Jacob Heilbrunn
Is Russian President Vladimir Putin about to become Joe Biden’s “new best friend?”
Speaking with the Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin on Wednesday, Putin suggested that he favored Biden’s reelection “because he is a more experienced person, he is predictable, he is a politician of an old formation.”
Donald Trump was unfazed. He took it as a “compliment,” noting that Putin was right to favor Biden as he, in contrast to Trump, would give the store away to Moscow. An explicit endorsement from the Russian leader would, of course, have further promoted the perception that Trump, who stymied congressional aid to Ukraine, is merely his pliant puppet.
Putin was in a rather chippy mood. He took a shot at Tucker Carlson, who interviewed him last week at the Kremlin. Carlson has been fawning over all things Putin for years, but it didn’t impress the vozhd.
Instead, Putin, who made Carlson cool his heels for several hours before showing up to deliver his tedious history lesson, complained that the interview was something of a dud. “I honestly thought he would be aggressive and ask tough questions,” Putin said. “I wasn’t only ready for that, I wanted that, because it would give me the opportunity to give tough answers back.” For his part, Carlson seems to have devoted his time in Moscow to playing the role of political pilgrim, traipsing around to extol the quality of the subway and wares available in Russia’s capital. Moscow, he said, “was so much nicer than any city in my country.” Will he move there?
Even as Carlson expressed his ardor for Moscow, a new Sputnik crisis has arrived from Russia with something other than love. House Intelligence Committee chairman Michael R. Turner disclosed, much to the exasperation of the Biden administration, that America confronts a “serious national security threat.” He wasn’t talking about Trump’s encouragement at a rally in South Carolina for Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to NATO members who aren’t spending enough on their militaries. Rather, he was referring to the fact that Russia is intent on fielding new nuclear weaponry in space that can damage or destroy vital intelligence and communications satellites. The news further confirmed Putin’s status as the new Blofeld, a sinister mastermind intriguing wherever and whenever he can to subvert the West.
Indeed, with Russian troops about to seize Avdiivka, which is fewer than 10 miles from Donetsk, Putin is riding high. He will present it as a grand conquest in the run-up to his reelection in March. Meanwhile, Russia is steadily firing ballistic and cruise missiles at Ukraine—26 alone on Thursday morning.
None of this has seemed to dent House Speaker Mike Johnson’s determination to avoid a vote on the foreign aid bill passed by the Senate. Johnson, who apparently is in regular consultation with Trump, has stated that the House won’t be “rushed” to approve the aid package. No, it won’t. The House is keeping true to its record of accomplishing little other than bickering with itself.
The House goes into recess on Thursday afternoon until February 28. This pause will allow some of the hugger-mugger over Russia’s space shenanigans to dissipate, lest any Republican legislators start to ponder whether assisting Ukraine might actually be in America’s national interest rather than allowing Putin to reconstitute the Russian empire.
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