OPINION: Putin's Ukraine invasion awakens once-sleepy Western nations
So, Putin had some cause to believe that his current invasion of Ukraine would elicit the same anemic response, and that his war would be won in two or three days.
Biden also cut back American oil and gas drilling by closing down federally controlled leases and productive fields, canceling the pipelines, and discouraging lending agencies to promote fossil fuel production. In default of energy independence, Biden even begged a hostile Putin to pump more oil. Putin concluded that the West in general, and America in particular, were in disarray and decline. He remembered Barack Obama’s 2012 hot-mic, quid-pro-quo deal with the Russians, and his refusal to sell Ukraine offensive weapons. He recalled the anti-American German public opinion polls, and the presence of ex-German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder on the Russian Gazprom board of directors.
Suddenly, other NATO members dropped their usual anti-American, ankle-biting boilerplate and outdid each other in promises to rush sophisticated weapons to Ukraine. French President Emmanuel Macron answered a saber-rattling Putin in near Trumpian style, by reminding the world that NATO too had a deadly nuclear deterrent.