The president threatened that his country would defend every centimeter of NATO territory with the full force of American power, noting that an attack on a NATO country is an attack against us all.

Biden’s comments came hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that his country had decided to partially withdraw its forces, and Russian military officials indicated that some forces on the Ukrainian border had been returned to Russia.

US officials and their counterparts in other European countries have expressed skepticism about Russian troop movements, saying that most of the troop deployment remains on the verge of quickly invading Ukraine.

White House officials stressed that while he did not repeat recent “assessments” by some administration officials that a Russian invasion was imminent, his comments did not reflect a change in his administration’s general judgment about the possibility of a Russian attack. times.

The comments came after Putin, after a face-to-face meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Schulz, said that Russia would continue to press for its main demands: a rollback of NATO’s presence in Eastern Europe and a guarantee that Ukraine would not join the alliance. .

In this context, an analysis by Jack F. Matlock, former US ambassador to Moscow (1987-1991), described the campaign against Russia for its alleged plans to invade Ukraine as a “farce”.

“I may be wrong — tragically — but I cannot dismiss the suspicion that we are witnessing a complex charade, blatantly amplified by notable elements of the American media, to serve a domestic political end,” Matlock said.

The former diplomat estimates that what President Vladimir Putin is demanding, the end of NATO expansion and the creation of a security structure in Europe that guarantees Russia’s security alongside the security of others, is very reasonable.

He pointed out that the internal problems of the Biden administration and its failures, apparently, prompted it to seek “victory” over Russia.

Despite repeatedly voiced concerns, Putin has never threatened to reabsorb the Baltic states or take back any of their territories, though he has criticized some who have denied Russians full citizenship rights, a principle the EU is committed to upholding.

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