Amerikas Krim

Simon Shuster: “Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, can rarely be described as looking happy. His brick wall of a face and somber voice, worn down by many years of smoking Marlboros, have earned him the nickname ‘Minister No.’ But when the question of Greenland came up yesterday at his press conference in Moscow, Lavrov seemed to come alive, even permitting himself a smile and a chuckle as he talked about President Trump’s imperial designs on the Danish territory and the response from NATO allies …

“For Lavrov and his boss, Vladimir Putin, the standoff over Greenland has offered plenty of reasons for schadenfreude. It has distracted the Europeans from Russia’s war against Ukraine, forcing Denmark and its allies to use their military resources to guard Greenland from the United States instead of defending against the Russian threat. As Lavrov pointed out, the dispute has also raised the prospect of a rupture within NATO, the alliance that Putin has made it his mission to dismantle.

“Appearing earlier today at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump tried to calm the fears of a military clash among NATO allies. The U.S. ‘won’t use force’ to seize Greenland, he said, while issuing a vague warning that if Denmark and the Europeans do not acquiesce to his demands, ‘we will remember.’

“Such threats sound like poetic justice to the Russians because they erode the moral high ground from which the West has defended Ukraine. By making a nakedly imperialist claim on the territory of a faithful American ally, Trump has made it far easier for Putin and Lavrov to justify Russia’s imperialist claim on Ukraine. Western appeals to the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity, and the autonomy of nations start to ring hollow when the country that anchors the West sets out to violate those principles so brazenly.”

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