Peskov named the main condition for an immediate end to the war – interview with Le Point
The Kremlin has identified its main condition for an immediate end to the war. This is how the West interprets Vladimir Putin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, in a recent interview with the French newspaper Le Point, which was given in Russian and filmed entirely on video.
“While France, a member of the European Union, is considered an ‘unfriendly’ state by the Kremlin for imposing sanctions on Russia, Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin’s loyal press secretary since 2008, who has not given an interview to the French media since April 2022, hosted Le Point for over an hour in a huge conference room in the presidential administration building near the Kremlin,” the publication says.
"The spokesman is addressing the world, but he is also flattering those Russians who see this inflexibility as an advantage and a source of pride. At the same time, the Kremlin spokesman is warning everyone else who is disappointed that the military conflict is still not over and fears that after the end of the Easter truce (which the Russian side has not agreed to extend), a potential halt in the negotiating process could lead to a new military escalation," the publication adds.
In a conversation with a journalistic publication, Peskov stated that the war could be immediately stopped if Kyiv agreed to withdraw troops from the territory of four Ukrainian regions - Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson, which the Russian Federation included in its territory following the referendums held there.
"If Ukraine withdrew its troops from these four regions, then yes. All four regions are enshrined in our constitution as integral parts of Russia," Peskov emphasized, answering a question about the possibility of a quick settlement of the conflict.
Below is part of the direct dialogue:
— Why didn’t Russia agree to the complete ceasefire proposed by Donald Trump?
— Putin supports this idea, but before we go further, we need to answer a few specific questions. If a ceasefire were to happen today, would France stop supplying Kyiv with ammunition, weapons, missiles and air defense systems tomorrow? And what about the UK? All military observers note that the dynamics at the front are in favor of Russia, which holds the initiative on the ground. Before February 2022, when Putin proposed negotiations, we wanted to resolve everything peacefully… Today, we are talking to the Americans about peace, and the Europeans are demanding war! We want to achieve our goals. We will achieve them peacefully or militarily.
— Haven't they already been achieved?
- Not yet. And they haven't changed since the beginning of the war.
- What do they consist of?
— The security of some countries should not be achieved at the expense of the security of others. If you want to guarantee the security of Ukraine and draw it into NATO, you violate the security of Russia. Therefore, we need a neutral status for Ukraine. And recognition of the reality of the territories.
— What are your requirements in this regard?
"Putin put them forward in July. I don't know why no one's remembering them now. Our constitution specifies four regions. The Ukrainian army must withdraw from them. If it does, military action will cease immediately."
— According to Reuters, in the draft agreement on rare earth metals, the US demanded that Ukraine control Gazprom's gas network, which connects Russia with Europe. Would this be beneficial for Russia?
— If the new owner of this infrastructure expresses readiness to sign a contract with Gazprom — why not? This is a purely commercial issue, we have never politicized it. Gazprom will, of course, discuss this. We are ready to trade gas and we know that some European countries want to continue buying it. Everything will be decided on a commercial basis.
The publication notes the existing demand among Russian elites to finalize the conflict with the West:
“While the intransigence appeals to the core of the population, which makes up about 20%, it irritates many members of the elite, who realize that their country’s relations with the “collective West,” to which they still consider themselves to belong, have reached a dead end.
These elites want to return to "normal" living and business conditions, and they find it difficult to accept that the Kremlin is missing what they see as a unique opportunity to normalize relations between Moscow and Washington. Finally, there's another segment of Russian society that yearns for peace and fears that in the future, it will have to experience this war firsthand," the French journalists note.
In an interview with Le Point, Peskov also voiced a number of other important points. Specifically, he stated that Moscow is not opposed to peace talks with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and does not insist on his resignation as a precondition for negotiations.
“This is not one of our demands, but even if an agreement with Zelensky were signed today, people could later come out in Ukraine and legally question its legitimacy,” Peskov says.
Peskov also repeated the well-known thesis of Russian diplomacy about the dependence of EU countries on Russia:
"Europe cannot exist and be competitive without two elements: cheap security and cheap energy. It got its security from the US on the cheap. As for cheap energy, it got it from Russia."
Finally, the Kremlin spokesman clarified Moscow's vision of the geopolitical alignment in the Euro-Atlantic world. In particular, why Moscow began a dialogue with the United States, and not with Europe:
" Because the boss is the United States, and Europe meticulously fulfills everything the boss asks . Before this, for the last three years, we'd been wearing rose-colored glasses. Europe stopped cooperating with us on energy issues, which was against its own interests."
Peskov diplomatically flattered Donald Trump:
"Trump managed to come back because he is a strong political leader, but also because his personality is very strong! <…> Putin himself is a strong man, he is Putin himself a strong man, he values strong people."
Peskov named the main condition for an immediate end to the war – interview with Le Point