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The Russian Non-Reset
I’m reminded a bit of that saying “The more things change, the more they stay the same,” in light of recent events. Also, the buzzword “multiculturalism” seems to have fallen out of favor, but it’s worth reviewing its ideological meaning and its literal meaning.
Jump back to 2009. The story went something like the following. The Obama administration was coming into office and he was supposed to be the master orator and the transformative quasi-messianic figure. With simply a silver-tongued speech he could stop the seas from rising, the global temperature from warming, and heal the international relationships of the USA. After the disastrous W. Bush administration, the US’s standing in the world was ruined – including that with Russia. W. Bush and company were too much of a rowdy, rude, bumpkin group who had wasted good will for the USA. The right-wingers had tended to demonize Russia and were still hung up on that Cold War thing, which was so full of jingoistic nationalism that it claimed the American people and the USSR were “enemies.” But the much more sophisticated view of things shows how people everywhere are really no different, and we and all our global leaders really just want the same things. If we have an enemy, it’s simply because we haven’t dialoged correctly. Or if hostility remains, it’s because of some national sin of the USA or is a just reaction to some wrong the USA committed upon them. Everything revolves around us. We have moved into a new progressive paradigm in which we are post-nationalistic, and our obvious universal values must now be meshed together with our diverse global-thinking leaders. Away with those narrow-minded nitwits like Mitt Romney who would later foolishly claim in a presidential debate that Russia was “the main foreign policy adversary of the USA.” Ha, what a dummy. Let’s gather around him. Place a dunce cap atop Romney’s head and point and laugh at such a ridiculous suggestion. Hey, the 1980s called, and they want their foreign policy back.
However, there’s good news. The strained Russian-American relationship can easily be fixed. With the bumbling W. out and Obama in, things can be “Reset.” Simple as that. Fortunately, we have the eminently qualified Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. She would later go on to be the most qualified candidate ever, and would ever be, to run for US president. Her formidable skills with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov proved to be a stellar success. A clever idea of doing a press conference with a conspicuous red Reset Button did just the trick. Words and a clever gimmick overcame realpolitik. Or did it? Was this really what was going on in 2009, or something else?
I recall some contrary details. The “Russian Reset Button” incident has largely been forgotten nowadays (except by us types). It was also glossed over by the American press of the time. It wasn’t a success. Far from it. It was a clumsy flub that exposed the ignorance of the incoming administration and the lack of competency of the US State Department. Firstly, the “Reset Button” used with Sergei Lavrov included the word “reset” in Russian, or at least that’s what Hillary and the State Department thought. But no, or “nyet,” I suppose. Apparently, Hillary couldn’t muster anyone in State fluent in Russian. The word they printed on the button translates as “Overcharge.” Well, I guess screw that Mark Twain bit about the difference between lighting and lighting bug. Press on with our Overcharged-Reset button with all smiles for the mass of cameras. The video of Hillary presenting the gift-boxed Reset Button to Lavrov on behalf of Obama/Biden is classic, linked here. Hillary tells Lavrov they “worked hard to get it right;” he immediately tells her, “You got it wrong.” Yep. We are subsequently treated to Hillary’s iconic nervous tick of breaking out in awkward cackling laughter when she’s in a bind and has nothing good to say and can’t compose herself. Lavrov has a much different tone in his laugh. I can’t help but guess he was thinking, “Oh, we are going to totally have our way with you naive babes in the woods. Crimea is ours soon.” The awkward cackling laughter continues from Hillary.
I find the incident informative, not just an amusing gaffe. Having a State Department with people who are fluent in the languages of important countries and a greater than surface level understanding of those countries should not be an unreasonable staffing goal. Perhaps we could add a few more qualifications while we’re at it. I prefer a more cagey, shrewd diplomat. If State can’t even translate a single word for a PR stunt, then one has to wonder what more important things they are missing.
Jump to the 2024 presidential campaign. Trump gave the impression that ending the Russia-Ukraine war would be as simple 
and straightforward as pushing the Staples Easy Button. Dusting off the Overcharge Button wouldn’t be required. Plus, instead of Hillary, perhaps we could have a real estate guy named Steve Witkoff do the press conference. Trump said that he could end the war with a phone call. That’s on brand for him. I also think it’s a pretty good campaign sales pitch that is memorable for voters. However, how much of the “phone call” hyperbole is truly what he believed, and how much of that is wishful thinking based on misperceptions? I am not sure what the ratio is, but I think it’s a combination of the two.
