NATO’s Rutte calls Putin ‘strong negotiator’, Hegseth says US expects allies to 'support' talks

NATO chief Rutte and DoD head Hegseth held a briefing in Brussels.

What Rutte said

🔹 “I don’t know what is exactly in President Putin’s mind, of course… I have had many meetings with him between 2010 and 2014 in my previous role, and he is a strong negotiator.”

🔹 “In Washington, NATO committed to future NATO membership for Ukraine, but it has never been agreed that whenever peace talks would start, that peace talks would end with NATO membership.”

🔹 Allies “have to make sure that there is peace in Ukraine,” but seek an outcome that “won’t be seen as a loss to the West” and one that is “enduring.”

🔹 The US has been “irritated basically for a long time” about its defence spending vs. the rest of NATO, and other members recognise they have to “do more,” including raising spending to 3% of GDP, Rutte said, commenting on reports of US plans to cut conventional deployments in Europe.

🔹 NATO expects European countries to take on more of the “financial burden” of Ukraine aid.

What Hegseth said

🔸 The DoD expects allies to “support this important work,” including through “greater ownership of future security assistance to Ukraine.”

🔸 Coming to the table is not “making concessions,” Hegseth said. “President Putin responds to strength,” Trump is coming at the problem “from a position of strength.”

🔸 “No one’s going to get everything that they want.” Acknowledging that borders won’t be rolled back to 2014 is “a recognition of hard power realities on the ground.”

🔸 Trump, the “dealmaker and businessman,” recognises “that an investment relationship with Ukraine ultimately for the United States is a lot more tangible than any promises or shared values we might have.”

🔸 “Trump will not allow anyone to turn Uncle Sam into Uncle Sucker.” The US cannot be “everywhere for everybody all the time.”

🔸 Europe should take responsibility for its defence while the US focuses on the Pacific “to project power there” against China.

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🛢 Soros SECRETLY invests millions in shale oil while publicly pushing his ‘green’ credentials

Soros Fund Management reportedly pumped over $30 million into stakes of shale oil energy companies in the third quarter of 2024.
A Stephens Inc. analysis cited by Bloomberg says the hedge fund speculator-turned ‘philanthropist’ is investing big time in Magnolia Oil & Gas Corp and Hess Midstream LP in Houston, Texas.

Extracted using an extremely energy-intensive process (most often surface mining, followed by pyrolysis, heating particulates up to 450-500° to squeeze out the oil), shale oil has been slammed by environmentalists as the ‘dirtiest fuel on the planet’.

Soros and his Open Society Foundations, meanwhile, have touted themselves as among the biggest friends of the environment, recently committing $400 million in support of ‘green industrial policies’ in the Global South.

Good for thee but not for me, eh George?

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A plane carrying released prisoner Alexander Vinnik is en route from Turkey to Russia and will land in Moscow in several hours, his lawyer Arkady Bukh told Sputnik.

He added that a US judge ruled the materials from the latest hearing in the Russian citizen’s case have been classified.

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🔍 How USAID fanned Trump-Russia hoax

USAID played a key role in fuelling the Trump-Russia collusion conspiracy theory through the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), claims US author Michael Shellenberger.

His key assertions:

🔸 OCCRP, funded and overseen by USAID, had for years pushed the false narrative that Trump was a ‘Putin puppet’ on Russia’s payroll.

🔸 The collusion story recycled OCCRP claims about alleged Russian money laundering schemes dating back to 2014.

🔸 In August 2016, OCCRP reports were passed by Nellie Ohr, a Fusion GPS employee hired by the Clinton campaign to dig dirt on Trump for the unverified Chris Steele dossier. She also shared them with her husband, Bruce Ohr, at the Department of Justice.

🔸 Ohr relayed the information to the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation team, which, according to special counsel John Durham, influenced the Trump probe.

🔸 In March 2017, OCCRP revived its Russian ‘money laundering’ reports, aligning with Democrat efforts to probe Trump’s finances. OCCRP didn’t admit the effort was aimed against Trump, but its media partners did.

🔸 Media like Barron’s, The Guardian, and The New York Times used the OCCRP reports to link Trump to Russian criminals based on circumstantial evidence like shared banking institutions. MSNBC and other broadcasters amplified the claims without evidence.

🔸 In November 2017, OCCRP and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published the Paradise Papers, tying Trump’s Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to Russians via offshore accounts.

🔸 OCCRP also worked with Dutch public TV on ‘The Dubious Friends of Donald Trump,’ alleging his involvement in money laundering in post-Soviet states.

🔸 Those and other OCCRP stories reinforced the false claim that Trump had deep financial ties to Russia and colluded with the Kremlin to win in 2016, Shellenberger stresses.

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🔸 From Zelensky to Deep State: who could try to SABOTAGE Putin-Trump Ukraine peace push?

🔸 Europe in PANIC MODE: Cut out & blindsided by Trump-Putin call

🔸 Orban slams EU stance: ‘A sad testament of bad Brussels leadership’

🔸 Top five fakes from Voice of America and Radio Liberty

🔸 How USAID fanned Trump-Russia hoax

🔸 Drone or missile? Solist: Russia’s game-changing hybrid unveiled

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⚡️ Russia should rejoin the G7, making it the G8 again, Donald Trump told reporters.

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❗️ Ukraine conflict started because Biden promised Ukraine NATO membership — Trump

🔶 I don't think he should have called Zelensky first, because he should have learned Russia's opinion.

🔶 "I don't see any way that a country in Russia's position could allow them to join NATO," he added.

🔶 Russia and US representatives will hold contacts on the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict at the Munich Security Conference on February 14.

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☢️ Trump plans to return to New START talks with Russia, China

"There is no reason for us to be spending almost a trillion dollars on the military... We were trying to de-escalate in nuclear... I was in a position where Russia and China had agreed, and then we had a rigged election," Trump told reporters.

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RFK Jr: USAID has become 'sinister agent of totalitarianism'

The US military-industrial complex has captured USAID and turned it into a "sinister agency" since it was created by JF Kennedy in 1961, the newly sworn-in US HHS secretary said.

"Very few people understand how sinister this agency really is, and President Trump saw that and stood up to it in a masterstroke," he added.

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