Standing down in Ukraine near the border in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troop back to base, temporarily ending the game of chicken with the U.S. and European Union [EU]. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Eammanuel Macron demanded that Putin pull back the Russian army inside the Russian border in Donbass, numbering at some 150,000 troops. Putin played with 43-year-old Ukrainian President Zolodymyr Zelensky, whose overtures to the U.S., EU and NATO irked the Kremlin. Putin warned the Western Alliance that any attempt to interfere in Ukraine would be met with “quick and tough” action, meaning he wouldn’t hesitate to deploy the Russian military to protect Russian-speaking separatists in the Donbass and Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. Putin didn’t like Zelensky’s threats to deploy NATO.
Putin’s decision to stand down in Ukraine has little to do with a reluctance if necessary to confront Kiev but to offer some reassurance to Washington that Russia’s military build up in the Donbass region was purely defensive in nature. Putin laid out for all to see his “read lines,” allowing the U.S., EU or NATO to deploy forces in Ukraine. Recognizing Putin’s pull back, Zelensky thanked the U.S., EU and NATO for it’s support but, in reality, Putin cooperated with Washington and Brussels as an offer of good faith to get the latest round of economic sanctions lifted. Zelensky “welcomes any steps to decrease the military presence & deescalate the situation in Donbass [eastern Ukraine]. “Grateful to international partners for their support,” Zelensky said, not knowing that Putin pulled backed Russian troops because he’d made his point to the Western Alliance that supporting Ukraine was a red line.
Putin was ready-and-willing to fight in Ukraine he Western Alliance if they tried to pull a fast one in eastern Ukraine. “So it can go in either direction now,” said Ukraine’s 40-year-old Foreign Ministers Dmytro Kuleba. “And this is why the reaction of the West, the consolidated reaction of the West, is so important now, to prevent Putin . . . from making that decision.” Kuleba knows that Putin stood down not because of coercion from the U.S., EU and NATO but because he was given assurances that Ukraine would not try to encroach on Russian-speaking enclaves in Donbass and Donetsk. Whether or not known by the West, Donbass and Donetsk want no part of Zelesnsky’s Kiev government, would do almost anything to end affilation with Ukraine. Kiev has done little for the Donbass area since it became a sovereign power in 1991, after the end of the Soviet Union.
Ukraine saves-face insulting Putin that he stood down because of the threat of military intervention by Ukraine’s Kiev government. Putin stood down because he received assurances from the U.S., EU and NATO that Ukraine would not be joining Russia anytime soon. “I believe the objectives of the snap inspection have been fully achieved. The troops have demonstrated their ability to provide a credible defense for the country,” said Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, refuting Zelensky’s view of the situation that Putin backed down. Kuleba knows that Russia left the lion’s share of its military hardware near the Ukraine border in case Zelensky escalates the situation. Putin just finished war games in Crimea involving 10,000 troops and 40 warships, letting the Western Alliance know that he meant business. Zelensky wants the world to think that Putin stood down because of the Western Alliance.
Putin got his message heard in Washington and Brussels about his intent to defend Russia’s national security. Zelensky kept pushing his involvement with NATO, despite the fact that Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg wanted no part of any military confrontation. Russia has been dealing with new sanctions and expulsion of diplomats in the Czech Republic, who’s accused Russian of bombing weapons depot in 2014. Expelling Russian diplomats, the Czech Republic remembers all-too-well Russian tanks rolling over protester in neighboring Hungary in 1956. Putin has heard a mouthful from the Western Alliance about 44-year-old jailed Russian dissident Alex Navalny. Navalny’s been serving out a two-year-eight-month sentence in a Russian penal colony since March 2. Washington and Brussies have pounded Putin to release Navalny from prison, despite Navalny’s threats.
Putin’s the consummate global player, knowing exactly what to do to play the Western press against its own ranks. Western power warned Putin about Navalny’s death in Russian custody. Worried that would fuel nationwide street protests, Putin decided send Navalny to a civilian hospital for evaluation and treatment. Navalny’s medical condition deteriorated since launching a hunger strike March 31. Since Navalny’s imprisonment March 2, there’s been nonstop press coverage, accusing prison officials of denying the 44-year-old dissident of adequate medical treatment. Putin laid out “red lines” for him in State of the Nation speech, warning Washington and Brussels that any involvement in by the U.S., EU or NATO in Ukraine would trigger a “quck-and-tough” response that Western powers would regret. Standing down now, Putin thinks the West got the message.
