Responding to 69-year old Vladimir Putin’s demand to prevent Ukraine from NATO membership and rolling back NATO involvement in former Soviet Satellites, U.S and NATO signaled there would be no compromise on NATO membership. At the same time, U.S. and NATO agreed to talks with Russian officials in January 2022 to allay any concerns has about NATO encroachment in Ukraine. Ukraine’s 43-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky has begged NATO for membership since taking office May 20, 2019. Zelensky hoped with NATO membership Ukraine could get back the Crimean Peninsula seized by Putin March 1, 2014. Zelensky knows that any NATO attempt to retake Crimea would result in war with the Russian Federation. Zelensky isn’t concerned about creating WW III, he wants Crimea back any way he can get it.
Western officials and press have grown more concerned about another Russian invasion of Ukraine, this time in the restive Russian speaking Eastern Ukraine. With Putin amassing some 95,000 troops close to the Ukraine border, Western officials are panicking about another Russian invasion, this time in the Donbass region of Eastern Ukraine. But Western Officials and the press never mention that Putin’s March 1, 2014 invasion of Crimea happened after a CIA-backed, pro-Western coup Feb. 22, 2014, chasing duly elected, Kremlin-backed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych from Kiev. Why Western officials or press never mention the CIA-backed coup is anyone’s guess. But it certainly makes Putin look like the aggressor. Putin seized Crimea only after CIA-backed coup toppled the Yanukovych government. Putin wants guarantees it won’tt happen again.
Putin’s main concern involves NATO encroachment in Ukraine and Belarus, where President Alexander Lukashenko remains a close Putin ally. Putin has watched many of the former allies move over to NATO’s orbit, including the Balkans, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia have all joined NATO. Putin wants legal guarantees that whatever countries have joined NATO, he wants to stop more NATO incursions in the future. Western officials and the press refuse to acknowledge why Putin seized Crimea March 1, 20214. Zelensky has refused to discuss security arrangements with Putin, prompting Zelensky to make constant overtures to NATO, antagonizing Putin. U.S and NATO officials have said they won’t compromise on sovereign states seeking to join the Transatlantic Alliance now or in the future. But with Putin saying that he will have to take “technical and military” measures if there’s no NATO response.
Putin submitted proposals to the U.S. and NATO asking for legal guarantees that they won’t encroach on Russian territory. “We didn’t do it just to see it blocked . . .but for the purpose of reaching a diplomatic result that would be fixed in legally binding documents,” Putin said. So, when it comes to the U.S. and NATO rejecting Putin’s requests, the U.S. has to think twice before rejecting Putin’s offer to negotiate and acceptable arrangement for both parties. President Joe Biden, 79, needs to listen to President Ronald Reagan’s inaugural speech. Reagan said the U.S. would “negotiate for peace, sacrifice for peace, but would not surrender for peace now or ever. Since taking office Jan. 20, Biden has done practically everything to antagonize Putin, once telling him to release 45-year-old dissident Alexi Navalny from prison, interfering with Russia’s internal affairs
U.S. and NATO must negotiate with Putin knowing that pushing him too hard could back him into a corner with Ukraine. Putin has been saying he wants to resolve the standoff amicably but would not compromise Russian national security because NATO insists on moving troops and heavy military equipment into Ukraine. “We have no where to retreat,” Putin said, knowing that letting NATO move troops and equipment into Ukraine would impinge on Russia’s national security. “They have pushed us to a line that we can’t cross. They have taken it to the point where we must simply tell them, “Stop!” So, there’s no wiggle room for Biden when he considers how to play Putin’s demands for legal security guarantees. NATO has pushed the boundaries to the point that there’s no return.
At Zelensky’s request, NATO has move U.S. advisers and military equipment into Ukraine with the expressed purpose of resisting another Russian invasion. But instead of improving security, it’s made it far worse, with Putin getting close to drawing a line in the sand. Biden has not taken Putin’s concerns for security seriously, not has he accepted Putin’s demands for legal guarantees. “We just have one goal –to reach an agreement that would ensure the security of Russia and its citizens now and in the long-term perspective,” Putin said, asking Biden to enter into a legally binding agreement to keep Ukraine out of NATO. But Putin wants assurances that NATO would not put more in resources into Ukraine encroaching on the Russia border. If you listen to Western officials and press you’d think that Putin has no right to insist that NATO stay out of Ukraine.
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