still defending it. this also marks an ironic pivot for the party literally built on soviet communism including accusing civil rights leaders of being a fifth column against american greatness. it turns out, okay, yes, there is a fifth column inside the republican party in the media apparatus, which apparently clearly has fallen in love with russian autocrats and advancing putin s goals here at home, they have officially broken with the former saint ronald reagan who famous recalled soviet russia an evil empire. joining me now is former u.s. ambassador to russia, michael mcfaul. julia, founding partner and washington correspondent for puck news and david, columnist for the daily beast and usa today and the deep state podcast. david, it was your rant that captured my attention today because it i ve come to expect very little from the
the chinese are thinking looking at this in terms of helping further russia or are they wanting to maybe distance? do you have a good insight into that? a bit of both, dana. i see this as really cold war two but the chinese are the senior partner. the russians the junior partner. putin wouldn t have gone ahead without a green light from xi. now that it has gone wrong and wasn t the cake walk that putin implied it would be, the chinese are trying to distance themselves and i fully expect them to play the peacemakers. they ve already indicated they would like to play that role. they re having it both ways and we should be wary of that. dana: should we be wary or encourage it or both. we should take the initiative in peacemaking. we should not be sitting on the back seat leaving it to china or the europeans to try to broker this peace. if you think back to the 1970s
taking place, as the invasion was taking place, and basically told him that that all all the military activities had to cease immediately. he said, of course, obvious hi, that did not go anywhere. but he did explain why he made that phone call the ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy. translator: i think it is my responsibility, first of all, to take such initiatives when they are requested by ukraine. and then, while condemning, while sanctioning, while continuing to decide and act. to leave this path open, so that the day when the conditions can be met, we can obtain the secession of hostilities for the ukrainian people. president macron said, in fact, that he felt that putin had been totally duplicitous because he had tried desperately to negotiate something before hostilities began, and he said, yes, there was duplicity.
president putin has raised the spectre of the use of nuclear weapons, saying he s putting russia s nuclear forces on high alert. let s take a moment to look at the history of the nuclear arms race. with one announcement, vladimir putin left the world asking, would he? i m ordering the minister of defence and the chief of the general staff to put the strategic nuclear forces on special alert. russia has the biggest nuclear arsenal in the world, and putin wouldn t be the first leader to give the order. in 1945, the us dropped two nuclear weapons onjapan. they effectively ended the second world war and killed over 100,000 people in 1949. the soviet union tested a bomb at this test site in what is now kazakhstan, then in 1962. the cuban missile crisis almost brought nuclear war between the us and russia,
independent states. and like, we should continue negotiations with both ukraine and the west. and toward the end, he made a u-turn and said, well, actual recognition if that s what you want, mr. putin is a great idea. so, it doesn t look like there are people who have influence and who could say no to mr. putin s design. great analysis as always. check in with you again, alexander. alexander there in moscow. really appreciate it. as always. and my colleague, kim brunhuber will pick up our coverage from atlanta when we come back, including the new economic pain russia will face for its invasion of ukraine. stay with us.