“The Moment Is More Dangerous Than Most Americans Realize”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (left) and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Stockholm on Thursday
What: Reuters
There are more than 100,000 Russian troops at the border with Ukraine, and there are fears in Kiev that history will repeat itself. What will be the reaction of the West to the Russian invasion? NATO is only partially ready to defend itself and now Russia is putting the US under pressure.
vRobert Menendez, chairman of the US Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, spoke of a “direct Russian aggression”. He called on the EU and NATO to support Ukraine in its arms fight against Russia. “We have to give Ukraine a chance to defend itself,” Menendez said.
This was after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and while Moscow destabilized eastern Ukraine with pro-Russian separatists. Seven years later, Russian troops marched to the border with Ukraine. Ukraine speaks of 115,000 soldiers. Russia accused Ukraine of deploying more than 120,000 troops along the line in pro-Russian separatist areas.
Is history repeating itself? Did the President of Russia dare to take the last step? Is Vladimir Putin preparing to invade Ukraine?
The Kremlin captured the partially prepared Western Coalition for defense. Germany awaits the new government, Presidential elections are underway in France.
Above all, however, there is a reluctance towards foreign policy in the United States, with interventionists on both sides retreating. Senator Menendez still heads the foreign affairs committee. So far, it has not called for arms to be delivered to Ukraine.
Biden can’t afford to be humiliated
Politically battered President Joe Biden is under immense pressure. Biden can’t afford to be humiliated by Putin. Even his own men put pressure on Biden. In the event of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, Menendez fights for a full range of sanctions, for example against high government officials and the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. With a heavy heart, Biden actually gave the green light to the project over the summer.
The US president is suffering from poor polling numbers. The midterm elections in 2022 could be a disaster for his party, beginning the end of his presidency. Republicans accused Biden of being too soft when dealing with Putin, despite the fact that Donald Trump hugged Putin. Biden’s critics are now asking what the summit between Biden and Putin in June brought about.
Now there should be another meeting between Biden and Putin, or at least that’s what Moscow proposes. If, when and in what format? not clear. Biden is in a dilemma. On the one hand, he wants to support Ukraine as much as possible and limit Russia’s aggressive ambitions. Ukraine, on the other hand, is not a member state of NATO, so it does not fall under the aid obligation under Article 5.
Biden, a foreign policy realist, knows that the majority and the conditions for medium-term NATO membership are not in sight. On the other hand, he should make it clear to Putin that it is not Russia that decides on Ukraine’s membership of NATO, but: Ukraine and NATO.
Meanwhile, many Americans are convinced that America has no business outside its borders. Foreign policy hawks have no effect. depressed posture Conservative “Wall Street Journal” From the point of view of the conflict on the Ukrainian-Russian border: “This moment is more dangerous than most Americans realize.”
The fact that Russia is now asking the United States to negotiate about Ukraine is putting Washington under pressure. “Our American allies haven’t said just once that they want to help,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in a meeting with his American colleague Antony Blinken in Stockholm on Thursday.
The US largely left operational responsibility for Berlin and Paris to Ukraine. In the so-called Normandy format, only France and Germany have so far mediated between Ukraine and Russia.
Lavrov called on NATO again on Thursday to end NATO’s eastward expansion. Old Fox Lavrov also knows that such membership of Ukraine is currently among political stars. Robert Menendez himself denied sending US and NATO troops to Ukraine in 2014.
