Global Times
March 27, 2022

Biden makes US tensions with Russia ‘personal’; calling for ‘regime change’ in a nuclear power dangerous: expert
By Yang Sheng and Wan Hengyi

Edited

The Biden administration’s real and desperate intention in the Ukraine crisis has been exposed – to turn Ukraine into a mire so that Russia keeps bleeding, and to force Russians to yield again and choose a pro-US regime, said experts on Sunday, as US President Joe Biden on Saturday said Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power.” The remarks indicated that the US president may have been frustrated by Moscow’s resistance against US sanctions and isolation through effective countermeasures.

Biden made the shocking remarks at the end of his speech in Poland. “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” he said. The US president has hurled invective at Putin throughout the crisis in Ukraine, labeling him a “murderous dictator” and a “war criminal,” but the White House is making efforts to quell the negative impact of the President’s words.

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Analysts said that professional diplomats in Washington understand how dangerous it could be if the leader of the US openly calls for regime change of another major nuclear power and a permanent member of the UN Security Council, so the White House has to minimize the uncertainty brought about by Biden’s words.

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Cold War dreams

Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs at Renmin University of China in Beijing, told the Global Times on Sunday that “Biden has just said what’s really on his mind about the Ukraine crisis. All of those sanctions, stigmatizations and demonization against Putin and Russia just serve one key purpose – to make Russia collapse again, like the West did to the Soviet Union in the past. US decision-makers like Biden are expecting another ‘Mikhail Gorbachev’ to emerge and replace Putin. This is the best result that the US hopes to get.”

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Lü Xiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that these data and polls explain why the US president is so frustrated. “Because his administration’s moves like sanctions and isolation against Russia are not as effective as he expected, and by expressing extreme hostility toward Putin at an international public occasion, Biden is making the US-Russia tensions personal, and this has also increased difficulties in fixing ties with Russia.”

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Russia is a major country that cannot be bullied and intimidated, said experts, adding that the more pressure the West exerts, the more united the Russians will be.

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The situation today is very different from the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union. The Russian government has great support from its people, and the West is not united while European major powers are keeping their distance from the US’ extreme stance toward Russia, analysts said.

Cui Heng, an assistant research fellow from the Center for Russian Studies of East China Normal University, told the Global Times that “Biden’s speech is a signal to US allies in Europe, especially to those who are seeking negotiations with Russia for a new security mechanism.”

The US is forcing all Western countries to isolate Russia by denying the legitimacy of the Putin administration, because its anti-Russia strategy won’t work if its European allies choose a pragmatic approach, Cui said.

“Relations between the US and Russia cannot be fixed, and will continue to worsen,” said Li Haidong, a professor from the Institute of International Relations of China Foreign Affairs University.

NATO will keep arming its member states and keep expanding eastward, so prospects for Russia-US ties remain pessimistic, Li said, noting that Russia and the EU might be able to fix ties one day, but the US and Russia won’t have a similar chance as the contradictions between them are structural.

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Global Times
March 27, 2022

Instability brewer: Behind every war and turmoil in the world is shadow of the Star-Spangled Banner

“This man cannot remain in power.” US President Joe Biden made this remark about Russian leader Vladimir Putin on March 26, 2022 during a speech he made in Poland. Though the White House had tried to explain away the utterance for the president, the real purpose of Washington was ultimately exposed: To bring down Russia, overthrow the Russian government, and maintain US hegemony.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is just the latest of many examples in which the US seeks its own geopolitical interests by intensifying conflicts in other countries or directly launching wars.

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From provoking wars around the world to leading NATO’s eastward expansion, from imposing sanctions on “disobedient countries” to coercing other nations to pick sides, the US has acted like a “Cold War schemer,” and an “vampire” who creates “enemies” and make fortunes from pyres of war.

The Global Times is publishing a series of stories and cartoons to unveil how the US, in its superpower status, has been creating trouble in the world one crisis after another. This is the second installment.