The big news on Thursday morning was that President Biden had sent a letter to President Putin and was awaiting his reply. Then the big news changed: They had received Putin's reply and were waiting while it was "analyzed." All of this followed the big news from Wednesday, shooting down the Russian claim that they had moved forces back from the border with Ukraine when, according to Western sources, they had moved 7,000 more troops into position to attack.
It's never a good sign — in fact, I'll coin an acronym for it: INAGS — when national leaders stop talking to each other face-to-face or on the phone and start communicating by letter. It's never a good sign when a country's spokesman or its national leader starts telling lies that can be easily disproved. In fact, it's never a good sign when anyone, especially the leader of a nuclear power, decides to go with that old chestnut, who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes? because it means that logic and reason and facts have once again disappeared into the black hole all authoritarians dig for themselves in the end: the war against reality itself.
