Lynnwood, Wash. City Revokes “Bisexual Transwoman”‘s Council Seat After Discovering OnlyFans Account
The Lynnwood City Council in Washington may revoke Jessica Roberts’ appointment to the vacant Position 5 seat after learning she reportedly operated an OnlyFans account. Roberts’ now-deleted profile described her as “a bisexual transwoman” with graphic details about her body, according to a new report from My Northwest.
Councilwoman Derica Escamilla, who voted for Roberts, said, “We were definitely unaware,” and is questioning the “blind” appointment process.
Councilman Patrick Decker added, “I certainly had no idea of the views Jessica held and do not feel those views and activities are in keeping with the gravity and seriousness of serving the people of Lynnwood.”
The My Northwest report says that the Lynnwood City Council will meet on March 13 to decide whether to rescind Jessica Roberts’ appointment after revelations about her personal life.
Roberts defended her position, stating, “This would not impact my ability to do the job I was appointed to do or my ability to serve my fellow residents.”
Council President Nick Coelho acknowledged concerns, saying, “New information has come to light… that would have weighed heavily on our decision.”
He said: There are now concerns that very relevant information to our deliberation was — whether intentionally or unintentionally — withheld that would have weighed heavily on our decision. With this new information in mind, we have noticed a Special Business Meeting for this Thursday. Its aim is to build to a consensus on whether or not we wish to move forward with this applicant. I’d like to thank our residents for their patience as we let the process play out.”
Roberts told The Lynnwood Times she created the OnlyFans account for confidence and “a little cash on the side,” but deactivated it to avoid wasting “taxpayers’ money, or the Council’s time.”
“The reason the account was taken down was because I do not want to waste taxpayers’ money, or the Council’s time watching this turn into a debate on whether or not it’s socially acceptable for me to have an account,” she added.
This follows a previous controversy where Rebecca Thornton withdrew just days after being appointed to the same seat.
The report did not include any additional or explicit photos. And for that, we thank you.
Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Wis.), chairman of the Committee on House Administration, and Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), chairman of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), said they are “pleased to announce that China Daily will no longer be circulated by National News to House offices.”
“We took action to directly block the Chinese Communist Party from using the halls of the People’s House to spread its propaganda. We appreciate National News’s swift cooperation on this important issue,” they said.
According to the Committee on House Administration, it worked with National News to find a solution after lawmakers raised frustration over the issue, and the distributor is currently winding down the distribution of China Daily in Congress.
The Epoch Times has reached out to National News for comment.
China Daily is one of several major state mouthpieces controlled by the CCP’s Central Propaganda Department. The publication’s Chinese website says its English edition “actively publicizes and explains Xi Jinping Thought on socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era,” and strives to influence public opinion in favor of communist-ruled China.
Its U.S. distributor China Daily Distribution Corporation has been registered as a foreign agent in the United States since 1983 under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
It’s among 17 organizations designated by the U.S. State Department as “foreign missions” in 2020. Among them, 14 are news publications or broadcasters.
For years, China Daily has been delivered to Congressional offices along with other major publications to all Congressional offices unless they opted out.
Some lawmakers have called for the end of China Daily’s distribution in Congress since 2020, when the publication came under scrutiny for paying major U.S. newspapers millions in advertisement dollars to run inserts that paint the Chinese regime in a positive light and downplay its oppression of Chinese and other peoples.
The call was renewed this year by Freshman Rep. Abe Hamadeh (R-Ariz.), who used his first legislation as a congressman to target the distribution of China Daily and other CCP-controlled publications in Congress.
His resolution, referred to the Committee on House Administration on Feb. 5, sought to ban the distribution of all CCP-controlled publications within House facilities.
The congressman in February told EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders” program the distribution of China Daily in Congress is “unacceptable” because the publication is “propaganda by a foreign government that’s trying to influence the highest echelons of the United States government.”
In March 2024, when Secretary of State Marco Rubio was vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, he co-wrote letters to the heads of nine media companies which were accepting payment from China Daily, urging them to stop “disseminating CCP propaganda to an American audience.”
