Welcome to The Restricted Handling Podcast, where global geopolitics meets high-energy analysis — the kind you actually want to listen to. In today’s episode, “RH 12.1.25 | Russia: Peace Talks, Drone Strikes & Putin’s China Play,” we break down the whirlwind of power plays, secret talks, and explosive developments shaking Russia, Ukraine, and beyond in the past 24 hours. 

We kick things off in sunny Florida (because of course that’s where world peace is negotiated now) as U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio hosts Ukrainian negotiators for high-stakes peace talks. The meeting at a private golf club north of Miami sounds more like an episode of Succession than a war summit — with Jared Kushner and Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff sitting across from Ukraine’s new lead negotiator, Rustem Umerov, who just replaced a chief of staff caught up in a corruption scandal. The big question: Can these “productive but delicate” talks actually end the war, or are we just rearranging deck chairs on the geopolitical Titanic? 

Next, we head to Moscow, where the Kremlin’s PR machine is working overtime to reject anything resembling compromise. Putin’s spokesman claims Ukraine’s collapse is “inevitable,” while Russian milbloggers call that nonsense and warn that Russia’s army is stretched thin and running on fumes. Inside the chaos, one thing’s clear — Moscow wants victory on its own terms, no matter how much it costs. 

Meanwhile, the battlefield’s heating up in all the wrong ways. Ukraine’s new Sting interceptor drone just scored its first kills against Russia’s jet-powered Geran-3 drones — a flashy bit of homegrown tech proving Kyiv’s still innovating under fire. But Russia isn’t backing off. It launched a wave of over 600 missiles and drones overnight, killing civilians and prompting even neutral countries like Moldova to shut their airspace. 

The drama doesn’t stop there. Ukrainian naval drones took out two of Russia’s “shadow fleet” oil tankers and struck the Caspian Pipeline terminal at Novorossiysk — choking off over 1% of global oil supply and setting off furious protests from Turkey and Kazakhstan. Energy politics meet warfare in the Black Sea, and Putin’s not thrilled about it. 

And as all this unfolds, Putin cozies up to China, rolling out 30-day visa-free travel for Chinese tourists and business elites — the clearest sign yet that Russia’s pivot east is more dependence than partnership. Add in new bans on Human Rights Watch and Navalny’s foundation, and you’ve got a regime tightening its grip at home while losing leverage abroad. 

From peace talks to power plays, oil fires to air raids, “RH 12.1.25 | Russia: Peace Talks, Drone Strikes & Putin’s China Play” delivers the intelligence-style briefing you didn’t know you needed — with the energy of late-night talk and the precision of a classified report.