Blinken Demands Russian Capitulation to U.S. Diktat

Dec. 13, 2021 (EIRNS)—Secretary of State Antony Blinken went belligerent on NBC’s “Meet the Press” with Chuck Todd yesterday. He claimed that when Biden spoke to Putin on Dec. 7, the U.S. President warned that if Russia invades Ukraine “there would be economic consequences like none [Putin]’s ever seen or ever have been seen.” Blinken added that “we are looking at and we are prepared to take the kinds of steps we’ve refrained from taking in the past that would have massive consequences for Russia.”

After raving about the “rules-based system” whose diktat all countries must obey, Blinken made clear that what the United States is demanding from Russia is effectively capitulation.

“What we are looking to see from Russia—and again, not just us, but allies and partners in Europe are looking—we’re looking to see de-escalation, we’re looking to see Russia pull back forces from the border, and we’re looking to see Russia engage in good faith in diplomacy, in diplomatic dialogue with the Europeans, with Ukraine, to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine, and to give Ukraine its borders back,”

Blinken said.

The Russian newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta reported today that Blinken’s assistant secretary and heir of Victoria Nuland’s position as Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, “Karen Donfried will begin her working visit to Kiev and Moscow, on Wednesday [Dec. 15] she will head to Brussels planning to discuss the diplomatic progress on ending the Donbas conflict by implementing the Minsk Accords. This intention alarms Kiev, and against this background Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that a referendum on the issues of Donbas, Crimea and peace in general is possible.” The paper then quotes a Ukrainian political scientist Viktor Taran that “judging by the rhetoric and the actions there is a high probability that Russia and the U.S. have agreed to jointly pressure Ukraine into implementing the Minsk Accords.” He says “Zelenskyy’s team comprehended all the risks of this scenario and is not ready to implement it, and the announced referendum is a sort of a counterargument.”