and putin does, too. he is very good at the bureaucracy of all of it. >> narrator: by the late '90s, he'd earned the confidence of russia's first president, boris yeltsin. they were an odd couple-- the former spy and a progressive politician who was trying to bring democracy to russia. >> boris yeltsin decided to break totalitarianism, to crush what was left of communism, with a simple idea, which is maximum freedom first. >> narrator: before long, yeltsin promoted putin to lead the kgb's successor, the fsb. >> he undertakes this remarkable rise, basically having nothing to do with the center of power in moscow to running its most important security agency, working in the kremlin. >> narrator: putin convinced yeltsin that he shared the president's democratic goals. >> he's a professional liar. to lie is what he was taught in the intelligence school. he was pretending that he was going to pursue the same development of russia as yeltsin did. but that's all is just one big lie. >> another major shakeup in t

he's right that putin has soldiers and putin has tanks and putin has rockets, but putin also needs cash to pay the soldiers. soldiers are not volunteering without being paid. as we speak today, russian government is trying to recruit new cannon fodder — the expression used by you — to send them to the new offensive initiatives in the east of ukraine. and for that, putin needs cash. he can print roubles, but inflation in russia is already high. just to give you a magnitude, the first week of the war, russian consumer prices went up by 2% per week, and the same happened in the second week. the same happened in the third week. only now, the inflation is coming down, but it's still at 1% per week. so, inflation is a problem and soldiers who are being paid in roubles would complain, and we hear complaints from their families that these roubles are losing their value. so, in that sense, putin needs foreign exchange. putin needs to be paid for his oil and gasjust to continue to motivate, incentivise his own soldiers and officers. right, but the russians might have just listened very carefu

. >> real questions about what vladimir putin is being told. >> we believe putin is being misinformed by his advisers about how badly the russian military is performing. >> my guest today secretary of state antony blinken and russia putin expert. >> and one-on-one with hillary clinton. >> to let an autocrat do what putin decided to do is something that everybody has a stake in trying to stop. >> i'll talk to the former seth of state about putin, the war, and the democrats midterm head winds. and the democrats look at a policy that limited immigration. >> every day it is more and more difficult for the administration's claim that they're entitled whatsoever. >> and donald trump asked putin for information on president biden's son hunter. >> i would think pute wouldn't know the answer to that. i think we should see. >> why is the former president again asking for help from a man waging war on an ally? >> joining me from insider analysis are amy walter editor and chief and publisher of the political report. democratic pollster cornell, and leigh ann caldwell and republican strategist bra

you know putin well — i'd be interested in your answer. really? because there is a school of thought in the west that putin cannot afford a humiliation in ukraine. and if he is facing humiliation, he will use all of the weaponry at his disposal, including weapons of mass destruction — including, some believe, nuclear weapons. are you saying that fear is misplaced? you visited washington, dcjust a few days ago. you spoke to us officials, you've seen their latest assistance package for ukraine — $800 million of new weaponry, perhaps some heavier weaponry than we've seen before, but still nothing like the list that president zelensky wants of heavy artillery, fighter jets — all sorts of things which he is not getting. as you talk to the americans and to european leaders as well, do you believe that they will never provide this weaponry or perhaps they'll provide it but maybe, it will be too late? what is your message to them? this isn'tjust about weapons, is it? it's also about the vast amounts of money that the west, particularly the europeans

putin reasoned otherwise. the kremlin orchestrated the swiftist government takedown in a billionaire in the history of a world, collapsing his company, seizing and freezing his assets, arresting him on fraud charges. he was literally whisked from his own plane i represented prison, tried in a glass cage in court in public for all russians to see. that's the cage there. think about this. putin did not proactively plan the bail nair's show of defiance. he didn't know that was coming. but when it happened, he used it as a strategic dictator to send a message he hadn't been able to send in that way, that no amount of money or connections can save you if you cross him. faced with lemons, putin made a kind of dictator's lemonade. then regular russians could see then, and this was in the earlier phase before the poisonings i just showed you, they could see if this is what happened to elon musk of russia, the jeff bezos of moscow, imagine what would happen to you? cortico ski served ten years in prison and was able to

