Russian President Vladimir Putin practically does not want peace and is not interested in stopping the war against Ukraine because he believes that time is ticking in his favor. This was stated by Russian oppositionist Dmitry Gudkov to FREEDOM TV.
Putin will drag out the negotiations because he is not interested in ending the hostilities now. The process will be long. In the negotiations to achieve a ceasefire, Putin is sticking to his usual hybrid tactics: his rhetoric is for peace, but his actions are the opposite, Gudkov believes.
„Putin is alleged to have agreed not to shell energy infrastructure facilities. Although initially there was talk of a complete ceasefire for at least 30 days. Since Trump did not reach an agreement with Putin and I believe that the US administration is not ready to enter into any conflict and escalation with Putin, now they have taken a break to meet again and try to at least slowly reach some compromises“, Gudkov noted. In a few days, Russia and the US will hold new talks in Saudi Arabia.
According to Gudkov, the Russian president believes that time is now on his side.
“Putin is clearly not interested in ending hostilities now, because he is sure that time is on his side. He has money and more people. The Kremlin believes that they will have a much better negotiating position by the fall. Therefore, now there will be a delay, attempts to set different conditions, to accuse the enemy of violating the agreements. And this will be, in my opinion, a long process," the political scientist said.
There is nothing new in this, Gudkov believes. This is a kind of hybrid tactic of a peace narrative. "You talk about peace, but completely different actions are being taken. That is, this hybridity in Putin's position has been there from the very beginning, from the moment of the annexation of Crimea. Therefore, there is nothing new here," he summarized.