What a Russian journalist accredited to the Kremlin saw at Vladimir Putin's first reaction after Trump's peace plan / China's role explained by Putin

On November 21, Putin held a routine meeting of the Security Council of the Russian Federation via video conference. It was when his comments about the peace plan were picked up and went out into the world. Russian journalist Andrei Kolesnikov, Kremlin correspondent, watched the entire teleconference, and comments not only on what Putin said, but also on what the audience did not see.

The Security Council of the Russian Federation was held on Friday, even after the 28 conditions of the peace plan drawn up by the Donald Trump administration had been published worldwide, point by point.

The meeting had other topics. In front of a large display, Vladimir Putin announced to them at the start of the meeting: “We have two important questions today,” Putin said. “On the priorities of the Russian presidency of the CSTO (no Military Organization of Russia and five ex-Soviet states) and “the strategy of the Russian Federation to combat neo-colonial practices”.

The interruption that moved the discussion to Trump's peace plan

Then, Putin invited Sergey Lavrov to talk about the two topics. But before Lavrov could say anything, Valentina Matvienko, the highest-ranking woman in the Russian Federation, intervened. Matvienko is the leader of the upper house of the Russian Parliament.

She told the president that “everyone is talking about the peace plan” and that she was asking him to tell them what he thought, Russian journalist Andrei Kolesnikov, accredited to the Kremlin for the Kommersant newspaper, reported.

“Sure, it's no secret,” Vladimir Putin answered the invitation to give details. Kolesnikov carefully followed what Putin said, correlating it with hundreds of other interventions and speeches by the president, which the journalist had seen, even before the war against Ukraine. Kolesnikov was also in Alaska when Trump and Putin met.

“We are ready to demonstrate the flexibility that is offered to us”

“President Trump's peace plan to resolve the situation in Ukraine was discussed before the meeting in Alaska,” Putin said. “And during this preliminary discussion, the American side asked us to make certain compromises, to show, as they said, flexibility,” Putin said, “apparently in an ironic mood,” the journalist notes.

The Americans had asked them to freeze the front line, the Kremlin observer noted, something Putin did not agree to. Meanwhile, the front has reached a more convenient point for Russia.

“We are ready to demonstrate the flexibility that is offered to us,” Putin said on the screen, in front of the Russian Security Council.

Putin said China supports the ideas in the plan

Vladimir Putin then said that the plan's ideas had been secretly shared with China, India, Brazil and other countries in what he called the “Global South”. All these countries support these points, Putin said. He insisted: all of them.

The journalist recorded that “many therefore knew everything.” And he marvels that “no one leaked the information. It seems they were seriously warned.”

Putin called Trump's peace plan “the new version, which is essentially a modernized 28-point plan.” Zelensky called it the document that comes “at one of the most difficult moments in our history” and whose adoption would undermine the “dignity” of Ukraine, but whose rejection would mean the loss of partnership with the US.

He denied that the plan was drafted by the US and Russia together

Vladimir Putin said the new plan is the exclusive work of the Donald Trump administration. He denied it was a joint Russian-American document.

“We have this text,” the Russian president confirmed in front of the display. “We received it through the existing channels of interaction with the American administration. I believe that this too can form the basis of a definitive peace agreement.”

He also said that he did not believe that the US had obtained the agreement of the Ukrainian side. “It appears that Ukraine and its European allies are still under the illusion that they will inflict a strategic defeat on the battlefield for Russia.” This, Putin said, is because they do not have correct information about the battlefield. He gave the example of a town he claimed Russia had liberated when Ukraine claimed only a few dozen Russian soldiers were on the streets.

“The signal is clear: Russia will sign this plan”

Those in the meeting enthusiastically encouraged Putin, the journalist says. Putin then threatened:

“If Kiev refuses to discuss President Trump's proposal and refuses to do so, then both they and the European warfighters must understand that the events that took place in Kupiansk will inevitably be repeated in other key areas of the front! Maybe not as quickly as we would like, but they will inevitably be repeated.”

At the time, the journalist noted: “So Putin's ultimate argument is military force. It's been that way for 4 years.”

“But we,” explained the Russian president, “as we have said many times before, we are also ready for peaceful negotiations, for the peaceful resolution of problems. However, this, of course, requires a substantial discussion of all the details of the proposed plan. We are ready for that.”

The Kremlin correspondent concluded: “The signal is clear: Russia will sign this plan. There are some considerations, especially if Ukraine has its own plan, but it will sign.”

Here Putin put an end to the discussion. “Let's move on to the proposed topics for discussion,” the president returned to his papers. And he asked Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to return to the tasks of the Security Council of the Russian Federation.

That is, to “the fight against the practices of neocolonialism”, about which the Russian journalist says using an irony that, in Russia, “it is an eternal discussion”.

“It” was banned in Russia

Also recently, a much smaller story appeared on the Russian news agency TASS.

The novel “It” by the American writer Stephen King has been officially withdrawn from sale in Russia. The Russian version of the book has become “almost impossible” to find both in traditional bookstores and online.

In a statement to TASS, the press service of the Russian online retailer Wildberries & Russ commented that it “fully complies with the law and does not allow the sale of any prohibited products in the Russian Federation.” No explanation was offered as to how King or his novel violated Russian laws.

Stephen King has long been an outspoken critic of Russia's war in Ukraine.

In recent years, several censorship laws have also affected the literature that Russians can read. There have also been police raids on bookstores for allegedly stocking “banned titles.”