U.S. Russia Talks May Pave Way For Putin To Withdraw Troops

To jaw-jaw is always better than war-war, Winston Churchill once said, predating by nearly 70 years the Biden administration’s approach to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threat to Ukraine, CNN commented.

Photo Insert: Putin and Biden during an in-person meeting in Geneva

The US President spoke to his Kremlin counterpart over the phone on Thursday in their second direct interaction in three weeks. But a read of the tea leaves suggests that not much changed.

Biden warned Putin that Russia would face an unprecedented slate of sanctions if he orders tens of thousands of troops to march across Ukraine’s border. Putin told Biden that punishing Russia would be a “colossal” mistake, according to the Russian side.

The focus now moves to a series of talks next week between US and Russian negotiators. The challenge from the West’s point of view will be to offer Putin a path to de-escalation in which he could plausibly claim a victory while dismissing his demands for security guarantees and the withdrawal of NATO forces from former Warsaw Pact countries that could weaken the alliance.

To his critics, Biden is already giving Putin what he wants -- an equal billing with the leader of the world’s most powerful nation in echoes of Cold War summits that can be spun into enhancing his legend in Moscow.

The US President is opening himself up to accusations of appeasement if Russia does invade Ukraine. But an alternative approach -- humiliating Putin -- may not be any more successful.

Obama’s description of Russia as a weakened “regional” power in 2014 was a painful blow to a great cultural, literary and historic civilization and will have particularly infuriated Putin.

But there may come a time when talking Putin down hits a wall. That’s because the Russian president’s geopolitical project is antithetical to US foreign policy goals. Putin has dedicated himself to tarnishing and diminishing Western power and prestige in order to enhance Russia’s relative global standing. Those differences are ultimately irreconcilable.

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