in chechnya, the russians destroyed grozny, which was the capital of this republic. so it's not, it's not completely new. what is new as the scale of this, because even at this time, it is like the scale of second world war. and the russians are doing and killing like really the nazis of the 21st century. >> what is your message to the international community now, based on everything that you've seen, based on the fact that this war is not yet over, what do you want to see happen to save your country, and to save the people that are inside? >> just stop all the business with russia, the russian federation. because in every drop of russian oil, there is ukrainian blood. in every cubic meter of russian gas is ukrainian blood. all companies which continue to work in russia and provide to their budget, they are financing this awful killings of civilians, of women and children, in ukraine, and not only in ukraine. that is first my message. the second part of my message is to help us with weapons, because russia is continuing to target our -- in our country from the whole

and neighboring dagestan. >> narrator: putin struck chechnya with incredible force. >> (speaking russian) >> (translated): this was his decision. he was angry. and he wanted to punish the separatists. >> he is seen on tv as aoer, a man of action. he goes down there. he's talking to the troops. he is in command. >> narrator: as putin suited up for the cameras, his political fortunes were on the rise. ♪ ♪ and just a few months later, he was inaugurated as russia's new president. >> (translated): the powers of head of state have been tu or me today. >> narrator: putin's first promise to the russian people: strength. >> (translated): i assure you that there will be no vacuum of power, not for a minute. >> he came to power because of the war in chechnya inside russia's own borders. just as brutal as the horrors that we're seeing in ukraine today. again, against a part of his own country. they are willing to destroy the village in order to save it. >> narrator: as president, he wasn't just presenting himself as the strongman. he commissioned film and photo shoots. >> he is a man who is obs

this was the scene in chechnya capital grove runs on kildare of wearing military fatigues and a pair of proud boots assembled his forces in a show of combat readiness. i played with sammy a graduate roach, me in it with wouldn't that he might, he, me that he gently made since those troops were deployed to ukraine. they've also invaded social media in some videos that were quite obviously stay, ah, here's the thing though. the chechens don't appear to have had much impact on the battlefield. they seem to be spending more time on their phones than an actual combat. an observer say that their real purpose fight of imprudence propaganda war can 0, has always been preoccupied with his online image. he built a big following on instagram, which he used to project power in chechnya and demonstrate his usefulness to the kremlin. that was before instagram banned him. in this war, telegram has been his platform of choice. we've seen videos of him alongside of troops, as well as public displays of piety, clearly designed for muslim audience. the cathedral of chief of the church and leaders force

a veteran of russia's atrocities in chechnya known as the butcher of syria overseeing the air campaign there targeting syrian civilians. it flattened entire cities that earn him one of russia's highest military awards from vladimir putin. he is already overseeing russian troops in southern and eastern ukraine and john kirby spelled out the track record of brutality. >> he and other senior russian leaders have shown in the past and you mentioned syria as one example, have shown clearly in the past disregard for avoiding civilian harm. their utter disregard in many ways for the laws of war, laws of conflict and the brutality for which they conduct and prosecute their operations. we're probably turning another page in the same book of russian brutality. >> and just tonight, kirby said the united states is monitoring a report from the ukrainian national guard of a possible chemical besieged port city of mariupol. their government is looking into the report noting that any use of chemical weapons could be a callus escalation of the conflict. the associated press said more than 10,000 civili

he built a big following on instagram, which he used to project power in chechnya and demonstrate his usefulness to the kremlin. that was before instagram banned him. in this war, telegram has been his platform of choice. we've seen videos of him alongside her troops, as well as public displays of piety, clearly designed for a muslim audience. the cathedral of chief of the church and leaders forces are known, have a reputation for ruthlessness and brutality. they're responsible for abducting torturing and killing could the it of critics chechens who speak out have been punished along with their families. some are even paraded and publicly shamed on state t. v. that's the reputation, the church and the brought with them to ukraine. but they're poor fighting performance and lack luster, propaganda efforts, or anything to go by. the mythologized thing of kiddos men has been very much overplayed. thanks tara, it started out as a facebook page one that focused on a mix of what italians called chrome aka general news, along with a lot of gossipy, clicked bait. in the decade since fanpage ha

