on washington journal and the news, we hear from jamie fly, president and ceo of radio free europe and radio liberty, on his organizations -- organization's role on the conflict in ukraine and its coverage, and ray suarez, post of worldaffairs podcast, shares his thoughts on the conflict. host: good morning. saturday, march 19, 2022. russia continues to bombard ukrainian cities. the u.n. estimates 6.5 million people have been displaced inside ukraine in addition to 3 million who have already fled the country. that means about a quarter of ukraine's population has been forced from their homes. president biden spoke to president xi and warned of consequences if china offers material aid in support of

russia's war in ukraine. we are asking, are we doing enough to support ukraine? call (202) 748-8000 if you say yes, (202) 748-8001 if you say no. you can text us at (202) 748-8003. let us know your first name and city and state. you can also find us on social media, facebook.com/c-span, and twitter and instagram, at c-span wj. before we get to the war in ukraine and your calls, we note the passing of alaska republican representative don young. he passed away at the age of 88. he was the longest serving member of the house, having entered congress in 1973, and the party's longest serving

house member in history, representing his state for 49 years. here's the article from the anchorage daily news. alaska u.s. representative don young dies at age 88. it says don young, the seemingly indestructible politician, alaska's congressman for three fourths of the states existence, died. his wife was by his side. the statement reads that it is with heavy hearts and deep sadness that we announce don young, dean of the house and champion for alaska, died while traveling home to alaska to be with the state and people he loved. young is a republican, longest serving member of congress. he lost consciousness and could not be resuscitated. he has served in congress since 1973, putting him at 49 years in

office. while representative young became the 45th dean of the house in december 2017, and in january 2018, spoke on the house floor about his career and serving in congress. here is a portion. [video clip] >> i have been in this house 45 years with nine speakers, nine presidents. i have been in this house with 2000 members. i love this body, and i can suggest one thing. my greatest honor has been able to achieve results for my state. i am the only congressman from the whole state of alaska and i love it. it is my responsibility to represent the state and this house as a single person to do the job they have been asked to do. one of the things that i have enjoyed is the friendships. i don't think there's an enemy in the house. i have worked across the aisle.

i have never had an adversarial vote at any one time on the transportation committee. now, when george miller was minority member, we had a lot of arguments in the lot -- arguments and a lot of disagreements, but we hunted together and we ate together. i believe in bipartisanship. i believe in this body to lead this nation. nine presidents. the house has its job to do regardless of who the president is. host: and here are some tweets from members and people who knew him. fellow alaskan senator lisa murkowski said this by tweet, "alaskans are devastated by the shocking news and i am saddened beyond belief. we have lost a giant who we loved dearly and who held alaska in his heart always." another tweet by a senator, dan

sullivan, says this, "like all alaskans, we are shocked by the sudden passing of representative don young. his spirit, authentic, tenacious, indomitable, a man of the people, epitomized our state to such a degree that there was a sense he would always be with us forever." a tweet by governor mike dunleavy. he says hours after being sworn into the u.s. house of representatives, he was leading historic battle for the approval of the pipeline. he was honored in 1973 as freshman congressman of the year. kevin mccarthy, the republican leader of the house, said don young was a giant with a spirit as strong as the alaskan wild. his absence will leave congress less colorful and punctual, but

his decades of service filled every room and touched every member. anne and his children have my deepest sympathies. finally, representative ruth westerman, saying i'm heartbroken to hear of his passing. he was an incredible public servant, brilliant legislator, a mentor and friend tall and will be dearly missed -- friend to all and will be dearly missed. the passing of representative don young happened yesterday. we are taking your calls about is the u.s. providing enough support for ukraine. we will start -- and here are the numbers on your screen. if you say yes, (202) 748-8000. if you say no, (202) 748-8001. texts can come in at (202) 748-8003.

we will start with white house press secretary jen psaki, speaking yesterday about aid to ukraine. dear it is. -- here it is. [video clip] >> he described javelins and stingers as defensive weapons and planes as offensive weapons. >> i would remind everybody that russia is invading ukraine. ukraine is not invading russia. they are not going into a foreign country and invading the country and we are sending ukraine security assistance and weapons they are using to defend their country against russian aggression. >> wouldn't migs? also be defensive? >> these are assessments made by a defense department, but as it relates to the transfer of fighter planes from germany into

contested ukrainian airspace, where our military and intelligence community determine the benefits provided to ukraine's defense are low and the risk of escalation is high, that is how we assess that. those planes would be a different category of military assistance. >> seems like we are splitting hairs over semantics in terms of how we classify these weapons systems. sometimes doing after there's been political pressure, for instance, imposing sanctions on sending the stingers and javelins, banning russian oil, so is there any chance the u.s. will facilitate the transfer of these planes? why not now? >> we have said why we will not

do it, namely, that the aid we are providing is effective at fighting this war on the ground. none of these weapons could be used to launch an invasion against a country like russia. that is a fact. that is why we call them defensive weapons. they are the country under attack. host: that is jen psaki at the white house yesterday. thursday on the senate floor, republican senator ben sasse was saying lethal aid to ukraine has been to slow. here's that. [video clip] >> how much aid did they need, what kinds and how urgently? the answer is they need everything and yesterday. if they can shoot it, we should ship it. ukrainians are fighting for freedom and we should do more to help. javelins, stingers, lethal

drones like switch blade surface-to-air missiles, coastal missiles, machine guns, ammunition, grenade launchers, nightvision goggles and, yes, planes, more and more of it faster. i applaud the president for some of what he has done but i would note there are important weapons that are not yet in ukrainian hands, like the s-300 and it takes time to cross the border and we should be sending this as fast as possible, not having the administration's lawyers debate how many angels can dance on the tip of a sam or what weapons are offensive or defensive. every weapon we give them right now is defensive and these distinctions don't make a bit of difference to a russian invading

pilot if he gets shot down, which weapons of system it came from is not the concern you will have it that -- which weapons system it came from is not the concern he will have at that moment. so ukraine needs more aid faster. host: the front page of today's new york times -- russia hits western ukraine, biden issues warning to xi. it says russian forces extend in their bombardments into a relatively unscathed part of western ukraine friday, striking a warplane repair plant about 50 miles from the polish border. president biden warned president xi jinping of china not to provide military aid to russia amid a scramble of diplomatic efforts to end the violence engulfing ukraine. that strike about four miles from the western city of l viv destroyed several buildings used to repair aircraft.

the strike appeared to be an attempt to weaken the ukrainian military's air defenses. let's go to your calls, see what you think about the u.s. providing enough support for ukraine. sylvia is our first call and says yes. hi. caller: thank you. i think we've had enough, have given enough. i'm not sure if they need to know how to use it first. we need to take care of our own needs here as far as fuel hikes and food shortages. we need to take care of our own things here. until they join nato, i don't think we should be giving them anymore weapons. take you. host: todd is calling us from onto noggin -- from michigan. caller: i have two parts and i hope you don't cut me off.

it is none of our business. we have enough problems here in the usa. number two, in the early 1980's, i was stationed in north dakota, a strategic air command base, where we had a handful of anti-ballistic missiles, scrapped during the salt to treaty -- the salt two treaty. moscow has anti-ballistic missiles around the city itself. you never hear about that. this might be one of the reasons he's emboldened to do what he is doing. i say what he needs to do because we made a promise not to encroach nato onto his borders, which we have, so once again, there are lives on both sides. the american people need to wake up and understand what is really going on. host: all right, todd, thank you for calling. bob is calling from springfield ohio. you say no. why? caller: i have been in war

and there's no such thing as enough when you are in war. give them the stupid jets already whether russia likes it or not. they are going to do what they like. let's do what we should do. are we giving them nightvision goggles, hand grenades, things like that? when they ran off the list on the news, they didn't say anything about that, they just said small arms, and i don't think we should -- i mean, we should not put boots on the ground, but give them everything they need. host: what do you think of the no-fly zone? caller: well, i think that would take it over the edge. it would be world war iii. host: ok. speaking of military assistance,

this is what the u.s. is giving to ukraine just hours -- this is from the associated press -- just hours after president zelenskyy delivered an emotional plea to the u.s. congress for additional aid it, president biden laid out a wide range of equipment the u.s. will provide to help ukraine beat back the invasion. a new 100 million dollars aid package centers on weapons ukraine has already been using effectively against the russians and air defense systems needed to defend cities from the overwhelming barrage of missiles being launched by russian forces. kevin is calling from portland, oregon and says yes. caller: thank you for taking my call. the most recent two callers believe --

host: we are having trouble with that line. susan is in texas and says no. hi. caller: hi. good morning. host: good morning. go ahead. caller: i don't think we are giving them enough assistance. i have been in war also and, when you are in war and the world is not supporting you, it is a horrible feeling, and i feel like the country is just abandoned by everyone, they just want to send them kibble and bits and do the best you can. we should be doing more and the bully putin, i mean, i have some words i could use but i will not since i am online, i don't care what he thinks. host: what do you think the u.s. should do?

what in addition do you want to see? caller: i believe that we should secure the airspace. host: the no-fly zone. caller: i had 24 years in the military that is our job in the military. host: what do you think of the united states shooting down russian planes? i mean -- caller: if we can shoot them down, and other ways of protecting the airspace, like interceptor devices, patriots or whatever, that is the best option of course, but if that is the way it has to be done, that has to -- to be done, then they need some help. the people of ukraine need some help and the whole entire planet is dillydallying while they are just dying and their land,

people, animals and everything is being burned and they are starving and abandoned and it is just soulless of our country, soulless. host: susan, we will stay in texas. our next caller is in pasadena, karen. you say yes. caller: yes, as long as we do everything we can for the people, it is not our war. it is not our war. a long time coming in that country, ukraine, between that country and russia, but they are not part of nato. we don't have to fight everybody's battle and we have a border issue at home that everybody ignores. it needs to be taken care of. host: let me ask you, if you think -- if putin does take ukraine, let's say, it is not a nato country and you say it is not our business, do you think

he would be emboldened to take another country? may be poland? caller: zelenskyy should have taken that offer. i know putin is not a good person but at the same time he wants to protect his oil and ukraine does not have a real good record -- there's been a lot of -- what is the word i am looking for? host: i think i got your point, karen. some breaking we want to show you. four u.s. service members have been killed in a norway plane crash during nato exercises. four service members died after a u.s. military aircraft crashed in norway on friday, yesterday, while taking part in a nato

exercise. that's according to norwegian authorities. the crew of four were on a training mission when their aircraft crashed on the way to a city on a peninsula in the norwegian sea. more on that as the morning goes on. meanwhile, taking your calls on is the u.s. providing enough support for ukraine. the numbers are on your screen. we will go to ron in bering springs, michigan. ron? caller: good morning. i'm a vietnam veteran and praying for our service people in this war. those nato exercises are all part of the escalation that ukraine is gladly putting forward, and the more weapons we give to ukraine, the longer the russians will pound them into the dirt, and -- we don't need

anymore body bags coming home. we have four dead now. it is never enough. ukrainians -- you are going to have 10 million ukrainians all over the world, probably about one million of them here in about six months, and they will become the new cubans, they are going to hate the democrats, hate joe biden, because we did not send our soldiers there to die for their country. they should be sitting down and negotiating what is left of their country and keeping their people in their borders. host: wrong, we will go to suzanne insane and, -- ron, we will go to suzanne in saint and, missouri. caller: i don't understand, when they lie at the u.n., and say

this is not going on, what i'll they send a you and delegation of peacekeepers over to mariupol so it can be known and then that them line? i just don't understand how they get away with it and why we cannot do more to get the truths of the russian people about what's happening -- the truth to the russian people about what's happening. host: you mean about them not targeting civilians? caller: exactly. host: we will have a conversation with jamie fly of radio free europe at 8:00 eastern time, so be sure to stay tuned for that. we will talk about trying to get that information into russia. joe is in broadview, illinois and he says no. joe? no?

