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To: Les H who wrote (49027)	11/21/2025 8:46:38 AM
From: Les H	Respond to of 50729

Yet Another Dead-on-Arrival Ukraine Peace Scheme: Leaked 28 Point Plan Predictably Unable to Reconcile Irreconcilable Positions \| naked capitalism Before we get to issues of substance, as in highlighting why many of the points in this plan are unacceptable, let’s consider oft-neglected process issues. Despite the press treating these provisions as hashed out by the US and Russia, neither negotiator is operating in an official capacity. Steve Witkoff is not a member of any US official body but is a special advisor to Donald Trump. Dimitriev is operating in an analogous capacity for Vladimir Putin. Both should be viewed as agents who cannot bind their principals but can float ideas. It is not clear how much official backing any of these ideas had. The Russians are well aware of Witkoff’s inability to make firm commitments. When Witkoff met with Putin in early August, Witkoff presented a proposal that had enough promise for Putin to agree to meet Trump in Alaska. As has since been recounted, Putin felt it necessary to review all the terms with Trump in person and get his confirmation that Trump was on board with them. Similarly, Larry Johnson just interviewed the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Maria Zharakova. She said the ministry had not received a formal document. So as far as the Russian government is concerned, this is still a trial balloon, although presumably they will be in receipt soon. Aside from the Russian disposition to adhere to formalities, another reason for its skepticism is that the US cannot commit key members of the coalition, Ukraine, the UK, and European states, and they have not been on board with the process of settling the war, save unless “settlement” is tantamount to Russian capitulation. That happened dramatically with the flip-flop after the Alaska summit, where Lavrov later reported that Trump said he would get Zelensky to agree to the outline then. Instead, after meeting with Zelensky, Trump repudiated the preliminary deal and reverted to the older Ukraine “ceasefire first, deal if ever later” formula that Trump had dropped in Alaska. We see again and again Trump pretending he can be a broker, when the US is a principal. The tacit assumption has been that the US can browbeat Ukraine, the UK and Europe into compliance when that had not happened. And it is vastly less likely to happen than ever due to the US refusing to fund the war and cutting back on NATO support. He who has the gold sets the rules, but gold-lover Trump has forgotten that. Europe has accepted the premise that it will have to fund Ukraine even though it has no idea as to how to do so ex stealing Russia’s frozen assets. To give one example of that wee problem, see this item from the list: 13. Russia will be reintegrated into the global economy: a. The lifting of sanctions will be discussed and agreed upon in stages on a case-by-case basis; b. The United States will enter into a long-term economic cooperation agreement in the areas of energy, natural resources, infrastructure, artificial intelligence, data centers, rare earth metal extraction projects in the Arctic, and other mutually beneficial corporate opportunities; c. Russia will be invited to rejoin the G8. Notice the lack of agency for item (a)? The sanctions are not just US sanctions. The EU is up to its 19th package. And the EU has worked itself into such a fervor over Russia as an imminent threat that there is no way they will unwind them. Point 14 has $100 billion of the frozen Russian assets going to US-led reconstruction fund…where the US gets 50% of the profits! And I want a pony. There’s a lot of speculation as to why this scheme now, when that line of speculation does not seem productive, given how erratic Trump is. But since Trump knows nothing beyond what Fox News and key insiders tell him, the idea that he was trying to take advantage of a small beer corruption scandal, relative to all the hands-over-fists looting of foreign contributions, seems improbable. That is confirmed by the very deep and detailed reading of the political tea leaves by the site Events in Ukraine, which sees the scandal uproar as the doings of opposition figures taking advantage of rising upset in the Rada over the prospect of a Ukraine loss, plus simmering resentment over the earlier Zelensky attempt to quash the investigation bodies. Alexander Mercouris reports he has confirmation of that general story line from a Hungarian contact, who points out that the anti-corruption agencies are funded by the EU, so there’s no US nexus. The UK and EU do not want Ukraine to settle the war. A rare official editorial weighs at the Financial Ties in against the idea of a unity government (and any move to replace Zelensky now) as too destabilizing, so they press for a house-cleaning instead. A “national government of unity” is what the Rada rebels led by former Prime Minister Petro Poroshenko were seeking, so the Financial Times editorial suggests they lack the external support they would need. It seems just as likely that Trump felt the need to again look like the driver of events after his Epstein climbdown and now pushback on Venezuela, including a commercial urging members of the military to refuse unlawful orders. Mind you, the latter went live after the Witkoff-Dimitriev talks had gotten going, but that along with continuing deteriorating polls shows that Trump is facing more and more opposition. One of the last things he wants is to be depicted as having lost Ukraine. Trump is deluded enough to think he can somehow get a deal despite the vast evidence that the only one that could happen is some form of Ukraine capitulation. Yet Another Dead-on-Arrival Ukraine Peace Scheme: Leaked 28 Point Plan Predictably Unable to Reconcile Irreconcilable Positions \| naked capitalism Similar take. 🧵 The Dmitriev Decoy I have previously expressed my thoughts on Kirill Dmitriev's role in these ongoing "negotiations" between Russia and the US. I will repost two of them here: 1/https://t.co/kUpk6mwpdh — Will Schryver (@imetatronink) November 21, 2025