As #Russia has unexpectedly returned to the original demands from 2021 #NATO ultimatum, namely rolling back the alliance to the 1997 borders[^1] many people seem to be genuinely surprised. "They said they wanted peace, so why escalate now?" Yes, this is anything but unexpected. This is a very logical thing to do, under Russian diplomatic framework, which had not changed since 1950's[^2] Western observers persistently apply the wrong framework, so they get the wrong result, so they are constantly surprised. Western framework is transactional - we make step back, you make step back and we got a compromise. Russian framework is precisely the opposite: "if they make step back, they are weak. If they are weak, you make step forward... because they made step back". Is there anything more logical than that? Trump is consistently demonstrating that he's much more concerned about the future and stability of Russia than Putin himself, so _of course_ Putin escalates demand. It would be illogical not to. [^1]: https://understandingwar.org/research/russia-ukraine/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-december-11-2025/ [^2]: https://archive.org/details/negotiatingwithr0000denn/page/n5/mode/2up