"I can no longer be afraid of America." This was a message from Vladimir Putin to the American and global leadership as a new nuclear submarine was launched in Murmansk in the far north of Russia last Thursday.
Putin loves symbolism and hidden meanings. This has been his obsession since he became Russian head of state 25 years ago.
The strategic defeat of the United States has been the most cherished dream of the Russian intelligence and the entire Russian leadership.
While all previous Russian leaders were shrewd, stubborn, and anti-American, Putin went one step further, making anti-Americanism one of the pillars of the new Russian ideology.
Can it really be that Vladimir Putin trusts President Trump, as he claims, but distrusts America at the same time? No, of course not.
During his public appearance in the Arctic port Murmansk, Putin said he believed that President Trump wanted peace but immediately added that the West could not be trusted.
Vladimir Putin also said that he wanted external governance in Ukraine under the UN mission, knowing full well that this is an organisation that President Trump deeply detests.
Why did Vladimir Putin propose UN mandates in Ukraine, and why did he say the West is not trustworthy while at the same time saying he trusts President Trump?
Another mockery of Trump
It was another mockery of President Trump and the entire isolationist MAGA movement.
Vladimir Putin suggested using UN governance in Ukraine for the same reason he chose a nuclear submarine to send this message to American and global leaders.
Putin estimated that President Trump will neglect and ignore the idea that he wants to publicly humiliate him, while many people in America and around the world will notice this mockery of him.
Putin loves to banter with his opponents in sophisticated, derogatory ways that they occasionally fail to recognise
Vladimir Putin loves to banter with his opponents in sophisticated, derogatory ways that they occasionally fail to recognise. Others, including those in Putin's inner circle and profound Western experts on Kremlinology, can do this very well.
Fiona Hill, an expert on Russia and Putin and senior director at the National Security Council during Trump's first term, recently recalled in an interview with Foreign Affairs how Putin mocked Trump at one of their earlier meetings.
While Putin was discussing Russian hypersonic missiles, President Trump said that he would get them too. Putin responded sarcastically, "You will get them," which, in Russian, sounded like Americans would soon experience hypersonic missiles themselves.
Putin's recent appearance on the nuclear submarine was a continuation of the phrase "You will get them."
Why was Vladimir Putin motivated to go on the offensive?
America showed weakness
Vladimir Putin was probably emboldened by a combination of many recent factors, including:
- Steve Witkoff was so easily willing to repeat the Russian playbook.
- A scandal involving high-ranking American military and intelligence officials using Signal Messenger,
- President Trump's public admission that Vladimir Putin is intentionally wasting time on a peace deal in anticipation of better terms.
Vladimir Putin is not fuelling the conflict because his army is slowly advancing in Ukraine but because he is convinced that America, under the new administration, has not only lost its sincere interest in supporting democratic values in Ukraine but—even more importantly, in the Kremlin's view—is rethinking its global role since the end of the Second World War.
Putin believes that America is now busy identifying business opportunities, such as those offered to the Trump team by Putin's financial adviser, Kirill Dmitriev, and because America is now too busy challenging Mexico, Canada, and other allies, including the EU.
The Kremlin has been slow to recognise that the new American leadership is expressing genuine views about Russia, Europe, and the global order.
Putin came to the conclusion that the new government posed no threat to him, regardless of what he did or said
Earlier, in 2016 and more recently, when President Trump was still running for his second term, the Kremlin could not believe that America would really change its view of its global role so drastically.
A Signal scandal, involving the leaking of confidential information from the American security top, was the final trigger for Vladimir Putin. He came to the conclusion that the new government posed no threat to him, regardless of what he did or said.
Finally, the president's special envoy, along with senior military and intelligence officials, took part in a confidential military conversation over the Signal Messenger while Steve Witkoff was in Moscow, apparently using an internet connection brokered by Russian providers.
How can America be marginalised?
This Signal chat was a green light for Vladimir Putin, and he is no longer afraid of America.
The Kremlin long ago set up several institutes, think tanks, and analytical centres in cooperation with the Foreign Ministry and Russian intelligence services to analyse America and make tactical recommendations about it in anticipation of the Kremlin's ultimate strategic goals:
- At the very least, the removal of America from the global political disposition,
- Facilitate the breakup of America into multiple states.
Everything that is now happening in and to America, including the trade wars with Canada, Mexico, and Europe, ironically fits the Kremlin's agenda
Everything that is now happening in and to America, including the trade wars with Canada, Mexico, and Europe, ironically fits the Kremlin's agenda.
It appears that the Kremlin and Putin have finally come to the conclusion that America can be gently and carefully escorted away from the European political stage just because of MAGA's core beliefs.
Moreover, the Kremlin reckons that this current radical change in American global and domestic policy could hypothetically lead to the ultimate Russian dream—the disintegration of America.
This time, Vladimir Putin praised President Trump while touring a nuclear submarine carrying missiles that he previously said Trump "will get," knowing full well that his message is only meant to be understood by those in America who currently have no voice in the new Trump administration.