maybe joe is gone. richard in massachusetts, you say yes. host: hello -- caller: hello. good morning. thank you for taking the call. there's a lot going on behind the scenes that we don't know about and i can guarantee you that. the russians are not performing up to their expectations. i'm not surprised that they are both in the same bloodline to bring -- to begin with, ukrainians and russians, both slavic blood. it is a horrible circumstance they've gotten themselves into, but if they send those hypersonic missiles or any of those missiles on any of those nato nations, it will change the dynamics of this. it will make this a catastrophic event for all of europe and the entire world, but as far as -- all we can do now as far as the

ukrainians are concerned, we are doing a lot. we are doing a marvelous job. and the russians, all they can do is keep attacking, murdering civilians. it is just a horrific situation. i'm an old guy. i remember world war ii and the other wars we've been involved in, but this guy -- when they arm nato, put those weapons in those systems, in 1993, and i am of polish to send and i could never understand why nato did that -- i'm of polish descent and i never could understand why nato did that, put missiles in poland and hungary and the rest of them. that lit a fuse. i have a cousin who is a lieutenant general. he was telling me who said we are playing -- he was telling me, he said, we are playing with fire doing this.

putin is a murderer, an extreme right wing nationalist, and i had a suspicion, somewhere down the road, something like this would happen, because -- host: all right, richard. a tweet that says i don't agree with supporting a country that meddled in the 2016 election to help hillary clinton over donald trump. are we also have a text from russ in california. he says ukraine has 225 tactical jets. what good are they or have been if never used? ukraine should use everything they have and stop waiting on $100 million aircraft. he goes on to say jen psaki spins everything for biden and falls on the sword for him. weapons are weapons, defensive or offensive.

nancy says we are not doing enough. caller: we are not. these are human beings being slaughtered and murdered. we cannot let this continue go on -- continue to go on. putin cannot stop it ukraine. he once europe. host: ok, and this is the front page of the washington post. "russia widens battlefield with strike in lviv." they are saying there are mixed signals from ukraine that cloud details of any peace pact, saying the mounting death toll in ukraine has forced president zelenskyy to consider concessions to russia in order to bring an end to the devastating conflict, but the specific elements of any peace deal his government may be discussing with moscow remain a mystery to western leaders. the secretive rounds of meetings between russian and ukrainian

negotiators could hold the key toward ending the conflict but have implications for european security depending on how the warring parties make their decisions. putin, if he could compel concessions from ukraine, could use the same tactics elsewhere. the prospects for a near-term solution look bleak, officials say. russia has sought to pummel ukraine into submission through artillery barrages, cruise missile strikes, and a severing of supply routes that have prompted a humanitarian disaster and forced more than 3 million people to flee the country. that is from today's washington post. we will go back to your calls. eric is calling from palm beach, florida and says yes. hi, eric.

host: a few points -- caller: a few points to make and i think you for the coverage. i wish it could be expanded in a few ways. in 2013, there was a treaty between various european countries and russia that stipulated, i think, 14 different point provisions, some regarding the controversial eastern provinces of ukraine, about how there were supposed to be elections and determination on how they may be independent portions of ukraine, with a lot of people of ethnic russian descent. that is at the crux of this, along with nato expansion, that the united states is denying, that happened in the 90's. germany was united, east and west. there were actually a lot of agreements that i've researched.

there were talks between secretary baker and the outgoing president, the first president bush, and german and russian leaders at that point, though it was never put in writing or ratified in a treaty, that nato would not expand eastward, and that is at the crux of this. host: what does that say about what is happening now? caller: what that says is that the united states, for a long time, since world war ii, has gotten solved -- gotten itself all over the world involved in being the world's policeman and it does us more harm than good back home. i think we are doing too much. we should really backoff in terms of our involvement all around the world. we pay a lot of money, lose a lot of lives. host: eric, with ukraine,

do you think we are doing too much? caller: way too much. it should be left to europe, left to nato. they should foot the bill and deal with it. i don't see why we always have to be involved, and i would encourage you to do something with the minsk treaty, bring that into context with this whole thing. i'm very frustrated with how that factors in. and my last point, there was an article i saw on my yahoo! front page that russia is using turkey as an intermediary and putin has offered some conditions under which he would end the war, and it goes back to those eastern provinces, and crimea, and finally ending that dispute and, under certain conditions, how he would stop and end this, and this is contrary to a lot of this thinking that he is out to go step-by-step beyond ukraine. i don't think that's the case. host: all right, eric.

appreciate the suggestion. actually, back to the white house, press secretary jen psaki yesterday talking about president biden's call with chinese president xi jinping. here it is. [video clip] >> what i can tell you is that the majority of this call, as i think you heard and saw in the readout and heard on the call we did, was focused on russia's unprovoked invasion of ukraine. the president spent the vast majority of nearly two hours with -- nearly two hours outlining our views on this crisis, including a detailed overview of efforts to prevent and respond to the invasion, the steps we have taken ny, and let me reiterate, he also conveyed and described the implications and consequences if china provides material support to russia, but i will not provide any additional assessment from here. host: that was jen psaki talking

about the call between president biden and president xi. we have a tweet that says, after three weeks, food and water is running out. europe needs help to feed refugees. let's go back to the calls per from kansas city, kansas, richard says no. hi, richard. caller: i do not think we are doing enough. 1.i was going to make this -- one point i was going to make was i imagine you will not see their air force until the final push comes on keever something like that, because once they hit the skies, we know they are in trouble. they will see where they came from. they probably have a lot of it hidden right now. so i'm sure they are ready to fight when they can, but it is a mess, you know?

i don't know if sending troops over there would stop putin. you know, you look back in history, and it never works to appease a bully. they always take advantage of it and they take everything they can, and the same sort of talk went on with world war ii. you can just see it in the stories they are running in the papers, you know, everywhere, the same kind of stuff, so that is all i know, and we should do the best we can to support them and give them everything they want. host: all right, richard. a tweet from marianne, who says issue isn't u.s. tissue is nato. if russia is not stopped in ukraine, i fear baltics will be next.

i also fear alaska may be part of the plan. from the wall street journal this morning, survivors freed at ukrainian shelter that was bombed, the food -- bombed, putin vows to continue with invasion. it reads that in mariupol, people were evacuated from the wreckage of a theater hit by an airstrike this week as russia expended aerosols on ukraine's -- russia expended air assaults on ukraine's west. many are still under debris, the ukrainian president said many are still under debris, the ukrainian president said. vladimir putin found to press on in a rare public appearance before a crowd of tens of thousands of flag-waving supporters in moscow stadium. otis is calling us from orange

park, florida and it says, yes, we are doing enough. otis? caller: yes. we need to stop supporting ukraine. what i see is this -- host: go ahead, otis. caller: what i say, yes, we are doing enough, but that does not mean we need to stop continuing to support ukraine. what i see is america sit back and point factors, saying -- and point their fingers, saying this is not their battle. ukraine is in need. we cannot put soldiers on the ground. however, we can supply them with everything they need. we are not trying to get into battle, not just yet. we american soldiers -- i am a soldier, i was -- i am looking

at this as a training exercise for american intelligence. we know russia now is a powerful force and a bully, however, once you go in, you have nothing. they have sorry soldiers, with no desire to be in the battle. in ukraine, you have soldiers willing to die for their country. america has pretenders who say they love this country. if you love this country, you have to love the world, so we are doing enough, but we can do more. host: ok, otis. an article from the new york times talking about the weapons that the ukrainian military is using. the headline says "ukraine is wrecking russian tanks with a gift from britain." these are called nglatw, next-generation light antitank

weapons, the product of research into making small guided antitank missiles. compared to the american-made javelin antitank weapon, which has been hailed by officials at the pentagon and white house and sent to ukraine by the thousands, this system weighs half as much, costs far less, can be easily discarded, and is optimized for use in the relatively short range fights ukrainian soldiers are getting into with the invading russian soldiers. they say the weapon weighs 28 pounds and are easy for soldiers to wield. it looks like britain has sent about 4200 of these antitank missiles. let's go to danya in butler, missouri. she says no. danya? caller: yes, i say no. i say because iran -- iran --

good lord, forgive me, because ukraine, they are a freedom loving country and they love freedom just like we do in the u.s. that is why we are having to fight for our freedom against joseph biden. i think he would be doing more if he wanted to truly because no country should invade another country to take over. they have a country per let them run their own country. why can't they run their own country right? putin needs to back his butt off and the christians need to stand up and pray and see the hand of god in this in ukraine and watch god take over and watch putin and his people back way, way off. if the christians would stand up and gather together and join forces and pray to god and repent, this would all turn

around, but the hand of god will be on this, mark my words. -- mark my words. host: ok. yesterday, ambassador to the u.n. linda thomas-greenfield discussed the prospect of russia developing chemical and biological weapons. take a look. [video clip] >> we heard from the russian representative of a tirade of bizarre conspiracy theories. this week, we are hearing more where that came from, things that sound like they were forwarded to him on a chain email from some dark corner of the internet. president biden has a word for this kind of talk -- malarkey. as i said one week ago, ukraine does not have a biological weapons program. there are no ukrainian biological weapons laboratories,

not near russia's border, not anywhere. they're only public health facilities proudly supported and recognized by the u.s. government, the world health organization, and other governments and international institutions. in fact, it is russia that has long maintained a biological weapons program in violation of international law. it is russia that has a well-documented history of using chemical weapons. it is russia who is the aggressor here. host: that is the u.s. ambassador the u.n. linda thomas-greenfield speaking about claims by russia. let's talk to david in gulf breeze, florida. you say yes. why? caller: i think we've

appropriated enough money and everything like that, but i think we should hold it back until peace is -- there's peace in ukraine. then we can use that money to rebuild ukraine. i think that we need to really incentivize a settlement between the two countries and then we can look at rebuilding ukraine. that is the one that has the most damage. host: so, david, what do you think the settlement should be, though? caller: that is kind of the problem that i have. i haven't found out exactly what russia wants. the only thing i know is they don't want nato on their border, but i think there's probably at least 10 things they're asking for. maybe you can put something on c-span that will tell me exactly what they want, and then i don't know if there's something that's unreasonable. i think there's a couple things that are probably unreasonable, but i don't know what they are.

