this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2026
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Vladimir Putin has no desire to halt Russia’s almost 4-year-old invasion of neighboring Ukraine and thinks he can “outsmart” the United States during talks with Washington about how to end the war, a senior European intelligence official told The Associated Press.

Kaupo Rosin, the head of Estonia’s foreign intelligence service, said Moscow is playing for time in the talks with Washington and “there is absolutely no discussion about how to really cooperate with the U.S. in a meaningful way.”

Rosin, who spoke at an online briefing with reporters ahead of the publication of Estonia’s annual security report on Tuesday, said the findings were based on intelligence his country gathered from “Russian internal discussions.” He did not elaborate on how the information was obtained but said the discussions showed that Russian officials believe that Washington remains Moscow’s “main enemy.”

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[–] comrade_twisty@feddit.org 79 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Of course he can. The US president is a senile narcissist with the intelligence comparable to his average voter.

[–] atropa@piefed.social 1 points 1 day ago (2 children)
[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You may need air-quotes around that number. I don't think Mr Trump consistently presents as a 130 IQ.

[–] atropa@piefed.social 2 points 1 day ago

Its just a lie ,🤔

[–] Etterra@discuss.online 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Outsmarting Trump, Vance, and the rest of their ghouls doesn't exactly take an advanced degree. A roadside puppet show would do.

[–] axexrx@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Reminds me of the quote its difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on him not understanding it.

[–] Adderbox76@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Sloth from the Goonies could outsmart the current administration, let's be honest.

[–] HumanOnEarth@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 day ago

Hey, you guy!!

[–] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 42 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I think a clever, malicious child could outsmart the USA nowadays.

[–] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Trump was at a pre-teen cognition level priorly, and now the dementia has made this far worse.

[–] PointyFluff@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago

you've misspelled "toddler"

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 4 points 1 day ago

A potato could do it

[–] hector@lemmy.today 2 points 1 day ago

Also though, the US does not actually support Ukraine. The president doesn't have the juice to overturn that huge part of foreign policy right now, especially as they are focused on stealing elections and can't piss off the military they plan on using for martial law. The president is not on a different side than Putin is the thing.

[–] gedaliyah@lemmy.world 25 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Unfortunately he doesn't have to outsmart the US. He only has to outsmart Trump.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Oh, no problem, then.

[–] A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

.

🎯

And I'm pretty sure he's been doing that for a while already.

[–] kboos1@lemmy.world 28 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Pretty sure I could out smart Trump, he's not known for his intelligence

[–] Paragone@lemmy.world 1 points 17 hours ago

Differentiate between conscious-strategy vs unconscious-strategy, then:

Hamas's conscious-strategy wasn't: it was sheer ignorance, self-delusion, & making-believing, from what is publically-visible.

Their unconscious-strategy was psychopathic, & brilliant:

Sacrifice Palestinians & Palestine in order to get Netanyahu's "Israel" to display its narcissism/machiavellianism/psychopathy/sadism ( full DarkTetrad ), & then in mere-years, the entire-region would no-longer be DETERRED, because it wouldn't care what damage they took: annihilating the rampaging-psychopath had then become a NEED.

Comically, their own prophets ( Jeremiah & Isaiah ) identify that when Israel turns against its god, then its god .. waits a bit, then TORCHES their establishment.

So, there are 2 of THEIR prophets who identify that Netanyahu's "Israel" is going to get torched.

Matt 24 also does, in the Christian bible.

They holocausted the Hittites, & others, according to their Deuteronomy. 6 nations explicitly subjected to the final solution, in that book.

No matter: ideological-rabies won't know any objectivity or correct-reasoning: so that pending annihilation'll happen, & then the world'll be rid of a portion of it.

I'm sad/hurting for the real-Jews, however, as this is being done in their name, & they're too frightened to protest in Israel, now, & have piped-down elsewhere, too..

They're going to be devastated when Israel gets annihilated.

( there was a substack linked-to from c/world, which identified that the world is now constructing a different narrative, ditching Israel, as it isn't necessary anymore, & that means that .. oh, well, something will happen to it, but everybody/the-world will have turned-away from it, so .. too-bad, so-sad.. )


So, that's a taste of how unconscious-strategy can be genius, even when conscious-strategy is .. utter trash.

The same is true of Trump:

He got enacted his denaturalization law, but he isn't leaning heavily into it..

Why not?

Because he'll use it only once he's got the Insurrection Act invoked, & he can remove citizenship from all Democrats, at once.

Then they get ICE'd.

Elegant beyond compare, in terms of successful highjackings of entire-countries, but the evidence is right in everybody's face:

that denaturalization-law & ICE are 2-sides of the SAME coin.

Everybody's ignoring that.

His commitment to secure Greenland also is genius, as if he snuffs Canada's EU-lifeline, then his annexation of Canada is MUCH more likely to succeed quickly, right?