With the phone calling business, it seems like Putin is more of the mind “I’ll call you, you don’t call me.” Maybe our people will contact your people. Or not. We’ll see. When ending a serious conflict, you need something a bit more solid than Carly Rae Jepsen’s flippant pop song “Call Me Maybe.” And, like trite relationships, the side that is in the weaker position is typically more needy and willing to stand by or be “more flexible.” Let’s hope the line is not as dead as when a certain Benghazi phone call was made.
Mark Steyn had a great line back when liberals talked about multiculturalism and pre-DEI times. He said roughly, “Multiculturalism absolves you from knowing anything about other cultures.” But be sure to feel “warm and fluffy” about it. Culture is just superficial dress, music, or neat, new, spicy food. Beyond that, there’s no point in learning much since everything is the same, or will be in the near future once American conservatives can be overcome.
I believe that even if we are not very worldly, we should still have a basic understanding of the fact that multiple cultures literally exist which predate the notion of multiculturalism. Yes, there have been in the past, and still are today, distinct cultures. You don’t need to be fluent in Russian to know this truth. Sometimes they mix like oil and water. In addition, not everything revolves around the USA. One big mistake American liberals routinely make is underestimating foreign peoples and countries. There are, in fact, other peoples in the world who have their own agency and motivations. They aren’t simply reactionary to the USA. Russia is no different in this regard. I think the Cold War American leadership understood this fact better than our current elite and managerial class.
Oh, but I heard Russia has inexpensive groceries, and I got an uninterrupted 40-minute crash course in Russian history and how Ukraine is a phony country. Instead, Ukraine is purely a NATO puppet operated by Nazis and run by a Jew. Perhaps we can get a real, honest history to back this up; invite Darryl Cooper to enlighten us. Perhaps Winston Churchill is to blame for the Ukraine-Russia war for providing guns and materials to the USSR during WW2.
Yeah, so I’ve noticed an issue on the political right, too, regarding Russia and a few other things. I’m generally conventional in my right-of-center view of the USA when it comes to foreign policy. Opinions can vary, but you gotta be grounded in reality of some sort. Some popular commentators on the right have unfortunately issued some strong opinions, and have either not done the work reading up on a subject or have maybe drunk some spiked Kool-Aid. Some are perhaps just career influencers who need to drive traffic to make a good living. Tucker seems like an affable guy and has had some interesting takes, but I have been dumbfounded by some recent material. In a slightly different track, there is Candace Owens with her “[Expletive] Ukraine” position. Just because a take is “hot” and drives clicks, doesn’t mean it’s insightful. I don’t follow her, but apparently she gets millions of followers. From the foreign comments I’ve heard from her, I get the impression she has a shallow grasp of things. Limited historical knowledge. Kanye West is also not the most stable of individuals to do your promos with either. That’s an association I would rather not have in the conservative opinion-making movement. So on the right we have to try to avoid being gullible and taken for suckers in foreign affairs, as the left so frequently has been.
I think enough information has come out to show that Ukraine is the B side of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Ukraine is hurting bad, and a prolonged conflict favors Russia. The American legacy media has largely shielded the general American public from the challenges and setbacks Ukraine has had in the war after its incredible initial defense from the Russian invasion. For Ukraine to survive as an independent country, it will need more than its flag hung as a vanity decoration. Also, the Ukraine conflict has exposed the limitations of the US industrial base, which should alarm those who care about a strong American national defense. The US military and industrial capacity is in a bit of a pickle at the moment. Long-term structural deficits don’t help our long-term security efforts either. We can’t be in denial about these things. Yes, there are certainly valid criticisms on the right regarding the Ukraine situation, but throwing these beleaguered people to Russia doesn’t make sense if you believe in a world geared more toward free states. Just because the USA has problems doesn’t mean we shouldn’t care about our national interest abroad, too. I don’t see shaming NATO members and giving them a jolt into doing more as a negative, despite what the media says. It’s not “attacking NATO” either. Rather, the opposite.
