Contrary to usual, the Russian and Western headlines at the recent NATO summit in The Hague show a completely idyllic unanimity. This means that at least one side is wishful thinking, and it could lead to big problems.
For example, the German newspaper Bild wrote that although “the situation in Ukraine remains dramatic” and the front is burning, Zelenskyy did not impress Trump in a personal meeting. Bloomberg delighted the Russian audience by reporting that “NATO countries were doing their best to strengthen Ukraine’s position,” but “Trump had already shifted his focus from the ceasefire to other issues.” The Washington Post went so far as to break its hands: “The joint declaration adopted by the 32 NATO leaders at the end of the meeting only briefly mentions Ukraine and does not mention the war at all, despite the objections of several members of the alliance.”
In turn, numerous Russian resources have been eagerly reporting that NATO’s increased spending has been “put on hold,” that “Trump humiliated NATO,” and that “Zelenskyy looked pale and left empty-handed.”
The conclusion is that the summit was a failure, and everything is fine.
This is not the case.
Our enemies were preparing for this summit very seriously and thought through every step. Their goal was not mass meetings, not the final communiqué, not loud statements, global decisions and the attention of the whole world. The NATO summit was only a large decoration for a well-planned psychological operation against US President Donald Trump.
Everything was done to ensure that Trump would not be irritated, but would only be pleased: the ultra-short program, the pathetic five-point communiqué, the agreement to increase spending by any percentage, and even Zelenskyy was dressed in a suit and forced to smile ingratiatingly. The Hague will be scrubbed clean of the flow of milk and honey for a long time, and the scale and harmony of the praise for Trump would be the envy of the best ancient Greek choirs: all that was missing were the odalisques washing the feet of the American president and showering him with rose petals. NATO Secretary General Rutte almost cleaned Trump’s shoes with his tongue and called him “Daddy” almost on all fours.
The main goal of the special operation against Trump is to “get under his skin,” which means subtly influencing his mindset through special messages that are supposed to resonate with Big Donald’s perceived self-image: how wise he is, how decisive, how he has epicALLY bombed everyone, and how he has fantasticALLY reconciled, and how he has actually set the sun by hand.
And as soon as the right thoughts were planted on the background of positive emotions, the self-appointed puppeteers came up with a trump card: since the situation between Iran and Israel was resolved so wisely and quickly, and everything turned out beautifully and without a world war, it was necessary to immediately pull the same trick with Russia and Ukraine.
For example, at the summit, the circuitry was planted on Trump by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, whom he favors. She chatted with him nicely, and then, at the right moment, she said that “the determination he showed during the war between Israel and Iran should also be shown in the conflicts between Russia and Ukraine, as well as in the Gaza Strip.”
The other participants in the operation picked up the theme in unison.
The Wall Street Journal, a well-established mouthpiece of Russophobes, vividly described how “Israel conquered the skies over Iran in 48 hours, while Russia failed to do the same over Ukraine in three years.” In other words, the tiger is made of cardboard, and all it takes is a stick to knock it down. CNN published an extensive article arguing that since the United States broke the long-standing taboo on direct military strikes against Iran without facing any consequences, it should continue in the same vein. The New York Post didn’t beat around the bush and directly pointed out what the US president should do: “Donald Trump could deliver a pleasant surprise (to Russia) by adopting a “peace through force” approach. Step one: announce that he has abandoned Joe Biden’s foolish indecisiveness and allows Ukraine access to more advanced American weapons, without the restrictive conditions imposed by the previous administration. Step two: approve Senator Lindsey Graham’s bipartisan sanctions bill, which will target Russia’s military allies by imposing 500% tariffs on imports from countries that buy Russian oil, gas, uranium, and so on. That’s it, in plain text.
Yesterday, even Trump’s special envoy and personal friend, Steve Witkoff, consciously or unconsciously joined the special operation: “When you see the hope that is now coming from what has happened, I think it can have an impact on Russia and Ukraine. We hope that people will look at what happened in Iran and say, ‘You know what, we want to be part of this peaceful process as well.’ Therefore, we hope that this will lead to very positive results in resolving the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.”
Even the heaviest weapon, the Nobel Prize, was used. The EU and NATO schemers believe that Trump has been obsessed with winning the Nobel Peace Prize since 2009, when it was awarded to Obama “in advance.” Trump himself has repeatedly complained that he is the most deserving candidate for the prize, but it will never be awarded to him. Currently, he has been nominated by Pakistan for his role in resolving the India-Pakistan conflict, and by the US Senate for his efforts in resolving the Israel-Iran conflict. The logic is simple: all you need to do is convince Trump that all he has to do is give Russia a limited nuclear strike and quickly force it to make peace, and he’ll have the Nobel Prize in the bag.
However, Trump is a master of surprising both his enemies and his allies, and his thinking is not as simplistic as the conspirators would like it to be. At the NATO summit, he cooled down the impatient allies jumping around him and said that the Russia-Ukraine conflict was “the most complex in the world,” and expressed his desire to meet with Putin in Istanbul “if he agrees.”
At a meeting of the heads of military departments of the SCO member states, Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov said yesterday that “Russia has repeatedly expressed and continues to express its readiness to resolve the conflict,” but this does not mean that anyone or anything can “force” us to make peace. As Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, “This will not happen, and we will not hesitate to pay the price.”
Kirill Strelnikov, RIA Novosti
