After a Ukrainian counter-offensive in the eastern Kharkiv region this month pushed Russian forces back to their own border, Putin responded with new provocations designed to force the West to the bargaining table, since his exceptionally brutal yet inept application of military force failed to do so. Which, of course, is exactly what Putin wants Trump to say. On Wednesday, in a post on Truth Social, his Orwellian-named social-media platform, he insisted, “get a negotiated deal done NOW.” The ex-President-who during his time in office did so much to weaken NATO and undermine American allies while also praising Putin-even offered himself up as a mediator. intelligence agencies should be considered “guilty until proven innocent”-an appalling smear gleefully parroted on Russian state TV. Charlie Kirk, one of the most outrageous of the junior Trumpists, speculated that it was “a potential midterm-election operation” and that U.S. The other night, Carlson, citing no evidence, blamed the United States for somehow playing a role in attacks on the Nord Stream gas pipelines. How could Biden, or the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, or anyone else who believes in international order agree to that?Īnd yet Donald Trump and the growing faction of pro-Putin cheerleaders in the conservative media-Tucker Carlson, I’m thinking of you-are demanding still more concessions to Russia in response to Putin’s escalating threats. On Friday, Putin plans to affirm the results of what the Biden Administration has sternly termed “sham ‘referenda’ ” as a pretext to declare Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine part of the Russian state. It’s far from clear how Washington will be able to continue to pursue both goals simultaneously, given that Putin is holding Ukraine-and the rest of the world-hostage to his demands. But as Russian forces have experienced U.S.-aided battlefield setbacks in recent days, Putin has reacted by ratcheting up the pressure. Throughout seven awful months of war in Ukraine, President Joe Biden has held to a steadfast line when it comes to the Russian invasion: his goal is to help Ukraine win while also insuring that victory does not trigger a Third World War. After endless speculation, we can now say it for sure: this is how Vladimir Putin responds when he is backed into a corner. Nuclear blackmail, illegal annexation of territory, hundreds of thousands of Russian men rounded up and sent to the front lines in Ukraine, undersea gas pipelines to Europe mysteriously blowing up. This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
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