Biden Called Putin, but Now There Are Big Questions About Threat and Ukraine Wants Answers – Opinion

Joe Biden seems to think he wants war with Russia and Ukraine. He keeps raising the question so frequently despite Ukrainians trying downplaying the urgency of the threat. The Administration asked Americans to abandon Ukraine, as we reported previously.

Biden spoke with Vladimir Putin on Saturday. That always has to be a concern when Biden is let loose because he’s already said things that have gummed up the works and made things worse on the matter. He seemed to give Putin a pass, if Russia just committed a “minor incursion” of Ukraine.

Now, it’s hard to know at this point precisely what he talked about because the White House isn’t going to tell us of the gaffes; we’re just going to have to hear about it in time.

But the readout of the call doesn’t exactly scream like the strongest thing, nor did it show that the call achieved anything at all beyond Biden being able to say that he made it.

It isn’t exactly shaking Putin:

READOUT: In phone call, Biden warned Putin of “swift and severe costs” if Russia invades Ukraine and said that the US seeks diplomacy but is “equally prepared for other scenarios” pic.twitter.com/ApqKtVIPBX

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) February 12, 2022

Readout of President Biden’s Call with President Vladimir Putin of Russia

President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. spoke today with President Vladimir Putin of Russia about Russia’s escalating military buildup on the borders of Ukraine. Biden stated that the United States, together with allies and partners, would respond quickly and severely to any Russian attempt at an invasion of Ukraine. President Biden reiterated that a further Russian invasion of Ukraine would produce widespread human suffering and diminish Russia’s standing. With President Putin, President Biden made it clear that the United States is ready to engage diplomatically in complete coordination with its Allies and Partners, but we also have other options.

Does he think Putin is going to be deterred because he, Biden, says there might be “suffering,” or it might “diminish Russia’s standing”? Putin doesn’t give a darn if Biden says mean words to him. What he is seeing is that Biden hasn’t been willing to up the sanctions now, BeforeTo stop his bad behaviour, an invasion. Biden will just wait and react.

Even the execrable Natasha Bertrand of CNN couldn’t find that this achieved anything.

Biden’s call w/Putin this a.m. was “substantive” but “there was no fundamental change in the dynamic that has been unfolding now for several weeks,” per official
According to an official, Russia could decide to carry out military action. That is an conceivable possibility.

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) February 12, 2022

All this chaos does one more: It shows again what Russia is afraid. They didn’t take precipitous actions like this when President Donald Trump was in command. They are here because of Joe Biden.

This is absurd. Vindman once said that Putin was aggressive, because Trump was his puppet and we needed Biden for deterrence. But the reverse happened. Putin patiently waited for Biden to become the president. Absolute empirical refutation on Trump Derangement Syndrome. https://t.co/bw7iqVLq08

— Max Abrahms (@MaxAbrahms) February 11, 2022

Trump himself also points to why Russia has become emboldened: because they’ve seen the incompetent Biden in action. Thanks, Democrats!

Fox News

Trump says the blame for the situation belongs to the Biden administration and tied it to the August withdrawal from Afghanistan – claiming that both China and Russia were watching closely.

“How we got here is when they watched Afghanistan, and they watched the most incompetent withdrawal in the history of probably any army let alone just us, and President Xi [Jinping] and President Putin – watch what happens with China very soon with Taiwan – and they watched that, and they said: ‘What’s going on? They don’t know what they’re doing.’ And all of a sudden I think they got a lot more ambitious.” [….]

“I think Putin really wanted to negotiate for a period of time, but when he watched Afghanistan when he watched that unbelievably bad withdrawal, incompetent, where they took the Military out first, where they left $85 billion worth of equipment behind for the Taliban to have and to use and of course the deaths that happened – when they watched all of that I think they got emboldened.” […]

“This is just an exercise, he’s not going to tell him anything and I don’t think at this point Putin’s at this point going to be listening,” he said.

That’s pretty accurate analysis, along with seeing how Barack Obama folded like a cheap suit in 2014, and knowing that Biden was his VP. We wouldn’t be seeing this if Trump were there.

But, pulling out these folks doesn’t sound very smart.

A warning sign that a falsified flag operation is underway. https://t.co/MwpG5wvNrC

— Leonid Ragozin (@leonidragozin) February 12, 2022

Meanwhile, it’s gotten to where Biden has no credibility even with the Ukrainians. They are demanding to see the evidence that he claims to have about the invasion because they’re not seeing the same things.

This message spooked Ukraine’s government and they demanded intelligence from Russia that Russia was planning an invasion on Wednesday.

Diplomatic sources told DailyMail.com it was part of a strategy designed to deny Moscow any attempt to launch a ‘false flag’ operation as justification for attacking Ukraine.

Are they pretending that the claim of imminent danger is a ruse to ward off Putin? That would be an incredibly bad move by Biden — and no wonder the Ukrainians would be upset.