>> reporter: putin's risk tolerance had gone up. russia had been loosing the war in ukraine and they are angry and putin may lash out. that could manifest of him targeting the u.s. elections. he did not need an excuse to do that. he did it in 2016 and 2020. his actions that he orders could be more aggressive than we have seen and targeting election infrastructures itself. there is no direct intelligence right now. we are told that putin made a decision to interfere in the elections, the midterm election could be one of his fatargets here. how he wants to retaliate against the west and the american election may be a prime target for him. >> thank you very much natasha with that breaking news. >>> the former army, and steve hall, let me start with you, steve, you hear natasha that putin may take more aggressive actions against the united states. you heard her words. risk tolerance is up traumatically. why now and how serious is this? >> the most alarming thing is the risk tolerance piece of this. there is no doubt that most of us unde

that putin was bluffing. no one seemed overly concerned about the americans urging warnings that russia was about to strike. and then in a moment, life suddenly changed. [noise] [speaking foreign language] >> any future plans ukrainians had were gone. [speaking foreign language] >> they were only priorities now. >> it is crazy, you hear kids screaming, mothers screaming, it is so crazy. >> you can see that man holding his baby up so that he is not crushed by this crowd. the train has opened its doors, but clearly there is not room for everyone. nobody wants to miss this train. [noise] >> people are hugging and saying goodbye, and not sure if they will ever come back to this place. >> ukrainians had to evacuate, or fight. russia was trying to overthrow ukraine in a rapid blitzkrieg. for putin, ukraine is a pretend country that belonged under his iron fist. a fascist, neo-nazi state, that needed to be destroyed. that is the idea. that a bunch of neo-nazis run by a jewish president one day we're going to get a n

they'll disappear putin putin doesn't need them anymore. but more importantly we need to consider getting more aggressive. so if putin says hey we find out there's a bunch of wagner group guys in ukraine, or wherever in the world, and putin says they are not bare, then who will miss them if they disappear? maybe we should take them out. or find people to take them out. >> maybe we should. who's the oligarch that owns this paramilitary operation? >> the guys is sometimes called putin's chef as a nickname. he is in putin's inner circle. he has an umbrella corporation called concorde group. under this corporation has the wagner group which is not a legal entity is with a college other. in st. petersburg the internet research agency also owns a bunch of oil and gas and mining companies. the way he has worked in the past is he uses the troll factory to create a fog of war. the mercenary group slithers through that fog of war for victory for the way they get paid some of it comes the russian government allowed us to the oil and mining companies t

the thinking here, john, is that a putin cornered is a putin that is more likely to lash out against the united states, and sort of targeting american elections is one way that he might be able to do that, john. >> and so an attack on actual voting systems, that would be an escalation even over what he's done in the past. i mean, how much concern specifically is there about that canine of a cyberattack? >> yeah, look, u.s. officials are certainly taking this as if it is a real -- or treating this as if it is a very real threat. the u.s. officials we spoke to did emphasize that the intelligence community hasn't seen any specific threat that they're tracking here. they don't have any direct intelligence or evidence that putin has issued any kind of a warning here -- or sorry, any kind of an order here, i should say. the way to think about these assessments, john, is that they are analysis. they are the result of the intelligence community having spent years watching, trying to understand the russian president. and this is part of their attempt to try to predict the way he will respond

