In the morning it was President Putin speaking for close to two hours in the Kremlin. In the afternoon it was President Biden speaking in Warsaw for approximately 20 minutes. Great if they would speak in the same room to each other.
President Putin spoke to a crowded hall of well picked people. It was a wandering speech covering many aspects of life in Russia. No mention of how many lives have been lost in the ‘Special Military Operation’.
President Biden stressed the importance of freedom and how Ukraine was still a free land after a year of Russian aggression. He stressed how Nato has been more united than ever and promised Kyiv that the Western alliance would stand by then in their hour of darkness.
He spoke about how Ukrainian flags fly all over the US but he never said his country has given refuge to 70,000 Ukrainians, approximately the same number as small Ireland has taken in.
Fintan O’Toole in his column in The Irish Times yesterday writes: "Putin has inadvertently made the US military-industrial complex an offer it finds almost impossible to refuse. Supporting Ukraine is costing the US a mere 5.6 per cent of its annual military budget. In return it gets to degrade Russia’s military capacity by 50 per cent – so far.
"It’s a fabulous calculus if you’re playing the great power game: no boots on the ground, no serious domestic political risk and no influx of refugees.”
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