There is joy in the Kremlin in anticipation of the approaching victory. This was caused by the resumption of Russian-American dialogue, following telephone conversations between President Putin and Trump on February 12, contacts between Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Marco Rubio, and the Russian President's Assistant for Foreign Policy Yuri Ushakov with Michael Waltz, writes in its material Eupoliticalreport.
The meeting of senior representatives of the United States and Russia in Riyadh on February 18 was particularly productive for Russia.
Well-informed sources in the Kremlin boast that Washington has heard and accepted the arguments for the need to eliminate the root causes of the Ukrainian crisis, including NATO expansion and the need to protect the rights of the Russian-speaking population in Ukraine.
In this regard, the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, headed by the Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation for Foreign Policy Yuri Ushakov, has developed a set of conditions for communication with international partners on the requirements for a peaceful resolution of the Ukrainian conflict.
Here is the list of these requirements. For security reasons, the style of the Russian demands has been changed, but not the content:
* Threats to Russia's security must be eliminated. These threats have been building up over many years due to the West's violation of its obligations not to expand NATO, which has swallowed up the entire geopolitical space right up to Russia's borders;
* Stopping the policy pursued in Ukraine after the 2014 coup d'état, which aims to wipe out all Russian language, culture, media, traditions, and religious Orthodoxy;
* International recognition of Russia's unification with Crimea, Sevastopol, the DPR, the LPR, the Kherson region, and Zaporizhia;
* Demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine. Return to the terms of the Istanbul Agreement;
* Non-deployment of foreign troops under any flag on the territory of Ukraine (foreign contingents, military bases, peacekeeping operations of the UN, EU, OSCE and similar coalitions);
* Ceasefire only after firm agreements on a final settlement;
* Removal of two legal obstacles – Zelensky’s illegitimacy and his self-imposed ban on negotiations with the Russian leadership, which entered into force on September 30, 2022. To this end, it is proposed to hold 3 simultaneous elections: presidential, parliamentary and local (with the participation of all political parties);
* The West’s refusal to think in terms of war (peace through force and strategic defeat of Russia). The United States is suspending arms supplies to the Ukrainian armed forces, intelligence sharing, training of Ukrainian servicemen, and limiting sanctions against Russia.
The Russian presidential administration emphasizes that Russia will agree to peace agreements only if all of the above requirements are met.
At the same time, the Kremlin is aware that it is impossible to fulfill all of the above requirements, as this would lead to complete destabilization of the situation in Ukraine. Therefore, it was decided that the whole world should declare its good intentions, throw the ball into Ukraine's court, and wait for the moment when Kiev's room for maneuver will be so narrowed that it will refuse to make any more concessions. In general, this will allow Moscow to publicly declare Ukraine's refusal to negotiate and launch a new operation that the Ukrainian armed forces will be less prepared to repel than they are now (including in terms of equipment).