Which White House official has the clout to go toe to toe with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov?
“That's a trick question. Nobody.”
So says Serbian-American journalist Nebojsa Malic, who joined Sputnik’s The Final Countdown program Tuesday to discuss how the Biden administration’s diplomatic deficit prevents Washington from dialing down tensions with one of the world’s foremost military powers.
“The West is playing poker and the Russians are not playing games,” said the veteran columnist for AntiWar.com, who claimed the United States has consistently provoked Moscow.
“The Ukrainians are losing badly on the operational and tactical level [and] the strategic level, arguably, as well,” he added, claiming that talk of Ukraine firing US weapons into Russia is intended “to present to their own population that they're doing something.”
The issue has represented the latest controversy in the West’s ongoing proxy war against Moscow, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken publicly making the case to encourage Kiev to strike within Russian territory.
“But you can say that that particular rubicon has been crossed months ago,” said Malic. “These long-range strikes – they're hitting oil refiners, they're hitting cities, they're hitting civilians – they're not striking military formations. Never did.”
“This whole talk of, ‘oh, but we couldn't disrupt the offensive because we weren't allowed to strike Russian territory,’ is just an excuse from Zelensky and his command to justify their total and utter failure on the battlefield. And that's why it's arisen… ‘let's do this because we're going to blame the West for not letting us fight.’”
As Russia has consolidated their gains on the battlefield and pushed north towards Kharkov, Western media has begun to acknowledge the Kiev regime’s dire straits. With Ukrainian victory now more unlikely than ever, Russian President Vladimir Putin has reiterated that he is open to negotiating peace.
But Moscow prefers to negotiate with “the people who make the decisions,” noted Malic, who reside not in Kiev, but in Washington.
“Do you see a scenario where Antony Blinken and Sergey Lavrov sit down and have tea together?” asked host Angie Wong.
“No,” the analyst replied bluntly.
“Simply put, no. I don't think Lavrov wants to negotiate with somebody who's such a lightweight,” he claimed, apparently unimpressed with Blinken’s guitar playing abilities.
“[William] Burns actually might be the person,” said Malic, referring to Biden’s CIA director who has helped facilitate negotiations with Israel. “He used to be an ambassador to Russia, if I remember, and he might have the adequate gravitas to negotiate. Although does he have the authority? I don't know. But yeah, Burns might actually be someone that the Russians might be willing to discuss things with.”
The writer ran through the list of other top officials in the Biden White House, attempting to conjure someone who approaches the stature of Russia’s longtime top diplomat.
“Sullivan: no. Harris: no. Biden, himself: don't make me laugh. Blinken: no. Austin: no, also he's indisposed. Yeah, I think Burns might be the guy.”