A muted reaction is becoming more common among Western officials. For many of them, Putin became like a boy who often shouted “Wolf!”
US President Joe Biden is very careful about issues that the Kremlin calls crossing red lines. In contrast, young European politicians advocate stronger support for Ukraine and are not afraid of Russian nuclear threats. Time magazine wrote this on Thursday, October 3.
The publication recalls that on September 19, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling for Ukraine to be allowed to strike Russian territory with long-range Western missiles and to provide it with more such weapons.
In response to this, the speaker of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, Vyacheslav Volodin, said that the flight time of the Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile over Strasbourg, where the European Parliament is located, was 3 minutes 20 seconds.
“Do the citizens of European countries want to have a war at home?” – he addressed the European Parliament, calling on it to dissolve itself.
However, the head of the European Parliament, Robert Matsola, was not afraid or even surprised by these words, writes Time.
“A common reaction,” he commented on Volodin’s escapade. When asked if such threats should be taken seriously, Metsola replied: “If this kind of rhetoric becomes more frequent, we should be prepared for it.”
The Prime Minister of Denmark, Matte Frederiksen, is not afraid of threats, although Vladimir Putin defiantly called the Security Council, where he ordered the nuclear doctrine to be adjusted.
“I cannot say with certainty whether this is a bluff or not,” said Frederiksen, one of the strongest supporters of increased military aid to Ukraine from NATO countries, “But I believe that we will never allow a people don’t respect democracy and human rights and everything we believe in, we can’t let him decide what the rest of us should do.”
The muted reaction is becoming more common among Western officials, says Time: for many of them, Putin has become like a boy who often cries “Wolf!” (or in this case, “Nuclear weapons!”), so threats no longer scare them. Fear and leadership don’t mix, says Frederiksen. The Western tendency to worry about Putin’s red lines, he added, has caused too frequent delays in military aid to Ukraine.
“The only red line I see in this war was already crossed when they attacked Ukraine,” the publication quoted the Danish Prime Minister as saying.
Biden would also meet Kyiv halfway instead of caving in to Russian threats, said Kurt Volker, a former US permanent representative to NATO who also served as the State Department’s special representative for Ukraine under President Donald Trump. Before or after the presidential election, the Biden administration will begin lifting restrictions on the use of long-range missiles without officially announcing it, Volcker told Deutsche Welle.
At the same time, in his opinion, if Trump wins the election, Biden will provide more military aid to Ukraine in the last three months of his term. “He’s going to try to force Putin to end the war by saying, ‘Stop the war now. We’re going to give up Ukraine’s weapons and get it into NATO, so just stop the war,'” Volker said.
We remind you that the new NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said that the only country that crossed the “red line” was not Ukraine, it was Russia, which started this war.
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Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.