Daily Archives: 16 February 2022

Did Biden Refuse the Invitation or the Challenge?

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President Joe Biden (D) and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a phone call Saturday. Over the course of the call, Zelenskyy invited Biden to travel to Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, according to the Ukrainian description of the call. Zelenskyy

invited him [Biden] to visit Ukraine: “I am convinced that your arrival in Kyiv in the coming days, which are crucial for stabilizing the situation, will be a powerful signal and contribute to de-escalation.”

It’s telling that

[t]he White House statement on the call with Zelenskyy does not mention the invitation to Kyiv.

Why is Biden so reluctant to accept the invitation? Or is he ducking away from the challenge?

A Putin Supposed Draw-Down

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Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to be withdrawing some of his troops from the “exercise” he’s been holding along the Belarus-Ukraine border.

Russia announced Tuesday that a select number of units participating in military exercises will return to their bases, sparking hope the Kremlin may not invade Ukraine in the coming days.

I have some possibilities for the claimed withdrawal.

Maybe the “select number of units” are being withdrawn because they performed poorly in these invasion rehearsals.

Maybe the “select number of units” are being held back to act as exploitation reserves in the coming invasion.

Maybe the “select number of units” are being withdrawn as a stage show to get the West to let our guard down even further.

Putin’s, Lavrov’s claimed willingness to negotiate further could well be nothing more than a repeat of the 1941 Japanese government “negotiations” with the US, differing only by Putin’s firmer control of his military than the then-Japanese government had.