individuals or countries. putin felt humiliated by the digs solution of the internal soviet empire that was the soviet union as well as the external warsaw pack. the ill-advised decision in 2008 by nato and led by the united states to open up georgia to the possibility of nato membership that has continued to advance in recent years. the continuing slights of remember when president obama described russia as a regional power. this is a man who has done nothing to build a domestic legacy. there s not much in the way of economy, not much in the way of a political system. as anne described it, as a kleptocracy but he has done a lot in terms of not making russia great again but making russia a great power that is respected again and i think that s a big, big part of it. anne, let me ask you about what the west looks like now because the united states, i think the biden administration, has all of you seem to agree kind of a good mix between the deterrents and diplomacy, but in germa
kleptocracy. it s more like a criminal mafia bureau than it is any government. so when you start hitting all those who support putin because they are being rich of him to inc include his foreign minister, lavrov, who has a mistress in the uk, you will see some things incur that will encourage putin not do this attack. the last thing i ll say, fredricka, and then i ll stop, i m really concerned for the russian military. they don t know what they re getting into. and from a military perspective, when you do troop-to-task analysis of how many soldiers they have, yeah, it seems like a lot, 100-plus thousand, but ukraine is an extremely big country with a population of 40 million and an army over 250,000. so those things can be very dangerous to mr. putin as well. i m learning a lot from both of you. general and david, i heard what you were saying, too, on with america em out, macron has kind
have gained from russian kleptocracy. they won t share in the pain. the point the ukrainians are making is right. these costs are going to escalate from here. the two largest banks in the russian economy are $750 billion in assets under management. that s ten times larger. our export controls, which can deny all the critical technology inputs to russia have yet to be unveiled. we can unveil those at any moment. let me also say this, russia is already feeling the pain. their inflation rate has spiked higher to almost 9%. their central bank hiked rates eight times to 9.5%. this is all because of the signaling of sanctions and now we re starting to deliver. when you say there is a blood lust for sanctions, by whom? i hear it, i hear it from many in the media, why didn t you impose all of your sanctions on day one? and so what i m saying to you is we saw the beginning of an invasion yesterday i was quoting i was quoting ukrainian foreign
the word militarily? was he referring to rewriting further defence? defensive lessons weapons to enable ukraine to defend itself? yes. defensive lessons weapons to enable ukraine to defend itself? ukraine to defend itself? yes, i don t want ukraine to defend itself? yes, i don t want to ukraine to defend itself? yes, i don t want to go ukraine to defend itself? yes, i don t want to go into ukraine to defend itself? yes, i don t want to go into detail, - don t want to go into detail, because it is a very sensitive and difficult business, but yes, mr speaker, we have done, we continue to do so, and i believe i have the support of the house in intending to continue to do so. i thank the prime ministerfor his words and early commitment to the economic crime bill and kleptocracy. will there be a foreign lobbying bill? will there be amendments to data protection act to stop unscrupulous law firms offering intimidation services to oligarchs and kleptocrats and will the nca be
properly funded as the report suggested so it will be able to take on the kleptocrats, autocrats and oligarchs in this country? this on the kleptocrats, autocrats and oligarchs in this country? first on the kleptocrats, autocrats and oligarchs in this country? as i said in my opening oligarchs in this country? as i said in my opening statement, - oligarchs in this country? as i said in my opening statement, we - oligarchs in this country? as i said in my opening statement, we are| in my opening statement, we are setting up a new kleptocracy cell in the national crime agency to target the national crime agency to target the individuals he mentions. let the national crime agency to target the individuals he mentions.- the individuals he mentions. let us be under no the individuals he mentions. let us be under no illusion, the individuals he mentions. let us be under no illusion, we the individuals he mentions. let us be under no illusion, we are - the individuals he mentions. le