Biden claims he expects Putin to give up something too. The former KGB colonel is a ruthless, wily fellow as he moves chess pieces around Europe and the Mideast to recreate a semblance of a greater Mother Russian Empire that Putin saw dissolve with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics back in 1991. Yes, and to assassinate select critics in other countries with impunity.

Like China’s Xi Jinping, Putin has arranged for a lifetime sinecure as president.  Now he’s building a strategic geographic legacy as a modern-day czar. He’s been handed a golden opportunity by American voters who replaced Donald Trump with an elderly patsy unable to recall the names of cabinet members standing next to him.

Last week Putin sent troops into Kazakhstan, a former Soviet member state whose president seems unable to handle violent protests against rising energy prices and endemic corruption.

For the past year, Putin has been assembling an estimated 100,000 troops on the border with Ukraine, another ex-Soviet republic, implicitly threatening an invasion to capture the rest of Ukraine that Russia didn’t invade in 2014 when Putin annexed Crimea.

Communists executed the czar during the 1917 revolution, but they liked his 19th-century predecessor’s idea of taking over next-door Ukraine and Crimea. They still do.

On ABC News, Secy. of State Antony Blinken displayed a keen grasp of the obvious: “The question really now is whether President Putin will take the path of diplomacy and dialogue or seek confrontation.”

Then, although sanctions rarely work, he threatened: “We are looking at taking steps that we have not taken in the past and the consequences for Russia would be severe.”

A free Ukraine had been flirting with the West and mumbling about NATO membership someday, both of which are anathema to Putin.

Weakening NATO is a major Putin goal. Hence, his Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea. That will give the Russian leader immense new revenues plus, even better, strategic leverage on Germany and much of Europe controlling its natural gas supplies. A bonus is it will also damage U.S. sales of LNG to Europe, part of Donald Trump’s energy independence plan.

President Trump had levied an array of sanctions on that pipeline. President Joe Biden canceled them and endorsed the Russian pipeline.

All while killing the Keystone XL pipeline at home that would have bolstered U.S. energy independence because, green. So, now dozens of diesel trains and trucks move the tar sands from Alberta to Texas because, not green.

Canceling sanctions is a telling example of modern Democrats’ dangerous naivete in foreign affairs. Because they’re uncomfortable with using power, appearing strong. That’s what Barack Obama was apologizing for on that global apology tour. They seem to think goodwill gestures will be reciprocated in big-power diplomacy.

In 2009, Obama tried the same stupidity. As a product of the Chicago Democrat machine, you’d think he would understand that not using your political strengths is a sign of weakness.

The Poles and Czechs had defied outspoken opposition from their Russian neighbor and agreed to President George W. Bush’s proposal to install American anti-missile defense systems, aimed at any future launches by Iran’s ongoing ICBM development program.

But without notifying those two countries, Obama unilaterally killed the anti-missile plans as an unsolicited goodwill gesture to Putin, hoping the Russian would help him curb Iran’s nuclear weapons development. Remember the infamous “Reset” button that misspelled the word in Russian?

Putin naturally accepted the freebie without thanks and went on to sell Tehran sophisticated new anti-aircraft systems and a nuclear power plant. Win-Win for Moscow.

Biden, by the way, has also lifted some of Trump’s sanctions on Iran, hoping such a freebie gesture would lure Tehran to reopen talks on the leaky nuclear pact that Trump had abandoned as useless.  With Iran’s advance, this could soon be a moot issue.

Everyone knows that having boasted of ending America’s longest war last summer, neither Biden nor NATO are in any position to use their military to counter a Russian invasion. (China’s leadership knows that too as it threatens to make Taiwan another province.)

Biden has vowed serious sanctions on Russia in that event. Of course, Obama imposed serious sanctions in 2014 to force Russia to cancel its annexation of Crimea. Those economic coercions failed, of course.

Besides, how seriously would you take threats from a 79-year-old who has to read off a sheet of paper that someone handed him?

Anyway, Putin wanted to talk tough back, but he also suggested the two sides meet to discuss his serious concerns about the threat that NATO poses to Russian security.

Now, don’t laugh. NATO is a defensive alliance coming off 20 years of unsuccessful nation-building in Afghanistan. About half its 29 members do not meet their alliance defense expenditure commitments. And Trump called them out.

But Putin’s position is that the alliance threatens Russia. So, he creates a likely empty threat to invade Ukraine, then maneuvers to be paid off by Biden concessions.

So, tomorrow in Geneva, Russia and the U.S. will meet and then later with NATO ministers in Brussels. Administration officials leaked last week that Biden was going to offer a reduction of U.S. troops in Europe to buy Putin off from doing what he wants us to think he might do.

The U.S maintains about 70,000 troops in Europe, including some 6,000 rotating through Poland and the Baltic states, which used to be in the USSR but now are independent and NATO members.

And, the officials said, Biden would expect similar pullbacks by Russian forces, especially near the Baltic states. Try listing any concessions that Vladimir Putin has made to anyone in recent years. We’ll wait.

You haven’t seen much in U.S. media about Joe Biden’s numerous other failures since taking office. The scandalous contents on his son’s laptop. The vaccine resistance Biden stokes with his authoritarian edicts and mandates.

Among them, the infamous overnight Afghan troop withdrawal without notice to allies that was clearly Trump’s fault. Abandoning billions in modern military equipment. The screwed-up evacuation. And another midnight withdrawal that, Biden’s State Dept. recently admitted, still left 14,000 Americans and 60,000 Afghan allies behind at the not-so-tender mercies of what Biden calls the Tolley-bon.

Biden needs distractions to avoid those discussions. Hence, more warnings of a winter of death and suffering among unvaccinated, and the Jan. 6th anniversary spectacle.

Polls show Americans are increasingly tuning out D.C.’s panic porn and conflicting health advice. But Washington’s sympathetic media eat that stuff up. Oh, and don’t forget video of the masked president’s staged vacation beach-walk with his latest dog.

Joe Biden gave the pup the strong name of Commander, which Joe Biden isn’t.