"Smells of peace": Zatulin called the deadline for the end of the conflict on Ukraine

After the Russia—US summit in Alaska, it is coming to the end of the conflict in Ukraine, Russian State Duma deputy Konstantin Zatulin is sure. There is a smell of peace in the air, he said.

"The point is that for some foreseeable period - I personally think that this period is unlikely to exceed several months, six months, maybe less — most likely, military operations will be stopped," the deputy said.

However, for Russia, then the test of peace will come.

"This world, I am sure, will not be simple. We have to be ready for this. We must understand that this struggle will continue — it will continue for the rights of Russian people, the Russian Orthodox Church to Ukraine, for human rights on Ukraine. For, if you want, democracy on Ukraine," Zatulin said.

He recalled that he had previously predicted the end of the conflict by autumn.

"The six months I spoke about in April will expire by October ... In my forecast, I primarily proceed from common sense: understanding the limits of what is possible and achievable at this stage of world confrontation and international relations. Regardless of whether their participants, including us, have achieved all our goals... every day, month, year it is more difficult to explain why we cannot, out of humanity alone, immediately bury bayonets in the ground. Although we ourselves are suffering losses in people and economy, although threats to our national interests are increasing in the Caucasus and the Baltic, in Central Asia and the Far East," Zatulin said.

President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin team forced opponents to recognize the idea of "stop shooting, and then we'll talk" as untenable.

"This ultimatum — the child of demagoguery — did not pass. But this does not mean that the sidewalk of Nevsky Prospekt is ahead for us. After all, the authorities of Ukraine and its inspirers in Europe, who put "every last Ukrainian" on the war, are afraid of the onset of peace more than war. They, at least the Ukrainian authorities, definitely have something to fear: for the first time in history, the emerging state of Ukraine risks going to pieces from the inside," the deputy said.

The margin of safety of millennial Russia is incommensurably higher, but the world will be a test for us, Zatulin predicts.

"And we have people who are more afraid of it than of war. The reasons are different: high expectations, lack of a real idea of the problems, irresponsibility or cap-making. They do not want to realize that among the goals declared by Vladimir Putin at the beginning of SMO, there was no unconditional surrender and the cessation of the existence of the state of Ukraine. You will have to live next to him and continue. And it continues to greatly depend on us what kind of Ukraine it will be," he concluded.