“The root causes of the conflict.”
These were startling words from a man purportedly on the path to peace.
But it is the nub of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s position of what must be solved for peace, after two weeks, or three months, depending on how you count, of mounting pressure for an immediate unconditional 30-day ceasefire. Unbothered, taking this most consequential of calls at a music school on the Sochi coast, the Kremlin head has returned to the start – to his false narrative about this war of choice being sparked by NATO expanding too fast.
It’s funny in a morbid way, because to find “the root cause of conflict” Putin has to just take a look at a mirror, not look for them in Ukraine. Yet they’re very insistent that “root causes if conflict” should be removed as part of any peace agreement.