The Tsar Announces the Burevestnik. US Intelligence Doubts About the Will for Peace

FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT 

MOSCOW It's a quiet, rainy Sunday morning when the Russian myth of the marvelous weapon suddenly reappears live on television. Invincible, it has unique characteristics, there are no analogues says Vladimir Putin, wearing a camouflage jacket, speaking of the Burevestnik missile, the storm petrel that gives its title to a famous revolutionary poem by Maxim Gorky, where the aforementioned bird becomes the symbol of strength that announces the advent of a new force capable of changing and upending the world.

Secret place

The president speaks from the Auxiliary Command Center of the troops, the location of which is unknown for security reasons. The context and the occasion are ideal for his military pride. Putin listens to the wonders of the new device as described by the Chief of the General Staff, General Valery Gerasimov, who also briefs him on the progress of his army at the front. After giving orders to prepare the infrastructure necessary for the deployment of the Burevestnik in the Armed Forces, Putin recalls that Russia has always treated the enemy with mercy and recommends adopting the necessary measures to ensure good conditions for the surrender of Ukrainian soldiers. You know, those who wish to surrender to us are often"treated" with drones by their own army, he adds.

The new missile is holding court, with its record-breaking numbers, listed in a flat voice by Gerasimov. It's a fascination that comes from afar, from the Second World War, when the Katyusha rocket launcher, whose mass production began on June 21, 1941, a few hours before Hitler's troops crossed the Soviet border, became a legend capable of exorcising the fear of defeat among the people. Since then, every moment of international crisis has corresponded with the display of a fetish weapon, such as the Tsar Bomb during the Cold War, and so on down to the more contemporary Sarmat missiles, to the Oreshnik of August 2024, which was supposed to go into production at a rate of twenty-five units a month, of which there is currently no news.

Political implications

But it's the message that counts, at least for now. The storm petrel allows Putin to claim that Russia's nuclear forces are the best in the world, a statement that takes on clear political significance in these times of debate over Russia's reaction to the possible sending of Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine. Russia will not tie the resolution of combat missions during the Special Military Operation to any date; we will base it solely on our military necessity. It's the camouflage version of the now classic"we'll keep going until we've achieved all our objectives," but it's a concept that is reiterated while Kirill Dmitriev, the Kremlin's special representative visiting the United States declares that thanks to joint US-Russian diplomatic efforts, peace is just a step away.

Double track

As if Russian policy toward the United States were proceeding on a dual track. Vladimir Putin is forging ahead, repeating with minimal variations what he has been saying for four years, leaving little room for a real peace negotiation. Even the intelligence services of the US State Department are having doubts about his willingness to negotiate an end to the war, contradicting the CIA's more optimistic assessment. Meanwhile, the Russian president is sending one of his most important men to America.

Dmitriev is his chargé d'affaires, in the literal sense, that of business. We are witnessing titanic attempts to sabotage the dialogue between Russia and the US, but they will fail, he said yesterday. Signs of an agreement that both sides are ultimately still seeking, despite Putin's intransigence and Trump's sanctions, are also coming from Sergey Lavrov. Perhaps with a certain irony, the Russian Foreign Minister said that his recent talks with his counterpart Marco Rubio went so well that in the end the US decided there was no need for a meeting between the two presidents.

It's not just weapons that are becoming a symbol. Everything revolves around the new summit between Trump and Putin , the cathartic event. We'll see each other only if there's a peace agreement, says the American president, who hopes for help from Chinese leader Xi. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responds by saying that Putin appreciates Trump's sincere desire to end the war. But it won't be possible to do it in one night, he adds, reiterating that at the moment there are no reasons to think of progress in the peace process any time soon. It seems like a game of snakes and ladders, with each time you return to the previous square. Or, Groundhog Day, always the same. Meanwhile, the war continues. Just as Putin wants.