It doesn’t sound like he’s been bluffing. From Ted Snider at libertarianinstitute.org:
FILE PHOTO: Russian President Vladimir Putin is seen during a press briefing in Moscow, Russia, January 17, 2017. (Credit: Kremlin)
On June 13, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with war correspondents and military bloggers for a question and answer session at the Kremlin. One war correspondent asked Putin “a question about the notorious red lines.” Addressing Putin, he said, “Clearly…we are at war not just with the Kiev regime, but with the so-called collective West as well. NATO countries are constantly moving and crossing our red lines. We express our concern and keep saying that this is unacceptable, but never come up with actual answers. Are we going to keep moving our red lines?”
That is a question top officials in the Biden administration have been asking as well. Less than two weeks earlier, The Washington Post reported that the risk calculation has begun to factor in that Putin “has not followed through on promises to punish the West for providing weapons to Ukraine.” The White House has concluded that Putin is “bluffing.”
A senior State Department official says, “Russia’s reluctance to retaliate has influenced the risk calculus of Secretary of State Antony Blinken,” who has pushed the Biden administration “to do more to support Ukraine.” A White House official told the Post that “national security adviser Jake Sullivan also has viewed the benefits of supplying more lethal weaponry to Ukraine as outweighing the risks of escalation,” leading him to work “extensively with European allies on providing F-16s to Ukraine.”
But the United States may be misinterpreting Russian military decisions and not recognizing them as escalatory responses to the crossing of redlines.
Why would you FAFO?
Ohh…no skin in the game from your FAM/TRIBE and the cannon fodder conscripts are the expendables.