Russia's seizure of Ukraine's Black sea peninsula did not herald a new cold war, Obama told 2,000 people gathered in an arts centre in central Brussels in the big speech of his four-day trip to Europe.
But it was also clear that the Kremlin's actions in recent weeks had triggered a deep shift in western perceptions of Putin that would see Russia increasingly isolated internationally and exposed to a spiralling trade war with the west, depending on his next moves.
Comment: New heights of absurdity from the puppet in chief, accusing Russia of doing exactly what the United States has been engaged in all over the world, and for a very long time.
Putin's decision to redraw his region's borders had caused "a moment of testing", Obama said in a 40-minute speech on his first visit in office to Brussels."Bigger nations can bully smaller ones to get their way," he said. "We must never take for granted the progress that has been won here in Europe and advanced around the world, because the contest of ideas continues. And that's what's at stake in Ukraine today. Russia's leadership is challenging truths that only a few weeks ago seemed self-evident, that in the 21st century the borders of Europe cannot be redrawn with force, that international law matters, that people and nations can make their own decisions about their future."
Comment: In other words, Russia is standing up to the twisted "reality" created by the US, and this is inducing major cognitive dissonance in the headless chickens in Washington. The borders of Europe can be redrawn through force, and international law doesn't matter, as long as it's all in the name of "freedom and democracy".
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