Putin puts the brakes on and delays talks with the United States

MoscowVladimir Putin needed to convert Saudi Arabia's talks between Russia and the United States In a boring technical discussion with no concrete results, they got their way. After more than 12 hours of meetings and three pauses, both delegations postponed the publication of a joint statement until Tuesday. Therefore, for now, neither an agreement for a ceasefire in the Black Sea has been reached nor has it been resolved how the truce on energy infrastructure will be implemented, despite Donald Trump's haste to establish himself as the peacemaker of the conflict.

The Russian envoys landed in Riyadh with orders to delay the talks as long as possible. And so they did. According to the independent media outlet The Moscow Times, the Kremlin's general motto for its emissaries is to discuss "every comma" of the US drafts to give Moscow's troops time to conquer as much territory as possible before sitting down to talk peace. That's why in recent days they have preferred to use the expression "expert group consultations" instead of the usual "negotiations."

During the first morning break, one of the Russian envoys, Senator Grigori Karasin, had already warned that "not all negotiations necessarily end with large-scale agreements." Later, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova recommended not to rely on "breakthroughs," and finally, Kremlin press secretary Dmitri Peskov added that "no document signing" was expected at the end of the meeting. This, despite The expectation generated by a possible agreement to stop attacks on the Black Sea and facilitate Ukrainian grain exports through this route.

Meanwhile, in Washington, as usual, Trump was busy selling progress. "We're talking about territory right now, about boundary lines, about energy, about ownership of the power plant... Some people say that The United States should keep the plant because we have experience with it.", he told reporters. He also stated that he hopes to sign "soon" the agreement with Ukraine for the extraction of rare earth minerals that was cut short following the clash with Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House.

The Ukrainian delegation then used to meet with representatives from Washington. Kiev's hope was to discuss how to implement the energy truce that Moscow unilaterally declared and how to extend it to civilian infrastructure.

Specifically, Russia has once again accused Ukraine of violating the ceasefire on energy infrastructure. The Russian Ministry of Defense has reported several drone launches: the latest, early Monday morning, against an oil facility in Krasnodar, and earlier on Sunday against a gas storage facility in Crimea and on Saturday against a gas distribution plant in Belgorod. For the Russian government, these attacks "once again demonstrate the Kiev regime's inability to negotiate."

Russian analysts had also predicted that the new round of talks between Washington and Moscow would be technical in nature and that no major changes should be expected. For example, journalist Aleksei Naumov asserts that "there will be ten more such meetings" and that for now, "it is more worthwhile to pay attention to the statements around us, such as when Zelensky says that the United States is increasingly beginning to take Russia's word for it."

Refers to the Ukrainian president's words in the magazine Time This Monday, he lamented that US officials buy the Kremlin's narrative even when their own intelligence services contradict them. Zelensky believes that "Russia has managed to influence some people on the White House team." This complaint comes after Trump claimed without evidence that Ukrainian troops had dozens of Ukrainian soldiers surrounded in Kursk, or after special envoy Steve Witkoff approved the illegal referendums on the annexation of occupied Ukrainian territories.