Two things became rather clear after the emergency meetings held this week by the United States and European allies in Brussels to discuss the global crisis. that triggered the Russian invasion in Ukraine and that already completed a month.
The first is the firm determination among the allies to continue punishing Moscow for its bloody and unjustified war.. The second is that the instruments they had to put pressure on the Kremlin and perhaps make it change its mind have begun to run out.
Read more: Economic suffocation, the West’s coup against Russia
Between Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, the leaders of NATO, the G-7, the European Union, and President Joe Biden held three meetings to coordinate strategies and further increase the pressure. And in that sense there were several new announcements. On the one hand, it was agreed to include more than 400 Russian officials on the sanctioned list, including all members of the Duma (or parliament).
Likewise, tighten the measures to prevent companies or countries from continuing to make transactions with Russia and thus make the applied economic tourniquet more efficient.
NATO, incidentally, announced a plan with which it seeks to double its military presence in the countries of the so-called eastern flank –closer to Russia–, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania, not only with men but also with air support.
A move with which they hope to dissuade Vladimir Putin from any attack against member countries of the Alliance and protect the corridors of humanitarian and military aid that flow into Ukraine.
It was also agreed to increase, individually, the shipment of weapons that allow the Ukrainians to repel Russian attacks and go on the offensive in some parts of the country, as has been happening.
Parallel, Biden and the European Union announced a joint strategy to reduce the Old Continent’s dependence on fossil energy sources that Russia provides and that includes the shipment of 15 billion of liquid gas and other initiatives to accelerate the transition towards renewable energy sources.
The US president also promised aid for more than 1,000 million dollars to address the refugee crisis in several Eastern European nations and formally requested the expulsion of Russia from the G-20, which brings together the most industrialized parts of the world and that has an appointment planned in October to which Putin would attend.
But perhaps the most significant development of the day was the “red line” drawn by the US and NATO against the possible use of chemical and biological weapons in Ukraine.
In recent days, concern has grown over the possibility that Russia, frustrated by its lack of progress in the military field and strangled by economic measures, resorts to the use of unconventional weapons such as these, which have been prohibited since the First World War. .
We will respond in the same way. If Putin uses them we will respond. The nature of that response will depend on how they are used.
Although Moscow denies it, the international community is convinced that they were used by the Bashar al Assad regime in Syria (an ally of the Kremlin) in 2013.
However, neither the US president at the time (Barack Obama) nor NATO wanted to commit that the use of this lethal weaponry constituted an infraction that would trigger a response from the West. On this occasion, both Biden and the Europeans hinted that Putin will pay a heavy price if he crosses the line.
“We will respond in the same way. If Putin uses them we will respond. The nature of that response will depend on how they are used,” President Biden said.
This week, New York Times reported that from the first day of the invasion, the US president assembled a team, known as the ‘Tiger Group’, whose task is to develop a response plan in case Moscow uses this type of arsenal, or escalates the conflict through direct attacks on convoys carrying humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine, or against NATO member countries. And, of course, before the possibility of Russia using its nuclear arsenal.
Biden, in another sign of his defiance, visited US troops this Friday in Rzeszow, a city 100 kilometers from the border with Ukraine, in Poland, and Warsaw yesterday for an interview with President Andrzej Duda, with whom discussed the defense of one of NATO’s most vulnerable countries due to its proximity to Russia.
Union is not everything
But Biden’s trip and the meetings with Europeans also revealed the limits of the containment strategy. Although several countries of the European Union have called for a total blockade of Russian hydrocarbon imports, it was clear that at the moment there is no appetite for such a maneuver. At least not at the moment. Especially in the case of Germany, which imports almost 40 percent of its needs from this country.
Despite the fracture, the US president continued to insist that the ultimate goal is to get to that point. “I know that eliminating Russian gas will cost Europe, but it is not only the right step from a moral perspective, it will allow us to position ourselves more firmly from a strategic point of view,” the president warned.
Russia, in any case, has begun to exploit this contradiction by indicating that from now on it will only receive rubles as a form of payment for energy exports to countries it considers hostile. Something that the Europeans classified as an extortion whose purpose is to evade economic sanctions.
At the same time, the idea of defending a no-fly zone over Ukraine disappeared from the agenda, something that Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky has been begging for, as well as the possibility of donating old Soviet planes that some countries still possess.
In the same way, NATO – including the US – continued to maintain the line that they will not intervene directly in the conflict despite concluding that war crimes are being committed in this country.
In fact, in his speeches during the meeting with NATO and the EU, Zelensky would not have insisted on these requests. That, among other things, they have caused Biden and his allies strong internal pressure as well as fissures in the alliance against Russia. But at the end of the week, Ukrainian officials declared themselves “disappointed” by the outcome of the NATO meeting and revived both requests.
In any case, the message from the US president, and a very strong one, is that despite the differences that the “common front” that exists to stop Russia is solid, and will bear fruit in the short or medium term.
“NATO,” Biden said, “has never been as united as it is now. The most important thing of all is to stay united, focused, and show Putin’s beast that we are going to continue punishing him this month, next month, all year long and in time.” that is necessary”.
SERGIO GOMEZ MASERI
Correspondent of THE TIME
Washington
On Twitter @sergom68
Keep reading
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-Russia and Ukraine: how could the world change after the war?
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