Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov: The US Must Get Out of All Former Soviet States and Promise Unambiguously To Cede Them to Russia

France Is So Impressed by Brandon's Leadership They Want Separate Talks With Russia

Russia has accepted Brandon's invitation to execute a "minor incursion" into the Ukraine and has instead staged one across Eastern Europe.

Russia is demanding, ahead of security talks to take place in Geneva, that the US retreat completely from Eastern Europe, and essentially declare it to be the Soviet Sphere of Influence again.

Seriously, that's what they're demanding.

Russia wants Nato to remove all of its forces from Bulgaria, Romania and other ex-communist states in eastern Europe that joined the alliance after 1997, the foreign ministry said on Friday, underlining Moscow's hardline position ahead of security talks with the US in Geneva.

Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, said in a written Q&A on the ministry's website that Russia's demands included "withdrawing foreign forces, equipment, and armaments and making other steps to return to the condition as of 1997", when Nato began admitting former Warsaw Pact countries.

"That includes Bulgaria and Romania," Lavrov said, adding that Russia's demand was "core" and "deliberately worded as clearly as possible so as not to allow any dual interpretations".

I guess Brandon's magisterial one hour, fifty minutes of Successful Standing did not have the intimidating effect that Noted Foreign Policy Sage Rachel Maddow envisioned. They apparently were more impressed by his openly-inviting-them-to-conquer-Ukraine.

So, how strong is NATO, a year into Brandon's "presidency"?

So strong that French president Emanuel Macron wants Europe to hold separate negotiations with Russia, excluding the US.

French President Emmanuel Macron's call for the European Union to pursue its own talks with the Kremlin is raising fears of a split developing in the Western response to the threat of a Russian invasion in Ukraine.

Macron has struggled in the past to convince his EU partners of the need for Europe to take regional security into its own hands and depend less on the United States. His speech to European lawmakers Wednesday, though, in which he called for the bloc to negotiate its own security and stability pact with the Kremlin, was welcomed by Russian state-owned media.

But some Central European and Baltic leaders said Macron's comments were ill-timed and risk encouraging the Kremlin to try to play the U.S. and EU against each other, and cause a divide as the U.S. calls for Western unity.

Carl Bildt, the former Swedish prime minister, said he was at a loss to understand what Macron means about coming up with "a new order of security and stability."

NeverTrump, NeverTrump,

have you gotten your Norms restored yet?

NeverTrump, NeverTrump,

have you gotten your Neocon New World Order back yet?