Former German diplomat Wolfgang Ischinger says Western leaders should be making more threats and be willing to follow them through.
The West should spend less time fretting about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s red lines and set its own, says veteran German diplomat Wolfgang Ischinger.
“Russia keeps saying, if you do this, if you cross this or that red line, we might escalate,” said the 78-year-old onetime chairman of the Munich Security Conference. “Why don’t we turn this thing around and say to them: ‘We have lines and if you bomb one more civilian building, then you shouldn’t be surprised if, say, we deliver Taurus cruise missiles or America allows Ukraine to strike military targets inside Russia’?”
That way the onus will be on Moscow to decide whether to cross the red lines — or face the consequences.
Ehhhhh, maybe, maybe not. Given the fact that all interested parties are nuclear powers, pushing a psychopath to the point where they feel cornered might not have the effect this 78 year old thinks it might. Under what circumstances does bombing Moscow with Taurus missiles improve Ukraine’s situation? The only strategy is attrition. The allies have more resources than Russia does, so continue sanctions, and increase sanctions to other countries if they do business with Russia. Cut off the money and watch Russia fumble. Keep offering them off-ramps. Every single “red line” Putin has mentioned has been a nothingburger. If this statement was made in earnest, it’s a bad strategy. De-escalation through escalation isn’t working for Putin, and I doubt it would work for us.