"This episode underscores how destabilizing Trump has been. He has acted as a friend to America’s enemies and a threat to traditional allies. His actions have emboldened Putin, who has doubled attacks on Ukraine and escalated against NATO."

~ Alexander Vindman

#Putin #Trump #PutinsPoodle #Russia #Poland #NATO
/7

https://www.avindman.com/p/breaking-russia-violates-polands

"The United States, under Donald Trump, is now weaker than it has been in a very long time. And the world is more dangerous than it has been in a very long time."

#Putin #Trump #PutinsPoodle #Russia #Poland #NATO
/6

"As of this morning, Donald Trump has said . . . nothing.

So Putin is attacking and Trump is retreating. That red carpet in Anchorage seems not to have made much of an impression. Or perhaps Putin understood the gesture for what it was: The red carpet was a kind of white flag, a signal of submission and supplication."

~ William Kristol

#Putin #Trump #PutinsPoodle #Russia #Poland #NATO
/5

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/hey-donald-the-red-carpet-didnt-work-putin-ukraine-poland-qatar-fara-hhs-rfk-ai-chat-gpt

"Russia’s aggressive move also follows the U.S.’s illegal attack upon an unarmed civilian vessel off the coast of Venezuela, which the U.S. military destroyed on unproven assertions that it was ferrying drugs some 1200 kilometers to the U.S. Such a blatant, lawless action signals to the rest of the world, including the Kremlin, that international rules and laws can be disregarded with impunity."

~ Jay Kuo

#Putin #Trump #PutinsPoodle #Russia #Poland #NATO
/4

https://statuskuo.substack.com/p/russia-provokes-a-crisis

"So it stands to reason that just as the Trump Administration was making good on its promise to cut Europe off, Putin chose this week to test NATO’s resolve. ...

The only outstanding question — the outstanding question — is what Trump intends to do. This should raise serious concerns about what exactly he and Putin discussed in their secret, ten minute one-on-one chat at their Alaska summit last month."

#Putin #Trump #PutinsPoodle #Russia #Poland #NATO
/3

Why has Putin chosen this moment to make aggressive advances on Poland? Julie Roginsky notes,

"Almost as soon as Trump was back in the White House, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told European leaders that the United States was no longer 'primarily focused' on European security and that Ukraine was largely Europe’s problem."

#Putin #Trump #PutinsPoodle #Russia #Poland #NATO
/2

https://saltypolitics.substack.com/p/why-is-putin-escalating-now