Joe Biden opts for cautious words and gestures

US Vice President Joe Biden is currently visiting Ukraine and Georgia. The left-liberal daily Süddeutsche Zeitung comments: "From the Russian leadership's point of view the trip to Kiev and Tbilisi is a test: Will the US continue with its aggressive rhetoric and back Russia's neighbours in their quest for democracy and alliance with the West? Or will it submit to the Russian notion of spheres of influence, to which in Moscow's eyes Ukraine and Georgia along with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, recently catapulted into independence, also belong. Biden had no choice but to signal to the Georgians, who since the beginning of the brief war last summer have been in a state of collective depression, and the Ukrainians, who see themselves as the next victim of Russia's expansionary ambitions, that the White House is keeping an eye on their interests. He sensibly did this with cautious words and gestures for Obama's goal is to integrate the Russians, who for some time now have once again been feared by all their neighbours in Europe."

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