On Friday, ret. Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman lauded President Joe Biden for his handling of a recent summit in Europe with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Vindman gained prominence after his participation in the first impeachment proceedings against then-President Donald Trump, who had used a phone call to try and pressure the Ukrainian president into investigating the Bidens. Trump claimed that the call was “perfect,” but Vindman — in his then-role as an official handling Ukraine-related matters at the National Security Council — listened to the conversation as it unfolded and revealed the reality to Congress.
Now, in a Twitter message, Vindman said as follows:
‘There’s been a lot of press cherry-picking lines from my @nytopinion & carrying only critical content. To be clear I was skeptical (thought it was too soon) but @POTUS executed the summit brilliantly. Not since Reagan has a president taken as hard a line on Russian belligerence.’
There’s been a lot of press cherry-picking lines from my @nytopinion & carrying only critical content. To be clear I was skeptical (thought it was too soon) but @POTUS executed the summit brilliantly. Not since Reagan has a president taken as hard a line on Russian belligerence.
— Alexander S. Vindman (@AVindman) June 18, 2021
During his meeting with Putin, Biden pressured the Russian leader on issues like cybersecurity and the jailing of Putin critic Alexei Navalny. At a press conference after the summit, Biden insisted that if Navalny dies, the consequences “would be devastating for Russia.” He explained that he meant that Russia’s standing and ability to interact internationally would be impacted by such an event. “If [Russian authorities] do not act according to international norms, then guess what? [Trade] will not only not happen with us; it will not happen with other nations,” as Biden pointedly put it.
Biden’s remarks stand in stark contrast to the way that Donald Trump treated Putin when in office as president. Trump repeatedly capitulated or sought to capitulate to the interests of the Russian leader, downplaying Russian interference in U.S. elections, threatening NATO — the absence or weakening of which would give Russia an opportunity to assert itself, and even pushing for the reinstatement of Putin in the G7 group of world leaders (which would be the G8 with Putin involved). Putin was removed from the group after Russia invaded the Crimean peninsula in Ukraine, but Trump was ready to gloss right over that situation.
