Former National Security Advisor to the U.S. Vice President Keith Kellogg had some harsh criticism for Russian media mogul and heavily-sanctioned businessman Konstantin Malofeev. Kellogg’s quip was related to the fact that Mr. Malofeev believes that nothing can come from a Putin-Trump meeting based on the current demands of Washington, or at least the demands that the Mainstream Media tells us about. Kellogg said the following about the Russian businessman’s lack of optimism:
“(You) better get back in your box and better understand President Trump because, clearly, you don’t – and you clearly don’t understand the United States of America,”
In order to determine if this former National Security Advisor’s criticism is valid we should take a look at what Konstantin Malofeev actually said in a very recent interview for the Financial Times. Any time any pro-Russian figure gets a voice in major English-speaking media it causes a panic among the status quo and this interview is no exception. The excerpt from the article that probably caused the most passive-aggressive rage was the following:
“Kellogg comes to Moscow with his plan, we take it and then tell him to screw himself, because we don’t like any of it. That’d be the whole negotiation,” Malofeyev said in an interview at a luxury resort in Dubai. “For the talks to be constructive, we need to talk not about the future of Ukraine, but the future of Europe and the world.” Malofeyev said Trump could only end the conflict if he reversed Washington’s decision on the use of advanced long-range weapons and removed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky from office, then agreed to meet Putin and “discuss all the issues of the global order at the highest level”.
We can see how Kellogg (pictured above) may have taken this general statement to be a personal attack. However, whether this man is a genius or a fool doesn’t matter. Kellogg is being given a negotiating standpoint that the Russians simply will not accept. In a different article, written on his personal Telegram account, Malofeev broke down the key non-negotiable points that the Russian side will stick to no matter what. No rhetoric or promises from Washington will dissuade them. They are as follows:
“1. Complete withdrawal of the Ukrainian Army from the administrative borders of the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics, and Kherson and Zaporozhzhya regions.
2. Neutral, non-aligned and nuclear-free status for Ukraine.
3. Demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine.
4. Fixing the statuses of Crimea, Sevastopol, DNR, LNR, Kherson and Zaporpzhzhya regions as Russian regions in international treaties.
5. Cancellation of all Western sanctions against Russia.”
It is important to note that in January 2022 the Russians sent Biden a request to renegotiate the security framework of Europe to avoid a potential conflict. Biden unilaterally rejected every request the Russians made. The U.S. President refused to even discuss a reinterpretation of security guarantees for the continent. A month later the Special Military Operation in Ukraine was launched by Moscow. Even if Trump is “less unreasonable” than Biden’s team they must understand that for the Russian side this is a not a joke. As Mr. Malofeev wrote “we are ready for negotiations, but they must take into consideration Russian national interests” and not just America’s.
Ironically, the West which wanted to see the “Putin regime collapse” is now faced with the fact that the only way the Russian president could in theory lose power, would be to “surrender to the Americans” abandoning the much repeated “demilitarization and denazification” that Russian soldiers have died to achieve. Moscow simply cannot be convinced by even the master of “the art of the deal” himself. This is not because Kellogg or Trump are somehow incompetent, it is not because they are “bad” people or something, it is because their demands, as relayed by the Mainstream Media, are impossible for the Russians to accept.
Kellogg’s attack on Malofeev telling him to “go back into (his) box” is very telling because it is really the Washington elite that live in a box, with their hands over their ears, unwilling to listen to any of the demands of other civilizations. During the “End of History” in the 90s and early 2000s America was powerful enough to be the Global Hegemon in pure ignorant bliss as to how the rest of the world operates, but those days are over. Washington will either negotiate with Moscow as peers or the war will continue. As Mr. Malofeev said in that now infamous Financial Times interview “the world is on the brink of nuclear war”, and it will be Trump’s actions that either pull us back or push us over the edge. Kellogg’s emotional attack on this Russian Media Mogul was truly pointless as Malofeev was simply pointing out the reality of the situation, that Washington is so inclined towards denying.