“Putin has only one card — joker named Trump”, says Russian opposition figure

Russian opposition politician and former State Duma member Igor Yakovenko shared this view during an interview on Espreso TV.

“What we’re seeing now looks like a strange kind of world war — spread out, localized, and likely very long,” Yakovenko said. 

“The main problem in this Third World War is that the leading power of the free world has basically gone on ‘sick leave.’ That happened because 77 million Americans put a very specific person — Donald Trump — in charge of the world’s most powerful country. Trump shows no signs of competence to run any country, especially the U.S. He knows nothing, understands nothing, doesn’t want to learn, and refuses to make decisions on key issues.”

According to him, when asked whether he was aware of the more severe strike on Kyiv and Ukraine, Trump responded, “What’s going on there? Something hit something? I don’t know yet, I haven’t looked into it, I’m not aware of it.” 

In other words, this is someone who currently appears to side with dictatorial, terrorist regimes such as Russia and Iran.

“Surely you noticed that throughout last week, before Israel struck Iran, and despite direct warnings from IAEA experts that Iran was preparing to begin developing nuclear weapons, Trump said, ‘Don’t strike, you’ll ruin everything. We have an agreement in the works here.’ This happened literally on the eve of Israel’s strike on Iran. A similar incident occurred recently when Trump walked out of the G7 summit, essentially reducing it to a powerless ‘G6.’ He not only refused to meet with Zelenskyy, but also declined to participate in developing a joint decision on sanctions against Russia,” the Russian opposition figure noted.

In his view, Trump is protecting both Putin and Ali Khamenei — vetoing the elimination of Iran’s supreme leader and shielding Putin, as well as Iran’s terrorist leadership. Naturally, the Kremlin is taking full advantage of this.

“In a normal situation, Putin wouldn’t stand a chance if Trump were replaced by a rational leader. Putin is known for never helping anyone—not even his own allies. He did nothing to assist Armenia when it was losing the war against Azerbaijan. He failed to support the Assad regime despite their alliance. And in the same way, he will do nothing to help Iran. 

The only thing Putin can do is add another dictator to his collection, which he keeps in a dry, dark place. Among them are Yanukovych and Assad, and it’s entirely possible that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will join them. That’s the extent of Putin’s so-called support. To borrow Trump’s favorite phrase, Putin has ‘no cards’ to play — except one. A single, but powerful trump card. I would call it ‘The Joker named Donald Trump,’” Yakovenko concluded.

• On the 17th, Reuters reported that the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump had disbanded an interagency working group created to develop strategies to pressure Russia to accelerate peace talks with Ukraine.