Vladimir Putin is facing a fierce backlash from some of his most war-hungry supporters after publicly cosying up to Donald Trump.
Russian warmongers are furious over Putin’s plan to seek US investment for rare earth metals and aluminium, with accusations he is giving away precious Russian assets.
The scheme seeks post-war business deals with America in invaded areas of Ukraine now controlled by the Kremlin, and elsewhere.
It coincides with a rare metals deal likely to be signed by Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday which Trump has portrayed as a payback for US military aid in the three-year war.
But supporters of Putin’s war – who saw it in part as a fight against both the US and West – are outraged about the sudden switch to deals with Trump.
They had desired and expected Russia to remove Ukraine from the map and take its lands in full.
The new bonds between the US and Russia gathered pace as diplomats from the two sides met on Thursday at the residence of the American Consul General in Istanbul to agree restoring embassy staffing levels in the two countries, which had fallen dramatically during the war.
‘Grandpa’s losing it,’ stormed one war fanatic, known as ‘Z-patriots’, the Telegram channel Alex Parker Returns, using a common nickname for the 72-year-old Russian dictator.
One opponent is Artem Zhoga, a Donbas fighter turned politician chosen to propose Putin’s successful run ahead of the 2024 presidential election in Russia.
‘These resources are part of our strategic reserves,’ declared Zhoga, now Putin’s official envoy to the Ural Federal District.
Russians should ‘focus on preserving them in the interests of the state’, he said in a rare criticism of Putin.
The draft US agreement suggests Russia is ‘not sovereign enough, not strong enough, and not thinking clearly”, hit out political strategist and editor-in-chief of the propaganda outlet Regnum, Modest Kolerov, normally fiercely loyalist.
Radio Sputnik host Mitya Olshansky said he was baffled by “the sudden amnesia regarding everything that was said just yesterday when the fight against America was in full swing”.
Notorious Colonel Kvachkov’s Telegram channel sarcastically referred to Trump as Putin’s ‘master’.
‘In other words—”Master, look at us! Our lipstick is better, and our hair is fluffier,”’ said the Z-channel.
Ukrainian commentator Denis Kazansky said: ‘For three years, Russian fools were told that they were fighting and dying so that Ukraine and its resources would not go to the damned West.
‘In the fourth year of the war, it turned out that they were dying so that the resources of the captured territories would be given to Trump.’
Staunch Russian war-backer Maksim Kalashnikov is outraged about Putin’s seeming lack of success in the war, as it plots the supply of rare metals to the West.
‘On the third anniversary of the war, they explained to us what victory would look like,” he said.
‘We get what we occupied – a heavily damaged “border” of 20 per cent [of Ukraine].
‘We do not abolish the statehood of Ukraine – [they] only need to hold proper elections – and we would let the Yankees mine our rare earth metals.
‘Oh, and also the lifting of personal sanctions.
‘Anyone who doesn’t understand that this is a victory risks facing some beatings [from Putin’s thugs].
‘Something tells me that the contract and mobilised soldiers who return home will not be ardent supporters of [Putin’s propaganda machine].’
Putin told Russians this week: ‘If American companies work in our country, this is….a benefit, and a considerable one.
‘The companies will earn a decent profit, and the corresponding volumes of aluminium will be supplied to the domestic market at absolutely acceptable market prices.
‘There is a lot to think about here, as well as joint work on rare and rare-earth metals and other areas, including, for example, energy.’
Co-operation on exploring natural resources in the Arctic is also on the agenda.
But there may be more anger after Trump said ahead of talks in the White House on Thursday with Sir Keir Starmer that Russia would be required to return some invaded territory.
‘We’re going to do everything we can to make the best deal for both sides,’ he said.
‘But for Ukraine, we’re going to try very hard to make a good deal so they can get as much [territory] back as possible.
‘We want to get as much [territory] back to Ukraine as possible.’
But he ruled out Ukraine joining NATO.
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