Comment by Evgeny Dainov:
From the very beginning, there were doubts that the “28 points“ of the “Trump peace plan“ were actually written in the Kremlin and sent to the White House with instructions to promote them as their own. This was the case even before the leak of recordings of conversations between Trump's friend Witkoff and Russian agents.
In this regard, Reuters wrote that “according to three sources familiar with the matter, the 28-point plan is based on a document prepared by Russia and presented to the Trump administration in October. The Russians shared the document with senior American officials in mid-October after a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington, Reuters sources also said.
A huge scandal
And no, it's not that the text looks like a Google Translate translation that has preserved Russian syntax and word order. The Russians use a strange but easily recognizable "Russian" English; and the document was published in that very language.
And that means that it was most likely written in the Kremlin by Russians, translated in the Kremlin by Russians to be presented as American. This is a titanic scandal. The Americans involved in it should be held accountable for treason. It is more interesting, however, to understand what scheme the Russians tried to implement.
Anyone who has followed what the Russians call diplomacy is also familiar with their following approach to negotiations with the West; it is a variant of the "active measures", which are a favorite tool of the KGB. Some Russian speaks in the corridor, informally, to some susceptible Western negotiator. He says: "Insert such and such a gesture towards us into the negotiating framework and we will respond accordingly". The Westerner, accustomed to living in a world of reasonable compromises achieved by well-intentioned and honest people, inserts such a gesture into the document being prepared. The Russians immediately say: “This is a good start, but we want 16 more things“.
This time Putin tried to make things simpler and more brutal. He clearly tried to push his document as American, then included it in the “scheme“ and praised it: “This is a good start, but we will have to talk about more things“. He had already put in the “points“ everything he wanted at that moment; but he was preparing the ground for more demands.
Do you remember what Medvedev said?
Anyone who knows the mentality of official Russia is aware of the ideas about the world that the Russians are trying to push such a trick on. A large part of the leading Russian politicians despise Westerners. They consider them corrupt, unprincipled and weak. This was evident at the meeting of Putin's Security Council that started the war. This was the place where former Prime Minister Medvedev said, in response to the question of how the West would react to the invasion of Ukraine: "They will do as they always do. They will be indignant, they will make noise - and then they will crawl over, bringing us as a gift things that we did not even ask for."
This time, however, the Westerners did not follow this scenario. It was with their help that Ukraine not only survived, but also crippled the Russian armed forces for decades to come. But suddenly, just as the Russian army was bogged down in the western part of Donetsk - Donald Trump became president again. And the Russians decided that the matter was over: what they could not take from the Ukrainians and the Europeans, they would take from him. They will achieve victory not on the battlefield, but on the political, with his help.
How this plot failed
This plot has been going on for months, but it was foiled by the Russians themselves. In the process of establishing control over Trump, they again began to despise Westerners and apparently tried to do something unprecedented: not to trick Trump into promising them something, and then to demand more things, but to "drop" their own document to him and trick him into presenting it as his. The moment the "28 points" appeared, the inhabitants of the Kremlin were patting each other on the backs, opening bottles and drinking vodka from water glasses.
The reasons why this scheme did not work, some Russians will never understand. Because they are clearly unable to understand the power of democracy, as they consider it a colorful smokescreen that the strong let out to deceive the weak. The strength of democracy is that power is dispersed in an unimaginable number of places. And from any such place, resistance can come against the madness unleashed from the top of the power pyramid.
From the moment they were published, the “28 points” encountered resistance from some mainstream American media outlets, as well as leading figures - both Democrats and Republicans - in the US Congress. European politicians revolted, and even Kremlin friends like Viktor Orbán found themselves forced to support this rebellion.
Work on the “real document“ on Ukraine
Inside the White House, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, pressured by the plots of Russian allies in the president's entourage, also resisted, although not publicly. He carried out a brilliant propaganda maneuver, telling senators that the “points” were Russian. He later recognized them as American, but in the process of this maneuver he had already managed to regain the power over foreign policy that had been taken from him. And he immediately found himself in Geneva, where he began work with the Ukrainians and Europeans on a real diplomatic document without Russian syntax and word order.
Thus, the institutions took power away from the amateurs and traitors. The latter are now running around frantically to regain their influence and get things back in line with Russian interests. But the hive of democracy has been awakened, and its institutions - mobilized. In this situation, old tricks from the KGB era will not work.