Trump Kabuki Theatre in Ukraine: Nothing of Substance Gets Resolved
By Alastair Crooke, February 17, 2026
The Witkoff negotiation enterprise is distancing Russia from its security imperatives.
It is not a glitch (that nothing gets resolved). It’s a feature. For it opens rather, a path for ‘Business’ to be done – for ‘stakeholder’ deals to be cut, and for billions to be shared out in payoffs. This is Trump’s geo-political transactional model: Business displaces traditional negotiation (at least while the money flows); Money is the politics.
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