The presidents of the US and Russia are set to have another one-on-one “summit,” which is expected to focus on Ukraine and the West’s claims that Moscow is planning to invade its neighbor.
Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden will have a bilateral meeting on Tuesday via a video link. The American leader plans to “underscore US concerns with Russian military activities on the border with Ukraine and reaffirm the United States’ support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine,” White House spokesperson Jen Psaki has indicated.
The supposed threat of Russian aggression against Ukraine has been trumpeted in the West since mid-November. Over the weeks, vague claims of a Russian military buildup morphed into full-blown explanations of how the invasion would unfold, complete with maps showing directions of offensive operations, based on US intelligence reportedly shared with NATO members.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">German newspaper Bild has made a map of a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to estimates of sources from NATO and Ukrainian intelligence. It includes an attack on Kiev. The Russian Foreign Ministry called the article nonsense and "propaganda mixed with ideology." <a href="https://t.co/wM6YXyGlMv">pic.twitter.com/wM6YXyGlMv</a></p>— Dr. Clayton Forrester (@DrClaytonForre1) <a href="https://twitter.com/DrClaytonForre1/status/1467499469772144645?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 5, 2021</a></blockquote>
New Afghanistan for Russia
The war scenario, hypothetical as it may be, has understandably caught the imagination of Western media. Some in the US even appear to secretly wish for it to come true and become a disaster for Moscow.
“Ukraine can become the next Afghanistan for Russia if it chooses to move further,” Chris Murphy, a member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, told CNN, adding that the US Congress should be ready to support Ukraine with arms and other support.
He was referring to the Soviet Union’s 1980s Afghan deployment and the harm that the US managed to inflict on Moscow by arming local Islamist militias.
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<img src="https://cdni.rt.com/files/2021.12/thumbnail/61aade182030275a2173c929.JPG" alt="President Joe Biden departs for Camp David from the White House, Washington, US, December 3, 2021. © Reuters/Kevin Lamarque" />
<figcaption><a href="/russia/542180-biden-red-lines-putin/">Biden dismisses Russia’s ‘red lines’</a></figcaption>
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Alluring as it may be for the American establishment, the analogy between Ukraine and Afghanistan is hardly justified, counters Ivan Timofeev, a program director at the Russian International Affairs Council, a diplomatic think-tank.
“They are incommensurable in many regards – political, geographical, historical – they are too different… That is on top of the fact that we don’t consider war as the basic scenario,” he told RT.
Putin ‘wins by talking to Biden’
Officials in Kiev state that a Russian attack is bound to happen sometime after January 20. But even the fiercest critics of the Russian government are skeptical that military action will actually take place. Barack Obama’s ambassador to Russia, Professor Michael McFaul, believes that getting Biden to agree to a one-on-one was a major goal for Russia.