(PresidentialWire.com)- President Joe Biden might think he’s being tough on Russia, but clearly Russian President Vladimir Putin isn’t scared.
A report from the (failing) New York Times details just how little the Russian president actually cares about President Joe Biden playing tough, and how strongly he believes in asserting his nation’s values and moral code.
The Times referenced a quote from Putin last month, in which he criticized the United States.
“They may think that we are like them, but we are different, with a different genetic, cultural, and moral code,” Putin said. “We know how to defend our interests.”
It’s a bone-chilling statement from a country that the world already knows is willing to take drastic action to defend its interests, murder opponents, and silence critics.
“As he masses troops near Ukraine, puts down domestic dissent and engages in a fast-intensifying conflict with President Biden, Mr. Putin is on the verge of decisions that could define a new, even harder-line phase of his presidency,” the New York Times reports.
The piece comes before Putin is scheduled to deliver a state of the nation address on Wednesday, during which many world leaders are already expecting him to declare his willingness to escalate tension and aggression not just with Ukraine but also with the West.
Just what we need. An increasingly aggressive Russia while we have President Joe Biden in charge…
The Times admits that Putin is more convinced than ever of his “special, historic role as the father of a reborn Russian nation,” and cited a Russian analyst who said that the leader has a “sense of superiority mixed with arrogance.”
Tatiana Stanovaya, a Russian analyst, told the outlet that the combination is “dangerous.”
“When you think you are more powerful and more wise than everyone else around you, you think you have a certain historical mandate for more wide-ranging action,” she said.
And if the New York Times is admitting that President Biden has a problem with this guy…then they probably mean it.
The outlet also reveals how analysts say that the Kremlin initially had hope when Biden was elected president, knowing that he was “more professional, reliable and pragmatic” than Trump was.
But as Biden appeared increasingly hostile to Russia, Putin has built up troops along the Ukrainian border and appears to be ramping up tensions against the West.
Could the West be on the verge of a new cold war?
