Crooke And Mercouris Offer Perspective On The Ceasefire

Is there more going on between Trump and Putin than we know? That was Gilbert Doctorow’s supposition, which we discussed the other day. Trump made a statement during an interview with Sharyl Atkisson. I had thought that the very firm rejection of the ceasefire by the Russians was pretty much final, but Trump doesn’t see it that way:

More on Russia-Ukraine ceasefire to be announced on Monday: Trump

US President Donald Trump believes more information will be revealed about a possible ceasefire in Ukraine next Monday, 17 March. European Pravda reports citing Trump in interview with journalist Sharyl Attkisson, published on 14 March.

When asked about the current situation regarding ending Russia's war against Ukraine, Trump said that, in his opinion, "it is going well."

"As you know, we have a ceasefire agreement with the Ukrainian group, and we're trying to get that [reach the same agreement] with Russia too. I think thus far itʼs gone okay. We'll know a little bit more on Monday, and it will be hopefully good," Trump said.

The US President declined to answer a question concerning steps in reaction to Russia's ceasefire violation, but repeated his belief in Vladimir Putin's consent.

Obviously, Putin’s rejection came on Friday, the 14th, but on that same day Trump was saying he hoped to hear more on Monday, the 17th. That certainly sounds like more than we can know is going on.

So, with that in mind, I offer this summary of a dialog between Alastair Crooke and Alexander Mercouris (on Glenn Diesen’s show). This is a summary, not a transcript:

AC: Before the Americans and Ukrainians met in Jeddah, Starmer sent an old line Deep Stater (Jonathan Powell) to Kiev to persuade Zelensky to go along with the Euro scheme--an "air and sea" ceasefire with security guarantees. This was a clear attempt to derail Trump’s initiative. However, the Americans were prepared and had warned Yermak (who led the Ukraine delegation) that:

• "air and sea" was off the table;

• Euro "peacekeepers" were a no;

• also, no security guarantees for Ukraine, which Zelensky had been pushing for.

The American position was: Only a "clean" ceasefire. This is why Zelensky had been removed from the talks. The Americans took control and brushed the Euros aside.

OTOH, Trump had to understand that a "clean" ceasefire was unacceptable to Russia--Putin and Lavrov had made that clear "umpteen" times in the past year at least. So why did Trump go ahead with this? This isn't obvious, but one thing that Rubio said could be a clue: 'In a ceasefire we can have elections.' Is this the key to a possible ceasefire leading to a peace settlement--getting rid of the current extremist Kiev regime, which was put in place by the US/UK "meta Deep State?" Trump needs to root out the Deep State that controls the Kiev regime, and elections could help achieve that. This relates also to the issue of who gave American targeting info to Ukraine after Trump had shut it down--if the Deep State was fully under control that shouldn't have happened.

Surely Putin told Witkoff that Russia can't do business with Zelensky and that it needs partners in Ukraine that it can deal with. Only elections will get there. Getting rid of Zelensky and the Ukro-Nazi government in Kiev is the one area on which we can be sure Trump and Putin agree.

The renewed sanctions can be disregarded--that's just to appease the Neocons like Lindsey!, but the Russians aren't taking it seriously.

AM: The Americans are setting up their own negotiating team. The dynamics of that will almost certainly lead to the US and Russia deciding Ukraine's fate between themselves. Is it possible that there are a lot of informal contacts already going on? Informal, because Trump still can't trust the agencies. In the meantime, perhaps the purpose of the "clean" ceasefire was to do a clean sweep of all the other proposals that were bound to be unacceptable--on both the US and Russian sides. To brush away all the "European nonsense."

AC: It's not clear that much in the way of contacts are ongoing. If that were the case, then why would Lavrov spend 2 hours talking to Judge Nap? In these types of negotiation you need to have a "feel" for your partners. Crooke was told by Russians, while in Moscow just three weeks ago: 'Of course we read everything we can, but we don't have a feel for our opposite numbers.'

If there's a regime change in Kiev, then discussions could move forward. The message from Moscow is that the Russians see Trump's initiative positively but are going to be very, very careful. After all, contrary to Anglo-Zionist propaganda, Putin has a domestic constituency--just as much as Trump does--that he has to keep on board with anything he does. Rushing into a deal with the US after all the past betrayals is simply not possible.

AM: Trump's imperative to end the war is so strong that that will be the ultimate driver. What explains this strong imperative?

AC: Ukraine isn't Trump's real focus. Putting the conflict there behind him is a step for Trump toward the Great Reset--in many areas of the world, on many issues--that Trump is planning. There are many economic and monetary issues that are very important to the US, and Ukraine just gets in the way of settling these. Ukraine is, for America, simply an "obstacle" to the Big Picture reset that America wants and needs.

Trump’s need—his “imperative”—to get the war on Russia settled has always been clear to me. How he’s been going about it has been frustrating, and certainly part of that has been his deliberate obfuscation of what’s going on. We’ll have to see. Maybe come Monday.