Grigory Mesezhnikov: Putin Acknowledged Russia's Weakness

The Kremlin has failed to break Ukraine and is now counting on the U.S. and China.

Vladimir Putin proposed holding a meeting in China with Donald Trump and Xi Jinping without Ukraine’s participation. Could the three leaders orchestrate a “new Yalta” and impose peace terms on Kyiv without the consent of Ukraine and Europe?

In an interview with the website Charter97.org, Slovak political scientist and president of the Institute for Public Affairs (IVO, Bratislava) Grigory Mesezhnikov:

— To be honest, I even doubt that Trump would go along with that. He would face severe criticism. His stance on China is well known: he is sharply opposed to it, despite his outward flirtations with Xi Jinping. An attempt to resolve the issue of ending Russia’s war against Ukraine in this manner would be a surprising development.

For Putin himself, this would essentially be an admission of his own weakness and that of the state he leads. After all, in its foreign policy, Russia usually “forces someone to make peace.” They forced Georgia to make peace; now they want to force Ukraine to do so, but they are failing. If Putin is proposing this kind of pressure on Ukraine, it means he can no longer do without the United States and China.

Naturally, Europe cannot under any circumstances join such agreements. And deciding Ukraine’s fate without its participation would be an absolute scandal. Ukraine has an army that is perhaps the strongest in Europe right now. So what—is it going to surrender under this pressure? I think that simply cannot happen.

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