Foreign Policy Observer

01/15/2025

Marat Khairullin:

[I]f we speak directly about the front, it is important to note some serious trends that indicate that the leadership of [Russia] is making decisions for the post-war reality.

The first trend:

The Ukrainian Armed Forces on the ground can no longer offer serious resistance. In the main directions (primarily Pokrovsk), the Russian army is conducting a total cleansing. Our troops are deployed in convenient positions around populated areas that the Ukrainian Armed Forces have turned into fortifications, and gradually, using remote methods, they destroy any enemy presence. Then, the infantry enters the empty enemy positions, and the Ukrainians can do nothing about this tactic.

Previously, the Ukrainian Armed Forces responded to this with counterattacks, quickly transferring reserves from one area to another. Now we are pressing along the entire front. The renainder of the Ukrainian reserves are dying near Kursk.

Yes, the speed of our army's advance is not as high as some would like - a total cleansing takes time. But the Ukrainian Armed Forces are being destroyed root and branch. In this sense, the Ukrainians can be called a zombie army or an army of the dead. They are still trying to shoot, launch drones, but in the end, they have already been crossed off the list of the living. In political terms, this is the same denazification and demilitarization of Ukraine.

https://maratkhairullin.substack.com/p/large-frontline-summary-7-13-january?

Strategy of Russian Victory by Marat Khairullin

01/15/2025

Simplicius:

Just throwing [Ukrainian] bodies—and increasingly less competent and motivated ones at that—at the line will not make much difference. Russian troops are increasingly seasoned, hardened, and veteran while Ukrainian ones are being replaced with ever-greener volkssturm.

Some now contend that Trump seeks to carve up the Western hemisphere—Greenland, Panama, Canada, et al—in a new Maga-Monroe Doctrine, then host a seminal Malta Conference-style sit down with Russia where spheres of influence will be hashed out, and that new ‘European security architecture’ sought-after by Putin would be codified.

The problem still remains though that Trump simply cannot give up Ukraine entirely, while Putin cannot allow even a remotely threatening nationalist Ukrainian entity to exist and threaten Russia—whether it be NATO-aligned or not.

As such, it’s the ‘showdown of the century’ between immovable object and unstoppable force as neither Trump nor Putin can afford to lose face or be perceived as bending the knee. Each side represents the leadership position in the two emerging global poles—that’s right, China may be the economic driver of the Global South but Russia is the true spiritual leader in many ways. French philosopher Luc Ferry agrees:

As such, the winner of this multipolar face off stands to author the globe’s spiritual and ideological direction for the coming century; neither side can budge.

The topic of the week is Ukrainian mobilization: it’s virtually all that’s talked about, both within Ukrainian society and without.

01/15/2025

Lavrov told a press conference that Russia welcomed the fact that the incoming administration had "started to mention the realities on the ground" more often. He referred to comments by both Trump and incoming national security adviser Mike Waltz.

Waltz told ABC on Sunday that it was clear the war must end somehow by diplomatic means.

He added: "I just don't think it's realistic to say we're going to expel every Russian from every inch of Ukrainian soil, even Crimea. President Trump has acknowledged that reality, and I think it’s been a huge step forward that the entire world is acknowledging that reality. Now let's move forward."

Trump last week acknowledged Moscow's longstanding opposition to Ukraine's ambition to join NATO, something he said would mean that "Russia has somebody right on their doorstep, and I could understand their feeling about that."

Russia says it has detected a shift from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and his team towards recognising the "realities" on the ground in Ukraine, and sees this as a welcome sign as it prepares to study his plan for ending the war.

01/14/2025

Judge Napolitano interview with Professor Glenn Diesen
(posted Jan 13, 2025)

Prof. Glenn Diesen : Why the US Misunderstands Russia.

01/14/2025

Noteworthy comment on today’s NYT op-ed

01/14/2025

Lloyd Austin and Anthony Blinken with an op-ed in the NYT:

Putin’s Plan for Peace Is No Peace at All

President Vladimir Putin of Russia appalled the world with his full-scale invasion of Ukraine almost three years ago. He planned to topple Ukraine’s democratically elected government, install a Kremlin puppet regime and expose the West as weak, divided and diminished.

