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U.S. Accused of Hyping Russia Invasion of Ukraine, Frustrating Kyiv, Moscow

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Several current and former U.S., Russian and Ukrainian officials have expressed their concerns to Newsweek that U.S. intelligence of an imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine is being exaggerated, perhaps in a bid to deter further aggression from Moscow and avoid a devastating war. . .

But while Putin plays his game, some believe the U.S. and its Western allies are playing their own.

Former senior Ukrainian officials who are still in contact with the current administration and intelligence services told Newsweek that some in Ukraine — including within Zelenskyy’s inner circle — suspect their U.S. partners are exaggerating the Russia threat. . .

Klimkin, a co-founder of the Center for National Resilience and Development (CNRD) think tank in Ukraine, pointed out that past U.S. intelligence failures have left some in Kyiv skeptical. (Read more from “U.S. Accused of Hyping Russia Invasion of Ukraine, Frustrating Kyiv, Moscow” HERE)

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Teachers, Accountants and Priests: Ukraine Training a Civilian Army to Fend off Russian Invasion

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The Ukrainian military is preparing civilians to fight off a potential Russian invasion.

Ukraine’s Territorial Defence Forces are made up of a civilian reserve army, including anyone from lawyers and teachers to nurses and priests, France24 reported Monday. The civilians are being trained with military rifles in skills like urban combat, marksmanship and explosives identification.

In Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv, which is just around 20 miles from the Russian border to the north, civilians can attend training courses every Saturday. There are signs posted throughout the city advertising the opportunity. The military hopes to add 130,000 civilians to the Defence Forces, as President Vladimir Putin is positioning more than 100,000 of his Russian troops on Ukraine’s border, according to The New York Times.

“The worst thing for me would be to find myself holed up in a shelter without knowing what to do,” 36-year-old engineer Alexei Sus told France24. . .

“I am a nurse during the day and for me, it is an obligation as a health worker to join the Territorial Defence Forces. I want to use my professional experience to save as many people as possible if the situation gets out of hand,” a woman named Alisa told France24. (Read more from “Teachers, Accountants and Priests: Ukraine Training a Civilian Army to Fend off Russian Invasion” HERE)

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U.S. Anti-Russian Posture Isn’t About “Security” or “Democracy,” but Promoting LGBT

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[I]n 2013, Russia passed a law banning gay propaganda towards minors. This came on the heels of the 2012 arrest of members of Pussy Riot, a female performance art collective, for sacrilegious acts at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. Three members of the group were sentenced to two years in prison each, with two of them serving their full sentences . . .

The US response in the media to Pussy Riot and the anti-gay law was nothing short of hysterical, and coverage of Russia, a country that had previously been viewed largely with indifference by American elites, has never been the same. My impression is that the gay propaganda law may have gotten more coverage in the American press than any other event that happened in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union.

In the 2012 election, when Romney called Russia “our greatest geopolitical foe,” Obama famously responded that the 1980s called and it wanted its foreign policy back. This was before the gay propaganda law. Although it’s hard to prove that this was the turning point, as someone who was studying international relations at the time on a university campus and who paid close attention to American politics, it felt as if some Rubicon had been crossed and any move towards friendlier relations was impossible. By 2015, even before the rise of Trump, Putin was not the leader of a country, but a Hollywood villain.

In 2014, we saw the overthrow of Yanukovych, the Russian seizure of Crimea, and the beginning of the war in Eastern Ukraine. While this was a big deal to foreign policy hawks, it did not capture the liberal imagination in the same way that the gay propaganda law did. Russiagate required years of demonization in order to take off, and beginning in 2016 Putin became not only a homophobe and anti-feminist, but the man who may ultimately end American democracy.

I think most people are going to be inherently skeptical of the idea that LGBT and identity politics more generally play such a large role in international affairs. Yet people have less trouble accepting the fact that largely symbolic culture war issues related to race, gender, and sexual orientation drive domestic politics. Foreign policy elites are from the same class that gave us the Great Awokening, and if your model of members of this class involves them being illogical and destructive fanatics on matters of identity (the correct model), you should assume that they take their attitudes with them when thinking about international affairs. Their assumptions, deepest convictions, and construction of reality shape the ways in which we discuss geopolitical issues, which most Americans have no firsthand experience with. . .

Russian opposition to LGBT triggers American elites more than anti-gay laws and practices elsewhere because Russia is a white nation that justifies its policies based on an appeal to Christian values. Unlike a country like Hungary, it actually matters for international politics. Remember, we’re talking about the same elite that can only get excited about random attacks on Asians if they can pretend it’s white people who are doing it, and can’t be bothered to care about black people shooting each other every day but will make excuses for those who burn cities down in response to a police officer shooting a criminal in the course of an arrest. Homophobic Muslims or Africans will never inspire all that much righteous fury in these people. The template of “white conservative Christians bad” is fundamental to their worldview, and this leads to not only hostility towards Putin, but also nations like Hungary and Poland, even if the latter are uneasily accepted as friends because they were grandfathered into NATO, the alliance that is of course aimed at Russia. (Read more from “U.S. Anti-Russian Posture Isn’t About “Security” or “Democracy,” but Promoting LGBT” HERE)

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Biden: US Will Not Deploy Combat Troops to Ukraine; Biden Warns Putin

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By Washington Examiner. President Joe Biden said he would not deploy combat troops to Ukraine amid concerns that Russian troops could invade the country.