Between November 2016 and April 2024, China Daily Distribution Corporation received $78.3 million in funding from its China-based headquarters. That’s almost 97 percent of its total income during the period, according to FARA filings.
In the same period, the corporation spent nearly $81 million in printing and operation expenses, including almost $20.78 million in advertisement payments to various media outlets.
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently told executives from top food companies that he wants artificial dyes out of the nation’s food supply before he leaves office, according to a food company trade association email.
Kennedy, head of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), on March 10 met with executives from PepsiCo, Tyson Foods, and other companies that sell food and food products. Writing on social media platform X, he said the discussion covered food safety, stating, “We will strengthen consumer trust by getting toxins out of our food.”
The Consumer Brands Association, a trade group representing PepsiCo and other food and consumer goods makers, participated in the meeting.
In an email sent after the meeting and viewed by The Epoch Times, the association stated that Kennedy wanted to work with the industry in a collaborative and non-adversarial fashion.
He also communicated the Trump administration’s strong desire to remove artificial dyes such as FD&C Blue No. 1 from the food supply, labeling it as an urgent priority to be completed before he exits office.
Kennedy was quoted as saying that he expects “real and transformative” change by “getting the worst ingredients” out of food.
Kyle Diamantas, acting deputy commissioner for human foods at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), informed attendees that he knew the industry could not act alone and said the FDA would work with companies to reinforce the need for a federal framework to avoid patchworks from state law, according to the email.
California in 2024 banned artificial dyes from school lunches. Several other states have moved toward legislation limiting the use of the dyes. The FDA in January revoked authorization for Red No. 3, one of the dyes, in food products.
Kennedy also said during the meeting that he will take action unless the industry acts, according to the email.
“On Monday, industry leaders met with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to discuss his Make America Healthy Again agenda and working together to maintain consumer access to safe, affordable and convenient product choices,” Melissa Hockstad, president and CEO of the Consumer Brands Association, told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement.
“It was a constructive conversation and we look forward to continued engagement with the secretary and the qualified experts within HHS to support public health, build consumer trust and promote consumer choice.”
A PepsiCo spokesperson told The Epoch Times via email that the meeting was a productive first step in working with the Trump administration and that the company is focused on providing people with a range of convenient, affordable, and safe foods and drinks, including options with no artificial dyes, which are also known as synthetic colors.
“We look forward to partnering with the Department of Health and Human Services in the mission to provide safe, affordable, and wholesome food for all,” a Kraft Heinz spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email.
The FDA did not return an inquiry.
An HHS spokesperson declined to comment on the meeting, instead pointing to how Kennedy recently moved to terminate a rule that lets food manufacturers use additives without FDA approval.
“For far too long, ingredient manufacturers and sponsors have exploited a loophole that has allowed new ingredients and chemicals, often with unknown safety data, to be introduced into the U.S. food supply without notification to the FDA or the public,” Kennedy said in a March 10 statement posted on X.
Kennedy said his meeting with CEOs covered “food safety and radical transparency to protect the health of all Americans, especially our children.”
The Richest Colleges Are Fighting To Protect Their Endowments From Taxation
Before Donald Trump announced plans to cut $400 million from Columbia University, top U.S. colleges were already preparing to counter financial threats from his administration, according to a new report from Bloomberg.
The grant cancellation, citing alleged inaction against antisemitism, is one of several tactics Trump is using to pressure elite universities. These institutions also face potential tax hikes on their endowments and are actively working to block them.
Given they’re the institutions churning out pro-taxation far left radicals, kind of ironic, no?
Bloomberg writes that Harvard has hired a Republican-friendly lobbying firm, while Princeton’s president is spending more time in Washington to defend its $34.1 billion endowment.
MIT’s leader has made multiple trips to D.C., and a group of two dozen universities is holding Zoom meetings to strategize against financial threats.
