LOS ANGELES.–Shuttling from Pyongyang, North Korea to Hanoi, Vietnam, 71-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin showed no signs to the “terminal illness” claimed jointly by Kiev and Washington, it their propaganda battle against the Feb. 24, 2022 Ukraine War. Biden thought he would mass a vast coalition against the Russian Federation, hitting Moscow with the worst economic sanctions in modern history. All Biden did was allow Putin to pivot adroitly, selling oil and natural gas to his allies in China, India, South Africa, Brazil and recently Malaysia. After Biden announced his joint U.S. and EU Russian oil embargo, he was convinced Putin would be economically punished enough to pull out of Ukraine. When that didn’t happen, Biden expressed outrage at any country buying oil-and-gas from Putin, or, doing any trading especially on anything considered war materiel.
Biden’s failed sanctions against the Kremlin have left U.S. foreign policy out on a limb, knowing that Putin can not only circumvent any Western sanctions but actually drum up more business than ever before. White House officials, who boast favorable trading ties with Vietnam, are furious that Hanoi considers Putin a favorable trading partner. Biden thought he had Vietnam as a U.S. ally, not doing business after the Ukraine War with the Russian Federation. Vietnam had strong ties with Russia and China during the 11-year-long Vietnam War, where the U.S. lost some 58,200 troops trying to stop communist Hoi Chi Minh from unifying Vietnam. U.S. set up a puppet government in 1967 in Saigon led by Nguyen Van Thieu, hoping to defeat the communist Viet Kong based out of Hanoi n the north. Today’s Vietnam government hasn’t forgot the pain-and-suffering caused by the U.S.
Putin praised Vietnam’s neutral stance on the Ukraine War, taking the same position as Chinese President Xi Jinping. Xi’s refusal to condemn Putin has deteriorated U.S.-Chinese relations to the point Biden said Sept. 19, 2022 he would send U.S. troops if needed to defend Taiwan from a Beijing invasion. Xi thinks Biden’s public remarks violate the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, signed into law by 99-year-old former President Jimmy Carter. Carter agreed to recognize only one China, the one in Beijing and, more importantly, to end the 1954 Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty that once obligated the U.S. to come to Taiwan’s defense. Russia has helped Vietnam develop oil-and-gas fields in Vietnam’s Exclusive Economic Zone, where Gasprom extracts oil and natural gas from disputed areas in the South China Sea. Vietnam’s economic ties with Russia run deep.
Biden’s expectations of getting Putin’s key trading partners to stop doing business with the Kremlin was entirely unrealistic based on the Ukraine War. Most countries want the Ukraine War to stop but they’re not willing to take Biden’s side, like many EU countries that have practically broken off diplomatic relations with Moscow. Gemrany, for insitance, spent $12 billion developing under former Chancellor Angela Merkel the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to bring cheap methane gas from Russia to Germany, largely to run gas-fired furnaces in Germany’s cold winter. After the Ukraine invasion, Germany suspended the Nord Stream 2 pipeline certification, eventually watching it blown up Sept. 26, 2022 by suspected Ukrainian terrorists. No country has taken responsibility to the Nord Stream 2 underwater bombing but Ukraine is highly suspected as the country involved.
Russia’s Novateck energy company “plans to launch liquefied natural gas [LNG] projects in Vietnam,” Putin said today without going into detail. Putin wants to go further “to establish a Center for nuclear science and technology in Vietnam,” something that would irk the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA], since the U.S. likes to think there are mechanisms in place to limit atomic energy development. South Korea and Canada have also tried to implement nuclear development in Vietnam, largely over building zero-carbon nuclear energy electricity plants. Biden has been pushing for nuclear energy development in the U.S. and around the world, believing that the costly installations are better for global warming. Putin wants nothing more than to show Biden he can’t pressure Russia’s historic allies and trading partners into betraying the Kremlin.
Biden has driven Russia to redouble efforts to develop close economic, military and strategic ties to communist allies. When it comes to the Ukraine War, Biden can’t expect Russia’s historic trading partners to turn its back on the Kremlin. Biden clearly has a vendetta not shared by other world leaders with Putin. When Biden was VP, Putin annexed Crimea March 1, 2014, all because of CIA-sponsored coup toppled the Kremlin-backed Kiev government of Viktor Yanukovich. Once Yahukovych was chased out of Kiev, Putin’s Black Sea naval base was threatened, prompting Putin to annex Crimea. Biden and Obama did almost nothing at the time because they were embroiled in 2015 proxy war in Syria against Bashar al-Assad. Putin joined the fight against the U.S. proxy war in Syria in 2015, eventually defending al-Assad from a CIA-brokered coup.
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.
