Creating a row with 68-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin only days after confirmed by the Senate Judiciary Committee as the next Secretary of State, 58-year-old Antony Blinken slammed the Kremlin for its response to recent protests over jailing 44-year-old Putin critic Alexi Navalny. Navalny was poisoned with Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok in Tomsk, Siberia by suspected FSB agents. Rushed to Berlin for life-saving treatments, Navalny returned to Moscow Jan. 18, prompting protests around the country. “The U.S. condemns the persistent use of harsh tactics against peaceful protesters and journalists by Russian authorities for a second week straight,” Blinken tweeted, antagonizing the Kremlin for meddling in Russia’s internal affairs. Reports of mass arrests around Russia remind Blinken that it’s easy to meddle into the internal affairs of other countries, much like protests in the U.S.
When violent street protests happened throughout the United States last summer, many foreign countries kept their opinions to themselves, recognizing the widespread protests and violence as an internal U.S. problem. Blinken’s decision to fire off a critical tweet of Putin and the Kremlin comes with the endorsement of 78-year-old President Joe Biden, whose past relations with Putin have been compromised at best. “We renew our call for Russia to release those detained for exercising their human rights, including Aleksey Navalny,” Blinken tweeted. Pointing fingers at Putin, Blinken ignores the months of violent street protests in the U.S., and only recently the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riots that left five dead and hundreds arrested. Whether there’s any equivalency or not, criticizing adversaries can only make a bad situation worse, something Putin has dealt with over 20 years in power.
Whatever Russia does to maintain law-and-order, including cracking down on dissidents no matter how well liked in the West, it’s a Russian internal affairs, much like the violent protests in the United States. After criticizing 74-year-old President Donald Trump for tweeting his views on various topics, Blinken does the same thing five days after confirmed as Secretary of State Jan. 26. Spurred on by the media, there’s no rational explanation for the media’s hatred of Putin and the Russian Federation. Trump was accused for his entire four years in office of “colluding” with Russia to win the 2016 presidential election. It took 76-year-old Special Counsel Robert Mueller 22 months and $40 million to clear Trump March 23, 2019 of any wrongdoing. But that didn’t stop Democrats and the media from preventing Trump from developing a working relationship with the Russian Federation.
Blinken’s latest move practically guarantees a return to the post-Cold War antagonism under former President Barack Obama, culminating in ousting 35 Russian diplomats Dec. 31, 2016, only three weeks before Trump’s inauguration. Why Democrats and the U.S. media want an adversarial relationship with the Kremlin is anyone’s guess. It’s clear that the European Union, especially Germany, puts their differences aside and does business with the Russian Federation, supplying some 40% of the EU’s natural gas and 30% of petroleum. Whatever problems exist in Russia with street protests, it’s counterproductive for Blinken to antagonize Putin, when the Russian leader could help the U.S. with other emerging world threats from North Korea, Iran or elsewhere. Democrats and the U.S. press did everything possible to sabotage Trump’s relations with the Russian Federation.
Unlike Trump, Biden hasn’t been accused yet of having an inappropriate relationship with Russia. What’s Biden and Blinken’s end game starting out driving a wedge between the U.S. and the Russian Federation? Whatever happens in Russia with Navalny or other dissidents, it’s not the U.S. business to condemn the Kremlin’s handling of how it manages law and order. When U.S. security officials ordered 25,000 National Guard Troops to the Capitol to provide security for the Jan. 20 inauguration, did Russia or other U.S. adversaries accuse the U.S. of heavy-handed police-state tactics? Blinken’s decision to fire of critical tweets only sets U.S.-Russian relations back to where they were at the end of the Obama administration. Putin recalled when former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton criticize the Kremlin’s response to street protests before he won a second term May 7, 2012.
Whatever Putin does to restore order or crack down on dissent in Russia, Blinken must show better discipline in his public messaging. Antagonizing Putin does nothing for U.S. national security, desperately in need of working with adversaries to make the world a more stable place. Biden and Blinken have enough problems dealing with American democracy, going through recent bumps in the road. Calling the Jan. 6 Capitol riots an insurrection shows that politics takes precedence over reality. Watching protesting from afar in Russia doesn’t tell the real story of what goes on in Russia, requiring a more disciplined approach by Blinken. Foreign leaders bit their tongues watching what looked like American democracy go up in smoke, only to find out it was a pseudo-event. Whatever system of government exists in Russia, who’s Blinken to tell Puin to let anyone out jail, lecturing foreign leaders?
