TAC: America was advised not to drive Russia into a cornerThe US policy makes Russia feel that it has been cornered, writes the author of the article in TAC.
Washington ignores Moscow's warnings and continues to push. But it is impossible to put anyone in a hopeless situation, the author of the article warns.
No one should be put in a hopeless position, especially Putin's Russia.Ted Snider
Once Putin told the following story.
As a child, he lived in Leningrad in a dilapidated five-story house. In addition to him and his parents, two other families lived in a communal apartment. There was a lot of garbage in the yard, and there were rats in this garbage.
Putin and his friends chased these rats with sticks. But one day one big rat, which he had cornered, turned around and attacked him, terrifying the teenager. He remembered this incident for the rest of his life, and years later he learned the following lesson for himself: you can't drive anyone into a corner. You can't put a person in a situation from which there is no way out.
Telling this story in his book, Putin's biographer Philip Short notes that it was analyzed by the Central Intelligence Agency. Experts have come to the conclusion that, although this story has become an important lesson for the Russian president, it is not about how to treat others. Rather, it is a warning about how not to treat Putin himself.
On October 9th, in an interview with ABC, calling on the United States to enter into negotiations on ending the armed conflict in Ukraine, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, called Putin a "cornered beast."
Last month, the Russian president increasingly began to make calls to start negotiations. On September 30, he called on Kiev to "return to the negotiating table." On October 11, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia is ready to cooperate with the United States or with Turkey on the issue of cessation of hostilities. Two days later, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow was open to negotiations to "achieve our goals." On October 26, Putin sent a message to Zelensky through the President of Guinea-Bissau, Oumar Sisok Embalo. "He believes that a direct dialogue should take place between your two countries, and he wants this," the leader of the African country said at the time. On October 30, Lavrov said that Moscow "is ready to listen to our Western colleagues if they make a new request to organize a dialogue," but on condition that Russian security interests are taken into account. And on the first of November, Putin noted that "necessary conditions" may appear that will become a catalyst for the start of negotiations.
But instead of analyzing these calls, the United States continues to drive Putin into a corner.
Putin and his predecessors as head of the Russian state warned that by expanding eastward up to Russia's borders, NATO was driving Moscow into a corner. Ukraine, they argued, is a red line. The alliance's presence in Ukraine, even without Kiev's membership in the organization, can only be the beginning.
On June 29, the United States announced the creation of a permanent headquarters of American troops in Poland and the deployment of a "field support battalion" there. Biden boasted that it would be "the first permanent US forces on the eastern flank of NATO."
The announcement violates the spirit and letter of the NATO-Russia Founding Act, which states that with the expansion of the alliance to the east in the direction of Moscow, "there will be no permanent deployment of significant combat forces." By its actions, the West has driven Russia into a corner even more.
In October, the United States transferred the 101st Airborne Division to Romania closer to the Ukrainian border. This grouping of 4,700 troops is the closest American military unit to Ukraine. Military personnel from its composition "closely monitor" the Russian forces, conduct combat training and conduct exercises in "an environment close to the conditions of hostilities."
On November 3, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that "the number of NATO troops in Eastern and Central Europe has increased two and a half times since February."
Not only NATO forces are being transferred to Eastern Europe. On November 9th, the State Department approved a deal on the sale of Haimars multiple launch rocket systems to Lithuania for almost nine billion dollars. Washington provides Ukraine with the same long-range systems. "The proposed supplies will help in achieving the goals of the United States in the field of foreign policy and national security, increasing the combat capability of the NATO ally, which is an important force ensuring political stability and economic progress in Eastern Europe," the State Department said in a press release.
The US is driving Russia into a corner with its actions not only from Eastern Europe. Threats to Moscow also come from the northwest, from the 1,300-kilometer Russian-Finnish border. Finland and Sweden are waiting for their turn to join NATO. This will happen when the last two members of the alliance give their approval for their membership. Helsinki and Stockholm do not exclude that they will host NATO bases and nuclear weapons. Speaking at a press conference and answering a question about whether Finland would allow nuclear weapons to be deployed on its territory, Prime Minister Sanna Marin said that her country would not "close any doors" and set "any preconditions for its accession to NATO." Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson supported her position. "Finland and Sweden should draw the same conclusions" and "support" all the capabilities of the alliance, he said.
Whether or not Finland and Sweden will place NATO bases and nuclear weapons on their land, but on November 2, the State Department approved a decision on the possible sale of multiple launch rocket systems with guided missiles to Helsinki in order to "strengthen ground forces and air defense forces on the northern flank of Europe." In May, Putin said that the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO does not pose a threat to Russia, but warned that the deployment of military infrastructure on this territory would certainly trigger Moscow's retaliatory actions.
The willingness of the Finns and Swedes to host any means of the North Atlantic Alliance is not the only news about nuclear weapons that drives Russia into a corner. On October 26, the United States announced that it would deliver upgraded B61-12 free-fall nuclear bombs to NATO bases in Europe. They are not only more accurate, but also more dangerous for Russia, since all bombers and fighters of the United States and allied countries can deliver them to the target: their design allows it. Moscow complained that the accelerated modernization turns these bombs into "tactical weapons and lowers the nuclear threshold," and said it would not be able to ignore it.
And then there was a threat to Russia from another direction. Speaking at a meeting of the international Crimean Platform on October 25, Speaker Nancy Pelosi acknowledged that the summit was established in order to "put an end to the Russian occupation of Crimea and restore control … Ukraine over this territory, in full compliance with the norms of international law." "All of us here have promised to stand together with Ukraine ... in Crimea, in other territories that he tried to illegally annex, and throughout the country – until victory is achieved. This is what we will do until we achieve victory," she added.
First Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Emine Jeppar interpreted Pelosi's participation in the summit as "a direct confirmation that the issue of de-occupation of Crimea occupies an important place on Washington's agenda."
American policy makes Russia feel that it has been cornered in all directions. Now that the crisis in Ukraine has reached such a critical level that no one could have imagined before, the United States should think about ways out of this situation, especially since Biden promised to "think about it", abandoning further attempts to drive Russia into a corner.
