RH 11.26.25 | Russia: Peace Talks, Drone Wars, and the Moscow Playbook

Welcome back to The Restricted Handling Podcast, where we cut through the noise of global chaos and tell you what’s really happening behind those headlines. In today’s episode — “Russia: Peace Talks, Drone Wars, and the Moscow Playbook” — we’re diving headfirst into one of the wildest 24-hour stretches in the Ukraine-Russia saga so far.

The peace talks that were supposed to calm the war just got messier. Remember that “fine-tuned” Trump peace plan we talked about? Turns out it was fine-tuned by Moscow. Yeah, Reuters confirmed that the original 28-point U.S. proposal literally came from a Russian document. That explains a lot. Trump’s team has been spinning it as diplomacy in action, but Bloomberg leaked audio of envoy Steve Witkoff giving Kremlin aides tips on how to flatter Trump into a deal — including talk of Russia keeping Donetsk. So, diplomacy or déjà vu from the Cold War playbook? You decide.

Meanwhile, Trump’s “drone guy,” Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, is being deployed to Kyiv while Witkoff heads to Moscow to meet Putin. Trump says he’ll show up when things are “final.” Sure. Because nothing says “final” like a deal co-written by the other side. Europe’s trying to sneak in edits behind the scenes — Macron, Starmer, and Merz are putting NATO membership and border security back on the table while pretending everything’s going great.

Of course, Moscow isn’t backing off. While diplomats traded pleasantries, Russia unleashed a massive missile and drone barrage on Kyiv — hundreds of Shaheds and Iskanders, dozens of hypersonic Kinzhals, and seven civilians dead. The timing? Pure message sending. But Ukraine’s answering back. Kyiv’s long-range drones have been hammering Russia’s military-industrial sites, torching a Beriev aircraft plant and hitting deep inside the country’s electronic warfare facilities.

And if that wasn’t enough, Russian drones violated NATO airspace again — crashing deep inside Romania and zipping through Moldova. NATO scrambled fighter jets, and now the alliance is fast-tracking new anti-drone defenses across the Danube Delta.

Back in Moscow, Putin signed a new decree ordering “Russian identity” to dominate in occupied Ukrainian regions by 2036 — cultural assimilation dressed up as patriotism. The Russian economy’s cracking under the pressure, Russian Railways is drowning in $50 billion of debt, and Moscow’s arresting cybersecurity nerds for criticizing a government app.

Tune in, subscribe, and share. Because in Russia’s playbook, chaos is strategy — and someone’s got to translate it.