EDITOR’S NOTE (Nick Stamatakis) The two Greeks – or two Alexes – Alex Christophorou and Alexander Mercuris, of theduran.com, offer a superb analysis of the phone call between Trump and Putin… First, it was Trump, with the tail between his legs, who called Putin… The Russians stated as much in their readout. Trump is looking for an off-ramp from a war that is going badly. Alexander interprets the Russian readout’s terse, formal language (“business-like, frank, constructive”) as a sign that the conversation was tense rather than friendly, with Putin likely criticizing the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran while also outlining possible terms for ending the conflict. The speakers’ core point is that Russia has unique leverage with Iran—diplomatically, economically, and possibly through intelligence and military support—so Trump turned to Putin as the one leader who might help engineer a cessation of hostilities. They also suggest the short readout may indicate that sensitive matters were discussed privately, including energy markets and possible sanction relief for Russian oil.
Alexander Mercuris is clear: Trump knows this is the real end of his presidency…
From there, the video frames the wider conflict as a strategic and political debacle for Trump: promised regime change in Iran did not happen, regional energy markets were disrupted, Gulf states were alarmed, and Trump’s domestic political standing is said to be weakening. The two Alexes think Trump probably does want to de-escalate, but doubt any settlement will be durable because Iran no longer trusts him and the same hawkish advisers could push him back toward confrontation later. Their proposed introduction to a settlement is that Iran should accept a halt in fighting, then use Russian and Chinese help to strengthen its economy, air defenses, and longer-term security rather than pursue nuclear weapons. On the U.S. side, they argue Trump would try to sell any retreat as a victory through political messaging, while distancing himself from advisers they blame for the crisis (like the total disaster Pete Hegseth) and shifting toward a more restrained policy.
===================
00:00 Trump-Putin Call: Iran in Focus
05:00 First Analysis of Call & Russian Stance
10:00 Details: Russian-Iranian Relations
15:00 Trump’s Motives and Strategy
20:00 Internal Pressures, War Impact, Oil Prices
25:00 Can Trump Really Exit?
30:00 Iran’s Security & Strategic Choices
35:00 Potential Russian and Chinese Support
40:00 How Can Trump Sell an Off-Ramp?
45:00 Political Fallout & Next Moves
50:00 Final Thoughts on Outcomes and Advice
Oh, poor disappointed Trump. Da orange man didn’t get to kill enough children. Damn!
One more item to investigate. I read this today.
“This President, called Donald Trump, the same day, 28 February 2026, of the unprovoked attack and of the Supreme Leader’s assassination, by his heart-to-heart buddy Netanyahu / Mossad, calls a party at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, for billionaires. They pay an entrance fee of one million US-dollars per head, for refinancing Trump’s company PAC MAGA Inc. Donald Trump, was seen dancing with a golden tie.”
https://www.globalresearch.ca/president-trumps-overbearing-arrogance-an-omen-for-empires-collapse/5918456
The focus of war has shifted to the Middle East. This is good news for Ukraine, as Russia will likely withdraw. We may even see Ukraine retaking Crimea this year. Russia won’t be able to stay on the sidelines for long in the Middle East with what’s happening in Iran and Libya.
Joseph – you came back with a splash!! Please tell
Me this is a joke?! Now that Scott Bessent “allowed” India to buy Russian oil, now that Russia will make a lot of quick billions by selling its oil in high prices, now you think it will leave Ukraine? Ha..ha..
Ukraine is only trying to defend her land. Although Russia is trying to take over Ukraine, we know that Ukraine is not trying to take over Russia. If Russia withdraws from occupied Ukrainian territory, then Ukraine does not pose a direct threat. That’s an option that Russia may have to settle for as other economic threats to Russia emerge in the Middle East.
The current trajectory of the U.S.-Israel war machine is to gain hegemony of the entire Middle East and take control over the oil reserves there. That’s not going to be an acceptable scenario, neither for Russia nor for China.