I’m generally supportive of the basic ideas of ‘Peace and Deterrence through Strength’, ‘not getting bogged down in foreign conflicts with no strategic outlook’, ‘avoiding unnecessary conflict’, and the like. However, we find ourselves in the middle of a conflict. You can’t undo what’s already been done. We can’t undo the hasty Afghan pullout or the subsequent Russian invasion. All of this was within Biden’s permissible limits. What is the outcome you prefer? What is likely best for the USA? For Western Civilization? Somehow, I doubt it is Russia completely having its way in Ukraine with the help of China and Iran.
Hillary Clinton was pretty good at resetting the opinion of the loyal Democrat voting base regarding Russia. Opposing Russia went from a knuckle-dragging, out-of-date right-winger position to the vanguard of progressivism because Republicans were Putin’s Russian stooges. All it took was a dossier and planted stories. However, conflating a reset of Democrat opinion and a reset of other countries and conflicts would be a categorical error.
One thing is clear, though: There’s no magical “Reset Button” in the real world. Don’t be fooled into thinking there is one.
Sooner or later someone should explain to Trump that his vaunted “deal” with Ukraine isn’t worth a bucket of warm spit. Putin played Trump like a Stradivarius and Trump has no comeback.
Understand that I’m in favor of just about everything else Trump has done, but his Ukraine policy started out on stupid and has been losing ground ever since.
I don’t think Trump appreciated the emotional, nationalistic imperative behind Russia’s invasion. I suspect he thought it was merely cynical, imperial expansion. On the other hand I think that Putin sees it as reclaiming lost glory and repaying a debt of honor.
I don’t agree with Putin, but it appears to me that those are his motivations.
Well said, an excellent post. I would only add that the issue is miscast as Ukraine. The issue has become the initial terms of the Third World War. Russia, China, and North Korea have used this conflict to varying degrees to bootstrap their munitions industry. NATO, including the US, have postured about the importance of the Ukraine conflict while proving that the voters and politicians of NATO don’t actually care. They have been claiming Russia is a threat louder and louder for ten years. Their armories and troop counts and general preparedness is an embarrassment. They have yet to begin ramping up to meet the threat. If the Europeans put half of the energy into men and munitions that they put into coordinating headlines and trying to pressure Trump, they might have given Putin reason to listen. In ten years, what happened in Ukraine won’t matter nearly as much as how NATO commits to preparedness today.
I hear that Trump should join in because Russia is so weak, they’ll fall right over. And I hear that Russia is so strong, the Balkans and the rest of NATO are next. When the media are puppets, real information, critical, important information, can’t break through the various “best version of somebody ever” defecatory matter. Part of that preparedness issue is to stop strangling dissent in the crib. And to stop allowing psyops like NetZero destroy the industrial bases of nations.
And I’m bored with hearing how weak Russia is. “The next blow will finish them.” “The next sanction (17? 18?) will blow down their house.” 2022, 2023, 2024, we were told they were weeks away from collapse. By all signs, they are in better shape than the rest of Europe with cheap hydrocarbons and an expanding industrial base, military and otherwise. And Ukraine is showing signs of imminent collapse while our controlled media natters away. Biden quietly started WW III and his henchmen spilled the beans to the NY Times because they wanted to claim the “credit”. These were never the brightest bulbs in the drawer. The war is started. It will either end in a flash, and we will have all failed our children, or we will put real resources into winning the broader war and Putin, or his successor, will sue for an equitable peace. Winning Ukraine now is not the objective, winning the next ten years is. If we do that, the citizens of NATO, Ukraine, and Russia all win.
In passing, Carlson’s interview with Putin was actually stunning and brave. Unlike the Cold War, where on the brink of mutual annihilation we exchanged embassies and established leader to leader telephones, our demented leaders stopped all contacts with Russia. Determined to smash them into the rubble pile of history with all of the military and munitions industry and intelligence services and media on board. No one was allowed share a Russian or a Russian adjacent perspective. That mop-headed bow tie twit turned into the adult in the room, and continues to be. I don’t endorse every aspect of every move that Tucker has made, but he has been more valuable than all the captive corporate media combined in the Demented POTUS Era. And he is not alone.