Columbia says it is committed to combating antisemitism and hopes to restore funding, but Republicans continue targeting elite schools they view as prioritizing progressive values over meritocracy. The attacks pose an “existential threat” to colleges, according to the University of Pennsylvania’s president.
Private universities with large endowments argue the funds support scholarships, but critics question why wealthy institutions can grow billions tax-free.
Davidson College paid a $1.2 million endowment tax last year, which could have funded 15 full scholarships. Critics argue that same amount could have covered tuition for 300 community college students. Representative David Schweikert called university endowments “stunning” and questioned whether they truly serve students.
Davidson President Douglas Hicks is lobbying Congress to stop a tax expansion, warning it would hurt students. “If the goal is to make college more affordable, this is not an effective approach,” he said, noting Davidson meets 100% of financial need.
Colleges like Davidson fear becoming collateral damage in the GOP’s push to penalize elite universities over campus protests, as schools like Harvard, Stanford, and MIT freeze hiring amid potential federal funding cuts. Lawmakers are calling 2025 the Super Bowl of tax as they debate extending Trump’s 2017 tax overhaul, which introduced a 1.4% endowment tax on wealthy colleges, generating $380 million from 56 institutions in 2023.
Proposals from Trump and Vice President JD Vance suggest raising or expanding the tax, potentially lowering the threshold to $250,000 per student, which could impact smaller schools like Wabash College in Indiana.
Critics warn a higher tax could deter wealthy donors, redirecting money from students to the U.S. Treasury. Wabash President Scott Feller is also lobbying lawmakers, emphasizing that his school’s $430 million endowment is less than 1% of Harvard’s, yet faces the same tax burden.
Clinton-Appointed Judge Slams Trump “Sham”, Orders Agencies To Reinstate 1000s Of Fired Probationary Staff
San Francisco based… check.
Clinton appointed… check.
So how do you think the case against President Trump firing federal probationary staff went?
Bingo…
U.S. District Judge William Alsup described the mass firings as a “sham” strategy by the government’s central human resources office to sidestep legal requirements for reducing the federal workforce.
Politico reports that Alsup, a San Francisco-based appointee of President Bill Clinton, ordered the Defense, Treasury, Energy, Interior, Agriculture and Veterans Affairs departments to “immediately” offer all fired probationary employees their jobs back.
The Office of Personnel Management, the judge said, had made an “unlawful” decision to terminate them.
The order is one of the most far-reaching rejections of the Trump administration’s effort to slash the bureaucracy and is almost certain to be appealed.
“You will not bring the people in here to be cross-examined. You’re afraid to do so because you know cross examination would reveal the truth,” the judge said to a DOJ attorney during a hearing Thursday.
“I tend to doubt that you’re telling me the truth. … I’m tired of seeing you stonewall on trying to get at the truth.”
The judge called the move “a gimmick.”
Alsup also said the Office of Personnel Management couldn’t give guidance on who to terminate, according to ABC News.
“It is sad, a sad day when our government would fire some good employee and say it was based on performance when they know good and well that’s a lie,” Alsup said.
Do those sound like the findings of a non-partisan, legally-trained, judicially-independent member of the bench?
And on it goes…
If President Trump can’t fire these people who can? Or do they get to keep their jobs forever with no oversight? It is insane for any judge to say a worker can not be fired.
This is just getting ridiculous, how can judges make you hire people, when you are the chief executive one of your functions is hiring and firing people…this is such nonsense. It’s judicial over reach. At this rate we won’t be able to get anything done . Judge after judge…
The United States Senate Banking Committee elected to advance the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act in an 18-6 vote.
As CoinTelegraph reports, GENIUS Act backers faced pushback from bankers and their allies in the US Senate over fears that stablecoins will disintermediate banks and erode banking market share.
According to an article from American Banker, the bill requires 60 votes to pass in the Senate, meaning that at least seven Democrats will have to vote with Republicans to push through the Act.
