European allies ignore Biden?

 Streiff:

One of the great lies we’ve heard from Joe Biden’s fluffers is the tale of glory where Biden rallies the Free World to the defense of Ukraine and something-something happens, and everything turns out great. No part of this could be further from the truth.

From the earliest days, Joe Biden and his henchmen ignored a build-up of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine that began a year ago. As the crisis intensified, the Biden junta did things which a) made it look ridiculous (for instance, the repeated predictions over more than a month that Russia was invading Ukraine imminently) and b) seemed calculated to force Putin to attack Ukraine as a face-saving exercise (read Why Today’s Austin-Milley Press Conference Convinces Me That Joe Biden Wants Conflict With Russia in Ukraine). When Putin declared the Ukrainian territories of Donetsk and Luhansk to be independent, Biden’s reaction was so weak that it seemed calculated to encourage Putin to do more, see Potemkin Sanctions by a Potemkin President; One of the Banks Sanctioned by Biden Was Sanctioned in 2014.

Yesterday, during his bumbling press conference on Thursday, Biden was asked two very specific questions (see Biden’s Sanctions Package Seems Calculated to Avoid Damaging Russia’s Economy, So Why Bother?). First, he was asked why he did not ban sanctioned Russian banks from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT); this would limit their ability to operate anywhere where Biden’s sanctions only prevent the Russian banks from working with American banks. Second, he was asked why Putin, himself, wasn’t sanctioned. This is from the transcript of his Thursday press conference.
...

Q Mr. President, you didn’t mention SWIFT in your sanctions that you announced. Is there a reason why the U.S. isn’t doing that? Is there disagreement among Allies regarding SWIFT and whether Russia should be allowed to be a part of it?

THE PRESIDENT: The sanctions that we have proposed on all their banks is of equal consequence — maybe more consequence than SWIFT — number one.

Number two, it is always an option. But right now, that’s not the position that the rest of Europe wishes to take.


Here, Biden blames our allies for not booting sanctioned Russian banks from SWIFT. Later, his minions fingered Germany and Italy as the countries who pushed back on this proposal. Yet, today, both Germany and Italy have said they have no objections to barring those banks from SWIFT.

...

The UK has also taken steps on the SWIFT issue.  Biden and his whole team appear to be stumbling along.  One of his bigger screw-ups has been the failure to put sanctions on Russia's oil and gas business and stop all US purchases.  Of course, Biden's energy policies have wound up funding Putin's war effort by artificially raising the price of oil and cutting US production.  It was a strategic blunder.



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