does this set putin apart? >> so i do mention putin's experience in the lenin grad city government and charges he was in charge of a food import program in which money came -- money went out of the country and food never really came into the country and there were a lot of allegations that putin was deeply involved in this. another book cover this topics in better detail than i can, and that is really not what this book is about, and it's also not unique for leaders to rely on all kinds of agents at their disposal. now, whether or not that colors his economic policy or his foreign policies, that is the kind of analysis i don't want to do in a book like this because it would require an awful lot of speculation and an awful lot of relying on sources i think would likely be pretty dubious. >> second question: -- >> by the way if anybody wants to jump in on these points and we have a tremendous amount of expertise here so be more than happy to hear from the panelists as well. >> in the meantime the second question,

secretary general up met with vladimir putin in moscow this tuesday. he criticized russia's military action in ukraine as a flagrant violation of its neighbors territory and urged him to allow the evacuation of mariupol specifically, with civilian stuck at the steel plant. putin adding that ukraine's army should be held responsible. >> the factory is totally isolated and i ordered not to conduct the assault, so there is no fighting around the factory. ukrainian authorities said there are civilians inside. if that's the case, the ukrainian military who are there must release them. otherwise they are acting like terrorists, like the islamic state in syria. they are using these civilians as human shields. >> despite prudence affirmations, ukraine has -- the same plant where's ukrainians and civilian fighters have been besieged. >> the main thing that stands out for me is he claims there is no fighting going on around the plant, after he ordered the assault on the steel plant to be halted. that's not what the ukrainian fighters there are saying. they say t

putin is currently on almost every front page. many serbians view russians as their slavic brothers. russia is admired. and few criticize its war against ukraine. >> i think this war has been inevitable for a long time. the west is hypocritical. especially western media that report on it. >> we are the largest balkan nation, we should feel the greatest responsibility. but we have not learned from our history. that's awful. reporter: one group with a long history of fighting for civil and human rights are the “women in black.” but few joined their protest against the war in ukraine. the activists said the low turnout was sobering. they believe it was linked to the fact that many serbians long for a strong leader, rather than a true democracy. stasa: do serbians like russia or putin? what they like are authoritarian governments. that has nothing to do with russia, per se. reporter: not long ago, german foreign minister annalena baerbock visited serbian president aleksandar vucic. the meeting was tense, as vucic is known for his

. >> real questions now about what vladamir putin is being told. >> we believe putin is being misinformed by his advisers about how badly the russian military is performing. >> my guest this morning, secretary of state antony blinken and masha gessen of the new yorker. plus hillary clinton. >> to do what putin decided to do says someone has a stake in trying to stop it. >> i'll talk about putin, the war, and the democrats' midterm headwind. plus the cc is wanting to end the immigration fight. >> every day it's harder to fight public health. >>> and donald trump asked putin for information on president biden's son hunter. >> i would think he would know the answer to that. >> why is the former president again asking for help against a man waging war. amy walter, editor in chief of the "politico" report. leigh ann caldwell and republican strategist brad todd, and cornell belcher. if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." >>> good sunday morning. have we reached a turning point in in war? russia's announcement that it was pulling its forces from kyiv increasingly looks more like an act of necess

how did he get this meeting with putin in the first place? why did putin agree to it? and whether the chances that something positive could come from it? >> yes, the kremlin hasn't said why putin decided to agree to this meeting. but near hammer will be the first european leader to visit president putin since the war began. that has significant. and it will also bear direct witness to president putin, president putin's troops are doing in bucha. because he went to bucha, he saw the aftermath of what putin's troops have done there. he has spoken to witnesses on the ground there who will be an are giving testimony to war crimes investigation. he will be able to relate that directly to president putin. so why would president putin really want to have an engagement with somebody who says that is coming to moscow, with a clear message of accountability for war crimes or a cease-fire in ukraine for humanitarian corridors to be open? this is not a message that putin is gonna particularly want to popularize. nor to make public. because putin's message to his population is simp

