“Anchorage Has Gone Slightly Rotten”: Expert Compared Russians’ Demands and Capabilities

Political strategist Mikhail Sheitelman explained that all these talks about peace are meaningless: Putin still wants to wage war, he is still being promised victories, but at least Trump did not promise him Donbas, Politeka reports.

He spoke about this on his blog.

As the expert notes, the Financial Times writes that Putin still believes in victory, so all these statements about the war supposedly nearing its end can be forgotten — especially since the military leadership is promising to seize the Donetsk region by autumn. At the same time, he recalls that Belousov back in 2024 promised that by 2025 Russia would capture the Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions, so The Economist gave a much more sober estimate — 30 years.

“Recently, Peskov was shouting: ‘Hand over Donbas immediately, and we’ll instantly reach an agreement with you on everything,’ but now his appetite has grown. He realized he had made a political mistake. He says that for Russia and Ukraine to move to peace negotiations, Zelensky must order the Armed Forces of Ukraine to leave the territory of Russian regions. In other words, that now includes the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions too. But our answer remains the same. But do you understand why they do this? They muddy the waters so that later they can always say: ‘Well, that was Peskov, not me,’” Mikhail Sheitelman explains.

Meanwhile, the expert says, Trump was asked whether he and Putin had agreed that Russia should receive all of Donbas, and he answered “no,” delivering a direct blow to this so-called “spirit of Anchorage.” Russians, he reminds us, constantly refer to some abstract, nonexistent, and vague “spirit of Anchorage,” and many people got the impression that Trump had promised Donbas to Putin — but no.

“I kept denying it, saying that it couldn’t be true, because if Trump had promised something to Putin and Putin had agreed, they would have come out smiling, held a wonderful press conference, and had a meal together. But no — Trump took all the food with him, didn’t feed Putin, and sent him away without lunch. And now, for the first time, Trump has stated that this never happened. There is no agreement with the United States that Donbas will go to Russia. Now it will be harder for Russians to talk about the spirit of Anchorage. Well, Anchorage simply turned out to smell a bit off — Anchorage has gone slightly rotten,” Mikhail Sheitelman concluded.