The Riyadh meeting between U.S. and Russia was a success.
18 February 2025
By Eric Zuesse
https://theduran.com/the-riyadh-meeting ... a-success/
There WILL, after all, be a private meeting between Putin and Trump — a “Summit Meeting.”
The worst relations that have ever existed between between the Governments in the U.S. and in Russia — the relations that reached their nadir under President Joe Biden — are now clearly only past history, and things will be getting better from now on.
The best reporting on this that I have yet seen was by Stephen Bryen — a veteran of decades near the tops of both the Governmental and the corporate (especially the armaments-manufacturing) sides of U.S. military affairs — headlining today
US-Russia Meeting in Riyadh Successful, More to Follow: Meeting Atmosphere Professional, Not Ideological.
https://weapons.substack.com/p/us-russi ... successful
He noted that Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s Foreign Minister, who has always spoken publicly representing accurately the viewpoint of Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, and so he truly speaks for Russia’s Government, said
That statement, coming from him, MEANS that, indeed, the 80-year-long Cold War between the U.S. empire and Russia, is now at an end. This is what Barack Obama, the most skillful liar ever to have occupied the U.S. White House, had — in 2012, just before his re-election — privately PROMISED the Russian Government that he would do if re-elected, even while he was already secretly committed to ramping-up U.S.-empire hostility toward and against Russia https://archive.is/4tFQm (by means of the economic sanctions against Russia, which he started in 2012 https://archive.is/fXZ8Z and increased after his 2014 coup grabbed control over Ukraine and turned it against Russia https://archive.is/T3DyU#selection-389.0-1003.220). Thus began the climax of the 1945-begun Cold War, which has now ended. Biden continued and escalated the climax, and Trump has, indeed, ended that War, according to this statement from Lavrov.Not only did we listen, but we genuinely heard each other.
The reason WHY this statement from Lavrov is so important, is that the last time when a U.S. President TRIED to END the Cold War was when JFK turned against the Cold War and planned to withdraw troops from Vietnam shortly before he was assassinated. Trump is now trying to do the same thing, but in regard to Ukraine instead of to Vietnam. And whereas a win for the Soviet Union in Vietnam in 1963 would not have been geostrategically important (i.e., crucial to protect the Soviets’ national security), a win for Russia in Ukraine is, indeed, CRUCIAL to Russia’s national security. https://archive.is/48UiC
So: Russia is EVEN MORE determined to win the war in Ukraine than the Soviet Union was determined to win the war in Vietnam. Obama and Biden refused to even consider that fact — and therefore they REFUSED to consider Russia’s national security, but instead aimed to be now going in for the kill against Russia. They thus brought U.S.-Russia relations to their nadir — their lowest point ever.
When Lavrov said
he meant that — for the very first time in his entire career — the U.S. Government was LISTENING TO Russia’s national-security concerns.Not only did we listen, but we genuinely heard each other,
Consequently, instead of U.S.-Russia relations continuing yet further toward WW3 (as has been happening), the Riyadh meeting made clear that U.S.-Russia contacts will, from now on, proceed in stages up to a final Trump-Putin Summit. As Bryen closes his report:
This means that the negotiators on both sides agreed to report back to their respective head-of-state, that, though some intermediate meetings will be necessary prior to scheduling a Summit, both Putin and Trump are, indeed, already basically agreed on what the fundamentals of that final agreement will be.From all responsible reports, the US and Russia agreed to evaluate possible terms for a settlement that, if agreed, would be discussed between President Trump and President Putin.
If you want to see and hear two brilliant and entirely truthful commentators on international relations, Alexander Mercouris and Robert Barnes, discuss the relationships that the U.S. has had with Russia, on the one hand, and the EU on the other (these two concerns being central to Trump’s being able to succeed at permanently ending the 1945-2025 Cold War), I would suggest:
https://theduran.com/russia-us-rapproch ... ert-barnes
“Russia-US rapprochement begins in Saudi Arabia w/ Robert Barnes” https://theduran.com/russia-us-rapproch ... ert-barnes
