Europe, Russia , Power & Security Don’t let U.S. focus on China allow Putin to get away with invasion of Ukraine

While President Joe Biden has been trying to tamp down tensions with China, Vladimir Putin has been busy perfecting a new form of warfare against the West.

The White House had hoped to put Russia on the back burner while it focused on America’s far more dangerous rivalry with Beijing. But Putin, ever eager to grab the global limelight, has amassed 80,000 troops on the Ukrainian border, threatened to limit gas for Europe, and abetted the callous misuse of refugees by Belarus as a weapon against Poland.

A nibble here, a bite there, the use of misinformation, cyberhacking, blackmail, human trafficking, proxy wars — all are part of Putin’s arsenal to attempt to destabilize Europe and America while denying any involvement. And the West has yet to figure out how to check him...

“The White House notion of making Russia more dependable so it can work on China isn’t working out so well,” I was told by Alexander Vershbow, who served as U.S. ambassador to Moscow and deputy secretary general of NATO. “We may want to park Russia on the back burner but Putin has other ideas.”

Putin pursues his salami war in stages, taking more bites whenever NATO allies are distracted.

Read more in The Philadelphia Inquirer >>