some issue about a ceasefire because Russia doesn't want to do a ceasefire until they have a deal. But Ukraine is saying we can't have a deal because of our laws unless we have a referendum and the referendum ended in voting to give up that control of the Donbas. But it looks like the Russians understand that if the referendum is the only way to get there and the only way to have a referendum is with a ceasefire, that might be negotiable. So maybe that's something that they would cave on.

So anyway, I'm just speculating that it's possible. I'd probably still bet against it, but it's possible that they're close to a deal.

And then I saw in the Amuse account on X pointed out, I don't know what the source of this is but Amuse is good on sources, that the European Union has committed to, this blows my mind, that the European Union has deals to buy Russian energy through 2027. So that would imply that Russia could continue affording the war for at least two more years. So it's possible that Russia might want to make a deal, but maybe they could wait another two years and see if they get more control over the Donbas if they don't care about the casualties. So it just blows my mind that Europe is still attached to Russian oil.

Then apparently there's some people in the administration who think that if we make peace with Russia and that would be a four-way peace, you know, Europe, US, Ukraine, Russia, that if we can make peace that Russia has such unlimited natural resources that everybody can make a ton of money. But the counter to that is that the entire economy of Russia is about the size of Italy's economy and is sort of shrinking. They've got a demographic problem. But the biggest problem that Russia has is that if you're a legitimate business person from the West and you built a company that made money in Russia, the Russians would steal it. They would literally just steal your company because Russia is basically a criminal organization pretending to be a country.

So do you think it's, and they don't have that many resources that are unique. So the thinking is that if you thought Russia was this gold mine of natural resources, well, it does have some natural resources, but it's not essential to run the world. And it's so risky to do any kind of business in Russia that you'd be crazy to try. So one question is, can we really sell the idea that doing business with Russia is good for them and good for us? I can see why it would be good for them because if an American company comes in and builds this really successful energy enterprise working with the Russians, the Russians would steal it. They would nationalize it. They would jail the CEO. They would just steal it. So we'll see if that's even a path they can take. Hey, everybody makes money. We'll see.

Well, over Christmas, if you weren't paying attention, the US launched strikes on the Islamic State targets in Nigeria. Apparently Nigerian ISIS has been killing, literally massacring Ch