May 12, 2025 (EIRNS)—At 2 a.m. Sunday morning, May 11, Russian President Vladimir Putin, after three full days of non-stop meetings and ceremonies devoted to the commemoration of the Victory against Fascism in Europe, held a press conference and proposed the resumption of full negotiations with Ukraine to put an end to what is actually a NATO war imposed on that nation. Putin proposed that these negotiations restart in Istanbul, Türkiye this Thursday, May 15.
The European leaders who had joined Zelenskyy in Kiev, in direct opposition to the 30 heads of state who had assembled in Moscow for the Great Victory, had demanded a few hours earlier that a 30-day ceasefire begin Monday morning. They were, however, caught sleeping, in more ways than one, by Putin’s 2 a.m. press conference, and his unexpected proposal. “Russia is ready for talks without any preliminary conditions. There are combat actions and war going on now, and we propose to resume negotiations that were not interrupted by us. Well, what’s wrong about it?”
As Putin and others know, it was Ukraine that ceased the discussions that were terminated in Istanbul, Türkiye, in April 2022. Of course, it was then Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Great Britain who had, on April 9 of that year, traveled to Kiev to demand that Ukraine walk away from the already-agreed negotiations with Russia—and Ukraine had done so. To this day, Ukraine’s decree, passed in their parliament in late 2022, forbids any Ukrainian President from negotiating with Russia, so long as Putin remains in power. Ukraine “is still legally prohibited from negotiating with the Russian side,” said Russian Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov in March.
So, although a blustering Volodymyr Zelenskyy later on Sunday dared Putin, “High Noon” Western-style, to “meet him in Istanbul” this Thursday, Ukraine’s unelected leader knows that the Russians are aware that the Kiev decree is still in effect. U.S. President Donald Trump—not one to stand on ceremony, certainly—had advice for Ukraine: “President Putin of Russia doesn’t want to have a Cease Fire Agreement with Ukraine, but rather wants to meet on Thursday, in Turkey, to negotiate a possible end to the BLOODBATH. Ukraine should agree to this, IMMEDIATELY. At least they will be able to determine whether or not a deal is possible, and if it is not, European leaders, and the U.S., will know where everything stands, and can proceed accordingly!” While many have asserted for days that “no one knows where Trump stands” on the matter of Russia and Ukraine, today’s statement is unequivocal: “Ukraine should agree to this, IMMEDIATELY.”
The second notable event Sunday was that newly-elected Pope Leo XIV, appearing in St. Peter’s Square before more than 100,000 people, and unexpectedly leading the open-air assembly in the singing of the “Regina Caeli” Easter antiphon. Leo, who is the first member of the Augustinian order to be elected to the Papacy, the first native-English-language Pope since Pope Adrian IV of the 12th century, and the first Pope from the United States, also made clear why he chose his name. “In his first meeting with Cardinals on Saturday, the new Pontiff said that he chose his papal name to continue down the path of Pope Leo XIII, who addressed ‘the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution.’” CNN reported.
It is known that in 1888, Pope Leo XIII met with Archbishop Patrick John Ryan of Philadelphia (1831-1911) who brought to the Pontiff a copy of the United States Constitution personally gifted to him by President Grover Cleveland. Philadelphia was at that time still the headquarters of the American System of Physical Economy, particularly expressed in the work of Lincoln advisor Henry Charles Carey, and his father, Revolutionary War-era figure Mathew Carey, a staunch opponent of the British East India Company’s Adam Smith. The question of “the harmony of interest” between capital, labor and agriculture seems to have been extensively discussed between them, and it is asserted that the discussions between the Archbishop and the Pope led to the writing of the encyclical Rerum Novarum.
“100 years ago, Rerum Novarum treated the remedying of the evil, then being run by a ‘devouring usury,’ which, ‘although often condemned by the church, but practiced, nevertheless, under another form by avaricious and grasping men, has increased the evil’ effected by the handing over of workers, ‘each alone and defenseless, to the inhumanity of employers, and the unbridled greed of competitors,’” wrote Lyndon LaRouche, quoting Leo XIII in the Preface of his The Science of Christian Economy. The Pope on Sunday also spoke about the conflicts in Southwest Asia, India-Pakistan, and Ukraine.
Consider these two very different “flanks” as flowing from one, higher strategy of victory for the human race. War must become obsolete, but that cannot happen unless the cause of war is removed. For that to occur, the world requires “A Beautiful Vision for Humanity in Times of Great Turbulence!” Such is the subject, purpose, and mission of the May 24-25 conference of the Schiller Institute.
