Well, yeah, I don't think people should trust Putin, but sometimes a negotiation is not about trust but rather what everybody gets out of it.
The weird thing about the war in Ukraine is, what does Putin get out of it?
What does Europe and the US get out of it?
When I look at it, I don't see a lot of good coming out of this on Putin's side of things. Sure, if he could absorb Ukraine back into Russia, that is a win but looking how this is playing out, all he may get is another small piece of Ukraine at a rather large cost. Essentially, Russia attacked a much smaller country that was completely outmatched. Basically, the way that went was not good for Vlad. It's dragged on and on, and what it looks like is, this was never a war about Ukraine, it was a war fought to weaken Putin and expend a lot of resources to drain and weaken the Russian military...for the benefit of Europe and the US.
Putin appeared to have two major desires in Ukraine, one that the promise was kept that Ukraine would never enter NATO, and two that they continued to have control over Crimea and the port of Sevastopol. Those were his two priorities there.
It sure looked to me that he took his time, kept putting out warnings, kept listening to flirtations of expanding NATO into Ukraine, slowly amassed troops on the border, and waited for a negotiation. In the meantime, the US went nuts like their hair was on fire screaming Russia was going to attack Ukraine while Ukraine weirdly kept begging the US to stop doing that.
Then once Putin pulled the trigger, wow, the media here sold us on this great heroic war, a fight for democracy, and this new hero to the world Zelensky. I kind of feel like Zelensky was put in a position where he now had to wage this war, he did not want to wage, just to help the US and the rest of Europe take Putin down a few pegs.
It's Europe and the US that seem to have a way to benefit from this war, and the way they sold it to us so hard made me suspicious in a big way.
I have no inside info, just what I have read, and to me it all looks like a snow job to cause problems for Putin. Everything seems designed to extend the war, not to bring it to a close.