they did this in the war in chechnya and they carpet bombed — war in chechnya and they carpet bombed cities and it is no surprise to me _ bombed cities and it is no surprise to me that— bombed cities and it is no surprise to me that with the redrawing of some _ to me that with the redrawing of some russian troops you are finding these _ some russian troops you are finding these horrifying war crimes, let's call them — these horrifying war crimes, let's call them what they are, deliberately targeting civilians. rape, — deliberately targeting civilians. rape, murder. in some cases looting. and what_ rape, murder. in some cases looting. and what we _ rape, murder. in some cases looting. and what we need to do is focus on what _ and what we need to do is focus on what the _ and what we need to do is focus on what the response will be on what the west — what the response will be on what the west will do in response to this _ the west will do in response to this. caroline talks about war crimes— this. caroline talks about war crimes and i'm all in favour of investigating russian

it happened in chechnya, and kosovo. investigating the crime scene left behind by retreating serb soldiers in kosovo. hundreds were killed. usually, it was civilians, and reprisals for attacks on the soldiers. some soldiers would get killed. they round up everybody in the nearest village and machine gun them. over and over again. >> the president is there. he saw the carnage first hand. he said it is difficult to negotiation with the russians after seeing what they have done. do you think you can make peace with people who are responsibility for such -- peace is maybe a different matter. the war will end when putin realizes he is losing more than he is gaining. i don't know what ukrainians are ready to give up. kosovo got their independence. bosnia as well. clearly, this isn't the war he thought he was going to fight. i don't think even he knows how will it end. >> i was fascinating by the interview that he had yesterday. the former korkofski, once the most richest man in russia, he knows how putin thinks, he said this,

in 1999, he immediately attacked chechnya. he inflicted war on civilian populations. he went on murdering his political opponents in russia, he attacked ga details and he attacked ukraine in 2014. he occupies crimea and saw east ukraine. but what did you feel that poland is now being targeted more than in the past. certainly we are only not attacking other countries because today he doesn't have adequate resources. he certainly would be willing to talk if he knew that he can win, that he can execute just 2nd, succeed for how you being increasingly targeted. do feel by russia these days. oh, just over the course of recent days we've been hearing oven cause for, for example, this up sir. narrative of the modification. now this is what photon was using to justify that fact. ukraine, that allegedly there are some, some not just ruling this country, even though the president of ukraine is jewish. and now are members of russian parliament. a saying that the, another 6 countries requiring edification, including poland. so there is the snap of going home, but we are quite cer

in chechnya russian forces levelled groz me. in syria, they bombed hospitals and schools with cluster munitions say multiple reports and no one in russia was punished. russia isn't a party to the international criminal court at the hague, making it harder to prosecute and investigationses at the icc can take years. >> we have to send a message to all those in putin's inner circle that they cannot act with impunity. prime minister gordon brown said that the the request of ukrainian officials, he's lobbying for a special tribunal. >> models on the nuremberg trials of nazi criminals and the tribunal investigating atrocities in the former yugoslavia. like the murder of thousands of men and boys in s reb nicea. >> they said it was impossible in 1942 when the allies said they were going to try hitler and his accomplices for crimes, what we call crime against peace and that happened in nuremberg. >> a tribunal creates a legal loophole to prosecute putin and senior officials for the act of invading ukraine itself. a crime of aggression

yeltsin made what is own advisors called a better mistake, starting a war in chechnya. there were tragic mistakes that showed that russian democratization might not succeed. that was when they said we agreed to this partnership because we understand ukraine is not on the right side of the line. meanwhile in the united states the republican party won a huge victory in the election and did so on the basis of getting article five as quickly as possible. ukraine started denuclearizing, which made ukraine less important. clinton said -- i have paraphrasing, i said we should not draw a new line, maybe we should, let us start giving up article five. that started closing other options that would us -- would have given us the ability to manage contingencies. it is not the only factor. host: we are at the halfway point of our conversation and we will have time to spend more time with the two presidencies that occur during the 1990's, at the major focus of your history. there are so many chess pieces and play over the period of time, it is astonishing to go back and look and see h

