Russia has reacted angrily to President Biden’s decision to permit Ukraine to launch an attack inside Russia using long-range missiles provided by the U.S.
The website of the Russian government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta on Monday morning states “Departing US president Joe Biden… has taken one of the most provocative, uncalculated decisions of his administration, which risks catastrophic consequences,”.
Russian MP Leonid Slutsky, head of the pro-Kremlin Liberal-Democratic Party, predicted that the decision would “inevitably lead to a serious escalation, threatening serious consequences”.
Russian senator Vladimir Dzhabarov called it “an unprecedented step towards World War Three”.
Anger, yes. But no real surprise.
Komsomolskaya Pravda, the pro-Kremlin tabloid, called it “a predictable escalation”.
What really counts, though, is what Vladimir Putin calls it and how the Kremlin leader responds.
Dmitry Peskov, the spokesperson for President Putin, told reporters Monday that If such a decision has been taken, it means a whole new spiral of tension and a whole new situation with regard to US involvement in this conflict.
He concluded the Biden administration is “adding fuel to the fire and continuing to stoke tension around this conflict,”.
Western officials would contend that Russia is “adding the fuel” by attacking Ukraine and recently sending North Korean troops to fight with Russian forces in the conflict zone.
It’s possible that President Putin has not yet responded. However, the president of Russia has spoken a lot already.
The Kremlin has sent a very clear message to the West in recent months: don’t do this, don’t take away constraints on your long-range weaponry, and don’t let Kyiv use these missiles to strike deep into Russian territory.
President Putin issued a warning in September that Moscow would see this as the “direct participation” of NATO nations in the conflict in Ukraine if it were permitted to occur.