Power & Security, Russia , United States If Biden's timidity led Putin to invade Ukraine, what about his next threat?

Perry World House Distinguished Visiting Fellow Alexander Vershbow is quoted in this piece from The Hill about President Biden's response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

President Biden’s escalating sanctions and increased military aid for Ukraine, in response to Vladimir Putin’s invasion, have crippled Russia’s economy, strengthened Ukraine’s resistance, unified NATO allies and prompted Europeans to rethink their security policies and increase defense spending....

“If there were a do-over,” says Alexander Vershbow, a former deputy secretary general of NATO, “we would not have repeatedly said that U.S. troops would never set foot on Ukrainian soil.” While such declarations might have been politically useful, given the widespread domestic opposition to being dragged into another bloody conflict, Vershbow said, it signaled to Putin that short of his crossing the U.S. “red line” — attacking a NATO member — he had little to fear by invading Ukraine again. President Obama levied only limited sanctions against Russia when Putin invaded Crimea in 2014; Biden was vice president then, as he was during the failure to attack Syria after its Russian-assisted president used chemical weapons — and he was president during the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan.

Read more in The Hill >>