Pressured by ever encroaching NATO expansion toward its borders and increased lethal arms sales to, and flirtations with, Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent the US a proposal on mutual security guarantees and an urgent request for immediate negotiations.

Crimea continues to be calm and any move that could result in acceptance of the peaceful status quo will be either ignored or resisted.

Moscow has issued an ultimatum to USA/NATO. It is this: seriously negotiate on the issues laid out here and here. Some of them are non-negotiable.

What everyone is getting wrong about Putin’s security proposal to the U.S.

Wary of military adventurism, the survey also found that Americans want US leaders to focus on domestic issues.

The news and editorial pages have forgotten the failed wars of the recent past, and are already pursuing new confrontations for the United States. In the past week, the New York Times argued that President Joe Biden’s handling of Ukraine is actually a “wider test of U.S. credibility abroad.” The Washington Post, which has become a voice for militarism, believes it is essential to “challenge the authoritarianism” of Russia, and supports a “generational investment” in economic and military support for Ukraine. And now the most authoritative news weekly in the English language, The Economist, has questioned America’s resolve in a cover story headlined “What would American fight for.”

Both countries are locked in old battles. What if we just stopped fighting them?

The accursed word has now entered the debate on Ukraine, threatening to push the US onto the conveyor belt of a conflict we won’t win.

The US approach to Russia hasn’t been working for years, mostly because it’s been spearheaded by alarmists in the blob.

As recently as last week, all red flag indicators were pointing to Armageddon. The threat of an imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine and plans for forceful western retaliation were bandied about by the U.S. and NATO officials and the media. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was screaming for help and announced an imminent coup to overthrow him, orchestrated by the Russians in coordination with Ukraine‘s wealthiest man Rinat Akhmetov.