Feb. 24—Vladimir Putin’s ambitions of reconstructing the defunct Soviet Union have deafened him to repeated warnings from President Joe Biden. Putin’s contempt for the Western alliance, perhaps nurtured by the contempt displayed by former President Donald Trump for those alliances, has made him overconfident.
And so now, after weeks of military buildup and diplomatic appeals, after weeks of ultimatums and intelligence releases, the crisis in Ukraine is coming to a head.
Biden has been as open and transparent as possible, regularly releasing U.S. intelligence on the Russian buildup on the Ukrainian border. The United States and NATO will support Kyiv in every possible way except sending their own militaries into action to resist the Russians.
“That’s a world war when Americans and Russia start shooting at one another,” Biden said earlier this month.
With a military response off the table — unless Putin should attack a NATO member — Biden’s chief stick to use on Moscow is economic. While there are those who think he has been too slow to wield that stick, he wisely kept his response to Putin’s provocations measured and restrained.
Doing so has helped keep NATO’s often fractious members on the same page.
It was noteworthy Tuesday that Germany halted the permitting process for the the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline, which is complete but not yet in use. The United States had opposed the Russia-to-Germany pipeline, but Biden agreed not to sanction its German operator in return for Berlin’s pledge to take action against Russia if it used gas as a weapon or attacks Ukraine. That pledge was met Tuesday.
As Putin steps up his assault on Ukraine’s sovereignty, Biden and our allies can, and will, step up a responsive assault on Russia’s economy. In the end, a firm and united western alliance will prevail, as it did in the decades-long Cold War.
Would that such unity and firmness of purpose were evident in this country. On Tuesday Biden’s predecessor in the Oval Office gave a radio interview in which he repeatedly called Putin a “genius” and suggested that the United States should do unto Mexico as Russia is doing to Ukraine.
Such Trump acolytes as Mike Pompeo (former secretary of state) and Tucker Carlson of Fox News are competing hard to outdo Trump in kowtowing to Putin.
There is room to critique Biden’s moves to counter Putin’s threat; there should be no political tolerance for encouraging Putin, a la Trump, Pompeo, Carlson and some (but hardly all) other Republicans.
