The dictator’s appeal to the FSB. Putin proved that he would demand the surrender of the unocal territories of Ukraine and manipulate Trump – analysis of ISW

This is stated in the new report by the Institute of War Study.

ISW analysts have analyzed Putin’s appeal to the Federal Security Service Management (FSB) of the Russian Federation from February 27. In it, the dictator stated that Russia will continue to intensify the operations of the FSB in the Donbass and in the so -called. “Novorossiysk”. And on February 27, a spokesman for the Kremlin Dmitry Peskov repeated the thesis of Russian propaganda that Donbas and Novorossiysk are an “integral” part of Russia.

Isw reminds that Putin and other Russian officials have previously determined Non -existent “Novorossiysk ”as all Eastern and Southern Ukraine (including Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Odessa and Mykolaiv regions) – though the exact limits of this [винятково пропагандистського] The concept is “the subject of controversy among Russian ultradranationalists, experts say.

Earlier, Putin demanded that Ukraine surrender the entire territory of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions, although Russian troops did not fully occupy any of them, seizing the largest territories in Luhansk region. As the analysts of ISW, Putin and other Russian officials regularly make it clear seek to seize the territories of Ukraine even outside the administrative borders of these four partially occupied areas. The renewed official statements of Russia that the fictional region of Novorossiya is allegedly part of Russia, show that Putin retains his maximalist territorial ambitions and does not want to make territorial concessions, ISW emphasize.

Outside the Donetsk region, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhya region, Russian troops are currently occupying a small part Kharkiv region and Kinburn braid in Nikolaevskaya areas as well as trying to move to the border with Dnepropetrovsk area. Therefore, the Kremlin can use Russia’s occupation of some limited territories in these areas as a false prerequisite for demanding even more territories from Ukraine, warning analysts of the Institute of War Study.

ISW continues to estimate that Putin remains uninterested in bona fide negotiations that will require compromises from him, and is convinced that he can achieve his military goals in the medium and long term. At the same time, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on February 26 that if Russia would make maximalist demands that could not be satisfied, then the United States will know that Putin is “serious” to participate in negotiations.

The authors of the ISW report also believe that inThe Kremlin’s Kremlin’s Russian State Propaganda Media for coverage of negotiations between the United States and Russia indicate Putin’s intention to manipulate US President Donald Trump and share the event. Experts drew attention to the data of the Russian edition of the layout, which on February 27 reported with reference to sources among propagandists, about the corresponding instructions of the Kremlin. One of the sources of the publication, which regularly participates in meetings of the Kremlin representatives with the editors of the largest propaganda media, reported that the Kremlin calls them “in every possible way to emphasize that the contacts are not with any abstract Americans, but with the Trump team – a person who was” in every way “. “Like, we were pressed, it was pressed, but we were stronger,” the interlocutor explained this instruction.

Accordingly, propagandists should not “praise Trump personally”, but create an image “A person who had the wisdom to respond to Russia’s hand. ” “In case of negotiations [США таРФ] will not lead to anything [з точки зору інтересів Кремля]we can always say, we tried, we did everything, ”the source of the layout said.

At the same time, Putin praised the Trump administration on February 27, stating that Russia’s first contacts with the administration “giving certain hopes” and that Trump’s team allegedly demonstrates “mutual determination” to restore relations between the US and Russia. Putin thus added that “some Western elites” are trying “maintain instability ”in the world and will try “to break or compromise »started American-Russian dialogue.

It is Putin’s statement that “some Western elites”-but not the Trump administration-oppose US-Russian negotiations are likely to be an attempt to kill a wedge between Trump and other figures in the US and European leaders, ISW said. In a similar way, the Kremlin has recently tried to declare that European leaders are allegedly interested in continuing the war in Ukraine – as part of attempts to falsely present the positions of the United States and Europe in negotiations as significantly different and discredit any possible role in Europe in negotiations.