Days of Hope and Gloom

The February days after the Senate confirmations of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard could have been remembered as the days of hope for a speedy end to the Ukrainian tragedy. Judging from their statements, both new cabinet members could help President Trump fulfill his pre- and post-election pledges to end the war.

RFK Jr. often expressed his opinion on who to blame for the current conflict. It was a broken pledge by George H.W. Bush, his Secretary of State James Baker, and other Western leaders who said that if Gorbachev withdrew from East Germany and allowed Germany reunification, they “would not move NATO one inch to the East… Now we’ve moved it 1000 miles to the East, put nuclear-ready weapons 12 minutes from Moscow, and walked away from the two nuclear weapons treaties unilaterally… We’re sending a message to Russia: you were the enemy, we are surrounding you, and we’re going to put NATO everywhere… In 2014, we overthrew a government with the CIA and USAID, a duly-elected government that was neutral, we installed a pro-western government, and of course Russia is now worried we’re going to put nuclear missile systems in Ukraine, 4 minutes from Moscow.” Kennedy also explained how big businesses are trying to profit from this war. “Few people understand what the war in Ukraine means for big business – namely, opportunity. It’s not just the weapons and reconstruction contracts. Ukraine’s vast agricultural lands – among the most fertile in the world – are up for grabs, and American companies like BlackRock are at the front of the line.”

As for Tulsi Gabbard, she has accused both the US and Ukrainian governments of their desire to bring Ukraine into NATO. “This war and suffering could have easily been avoided if Biden Admin/NATO had simply acknowledged Russia’s legitimate security concerns,” she posted on X. She also endorsed Russian claims that the USA and Ukraine were involved in dangerous biological research before the war. These statements were used during the Senate Committee hearings to call her the peddler of Russian propaganda. Among the accusers were the same senators, such as Democrats Mark Warner and Adam Schiff, who spent years lying to the American people about Donald Trump’s alleged connections to the Kremlin.

Well, despite these and many other accusations, like the one by Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin, who said that “Tulsi Gabbard will be a disaster,” and with her nomination, “Donald Trump is playing games with our national security and risking the safety of Americans,” both she and RFK Jr. were confirmed.

Trump seems to have changed his stance and seems to agree with the continuation of the war and U.S. military aid as long as Ukraine repays…

One might consider this to be Trump’s victory, but it turned out that the celebration by the party of peace was premature. The problem is that it looks like Trump himself modified his position when he blamed Biden for pushing Ukraine into NATO and expressed compassion to millions of victims and for the devastation of Ukraine.

Now it looks like he doesn’t mind the war and US military aid to continue as long as Ukraine pays back: “We’re looking to do a deal with Ukraine where they’re going to secure what we’re giving them with their rare earth and other things,” Trump told reporters at the Oval Office. “We want a guarantee… to have security of rare earth, we’re putting in hundreds of billions of dollars. They have great rare earth. And I want security of the rare earth, and they’re willing to do it.”

What Trump said was precisely what Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has frequently brought up as a reason to continue fueling the proxy war. “This war is about money. People don’t talk much about it. But you know, Ukraine is the richest country in Europe for rare earth minerals. Two to seven trillion dollars worth of minerals that are rare earth minerals, very relevant to the 21st century,” Graham told Fox News and added that he expected Trump to “do a deal to get our money back, to enrich ourselves with rare earth minerals. A good deal for Ukraine and us.”

One wonders what RFK Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard will say about this and whether the chances for the Trump summit with Putin are in jeopardy since this latest development might affect Moscow’s thinking.

Finally, my public statements in the media on the roots of the crisis in US-Russia relations caught the attention of the war party in the Washington Post, which stated the following before the Senate vote: “If Tulsi Gabbard is confirmed, then we can consider that our position is becoming stronger, said Edward Lozansky, a Putin supporter who runs the American University in Moscow.”

Some colleagues told me that coming from the often-discredited Washington Post, I can take this as a compliment, but in any event, it placed me in the good company of many prominent American experts with much higher credentials than mine who were accused of being Putin stooges for criticizing US foreign policy in general and on Ukraine in particular, including university professors and even military and intelligence experts.

Still, in order not to end on a gloomy note, behind the scenes, the summit negotiations are in process, and among the possible venues are Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Despite Trump’s latest statements, at least so far, there has been no harsh reaction from the Kremlin, and Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed to the reporters that “there are indeed contacts between individual departments, and they have intensified recently, but I cannot tell you any other details.”