There must be someplace where pro-NATO politicians plug themselves in before they brush their teeth in the morning, to get the “line,” they can all then repeat parrot-like. One such script is the argument that Vladimir Putin has always bluffed with his threats, including his threat of a nuclear response in case of a NATO escalation in Ukraine. This is now being used to back NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s proposal to allow Kyiv to strike targets in Russian territory with NATO-supplied weapons.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is still opposing the idea and is under siege from the opposition, but also from inside his government majority (Greens and Liberals).
Johann Wadephul, deputy chairman for defense policy in the CDU-CSU Bundestag faction, is typical of the parrots pushing the narrative that you can provoke Putin because his threats are a bluff. So far, no restriction of Ukraine has contributed in any way to the de-escalation of the conflict, Wadephul said on ZDF’s “Morgenmagazin” broadcast. That is why Scholz is wrong when he says that lifting the restrictions would lead to escalation, he argued. He claimed that the opposite is true: “Putin feels encouraged by the fact that we are drawing red lines to continue with his war. In the end, all the hesitation has not slowed Putin down, but rather encouraged him to continue the war.”