we are in a position where clearly the war is being fought along similar lines to chechnya and syria. that is unacceptable. as the war acceptable? i wonder how this changes the narrative from the west point of view in terms of how this war is perceived? prof. kustra: what this shows is how brutal the russian military is. i always knew they were this brutal. i was expecting things like this to happen. that is why i was so distraught when i saw the war start. these images bring it home to the average viewer that show just what the russian military is doing in this country and why it is important to stop it. guy: we will leave it there. tyler kustra, professor of politics and international relations at the university of nottingham. this is bloomberg. ♪ guy: deutsche bank ceo joining the list of german executives warning of severe consequences if russian energy supplies are cut up. "a further deterioration of the situation if there is a stop to imports or deliveries of russian oil and natural gas. a clear recession and terminally -- a clear recession in germany would presumably be inevi

the director had also documented russia's war in chechnya. at the start of the war, russian troops took control of the decommission chernobyl nuclear plant and northern ukraine. they occupied the contaminated exclusion zone for weeks, but withdrew after some soldiers apparently suffered radiation poisoning turner wall as the site of the worst nuclear accident in history. russian soldiers of the china beetle, nuclear power plant. they took over the building on february, the 24th right at the start of russia's invasion. did the troops really know much about the place that government had sent them? apparently the young soldiers were clueless about the 1986 nuclear disaster, despite large numbers of death by radiation and heavy contamination. that's vadim. pope dimness view more than the moscow he's ukraine's chief engineer at shadow bill . and despite the risk of speaking to us, he agrees to an interview, he says, his co workers, who are held by russian troops for almost 4 weeks, told him that the russian soldiers might have mistaken the protect

but you remember that it was chechnya and after chechnya, it was in georgia, it was in syria, and he's still not responsible for all these crimes against humanity. that's why we should do everything to punish responsible -- people who are responsible for this. >> reporter: the service to remember the victims of bucha at the church involves a choir now a quarter of the size it used to be. one has died, the others have fled. but the russian occupation hasn't silenced those who remain. [ speaking foreign language ] >> reporter: but while survivors search their souls for the strength to forgive, bucha will never forget what happened here. and neither should we. >> that was our old colleague, dan rivers, who now reports for itn, with that in depth coverage. on friday, ukrainian officials said more than 900 bodies of civilians had been discovered since russian forces withdrew just from the kyiv region alone. michael? >> incredible, important reporting by dan rivers there. thanks, john. >>> well, south korea's president is telling his ministers to keep a close eye on north korea's next moves

you can go back to what happened in chechnya, go back to some of the things that happened in georgia and in the donbas region in 2014. and they've done things like this many, many times. basically what happens is the -- they lose control of their army. it's a very centralized army until the call for withdrawal happens and then the soldiers are given free reign to do whatever they want in term of looting, pillaging, raping, all of those things. that is what i think we're seeing in bucha and several other cities and towns around kyiv. so, it is, unternitily a hallmak and not going away at all. >> he now expects those areas where russians have left, they'll still be targeted with air strikes and artillery fire, and also he points out when the russians were withdrawing they left the region heavily mined. buildings and roads were mined. what is the point of that? is this just a scorched-earth policy? >> it is very much a scorched-earth policy. it's designed to target the population and make it extremely difficult for ukrainian forces to come in and take over and assert control over the la