host: would you be ok with russia completely taking over ukraine and may be a puppet government? caller: the people of ukraine will always be there. i mean, i look at the world like this. alexander the great conquered the known world, but he gave the world back to the people that were there and let them rule their own countries. i don't think that russia wants to, but i don't know what they are asking for. you say that they want to take over ukraine. well then they would have the same problem, because nato would be on the outside. the only thing i know they are looking for is a buffer between nato and then. it may be good if russia joined nato because of the nonaggression issues nato has in their charter. the only thing i know is that if one country attacks another

country, the other countries will go after that person, that country. host: an interesting thought, david. we also have a text from dave in danville, new york. he says we are providing military intelligence to ukraine to attack russia but biden won't send migs because he's afraid of upsetting a madman. mason is next in los angeles, nevada, and you say we are not doing enough. good morning. caller: can i ask your name? i have never met you before. host: my name is mimi. caller: so nice to call in and not have the pedro show. i am in los angeles, nevada, not california. host: did i say california?

caller: we are all the same down here. the president was putin's best friend so i don't know how we could be doing enough, but i would like to mention, the lady that just called in saying let's all pray to god that this stops, well, if she knew anything about christianity, she would know that putin is just, you know, killing all the amalekites, just like god instructed, so i wish that lady would open her eyes and maybe take a science class, but anyway, i think we should take a play out of putin's playbook, because putin never says alexei navalny's name because he feels like he does not want to give attention to alexei navalny, so he will call him the leader of the opposition, my opponent, so i feel like we should all take a

play out of putin's playbook and never mention that treasonous you know what again. host: all right, mason. by the way the senate -- the way, the senate meets monday to begin hearings on supreme court nominee judge jackson, and we will have all those hearings for you here on c-span and c-span.org and on the free mobile app, c-span now. if confirmed, judge jackson would become the first african-american woman to serve on the nation's highest court. we are taking your calls, asking the western, is the -- the question, is the u.s. providing enough support to ukraine? yes, (202) 748-8000, no, (202) 748-8001, and texts can come in on (202) 748-8003. be sure to tell us your first

name, city and state. you can also contact us on social media. want to show you real quick what the state department is saying about humanitarian assistance for the people of ukraine. this is a press statement from the secretary of state. it says that the united states is providing over 186 million dollars in additional humanitarian assistance to support internally displaced persons and the more than 4 million refugees affected by russia's premeditated, unprovoked and unjustified war on ukraine, providing more money to organizations responding to the crisis and complementing the generosity of neighboring countries who are welcoming and supporting refugees. that is from the state department. going to michael in stamford, connecticut. you say no. caller: we are not doing enough. we are fighting the only will --

we should be fighting the only war we can, the propaganda war, showing pictures of dead russian soldiers, so him and his people can see what a failure putin is. he is building some giant palace in russia. that is what we should bomb, if anything, but just keep on showing how much he is losing, how nobody respects him. the crowd he had the other day and that stadium were all government workers bussed in there. they did not want to be there. they had to be there. you've been to these meetings where you get dragged in. but i think the propaganda war, where you show how much putin is losing, how weak he is, how small he is compared to anybody else, and all the trai tors and the u.s. government

backing russia's point of view should be shown for what they are, traitors. you know who they are. i don't want to say their names because they are a bunch of losers. let's go, biden, yes, biden. host: something here about madison cawthorn from the huffington post, reported on yahoo! news. he called zelenskyy a thug, calling ukrainian president zelenskyy a thug reportedly making the right wing firebrand representative madison cawthorn from north carolina a star in russia. -- tweeted a clip from russian state tv on thursday showing hawthorne attacking zelinskyy as his country was being invaded and bombed by russia.

the quote, "remember that he is a thug." let's go back to your calls. david is in indiana and you say yes, the u.s. is providing enough support for ukraine. why is that? caller: i think we are close to $1 billion at this time. i just want to get on the top surface, a little bit of back history with ukraine. ukraine has been one of the most corrupt countries in the -- in that circle for several years. countries have given them money, oligarchs, and one of the presidents took off with millions of dollars into just disappeared. zelenskyy is a television personality, as was trump. i don't associate the two together, but i believe in his bravery. i'm sad about the humanitarian part of it. that is the worst.

the united states basically is doing what it is doing to afghanistan, and that is throw them money, throw them some weapons, and not get further into it. there's not a strong answer as to what we can do. we do have to be careful with the nuclear button. the united states and other countries, they made an agreement that, if ukraine would take out their nukes, we would support them. that is documented in the law, so once again, speaking of the money and the corruption, you know, vice president joe biden said he will take back x amount of support for ukraine if a prosecutor who is not removed looking into his son in the burisma case. you are a good host.

thank you for your time. host: let's go to bernard in parker heights, texas. these also say yes, the u.s. is providing enough support -- you also say yes, the u.s. is providing enough support. caller: i made a mistake. i actually say no. thank you for taking my call. i am a first time caller. i don't believe the u.s. is doing enough. i believe the u.s. has lost its appetite for foreign wars. over time, you know, dealing with afghanistan and iraq, but prior to that, the u.s. was part, was actually the lead in a force that removed a country from attacking kuwait, and that was iraq. iraq had gone into kuwait and tried to take that country over, and the u.s. removed that force, the iraqi forces, from kuwait.

you have a similar situation here but america, as i said, has lost its appetite for foreign wars, and the president of russia since is that and is taking advantage of america's lacking the will to be engaged in a foreign more like they were in 1991 in the liberation of kuwait. this is a terrible war and we cannot control what putin does as far as nuclear weapons, so there's no sense in trying to worry about that. what you have to do is do what america is called to do because america is the leader of the free world and so it needs to act like that. we are the leader of the free world. host: ok, bernard. a couple callers were talking about the no-fly zone. we have defense secretary lloyd austin. he was in slovakia earlier this

week and he reiterated the position of the u.s. and nato that they would not be establishing a no-fly zone over ukraine. here it is. [video clip] >> they question. the ukrainian president calls again and again for a no-fly zone over ukraine. at the level of nato, there were discussions about this at the nato level, and what is the conclusion, he asks. >> well, from a u.s. perspective, our president, president biden, has been clear we would not have u.s. forces fighting in ukraine. having said that, we will do everything within our power to support ukraine and their efforts to defend their territory. we have also stated that enforcing a no-fly zone actually means that you are in combat.

you are in a fight with russia and that's one of the things that we have said that -- and our president has said that we were not going to do, get in a fight with russia. it means that, to control the skies, you have to shut down the air defenses that are on the ground, and some of those air defense systems are in russia, so again, there's no easy or simple way to do this. there's no such thing as a no-fly zone-lite. a no-fly zone means you are in a conflict with russia, so from a u.s. perspective, our position remains that we are not going to do that. host: that is defense secretary lloyd austin saying there would not be a no-fly zone over ukraine. here's a list of the aid the u.s. has provided to ukraine, a hundred million dollars in military aid, $293 million in --

800 million dollars in military aid, 200 and $93 million in military aid, and 2 billion dollars since the start of the biden administration. diane is calling from apollo beach, florida, and, diane, you say no. diane, yes, hi. go ahead. caller: the reason i am calling is because my mother was in east germany after the war and she managed to get out except her whole family was stuck there. and i've heard a lot about what the russians did to my family and -- i'm sorry. i'm out of breath. i just went up the steps. and basically, when my cousins were freed, they told us a lot of things about how they had to

learn russian in school and they changed all the history books to reflect that russia defeated hitler's and had nothing -- defeated hitler and had nothing to do with the west, and basically, they were stunned and surprised at how they were lied to. i think that we are not doing enough, but i think, eventually, i have a pretty good feeling that they are going to push their way into poland and all the other countries they occupied before, because i think that is what their ultimate goal is, putin's is, not the russian people, but i do remember we couldn't visit them. my mother did have to fly into berlin and talk to them through a chain-link fence because they were not allowed in, and when they got on the train, russian soldiers got on the train and

tour all the luggage apart for all the people on the train, except for my mother and my sister, because they found that they were americans. there's a lot of deceit going on in russia as far as the putin regime -- and he's not going to stop. he is just not. we keep drawing lines and he keeps going over them and changing the rule. host: all right. let's hear from eddie in chicago, illinois. go ahead. caller: hi. thank you for taking my call. i have a couple questions. i don't think we are doing enough, to be honest with you. i agree with the person ahead of me. i think he is not going to stop there. i think china, they have a real big issue too, if they take this guy's signed. don't these people know this could be the start of world war iii, and if that does happen,

and if nuclear weapons are used -- whatever happened to the billions and billions and billions of dollars at the reagan administration invested into the laser system? i heard that it did work on certain things but i do not believe it was proved between then and today's date. billions of dollars invested. host: that will be our last call for this segment of open phones but we will be having more calls later. five next, we will be joined by jamie fly -- up next, we will be joined by jamie fly, ceo of radio free europe and radio liberty, talking about coverage amid a fierce information more, and later, the host of worldaffairs, ray suarez.

we will be right back. >> as we approach the historic confirmation hearings for judge ketanji brown jackson to serve as the net just as the supreme court -- next justice on the supreme court, c-span conducted a survey on public attitudes towards the u.s. supreme court. our newly released survey of 1000 likely voters assesses america's knowledge about the court and its places, the place in the political and governing process and and issue a portent to c-span, -- important to c-span, whether the public wants cameras in the courtroom during oral arguments. you the resort -- view the results of the survey on our website at c-span.org/scotus survey. you can also watch upcoming coverage of the hearings at

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a mostly serious letter to my son." and also "a letter to baghdad." watch booktv every sunday on c-span two and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at booktv.org. ♪ >> first ladies in their own words, our eight part series looking at the for -- at the role of the first ladies and the issues important to them. >> it was a great advantage to know what it was like to work in schools because education is such an important issue, both for a governor and also for the president, and that was very helpful to me. >> using material from c-span's award-winning biography series, "first ladies." >> i am the kind of person who believes that you should say what you mean and mean what you

say and take the consequences. >> and the online video library. we will feature lady bird johnson, betty ford, rosalynn carter, nancy reagan, hillary clinton, laura bush, michelle obama and melania trump. watch first ladies in their own words saturdays at 2:00 p.m. eastern on c-span2, or listen to the series as a podcast on the c-span now free mobile app. where were ever you get your podcasts. >> "washington journal" continues. host: welcome back. i am joined by jamie fly, the president and ceo of radio free europe -- radio free europe/radio liberty. welcome to the program. guest: thank you for having me. host: tell us a little bit about radio free europe/radio liberty, what is its mission and what is its history? guest: we were set up about 70

years ago to provide truthful information to audiences at the time in the soviet union and in the captive states of eastern europe, who were under communist control. we evolved into a multimedia news organization. as the name indicates we used to do a lot of radio, but today audiences across 23 countries in 27 languages receive our news information mostly online. we still do some radio and have a 24/7 russian language tv channel, reaching people in the platforms that they want to get news and information. host: we will take your calls, you can start calling you now. if you are in the eastern or central time zones you can call us on 202-748-8000. if you are in mountain or pacific, 202-748-8001. and the texts as always are on 202-748-8003. jamie, tell me about how the

organization is funded. guest: we are funded through an annual appropriation by the u.s. congress. every year, where we and some of our sister networks like radio free asia, voice of america and the office of cuba broadcasting all receive most of our budget from the u.s. congress, but decades ago in the mid-90's, congress enshrined in u.s. law our editorial independence. they wanted to make sure that although we were receiving funding from the u.s. government, that no u.s. official, administration could tell us what's to cover, how to cover, could call up our editors and demand that certain stories be written, and so we are editorially independent of the u.s. government and we take that very seriously because our audiences for decades have come to us because they know that we

are objective and they know that we are truthful and if anything is done to compromise that objectivity then we know the audiences will go elsewhere in this competitive market for information. and so, we would go to great lengths to make sure that our journalists are protected from any attempts by the united states government or any other government to try and influence reporting. host: has that happened in the past? has any government official or foreign government tried to influence you editorially? guest: there are many stories from throughout the cold war and where we operate in so many different countries where we are just promoting factual information, sometimes the u.s. government for various reasons wants to have a close partnership with a government that might not be democratically elected, but on a select security issue, they want to work with the government, and we

do confrontational reporting at times about corruption, we highlight the needs of average citizens when governments are not the filling the design -- not fulfilling the desires of those citizens. sometimes our reporting runs counter to a narrow u.s. strategic goal in the mormon -- in a moment. i know it is often frustrating for a u.s. official sitting in washington to look at a hard-hitting investigative piece that we did that leads to a resignation of a government official. and so there is always that tam tatian given that we get our -- temptation given that we get our funding from congress to say why is radio free europe/radio liberty focused on that topic? but we do not listen even if there was an attempt, we do not listen to requests for us to cover topics in a certain way, and then we have that safeguard built into the u.s. international broadcasting act. we call it the firewall that protects us.

