The New Dark Age

Friday, 14 March 2025 — BBC News

While US President Donald Trump pushes Russia and Ukraine for a ceasefire, influential voices in Moscow are calling on the Russian authorities to adopt a hard line. Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested he is ready for a halt in fighting but says “there are nuances” – which he laid out talks with US envoy Steve Witkoff at the Kremlin on Thursday.

From the start of this war, Putin has demanded the “demilitarisation” of Ukraine, which is anathema to Kyiv and its allies. The BBC’s Russia Editor Steve Rosenberg has been speaking to political scientist and former Kremlin advisor Sergey Karaganov.

Sunday, 16 March 2025 — Glenn Diesen’s Substack

Dmitri Polyanskiy, Alexander Mercouris & Glenn Diesen

Dmitri Polyanskiy, the First Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations, discusses diplomacy with the US. Polyanskiy argues that Russia is prepared to continue its military operation until its objectives are achieved through either military means or diplomacy. The US has accepted the key conditions in a peace agreement that must include restoring Ukraine’s neutrality, accepting territorial concessions, and no US security guarantees. However, a ceasefire without a political settlement would risk merely becoming an opportunity for the US and Europeans to rearm Ukraine.