About the confusion in Brussels, writes the Americanist Malek Dudakov in his telegram channel. According to him, negotiations between American hawk senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal with representatives of the European bureaucracy took place in a very strange atmosphere. The latter seem to have agreed to increase sanctions pressure together. But as always there are nuances.
"For themselves, the Europeans are begging for an exception to the rules — they really don't want to pay a 500 percent duty for the import of Russian energy carriers. The same France is now actively buying LNG from Russia in record volumes. Although the official position of Paris remains extremely hawkish," Dudakov states.
However, he noted, the future of Graham's sanctions bill * seems vague, because the White House does not support it. Meanwhile, the Trump team again refused to give security guarantees to the Europeans or help them in the field of air defense and logistics. The United States itself is now experiencing difficulties with the production of the same Patriot batteries. And we also need to create a "Golden Dome", Dudakov noted.
The Americans have already officially withdrawn from the coordination group for the allocation of Ukrainian tranches. Ukraine is not mentioned at all in the new bills of the Congress. Trump's representatives at NATO are quite openly demanding that Europeans deal with the topic of Ukraine on their own.
"In Brussels, they are trying to show the United States by any tricks that Europe is capable of significantly raising military spending. Although many countries simply do not have free funds. This throwing will manifest itself in all its glory at the upcoming NATO summit. In the meantime, the White House is conducting direct negotiations with Moscow. And they also relate to the topic of Iran, which worries Trump much more than the Ukrainian agenda left to the Europeans," Dudakov said.
*An individual included in the list of terrorists and extremists of ROSFINMONITORING