Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, 49, met with 69-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin April 11, describing his meeting as business-like but not friendly. Nethammer shared his impression that all of the European Union were united in their opposition to the Ukraine War, something Putin had difficulty digesting. Nehammer said Putin does not trust the West who he says is trying to undermine Russian national security, but, more importantly, toppled his regime. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last week that the Kremlin sees the U.S. Ukraine War as a proxy war against the Russian Federation. President Joe Biden, 79, claims the war was “unprovoked and unjustified” but Putin told Biden and his 59-year-old Secretary of State Antony Blinken on several occasions that if the U.S. and NATO continued to supply lethal arms to Ukraine he would take “military-technical measures.”
Nehammer told Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday that his meeting with Putin was “frank and tough,” signaling he pulled no punches telling Putin the EU’s opposition to the Ukraine War. Nehammer said Putin told him he’s confident about his military campaign in Ukraine, despite the Western press only highlighting Russian casualties and equipment losses. “I think he is now in his own logic. He thinks the war in necessary for security guarantees for the Russian Federation. He doesn’t trust the international community. He blames Ukrainians for genocide in the Donbass region,” Nehammer said. When 44-year-old French President Emmanuel Macron met with Putin Feb. 7, he practically stood on his head to stop Putin from invading Ukraine. Like Nehammer said, Putin doesn’t trust the Western Alliance, having lived with constant criticism and economic sanctions.
Nehammer made clear that Putin doesn’t trust the international community who’s slapped crippling economic sanctions on the Kremlin. Putin told Biden for months that if he didn’t take his requests for new security on Ukraine and Eastern Europe seriously, he would be forced to take “military-technical measures” to demilitarize Ukraine. White House and their friends in the Democrat-friendly press never mention anything about Putin asking Biden for security guarantees. Papers like the New York Time and Washington Post don’t admit that U.S. arming Ukraine caused Putin to invade Feb. 24. Nehammer asked Putin whether he though he was winning the war, something the U.S. press and Ukraine disputes. U.S. press and Kiev say daily how Putin’s losing the war, yet the video flashed on every TV screen around the planet show Ukraine in ruins all over the country.
Nehammer made clear that Putin believes he’s winning the war. “He believes he is winning the war,” Nehammer said, disputing the White House, Kiev and Western press all saying Putin is losing the war. “I made clear to Mr. Putin, his attitude , his view is not shared by anybody,” Nehammer said, certainly not by anyone in the West. Western news sources don’t know the difference between war propaganda and actual reports in the war zone of bomb-damage assessment. By all accounts, whether admitted to or not by Nehammer, Putin’s got the video and pics on his side. Nehammer admitted he was not “particularly optimistic after my talks with Putin,” meaning, he sees no end in sight to Putin’s military campaign. As Lavrov said, Putin views that battle against the United States not Ukraine. Nehammer expressed surprise that Putin would not acknowledge Russian losses in the war.
Ukraine’s 44-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky’s going to get a rude awakening soon when Biden pivots his attention away from the Ukraine War and onto domsestic issues now that his approval rating have hit close to rock bottom. Biden thought that prosecuting a war against the Russian Federaion would win him plaudits on both sides of the aisle. Biden’s approval ratings since the Feb. 24 invasion have maintained consistently low levels, with the public not liking Putin, but, at the same time, not liking him more. Biden’s abysmal approval ratings mirror the fact that the Democrats and Republicans don’t trust his leadership in domestic and foreign policy. Consumed by the Ukraine War for the last two months, Biden found his approval ratings getting worse by the day. Biden’s advisers are pushing him to refocus his energy on the economy, where near double-digit inflation has consumers worried.
Nehammer found out the hard way that Putin believes in his war in Ukraine is not to “de-Natzify” Ukraine but to remove U.S. and NATO weapons now threatening the strategic balance in the region. “He sees it as a kind of self-defensive operation of the Russian Federation.. He calls it special military operations. He calls it specially military operation of the Russian Federation. He calls it special military operations. I call it the war,” said Nehammer, not getting that Putin is serious about demilitarizing Ukraine. Nehammer didn’t tell Putin what he’d do if an enemy armed his neighbor with the intent of going to war. Nehammer knows that without U.S. and NATO weapons supplied to Kiev, they would not wage war against the Russian Federation. No one in the U.S., EU or NATO wants to explain what Putin should do with all the lethal arms flooding into Ukraine. Nothing?
