Russian President Vladimir Putin has rediscovered the vocabulary of peace at the precise moment his army is taking Ukraine apart, one bridge and one power station at a time.
On September 25, addressing Russian journalists, he said that every proposal for settling the four-and-a-half-year war remained on the table, then attached the condition that empties the offer of content. “We are ready for talks and to wrap them up as soon as possible, but on conditions acceptable for the Russian people,” Putin said. Moscow would first assess what served its own interests.
