by Dr. Aviel Sheyin-Stevens
Throughout 2021 Biden talked tough to Putin; however, Biden acted in ways that appeased Russia until it subsequently invaded Ukraine.
In 1962, when US deployments of ballistic missiles in Italy and Turkey
were matched by Soviet deployments of similar missiles in Cuba, the US
disregarded Cuban sovereignty; threatened to unleash a nuclear war,
eradicating Cuba. The crisis is generally seen as the closest the Cold
War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war.
60 years
later, the US still penalizes Cuba; decades after the end of the Soviet
Union that attempted to match in Cuba, US deployments of ballistic
missiles near the Soviets.
In Chile, Nicaragua, Panama, Grenada,
etc., the US did not tolerate independent foreign policy from its
neighboring countries. Yet the US insists that Ukraine should assert an
independent foreign policy from its superpower neighbor: Russia.
Since
the end of the Cold War, Russia was content to remain within its sphere
of influence and let the US dominate its own sphere. But it has been 30
years of leading Democrats kowtowing to Vladimir Putin and instigating
Russia, which led to another invasion in Europe.
The
Establishment elites are now focused on escalating the Russian invasion
into a full-blown war to bring the US into direct conflict with Russia,
the world’s largest holder of nuclear weapons. They consider it their
chance to bring about the war that ends all wars.
The West
provoked Russia by bringing the Baltic states and former Warsaw Pact
countries into NATO; theoretically making America responsible for
fighting a nuclear-armed nation over, for example, Estonia, a small
nation of around one million people, many of them ethnic Russians.
Joseph
Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterate continually that
“NATO’s door is open and remains open and that is our commitment.” And
EU leaders participated in large-scale protests in Ukraine, after its
democratically-elected president, Viktor Yanukovych, rejected a
political association and free trade agreement with the EU; instead
choosing closer ties to Russia and the Eurasian Economic Union. The
EU-backed protests eventually led to the overthrow of the
democratically-elected Yanukovych, which Russia considered to be an
illegal coup. Later, the EU-backed interim government, led by Arseniy
Yatsenyuk, signed the EU association agreement, and started a
large-scale purge of civil servants associated with the overthrown,
democratically-elected administration.
There is no reason to add
Ukraine to NATO or the EU. And there was no sound reason to add the
Baltic states to NATO, or add former Warsaw Pact countries like Poland.
NATO is a Cold War relic that existed to counter the Warsaw Pact. Once
the Warsaw Pact ended, NATO had no reason to exist.
To prevent
the Russian invasion, America, NATO and Ukraine should have issued
formal declarations that Ukraine will never join a NATO alliance that
now has an objective of containing Russia and, if required, defeat
nuclear-armed Russia in a war.
Biden’s shambolic handling of the
Ukraine crisis has been disastrous, and likely to have done Ukraine more
harm than good. Rather than undo the enormous damage Biden caused to
American credibility with his chaotic withdrawal and abject surrender of
Afghanistan to the Taliban, he aggravated the Ukraine crisis. Biden
threatened war one moment and pledged not to go to war the next. He
makes empty threats at Russia, but genuflects to China and Iran.
Biden
banned the export to Russia of dual-use goods (items with both a
civilian and military purpose), but Russia is self-sufficient in
military goods and is the world’s second-largest arms exporter, after
the US. Biden sanctioned some Russian individuals and businesses, and
froze assets belonging to a few of those sanctioned; however, many
wealthy Russians have put their properties and wealth under other names,
which means they could be beyond the reach of Biden’s sanctions.
Recently,
Biden announced banning Russian oil imports, but oil is a commodity
easily traded through third parties. His banning Russian oil will impact
American consumers. During the Biden administration, about 8% of US oil
and refined product imports come from Russia. The preceding
administration made the US the world’s largest oil producer and a
net-exporter of oil.
Within months of President Donald Trump
coming into office, he promised complete independence from foreign
sources of oil. From 2017 to 2021, the Trump administration pumped lots
of oil and sustained America’s energy independence. In November 2019,
the US became a net exporter of all oil products, including crude oil,
and subsequently became the world’s largest producer of crude oil.. The
world price of oil crashed, to the detriment of Russia. And Vladimir
Putin did not invade his neighbors.
Whereas, when Biden became
President, he immediately started threatening the US oil and gas
industry with doom, canceling pipelines, stopping all new federal oil
and gas leases, disallowing oil from the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge, pressuring lending agencies not to aid frackers, etc. Biden
drastically slashed US oil production, and begged Putin to pump more of
his “dirty” oil to help America.
In one of his first acts, Biden
sought to cancel the vital EastMed pipeline, which is planned to get
over 10 billion cubic meters per year of clean-burning natural gas into
southern Europe that would augment the suppliers; American allies:
Israel, Greece and Cyprus. Meanwhile, Biden dropped all sanctions on the
Russian-German Nord Stream 2 pipeline, vastly enriching Putin and
providing Russia with the windfall for invasion.
Throughout 2021,
Biden talked tough to Putin; however, Biden acted in ways that appeased
Russia until it subsequently invaded Ukraine.
In January 2021,
when Biden took office, oil was around $52 a barrel. In February 2022,
well before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, oil prices climbed to around
$100 a barrel.
Russia’s economy is heavily dependent on oil. It is the world’s third-largest oil producer, after Saudi Arabia and the US.
An
effectual deterrence to Putin’s propensity to invade Russia’s neighbors
is low oil price. Putin invades neighboring former Soviet republics
when the price of oil is high. In 2008, he invaded Georgia, in 2014, he
invaded Crimea and Ukraine and, in 2022, he invaded Ukraine again, when
high oil prices gave him the financial means. But when oil was in
abundance, oil prices dropped, the US was the world’s largest oil
producer and a net exporter of oil, etc., Putin remained static; as he
was between 2017 and 2020.
Biden’s doggedness to his campaign vow
to terminate the production of fossil fuels in the US during his
tenure, means the world’s autocratic regimes exporting oil are getting
richer every day: Russia, Iran, Venezuela, various Middle Eastern
autocracies, etc. Whereas, “green” Western nations importing oil and gas
can hardly afford to heat their homes or drive their cars.
Biden
is in the grips of left-wing ideologues with a delusional “green”
ideology: declaring nuclear energy and fracking are not needed, claiming
the world could switch quickly to all-renewable energy with sufficient
will and money, insisting on “degrowth” of the economy to avert looming
human “extinction,” etc. So the craziness of Biden’s helping US enemies
like Putin, and hurting US allies: Israel, Greece, Cyprus, etc.
Biden’s
sham sanctions on Russia essentially keep oil prices high, which could
prolong its Ukraine invasion. Yet the sham sanctions have various
downsides: getting Russia and China closer, to the detriment of the
West; alienating pro-Western Russians; making another currency replace
the US Dollar as the world’s number-one reserve currency; and more.
Dr. Sheyin-Stevens is a Registered Patent Attorney based in Florida, USA. He earned his Doctorate in Law from the University of Miami.
Source: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/325230
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