With the United States pushing Russia and Ukraine to de-escalate their war, debates over the terms of a ceasefire — and eventually a larger peace deal — have taken center stage. But behind the scenes, there are signs of a larger negotiation taking shape, one that would not merely inform the future of Ukraine but rather that of much larger swaths of the world. On April 21, The Moscow Times, an independent online media outlet based in the Netherlands, reported that the Kremlin sees talks to wind down the war in Ukraine as part of a grand bargain with the White House to define a clear Russian sphere of influence in which Moscow would have primacy.