Time is working for the Kremlin: Why the US is still not ready to press the “red button” against Putin
29 October 18:00
Donald Trump is talking about peace again. This time, however, it is with a tangible note of nostalgia for his “warm relations” with Vladimir Putin. The US president is confident that, after having ended eight conflicts, he will stop the war in Ukraine. However, how exactly “this will be done ” is a rhetorical question.
Will Trump dare to dismantle Putin’s regime? If the end of the Russian-Ukrainian war is “a matter of time,” at what cost can this “peace” be achieved – and who really needs it most? The answers are in the article
The idea of “dismantling the Putin regime” sounds loud. Almost like a political thriller scenario. However, it is increasingly being discussed not only in analytical circles but also within the walls of the White House. At least that’s what the Western media say. In particular, an Associated Press article by The Seattle Times reports on a Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report that shows that as early as 2017, the Kremlin believed “The United States is preparing the ground for regime change in Russia. However, in March 2022, Anthony Blinken (then US Secretary of State) unequivocally stated that the United States had no strategy for regime change in Russia.
Trump has always acted not by diplomatic rules but by business rules: if the deal is profitable, the game continues, if not, the partner is changed. And that is why the question of the Kremlin’s future is not a moral one for him, but a pragmatic one.
Analysts suggest that Trump may rely on “controlled dismantling”: creating conditions under which Putin will lose some influence, but the system will not collapse instantly to avoid chaos in the nuclear power. In this strategy, Ukraine is assigned the role of a key pressure factor-but not the main beneficiary.
However, the United States is not yet ready to put the issue to rest – “either a deal or regime change.” This opinion was expressed by military expert Ivan Stupak in a commentary for
“They are not ready, because the sanctions that have just been announced against Lukoil and Rosneft – many are already calculating the losses and damages that Russia will suffer – will only take effect on November 21, 2025. That is, the Russians have been given time to withdraw their assets and minimize the damage that will be done to the Russian Federation,” Stupak says.
According to him, such “soft” deadlines for the implementation of sanctions do not indicate pressure, but rather a political game for the public. The United States is taking the Kremlin by surprise, but not beyond declarations.
I do not rule out that at the last moment Donald Trump will simply slow down this decision and it will not be implemented. That is, they are taking the Russians by surprise. We are not talking about giving Ukraine an unclear amount of weapons either. We are talking about purchasing,” adds Ivan Stupak.
According to Stupak, we are talking about the purchase of weapons worth about $2 billion, which “will soon start to go to Ukraine.” But there will be no more free supplies, as there were before.
Time works for the Kremlin
While political turbulence continues in the United States, Moscow continues to stall for time. And, according to Stupak, it is doing so deliberately.
“The Russians are stalling until December, when the Christmas holidays begin. And then Americans and Europeans drop out of the chat for a month, because by the end of January 26, all the holidays, New Year’s Eve, and so on, and no one will be politically engaged with Ukraine,” Stupak explains.
It is still unclear whether the United States is ready to move from diplomacy to strategic frankness – to give Moscow an ultimatum: either a deal or full support for Ukraine. Perhaps Washington is playing a deadly tango with the Kremlin, but dancing at someone else’s pace.
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