The Trump-Putin Meeting: Who Will Dominate?
John Helmer wonders if Elvira Nabiullina, the Russian Central Bank director, has set up her protector Vladimir Putin for failure.
Elvira is known to be opposed to the rescue of Donbas Russians from oppression and extermination by Washington’s puppet in Kiev. Elvira’s first act of treason against Putin and the Russian state was arranging to leave Russia’s central bank reserves in Western institutions where Washington could seize them.
Her current treason is 21% interest rates which suppress investment and GDP growth and cause inflation which she then uses to justify her economy-killing high interest rates. Helmer provides the ruinous inflation rates Elvia’s anti-Russian, pro-Washington policy is causing in Russia. See this.
The inflation is being used by pro-western elements in Russia to blame the high cost of living on Putin’s never-ending war.
President Trump has concluded that inflation has weakened Putin’s position and that concessions can be wrung from him in exchange for an end to Washington’s support for the war. Additional pressure is put on Putin by President Trump’s aggressive move against Greenland in keeping with the Biden regime’s “2024 Arctic Strategy” that identifies Russia as the principal target.
From Putin’s standpoint, Ukrainian strongholds are falling rapidly without the drawn-out house by house clearing operations of previous advances. The liberation of the Russian areas of Ukraine likely will be complete prior to a Trump-Putin meeting. The meeting will be about the terms of peace with Trump pressuring Putin with more sanctions and Greenland threat to drop some part of Russia’s demand that Ukraine be de-militarized, de-Nazified, and forbidden NATO membership. Putin has received forceful warning not to negotiate away the reasons for which Russia fought an expensive three year war: see this. The Art of the Deal Trump cannot very well agree to the end of the conflict on Putin’s terms without being slammed with the media headline: “Trump Sells Out Ukraine to Putin.”
As Putin has permitted Washington and NATO to attack Russian cities, school children, infrastructure, and military bases with missiles fired by Washington and NATO into Russia without response, Putin is regarded by Washington as a nonentity, a pushover. If Putin and Trump meet, Trump could assume the dominant position and fail to realize that Putin, having fought for more than three years at enormous cost, cannot negotiate away the goals for which Russia has fought, especially with Russia having won the battlefield. There doesn’t seem to be much room for a mutually face-saving compromise.
Looking at Putin’s situation, President Trump assesses it as “Russia is kind of in big trouble. You take a look at their economy, you take a look at their inflation in Russia. I got along with Putin great, I would hope he wants to make a deal.”
Here is Helmer’s account. Come to your own conclusion.
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Paul Craig Roberts is a renowned author and academic, chairman of The Institute for Political Economy where this article was originally published. Dr. Roberts was previously associate editor and columnist for The Wall Street Journal. He was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy during the Reagan Administration. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
