hear because you don't want to talk about that in polite company but we did the same thing in other words, we did it during the bosnian civil war and a lot of information as well when general jones was the european command. tickets would happen. steve: thank you general, thank you for watching and especial who is putin is up next. i will see you next sunday. >> this is a fox news alert and kevin in washington. another day of bloodshed in southern ukraine. as russian forces ramp up their attacks on innocent lives for the second time as many days. russia has violated the cease-fire agreement and the port city of mariupol. firing on civilians as they try to evacuate food, water, medicine and other humanitarian supplies desperately in short supply. the pentagon reports russia has launched an estimated 600 missiles into ukraine since the beginning of the invasion, 12

days ago. i third round of peace talks is set for tomorrow. the country under increasing attack ukraine's president is pleading to the u.s. for more warplanes in the pentagon says it's inclined to support that request. i am kevin corke in washington. now back to "who is vladimir putin" with brian kilmeade. ♪ >> "who is vladimir putin". he is a threat to world peace. >> he is brutal and vain. >> someone who has no imagination of his own and he worships power. also he considers murder is the normal way of doing business. >> he is similar to a mafia

clan. >> he just emerged on peace. >> no experience. it was an expression that he had the charisma of a lizard. >> everything that he has done is on the belief with the war between the united states and russia is inevitable. >> he feels the west mistreated russia after the clash of the soviet union. >> russian troops are taking control of ukraine's capital. >> he seen sporadic and effort deepening delusional rendering. >> is something a person have not seen before. he is willing to use a tactical nuclear weapon. >> many of the risks that he has taken have cleaned out for him. but if you are a risk taker you will make the wrong decision eventually.

brian: the world is focused on the bloodshed and the chaos caused by one man. russian president vladimir putin. is he reckless madman with an appetite for power? is he a cheap thug who runs a criminal empire to enrich himself? or is he just a russian patriot trying to make his country great again? "who is vladimir putin"? >> vladimir putin was born in leningrad which we noisy petersburg in 1952. he describes himself as someone who was kind of neighborhood courtyard doug. he tells a story about how he was chasing some rats. >> he noticed that after he courted a rat. a rat would attack him. so he decided to watch the rats and how they behaved and those observations to how he would

fight the adversary. >> another influence on young putin, judo. >> he got involved in judo because he was small and got picked on and he wanted to defend himself in the discipline that brought him shaped him and make him better prepared and more serious and studious and that kind of thing. >> he believed with judo he constantly assesses his opponent and he feels the sharpness of the moment and he feels the vulnerability and he can exploit the vulnerability. >> when he was a teenager he got fascinated by the movies that they would show about the great exploits of the kgb fighting against the enemies and he

decided he wanted to be in the kgb. >> they turned him down because it's not how things work with the kgb. kgb comes to you, you don't come to the kgb. they told him that he better go serve in the army or he should go study law. that is what putin did in the leningrad university. >> the kgb kept calling in his last year of law school to recruit him. most of the first decade or so was spent in leningrad. >> in 1983 while working in leningrad putin married a flight attendant. >> putin did not particularly want to get married because he

was used to living as a bachelor but he believed he should get married. we don't know much because the secrecy of what kind of marriage it was and that he has two daughters from the marriage. >> he studied german as a child in school and kept that up. he was assigned to east germany and by the standards of the kgb that was not the he was a lieutenant colonel. he looked like he was not having any major career successes that would put him on the fast track. >> then we had the revolution of the 1989 throughout the communist world including in east germany.

>> when the wall came down there was an incident that putin has experienced that had a big psychological impact on him. >> a big crowd in his surrounded the building with the soviet kgb is imprudent is calling to the commander of the local soviet army troops saying we need reinforcements here. >> what was surprising he could not get moscow. moscow was silent from that point on he decided that russia will never be again.

