President Joe Biden, 79, warned 69-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin that if he invaded Ukraine he would face the most crippling sanctions ever applied in the modern era. Biden was so convinced his threats of sanctions would deter Putin, he kept supplying Ukraine unlimited arms-and-cash to resist any possible invasion. When the invasion happened Feb. 24, Biden, unknowingly, shot the Western world in the foot imposing an embargo on Russian oil, some 10% of U.S. imports, as much as 30% of crude oil imports to European Union [EU]. Biden’s Russian oil embargo fueled the worst inflation in 40 years, leading to the crash of the Euop and British Pound Sterling. Biden’s response to Putin’s invasion has created so much economic upheaval, it leaves many European countries questioning his Ukraine strategy. Biden wants to start a price cap on Russian crude oil, another measure designed to backfire.
Russia has more than made up for the Western Russian oil embargo, increasing oil imports to the BRICS economic bloc, including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, defeating Biden’s crippling sanctions, all designed to pressure the Kremlin into leaving Ukraine. But the White House funding an unlimited proxy war against the Kremlin has backfired on Biden, creating inflation and economic hardship in the Transatlantic alliance. “Any actions to impose a price cap will lead to deficit on [initiating countries] own markets and will increase price volatility,” said Nikolai Shulginov, Russia’s oil minister. Biden has already created so much damage to Western economies, trillions of dollars has been lost in Western wealth. Biden finds himself in a pitched battle with Putin, stubbornly adhering to failed sanctions, that have only made life worse in the U.S. and EU.
Western nations don’t know what to do to stop Putin’s Ukraine war, largely driven by Biden’s insistence on paying and arming the Ukraine government. Before the Feb. 24 invasion, Putin complained about Western encroachment on Russia, leaving Moscow no choice but, as Putin calls it, to start as “technical military operation,” essentially attempting to disarm Ukraine. Western nations, especially the U.K. and EU have gone along with Biden’s strategy, only to watch its economies shrink into recession, driving fuel prices and commodities through the roof. After six months of war, Ukraine’s 44-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky has won the propaganda battle but lost the war, losing some 25% of Ukraine’s sovereign territory. Zelensky plays catch up, hoping to reclaim the Black Sea coast and strategic ports. How long that’s suppose to take is anyone’s guess.
Countries like China and India have no interest in taking sides in the Ukraine conflict. Biden has pushed China and India to no avail to back the U.S. position of boycotting Russian oil. Six months into the war, what’s abundantly clear is that Biden’s Russian sanctions have failed, in fact, worse yet, created economic hardship in the U.S. and EU. U.S. pressure on the G7 to impose an oil cap on Russia can only backfire again, because Putin has plenty of customers in Brazil, China, India, South Africa and other parts of Asia buying Russian crude oil. Russia’s crude oil sales are expected to rise to $285 billion in 2022, attesting to Biden’s failed strategy. Whatever happens in Ukraine, most non-aligned countries don’t care about Ukraine’s border dispute with Moscow, nor do they buy the White House fear-mongering that if Putin isn’t stopped in Ukraine he’ll move to other EU countries.
Putin has no interest in battling NATO, something that would happen if he attacks any EU country. Biden’s reluctance to supply U.S. and NATO troops to Ukraine make zero sense. If Biden really believed that Ukraine was essentially eligible for NATO or EU membership, why would he refuse to supply Kiev U.S. and NATO troops? Biden said at the outset of the Ukraine war, that he would not commit U.S. or EU troops for fear of starting WW III. So his strategy since then is to supply Ukraine with unlimited cash and lethal weapons, starting a U.S. proxy war in Ukraine against Russia. No one in the U.S. or EU admits that Zelensky has run a failed military strategy, letting Moscow seize the entire Black Sea coast and all Ukraine’s strategic ports. All Zelensky talks about now is Ukraine’s counteroffensive, trying to reclaim lost territory over the first six months of the the war.
Biden finds himself in the same place when he was Vice President under former President Barack Obama, battling the Russian Federation in Syria. Obama and Biden poured billions into Syrian rebel groups promising to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. When Putin joined the fight to save al-Assad in 2015, it pulled the rug from underneath Obama’s proxy war in Syria. Al-Assad is still in power today in Damacus, no matter what Obama and Biden tried to do. Obama and Biden’s Syrian proxy war killed over 500,000 and displaced some 12 million Syrians from their country. Now Biden finds himself mired in a bloody proxy war against the Russian Federation in Ukraine, having profound consequences to the U.S. and EU economies. More sanctions against Putin can only harm the U.S. and EU economies because Russia has many more customers for its cheap crude oil around the planet.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in nation and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
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