Of Course They Do.

Mr. Sullivan wants to "negotiate". 

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is ready to talk to Russia without conditions about a future nuclear arms control framework even while taking countermeasures in response to the Kremlin’s decision to suspend the last nuclear arms control treaty between the two countries, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Friday. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in February he was suspending Russia’s cooperation with the New START Treaty’s provisions for nuclear warhead and missile inspections, a move that came as tensions worsened after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia did say it would respect the treaty’s caps on nuclear weapons. Sullivan said at the Arms Control Association’s annual meeting said that the United States is committed to adhering to the treaty if Russia also does, and that Washington wants to open a dialogue on a new framework for managing nuclear risks once the treaty expires in February 2026.

This posture has zero relation to ethics or love of peace--it is a measure to somehow slow down the development of Russia's new strike technologies and to get access through inspections to at least some Russia's advancements. Reducing risks of nuclear exchange, of course, is good under any circumstances but let's not forget about technological gap which is growing between Russia and US in this field and I expect the growth only to accelerate. 

Recall, both me and Larry spoke about this on many occasions: it is not just about warheads and delivery systems, it is also about mitigating the strike. Here the US is not even in the same league, and serial deployment of S-500 which has practically full blown Anti-ICBM capability and of something we didn't see yet, including A-235 Nudol getting ready to become mobile, not to mention laser weapons development, are the means to greatly mitigate US deterrent. The US has no answer to this and that drives this desire to negotiate without any preconditions. Plus, China's deterrent figures prominently in those desires. Speaking of which. 

As Ria put it bluntly (in Russian): China Started to Systematically Mock the United States. China's Defense Minister Li Shangfu flatly refused any meetings with SecDef Lloyd Austin.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Thursday said he welcomes any opportunity for engagement with China’s military leadership in the future, despite Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu declining to meet with him during the upcoming IISS Shangri-La Dialogue. Speaking in a joint press conference in Tokyo with Japan Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada, Austin said it’s important for countries with large, significant military capabilities to be able to talk to each other to manage crises and prevent events from spiraling out of control. Austin also said China continued to make provocative intercepts of U.S. and U.S. allies’ aircraft in international waters and air space, which prompted more communication attempts between the Pentagon and the Chinese Defense Ministry.

And these are just some issues pertaining a complete overhaul of global balance of power and this wouldn't have been compete without Ben Wallace parading himself and UK as clowns, with this dude embarrassing himself and UK's "elite producing machine", Sandhurst including, because they, evidently, do not study real war there anymore. Speaking to WaPo (behind the paywall) this proud product of British military "school" (or kindergarten) didn't exclude the possibility of 404 taking Crimea back when "Russia will run out of required equipment". Boy, they do grow them dumb in London. Well, what do you expect from the military establishment whose only war-making capabilities are reduced to false flag SAS operations, killing civilians and conducting terrorist acts. As rumor has it (I have no independent confirmation) a number of British officers have been killed in Kiev during Russia's latest missile strikes. Medvedev's recent statement gives a hint of sorts that Russia is now in business of reducing the numbers of NATO "advisers" in 404. London in general, and Wallace in particular still do not understand the significance of this picture, and continue to make mistake by misidentifying themselves in it.

In the end, using Premier League analogy--in the game of geopolitics, Russia is Manchester City, UK is a weekend amateur team of employees of local post-office competing against teams from local brewery and meat packing factory. Or, using a purely British, Kiplingian analogy--Tabaqui. I warned about this 7 years ago. As classic Soviet cartoon Mowgli portrayed it: 

Or as the common wisdom has it--one has to play in a proper league. Otherwise it ends with this;

I couldn't resist, LOL. I am sure Rio Ferdinand never experienced such a prostate exam, performed by Carlos Tevez, before or ever since.