Putin is who he trained as – a KGB Colonel.
These things do not change. All presidents from W to Trump thought they can deal with him, without much success
I didn’t know Steyn had said that, either roughly or smoothly. But there’s a lot of wisdom in it that could be applied to the MAGA multiculturalists who are defending the nomination of Casey Means to be Sturgeon General.
This is not true. And Tucker Carlson should be hung on the same scaffold with Jane Fonda.
Ha. I think Steyn might had said it cheerfully. But I might have paraphrased it.
Well, I hop it doesn’t turn into a full WW. What’s the leak to the NYT? I’m unfamiliar.
It seems like there might be some indication of course correction to come with these “Putin has gone crazy” type Trump quotes following the obvious recent attacks. Though Putin probably hasn’t changed much at all, if any.
However, does the US general public and that of our NATO allies have the will and fortitude to push back enough to achieve and armistice much less an out right victory? I’m doubtful. The fear of expanding the conflict appears to be an effective check by Putin on the west.
Personally I’d like to see a bit stronger line on Iran and the proxies. Maybe it will come. But I get that Trump ran on pro-peaceful international relations. I don’t think that regime has any potential for serious negotiations or good will. They seem truly committed. Sometimes there is no middle ground or reasonable accommodation despite hoping there is one.
Expanding the conflict or escalating the conflict? It was often said that Biden feared escalation, which was why he worked so hard to hobble the aid we sent to Ukraine. I don’t remember whether he used that word himself.
But when you consider that even with the reluctant help that the U.S. and Europe have provided, that it will take Russia a couple hundred years to take Kyiv at the rate it’s going, it wouldn’t take much for Ukraine to be successful enough that Putin would be trying to stop the armed conflict as quickly as possible on the best terms he could get so he could continue his Russkie Mir globalism project through other means.
I meant expanding – as in more territory and more players involved. But I take your point.
Suppressing Ukrainian responses to less than tit-for-tat military operations doesn’t seem to be a great long term strategy for “winning”. It seems unlikely that Ukraine will get back all the lost land and get a surrender from Putin. Regarding the status of the war, I think a damn can appear to hold until the moment it breaks. Yes, Ukraine is holding for now. But it needs some relief. Russia is getting outside support and is not adverse to pain. Among other things Ukraine appears to be losing population which is not easily replaced. Certainly more women appear to be checking out. Those women will likely settle with other men and not return. Compared to many western women I don’t think a Ukrainian woman will have much difficulty in finding a new boyfriend once a refugee in a new land. The result will be a Ukrainian population weighted male, who are aging, emerged in continuous seemingly unending war, without any strategy for an ultimate resolution, with a dearth of female company. I’ve noticed an increase in the number of Ukrainians in the USA too. From the small sample size I’ve seen they are younger and majority female. Maybe an indication.
The truth is even if a peaceful arrangement is achieved, then Ukraine will still likely need civil support from the West for years to come. A West that will have a harder time simply supporting themselves.
Trump 45 dealt with Putin quite effectively. I do not understand his failure to do so now.
Russia is also on the edge of collapse, and can’t sustain its war effort for much longer. Of course it’s difficult to say just when that dam will collapse, too. Most such predictions are wrong when they get into specific times. Russia’s best chance for coming out of this is Trump acting like Trump.
From where I’ve been in Ukraine the past couple of weeks the populations seem to be doing well. Of course it’s understandable that people from the combat areas have had to flee, and I have stayed far away from those areas. On my FlixBus ride from Warsaw into Ukraine most of the passengers were women. One seemed to be the mother of a boy who will be of military age in a very few years. And I seem to remember one another guy. It was an overnight ride and there was not much talking. Whether they’re just coming back to check their property is hard to say, though there are a lot of refugees who do go back from time to time to check on things. There is still building construction going on in all the cities, though I wouldn’t say it’s an obviously high rate of construction. I do have to watch out for the cement trucks as they don’t have as much stopping power as I would like. The main roads are in good repair and good places to ride, even with the heavy traffic. You don’t see so many expensive luxury cars like you do on the German autobahns, though there are a few, and there are a few people who drive as though they’re driving luxury cars on the German autobahns. Not too much of that, though.
