Russian President Vladimir Putin, 69, asked President Joe Biden to enter into negotiations about the role the U.S. and NATO play in Eastern European countries once part of the Soviet Union. Putin’s concerns in Ukraine stem primarily from 43-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky’s obsession with seeking NATO membership. Putin told Ukraine and Western officials that Ukraine’s NATO membership would be a “red line” for the Kremlin, concerned about NATO moving heavy military equipment, troops even nuclear missiles into Ukraine on the Russian border. Whether Putin’s concerns have any merit of not, Biden should heed Putin’s request to open up a dialogue to reduce tensions in the region. Western officials, backed by the press, have warned of a new Russian land g rab in Ukraine, similar to what happened March 1, 2014 when Putin move the Russian army into the Crimean Peninsula.
Putin signaled that he’s ready to speak with the U.S. “at any moment” to start talks with the U.S. concerning the situation in Ukraine and in Eastern Europe. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Rybakov would “be ready to fly at any moment to any neutral country” to start talks. Putin’s desire to intercede on behalf of former Soviet satellites is a non-starter, when you consider they are all sovereign states, not subject to Kremlins veto. When it comes to the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, the joined NATO March 29, 2004, all full NATO members with its mutual defense provisions. When it comes to Ukraine, Putin wants legal guarantees from Biden that Ukraine will not join the Transatlantic Alliiance. Yet with Ukraine becoming an independent country Aug. 24, 1991, Putin has no legal grounds to prevent it from doing anything.
Biden or NATO’s 62-year-old Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg cannot legally prevent Ukraine, as a sovereign state, from jointing NATO if it meets its membership criteria, including not part of any ongoing military action. Meeting with Putin or his emissary Sergei Rybakov would be a positive step forward, if, for no other reason, than to open up lines of communication. Putin wants a 2008 NATO agreement with Ukraine and Georgia that they would become members in the future. But with Putin demanding that NATO rescind any past commitments, the U.S. and NATO may be reluctant to agree to Putin’s demands, primarily because Ukraine is a sovereign state, entitled to join any foreign organization of its choice. U.S. Asst. Sec. of State Karen Donfried was handed by Russia a copy of Russian documents, including a treaty and an agreement to keep Ukraine away from NATO membership.
When the Feb. 22, 2014 CIA-backed, pro-Western coup took place in Kiev, Putin was hosting the Sochi Winter Olympics, unable to stop pro-Western forces from toppling the duly elected, Kremlin-backed government of Viktor Yanukovych. Watching Yanukovych chased out of Kiev by an angry mob, Putin realized he had to do something to protect his naval based in Sevastopol, Crimea. When the dust settled, Putin invaded Ukraine March 1, 2014, securing his Crimean naval base. Western officials never admit that the CIA joined forces with pro-Western separatists like former heavyweight boxer Vitali Klitschko to chase Yanukovych out of Kiev. Putin saw the CIA coup as a threat to Russia’s naval base, deciding to annex Crimea to protect his interests. Now Putin wants the U.S. and NATO to agree keep Ukraine out of NATO, a guarantee they’re not prepared to make.
Putin knows he faces to tough sledding if he decides to take more Ukrainian territory, claiming it’s for defensive purposes. Stoltenberg said Putin should have no worries about NATO moving troops, military equipment and intermediate-range ballistic missiles into Ukraine. Stotenberg could leave NATO at any time if he’s offered the job to head Norway’s central bank. With several former Soviet satellites already members of NATO, it’s puzzling to think why Putin insists that NATO stay away from Ukraine. Zelensky wanted to join, thinking that NATO would fight Ukraine’s battles, especially about getting back the Crimean Peninsula. Zelensky shows no sensitivity to the prospects of dragging NATO into a war with Moscow, realizing there may be no better way to help get Crimea back to Ukraine. Putin and Zelensky have made no efforts to open up talks about Ukraine’s future.
Rybakov hoped he could start talks with the U.S. before year’s end, knowing growing concerns in the Transatlantic Alliance. Opening up a dialogue would at least send Putin the message that U.S. was trying to work out a deal, regardless of it advantages or disadvantages both superpowers. Putin wants Biden to restart the 1987 Iintermedite Range Nuclear Treaty [INF], signed by President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gobachev Dec. 8, 1987 in Washington. Nuclear arms experts say that Russia already deploys INF forces in Western Europe, violating INF Treaty. Biden could give Russia legal guarantees that Ukraine and Gerogia would not join NATO anytime soon. Opening up a new dialogue with Moscow would help defuse tensions in Ukraine, while, at the same time, recognize that sovereign states have a right to pick-and-choose their international partners.