host: you were recently forced to shut down your operations in russia. tell us about that. what happened? guest: we have been operating in russia for decades and broadcasting in russian for almost 70 years. during the early decades of the cold war we did that from our -- from far, our headquarters in munich, germany. late in the cold war we were able to work with journalists on the ground inside russia. we had freelance journalists would work with us, and they were able to do so despite the risks. in the early 1990's and 1991, we were invited by vladimir putin's predecessor boris yeltsin to set up a physical bureau in moscow, so we have had that bureau in operation now for 32 years. and, unfortunately we have been

given -- unfortunately, given the trajectory of pressure against journalists inside russia and a conflict that we have been having with the kremlin for quite some time even before the war in ukraine where we refused to label our content in the way that the kremlin wanted us to as the product of a foreign agent media outlet we were forced to suspend physical operations at our moscow bureau. the risks are too extreme for journalists inside russia. anyone who reports the facts about what is happening can face treason charges and potentially a 15 year prison sentence. and, journalists are being harassed and driven out of the country. given that brought outlook we decided to pause operations on our moscow bureau. we are still serving russian audiences and providing news and information throughout the day online to millions of russians

and we are committed to doing that and committed to trying to get news information out of russia both to share with other russians and to share with the outside world, that we have suspended operations at our moscow bureau. host: can ukrainian still hear your broadcast? guest: we have a very active ukrainian service. we had our largest bureau in kyiv prior to the war. we moved most of our ukrainian operations to western ukraine, a part of ukraine that is a bit safer, we have journalists all over ukraine covering the fighting. we have journalists embedded with ukrainian military. the great three -- the great thing about radio free europe/radio liberty we are not only able to do that reporting and ukrainian at this time of immense need, we are able to take that live coverage of what is happening inside ukraine, and also share it with our russian audiences and show them what the

russian military is truly doing to ukrainian cities and towns. what the plight of russian soldiers is that were sent in, often not being fully briefed about the offer -- the operation they were sent on and they are captured as p.o.w.'s and able to tell the stories not just for ukrainian audiences but also russian-speaking audiences and -- across the russian diaspora. host: we have a video clip from one of the radio free europe/radio liberty journalists who is embedded with the ukrainian military, and just a vote -- a note to radio listeners, this is an ukrainian with english subtitles. [video clip]

[explosions] [end video clip] host: you can hear pretty close gunfire and explosions, that journalist seems close to the action. it seems kind of dangerous. guest: it is dangerous. our journalists do local, on the ground journalism everywhere they operate across all of our markets. and this obviously is an extreme

environment in the middle of a war. we have covered wars in countries before. some of our ukrainian journalists including those that you saw, have unfortunately been covering war for many years, well before this recent invasion. obviously ukraine has been in war with russia in the east since 2014. we've been covering that conflict on that front line the entire time for ukrainian audiences. now obviously the front lines have shifted across many parts of ukraine. we go to great lengths to make sure that our journalists have the training to cover this environment, and we have constant conversations about how to keep them safe. this week alone i have had multiple conversations even though i am sitting at prague as president and the company with my editors about who is where, how many journalists really need to be out in a position of danger, they have the equipment

they need, do they need to move back? is the frontline shifting? we have a security team that provides them with support, but it is incredibly dangerous work, but it is important work because the ukrainian people want to know what is going on in the fight. as i noted, we are also trying to serve our audiences in other countries including russia and show an honest accounting of what is actually happening in this war, a war the kremlin is not admitting is a war. they are referring to it as a special operation and denying that the front lines have reached many parts of ukraine and we can show the that parts of -- that kind of reporting what is actually happening and revealed very quickly a lot of the kremlin's statements about this invasion of ukraine to be outright lies. host: let us take some questions from our viewers. randy is first and slaughter, louisiana. hello.

caller: i think you are doing a fantastic job, that is a wonderful thing to be able to get the information out to the people of ukraine and the people of russia and let them know what is happening. thank you. host: and, let us go to daniel in tennessee. good morning. caller: good morning. mr. fly, i just wanted to thank you for what you do. i remember learning about radio free europe when i was in ninth grade back in the 60's and 70's. it was an organization that is trying to present truthful information to people that are brainwashed. i find that here you have madison caulfield and tucker carlsen negating your efforts over there. what is that all about? we have the sarah palin syndrome

where you ask somebody where they are getting their information and all they do is they watch tv. they do not read books or magazines, i mean if you asked if they are brainwashed they get offended. but, if they are not reading, if they are not getting various sources of information, they are going to be easily brainwashed and influence. anyway, sir. i appreciate what you do, and you join the breve learn -- the brethren of nobelian journalists up there at "washington journal." guest: i think the big challenge that we face right now is as the caller referenced in russia, is that vladimir putin for his entire rule inside russia has been devoting significant resources to trying to control

the information space inside of russia. early in his tenure and he has been in power for more than 20 years now, he tried to exert as much control as possible and reorganize some of the main russian language media outlets and putting key lieutenants in charge of the outlets. he also tried to eliminate voices like ours, stripping us of our radio licenses early on inside russia. blocking us from providing information over tv, even though we have a 24/7 russian language network called current time. in recent years they use this so-called foreign agent law to really tar a number of media outlets. it started with us but was extended to a vast group of local russian news outlets, and put significant regulations and requirements on them. in recent weeks we have seen the kremlin block websites were as

you used to be able to go online even if you could not find independent and information on tv you can go on the web. that space is quickly closing. that is a big space that we and other independent outlets aimed at the russian audience are facing is that vladimir putin is closing off as many avenues as possible. we are committed to trying to find new ways to get around that censorship effort. using technology and allowing our audiences to use virtual private networks to access our websites and watch video streams. it is impossible in this modern day and age to block all information, but he is doing his best. and while he has been investing in all of these areas and building up russian state tv we never went away and other outlets never went away. our funding was never at the level that the kremlin was devoting to its own russian media outlets.

so part of the problem now is that we have to play catch up at a time when he is going with the extreme version of trying to cut russia off from the rest of the world. host: we have a tweet along those same lines. "how do you show news in russia when they have blocked all free press now in russia?" you mentioned a couple of ways. you know if you have been successful? are there any metrics as far as impact or how may people you are able to reach? guest: unfortunately, we have a lot of experience at radio free europe/radio liberty with similar situations even beyond russia. our website has been blocked in a number of webs -- and countries in the past. we have been blocked in belarus, iran, azerbaijan. we know how to use technology along with one of our sister entities, the open technology fund also funded by the u.s.

congress to make technological tools available to individual audiences so we have a lot of experience. the good thing that we have seen and it is still fresh because these website blockages are a new phenomenon inside russia, so we have a couple of weeks of data to work with. we still see audiences coming to our websites inside the country. we contract these things digitally and numbers are at record levels in part because of all of the interest in what is going on with ukraine and our coverage in ukraine. even though our numbers dipped after the blocking began, we still have hundreds of millions of video views coming from russia, people searching the contents and able to connect with our content. the key question is will they do that going forward? we are doing everything we can to educate the audience about how to use vpn's and these tools

and give them that pathway really to figure out how to still connect with our information, but there is a danger as dissent and the truth is criminalized and people might also get nervous and they might not want to look up illicit content. both what we have seen thus far russians are still hungry for truthful information, and that will keep them coming to us and other outlets that they want to interact with outside of the country to get that information. host: eric in compton, california. good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to talk to the journalist about this type of situation. everybody knows since columbus got here the world has been upside down and backwards. we have drawn borders of the world from wars and religion wars, everybody knows that.

now, i would like for us to turn the world right side up and look at the world south up and north down without borders. we are all brothers and sisters, and we do not use the borders, but we still stand because as we look at the world northside up is because the rich rulers could afford weapons and everybody that owns weapons are under authoritarian state of that law that -- of the state that they carry the weapon, and everybody knows the rules. only the rich young ruler's that can afford weapons. host: do you have a specific question for jamie fly? caller: i want to give him the perspective of looking at the world and how we can -- we have to look at the world from a different point of view because we all come up in this world backwards, going to war, everybody knows the history and it is only based upon looking at the world from an upside down point of view.

i am not sure that there was a question, but let us go to ava in columbia, mississippi. caller: good morning. i want to ask how does his screen his reporters to make sure that they do not have political slants, bias, prejudice, or bigots. guest: thank you for the question. i will start with the second question first. we are headquartered now in prague in the chz -- in the czech republic. during the cold war we were based in munich, germany, but in the 90's were in -- we were invited by the president who was an activist in the velvet revolution against communism. he was a listener and a guest on a lot of our radio programming in the run-up to the czech republic's revolution.

