Restless two weeks leaves Russia confidently

It’s 2:30 am.

Inside the walls of the Kremlin, I wander alone through a huge soil, trying – and without entering – finding my way out.

I notice the checkpoint, I approach and show my passport.

“Nyet vykhoda!” (“Without exit!”) The guard replies. It shows backwards.

I go back and, after all, come to another checkpoint.

“No exit!” Says the guard.

I got lost. Inside the Kremlin. On the dead night.

This is how to be in John Le Kare’s novel.

It was pretty evening. I arrived at 17:00. Together with a small group of journalists, I was invited to a “event with President Putin”. What’s the event? To begin with, the Kremlin will not say. In the end, we were told that Vladimir Putin would accept questions.

Eight hours later, the president entered the Hall of the Malakhitsky Palace of the Great Kremlin and sat at the table.

But there was a change of plan. No press conference. No questions. Instead, while living on Russian television, Putin made a statement suggested by direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul.

The event I leave the Kremlin Palace, but I’m wrong. Finally, I find the right way out and, with my eyes, took a taxi home.

It was the beginning of what turned out to be a real American slide for two weeks. What started with the late Night Kremlin continued with peace talks in Turkey, and then a two -hour phone between Putin and Donald Trump.

But, at the end, are we closer to peace in Ukraine?

It doesn’t look like.

Although there are talk about more talks and the possible future of the Memorandum about the “possible peace”, all this sounds quite vague.

As long as the fighting continues.

Russia still refuses to sign up for an unconditional comprehensive ceasefire. He does not intend to return any of the Ukrainian land she confiscated, occupied and claims he joined. On the contrary: it pushes to the greater.

Now the peace process of Ukraine reminds that it is lost in Kremlin late in the evening.

It’s hard to see the exit.

And yet the last two weeks have shown a lot.

First, how Russia neutralizes potential threats and pressure points.

The Kremlin critics would put this another way: how Russia plays in time.

On May 10 (a few hours before I was lost in the Kremlin), after the phone with Donald Trump, European leaders made an ultimatum to President Putin: agree to an unconditional long -term ceasefire in Ukraine in two days or encountered new sanctions.

Since March, the Trump administration calls on Russia and Ukraine to accept a 30-day complex ceasefire. Kyiv agreed. Moscow is not.

The Kremlin leader went towards the European ultimatum his counter -negotiation in Turkey. The idea was met with skepticism in Ukraine and all over Europe. But this was enough to put Trump and convince him that Russia was seriously treated for peace. He was all for negotiations. The new sanctions were “crushed” stuck.

On the eve of the Istanbul meeting on May 16, President Trump impressed that Vladimir Putin could attend. The Kremlin leader did not send a relatively low level instead, which once again rejected the idea of ​​a long -term ceasefire. But, again, the modest results of the talks were enough to convince the US president that the progress has reached.

Then there was a telephone call of Trump-Pyutin on May 19.

In the end, Russia still disagreed with the immediate comprehensive ceasefire. Instead, according to President Trump, “Russia and Ukraine will immediately start the ceasefire and, more importantly, stopped the war.”

But Moscow is already in doubt whether any future peace treaty with the President of Ukraine Loladimir Zelensky will sign it. For a year now, Russian authorities have been trying to delegitize the President of Ukraine after the expiration of his presidential term. However, the Constitution of Ukraine prohibits the holding of wartime elections.

And the cause of martial law in Ukraine is Russia’s invasion.

“Will Russia sit down and sign a peace agreement with President Zelensky?” On Friday, I asked Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

“You put the basket in front of the horse,” Mr. Lavrov replied. “At first we need to make a deal. If we agree, we will make a decision. But, as President Putin said many times, the Zelensky president has no legitimacy … Probably the best option will be …”

Russian media came to the conclusion that after two weeks of diplomacy, Moscow strengthened the hand.

“Russia won the last round of global poker,” Izvestiya announced last week.

“Donald Trump’s position cannot be more profitable for Moscow,” the commerce wrote. “In fact, he supported Russia’s position” negotiations first, stop fire “and refused to strengthen sanctions against Russia.”

The Socialist said to the merchanant: “Donald Trump, at least while our ideological partner on certain issues. His views are much closer to Russia than to Europe.”

And the far -right Comsomolski truth had this message for European leaders:

“You were warned. Do not wave threats and ultimatums before the bear. Do not try to impose conditions in the negotiations that have nothing to do with you.

“Just sit in the lobby and breathe in the smell of a new world order.”

Moscow’s confidence is also caused by the belief that in Ukraine it is holding an initiative on the battlefield.

Back in 2023, Donald Trump promised that when he wins the presidency, “we will have a terrible war between Russia and Ukraine that has settled … I will get them both. I know Zelensky, I know Putin. It will be done within 24 hours, you look.”

Trump has been in the oval office for more than four months, but the “horrible war” is ongoing.

In rare cases, he publicly reproached the Kremlin and threatened further sanctions. Last month, he said: “… there was no reason for Putin to take rockets to civil areas, cities and towns, over the last few days. It makes me think that he may not want to stop the war, he just presses me, and you need to fight the” bank “or” secondary sanctions? “

But it wasn’t the following. The US president appears to be reluctant to increase the pressure on the Kremlin, instead signaling Moscow that it seeks to reboot US-Russia relations.

After a telephone conversation of the presidents, Putin’s foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov, who was on the call, told reporters: “Trump said quite emotionally about the prospects for (bilateral) relations. Trump sees Russia one of the most important partners in America in trade and economic meters.”

President Trump seems to be determined to continue his rapprochement with Russia, everything that is happening in Ukraine.

And Moscow feels it.

“President Trump does not link the” continuation “in the US-Russia dialogue with the peace process of Ukraine”,-was a title in the Russian government newspaper Rasishka this week.

This does not mean that the Kremlin has completely abandoned the danger of additional restrictions. The US Senate threatened new harsh sanctions against Russia if Moscow is not serious about diplomacy.

So far, the Kremlin has been able to dismiss or go to any pressure to make compromises and concessions regarding its war with Ukraine.

It seems confident that it will continue to do it.