Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appears with Maria Bartiromo to discuss the upcoming summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump.

Bessent notes the backseat demands from EU leaders with their position on the Trump negotiation strategy has worn thin amid their hypocrisy.  “It’s time to put up or shut up,” Bessent says, when talking about how the EU is still facilitating the economic purchases of Russian energy products, while simultaneously demanding Trump do this and that. WATCH:

I am cautiously optimistic for a positive outcome from this summit.

DETAILS ON THE SUMMIT BELOW

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White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt appears on Fox News morning show to preview one of the most important geopolitical meetings in the last decade.

President Trump and Vladimir Putin will hold a private session together, then later in the day tomorrow appear for a joint press conference.  WATCH:

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We will host a designated open thread for live discussion of the Trump-Russia summit in Alaska tomorrow.

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Today the leaders from Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Poland, Finland, the E.U. and NATO will be holding a conference call with President Trump and Vice President Vance to give instructions in advance of the Trump-Putin summit.

None of the European leaders were invited to the Alaska summit, yet all of the European leaders want to tell President Trump what to do at the summit with President Vladimir Putin.  Because, of course they do…

EUROPE – […] The Europeans recognize that they can only do so much to influence a president who often veers off-script and likes nothing more than to declare a deal.

But on Ukraine recently they have met with some success, for example, by persuading Trump to allow them to transfer U.S. weapons to Ukraine and purchase replacements for themselves.

And in recent days, especially after a meeting with Vice President JD Vance in Britain over the weekend, they have found the U.S. administration receptive to some of their red lines.

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I think many of us really like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. He’s not generally a man who pretends things amid the EU coalition. Orban says things clearly, just like Trump.

[SOURCE]

When Orban notes he will not sign a joint EU statement on the Trump/Putin summit because it “sets conditions for a meeting to which leaders of the EU were not invited,” he certainly hits the proverbial nail.

The hubris amid the EU collective is quite remarkable.

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The intellectually honest political watcher knows that overall Ukraine represents the largest international money laundering operation to shift wealth from taxpayers to the politically connected institutions, since COVID-19.  The money is the motive to continue the conflict.

With President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin scheduled to meet in Alaska for a summit to negotiate a ceasefire, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz quickly organizes a meeting between EU leaders and the U.K to figure out how the keep the war going.

As the industrial capital of the EU, Germany has a lot at stake given the nature of their contracting economy. The EU military industrial complex is centered around the nation Merz represents. There are trillions at stake.

BERLIN — U.S. President Donald Trump will join European leaders including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for an emergency virtual summit on Wednesday.

The call, organized by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, comes ahead of Friday’s summit in Alaska between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on the war in Ukraine.

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The ever-dramatic Margaret Brennan is in full pearl-clutching mode as she questions NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte, about the upcoming meeting between horrible President Trump and even more horrible President Putin.  It is simply unfathomable to allow a U.S. President to create a strategic reset with a Russian President.

As Brennan acts out the role, she highlights how it is unimaginable, terrible, and just a no good bad thing. Horrid.

NATO Secretary Rutte is quite happy with the new funds flowing into the NATO alliance as organized by President Trump. Rutte sits atop a new cache of taxpayer funded treasure for the alliance to organize; from his perspective Trump is gold, and Brennan gnashes her teeth throughout.

Funnily, Brennan attempts to spin a Trump-Putin agreement for a ceasefire with Trump triggering World War III by getting the beginning of a peace deal over the finish line.  If Trump creates peace, the world will explode or something.  WATCH: 

Rutte missed the opportunity to ask Mrs Brennan if she can hear herself.  lol

[Transcript] – MARGARET BRENNAN: We turn now to NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte, who joins us from The Hague in the Netherlands. Welcome back to Face The Nation.

NATO SECRETARY GENERAL MARK RUTTE: Margaret, it’s good to be back on the show. Good morning.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Good morning. Well, Mr. Secretary General, big picture here; is Russia’s Vladimir Putin still a direct threat to the Western alliance, or is he showing some signs of dropping his aggression?

