Sergei Ryabkov

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this week that a settlement is out of reach because Russia still demands all of Donetsk Oblast.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said there are no plans for US-mediated talks with Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Zelensky has hinted that Washington and Moscow are quietly discussing economic projects, which he says undercuts US talk of a diplomatic dead end.

The annual IMF and World Bank meetings run in Bangkok from October 12th to 18th, with the main plenary on October 16th.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Kathimerini, a Greek newspaper, on Thursday that no negotiated settlement is in prospect.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters there are currently no plans to hold talks in this format.

U.S. envoys traveled to Kyiv and Moscow in early September.

That produced an agreement in principle on a trilateral meeting of Ukraine, Russia, and the U.S. A month later, that meeting remains uncertain.

And at the end of his visit, we kind of had an agreement on this, and I was at a reception a day or two after his visit.

And the Russian ambassador, who as often was the case, was a wheel in Moscow, Ryabkov, who had been the national security advisor to Putin at one point, came up to me in a huff and started yelling, yelling, "What are you guys doing here?" And, uh, because they didn't want us there, obviously.

Now, Putin was smart enough.

That's when he went his, was playing Pollyanna and, and treating us nicely.

So overall, like life in Moscow is quite normal, although the war between Ukraine and the proxy war is ongoing, right? What did you like out of these negotiations, you know, that were happening also around the time when you probably arrived there a little bit earlier and Kushner and Vitkov again in Moscow, Russia again entertaining them? Where are we on that front? Yeah.

Well, in fact, a week ago Monday, Alistair Crook, John Mearsheimer, Judge Napolitano, and myself had dinner with Sergei Lavrov, as well as Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.

um in fact i took i took a florida shirt one of my one of my hawaiian shirts so-called and gave it to uh lavrov and it was funny because he i you know i said hey you know i'm known as larry the shirt johnson so i'm giving you one of my shirts he goes is it used and i go no it's brand new come on so

he accepted it he accepted your shirt oh yeah

Patrushev, Putin's former national security advisor, is also talking very hardline language now.

And of course, all the diplomats, all the key people in the foreign ministry, Ryabkov, Miroshkin, all of them, they're talking in exactly the same way.

They're also becoming increasingly hardline in their rhetoric as well.

And Ryabkov said that that we are no closer to a diplomatic solution of the conflict in Ukraine now than we were a few months ago.

In other words, all of this activity with Ratcliffe and Witgoff and Kushner has added nothing to what existed before.

Peskov is also talking in a more hardline fashion.

Reuters is reporting that the US Space Force Chief, Douglas Schiess, publicly admitted they operate active on-orbit weapons designed to defend against space-enabled attacks.

And in response, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergei Ryabkov, is suddenly pushing for a legally binding international treaty to prevent a space arms race.

Okay, I have to push back on Russia's sudden peacemaker tone here.

I mean, the irony is staggering considering both Moscow and Beijing have spent years aggressively testing and militarizing their own counter-space capabilities.

We also met Alistair, John, and I, along with Judge Napolitano a week ago Monday.

Just last Monday, we were with Sergei Lavrov and Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.

and uh yeah it was basically his uh u.s foreign policy team and we just had what you'd call a very candid discussion um friendly um you know he was uh lavrov is as relaxed as i've ever seen him

uh-huh