pcr isn't convinced that the orange man can be trusted;

The Peace Process Is a Ruse

Paul Craig Roberts 

I appreciate John Helmer’s truth-telling in his program with Nima, Tuesday, August 19 ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__g35vguwzw )

Also, I am pleased that Helmer’s detailed analysis supports my general conclusions on Nima’s podcast the previous day. ( https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2025/08/19/nima-and-i-discuss-the-nonsense-that-is-emerging-from-the-so-called-trump-putin-zelensky-european-ukrainian-peace-process/ )  We are both equally contemptuous of the scam underway.  Helmer’s very direct language was appropriate. I thank him for it.

Like John Helmer, I am waiting to see if Putin’s need for time to prepare for wider war causes him to accept Ukraine’s remilitarization as a “peace agreement” and  whether Putin succumbs to a land swap instead of completing the conquest of the areas that are already reincorporated into Russia. Putin said some years ago that “Russia will never again fight a war on its own territory,” but Putin has been doing so for 3.5 years. The question before us is whether Putin is capable of maintaining Russian sovereignty, or is sovereignty an insufficient goal for the Westernized Russian business/intellectual class.

Witkoff reported that Putin had agreed to a land swap and NATO’s protection of Ukraine, which amount to Putin’s surrender.  That is why I said Witkoff said that Putin had surrendered to Trump.  In effect, it would be a surrender of Putin’s long held position............more..........