Russia Denies Sending US Signals on Ukraine Peace Talks

Facts

• The Kremlin on Friday denied a report that Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin sent 'feelers' to the US about engaging in talks to bring an end to the war in Ukraine. Speaking to reporters, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: 'That’s false information. It's completely untrue.'¹
• It came a day after Bloomberg, citing two sources close to the Kremlin, said Putin was 'testing the waters' on whether Washington was open to talks. The publication further reported that Putin 'may be willing to consider dropping an insistence on neutral status for Ukraine and even ultimately abandon opposition to eventual NATO membership — the threat of which has been a central Russian justification for the invasion.'²
• According to Reuters, during his daily call with reporters, Peskov was asked about this claim, specifically as to whether Moscow was really ready to give up its demands on neutrality and NATO. 'No, this is a wrong report,' he insisted. 'It absolutely does not correspond to reality.'²
• Meanwhile, in public comments to students on Friday, Putin didn't raise the prospect of peace talks, but insisted: 'We went to great lengths to build our relations with Ukraine over decades,' alleging that the West 'vigorously pursued the establishment of an anti-Russian platform' on the territory of Ukraine. 'They deceived [us], deceived a dozen times in a row about NATO enlargement,' he said.³
• Putin on Friday also made his first public comments to Russian television on the military plane that crashed in Belgorod and killed all those on board, including what Russia says were 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war. He, too, blamed Ukraine as his defense ministry did earlier, saying, 'what happened is a crime. Either through negligence or on purpose, but in any case, it is a crime.'⁴
• The Russian president further refuted theories that Russian 'friendly fire' was responsible for the plane going down. 'There are friend-or-foe systems, and no matter how many times the operator presses the button, our air defense systems would not have engaged.'⁵

Sources: ¹The Moscow Times, ²Reuters, ³TASS, ⁴Al Jazeera and ⁵POLITICO.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by PBS NewsHour. This invasion is an egregious violation of international law. Putin's ultimate aim is to restore the Soviet empire, even if it takes massive bloodshed and false pretexts such as calling the 2014 Ukrainian revolution after an election a 'coup.' This unprovoked attack is the latest chapter in Putin's Orwellian attempt to rewrite history.
• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by National Security Archive. NATO and the US have ignored Russia's security concerns by breaking its promise not to expand eastward in return for German reunification. These concerns are legitimate and taking them seriously would have avoided the Ukraine tragedy.

Predictions