A very different version of events was reported last week in the Wall Street Journal. Relying on off-the-record comments from “senior U.S. and Russian officials,” the Journal reported that Putin did not offer help but rather “objected to any role for American forces in Central Asian countries.”

If the Journal’s version of events is essentially correct, the Biden administration apparently wanted to make a deal with at least one country bordering Afghanistan to station U.S. troops there, but Putin put the kibosh on the idea.

At first glance, this seems unsurprising. Of course Putin was never going to agree to let the United States station forces in a country he considers within the Russian sphere of influence. After all, he invaded not one but two neighboring countries to prevent them from joining NATO.

But look at this story more closely and you’ll get a better sense of how the Afghanistan withdrawal was botched not just as an operational and humanitarian matter but at the highest levels of geostrategy.