President Joe Biden could not make it any clearer that the United States fully supports a quick and unequivocal solution to the Russo-Ukrainian war, even to the extent of supporting a short-term Ukrainian counter-offensive to expel troops from the annexed Crimean peninsula (illegally). under international and Russian law) by Vladimir Putin in 2014.
David Malpass, President of the World Bank, filmed by Capitol Intelligence/CI Ukraine using CI Glass on the actions the multilateral bank took for Ukraine and its European Union membership at an event of the Atlantic Council on April 4, 2023.
The Ukrainian government believes it can have lasting peace only if it forces all Russian troops and the Black Sea Fleet into Sevastopol from Crimea, a defeat that would de facto replace the historic loss of Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese War under Tsar Nicholas II. surpass. lead to the immediate resignation/dismissal of Putin from the presidency.
After his presidential visit to Kiev to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Biden held a summit in Warsaw with the frontline NATO members of the Bucharest Nine to leave no doubt about the United States’ total support for a Ukrainian victory over Russia.
The B9 summit – with the conspicuous absence of longtime European NATO members and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (who attends the fourth annual US-Greece strategic dialogue in Athens) – a reward for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s efforts to create an uneasy standoff between Russia and Ukraine or those with financial interests in a prolonged war of attrition.
The US-EU military-industrial defense complex has argued in Washington and Brussels that it will need at least two years of massive arms spending to correct shortcomings in the supply chain and manufacturing to properly supply Ukraine’s war needs, an argument that finds little sympathy or patience in Kiev.
Blinken remains almost universally despised in Ukraine for ordering the total evacuation of American diplomats prior to the Russian invasion and causing President Zelensky to utter the phrase: “I need ammo, not a ride.”
The “Crime or Bust” strategy, in which most of Ukraine’s forthcoming spring offensive is aimed at taking back Crimea rather than increasing World War I-like trench warfare on the Eastern Front, is currently being welcomed by the former commander of US Army Europe. , Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, and the DC-based think tank the Hudson Institute.
It is also discreetly backed by Ukraine’s closest allies in the Biden administration: Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and former US Ambassador to Moscow Bill Burns and current US Ambassador to Poland Mark Brzezinski.
Many in Washington and Europe grossly underestimate Ukraine’s determination to end its senseless fratricidal war and its willingness to do whatever it takes to defeat Russia – from engaging in armed combat at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, Zaporizhzhia (ZNPP ), to launching a surprise ground invasion. from Russia actually.
Speaking to Capitol Intelligence, Mark Warner, chairman of the US Senate Intelligence Committee, said he was nervous that some elements in Ukraine were willing to launch a ground offensive against Russia.
Such an offensive would be an action similar to Estonia’s nearly taking the former Russian imperial capital of Petrograd Operation White Sword during the War of Independence against the Bolsheviks from 1918 to 1920.
“Let me make it clear. It is not Zelensky or any of his ministers who are proposing this (invasion of Russia), but some elements close to the government,” Warner said.
Visiting Crimea in 2015 was like taking a step back to the Soviet Union of the 1980s, as the lion’s share of its nearly 2 million inhabitants was directly linked to the Soviet Union’s political and military nomenklatura, where dachas and vacations to Crimea were part of the reward of the Communist Party and status system.
Even a few months after Russia’s annexation, Crimea grumbled loudly as they realized that Moscow’s strict visa laws would significantly cut the income of profligate Western tourists. This reporter personally witnessed a lengthy and lively debate between the Russian FSB (Federal Security Service) border guards and local officials as to why they could not simply lift or even bend the rules imposed by Moscow.
“Most people didn’t care about exchanging Ukrainian passports for Russian ones until they realized that the bureaucracy in Moscow is much, much worse than the one in Kiev,” said a Simferopol official.
For Leon Kogut, a Ukrainian-American figure in Brooklyn, New York, legendary for his Hollywood performances, political connections (US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, future US House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries, and Michael Bloomberg), and father of National Basketball Association referee Marat Kogut, the best possible outcome for all would be Putin’s resignation.
“The best outcome would be (Russian Prime Minister Mikhail) Mishustin taking over the presidency,” Kogut said at his home in Brighton Beach overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. “Mishustin, who is known in Russia as a technocrat, did everything he could to distance himself from the war and was able to start peace talks with President Biden.”
After leaving Ukraine in 1979 as a Jewish refuser, Kogut even returned to the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, where he raised very strong eyebrows by holding private business meetings with Soviet first lady Raisa Gorbacheva.
‘Leon’s Fantasy Cut’ star Leon Kogut speaks to Capitol Intelligence/CU Ukraine via CI Glass (Google Glass) on March 31, 2023 about supporting Ukraine at 7 Newkirk Plaza in Ditmas Park in Brooklyn, New York.
President Biden, in conjunction with US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, could immediately inform the new Russian administration that it has not waged a proxy war to bring the country to its knees by outgoing World Bank President David Malpass, as the global head of the planned $500 billion Marshall Fund to rebuild Ukraine.
Malpass — a fluent Russian speaker from his time as a U.S. Treasury official who rebuilt Russia from the ashes after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 — has already proved effective in coordinating billions of dollars in Group economic aid. of Seven and Group of Twenty to Ukraine.
Malpass could also expand the Marshall Plan for Ukraine with a new agricultural trade framework for Africa, the continent most affected by the Russo-Ukrainian war as lack of basic food supplies, fertilizers and inflation are destined to plague the poorest. the poor for years, if not decades.
Crimea itself could also serve as a model for post-war coexistence by striving to restore the peninsula to its former glory as a cultural and intellectual mecca by returning all lands to their pre-1918 revolutionary owners.
A return of private property illegally seized by the Bolsheviks would usher in the return of foreign descendants, such as the UK-US Tolstoy family, successful Tatar businessmen and others from around the world, and turn Crimea into a demilitarized free trade zone – kind of like Hamptons. /Monte Carlo with culture, port operations and offshore banking.
More importantly, the United States could openly try to forge Russian-American relations back to their pinnacle under Tsar Alexander II and Abraham Lincoln, two men who fought to emancipate slaves/serfs and were both murdered by homegrown traitors .
The premature demise of the reformist Tsar Alexander at the hands of a criminal gang that would later become Vladimir Ilyich Lenin’s Bolshevik party tragically hampered a series of fundamental reforms, such as the establishment of a sovereign and democratically representative Duma (parliament).
The emergence of a post-Putin, post-Soviet and truly democratic Russia is the best long-term defense not only for Ukraine and the West, but also for China, as a prosperous and stable neighbor lifts all boats.
Peter K Semler is the editor-in-chief and founder of Capitol Intelligence. Prior to that, he was the Washington, DC, bureau chief for Mergermarket (Dealreporter/Debtwire) of the Financial Times and led political and economic reporting for the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.
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