Softer Russia policy creates problem for Biden

President Biden has his own thoughts about handling Russia, but now everyone in the Congress may agree.

Softer Russia policy creates problem for Biden

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• The story: President Donald Trump had a generally compliant attitude toward Russia, and now, the Biden administration is facing pressure from the US Congress and his Eastern European allies to harden its stance toward Russia. This happened after the June meeting between Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin. France and Germany are trying to restart a dialogue with Putin.
• Two inherited problems: President Biden has inherited two messes working at cross-purposes: (i) He needs to repair relations with Germany, America’s main ally in mainland Europe, and (ii) chart a stronger approach to control Russia’s malicious behavior.

1. The first trouble is Russia’s gas pipeline project into Germany, the Nord Stream 2. Biden did not launch the sanctions on this issue, as he tries to repair relations with Germany. At the same time Eastern European officials raised alarm bells about Russia’s refusal to remove military forces near its border with Ukraine.
2. Biden has invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to visit in July, when both the issues will be tackled - Ukraine’s low-simmering war with Russian-backed separatists and his policy toward Nord Stream 2.

• Helping Ukraine: Biden gave $275 million in military aid to Ukraine since March 2021, approved by the Congress, as Russian forces built up along the border. Russia could quickly stage a new offensive. Russian forces have left a large residual presence of vehicles and military equipment from the April buildup, including major elements of a motorized rifle division, such as tanks, armored personnel carriers, and artillery. There is a buildup along the Black Sea too, with similar equipment.
• Summary: If Russia keeps threatening, then the small progress that Biden and Putin made on easing tensions, during their June summit in Geneva, could be undone. America has reiterated its call for Russia to fully implement its Minsk commitments and return full control of Crimea to Ukraine.
• Knowledge centre: The Minsk Protocol is an agreement to halt the war in the Donbas region of Ukraine. It was signed by Ukraine, the Russian Federation, the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) on 5 September 2014. The Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine was a group of representatives from Ukraine, the Russian Federation, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe formed as means to facilitate a diplomatic resolution to the war in the Donbas region of Ukraine. The Minsk agreements 2014 and 2015 remain the basis for any future resolution to the conflict, as agreed at the Normandy Format meeting. Critics say that the Minsk Agreements were forced upon Ukraine by the international community to end the aggressive war by Russia, and both sides are using it to their selfish ends - President Putin to preserve the status-quo and the West to do (more or less) nothing.

 

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