President Biden has landed the first punch in an escalating contest between a reviving America and a revisionist Russia by publicly affirming that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a killer. Biden could have gone even further by naming Putin as a terrorist for his complicity in the bombing of apartment blocks in Russia in 1999 and a war criminal for the slaughter of tens of thousands of civilians during Moscow’s attack on Chechnya that same year. Regardless of such charges, words have to be followed with deeds or Putin will not take the new U.S. administration seriously.

Read more here.