Russian sources confirm that Witkoff’s and Kushner’s value in negotiations on the Ukraine war has dwindled. “They have been telling us Trump’s aim is to project American power to keep peace in Europe. We’ve been telling them we keep peace on our terms. Now, finally, they’ve got the message. They agree – Russia has won in Ukraine. Also, they have been bought out,” one source says in Moscow, referring to the dealmaking for US companies and bribery for the Trump family which have been presented by Kirill Dmitriev, the Kremlin’s negotiator for economic cooperation.
In their place at the Abu Dhabi negotiations with the Russian military delegation on February 4-5, and then in Muscat with the Iranians on February 6, Witkoff and Kushner have been subordinated by US commanders and military intelligence officers.
Projecting their personal aggression into flashpoints at home and abroad has been the Witkoff-Kushner strategy for escalation control, for exercising dominance everywhere at once. But it’s not a tactic which they can easily adjust or sequence — one trade war, one military front at a time — when they run into more resistance than they have anticipated; their costs go out of control; their domestic constituencies lose confidence in them.
For the time being, Miller’s miscalculation in militarizing US cities, especially the murders in Minneapolis, and in directing the President’s racist tweets, have stopped his ambition to succeed Rubio as National Security Adviser and forced him into invisibility. Last year Miller had been one of the lead officials pushing the anti-India line and triggering Trump’s reversal of his personal goodwill towards Modi.
Bessent’s and Rubio’s combination of the anti-Russia, anti-China, anti-India lines has also been tempered by the resistance their tactics have faced, not only from Russia, Iran, China, and India, but also from the leading Arab states, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Dances With Bears » WHY THE WITKOFF-KUSHNER ATTACK STRATEGY IS BEING REPLACED BY US COMMANDERS WHO SAY BATTLEFIELD DEFEAT REQUIRES TACTICAL WITHDRAWAL
Rather than tactical withdrawal, buying time knowing that Russia is unlikely to commit forces to take Western Ukraine. They've gloated in the past over Ukrainians dying instead of Americans. Why would they stop other than to freeze battle lines to fight another day? And if that option is not available, there is further hollowing out of civilians from Western Ukraine as more become refugees. |