After more than 1,000 days of Mr. Putin’s reckless war of choice, he has failed to achieve a single one of his strategic goals. Russia’s power and influence are greatly diminished; it couldn’t even prop up a valued client like the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria. Meanwhile, Ukraine stands strong and defiant as a free and sovereign democracy, with an economy rooted in the West.

All this is a testament to the resilience of Ukraine’s troops and the strength of Ukraine’s people. It is also the product of steadfast American leadership, which has rallied allies and partners worldwide to help Ukraine survive the Kremlin’s imperial onslaught. The United States should build on this historic success, not squander it.

Mr. Putin assumed that the world would stand by when he sent his troops across the Ukrainian border. He was wrong. The United States has rallied some 50 countries from around the planet to help Ukraine defend itself — and to uphold the bedrock principle that borders may not be redrawn by force. One of us, Secretary Austin, has convened the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a global coalition that has coordinated military support to Ukraine, 25 times. Its members have committed $126 billion in direct security assistance to Ukraine, almost half of which has come from non-U.S. members.

As a percentage of G.D.P., more than a dozen contact group members now provide more security assistance to Ukraine than the United States does. And these investments in Ukraine are delivering returns here at home, boosting our defense industrial base and creating good jobs. Mr. Putin’s aggression even spurred the very outcome he had sought to prevent: NATO is now bigger, stronger and more united than ever.

As a result, Ukraine has held off the second-largest military in the world — despite Mr. Putin’s reckless escalations and irresponsible nuclear saber rattling. Ukraine has fought brilliantly even as China, the second-largest economy in the world, has backed Mr. Putin; as Iran, the biggest state sponsor of terror in the world, has armed him with missiles and drones; and as North Korea, the most notorious nuclear-armed rogue state in the world, has supplied him with ammunition and some 10,000 troops.

Ukraine’s success to date is a huge strategic achievement, but its troops still face profound challenges on the battlefield. Russian forces have recently clawed back some of the territory that Ukraine liberated earlier in the war, and Mr. Putin’s bombardment of Ukraine’s power plants and other critical infrastructure is taking a harrowing toll. The Ukrainian people have shown magnificent defiance, but they have paid a steep price for their freedom.

Still, Ukraine’s vulnerabilities should not mask Mr. Putin’s own growing dilemmas.

In recent months, the United States and its partners have been surging even more military assistance — including hundreds of thousands more artillery rounds, additional missiles for air defense, more armored vehicles and more air-to-ground munitions — to Ukraine to help blunt Russia’s manpower advantage. We have allowed Ukraine to use ATACMS missiles inside Russia’s borders, which helped Ukraine defend itself after North Korea’s intervention in the war. Throughout the conflict, as conditions on the battlefield evolved, and as our stockpiles and readiness requirements allowed, we increased assistance at a pace that Ukraine’s forces could absorb, linking every donation with training and sustainment.

But Russia is suffering huge losses — an average of 1,500 casualties a day — to seize small slivers of territory. Russia has suffered more than 700,000 dead and injured since Mr. Putin began his war. Now he increasingly faces a painful dilemma: either endure high casualties for minimal gains, perhaps order a mobilization that triggers domestic instability, or negotiate seriously with Ukraine to end his war.

We are also backstopping Ukraine with economic support, and we’re making Russia pay for it. Shortly after Russia’s all-out invasion, Group of 7 leaders acted in lock step to immobilize more than $300 billion of Russian central bank assets held in our respective jurisdictions. In June, President Biden and Group of 7 leaders agreed to issue $50 billion in loans for Ukraine that will be paid back by the interest earned on the frozen Russian assets.

The United States has also taken coordinated action to choke off the revenue fueling Mr. Putin’s war machine. Russia’s biggest banks with major connections abroad are sanctioned. With our help, Europe has cut its reliance on Russian gas and oil to almost zero. Inflation in Russia is now over 9 percent and rising. Interest rates have soared to 21 percent. Even with some 40 percent of Russia’s budget going to the military, the Kremlin can’t produce enough materiel to replenish its capabilities. Mr. Putin has burned through nearly two-thirds of rainy-day funds that Russia built up over decades, robbing the country’s future to pursue its imperial past. Roughly a million Russians, many of them young and talented, have fled the country.