Sometimes it’s hard to think of it as a country at war, though if you pay attention there are signs. I did hear one boom a few nights ago. At first I thought I imagined it, or maybe it was thunder (there has been a lot of rain) but then I decided it had to have been a blast. I looked out my window but all I saw was a sleeping city. I forgot about it until the next morning when I read the Kyiv Independent and saw my then current city in the list of places where there had been drone attacks the previous night. And yesterday riding just to the edge of Kyiv I saw one building with damage, which, judging by the scatter effect of the damage pattern had to have been from a bomb. Whether it was long ago or recently I have no idea. The authorities do quick cleanup work. There is a lot of traffic on the streets and roads, and some small percentage of that is obviously military traffic.
Some positive news. What made you decide to go there? Do you have a plan in mind or just having a flexible adventure?
Is Mike Pompeo a likely factor? It’s my understanding some on the right found him too hawkish, but the guy seemed to know what he was about and firm in it.
Also, the situation is dynamic now instead of being a matter of status quo deterrence. This might partly explain.
I’ve always disliked that photo. They are holding an EMERGENCY STOP button, absolutely NOT a RESET!
I had been working on plans to visit Ukraine ever since my wife and I visited Poland in 2018. I had thought of it earlier, but it was then that I started to get serious and work on the logistics. My wife was not so eager to do it, so one of the options was for me to just go myself by bicycle. (Before the 2014 invasion I had the idea of bicycling in Russia, but in that case I would have been joining a tour managed by a Russian group.)
On retiring in 2013 I thought that if we did any traveling in Europe I wanted to go to eastern Europe. I had absolutely no interest in going to places like Germany or France. Too civilized. We go sometimes to visit our daughter in Ireland, and that’s enough of that, I thought. But we did a family history tour in 2018 that took us to Germany and Poland, and I decided I actually did like western Europe, so doing more travel of that kind of took my mind off of my plans to visit places like Ukraine, though I’ve been reading all of the Ukrainian history I can.
But this year I noticed that old age was catching up with me at an alarming state, to the point that I can’t do all the things I did just a few years ago, or at least can’t do them as easily. (I’m 76.) I’ve been annoyed by some of the discussions about Ukraine that show that people really don’t have the picture of how things are in that country, but I couldn’t say that I had any first hand knowledge myself. After one such discussion on Ricochet a few months ago I decided now was the time. If I didn’t do it now, I might never be able to.
I thought of doing a ride from Warsaw to Kyiv, but there is only one place on the Polish/Ukraine border where I could ride my bicycle across, and it’s far enough south that it would make the whole trip too long, so I worked with a bunch of other plans until deciding that taking a bus across the border to Lutsk and riding from there would give me enough taste of what I was looking for.
One thing that hasn’t worked as I had hoped is to go off on side trips to visit some of the smaller villages in agricultural country. There was enough time for it, but the weather didn’t cooperate. But I’ve gotten some of what I wanted because the main road starting in Lutsk passes alongside a lot more villages than I expected, and in a lot of those places there are service roads next to the 4-lane highway that take me along places that in some respects resemble Russian dacha communities, though they aren’t exactly like that. But I enjoy seeing the yards and places where people keep chickens and goats. Reminds me of the small place where I was born. People turn a lot of their space into gardens, and I enjoy looking at that though not much is growing yet. There might even be a cow or two penned out in what we might call the right-of-way between those houses and the main road. Some of the places are rather rustic, shall we say, and others are gentrified. I think at my age I’d pick a gentrified place to live in. Sometimes I got too involved in looking at places and didn’t realize the service road dead-ended and I had to backtrack to get onto the main road. On one such place I had to ride over the chains of two cows that were penned up in that area and pass rather close behind the rear end of a horse that was tied out there, and then ran out of road so I had to go back the way I had come. On the return trip I realized that the front feet of the horse were hobbled and it wasn’t going to be kicking anybody.
One thing I hadn’t realized was the extent to which stand-alone houses around the edges of a big city are arranged somewhat like that, too, perhaps minus the chickens and goats, etc. It all looks kind of rough because people don’t mow and trim the greenery to death, but some of the places look quite attractive to me when I look past that.
