Biden Escalating Decline
Biden Escalating Decline
Biden has proven that his Ukrainian strategy, or lack thereof, only leads to an escalation of conflict, Putin-Orban discussed possible security architecture in Europe, Orban said "Europe needs peace".
Biden Escalating Decline
The American Conservative: “Biden has proven that his Ukrainian strategy, or lack thereof, only leads to an escalation of conflict”
Numerous experts and politicians fear that the decision might escalate the conflict and be counterproductive to U.S. interests. Following reports that the Biden administration is seeking to allow U.S. military contractors to deploy to Ukraine, ostensibly for the purpose of servicing American-made equipment, backlash has been brewing among foreign policy realists, both politicians and experts.
Will Ruger, the President of the American Institute of Economic Research and Trump nominee for ambassador to Afghanistan in 2020, highlighted the dangerous position that American contractors might be placed in by this policy change.
“The idea of having American contractors in harm’s way would create the possibility of inadvertent or intentional targeting that results in casualties to our countrymen; such casualties could put pressure on the administration to sink deeper into the war,” Ruger told The American Conservative.
Zachary Paikan, the Deputy Director of the Better Order Project at the Quincy Institute, who has written about the risks of such the proposed policy in the past, told TAC that the Biden administration’s move will not necessarily change Moscow’s perception of U.S. involvement in Ukraine. Rather, it will reinforce the dominant perception in Moscow which views “this war not as a Russo-Ukrainian conflict but as a direct conflict with NATO occurring on Ukrainian soil.”
Paikan added that the “degree of Western involvement and risk-taking has increased throughout the conflict.”
“Russia has been careful to calibrate its responses so far,” he cautioned. “Just because we haven’t seen substantial horizontal [geographical] or vertical [intensity of the conflict] escalation so far doesn’t mean we can extrapolate this trend indefinitely into the future.”
Elaborating on the risks of escalation from either this policy or another, Paikan said, “At some point, a genuine red line may be crossed, even if inadvertently. I don’t think we’re quite there yet, but it’s better to err on the side of caution — I don’t think this war can go on indefinitely at the current threshold of violence and restricted to the current geographic scope.”
Joe Kent, a Republican candidate for Washington’s competitive Third Congressional District, zeroed in on the issue. “The Biden administration publicly considering deploying U.S. contractors to Ukraine is escalatory and reckless,” Kent told TAC. “The introduction of ‘contractors’ and/or ‘advisors’ is how Vietnam and other disasters have begun.”
Kent added that “regardless of what parameters are put on U.S. contractors they would rightly be viewed as combatants by Russia, putting Americans in direct combat with Russia,” which “would be war” between Russia and America.
Kent also connected the issue of escalation in Ukraine and the potential for nuclear war to the political stakes of the November election. “Only one political faction and only one leader is talking about ending global conflict and nuclear war, and that is President Trump,” he argued. “Biden has proven that his strategy, or lack thereof, only leads to an escalation of conflict.”
Read more here.
New Eurasian Security Architecture
Putin said he had discussed possible security architecture in Europe with Orban
We can see that Kiev is not ready to give up waging war until the end, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a statement to the press after holding talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (photo), Sputnik informs.
"The way we see the situation, including what the prime minister said today, Kiev is still not ready to give up waging the war until the ‘victorious’ end," the president told the press.
Putin added that implementing Russia’s peace initiatives would allow the cessation of hostilities and the start of the negotiation process.
Ukraine does not allow the idea of a ceasefire because it would remove the pretext for extending martial law, Putin emphasized.
"Our [Russia's] peace initiatives have been recently presented at my meeting with the leadership of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. We believe that its implementation would make it possible to cease the hostilities and start negotiations," he noted.
Russia stands for completely ending the conflict in Ukraine, and not for a ceasefire or a pause so the Kiev regime can rearm itself, Putin emphasized.
"It should not just be a truce or a temporary cease-fire, not some kind of pause that the Kiev regime could use to recover losses, regroup and rearm itself. Russia stands for a full and final end to the conflict," he said.
According to Putin, Kiev is rejecting the ceasefire proposals because they will lose the pretext for extending the martial law. Ukraine will have to hold a presidential election in the absence of the martial law, and the current rulers will have a low chance for reelection, Putin said.
If Ukraine ends martial law, it will have to hold presidential elections, Putin noted. The chances of the current Ukrainian authorities winning are close to zero, according to the Russian president.
The Russian president shared that he had discussed possible ways to resolve the Ukrainian conflict with Prime Minister Orban and that Orban had told him about the details of his recent visit to Kiev.
"There was certainly a fairly direct and thorough exchange of views on relevant international issues, including the Ukrainian conflict, and we talked about possible ways to resolve it ... Mr. Prime Minister spoke about his recent meetings in Kiev, where he had made a number of proposals and, in particular, a call for a ceasefire to create conditions for the start of negotiations with Russia," Putin told the briefing.
Russia sees Ukraine's unwillingness to resolve problems through negotiations, the Russian president added.
"Ukraine's sponsors continue to try to use this country and its people as a ‘battering ram,’ a victim of confrontation with Russia," Putin said.
Viktor Orban said he held talks with Putin at a time when Europe needs peace.
Viktor Orban said that he will continue working with Russia and Ukraine on achieving peace, adding that their positions are too far from each other.
"I was in Kiev, now I am in Moscow. I realized from experience that the positions [of the two sides] are very far from each other. There are a lot of steps to be taken in order to get closer to the end of the war. But we have made the most important step — we have established contact, and I will continue to work in this direction," he said after his meeting with Vladimir Putin, adding that the conversation was open and honest.
Orban also said that he held a meeting with Putin in the moment when "Europe needs peace."
"Peace will not come on its own, you have to work for it. I was just discussing ways to achieve peace with Putin today. I wanted to know what is the shortest way to end the war. I wanted to hear and heard the president’s [Putin] views on three important issues: what he thinks about the peace initiatives that are currently in place, what he also thinks about the ceasefire and the peace talks, in what sequence they can be conducted… And the third thing I was interested in was the vision of Europe after the war," Orban noted.
The conflict in Ukraine has started "to have an impact" on Europe’s economy, the Hungarian prime minister added.
President Putin said he had discussed possible security architecture in Europe with Orban.
"We also talked about possible principles of the future — possible too — security architecture in Europe," Putin told the briefing.
The two leaders also exchanged views on the state of affairs in relations between Russia and the European Union, "which are currently at their lowest point," the Russian president added.
Moscow appreciates Orban's visit and views it as an attempt to restore the dialogue between Russia and the EU and give it an additional momentum, Putin said.
Read more here.