what we re trying to do, the united states, is take away from vladimir putin the pretext that somehow russia is the victim, that ukraine is initiating the crisis. so the administration has stayed one step ahead. most recently it s been the charge that war could be imminent, which is a way of saying we ve got lots of warning indicators that russia is at a point that if they were if they wanted to launch a war they could, and i think this has been an attempt to wrong-foot vladimir putin. at the end of the day, again, though, he will have to decide what price he s willing to pay, but in the meantime i think it s a very creative use of what seems to be extraordinarily good intrusive intelligence. you ve got 30 or 40 seconds, richard. at the end of the day do you regard putin as a rational actor, or is ukraine for him an emotional issue? that s the 64,000 ruble question here, fareed. the question i have, is he like khrushchev in 1962 who ultimately backed down at the time of the cuban
crisis. so the administration has stayed one step ahead. most recently it s been the charge that war could be imminent, which is a way of saying we ve got lots of warning indicators that russia is at a point that if they were if they wanted to launch a war they could, and i think this has been an attempt to wrong foot vladimir putin. at the end of the day, again, though, he will have to decide what price he s willing to pay, but in the meantime i think it s a very creative use of what seems to be extraordinarily good intrusive intelligence. you ve got 30 or 40 seconds, richard. at the end of the day do you regard putin as a rational actor, or is ukraine for him an emotional issue? that s the 64,000 ruble question here, fareed. the question i have, is he like khrushchev in 1962 who ultimately backed down at the
thank youad both. brian, let me start you with. the pentagon saysst this invasi is not going the way vladimir putin planned and i think that is clear even though we re not military experts. what is going through vladimir putin s head tonight? i know it is a 64 million ruble question, but it is the question, what is putin thinking? i think putin miscalculated very badly because he s a victim of his own propaganda machine and his own megalo-mania and the way despots work, they create these fake realities and force people around them to parrot lies as loyalty tests, this is why the russian foreign minister is constantly saying the same things on behalf of vladimir putin on show he is loyal to him. and over time, i think you start to understand that these lies become real to people like putin. so, you know, i think this is something we have to recognize. because it is very dangerous to be negotiating with a despot like putin and assume that he is rational in some way, assume
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
washington and western european capitals, i think it is prepared to compromise and extremely belligerent. he says talking to you and the u.s. it is you that u.s. give us guarantees and give them immediately, now. they understand that the proposal they put forward that nato should not expand to the east, and not have any military ties, cannot be agreed upon by the west and by washington, by president biden. i think the million dollar question, or the million ruble question, is the kremlin trying to put president biden into a corner where he gets into negotiations and then they are