Yes, that’s quite a leap I make in the headline. Bear with me. For Putin NOT gaining complete control is a disaster. One that will many think ultimately lead to a 9mm ‘headache’ and an unmarked grave and it’s looking likely. Russia will only have stolen fifteen percent or so of Ukraine if a purported deal is completed. To those in Russia eyeing his position and the people of Russia that won’t be good enough given what it’s cost. This war would probably be over with Ukraine getting a lot more than it will probably have to settle for if not for Trump following Putin’s orders to hold back full support. We’ve all wondered ‘What does Putin have on Trump’ and it occurred to me the answer might be in the Epstein files!
Also grossly entertaining I never thought Trump would stand in a hotel room and watch Russia hooker pee on a bed the Obama’s slept in. Much more believable was Putin setting Trump up with women and getting it on tape. Scandalous but Trump has dodged worse. However Trump partied and screwed women including allegedly underage ones (he’s even alleged to have raped a 13 year old) at Epstein’s NYC Brownstone. That and all the other properties were wired for video and sound and we know, we KNOW the FBI opened up a safe filled with labeled DVDs of various rich and powerful people. And other files. Barr was leading DOJ during Trump’s first term and the news got out. That Trump is on some of them and Epstein kept them until his arrest is a reasonable assumption. It’s also reasonable to assume with international power players intel services of other countries including Russia would have mounted operations to break into that safe and copy everything.
Put those two things together and maybe, just maybe Putin had Trump by the balls long before he was sworn in the first time. Trump and Epstein had had their falling out by then but if Trump didn’t do anything Epstein would have been content to be left alone and get to keep doing what he did. However he also was a “If I go down I’m taking others with me” type of guy and “others” included Trump. Whether the CT about Epstein being murdered because he knew he was going down and was ready to spill the beans is another subject I won’t dig into here. But if still CT it’s on the borderline of being possible. It equally possible and in fact likely that Russia, Israel and China at least knew all about Epstein. His connection to Trump and that other rich and powerful men were recorded at Epstein’s places. They surely had people who could crack that safe and copy everything! I for one believe Russia/Putin at least did exactly that.
Not even Trump would politically survive a video of him raping a 13 year old, or screwing other teenagers for that matter. THAT I’m starting to think is what Putin’s had on Trump all these years. Trump could brazen his way through (probably) recordings of sexual stuff in Russia claiming it was fake. However stuff from one of EPSTEIN’S properties including and especially right there in NYC? Nope. Trump knows damn well Putin has ordered countless actual deaths, and would make good on a threat to carry out a PR/political assassination of Trump with sex tapes. Think about it and tell me I’m crazy.
Why all this matters and I’ve gone through it is an article from The Telegraph that says Putin is about to be ‘knocked off his perch.’ I take that with a grain of salt the size of a salt block we’d put out for the racehorses on the farm I once looked after. Like Trump, every time everyone thought he was cornered and done for he’s slipped out of danger like a greased pig. Still, the author of the linked article makes a compelling case that Putin is on the edge of panic. Trump announcing a peace deal is 95% complete and Zelenskyy echoing that would indeed make Pootie panic and engage in some of the desperate statements and actions we’ve recently seen.
The outlines of the deal will include some things that won’t go over well in Kyiv and the rest of Ukraine. And it’s not a done deal yet. Things could always change in either Russia’s or Ukraine’s favor but that’s more likely for Ukraine than Russia:
Putin understands that his only remaining lever is to drive a wedge between Trump and Zelensky. For much of the past year, Washington appeared uncomfortably sympathetic to Moscow’s framing. That has changed. Trump today is markedly less receptive to Kremlin manipulation than he was a few weeks ago. Quiet but effective engagement by the so-called “coalition of the willing” appears to be steering the White House towards a peace that, while imperfect for Ukraine, is far worse for Moscow.
There is no escaping the reality that the proposed settlement remains deeply unattractive for Kyiv. Ukraine, illegally invaded nearly four years ago, would cede around 17 per cent of its sovereign territory, accept limits on its armed forces and face continued exclusion from Nato. Yet the strategic optics for Russia have deteriorated dramatically. Putin set out to subjugate Ukraine in three days; instead, after four years and an estimated 1.5 million casualties later, he has achieved failure on an industrial scale.
Crucially, US and Nato security guarantees extending 15 years amount to de facto Nato protection. Even more alarming for the Kremlin is Trump’s open discussion of Western boots on the ground. That is Putin’s worst-case outcome. No amount of spin, even at the height of the Kremlin’s propaganda machine, could disguise such an outcome as anything other than defeat.
Defeat. For Russia and more specifically for Putin anything less than a complete takeover of Ukraine is defeat. Putin is already so paranoid when he receives other Russians he’s at one end of a long table and they are fifty feet away at the other end! You can be sure some are eyeing taking over and given all this war has cost Russia Putin is likely a dead man walking unlike he can pull a rabbit out of his ass.
What he’s been counting on is Trump’s re-election turning the tide. As in Trump making it clear that not only is U.S. support in any form for Ukraine does but openly pressuring out NATO allies to withdraw their own. Instead they are working to replace lost U.S. support. Putin has also wanted Trump to let it be known the U.S. wouldn’t honor NATO’s Article 5 if he say invaded Poland which he’s itching to do. Trump has made noises about that but quickly quieted down. There are actual signs that while Putin still has influence on Trump it’s not the vise like grip it was a few months ago.
That brings me back to what might have changed and the fact it might be the Epstein files. Trump is trying like hell not to have them released but that snowball has been nudged off the mountaintop and is slowly rolling down gathering size and speed. Putin can’t stop it any more than Trump can. IF there were Epstein files/tapes that could doom Trump Putin as I said had them before Trump was sworn in back in 2016. He also made sure Trump knew what he had. For Trump, now that HE fears he can delay but not run out the clock on their release Putin’s threats wouldn’t carry the same weight.
Add in Trump’s lust for a Nobel Peace Prize which is now as great as he used to have for wannabe Princess Ivanka and who knows? What if Pootie made a threat and Trump who isn’t close to firing off on all cylinders loses his cool and in effect says (or has said) ‘So what? I’m fighting but people over HERE who actually know shit tell me it’s just a matter of time. If anything YOU releasing what you’ve got might help me hold on and grift for a while longer!’ Yeah, a Trump no longer totally subservient due to fear of what Putin has on him would cause him to panic.
I realize I’m engaging is some serious speculation with this. It’s just a theory but I truly think it’s one that fits many of the facts as we know them. The more time that goes by, the more Zelenskyy and NATO can use that time to get a better deal for Ukraine. Or worse (for Trump) swoop in with their own peace plan that largely cuts down the role of the U.S. Stay tuned because this could wind up being “YUGE.”
A great many of observers certainly hope that “… Putin is about to be ‘knocked off his perch.’…” whilst ‘You Know Who’ rots off his perch, too. The reality is, that these two are very slippery and play by their own rules. However, it may come down to a wait and see game’. Fingers crossed.
If Houdini was alive and at the height of his career he’d look at Trump and Pootie and their escaping certain “death” over and over and say ‘F**kit. I give up’ and retire. Still, while it can take a while for gravity to work eventually it wins out.
Roger that!
I just wonder about the security guarantees. Who was it that promised security going forward when Ukraine gave up their nukes? Why was that not honored when Russia invaded? What confidence do we have that we would honor the new agreement?
Just to note but Russia’s President at the time of the Budapest Memorandum was Boris Yeltsin.
this leaves out the massive deals being worked out by Jared, without and other oligarchs.
but I like the theory that what putin has on trump kis in the epstein files.