See how interesting it is? Trump said that the Biden administration is to blame for Putin's attack on Ukraine, and Putin attacked Ukraine in 2014.

Blaming the predecessor for all problems is the benefit of democratic system.

During a Jan. 7 press conference at Mar-a-Lago, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said that the Biden administration is to blame for Putin's attack on Ukraine, because they gave Ukraine hope to join NATO.

Trump said that Moscow was worried about NATO: "Russia had said for many years that NATO could not interfere in Ukraine. It was almost set in stone. But Biden said no, they should be able to join NATO. Then Russia would have someone right on its doorstep. I can understand their feelings about that."

The Ukrainians are outraged about that statement, especially given the fact that in 2008, at the Bucharest Summit, Ukraine was promised eventual NATO membership under President George W. Bush, who was a Republican, like Trump.

Ukraine was a neutral country by law, when Putin attacked it in 2014, by first annexing Crimea, and then invading part of Donbas. (Russian troops are still 45 km from where they were 3 years ago in Donbas, and still haven’t occupied even the Donetsk region in full — yes, Putin is lying about Russian army’s “amazing successes”).

But obviously, Trump was talking about 2022 full-scale invasion and not 2014 — in line with the views of many people, who know little about Ukraine, that before 2022 there were some “local separatists” in East Ukraine (in fact, the so called “separatists” were led by officers of the Russian FSB, there were also regular Russian troops).

Meanwhile, in terms of “no NATO on Russia’s borders” — Norway is NATO’s founding member and has a border with Russia.

Putin stated that Russia had “no problem” with neighboring Finland joining NATO in 2023, despite the fact that this doubled Russia’s border with NATO — Finland has 1300 km border with Russia. Putin has no troops there, because he knows that NATO would never attack Russia.

Because of Russia's war on Ukraine, now Finland is in NATO — which means Putin brought NATO to the suburbs of his home town of St. Petersburg!

• Trump also complained during the press conference about the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying that it contributed to Putin's decision to invade Ukraine in 2022.
• When asked about negotiations with the Russian leader, Trump said that he would wait until after his Jan. 20 inauguration: "I don’t think it’s appropriate that I meet until after Jan. 20, which I hate because you know every day people are being — many, many young people are being killed — soldiers," Trump said.
• While during the election campaign Trump promised to end the war “in 24 hours, before even taking the office”, yesterday he said that he “hopes” to do it in 6 months.

I think differently about Trump’s blaming Biden for the war and echoing Russian propaganda about NATO. He is simply trying to resonate with Putin, so that Putin agrees to see his envoy. Trump has always used flattery to get Putin on his side — that was the reason why Russians directed their troll farms and paid influencers to promote Trump during elections (I’m not saying it had decisive influence on the result — but there was enough proof released by the FBI before the election day on that).

Trump flatters Putin, hoping to get him in a more conciliatory mood.

That’s not a bad strategy, but will it work?

There is a lot at stake for Putin, and he’s confident he’s winning — and he still seeks a decisive victory against the U.S.

For Putin, making the U.S. to give up on Ukraine, would be a strategic victory against Russia’s #1 enemy.

It would be an absolute euphoria for Putin, if he could both “win” and “beat up the Americans”.

And I’m sure, it would embolden him for more.