This could prove a difficult proposition, as US Senator Elizabeth Warren, one of crypto’s staunchest political critics, is proposing an amendment prohibiting tech firms from issuing stablecoins. Warren wrote:
“If these firms want to engage in payments, they must partner with, or facilitate transactions among, regulated financial institutions. But this stablecoin bill breaks that status quo by green-lighting big tech companies and other commercial conglomerates to issue their own stablecoins.”
None of the amendments proposed by Senator Elizabeth Warren made it into the bill, including her proposal to limit stablecoin issuance to banking institutions.
“Without changes, this bill will supercharge the financing of terrorism. It will make sanctions evasion by Iran, North Korea, and Russia easier,” Warren argued.
Now do USDollars, Lizzy!
The GENIUS stablecoin bill was introduced by Senator Bill Hagerty on Feb. 4 as a comprehensive regulatory framework for tokenized US dollars.
As CoinTelegraph reported today, Hagerty defended the legislation against the proposed amendments from Senator Warren, arguing that the bill already includes provisions for consumer protection, Anti-Money Laundering, and crime prevention.
On March 10, Hagerty announced that the bill was updated to include stricter reserve requirements for stablecoin issuers, AML provisions, safeguards against terrorist financing, transparent risk management procedures, and stipulations for sanctions compliance.
According to Dom Kwok, founder of the Web3 learning platform Easy A, the newly added provisions will make it harder for foreign stablecoin issuers to comply, giving US-based firms a competitive edge.
Shortly after the bill was introduced to the US Senate, Federal Reserve Bank Governor Christopher Waller said non-banks should be allowed to issue stablecoins.
Waller argued that stablecoins could expand payment use cases, particularly in the developing world, due to their cost-savings and efficiency.
Stablecoin fees vs. legacy payment processing solutions. Source: Simon Taylor
Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan told an audience at the Economic Club of Washington DC that the bank may enter the stablecoin business — likely launching its own dollar-pegged stable token.
Over-collateralized stablecoin issuers are collectively the 18th largest buyers of US government debt in the world – putting these firms ahead of countries like Germany and South Korea.
Senator Tim Scott, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, characterized the bill as a victory for innovation. The Senator said:
“The GENIUS Act establishes Common Sense rules that require stablecoin issuers to maintain reserves backed one-to-one, comply with anti-money laundering laws, and ultimately protect American consumers while promoting the US dollar’s strength in the global economy.”
The bill must still pass a vote in both chambers of Congress before it is turned over to President Trump and ultimately signed into law.
However, the Senate Banking Committee advancing the bill represents the first step in clear, comprehensive legislation requested by the crypto industry.
Attorney Jeremy Hogan said the GENIUS Act signals an impending merger of the traditional financial system with stablecoins.
“The legislation is explicitly making plans for stablecoins to interact with the traditional digital banking system. The ‘merge’ is being planned,” the attorney wrote in a March 10 X post.
By adopting pro-stablecoin policies and promoting stablecoin usage worldwide, the US government can use stablecoins as a sponge to soak up inflation and protect the dollar’s status as the global reserve currency.
Greenland’s Pro-Independence Election Winners Brush Back Trump, Who Asserts Annexation By US “Will Happen”
President Trump on Thursday while meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office confidently stated he believes the United States would eventually annex Greenland. He even linked it to NATO security.
“I think it will happen,” Trump told reporters. “And I’m just thinking, I didn’t give it much thought before but I’m sitting with a man that could be very instrumental. You know, Mark, we need that for international security,” Trump said, acknowledging Rutte beside him.
“I don’t want to drag NATO in that,” Rutte responded judiciously, but agreed the Arctic Circle region and Greenland in particular are critical for the security of the West, at a time Russia in China have increased their military presence there.
But the center-right Demokraatit party just won Greenland’s parliamentary elections this week, and Greenland’s likely new prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, has surprised many by quickly coming out so strongly against Trump’s rhetoric on Greenland:
“We don’t want to be Americans. No, we don’t want to be Danes. We want to be Greenlanders, and we want our own independence in the future,” Nielsen, 33, told Britain’s Sky News. “And we want to build our own country by ourselves.”
