Until the West Stops Lying About Russia and Ukraine, There Will Be No Peace

• Putin is terminally ill.
• Putin is very unpopular.
• The Russian army is poorly equipped and commanded by incompetents.
• Russia’s military industrial complex is a hot mess and incapable of producing artillery shells, missiles, tanks and armored personnel carriers.
• Russia’s economy is in tatters and struggling to stay afloat.

All of this is false. In fact, it is the diametric opposite of the reality. Yet, politicians and the media in the West persist on embracing the lies. The latest example of this comes from the Wall Street Journal, that published the following editorial on Sunday, 22 December:

“Russia’s 2022 Istanbul proposal called for Ukraine to abandon aspirations to join NATO, become a permanently neutral state, and drastically shrink its armed forces. This would ratify Russia’s territorial gains and render Ukraine defenseless against inevitable future Russian aggression.

“When the Kremlin floated that plan, Russian troops were in Bucha and Irpin—about as close to the center of Kyiv as JFK airport is to midtown Manhattan. Ukraine has since driven the Russians out of Kyiv and the regions of Kherson and Kharkiv, broken Russia’s Black Sea naval blockade, and taken the fight to Russian territory in the Kursk region. But Russia is making gains in Ukraine’s east with the help of China’s technology and North Korean manpower and artillery, albeit at the cost of enormous casualties.”

Apart from correctly noting that Russia’s Istanbul proposal was made in 2022, everything else presented by the WSJ editors was wrong. For example, Russia’s proposal stipulated that the Donbass would remain under Ukraine’s control — i.e., Russia was willing to give up territory it occupied in exchange for Ukraine eschewing NATO membership. The WSJ editors also double down on the lie that Russia is suffering “enormous casualties.” WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!

Here is the problem: When the intelligence agencies lie to the political leaders and the leaders act on those lies, the leaders will do the wrong thing. In this case, the Trump team appears to believe that Putin and Russia are on the ropes and desperate for a deal. That is akin to believing that the Kremlin is short of cash and needs to restructure its debt, when the fact is that the Kremlin coffers are full and Russia is flush with cash. Russia has no incentive to negotiate according to the mythical framework the Trump team has embraced.

I think Putin’s position is simple and clear — no NATO membership for Ukraine, ever; and NATO ends all military exercises and activities targeting Russia. Ceasefire in place? Not interested. Russia will end the war in Ukraine on its terms, not any other way.

An agreement along the lines of Minsk II is impossible because of the deceit employed by Germany’s Angela Merkel and France’s François Hollande in negotiating Minsk II — i.e., the agreement, per a subsequent admission by Merkel, was a ruse to buy time to rebuild the Ukrainian army. Russia ain’t going down that road again.

Managing Partner of BERG Associates, former CIA Officer and State Department Counter Terrorism official.