. >> austria's chancellor recently met with putin and today he said putin had, quote, his own war logic. how difficult is it for the u.s., for nato to deal with someone when so much of the conflict depends on this one incredible unpredictable person? >> well, what we have seen is putin is one person who has disrupted the world economy, the world order as such, and he remains solely, i guess, confined to his own quarters at his own choosing and separated from most of his key advisors apparently. he must know what's going on. the generals have to tell him -- i hope, the truth so he'll know what to do in terms of reordering his priorities and where he's going but nonetheless i don't think we can try to game this in a way to appeal to the rationty of putin. he is who he is. we know what his goal is. what his methods are on that's attack civilians. kill as many as possible to break the speared of the ukrainians and to lay siege to their cities. i hope everybody gets a chance to watch the interview you referred to earlier jake tapper did with president zelenskyy, one of the -- the courage obv

has putin changed? i was speaking to fareed zakaria overnight, josh, his view is that this is a different vladimir putin now, albeit maybe with some of the same motivations he's always had, but something changed within the last few years, whether it be covid and the isolation or all the money he's awash with oil revenue. what do you think? >> i think -- i actually disagree with fareed. he came to power, he's the same putin he's always been. came to power with violence. consolidated with horrendous aggression and has always increased that aggression wherever he's able to. wherever the world allows him to. sure is he getting more reckless and more dangerous as he gets older and closer to his retirement, sure. but, this is not just how putin has always been. this is how all psychopathic totalitarian dictators are. their appetite grows with the eating. that should be the lesson, appeasement doesn't work. you can't make semi-okay deals with psychopaths and in the end when you recognize a leader who is willin

putin is currently on almost every front page. many serbians view russians as their slavic brothers. russia is admired. and few criticize its war against ukraine. >> i think this war has been inevitable for a long time. the west is hypocritical. especially western media that report on it. >> we are the largest balkan nation, we should feel the greatest responsibility. but we have not learned from our history. that's awful. reporter: one group with a long history of fighting for civil and human rights are the “women in black.” but few joined their protest against the war in ukraine. the activists said the low turnout was sobering. they believe it was linked to the fact that many serbians long for a strong leader, rather than a true democracy. stasa: do serbians like russia or putin? what they like are authoritarian governments. that has nothing to do with russia, per se. reporter: not long ago, german foreign minister annalena baerbock visited serbian president aleksandar vucic. the meeting was tense, as vucic is known for his

putin. he thought, i think, that he would walk into kyiv like the taliban walked into afghanistan. at that would accomplish his goals. boy, was he surprised. he was surprised by the grit of the ukrainian people and he was surprised by the charismatic leadership of president zelenskyy, who i think of as a modern-day reincarnation of winston churchill when it comes to rallying the people not only of his country, but around the world, for the cause of the ukrainians. senator cardin is right, the president has existing authorities. but one of the problems is getting this equipment to the ukrainians fast enough. that is the message we have heard. and now that they have begun to flow, and i think the biden administration has done a good job, although we all wish it could have been done faster, getting these weapons to the iranians. -- to the ukrainians. it is not just cutting the red tape that is so important here, it is the message that it sends, one of bipartisan unity in support of our allies i

it is not for putin. could we accept that putin dictates that finland and sweden are not allowed to join nato? obviously not. it is a ridiculous idea. i really agree with antony blinken and i would caution against this movement in the u.s. that rand paul represents, which is an isolationist take view -- isolationist view that will end up becoming the u.s. retreating from the world. we know from history that once the u.s. retreats, you will leave behind a vacuum internationally. that document will be filled with the bad guys -- that vacuum will be filled with the bad guys. that is exactly what the presidents of russia, china, and north korea have done in the previous years. we need a determined american global leadership. host: our first call for you comes from robert in new jersey. you are on with the former nato secretary-general. robert, go ahead. robert new jersey, hello? caller: hello. host: go ahead please. caller: i'm not a voted for republican, but i must say that i completely a glue -- i completel