That didn’t stop Trump from suggesting during a Thursday Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte that Greenland’s election that it was “very good” for “us” and “the person who did the best is a very good person, as far as we’re concerned.”
Nielsen said while celebrating his party’s surprising margin of victory that Greenland needs to stand together “in a time of great interest from outside.”
Merely just four years ago Demokraatit won less than 10% in the last election, but took nearly 30% in Tuesday’s election. Much of the campaigning and debate leading into it actually somewhat ignored Trump’s eyeing Greenland, instead focusing mostly on issues like healthcare and other purely domestic concerns.
The center-right Demokraatik party has long advocated for a slower approach to independence, while another opposition party Naleraq, which took 24.5% of the vote to Demokraatik’s 29.9% has called to sever ties with Denmark more quickly.
Trump issues provocative annexation statements on Greenland while NATO’s Rutte sits and reacts nervously…
POTUS on acquiring Greenland: “I think it will happen… We need that for international security.” pic.twitter.com/0j32jk0QL2
By and large, Greenland – which is a self-governing region of Denmark – has been moving toward independence since at least 2009. Trump’s transition team began consulting private sector experts as early as November on potential ventures in Greenland. Among the ideas being floated are rare earth mining projects and a new hydroelectric facility – a nod to the island’s renewable energy potential. These internal admin conversations underscore Washington’s escalating interest in the Arctic as a buffer against Chinese influence.
“Trump is absolutely capitalizing on Greenland’s push for independence,” said Jacob Kaarsbo, independent foreign security adviser and former chief analyst at the Danish Defence Intelligence Service. “I can easily see a scenario where Greenland moves away from Denmark after the upcoming elections.” But the question of whether that means toward the US remains to be seen. The fresh rhetoric from the young Demokraatit party suggests not.
‘They Knew… & Covered It Up’: German Intel Told Govt In 2020 That COVID Originated In Chinese Lab
The American media is doing its best to ignore the biggest news this week.
As Alex Berenson notes, while every legacy media outlet is reminding you it’s been exactly five years since the Little Epidemic That Could started its long chug into your lungs, or at least your upper respiratory tract, two big German newspapers – Zeit and Süddeutsche Zeitung -broke some actual news.
Turns out, Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND) has long had evidence that the Covid-19 virus originally came from a lab in Wuhan, China.
It was kept classified, however.
As Remix News reports, according to these reports, at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in Europe in 2020, the German government commissioned a secret intelligence operation under the codename of Saaremaa to investigate the origins of the Covid-19 virus, also known as SARS-CoV-2.
As part of this investigation, the BND analyzed scientific data from a number of Chinese research laboratories, including the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The BND noted that the Chinese labs had conducted “gain-of-function” virology experiments, whereby mutations are deliberately induced in naturally occurring viruses in order to enhance their existing qualities, such as transmissibility and potency. Such experiments are considered highly dangerous.
The BND also observed that these facilities demonstrated numerous violations of routine laboratory safety regulations.
When the BND submitted their report, their conclusion was that there was an 80 to 95 percent probability that Covid had originated in a Chinese lab and was then leaked accidentally.
Upon the report’s completion in 2020, Bruno Kahl, who has been the BND’s president since 2016, personally briefed then-Chancellor Angela Merkel on its findings.
BREAKING: Ursula von der Leyen’s European Commission did not allow the public enough access to Covid-19 vaccine contracts it secured with Big Pharma during the pandemic, the EU’s top court has ruled.
The ruling criticizing the Commission’s lack of transparency comes just one day… pic.twitter.com/alTtwviBCA
The German Chancellery ordered that these results were to be kept hidden from the public, however.
Several politicians who were in office at the time that the report was drawn up, including former Minister of the Chancellery Helge Braun, former State Secretary for Intelligence Johannes Geismann, and Angela Merkel herself were contacted by reporters and asked to comment. All of them refused to answer.
