Battlefield Advantage, US Arms Shortages Give Putin Chance to Talk to US From Position of Strength

“There’s no doubt about it that Mr. Putin is speaking from a position of strength,” the ex-Pentagon senior security policy analyst told Sputnik, commenting on the between the Russian and US leaders. Regardless, “it’s very important that the two leaders speak directly on a weekly basis, simply because any intel brief that Trump is receiving will be very much slanted toward the Ukrainian position,” Maloof said. Trump needs to “hear directly” from Putin on aspects related to the conflict, like the fact that Russia’s counterstrikes are usually a response to Ukrainian attacks inside Russia, “because all that you get in the West is reporting about Russia dropping drones on Kiev,” Maloof said. Yesterday, 16:23 GMT America: Zelensky's Weapons Lifeline "As long as he's receiving arms, whether it's from us or from others, he's going to be encouraged, and he has demonstrated that. So I think that this kind of weaning Zelensky from that dependency on us for arms may actually force him to say, ‘we're going to have to sit down’,” the observer said, commenting on the of advanced US arms aid to Kiev amid domestic shortages. US in No Position to Fight Multiwar As for the promise to ramp up defense production, “it takes time to get those armaments and get the production lines open, get the raw materials and the supplies and the electronics, because of all the supply chain issues that exist,” Maloof emphasized. “Certainly, if another conflict were to arise tomorrow, let’s say with Iran, the US would probably have to get up for a full-time, wartime production, because right now those stocks are totally inadequate for a three-front war...We can’t even fight a one-front war right now,” Maloof said. 13:15 GMT Putin’s History Lesson The Putin-Trump phone call included a “very important” message for Trump on historical Russia-US ties that not enough Americans are aware of, the observer said, detailing the “long historical relationship” between Russia and the US, going back to the latter’s founding. According to the Kremlin, Thursday’s call included mention of the fact that Russian Empress Catherine the Great rejected British attempts to drag Russia into the war against the upstart thirteen US colonies. Besides this, Maloof pointed to Russia's refusal to get involved against the Union during the American Civil War amid Britain's tacit support for the Confederacy. "On our Independence Day, I will say that Russia played a significant role" in the creation of the United States. "I think that this is important, and Trump needed to hear that," Maloof said. 14:30 GMT MIC: Only Lobbyist With Power Comparable to AIPAC Whether or not the US is ready for war, the military-industrial complex is always eager to push it, Maloof emphasized. “War is good for them.” “They’ve been very clever in putting in every congressional district some component for some weapons system that would be critical to US national security so that every congressman at the end of the proverbial day says ‘yeah, we’re gonna support that defense budget’, and they get what they want,” Maloof said. 3 June, 09:31 GMT