Analyzing President Putin’s Response to the Undeclared US-Provoked Missile Crisis
For the time being at least, diplomacy is still ongoing, which speaks to the suggestion that Russia isn’t yet ready to resort to kinetic means for ensuring its national security red lines. This also hints that they haven’t yet been fully crossed either otherwise Moscow would likely have already acted.
Russian President Putin publicly addressed the undeclared US–provoked missile crisis in Europe during a press conference following talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Orban. He expressed regret that the American response didn’t adequately address his country’s national security red lines by continuing to cling to NATO’s ever-eastward expansion, refusing not to deploy strike weapons near Russia’s borders, and declining to reverse the alliance’s regional military posturing back to is pre-1997 status quo as initially agreed to by the now-defunct Russia-NATO Founding Act of that same year.
The Russian leader also discussed two very worrying scenarios. The first concerned the US’ potential clandestine deployment of Tomahawk missiles to its so-called “missile defense shield” facilities in Poland and Romania that President Putin said could end up striking deep within his country’s territory while the second touched upon the scenario of Ukraine attacking Crimea and provoking a Russian-NATO war if it ends up joining that alliance. He reaffirmed, however, that Russia wants to avoid any possible war, which is why it made its security guarantee proposals public in late December.
From his words, it can be understood that Russia is doing its utmost to make the international community aware of how serious the undeclared US-provoked missile crisis in Europe is. The country also wants to reassure everyone that it isn’t the warmongering aggressor like the US-led Western Mainstream Media falsely misportrays it as but is passionate about pursuing peaceful solutions to the ongoing crisis that take into account its national security red lines. Russia will not, however, make any unilateral concessions, let alone compromise on its aforesaid red lines.
The world was eagerly waiting for President Putin to comment on the current crisis. He’s hitherto remained tight-lipped, which prompted plenty of speculation about his intentions. That was actually part of his typical policy of strategic ambiguity whereby the Russian leader doesn’t needlessly speak on issues of relevance unless he has something worthwhile to say. This makes him altogether different from his Western counterparts who never tire of blabbering about whatever it may be. Unlike them, each and every word that he utters has very deep meaning and deserves to be analyzed in depth.
Upon doing so, objective observers will realize that Russia is actually the victim of American aggression. The US-led Western Mainstream Media narrative is weaponized and thus constitutes information warfare against the Eurasian Great Power. Their false portrayal of the situation doesn’t align with reality. Russia isn’t salivating at the thought of “annexing” a war-torn sliver of Eastern Ukraine, let alone that entire impoverished country. Rather, it’s purely focused on defending its national security red lines in order to maintain nuclear parity with the US and thus preserve global strategic stability.
It’s the subversive anti-Russian faction of the US’ permanent military, intelligence, and diplomatic bureaucracies (“deep state”) that’s dangerously trying to undermine Russia’s nuclear second-strike capabilities through the deployment of strike weapons to the region under the pretext of Kiev provoking a third round of civil war hostilities in Eastern Ukraine or a foreign intelligence-backed false-flag operation to that effect. These weapons could enter Central & Eastern Europe (CEE) under the cover of being so-called “missile defense systems” exactly as President Putin warned regarding US Tomahawks.
For the time being at least, diplomacy is still ongoing, which speaks to the suggestion that Russia isn’t yet ready to resort to kinetic means for ensuring its national security red lines. This also hints that they haven’t yet been fully crossed either otherwise Moscow would likely have already acted. President Putin’s public comments on the undeclared US-provoked missile crisis can also be interpreted as Russia’s highest-profile attempt yet to convey its legitimate concerns to the international community. The ball’s therefore in the US’ court where it’s always been to decide whether to de-escalate this crisis.
