A decisive week opens. The US president: «If Russia invades, stop at Nord Stream 2». The Chancellor: “Compact allies but privilege diplomacy”
FROM THE CORRESPONDENT FROM WASHINGTON. The Ukrainian crisis unfolds like a film with an ending to be written along the 8-hour time zone that divides Moscow from Washington. In the Kremlin, French President Emmanuel Macron, also wearing the jacket of the EU leader, meets Vladimir Putin to seek a way to avoid conflict and recognize the concerns about the security of the Kremlin. A few hours later, when the two leaders in Moscow are still locked in an open conversation – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz enters the White House and brings Joe Biden an increase of 350 German soldiers in Lithuania, useful for «countering Russian aggression But also to calm the discontent of some American fringes who see Germany as a too indulgent ally with the Russians. Both in terms of sanctions and on that of military deterrence.
The scenography of the two meetings could not be more different; the French and the Russian sit at the head of a very long white table and the distance of the positions is immortalized in the shot that the Kremlin distributes. The precautions for Covid have transformed the first face to face in over two years between Macron and Putin into a “long-distance meeting”. From which the Russian president, according to initial information, would have come out with a possibilist attitude: “The ideas of the French president are realistic about the next steps”. Tomorrow the two will talk again after Macron sees Zelensky. However, the French leader reiterated to Putin that NATO’s open door policy is essential and highlighted that the next few days are crucial.
Mask on, two armchairs close together and the fire lit in the fireplace of the Oval Office, on the other hand, are the scenes of the greeting that Scholz and Biden address to the press before starting the bilateral, the premise of which lies in the sentence with which the US president clears the field of doubts about the state of relations between the two countries: “Germany is one of the closest allies of the United States”. And above all, “we march together in facing the aggression of Russia and the challenges posed by China and promoting stability in the Western Balkans,” says Biden with the chancellor at his side.
When Scholz and Biden show up two hours later in the press room, the confrontation between Macron and Putin is at the end, a marathon of almost six hours. The US president says that the Russian question has occupied most of the confrontation and reiterates the full agreement between the two countries on what to do in the event of an invasion. “I have no doubt about the reliability of the German ally,” says Biden, pointing out that if “Russia were to enter Ukraine, NATO, the US and Germany will be ready to react”. The answer is the sanctions on which Scholz, Berlin and Washington pointed out “work together in such a way that they can be activated quickly” and “create tremendous damage to Russia”. “This message was also understood in Moscow,” added the chancellor. “If Russia acts, Nord Stream 2 is finished,” Biden said dryly, finding indirect confirmation in Scholz’s sentence which, while never explicitly citing the gas pipeline of discord, underlined “the unity” with which Washington and Berlin they would move in the event of Russian force action.
If diplomacy tries to sew the distances, the terrain instead lengthens them. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that “America continues to see more and more troops on the border with Ukraine every day” and this “offers Putin more options from a military point of view”.
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