Somebody in there is a .. the Christian term "satanic" approximately-fits .. but I don't like religious-terminology for such things, & there's no more-accurate term, unfortunately .. genius, in there, who's knowing EXACTLY how to enforce humankind's destruction.

Trump, after the tippingpoint, rampaging on the Americas,

EU, abandoned by the Americas, now prey of Putin,

Putin, economically destitute, China makes an offer he cannot refuse: he can rampage EU all he wants, so long as he accommodates China supplanting Russians throughout all Russia's government..

Putin'll do it.

Russian blood, Chinese gov't & industry-mgt in Russia..

That leaves Asia abandoned: China does its own rampaging there.

Everything resolving to 4-regions of consolidation ( Middle-East & Africa being the last in this list ).

It'll take .. less than 1 dozen years for the regional-consolidations to finish.

Then I expect "Russia" & the "US" to .. there's no word which simultaneously means "partly-implode" & "partly detonate" & "fly to pieces", but that's roughly what I expect both to do:

Trump's imperialism requires that he be warring on 3 fronts:

enforcing his annexing of Canada,

enforcing Civil War Part2

enforcing his imperial-expansion throughout the rest of the Americas.

Which means that he'll be trying too-much.

Also, you may not have noticed, but the top military people are now .. yesmen.

oh, yes, the "Trump class battleship" is something they're all behind, now..

they used to speak of how idiotic that was, as a few missiles can take-out any such thing..

but not anymore.

Anyways, since both Putin & Trump have the same Negative-Sum Game strategy: make ABSOLUTELY certain that when they die, NO "greatness" would EVERY appear among the country they headed: THEY get to be The Final Word.

Same as mass-shooters, that Negative-Sum game thing..

& when people are playing that game, but everybody-else PRETENDS that they aren't really doing that, then .. everybody else is helping them accomplish their strategy.

Unconscious-strategy .. can be evil, & can be genius, too.

ESPECIALLY when everybody's only noticing the red-herrings & distractions, instead of the underlying-currents.

Viki McCabe's book "Coming to our Senses" might be a good investment, for some, nowadays..

it's on the difference between seeing the trees, vs seeing the forest..

_ /\ _

[–] Zombiepirate@lemmy.world 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Now I'm picturing him being so delighted by you pulling a McChicken from behind his ear that he gives you Iowa.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 6 points 1 day ago

He needs Iowa to win in 2028, make it...North Dakota.

[–] hector@lemmy.today 13 points 1 day ago

I think it's a pretty safe presumption that Putin can outsmart the US at this point.

[–] ieatpwns@lemmy.world 23 points 1 day ago (1 children)

US is not sending their best

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

They're sending their criminals and mental patients, all wrapped up in one.

[–] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 7 points 1 day ago

Good luck outsmarting a very stable genius that passes multiple cognitive tests.

[–] Kr4u7@discuss.tchncs.de 13 points 1 day ago

Wdym 4 years old? They started annexing in 2014 - it is a decade long war already

[–] ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

My cats could outsmart the current administration...

[–] axexrx@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

My cat also excels at outsmarting rats.

[–] Patrikvo@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago

An average class of 7 year olds working together could easily outsmart them and be home in time for diner.

A dry dog turd with stuck on googly eyes could outsmart Trump. He'd get angry when it didn't fawn over him, and slap a 600% tariff on it, before getting Noem to send ICE to kick, mace, gas, and shoot service dogs in front of the kids at special education schools (then kidnap the kids, too, of course, because ICE likes providing pedophiles with trafficked children).

[–] BreadstickNinja@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

An orange cat could outsmart this orange president.

[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

We have the dumbest pedofile alive as our leader so….

[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

this is just cover for when Trump rolls on Ukraine. that way dumb Americans and dumb Europeans blame Putin instead of the "Idiot King".

[–] flandish@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

hint: He can. Putin is more “leader” than trump ever could be.

[–] palordrolap@fedia.io 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

At first glance, sure. But then, strength in conviction and leadership mean nothing if you're strongly leading your people and your country into ruin.

[–] A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip 1 points 1 day ago

And even then. Sure, there's cunning, and an unshakable will to be the boss, but "conviction and leadership"? I wouldn't go that far. Esp. conviction - it depends very much on what you are convinced of, and the past years have shown us that Putin is no better than Trump in that respect. Delusional.

[–] cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

He can definitely outsmart trump. He has the IQ of a potato.

[–] Chais@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago

Hey now, there's no reason to insult potatoes like that.

[–] reluctant_squidd@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 day ago

The fact that I might actually agree with Putin on anything is not an expected turn of events, but here we are.

[–] Dr_Fetus_Jackson@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, so I'd say there's plenty of supporting evidence.

[–] Lembot_0006@programming.dev 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Outsmart? Are they rivals or something?

[–] TheRealKuni@piefed.social 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Where have you been for the last…just over a hundred years?

[–] Lembot_0006@programming.dev 1 points 1 day ago

I suppose you have missed the last year or so...

[–] 30p87@feddit.org -1 points 1 day ago

The thumnail looks like Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition