WASHINGTON, Dec 9, 2021 (BSS/AFP) - President Joe Biden said Wednesday
he's warned President Vladimir Putin that Moscow will face economic sanctions
"like none he's ever seen" should Russian troops massed on the Ukrainian
border launch an attack.

   The dramatic warning came a day after Biden and Putin talked for two hours
by video link, and the US leader said his Russian counterpart got "the
message."

   "I made it very clear if in fact he invades Ukraine there will be severe
consequences, severe consequences -- economic consequences like none he's
ever seen or ever have been seen," Biden told reporters at the White House.

   But Biden added that sending US troops to confront Russia was "not on the
table."

   Adding to diplomatic pressure on the Kremlin leader, new German Chancellor
Olaf Scholz warned of "consequences" for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, a huge
Russian project to deliver natural gas to Germany.

   France's foreign ministry said in a statement that Russia would face
"strategic and massive consequences."

   And US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he'd heard a similar message
during talks with the president of the European Council, Charles Michel.

   They "agreed on the need to impose swift and severe costs on Russia if it
escalates its aggression in Ukraine," State Department spokesman Ned Price
said.

   - Russia's self-defense argument -

   Putin, however, justified Russia's movement of up to 100,000 troops to the
border of Ukraine as a defensive measure amid fears in the Kremlin that the
one-time Soviet republic is being pulled into NATO's sphere.

   "Russia has a peaceful foreign policy, but has the right to defend its
security," Putin said at a news conference with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos
Mitsotakis.

   "We cannot but be concerned about the prospect of Ukraine's possible
admission to NATO, because this will undoubtedly be followed by the
deployment of appropriate military contingents, bases and weapons that
threaten us," he said. The Russian leader stressed that NATO expanding
eastwards is a "very sensitive" issue for Moscow.

  Ukraine's Western-leaning government wants to join the NATO military
alliance but is nowhere close to being admitted.

   Russian troops already occupy Ukraine's Crimea peninsula and Russian-
backed separatist forces have carved out a pro-Moscow territory covering a
swath of eastern Ukraine.

   - US troops? -

   Biden said that in addition to economic measures, a new Russian attack on
Ukraine would trigger a bolstered US military presence on the territory of
existing NATO allies in eastern Europe.

   "We would probably be required to reinforce our presence in NATO countries
to reassure particularly those in the eastern front. In addition to that, I
made it clear that we would provide a defensive capability to the Ukrainians
as well," he said.  The United States already works closely with the
Ukrainian military and has provided millions of dollars in weaponry. However,
Biden said that sending US troops to defend Ukraine without NATO agreement
was ruled out for now.

   "The idea the United States is going to unilaterally use force to confront
Russia invading Ukraine is not on the cards right now," Biden said. "We have
a moral obligation and a legal obligation to our NATO allies under Article
Five. It's a sacred obligation. That obligation does not extend to...
Ukraine."

   "But it would depend upon what the rest of the NATO countries were willing
to do as well," Biden said, seemingly leaving the door to intervention open
just a crack.

   Regarding Russia's contention that NATO expansion into its former Soviet
strongholds poses a threat, Biden said Moscow and the major NATO allies were
working at a high level on "whether or not we could work out any
accommodations as it relates to bringing down the temperature along the
eastern front."

   Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has said he is ready to
negotiate with Putin, welcomed Tuesday's video summit.

   "I think it's positive that the president of the United States spoke with
the president of Russia," said Zelensky, who is due to hold talks with Biden
on Thursday.

   The White House said that after calling Zelensky, Biden would then host a
conference call with NATO's Eastern European members: Bulgaria, the Czech
Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.

   Biden will "brief them on his call with President Putin, hear their
perspectives on the current security situation, and underscore the United
States' commitment to transatlantic security," a White House statement said.