>> after the fall of the iron curtain he made a career change. >> i left the kgb and went to work for the mayor of st. petersburg. >> there is a question of whether he really left the kgb or whether he was there man on the staff of one and there leading reforms of politicians. >> he stays and that until he loses his reelection bid in 1996. at that point he reaches out to various people that he worked with in st. petersburg mayor's office that a dirty condo moscow and worked for the wilson a administration. putin started in 1996 and by luck or design in short order he went from mid level bureaucrat to one of the most powerful man

in russia. he identifies him as someone he thinks is good at his job. he carries out what is supposed to do without much fuss. in 1998 he appoints him to be the director of the federal security service which is the main successor organization to the kgb. >> putin emerged on the scene, no one anticipated him. >> unfortunately he was a drunkard and he had a cricket family. his worry was how to get out of the presidency and without facing arrest and prison. only the fsp. >> he thought it would be a good thing to make a deal with putin to make him president. >> in addition putin promised

the oligarchs of the yeltsin that he would let them keep their wealth. that is why putin was chosen. he was absolutely insignificant, he was colorless he had no political experience, there was an expression that he had the charisma of a lizard but yeltsin could rely on him. in the fall of 1999 yeltsin announced he is appointing putin as prime minister and he sees him as his potential successor as president. september yeltsin had a conversation with bill clinton and he told clinton vladimir putin is good to be the next president he's a good man and very solid you will have a good relationship and you will work with him. >> putin didn't believe that he could ever trust clinton or for that matter any american

president. based on intel he believed america wanted to divide up russia and take its resources. >> someone who worked for the russian security services said they had a mind-reading unit that red secretary of state madeleine albright's mind and this is what she think should happen to russia. now this is become an official discourse among the russian elite. >> putin had to win the popular vote on the 2000 election. it was not easy. in the fall of 1999 he was still demand the public knew little about. >> one poll showed he had a 2% approval rating. it appeared out of the question that either putin or anyone else chosen by yeltsin could become the next president. >> it was the expectation he would be another short-term guy.

>> putin quickly changed due to a dramatic event in late 1999. several apartment buildings were blown up in moscow and a couple of other cities that fall. the government blamed it on terrorist. >> they were so horrific it happened overnight when women and children and grandmothers are sleeping in their beds in these apartment last took down in short order three civilian apartments one in moscow. it was blamed at the time on terrorist. >> it was thought that putin himself orchestrated in the apartment buildings sacrificing the life of residents. i don't have superhigh confidence in that but i did not rule out knowing who putin is

and where he comes from. >> after the bombings russia declared the second were on chestnut, and the collapse of the soviet union. when russian troops tried to stop the independent movement was a failure. putin came out and was talkative for the cameras with the famous incident he said we will hunt them down wherever we are and john them an outhouse if we have to. that designated with the russian population at the time and that led to him to achieve his first presidential election in march of 2000. >> the minute putin came to power he wanted to make russia great again. brian: bare chested on horseback getting a sense of putin soul.

split with the 2000 election of vladimir putin gave russia the president who is young, fit and focus. the exact opposite of putin's red assessor. the west hope the cold war

transformation will continue on to him. >> putin look to the future and informed by the past. >> i think there was a bit of naïve thinking that you can change a russian leader who would within the kgb. his formative years in his vision of the world. >> he feels the west mistreated russia after the collapse in the soviet union and did not give the proper due and show respect. left it out of important decisions that russia deserve to be involved in. his job is to restore russian status as a great power. >> everyone in the west was expecting russia to become a democracy, was expecting of the proverbial peace, that was never in the cards. >> in 2001 putin had the first face-to-face meeting with george w. bush. the pair seemed to hit it off.

>> putin knew everything about president bush. >> putin describing how his religious mother how she kept across and never stop believing in god. bush himself as a born-again christian and easily fooled rating also gave an. >> i look the man in the eye and i found to be very straightforward and trustworthy. we had a very good dialogue. i was able to get a sense of his soul. >> how is that even possible. it is basically an intelligence operation, it was a covid influence operation that putin continuously runs. >> bush regrets. this was the end of the period of putin as a reasonable person or as a reasonable leader.

>> as putin merged on the world stage he sets back at home, the economy starts to pick up in the early 2000 and around 2003 or so world energy prices start to go up quite a bit in the price of oil goes up a lot which means the russian budget has a lot more money than i had before. >> russians with much, much better. the standard of living rose and or mostly and this led to a tremendous public support for putin. >> most importantly he behaved himself on the world stage in a demanded respect. in he was a leader the russians were proud of. >> putin embarked on a pr campaign centered around reception that he was young, strong and a manly man. >> his core constituencies

middle-aged women his secure voting block. the horseback riding deep-sea diving, treasure seeking, that person is designed to appeal to that court. >> despite putin's macho image there was early signs of his presidency that he was thin-skinned. >> there was a television show, spitting image that was a political show with puppets for various characters in the pulpit that they came up with for putin was an ugly door, putin became president and he did not enjoy this depiction. the entire television channel that ran this. the owner was chased into exile in the television channel was taken away and is basically under state control.

