Fallout from 78-year-old President Joe Biden’s whopping March 16 gaffe calling 68-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin a “soulless killer” to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos showed up today with U.S. Russian Amb. Anatoly Antonov returning to Moscow. Biden’s hateful words, setup and baited by ABC’s George Stephaonpoulos, were inexcusable, wrecking U.S. Russian relations but, more importantly, U.S. national security. Today’s Russian attack on Syrian rebel bases in northeastern Syria shows the beginning of Putin’s response to Biden, while the U.S. president looks on helplessly. Short of returning U.S. forces to the Syrian battlefield, there’s little Biden can do other than a public apology. Stephanopoulos concocted fake questions to which Biden took the bait of how Russia had meddled with U.S. democracy, a common theme in Democrats’ 2020 campaign but not based in reality.
Landing Antonov today at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport slammed home the damage done by Biden’s words. Calling Putin a “soullest killer” was too much to take for the Kremlin, withdrawing their ambassador in hopes that Biden comes to his senses and issues an apology. Biden threatened Putin in that same interview with Stephanopoulos, saying the Putin “would pay a price,” for meddling in U.S. democracy. No one’s quite sure what Biden means other than quoting unverified intel community reports that said the Kremlin favored former President Donald Trump in the Nov. 3, 2020 election. That should come a no surprise to anyone, since Trump didn’t insult or offend Putin during his time in office. To the Democrat-friendly U.S. press, Trump’s civil behavior toward Moscow proved he had something to hide, or, as former Secretary of State Hillary Rosham Clinton, Trump was a “Putin puppet.”
Well, Biden’s proving he’s no a “Putin puppet,” he’s a human wrecking ball, destroying U.S.-Russian relations, making insulting remarks about Putin personally. Returning Amb. Antonov to Moscow lets Biden take a hard look at his behavior and consider whether he wants to go down that path. Putin already bombed U.S.-backed rebel compounds in western Syrian near the Turkish border, sending Biden a message that there’s little he can do to stop him. Former President Barack Obama and Biden spent billions backing a proxy war against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for eight years. When Putin joined the fight to stop Obama’s proxy war Sept. 30, 2015, the proxy war failed but not after it caused 500,000 deaths and 12 million refugees, creating the worst humanitarian crisis since WW II. Refugees streamed into Europe, practically breaking the European Union.
Biden’s reckless public remarks about Putin have also inflamed the delicate political balance in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where Putin said there would be draconic consequences if Bosnia tries to join NATO. Opposed by Serbia, Putin would look at NATO’s encroachment in Bosnia as grounds for war. Biden would be forced to defend Bosnia at the expense of starting a shooting war in the Balkans, a strange déjà vu regarding the start of WW I. No one at the Brussels-based European Union wants a shooting war with Russia, especially because the EU buys 40% of its natural gas and 30% of its petroleum from Russia. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who finishes her 16-year run as Chancellor in September, is committed to finishing the $11 billion, 94% complete, Nord Stream 2 pipeline with Russia, something Biden has unrealistically asked Germany to cancel.
Antonov’s return to Moscow should send a loud message to Washington that the current anti-Russian hysteria must end or there will be consequences. Watching Russia bomb rebel-controlled areas of Syria along the Turkish border shows that the consequences to Biden’s hateful words to Putin have already had negative repercussions. Biden’s 58-year-old Secretary of State Antony Blinken foolishly demanded Jan. 31 that Putin release Navalny from jail. Blinken knows that Russian considers Navalny an internal Russian matter, not subject to U.S. pressure. “Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov is on his way to Moscow to participate in consultations on rectifying U.S.-Russian relations,” the Russian embassy said. So far, the U.S. press, true to form, blamed the kerfuffle on Russia, taking no responsibility for Biden’s inexcusable remarks, calling Putin a “soulless killer.”
Sending the Russian ambassador back to the Kremlin should remind the Biden White House that they can’t irresponsibly offend world leaders. Putin has real value as a foreign leader to the U.S. government, someone with clout all over the planet, capable of resolving hot spots wherever they emerge. Biden owes Putin a public apology for calling him a “soulless killer,” embarrassing foreign leaders around the globe. When hot spots in Syria, Iraq or Bosnia pop up, the U.S. has relied on cooperation with Moscow to resolve otherwise dangerous situations. Biden burnt the bridges with Putin, insulting the ubiquitous Russian leader for all to see. Putin tried to take Biden’s remarks in stride but it’s clear that his hateful words had consequences. When it comes to Putin’s sway over the Taliban in Afghanistan, Biden needs Putin to pull U.S. forces out for the region safely. Now Biden has no help from Russia
