Aug 14, 2025
Washington announced a new package of restrictive measures against Russia just a day before the meeting between US President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added Russians Pavel Karavatsky, Alexander Mira Serda and Sergei Mendeleyev to the SDN list — a list of persons completely isolated from the American financial system. They were accused of ties to the Russian cryptocurrency exchange Garantex , which, according to US authorities, is involved in circumventing sanctions.
The sanctions register also includes Russian cryptocurrency companies Indefi, Grinex, Exve and the Bishkek-registered Old Vector. According to the US Treasury, all of these structures are associated with businessman Sergei Mendeleev and a group of companies under the A7 brand.
Putin and Trump will hold talks on August 15 at the Elmendorf-Richardson Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska. Trump warned Moscow the day before of “very serious consequences” if it does not agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine, but also allowed that if the talks are successful, a trilateral summit could take place with the participation of President Volodymyr Zelensky.
According to The Guardian’s sources in Moscow, at the meeting Putin intends to demand that Ukraine transfer the Donetsk and Luhansk regions under Russian control, and that the US recognize their annexation. Putin also does not plan to give up his claims to the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions, but is considering the possibility of symbolically transferring to Kyiv small territories in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions, which are currently held by Russian troops. According to the publication’s interlocutors, no real breakthroughs should be expected from the negotiations, but Putin, according to them, will try to persuade Trump to take a more favorable position towards Moscow.
Meanwhile, as The Washington Post reports , citing Kremlin insiders, the highest echelons of Russian power are growing tired of the war in Ukraine and want to return to normal life. One former Kremlin official said that “everyone is afraid of Putin” and is forced to show loyalty, while in fact many see the upcoming summit in Anchorage as a chance to put an end to the “SVO” and reduce tensions.
We put some sanctions on hold, we impose other sanctions … Trump has no clear plan.
You didn’t expect TACO to actually come down hard on putler, did you? He’s treating the mafia boss with a destroyed economy as some kind of equal.
No, him going down hard on the war criminal is the last thing I expect.
“One former Kremlin official said that “everyone is afraid of Putin” and is forced to show loyalty, while in fact many see the upcoming summit in Anchorage as a chance to put an end to the “SVO” and reduce tensions.”
I would say putler is afraid of everyone. He has surrounded his home with 12 Pantsir systems. That’s 25% of all Pantsirs in mafia land. Meanwhile russian oil refineries are being destroyed on a daily basis. So we can see where putler’s loyalties lie.
He has become your typical bunker rat. He sees danger from every possible direction. Quite a miserable life, if you ask me.
The following short comment piece shows why Ukrainians know that the likelihood of a liberal revolution in the cauldron of devilry is unfortunately close to zero :
“Russia must be destroyed. Whatever it takes. Rusia delenda est.”
https://substack.com/@cemilkerimoglu/note/c-136785656?r=17e8q4&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
I agree. The average ruskie is a pathetic, dirty little creature who has no sense of self-respect or desire to be free.
UKRAINE CAN STILL WIN :-
https://www.theconcis.com/p/how-ukraine-can-win?r=17e8q4&utm_medium=ios&triedRedirect=true
Of course, Ukraine can still win. Much depends on its wobbly friends, though. Unless Ukraine manages to destroy the mafia oil industry.
OPEC are helping. They will increase oil output by half a million barrels the next two months. That will drive down the price of oil. It already dropped by 6% in one day, from yesterday.
Excellent news. Combine this with the attacks on mafia oil industry, we’ll see some interesting results, hopefully very soon.