All of this has given leverage to Ukraine — and to the next U.S. administration. This leverage should be used to end Mr. Putin’s war and usher in a durable peace that ensures Ukrainians can deter further Russian aggression, defend their territory and thrive as a sovereign democracy. That is what peace through strength would look like. But because Mr. Putin retains his imperial ambitions, giving up our leverage now by cutting aid and forcing a premature cease-fire would simply allow Mr. Putin to rest, refit and eventually reattack. This would be peace through surrender, which would be no peace at all.

Not for Ukraine, which would be crushed under Mr. Putin’s boot.

Not for Europe, which would fall under the shadow of a tyrant determined to reconstitute Moscow’s fallen empire.

Not for America’s friends elsewhere, who could face new risks of aggression from other autocrats who would likely see a victory for Mr. Putin as a hunting license of their own.

And not for the United States, which would have to spend more resources and shoulder greater risks to defend not only against an emboldened Russian leader but also against other autocrats and agents of chaos bent on tearing down the system of rules, rights and responsibilities that has made generations of Americans more secure and more prosperous.

Pursuing a policy of peace through strength is vital to Ukraine’s survival and America’s security. The United States and its allies and partners must continue to stand by Ukraine and strengthen its hand for the negotiations that will someday bring Mr. Putin’s war of aggression to an end.

Now is the time for the United States to build on its historic success supporting Ukraine, not squander it.

01/14/2025

In an Upended Mideast, Trump Faces a New Divergence With Old Allies

When Donald J. Trump was last president of the United States, the wealthy monarchies of the Persian Gulf had a mostly harmonious relationship with his administration. As Mr. Trump prepares to return to the White House, the leaders of those Gulf countries have generally welcomed him back.

But this time around, the Gulf states and Mr. Trump appear to be diverging on several cornerstone issues, like Israel and Iran. Differences over energy policies could also be a source of friction.

It is unlikely that there will be major tensions or ruptures with U.S. allies in the Gulf. But Mr. Trump will be encountering a region that has seen drastic shifts since Israel launched its war on Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack of Oct. 7, 2023, in which the Israeli authorities say about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage.

The war in Gaza, in which at least 45,000 people have been killed, according to health officials in the enclave, has rippled across the region. In Lebanon, the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah has been battered by more than a year of fighting against Israel. And in Syria, rebels toppled the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

Now, while Mr. Trump is filling his cabinet with Iran hawks and staunch defenders of Israel, Gulf leaders have publicly been urging a softer stance on Iran and a tougher line on Israel.

They have also been calling on the United States to stay engaged with the region.

For now, the Trump administration has appeared eager to engage with the Gulf powerhouses of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

In December, Mr. Trump’s pick as his envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, was in the Emirati capital, Abu Dhabi, where he attended a Bitcoin conference along with Eric Trump, the president-elect’s son. He also went to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Axios reported.

Here’s a closer look at the issues facing Mr. Trump as he navigates an evolving relationship with his traditional Gulf allies.

Engagement in the Mideast

One of the clearest calls in the Gulf for Mr. Trump to avoid an isolationist agenda came from Prince Turki al-Faisal, the former head of Saudi Arabia’s intelligence services.

In an open letter to the U.S. president-elect published in November in The National, an Abu Dhabi-based newspaper, Prince Turki referred to an assassination attempt against Mr. Trump and expressed his belief that “God spared your life” in part so Mr. Trump could continue the work he had started in the Middle East during his first term. That mission was to bring “PEACE, with capital letters,” he wrote.

During his first term, Mr. Trump’s administration brokered the Abraham Accords that saw several Arab countries establishing ties with Israel.

A similar message to Prince Turki’s was delivered a few days later by Anwar Gargash, an adviser to Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the U.A.E. president, at a conference in Abu Dhabi.

With the Gulf surrounded by an increasingly turbulent region, Mr. Gargash said, American leadership and partnership remained essential. “We need robust leadership that balances humanitarian concerns with strategic interests,” he said.

