We Can't Give Putin His Off-Ramp
It’s not clear that the US and the West can offer the Russian dictator any way out of his escalation spiral.
Will he find the exit?
Photographer: Mark Schiefelbein/Getty Images
Ruminating out loud at a fundraiser the other day, US President Joe Biden expressed what’s on many people’s minds: “We’re trying to figure out, what is Putin’s off-ramp? Where, where does he get off? Where does he find a way out?”
This question about Russian President Vladimir Putin is echoing through halls of power across the Western alliance — and indeed across the whole world. Even Beijing and New Delhi don’t want the Kremlin to go nuclear in its war against Ukraine. After all, even a so-called “limited” first strike by Putin could, as Biden warned, spin out of control and escalate to Armageddon.