seeing this from the defense ministry. there are reports of the belarus army, those troops are also lined up at the russians, that would not be at all surprising given the way that they ve been doing military exercises, and what s gonna happening in belarus. so, you ve got a real, very large conventional force. there is no question that russia has the edge here, militarily. but they re not gonna win the hearts and souls of the ukrainians, they took on afghanistan, and look at how that went for them. they re withdrawal from afghanistan, their defeat there, was the beginning of the end of the soviet union. the one thing that people around the world, is not everyone s interest in the government getting into long, drawn out wars. as you said correctly, it s the blacks sea, not the caspian sea getting a little late in the night. secretary blinken has just tweeted out, andrea, that the defense secretary and i spoke
0 official, i asked him if president putin is directing this himself. and he said yes, that is how it is going. that is not surprising. we know that president putin makes all of the decisions. in the end, he will have had advice from that small clique around him, that ultimately he is the decision-maker. and another element of his televised address, which to reiterate, if russians will be stunned by. waking up and seeing now, another man from that televised address, which is chilling frankly. is that president putin requires russian s nuclear capability. and clearly, openly threatens western leaders. even after the collapse of the ussr, losing a significant part of the nuclear potential. today, russia is one of the most nuclear powers. and he says, i think that this is a direct message to the west. in this regard, no one should have any doubt that a direct attack on russia will lead to defeat and dire consequences for a potential aggressor. and so, i just want to say all, just before t