Going Harder on Israel

On Israel, the most striking shift in messaging in the Gulf has come from the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia, the crown prince. Speaking at an Arab League summit in Riyadh recently, Prince Mohammed for the first time called the Israeli military campaign in Gaza a “genocide.”

Just before the war in Gaza erupted in October 2023, Saudi Arabia appeared to be on the verge of forging diplomatic relations with Israel without fulfilling its longstanding precondition for doing so — the establishment of a Palestinian state. Such a deal would have reshaped the Middle East.

Under one plan, Saudi Arabia would normalize relations with Israel in exchange for stronger defense ties with the United States and American support for a civilian nuclear program in Saudi Arabia.

But recent statements by Prince Mohammed suggest that any deals are a long way off.

In addition to his statement referring to genocide in Gaza, he has also made it clear that Saudi Arabia will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel until a Palestinian state is created. That is still a distant prospect given strong opposition to such a state within the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel.

“I think that the crown prince wanted to make his position clear and beyond any shadow of a doubt,” said Ali Shihabi, a Saudi businessman who is close to the kingdom’s ruling family.

The United Arab Emirates — a signatory to the Abraham Accords — has also signaled a hardened stance toward Israel.

The U.A.E. foreign minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, told his Israeli counterpart last week that the Emirates would “spare no effort supporting Palestinians.”

Despite Saudi Arabia’s public stance on the status of a normalization deal, U.S. diplomats have indicated that the kingdom may be privately open to advancing one under a second Trump presidency — contingent upon a permanent cease-fire in Gaza and a tangible commitment by Israel toward a path to Palestinian statehood.

“All of that is ready to go if the opportunity presents itself with a cease-fire in Gaza as well as understandings on a pathway forward for the Palestinians,” the departing U.S. secretary of state, Antony J. Blinken, said on Wednesday. “So, there’s tremendous opportunity there.”

Détente With Iran?

During Mr. Trump’s first term, both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates championed his administration’s hawkish stance on Iran, seeing Tehran as a dangerous rival in the region.

They cheered when Mr. Trump withdrew the United States from a nuclear deal with Iran and hailed his decision to authorize the assassination of Qassim Suleimani, the general who directed Iran’s militias and proxy forces around the Middle East, in January 2020.

But the dynamics of the region have changed since Mr. Trump’s first term.

Saudi Arabia and Iran reached an accord in March 2023 that reduced tensions in the Persian Gulf and opened the door to high-level diplomatic contacts.

Bahrain, after years of tension with Iran, has made overtures to the Iranian government, with King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa saying there was “no reason to delay” the resumption of diplomatic relations. The tiny island kingdom also condemned Israel’s targeting of Iran last October, when a shadow war between the two countries broke out into the open with tit-for-tat attacks.

For Saudi Arabia, the goal is clear: to create a stable regional environment conducive to Prince Mohammed’s dream of diversifying the oil-dependent Saudi economy. For Iran, decades of economic and political isolation, compounded by rising domestic unrest, have made reconciliation with Riyadh a necessity.

There are also indications that Iran might be open to negotiating with Mr. Trump. Many former officials, pundits and newspaper editorials in Iran have openly called for the government to engage with Mr. Trump.

So far, Mr. Trump, too, appears open at least in charting a different course from the “maximum pressure” campaign of his first term. In November, Elon Musk, a close adviser to Mr. Trump, met with Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Iranian officials said.

“We have to make a deal because the consequences are impossible,” Mr. Trump said in September, referring to the threat of Iran’s pursuing nuclear weapons.

Possible Frictions Over Oil

While the Gulf Cooperation Council countries — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — appear open to Mr. Trump’s transactional approach to diplomacy, they could find themselves at odds with his economic policies.

A central promise of his campaign was to bolster U.S. oil and gas production, a move that could hurt Gulf economies.

If the United States increases oil production, as Mr. Trump has pledged, producers in the Gulf would have less scope to raise output without prompting a price drop.

“Increased U.S. oil exploration and production will lower prices and jeopardize the oil-driven economies of the Gulf,” Bader al-Saif, an associate fellow at the London-based research institute Chatham House, said in a recent report.

Mr. Trump is also expected to accelerate liquefied natural gas projects, reversing President Biden’s freeze on permits and increasing U.S. exports, particularly to Europe.

