Whether by accident or design, Vladimir Putin has a useful idiot running America. International diplomacy has been turned on its head, enemies made friends, allies threatened, international laws defoliated.
Russian strategic policy, known as the Gerasimov doctrine, argues that chaos in the ranks of the enemy is victory and a path to greatness. By that standard Putin, should be stringing up bunting in the Kremlin.
He has achieved unimagined strategic effect by manipulating the Trump administration which has contorted itself in its efforts to force a Russian victory on Ukraine and against Europe.
In the latest effort by the Oval Office to continue its cringing before the Russian throne, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff – alongside business buddy Jared Kushner – have arrived in Moscow.
Why this is being countenanced by America’s “allies” in Nato is baffling were it not for the fact that there is no leader in Europe prepared to say out loud what they must all, surely, know. That Donald Trump is not a broker, he’s not even a dishonest broker when it comes to Ukraine – he is on the wrong side.
Witkoff used to be seen as staggeringly inept. He turns up in the Kremlin fawning like Gollum, takes no notes, uses a Kremlin translator, and emerges from meetings with Putin, a former KGB lieutenant colonel, brimming with admiration.
He described Putin in one Tucker Carlson interview as a “great guy”, “super smart”, “honest” and “not a bad guy”. Descriptions that have disgusted the families of Putin’s dead critics like Alexei Navalny and every resident of the Russian speaking areas of Ukraine’s Donbas where Putin’s troops have scorched earth and killed mercilessly.
Putin is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes.
The Russian leader has said he is prepared to take a look at the latest version of a plan for a ceasefire that has been worked out with Ukraine and European leaders and is expected to be discussed with Witkoff.
But he has also said it is a non-starter.
Because he wants to turn it all back to the earlier version negotiated with Witkoff by his envoy Kirill Dmitriev, in secret. Dmitriev is Witkoff’s escort in Moscow.
The same Witkoff that the Bloomberg agency revealed had coached Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov on how to manipulate Trump. In what must have been an intelligence intercept of Witkoff’s unsecured personal mobile phone leaked to Bloomberg, he’s recorded explaining how Putin can get inside Trump’s head and affect a imminent visit to the White House by Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president.
In Western intelligence circles, Trump’s envoy has been considered a fool and a liability for months – partly due to his misuse of a personal phone in countries who will always penetrate its contents.
European spies used to call him “Steve Witless”. Now he’s “Dim Philby” suggesting that he’s too thick to realise he’s working for the wrong side. The original Kim Philby was a clever traitor, and he knew it.