The trail doesn’t end there, however. Shortly after Olaf Scholz took over from Angela Merkel in December 2021, Kahl again briefed the chancellor on the report’s findings. It was still kept secret.
Covid lockdowns based on politics, not science, leaked messages from UK government reveal. https://t.co/EaRuyEYT5t
Not even the Bundestag’s parliamentary oversight committee, which oversees the intelligence services, or the World Health Organization were informed of the report’s existence or its conclusions.
The BND decided to share its findings with the American Central Intelligence Agency last autumn, however.
This is perhaps why: When John Ratcliffe was appointed director of the CIA after President Donald Trump took office in January, the CIA’s official position on the possibility that Covid-19 had originated in a laboratory was revised from “undecided” to “low confidence.”
The German government itself revisited the issue in December 2024 and ordered a new team of experts to reevaluate the report’s conclusions, which is ongoing. This team includes Lars Schade, the president of the Robert Koch Institute, which conducts research into public health, as well as the virologist Christian Drosten, who became a public expert on Covid-19 during the pandemic.
Notably, during the early months of the pandemic, Schade dismissed suggestions that Covid-19 may have originated in a laboratory as “conspiracy theories.” By 2022, however, he admitted that virologists in Wuhan had “done things that could be described as dangerous,” even though he still said that he regarded the laboratory thesis as unlikely.
The German government has so far declined to comment on the ongoing project.
Determining Covid-19’s origins with certainty is difficult, however, given that the Chinese government has consistently blocked the WHO’s efforts to investigate it.
German MP and Vice President of the Bundestag Wolfgang Kubicki has expressed outrage at the fact that the report’s findings were kept secret for so long.
“The federal government has demonstrably left the German public as well as the Bundestag in the dark,” he said to the Tagesspiegel newspaper.
Kubicki also called for the resignation of current Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach, saying that he “and his colleagues have done much to undermine trust in the integrity of government.”
On X, Kubicki referred to both the report’s findings and the cover-up as “extremely worrying,” and demanded that the German state apologize and also summon the Chinese ambassador for an explanation.
Putin Issues US List Of Demands To Achieve 30-Day Ceasefire
Update(1312ET): Russia’s President Putin in new Thursday remarks declared that his forces are beating back the Ukrainians on all fronts, and especially now in Kursk. “Command and control of Ukrainian troops inside the incursion zone is no longer possible,” Putin said. “During the first stages, the Ukrainian military attempted to leave this zone in small groups. This is no longer possible.”
“They are leaving their military equipment behind, because there is no way to evacuate it. It will remain there, that’s for sure,” he added. Trump envoy Steve Witkoff is soon expected to meet with Putin again. While the Russian leader said he is ‘for’ achieving a 30-day ceasefire, he has raised serious questions about what stipulations must be added. In essence at this point Putin is conveying a list of objections as follows, via state media translation:
“We also want guarantees that during the 30-day ceasefire, Ukraine will not conduct mobilization, will not train soldiers, and will not receive weapons,” Putin said during a press briefing with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko in Moscow.
The president pointed out that Russian troops are advancing along nearly 2,000 kilometers of frontline, and halting military actions could disrupt ongoing operations. Ukrainian forces could use a ceasefire period to regroup, receive more weapons, and train fresh recruits, he warned.
“These 30 days — how will they be used? To continue forced mobilization in Ukraine? To receive more arms supplies? To train newly mobilized units? Or will none of this happen?” Putin asked.
Enforcing a ceasefire over such a vast battlefield would be difficult, he added, violations could be easily disputed, leading to a blame game between both sides. Systems of “control and verification” to monitor a ceasefire are not in place but should be agreed.
Some of these demands were no doubt communicated to the US side, with Reuters reporting that the Kremlin’s formal list of requirements to achieve permanent ceasefire have been delivered:
Russia has laid out a list of demands to U.S. authorities that need to be met in order for the war in Ukraine to end, Reuters reported, citing two people “familiar with the matter.”
