Responsible for war crimes, and we know that just over the weekend, the austrian chancellor was in ukraine, in kyiv, in bucha. saw himself, witnessed what he described as war crimes. he said that people should be held accountable. and that was his message with vladimir putin. he told vladimir putin that he had looked the unimaginable suffering of the people of ukraine in the eye and that was the responsibility of russia s war of aggression. that s what he told president putin directly to his face. he also told putin the european union and international sanctions on russia would continue. that they would continue to tighten as long as people are being killed in ukraine. it doesn t appear, and i think perhaps no surprise to have shifted the dial in putin s thinking. we know that the kremlin didn t publicize this meeting as it would do normally with an
Adversarial meeting. putin s hope all along has been to use allies in hungary and other parts of europe to divide the european opposition against him. and the worry has been the longer this conflict goes on, that united opposition of eu countries to sanction putin will continue. now there have been some countries like hungary who haven t taken part. it s interesting that the austrian leader took a lot of grief locally in his own country for making this trip used it as a way to, instead, say we are this european criticism and so we ll see if putin says yes to any future visits from leaders like him. general clark, i was just in poland last week and i spoke with the polish president who was very down on the notion of having meetings with vladimir putin. you know, basically suggesting
That this kind of outcome that apparently has happened with the austrian chancellor would happen, which is that it s effectively pointless. what s your take? well, i think in this case, it probably served a good purpose because as long as the austrian chancellor did lay it out the way that it s reported and took that lesson back, that further consolidates the european union s position. but i do agree with poland. look, mr. putin is not going to negotiate and give anything away. it s all going to depend on the outcome on the battlefield. these talks are just his way of trying to divide europe and forestall reinforcement of the ukrainians. in this case, he s in such a hole. he s sacked his top intelligence guy who was responsible for ukraine. there s a big purge under way. he s looking for people to throw the blame to in this case, and he knows he s got to deliver. so he s not ready to negotiate.