Today (7 December 2021) US President Biden will be having a a 'video call' with Putin amid critically mounting tensions over Ukraine.
As reported by BBC News,
"US President Joe Biden and Russia's Vladimir Putin will speak via video call on Tuesday, the White House says, amid mounting tensions over Ukraine.
It comes after Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US had evidence that Russia had made plans for a "large scale" attack on Ukraine.
....
On Friday, Mr Biden warned he would make it "very, very difficult" for Mr Putin to "go ahead and do what people are worried he may do" The US and its European allies have discussed imposing sanctions on Russia if it takes aggressive action." (BBC News : 5 December 2021) (my emphasis)
Now recall that in my blog entry of 15 July, 2021, I wrote that,
"Putin's preparation for 'war with Ukraine' is all that he now has left in his political toolbox."
I also reported that,
"
As Anders Åslund (left) observes,"Russian President Vladimir Putin is obsessed with Ukraine – or, rather, with pretending that Ukraine doesn’t exist.
In his annual call-in show on June 30, he claimed that “Ukrainians and
Russians are a single people.” He then published an article aimed at
justifying that “conviction,” by tracing the two countries’ shared
history. It is a masterclass in disinformation – and one step short of a declaration of war." (Project Syndicate : 14 July 2021) (my emphasis)
Putin is about to take a fateful step by readying the Russian army to invade Ukraine and, in so doing, dragging the EU into finally make a choice between protecting the territorial sovereignty of Ukraine and preventing a bloodbath on European soil OR simply sitting on the sidelines wringing their hands in anguish.
US President Biden is stepping up to the plate by warning Putin of the economic cost to Russia if he DARE invade Ukraine.
One is somewhat reminded of Hitler's invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1939, AFTER the German annexation of the Sudetenland in 1938.
As Hitler stated in 1938,
"I am asking neither that Germany be allowed to oppress three and a half million Frenchmen, nor am I asking that three and a half million Englishmen be placed at our mercy. Rather I am simply demanding that the oppression of three and a half million Germans in Czechoslovakia cease and that the inalienable right to self-determination take its place.
— Adolf Hitler's speech at the NSDAP Congress 1938" (Wikipedia)
Rather rings a bell when considering Putin's justifications regarding his war with Ukraine in the Donbass, and his illegal invasion of, and annexation of, Ukraine's Crimea into the Russian federation.
Yet for SEVEN YEARS, since 2014, powerful member states in the EU have constantly walked the line of appeasement with Putin as he ramped up his proxy war with Ukraine.
Now, as Angela Merkel packs up her belongings in the Office of the Chancellor of Germany to make way for the new German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, his pick for the new Foreign Minister of Germany, Annalena Baerbock, has long been an opponent of Nord Stream2.
As reported by Louis Westendarp,
"We can't allow ourselves to be blackmailed" by Russia, Baerbock said, adding that Moscow plays a "poker game" and is partly responsible for the high gas prices in Europe. "Gas deliveries have been driven down considerably", she said.
This is a situation "intentionally brought about" in order to "force the rapid commissioning of Nord Stream 2", Baerbock concluded." (Politico : 20 October 2021) (my emphasis)
Like Putin's "White Elephant" bridge between Russia and Crimea, the Nord Stream2 pipeline may prove to be yet another "White Elephant" of Putin's.
Provided, of course, that Annalena Baerbock can put a plug in Nord Stream2 in the face of the powerful German Industrial and Business lobby, who simply cannot wait to to fill their coffers with Russian Roubles.
Today's impending "video call" between US President Biden and Vladimir Putin will have far reaching global political repercussions.
Can Putin's "siloviki" reign him in from jumping into the abyss?
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