’s Parliament, Anna Skorokhod, had this to say:

“It was not only not a diplomatic breakthrough, they [Witkoff and Kushner] arrived with even worse conditions than we had before. We see that on both sides there is no desire to communicate directly rather than through envoys, or to sit down at the negotiating table together.

“All these attempts [to restart the peace process], as we can see, aren’t successful. And the result has been that the Russian Federation now is setting forth even worse conditions . . . unfortunately, we have another complete failure in negotiations.” [Id.]

But why would anyone have expected a different result, when Trump continues to send a pair of real estate grifters to “negotiate” the settlement of a complex military and diplomatic issue with one of the world’s most vicious, deceptive, politically shrewd manipulators?

So what was the result of their Labor Day weekend efforts? Well, they got at least one nice lunch at a ritzy Moscow establishment. And, unless I miss my guess, they probably managed to do a little commercial business on the side. They are, after all, just a couple of businessmen, always on the lookout for the next deal.

And we wouldn’t want all that time and expense to have been a total waste . . . would we?

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
9/9/26