Vice President Biden Scores In Germany, But The "Russian Situation" Is Far From Over

The most important U.S. political event from this past weekend, which was so under-reported by the U.S. news media as to be almost unreported, was not the work done on behalf of the congressional "economic stimulus" plan, but rather Vice President Biden's trip to, and subsequent speech and meetings in, Germany regarding U.S. strategic relations with Europe and Russia. (The stimulus plan will be enormously important news when it comes up for a vote, of course. I don't mean to discount its importance, but rather to show that other news items are being under-reported due to the media's fixation on it.) The Russian response to Mr. Biden's words was positive in nature in that their representatives seemed genuinely impressed with Mr. Biden's sincerity and generally impressed with his calming, realistic comments regarding U.S./Russian relations.

Quite frankly, Russia's piggy bank is smashed to pieces right now (what with the low price of oil and the worldwide financial collapse), so they can't really afford to be as belligerent in tone towards the West as they were in the recent past. For its part, the U.S. government realizes the necessity to avoid getting caught up in any sort of strategic conflict with Russia at present, given the various powder-keg Middle East issues with which it must deal, as well as the potential for increasing tensions with China and an understandably jittery India desperate to avoid getting dragged into any of these messes.

If worst came to worst and the situation in one or more of the potentially crucial Middle Eastern and/or Indian Subcontinental countries (Israel/the Palestinian territories; Iraq; Iran; Afghanistan; Pakistan; etc.) deteriorates badly, or if relations with China sour over China's perceived artifical currency valuations, the U.S. will want to avoid any sticky situation with Russia, whether it would have to do with Eastern Europe or the region including and around Georgia. (And if the present financial squabbles between the West and China escalate, Russia might very well be needed as a potentially leveraging factor against China, particularly with India's attention turned at present in the opposite geographical direction.)

Yet given that U.S. military equipment is bound for Poland sometime soon (though proposed interceptor missiles are not bound for that region, at least for the time being), this will be a delecate balancing act to pull off. So far, so good, so score one for Joe.

Not that anyone in the rather myopic major U.S. media outlets seemed to notice....