After meeting with his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts, President Macron expressed optimism regarding the possibilities of a peaceful resolution to the current crisis: Putin assured him that he would do “everything to find compromises that can satisfy everyone”.
Putin’s spokesman, Dimitri Peskov, thought it necessary to clarify that the two men had not agreed on any de-escalation agreement, hinting that such an agreement might only be negotiated with Joe Biden.
Putin clearly wants to sit down to a table with him. Like Washington’s allies, he does not understand very well the maximalist, sometimes incoherent maneuvers of the Americans in this chess game.
An “imminent” invasion waiting to happen
Since November, American officials have been crying wolf: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is imminent, a matter of days, even hours.
The Americans claimed that the Russian invasion might cause between 25,000 and 50,000 civilian casualties and up to 25,000 Ukrainian soldiers killed. The State Department advised American diplomats and civilians to leave Ukraine before the start of hostilities. Canada has done the same.
Just last Sunday, the White House national security adviser warned: “From one day to the next, Russia might take military action once morest Ukraine… ». Washington’s allies, even the Ukrainians, are scrambling to tone down the Biden administration’s remarks. The Ukrainian foreign Minister said he did not believe the AMERICAN “apocalyptic predictions”.
Ukrainian President Zelenskiy criticized the United States for hurting his country’s economy by unduly stoking panic, saying: “This is not the Titanic here”. And one of his advisers believes that a diplomatic solution to tensions with Russia is more likely than a military conflict. The head of the German secret service said the same thing as the Ukrainians: “I believe that the decision to attack has not yet been made”.
After clamoring that the invasion was imminent, U.S. officials now say Moscow has mustered only 70 percent of the military force needed for a full-scale invasion. So the impending invasion was pure bullshit?
- Listen to Normand Lester’s column at Mario Dumont’s microphone on QUB Radio:
Bullying: it’s cheap, it pays well
Why did the US administration feel the need to panic the whole planet regarding the invasion of Ukraine? Could it be to divert attention from Biden’s domestic policy problems and his growing unpopularity in the polls: to show that he is able to stand up to Putin?
In recent decades, the United States has repeatedly invaded countries to impose its political will on them. With many more catastrophic failures than successes. Others, more savvy, use threats of invasion to get opponents to accede, at least in part, to their requests. Bullying is a great instrument of foreign policy. In general, it pays well and it costs much less than a war. We’ll see if that’s true for Putin in this case.
