In a blunt statement released on March 10, 2025, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) denounced Great Britain’s scheme to pit the US and Russia against one another, as well as its manipulations to destroy any dialogue between the two countries. The SVR mentioned that “the British leadership sees a threat to its interests in the promotion of dialogue between the US and Russia on resolving the Ukrainian conflict. London fears that this will lead to the failure of the British strategy of containing Moscow… London is extremely irritated by the fact that Donald Trump is conducting a dialogue with Russia as a superpower and demonstrating disdain for its closest allies”.

This statement was drafted in the context of the frantic efforts by British Prime Minister Sir Keir Rodney Starmer to bolster Ukrainian President Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy’s standing, following the February 28 (2025) clash between the latter and US President Donald John Trump at the White House. In fact, British mainstream media have claimed that the ceasefire agreement, originally accepted by Zelenskyy during his talks with US Secretary of State Marco Antonio Rubio on March 11, had actually been worked out by the Starmer Government in order to make Russia appear as the only obstacle to ending the fighting.

Coming back to the SVR statement, it noted (according to TASS) that “the British authorities consider it an ‘urgent priority’ to undermine the peacekeeping efforts of the new American administration on the Ukrainian track”. The media and some specialised NGOs have been “tasked with demonising President Trump, presenting him as a man with a poor track record in peacekeeping, vulnerable to manipulation by the Kremlin. At the same time, the Starmer Cabinet is bending over backwards to strengthen the Kiev regime’s resilience to increasing pressure from Washington….”

It concluded: “As we can see, London today, just as it did on the eve of both World Wars of the last century, acts as the main ‘instigator’ of the global conflict. At the same time, the British, themselves, obviously are again counting on sitting it out on their island. It is time to expose them and send a clear signal to the treacherous Albion and its elites: you will not succeed.”

On March 11, 2025, SVR Director Sergey Naryshkin and CIA Director John Ratcliffe initiated an ongoing process of dialogue in a telephonic discussion focused on “promoting international stability and security, and reducing tensions”, as reported by the SVR.

Trump-Putin Phone Call Gives Reason For Cautious Optimism
The March 18, 2025 phone call between Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump has opened the door to a perspective that has not existed for at least the last 35 years. According to the very preliminary readouts that were available before this issue of our newsletter went to bed, many topics were discussed between the two leaders, which, if realised, could mean an end to the fighting in Ukraine and a much-needed stepping back from the brink of a direct conflict between nuclear powers. It appears they agreed to start with a ceasefire on strikes against energy infrastructure, and proceed from there as more details are worked out in follow-up meetings. The issue of Ukraine joining NATO seems to have been taken off the table, even before the call.

Most importantly, both Trump and Putin seem to have a conscious appreciation of the need to re-establish US-Russia relations, of which the Ukraine conflict is merely a reflection. Both readouts stressed the “upsides” and the “mutual interest” in normalising bilateral relationship that would have an enormously beneficial effect on the whole world and fundamentally change the paradigm defined by British-imperial geopolitics.

However, everything will depend on what actions are concretely taken and on how successful the efforts to sabotage the process will be. It is to be expected that European nations lined up behind London in a strange sort of Coalition of the Willing will continue to try and prevent an end to the war. In fact, since the meeting in Saudi Arabia at which President Zelenskyy accepted a ceasefire, they have constantly repeated the narrative that “the ball is now in Russia’s court” in order to present Moscow as the sole impediment to a settlement.

Despite all the obstacles and complexities, this conflict involves, after decades of geopolitical manoeuvring by the West to use Eastern Europe as a battering ram against Russia, President Trump has remained optimistic that his Russian counterpart sincerely wants an end to the war and the re-establishment of cordial relations with the US and the West. Trump, true to himself, intends to drive a hard deal with Putin, but the Russian President is not one to be intimidated.

While commenting on the ceasefire proposal on March 13, President Putin made a little noticed, but highly important reference. He began by thanking President Trump for his efforts and for “paying so much attention to the Ukraine settlement”, but he also expressed gratitude to the leaders of other nations who have addressed the issue, explicitly mentioning those of China, India, Brazil and South Africa. These nations, of course, are four of the five original members of the BRICS, together with Russia. Some astute observers see this as a subtle way of reminding the West that there are other powers outside of NATO and the trans-Atlantic world, whose voices are being increasingly heard on the world stage.

While some progress is being made on stopping the war in Ukraine, the situation in the Middle East is much more worrisome. The fragile ceasefire in Gaza has been broken, with Israel launching multiple air attacks on March 18, 2025 that killed at least 400 Palestinians, and ground operations are expected to be resumed imminently. Palestinians in parts of eastern Gaza have been ordered to evacuate, causing more distress and suffering, which aid agencies do not have the means to alleviate. A White House spokesperson said that the Israeli authorities had consulted the Trump Administration before starting the operations.

Washington DC has also escalated the conflict with Yemen, launching three nights of aerial attacks on Houthi positions, in retaliation for attacks against US and Israeli ships transiting through the region. President Trump has issued fierce statements, warning that “every shot fired by the Houthis” would be considered as fired by the leadership of Iran, and telling the Houthis that “hell will rain down upon you” unless you stop. This obviously plays into Benjamin ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu’s plan to instigate a direct showdown between Iran and the US.

This article was first published in Executive Intelligence Review (EIR) Strategic Alert weekly newsletter (Volume 39, No. 12) on March 20, 2025.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das