Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) and French President Emmanuel Macron, pictured in 2020, spoke over the phone on Friday and agreed to meet with the Normandy Format in Berlin in two week, which excludes the US and NATO, to discuss the crisis in the Ukraine
* Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to meet with Germany, France and Ukraine over the Ukraine-Russian border crisis
* The European-led talk, which will be held in two weeks in Berlin, is said to focus on ''de-escalation' and excludes NATO and the US
* Joe Biden on Friday evening said that he would be moving some troops to Eastern Europe - but 'not too many' - as tensions mount in Ukraine
* Russia has amassed more than 100,000 troops around Ukraine after a steady buildup in the region and may be planning an invasion in February
* Chairman of Joint Chiefs Gen Milley warned of 'horrific' consequences if Russia put its 100,000-plus force to work on an invasion
* Hours earlier Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said that the world was overreacting to the threat of a Russian invasion of his country
* Zelensky chided world leaders for their public statements, saying 'we don't need this panic' and condemning the withdrawal of diplomats
* UK intelligence source suggested Putin will continue massing forces for 'two or three weeks' before attacking
Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to hold talks with Germany, France and Ukraine as NATO fails to take action on the rising conflict in Easter Europe and President Joe Biden's announcement on Friday that he would deploy troops 'in the near term' without backing from NATO.
The blow to NATO and exclusion of America in negotiation talks on the Russian-Ukraine crisis came after Putin accused the U.S. and NATO of ignoring the Kremlin's 'fundamental concerns' over NATO's growth during a call with French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday.
During the call, Putin argued that the West had refused Russians demands of 'preventing NATO expansion, refusing to deploy strike weapons systems near Russian borders' and withdrawing allied forces to positions they held in 1997, prior to NATO's expansion into Eastern Europe, Politico reported.
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WNU Editor: I have been a NATO watcher for decades.
Yup.
NATO is split.
But this should not surprise anyone. NATO needs a mission, and they are lacking one that will keep them focused and unified.
This was apparent after the Afghan pullout debacle. Putin applied the right amount of pressure to get where we are now. Biden is in no condition to match wits with Putin and Biden's staff isn't much better based on their performance to date.
ReplyDeleteSo much for the Biden narrative that unilateral action was a Trumpian behavior...we will work with our allies until we won't because it's all realpolitik anyway.
ReplyDeleteNATO has been split since its primary Euro constituents decided they no longer needed to maintain viable militaries. With the exceptions of the UK, France, and Turkey, Israel could probably kick the asses of any two, maybe any three NATO countries. I can see the day when the organization fractures into several smaller alliances. That won't help with defeating a large common threat such as Russia, but it's getting harder to care the less they themselves care.
ReplyDeleteGermany, Biden and Democrats spent 4 years claiming President Trump was attempting to destroy NATO.
ReplyDeleteJoe Biden’s incompetence did it in 1 year. Well plus Germany and France saw the fool in chief and decided they didn’t want to join the Biden suicide trip.
WNU is wrong. NATO working together has often been like herding cats. Gaulle was an egotistical and vain man. He took France out of the NATO command structure. The German SPD has been softheaded as long as I can remember. Is Merkel supposedly of the CDU a fluke or has the CDU outside of Bavaria gone wobbly as well? A Danish political party (somewhat fringy but still with sympathies with most all liberals) proposed disbanding the military and setting up a phone tree instead to tell people to surrender if the Rooskies ever invaded.
ReplyDeleteAdd in a weak, compromised president and voila
NATOs mission should be in Mexico...
ReplyDelete