The Mother of All Foreign Trips

There is a joke Russians are telling online, which essentially says that President Biden has reached Kiyv before President Putin. A joke both humiliating and embarrassing to the Russian dictator many still remember him riding horses shirtless as a sign of immense virility and power. Today’s Biden visit to Kiyv, the mother of all foreign trips, symbolizes just how weak and wobbly Vladimir Putin has become on the world stage. Not only he cannot win a war against a much smaller and weaker country, but he cannot even stop the west from parading his epicene country with its debilitated regime of terror.

Bravo to the President for this foreign policy coup. Nothing like putting Putin in his place at the head of an irrelevant army and a hapless country to showcase American power. Biden in Kyiv demonstrated to the whole world who has already won the war in Ukraine almost one year after Putin started it.

Chapeau, Mr. President. Putin will never ride a horse shirtless ever again.

Stalin did not defeat the Nazis, but the Russian winter did. Just as that harsh winter routed Napoleon in 1812.

WITHOUT THE NUCLEAR ARSENAL

Russia’s power consists of a large arsenal of nuclear weapons Vladimir Putin cannot use. Unless he intends to annihilate the world. Unlike the United States and Europe, whose economic, military, and scientific powers are unmatched, Putin sits on useless and ageing weapons.

The man had over 24 years to prepare to invade Ukraine, yet, his armies demonstrably fell on their faces one year after the invasion. It is utterly clear on the global stage how weak Russia is as Presidents Biden and Zelensky walk the streets of Kyiv in broad daylight.

Since Putin’s early reign, his war machine waged wars in Chechnya, Georgia, and Syria defeating helpless civilians and armies that look more like revolutionary guerillas than the disciplined army he is facing today. He even bombed his own people. These wins got to his head. The dictator in Russia truly believed he can win any war he wages against any country he chooses. During the mother of all foreign trips, it became clear to the world that Putin is nothing but a scarecrow; as immobile and as impuissant.

Without the nuclear arsenal, Putin leads a third world country still drunk on the glory of Stalin’s defeat of the Nazis during World War II. Even though it was the Russian winter that routed the Nazis because witnessing from today’s actions on the battlefield, Russian troops would have never crushed the German army whose precision and engineering were and are still world class. These Russian troops cannot even conquer Ukraine today, let alone beat an army of three million soldiers marching eastward.

Stalin did not defeat the Nazis, but the Russian winter did. Just as the same harsh winter ambushed Napoleon in 1812.

Biden’s trip sends Putin a message that the United States has now opened shop on his door steps.

HOW WILL CHINA REACT TO BIDEN’S TRIP?

It is no secret that China is climbing the ladder to unseat the United States from its supreme perch. It is doing so delicately by using all the crafts available to include aiding Putin defeat the West.

But unlike Russia whose gas and oil Europe depends upon, China depends on the United States and Europe for its exports filling its state coffers with much needed foreign currencies. Any whim of sanctions and China gets the flu. Inexorably, on the matter of Ukraine, China is walking a tight rope, which means a sudden breeze could crash its economy dependent on the West opening its borders to its manufactured goods.

There are only two ways China could react to Biden’s visit. It could continue its tight rope walk, or it could suddenly realize that it needs to back off fearing that its policies may simply get it in hot water; all it takes is one minor diplomatic accident. The sight of President Biden in Kyiv, leader of the most powerful superpower, may open Chairman Xi nasal passages. Xi may want to pedal back couple of steps as a sign of respect for U.S. power. And he should.

Besides the humiliation part, Biden’s trip sends Putin a message that the United States has now opened shop on his door steps with only few billion dollars. Putin miscalculating, while overplaying his hand, is the understatement of the century.

Think Cuba in reverse without a body of water and a fully engaged allied army killing Russians.

The Mother of All Foreign Trips