The New York Times called it “surreal.” President Joe Biden’s trip to Kiev on Feb. 20 was “a journey unlike any other taken by a modern American President.” It produced “an indelible image of the two presidents striding to a memorial for fallen soldiers in broad daylight even as an air-raid siren blared, a show of defiance of Moscow quickly beamed around the world.”
Except that it was nothing of the kind. Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security advisor, let the cat out of the bag in an interview with CBS News later that day. He said that the White House had alerted the Russians to the visit to prevent any potential for miscalculation during the sensitive stopover. “We did notify the Russians that President Biden would be traveling to Kiev,” Sullivan told CBS News chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes. “We did so some hours before his departure for deconfliction purposes.” In other words, the whole thing was staged—the secrecy of the trip, the air raid sirens, everything—and the New York Times and other corporate media outlets happily presented it to their credulous readers.
“For the first time in the century of U.S. warfare against Russia, a sitting U.S. President has requested and received a formal ceasefire and safe conduct pledge (propusk) from the Kremlin in order for him to visit a third country,” Moscow-based journalist John Helmer wrote on his “Dances With Bears” blog, yesterday.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was even less charitable. Biden did not dare to visit Kiev without warning Russia and without asking the Russian side to ensure his safety,” she said during her regular briefing this morning. She noted that “the U.S. leader’s visit was staged with drama, but, in reality, resembled a failed stage in a provincial theater.”
“If Washington wanted to make another example to its allies on how to support the Kiev regime, it didn’t come out too well,” Zakharova concluded. “Especially amid the loud claims that they are in total control of the situation and that Kiev has endured and is about to win.”
