The Administration and Russia

This post emerged this morning. While we could examine this through the US Media, there is value in reviewing it from abroad.

This is a Russian commenter, by the way. He forgot what Bassett said about Japan. No, there were no negotiations after two nuclear bombs. It was more like, sign here, on the dotted line. Here, the tale from MAKS:

I'm curious about what kind of history education he got, but he should have traveled to the USS Missouri while in the administration. She is in Hawaii, and the spot where the surrender was signed has been preserved. But here is his post via a Russian channel:

Putin is a war criminal — Scott Bessant

Meanwhile, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant called Putin a war criminal during a hearing before the Congressional Finance Committee.

Bessent criticized the Biden administration’s “weak sanctions” on Russia, noting that they only targeted lower-tier oil companies and imposed a price cap that didn’t work.

I understand that drawing conclusions is more expensive, but lately there have been too many signals that the Trump administration is drifting towards a policy of pressure on Russia.

After signing the mineral deal with Ukraine, Bessent said that the deal would allow Trump to speak to Russia from a position of strength.

At least Bessant is consistent in his statements. So far. Time will tell whether Trump will be consistent. And there is very, very little of him.

This is essentially the first precedent for a member of Trump’s team to call Putin a criminal. But that doesn’t mean this administration will abandon diplomacy, even with a criminal like Putin.

🇺🇸 Sullivan’s Gambit

So, here is a big question. Are we starting to see the early signs of internal conflict within the administration emerge into the open? And let’s be honest, should we be even a little surprised?

In a chaos-filled administration, it comes down to which faction has the last word or which faction comes out in public first. No, this is not how you create healthy policy, any policy.

Then we have this from Vice-President JD Vance via the Moscow Times:

Vance: Russia ‘asking too much’ in Ukraine talks

US Vice President J.D. Vance, speaking at the Munich summit in Washington, said that the Donald Trump administration considers Russian demands in talks to end the war in Ukraine excessive. “I wouldn’t say the Russians aren’t interested in finding a solution. But at this point, they are asking for a certain set of concessions, and we think they are asking for too much,” The Hill quotes Vance as saying.

According to Vance, the White House positively assesses Ukraine’s readiness to agree to a 30-day ceasefire, but this initiative has not found support from the Russian side. As the vice president noted, because of this, the discussion of a temporary pause in the negotiations has lost its relevance. He emphasized that the Trump administration still expects progress in the peace process, but otherwise the United States may refuse to participate in mediation.

Are we seeing an awareness emerge in the administration that Vladimir Putin is playing with them? Of course, they could have asked actual experts. But the truth is, they despise expertise.

So now to Russia. There are a couple of things that caught my eye today. For starters, the Kadyrov saga may be coming to an end, with a whimper. However, he wants his son Adam to take over. Here:

Kadyrov on his resignation as head of the Chechen Republic:

“I’ll ask the president today. Whatever he says, so it will be. The elections are coming soon. I’ll ask. But why not? We’ve done everything, built everything. And if anything happens, if someone has problems , we’ll come back! But I’ll say it again: it’s not me who decides!”

There have been rumors of this, but it seems it’s now official. Ramzan Kadyrov wants out, and it is health-related. So here we are.

Now, to the parade. There is a clear sign of a lot of insecurity in Moscow. First, let’s look at a transport collapse:

Russian airports hit by transport collapse: airlines cancel flights en masse due to drone strikes

Several Russian airlines have cancelled dozens of flights due to ongoing attacks by Ukrainian drones ahead of the Victory Day parade in Moscow on May 9. In particular, Russia’s largest carrier Aeroflot cancelled 52 flights from Moscow on Wednesday and another 54 in the direction of the capital, the company’s online board shows. In total, over 140 flights to and from Moscow have been delayed. More than 280 are scheduled to depart on schedule. This concerns flights of Aeroflot itself (Sheremetyevo) and its subsidiary Rossiya (Vnukovo).

Aeroflot’s press service reported in the morning that “some flights” were redirected to alternate airports or delayed due to restrictions on Sheremetyevo operations introduced from 1:00 to 5:30. The carrier warned of “forced cancellations or mergers” of a number of flights with the option to rebook them to other ones or get a refund for tickets.

Pobeda notified passengers that due to restrictions imposed by Rosaviatsia, it had to cancel some flights on May 6 and 7. The company warned of possible delays to other flights and rerouting of airliners to alternate airfields.

S7 also reported the forced cancellation of flights amid air traffic restrictions in Central Russia due to attacks by Ukrainian Armed Forces drones. Some flights to Domodedovo have been cancelled, the company noted, and some planes have been redirected to alternate airfields.

According to Ural Airlines, passengers “due to the extraordinary situation” were given the opportunity to change the departure date or arrange a forced return. This concerns those clients who have encountered delays or cancellations of flights through the airports of the Moscow air hub.

Ukraine now has reach into all of the European Russian. Ergo, here we are. Drones have been flying into Russia, and now it is indisputable that the country is at war. That could explain the Levada Center polling reports. I would like to believe that people are tired of this and will start putting pressure on. However, this is a closed society. The hope that people exercising their rights in a closed society is very low.

But this collapse brings the war to every nation's citizens, either directly or indirectly. There is a chance that people trapped in airports know people who know people.

This may change local dynamics. And now this is about the internet:

Kremlin calls for ‘understanding’ over Moscow’s mobile internet shutdown

The authorities intend to restrict mobile Internet in Moscow until May 10 inclusive, and this must be “treated with understanding,” said the press secretary of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov.

“These are not failures, these are limitations — in the operation of the mobile Internet for obvious reasons. We all, as Muscovites, of course, want this glorious Victory Day to be celebrated at the proper level, so that all events take place as intended by the organizers,” Peskov said .

He recalled that leaders of other countries will arrive in Russia to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War and called for taking into account the “dangerous neighborhood that we have.”

In Moscow and the Moscow region, there have been disruptions in the work of mobile operators since May 5. On May 7, against the backdrop of a dress rehearsal for the parade on Red Square in the capital, payment systems, bank applications, taxi services and delivery services began to work intermittently.

Sberbank and VTB, the operator of the Fast Payment System (FPS), Lamoda and VkusVill warned customers about difficulties in work in the coming days, and Mosgortrans recommended that public transport passengers top up their Troika cards before the holidays.

So let’s see, closed restaurants, people keeping watch for drones, internet outages, and banking. It does not sound like a celebration, and it makes Moscow look pretty weak.

Of course, Putin will not tell us this. But it’s the impression that Moscow gives. It is far less of a celebration and far more of a sense of paranoia. So here we are. The 80th anniversary should be glorious. It is not.

Partly, it is the special military operation that has made the country that much weaker. But hey, let’s talk about nazism and reviving the memory of Joseph Stalin.