“We have no intention of putting American forces or NATO forces in Ukraine. But we — I said there are going to be serious economic consequences if he moves,” Biden said Tuesday during a stop in Washington, D.C., warning that the effects of a Russian invasion would stretch worldwide.

The White House is instead leaning on a threat of new export controls targeting strategic Russian industries to deter Moscow’s threats. Russian President Vladimir Putin has massed some 120,000 Russian troops along Ukraine’s eastern border, threatening an invasion. . .

“This would be the largest, if you were to move in, with all those forces, it would be the largest invasion since World War II,” Biden said. “It would change the world.”

The Kremlin has said that the United States fueled the conflict with an announcement that it is placing 8,500 troops on alert. During a briefing Tuesday, press secretary Jen Psaki said in response that Washington is committed to protecting NATO allies. (Read more from “Biden: US Will Not Deploy Combat Troops to Ukraine” HERE)

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Biden Warns Putin With Sanctions as West Steps up Ukraine Defenses

By Reuters. U.S. President Joe Biden said on Tuesday he would consider personal sanctions on President Vladimir Putin if Russia invades Ukraine, as Western leaders stepped up military preparations and made plans to shield Europe from a potential energy supply shock.

The rare sanctions threat came as NATO places forces on standby and reinforces eastern Europe with more ships and fighter jets in response to Russia’s troop build-up near its border with Ukraine.

Russia denies planning an attack and says the crisis is being driven by NATO and U.S. actions. It is demanding security guarantees from the West, including a promise by NATO never to admit Ukraine. Moscow sees the former Soviet republic as a buffer between Russia and NATO countries. (Read more from “Biden Warns Putin With Sanctions as West Steps up Ukraine Defenses” HERE)

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White House Says Russian Invasion Still ‘Imminent’ After Ukraine Urges Calm

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The White House said Tuesday it stands by the U.S. assessment that a Russian invasion of Ukraine is imminent.

Press secretary Jen Psaki was asked to respond to Ukrainian officials telling residents that an attack is not imminent and that there is no reason for people to panic.

“Well, no one can get into the mind of President [Vladimir] Putin or Russian leadership,” Psaki said. “We all know that is the case. What we have seen is a range of preparations, including 100,000 troops at the border, bellicose rhetoric and actions, as we’ve talked about in here, including false flag operations to try to spread misinformation throughout the region and even the world, setting up the predicate for an invasion.”

Psaki said that the preferred path forward is diplomacy but that officials have “certainly seen aggressive actions and preparations increasing at the border.” (Read more from “White House Says Russian Invasion Still ‘Imminent’ After Ukraine Urges Calm” HERE)

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Will They or Won’t They? Ukraine Insists ‘No Reason to Panic’ as Russia Invasion Fears Grow

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Ukrainian officials have attempted to ease concerns about a possible Russian invasion, telling their citizens there is “no reason to panic,” despite the US and its NATO allies preparing to provide additional support.

On Monday, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said the situation is “under control,” while Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov affirmed Russia’s armed forces had not yet formed battle groups “which would have indicated that tomorrow they could launch an offensive.”

“There are risky scenarios. They’re possible and probable in the future,” Reznikov told Ukraine’s ICTV in an interview before adding that “as of today … such a threat doesn’t exist.”

Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, sounded the same message, saying the military buildup “is not news.”

“As of today, we don’t see any grounds for statements about a full-scale offensive on our country,” Danilov said. (Read more from “Will They or Won’t They? Ukraine Insists ‘No Reason to Panic’ as Russia Invasion Fears Grow” HERE)

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If Trump Had Greenlighted Russia to Invade Ukraine Like Biden Just Did, He’d Be Accused of Corruption

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President Biden was actually operating from a coherent perspective in discussing Russia and Ukraine in Wednesday’s press conference: In every instance, as you go line-for-line in the transcript, his foreign policy—and the fact that he announced it to the world—is one where Russia has leverage over Biden and the president has a personal vendetta against the current Ukrainian government.

When asked whether sanctions would deter Vladimir Putin from attacking Ukraine, our commander in chief replied that Russia “will be held accountable if it invades,” but then clarified: “It depends on what it does. It’s one thing if it’s a minor incursion and then we end up having a fight about what to do and not do, et cetera.” Biden then juxtaposed a “minor incursion,” which would lead to a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) fight over how to respond, with Russia doing “what they’re capable of doing with the forces amassed on the border.”