coming up, putin's blind spot. u.s. intelligence shows putin's advisers aren't actually telling him the truth about russia's losses inside ukraine. kurt volker, the former u.s. representative for ukraine negotiations is gonna join me on this program. plus, russia, if you're listening, trump wants foreign governments to interfere in a third presidential election, believe it or not. then, what questions remain around what donald trump was doing, and who he was speaking to from the day of the insurrection at the capitol. i am ayman mohyeldin, let's get started. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> tonight, some new developments in the war in ukraine. just hours ago, a key ukrainian negotiator claimed that peace talks between ukraine and russia were in an advanced enough stage, that direct talks between president zelenskyy and vladimir putin may be on the horizon. this, as new satellite images show russian forces pulling back from the capital of kyiv. in a potential major turning point, a senior defense official now confirming to nbc news that h

but indict putin. indict him. and you'll see some people running like rats on the ship part of his regime knowing they will be held accountable and in jail for the rest of their life. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york. mr. meeks: reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york reserves. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. mccaul: i'm prepared to close if the gentleman from new york has no further speakers. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is prepared to close. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. mccaul: thank you, madam speaker. we rise today not as democrats, republicans, but as americans. as a united congress on behalf of the american people condemning these atrocities. you know, madam speaker, there's a group called the wagner group that's entering ukraine right now. they are the worst of the worst. they're mercenaries. they're cold-blooded killers. mr. putin has sent them to africa to kill people in mali and libya, and they have been on the donbas previous

putin remains defiant. translation: putin remains defiant. tuna/mom- putin remains defiant. translation: . ., . putin remains defiant. translation: . . , , translation: the collective west is not auoin to translation: the collective west is not going to abandon _ translation: the collective west is not going to abandon the _ translation: the collective west is not going to abandon the policy - translation: the collective west is not going to abandon the policy of. not going to abandon the policy of economic pressure on russia. we need to strive to maximise the utilisation of our enterprises to create new abilities and increase the global competitive nests of russia as a whole. at the same time, the key economic factor of the economy for i should be the preservation and creation ofjobs, the reduction of poverty, the improvement of the quality of life for people, and the availability of goods and services.— goods and services. let's get a sense of the — goods and services. let's get a sense of the impact

russia and putin are losing. but this war will not end soon. putin is deranged and humiliated. the violence will only intensify. it is the response to support the ukranian people. america enacted the lend lease act to ep keep democracy alive. we channel the same spirit. 1940, f.d.r. had america's democracy and with it, we preserve freedom. with our action we reawaken that arsenal of democracy. we are witnessing democracy versus darkness. our district has the largest ukranian populations in america. the brave ukranian people have undaunted courage and must know that america stands with them, no matter what. god bless ukraine and god bless the united states of america and the lord does work in strange ways. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: gast reserves. the gentleman from south carolina is recognized. mr. wilson: i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york is recognized. mr. meeks: now my pleasure to yield three minutes to the representative from the great state of texas, dynamic congress member, sheila jackson lee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewo

but -- but putin is a smart guy. he is a former-kgb officer, himself, and so he's got to try to wire those individuals even if they are sitting around the table supposedly helping him around what's going on, his intelligence officers, he has to have penetrations inside of the people that are in the room to try to best understand what's going on. so is -- it's a really convoluted, mixed-up situation there. difficult to say what he is really understanding and what his intelligence people are actually telling him. >> so, what about in the last couple of hours? u.s., um, officials, you know, intelligence has basically said that they believe that he has set his next target or his new target on the donbas in the east, and on consolidating and winning there. maybe to the south as well by early may. and then, i was reminded, um, by -- by one of our guests that may 9th is the day they celebrate every year of the end of the great patriotic war. they have been doing that since obviously the end of world war ii. so it is a major

