What is Putin implying with this joke? Recently, during a meeting in Moscow with U.S. President's envoy Timothy Weeks and Jared Kushner, son-in-law of Donald Trump, Putin recounted the following anecdote:
Imagine a fraudster who built several villas near Kyiv, only to be summoned for questioning by Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU).
The investigator asked: "Where did your money come from?"
He replied: "I took it from the bedside cabinet."
"Who put the money into the cabinet?"
"My wife."
"And where did your wife’s money come from?"
"I gave it to her."
"Then where did your money come from?"
"From the bedside cabinet."
Putin concluded: "That creates a closed loop."
What exactly is Putin suggesting with this story? Could it be a veiled critique of the logic underpinning Europe’s proposed peace framework? The European approach advocates for an immediate ceasefire, followed by the deployment of foreign troops to Ukraine post-truce.
From Russia’s perspective, such a sequence implies that the presence of foreign military forces in Ukraine after a ceasefire could ultimately reignite conflict. In this scenario, the ceasefire itself fails to address Russia’s core security concerns—and may instead trigger a new cycle of confrontation.
Is this what Putin means by a “closed loop”? Putin
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1881786585409543/
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone.