NATO has Putin’s number | The Seattle Times

There was some overwrought Monday-morning-quarterbacking following the conclusion of the summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Group. The principle criticism is that NATO members did not agree on an in depth procedural path for Ukraine to hitch the alliance.

That critique misses the far larger point: Ukraine has been assured NATO membership as soon as the Russian invasion of that nation is stopped. Add to that outstanding growth President Joe Biden’s profitable efforts to coax Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan into giving a inexperienced gentle to Sweden’s entrance into NATO, and the recent addition of Finland to the group, and it’s exhausting to argue that the alliance of Western democracies is one way or the other enfeebled.

The brand new actuality should sicken Russian President Vladimir Putin. Simply three years in the past, he had an American president in his pocket who was denigrating European allies and threatening to tug out of NATO. He had additionally seized Crimea from Ukraine whereas, in response, NATO merely slapped him with a number of sanctions.

That weak point among the many democracies and in President Donald Trump’s White Home, emboldened the Russian tyrant and made him suppose he might launch a blitzkrieg to seize all of Ukraine earlier than NATO had time to rally. To the shock of the kleptocrat within the Kremlin, Ukrainians bravely turned again the Russian assault and, now, with large support from NATO members –  led very successfully by President Biden – Putin teeters on a precipice of navy and political catastrophe.

In a masterful press convention in Finland this week, Biden declared that Putin has already misplaced the struggle in Ukraine and it solely stays for the Russian to determine how he can extricate himself from a debacle of his personal making. In the long run, if the struggle reaches a stalemate, Putin may be capable to minimize a deal that provides him management of some border areas of Ukraine. In that case, he can trumpet a bogus victory within the government-controlled Russian media. However Putin may have misplaced a lot extra.

The longstanding neutrality of Finland and Sweden has been ended by Putin’s bellicosity, and, most importantly, Ukraine – as soon as the breadbasket of the Russian empire, the jewel within the crown of czars – will quickly be safe behind the NATO defend.

See extra of David Horsey’s cartoons at: st.news/davidhorsey

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