RT reported today that in speaking to the Russia 1 telecast on Nov. 13, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was skeptical of any change in United States policy regarding the NATO war with Russia in Ukraine. Although RT doesn’t identify it as such, this is Foreign Minister Lavrov’s interview with Marina Kim, posted to the Foreign Ministry website. Lavrov was quoted: “I have no doubt that they will want to keep these processes under their control…. Washington’s attitude towards Ukrainian affairs and European affairs will not change in principle, in the sense that Washington will always strive to keep under its watchful eye everything that happens in the areas near NATO, and the NATO area itself…. Some [Western politicians] have started to look more soberly at the Ukrainian situation and say, ‘What’s lost is lost, let’s somehow freeze this entire thing.’ Yet … they still suggest having a truce along the contact line for ten years. These would be the same Minsk accords in a new wrapping, or even worse.”
A host of analyses published in RT express the same healthy skepticism regarding, at least, President-elect Donald Trump’s ability to change the policy of war, if not also his intention.
A most notable exception is a column by Fyodor Lukyanov, Editor-in-Chief of Russia in Global Affairs and the moderator for President Vladimir Putin at his four-hour appearance at the Valdai Discussion Club on Nov. 7. The thoughtful article, translated and quoted in RT, was originally published on Nov. 11 in Profile.ru. In it, Lukyanov said that Trump, given his negotiating style taken from his business career, doesn’t actually know in advance what he’s going to do or try to do, but should be taken seriously, because what he has stated as his intention is genuine: He wants to get an agreement with Putin to end the war.
