Biden Has Caught Putin in a Trap

Europe has finally realized that Putin’s threat to start a war with Ukraine is real and it jeopardizes European security.

Joe Biden is quite a prankster. First, he openly called Vladimir Putin a “killer,” and then decided to talk to him about life in Ukraine. During a telephone conversation, President Biden invited President Putin to meet on neutral territory. Perhaps Biden wants to look into Putin’s eyes and understand how Putin feels about being publicly called a murderer, and why he doesn’t adequately respond to this accusation. Maybe he doesn’t respond because he has no opportunity to torment a wretched Ukraine.

Putin’s attempts to intimidate the U.S. president by threatening to conquer and tear Ukraine apart have failed. On the contrary, the Americans have been interested in giving Putin a hard time and are ready to arrange a “Ukrainian Vietnam” in the center of Europe as part of a military-political strategy. Only this time, it’s not the United States, which defends Ukraine, that will be defeated, but Putin’s Russia. However, the “Vietnamization” of the Russian-Ukrainian war would be the worst-case scenario not only for Ukraine but also for Russia.

Putin’s current failure to recognize the weakness of his position contributes to enhancing his adventurism and self-confidence.

Having successfully invaded Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine in 2014, Putin is confident that he will also succeed in 2021. Impunity for adventurism and crimes encourages new crimes. But this time Putin isn’t faced with a Ukraine isolated and betrayed by its leaders, but with the world community, which has realized that the invasion of Ukraine was no accident on Putin’s aggressive path in international politics.

Europe has finally realized that Putin’s threat to start a war with Ukraine is real and it jeopardizes European security.

Putin has certainly gone too far and is afraid of losing control of the situation. Indeed, any large-scale mobilization easily turns into war. Now it will be difficult to simply order Russian troops back to their barracks. The Kremlin’s elite, in its turn, will not forgive Putin his weakness or political mistakes either. And, even more so, it won’t forgive him for losing to the U.S. president, Biden.

Victor Nebozhenko is a political scientist and sociologist, and director of the sociological service Ukrainian Barometer.