President Biden threatened his country will defend every centimeter of NATO territory with the full force of US power and pointed out that an attack on a NATO member-country is an attack on all of us.

Biden’s statements came hours following Russian President Vladimir Putin stated his country had decided to partially pull its troops back from Ukraine border, and Russian military officials noted that some forces on the Ukrainian border were sent back to their bases.

US and European officials expressed skepticism about the Russian troop deployments, saying most of the troop deployment remains poised to quickly invade Ukraine.

While he did not repeat recent “assessments” by some administration officials that a Russian invasion was imminent, his comments did not reflect a change in his administration’s overall judgment about the possibility of a Russian invasion, White House officials stressed.

The remarks came after President Putin said, after a face-to-face meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, that his country would continue pressing for its major calls: a rollback of NATO’s troops from Eastern Europe and a guarantee that Ukraine will not join the alliance.

In this context, an analysis by Jack F. Matlock, former US ambassador to Moscow (1987-1991), described the campaign touched off against Russia for its alleged plans to invade Ukraine as a “charade”.

Mr. Matlock stressed: “I may be wrong – tragically – but I cannot dismiss the suspicion that we´re witnessing an elaborate charade, grossly magnified by leading elements of the US media to serve a domestic political end.”

What President Vladimir Putin calls for the end of NATO expansion and the creation of a security structure in Europe that guarantees Russia’s security along with that of others, is eminently reasonable, Mr. Matlock said.

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