The list of demands came just before Russia’s Defense Ministry announced it has taken over Sudzha, the biggest town in the Kursk region that has been overrun by Ukrainian forces since the surprise cross-border offensive in August 2024. The takeover came after Russian President Vladimir Putin visited military headquarters in the region and spoke to military commanders there.
The exact content of these demands are not yet known, but at least some of it was probably echoed in Putin’s Thursday remarks.
* * *
Russia has rejected the US-proposed 30-day ceasefire which came out of the Jeddah meeting with Ukraine, describing that it would only allow Ukrainian forces to regroup.
“This is nothing other than a temporary time-out for Ukrainian soldiers, nothing more. Our goal is a long-term peaceful resolution,” Yuri Ushakov, a senior aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, told Russian state television. “Our goal is a long-term peaceful settlement that takes into account the legitimate interests of our country and our well-known concerns. It seems to me that no one needs any steps that (merely) imitate peaceful actions in this situation,” he said. He further expressed that it would “give nothing” to Russia.
Russian President Putin came to visit the headquarters of the Kursk operation, dressed in military uniform. This does not seem like a signal that he is ready for a ‘bad’ peace.
This was the first official public response on the issue from the Kremlin, after it said Wednesday it was “studying” the proposal. President Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, is currently en route to Moscow to discuss the temporary truce proposal.
Ushakov says he has communicated Moscow’s rejection of the 30-day ceasefire plan to Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz.
None of this comes as a great surprise, given not only that Russian forces have the clear battlefield momentum and upper-hand, but back in January President Putin explained why he would never settle for any ceasefire that’s temporary.
He had said at the time, “The goal should not be a short truce, not some kind of respite for regrouping forces and rearmament with the aim of subsequently continuing the conflict, but a long-term peace based on respect for the legitimate interests of all people, all nations living in this region.”
The Russian leader had on Wednesday visited Kursk region for the first time since Ukraine’s incursion there and holding of territory which began in August.
“Our immediate goal is as soon as possible to conclusively destroy the enemy entrenched on the territory of Kursk region,” Putin said.
And the optics and symbolism were not missed on Russia’s enemies, as Putin was dressed in military fatigues as he addressed top generals, which is a rarity.
President Trump has been warning of what could happen if Moscow doesn’t come the negotiating table. “I can do things financially that would be very bad for Russia,” Trump said earlier. “I don’t want to do that because I want to get peace. I want to see peace and we’ll see. But in a financial sense, yeah, we could do things very bad for Russia. It would be devastating for Russia.”
But as Moon of Alabama highlights in fresh analysis, the meager 30-day truce offering which came out of Jeddah demonstrates weakness on the US side. Asia Times had predicted:
According to the latest from Riyadh, Ukraine says it is ready for a 30 day cease fire. If this is what Washington “extracted” from the Ukrainians, it is operationally meaningless. With Russia on the brink of winning in Kursk and elsewhere, the Russians won’t accept any such deal. If it is a ruse to allow the US to resume arms shipments to Ukraine, knowing Russia will reject it, the so-called peace initiative is a dead letter.
Meanwhile RT has featured the explanation and more context to Russia’s rejection by political analyst Sergey Markov as follows…
Reasons why Russia to refuse a ceasefire (and especially anything deemed temporary):
1. A ceasefire would be exploited by the West and Ukraine to halt the advance of the Russian army, strip it of its initiative, supply the Ukrainian army with more weapons, continue extensive mobilization in Ukraine, and strengthen the repressive and anti-Russian nature of the Ukrainian political regime
2. The experience of the Minsk 1 and Minsk 2 agreements clearly demonstrates this pattern
3. The consistent dishonesty of Western politicians and media regarding the conflict, as well as their refusal to acknowledge their own and Ukraine’s culpability, strongly suggests that history will repeat itself
4. Russian President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials have repeatedly stated that what Russia needs is lasting peace, not just a temporary ceasefire
5. The West cannot really be trusted
6. Russia is advancing. A ceasefire always benefits those who are retreating.