Tomorrow I ride to the center of Kyiv, about 12 miles from where I am now. I expect that will be different. I have reservations at a boutique hotel that says its rooms are actually basement rooms, though with full windows and balconies. Not sure how that works, but it looks good from the interior photos on booking.com. Some of the reviewers like the protection the basement offers. So I guess I’m wimping out and going for safety. There are lots of hotels in Kyiv, so it was hard to pick one, but I settled on that area because it’s within walking distances of a lot of the places I want to go, though not all of them. Prices are higher than I’ve paid anywhere else in Ukraine, though not nearly as high as for equivalent hotels back home. I think the cheapest I’ve paid has been about $20/night, and I’ve done them all through booking.com.
I don’t know how average wages work in Ukraine, but they seem to be low enough that employers can hire people for hotels, gas station convenience stores, supermarkets, etc. that have the time to do a super good job of keeping the place neat and tidy and also to help a foreigner like me who doesn’t know his way around. Businesses in the U.S. could never afford to hire people to do all of what they do.
That’s more than an answer to your question but I like writing all of these things because it helps me remember things I might otherwise forget. My wife and I spend time each day messaging back and forth, and I give her long-winded answers, too, partly for the same reason.
Well good luck on your travels and I’ll be curious to see updates. Glad to hear you’re active. I like first hand info.
Here are some photos of a Ukrainian Orthodox Church from the city I am originally from. The parish was founded in 1906. Yes, the Ukrainian ethnicity is a real thing unlike some claim. There were multiple Eastern Europeans who emigrated to work the factories, mines, etc. “Ethnics”, that’s what I heard them were called when I was growing. It took me years to appreciate the Orthodox Churches and have some understanding of it. It’s difficult to imagine one of these things being build today. Certainly better than the ugly stuff put up in the 70s. Maybe you’ll see churches like this over there.
A couple of good columns:
https://www.19fortyfive.com/2025/05/why-putin-believes-he-can-win-his-civilizational-war-against-the-west/
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/on-russia-trump-is-more-of-the-same-065f2672?mod=commentary_article_pos8
Since the WSJ column is beyond a paywall here is a brief summary of major points:
“[in the late 1980s]With Moscow weak and German expansion no longer a threat, it suddenly became possible to build a coherent European security system to block Russian conquest. This would have been workable if it fully integrated Poland and Ukraine—the only nations between Germany and Russia large enough to field major militaries.
From 1989 on, successive White Houses took the opposite approach. Presidents preferred reaching out to Russia over cultivating European strategic balance…..
Against this background, the second Trump administration’s Moscow outreach looks far from radical—and bound to fail. The only question is whether Mr. Trump will prove he is a disrupter after all and do in Ukraine negotiations what no post-1989 president has managed: confront and defeat Russia….
The only route forward is to impose enough of a cost on Russia to bring Moscow to the table. That would be a sharp break from recent history….
It will take more than sanctions, which work too slowly, to force Russia to the table. A truly revolutionary policy would require that Washington give Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic states priority over Russia…..
meet further Russian military action with a full suite of U.S. military transfers to Ukrainian forces and actively support Ukrainian attacks inside Russia. There would be no slow-rolling of F-16s or Himars…”
Biden started World War III??? I’m unfamiliar with that.
I don’t think there’s a ghost of a chance Trump has soured on his support for Russia/Putin. Russia has been attacking civilian targets for three years now, and Trump has not lifted a finger to challenge Russia in any way, nor condemn them in any meaningful way. In Trumpspeak, “Putin has gone crazy” is a friendly jibe. He has played the consummate politician and refused to answer the question of whose side he was on in the war. On the contrary, he has gone out of his way to accommodate or help Russia/Putin every chance he has had.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/30/world/europe/us-ukraine-military-war-takeaways.html?searchResultPosition=1
Trump has no leverage (or exercised it) – Putin understands Trump won’t up the supply of arms to Ukraine, China is buying their fuel so unless any of these dynamics change
I can only imagine that Putin cannot believe what a willing stooge Trump has been for him. He’s able to drag Trump along continuously with false promises and even cruelly taunt him without suffering any repercussions. His dream of driving a wedge between the U.S. and Europe is working effortlessly. The reciprocal driving a wedge between Russia and China is a non-starter. This is probably the best scenario he could have hoped for.