putin's war. now, in a virtual meeting between president joe biden and prime minister narendra modi -- you see it went on there -- but mr. biden did not specifically ask the indian lead ter to take side, nor apparently did he receive any firm commitment from mr. modi to back off energy purchases from russia. cnn is following this story for us from new delhi and good to have you there to see the indian perspective on all of this. now, india, we've said it before, is a buyer of russia's energy but significantly, also, of military hardware. is there any indication that modi -- that mr. modi is considering any change in his stand in russia when it comes to those purchases? >> good to be with you, paula. but let me just put that into perspective. when you talk about fuel imports, oil imports from russia. it's less than 1% according to india. and when it comes to military hardware purchases, it's over 50% that india depends on russia for its military equipment. so there is a huge difference really in th

putin has been isolated. taking counsel of very few people. and finally and most important, for the extent this can get through to the russian people, they begin to wonder does this war really make sense for us? are we -- as -- as the bodies come home and the bodies are coming home in the thousands, russians ask is this a war that -- that we're really comfortable with? >> hey, david, it's jonathan. i want to stay with you on something on the point you there you just made. one more reason why the u.s. is putting intelligence in the forefront. a senior administration official put it yesterday, put it to me that they want putin to be rattled. they have got an asset close to him. the u.s. is hearing things and putin in particular ex-kgb officer himself unnerved that perhaps the u.s. has someone in his backyard. even if perhaps all the information is not fully true, they want him to be guessing what we know or don't know is what the official said to me. i wanted to get your take, though, on this as all this comes

putin because he was supposed to— diminished putin because he was supposed to have, _ diminished putin because he was supposed to have, you _ diminished putin because he was supposed to have, you know, - diminished putin because he wasi supposed to have, you know, just diminished putin because he was- supposed to have, you know, just run through— supposed to have, you know, just run through ukraine — supposed to have, you know, just run through ukraine and _ supposed to have, you know, just run through ukraine and taken _ supposed to have, you know, just run through ukraine and taken it- supposed to have, you know, just run through ukraine and taken it over, i through ukraine and taken it over, and that— through ukraine and taken it over, and that hasn't _ through ukraine and taken it over, and that hasn't happened. - through ukraine and taken it over, and that hasn't happened. i- through ukraine and taken it over, and that hasn't happened. i think. and that hasn't happened. i think they think— and that hasn't happened. i think they think it's _ and that hasn't happened. i thin

and i hope that vladimir putin listens to those warnings. i wish i could tell you, you know, the perfect answer to, you know, a really difficult question of what should the right response be to using nuclear weapons? i hope what happens is that we are able to draw in the rest of the countries that are sitting on the fence now, wondering, you know, who is going to win this war, that we are ab to convince europe to cut off the spigot to russian energy, because that would really, really hurt russia. >> you worked closely with joe biden when he was the vice president of the united states and you were the american ambassador to ukraine. and i've heard you say that he is walking a "very, very narrow path," trying to both support ukraine and deter russia, but without crossing a line that would broaden the war. so far, that hasn't been enough to change putin's calculation or, frankly, meet president zelensky's pleas for assistance. what else should the white house be doing thamight change the ajectory of this conflict? >> well, i understand, from th

they don't understand president putin. and that was worrying, he said, because total misunderstanding can lead to wrong decisions and bad consequences. the kremlin continues to claim that attacking ukraine was the right decision. many russians agree. but not everyone. lyudmila's son, sergei, is a police officer. theirfamily is originally from ukraine. a few days ago, sergei was arrested and charged under a new law, with spreading fake news about the russian army. he is suspected of criticising the russian offensive on the telephone. translation: this| is a very heavy blow for me, for the family, the little children. suddenly, their dad just disappeared. he never went to protests. he has no social media. hejust spoke to friends on the phone. i can't rule out that he said something like, "war is bad, people are dying, homes are being destroyed and that's bad". ludmila still can't believe this is happening to herfamily. and she is still struggling to understand why. steve rosenberg, bbc news, moscow. us president biden has fo

