NATO countries and 'neutral' countries close to Russia.
On 26 March President Biden, speaking in Warsaw, said, unscripted: "For God's sake, this man [Putin] cannot remain in power." Such an overt statement of intention for regime change in Russia has not gone down well in most of Europe. US Secretary of State Blinken later clarified Biden's Warsaw remark: "As you know, and as you have heard us say repeatedly, we do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia, or anywhere else, for that matter". Blinken has apparently forgotten Vietnam, Chile, Iraq, Afghanistan, and quite a few more.
Consider the following quotes:
February 24, 2022: White House press conference (first day of invasion): Biden said sanctions are designed not to prevent invasion but to punish Russia after invading
"... so the people of Russia know what he has brought on them. That is what this is all about."February 27:
James Heappey, UK minister for armed forces, wrote in the Daily Telegraph:
"His failure must be complete; Ukrainian sovereignty must be restored, and the Russian people empowered to see how little he cares for them. In showing them that, Putin's days as President will surely be numbered ... He'll lose power and he won't get to choose his successor."March 1:
Boris Johnson's spokesperson:
the sanctions on Russia "we are introducing, that large parts of the world are introducing, are to bring down the Putin regime."
Comment: These comments from the leaders of the West surely sounds delusional and one wonders what kind of drugs they are on. Add to the above the French finance minister's comment on March 1st being in total lockstep with Boris Johnson:
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire described the sanctions packages as proving "extremely effective".The only economy which appears to be collapsing is the Western economy and especially the EU's.
"We're waging an all-out economic and financial war on Russia," Le Maire told France Info radio. "We will cause the collapse of the Russian economy."
Comment: The author gets some things right, but is woefully ignorant on others. One of those is the relationship between Russia and China, which has never been closer. Another is how much of the world actually supports Russia. Russia called the West the golden billion and they are the ones sanctioning Russia to their own peril. The other 7/8 of the world is actually on Russia's side and are happy to trade in local currencies and forge closer ties.The sanctions regime is backfiring big time and as Lavrov has said, Russia is not going to ask them to normalize relations. That means it will have to be the West who comes begging. See: