Steve Witkoff, the real estate developer whose President Trump created his full power in a foreign conflict, is stupid, false or naive, or perhaps all of the above. In any case, he has no business of negotiating anything complicated and complicated, like the putative peace between imperialist Russia and its victim, Ukraine.
In him Recent interviews Along with Tucker Carlson, Witkoff made a series of surprisingly ridiculous claims. I only argue three. This means that President Vladimir Putin, who was elected non-gimitively by Russia, is not a “bad guy.” Putin prayed for Trump after a failed assassination attempt in Pennsylvania last July. And they “recovered” the territory currently occupied by Russia.
Let's start with the third claim. One “recovers” what you once owned and “claims” what you want to own. The Russian Federation did not own these territory. His predecessor wasn't like that either. Soviet Socialist Republic of Russia. The Russian Empire owned them, but that was after they took them from the Polish-Lithuanian Federation, the Crimean Tatars and the Ukrainian Cossacks.
Witkoff doesn't understand what that stupid little prefix “Re” means, or justifies Putin's expansion to all the territory that the Russian Empire once held. We leave our indifferent towards his grammar, as Witkov is “100% sure that Russia “doesn't want to absorb Ukraine.”
This means that heaven forbids that such special envoys should have their hands in order to create diplomatically precursors that could affect the lives of millions of people.
Further evidence that Witkoff is unable to see important details is his confusion as to which areas have been published by several people. At one point, he talks about “five regions.” In another, he says, “There are four regions, the Donbas, the Crimea… and two others.” No, Mr. Witkov, perhaps you meant the provinces of Donetsk, Luhansk, Herson and Zaporidia, in addition to Crimea. Such basic ignorance is breathtaking. And Witkov should immediately reject himself if he is serious about peace.
And there's a bit about Putin going to his local church to pray for “his friend” Trump. Witkov appears to believe that a godless ex-communist who worked for the Crime KGB, a bloody organisation that is almost undoubtedly the SS of Nazi Germany, truly believes in God and will pray on Trump's behalf. Witkov displays naiveness, ignorance, or both.
Because Putin is not only affiliated with the Soviet secret police, but his attitude towards religion is one of the complete empirical ones. The Russian Orthodox Church is fully supportive of his war of genocide against the Ukrainians, making perfect sense for dictators who need all forms of legitimacy to seek an alliance with Patriarch Cyrill. Former KGB Agent.
Even Witkov wants to have to doubt Putin's religion as deep as Trump's religion. He claims that God will be anointed He could not quote his favorite sentences from his favorite book, the Bible.
Witkov sinks even lower with his claim that Putin is not a “bad guy.” Such strange statements impose a complete moral disintegration. Perhaps even worse, it suggests that you cannot see and understand something completely obvious.
Forget Putin's KGB career and ignore his genocide war against Ukrainians and Ukrainians. We will focus solely on what he did to the Russians and the Russians. Putin has established a fascist dictatorship. He destroyed Russian civil society and the free media. He ordered the killing of many political enemies, ruined the Russian economy, and sacrificed 900,000 young Russians early death or incapacitated. He turned Russia into a state of dishonest. If he was running for president in the US on that record, even Trump would win on a landslide.
However, beware of Witkoff's indefinite use of the article “A”. Putin says he's not “the bad guy,” and he can imply that Putin is a nice guy, a normal guy, a decent guy. But he may be referring to American culture and saying that Putin is not the “bad guy.” That is, the villains and criminals you meet in police shows and movies.
This second interpretation effectively highlights what Trump has been saying all along. Witkov clearly agrees, which downplays him as a neutral broker in the negotiations of Russo-Ukraine. The Ukrainians know that they are not dealing with one Putin, they are dealing with two people.
Unfortunately, “American Putin” is not only indifferent to genocide and war, but also actually supports them by supporting Putin in Russia. Similarly, when intrusive, “American Putin” – Witkov and his boss appear to be indifferent to the details. At least the Ukrainians know what they are dealing with now.
Alexander J. Motil He is a professor of political science at Rutgers University Newark. An expert in Ukraine, Russia, the Soviet Union and nationalism, revolution, empire and theory, he is the author of ten non-fiction books, and isThe end of the empire: The Empire collapse, collapse, resurrection” andWhy is the Empire repeated again?: The collapse of the empire and the revival of the empire are from a comparative perspective. ”
