After meeting on Zoom with 69-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin, 79-year-old Joe Biden announced he will not send any U.S. troops to Ukraine regardless of what happens in the former Soviet satellite. Western media had hyped Russia’s buildup of forces inside Russia on the Ukrainian border, with troop strength about 95,000 . Exaggerating the imminent nature of a Russian invasion, Biden felt inclined to talk with Putin about recent developments. Putin’s been telling the press for weeks that the Russian Federation has no plans of seizing more Ukrainian territory like what happened March 1, 2014 when he seized the Crimean Peninsula. Biden and the Western press never admits what happened Feb. 22, 2014 while Putin was hosting the Sochi Winter Olympics. Kremlin-backed, duly elected Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was driven out of Kiev.
No Western official ever acknowledges that a CIA-backed, pro-Western coup drove Yanukovych out of Kiev Feb. 22, 2014. When Putin finished the Winter Olympics Feb. 23, he moved the Russian army into Crimea to safeguard Russia’s warm water fleet and navy base in Sevastopol, Crimea. Had the CIA not worked with pro-Western separatists like 50-year-old Vitali Klitschko to topple Yanukovych, Putin would have never seized the Crimean, Peninsula. Yet in all the talk over nearly eight years, not one Western official has ever acknowledged what happened. All the discussion focuses on Putin the aggressor, seizing sovereign territory just like he did Aug. 8, 2008 when he moved the Russian army into Georgia’s South Ossetia and Abhkazia. So when it comes to Ukraine, there were trade offs to pro-Western Ukrainians that toppled the Kremlin-backed government of Viktor Yanukovych.
Biden’s video chat with Putin was cordial to the extent that Biden expressed a willingness to discus with NATO Putin’s “red line,” that Ukraine not be given NATO membership. Putin simply told Biden that he didn’t want NATO on his southern border, asking for legal assurances that Ukraine would not be given NATO membership. “We have a moral obligation and a legal obligation to our NATO allies if there were to attack under Article 5, that’s a sacred obligation. That obligation does not extend to . . . Ukraine,” Biden said, giving Putin everything he wants to hear. Since taking office May 20, 2019, Zelensky has badgered NATO Secretary-General Jens Stotenberg for membership, each time antagonizing the Kremlin. Stoltenberg wants no part of fighting Ukraine’s battles with the Russian Federation. Biden made clear today that he has no plans of committing U.S. troops.
Putin seeks assurances from Biden that NATO will respect his “red lines” of keeping Ukraine out of NATO membership. Putin would like Zelensky to work on bilateral issues with the Kremlin, keeping the U.S. and NATO out of any new arrangements made by both countries. Instead of talking to Putin, Biden needs to talk directly with Stoltenberg and Zelsensky, to let them know that NATO membership for Ukraine is off the table. “I was straightforward. There were no minced words. I was polite. Bit I made it very clear: If, in fact, he invades Ukraine there will be severe consequences. Severe consequences. Economic consequences like none he’s ever seen or ever been seen, in terms of being imposed,” Biden told Putin. Putin said he understood but the real issue involves sitting Zelensky down and telling him he’s not joining NATO and must deal with Putin directly.
Whether Biden admits it or not, Putin wants good relations with the United States, one based on mutual cooperation on a number of global issues, including Covid-19, North Korea and Iran. Burning his bridges with Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping has harmed U.S. national security over Biden’s first year in office. When dealing with Ukraine, Biden gave Putin what he wanted to hear that Ukraine would not joini NATO anytime soon. At the same time, Biden must do more than threaten the Kremlin with more economic sanctions. Biden needs to acknowledge that the 2014 CIA-backed coup that toppled Kiev’s Kremlin-backed government was a huge mistake. Sucked into to pro-Western separatists, former President Barack Obama lacked the foreign policy savvy to understand the consequences of supporting a CIA-backed coup. If anyone deserves an apology, it’s Putin.
When you consider that Putin was helplessly hosting the Sochi Winter Olympics, the CIA timed the coup to coincide with his obligations to the Winter Games. All the media hubbub about Putin threatening to invade Ukraine is largely fake news. What Putin wants is for the U.S. to give legal assurances that Ukraine will not join NATO and the U.S. respect Russia’s zone of influence in the Black Sea. “We agree that an appropriate structure will be created that will be able to professionally deal with this,” Putin said at a post-Zoom news conference. Once in the meeting, Biden parked the threats and demands at the door and listened to Putin. “The conversation was very open, substantive and constructive . . .” Putin said of his video link with Biden. While the press likes to accuse former President Donald Trump of cozying up to Putin, the truth is that Putin finds Biden far more predictable.
