Capitulation or War? West sees Putin’s actions as a rebellion by an underling, insubordination by one of its lieutenants
Fri 5:08 pm +00:00, 15 Aug 2025
Source: https://blog.algora.com/2025/08/13/on-friday-capitulation-or-war
What I think is the purpose of Friday’s meeting between Trump and Putin is that Trump, in the name of the West, is giving Russia an ultimatum. It’s not about a ceasefire, not about a truce. It is about the most sacred of Russia’s stated claims: its claim to the status of a sovereign empire of its own.
The ceasefire is a first step. The goal is to bend Russia, little by little, forcing Russia to cross its own red lines one by one, and forcing it to accept vasality to the Western system in the new feudal-like vasality pyramid.
For Putin, calling for a temporary suspension of hostilities against the battered Ukrainian army, is no-brainer. Obviously, he can do that. But the question that comes to his mind immediately is: what’s next? Would that truce bring a return to the status quo ante?
Of course not. It will only bring more demands and more demands. The war in Ukraine is hardly about Ukraine. It is about the maverick Russia who defied the West. This war, so far, is not even seen by the Masters of the Universe as a confrontation between two powerful stand-alone sovereign states.
The West sees Putin’s actions as a rebellion by an underling. Just simple insubordination by one of its lieutenants, like Pugachev’s rebellion against the all-mighty Tsar.
The West seems like it has hardly mobilized itself, so far, to deal with one of the few remaining insubordinates. (And there are a few more, on the ‘mapamond’. Netanyahu, Orban, Maduro and that funny guy from North Korea. Oh, and Iran.)
So, what are we going to see as the outcome on Friday? More likely some form of ritual dance around the fire with no real commitments by Russia. And that will not be pleasing to the West. At best we could have a replica of the famous Munich appeasement by British PM Chamberlain in September 1938, who waved the famous piece of paper claiming to guarantee a thousand years of peace in Europe just as World War II was about to start a year later.
Hard to anticipate the immediate consequences, but in such a case, the real war is most likely coming soon. The ultimatum is: either full capitulation by Russia or all out WAR.
