After pledging “unwavering support” April 2 in a call to 43-year-old Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as they battle so-called Russian aggression in Crimea and the Donbass region,, 78-year-old President Joe Biden folded his cards. Canceling his show of force to Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Black Sea, Biden ended plans to send two U.S. warships to the Black Sea. Russian officials warned U.S. to “stay away for their own good” April 14, prompting Biden to call off U.S. warships. Zelensky must be getting that sinking feeling knowing that Ukraine remains on its own in dealing with its Russian neighbor with whom they’ve had such hostile relations. Ukraine complained to the U.S. and NATO that Russia was massing troops and military hardware on the border near the Donbass region, hinting at another military adventure since Putin invaded Criimea March 1, 2021.
Moscow announced that it will restrict movement of warships from April 24 to Oct. 31 anywhere near the Crimean coast home to Russia’s warm-water fleet in Sevastopol. Russia’s RIA news agency said that Russia will not restrict the grain trade from the Sea of Azov through the Kerch Strait, allowing ships to make deliveries of agricultural products. Freedom of passage for foreign warships and “other state ships” will be suspended to deescalate the hostile diplomatic conditions coming primarily from Ukraine, U.S. and NATO. Putin’s decision to restrict freedom of navigation around Crimea comes from recent threats made by Ukraine and NATO, but also new U.S. sanctions ousting 10 new Russian diplomats and applying economic sanctions for Russia’s alleged hacking and meddling in the 2016 and 2020 U.S. elections, something not verified by anyone.
Since taking office Jan. 20, Biden has made nothing but hostile gestures to Putin and the Russian Federation, calling the Russian leader a “soulless killer” March 16 to ABC News host George Stephanopoulos. Biden and his Secretary of State Tony Blinken have accused Moscow of torturing 44-year-old Russian dissident Alexi Navalny, demanding that the anti-Putin activist be released from prison. Biden claims that Putin interfered with the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections but offers no proof. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, 44, said April 15 that new U.S. sanctions against the Kremlin were “proportionate” based on hacking into SolarWinds network management program, something used by numerous government agencies, including the Pentagon. Sulivan says nothing about how SolarWinds cybersecurity failed to pick up the alleged Russian malicious code in the program’s recent update.
Biden has had no response to Putin restricting navigation in an international waterway in the Black Sea, forced to stand down from a promise to send U.S. warships in the Black Sea near Ukraine. “Russia has a history of taking aggressive actions against Ukrainian vessels and impeding international maritime transit in the Black Sea, particularly near the Kerch Strait. This would be the latest example of its ongoing campaign to undermine and destabilize Ukraine,” said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby. Kirby knows that Biden has been the one stirring the pot until in boiled over, forcing Putin to take defense actions to protect his warm water fleet in Sevastopol. If U.S.-Russian relations under Bdien were less hostile, Putin would not have taken actions to restrict access of foreign warships near Crimea. But since Zelensky has been calling for NATO military help, Putin acted accordingly.
Asking Putin April 13 for a summit, Biden showed the kind of desperation after dealing with the consequences of his hostile actions toward Putin since taking office. When called Putin a “soulless killer” March 16, what did he think would happen? Nothing? Biden and Blinken’s futile demands to see Navalny released from the IK-2 penal colony in Pokrov, 100 kilometers east of Moscow, shows Biden doesn’t get the concept of linkage in foreign affairs. Backing Navalny, a known revolutionary seeking to topple Putin’s government, was a huge blunder for Biden, hoping to improve U.S. national security. Biden and Blinken accused Putin of poisoning Navalny, framing him for embezzlement and robbing him of his rights. What’s Putin supposed to do when a U.S. president backs a known Trotskyite seeking to remove him from power? Restricting navigation around Criimea is better that invading Donbass.
Biden’s decision to cancel plans to send U.S. warships into the Black Sea shows clearly that he’s bluffing on Ukraine. When Biden says to Zelensky he has his “unwavering support” he’s not talking about military support, or, for that matter, backing Ukraine’s NATO membership. NATO Secretary –General Jens Stoltenberg, former Prime Ministero fNorway, knows that NATO’s charter prohibits adding a country current engaged in armed conflict. Ukraine can’t get along with Russia because Putin knows Zelensky coordinates with the CIA when it comes to Russia’s troop buildup in the Donbass region. When Putin invaded Crimea March 1, it wasn’t out of the blue. Putin watched hosting the Sochi Winter Olympics a Feb. 22, 2014 CIA-backed coup topple Kremlin-backed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Biden pays the price now for tipping his own cards to Putin.
