Sept. 1—The spokeswoman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, as reported by RT, repeated at the Aug. 29 press briefing what should be obvious: Security guarantees must work for both Ukraine and Russia, as one-sided thinking steers Europe into enlarged warfare. She first said that any guarantees must be based on an “understanding that takes into account the security interests of Russia.” Those, of course, would include dealing with the eastward expansion of NATO to Russia’s borders. Further, she explained that a settlement must ensure Ukraine’s demilitarization, denazification, neutral and non-nuclear status, and recognition of the territorial realities.

She explained that such guarantees follow upon dealing with the root issues: “It is necessary to understand that providing security guarantees is not a condition, but a result of a peaceful settlement based on eliminating the root causes of the conflict in Ukraine, which, in turn, will guarantee the security of our country.”

But she also amplified on the current, defective situation, saying that, so far, the Western proposals only “lead to destabilization… The options proposed by the Collective West are one-sided, built with the obvious expectation of containing Russia… they increase the risk of NATO being drawn into an armed conflict with our country.” They would “secure Kyiv’s role as a strategic provocateur on Russia’s borders.”

"What was interesting about the Trump-Putin dialogue in Anchorage is that it seemed to proceed from a different view rather than the standard NATO line that Russia intends to take over all of Europe, and Ukraine is the first wedge of that attack," said a source familiar with the discussions. "Trump, whatever his other defects might be, truly believes that Russia invaded Ukraine to prevent its absorbtion into NATO and to halt its provocations against Russian-speaking population in the country. He absolutely does not see Putin as having the absurd ambition to take over the rotting countries that comprise NATO. This is propaganda, but Trump asks, why would Putin want those problems, and risk a general thermonuclear war? So, Trump sees NATO and Zelenskyy as the problem here, infected with mass Russophobia, which was mirrored in the fake "Russia-Russia-Russia" campaign against him, which was a British-NATO-Soros operation. He talks about the need for security guarantees to satisfy NATO, but he really thinks that Putin has no intention of restarting the war, once Trump helps stop it."