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According to CBS, President Trump is freezing out the CIA in advance of the meeting between himself and Vladimir Putin in Alaska next Friday.  The general auspices are that President Trump has instructed his intelligence team not to discuss the details of the meeting with the 5-eyes countries (U.K, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the U.S. CIA); however, the coded message is smartly for the administration to be careful with the CIA.

From this proactive move, we can infer that at least a few people around Trump (Witkoff, Rubio) understand how the USIC will work to throw a wrench in any geopolitical reset.  As the former Chair of the SSCI, Rubio holds a great deal of value in negotiating this issue.

The friction point becomes clear when you listen to Ukrainian MP Yehor Cherniev criticize a proposal to exchange Ukrainian territory that is currently occupied by Russian forces.  WATCH:

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Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is once again rejecting any consideration for President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss terms for a ceasefire without his involvement.

On a Twitter storm Saturday, Zelenskyy rejected the thought of giving any Ukranian territory to Russia in exchange for peace. “The answer to the Ukrainian territorial question already is in the Constitution of Ukraine. No one will deviate from this—and no one will be able to. Ukrainians will not gift their land to the occupier,” Zelenskyy said.

President Trump announced that he would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on August 15, in Alaska.

Zelenskyy reacted, carrying the message from the global intelligence community who support the ongoing conflict, and does not like the idea of the USA and Russia determining the outcome for Ukraine.

Zelenskyy has banned opposition parties in Ukraine, taken control of media, targeted religious groups who he claims are subversive to his interests and cancelled elections in order to remain in power.  Now Zelenskyy hides behind the claim of a constitution his regime modified in order to ensure he alone controls the pathways to peace.

(Via NBC) – A defiant Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared Saturday that his countrymen “will not give their land to occupiers,” after President Donald Trump suggested that a peace deal would include some “swapping” of territories with Russia.

“The answer to Ukraine’s territorial question is already in the constitution of Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said in a message on Telegram early Saturday. “No one will and no one can deviate from it. Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier.” (more)

It has been reported that Vladimir Putin’s ceasefire terms include Russia totally controlling the Donbas region.

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I would approach this Polish media report with a note of caution and skepticism.  The reason is not what most might think about.  The CIA/GCHQ will likely be conducting covert IC propaganda operations to disrupt Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin from reaching any agreement. {NOTED HERE} Therefore, for the next several weeks we should watch the sourcing of the media reports to identify familiar patterns.

A Polish media outlet is reporting to have gained insight into the deal carried by President Trump special envoy, Steve Witkoff.  As outlined, both President Trump and President Putin would be working from this framework.

POLAND – Although Onet does not name its sources, it says that the proposal was coordinated with European states. “We have learned that Moscow received a very favorable offer from the Trump administration,” the outlet reported.

According to Onet, the US proposal includes:

・A ceasefire in Ukraine, though not a full peace agreement.

・De facto recognition of Russian-occupied territories by postponing the status issue for 49 or 99 years.

・The lifting of most sanctions imposed on Russia and, in the long term, a return to energy cooperation – namely, imports of Russian gas and oil.

Meanwhile, the proposal reportedly does not include guarantees against NATO expansion – one of Moscow’s consistent demands.

Russia did not receive any promises that military support for Ukraine would cease. However, according to the outlet, this last point is said to be acceptable to the Russians. (read more)

Broadly, this type of an outline makes sense; particularly the three main points and the removal of the sanctions.  President Trump has noted repeatedly it was short-sighted for the Western financial system to think they could hurt Russia directly with the 2021 economic sanctions, given the pre-existing sanctions already in place since 2014.

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The Kremlin is announcing that President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have agreed to meet in person and have agreed to the venue.  The meeting will take place “in coming days,” which indicates soon.

LONDON — The Kremlin on Thursday said Russia President Vladimir Putin agreed to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump, though a specific date or location has yet to be announced.

Putin adviser Yuri Ushakov said that a “meeting between Putin and Trump (will take place) in the coming days,” adding that “work on the summit has now begun,” the Kremlin says.

Ushakov said that White House special envoy Steve Witkoff had raised the idea of a trilateral meeting between Putin, Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy but that the upcoming meeting would only be between Trump and Putin, the Kremlin said.

“The venue of the meeting between the presidents of the Russian Federation and the United States, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, has been agreed, and the Kremlin will inform about it later,” Ushakov said.

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