Peace, but not at the Price of Appeasing a Dictator
Allison Silberberg's Plain Talk
Peace, but not at the Price of Appeasing a Dictator
By Allison Silberberg
August 14, 2025
We are on the eve on a historic diplomatic meeting between President Trump and Russian President Putin. One crucial person will be notably absent: Ukrainian President Zelensky. That is clearly wrong even if Trump plans to have a future meeting with both parties present.
Trump and Putin are meeting in Alaska not because Putin wants to visit a glacier or see the caribou in Denali. It is because Putin is an international pariah and has been prohibited from flying over the air space of most nations. But wait there’s more. Putin cannot land and stay in most nations. He is banned.
Let’s deal in facts. Putin is a monster. A mass murderer. He is ruthless. Long before he invaded Ukraine in 2022 and subsequently killed tens of thousands of Ukrainians in an unprovoked, aggressive attack, he was a killing machine, arranging for perceived enemies, humanitarians, journalists, and activists to be murdered. Navalny was incredibly courageous to stand up to Putin and remains a hero to millions in Russia and around the world. Putin killed Navalny but cannot kill the dream.
Putin is fast becoming the reincarnation of Stalin, who was a mass murderer. Stalin was a brutal dictator, killing millions of his own people during the 1930s and 1940s. Historians don’t even know for sure how many people Stalin killed in his own land. It is estimated between 20 and 30 million of his own people. Some estimates are higher.
As a Russian Studies major in college, one of my favorite professors, Dr. Vadim Medish, taught Russian to me and a small group of students in an intensive language course at the School of International Service at American University. Professor Medish once spoke about his youth and why he left the Soviet Union and became an American. He was born in Minsk in 1924, grew up in the Soviet Union, and was a young man fighting with Stalin’s war effort against the Nazis during World War II.
While in combat, Medish somehow received word from home that his father had been arrested by Stalin’s men and was imprisoned on trumped-up charges. He soon died in prison. So while Medish was serving in Stalin’s Air Force, putting his life on the line, his own father died in prison because of Stalin. His father was wrongfully condemned as “an enemy of the people,” and as a result, Medish lost his officer commission and was placed with a unit in the Red Army infantry. While his unit was fighting near Stalingrad in 1942, he was taken prisoner and placed in a Nazi POW camp and then various work camps. Medish got to know his fellow prisoners, including Americans and other allies. He learned their languages and was soon able to translate conversations; he had a gift for it.
Miraculously, Medish survived the war and reunited with his mother and they eventually immigrated to the United States in 1949. Within a year, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and sent to Korea. He served in an intelligence unit and was assigned to work under General MacArthur before working in clandestine services in the Far East and then transferred to Washington in 1960. According to his obituary, he was one of a few CIA analysts who predicted the Sino-Soviet rift. He earned his Ph.D. and taught international relations at American University for over three decades and was considered a top expert on Soviet affairs. Quite a trajectory!
On Capitol Hill, it used to be that there was common ground among our Senators and members of Congress from both sides of the aisle, that they knew the history of Soviet (and now Russian) aggression and stood shoulder to shoulder with NATO and our European allies. To be a patriot meant and should mean understanding that history. Where is that knowledge today? We must deal in facts, not in rhetoric.
Stalin was evil. Putin is evil. Zelensky is in the right. His country was attacked. He and his nation are standing in the breach for all of us who believe in democracy and freedom. Zelensky has shown remarkable courage and leadership and deserves support.
If there is a land swap, as Trump has offered or mentioned explicitly, then Putin will not stop. Putin does not understand the idea or concept of stop. He will keep going. He has plans. While we are shooting from the hip, Putin is calculating. He is wily, ruthless, and manipulative.
He is playing chess while we are playing marbles.
To me, there can be no awarding or swapping of land to Putin. He will keep going forward, in part to recreate his former Soviet Union land mass, a Soviet dream that is gone. Putin cannot be rewarded for his atrocious actions against Ukraine. If anything, the isolation and sanctions against him should increase until he backs down.
Tens of thousands of Ukrainians have been killed; tens of thousands maimed. Tens of millions of Ukrainians’ lives have been totally disrupted and harmed. Millions have fled to Poland and beyond. Millions more are at risk.
There is no reason for this horrible war in the European theater except that Putin wanted it. This reign of terror will continue until Putin is stopped.
In addition to being a danger to his neighbors including Ukraine, Poland, the Baltics, and all of Europe, Putin is also a danger to our nation and the world. And like Stalin, Putin is a danger to his own people; Navalny is only one example.
Complicating matters, Trump’s Special Envoy, Steve Witkoff, has limited diplomatic experience and does not speak Russian. When he met with Putin recently, he used Kremlin-supplied interpreters. That is definitely not the standard protocol. That is embarrassing, touching on incompetent, and doesn’t bode well for our interests. And back in March, Witkoff actually expressed empathy for Putin’s position. That is alarming. Were the State Department and their diplomatic corps involved? If not, why not? Why aren’t Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his team holding these talks with Putin’s representatives? Where is Rubio in all this? Many of our longtime State Department have now been fired by DOGE.
Our foreign policy needs to be clear, consistent, and professional and must support the cause of freedom. Peace is the goal but not at the price of appeasing a dictator. Putin cannot be trusted. Putin’s war must cease and we must insist that he respect the boundaries of early February 2022.
Ultimately, we need a strong foreign policy that collaborates with our allies. We have a shared vision and sense of purpose with them. Will our partnerships and trust with our allies ever be the same?
Not remembering history and the horrific actions of Putin puts our own national interests and the interests of our NATO allies at risk. It puts all who love freedom at risk.
Allison Silberberg is a writer and public affairs/public policy consultant. She served as mayor of Alexandria, Virginia, 2016-2019. Her work includes working on staff on Capitol Hill for Senator Lloyd M. Bentsen (D-TX). She is the author of “Visionaries In Our Midst: Ordinary People who are Changing our World,” which hit #1 on Amazon’s List for Philanthropy & Charity. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Dallas Morning News, on PBS.org. To learn more, please visit: www.allisonsilberberg.com
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