he believes deeply in our work and of the importance of our work going forward given what he and the czech republic had experienced, so he invited us to move our headquarters here in the u.s. government agreed and so we have been here since the mid-90's. we operate though on the ground in as many of our countries that we broadcast to as possible. in addition to headquarters where we have journalists, we try to base our journalists those two are audiences, ideally in the country that we are broadcasting to which is why we had a bureau in moscow which is now had to suspend operations. we have almost 20 bureaus across our coverage region where the journalists work in addition to some of the programming that we do from prague. on screening journalists, it is incredibly important. we want to make sure that we are presenting unbiased information. we have a strict editorial process within all of our

language services, just like any news organization where they make judgment calls every day about what to cover, about how to cover it. we have a standards editor at our headquarters who reviews any debates about how to cover particularly sensitive issues and there have been a lot of those questions in the last few weeks as we cover a war and you look at issues of prisoners of war, are you allowed to show videos of prisoners of war as part of news coverage? if so how do you take action to protect the entity of those into -- the identity of those individuals and their privacy? questions like that like many news organizations are grappling with those right now and we are grappling with the same questions and have a structure in place to address those issues. and to respond when we sometimes do not adhere to our standards. people are curious about that and i would encourage everyone to look at our website because

we have made our editorial standards document public, so people can see our policies as they relate to a wide range of topics we cover and how to adjudicate those issues when individual journalists have questions as they go about their reporting. host: jamie, there is a report hereby "the hill," that says that grassroots effort uses shortwave radio to broadcast voice of america in ukraine and russia. guest: i have heard of the project, we relied on shortwave radio that could be broadcast over significant distances. people had radio receivers that could receive the broadcast in their countries and they were at times attempts to jam the signal. but, shortwave is becoming

increasingly where -- rare around the world. most people might have a radio in their car that can receive fm or am broadcasting, but there are fewer and fewer shortwave receivers around the globe. i will say that the war in ukraine, the possibility of internet outages or the sort of internet blocking that we see in russia has caused people to wonder is radio going to make a comeback in some of these countries? are more people going to turn to radio and the way to receive news and information? our experience while we still do a little bit of radio into russia and we might expand that, the concern is that the data does not show significant segments of the population that actually have access to the technology to receive shortwave broadcasts. what we have seen especially with younger people is that even when the internet becomes blocked and certain websites become blocked or the internet

becomes harder to access, people still want to find ways to use the internet, if that has been their preferred platform they will not just abandon that right away and switch to radio. our approach in all of these crises is to make sure that we are available across multiple platforms. we do not want to be reliance on one platform to reach audiences. we want to present options to our audiences so that they can seek out our content on a variety of platforms which is what we are doing in ukraine and russia. host: let us talk to jerry, wisconsin. hello. caller: good morning. i wanted to comment on radio free europe for a long time because it was an experience that i had in the 50's when the iron curtain was being closed on two -- on the countries that were being absorbed into it. it was a radio free broadcast of an event that was happening, i

believe it might have been hungary, i am not quite sure what it was anymore. it has been a long time. i was a kid. anyway there was a kind of holdout situation where there was a truce and the information that the people were getting, they were being surrounded by tanks and they would be firing if they did not surrender. there was a news report coming out of there talking about you know the last holdout. what is their purpose or whatever. and they were waiting for america to respond to kind because it was being broadcast and they said hey, if you resist, america will come and help you, i was wondering where the hell is america at. and that was about the just of it. they broadcast --

host: let us get a response. any comment? guest: there have been many other situations prior to this war where our audiences have been in horrible situations. i think the listener was referencing 1956 in hungary. here in prague in 1968 when the soviet forces rolled in, we were broadcasting then to the people. so we have broadcast to audiences that are suffering immensely, especially from soviet oppression. the fine line that we need to log is we have always been seen by our audiences as providing a hopeful and truthful message, that we cannot speak on behalf of the u.s. government. we value and treasure that editorial interdependence. we interview u.s. and foreign officials. just this week we had the lithuanian foreign in a story to

an interview with radio free europe/radio liberty, which was picked up by our ukrainian and russian services. we had the latvian defense minister do an interview and russian for russian audiences. we provide a platform and do interviews with officials, but we cannot dictate to our audience is what exactly the u.s. response is going to be. instead, i think we can just report the facts, give them hope that there are people outside of their country that care about them and are paying attention to their plight, but we cannot advocate on behalf of a specific u.s. policy. host: let us talk to david in pittsburg, california. good morning. caller: good morning. i have a question for jamie. have you guys looked at the probability of using elon musk

has the starlink system. from what i understand it is going to be quite inner -- interesting to see that system develop over the years. and it is pretty easy to set up a receiving desk from what i have read and looked at. i was just kind of curious. is radio free europe looking at that possibility? to develop that system? host: what do you think. first explain what it is. guest: i am not an expert on starlink, but i have followed the development. my understanding is that it is a system where once you have a starlink receiver you can absent julie -- essentially obtain high-speed satellite internet and so it puts the power of internet access i think where it belongs, in the hands of individual users. we are used to that living in

the united states or in western europe, just getting internet wherever we go on our cell phones. the problem is in places like russia or in ukraine right now there is the potential that governmentss or the fighting -- governments or the fighting can knock out internet access or it can be taken out with cyber attacks. something like the starlink system presents a compelling option. now, i have followed a bit in its deployment inside ukraine. i understand a number of receivers have been made available to ukrainians, so we are very supportive of any effort of trying to put internet access into the hands of individual audience members. we are not other than what we are able to do in terms of educating our audiences and directing them about how to use vpn, we are not in the internet access business ourselves. if this is something that truly

becomes widely deployed and is affordable is the other problem is what the annual subscription is and whether the average consumer in these countries can afford it, we will celebrate that because people have a capability of accessing the internet themselves without going through an internet service provider that can be shut down or censored by the government like we are seeing in russia, that allows truthful information to be made available to everyone, and there are many countries well beyond russia and ukraine that would benefit from that sort of capability. we are supportive of those trends generally, but we ourselves are not actually providing the hardware to our audiences to get independent internet access. host: let us go to new york and talk to stephen. stephen?

ok, let us go to ohio and talk to aaron. caller: hello. glad to speak to you. i -- one of the questions i have is that on the internet there is a photo of what is going on in the country, a russian tank ran over a small car which contained an elderly let -- an elderly man. it is truly an atrocity and what russia would do. the other question i have is why kant america understand what nikita krushchev said and laughed at us -- laughed at us and said that we were gullible, which meant that they could lie to us and we would believe it. when will we wake up? host: any comment? guest: i think the one thing that i think i highlighted how vladimir putin has take advantage of us to a certain

extent in recent decades, so i agree with part of that sentiment. the other thing i think we need to distinguish though is the kremlin and vladimir putin and the corrupt oligarchs around him who have benefited from the system and on the russian people, and yes, there are certain segments of russian society that have been brainwashed by propaganda. but what we find to these millions of russians that tried to get information, even under difficult circumstances is that there is a much more complex picture inside russia. you see many russians fleeing, not just because of economic hardship but because they do not want to live in a country where actually speaking the truth is outlawed. and we are trying to serve all russians and reach all segments of russian society, both those who have been indoctrinated and need to be able to get access to other information, and those who just like during the cold war

and communist society, those who have and hungry for independence information all along and been trying to receive that kind of life line from outside knowing that there is a broader international community that wants to engage with them. it is a very complex picture inside russia and we have tried to highlight some of those russian voices both before and after the beginning of the invasion just through some of the interviews that we have been doing inside russia about what people feel. the interesting commentary before the war is that many russians thought that it was complete insanity to think that the government was -- that it was a good idea to go to war. many russians have personal ties to ukraine, and now that the war is really hitting home both the economic consequences as well as the human consequences, we have been trying to highlight those voices inside russia who were raising significant concerns about what their government is

doing. host: we have a question from twitter from melvin who says " what similarities does jamie see between the russian public -- propaganda machine and the established american disinformation channels, fox, oan, and facebook. they clearly broadcast the same disinformation, why has murdoch not been arrested?" guest: while disinformation has flourished around the world, not just inside russia, there is all kinds of disinformation in american and european media, not always for political reasons these are either, sometimes its for corporate objectives or certain political objectives, the fundamental difference is that what we are talking about inside russia is controlled at the highest levels of the russian government, actually coming up with certain topics that are just going to be covered across every state media outlets on a daily basis.

pushing that propaganda into the russian led stream and doing it mythology -- led stream and doing it methodically over time. i will not defend everything about the american media market but there is immense diversity of options in the american media market. and, even the u.s. government, the domestic u.s. government-funded outlets like npr and pbs, you do not have people sitting in the white house or sitting in congress dictating to them what to cover and how to cover it, and that happens on a daily basis inside russia, and it is very clear that the difference is more stark and that you do not have the u.s. government blocking websites and preventing news organizations from operating which is where we are in modern russia. host: south carolina next talking to matthew. caller: yes.

thank you for allowing me to go on c-span. it is my first time, i've been watching it for 15 to 20 years. i called and i wanted to thank you all for letting me speak. my thing is that -- i understand that we need to give them more weapons or whatever. but, at the same time, i hope they have to go out and engineer stuff and make their own tools. that is my comment. and i want to thank you guys. host: let us go to ted in alberta's, pencil -- alberta, pennsylvania. caller: this is for jamie.

jamie, i fought in vietnam in 1969 and 1970, who is making the money off of this war? it costs money to do a war. thank you. guest: i think that, unfortunately, there is just a lot of suffering from this war. i think vladimir putin apparently as far as we can tell thought it was going to be a quick operation that he could quickly exercise control over ukraine and obviously that was not the case when the ukrainian people have shown that they are very committed to their freedom and independence, so now we have the protracted fighting. unfortunately, i think all of russia is suffering as a result. the ukrainian people are suffering, many of them having to flee their homes and flee to other countries. russia is suffering too because of the economic sanctions. i do not think that anyone is

profiting from this conflict. it really is my personal view was a strategic miscalculation by vladimir putin. host: what do you think will happen with your operations? do you think you will able -- he will be able to be operational in russia again? guest: we hope so. we tried to take the long view. because of what we have seen from our history, when someone like vladimir putin takes such extreme measures of blocking access to websites, criminalizing the truth, those are not actions of someone that feels emboldened and powerful. ultimately i think those of the actions of someone who understands that they are at great risk on their own people of getting thrown out of office. we have seen this play out time and time again across many of the countries we operate in.

our headquarters is in prague. when we first launched our broadcast almost a little over 70 years ago it was illegal for people to listen to us in the czech republic. it was illegal for us to have journalists in the czech republic and yet we have 700 staff working for radio free europe/radio liberty in a free and democratic czech republic. now serving audiences in many other countries. we take the long view of history in this regard and do things that we will be able to resume operations in russia, it is only a matter of time. host: we want to thank you so much for being on the program with us. guest: thank you for having me. host: coming up later, our weekly's podcast -- spotlight on podcast featuring the "worldaffairs" which examines global issues and the russia-ukraine war. that with the cohost veteran broadcaster ray suarez. first coming up, more of your

calls about the russia-ukraine war, and is the u.s. doing enough to support ukraine? the numbers are on your screen. yes, no, and text. you can also reach us on social media. we will be right back. ♪ >> c-span has unfiltered coverage on the u.s. response to the russian invasion of ukraine bringing you the latest from the president and other officials, the pentagon, state department and congress with international perspectives from the united nations and statements from foreign leaders. all of the c-span networks, c-span now free mobile app and c-span.org/ukraine. the web resource page where you can watch the latest videos on demand and follow tweets from journalists on the ground. go to c-span.org/ukraine.

