[1]
By John Helmer, Moscow
@bears_with [2]
Sometimes in warfighting, there is a good, if concealed reason for doing something that looks purposeless and self-defeating.
For more than a year now, President Vladimir Putin has been publicly complimenting the First Lady of the United States (FLOTUS), Melania Trump (lead image, right), with his “appreciation for her humanitarian efforts”. From October 16, 2025, until now, the Kremlin website records six repeats of the same message by Putin; two more by other Kremlin officials.
They came to a climax last Thursday, November 5, when Mrs Trump hosted Putin’s special representative Kirill Dmitriev at a White House presentation “to mark the first time in American history that a First Lady has personally brought representatives of two nations actively at war together to the White House for diplomacy. The unprecedented gathering united [3] key officials from both nations who played instrumental roles in establishing the ceasefire in Oleshky. ‘Now, we must use the courage we brought to Oleshky to find common ground through a shared concern for the suffering of innocent people. Together, we can create something more enduring than a temporary ceasefire. Let us see Oleshky as a spark in a world of darkness, capable of illuminating the best in humanity.’”
Dmitriev replied [4]: “each of us is unique. Each of us can make a contribution that no one else can. And sometimes our greatest step is the simplest act of humanity. On behalf of President Putin, on behalf of the people of the Russian Federation, we would like to thank First Lady Melania Trump for her distinguished humanitarian role in resolving the Oleshky situation and resolving this humanitarian issue.” On the soundtrack, Dmitriev carefully said the name of the front-line city of Alyoshki, near Kherson, in its Ukrainian pronunciation, not its Russian pronunciation which dates to the 11th century (Ольшии; then Алёшки, 1802-1928, Tsiurupynsk, 1928-2016).
The White House figures indicate that over the past twelve months, 34 children [5] and 800 Alyoshki residents have been evacuated or exchanged. Of the latter, four busloads went to Russian territory; 11 busloads to Ukrainian territory; that’s no more than 500 Ukrainians. About 2,000 residents opted to remain [6] in Alyoshki.
These are not only tiny fractions of the civilian populations, children and adults, trapped by the war along the front. They are also small fractions of the number of Russian civilians killed by Ukrainian drone attacks in 2025 and 2026 [7].
Notwithstanding the numerical insignificance of Mrs Trump’s year-long work, Putin announced on October 21 [8] his “appreciation to US First Lady Melania Trump for her humanitarian efforts, specially regarding the reunification of children with their families and for her mediation in resolving a critical situation in the Russian town of Alyoshhki, in the Kherson region.” The same wording appeared in Kremlin communiqués on October 9, 2026 [9]; September 8 [10]; July 30 [11]; June 14 [12]; and October 16 2025 [13].
There is criticism in Moscow, some of it derisive, for this ingratiation of the US President’s wife. According to one source, “Melania and all the rest are sideshows. Of no value and no consequence – except to Dmitriev personally.” According to another source, it is giving Trump a victory when he is losing everywhere else on the battlefield.
There is a third reason. The sources have agreed — before and since the Congressional election defeat was confirmed — that Trump remains the only opportunity for the Russian side to achieve an agreement on military, territorial, and political terms for ending the war, for stopping the war at sea, and for sanctions relief. To exploit this opportunity, the Russian calculation from the intelligence reports is that Trump’s wife is likely to be the only survivor of influence for Russia after the new Congress begins its pursuit for corruption of Trump’s advisors, business associates, and campaign financiers.
Melania Trump, the Russians understand, knows how vulnerable psychologically and physiologically her 80-year old husband is becoming under this mounting pressure. The Russian speculation is that, although she and he do not share the marital bed, they share a political and personal fate. The speculation is that, although there is no medical evidence of Trump’s sexual impotence and neurological decline [14], the combination of Natalie Harp, Trump’s personal assistant, and Stephen Miller, the new chief of staff, together with the First Lady, will secure the President during the two years he has left, to negotiate his succession in 2028 with immunity from prosecution. In the meantime, they will protect him from attempts from within the Republican Party and his Cabinet to persuade him into early retirement in favour of Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio.
The Kremlin has concluded, along with the Russian oligarchs for whom Dmitriev is lobbying Washington for relief of individual sanctions, that Mrs Trump is now a source of White House influence they must preserve. Unlike the others surrounding Trump, she appears to be relatively safe from attack by the new Democratic Congress; this is because, as the child exchange and Alyoshki evacuation figures reveal, she does so little.
That’s until this moment.
For the Russians who know their history of FLOTUSES running the White House when the POTUS has become medically incapacitated, this is the moment of Edith Wilson [15] (1919-21, lead image left) and Jill Biden (2024-25, centre). About the latter’s role, Trump [16] himself has been explicit on what “any good wife would do”.
“Melania is a decent face for a compromise,” claims a Moscow source in a position to know. “Everyone, the Americans, Europeans, and the Russians, is exhausted, so a compromise to last two to five years is necessary. Each one of the Trump family has cut out his own financial franchise; Russia is all Melania has got and it’s a pretty good one for her. So we expect Trump to deliver what the Kremlin has paid for. Right now everybody needs a way out.”