portend to come. russian planes invading a former soviet republic, georgia. occupies 20% of the country. there was no reaction to that war from the west. putin bluntly told the president, war has started today. what was forgotten, ignored within months. the only question now, where will the russians go next? in 2014, russia struck again. violating the sovereignty of another country. that s something that adolf
september 11th, 2001. as the horrific attack unfolded in new york, russia s new president, vladimir putin, turned to a top adviser and asked, what can we do to help the americans? he was the first world leader to call the white house that day. i would like to say we are with you. in a heartfelt speech, he told americans we feel your pain. soon putin visited ground zero.
death has come off during putin s points. dozens of his critics had met a similar fate. alexey navalny electrified crowds. he was the brightest stars of those protests. hi popular youtube videos exposed the regime s corruption. [ speaking foreign language ] in 2020, russia s only independent pollster asked who is the most inspiring person in the country. [ speaking foreign language ] president putin came in first. , but surprisingly navalny showed up second.
attacks. the sudden handover of power left russia and the world with one overwhelming question who is this guy? people who predict what type of president he would make of essentially blowing a lot of smoke. he could bring russia out of its decline or could be the leader that makes him into an authoritarian regime again. he came out of obscurity. i would say it was an accident that he was picked by bores yeltsin to be his successor. an accident, because boris yeltsin had already gone through five different prime ministers. he had pretty much cycled thus everybody.
against the west. later in davos, when michael dell offered to build out russia s infrastructure, he snapped, saying russia was not a developing country and would build its own stuff. that was my impress in our sequence meeting, including one interview. is this a new putin we are seeing? i do not know, but he has not stayed the same over his extraordinary reign. in his first years, he courted the west, sduktively convincing president george bush he was a spiritual man, a speech he made in germany, but in the early days, he desperately needed help. they had big debts, the economic