give putin a clear exit to save face? >> i wouldn't read too. into it. tinkov has made his money more from the traditional commercial side of russia, retail, banking. not oil and gas and things like that. i think more importantly, fundamentally misunderstands the axis of power in russia. putin does not depend on these people for his support. they depend on him. they are courtiers in his court. putin's power comes from the security services, from the army, and from oil rev news. remember. putin will get $320 billion in energy revenues this year. a few billionaires here or there make no difference to him. >> look at these images today of putin. look at these images. putin at this event today with young people. a girl, just 12 years old. read a poem implying the people of eerm ukraine are really russians. how grotesque is it to see putin use these children to advance his lies? >> well, it is grotesque and it also has that feel of this kind of staged propaganda that you wonder whether anyone is really buying. but it is worth

that is putin's plan. it is top-down driven. he's got military intelligence units with these combat units that go in. as christiane said, part of it is recklessness, part of it is an attempt to intimidate but behind it is this effort to eliminate democratic forces that may be left behind there. and he's settling scores. and wolf, with all due respect to the administration, i think the sanctions and the tightening of the work and the work with the allies, it is fantastic. but we've got to stop what is happening. this is the tip of the iceberg that we've uncover and there will be much more. those weapons have got to get into ukraine. we're talking tanks, artillery, aircraft, they have to stop the 200 aday that are being flown against them in the east right now by the russian air force. and the equipment is not flowing fast enough. we don't know what it is. is it bureaucratic red tape or allies about give us m-1 tanks if we give us our t-72s. we don't know what that is. but it is liable to be the crucial element in determines wheth

what do you imagine putin's plan is now in ukraine? >> putin is opportunist. you know what his final objectives are, but he's opportunist. when the man was assassinated in london, we knew he was behind it. we also knew he was planning other assassinations on british soil, and the only way we prevented these until the attempt in salisbury ten years later was massive security on our side, but the threat to russia about the action we would be taking if there were further attempts at assassination of our soil. in other words, the only thing he understands is threats, the only thing he understands is strength and we've got to show that this united strength that has started this approach to dealing with this crisis continues and that will mean, i'm afraid to say, for germany and others, they will have to do oil and gas sanctions, they will have to cover all the banks and not just some of the banks, and it would be ridiculous if we ended up paying the post of putin's war by allowing the continuation of payments from the west to russia for oil and gas over a very cons

putin anymore. so one of the one of the underlying arguments too is that there's something specific about putinism and and the system that has developed. a well he has been empowered the last 20 years. okay. so what game is putin playing there's a common argument among realists in particular like like meersheimer saying that this is a great power doing what great powers do that is russia has always been a great power. gee it's geography is essentially. it's destiny. it covers essentially a continent and as a realist the argue his argument would be that the game they're playing is power maximization for its own sake and as i said, it implies that geography the relative size of the country. it's resource endowments determined its foreign policy interests and winners and losers. so if that's true, then russian behavior should be immutable over time and across regime type shouldn't matter if it's a putin or a yeltsin or gorbachev or a it's our nicholas the second. um, it structurally determined russian

putin's prized warship is underwater. russia just admitting that the flagship of its black sea fleet sank after a major explosion on board. the russian state news agency is saying this, right? this is the government saying it sunk while it was being towed. now, ukraine claims the explosion was due to a ukrainian missile strike. claim the united states believes is credible. make no mistake, the sinking of this warship is a major blow to putin. this is the 50th day of his ukraine invasion. he only has three of those shipsle only has three. so now, a third gone. poof, gone, sunk, bottom of the black sea, along with a lot of the weapons that he has already been hemorrhaging in ukraine because that ship was packed with anti-ship missiles. surface-to-air missiles, long-range missiles, a dual-barrel canon. the ship is equipped with advanced radar, which was playing a crucial role in helping defend the rest of russia's fleet from ukrainian strikes. and russia has now moved half a dozen of its ships further away of ukraine's coast

