Biden Accuses Russia of Seeking to Undercut U.S. Allies

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden accused Russia of trying to undermine its European neighbors, funding anti-establishment groups and exploiting corruption to extend its influence.

Fourteen months after Russia annexed Crimea and instigated a broader separatist movement in Ukraine, the U.S.-European alliance is being put to its biggest test since the Cold War, Biden said Wednesday in a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government is using “hybrid warfare” to extend its reach deeper into Europe beyond Ukraine, he said, without citing specific examples.

“The Kremlin is working hard to buy off and co-opt European political forces, funding both right wing and left wing anti-systemic parties throughout Europe,” Biden said. Russia and other nations also “are using corruption and oligarchs as tools of coercion.”

Biden spoke about a week before President Barack Obama plans to travel to Germany to attend a summit of the Group of Seven industrialized nations. Obama is counting on the G7 states, including France, Germany, Italy and the U.K., to maintain a united front against Russia, which was excluded from the group after annexing Crimea in March 2014.

Ukraine’s Government

Russia’s aggression in Ukraine is “abetted by a hyper-aggressive state-sponsored Russian propaganda machine that actively spreads disinformation -- and does it very well, I might add,” Biden said. “But on the whole European unity has held.”

Biden, who has visited Ukraine three times since the conflict with Russia began, said the country must fight corruption. He called on Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to empower local governments and to use authority granted by new laws to limit the power of oligarchs.

Ukraine should diversify its economy and European countries should seek energy supplies from countries other than Russia, Biden said. Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings announced last year that Biden’s son Hunter joined its board.

Obama and North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday rebuked Russia for what they said is “increasingly aggressive” action in Ukraine, saying the country needs to step back.

What happens next in Ukraine is also about the future of Russia, Biden said.

‘A Test’

“The conflict over Ukraine is a test for the West, a test for the EU, a test for NATO,” Biden said. “President Putin is wagering he has greater staying power.”

The U.S. has assured former Soviet republics in the NATO alliance that they will be defended in the event of Russian aggression.

“If the Kremlin is able to establish its own fiefdom in eastern Ukraine, that will only fan the flames of its ambitions in the region,” Biden said.

Stoltenberg, speaking Wednesday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said the 28-member NATO alliance is concerned Russia may escalate the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Russia is conducting a “snap military exercise” involving 250 aircraft and 700 pieces of heavy equipment, he said. The former Norwegian prime minister said Russia in the past has allowed the exercises to mask “aggressive actions.”

“They have used these snap exercise as a disguise for annexing part of another country, annexing Crimea,” Stoltenberg said. “They have used snap exercises as a way to mask troops on the borders of Ukraine and to send troops into eastern Ukraine to support separatists.”