After Zelensky Calls Putin’s Bluff, the Russian Dictator Refuses to Meet
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky accepted what the Kremlin had initially floated: a one-on-one summit with Vladimir Putin in Istanbul on May 15. The proposal, quietly circulated by Russian officials, was meant to shift the image of Moscow as open to peace. But when Zelensky publicly agreed to the meeting, the Kremlin immediately recoiled—exposing the offer as empty theater.
The first wave of damage control came from the Russian Federation Council, where senior lawmakers scrambled to dismiss the idea of talks entirely. Vice Speaker Konstantin Kosachev called Zelensky’s response “a show” and “comedy,” insisting on live television that this is not how summit meetings are arranged. “An unprepared meeting is worse than no meeting at all,” he added, without acknowledging that the original date and location had come from the Russian side.
Kosachev went further, accusing Zelensky of trying to “shift the blame” onto Russia for the failure of negotiations. “He should be afraid of this meeting,” Kosachev said—a telling remark from a regime that sends others to die for its wars while hiding behind layers of bureaucracy and propaganda.
Vladimir Dzhabarov, deputy chairman of the Federation Council’s International Affairs Committee, launched into a bizarre tirade. “Who invited him to Istanbul?” he asked rhetorically, pretending the Kremlin had no involvement in proposing the venue. Dzhabarov accused Zelensky of having “blood on his hands” and of betraying Soviet memory, invoking the usual propaganda about Ukraine’s “Nazi” threat while ignoring Russia’s own brutal war crimes and deportations.
Andrei Klimov, another deputy on the same committee, vaguely admitted that “there is a probability” of talks, but quickly deflected into hypotheticals about whether Donald Trump might also attend, suggesting confusion and discomfort within Moscow’s messaging. “Okay, Putin will come. Zelensky will come. And then what?” he asked, as if the idea of two leaders meeting to end a war were somehow unmanageable.
What’s now clear is that the Kremlin never intended to negotiate. Its power depends on controlling the script, not sharing a table. When challenged to meet face-to-face with the leader of the country it invaded, the Russian regime panicked—and retreated into insults, historical revisionism, and the familiar fog of cowardice.
Meanwhile, Russia faces a labor crisis due to mass military recruitment and is entering a full collapse mode.