next thing that s going to happen is there s going to be nato troops on the board of western ukraine and putin s troops will flood into eastern ukraine, then all bets are off. go ahead. obviously putin has hiss mission and he clearly does see himself in the way that professor cohen just outlined. obviously there s been a major sort of argument over ukraine, but putin and the russians have by treaty their big black sea fleet in sevastopol in the crimea. there s no indication that the new ukrainian government was going to change that reality at all. you say that putin has telegraphed what his aims are and that he s not a thug, well, look, i would like you to explain to me how he and us can justify the trumping up of this hysteria in the crimea which has given the russians the ability to do what they re doing, whether it was the trumped-up change of government in the crimean parliament, whether the
a divide developing between president obama and chancellor merkel. that s the big problem. there s a meeting of the eu on thursday, a nato meeting and thus far no appetite by the german chancellor even though she despises putin and is making strong statements about the violation of ukrainian sovereignty, they re not about to go along with sanctions with real teeth. 40% of their natural gas in germany and half of their energy is from natural gas comes through the pipeline from russia. it is a terrible vice that the russians have on the germans. there s going to be real face-off among the allies as to how to find a unanimous path that can have some teeth and at the same time look for a way out that putin can pull back. they re looking actively what can putin be offered that
russia. whether it s libya or syria or iran or ukraine, he sees western actions as uniquely attempting to undermine russian power. reporter: but putin could also be feeling emboldened in ukraine. mr. putin basically thinks that president obama and the americans and the europeans are kind of wimps. and that he can roll them when he sees fit. reporter: between that bravado and the alleged fear how far vladimir putin will take all of this. will he be the ruthless commander who pushes this further into ukraine and ignites a war or will he park his forces in crimea and stay there? wolf? brian todd reporting for us, thanks very much. in the latest issue of the nation magazine, steven cohen is sharply critical of the
i want you to read the lead story in the new york times today. chancellor angela merkel told mr. obama by telephone on sunday that after speaking with mr. putin she was not sure he was in touch with reality. people briefed on the call said in another world, she said. is she right? i don t know if it s an accurate report. but remember she said that about president george bush in 2010 when bush tried to fasttrack ukraine into nato and she stopped it. what i do know is this putin doesn t trust obama, doesn t think he s a resolute leader, doesn t think he can negotiate with him definitively. he trusts merkel, he speaks with her in german. they have a certain rapport. i would doubt very seriously that that was merkel s end of the story. i hope it wasn t because merkel is one of the key players that can end this crisis if it can be ended. looks to me like there s a
intervention. and look, you just heard what the general said. perhaps people would disagree with that but the united states went to war and lost a lot of people, wolf, over fighting in europe for freedom. and that is it why the u.s. and the west stand for. i want both of you to respond. first, newt gingrich. go ahead. the united states is not going to go to war over ukraine. the ukrainian the ukraine has to make some kind of accommodation. at the same time, we and the europeans have to send some signals to putin that are pretty clear that he cannot continue down this road. the world s going to become very dangerous. right. if putin thinks he can flex his muscles and continue to encroach on western territories that used to be in the soviet union. that s right. this is a very serious question. everybody hold on for a moment. professor cohen, stand by. we re going to continue this conversation. much more to discuss. clearly important issues are