We never made the effort. Worse still, the Biden Administration gave Putin leverage in different ways. The worst of that was Biden’s obsession with Iran and using Putin’s henchmen as our agents with the Iranians. The Russians played us like a drum and Iran was the drumsticks. And the Biden’s energy policy that directly and indirectly favored Russia.
Throw in Putin‘s observation of Biden’s Afghanistan mess, Biden‘s political weakness, the, incompetence of Blinken when it mattered and Biden’s diminished capacity and we have a cacophony events that gave Putin an opportunity.
But you are right, we can’t force Putin to negotiate now. Things were happening in Russia that we missed while our attention was focused on vax mandates, insurrectionists, white rage, and an environmentally friendly military.
The world is now paying, and will pay, a heavy price in terms of food and energy shortages and accompanying higher prices. I think a more competent, resourceful, and effective US administration could have made a difference, thus my thread title.
I know you don’t think the Trump administration was competent either, but he did manage a high quality border policy through international agreements and effectIve enforcement, and he managed a self-sustainable energy policy to Russia’s disadvantage. Biden shitcanned both. The choice was binary and Trump would have been better.