Meeting on Zoom video chat with 69-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin Dec. 7, 79-year-old President Joe Biden acted like a tough rooster, warning the Russian leader about dire consequences should he invade Ukraine. Biden and Putin agreed to allow high-level staff to follow up on the conversation. Well, three days after Biden read Putin the riot act, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Rybakov said Friday at a Moscow press conference that he expected the U.S. delegation to follow up on Putin’s request for legal guarantees that Ukraine would not join NATO, but, more importantly, would not put troops or military equipment near the Russian border. Putin listened patiently Tuesday on Zoom to Biden acting like he was in charge, something demanded by Capitol Hill and the U.S. press. Putin wants to work out a deal with Biden but knows Biden’s current limitations.
Putin let Biden know Dec. 7 that if the West wants Russia to draw back its 95,000 troops from near the Ukrainian border, he needs legal guarantees that NATO will not grant Ukraine membership, nor will it supply offensive or defensive weapons inside Ukraine’s territory. Western officials have been sanctioning the Russian Federation since Putin invaded and annexed the Crimean Peninsula March 1, 2014, a response to a Feb. 22, 2014 coup d’etat by CIA-backed, pro-Democracy forces led by former heavyweight boxer Vitali Klitschko. No one in the West acknowledges the Feb. 22, 2014 coup that that drove Kremlin-backed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych from Kiev. So over the last seven years, the West has ranted against Putin’s move to annex Crimea to protect his warm water naval fleet in Sevastopol, Crimea. Zelensky knows that without the CIA-backed coup, Crimea would still be in Ukraine’s territory..
Rybakov followed up on Putin’s demand to have legal guarantees to keep Ukraine from joining NATO. “If our opponents on the other side—first and foremost the U.S., but also other countries, allies, the so-called allies of the U.S—refuse, try to torpedo the whole thing, they will inevitably encounter a further worsening of their own security situation,” Rybakov said. Western press has whipped the Ukraine situation into mass anti-Russian hysteria, convinced that a new Ukraine invasion was imminent. Regardless of how many times Putin tells the press he has no intent on invading Ukraine, the West continues to make those claims. No one has made the situation more critical that Zelensky, who does anything possible to annoy Putin, insisting on getting NATO membership. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stotenberg has told Zelensky joining NATO is not possible while he’s in armed conflict.
Zelensky claims that some 14,000 Ukrainians have died in fighting between pro-Russian separatists and the Kiev military. Whether those figure are true is anyone’s guess. What’s known for sure is that Zelensky has tried to push the U.S. and NATO into a confrontation with the Russian Federation. Rybakov said the Ukraine has violated Putin’s “red lines” by continuing to flirt with NATO membership or at least protection. Rybakov hopes that Biden takes Putin up on limiting short- and intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe, saying Moscow considers it “a direct path to accelerating confrontation,” something no one in the EU or NATO wants. French President Emmanuel Macron said today that France was prepared to broker discussions with Ukraine to return France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia to the “Normandy format,” to defuse tensions in the region.
Rybakov’s demand, coming directly from Putin, for legal guarantees to keep NATO out of Ukraine, opens the door to de-escalating a situation that was heading to some kind of confrontation. Rybakov said it was “naïve” for Russia to expect NATO or the U.S. to offer security guarantees when it comes to Ukraine and NATO. Russia’s Chief of Military Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov said yesterday that Ukraine could turn into another Cuban Missile Crisis. Putin wants some simple guarantees that Ukraine will not join NATO, nor will the Transatlantic Alliance think that Russia would tolerate NATO or the U.S. putting troops or missiles into Ukraine. For Zelensky putting NATO troops into Ukraine is a dream come true, to Putin it’s a nightmare scenario. If Biden is really serious about de-escalating the situation in Ukraine, he needs to take Putin’s request of legal guarantees seriously.
Rybakov used his time to sell the idea of removing short- and intermediate-rage missiles in Europe, currently aimed at Moscow or other European capitals. “Before it’s too late, we need to avoid a new missile crisis in Europe,” Rybakov said, urging the U.S. and EU to work with Putin to reduce short- and intermediate-range missiles. But when it comes to de-escalating tension in Ukraine, the formula is very simple, simply keep NATO out of Ukraine. Zelensky hoped he could use NATO to help get back Crimea, something not likely to happen anytime soon. Putin wants Biden to agree to legal guarantees to stop Ukraine from joining NATIO. There’s too much propaganda and disinformation coming from the Western press, accusing Putin of preparing a new invasion of Ukraine. Western governments must admit that Putin would have never invaded Ukraine March 1, 2014 if a CIA-backed coup had not toppled the Kiev government of Viktor Yanukovych.