i think a parallel effort is reach out to opposition in countries like bell louis and chechnya and kazakhstan where we seen russian anti russian sentiment unrest hundreds of thousands on the streets in belarus. there are bell louis people chechens fighting with ukrainian forces who are ideal points of contact for cia and other ic and western services who can be taught to organize, train, collect intelligence and perhaps even stir revolt but the problem is once you light that match or you always able to control it? are there second consequences and trying to leverage that while still maintaining our interests but not letting things get totally out of hand that come back to hurt us. >> doug, as you know, russia is a huge country. many could side with putin no matter what happens. they may not want to know the truth there. seems like a lot don't. will these covert campaigns have influence to turn the russians against their own president who they seem to love? >> i think the success is what is the impact on putin. i don't think we have to measure that by weeks, months or the next year of seeing m

the analysis back to thursday of is this nato, is this russia, or is it just a redux of chechnya is front and center. jonathan: but can the europeans agree on? is it energy? the proposal we have seen that we are reporting on is a baby step towards doing something on coal, coal imports. with that be enough to retake -- to retain any credibility as russia ramp things up? tom: all of it leading to reduced growth, and certainly the most controversial pleat of the investment morning and economic morning is blanchflower really pushing against the certitude of ecb and indirectly said raising rates a lot. jonathan: jamie dimon and jp morgan yesterday, "pity the fed." his words, not mine. let's take the essence of the spirit of that statement. this federal reserve is in such a tricky position going into the back half of this year, and to repeat what damian sassower set on this program 10 minutes ago, monetary tightening is on a collision course with a cost-of-living crisis. that unfortunately is true of too many countries right now. tom: we will talk to the equity outcome in a moment, but before t

is he going to -- is he going to turn ukraine into chechnya? destroy it? is he going to back away? what do you think his options are? >> translator: for him the situation today is very complicated. at first what he wanted was to change the power in kyiv, put in his puppet and was expecting that this would be met with flowers thrown in the streets by ukrainian people. when this did not happen he went crazy. the fact that the people in kharkiv did not meet him with flowers, it not only just angered him, i really think it drove him literally insane. that's when he started bombing kharkiv and kyiv. right now he has three options that face him, three ways out. first way out is to continue pressuring ukraine and probably losing troops in this process because the ukrainians are fighting back ever more strongly with every day. secondly, he could use weapons of mass destruction in the hope that this would force the ukrainians to retreat. and the third option is to start actual negotiations. when mr. biden, when nato officials say that -- in one voice, that if mr. putin -- if you use wmds yo

after a period of weakness in the 1990s when russia still waged a bloody war to keep chechnya moscow set itself the goal of retaking its most cherished former colonies. putin describes ukraine as inseparable from russia in much the same way that france described algeria in the 1950s. that cause, keeping algeria part of france, was wildly popular for many so-called french nationalists. there was just one problem then and now, the algerians then like the ukrainians now had no desire to continue to be colonial subjects. this resistance from the ground is the key piece of the narrative that we sometimes neglect. whatever washington, london, berlin and moscow may have decided in gilded meeting rooms, the people in the former soviet empire clearly wanted a political, military, economic and cultural association with the west, and they were willing to do what it took to get it. so when we tell the story of russia in the west, let's not forget to include ukraine's desire, its determination, to be free and independent and to fight and die for it. for perhaps that is the real driver of this sto

russia has a similar doctrine of brutality we saw play out in chechnya, in syria, too. how is russia held accountable this time given that the u.s. security council will be frozen because russia has a veto there. what can the u.s., nato, what can the world do to impose consequences? >> the u.s. security council is different from the hague, jim, you know that. they're going to take dedicated information, not only just generalized information we've been seeing with the bombing of cities which might have an excuse of, oh, gee, our bomb didn't hit the target we were looking at or gee whiz we were striking targets where there were military forces inside of a hospital which are just ludicrous excuses. now you're going to see firsthand accounts. you're going to see those who have been tortured, relatives of those who have been killed, you're going to hear from people who with were there when it happened. the kind of atrocities that occurred in the balkans during that war, you're going to talk about putin being a milosevic-type character, where not only did he order the tinges

