Biden has agreed to meet with Putin 'in principle,' White House says

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Biden has agreed to meet with Putin 'in principle,' White House says

February 21, 2022

Stephen Collinson and Shelby Rose

Breaking ... President Joe Biden has agreed "in principle" to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, after last-ditch diplomacy brokered by French President Emmanuel Macron, as long as Russia does not further invade Ukraine, the White House said late Sunday.

Follow the latest developments on CNN's live report here.

NATO didn't suffer 'brain death'

More than 80 years after the outbreak of World War II, Europe's security still depends on the power of the United States. This obvious conclusion of the showdown with Russia over Ukraine is both comforting and concerning.

On the plus side, the leading role adopted by Biden shows that for all its recent military exhaustion with foreign wars, Washington remains committed to his historic role in protecting Western democracies. NATO's unity also eased fears that the alliance had lost its way, or as Macron put it in 2019, had suffered "brain death."

The US is far from the only government that has mobilized during the crisis. The two premier non-American European NATO powers are on maneuvers. Macron is still striving to provide Putin a diplomatic offramp. Britain's hawkishness has added steel to the US effort. Both Macron, who is soon facing reelection, and scandal-tainted British PM Boris Johnson, have their own political reasons for playing a big role. But without the symbolic and hard power of the United States, Britain and France are hardly likely to shift Putin's thinking. And given that he is demanding Russia's right to be treated as a great power, any ultimate end to the crisis will only come in talks with Biden.

The worrying aspect of the showdown stems from the same reality -- that nearly eight decades after the defeat of Nazism, the United States is still the guarantor of European freedom. Biden came of political age during the Cold War and is an Atlanticist. But the presidency of Donald Trump showed that it's not a given that US commanders in chief will always value NATO. (Many Trump fans insist that Putin didn't act up when their hero was President because Putin respected him. But that's like saying America needs an autocrat in the Oval Office to counter tyranny abroad. And Putin didn't need to bother dividing NATO when the US President was doing it for him.) But many Americans are puzzled why their country, despite all its problems at home, is locked in a confrontation with Russia over a faraway European nation. Trump's "America First" creed has a stronghold in the Republican Party. And future presidents will know the Cold War from history books rather than personal experience.

Whatever happens next, there needs to be deep thinking on both sides of the Atlantic about how Europe's security will be enshrined for the next 80 years.

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'A colder' Cold War

Finland's President Sauli Niinistö might know Putin better than any other Western leader. And his view of what is ahead in the showdown with the Russian President is a sobering one.

"I think that we are actually almost in a colder situation than we were during that traditional Cold War, because, then, we had at least some agreements between the United States and Soviet Union -- limiting arms and so on," Niinistö, told Dana Bash on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday. "Now we do not have, actually, anything. No agreements anymore."

"So this makes the situation, in my opinion, much more vulnerable."

What you need to know about Ukraine

It was a frenetic weekend in Europe, the United States and on the frontlines around Ukraine. Here are the latest developments you need to know.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Russia was running through the playbook that he predicted it would use in the countdown to war. "Everything leading up to the actual invasion appears to be taking place, all of these false flag operations, all of these provocations to create justifications. All of that is already in train," Blinken said Sunday on "State of the Union."

Russia and Belarus say that they will continue their joint exercise in response to an outbreak of fighting in eastern Ukraine. Blinken warned that they were acting in direct response to ceasefire violations by pre-Moscow separatists incited by Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who once downplayed US warnings about the imminence of an invasion, now wants a more aggressive Western response, including the imposition of sanctions on Russia before it crosses the border. "We don't need your sanctions after the bombardment will happen and after our country will be fired at or after we will have no borders, or after we will have no economy ... why would we need those sanctions then?"

As last-ditch diplomacy continues -- Blinken said he had arranged to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Europe this week -- but only if Russia doesn't invade.

In NOLA, they are partying like the pandemic never happened: the major Mardi Gras parades kicked off this weekend in New Orleans, Louisiana for the first time in two years. (WDSU)

Thanks for reading.

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