Hurrying into a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire deal could sink Trump's Nobel Prize odds, former U.K. spy chief says
Former MI6 chief Sir Richard Dearlove says that if President Donald Trump wants a Nobel Peace Prize he should hold off negotiating a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire.
LONDON — If President Donald Trump wants a Nobel Peace Prize, he should hold off negotiating a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia, Britain’s former top spy told NBC News on Thursday.
Richard Dearlove, the ex-head of British intelligence agency MI6, said that rushing a truce — and giving too many concessions to the Kremlin — could encourage President Vladimir Putin to launch other hostile forays into Europe.
The Russians badly need a ceasefire, said Dearlove, citing waning Kremlin cash reserves and the falling price of crude oil, which Moscow exports to fund its war machine.
“Ukraine is pretty close to a tipping point,” he said in a wide-ranging interview. “But the worry at the moment is that Trump will do a premature deal with the Russians” and make too many concessions.
Richard Dearlove headed MI6 from 1999 to 2004.David Hartley / Shutterstock fileThe “highly undesirable” consequences would be to “embolden the Russians, over time, to be more aggressive and assertive in Europe,” said Dearlove over a coffee at one of London’s historic private members clubs.
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