Cracking rumours emerge from the US-Russia bilateral negotiations in Riyadh. The US is reportedly offering to withdraw its military presence from former Soviet republics, dismantle missile sites in Poland and Romania, cancel all sanctions and even tease the eventual withdrawal of U.S. forces from Europe.
After years of Cold War 2 proxy conflicts and economic warfare, Washington suddenly seems to be handing Moscow geopolitical prizes on a silver platter. If this sounds too good to be true, that’s because it probably is—and that’s precisely the point.
Day three, a wet and windy Friday, of my rubber tramp in the South West Lakeland Peninsula sees me sipping tea at The Railway Inn, Barrow in Furness. I may move on to the hard stuff – double espresso – but in any case you’ll be thrilled to know I’ve sourced, with a little help from steel city stalwart Dave Hansell, the liveliest of weekend reads.
In my previous post I described Donald Trump as “not what you’d call a deep thinker”. Well one who might beg to differ is Kevin Batcho, a fan neither of the Big Tangerine nor of – here’s another quote from my previous post – “the US duopoly masquerading as a democracy”.
At every turn counselling against underestimating Trump, Mr Batcho’s piece – its title, Depth of a Salesman, is a punning nod to Arthur Miller which gainsays my own verdict on the 47th President. You can be the judge of that – and methinks he is at times smitten by the views from the ramparts of his own word castles. I can forgive that, and so will you. This a splendid read, breathtaking in its imagination and erudition, its vim and panache.
Enjoy.
Depth of a Salesman
Geopolitical Glengarry Glen Ross in Riyadh: Trump’s good-cop piques Russia’s ambitions, luring and looping Putin into a grand bargain—or a grand trap—ever deeper into the maze of the Grand Chessboard.
Cracking rumours emerge from the U.S.-Russia bilateral negotiations in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The United States is reportedly offering to withdraw its military presence from former Soviet republics, dismantle missile sites in Poland and Romania, cancel all sanctions, and even tease the eventual withdrawal of U.S. forces from Europe.
After years of Cold War 2.0, proxy conflicts, and economic warfare, Washington suddenly seems to be handing Moscow geopolitical prizes on a silver platter. If this sounds too good to be true, that’s because it probably is—and that’s precisely the point.
Upon hearing this news, Russian President Vladimir Putin must have felt the chill of an unseen hand toppling the Grand Chessboard—geopolitical wizard Zbigniew Brzezinski’s vision of U.S. dominance over Eurasia.
In The Seventh Seal, a knight returns from war to find himself locked in a fateful game of chess with Death. He plays not to win—no man can—but to delay, to bargain for meaning in the face of inevitability. Every move is a desperate act of resistance against an outcome already written. Yet as the pieces fall, the illusion of control crumbles, and all that remains is the quiet realization: the game was always rigged.
The bargains will be Faustian. The blood, sealing the deals, will be Ukrainian …
Read the full piece – here’s the link again – on which both Dave Hansell and I have commented. And have a great weekend.
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