The December 3 document was the first in a series of U.S. and British attempts to declassify intelligence about Russia’s plans, which were supposed to include details of a Russian subversion campaign, a coup plot, an elaborate attempt to use fake videos to create a pretext for an invasion and other false flag operations. plotted by Russian military intelligence, the GRU
Mr. Biden and Mr. Putin spoke via secure video link for an hour and 59 minutes on the morning of December 7, just three days after the declassified document was made public. According to US officials, the president offered Putin a choice: settle for diplomacy or risk serious economic and political repercussions from sanctions following the invasion of Ukraine.
In some ways, Mr. Biden was clearly prepared for this moment. Having visited Ukraine half a dozen times over the past decade, he knows the country better than any other American president. His foreign policy team is made up of what are often called “Atlantists” who have been thinking about European security all their lives. (Anthony J. Blinken, Secretary of State, grew up in Paris.)
Aides also said Mr. Biden’s long association with Mr. Putin has made him less receptive to the Russian president’s tactics. In conversations about Ukraine, officials said Mr. Putin often liked to go on and on about the minutiae of the Minsk agreements, a complex multi-year diplomatic effort with Ukraine, in the hope of confusing the situation.
Mobilization of troops
Last Christmas, the Russian military publicly announced the withdrawal of 10,000 troops from the border with Ukraine, calling it proof that Mr. Putin was not going to invade the neighboring country anytime soon.
Inside the White House, the president and his team did not believe it.
Intelligence officials have witnessed repeated instances of the Russians moving a battalion tactical group close to the border, building up the infrastructure needed for a quick invasion, and then pulling the troops back, leaving a shell that other battalions could use. The Russian National Guard or other armed forces loyal to Mr. Putin.