Biden tells Yanukovych to quit and leave "or else"

Link to Biden's role in Ukraine coup

Biden's role on Ukraine underscores risks for his political future

By Matt Spetalnick

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As the bloodiest day of anti-government protests in Ukraine was drawing to a close last month, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden called President Viktor Yanukovich for the second time in three days and delivered a blunt message.

Pull back your security forces now and accept a European-brokered settlement or you will be held accountable, Biden warned the pro-Russian leader. “It WILL catch up with you.”

Initially defiant, Yanukovich sounded subdued by the end of the hour-long call, according to a senior U.S. official knowledgeable of the conversation. Within hours, Yanukovich signed a deal with the opposition and then fled to Russia.

Whether Biden’s 11th-hour warning was decisive or merely served in a supporting role to European Union negotiators, his intensive telephone diplomacy illustrates the kind of troubleshooting that has become integral to his portfolio in President Barack Obama’s second term.

However, given the United States’ limited options in the Ukraine crisis after Russia seized the Crimea peninsula, Biden’s role as a loyal Obama adviser on foreign policy poses risks to his political future if he runs for president in 2016.

Biden would be unable to separate himself from the administration’s record on Ukraine if the West comes out on the losing end of its worst standoff with Moscow since the Cold War.

“He’s tied to Ukraine policy, no matter how it comes out, said Shirley Anne Warshaw, a presidential scholar at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. “So he could be vulnerable.”

Republican critics can also be expected to keep the heat on the administration - and by extension, Biden - for what they say is a foreign policy that has exposed U.S. weakness in issues like the Syrian civil war, Iran nuclear talks, Afghanistan and the growing military challenge from China.

Possible 2016 Democratic rival Hillary Clinton decided to stake out a hawkish stance on Russian President Vladimir Putin last week. In condemning Moscow’s Crimea incursion, she invoked Adolf Hitler’s actions leading up to World War Two.

Though Clinton said she was not making a direct comparison between the two men, the former secretary of state’s line of attack was at odds with the White House’s more cautious approach and made her look tough on Russia as she considers a possible presidential campaign.

Popular posts from this blog

The ACTUAL Coup on January 6, 2021

Was the January 6 Capitol Breach used as cover for an actual coup? Trump's criticism of Pence's “failure” has deeper context FEBRUARY 5, 2022 - This past week, former US President Donald Trump again criticized former Vice President Mike Pence for Pence's handling of the disputed 2020 presidential election. Trump said that Pence failed in his duty as the President of the Senate at the January 6, 2021 Joint Session of Congress to ensure the integrity of the election when there were “obvious signs of voter fraud or irregularities.” Recently, Pence criticized Trump's earlier complaints about his handling of the January 6, 2021 Joint Session of Congress, which, as a part of the regular legal process of validating Presidential elections, was convened to certify the legitimacy of the Electoral College votes of the various states. Trump accused Pence of having acted as “an automatic conveyor belt for the 'Old Crow' Mitch McConnell to get Biden elected President as...
Read more

"Ukraine grain" is actually owned by US/EU corporate giants

Image
"Forced collectivization" - Vanguard style Here, Vanguard, et al are doing for real what Stalin and the USSR were accused of doing. Except it is all of Ukraine that is being "liquidated" - physically, and before the eyes of the world. When people talk about "Ukrainian grain" they're actually talking about grain that is now owned by US and EU mega-corporations such as Vanguard Group, Kopernik Global Investors, BNP Asset Management Holding, Goldman Sachs-owned NN Investment Partners Holdings, and Norges Bank Investment Management, which manages Norway’s sovereign wealth fund. Several large US pension funds, foundations, and university endowments are also invested in Ukrainian land through NCH Capital – a US-based private equity fund, which is the fifth largest landholder in the country. How is the takeover of agricultural land happening? Whereas at least 4.3 million hectares are (as of March of last year) already controlled by agribusinesses in Ukraine, ...
Read more