MINSK, July 23 (TASS) - The decision of incumbent US President Joe Biden to quit the presidential race will seriously affect the Ukrainian crisis, Russian Ambassador to Belarus Boris Gryzlov said.
"President Biden's statement will inevitably have serious international political implications, first of all in the context of the crisis around Ukraine. Amid unresolved problems in the US economy, including inflation and rising unemployment, it will be increasingly difficult for politicians to explain to voters why their country is spending countless billions of dollars to support a military conflict in faraway Eastern Europe," Gryzlov said in comments that were released by the Russian Embassy in Belarus.
"The last aid package to Kiev was just barely agreed and not at the first try, and doing it in the future it will be much more difficult, if not impossible," the ambassador said.
"The populist and moralizing slogans about 'fighting for justice and human rights around the world,' which sound so familiar to the Democrats, simply do not work today," Gryzlov said. "But the main problem of the Democrats on the Ukrainian track is not even in their failed rhetoric. By giving up the fight for the White House, Joseph Biden deprived himself and the party of the levers of influence on the elites, downshifting from the leader of the superpower into an honorary retiree, who warms the chair for the next holder of the Oval Office."
According to the diplomat, a lame-duck president is a symbolic, figurehead politician that doesn’t merit to be approached for serious political bargaining.
"From now on, Biden's influence on politicians and institutions both inside the US and on the international stage will rapidly decline," Gryzlov said. "For the Kiev regime as a whole and specifically for [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky, this state of affairs may become fatal."
"In the coming months, his main sponsor, the United States, will focus solely on domestic political issues and the election race. Ukraine will drop off the agenda. No candidate in his right mind will actively lobby for a multibillion-dollar aid package for Kiev from the pocket of American taxpayers in the middle of the campaign," Gryzlov said. "The European Union and NATO, for their part, will be waiting for the outcome of the US election before taking any serious steps."
"Even in the best-case scenario for the Ukrainian regime, that is, if military supplies and cash injections continue, the most that the leadership of Ukraine, the US and NATO will be able to achieve is to delay for some time the inevitable success of Russia in achieving the goals of the special operation," the ambassador said.
