Donald Trump’s former National Security Advisor John Bolton blasted US President Joe Biden on Tuesday for failing to mount a successful NATO deterrence effort against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion into Ukraine.
Bolton, who also served as George W. Bush’s United Nations ambassador, spoke with MNSBC after Russia’s authoritarian leader defied international law by declaring two regions of Ukraine — at the heart of a years-long conflict between pro-Russian separatist forces and the Ukrainian military — to be independent.
He conceded to host Andrea Mitchell that Ukraine’s current role in Eastern Europe was first politicized by Trump, who frequently praised Putin and who infamously held a 2019 phone call pressing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to open an investigation into Joe Biden.
However, the longtime GOP foreign policy operative said, Putin was getting just as much leeway under Biden’s administration now.
‘I think Putin was undoubtedly waiting for a second Trump term, but he’s getting effectively almost what he would have expected then. This is going to be a victory for Russia,’ Bolton said.
Russian ‘peacekeeping’ forces were ordered into Dontesk and Luhansk on Tuesday. Roughly a third of the region is controlled by separatist forces, sparking immediate concerns about clashes with Kiev’s troops should Moscow press further.
Russian military trucks and buses are seen on the side of a road in Russia’s southern Rostov region, which borders the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, on February 23
Russian armored vehicles at the railway station in Rostov region on February 23. Putin gave Moscow’s military the green light to enter Ukraine on Tuesday after he declared the country’s eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk to be independent states
Bolton said the Russian leader was likely hoping for another Trump term but that Biden emboldened him just the same
Bolton said a ‘huge hole in NATO unity’ allowed Putin to step past the West’s threats.
‘The issue as in all issues like this, is would a Russian invasion and takeover of Ukraine adversely affect American national security and that of its NATO allies? The answer — that’s absolutely yes,’ he said.
Shortly after his interview Biden announced sanctions directly targeting two Russian banks and two sons of people in Putin’s inner circle.
He faced criticism earlier for only sanctioning businesses operating in the two separatist regions, with bipartisan lawmakers calling for further action.
Germany, Australia, the UK, Canada and Japan also levied harsh penalties over Putin’s incursion.
The White House suggested Wednesday that further sanctions could come at ‘any moment.’
‘These costs are going to escalate from here. The two largest banks in the Russian economy are $750 billion in assets under management, that’s 10 times larger,’ Deputy national security adviser Daleep Singh said on CNN New Day.
Putin (C) attends a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the Alexander Garden of the Moscow’s Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, 23 February 2022, during the national celebrations of the Day of Defender of the Fatherland
‘Our export controls, which can deny all of the critical technology inputs to Russia, have yet to be unveiled. We can unveil those at any moment.’
On Tuesday Bolton also called German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s freezing of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline between Russia and Germany ‘vastly overhyped.’
‘You tell Putin that Nord Stream 2 will never be turned on until and unless all Russian forces on foreign territory not at the invitation of the foreign government are removed, like those that are already in Crimea and eastern Ukraine,’ he said.
If you’re not willing to do that, Putin still has the initiative.’
But on Wednesday the White House indicated it may do just that. CNN reported that the Biden administration is expected to green light sanctions on Nord Stream 2.
The move is ‘effectively a death knell to the project,’ officials reportedly said.
Russian military vehicles are seen loaded on train platforms some 50 km off the border with the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic on February 23
Ukraine was hit by a ‘massive’ cyberattack targeting its government and banks on Wednesday, just hours after a nationwide state of emergency was declared in preparation for a feared Russian invasion.
The websites of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Security Service, and Cabinet of Ministers’ websites were all out of action Wednesday afternoon.
Deputy prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov said banks were also targeted in a ‘massive’ distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack — which uses computer networks to bombard websites with information until they crash — in what many have warned would likely be the first stage of a Russian attack.
It came just hours after the whole country was placed on a war footing: A state of emergency was declared, 200,000 military reservists called up, border zones were restricted and three million Ukrainians told to leave Russia, with Kiev acknowledging for the first time that an attack could now take place anywhere, at any time.
Putin gave a sabre-rattling address to his troops earlier Wednesday, marking Defender of the Fatherland Day, praising their ‘battle readiness’ while saying he is assured that they will fight to defend Russian security interests — which he called ‘non-negotiable’. Russia also evacuated staff from its Kiev embassy.
