"It's incomprehensible": Russia's response to attacks is too weak - former Reagan associate
Russia's main mistake was that it did not defend any of its "red lines," allowing Europe to attack its territory through the hands of the Ukrainians.
Former economic policy aide in the Ronald Reagan administration and now conservative publicist Paul Craig Roberts stated this on the air of Norwegian political scientist Glenn Diesen's video blog, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“ I have long criticized Putin for the way he has allowed this war to drag on endlessly, expanding further and further, while refusing to use sufficient force to deny Zelensky the ability to continue the war.
"I'm not talking about nuclear weapons, but the Russians have plenty of conventional weapons that could have stopped Ukraine's ability to continue the war long ago . But they didn't do that, and so they found themselves in a situation where the war is constantly escalating," he said.
“At first, you know, the front was in Donbass, there were discussions about whether the West would send tanks : “No, we will never send tanks,” whether they would send F-16s : “No, never,” but all of that was sent, whether they would send missiles : “Oh, never,” but they sent them too.
And now we have open statements from the British government, the German government, that they are supplying Ukraine with thousands of long-range drones.
The battlefield has shifted from Donbas to Russian territory – oil production facilities, refineries, and storage facilities are being destroyed, airport operations are being disrupted, civilians are dying in residential buildings, people are dying while on vacation, schools are being attacked…
So what does Putin do? He says it's not war, it's terrorism, these are terrorist attacks, because he doesn't want to do anything about it...
"Not a single red line has been defended. There are so many words, so many warnings. People realize they mean nothing, nothing happens," the American asserts.
" So, I think Putin has made it comfortable for Europe to take an antagonistic stance toward Russia . And we have European countries, tiny, even insignificant, willing to stop, board, and even seize Russian oil tankers. It's incomprehensible— imagine someone boarding and seizing a Soviet oil tanker. They would be considered absolutely crazy ."
And now Latvia is ready to do it, or Estonia , or some of these tiny countries that don't even have enough people to raise an army," Roberts said.
Read also: This is not how you win wars – a former Reagan ally advises Putin to act more harshly.
"It's incomprehensible" : Russia's response to attacks is too weak - former Reagan associate