The American Conservative magazine runs two articles calling for immediate peace negotiations on the basis of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s June 14 proposal for negotiations to end NATO’s Ukraine conflict against Russia.
The first article, on June 20, by Doug Bandow, was headlined “The Biden Administration Has No Definition of Victory in Ukraine” with the kicker “That is Just One of the Reasons To Start Negotiations.” Bandow argues that Russia’s principal concern has been that it has feared NATO’s relentless expansion, and that should Ukraine become a NATO member, Russia would face NATO’s nuclear weapons on its border.
Bandow quotes NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg admitting as much, in a September 2023 speech to a European Parliament committee, saying: “The background was that President Putin declared in the autumn of 2021, and actually sent a draft treaty that they wanted NATO to sign, to promise no more NATO enlargement. That was what he sent us. And was a pre‐condition for not invading Ukraine. Of course we didn’t sign that.… So he went to war to prevent NATO, more NATO, close to his borders.” (Stoltenberg lied about the draft treaties, that were proposals for negotiations, not demands for signatures. They have received next to no coverage whatsoever.)
Bandow disparages the myth that Russia intends, if it defeats Ukraine, to advance further into European nations: “To claim that [Putin] would now attack multiple members of the transatlantic alliance is bizarre on its face.”
Bandow portrays that Russia is effectively winning the war, leading it to exercise restraint. But he poses the question, “Imagine, if Ukraine begins winning. Moscow would then possess the incentive as well as means to escalate, potentially dramatically. The U.S. and U.S.S.R. emerged from the Cold War without a direct battle, though with a near miss in the Cuban Missile Crisis and another with the Able Archer exercise. It would be utterly reckless to chance a clash today with Russia.
“It is in the interests of the U.S. and Europe, as well as Ukraine and Russia, to end the war as swiftly as possible….
