for them to sit there and say this is a territorial dispute. that s just not the case. this is not a territorial dispute. vladimir putin is not a genius. rolling tanks and artillery into a free country, mercilessly killing their people and taking their land by force, governor desantis, is not a territorial dispute. bret: do you stick by this characterization. the initial invasion for putin to decapitate the ukrainian government and install a belarus style puppet regime. he failed at that he is not going to succeed at that and that s a good thing. the fight is really on that far eastern flank of the border region between ukraine and russia. they read that to mean that somehow i said putin didn t invade or have a right. of course he invaded. i said that at the time. he doesn t have a right to do it but the reality is that s where the fighting has been. bret: do you think a weakened russia helps the united states? yes, i do. i think one of the things we re going to do is whe
taiwan, chinese statements on taiwan, chinese statements on taiwan, but to what extent do you think that in the short term, ukraine could be tremendously important? either in china siding more and more obviously with president putin or alternatively playing a positive role in bringing the conflict to an end. in terms of dividing the line particularly in europe towards china.- dividing the line particularly in europe towards china. china is embarrassed europe towards china. china is embarrassed by europe towards china. china is embarrassed by the europe towards china. china is embarrassed by the russian i europe towards china. china is - embarrassed by the russian invasion of ukraine embarrassed by the russian invasion of ukraine had embarrassed by the russian invasion of ukraine. had it embarrassed by the russian invasion of ukraine. had it been embarrassed by the russian invasion of ukraine. had it been a embarrassed by the russian invasion of ukraine. had it been a qui
scenarios like this to justify actions that they want to take. we don t know at this point obviously. one thing that s important to understand, he said they called it an assassination attempt against putin. it seems more like symbolism than anything else. putin wasn t there at the time, and he doesn t spend a lot of time at the kremlin. most people know that in moscow. he doesn t actually come to the office, if you will. he works in the country or other locations like that. if it was an attack by a hostile force it would be meant to be showing off in effect we can do this. keep in mind, the idea of attacking a foreign leader is not exactly new to this conflict. it began with russia s attempt to take down zelenskyy, that was the whole strategy at first was to decapitate the zelenskyy government when they first went in in february of 2022. they were going to take down zelenskyy and replace him with a puppet regime that would then
memorial, they have also been seen close to kyiv s independence square where anti government protests in 2014 saw the last moscow leaning president toppled from power. it was those events which triggered russia s campaign of aggression. which led to the invasion of last year. you are right, many thought kyiv were thought within days. fall within days. moscow planned to walk into the capital, topple president zelensky and likely install a puppet regime. here we are, coming up to a year on from that point when president zelensky remains in power and russia has been forced to change his objective is to occupy more and more territory in the east and south. nevertheless, this is far from the east and south. nevertheless, this is farfrom over and russia is continuing to take territory. it is
mess here. is there a disconnect or how do they come to terms with how this war has gone over the past ten months? vladimir putin is in his most weakened state over the past, you know, 20 years. i mean, this war has done nothing but cause his rein in the kremlin to be more tenuous than ever before and his regime security is absolutely on the line. russia considered ukraine a threat because what scares putin is democracy. could never have ukraine seeking to have commercial ties with the european union and military ties with nato and build a functioning democracy and russia s border. that s what scared vladimir putin the most and why he decided he needed to invade, topple the zelenskyy government and have his puppet regime. he has failed miserably, and