Biden tried to push Putin aside. The Russian isn’t having it.

When National Security Council officials approached President Joe Biden with a package of sanctions to impose on Russia earlier this year, he sent it back to them three times.

It’s not tough enough, he told them, according to two former U.S. officials informed of the events.

Given the latest maneuvers by Moscow, maybe Biden should have sent the package back a fourth time.

To the alarm of the United States, other NATO members and the European Union, Russian leader Vladimir Putin is again amassing troops along his country’s western borders. Senior U.S. officials are warning Putin not to attempt another invasion of Ukraine.

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“Russia’s military moves toward Ukraine raise real questions about the administration’s current balance between confronting and engaging the Kremlin,” said Andrea Kendall-Taylor, director of the Transatlantic Security Program at the Center for a New American Security. “I think it is clear that the balance needs to skew more towards confrontation.”

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