Russia is currently using Libya as a military base and hub for making inroads into Africa. However, just last week, a Ukrainian drone sunk a Russian oil tanker off the coast of Libya. As long as Russia occupies Ukraine, the Russian shadow fleet of oil tankers are not going to be safe.
Yes, lifting sanctions on Russian oil may help lower prices, but if Russian tankers continue to be targeted and attacked, then that’s really a mute point.
Joseph,
About Ukraine: you keep making the same mistake again and again as most people who follow the mainstream media. The so-called “Ukrainians” (actually the Ukro-nazis) were suppressing Russian-speakers (by all accounts the majority of the population of Ukraine before 2014). This is what forced Russia to intervene after the West betrayed trust (as they do now with Iran) and violated the Minks agreements. And Merkel and hollande had the gall to publicly admit that they were trying to arm the Ukronazis by doing so…
Russia is a nuclear superpower. What would you do if you were in charge of Russia? Would you allow the Zionists of the West and the Supremacists force you split in five pieces and then steal your minerals? Very likely you would try to form alliances in Asia and Africa and elsewhere and counter the Zionists and the Hegemonists.
Geopolitics is simple logic most of the time – nothing very elaborate.
Joseph,
Are you on someone’s payroll that we should know of? Should you be registering as a foreign agent (of the Vatican & its Uniate propaganda) with the US government?
We have asked you before to present to us what “DNA” footprint exists within Western vs. Eastern Ukraine in order to truly establish what “nation” and “land” we are talking about.
When you:
1) finally show us what we already know, that the 2 dominant DNA groupings are either Russian or Uniate (Polish / German / Lithuanian), at almost at a 50/50 split,
2) remind everyone of how Kruschev “artificially carved out the fictitious boundaries” of this non-unified land in the 1960s
3) remind everyone of the 2014 coup of a “duly elected Moscow-friendly government” (big donors/investors to US politicians lost their patience with a population that routinely wasn’t buying Western propaganda fast enough to “comply” with conventional elections)…
4) remind everyone that Ukraine was a “battleground state” because half the population of this “country” (mostly the east and Crimea) identified as more Russian than Uniate
5) remind everyone of the Cuban missile crisis establishing the original dogma that George Bush Senior continued to promise to Gorbachev (no, NATO & its nuclear capabilities won’t expand into the Soviet Block), and which subsequent US administrations blatantly violated,
6) remind everyone of 23 years of consistent “red line” warnings by Putin to NATO about Ukrainian neutrality
then none of what is occurring today will be a surprise,
and it becomes perfectly clear historically that this conflict is about “stoking the flames of the Uniate invasions of the past” as well as “violating peace and non-NATO proliferation agreements of the past”, and less about the false narrative of a “unified nation fighting for its borders”…
they were never really united, and now they are breaking apart because the West (starting with Victoria Nyland’s 2014 coup) and whoever from the West thought they could take that “land’s” wealth for themselves caused the war…
Markos, when the U.S. colonies won independence from England in 1776, was there any difference between the English peoples of the colonies and those in England? No, none whatsoever. So I fail to see what argument you are making here about Ukraine.
It is you that is espousing a Russian narrative here, and if anything, that would make you suspect as a foreign agent and perhaps even on someone’s payroll. No, I am not on anyone’s payroll, but may God in His mercy reward us both.
Joseph, you are dreaming! No one that wins a war withdraws, and neither will the Russians.
With high oil prices, will Europe be able to supply the Ukraine with more support, or will they be concerned about inflation and a drop in GDP?
With high oil prices, will Russia’s fiscal position to continue its campaign improve or deteriorate?
With high oil prices, output decline, “supply instability” through the straits of Hormuz, and the US administration’s recent publicized “exception” for India and others to purchase “sanctioned” Russian oil, will Europe also rethink their ability to access the same Russian oil at an “inflation-hedging” discount?
