Slated to preside over a WW II victory parade in Red Square today, 68-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin sends a loud signal to the West when showcases 12,000 Russian troops and 190 pieces of hardware, including Intercontinental ballistic missile launchers and an 80 military aircraft flyover. Putin’s locked horns with NATO but especially 78-year-old President Joe Biden who called him a “soulless killer” March 16, before both countries started expelling diplomats. Since taking office, Biden and 58-year-old Secretary of State Tony Blinken have accused Putin of meddling in U.S. elections in 2016 and 2020, including recent hacking of SolarWinds network management software used by the Pentagon and other government agencies. After accusing Putin of meddling in U.S. democracy, Biden and Blinken demanded he release 44-year-old Russian dissident Alexi Navalny from prison.
Biden and Blinken have relentlessly attacked Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping since taking office. Why Biden and Blinken care about Russia’s treatment of a known revolutionary Alexi Navalny is anyone’s guess. It would be the equivalent if Putin demanded that the U.S. release 9/11 hijacker Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Why Biden and Blinken have fixated on Navalny is anyone’s guess. Navalny runs a nationwide network committed to topple Putin’s government. Navalny make no bones of the fact he wants Putin out of office. So when Biden and Blinken back releasing Navalny, Putin only concludes they want him removed from office. Navalny’s been incarcerated in a Russian penal colony since March 2, prompting his hunger strike that deteriorated health to the point that his personal doctor feared he’d die at any time. Biden warned Putin about consequences if Navalny dies in prison.
Putin finds it maddening that Biden and the European Union [EU] have been obsessed with Navalny, trading charges-and-counter charges, resulting wrecking U.S.-Russian relations. Putin had stationed 50,000 Russian troops near the Ukrainian border, prompting loud cries from 43-year-old Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelensky. Putin was annoyed by Zelensky’s demand that Ukraine join NATO. Since Putin seized Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula March 1, 2014, Ukraine has begged NATO for membership. But Zelensky knows that no country actively involved in military conflict can be considered for NATO membership. Zelensky’s troops have been battling pro-Russian separatists in Eastern Ukraine for the last seven years. Zelensky wants NATO to fight Ukraine’s battles, including potentially starting a shooting war with the Russian Federation.
Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen have concluded that they can no longer fake civilized relations with Putin because he seized Crimea in Ukraine. No one in the U.S. or EU wants to see Putin’s position that he only seized Crimea when a Feb. 22, 2014 CIA-backed coup toppled the duly elected Kremlin-backed government of Viktor Yanukovych. Yanukovych was chased out of Kiev, prompting Putin to annex Crimea where Russia has his warm water naval base in Sevastopol. Had Yanukovych stayed in Kiev, Putin would not have seized Crimea. Putin watched the pro-Western coup while he hosted the Sochi Winter Olymics that ended Feb. 23, 2014. Zelensky talks a lot about eastern Ukraine when most pro-Russian separatists want nothing to do with his Kiev government. Zelensky doesn’t admit Donbass wants to be part of Russia.
No one in NATO can compete with the Russian military on the ground, in the air or on the sea. Unlike NATO, Putin’s evolved his military into an efficient fighting machine, capable of a rapid deployment force with all the military hardware needed to prevail. Putin sees, as his Soviet predecessors, the “soft societies of the West,” refusing to fight, fearing a wider conflict. Putin has that knowledge of NATO’s reluctance to enter military conflict always in his calculations. One wrong move by Zelensky, one hint of NATO intervention in Ukraine, would trigger Putin’s rapid deployment force in Eastern Ukraine. If Zelensky wants to hold on to Eastern Ukraine, he needs to stop threatening to involve NATO in Ukraine’s military affairs. Whether it’s fair or not, Putin has his red line when it comes to NATO. Today’s diplomatic rift with Moscow doesn’t help global security.
Biden and EU’s Ursula von der Leyen need to stop the war mongering with Putin because it won’t end well. NATO is no match for Putin’s rapid deployment force, capable of invading most countries in Europe without much resistance. Putin learned well from Russia’s WW II history, watching another bully Adolf Hitler dominate less armed European countries. Biden and Blinken need to pull back from their current foreign policy threatening the Russian Federation with more economic sanctions. Putin got along fine with Biden’s predecessor, 74-year-old President Donald Trump. Whether admitted to or not, the Democrat Party is more war-prone than the GOP, which likes to lead by strength, not shooting bullets. Putin’s show of force today in Red Square lets the U.S. and EU know that he’s the wrong guy to mess with. Less insults and more diplomacy would go along way.
