Putin is threatening disaster over Ukraine’s long-range missiles — but his past ‘red lines’ came to nothing

The Kremlin is employing the playbook again over the long-range strikes.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov last week warned the West not to joke about its red lines.

“But they should understand—they are joking about our red lines here. They shouldn’t joke about our red lines,” he remarked in a Russian TV interview.

Analysts writing for the US think tank Responsible Statecraft last June said that the West would never know if it had crossed a real Russian red line until it’s too late.

“We are likely to discover that we have gone too far only after we find ourselves in a direct confrontation with Russia, not before,” they wrote.

According to The New York Times, Biden is wary of allowing Ukraine to use US long-range missiles in attacks on Russia because the response could come not in the form of a direct attack on the US but by enabling Iran to target US bases in the Middle East.

It’s a less terrifying scenario than nuclear war — but still constitutes a dangerous escalation that could spiral out of control.

For now, though, the US and its allies seem to be willing to wager that the benefits of providing Ukraine with the permission to use the long-range weapons in attacks on Russia outweigh the risks.

“I wouldn’t attach excessive importance to Putin’s latest declarations,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Friday.