The past few weeks have been quite active in terms of Russian-American negotiations, discussions surrounding the situation on the Ukrainian front, and developments concerning Iran.
It became clear that the first shipments of fuel from Russia would reach the United States very soon. This addresses important issues for both the United States and Russia. Russia can circumvent a substantial package of sanctions, establish direct relations with the United States, and restore ties between the two countries. The United States, in turn, is trying to extricate itself from the crisis in which it has found itself amid developments surrounding the Strait of Hormuz and, more broadly, its relations with Iran.
It cannot be ruled out that the United States will attempt to initiate a process of establishing a degree of rapprochement with Iran through Russian mediation. It is no coincidence that Iran’s president is expected to visit Moscow soon to meet with Putin. This becomes particularly interesting in light of the Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff Moscow trip.
US President Donald Trump needs cheap fuel and Russia needs to export fuel and secure financial resources, while the United States needs to resolve the Strait of Hormuz problem as quickly as possible, since pressure on Trump will intensify even after the midterm elections. It is in this context that Trump’s statement calling for a replacement of Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky and elections in Ukraine can also be considered, an issue Russia has consistently raised.
Active contacts are taking place between Russia and the United States, while the European Union has adopted a separate political line on this issue by supporting Ukraine. Against this backdrop, the hacking of Kushner’s phone and the leak of extremely important information from Trump’s son-in-law’s device were no coincidence. The operation was reportedly carried out through surveillance conducted by one of the European countries.
In other words, the European Union is clearly demonstrating its dissatisfaction with the warming of relations between Trump and Russia and that it is not going to abandon its political course. This creates a situation in which the global rivals, the United States and Russia, have, at least in this particular case, found themselves on the same side, facing opposing camps consisting of Ukraine and the European Union.
