megalomaniac. he thinks he s got a mission from god to do these things and he moving towards doing it and it s i think therefore very scary. i think the point you guys were just talking about about unintended consequences is also very important. lots of leaders with bad information living in their bubbles like he does, only talking to other kgb guys. he doesn t talk to anybody else except this inner circle. when i was ambassador, i used to interact with all those guys. they have crazy ideas about the world. they re disconnected from reality in terms of what is going on in the world, that s very dangerous. and one other thing i would remind you about in terms of getting in to putin s head. he s been to war many times, and
paying for the whole thing. and by the way, i have to say this, since i came, which is a year and a half, almost $33 billion more is projected to be paid by those nato nations. but it s not enough. do they ever tell you that? no. no. general mccaffrey, your reaction when you see that? well, i think probably the most frightening aspect is the roar of the crowd acknowledging these observations. look, you know, a lot has been lost already. i just had the privilege of listening to ambassador mcfaul in a small group lecture. one thing we should put as a data point, the russians are magnificent people. physics, mathematics, ballet, literature, soldiers. they re superb people. they re being the first victims of pute and in his kleptocracy, the former kgb guys. the place is impoverished. it s a tiny economy compared to
of other world leaders condemning putin for what happens happened? there was some reporting that the dutch and others didn t want to dial it up until they had the bodies and remains back, until they access for organization of security and cooperation in europe investigators who had been blocked for days from getting real access to the site. that said, you are not hearing the same kinds of voices from others involved in this. look, vladimir putin is one of the richest men in the world. he s got his money salted away. i assume swiss banks or other interests outside of russia. so he has been agrandizing himself and enriching himself and only talks to a couple of former fellow kgb guys. doesn t trust his foreign secretary. john kerry learned that when he was negotiating with the wrong
those old school kgb guys. well, he headed up the kgb. well, of course putin served in the kgb as a colonel. white house said yesterday the president is aware that putin never led the organization. still, russia s decision to grant snowden asylum was the last straw for a tense relationship. u.s. tension has been building over russian support and armed shipments to assad. and russia halted hundreds of adoptions already under way. russia has thrown out american aid and democracy organizations. they being contract cracked dow ahead of next year s olympics in sochi. another white house announcement was greeted with bipartisan approval. some republicans in congress couldn t resist pointing out the new low in the u.s./russia relationship. mccain tweeted this, remember, tell vladimir, after my election, i have more
putin is, that s the past. and, you know, we ve got to think about the future. and there s no reason why we shouldn t be able to cooperate more effectively than we do. yeah. putin seems to me like one of those old school kgb guys. well, he headed up the kgb. well, that s what i mean. so as we said, take that. no september summit. the president has just backed out. with me now from washington, jake tapper. chief washington correspondent and host of the lead. also from irvine california, bob baer, former cia. gentlemen, i have to confess here. i missed the cold war. bob baer, let me ask you, does this bring back any memories? oh, absolutely. putin is an unreconstructed kgb officer. he thinks the cold war is still on. he s looking at snowden as a great victory over the united states. and he s going to squeeze everything he can out of it. so why should the president go to moscow and just add to his propaganda theater?