Russian President Vladimir Putin is giving President Joe Biden his first massive test of foreign crisis, and it is a nuisance to see it.
Russia is on the brink of open warfare against Ukraine, a nation that has been torturing mainly through representatives, at a cost of 14,000 lives so far, since it seized Crimea in 2014. Moscow has been adding troops to the zone; it now has 40,000 troops in Crimea and 40,000 more elsewhere on the border. This accounts for more than 10 percent of all Russian military force.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken notes that it is “the largest concentration of Russian forces on Ukraine’s borders since 2014. This is a deep concern not only for Ukraine, but for the United States.”
Biden’s answer? Send warships, only to call them back after Russia hinted that it would steer them. He also called on Putin on Tuesday to call for a summit in person (which the tyrant declined) and to give the “unwavering commitment of the United States to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.”
But a tough conversation similar to the Obama years did not save Crimea nor the subsequent U.S. sanctions on Russia. However, Biden is now imposing new sanctions in the hope that they will work this time around.
Now administration officials are talking about how they don’t want the crisis to turn “out of control,” which is music to Putin’s ears.
The Russian president for life (he just signed a law that leaves him in power until 2036, when he is 84), will not be deterred by anything except for really credible threats. President Barack Obama was unable to achieve this. Will Biden do it better?