Istanbul talks are one-man show, says Russian opposition politician

Russian opposition politician, former State Duma deputy, journalist and sociologist Igor Yakovenko expressed this opinion on Espreso TV.

"As for the Istanbul negotiation process between Russia and Ukraine, it is a process that has the character of a performance commissioned by one single audience. Let's see, does Ukraine need this pseudo-negotiation process? Of course not. Ukraine's defense minister sitting opposite a clown named Medinsky — I think it's hard to imagine a greater humiliation. To look into Medinsky's empty, lying eyes for an hour, even 40 minutes, and pretend that you can negotiate with him is completely absurd. 

Accordingly, Ukraine does not need this at all, especially given the nature of the negotiators. And in general, what can you talk about with war criminals, they need to be destroyed or tried. Therefore, Ukraine definitely does not need this," the Russian oppositionist commented.

In his opinion, Russia does not really need this negotiation process either. The only one who needs it is Trump.

"Because Trump is the kind of person who really doesn't understand anything, except maybe golf. And he got it into his head that he could be a peacemaker and stop this war. First, in 24 hours, then he gave himself some other deadlines, and now he has invented this negotiation process. 

Trump, by the will of fate, or rather the will of 77 million American citizens, is the leader of the most powerful country on the planet, and neither Ukraine nor Russia really wants to object to him, because it is unprofitable and not very interesting, given the consequences. That is why they are organizing this circus," Yakovenko summarized.

• On May 16, a trilateral meeting was held in Istanbul between the delegations of Ukraine, the U.S., and Turkey. After that, talks took place between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations. According to Ukraine’s Defense Minister, they discussed the idea of a 1,000-for-1,000 POW exchange.
• On Monday, June 2, the second round of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia took place in Istanbul, Turkey.
• On June 19, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov announced that the date of the next round of negotiations with Ukraine will be agreed upon next week.