and has to do with deterrence and deterrence is about credible threats. putin has to see the pain is not worth taking to make the choice to go in there. so the question is are these sanctions tough enough, are some of the things that are happening of moving troops and things to that area something that scares him off and maybe makes him push away? so i think the administration is doing a good job of keeping the allies and europeans together on this. a number of countries are sending troops and things there. putin wants the u.s. out of europe. he wants to kill off nato. he wants vassell states on his borders and the opposite is happening. nato is re-energized. the u.s. is sending more people to europe. ukraine is moving further and further away from russia. so at some point putin has to calculate, you know, is this worth my effort and it is not clear and he s the only one that can make that decision. so it remains to be seen. you think that putin would do
evacuate americans if russia invades ukraine. joining me now, fareed zakaria. he is the host of fareed zakaria gps. thanks for joining, fareed. good evening to you. in just the last 24 hours we re told russia added another 2,000 combat forces near ukraine s border. that s on top of the 100,000 troops already there. all this movement in the direction of conflict, can it be stopped at this point? it s a great question, don, because what russia has now done is it has really surrounded ukraine on three sides. most significant is not just the fact that they re moving troops but they ve moved troops into belarus. so between belarus and russia that means they have ukraine in a kind of pincer. now, point number two, you can t keep this level of mobilization going forever. so at some point putin has to decide to either de-escalate or
putin is getting everything he does not want, a unified nato, more troops closer to the border. you got ukrainian people united against moscow, against putin. talk us through where we are this moment. secretary austin should be meeting with his german counterpart in brussels. what they re hoping to accomplish at this nato defense minister meeting this week is a show of unity and to show vladimir putin what you described. number one, the u.s. troops have moved closer to the u.s. border. they sent some to poland and have moved several thousand troops in there as a show of unity and as a way to bolster defenses of some of those nato allies who are there close to ukraine and very close to russia s border. but beyond that, there is also an effort here among these nato allies at these meetings in
felt there has been a bit of a deescalation. it seems like moscow is now open once again to diplomacy. they re not showing it, though. there s no sign they re actually drawing down their troops. all of this on a day of, quote unquote, unity happening inside. talk to me. reporter: we don t know in there s a deescalation or not or if the tone has changed. according to the secretary of state, there s been no fullback of russian forces and some are moving closer to the board. and u.s. military officials i ve been speaking to are quite convinced that putin has not and is not going to back down. so, yes, there is still the diplomacy continuing, but the diplomacy has been continuing for weeks and we will see if it does lead to a different conclusion. but here in ukraine what we saw
i think also what has without question happened is nato has come together in a manner not seen in the last decade, that trump knocked that alliance on its knees, it s now vibrant, they re worried about the russians, they re worried about their own preparedness. secretary austin s meetings today in brussels with other defense minister from the 30 nato nations are vital. so i must admit i think we re in better circumstances today on deterrence and with president biden s very powerful presentation yesterday, maybe putin s starting to realize he s on the edge of a disastrous strategic mistake. let s talk about, peter baker, what the president had to say yesterday. first and foremost, yes, diplomacy, possibly deescalation. that being said, putin may very well still invade.