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The Kremlin will not go to peace talks until the Russian army succeeds in ousting the Armed Forces from the Kursk region. This is reported by the Russian opposition publication "Verstka" with reference to sources close to the Kremlin.
According to them, Putin is ready to talk "at least about freezing the war", but not now.
"We will conduct negotiations only from a position of strength," says an interlocutor close to the Kremlin. He explains that it is necessary to knock out the ZSU from the Kursk region so that Moscow does not look as if it has "gone backwards".
The Kremlin believes that they have enough time for this, as negotiations mediated by the United States will not begin until January 20 - the date of Donald Trump's inauguration.
"Actually, there will be no negotiations as long as the Armed Forces are stationed in the Kursk region. The task is to knock them out by the end of the year," a second source close to the administration of the "president" of the Russian Federation explained to Vörstke.
The third source adds that at the moment Moscow is not yet open to direct negotiations. According to him, it is Putin who will have to propose an end to the war after Russian troops take control of the entire territory of the Kursk region.
The same source claims that even before the entry of the Armed Forces into the Kursk region, it was allegedly planned to agree on the cessation of mutual strikes on energy, in order to proceed to negotiations on ending the war. But allegedly, it was the Kursk operation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine that disrupted these plans.
The prospect of peace negotiations
As I wrote, after his election victory, Trump held a series of telephone conversations with European leaders. According to Bloomberg, in one of these conversations he allegedly made it clear that he intends to demand concessions not only from Kyiv, but also from Moscow in order to make peace.
Analysts of the American Institute for the Study of War believe that Putin, on the contrary, is sure that Trump will listen to him in everything and will actually play on Moscow's side during the negotiations.
