Russian troops are in Russia. American troops are being positioned over 8,000 kilometers away from U.S. territory on Russia’s doorstep.
The United States, Britain, Germany, and other NATO powers this week urged Russia to “de-escalate” troops in its own territory. Meanwhile, the U.S.-led NATO military alliance amasses forces on Russia’s border, and the Ukrainian Kiev regime openly solicits NATO support in its aggression towards the ethnic Russian population in that country’s eastern Donbas region.
This is what you might call a classic “tail wagging the dog” situation in which reality is back to front. The reality is that Washington and its European allies are responsible for engendering a grave escalation in tensions by indulging the reckless authorities in Kiev. Calling on Moscow to de-escalate is akin to a trespassing burglar admonishing a householder to stop shining a light in his eyes and go back to bed.
In recent weeks the military forces under Kiev’s command have stepped up violations of a shaky ceasefire in the conflict with separatists in Eastern Ukraine (Donbas). The shelling of civilian centers has raised concern that the Kiev authorities are deliberately winding up tensions with Russia by placing the ethnic Russian population in Donbas in danger of an offensive. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his government have failed miserably to implement the 2015 Minsk peace accord which obligates Kiev to grant political autonomy to the Donbas region. The region objected to the NATO-backed coup d’état in 2014 which ousted an elected president and ushered in a new anti-Russia regime.
Kiev’s failure to implement Minsk and to end the seven-year civil war has been emboldened by the indulgence of the United States, the European Union, and NATO, all of which lend credence to the preposterous and cynical narrative that Ukraine is facing “Russian aggression”.
Washington under three administrations has plied billions of dollars worth of weaponry to the Kiev regime. NATO has repeatedly endorsed the future membership of Ukraine in the military alliance, a step that would pose a dramatic danger to Russia’s national security.
Russia has every right to mobilize military forces anywhere within its borders as a prerogative of its national defense. Moscow has consistently affirmed that it does not present a threat to any nation. Yet American media outlet CNN and others have fabricated reports which purport to show the Russian military preparing to invade Ukraine. This is while up to 30-40,000 NATO troops are currently conducting so-called “war games” along Russia’s entire western border from the Baltic down to the Black Sea. The inversion of reality assumes new heights of absurdity with Western leaders claiming they are “defending” Ukraine and other European countries from “Russian aggression”.
Russian troops are in Russia. American troops are being positioned over 8,000 kilometers away from U.S. territory on Russia’s doorstep.
This week, two U.S. guided-missile destroyers were assigned to enter the Black Sea through the Bosphorus Strait purportedly in “support” of Ukraine. The American vessels wisely turned back when the Russian Black Sea fleet launched a squadron of warships to meet them. The incident demonstrates how precarious relations have become between the two nuclear powers over mounting tensions in the Ukraine.
President Joe Biden’s administration this week announced a new round of harsh sanctions against Russia, including the expulsion of 10 diplomats from American soil, and measures that undermine Moscow’s ability to raise international monetary funds from the issuance of sovereign bonds. At least symbolically, the latest U.S. moves mark a more offensive ramping up of economic warfare. This is in the context of growing military tensions over Ukraine. The justifications for the new American assault, which the Kremlin decried as illegal and to which it will retaliate, are the usual tenuous claims by Washington: alleged Russian interference in elections, cyber-hacking, and “malign foreign conduct” with regard to the Ukraine.
Somewhat incongruously, Biden said he does not want to “escalate” hostilities with Russia. He referred to a phone conversation he initiated earlier this week with President Vladimir Putin, in which Biden invited his Russian counterpart to a face-to-face meeting to discuss a range of concerning matters. It remains to be seen if Moscow will take up Biden’s proposal for a one-on-one summit.
But, again patently, there is back-to-front logic going on here which is contemptible. The American side presumes to wield provocative and damaging sanctions against Russia’s vital interests, and yet the U.S. president asserts that the measures are “proportionate” and not aimed at “escalating” animosities.
The Americans and their allies are suffering from a serious disconnect, if not a complete divorce from reality. They are wielding sanctions and condemnations based on no evidence of Russian malign conduct. Election interference, cyber-attacks? Where’s the evidence? A figment of paranoid, anti-Russian imagination is not evidence.
Indulging and sponsoring an unhinged Kiev regime, whose febrile calculations are based on inciting war with Russia, is the most serious manifestation of Western cognitive dissonance. Is Biden and other Western leaders going to allow the tail to wag the dog? If they do, disaster is going to bite.
