{"id":231112,"date":"2021-04-20T10:15:48","date_gmt":"2021-04-20T07:15:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/putin-is-calling-the-shots\/"},"modified":"2021-04-20T10:15:48","modified_gmt":"2021-04-20T07:15:48","slug":"putin-is-calling-the-shots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/putin-is-calling-the-shots\/","title":{"rendered":"#Putin is calling the shots"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Putin is calling the shots<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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Here we go again. In amassing 150,000 troops near Ukraine\u2019s border, Russian President Vladimir Putin has caught the Biden administration and its European allies flatfooted.<\/p>\n

He first surprised the world in August 2008, when a newly revived Russian military rapidly crushed the Georgian military.<\/p>\n

Next, Putin launched a stealth operation in March 2014 to annex Crimea and underwrote a violent separatist movement in the industrial Donbas region that continues to this day.<\/p>\n

Now, Kremlin official Dmitry Kozak is warning that the outbreak of a major war in eastern Ukraine would signal \u201cthe beginning of the end\u201d for Kiev.<\/p>\n

Holy moly! Is Putin really trying<\/p>\n

to take over all of Ukraine? Is Europe next? Or is he simply engaging in saber-rattling?<\/p>\n

On Monday, European Union foreign- policy head Josep Borrell said it would take only \u201ca spark\u201d to ignite a conflagration in Ukraine. But there isn\u2019t much America and NATO can do beyond pressuring Putin as they\u2019ve always done \u2014 by issuing empty threats. Economic sanctions haven\u2019t deterred Putin before and they won\u2019t deter him now. Biden had ordered two warships to sail to the Black Sea, but recalled them last Tuesday after Russia warned that they should \u201cstay away for their own good.\u201d Score one for Putin.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Russia is moving 15 warships from the Caspian to the Black Sea. Score another one for Putin.<\/p>\n

\"Satellite
Satellite images show that Russia recently built a new military base in Crimea, according to a report.<\/figcaption>
Twitter<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The likelihood that Putin will actually try to conquer Ukraine, however, seems slim. For one thing, Putin, in contrast to his previous incursions, has ensured that Russian troop movements are highly visible. He could overrun the Donbas, not to mention western Ukraine. But trying to pacify cities along Ukraine\u2019s Black Sea as well as capture a vital water canal north of Crimea would result in high casualties. In addition, the Donbas is a money pit, a defunct industrial area where the majority of those remaining behind are pensioners. Colin Powell\u2019s famous Pottery Barn warning to George W. Bush on the eve of the Iraq War app<\/a>lies: \u201cYou break it, you own it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tanks
Tanks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces are seen during drills at an unknown location near the border of Russian-annexed Crimea.<\/figcaption>
via REUTERS<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Truth be told, Putin doesn\u2019t need to go to war. His latest moves are already paying off. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is pleading for a four-power summit with Putin, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel to restore a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine. What\u2019s more, on Tuesday Biden agreed to a summit with Putin, a move that official Moscow is saluting as a victory. After smarting at Biden calling him a \u201ckiller,\u201d Putin is demonstrating that he has a killer instinct, at least when it comes to foreign affairs.<\/p>\n

Putin is reminding the West that he may be despised but he can\u2019t be ignored. Indeed, the most likely prospect is that Putin will continue to raise and lower tensions in Ukraine at will. After the Cold War ended, America and its allies thought they would create democracies from sea to shining sea in Eastern Europe.<\/p>\n

They were wrong. When it comes to who is the Decider about Ukraine\u2019s fate, it isn\u2019t Biden or NATO. It\u2019s Putin.\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Putin is calling the shots” Here we go again. In amassing 150,000 troops near Ukraine\u2019s border, Russian President Vladimir Putin has caught the Biden administration and its European allies flatfooted. He first surprised the world in August 2008, when a newly revived Russian military rapidly crushed the Georgian military. Next, Putin launched a stealth operation…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":231113,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/Russia-US-Sanctions.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[102760,100712,4975,70868,73234,100713],"class_list":["post-231112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-4-20-21","tag-crimea","tag-russia","tag-ukraine","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-volodymyr-zelensky"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}