There is no rapprochement between Trump and Putin, and talk of a pro-Russian U.S. policy is pure nonsense. Trump and Putin are not friends — they're just politicians. The situation with Russia was blown out of proportion from the start, fueled by negative PR funded by American money, and after DOGE, a cooling-off was only natural.
You didn’t seriously think that anyone in this world actually gives a damn about Ukraine’s fate, did you?
Trump is an expression of a broke, demoralizeed and exhausted empire that realized that it can't afford its hegemonic ambitions anymore and comes to term with the fact that it must find an arrangement with the other powers that occupy this world.
The main job of the this and the next presidential administrations is to perform an orderly retreat from the overstretched boundaries, retrench and consolidate its powers.
The talks in Ryadh have the purpose of reconstructing basic diplomatic relations with two of the three major nuclear nation states and create the basics of the a new security architecture that became imbalanced over the last two decades.
County 404 is only one of topics discussed because the context of US/RF relations is much bigger.
I don't think the official readouts ever claimed that the talks are focused on Ukraine. Everyone just assumed it because it's the most public issue.
Ukraine is not 404. If the deal to transfer rare earth minerals to the U.S. is approved, it will keep Ukraine as a separate spot on the world map.
Post maidan Ukraine definitely is 404 and whatever is left of it will not be the same.
Regarding the rare earths: I don't really understand what people are talking about. 80% of the good stuff is I the Donbass and the Americans aren't getting any of that. And western Ukraine doesn't really have anything that no other courty has.
So, what is Zelensky actually selling? I'm starting to suspect that the "500 billion" of rare earths is a token so that Trump doesn't have to return empty handed when this is over and present himself as a deal maker.