>> exploring the people and events that tell the american story on american history tv. on "the presidency" we have first ladies in their own words. we will look at their roles, the time in the white house and the issues important to them in their own words. this week we will feature rosalynn carter. >> every head of state that i spoke to without exception agreed with me on the importance of cooperating and consulting closely on the issues that concern you, jimmy, and that concern us all. human rights, nuclear nonproliferation, economic development, arms control, i think we have made progress in all of these areas. >> and a confirmation hearing for judge ketanji brown jackson begins on monday. american history tv looks back at other women nominated and confirmed to high court including ruth bader ginsburg,

sonya sotomayor, and amy coney barrett. watch american history tv every weekend and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch any time at c-span.org/history. now available for preorder in the c-span shop, the 2022 congressional directory. go there today to order a copy of the congressional directory. this compact book is your guide to the federal government with contact information for every member of congress including bios and committee assignments as well as contact information for state governors and the biden administration cabinet. preorder at c-spanshot.org or scan the code with your smartphone. every purchase help support our nonprofit organize -- operation. >> "washington journal" continues. host: welcome back. for about the next half hour we will take your calls about the

question is that u.s. providing enough support for ukraine? you can call in now on those lines. if you say yes number is 202-748-8000. if you say no, 202-748-8001. you can send us texts on 202-748-8003. and just so you know, yesterday alaska representative don young died at the age of 88. the article from "the anchorage daily news" says that he was on his way back to alaska when he became unresponsive. he could not be resuscitated. he served in congress since 1973 putting him at 49 years in office. representative young became the 45th dean of the house in december 2017, and then in january 2018 he spoke about the

house career and serving in congress. here's a portion of that. [video clip] >> i have been in this house 45 years with nine speakers, nine presidents, i have been in this house with 2000 members that are left, i love this body. and i can suggest one thing, my greatest honor has been able to achieve results for my state. i am only congressman -- i'm the only congressman for the whole state of alaska and i love it. it is my responsibility to represent the state in this house as a single person to do the job that i've been asked to do. one of the things that i have enjoyed is the friendships. i do not think there is an enemy in the house. i worked across the aisle and we never had an adversarial though to at any one time. on the transportation committee. now, when george miller was the

minority member we had a lot of arguments and a lot of disagreements, but we hunted together. and we ate together. i believe in bipartisanship. i believe in this body to lead this nation. nine presidents, the house has its jobs to do, regardless of who the president is. [end video clip] host: the longest-serving member in congress who died yesterday. you can see the capitol behind me with the flag at half staff. other news, four u.s. service members have been killed in norway. there was a plane crash during a nato exercise. the article here from "the washington post" says that they died "when a u.s. military aircraft crashed in norway while taking part in a nato exercise." that is according to new region officials. "the storage -- the

search-and-rescue group is founded accident site and confirmed that the crew on board the american aircraft died in the accident. we are taking your calls about the question, is the u.s. providing enough support for ukraine? have several callers waiting and we will go to ken in new jersey and you say no. why? caller: first, thanks you for c-span and hello. i have not seen you before. i am a first time caller. putin is -- you know he is desperate. he has to win or invade successfully. if he does not he is a failed dictator. fails dictators do not last too long. he will go all the way with this. since casualties on the ground increased he will bring in bombers to start carpet bombing

cities from high altitudes. the ukrainians will have to have special missiles to reach those high altitudes. plus, i am also wondering, suppose he gives the an ultimatum. you either surrender or i will drop nuclear weapons on your cities? maybe he will give them a week and then he will blow the city up. if they don't surrender he will go on to blow another city up and maybe another. use low yield nukes to keep the radiation levels down. what are we going to do then? are we prepared to supply the ukrainians with similar weapons so they can start blowing up russian say days? this thing right now has the potential to really get ugly. i am really dreading what this will lead to in the long term. that is all i have got to say. thank you for letting me say my piece. host: steve in alexandria, indiana.

steve, you say we are doing enough. caller: well, yes we are doing enough, i think. but i think the reason putin has gotten this all going is on account of the biden administration buying oil from russia funding this. and i think that we need to go ahead and stop funding and buying oil from russia. and quit funding the war over there. the democrats is not doing enough to take care of the ukrainian people. i believe they need to -- since

ashley, the administration has started this war over there by funding putin, shutting our oil off in the united states, and funding this war over there. we need to do more. host: steve, take a look at president biden earlier this week, he was announcing new additional security aid and weaponry to ukraine. [video clip] >> i am once again using presidential authority to activate an additional security system to continue to help ukraine fend off russia's assault. an additional $800 million. that brings the total of new u.s. security assistance to $1 billion, just this week. these are direct transfers of equipment from our department of

defense to the ukrainian military to help them as they fight against this invasion. i think congress -- thank congress for appropriating these funds. this new package will provide unprecedented assistance to encourage -- to ukraine including 800 antiaircraft systems to make sure that the ukrainian military can continue to stop the planes and helicopters that have been attacking their people and to defend the ukrainian airspace. at the request of president zelenskyy we have identified and are helping ukraine acquire additional, longer-range antiaircraft systems and munitions. the new assistance package also includes 9000 anti-armor systems. these are portable, high accurate -- high accuracy shoulder mounted missiles that ukrainian forces have been using with great effect to destroy invading tanks and armored vehicles. it will include 7000 small arms,

machine guns, shotguns, grenade launchers to equip the ukrainians including the brave women and men who are disbanding their cities as civilians and around the countryside as well. as well as the ammunition and mortar rounds to go with small arms, 20 million rounds total. this will include drones, which demonstrates our commitment to sending our most cutting edge systems to ukraine for its defense. now, we are not doing this alone, our allies and partners have stepped up to provide shipments of security assistance and will continue to help facilitate the deliveries as well. [end video clip] host: that was president biden on wednesday announcing additional aid to ukraine. we are asking you is that u.s. providing enough support for ukraine. we will continue to take your calls until about 9:15. philip in washington, d.c., what do you think, enough? caller: i do not know what is

going on behind the scenes. i am a catholic priest in washington d c and i would like to say that i was friends with the secretary of state for the patriarch of moscow, and valeri and -- vaerian live with us. and i believe if the patriarch of moscow, who has a direct line to putin, if he will tell putin that this is not god's will, that putin might listen because as ruthless as he might be i believe he does have the fear of god in his heart. that i am making a direct appeal to my friend to approach the patriarch in moscow and to speak to him about how he might really intervene in a way with the

pope, pope francis, to bring them to the negotiating table because the only and -- way this will end is through negotiations. so freaked -- so please, father hilarion, speak to the patriarch. you live in the -- you lived in the united states and you understand the situation as being completely devastating for people who are dying. host: i wonder why you think the patriarch has not already spoken to the president, to putin? and told him to stop the war. caller: i believe he has talked to them about it, but because the russian orthodox church is really the state church, and so politics in russia and the church go hand in hand, and the church gets a lot of support from the government -- they just renovated $234 million the patriarch's residence.

i believe that the patriarch himself probably does not believe this is a gospel message to be bombing people, and therefore i believe that if the patriarch with the pope will stand up to putin in a sense of expressing their disapproval of the situation, and i know that the patriarch is very familiar with the west. i know that father hilarion is extremely familiar with washington, d.c. up through dumbarton oaks and living in our monastery. i believe that they could put enough pressure to at least bring putin to the table. host: i hope that message gets through. let us go to new york and talk to maxine. you say no. caller: thank you for taking my

call. i am a big advocate of washington journal. and appreciate you listening to all of our voices. i have been listening over the last two weeks how everyone has called in about the ukrainian war. i am so disappointed that as a country we are so divided. people are suffering. there is a war, they are bombing, and we need to be united as americans against putin and i am not seeing that. i do not think we were doing enough but i do not think we were i -- naive enough to think that our military might is not helping the ukrainians through satellite images, and i believe that they are i'd to hear these t

bring up other administrations and put down the current. we need to stand firm. caller: thank god this country elected joe biden as. he's been in government for long time and he understands how to conduct foreign policy and diplomacy. i don't think we are doing enough to help ukraine. i think we should be sending every piece of equipment they are requesting, including everything they need. i think we are going to have to send troops at some point. that's not just the united states. we should get all of our allies involved in that. let's not forget our history, that it bully needs to be

stopped right away. this is only going to escalate. thank you for taking my call. host: we have a tweet here from bobby. let's talk to randy in kentucky. you say no. caller: no. nothing at all except to get out and seek peace. we caused all of this. if you study the history of it, we are the bully in ukraine. our leaders are communist. you may think this is insane. look it up and investigated. they have come to the same conclusions. that priest you had on it, he is a communist. churches belong to the state. they are all communists. they are 501(c)(3) corporations.

they are funded by a three us and everyone else in the commonest pot. host: what you think should be done about the war? caller: seek peace immediately. stop poking the bear. this is my life over here i'm talking about. we could be incinerated by a nuclear weapon. look what we did in cuba. look what israel did with the chance of iran getting nuclear. they won't allow it to happen because they know what will happen with nuclear bombs. the united states bullies everyone. if you don't take this personally and get out there and speak up about it, you have to

speak up about it or you are part of it. host: we will go to george it next. brad it says the u.s. is doing enough to support ukraine. caller: welcome to the table. we are doing what we can do. were not doing all we should do. host: what should we do? caller: i am saying we do all we can. that's why i'm calling on the yes line. it's a more difficult conversation. when russia shells nuclear power plants, we've broken that threshold. now with the false flag about chemical weapons, sending weapons to a military that is already in disarray and beaten down is enough.

we either need to step away or step in. we are at that point. it's been terrible to listen over the last several weeks, the collars and the talking points from the media. we are already there. we are declaring what we are sending and not sending. it is truly a decision point. we are already involved in this. we can ended or we can let it go on. host: let's talk to leonardo in alaska. caller: condolences to the family.

we didn't always agree with him. he stood up for america first. he was an interesting leader. i think we should do everything we can to bring peace. we should support people's ability to protect themselves so we have a chance for peace. that's what i believe. host: is there more you think the united states should do? caller: >> i think offering them the equipment and things to help protect themselves is nothing offensive.

especially civilians and people who are volunteering. i want to give a shout out to the volunteer strength services and all the work they do to help. i just wanted to offer that. host: we've got some news for you. this is from nbc news. the headline says russia says it used hypersonic missiles as zelenskyy calls for talks. the cost will be so high you will not be able to rise again for several generations. this article from nbc news says

russia's military said it had used a hypersonic missile in combat for the first time, destroying and am edition depot in ukraine. a major general said the missile system was deployed friday. in a video on estate media, he added it destroyed a large underground warehouse containing missiles and aviation ammunition. nbc news was not able to verify his claims, which came after ukraine's president called for talks with moscow to stop the invasion and restore territorial integrity and justice. that is from nbc news. let's go to rhonda in new jersey. you say yes. caller: because we are doing

everything possible. even at our own risk. dealing with a psychopath like vladimir putin. this is genocide. what upsets me, this is a national problem. the united nations should get involved in this. we've got this man not even targeting troops. he is targeting normal people, children, mothers. there's not an escape patch to get out of there. host: what do you want the united nations to do? caller: it's a starvation on a national level. he has taken over these nuclear

facilities. this guy is extremely dangerous. the united nation along with nato needs to do something about it. i want to say how grateful i am for joe biden. i'm a little bit tired of watching fox news mock him and his learning disability as far as his speech impairment and his age. we'd better thank god for joe biden for the simple fact that he has wisdom. 45 years in the senate, eight years as vice president. he's got so much wisdom. donald trump, if he had won reelection, vladimir putin would have been at his inauguration. we would've never gotten rid of him. host: a programming note, the judiciary committee meets on

monday to begin the first of four days of confirmation hearings for the supreme court. if she is confirmed, she would be the first african-american woman to serve on the highest court. we will have the hearing live. we are talking about the war in ukraine. if the united states is due enough to support ukraine area let's talk to richard in boston. caller: this is richard from boston. host: go ahead. caller: massachusetts is the founding state of this country, 97 minutemen against the british. we need nato in there. he's crazy.

