Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Rybakov warned the U.S. about ignoring 69-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demand that the U.S. offer legal guarantees that Ukraine will not become part of NATO. Western officials expressed grave concerns about potential Russian invasion of Ukraine with Putin amassing some 95,000 troops inside Russia on the Ukrainian border. Ukraine’s 43-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky has begged NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg for NATO membership since taking office May 20, 2019. Stoltenberg had the good sense to deny Ukraine’s request for NATO membership, largely because he realized NATO would be fighting Ukraine’s battle to return the Crimean Peninsula from Russia, something Stoltenberg finds unthinkable. Yet it didn’t stop Zelensky from pushing for NATO membership for the last two-and-a-half years.
Before President Joe Biden and Putin met on Zoom Dec. 8, the U.S., European Union [EU] and NATO worried about a confrontation with Russian troops in Ukraine. Biden told Putin that he didn’t honor anyone’s “red lines,” certainly not Russia’s demand that Ukraine must be kept independent of NATO. U.S. and NATO consider membership as sacred right of sovereign states, not subject to veto by foreign powers. Putin wants to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO, despite the fact that the Baltic States of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have been NATO members since 2004. Russian published its demands and transmitted it to the U.S. State Department. Biden told Putin Dec. 8 that any future land grab in Ukraine would be met with the most severe sanctions ever slapped on a foreign power. Putin emphatically denied Western press reports that an invasion of Ukraine was imminent.
Rybakov wants Biden to know that he’s testing the limits of Russia patience when it comes to intervening on behalf of Ukraine. “They have been extending the limits of what’s possible,” Rybakov said, responding to the threat of more Western sanctions. “But they [NATO] fail to consider that we will take care of our security and act in a way similar to NATO’s logic and also will start extending the limits of what is possible sooner or later,” Rybakov said, warning the West that the clock is ticking. “We will find all the necessary ways, means and solutions needed to ensure our security,” hinting at possible actions taken by the Russian Federation if NATO continue to threaten Russian interests. Biden can’t just ignore Russia concerns about Ukraine getting too close to NATO, without Putin taking defensive countermeasures, including potentially annexing more Ukrainian territory in the Donbass region.
Under Biden, the U.S. has taken a more brazen tact against the Kremlin, far more confrontational than during the Trump days. However uncomfortable Putin was in dealing with Trump, he’s far more awkward dealing with Biden. Biden’s been calling Putin’s bluff since he took office, calling him “soulless killer” March 16, prompting a scrum at the first summit in Anchorage, Alaska. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and 45-year-old National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan accuses China of genocide against Mulsim Uyghurs in Xinjiang Province Western China. Now Biden just signed a bipartisan Forced Labor and Prevention Act, slapping China with new sanctions for their treatment of Uyghurs. Biden has pushed things to the brink with China promising to retaliate against the U.S. Whatever the situation in China, it’s hitting a critical mass in Moscow with Biden’s Russian policy.
So between Russia and China, the U.S. faces retaliation from both superpowers, all could have been avoided had Biden not publicly embarrassed Putin and 68-year-old Chinese President Xi Jinping. Biden has put NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in an awkward position, refusing to honor Putin’s request for legal guarantees to keep Ukraine out of NATO. Putin feels that NATO has been encroaching on Russian sovereignty, placing more forces and military equipment in Poland and the Balkan States. Putin has only Belarus ally Alexander Lukashenko, agreeing to keep NATO away from Eastern Europe. Biden said publicly that it’s not up to Putin or anyone else to veto an sovereign nation’s right to join the Transatlantic Alliance. When Putin digests that, he’ll see it as another rebuff by Washington. That’s way so many security experts fear a new Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Rybakov called NATO’s action in Ukraine and Eastern Europe “balancing on the edge of war,” serving notice that Moscow will only take so much when it comes to NATO’s provocations near the Russian border. “We don’t want conflict. We want to reach an agreement on a reasonable basis,” Rybakov said, seeking legal guarantees to keep NATO away from Ukraine. “Before making any conclusions what to do next and what steps could be taken, we need to make sure that the answer is negative. I hope that the answer will be relatively constructive and we engage in talks,” said Rybakov. Rybakov wants Biden and NATO to agree to stay away from the Baltic and Black Seas, both with U.S. allies resisting Russian aggression. Without opening a dialogue and compromising on both sides, the U.S. remains dangerously close to an altercation with Russia and China in the near future.