five chechnya nationals were arrested and put on trial. they have denied denied involvement in the murders. >> nemtsov's party colleague, vladimir kara - murza suspected putin loyalists were behind the assassination. >> people should not be killed for their political activity, because they happen to disagree with the government. the leader of the russian opposition, boris nemtsov was killed, gunned down, because he opposed the putin regime. for no other reason. >> putin's office has denied involvement in nemtsov's killing. less than three months after nemtsov's murder, kara - murza himself became the target of an assassination attempt. in may 2015, kara - murza suddenly became violently ill. what was initially thought to be heart problems turned out to be poison. kara - murza recovered. but in 2017, he was poisoned again. >> i woke up because my heart was racing. my heart because just getting faster and faster and faster. and i could feel it. >> you woke up to this feeling? >> yeah, i don't even have words to describe this. describe how yo

this is the answer we heard in chechnya, syria, the response to the airliner that was shut down by russian backed forces in eastern ukraine in 2014. the knee-jerk reaction on their part is to deny, distract attention. but the fact is, human rights watch has documented at least one summary executions in bucha through an interview taken weeks before ukrainian forces retook control of bucha. there are bodies are over the ground. each has a story, each should be its own crime scene. the russian government is claiming that a single civilian was touched. that does not actually matter. we do not know the person was who was summarily executed on march 4. when you summarily execute someone, that is a war crime. >> joe biden repeating that accusation that putin is a war criminal. where do you stand on that? would you say that putin should face war crimes investigation? rachel: there needs to be an investigation into the events in bucha and into other incidents all over ukraine. we documented another six summary executions in another village. we documented a rape case that took place in another villa

it is with chechnya and fires -- fighters firing shells. it is hilarious, of course, but there is a shortage of manpower on the russian site. that is why i think putin will try to mobilize literally those young lads, which will be -- shortly. >> supposed russians control the donbass area, which they have more or less controlled for a wild, and they crimea and he says, we have in the independent republic of donbass, we have got crimea, we call it a day. >> he has to sell this operation as victory. on the other hand, we are still thinking about all those plausible scenarios after the war. i believe there will be tremendous pressure on the part of some european countries to return to normalcy in our relationship with russia, both in terms of trade and political relations. it will be very parlous, but in terms of our political standing, right now, we are in the middle of an interesting and intriguing discussion about germany's stents. for example, closing all loopholes in the sanctions package that we have imposed, the european union but also t

. >> he fought in his early ranks when he was a young major lieutenant colonel in chechnya. >> he was a division staff then commander when russian forces fought in chechnya and left the capital in ruins. analysts say his appointment is a clear signal that the war hasn't gone russia's way. >> he's known to be disciplined. to be no sense of humor. is known to be business like. he's a professional soldier. no doubt about that. except professional soldiers don't kill civilians. >> i would anticipate we're going to see a lot more attempts at trying to cower and kill civilians within ukraine. >> military analysts and u.s. officials believe russia's je general's want to present putin with some progress in ukraine ahead of the day of may 9th, when russia celebrates vikt rit day. can the general pull that off? two analysts we spoke to say they do not think the general has the resources now to do that, wolf. >> thanks very much, brian todd, good background information. appreciate it very much. let's get more on this with the former director of national intelligence, general james clapper. he's

. >> he fought in his early ranks when he was a young major lieutenant colonel in the chechnya war in grozny. >> reporter: dvornikov was a division chief of staff and then a division commander when russian forces fought their second campaign in chechnya and left the regional capital grogrozny in ruins. >> he's known to be disciplined. he's known to be no sense of humor. he's known to be business-like. he's a professional soldier. there's no doubt about that, except professional soldiers don't kill civilians. >> i would anticipate we're going to see a lot more attempts at trying to cower and kill civilians within ukraine. >> reporter: military analysts and u.s. officials believe russia's generals want to present vladimir putin with some kind of tangible military progress in ukraine ahead of may 9th. that's when russia celebrates victory day, marking its defeat of nazi germany in world war ii. can general alexander dvornikov pull that off in two analysts we spoke to have serious doubts, saying they don't think he has the resources to do that. brian todd, cnn, washington. >>> well, the s

