President Biden spoke, and Putin responds.
John
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6320932081112
President Biden spoke in Warsaw, Poland, on Tuesday the war in Ukraine passes its first anniversary:
“Putin met the iron will of America and nations everywhere that refuse to accept a world governed by fear and force,” Biden said. “One year ago, the world was bracing for the fall of Kyiv. And I can report that Kyiv stands strong, it stands proud and it stands free.”
“Putin no longer doubts the strength of our coalition, but he still doubts our conviction, he doubts our staying power, he doubts our continued support for Ukraine, he doubts whether NATO can remain unified. But there should be no doubt. Our support for Ukraine will not waver. NATO will not be divided and we will not tire,” Biden said. “When Russia invaded, it wasn’t just Ukraine being tested. It was the whole world being tested.”
Russia?” he wondered. “Wouldn’t making Russia our enemy just drive Putin into the arms of China and create the most powerful and dangerous anti-American bloc in history?”
No one bothered to answer him. In fact, for the sin of asking, they called him a traitor to his country. They impeached him for it, and then they started a war with Putin. But in retrospect, Trump had asked a deeply patriotic question: If Russia ever joined forces with China, American global hegemony, its power would end instantly. You’d have the world’s largest land mass and largest natural gas reserves, allied with the world’s largest population and world’s largest economy.
So, a Russia-China axis would be not just more powerful than the United States, but much more powerful. It would have the scale to control a lot of the world’s economy and trade routes and raw materials. It could project military force that posturing aside, we actually don’t have the power to stop. If Russia and China ever got together, it would be a brand-new world and the United States would be greatly diminished. Most Americans agree that would be bad.
Now, as Donald Trump predicted very clearly, that is happening. Thanks to Joe Biden’s reckless and self-destructive response to the invasion of Ukraine a year ago this week, the economies of Russia and China are intertwined. Chinese spending on Russian goods has increased by more than 60%. China now imports more coal from Russia than it has in the last five years. Chinese shipments to Russia, meanwhile, are up by nearly 30%.
https://www.bbc.com/news/64718139
Mr Putin has repeatedly made baseless claims about a “neo-Nazi regime” in Ukraine as a justification for Russia’s invasion of the country.
In Ukraine’s last parliamentary election in 2019, support for far-right candidates was 2%, far lower than in many other European countries.
It should also be noted that President Volodymyr Zelensky is Jewish and members of his family died in the Holocaust.
But there have been far-right groups in Ukraine – the most high-profile is the Azov regiment – elements of which have expressed support for Nazi ideology.
Rosamond Press 