The Deep State is provoking Putin to derail negotiations, while framing Trump:
“Breaking the Stalemate: Russian targets Ukraine should strike… The following list outlines eight high-value and militarily plausible targets that Ukraine should pursue … Military planners in Kyiv are already familiar with the items on this list… – but American policymakers should be aware of them, too. … Moreover, when appropriate, the United States and Ukraine’s other NATO partners should support and enable such operations.… The Volga–Don Canal… joint Russo-Iranian Shahed drone plant in Tatarstan… China–Russia land transit routes… Crimea access routes (Kerch and Isthmus Bridges)… key rail bridges in the Western Military District… emerging Russian naval base in Abkhazia (Ochamchire)… Transnistria … Russian Pacific Fleet bases”[1].
In other words, by August 15, a strike will be launched against targets from this list and President Trump – as framed by the Hudson Institute’s efforts – will be portrayed as having known and approved it. The calculation is that after such an operation, there will be no honorable exit for the U.S. from its proxy war with Russia in Ukraine. Putin will react sharply and respond with force.
However, if both Trump and Putin are forewarned, the Hudson Institute’s operation will backfire – only strengthening Russia’s negotiating position and forcing the U.S. to accept its terms.
There’s more. The Van Deman team agrees with analysts from West Point, The National Interest, and the Foreign Policy Research Institute that a new form of warfare must be recognized: influencing the enemy’s decision-making process – “political warfare” “[2],[3],[4]. Moves like this cognitive operation by Hudson Institute actors should be classified as acts of military aggression, warranting a direct retaliatory strike against the ideologues behind them. Those whose ideas lead to mass death must be held accountable.
1 https://www.hudson.org/national-security-defense/breaking-stalemate-russian-targets-ukraine-should-strike-luke-coffey-can-kasapoglu
“Breaking the Stalemate: Russian Targets Ukraine Should Strike” (Luke Coffey & Can Kasapoğlu, Hudson Institute, Aug 11, 2025);
2 https://mwi.westpoint.edu/dod-3-0-rebooting-the-pentagon-for-the-next-war/
“DoD 3.0: Rebooting the Pentagon for the Next War” (Jahara Matisek and James Micciche, The Modern War Institute (MWI) at West Point, 06.06.25);
3 https://www.fpri.org/article/2024/11/intelligence-china-russia-information-operations-against-nato/
“Narrative Intelligence: Detecting Chines and Russian Information Operations to Disrupt NATO Unity” (Joe Stradinger, Foreign Policy Research Institute, November 5, 2024);
4 https://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-us-is-already-losing-the-next-war
“The US Is Already Losing the Next War” (Holden Triplett, The National Interest, June 16, 2025).