President Joe Biden has said he is leading an epic battle between democracy and autocracy. His response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to solidify his forces in Ukraine will test whether this goes beyond mere rhetoric.
Biden’s campaign, applicable to democracy at home and abroad, only underscores critics’ complaints about his handling of Putin recognizing two Kremlin-backed separatist regions in Ukraine and readying “peacekeepers” to defend them.
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Since his inauguration, Biden has fallen short of his more aspirational foreign policies, such as his “democracy vs. autocracy” and “America is Back” messages, according to former Trump administration national security aide Amanda Rothschild. The world does not have renewed sense of confidence in the United States, which Biden contends was missing under her old boss, Rothschild argues.
“The Biden administration has often concentrated on placating Berlin and Brussels at the expense of our eastern flank allies and partners,” she told the Washington Examiner.
Chief among Rothschild’s complaints is Biden last year weakening the congressionally mandated Nord Stream 2 pipeline sanctions, endorsed by Republicans like Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. The underwater project would have funneled natural gas between Russia and Germany, bypassing Ukraine and denying it valuable transit revenue. But Biden agreed to waive some of the measures as a gesture to former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, leery of the U.S. after former President Donald Trump, in exchange for Ukraine assistance.
“These actions would have improved U.S. security and the security of our European friends — not just in word, but in deed — and helped establish strong deterrence against Russian aggression,” Rothschild said.
Another instance is Biden and White House staffers dancing around the word “invasion” before and after Putin’s speech Monday undermining Ukraine’s statehood. Deputy national security adviser Jon Finer clarified the administration’s stance Tuesday morning by describing the situation as an invasion: “That is what is underway.”
“This is the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, as he indicated and asked permission to be able to do from his Duma,” Biden said Tuesday afternoon of the parliament-like body.
Earlier, Biden had to reaffirm his support for Ukraine after suggesting that his reaction to a Putin-led invasion would depend on whether it was a “minor incursion” or not.
For Rothschild, now the Vandenberg Coalition’s senior policy director, Biden’s invasion equivocation was evidence of his “misplaced focus on superficial slogans and shallow measures of allied unity.”
“What the United States, allies, and partners need now is decisive American leadership, a strong, capable, and truly united NATO alliance, and a U.S. president that proudly stands up for the sovereignty and borders of the United States at home and its partners abroad,” she said.
Democratic strategist Tom Cochran, an Obama administration State Department alumnus, implored detractors to withhold judgment until the sanctions are imposed.
“Meeting hard power with soft power can always seem weak, especially without the benefit of time to see if decisions work out as expected,” he said. “The biggest political challenge, which has grown with each successive recent president, is explaining why this matters to Americans.”
Coincidentally, White House press secretary Jen Psaki was needled about the importance of protecting Ukraine, particularly after Biden has repeatedly warned the public of the potential conflict’s “cost.”
“Why does that matter to the American people? That should matter because that is a fundamental value we as a country stand up for,” she said Tuesday.
Biden rolled out the “first tranche” of NATO ally and partner-prepared sanctions Tuesday to counter Putin declaring Donetsk and Luhansk independent of Ukraine. The measures — aimed at two Russian banks, the country’s sovereign debt, as well as elites and their families — will complement repositioned military personnel and equipment in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
Biden and White House aides have touted the sanctions as extending “far beyond” the steps taken in 2014 when Putin annexed Crimea. But they were also pressured to justify their tiered approach rather than inflicting maximum economic pain from the outset.
“Sanctions are not an end in themselves,” deputy national security adviser Daleep Singh said Tuesday. “They’re meant to prevent and deter a large-scale invasion of Ukraine that involves the seizure of major cities, including Kyiv.”
Even Democrats criticized Biden’s initial sanctions after he issued an executive order Monday that prohibited “new investment, trade, and financing by U.S. persons to, from, or in” Donetsk and Luhansk for not being proportionate to Putin’s hostilities toward Ukraine. The senior administration official who briefed reporters on Biden’s unilateral action that night almost anticipated the condemnations, emphasizing that the order was not the “swift and severe” measures Biden had promised.
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Biden did keep the pledge he made alongside German Chancellor Olaf Sholz this month that Nord Stream 2 would be brought to “an end” if Putin directed “tanks or troops” into Ukraine. Sholz announced Tuesday morning that the natural gas conduit between Russia and Germany would be halted indefinitely.
