July 8, 2021

Russia Quickly Crossed Biden’s Red Line

Will the president follow through and hold Putin to account?

Is Joe Biden all talk but no action? Biden certainly talked a big game when he warned Russian President Vladimir Putin last month in Geneva that “certain infrastructure should be off-limits to attack, period — by cyber or any other means.” Recall that a few weeks prior, Colonial Pipeline had experienced a ransomware attack that forced a days-long shutdown of some 5,000 miles of pipeline in the Southeast, creating fuel shortages and gas price hikes. It was quickly determined that the culprit was a Russian-based organization with clear ties to the Kremlin.

In drawing his red line, Biden gave Putin a list of 16 do-not-touch areas, promising, “If, in fact, they violate these basic norms, we will respond with cyber. He knows.” Biden further elaborated, “We agreed to task experts in both our countries to work on specific understandings about what’s off-limits [for hacking] and to follow up on specific cases that originate in … either of our countries.”

Heaven help the American entities that didn’t make Biden’s list and are thus, apparently, fair game — assuming Putin wasn’t laughing at this threat all the way back home.

Indeed, Biden’s red line was crossed just last week. It appears clear that Russia’s foreign intelligence service, SVR, was behind a cyberattack on a Republican National Committee contractor. It’s the same group that in 2015 hacked the Democratic National Committee. So, for all intents and purposes, Putin has called Biden’s bluff. Will Biden follow through on his promised response?

“If the U.S. doesn’t respond, it will be open season on America’s digital infrastructure,” contends the Wall Street Journal editorial board. “Proportionate retaliation runs the risk of escalation. But after publicly drawing a red line, Mr. Biden has no choice lest he show Mr. Putin and other thugs around the world that the U.S. President’s words are empty.”

Thus far, the Biden administration has done nothing, which will only serve to further embolden Putin, whom Biden earlier this year called a “killer,” as well as America’s other adversaries like China. Speaking of China, last week a clearly emboldened President Xi Jinping drew his own line in the sand during the Communist Party’s celebration of its centennial. Xi issued a clear warning to the U.S. not to stand in China’s way in its efforts to take over Taiwan. “Whoever attempts to do that,” Xi warned, “will surely break their heads on the steel Great Wall built with the blood and flesh of 1.4 billion of Chinese people.”

If Biden doesn’t hold Putin accountable, beyond another stern warning, the likelihood of him confronting Chinese aggression against Taiwan seems even more implausible.

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.