In that case, Biden assured the audience—which surely included Putin and his top military leaders—“our allies and partners are ready to impose severe costs and significant harm on Russia and the Russian economy.” Biden then proceeded to ramble aloud his internal thoughts on Putin’s thinking before adding, in reference to Ukraine, “My guess is he will move in. He has to do something.” . . .

For years, the anti-Trump contingent used the Steele dossier and its claim that Russia held leverage over the president to fan the flames of a Trump-Russia conspiracy. But the Russia-leverage narrative extended beyond the discredited dossier and continued throughout Trump’s term.

For instance, in a May 2019 article titled, “Donald Trump’s Foreign Policy ‘Is One Where Russia Has Leverage Over Him,’ Former CIA Official Says,” Newsweek discussed a former CIA and defense official’s appearance on MSNBC. Appearing on the cable network’s “Morning Joe,” Jeremy Bash “argued that Trump’s international policies appear to be impacted by Russian ‘leverage over him’” the Newsweek article explained. (Read more from “If Trump Had Greenlighted Russia to Invade Ukraine Like Biden Just Did, He’d Be Accused of Corruption” HERE)

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Russian Diplomat Makes Threat of War Explicit After ‘Dead-End’ Talks

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A senior Russian envoy made an overt threat of war if U.S. and Western European leaders continue to resist Moscow’s demands for a practical contraction of NATO.

“Russia is a peace-loving country, but we do not need peace at any cost,” Ambassador Alexander Lukashevich said Thursday.

That threat marked a break in character from much of Moscow’s messaging, as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government has insisted that the military forces deployed near Ukraine’s borders do not represent a threat to Ukraine. Lukashevich’s statement was part of a flurry of Russian statements expressing dissatisfaction with the United States following a pair of meetings in which U.S. and NATO officials proposed to start risk reduction talks but rejected Russia’s demand that the alliance return to its 1997 borders.

“We are not going to entertain spheres of influence,” Ambassador Michael Carpenter told reporters following the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe meeting in which Lukashevich aired that threat. “We’re not going to entertain restrictions on the right of nations to choose their own alliances. We’re not going to entertain privileging the security requirements of one state over another.”

U.S. and European officials broadcast that position for weeks prior to the meetings this week in Geneva and Brussels. Russia’s demand struck officials from NATO member states as so extreme that some surmised Putin designed the offer to be rejected in order to create a “pretext for war.” Russian officials heard the refusal in person on Wednesday during a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council, and that experience gave way to more explicit threats. (Read more from “Russian Diplomat Makes Threat of War Explicit After ‘Dead-End’ Talks” HERE)

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US Wants Russia to Pull Back Troops From Ukraine’s Border

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The American envoy to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) said on Tuesday that the U.S. and its allies want Russia to take concrete actions to de-escalate tensions on Ukraine’s border, amid fears that Moscow is prepared to launch a large-scale invasion of the former Soviet state.

The U.S. ambassador to NATO, Julianne Smith, said the U.S. expects Russia to pull back the forces it has massed on Ukraine’s border and commit to engaging with the Minsk agreements, the 2014 diplomatic protocol intended to end fighting in eastern Ukraine.

“We want to see the full implementation of the Minsk agreements with Russia pulling back its forces. But if Russia pursues confrontation, there will be serious consequences,” Smith told reporters during a briefing from Brussels, ahead of a meeting of the NATO-Russia council and set for Wednesday.

The Minsk agreements are a step-by-step guide written between 2014 and 2015 aimed at resolving war in Ukraine’s east, where Ukrainian government forces are battling Russian-backed separatists.

Kyiv and Moscow recommitted to a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine in December, in what was viewed as a welcome confidence-building measure amid Russia’s massing of more than 100,000 troops on the Ukraine’s border and ahead of the diplomatic meetings in Europe. (Read more from “US Wants Russia to Pull Back Troops From Ukraine’s Border” HERE)

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Russia Reacts With Fury to Blinken’s Jab at Troops in Kazakhstan

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Tensions are rising between the US and Russia, after the Kremlin on Saturday slammed a comment by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Kazakhstan might have a hard time getting rid of Russian troops now deployed there.

Blinken on Friday challenged Russia’s justification for sending forces into Kazakhstan after days of violent unrest in the Central Asian country.

‘One lesson of recent history is that once Russians are in your house, it’s sometimes very difficult to get them to leave,’ Blinken said.

Russia’s foreign ministry called Blinken’s remark ‘typically offensive’ and accused him of joking about tragic events in Kazakhstan. It said Washington should analyze its own track record of interventions in countries such as Vietnam and Iraq.

‘If Antony Blinken loves history lessons so much, then he should take the following into account: when Americans are in your house, it can be difficult to stay alive and not be robbed or raped,’ the ministry said on its Telegram social media channel. (Read more from “Russia Reacts With Fury to Blinken’s Jab at Troops in Kazakhstan” HERE)

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