Putin Says Russia Ready for New Peace Talks With US, Ukraine

Putin is really trying to take this war, certainly beyond just Ukraine. There's been hybrid conflict across Europe. There's been incursions into NATO territory. We're already there with Putin trying to make this war more about Europe than it is about Ukraine, which is obviously a significant challenge as we enter the nearly the fifth year of this conflict. So, Dan, is there any sense that Mr. Putin, President Putin, wants to move forward with any type of meaningful truce talks here, um, with the U.S., maybe even with Ukraine? You mean you mean the great humanitarian Vladimir Putin? That's right, I think. I think there are some questions about his, uh, real earnest interest in entering into any sort of peace deal. There's been no evidence that Russia is interested in winding this conflict down, despite what President Trump has said. We've seen an increase in escalation and increase in violence in Ukraine in recent weeks. And, you know, all that's come in the form of pressure has been the release valves being hit in the form of an oil deal or an energy deal being struck between the US and Russia, which really is about half a day's worth of diesel in the U.S., and waiving the sanctions and other restrictions that would come in under the Graham Act late Friday night. So I think President Putin feels like he's getting kind of a flag to continue, um, rather than the pressure he likely needs to be seeing. Dan, do we have any sense that President Putin is facing any internal pressure from his people, from the Russian people, to end this? I mean, that's that that's the problem is obviously the reporting in Russia is state controlled. There's really not a lot of independent journalism getting out there. But the longer this goes on, the more deaths that are being seen at home, it does become unavoidable. And the domestic economic challenges, where it is challenging to really take the word of the central Bank of Russia's reporting. Um, but there is no real domestic challenger. We saw what happened when people have tried to rise up against Putin. It doesn't end well for them. So there's really no indication of how much domestic strife and where that could lead in the form of, and trying to stop this from within. Dan, I want you to help us with, like, the manpower. You're expert at this. I see a real estate guy, Mr. Wyckoff, working long hours, no doubt trying to do what the president wants to do. And I compare that to Tillerson and Pompeo in the first Trump administration, who had the advantage of John J. Sullivan, deputy secretary of state. I mean, the manpower comparison of this administration in the first Trump administration is stark, isn't it? There's a lot of people that were around historically Democrat and Republican administration, people that served in Trump, one that understood the region. There's not a lot of returning cast members, so to speak. So this is kind of a newer team, a different team than we saw that was dealing with Russia in the first Trump term. I think that is that manpower is a real question in terms of who understands this region. Um, well enough to advise them. And, you know, Vladimir Putin has been in power for a very long time. Um, there's a lot of people who understand Russia. Um, how integrated are they on this team that I can't say we got to go to the midterms or him. But just one final question is what's the relationship of Mr. Putin to the people? I mean, I'm being facetious, folks, to the electorate of Russia. I mean, they have elections, but I mean, I don't think there's any real evidence that those have true outcomes. And I think they just had an election recently where people don't really bother on reporting. I mean, let's be clear, Vladimir Putin is a dictator who's bragging about the war on an innocent neighbor and sovereign. Um, you know, I'm not sure that this is really a true democracy anymore, nor has it been for quite some time, which is really why there needs to still be so much pressure from the West. What I still don't understand is any talk of preemptive deals between the U.S. and Russia. There's really little private sector appetite because of all the things we're talking about to re-engage in Russia, those who remained have seen their assets nationalized. So I'm not sure I understand this attempt to try and reintegrate. You'll see potentially Putin in Miami at the G20 in December. I'm not sure who this is for exactly.