by Oui
Wed Dec 1st, 2021 at 08:48:11 PM EST
Earlier diary …
NATO's Battleground Ukraine v. Russia
Blinken and NATO: Let's Talk Russia and Ukraine
If the EU and Old Europe won't comply, the US Treasury has means to enforce our will.
After Decades of NATO Aggression ...
US warns Russia has plans for 'large scale' attack on Ukraine | The Guardian |
.... [Blinken] said he had found solidarity among his fellow Nato ministers in the Latvian capital, Riga ...
The secretary of state stopped well short of saying the US or the alliance would intervene militarily. "Should Russia follow the path of confrontation, when it comes to Ukraine, we've made clear that we will respond resolutely, including with a range of high impact economic measures that we have refrained from pursuing in the past."
He did not specify the nature of those measures, but most observers believe that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, intended to bring Russian gas to Europe, could be cancelled if there is another invasion. The new German coalition government is already sceptical about the scheme.
Blinken said the US would spell out the consequences to Russia's leaders "at the appropriate time". His remarks represent the strongest warning from the Biden administration so far, and were delivered a day before Blinken is due to meet his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Stockholm under increasingly tense circumstances.
Under leadership of VP Joe Biden and friend John McCain in support of the Maidan regime overthrow, President Biden is now ready to put deeds to complement threats. Implementing McCain's staunch anti-Russian policy ...
McCain mocks Biden: 'Or else what?' | Politico - April 22, 2014 |
Sen. John McCain was unimpressed with Vice President Joe Biden's comments in Ukraine on Tuesday and the Arizona Republican suggested that the Obama administration was not backing up its tough talk against Russia.
The Senate Armed Services Committee member has been a frequent critic of the Obama administration on many foreign policy issues, including Ukraine and Syria. McCain said the administration needs to show greater support for Ukraine and back up its rhetoric. He also urged the White House to "tell the American people why it's important that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's aggression not continue."
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After watching clips of Biden's speech, McCain responded: "Well, when he said it's time to act and not have rhetoric, why don't we act? Why don't we sanction some more people? Why don't we say that we've got a plan to give them energy independence? Why don't we give them defensive weapons so they can defend themselves?"
The Arizona Republican did say that the additional $50 million in aid to Ukraine offered by the Obama administration is "helpful," but said the Ukrainians "have had their country dismembered. Crimea is gone."
"The West should respect the red lines of Russia" - OpEd Jaap De Hoop Scheffer, former SG NATO
NATO Arms Sales to Ukraine: the Spark That Starts a War with Russia? | CATO Institute |
Western leaders are pursuing a reckless strategy that is generating increasingly pointed warnings from Kremlin officials. On two occasions since early April, Russia also has made ominous military deployments near its border with Ukraine. Shortly before the earlier episode, the Biden administration had announced a new $125 million arms sale to Ukraine. Although the transaction was put on hold temporarily in June, $60 million of that package was delivered during U.S. secretary of defense Lloyd Austin's visit to Kiev in late October.
The United States is not the only NATO member that has made destabilizing arms sales to Ukraine. Turkey is equipping the Ukrainian military with drones, and in late October, Kiev's forces launched a drone attack that destroyed rebel artillery batteries in the Donbas. Moscow issued strong protests about the escalation to both Ukraine and Turkey. A new deployment of Russian forces near the Ukrainian border also followed, and U.S. secretary of state Antony Blinken expressed concern that Russia might execute a "rehash" of its 2014 military offensive when Vladimir Putin's government seized Crimea and then provided military support for secessionists in eastern Ukraine.
Putin warns West: Moscow has 'red line' about Ukraine, NATO | AP News - Nov. 30, 2021 |
Atlantic Council - Former US Amb to NATO Ivo Daalder: "It's our intent to make Russia a pariah state." (2013)
NATO Aggression Europe's Eastern Border
Russia will act if Nato countries cross Ukraine ’red lines', Putin says | The Guardian |
In his most expansive comments on the crisis yet, the Russian president on Tuesday complained of Nato's historical expansion to Russia's borders and warned that substantial Nato military support for Ukraine would cross a "red line" for Russia.
"You asked about Ukraine, where are these red lines?" he said in televised remarks during an investment conference. "They are above all in the creation of threats to us which could come from [Ukraine]."
In particular, he warned against the stationing in Ukraine of missile defence systems similar to those in Romania and Poland. Putin claimed they could serve as cover to deploy offensive weapons such as Tomahawk missiles capable of reaching Moscow in minutes.
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Since 2017, Nato has deployed four international battalion groups to Poland and to the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, in order to deter Russia from launching an attack.
The UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss, met British soldiers stationed in Estonia. She called the country, which borders Russia, the "frontier of freedom".
"Britain stands with our @NATO allies to defend liberty and democracy and counter malign threats," she wrote in a tweet.
