Threatening 69-year-old Russian President Vladmir Putin with personal economic sanctions, 79-year-old President Joe Biden has gone over the deep end, making Putin’s military build up in Ukraine a personal vendetta. European Union [EU} leaders don’t know how to react to Biden, whose belligerent approach to Russia has raised the specter of war on the European Continent. Europeans had enough of the Continent used as a battlefield in WW I and WW II, causing the deaths of over 100 million soldiers and civilians. So when Biden continues to provoke Putin, he’s not thinking about the consequences to war on Europeans. Biden wants to lead a coalition of the willing against Putin but Brussels isn’t sure whether they’ll go along with the U.S. overly aggressive approach. Biden has treated Putin as if he’s already invaded Ukraine, like he did seizing Crimea in 2014.
Biden tells Putin and the world yesterday under interrogation from the press that he will not put any U.S. or NATO boots on the ground in Ukraine. So Putin already knows that the Ukraine mess, won’t deteriorate into a shooting war, no matter how much provocation. Biden continues to warn that a Russian invasion of Ukraine is “imminent.” Ukrainian officials don’t see it that way, saying they don’t fear an imminent Russian invasion. “Yes, I would see that,” Biden said, when asked whether Putin should be targeted himself for personal sanctions. All the talk from the White House is about imposing crippling economic sanctions all related to a new Russian invasion. Putin has zero reason to invade Ukraine, not like the situation Feb. 22, 2014 when a CIA-backed coup toppled Ukraine’s Kremlin-backed government. Putin seized Crimea March 1, 2014 to protect his Sevastopol navy base.
Biden pretends he has the full backing of the EU, when French President Emmanuel Macron faces a bitter election fight with National Rally candidate Marine Le Pen and must be seen now as stepping up in the name of diplomacy. Macron has not bought into Biden’s fighting words, preferring to continue to work on diplomacy to defuse any remaining tensions. Biden can’t stop his “gunboat diplomacy,” threatening Putin with destroying Russian economy with draconic economic sanctions. Biden proposed that the Russian Federation be cut off from the global SWIFT banking system, handling bank wire transfers around the planet. Macron isn’t inclined to go along with Biden’s threat of extreme economic sanctions. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also signaled he’s no jumping on the arm-Ukraine bandwagon, refusing to supply Kiev with offensive or defensive weapons.
Kiev Major Vitali Klitschko, 50, said he was “speechless” when Germany offered to supply Ukraine with 5,000 helmets but no offensive or defensive weapons. Klitschko found it a colossal “joke” that Germany wasn’t prepared to jump on the arm-Ukraine bandwagon. Whatever differences between Ukraine and Russia’s military, it’s not the U.S. or EU’s responsibility to bring Ukraine up to speed militarily with Russia. U.S. officials warn Putin that any invasion of Ukraine, not matter how small, would be met with dire economic consequences. “What we’re talking about are sophisticated technologies that we design and produce,” said an unnamed White House source. Cutting Putin off from quantum computing, Artificial Intelligence [AI], high-tech equipment, etc would damage the Russian economy. But all of Biden’s plans could trigger a military response from Putin.
Members of the White House and Congress want Germany to halt the $12 billion Nord Stream 2 pipeline set to supply Germany with Russian natural gas for the foreseeable future. Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel was committed to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, bypassing Ukraine to bring affordable natural gas to Germany. All the talk of crippling economic sanctions would be seen by the Kremlin as an act of war. Instead to going to the bargaining table, Biden has preferred to threaten Putin and Kremlin with crippling sanctions. “If Russia decides to weaponize its supply of natural ga or crude oil, it wouldn’t be without consequences to the Russian economy,” said an unnamed U.S. official, continuing the gunboat diplomacy. Threatening a sovereign state is not way to get both parties back to table to work out whatever remaining differences exist between Moscow and the Washington.
If there’s any rationale for a new Ukraine invasion, it isn’t about Putin seeking to consolidate Russian-speaking territory in the Donbass regions of Eastern Ukraine. Macron, who plans to meet with Putin by telephone Friday, wants a diplomatic resolution, something Biden has made practically impossible. Biden’s belligerent attitude toward Putin, not his desire to invade Ukrainian territory, could trigger an altercation in Ukraine. Biden thinks that threatening Putin has given the Russian leader reason to pause but it’s just the opposite. All of Biden’s talk of crippling economic sanctions is seen as an act of war by the Kremlin. European Commissions President Ursuala von der Leyen wants to give diplomacy a chance, agreeing with Germany that supplying Ukraine arms only makes matters worse. Von der Leyen wants Macron to succeed in opening a constructive dialogue with Putin.
