Russian success in Ukraine might prove to be a trial run for a Chinese move on Taiwan.
Members banned from this thread: AProudLefty and ParachuteAdams |
GO AHEAD, VLAD, I BOUGHT THE BIDENS LONG AGO
He wants to move now because he sees Ukraine slipping from his grasp, and the reasons he may think he’s free to act actually lie in three other countries: the U.S., Germany and China.
If this combination of forces is, in fact, helping drive Putin, they also demonstrate why dissuading him is proving difficult.
The prospect that the U.S. might mount a military response to a Russian invasion of Ukraine is dim—and must have been made even more dim in Mr. Putin’s mind by the ugly withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan last year.
“It’s hard to avoid the thought that bungling Biden’s Afghanistan fiasco suggested to Putin that this is a guy who can be pushed around,” says Stephen Sestanovich, a former national-security official who now teaches at Columbia University.
At the same time, Germany is giving Putin reason to doubt that the West can really unite in response to a Russian invasion. Germany’s decision to close all of its nuclear reactors by the end of 2022 has made it more dependent than ever on Russian energy imports.
Putin’s warming relationship with China gives him reason to think Beijing will be there to help him overcome whatever Western economic sanctions are put in place after an incursion into Ukraine.
Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping have made a show of their friendship in recent months, and Putin will be a high-profile guest at the coming Beijing Winter Olympics.
China and Russia have a shared interest in making the U.S. look weak.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-events-in-the-u-s-germany-and-china-embolden-putin-11643032519
Apparently, so does bungling Biden.
Discuss.
Russian success in Ukraine might prove to be a trial run for a Chinese move on Taiwan.
Bookmarks