Offering the opposite message of the U.S. and Western Alliance, 69-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin told an economic forum in Vladivostok that the Russian Federation has lost nothing with its Feb. 24 Ukraine invasion. Western officials see it differently, emphasizing the amount of military casualties and hardware lost on the Ukraine battlefield. Putin gave a very different take, saying that Russia are “helping people” in Donbas, while protecting Russian national security. If you listen to Kiev or Washington, you’d think the Russian military is on its last legs. Daily reports of defections, shortages and bad morale blanket U.S. and Kiev airwaves. Putin gave a different message. “We have not lost anything and will not lose anything,” Putin told the Vladivostok meeting. “In terms o what we have gained, I can say that the main gain has been the strengthening of our sovereignty,” Putin said.
Putin’s “technical military operation” in Ukraine was designed to demilitarize the Kiev government that’s been taking unlimited cash-and-arms from 79-year-old President Joe Biden. Biden said March 26 that there as no way Putin should remain as Russian president. One month later, 69-year-old Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said April 26 that the aim of the U.S. military in Ukraine was to degrade the Russian military to the point it could no longer wage war. If that’s not a declaration of war against the Russian Federation then what is? So, since the war started Feb. 24, the U.S. involvement has morphed into a proxy war against the Russian Federation. Biden decided to sacrifice U.S.-Russian relations to adopt Ukraine to justify a proxy war against the Russian Federation. Turkey’s 69-year-old President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned his Western friends not to underestimate the Russian Federation.
Erdogan has long historic business ties with the Russian Federation, including, buying Russian military hardware. Turkey is part of NATO but has maintained amicable relations with the Russian Federation, despite accidentally shooting down a Russian Su-24 fighter jet.. “ I say to those who underestimate Russia, you are doing it wrong. Russia is not a country that can be underestimated,” Erdogan said a press conference in Belgrade, Serbia. U.S. and EU officials act like they can supply Ukraine with unlimited cash-and-weapons without repercussions from Russia. During the first six months of the Ukraine War, 44-year-old Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has lost 25% of Ukraine’s sovereign territory, surrendering the entire Black Sea cost and all its strategic ports to the Kremlin. Erdogan asks Western leader to reconsider its strategy in Ukraine because it’s failing.
Erdogan has had plenty of run-ins with the West, surviving an armed coup July 15, 2016, from forces he thinks were organized in the United States by exiled Turkish cleric Fetullah Gulen. Gulen, who currently lives in a compound in rural Pennsylvania, denied any involvement in the July 15, 2016 coup. “I can clearly say that I do not find the attitude of the West [toward Russia] right. Because there is a West that follow a policy based on provocation,” Erdogan said. Erdogan doesn’t agree with the Western sanctions against the Russian Federation but offered Istanbul as a neutral place to mediate a ceasefire and peace talks. Zelensky has rejected all attempts at mediation because he’s lost so much sovereign territory to the Kremlin he fears he won’t get it back. Biden thinks he must press on with the proxy war to give Ukraine a better bargaining position once the war eventually ends.
Erdogan wanted his Western colleagues to know that there’s no way the West under Biden’s guidance would topple Putin and the Russian Federation. Erdogan said to be an effective peace broker he must maintain his neutrality, following a “balanced foreign policy between Russia and Ukraine.” Erdogan has been accused by NATO of blocking Sweden and Finland’s entrance into NATO because longstanding support of Kurdish terror groups. Eventually, Erdogan gave in, allowing Sweden and Finland to join the 30-member block. Erdogan walks a fine line especially with the ongoing Ukraine War, seeking neutrality, when the vast majority of NATO members oppose Russia’s Ukraine invasion. Turkey operates militarily in many places around the Middle East, most recently squabbling with Greece over some neutral Aegean islands currently occupied by Greece.
Turkey maintains close ties with Moscow largely because they share security interests in the Middle East and beyond. Biden has turned Putin into an enemy, no longer cooperating on any common interests, leaving the U.S. government out on a limb. Biden chose Ukraine over Moscow, a counterproductive decision since Ukraine offers the U.S. little in the way of national security. “All our actions are aimed at helping the people who live in Donbas,” Putin said. “This is our duty and we will fulfill it to the end. This will ultimately strengthen our country from within, as well as its foreign policy positions,” Putin said. Erdogan tried to tell Biden and the West that they’ve barked up the wrong tree going against the Russian Federation. Because Putin has dug in Ukraine, it’s time for the EU and U.N. to get more involved in bringing the Ukraine War to an end, even if it means losses to Kiev.
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.
