Playing a winning game of chess, 69-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin out smarted 79-year-old President Joe Biden’s National Security Team, meeting today on President’s Day at the White House to plot Ukraine strategy. Putin moved his Queen to checkmate Biden’s King, deciding to recognize the Peoples’ Republicans of Donetsk and Luhansk, both breakaway city-states inside Ukraine territory but with loyalty to the Kremlin. When a Feb. 22, 2014 CIA-backed pro-Western coup toppled the Kremlin-backed Kiev government of Viktor Yanukovych, the Peoples’ Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk fought a bloody war for independence. Stakes rose for the pro-Western Kiev government March 1, 2014 when Putin annexed the Crimean Peninsula, the strategic location of Putin’s Black Sea fleet, something threatened by the pro-Western coup that toppled the Kremlin-backed government.
Kiev and Western governments blamed Putin wrongly for the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk, both Russian-speaking areas in Ukraine’s industrial east wanting no part of the Kiev government. Western nations and the press make it out like Putin’s responsible for separatist leanings of Donetsk and Luhansk. Just ask Donetsk leader Denis Pushilin whether Putin pushed for the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk. Pushilin leads the pro-Russian forces seeking independence from Kiev. So Putin’s decision to recognize the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk represents as blow to the Kiev government. Kiev has battled Pushilin for the last eight years resulting in 14,000 deaths according to Kiev. Whatever the situation in eastern Ukraine, it’s not one for the U.S., EU and NATO to solve. Yet the Biden White House has turned an internal Ukraine problem into a world problem.
Before Biden made Ukraine a world crisis by arming Ukraine with lethal weapons, selling his case to protect Ukraine’s democracy to the European Union, [EU] Ukriane was a distant problem in the remote Black Sea region. Whatever happened March 1, 2014 with Putin seizing Crimea, it has no bearing on U.S. national security. Ukraine would like its territory back but it’s not up to the U.S., EU or NATOto get it back. Ukraine’s 43-year-old President Voloydymr Zelensky has been pushing for NATO membership since taking office May 20, 2019. Putin seizing Crime March 1, 2014 had no effect on U.S. or EU national security. Yet it bruised former President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden’s egos. Messaging from the White House has changed, with Vice President Kamala Harris calling Ukraine “a decisive moment in history,” making the White House case for WW III,
New York Times and Washington Post are churning out articles about the rise of authoritarian regimes around the planet, pushing the White House to draw a line in the sand in Ukraine. Whatever anyone in the EU thinks of Putin, they don’t want to go to war over Ukraine. Only Biden, meeting today with his rubber-stamp national security team thinks starting WW III over Ukraine is worth it, as long as the EU does the fighting. Biden said Dec. 8, 2021 and again Jan. 25 that he will not put U.S. boots on the ground in Ukraine, with or without a Russian invasion. Putin’s recognition of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent Russian territories checkmates the White House. Biden only move now is to compromise with Putin over his security demands or risk war in Ukraine. Biden overplayed his Black Ops campaign saying daily for the last month that Putin was going to invade Ukraine.
French President Emmanuel Macron has practically stood on his head to find a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine problem. But because Biden thinks he can gaslight Putin into withdrawing his forces from the Ukraine border without negotiating security agreement, the world—and global stock markets—remains on pins-and-needles. Biden and his national security team have been bluffing from Day One, hoping to get Putin to back down. Macron wants to see Biden and Putin sit down face-to-face to negotiate an acceptable security agreement. So far, Biden has not compromised on what he calls NATO principles. NATO principles allow any country to pick-and-choose his own security arrangements. Putin wants Biden and NATO to agree to a permanent ban of Ukraine’s membership. NATO has rejected Ukraine’s bid for the last eight years since Putin seized Crimea.
Boxed into a corner, Biden must agree to a new summit but only to compromise on Putin’s security concerns about NATO encroachment, especially in Ukraine. If Biden weren’t supplying copious lethal weapons to Ukraine, Putin wouldn’t be so adamant. Macron sees both sides but is reluctant to be seen as a Putin apologist only two months before French elections. No one on Biden’s national security team, including Secretary of State Tony Blinken, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of State Mark Miley, has shown any common sense about resolving the Ukraine crisis. All the president’s men have played a foolish Black Ops strategy that’s backfired, saying Putin would invade any day. Now that Putin recognized Donetsk and Luhansk as part of Russia, it’s time for the White House to get serious about a negotiated settlement.