Never underestimate the phrase “money talks….” It could also be a scenario that the new capital of the Ukraine will be Lviv, totally bankrupt, with no IMF support, but with an option to be formally annexed as a colony by Poland if the Middle East situation is still active in the summer…
How one person can be this delusional is fascinating from a psychology POV
I now, and have for some time, assume you live at the Fanar with the amount of echo chamber delusion you have Joseph
It’s truly interesting
Joseph, you need to take your act onto the road! Seriously!
Trump calling Putin for advice on an exit ramp after 12 days of fighting is like a man with astigmatism asking a blind man to find him the needle in the haystack. Putin’s been in war for the past four years. He can’t get out himself and he’s going to give advice?
Putin is winning in Ukraine following a tactic quite the opposite of Trump’s: he is letting his military leaders practice a war of attrition the Russians have expertise on, while Trump foolishly seeks “decapitation” strikes… Trump is the loser here… But his deadly mistake is that he has no trust left by anyone – including Putin and the Iranians – and it will take quite sone effort to achieve a negotiated stop to hostilities.
You leave out that Ukraine is fighting a war of attrition against Russia. Ukraine has also been wearing down the Russian war machine these last four years, and with the backing of NATO.
Russia hasn’t made any significant territorial gains these last four years, with their occupation remaining at about 20 percent of Ukraine. For example, Qatari-based Aljazeera now reports that Ukraine is even making small territorial gains against Russian forces:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/11/ukraine-records-first-territorial-gains-since-2023-amid-russian-army-woes
All these are wrong estimates. Russia has exterminated – for lack of a better term as these soldiers are sent to their death – over 2 million Ukrainians and occupied about 25% with over 50% of its natural wealth.
Thank God .. that the the Orthodox Christian Russian Federation is winning the war against defactor Neo Nazi Jewish Zionist regime of EU , US led Nato in the Ukraine! Imagine if they were losing.. Ukraine , Brussels , London , Paris and Washington will seize to exist !
The issue is for you Joe lipper ..who would provoke a war on Russia or Iran , with forseable conseqences to the civilian Christian population with its complete destruction of its Economic , Political , Milltary , Relgious , and media institutions !
Only the Fanatical Evangelical Protestant populations abd populations , there appointed Evangelical Protestant Christian Zionist leaders of America Donald Trump, EU commissioner Ursula Von leyden, Nato Secretary General Mark Ruttee , and Jewish Zionist regimes of Zelensky of the Ukraine!
Putin knows that EU and Nato are imploding, with Econmic destruction , and now Hungary preparing for war against the Ukraine with Slovakia for bombing their oil pipelines and threatening Orban with harm is the continue to get russian Oil! Hungary has just confiscated over One hundred million dollars in cash by a truck from the Ukraine , which Orban calls the Eu leaders and Zelensky as part of a Mafia War Network’ doing what the have done to all the Orthodox countries of Eastern Europe fund media and political opposition parties to the relection of Orban..who mantain traditional Christian rules ….
Nothing appears as it is.in this world .. their world ! EU, Nato , and American Media!
Aljazeera last month mapped out the territorial progress of the war between Russia and Ukraine and from 2022 until the present. Do you beg to differ?
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/2/24/mapping-russian-attacks-and-territorial-gains-across-ukraine
Aljazzera is not a trustworthy source. For example it talks about “heavily reported” Russian losses and every time the two sides exchange body bags the ratio is 1 Russian to 20 Ukrainian or so… We prefer to believe our eyes.
Hopefully this month of March is a good time for Russia to negotiate a deal with Ukraine that will secure the territory that Russia has taken.
As for the Trump war with Iran, Nick will recall that I had reservations about it at the start (preferring continued diplomacy), but nevertheless I hoped then that Trump would be able to avoid disaster. I certainly have been no fan of Iran.
Now I wonder whether this situation is the disaster that I feared. Iran has taken much punishment, but it remains both defiant and unoccupied, while much of the world’s oil supply is being in turmoil. And who will make the decisions in any negotiations (if they happen), Trump or Netanyahu?