he's a lunatic. he's a mad man. i love joe biden. he's doing everything he can. we've got a world war on our hands. we hit need more people from around the world to send mercenaries and legions right now. we can't do it alone. we are going to have to confront vladimir putin and his genocidal murderers. they have to pay. they are going to pay. we need tanks and more missiles and iron dome. just funnel them that from every country. thousands of tanks. we need more people. we need a couple million people to enter ukraine and fight.

they are the greatest patriots. look at all the republican traders, sedition us. it's a shame. i wish more patriots and veterans like me would stand up area i'm 70 and i want to fight for ukraine. host: we will go to tom in virginia. you say yes. you will be our last call for the segment. caller: thank you for taking my call. i agree with rhonda. i stand with my fellow gentleman from boston. we are definitely in a better place under the leadership of joe biden. however, he's done everything he

can. the u.n., nato, my fear is this will go on so long that country will continue to be decimated. the leadership will be wiped out. we will be forced to pick up the pieces. while we do have some leadership still in place in the country, there needs to be a plan to deal with vladimir putin right now. ultimately at the end of the day, it's going to be boots on the ground. eventually, he will just surrender. he will go the way of history. the world will be a better place. host: that will be the last word on our open phone segment for now. coming up, we have our work lead

spotlight on podcast. that features world affairs podcast, which looks at local issues. that is coming up after the break with cohost ray suarez. >> i'm pleased to nominate judge jackson who will bring extraordinary qualifications, experience, a rigorous tradition. >> i am truly humbled by the extraordinary honor of this nomination. i am especially grateful for the care you have taken in discharging your constitutional duty and service of our democracy with all that is going on in the world today. >> president biden dominates adjusters for the supreme court.

if confirmed, judge jackson would be the first african american woman to serve on the highest court. follow this process. watch our live coverage of the confirmation hearings starting monday at 11:00 a.m. eastern. >> in the year 2000, the immigration crisis was the headline. donald trump ran for president. the 9/11 terrorists came to america for flight training. sunday on q&a. the contribute in editor at new york magazine, the events of that year. starting with the fear of a global computer meltdown and ending with a fight over one of the closest presidential elections in u.s. history. >> as the results came closer,

it was one of the most awkward phone calls. he retracted his concession and bush reacted very negatively to it. he replied you don't have to get snippy about it. >> sunday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern on q&a. you can listen to q and a and all of our podcasts on our free app. >> there are a lot of places to get political information. only at c-span do you get it straight from the source. no matter where you are from or where you stand on the issues, c-span is america's network. unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. if it happens here or here or here or anywhere that matters,

america is watching c-span. powered by cable. >> c-span now is a free mobile app featuring your unfiltered view of what's happening in washington. keep up with the biggest events with live streams of floor proceedings. all at your fingertips. you can also stay current with the latest episodes of washington journal and scheduling information. you have a friday of compelling podcast. it's available at the apple store, google play. downloaded for free today. your front row seat to washington. >> washington journal continues. host: welcome back to washington

journal. i'm joined by ray suarez, from the world affairs podcast. it is produced by the world affairs council of northern california. welcome to the program. caller: happy birthday c-span. host: we will take calls from viewers. you can call us on (202) 748-8000 if you're in the eastern or central time zone. (202) 748-8001 if you are in the mountain pacific time zone. texts are on (202) 748-8003. tell us a little been about the mission of the world affairs podcast and where you can find it. guest: it is produced by a small and hardy group of dedicated professionals. we are aware from the outset that we can't be a kind of

full-service around-the-clock newsroom. what we try to do is get underneath the headlines. it gets to the third or fourth paragraph and starts from there. fill in history, fill in the kind of information you need to know to help you understand the headlines. i think the ukraine invasion is a perfect example of how to do that. we don't have people on the ground. we are not a program that goes out live. we don't have satellite connections to take us to breaking news. what we do have is access to scholars, historians, diplomats, military people who help us understand what's going on. that's really the mission in a nutshell. host: you've been a longtime tv

broadcaster. what is the appeal of a podcast for you? what are the benefits? guest: it's a new medium for me. i've done everything in the business from local radio spots to longform tv documentaries. it's a young, vibrant, vital medium that is still finding its feet and finding audiences and finding the narrative form. in 2022, it's a good place to be. host: here's a portion of your podcast from earlier this month. it features an essay from ukrainian writer who lives just outside kyiv. >> i was born in the region occupied by russian troops. this war is a fight for my homeland.

>> when she sent us this recording on march 3, the russian invasion was just over a week old. she has war stories to tell. >> my residential areas a small town. i -- you probably already know this place from the news. this is one of the most difficult. lately, i have experienced a range of emotions from anger and hate to pride in my country. this becomes a unifying factor. this is not because of the enemy but because of our people and our land. i am thrilled to see how our people help each other. the ukrainian army -- the

distractions could not enter kyiv. food was delivered to the village next to us. our whole country has become a big family that supports each other. i am sorry that it happened. what we've got is priceless. host: before you talk to us about that clip, how is she doing now? guest: i think we are planning on having her back. she gave us this dutiful portrait of how one person's life, how one neighborhoods life can change in a country under bombardment. when you listen to her, it's a reminder, especially in this war , of how english has become the language of the world. i think people should be struck by the radio, the television,

just how much people are able to tell searing affecting stories, their sufferings and inner thoughts. using language that is not their first language. it's been a remarkable thing as someone who has been in the game a long time, watching the coverage from ukraine and seeing how beautifully people can tell their own stories and tell us affecting stories of life in ukraine using the english language. we should learn more languages. that's another rant for another day. she is a gem. she is a writer. it's not like just anybody can sit down and knock out an essay like that. it gives a good example of what world affair does. we get in really close.

also, really big and we talk about shifts in empire and big blocks of alliances and how they push against each other. host: what is in -- has been your approach? guest: there is a long history and a near and history. i'm a cold war kid. i grew up in elementary school, periodically getting under my desk because the big one was going to fall on wall street five miles away from where i was going to school. the cuban missile crisis unfolded when i was really little. we thought of the soviet union as the other side of this contest. there is a lot of history that has to be unwrapped. the cold war forces that pushed

on the way the world body operates. the permanent veto in the security council. we set about to unpack ukraine and try to give people an idea of how it is 1300 years old. both of those things take into account that when you try to understand why russia is attacking now and what the grantor project is. host: let's take some questions from our viewers. the first is john in maryland. caller: i have a question for the guest. i want him to tell us the black audience how latino immigrants are coming to america. i'm talking about the descendants of slavery. a lot of these latinos come over and they fill right in against

african-americans. how is this of benefit for black americans. guest: i guess we could talk about this for hours. it's a deep question. there are certain job segments where latino competition has brought down the price of labor and made it harder for black workers, especially in the lower end of the wage scale to demand higher wages. that's true. that's been demonstrated to be true. it's also been shown that latino immigrants over the last several decades have contributed to the economic growth of the united states and ate healthier economy.

it benefits everybody in the country, including black americans. you and i, maybe i should take a ride over to temple hills, which isn't that far from where i'm sitting. it is a big deep question. on balance, latino migration is not that different from many other migration to the united states, except it's the most contemporary one. host: let's take a call from brad in minnesota. caller: good morning. i was in when i turned on and saw your new guest raid he sounds like he wants to unpeeled the news that's already been put out to us. i think that's really important. i want to direct them toward -- when i started thinking about finding out that john brennan went to president obama and

spoke about how hillary and her campaign were going to start this russian hoax by -- i know he put in his file that was revealed. i think he should be looking into why was john brennan putting a note in his file telling them he spoke to obama about hillary starting this russian hoax other than john brennan put it in there because he thought they were going to get caught and he wasn't going to take the fall. i think it's really good to have these types of people that want to start diving in and looking into what's really in the story. i think that's what this person needs to start looking for instead of holding hands with

the manipulating media. host: ok. let's get a response. any response? guest: there's more to know on all of these questions and more that will be found out on these questions. it is unquestionable however that russia has been involved in trying to influence public opinion in democracies around the world. trying to influence the direction of social media, game the algorithm in ways that directs people toward highly contentious messages. it was true in the catalonian referendum to leave spain. it was true in the brexit battle. it's been true in controversies in the united states. that's not a hoax. that's the way russia projects power using modern media in the 21st century. host: let's go to maryland.

caller: i've listened to you for years on npr. is this an extension of npr? guest: it's been a while since i've worked at npr. our sponsoring station, our platform station is one of america's great public radio stations. one of the largest in the country, kqed in san francisco. we have a growing list around the country. but you don't have to be in the bay area to listen to "worldaffairs." you can listen online live on monday nights. it also has a separate life as a podcast as we have been mentioning. if you go to any of the big podcast distributors, look at "worldaffairs" and our show will

pop up and you can hear it every week. you've got three ways to listen. you can listen online at kqed, you can listen to your local public radio station if they are the ones that are carrying it, and you can always listen to the podcast 24 hours per day, seven days a week. all past episodes are also archived so you can listen to back issues of the program. host: ray, you had a conversation with "the wall street journal" chief china correspondent on china's diplomatic tight rope they are walking right now. here is a portion of that. [video clip] >> you have described extensively the shared interest between putin and xi in opposing the united states. beyond that umbrella idea are the country's interests more divergent apart from oil?

russia has little. the world is clamoring to buy while china is the world's factory. doesn't beijing want something more subtle in its relationship with the u.s. than putin does? doesn't being joined at the hip with the russian president promise a quite difficult year rolling out from now? >> absolutely. that is why this whole siding with russia decision is turning out to be a big miscalculation for xi. he started the year actually hoping the relationship with the u.s. could be at least stable. not getting dramatically worse. he is not expecting any kind of improvement but not dramatically worse. now, i think a lot of people really think china is an enabler

in this war, enabled russia to invade ukraine. despite the reality might be much more complicated. yes, that is really a big challenge for him. his whole agenda for this year is stability, stability, stability. that means a stable external environment, stable economy, stable everything, right? but now you are seeing trouble popping up almost in every measure in part of chinese society and the external happenings for china are getting much more severe to face as well. host: ray, what did you think of that? guest: i always like it when we are ahead of the headlines. a lot of viewers may recall yesterday joe biden had a two

hour full call with xi jinping where they went over these things in the united states warned china not to overtly back russia in its invasion of ukraine. this is one of those programs that shows the value of world affairs. we explain china has significant economic interest in both russia and ukraine and has an interest instability above all. but, we began that episode at the beijing winter olympics when the major world personality who showed up to beijing for the games was who? vladimir putin. the leaders met at the time of the games and promised a future relationship without limits. lingling wei went on to explain why that would be more of a problem for russia than china. host: we have a tweet from mlb,

are you aware of american efforts to accept ukrainian refugees in the usa? guest: i think so far the ukrainian refugees have wanted to stay in the region. it is their preference to stay in the region so they can go back home. ones that have family in the united states are going to be waved in, but if you ask the refugees, their preference is did not get far from home in the hopes of when this is over they can return. if i had to guess, i would say we will be accepting in this country a fairly small number compared to poland, slovakia, moldova, and other places in the region. host: stephen in illinois.

