President Joe Biden, 80, and his 60-year-old Secretary of State Antony Blinken continue their tax-team wrestling match with Moscow, trading barbs at the 620 summit in New Delhi. Blinken tells G20 participants for the world’s biggest economies to not let Russia get away with Ukraine War. “If we allow with impunity Russia to do what it’s doing in Ukraine, then that’s a message to would-be aggressors everywhere that they may me able to get away with it too,” Blinken told the Raisina Dialogue strategic affairs forum. Blinken likes to lecture Russia about U.S. righteousness when it decides to invade sovereign states and topple governments or set up puppet regimes. Blinken knows that that Washington has hit Russia with punitive economic sanctions, attempting to wreck the Russian economy. Does Blinken really think that Russia has acted with “impunity” in its Ukraine invasion?
When Blinken talks about would-be aggressors, does he refer to someone other that Russia and China? Biden uses the Ukraine war to justify fighting the Russian Federation to stop future attacks on other European capitals. Biden, Blinken and Ukraine’s 44-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky accuse 70-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin of ethnic cleansing, genocide, an attempt to eliminate the Ukrainian people. What evidence does Zelensky have that Russia attempts to dissolve the Ukrainian people as a Slavic ethnic group? Putin made clear that his Feb. 24, 2022 “special military operation” was about demilitarizing Ukraine from its heavy arming by the U.S. and NATO. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused Biden of hypocrisy for invading Iraq in 2003 and many other countries before or since, calling out U.S. foreign policy.
Lavrov points out that the U.S. doesn’t hesitate to invade any country when it threatens or interferes with U.S. interests, citing Iraq, Libya and Kosovo. All the back-and-forth barbs between Blinken and Lavrov does neither country any good, only perpetuats the status quo, currently wrecking U.S. Russian relations. Biden’s the first U.S.president since WW II to trash decades of constructive relations between Russia and the United States. Whatever Biden’s attachment to Ukraine, the U.S. had strong historic ties to Russia since the end of WW II and depth of the Cold War. Whatever the differences between Washington and Moscow, every U.S. president, except Biden, has made an effort to find common ground, advance joint ventures like arms control and collaboration on the International Space Station [ISS]. Ukraine has a real border dispute with the Kremlin but why the U.S?
Zelensky keeps telling the U.S. Congress and European Parliament that Ukraine’s War with the Kremlin defends European democracy. Zelensky thinks that bankrupt, war-torn Ukraine defends European democracy. How can any elected official or member of parliament accept such utter rubbish? NATO was established April 4, 1949 to protect the sovereignty and keep the peace in Europe, to deal with any future threats. Zelensky has been rejected by NATO and the EU for his fast-track bids for both organizations. NATO doesn’t want to admit Ukranie and have Zelensky invoke Article 5’s mutual defense pact to start WW III on the European Continent. Yet if you listen to Biden and Zelensky, the Ukraine War is about protecting European democracy. If there’s such a threat to European democracy, why has the U.S. or NATO not committed troop to expelling the Russian Federation from Ukraine?
No one at the G20 in New Delhi can agree on a joint statement about the Ukraine War. India continues to buy copious amounts of Russia oil, defying Biden’s oil embargo, indirectly helping Russia circumvent U.S. and EU sanctions. Biden and Blinken continue to demonize the Kremlin, getting as many countries as possible to denounce the Russian Federation. Lavov said the White House is “trying to militarize” the Guadralateral Security Dialogue, including he U.S., Australia, India and Japan. Blinken got the so-called Quad to denounce Putin threats of nuclear weapons, calling such statements “the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible.” Blinken wanted to put pressure on Putin to reinstate the 2010 START treaty wit the U.S., something Putin cancelled Feb. 21 to protest the U.S. fight with the Kremlin. Blinken showed no interest in finding common ground with Moscow.
Instead of Blinken barking demands at Lavrov, the 60-year-old Secretary of State should be doing everything to end the Ukraine War, moving the conflict to the peace table, regardless of Zelensky’s objections. Lavron said the U.S. and Kiev has told Russia to end the war but only on Zelensky’s terms. How realistic is a unilateral peace process? Blinken thinks that all Moscow has to do is acquiesce to all of Zelensky’s demands and the war would end. No one asks Blinken what the White House wants in any peace talks the Kremlin. Blinken demands that Russia reinstate the 2010 START treaty without any change in the U.S. funding the proxy war against the Kremlin. Moscow has nothing worry about with the Quad, largely because India is one of Moscow’s biggest fossil fuel customers. Real progress can only happen if Blinken stops lecturing and starts listening to the other side.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
