have come up with a battery of new sanctions they claim will cripple russia s economy if it moves further against ukraine. putin s goal for the call is unclear. yesterday he was playing hockey with the president of belarus. the russian leader is in the process of strengthening a political union with belarus and may want to add ukraine to russia s expanding domains. russia says it has no hostile intentions for ukraine and is merely trying to defend itself against nato expansion. u.s. and ukrainian officials do not agree. richard engel, thank you very much. i m joined now by nbc news white house correspondent mike memoli and former undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, member of the biden transition team and msnbc analyst richard stengel. president putin believes he can come to some sort of agreement
former undersecretary of state for public diplomacy rick stengel. thank you so much for joining us today. rick, i ll start with you. i listened to what president biden said with lester holt last night. he basically said, we re not trying to do this. direct conflict with russia is world war iii. those were literally the terms that he used. he said, everybody get out. this is not going to be argo. what is the purpose of the united states right now engaging in diplomacy or sending troops to poland if the president s made it pretty clear that we re not going to get into armed combat over ukraine if the russians invade? well, we were never going to get into armed combat, jason. i mean, ukraine is not a nato country, as we all know. i mean, i think what happened with between president biden and that kind of extraordinary press briefing that jake sullivan did is they said the die is cast, which is kind of an appropriate expression because
is nbc news s erin mclaughlin in kyiv, matt bodner in moscow, as far as rick stengel former undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, and retired admiral james stavridis, a an international security and diplomacy analyst. matt, the arrival of those russian surface-to-air missiles in belarus comes just before a joint military exercise. questions have been raised if this is part of a military exercise or part of a continuing buildup of russian troops there at the border. reporter: thank you, jose. the kremlin deflects when you try to pin them down on the size and numbers of this. the kremlin spokesman asked, how big is this. he said, it s a significant movement. and that s very trues.
senate intelligence committee chairman mark warner warning against a russian cyberattack and what that could mean for the u.s. and our allies this morning on meet the press. if you suddenly see american troops get hurt because the power has been shut off or polish citizens die because the hospitals go down, you re very rapidly approaching what i think is article 5 violation. article 5 meaning a declaration of war, a state of war by nato against the russian cyber warriors. joining us now is richard stengel, former undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, and msnbc national security analyst clint watts. clint, how soon would you expect to see some kind of nato allied reaction to a cyberattack? we have already seen cyberattacks from russia. cyberwinds and our election in
invade ukraine a. western intelligence report said senior chinese officials told russian officials in early february not to invade ukraine before the end of the beijing winter olympics. the times also reports chinese shared with russia sensitive information they received from the u.s. to get china to per swat putin to stand down. nbc news has not independently confirmed this reporting. this comes as the justice department is set to seize the assets of russian oligarchs who have been sanctioned. with me, rick stengel, former undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, and andrea kendall taylor, senior fellow at the center for a new american security. former deputy intelligence officer for russia at the national intelligence council and former cia analyst who worked on russian political dynamics. as the u.s. and other countries