in this case, putin's war in ukraine or his wars in chechnya or yeltsin's war in chechnya or in the same eyes as bush and blair in attacking iraq. intensity was revealed with the horrible pictures from bucha another key suburbs. they show us all scale of atrocities srting from sexual violence, fr torture and mass execions. here we also see some kind of ideological explanation by some of the russian propaganda machine that ukraine in a way has to be cleansed. this leads us to this analogy, not just -- what happened in the wars in yugoslavia in the 1990's, but what happened, for instance, occupied east timor and unleashed acts of genocide against the local population i the 19th of a niece. see in some places, the reality of this occupation is so brutal thatt leads to obliteration of human lives. nermeen: do you support the continuedupply of weapons to ukraine, which is exponentially increasing now despite the fact that many say supplying these weapons will only prolong the war? >> uc, let making analogies,o they supplying soviet and chinese weapons to vietnam, they also prolong the war, bu

but you remember that it was in chechnya and what is after chechnya, it was in georgia. it was in syria. and he's still not responsible for all these crimes against humanity. that's why we should do everything to punish people who are responsible for this. >> reporter: the service to remember the victims of bucha at st. andrews church involves a choir now a quarter of the size it used to be. ♪ one has died, the others have fled. but the russian occupation hasn't silenced those who remain. ♪ >> reporter: but while survivors search their souls for the strength to forgive, bucha will never forget what happened here, and neither should we. >> that report from itn's dan rivers. thank you, dan. a visiting fellow at the group of asia institute is with us this hour from brisbane, australia. thank you for taking the time to speak with us. the growing evidence of atrocities committed by russian soldiers, if nothing else, it's now moving the needle on the level of military assistance which is being offered to ukraine. i want you to listen to the pentagon spokesman, john kirby,

it reminds me so much of what we saw in chechnya, in the beginning of putin's reign. i was in grozny. what they did to grozny, is what they're doing in ukraine, at a more massive scale. they had concentration camps. they were pulling men from house-to-house. this is a pattern we've seen in putin's tenure. he's applying it on a larger scale in front of the world's eyes. people didn't get into chechnya to see it the way they are in ukraine, the way it is the rest of europe, and under russian control. what they are doing, is a pattern of two decades of brutality of anybody who stands up to them. the difference is that the ukrainians are the russians' slavic brothers. they are doing this to people they say to consider to be part of their own nation. and it's rather -- it's heartbreaking and tragic and horrific. >> stand by, harold and peter. i want to bring in nbc's gabe gutierrez, who is four hours southwest of kyiv. how does zelenskyy's address add urgency to what is happening on the ground right now in ukraine? >> well, andrea, a lot of urgency. president zelenskyy cal

also was part of the chechnya war as well. just shows the pattern is changing. this is the one that the russians could do much better in than the earlier fight that they had. that's why it's so important that we give the equipment to zelensky that he wants. we don't need to provide manpower. the equipment that he wanted is more of a conventional set of equipment. the howitzers, the multiple rocket launch systems. how about the 29 migs from poland. we need to get this stuff there. i could have transited the ocean right now three times as long as the war has gone on. this should have gotten to him earlier than it had. the next thing is month vied some type of constant intelligence for zelensky. put up the j-star systems, just a little outside of ukraine to read the russian troop formations and pass that to zelensky. this is a fight to the end. i don't think putin will quit. i don't think zelensky will quit. it's going to come down to the fight in the eastern part of ukraine and right now it's going to be one of those 50/50 shots. ukraine will survive. they have pr

