Africa -China Review Africa -China Cooperation and Transformation
Published: March29,2022
By Staff Writer
On March 26, while giving a speech in Warsaw Poland, US president Joe Biden referring to Russian president Vladimir Putin said that, “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.” Biden cast Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a battle in a much broader conflict between democracy and autocracy.
Biden also said that, “the battle for democracy could not conclude and did not conclude with the end of the Cold War,” Biden said. “Over the last 30 years, the forces of autocracy have revived all across the globe.”
Biden’s speech attracted world criticism commentators questioning whether the US administration is the one that determines which leader should be in power in other countries. Russian spokesman Dmitry Peskovtold media that, “That’s not for Biden to decide. The president of Russia is elected by Russians.”
Peskov further said that Biden’s speech on Russia reflects that Biden, “doesn’t understand that the world is not limited to the United States and most of Europe.”
Following criticism of Biden’s speech, the US administration came out to do damage control which many believe did not help much, as the “call for Putin to be out of power” resonates well with US long known foreign policy of causing regime change in countries they perceive as enemies and against US interests. “What Biden said about Putin can be repeated against Chinese president Xi Jinping. Both Russia and China are branded as ‘autocratic regimes’ by US administration and they would be happy to see the presidents of the two countries replaced by their own puppets,” a political analyst told this website.
To save Biden’s image and US reputation, the US administration put more effort in trying to ‘put the record straight’ on the meaning of Biden’s words against the Russian president. Shortly after the speech, a White House official claimed that Biden wasn’t calling for Vladimir Putin’s removal, but rather saying that “Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a press conference that “we do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia or anywhere else.” And Biden himself denied that he was calling for regime change when he was asked the question a day after his speech.
Biden’s words were interpreted as a foreign policy speech meant to escalate the volatile situation in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. US diplomat and president of the Council on Foreign Relations, Richard Haass, stated that Biden had “made a difficult situation more difficult and a dangerous situation more dangerous.” French President Emmanuel Macron said that he wouldn’t have used Biden’s words.
The US foreign policy which includes sanctions against countries they do not like, are meant to cause a rift between the leaders and the people in such countries, hence propping up regime change. What Biden said, was nothing new but a reflection of what is truly on his mind.
The US has a track record of carrying out covert intelligence operations and supplying arms to opposition groups to stage coup d’état against legitimately elected leaders worldwide.
Since the 19th century, United States government has participated and interfered, both overtly and covertly, in the replacement of several foreign governments. In the latter half of the 19th century, the U.S. government initiated actions for regime change mainly in Latin America and the southwest Pacific, including the Spanish–American and Philippine–American wars.
United States and United Kingdom-orchestrated 1953 Iranian coup d’état, the 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion targeting Cuba, and support for the overthrow of Sukarno by General Suharto in Indonesia. In addition, the U.S. has interfered in the national elections of countries, including Italy in 1948, the Philippines in 1953, and Japan in the 1950s and 1960sas well as Lebanon in 1957. According to one study, the U.S. performed at least 81 overt and covert known interventions in foreign elections during the period 1946–2000. Another study found that the U.S. engaged in 64 covert and six overt attempts at regime change during the Cold War.
There was no need for denial by the US administrationtrying to defend what Joe Biden said about Putin ‘not to remain in power.’ The fact remains that Biden’s words do not help to stop the war between Russia and Ukraine but instead light more war flames. The US administration and its NATO allies took sides which will not help to bring peace in Europe.