Qatar, one of the largest producers of the gas alongside the United States, would most likely be most affected, but it has so far played down its concerns.

While major ruptures are not expected, Gulf states are urging a tougher stance on Israel and a softening toward Iran, positions that differ greatly from the president-elect’s first term.

01/11/2025

“The threat from Syria could evolve into something even more dangerous than the Iranian threat,” the report states, warning that Turkish-backed forces might act as proxies, fueling regional instability.

The committee’s assessment comes amid Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's increasingly assertive policies in the region, which some analysts view as antagonistic to Israel's interests.

The committee, established by the government, warns that Turkey’s ambitions to restore its Ottoman-era influence could lead to heightened tensions with Israel, possibly escalating into conflict.

01/11/2025

The president-elect was outlining his plan for his second administration on Tuesday when he decided to express some sympathy with the Russian dictator almost three years after Putin began the bloody war.

Trump told journalists: “A big part of the problem was Russia, for many many years, long before Putin said, ‘You could never have Nato involved in Ukraine,’ no, like that’s been written in stone.

“Somewhere along the line, Biden said, ‘No they should be allowed to join Nato’.

“Well, then Russia has someone right on their doorstep. I could understand their feelings about that.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-has-decided-who-is-responsible-for-russia-s-invasion-of-ukraine-and-it-s-not-putin/ar-AA1xan6q?

The president-elect also revealed he wants to meet with the Russian president "long before six months".

01/11/2025

01/11/2025

M. K. BHADRAKUMAR:

No doubt, the Greater America project is Trump’s consuming passion and it is integral to his MAGA movement (“Make America Great Again”). His repudiation of Biden’s 11th hour move to block drilling America’s coastal oil in a vast space of 625 million acres of the US ocean is expected to make America by far the biggest oil producing country on the planet.

At the same time, the Greater America project is a 21st century Munroe Doctrine whose security and economic implications for China and Russia are apparent, although they will be hard-pressed to challenge it. Trump has buried the “rules-based order.”

If he succeeds, the US will simply outstrip Russia in sheer population and land mass and match or even exceed its resource base. Evidently, Trump has no interest in multipolarity or multi alignment — concepts that foreign policy wonks are animatedly discussing to define a new world order. Associated Press called this whole territorial annexation menu “a new imperialist agenda,” while for the CNN, it signified a “push for American expansionism” and “imperialistic land grabs.”

Moscow and Beijing will not disagree with that characterisation by mainstream American media, but will, nonetheless, take note that Trump’s agenda is possibly precedent-setting. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, after all.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump addressing a press conference, Mar-a-Lago, Florida, January 7, 2025 On Tuesday, at a press conference at his Florida mansion, President-elect Donald Trump took his gloves off, after showing monumental patience in the face of the shenanigans by the lame duck presiden...

01/11/2025

Russians With Attitude:

On American expansionism.

The incoming administration seems to have a more realistic image of the state of American hegemonial decline and wants to take proactive steps to try to counteract and reverse it, breathing new life into the American Global Empire.

In this context, it makes perfect sense for the US to increase pressure on its vassals. I am not using the term in a pejorative sense. The US does not have “allies” in the traditional meaning of the word. It has vassals with different levels of feudal obligations and elite integration, and different tasks. Extracting more value from vassals -- whether through tariffs, increased NATO budgets, meddling in local politics or potential territorial concessions -- is an absolutely logical step in cementing and renewing America's position as overlord of its sphere.

There are three ways America's European vassals can react to this: look for protection outside of the sphere, try to make themselves more useful/necessary & advance integration, or take it on the face. Were we in, I don't know, the 19th century, Denmark would just ask Russia for military support in Greenland in exchange for mild economic concessions and never worry again. As it is, the Royal Danish Army does not have any artillery anymore because they gave it all away for the purpose of firing cluster ammunition at Russian children in Donetsk. They did not receive anything in return for that and it did not help any Danish purpose. They cannot defend themselves if push comes to shove and they can't ask anybody to help because most of their fellow vassals have done the same. The most likely option is that they'll just take it on the face. Not just for pragmatic reasons, but also because they genuinely enjoy being dommed geopolitically.