is germany fearful supporting action against putin may lead to putin causing terrorism and making german politicians targets of russian intelligence attacks? is that part of the calculus? maybe germany is reticent to be as aggressive as other nations are. michael: that's a really interesting aspect i had not thought of before but it makes perfect sense. russians have targeted with polonium 210. they went after their former countrymen in the united kingdom. there have been other infamous attacks, poison on alexei navalny. maybe that is a factor in some german politician's mind that putin does not self regulate. i think the larger point is that to give the germans the benefit of the doubt to some degree, i do think they worry about escalation up the ladder in terms of use of force. i think when putin threatens to use nuclear weapons, that is designed to make certain nato members nervous and to say let's de-escalate. let's pusher on the -- put pressure on ukrainians. i don't see anybody pressuring the ukrainians to be more serious about peace talks or give up some territory to appease the r

putin's great. he's not going to do anything bad. he's my guy. and putin invaded ukraine. which was awkward for the brazilian president. but now today, brazil's president has decided that he will handle that very embarrassing turn of events the way i'm sure we all wish we could. he has decided he will dump it down the memory hole and close the door on it. jair bolsonaro today decreed that all public records concerning that very bad timing, three day official trip he took to moscow, right before putin launched his war, all public records of that will now be sealed for at least five years. so even though he went to moscow and told everybody that putin was going to start no war, and that brazil stood with russia, no one is allowed to know what happened on that trip. or nobody is allowed to know who else was traveling with bolsonaro on that trip until at least 2027. the records have been sealed for five years. and just like that, you know, he's assuming it will all be forgotten. maybe it will be. the other would-be president who, would-be president, presidential candidate who

he said he trusted vladimir putin more. again, the same year as willie said that he was trying to withdraw the united states from nato because he understood, and what a clarifying six weeks this has been for people brainwashed by donald trump, donald trump understood in 2018 that nato was the mortal enemy of vladimir putin and it would be nato with the backing, the strong backing of the united states that would stop vladimir putin from being able to go into other nato states, that would stop vladimir putin from being able to run across eastern and central europe, which was his dream. >> mm-hmm. >> he wanted to reconstitute the old russian empire. and donald trump knew the only way he could help him was by getting rid of nato. and here we are, again, sean hannity asking, as willie said, a second time while showing pictures of civilians with their hands bound behind them shot dead in the street. and mariupol leveled. and republicans and democrats in washington calling donald trump what he is, a war -- calling vladimir putin w

putin -- if you use wmds you will get an appropriate response from nato, that actually gives putin only one choice, to sit down for real at the negotiating table. >> let me ask you, we are not thinking a lot about this, but if putin somehow comes out of this stronger, if the ukrainians have to concede on a number of issues, do you think he has greater ambitions, that he could at some point attack the baltic states or poland? >> translator: we must understand that in his head putin is at war not with ukraine, he is at war with the united states and nato. he said this more than once. his propagandists have already started to prepare russian society for an attack on nato countries. they're constantly talking about this and this is the preparation of russian public opinion for this. i am absolutely convinced that if putin decides that he has won in ukraine, this is not going to be the last step, the last war. the next steps will be the baltic countries. >> i have always wanted to ask you this question because i figure you probably can answer it better than almost anybody. what do you think

own -- president putin's own daughters. joining me is simon ostrovsky, special correspondent for pbs newshour joining us from kyiv. nia malika henderson, senior political analyst for cnn and jeff mason, white house correspondent for reuters. simon, you saw firsthand the carnage and human of a station in -- human devastation in bucha. what sticks out in your mind from what you saw this week? simon: i remember how the week started with a trip to bucha on sunday, when we toured the city and saw dead bodies strewn through the streets, some with their hands tied behind their back. that became the headline around the world. but what a lot of people don't realize, with all the coverage that has been focused on the town, is the atrocities perpetrated during the period russia was occupying the area were much more widespread than just the town of bucha. i have been traveling to towns throughout the kyiv region, throughout the neighbor of -- the neighboring region, throughout areas where russian troops came down from the north towards