West must answer threat from Russia

It’s been six weeks since President Joe Biden’s videoconference with Russian leader Vladimir Putin over the crisis in Ukraine. Since then, Putin’s saber-rattling has only gotten louder.

The Kremlin has been moving troops and military equipment into Belarus, a faithful Moscow ally that borders Ukraine on the north. Moscow also has been reportedly emptying out its embassy in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv — a move perhaps meant to intimidate, perhaps meant to ready for a full-scale invasion. Ukrainian authorities fear Russian hackers have planted destructive malware in the country’s computer networks, and are waiting for the go-ahead to activate.

And ominously, Russian officials have hinted about shifting nuclear weapons to locations not far from the U.S. coastline — a prospect unnervingly reminiscent of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. “I don’t want to confirm anything or rule anything out,” Sergei Ryabkov, a Russian deputy foreign minister, answered when asked in Geneva whether the Kremlin was thinking about deploying military infrastructure in Cuba or Venezuela.

Putin is a master at signalsending to accumulate leverage, so at this stage it’s impossible to discern whether Moscow’s latest provocations are chess moves or actual foundation stones for an eventual invasion of Ukraine.

Nevertheless, Putin’s mission hasn’t wavered. He wants Biden to acquiesce to the Kremlin’s demands that Ukraine never be allowed to join NATO, and that the alliance end all security cooperation with Kyiv. The Russian leader also wants all American nuclear weapons removed from Europe, and an assurance that Western troops will no longer be deployed in NATO countries that once were Warsaw Pact states.

NATO came into existence after World War II as a firewall against Soviet aggression. The threat from America’s Cold War superpower rival was real.

Putin’s actions over the years have forced NATO to once again regard Russia as an existential threat. It’s why the U.S. and its Western allies must show far more resolve against Putin than they did when he stole Crimea from Ukraine. What form that resolve takes remains to be seen, though harsh sanctions such as cutting off Russia from the global financial system, along with fully arming the Ukrainian insurgency that would follow any invasion, should be part of the arsenal.

Biden should also reconsider his reluctance to impose sanctions on Russia’s coveted Nord Stream 2 pipeline to bring natural gas to Germany. For the Kremlin, the project isn’t just an economic boon — it represents another key energy tool that it can use as political leverage against Europe. Germany sees Nord Stream as vital to its economy, but top German leaders now say shutting down Nord Stream should be on the table if Russia invades Ukraine.

Biden and Democrats in Congress were able to help defeat Republican legislation in the Senate that would have slapped sanctions on Nord Stream 2. Germany’s warming to the idea of Nord Stream sanctions, and the Biden administration should follow suit.

Anything less than a U.S.European united front against Putin gives the former KGB agent exactly what he got in 2014 when he invaded Crimea — confidence that the West would huff about his audacious behavior, but ultimately acquiesce. Too much is at stake now, however, for that to happen again.