World News: Trump and Putin Seek to Resurrect the Iron Curtain

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Category: World News - Europe

Published on Tuesday, 11 February 2025 09:37

Written by Olivier Longhi

The Ukrainian Conflict, now entering its third year, is confronting another unknown as Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin aim to transform Eastern Europe into a, possibly walled, buffer zone that would avoid a direct confrontation.

It has become common to say that the war in Ukraine, has reshuffled the cards of European geopolitics. The appetite of Putin's Russia has not found a credible and sufficiently armed opposition, apart from the United States, to thwart its ambitions.

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However, one reality is emerging today: we will have to deal with a conquering Russia, or at least one full of territorial ambitions on the continent, at least as long as Vladimir Putin is President. Who will channel the former KGB agent? Some, and rightly, are obviously thinking of the United States, which is the only one, from all points of view, capable of opposing Vladimir Putin. The question is therefore to set the terms of the compromise that will unite the two giants by making the security of Eastern Europe the major issue in the negotiations to come.

Ukraine, Russia and the World's Policeman

Whether it's Donald Trump or Vladimir Putin, both obviously have an interest in agreeing on the security issue. If the centre of gravity has shifted, in a post-Cold War world, from Western Europe to Eastern Europe, the two protagonists are in no way inclined to confront each other directly, in fact looking for a buffer zone from which Ukraine could pay the price.

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This is what the recent statement of the American president subliminally implies by stating that one day, "Ukraine could be Russian... The sentence leaves us dreaming and opens up a field of comments and multiple suppositions that delight the Kremlin tenant who did not expect so much. Does this mean that there is a tacit and objective alliance between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin?

The official answer is no and the United States, as the world's policeman, supports the attacked Ukraine. Unofficially, the situation is quite different and redrawing the borders of Eastern Europe is not a problem for President Trump, for whom a population displacement, as announced in Gaza, is already not a problem, so rethinking borders....

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Disengagement and Poland

Another point, and not the least, is to see Ukraine suffer territorial divisions with serious geographical, human and economic consequences without it being able to give its opinion. Tossed between Russian expansionist tendencies and the United States' desire for disengagement wanted by Donald Trump, Ukraine could thus turn into a Gordian knot that few will dare to cut, sacrificed on the altar of tranquility, or at least supposed as such, as Poland was in 1939, abandoned to Nazi Germany in exchange for a peace that was shattered.

Dealt with in the chapter of current affairs, the Ukrainian question risks escaping the first concerned, the Ukrainians, to the benefit of Vladimir Putin, reinforced in current and future territorial claims, Donald Trump, in a hurry to settle a diplomatic issue seen as a dross to be evacuated as soon as possible.

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Bio: Olivier Longhi has extensive experience in European history. A seasoned journalist with fifteen years of experience, he is currently a professor of history and geography in the Toulouse region of France. He has held a variety of publishing positions, including Head of Agency and Chief of Publishing. A journalist and recognized blogger, editor, and editorial project manager, he has trained and managed editorial teams, worked as a journalist for various local radio stations, was a press and publishing consultant, and was a communications consultant.