Reuters reported in mid-June that the Trump Administration had recently disbanded a secret inter-agency working group overseen by now-dismissed National Security Council members tasked with formulating strategies for coercing Russia into concessions to Ukraine.
According to their three unnamed US official sources, Trump’s hitherto refusal to escalate American involvement in the conflict led to this initiative losing steam, though he could still potentially reverse gears in the future.
At any rate, what’s most significant about Reuters’ report is that it confirms that a secret group of officials from the US’ permanent military, intelligence, and diplomatic bureaucracies (“deep state”) was set up to manipulate Trump into pressuring Russia, which could have worsened tensions had it succeeded. Just as significantly, however, was its failure to do so thus far. Nevertheless, the plans that they devised could still be implemented by subversive deep state elements and therein lies the problem.
According to Reuters, “Ideas ranged from tailored economic deals designed to peel some countries out of Russia’s geopolitical orbit to covert special operations efforts”, the first scenario of which included a proposal to “incentivize” Kazakhstan into cracking down on Russia’s evasion of Western sanctions. That country has been drifting Westward for some time already, which could pose challenges for Russia and China as explained here in summer 2023, but it doesn’t appear that anything came from that scheme.
The second scenario, however, might have speculatively been connected to Ukraine’s strategic drone strikes against Russia in early June. No one can say for certain whether or not Trump knew about this in advance, but Reuters’ revelation about the existence of this previously unreported “deep state” working group lends credence to those of his supporters who claimed that he didn’t. After all, it’s entirely possible that this was orchestrated by them without his knowledge, which he might have told Putin.
There’s also the possibility that these “covert special operations efforts” included the two false flag plots in the Baltic Sea that Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service recently warned about.
Hellbound and Down 