It seems as though the world is sliding toward another major global conflict, this time featuring nuclear-armed powers, and the steepening nature of that slide can be attributed in part to the increasingly sharpened rhetoric employed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden.
White House reporters and staffers alike were likely freaking out on Friday when President Biden ventured off-script and began to talk tough and issue threats against Putin and Russia, Breitbart reported.
Biden’s words came in response to an earlier speech Putin delivered to announce the annexation of certain Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine and to attack the collective West and globalist elites for the deteriorating situation there and in other parts of the world.
Putin annexes parts of Ukraine; casts blame on West for global problems
In a major speech delivered Friday at the Kremlin, President Putin signed dubious treaties following questionable referendum elections to formally annex as Russian territory the occupied Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia.
He went on to make clear that he would defend this new-claimed territory at all costs as though it had been a part of Russia for its entire thousand-year existence.
Putin also launched a damning verbal assault against the “neocolonial” West — the United States in particular — and leveled all sorts of accusations, including that it had long sought to completely destroy Russia, that it provoked the current conflict in Ukraine, and that it was responsible for the recent damage caused to the Nord Stream pipeline system that carries Russian gas to Europe.
Biden’s off-prompter tough talk against Putin
Friday afternoon, President Biden delivered remarks of his own from the White House that were, at least initially, focused on the government’s response to Hurricane Ian and the extensive damage that storm caused in Florida and threatened to inflict on other East Coast states.
About midway through his speech, however, Biden ventured off-script — he even noted to reporters that what he was saying was not on the teleprompter — to deliver a response to what Putin had said and done earlier in the day.
“You know, America and its allies are not going — let me emphasize this — are not going to be intimidated,” Biden said. “Are not going to be intimidated by Putin and his reckless words and threats. He’s not going to scare us, and he doesn’t — or intimidate us.”
Vows to defend “every square inch” of NATO territory
The president rightly referred to the recent referendums in Russian-occupied Ukraine as a “sham” and denounced the annexation of territory as something that the U.S. and its allies would never accept or recognize as legitimate. He also announced more financial and military aid for Ukraine and new sanctions against Russia.
“And we’re fully prepared to defend — I’m going to say this again — America is fully depa- — prepared with our NATO Allies to defend every single inch of NATO territory — every single inch. So, Mr. Putin, don’t misunderstand what I’m saying: every inch,” Biden said.
In closing, Biden also referenced the situation with the Nord Stream pipeline, asserted that Putin was lying about who was responsible, and vowed to conduct a full investigation of what occurred with U.S. divers at some point in the near future.
