Scott Ritter: “The Russians Won’t Negotiate — Prove Me Wrong”

Former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter, also a former U.S. Marine officer, is convinced that there will be no negotiated end to the Ukraine war, and that the Vatican’s offer of sponsoring negotiations cannot succeed at this point. He expressed that view in a Jan. 8 webcast with U.S. Senate candidate Diane Sare, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Col. (ret.) Richard Black and others. Zepp-LaRouche, on the contrary, said she believes that a negotiated settlement does have a chance, because the alternative is a doomsday scenario..

But both agreed on the absolutely dangerous nature of the situation. As Ritter put it, diplomacy has unlearned its job and the nuclear posture of the United States is dictated by those who have pushed for nuclear rearmament. That happened first in the U.S. and then, as a consequence, in Russia as well. And those who dictate nuclear posture in the USA indulge in the illusion that they can catch up with the current Russian strategic advantage.

“Russia will never, ever, ever negotiate with anyone about Ukraine”, Ritter argued. “Why in God’s name would Russia sit down with the United States at this point for anything? We’re liars, we’re cheaters, we can’t be trusted. Would we use Europe as an interlocutor? France and Germany can no longer be trusted. Nobody can be trusted. The UN Security Council can’t be trusted, because Minsk [the agreements, cf. Below] was brought to the Security Council, it was given a seal of approval by the Security Council — that means nothing.”

“The only chance for global survival, is for NATO to go gracefully, accept the inevitability of its defeat, and find a way to deal with a victorious Russia. It won’t be done through negotiations, because NATO is not an organization to be trusted ever again. Neither is the United States, nor any other nation out there. And this is the sad state of affairs. Russia will no longer be seeking negotiations: Russia will be seeking victory, victory won on the battlefield. Remember it wasn’t Russia that set that term. It was NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg, who said the only way out of Ukraine is on the battlefield.”

A Russian scientist called in after this presentation to say that he agreed with that assessment, adding that the “only way to stop the war is to stop providing weapons and money to Ukraine. In three days, the war will end.”

Helga Zepp-LaRouche replied that she fully agrees with Ritter’s analysis, but that, being both a realist and an optimist, she does believe that the worst case scenario can be avoided, simply because the contrary would mean the annihilation of civilization. But to get to that point, people everywhere need to mobilize, to clearly reject the unipolar world and its geopolitical confrontations, as is now emerging with the revival of the “Spirit of Bandung”.

The Schiller Institute is circulating a letter supporting the Vatican’s initiative, which she urged everyone to sign and circulate, emphatically including leading figures of all other religions. Beyond any ideology, religious belief, or background, she addressed the concept of “the one humanity”, or “the higher one”. If people understand that we have to think of the one humanity first, before geopolitical or national conflict, she is convinced that a solution can be found.

“The danger of World War III makes every citizen automatically a world citizen”, she noted. “So let’s form a movement of world citizens.”, under the ironic slogan “World Citizens of All Countries, Unite!’”.

Ritter concluded by hoping that Zepp-LaRouche will, in fact, prove him wrong, and that her initiative will succeed. And he added, on a note of humor, “if you get the Pope to successfully negotiate an end to this conflict, he can baptize me in the Trevi Fountain!”.