extrapolate from anti-war protesters saying putin is about to fall, about to cave, but what do these protests tell you about the nature of the russian regime right now. and what it is dealing with at home? we oftenng call pute an stro man. and this is a kind of weakness that he has to force people to shut up because they oppose him. now, i think there are significant elements of the russiansi population that do ba vladimir pute. and it s difficult to discern whether that s because they re constantly living in his propaganda machine, fed disinformation andpr lies or because they generally understand what isca going on i ukraine and they support. it i think you ve seen disturbing images of the sign z that is put on people s clothing as a nationalistic, militaristic symbol in support of vladimir putin and this shows youor how e russian regime operates, it is a culture ofte fear, it is a culte of fear in which you must show feel ty to the leader or face the consequences.
whether that s because they are constantly living in his propaganda machine, fed disinformation and lies. or because they generally understand what s going on in ukraine and they supported. i think you have seen some very disturbing images of this sign z that s being put on as they nationalistic military symbol in support of vladimir putin. this show you how russians regimes operates. it s a culture of fear, in which you must show fealty to the leader. or you might face the consequences. that s the dynamic that will worsen in russia as the conflict goes on as the domestic crackdown on dissent will even get worse than it was before. just saying a heck of a lot, because it s already very very repressive inside of the russian state. let s talk about what s happening here at home, you have gas prices rising, you have top of a ban on russian oil. and you have a u.s. administration, you served in the state department. trying to send diplomats to
0 campaign like that. you ve got to planted. you ve got to execute it. that s reason number one. that might come back, by the way. they might be stunned at the moment, but that might come back. moment, but that might com back we re much better prepared, and there s a lot more peter pommerantsey, who has written several books on this topic, learned a lot from him, thank you very much for your time tonight. i really appreciate it. good evening. i m it is now midnight on the east coast as we continue to follow breaking news out of ukraine. russia is accelerating its offensive and more civilians are being killed in the attempt to seize control of kyiv. one senior u.s. defense official tells nbc news it made 100% of the military forces that vladimir putin mobilized for war are now inside ukraine. president zelenskyy remains in his country and he spoke to the nation from his office in the capital. zelenskyy amazingly posted this video to facebook saying he will not leave ukraine and he w
now. ron, what did you think about what the president said? do you agree? the economy so far is in fine shape although there are sign z that certain sectors are slowing down. housing has slowed considerably. auto sales look like they have peaked and are beginning to roll over. and there are sectors of the economy that are struggling through the trade war with china. the agricultural community and others who export to that country have been suggesting that they are having some difficulty. but by and large, the economy is fine right now. the global economy is also slowing. and we have full year 2018 gdp report due out on the 30th. there are concerns that the shutdown will prevent staffers from even releasing that report. but more importantly, trump s great claim has been grow gdp. can the shutdown affect that and if so how? absolutely. the shutdown right now is cutting one tenth of a percent off gdp every week. there are some forecasters suggesting that the current quarter if it go