Russian president warns that escalation over Ukraine could lead to nuclear war

Lukashevich, reminded the OSCE that NATO’s expansion violated the various OSCE Security Treaties that promise indivisible security because it poses a threat to Russian security. At a press conference in Moscow on Tuesday, French President Macron as well as his host President Vladimir Putin also reminded the audience that NATO was not a defensive organization. Especially Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan could testify to this.

The alleged “Rules-Based International Order” which Washington has constantly bandied around, is an empty phrase. “A recent example of the mutability of the ‘Rules-Based International Order’ is that gay rights are very important in Russia but not at all in Washington’s new ‘major ally’ of Qatar,” analyst Patrick Armstrong pointed out.

France, Germany, and Russia have been trying to find common ground to avoid the outbreak of hostilities, while the United States and Great Britain are striving to incite conflict, without the risk of bloodshed within their own territories.

While Macron visited Moscow for a meeting with his Russian counterpart this week, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz held talks with US President Joseph Biden in Washington.

During the press conference, Putin stressed that European countries could not avoid bloodshed if Ukraine joined NATO and attempted to regain Crimea. “The military potential of NATO and Russia is not comparable, we understand that. But we are a leading nuclear power. There will be no winners,” Putin said, stressing that neither Russia nor France were interested in a military escalation.

“We did not see our three key demands adequately considered: stopping NATO’s expansion, refusing to use strike weapons systems near Russian borders, and returning the bloc’s military infrastructure in Europe to how it was in 1997.” But, and this is the foundation for the next step in Moscow’s diplomacy offensive: Russia intends to adhere to common security principles.

US President Biden has been deaf to these demands and has asserted his grip on a German-Russian economic project which does not involve the US – NordStream 2, the gas pipeline between Germany and Russia which is key to Germany’s energy security.

“The first question first. If Germany — if Russia invades — that means tanks or troops crossing the — the border of Ukraine again — then there will be — we — there will no longer be a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it,” Biden said in the presence of visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

It is not at all clear how exactly Biden believes this could be achieved unless he instructs NATO to launch a war. In Biden’s next response he alluded to just that: “We will — I promise you, we’ll be able to do it.”

Such talk alone should be reason enough for Germany to leave NATO and to kick the remaining US troops out of its country.

But pundit Gilbert Doctorow is rather pessimistic about the outlook for Europe since peace on the continent “may well be outside the control of Vladimir Putin” or European leaders, including Ukraine.

“The Guns of February or March will be fired, if they are fired at all, by actions taken by military authorities either in Kiev or at the line of demarcation independently of what President Zelensky may wish. The fuse may even be lit by detachments of British or US special forces now circulating near the line of demarcation, also without the specific knowledge of their respective Prime Minister or President just as the February 2014 coup d’etat in Kiev was engineered by a certain State Department officer, Victoria Nuland, without the participation or detailed knowledge of her bosses.”