The Verity Courier
Biden, Putin and Ukraine
By Ron Estes
10 December 2021
The Biden video call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on 7 December was remarkable for several reasons.
The
two heads of state talked for two hours, and in contrast to the Trump
Administration practice of keeping secret its contacts with Putin, the
Biden White House released the details of the conversation to the
American and international public.
The
main focus of their discussion was Ukraine. The international community
has watched with growing concern Russia massing over 100,000 military
forces on the Ukrainian border.
During
the conversation on Tuesday, President Biden warned Putin that the
United States is prepared to launch strong economic, and other measures,
against Russia should it invade Ukraine. Biden made clear to Putin that
the U.S. will not accept Putin’s demand that Ukraine be denied entrance
into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Putin demanded guarantees that NATO would not expand farther eastward.
A
week earlier, NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg told Putin,
“It’s only Ukraine and 30 NATO allies that decide when Ukraine is ready
to join NATO. … Russia has no veto, Russia has no say, and Russia has no
right to establish a sphere of influence trying to control their
neighbors.”
Since
2008, NATO has promised Ukraine full membership in NATO, and Ukraine
has been a NATO partner, but not a member. For example, Ukraine sent
troops to fight in NATO missions in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
Putin
declared that the Ukraine relationship with NATO is a threat to the
Russian western border, and insisted on developing concrete agreements
prohibiting any further eastward expansion of NATO. He demanded a
guarantee that Ukraine is “not going to be a member of NATO, a military
ally and partner of the United States, nor a base for weapons that can
strike Russia in minutes, or “we will go in and guarantee it ourselves,
and if NATO proceeds with arming Ukraine for conflict with Russia, we
reserve the right to act first. Finlandize Ukraine, or we will!”
When
the Warsaw Pact collapsed in 1991, and the USSR came apart, Russia
withdrew all of its military forces from Central and Eastern Europe.
Moscow believed it had an agreed-upon understanding with the Americans.
Under
the deal, the two Germanys would be reunited. Russian troops would be
removed from East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and
Romania. And there would be no NATO expansion into Eastern Europe.
If
America made that commitment, it was a promise broken. For, within 20
years, NATO had brought every Warsaw Pact nation into the alliance along
with the former Soviet republics of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
The
Biden, Putin dialogue established that Putin wanted to speak to the
real decider of the question whether Ukraine joins NATO or receives
weapons that can threaten Russia. And that decider is not the NATO
Secretary General, but President Biden.
A
U.S. war with Russia over Ukraine would be a disaster for all three
nations. And the U.S. cannot indefinitely guarantee the independence of a
country 5,000 miles away that shares not only a lengthy border with
Russia but also a history, language, religion, ethnicity and culture.
The U.S. is not going to war over Ukraine.
Most
Americans who are closely following the Biden, Putin confrontation with
concern, are overlooking one highly significant fact. Contrary to
President Trump relationship with Putin, the Biden Presidency has put
the U.S. Russian discourse on a different path.
President
Trump had five personal meetings with Putin and contrary to traditional
meetings between heads of state, Trump made certain that no record was
kept of any of those meetings. The U.S Intelligence Committee, having
exposed details of Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential
election in support of Trump, questioned with professional interest what
Trump was trying to hide. Coupled with the fact of a Trump foreign
policy that was characterized by many to be designed to serve Russian
national interests rather than those of the United States, the Biden
revelation of the details of his dialogue with Putin are all the more
dramatic.
During
the Trump presidency, it was said in Europe that one could stand
quietly on a street in Berlin and hear Putin applauding in Moscow.That
applause has come to an end.
Ron Estes served 25 years as an Operations Officer in the CIA Clandestine Service.