the first time i had heard about him was in chechnya. in chechnya, he was already known as a very ruthless general which did not hesitate to give orders to bomb civilians. an actually, that gives us a pretty clear idea on what they're going to do here in ukraine. on one side, they are now consolidating the military commander and we can say that with both of them are effectively, i wouldn't say ousted but they are removed from the military commanded. they are in the hand of the war makers. but from the other side, they would use more and more shelling up the civilians. and by the way, you were just giving numbers. i want to say that we did our own calculation which was independent from the -- calculation than others. in our understanding, the death toll for the civilians in ukraine is it least 85, 000, at least. >> 25,000 civilians dead, horrific. >> what does it say about vladimir putin and how this works proceeding to him? -- appointing someone like aleksandr dvornikov to lead the assault. >> well, obviously, that is going nowhere. and

it happened in grozny in chechnya, it happened in aleppo and it has happened in mariupol. nowhere has been hit harder than the southern city of mariupol. before the war, it had a population of nearly half a million. today, it is 90% damaged or destroyed. the place is a ghost town, a husk of what it used to be. the reason is that it is strategically important. it is on the coast of the sea of azov, which is linked to the black sea and it stands in the way of russia linking up its forces from crimea in the south, with their allies in the donbas further to the north and east. and once that city has been taken, it allows russia to move further north and try to encircle the regular ukrainian army forces and concentrate their efforts on the donbas. the forces in crimea looked as if they were more modernised because they were facing potential opposition in 2014 so they have sorted themselves out, they have shorter lines of communication, so they have been able to move out of the crimea towards donbas and towards 0desa more efficiently, so that is where they have made gains, where

putin's destruction in chechnya then georgia then syria is now being visited on ukraine. of course he's ridden out tough sanctions and international condemnation before, but this time it's unclear how much support putin has at home. this is one of those russian soviet era vehicles which is completely burned out. given painful russian losses on the battlefield it's unclear too whether he'll now double down as he has in the past or back down like never before. matthew chance, cnn. >>> well, the ukrainian government is raising money through the sale of digital art through nonfungible tokens or nfts. according to the meta history museum of war the proceeds will support ukraine and civilians. they raised mer than half a million dollars. the digital art pieces made by ukrainian and foreign artists depicting various moments and aspects. stay with us african voices change makers is up next. for our viewers in north america our rolling coverage of putin's war of choice continues in just a moment. allergies don't have to be scary. spraying flonase daily stops your body from ovoverr

and i put this picture of grossny in chechnya, which was down to the ground by putin in the 2000s as kind of a provocative picture, what could happen to ukraine if the world does not react and stand up to russian colonialism. i had no idea that this unfortunately -- the same in mariupol or kharkiv or other ukrainian cities would start to look like in just several days from when i finished putting it together. >> why do you think that we are so reluctant to heed the lessons of history? because as you documented and you wrote about, history repeats itself time and time again. but despite this, before russia invaded even quite honestly the ukrainian government was doubtful that vladimir putin would follow through with this invasion. so, why do you think we are so reluctant to heed the lessons of history? >> well, first of all, i think all of us were reluctant just because we couldn't just put ourself and had to imagine this situation what could happen because, let's be honest, ukraine has been going through a genocide, russian-made genocide before. and the war that happened in 2014. so,

we have reports of looting in other settings as well, in chechnya, and also in georgia, when the russian military moved in 2008, all of this wanton destruction of equipment and deliberate defecation on equipment, almost like stupid stuff that was meant to show unbelievable disrespect. we see in many war-time scenarios these kinds of reports. this was a special military operation to liberate a fraternal country from what putin was describing as nazis. so either this is a complete breakdown or it is actually being sanctioned in some way to teach ukrainians a lessons. either way, this is disasterous, and it requires some response from the international community. >> brennan: the united states expected russia to launch an electronic blackout in ukraine when they did this. and they haven't. in fwas this is a failure by vladimir putin? why is he allowing this? >> that's a good qbey don't have the capacity. or is it because the ukrainians are pushing back? there is obviously a lot of assistance they're getting from the outside world. we heard assistance from elon musk. a lot of it is coming fro

