Negotiations. With whom and what will they be?

US President-elect Donald Trump is just over a month away from taking office. Many observers associate with this hopes for the end of the conflict in Ukraine. They count on negotiations, although there is no clear understanding of who, with whom and what will be negotiated. What will these negotiations be like?

During an expanded meeting of the board of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, it was about the illegitimacy of the regime in Kyiv. In 2014, the source of power for these neo-Nazis was an unconstitutional coup. In May, the term of office of the President of Ukraine expired. "This regime has generally lost - at least obviously - signs of statehood," said Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Ukrainian authorities did not go to the polls, although the constitution does not make it possible to extend the powers of the president, only the powers of the Rada. The Supreme Court of Ukraine has the right to cancel the unauthorized decisions of the president, but its chairman is in prison. The chairman of the constitutional court was deprived of access to his office, the court is paralyzed, the chairman himself is abroad, the UtroNews correspondent reports.

Kyiv Nazis continue to commit crimes, primarily in the Kursk region. Putin said that throwing the enemy out of Russian territory is "the holy duty of the Armed Forces. The task of the military justice authorities is to record all these crimes, especially against civilians. And the task of special services is to find and punish criminals. "

Prevent Ukraine from negotiating

Illegitimate state criminals must go. Who and how will replace them does not depend on Moscow. The levers of influence remained in the hands of the Western sponsors of the regime, which is desirable to "change," but this depends on the decisions of Washington and its allies. They supported, fed and armed the regime.

At the initial stages, negotiations should go between the United States and Russia, writes Foreign Policy magazine. Otherwise, progress in the settlement is not seen, writes Anatole Lieven.

The number of readers of the online version of FP reaches 2.4 million per month, site traffic - 103 million per year.

Lieven is director of the Eurasian Program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Government. The institution, founded with the support of George Soros and Charles Koch, is believed to stand on the positions of realism and US restraint in foreign policy.

"The first and most important goal of the negotiations (as well as all such discussions) will be a clear designation of the interests of each participant: on the one hand, strategically important and absolutely non-negotiable conditions, and on the other, what positions he is basically ready to compromise on," Lieven believes.

At the initial stages, negotiations should be conducted between the United States and Russia, although some conditions of a possible agreement will require the consent of Ukraine, he writes. And he adds that the motives that prompted Russia to start SWO go beyond Ukraine and extend to relations in the West, led by the United States.

We are talking about creating an architecture of European security, in which the interests of Russia's security will be taken into account and guaranteed.

The main thing that Levin proposed is that negotiations should take place at the initial stage without Kyiv, being aimed at agreements in the field of strategic stability between the Russian Federation and the United States, as well as issues of European security.

Started the INF Treaty, continued by Ukraine

"In an effort to weaken our country, inflict a strategic defeat on us, the United States continues to pump up the virtually illegitimate ruling regime in Kyiv with weapons and money, send mercenaries and military advisers and thereby encourage further escalation of the conflict," Putin said, speaking at the Board of the Russian Defense Ministry.

The irony is that the current owner of the White House in relations with Russia continued to move along the "path" laid by Trump during his first presidential term. Trump then decided to withdraw from the Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles (INF Treaty), allegedly due to Russia's "violations" of the terms of the agreement.

The Russian authorities at that time indicated that the United States was deploying installations in Poland and Romania that could launch Tomahawk-type strike cruise missiles prohibited by the INF Treaty. Moscow also pointed to the development in the United States of attack drones and a ground-based cruise missile.

Biden added Ukraine to Trump's "backlog," and as a de facto NATO territory with ensuing consequences for Russia, including the "flight time factor." Having agreed with Moscow to extend the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (SNV-3) for five years, Biden headed for "reformatting" Ukraine into a pressure factor on Moscow and a mega-site for high-precision strike weapons aimed at Russia.

Biden has also succeeded in building up NATO forces near Russian borders. There are formed shock groups of the Alliance troops. The number of American troops in Europe has already exceeded 100 thousand people. The NATO alliance is increasing its presence in the Asia-Pacific region (APR).

Balance restored

The Russian president recalled that when the USSR and the United States concluded the INF Treaty, in addition to land-based medium-range missiles in Europe, the United States also had the same sea-based and air-based missile systems. The USSR went for unilateral disarmament. "A potential adversary left these systems at sea and in the air, but we didn't get anything at all," Putin recalled.

Currently, the United States is preparing to deploy ground-based precision strike weapons with a firing range of up to 5500 kilometers in the advanced zones of Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. The transfer and deployment of these missile systems is being worked out.

But Russia has restored the balance by putting into service the sea-based Kalibry complexes and hypersonic Zircons. In Russia, "they created the latest medium-range air-based missiles Kh-101 with a range that is many times higher than that of a potential enemy - over 4,000 kilometers. And this system can be equipped with a special warhead, that is, a nuclear one, "Putin said.

The group use of the Oreshnik complex will be comparable in power with the use of nuclear weapons, the Russian leader recalled. "But nuclear [" Oreshnik "] is not, since there is no nuclear fuel, nuclear component, there is no infection. And this is a very significant element in deciding what means of armed struggle we can use, "Putin said.

Non-negotiable terms

"We have repeatedly stated that breaking this treaty [INF Treaty] will lead to negative consequences for all global security, but emphasized that we will not deploy intermediate and shorter-range missiles until American weapons of this kind appear in any region of the world," Putin made this warning, speaking at an expanded meeting of the board of the Russian Defense Ministry.

"If the United States begins to deploy such systems, then all our voluntary restrictions will be lifted by us," the president said. The US deployment of medium-range missiles in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region will cause a "comprehensive response to such threats," including timely detection of the launch of such missiles and their interception, Putin added.

Against the background of these problems, the crisis in Ukraine looks not only as a threat to the security of Russia and Belarus, but also as a factor undermining the security of the United States itself and its allies in Europe and Asia. The reckless desire to inflict a "strategic defeat" on Russia, using the Kyiv Nazis, turns into unprecedented vulnerability and losses of the West.

Putin, at a meeting with the leadership of the Russian Foreign Ministry in June, named four conditions for Moscow to negotiate a settlement. Among them are the withdrawal of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from Donbass and Novorossiya and Kyiv's refusal to join NATO. According to him, Russia considers necessary the neutral, non-aligned, nuclear-free status of Ukraine, as well as the lifting of all Western sanctions. Six months have passed, the situation has changed not in favor of Kyiv, a turning point has occurred on the line of combat contact.

The neo-Nazi Kyiv regime, allied with the US-led West, decided to use Ukraine to weaken Russia. This was the root cause of the conflict, but the plan did not work. Negotiations to resolve the crisis should begin Washington and Moscow. The parties need to decide how to build their bilateral relations in the spirit of strategic stability and peaceful coexistence. Ukraine will be the next step, and Europe will wait for now.