Dems shift gears on Russian pipeline, backing Biden against Cruz’s gambit - POLITICO
Top Senate Democrats have long opposed a Russian natural gas pipeline that’s set to enrich Vladimir Putin. But those lawmakers are putting those concerns aside to back up President Joe Biden as he navigates increasingly precarious talks with Moscow.
Democrats have consistently supported sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, arguing that the project will jeopardize Europe’s energy security and allow Putin to blackmail his enemies. But as the Senate prepares to vote next week on legislation from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) that would force Biden to impose those sanctions, Democrats on Wednesday signaled a significant shift in their posture.
The reason, Democrats say, is that they don’t want to undermine Biden while he engages with Russia over its military buildup on the border with Ukraine. As Putin flirts with an invasion of the U.S. ally, Democrats argued Cruz’s legislation would undercut Biden as he seeks to project unity with European allies — and would remove a key leverage point in the talks.
Even taking this completely at face value and assuming that political loyalty to Biden is not at all a factor, the problem I have with this is that the entire “leverage” is a reward to Russia for aggression towards Ukraine.
Prior to Russia’s recent signals that they might invade Ukraine, the US passed laws that sanctioned the pipeline (Nord Stream 2: Trump approves sanctions on Russia gas pipeline - BBC News). By now using these sanctions as a bargaining chip in the Ukraine saga, Russia gets rewarded for its brinkmanship towards Ukraine, in the form of potentially waiving unrelated sanctions. That does not seem like something apt to discourage future Russian aggression, and is thus counterproductive.
Admittedly, the US is playing a weak hand here. But ISTM that if you have a weak hand, you need to recognize that upfront and let your words and deeds reflect your limitations. Trying to bluff those who see through you is not the right way to play it, IMHO.