01/17/2026
It is worth recalling that for Putin, the weakness of the West is its willingness to talk to him. I am not saying that French President Emmanuel Macron should not talk to Putin after President Trump talked to him. I consider Trump’s very legitimization of his talks with Putin to be a serious mistake. For me, this is problem number 1. Because when Putin felt that the Americans did not want to have any serious talks with him, he behaved more cautiously. Now Putin perceives Trump’s willingness to talk as his own legitimization and an opportunity to ignore everyone else.
It remains to be seen what will happen if a dialogue is suddenly resumed at the level of European leaders. How will Putin perceive this? As an opportunity to maneuver between the Europeans and the Americans and use the latter against the former? Or vice versa – will he realize that Europe has its own tough position, which will not coincide with Trump’s position? And this position of Europe will be conditional, even if Trump again wants to “feed Putin gingerbread.”
But one way or another, the negotiation process with Putin is a path to the escalation of the conflict and the continuation of the war. If we know a person who, by his actions, is actually prolonging the war in Ukraine and giving Putin confidence in the future, then this person is in the White House. Putin cannot be legitimized, I am absolutely sure of this.
The orange criminal in the White House is on the side of evil. There’s no denying it anymore.