Brazil talks with Russia's foreign minster and calls for an end to the war in Ukraine angers Biden administration.

 

Russian Foreign Minster Sergey Lavrov arrives in Brazil. The Hill/AP.

Brazil has began talks with Russia's Foreign Minster Sergey Lavrov which has angered the Biden administration. AP. Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has refused to supply weapons to Ukraine and has said they will join China in an effort to end the war there. Lula was also critical of Ukraine saying that they also decided to go to war with Russia. Lula also called on the United States to come to the negotiating table, stop sending weapons and allow a cease fire. Brazil's Foreign Minster Mauro Vieira also criticized sanctions against Russia which he says is causing suffering in third world countries. The Biden administration was apoplectic and said Brazil was repeating "Russian and Chinese propaganda".

My Comment:

I've been extremely critical of President Lula and consider him to be an illegitimate president who, much like Joe Biden, didn't actually win the election where he took power. But credit where credit is due, he's making a lot more sense here than our government. 

Brazil, of course, would gain from better relations with Russia and they have deep economic ties to the country now that BRICS is a thing. They are reliant on Russia and Russia is reliant on them. And they have little reason to oppose the war in Ukraine. 

And I also think that Ukraine absolutely deserves some, maybe most, of the blame for the war there. Russia did invade and that was a war of choice, which should be criticized, but Ukraine was absolutely provoking them. They were regularly shelling civilians in Donbass, encouraging neo-Nazi groups like the Azov Battalion and were doing incredibly racist things against their Russian-speaking citizens, including banning the Russian language. And their behavior hasn't been much better since the war started.  

Brazil has very little to gain from sending weapons to Ukraine. First of all, they don't have a huge military and don't have that much to give. And even if they did, why would they? Ukraine is losing the war, why prolong it? And why anger Russia when they are a huge economic partner? And it's not like the United States and Europe is going to do anything to make Brazil better if they do. 

I also agree that the sanctions against Russia have damaged the third world. If for no other reason that the energy sanctions have increased prices globally. And nothing hurts more than higher energy prices, the entire economy depends on it. We have been fairly insulated from the worst shocks because of higher prices but third world countries? They aren't so lucky. 

Of course, I don't know that either Russia or Ukraine would make a deal right now. The west is determined to "defend" Ukraine down to the last Ukrainian and if President Zelensky tried to negotiate he'd either get killed by the CIA or by his own people. 

And Russia? Right now they are accomplishing a lot and doing it on the cheap. They are slowly grinding the Ukrainian military into dust. Europe is bankrupting themselves trying to fight the war and even the United States is taking economic damage. And the war is pushing a lot of countries, including Brazil, into the arms of the Russians. They have little reason to end the war at this point, and zero trust in the west to deal fairly.