Russia’s 72-year-old Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced that Moscow was losing patience with the West after last week’s attempt at diplomacy in Geneva, where U.S. officials essentially rejected Moscow’s demands for legal guarantees that Ukraine would be part of NATO. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has final say on all state matters, asked the U.S. and NATO for legally-binding guarantees that it would not let Ukraine become part of NATO but, more importantly, that NATO would stop its incursion into former Soviet satellite territories. Putin has only heard rejection by the U.S. and NATO when it comes to determining who, in the future, would be permitted to join the 30-member trans-Atlantic alliance. Putin’s asking for very little to de-escalate tension in Ukraine, a country that has minimal national security significance to the United States.
Putin sent his delegation Jan. 10 to Geneva led by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Rybakov meetings that didn’t produce results. President Joe Biden’s 72-year-old envoy Wendy Sherman didn’t produce any results, continuing to threaten Putin with crippling economic sanctions if he tried to invade Ukraine. Rybakov threw Sherman for a loop telling Biden that Moscow had no intent for invading Ukraine, something that defies the U.S. fakes news. “We have run out of patience,” Lavrov said last week. “The West has been driven by hubris and has exacerbated tensions in violation of its obligations and commons sense,” Lavrov said, getting the message that Biden plans no concessions to Putin’s demands for legal guarantees. Sherman told Rybakov in Geneva that if Russian wanted to de-escalate tensions in Ukraine they would remove some 100,00 Russian troops from Ukraine’s border.
Rybakov told Sherman that whatever Russian did inside its own border, it was certainly its own businesses. Putin warned the West that it was a “red line” to continue stationing advsiers and U.S. weapons inside Ukraine territory. Today’s announcement by British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace that the U.K. would supply anti-tank weapons in Ukraine only made a bad situation worse. Lavrov, who speaks directly from Putin, said that so far the West has rejected any guarantees to stop encroaching on Ukraine and other former Soviet satellites. “They must understand that the key to everything is the guarantee that NATO will not expand eastward,” Lavrov said, something, so far, has been rejected by the U.S. and NATO. U.S. officials know that Ukraine has little national security significance to the United. Why Biden is willing to sacrifice U.S.-Russian relations for Ukraine is anyone’s guess?
Lavrov put the U.S. and NATO on notice that without the legal guarantees asked by the Kemlin, Russia would take new national security steps to protect its borders. Rybakov hinted that the if NATO offers no security guarantees, Russian could make other security arrangement with Cuba and Venezuela. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, 45, said Lavrov’s threats were “bluster in the public commentary,” not believing that Russia would start arming Cuba and Venezuela. Lavrov called on Sherman’s demands to pull back troops from the Ukrainian border “absurd,” saying Russia had a right to do what it wanted inside its own territory. When it comes to Russia’s March 1, 2014 invasion of Crimea, the West doesn’t like admitting that a CIA-backed coup toppled the Russian-backed Kiev government of Viktor Yanukovich, prompting Putin to secure his Sevastopol Crimea naval base.
Whatever the situation in Ukraine today, it’s not the same as Feb. 22, 2014 when pro-Western forces led by former heavyweight boxer Vital Klitschko chased duly elected, Kremlin-backed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych from Kiev. Once that happened, the pro-Western government threatened Putin’s Sevastopol naval base, prompting Putin to annex the Crimean Peninsula. There’s no comparable situation today for Putin to invade the Donbass region of Eastern Ukraine, where eight years of war, according to the Ukrainian government, has killed 14,000 Ukrainians, a figure that can’t be confirmed. But with so much fake news from the West, it’s difficult to know anything factual happening in Ukraine. Today’s bipartisan senators, led by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), offered Ukraine more anti-tank weapons. Both Democrats and Republicans are equally misguided on Ukraine.
Lavrov expect a response from the United States next week on Putin’s demands for legal guarantees about more NATO encroachment into Eastern bloc countries. Judging by Sherman’s response in Geneva last week, the White House won’t offer Moscow any legal guarantees anytime soon. There’s simply no logic for the U.S. threatening Moscow with more crippling economic sanctions over Ukraine when Putin has said he has no intent of invading Ukraine. U.S., EU and NATO officials won’t admit that things were different Feb. 22, 2014 when a CIA-backed coup toppled the pro-Kremlin Kiev government, threatening Putin’ Sevasotpol naval base. Today there’s no reason for Putin to do anything in Ukraine other that try to resolve differences with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Zelensky wants NATO to fight his battles but must learn to get along with Putin.
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