Putin Embarrasses Biden After White House’s ‘Summit’ Announcement – Opinion

Late Sunday night, the White Home, by way of Press Secretary Jen Psaki, introduced {that a} “summit” between Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden had been agreed to in “precept.” That adopted the identical declare being made by French President Emmanual Marcon, who’s presently on the Munich Safety Convention. The framing was of Biden accepting an invite, making it appear as if Putin had requested for the sitdown.

This per The Hill.

White Home press secretary Jen Psaki on Sunday night mentioned Biden “accepted in precept” a gathering with Putin “if an invasion hasn’t occurred.” She mentioned the assembly would happen after Blinken and Lavrov’s assembly.

Psaki pressured that the U.S. is “all the time prepared for diplomacy,” whereas “additionally able to swift and extreme penalties ought to Russia as a substitute select warfare.”

Sadly, this seems to be one other case of the administration getting out over its skis with out exercising any forethought. Simply hours later, the Russians poured chilly water on the thought, noting that nothing has been agreed to. Additional, Russian International Minister Sergey Lavrov laid out the odd situation of needing to know the way any attainable assembly would finish.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov instructed reporters that whereas Biden and Putin can schedule a cellphone name or assembly at any time, there have been no particular plans for a summit, based on Reuters.

Peskov’s feedback got here the day after Macron introduced in a press release that Biden and Putin “accepted the precept” of a summit discussing “safety and strategic stability in Europe,” as tensions develop amid studies of a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Putin calls for to know the way assembly with Biden will finish (what the end result shall be) earlier than agreeing to it: Lavrov.

— Jennifer Griffin (@JenGriffinFNC) February 21, 2022

As with a lot of what the White Home has mentioned over the past month, I’m left questioning precisely what the technique is right here. Why announce that Biden has agreed to a summit if the Russians themselves haven’t agreed to a summit? Sometimes, you’d need the US president to all the time seem in management, however this sends the other message, as soon as once more inserting the Russians within the place of dictating phrases. For his half, Putin was more than pleased to grab on this second to embarrass Biden.

This newest episode is only a continuation of the inane strikes the White Home has been making for the final month. We’re to the purpose the place the administration appears to care extra about getting credit score for “calling” a Russian invasion occurring than really stopping the Russian invasion. As an alternative of getting a tactically sound messaging technique, the White Home continues to only spew out info with no care in any respect for whether or not it makes issues higher or worse.

I suppose the considering with preemptively giving credence to a summit was to attempt to stall the Russians one other week or so, nevertheless it’s clear that Putin will not be making his selections primarily based on something the Western powers are saying. In reality, a report yesterday from NBC Information claims the order to invade has already been given.

US official and one other particular person with data of the matter inform @NBCNews current intelligence reveals Russian navy officers have been given an order to go forward with an invasion. @JoshNBCNews @ckubeNBC

— Richard Engel (@RichardEngel) February 20, 2022

If that’s true, and that’s a giant if, it comes throughout as terribly weak for the administration to be speaking a few summit. In any case, we’ve seen how properly previous conferences between Biden and Putin have gone for NATO and america. It smacks of desperation, and this isn’t the time to look determined. The Russians aren’t going to again down with out extracting concessions, and the extra the White Home flails, the extra possible that these concessions shall be extremely damaging.