NATO and the US are currently involved in a highly charged situation with Russia. NATO has placed a high priority on ensuring Ukraine is able to maintain its independence and has made it clear that Russia has not provoked an invasion of smaller countries. NATO’s decision has increased Russia’s costs in the form of equipment and money as well as dead and disabled Russians. One of the side effects of Russia’s war of choice spinning out of control is that Putin is making something of a hobby of threatening to use nuclear weapons (Putin’s Spokesman Won’t Rule out Using Nukes if Russia’s Existence Is Threatened; NATO Warns China About ‘Blatant Lies,’ Tells Russia to Knock off the ‘Nuclear Saber-Rattling’; Opinion: US and NATO Should Demand Russia Dismantle Tactical Nuke Arsenal in Order to Lift Sanctions). Given Putin’s megalomania and recent erratic behavior, it is only good business for the US defense to have regular contacts with their opposite numbers to ensure that unforeseen events don’t cascade into a nuclear exchange. Indeed, in the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis, a hotline, the so-called “red phone,” was established between Washington and Moscow to prevent miscalculations leading to war.
The Russians seem to have deliberately abandoned this system.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have tried to set up phone calls with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Gen. Valery Gerasimov but the Russians “have so far declined to engage,” said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby in a statement Wednesday.
Austin and Milley attempted to call each other, something that has never been reported before, as Russia is conducting operations close to NATO member Poland’s borders. Meanwhile, the United States and its European Allies are carrying out air-policing over the Baltic Sea, and pouring weapons and equipment into Ukraine via ground transport.
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It remains unclear why Russia’s top generals have refused to hold calls with their U.S. counterparts.
“I suspect that the problem lies with the Russian insistence that this is a ‘special military operation’ and unwillingness to admit the real nature of the war,” said Angela Stent, a Russia scholar at Georgetown University who served as a senior intelligence officer in the Bush administration.
The generals may also be waiting on Putin’s approval to make the calls, given the high stakes of the conflict, and he may not be signing off, Charap said.
Strange and unethical is the refusal by the Russians not to continue liaison with the United States during wartime. Russia is moving closer to Poland’s border with strikes. The Russian troops are conducting troop maneuvers close to the Romanian border. It isn’t hard to see how a local incident could mushroom into something much more significant.
You may wonder, what is the cause? The article suggests that Putin may have forbidden the Russian military from making calls as a result. Another reason is equally plausible. White Rage Boy’s Russian counterparts are Sergei Shoigu (Defense Minister) and Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General staff. They have been missing since March 11. (Correlation, Causation?) The Ukraine Invasion Has Stalled and Putin’s Defense Minister and Chief of the General Staff Have Vanished). So we could very well be in a situation where the top defense and military leadership is in a state of flux and on one wants to take it upon themselves to answer a call from Austin or Milley because a) it would confirm a change in leadership that Putin probably won’t be in the mood to see in the Western press and b) you might make the wrong decision by picking up that phone and end up in a gulag.
No matter the reason, the lack of direct communications increases the risk of Russia’s war with Ukraine spreading, which is something that is not needed right now.
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