starting back in the '90s in chechnya, where he has been completely willing to kill civilians to make a point, and in a way that is the point. i'm here on behalf of my people to rebuild and reinvigorate the empire. and that is what he's been doing, and he's doing it again, and it's for those of us watching him closely, it's just not surprising, but it is obviously tragic. >> you start the piece off, the film off with that infamous now security council meeting three days before the invasion in which he had members of his cabinet walking in one by one, 30 feet away from him at that very long table, making the case to invade ukraine. why did you feel as if this moment was so incredibly important to your film? >> because he's the only one who is really doing any business there. and it also, i think, demonstrates the fear of his subordinates, of the people who are in the government with him. this is a deal that was already done. this is a deal that pretends to be live television in the evening, but they shot it in the afternoon. it's edited, and it's edited to make a point. he presses down

it's much harder to turn on the leadership now in russia than it was during the chechnya wars. but it is hard for russia to continue to hide the truth from so many people. and more people, like this father, are going to speak out because they can no longer communicate with their children. because they are very probably dead and the russian government doesn't want to admit it. and this is, in the long term, going to count against putin. but he thinks he can face it down because of the sort of brutality, the propaganda and the way that he's playing up the patriotic part of fighting the war. don't question the deaths and casualties right now. >> throughout this conflict we've been trying to understand the mindset or potential mindset of president putin in russia. and austria's chancellor recently had a face-to-face meeting with putin and he says putin believes he is winning this war. and that he has his own war logic. that's really not based in reality. what did you think when you heard that? >> this seems to fit in with the putin that's becoming more and more apparent over the pa

one of the things you write about is what has happened in the past with cease-fire efforts in chechnya. in the past, russia has torn up peace agreements, just reinvaded. is that what volodymyr zelenskyy is looking at now? >> yes. he has to be very serious about this. as he said, they're fed up now on the ukrainian side. they want something real and concrete. and that what is going to be difficult. because it can't just be from the united states. the budapest agreement was with the united states, the united kingdom, and russia. and they gave out strategic nuclear weapons, and that became pretty meaningless. what president zelenskyy is looking for is guarantee from a range of countries. he talked about the circle of countries that might be involved, and it has to be outside of europe as well. this is part of the problem. >> brennan: right. >> as putin is making this a proxy war, he is saying this is like the cold war or korea or vietnam. this is not the case. putin has invaded a sovereign country. it is based on history, his view of russia's place in europe. it has to be addressed in an

siege tactics used in world war ii, also used in the russian war in syria, used in the russian war in chechnya, and fraly are one of the classic ways you can fight an urban resistance, to drive them out b making the city they were in unlivable and preventing them from having sanctuary within a broader civilian population or a working infrtructure. tragically, it makes a certain amount of historical and strategic sense for putin to do this, and i expect he will continue. anchor: michael hammond of the brookings institution, thank you for sharing your analysis with us, he appreciate it. we will be bringing more analysis and coverage of all of the events in ukraine. just to repeat that, president zelenskyy announcing russian forces have begun what he has called the battle of donbass. backing up what we were staying -- sing at the start of the program,. -- program. the french presidential elections are where we go next. while families were hunting easter eggs, the candidates were hunting votes. macron making appearance on national media. polls suggesting he has a 12 point lead. le pen was in norma

we saw this in the to was in chechnya, tens of thousands killed the capital grenade, devastated by massive russia bombing and shelling with very little regard for civilians. rushes army doesn't do small surgical strikes, does it? oh, i think the kitchen i experience is influencing the a on the special made preparations ukraine because feel today, rush rami sprang void, direct heavy attacks missile attacks on big cities like kind of go here, but cetera. we are you, paul? devastated completely for yes, i know. i went with my friends and money with all the city is destroyed nearly 90 percent today. this is clear, this is the rather we just had a bomb over the railway station in chrome, a tall, skinny. that's killed at least 50 people yet, but this guy does not regard civilian life at all is not considered the slot last case. it's a messiah ball. and it is a special investigation on this case because this trauma thought, by the way, is $1.00 0 and was one of the most russian cities in ukraine. previously. mr. piano of political killings have been on the rise as well under this government . hav