It looks like “strategic stability” has replaced “reset” in U. S. President Joe Biden’s arsenal of buzzwords when it comes to the American relationship with Russia. It is doomed to failure, just as the “reset” of U. S. President Barack Obama’s administration went up in flames.
Why?
Vladimir Putin wants instability, not stability. He’s at war against the West and never hides his contempt for democracy.
After National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s May 24 meeting with Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev came this readout: “A wide range of issues of mutual interest were discussed with a high priority given to the topic of strategic stability. The sides expressed confidence that mutually acceptable solutions could be found in a number of areas. The sides agreed that normalization of U.S.-Russian relations would be in the interest of both countries and contribute to global predictability and stability.”
That was preceded by the May 19 statement after the meeting between U. S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in which Blinken “noted that the United States sought a more stable and predictable relationship with Moscow.”
All of that came before Biden’s explanation on May 26 that adopting sanctions to kill Nord Stream 2 would be “counterproductive” to US-German relations.
And yet another European appeasement leader, besides Germany’s Angela Merkel, is France’s Emmanuel Macron. He questioned the Western approach of sanctioning Russia. “I think that we are at a moment of truth in our relationship with Russia, which should lead us to rethink the … tension that we decide to put in place,” he said. When pressed, he came up a straw man argument. “What would you like us to do? Do we start an armed conflict? Do we completely cut off relations? Do we go further with sanctions — but where to?”
Ridiculous. The West adopted weak and poorly enforced sanctions. No wonder they failed. Now milquetoast Macron wants to throw in the towel on those feeble steps. So where does this leave Ukraine? On its own — and certainly not expecting much from the Biden-Putin summit on June 16 in Geneva.
More than seven years after Russia seized 7 percent of Ukrainian territory, the West continues to wimp out, exacerbating global insecurity as dictators realize they face no meaningful consequences for war crimes, murder, interference with Western elections and human rights abuses.
In Nord Stream 2, the pipeline delivering natural gas directly between Russia and Germany, Berlin is putting its commercial interests with Russia on top. The U. S. compounds the error by going along so as not to irritate Germany. Is it any wonder sanctions aren’t working when an $11 billion, 1,220-kilometer pipeline with the Kremlin can’t be stopped?
The U. S. touts its $3.7 billion in assistance to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s war in 2014. Big deal. It gives $4 billion a year in defense aid to Israel, whose economy has grown so much that it doesn’t need it. And the aid brings little clout. Israel evicts Palestinians from their homes to expand illegal Jewish settlements. Then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bombs Hamas into submission. And the U.S. helps pay on both ends — for the bombs and reconstructing destroyed Palestinian homes.
Yet in Ukraine, where right and wrong is clear, the West courts global disaster by doing too little to stop Russia or force Putin to reverse course. Until the West realizes that the dictators in Russia, Belarus and elsewhere are enemies of global security, expect more wars and attacks on the West, all under the cloak of disinformation and emboldened by the Western wimps in power today who put commerce ahead of democratic principles.
