creating a very, very serious crisis in ukraine. i think the condensation should be about putin even more because he increasingly acts like a rogue state president. so in many decisions, on sanctions and visas, visa bans and whatnot, this should be taken into consideration more than ever before because he's now responsible for partially responsible for two crisis, one in the middle of europe and another one in the middle east. >> is it safe to say that assad is emboldened by putin's action by ukraine. >> absolutely. >> is that a stretch? >> no. >> this is something that it depends on, that russia depends on, that as soon as we were distracted by something like an olympics, there would be another plan that is in the works so that they can operate in terms of foreign policy to achieve their goals, to achieve their foreign policy. >> i want to do a little bit of a reality check. i think there is such a thing as over stretch.