Putin Outplayed US Neocons?

US Military Veteran: Putin Outplayed US Neocon Plan to Balkanize Russia

Sputnik

During his August 23 speech in Arizona Robert F Kennedy Jr., a nephew of President John F. Kennedy, endorsed Republican nominee Donald Trump and accused the Biden administration and the US foreign policy establishment of provoking the Ukraine conflict.

"Tiny Ukraine is a proxy in a geopolitical struggle initiated by the ambitions of the US neocons for American global hegemony," Kennedy said.

"In April 2022, we wanted the war. President Biden sent [then-British prime minister] Boris Johnson to Ukraine to force President [Volodymyr] Zelensky to tear up a peace agreement that he and the Russians had already signed," he added. "That peace agreement would have brought peace to the region."

Kennedy noted that Donald Trump's decision to reopen peace negotiations with President Vladimir Putin on Ukraine "alone would justify my support for [Trump's] campaign."

Kennedy "stated correctly the neocons are in control of [US] foreign policy," Earl Rasmussen, a retired lieutenant colonel with over 20 years in the US Army and international consultant, told Sputnik. "We basically are looking for confrontation."

The commentatior said Kennedy has a real grasp on the ongoing situation and the historical background of the unfolding conflict.

Washington made preparations for the proxy war with Russia in Ukraine for years, the retired lieutenant colonel argued. He said the scheme probably originated in the 1990s, when the infamous 'Wolfowitz doctrine', aimed at retaining Washington's sole superpower status, was formulated.

The US-backed 2014 coup d'etat in Kiev was the continuation of this policy, the expert said.

"Now that we know that Minsk agreements were never meant to be implemented based on statements made by [former German chancellor Angela] Merkel and [former French president François] Hollande," Rasmussen said.

"We also know up to 50,000 Ukrainian troops were trained by NATO during that eight year period," he added. "So this is a planned thing."

Anti-Russia sanctions, intended to halt Moscow's energy cooperation with Western Europe, and the Nord Stream sabotage were not formulated overnight, the pundit said. The end goal was to foment regime change in Moscow and then "balkanize Russia," he believes.

"I think Putin saw that," Rasmussen said, adding that the West completely underestimated Russia. "They didn't understand the Russian people and the Russian culture and how the Russian would react to the situation. I think they thought Putin would just back down."

Rasmussen condemned the arrogance of US foreign policy: "They feel that they're in the position they were 30 years ago. And the world has changed."