caller: how are you doing? donald trump talked to the u.n. in 2017 and told them about nord stream 1 and the germans lanced him out of the room. in 2019 i believe in denmark trump talked to nato and said nord stream 2 would ruin the nato alliance and vladimir putin would have such a stronghold on germany and europe. basically they had to leave. you go ahead and say that joe biden is such a healer and

everything else and there are ukraines on the southern border that cannot get into the united states. and joe biden lied and said he would take these ukrainian people in and they are from a war-torn country and they have family in the united states. so, i mean, it is like the news media is completely lying for joe biden and his administration. if oil was $40 a barrel, russia would have never invaded ukraine. host: let's get a response. go ahead, ray. guest: stephen is right. the biden administration did not press germany to scuttle the nord stream 2 project which would bring russian natural gas through a pipeline in the baltic

sea to northern germany. part of that shows joe biden's approach during this whole crisis. he has been consulted, he has not wanted to be too far ahead of or too far behind the european alliance. he waited for signals from germany that they would go along with an end to nord stream 2 before once and for all scuttling the project. when olaf scholz was here, the german chancellor, joe biden was categorical nord stream 2 was not going to happen. the german chancellor less so. but then things got bad and nord stream 2 had to stop. it is very important to russia. it represents 60% of all the revenue they derive from selling natural gas. it is 40% of all the natural gas

that gets imported into europe. it is a very important project, very important signal to russia, and it is going to be a real challenge. we are coming out of winter and heading into spring so some of the demand will start to wane, but not forever. winter comes around again and we will be here in october when it starts to get cold again in northern europe. we have got to figure out how to substitute for a tremendous amount of gas that comes from eastern europe. host: new york and we talk to nikki. caller: good morning, america. ray, i would like to say two things. mark twain said i believe, history does not repeat itself but it does rhyme. i am seeing 1930's all over again. i am seeing the invasion like

the invasion of poland. in 1939, there was a man named fritz who was the leader of the american nazi party. he had 25,000 people in madison square garden. he said hitler was very good. now we have tucker carlsen doing the same thing. we have donald trump, the former leader of the greatest country on earth, saying, what a genius. what a genius putin is. what role does misinformation and propaganda play in the way the nation reacts as evidenced by what putin has done? shut down all communication from the outside world. why do so many people -- i know -- but why do so many people tend to believe tucker carlsen

who is legally unbelievable? host: let's get a response. go ahead. guest: i would suggest your viewers head to their laptops or desktops and type into a search bar "german-american bond." it will pull up a giant mural of george washington and it brought together nazis and soldiers. it is a striking image and one that americans should remember. history does rhyme. mark twain was right and ukraine has been pushed around by russia

for a very long time. yes, they were part of the same country back in the middle ages but also joseph stalin engineered a massive famine in the 1930's that killed millions of ukrainians. they may remember the middle ages but they also remember the man-made famine that really killed so many ukrainians. there is a memorial across the street hear from c-span headquarters. there is a lot of history to unpack. sometimes the united states is on the right side of history, sometimes it is not, and sometimes it takes us a long time to see which one we were. history has to play out and we are still very much in early days of this terrible conflict. host: ray, staying with history

because you had the u.s. ambassador -- former u.s. ambassador of russia and he talked about missed opportunities to foster democracy in a post-soviet russia. what did you learn from him? guest: he has got great stories to tell because he was on the ground in a changing russia as a young graduate student, as a member of the national democratic institute. going over to encourage the creation of institutions that would lead to a democratic russia. he talks not only about missed opportunities but about historical accidents. right around the time boris yeltsin, who was in physical and mental decline, was planning to leave the russian presidency, his chosen successor in his mind and inner circle was boris he

. there was a terrible economic meltdown right around that time. boris and the yeltsin group were discredited and they turned to putin and putin became the successor. boris was assassinated less than a generation later and it is one of those historical accidents of timing that can sometimes change the whole trajectory, the pathways of a country. we got putin for a generation instead of not only boris but a group of young leaders who would have had a very different approach toward setting russia onto a future that would look different from the one we are seeing now with bombs raining down on apartment buildings in a neighboring country. host: let's talk to frank in oakland, california. good morning. caller: good morning.

great conversation and deeper dive into the history. really appreciate it. i have been a history buff in college but i have a couple of questions and a comment related to my experience as a young man in the cuban missile crisis. i served in the u.s. air force and the cuban missile crisis and the indochina war in a unit that was in command and control of nuclear missiles and armed p52s. my life experience, i have experienced the cuban missile crisis and i am concerned of the trajectory of what is going on now. former secretary of defense -- what's his name from monterey? he is also director of the cia. italian maybe from monterey,

california. he is the former secretary of defense and he was quoted a week ago saying, we are now in a proxy war with russia. we are now in a proxy war with the russian federation. my question is, what are the national security interests of the united states and what are the national security interests of the russian federation? i think we need to look deep into this otherwise we will go from a proxy war with the russian federation to an all out armed conflict with possible tactical nuclear weapons. my question is, lead up to the russian invasion of ukraine. there was u.s. policy going on for a couple of decades to

support the color revolutions in eastern europe. former countries in the warsaw pact that were allied with the soviet union under pressure, under force. the u.s. policy was to support color revolutions in those countries, meaning the united states wanted influence in the new governments and we pushed the idea we wanted democracy and freedom. but democracy and freedom as long as they are aligned with the united states' policy. this has led to, along with the growth of nato from seven countries to now 30 and those countries moving east toward the russian border -- and a nato base 150 kilometers from st. petersburg. the question is, is it really in the national security interests to surround russia closer and

closer and having nato bases and some with missiles, supposedly defensive missiles against iran in poland, is it in our national interest to surround russia? and our own interests, we have had the monroe doctrine almost 200 years. host: there is a lot there so let's get a response. guest: the western allies have surrounded the soviet union and the warsaw pact since the smoke was still clearing from world war ii. airbase in turkey had assets that could be over soviet airspace in a matter of minutes and no time from 1950 on did a nato member state or any of those assets ever threaten a warsaw pact country or attack the soviet union or later russia.

the only cases are of the hon gary and uprising in 1956 -- hungarian uprising in 1956, this prague uprising, and the squashing of the solidarity trade union in 1980. there are plenty of examples of russia pushing around the countries in its neighborhood in order to get obedience and very little necessity for military force or the use of assets the united states and its allies had in that part of the world. the base was never used for one in which to attack the soviet union. gary powers had the bad luck to be shot down and dwight

eisenhower had egg on his face when it was revealed we were doing high level aviation surveillance of the soviet union late in the second eisenhower term. but no offensive actions. a proxy war? the whole era from 1950 to the dissolution of the soviet union is littered with proxy wars because it was considered unthinkable for two nuclear powers to go to war with each other. proxy wars were fought as the two big giant wrestled in africa, asia, latin america instead of going to war with each other. yes, the western alliance, not only nato but the european union, is very much rooting for ukraine in its attempt to eject russia from its sovereign territory. and yes, i guess you can

describe that as a proxy war, but it is seen as preferable. every opportunity joe biden says it is preferable to getting in direct confrontation with russia which is, to his way of thinking as he has said again and again, unthinkable and there are those leaders in europe who are saying the same thing. the secretary of nato has been saying it over and over again, a direct military confrontation between nato countries and russia is just out of the question and very much something he is trying to avoid. i think you are reading the situation, you know, yeah. but should russia feel surrounded? what, is poland going to march on belarus? no.

vladimir putin i believe is being disingenuous when he says this threatens russia since the last country that attacked russia was nazi germany in the earliest months of the second world war. host: let's take a call from bill in northbrook, illinois. caller: hello. last weekend i listened to jake sullivan on the number broadcast. what i gathered from what he said the goal of the united states was too blunt the russian advance in ukraine. i found that an extremely distressing goal. in other words, that is our goal. we are not there to put russia out. we are too blunt their advance. my question is, i don't believe

that is a winning strategy. i would ask mr. suarez not what he would hope or wish but what should be the goal of the united states? i think ukraine is a big deal in terms of the next 30 or 40 years. the world is watching. i am disturbed we are having negotiations, in other words, vladimir putin could always declare victory and leave. but what, mr. suarez, would you say our goal should be? guest: i am not in the "should be" business but the is or is not business. should be is for other kinds of reporters. i think american policymakers have explained over the past month that they do not think it ends with ukraine if russia

is successfully able to control, tame, take ukraine off the board. it is clear from his public statements the last 20 years who didn't is -- putin is enraged that the baltic three are members of nato. that it is bad enough in his view that they are no longer part of the soviet union. but it is a particular irritant to him that they have been allowed to go their own way and have chosen to join nato after petitioning for accession. it is clear from the cards putin is playing he wants pliable, dependable, russian satellite states on his border whether in the caucasus, whether the big prize, ukraine, the second

largest after russia itself, moldova, and looking east kazakhstan and the central asian republics with their own strongmen occasionally in trouble looking to moscow for help in order to keep a grip on power. will he reassemble the soviet union the way it was until the early 1990's? unlikely. but he can do a ne-yo soviet union where these capitals -- neo-soviet union where these capitals are dependent on him for military support for economic and political support. lukashenko is now said to be considering using the belarusian armed forces in the conflict in ukraine. it is probably not a decision he would have come to on his own but he owes his continuing as the president of belarus to

vladimir putin. it is clear a client state is underway. it is a complicated part of the world and the dust is still settling from 1990 in georgia, in armenia, and azerbaijan and other places. host: let's talk to george in missouri. he will be our last call. hi, george. caller: hi. i need to ask him a question. i was watching the news this morning and they was say all of these weapons we got transferred or going over to ukraine. and they get right on tv and they were showing it on tv i while ago -- a while ago. they showed it right on tv here.

why in the world would they show that on tv when they know there are probably russian spies over here? excuse my language, trump is probably one of them. he is calling putin say, we got a convoy of this in a certain place. i cannot understand it. no wonder we have lost wars, every war since world war ii. guest: all levels they did that is i think the russians know munitions are coming in from other countries in europe. i think right now what they are working out is how to make those transfers into a way that implicates the united states to the least degree. and we saw with the reluctance to give the polish migs to the ukrainian air force how delicate

this whole thing is. the biden administration wants to support ukraine but does not want to have its hands so prominent in that support it directly puts us in military confrontation with russia. it may seem an unnecessary subtlety since we are sending the military support, but this kind of thing is being wargamed at the pentagon miles away and they are trying to have american resources had there but have other skin in the game besides ours. that is what it looks like from here. host: ray suarez, cohost of "worldaffairs" podcast, thank you for being on "washington journal." guest: thank you for having me. host: if you like podcasts, you can check out the c-span podcast at c-span.org, on our mobile app c-span now, or wherever you get your podcasts. that is offered today's "washington journal."

thank you for joining us. we will be back again tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. same place. have a great saturday. ♪ ♪ announcer: c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these television companies and more, including charter communication. >> broadband is a force for empowerment. that is why charter invested billions will the infrastructure, upgrading technology, empowering opportunity in communities big and small. charter is connecting us. announcer: charter communications it supports c-span as a public service along with these other television providers, giving you a front

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