After the election of Barack Obama as US President, he purposefully kowtowed to foreign leaders, which delighted American mainstream media. His appeasement begun with the 2009 Obama Administration policy of “reset” with Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Newly appointed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the administration’s intent to effect a “reset” détente with Russia.
America would reverse the prior Bush Administration’s ostracism of Russia after its 2008 invasion of Georgia, and begin anew.
The New York Times reported that “Mr. Obama has resolved not to let the ghosts of the 20th century get in the way of his goals in the 21st.” In May 2009, Stephen Sestanovich, in an article titled “Cold War Leftovers,” stated that “the cold war really is over.”
In 2012, when Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney described Russia as America’s “No. 1 geopolitical foe”, the Times, in an editorial titled “The Never-Ending Cold War,” stated that his remark showed “either a shocking lack of knowledge about international affairs or just craven politics.” In a debate, Obama responded to Romney: “The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back.” At the Democrat National Convention, Obama accused Romney of being “stuck in a Cold War mind warp.”
In March 2012 in Seoul, South Korea, Obama had a hot mic moment; he got caught asking Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to reassure Vladimir Putin: “On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved but it’s important for him to give me space... This is my last election. After my election, I have more flexibility.”
Obama and Putin got their wishes. Obama was reelected in 2012. America abandoned missile defense in Eastern Europe. Putin gave Obama space, and did not invade Ukraine and the Crimea until 2014.
During Obama’s “reset” with Russia, he invited Russia back into the Middle East after a nearly 40-year absence; he cut defense spending; he refused to provide a badgered Ukraine with offensive weapons; and he shackled US oil and gas companies and oil price soared, enriching Russia.
During the “reset,” Russian-owned or affiliated companies gave several million dollars to the Clinton Foundation. Secretary of State Clinton, while overseeing a controversial sale of North American uranium deposits to a Russian-affiliated company, her spouse, Bill Clinton, mysteriously received $500,000 for a single speech in Moscow. Renaissance Capital, a Russian bank with ties to the company, put up the cash. And Hunter Biden, son of then-Vice President Joe Biden, reportedly received a mysterious $3.5 million wire transfer from Elena Baturina. She was the wealthiest woman in Russia and the widow of Yury Luzhkov, a Putin acolyte and former mayor of Moscow.
Over the last 13 years, leading Democrat Party political families profited from Russian companies, regardless of the appearance of quid pro quo arrangements. Yet, in a pathology of falsely accusing innocent others of what the accusers are guilty of themselves, the culpable Left falsely stigmatized Donald Trump’s campaign, transition, and administration with “Russian collusion.” Whereas, the charge best encapsulate Democrats’ years of appeasing Putin’s Russia, and the terrible damage done to American security, organizations and allies, and the lives of innocents.
In 2016, Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign funded Christopher Steele, an ex-British spy, who concocted Russian-related dirt on then presidential candidate Donald Trump. The “Steele dossier” was lavishly funded by Clinton; however, her payments were hidden by several left-wing firewalls: the Democratic National Committee, the left-wing Perkins-Coie law firm, and the opposition political operation Fusion GPS.
The resulting “Russian collusion” hoax was generally based on Steele’s concoction, taken from Clinton’s friends and associates in Washington and Moscow. The scam sustained wild rumors in the media and was planted among the Obama Administration intelligence, investigatory, and diplomatic operatives, to impede the Trump campaign and administration.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his biased left-wing team of lawyers took nearly two years and $40 million to disprove the obvious “Russian collusion” hoax. When the fraud was finally tarnished, they were discredited along with the FBI, the CIA, and the Department of Justice for their roles in perpetuating the malicious Russian fable.
Now, Democrats and their media acolytes blame high oil prices on Russia’s incursion into Ukraine. An effectual deterrence to Putin’s propensity to invade Russia’s neighbors is low oil price. Putin invades neighboring former Soviet republics when the price of oil is high. In 2014, he invaded Crimea and Ukraine and, in 2022, he invaded Ukraine again, when high oil prices gave him the financial means. But when oil is in abundance, oil prices drop, the US is the world’s largest oil producer and a net exporter of oil, etc., Putin remains static; as he was between 2017 and 2020.
In May 2017, President Trump promised complete independence from foreign sources of oil. By 2021, the US was the world’s largest producer of crude oil. From 2017 to 2021, the Trump administration pumped lots of oil and sustained America’s energy independence. In November 2019, the US became a net exporter of all oil products, including crude oil. The world price of oil crashed, to the detriment of Putin’s Russia. And Putin did not invade his neighbors.
Within months of Joe Biden becoming US President, he drastically slashed US oil production—only to beseech Putin to help pump more oil to lower escalating world oil prices. In January 2021, when Biden took office, oil was around $52 a barrel. In February 2022, well before Russia’s incursion into Ukraine, oil prices climbed to around $100 a barrel. Biden’s destruction of America’s oil independence and his reckless handling of Putin’s incursion could see oil prices hit record highs later this year.
Between 2009 and 2016, President Obama boasted of a new “Russian reset”, slashed defense spending, went on an apology tour, and begged Putin to behave until Obama was reelected in 2012, in exchange for dismantling US missile defense programs in Eastern Europe. And Obama invited Russia into the Middle East after a 40-year absence. As a result of Obama’s appeasement, Putin invaded Ukraine, and seized Crimea.
Whereas, between 2017 and 2020, Putin did not invade his neighbors. In 2018, the Trump administration killed attacking Russian mercenaries in Syria. In 2019, Trump withdrew America from an unfavorable missile deal with Russia. Trump massively increased defense spending and sold offensive weapons to Ukraine.
Obama repeatedly ridiculed Putin, Russia and the Russian people: “Their economy doesn’t produce anything that anybody wants to buy, except oil and gas and arms. They don’t innovate.” Yet Obama proved feckless; he declined to sell weapons to Ukraine to combat Russian aggression, and he begged Putin to give him “space.”
Biden also constantly ridicules Putin; calling Putin “bully” and “killer.” But when Putin permitted Russian-affiliated hackers to attack American agencies and companies, Biden begged Putin to ask the hackers to make at least 16 critical American “entities” off-limits.
When Biden destroyed US oil independence; oil prices skyrocketed. Then Biden begged Putin, the “killer,” to pump more of his “dirty” oil to help.
The US President is the only person in the world that can really deter Russia. And Trump was the only recent US President during whose time in office Putin did not invade anyone. Putin invaded Ukraine and seized Crimea during the Obama presidency. Trump’s unpredictability and effectual deterrence persuaded Putin that an invasion was not worth the risk while Trump was the US President.
In 2018, President Trump ordered US soldiers to kill attacking Russian mercenaries in Syria. In 2019, Trump withdrew America from an unfavorable missile deal with Russia. Trump massively increased defense spending and sold offensive weapons to Ukraine. Moreover, Trump secured US energy independence and ensured the US became a net exporter of oil, which kept oil prices low and deprived Putin of money for invasions.
Ending US energy independence is not just an Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez obsession. Biden’s canceling pipelines and federal leases of land for oil production, making Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge off limits to energy exploration, leveraging loss of bank financing for fracking, and terminating millions of barrels of US daily oil production is not just an economic disaster
It was a deliberate catastrophe, which provided opportunistic Putin with the bonanza to invade Ukraine.
Dr. Sheyin-Stevens is a Registered Patent Attorney based in Florida, USA. He earned his Doctorate in Law from the University of Miami.