Russia is ready to fight forever. Ask the favorite pseudo -historical of the Russian president Vladimir Putinnotes Jamie Dettmer in an opinion article on Politico. Vladimir Mentinsky served as Minister of Culture from 2012 to 2020 and overseered the remodeling of a distorted curriculum for the history taught to Russian students.

He was also head of the Moscow delegation in talks on peace at Ukraine in Constantinople last week.

Mentinsky cited the Great Northern War of 1700-21 as a warning that Russia is ready to fight Ukraine for as long as it needed to win or force Kiev in tradition.

“The Great Northern War with Sweden lasted 21 years. But just a few years after its launch, Peter the Great offered to the Swedes … What did the Swedes answer? ‘No, we will fight until the last Swedish, ”Mentinsky said in his statements.

This conflict between Tsarist Russia and Sweden aimed to dominate the Baltic region and resulted in a Swedish defeat. Putin imagines himself as a reborn Peter Great- he even has a bronze statue of the 18th century tsar in the cabinet room.

And Putin probably believes that he is not only the prolonged battles that will secure him most of his war targets in Ukraine, but he also appreciates that he will be helped by the endless talks that wear out the wishes of the US President Donald Trump to work toward a peace agreement.

Their two -hour telephone conversation on Monday did not make any substantial progress to the Ukrainian.

Trump’s posts on social media have occasionally showed optimism that it would be able to mediate a deal – which would probably favor Russia – but there was a hint of changing attitude after the latest exchange of views with his Russian counterpart.

Instead of being outraged with stubborn Putin – something the Ukrainian president Volodimir Zelenski He hoped that it would happen – Trump seems ready to distance himself and even got back his persistent joke that he can solve the war.

While Trump last week accepted Putin’s decision not to appear in Turkey for the negotiations and admitted that there would be no end to the war until the two men “met” and solve it closely, on Monday he said that, in fact, a peacekeeping agreement could only come to terms with her.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said he could abandon the entire mediation project for a peace deal, complaining that “this is a European situation. And it should remain like that. But the previous government convinced us that we had to get involved. ” He also noted that if there is no progress “I will retreat” to an ominous threat.

Earlier, US Vice President Jay Di Vance gave a similar message, saying: “We will try to end it, but if we can’t end it, we’ll say: you know something? It was worth an effort, but we will not deal with anymore. “

This, without a doubt, would be satisfied with the Kremlin.

Putin and his assistants have “read” Trump. They have understood his motif to make great statements, but to lose interest when the discussions are pulling in duration, just as he did in his first term with the North Korean Emperor Kim Jong Un.

As for German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, Russia is talking to Trump about a possible agreement and then “continues to be stuck”.

Pistorius added: “Putin still does not seem to be seriously interested in peace or ceasefire – at least not conditional acceptable by others. I hear the words, I hear the statements, but eventually I insist on my approach that says “I no longer judge words, only actions and works”. I believe this helps all of us more than speculating the seriousness of the intentions. “

But why would you expect that Putin would be serious about ending the war?

The Kremlin is always obstructing- a tactic that has used again and again when it participates in negotiations that are interested in completing it only in its own terms. After all, the Kremlin is that it does not want a ceasefire before taking concessions that would mean the end of democratic and independent Ukraine.

The red lines of Moscow have not shifted to the minimum in the years since Putin began his full -scale invasion of Ukraine. The Russian leader and his top assistants have been described with emphasis for months. Moscow wants guarantees that Kiev will never join NATO, that it will remain geopolitical neutral and unable to manage its fate, and with strict arms restrictions.

Moscow also wants Crimea and the four eastern regions claiming as part of the Russian Federation to be recognized internationally as Russian territories.

And until then – as Mentinsky boasted – Russia will continue to fight war, assisted by a Trump government that is not prepared to put pressure on Putin and is unlikely to continue to support Ukraine militarily.

After all, both Trump and Vans argue that this is a European chaos and that America should never have been involved.

Even if Zelenski was in the mood for, and does not, to succumb to Putin’s demands, it is unlikely to win the support of his parliament or win a referendum. Many in the army would disgusted and enraged and wondered why all these sacrifices were made. The country would sink into political chaos.

And why should Putin bother to negotiate seriously, when all he has to fear is the US abandonment of Ukraine if no peace agreement is reached? This is a flawless logic, as the former US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, acknowledged to resign last month “because politics from the beginning of the government was to put pressure on the victim, Ukraine, and not the attack,”.