America has no obligation to treat its vassals better. I've seen Danish people complain on here about supporting the US after 9/11, participating in the American wars in the Middle East, etc. That's ridiculous. You know how a colony is rewarded for sending troops to its overlord's wars? It doesn't get beaten. That's the reward for a lackey. Any person who takes any of the NATO democracy liberalism pilpul seriously is just not a serious person, it was never real, it was always just voluntary submission to be absolved from existing in History.

The world that existed in 1991-2022 does not exist anymore. It's not coming back. You can just invade your neighbor. You can just fire missiles at international shipping lanes. You can just threaten to annex members of your military alliance. “You can just do things”, as the techbros like to say. The mirage of a post-historical order that only has to be policed from time to time but is never seriously challenged has disappeared. What did you think canceling the End of History meant? Vibes? Papers? Essays?

It's not pleasant to be suddenly confronted with all of the above. It's not pleasant to have to admit to yourself that your existence was a coddled theme park that is existentially dependent on the relative position of someone else and how he feels about that relative position. America's vassals WILL have to confront this state of things and make hard decisions about their future. This means reckoning with their geopolitical impotence and either embracing dependency with open eyes or seeking pathways to autonomy that will inevitably involve risk, sacrifice, and a recalibration of their national priorities.

The era of coasting on borrowed security and ideological rhetoric is over. What lies ahead is a world where historical agency must be reclaimed or forever relinquished, and for many, the question may not be whether they are ready to make that leap, but whether they even remember how. America has now understood this -- and is mentally preparing to switch back to the cold logic that comes with actual History. The times, they are a-changin'.

01/09/2025

Europe bought a record amount of liquefied natural gas from Russia last year, data shows, despite EU efforts to ditch the fossil fuels funding Putin’s war chest.

Rystad Energy releases data days after Ukraine stopped flows of Russian gas through its pipelines

01/08/2025

The 6 economic zones of the arctic

01/08/2025

Lex Fridman interview with Volodymyr Zelensky.

Posted Jan 5, 2024.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy is the President of Ukraine. This episode is available in English, Ukrainian, and Russian. Captions and voice-over audio tracks are provi...

01/08/2025

Danny Davis interviewing a Brit who joined the Russian military.

Interesting stuff - so different than what you hear in the mainstream US media.

01/08/2025

We welcome University of Chicago Professor John Mearsheimer to the show to discuss the power of the Israel lobby in the US, the relationship between the US and the Israeli state (and whether the dog wags the tail or the other way around), the possibility of change in US policy on Palestine and the Arab world, recent developments in Palestine, Lebanon and Syria, and, finally, how transformations taking place in the United States may eventually overwhelm the lobby and its ability to manipulate decision-making from US college campuses to the White House.

Date of recording: December 17, 2024.

The brothers welcome University of Chicago Professor John Mearsheimer to the show to discuss the power of the Israel lobby in the US, the relationship betwee...

01/08/2025

M. K. BHADRAKUMAR

One great transformation of the Ukraine war in the past year since the current Russian offensive began is its transition to an absurdist fiction devolving upon the existential insecurity of Europeans, their fear of being abandoned by Donald Trump and yet their desire to be left alone.

The Biden Administration has not given up on Ukraine war. A meeting of the Ramstein Format Meeting is scheduled to take place in Germany on Thursday, chaired by the outgoing US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, to address Ukraine’s defence needs, which the Ukrainian President Zelensky will address.

Meanwhile, Kiev typically launched an attack in the Kursk region on the eve of the Ramstein Format event.
…

A deal to freeze the conflict around current battle lines would be the best outcome for Ukraine as well as Europeans. But Moscow is digging in with a firm “Nyet”, given the long history of Western betrayals.

The paradox is, the wheel has come full circle for Europeans. Trump, who sends shivers down the spine of Europe’s politicians also happens to be their only saviour.

President-elect Donald Trump with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy at Mar-a-Lago, Florida on Saturday Jan. 4, 2024 ESTRAGON: Don’t touch me! Don’t question me! Don’t speak to me! Stay with me! VLADIMIR: Did I ever leave you? ESTRAGON: You let me go. — Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Becke...