Biden’s Barbed Putin Comments: A Slip or a Concealed Threat?

WARSAW – They are among the last words of a carefully crafted speech. But they have strayed far from the fragile balance that President Biden tried to strike during three days of wartime diplomacy in Europe.

“For God’s sake, this man cannot continue to be in power,” Biden said Saturday, slowing down for emphasis.

On his face, he seemed to call for Russian President Putin to be overthrown for his brutal invasion of Ukraine. But Mr. Biden’s aides were quick to insist that the comment – made in front of a castle that had been the residence of Polish kings for centuries – was not intended to call for regime change.

Whatever his intentions, the moment underscores the dual challenges faced by Mr. Biden during his three extraordinary summits in Belgium and a close look at the war’s aftermath from Poland: keeping America’s allies unite against Putin, while avoiding an escalation with Russia, which the president has said could lead to World War III.

To achieve his first goal, Mr. Biden has spent much of the trip drawing the world’s attention to Mr. Putin’s atrocities since he began the war on Feb. 24. He called for continued action to cripple the Russian economy. He reaffirmed the US promise to defend NATO allies against any threat. And he called Putin “a butcher” who is responsible for the devastating damage to Ukrainian cities and people.

Dmitri S. Peskov, Kremlin spokesman, said Putin’s fate is not in the hands of the US president. “It’s not for Biden to decide,” Peskov told reporters after Biden finished. “The President of Russia is elected by the Russians.”

Even as he carried out the task of rallying his counterparts, Mr. Biden and his aides were determined to avoid taking actions that Mr. Putin could use as a prelude to starting a conflict. broader and even more dangerous.

“There is simply no justification or provocation for Russia’s choice of war,” Biden said earlier in his speech on Saturday night. “It’s an example of one of the oldest human impulses – the use of force and disinformation to satisfy a thirst for power and absolute control.”

In closed-door discussions at NATO and with the leaders of more than 30 countries, Mr. Biden has repeatedly vowed not to send US troops into war against Russia. And despite desperate pleas to be Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, the President of Ukraine, Mr. Biden is still opposed to using NATO or US fighter jets to secure the country’s airspace against attacks. public of Russia.

Mr. Biden’s trip, which begins Wednesday, comes at a critical time for his presidency and for the world, amid Europe’s biggest war since 1945 and a humanitarian crisis. Religion is growing like mushrooms. Both are testing resolve and cooperation in the NATO alliance after four years in which former President Donald J. Trump cast doubt on its relevance and promoted US policy of isolationism.

According to veteran foreign policy watchers, Mr. Biden has succeeded in keeping the message going – a fact that makes his last-minute remarks about Mr. Putin’s future even more striking.

“That message of solidarity is exactly what Putin needs to hear to convince him to downsize his war goals and end the brutality,” said Charles Kupchan, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “That’s what the Ukrainians need to hear to encourage them to keep fighting. And that’s what Europeans need to hear to calm their nerves and reassure them that the United States is fully committed to their protection. “

However, the president ended his trip on Saturday and returned home with some concrete answers about how or when wars will end – and the uncertainty about brutal violence and fierce will still happen.

A top Russian commander appeared on Friday to signal that Moscow was narrowing its war goals, saying capturing Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital and other major cities was not a priority. General Sergei Rudskoi, head of the Main Operations Department of the Russian General Staff, said in a public statement that the army would instead focus “on the main thing: the complete liberation of Donbas,” the southeastern region is home to Kremlin-backed separatist rebels.

Administration officials say a Russian withdrawal to the Donbas would be a significant setback for Mr Putin, who has drawn international scorn for his invasion and plunged the Russian economy into disarray. under the weight of global sanctions.

If Putin decides to limit the scope of the war, it will pose new diplomatic challenges for Mr. Biden, who has used the horrors of all-out war to call on the world to resist aggression. of Russia. That could become more difficult if Mr. Putin decides to mobilize some of his forces back – whether it’s for an actual retreat or a strategic offensive.

However, for now, much of Ukraine is still under siege while the country’s forces have put up a fierce resistance.

On Saturday, just as Mr. Biden was about to give his speech, a Russian missile hit Lviv, a city in western Ukraine not far from the Polish border. The rockets hit or near what is believed to be an oil depot, and thick black smoke billowed over the city. At least five people were injured.

Putin’s thoughts were still in the air as Mr. Biden boarded Air Force One on Saturday night to fly back to Washington, complicating his administration’s calculus as it sought to maintain pressure on Russia without traveling. too far.

It all adds up to a daunting task for Mr. Biden, who took office determined to end America’s 20-year war in Afghanistan and now faces the challenge of managing one. other.

He has received high praise – even from Republicans – for sending more than $2 billion in military and security aid to Ukraine, bolstering its ability to fend off Russian forces. And he joined European leaders in imposing crippling sanctions on the Russian economy, putting enormous pressure on the Russian leader’s most fervent supporters.

During Mr. Biden’s visit to Brussels, NATO announced the redeployment of additional forces to member states closest to Russia, an effort Biden said would send a message of commitment to Russia. Mr. Putin.

The president also announced $1 billion in humanitarian aid to Poland and other countries that have received 3.5 million people fleeing fighting in Ukraine. Mr. Biden said the United States would open its borders to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees.

“Clear American leadership is no longer taken for granted in Europe,” said Ian Lesser, executive director of the German Marshall Fund in Brussels. “In this sense, the president’s trip has made a significant impression.”

However, the president also drew criticism from Mr. Zelensky, for refusing to enforce a no-fly zone over Ukraine.

“Their advantage in the sky is like the use of weapons of mass destruction,” Zelensky told Biden and the leaders of other NATO countries during their caucus on Thursday. “And you see the consequences today. How many people died, how many peaceful cities were destroyed.”

Mr. Biden has faced the limits of European action by asking his allies the question of limiting Russia’s ability to profit from oil and gas sales. Europe gets a large portion of its energy from Russia, and Mr. Biden has once again found a profound reluctance to make any decisions to sever that lifeline.

Instead, the president announced a longer-term plan to help Europeans detox from using Russian fuel.

Jeremy Bash, who served as a top adviser at both the Pentagon and the CIA under former President Barack Obama, called Putin’s war “a geopolitical earthquake” and a “only contest”. once” forced Mr. Biden to quickly adapt to a rapidly changing world of diplomacy and security.

“President Biden is now the wartime commander-in-chief waging four wars at once,” Bash said on Saturday. “An economic war, an information war, possibly a cyber war, and an unprecedented indirect military war against Putin. And so far, Putin has not been able to achieve one of his goals.”

Some of the administration’s most fervent supporters in the foreign policy world were quick to disparage the president for appearing to be seeking to remove Mr. Putin. Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, called this a “wretched lapse in discipline that threatens to prolong the scope and duration of the war.”

While American officials have maintained their goal is not regime change in Moscow, even the president’s top national security advisers have made it clear that they want Putin to become politically weak. strategic side.

“At the end of the day, the Russian people will be asking the more fundamental question of why this happened and how this happened,” Jake Sullivan, the president’s national security adviser, told reporters. aboard Air Force One on Friday, before the president’s address. “And we believe, at the end of the day, they’ll be able to connect the dots.”

These are the costs that President Putin incurs for himself and his country as well as his economy and defense industry base for his decision to go to war in Ukraine completely without cause. and his gratuitous.”