If you like American Thinker’s content, please consider subscribing here for access to an exclusive, weekly newsletter offering insight from the editorial staff.

As we all know, markets are excellent indicators of political directions and trajectories, because where the people put their money is where the wind is actually blowing—you don’t risk dollars on an outcome you don’t anticipate as conceivable—and the verdict is in: the market is betting on President Trump accomplishing a legitimate and effective peace deal in the Russo-Ukrainian war.

Hedge funds are scrambling to buy up underpriced Russian assets. All the smart money is on peace and a renormalisation of relations. Only the europoors believe otherwise - and that’s why they’re poor. 🇺🇸🇷🇺 pic.twitter.com/vqfSVY5LDI

— Philip Pilkington (@philippilk) March 17, 2025

The rouble “rallies”—according to the Financial Times item referenced in the tweet, the rouble “has surged almost a third against the dollar” just this year alone—and private investment companies are “scrambling” to buy up Russian assets, drastically “undervalued” after being hit by economic sanctions and suffering the fallout of kinetic conflict, because the global market trusts that Trump can do what Joe Biden, and Barack Obama, could never do. As the FT article also notes, the rouble’s surge is a “bet” that the current “dynamic will reverse”: international markets trading in Russian assets will return, and the rising interest rates from Moscow will begin to trend downward.

And, it looks like Vladimir Putin trusts Trump’s negotiation skills and fairness too, making moves in good faith; here’s this, from The Moscow Times:

Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized a U.S. hedge fund to purchase securities in Russian companies from 11 other funds, mostly based in the U.S. and U.K., according to a presidential decree published Monday.

The decree follows Putin’s August 2022 order, which prohibits U.S. and other investors from countries deemed ‘unfriendly’ by Russia from buying or selling securities in Russian companies in the energy, fuel and banking sectors without his personal approval.

Even the Ukrainian government is confident that Trump can get it done, and are cooperative; from a report published today at Politico:

Ukraine open to Russia sanctions relaxation as part of lasting peace deal

Vladyslav Vlasiuk, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s commissioner for sanctions policy, said in an interview that a return to countries doing business with Russia in one way or another is simply ‘a matter of time,’ but had to take place under the right conditions.

Meanwhile, the legacy media continues to saturate the airwaves with the “Russia bad, war good,” narrative.

Image: Public domain.