Trump’s frustration may soon cost Russia, diplomat warns

This perspective was shared on Espreso TV by Dmitry Dovhopolyi, a former U.N. official (1987–2019).

“Diplomacy is all about signals. The location of negotiations sends a message. The Armistice of Compiegne on November 11, 1918, was signed in the same railway carriage from which Germany declared war on France. So negotiation venues always carry a special significance. What Lavrov is doing now is what we call a ‘throwaway position.’ Soviet diplomacy always started with completely absurd demands and then, step by step, moved back to normalcy, presenting the minimal acceptable position as a major concession. That’s Lavrov’s school of diplomacy, and they haven’t abandoned that approach,” Dovhopolyi explained.

He stressed that Russia’s memorandum for a peaceful resolution of the war with Ukraine won’t differ much from the demands Moscow made in Istanbul in 2022.

“As for the Russian memorandum on peace negotiations, unfortunately, the path to it was opened by Donald Trump, who told Putin during talks that he needed to get at least something he could live with — that was his only wish. Before that, the U.S. had submitted its own memorandum, agreed upon with Ukraine and Europe, consisting of 22 points. Moscow rejected the American memorandum and is now preparing a repeat of the likely Istanbul agreements. The Russians are playing for time, but they cannot ignore that Trump is already quite angry. At some point, this could lead to a race between negotiations and sanctions. That race has already started with Europe, where work on an 18th sanction package against Russia is underway,” he added.

• Trump and Putin use each other to their advantage and gain the "victories" they need through this cooperation.