>> putin sensitivity did not respect the national borders. he was sure the character in the harry potter movies was based on him. he was prepared to sue warner bros. over the similarity. in 2004 beginning of the second term putin phase two crisis which made the true feelings about the united states known. >> there is a major terrorist attack on the school in southern russia in the terrorist from trying to take over the school and ends with a chaotic battle at the end. the russian military is going in and private citizens going with her own weapons. over 300 people die and half of the children. putin goes on tv afterwards and basically implies that the united states was behind this in the united states is supporting

terrorism as a way of weakening russia and trying to carve up russia. >> the second crisis was in the ukraine. >> december 2004 as a presidential election putin is trying to help the russian steal the election and protesters manage to force another round of the election and the lesser-known candidate wins. it is the orange revolution. those events happen close together and in putin's mind and shows him not only is the united states stock would you recognize russia as a power but in his mind it's working against russia and trying to undermine his status even at home is what it considers in his backyard. >> the russian leader in the second term but the economy and so does the popular support this is what many believe the real putin started to emerge. brian: next on "who is vladimir

putin", murder, statecraft. after the break. ♪ >> woman: what's my safelite story? i'm a photographer. and when i'm driving, i see inspiration right through my glass. so when my windshield cracked, it had to be fixed right. i scheduled with safelite autoglass. their experts replaced my windshield and recalibrated my car's advanced safety system. ♪ acoustic rock music ♪ >> woman: safelite is the one i trust. they focus on safety so i can focus on this view.

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>> this is a fox news alert i am kevin corcoran washington. another day of senseless

bloodshed as russian invasion intensifies. an advisor to ukraine's president reports russian forces are increasing the shelling around major cities. they describe the situation the capital city of kyiv is catastrophic. reports are coming in heavy artillery destroying residential buildings on the outskirts of kharkiv that is ukraine's second largest city. now major tech platforms, netflix and take talker joining other services from pulling services from russia. tiktok no longer the post on the app netflix watchers will have access and the country. these isolate the russian people from the outside world as companies hope to withdraw their services and will help stop the invasion of ukraine. will have much more on that story as the evening continues. i'm kevin corke. back to "who is vladimir putin" with brian kilmeade. >> welcome back to the fox

special "who is vladimir putin". during russians boom years putin was writing hi but when the economy slips so was the care he could hide that he was surprisingly thin-skinned. >> after 2007, there was a delinking of economic performance from putin's popularity. this was due to the fact that he started cracking down and then he also began murdering the political opposition rather openly but his typical product of the soviet system. someone who has no imagination of his own who worships power and does not have any ethics framework. also considers a murderous part of the normal way of doing business. >> russians outstanding investigative journalist was murdered in the elevator of her apartment building.

>> at the time when she was assassinated. she was a british citizen. the russian officers did on british soil. think about that. >> he was at one time a deputy prime minister and a promising political figure in russia who was not intimidated by putin. he was murdered on the kremlin bridge which is very much symbolic because it said there is no escape from putin. boris who committed suicide are more likely was murdered in london at the time was a powerful figure and russia. >> in 2007 is when he announced the putin doctrine.

>> there is a convention every year in munich called the security conference a lot of people come from europe and all over the world and the united states and putin decided to attend than 2007 and make a major speech. >> he unveiled what is basically his decision today which is the collapse of the soviet union was engineered by western enemies who went back on their promises to not enlarge nato and it is time to get some revenge. >> that rattled the diplomatic and military community in the west because what he basically said is that russia refuses to live by the laws that the west has inducted in trying to enforce on the view of the rest

of the world. >> 2008 marked the end of putin second term according to the russian constitution. he could not run for it third consecutive term but he wasn't going to give up his power. >> a constitutionally has what political scientists would call a political system which in elected president and also a prime minister who is in some sense voted for by the parliament. >> he got a toady to take his place as president. >> marionette was placed in the office of the presidency to keep it warm so putin could run again. >> everyone in the kremlin was being run out of the prime minister's office mainly out of putin's office. >> he took office in may 2008,

an office that year putin calling the shots russian invaded the republic of georgia. >> george's defense had been offered nato membership. >> that was a clear challenge to the west, the united states and to nato that russia is not going to abide by the rules of the game anymore. >> the obama clinton reset button. >> we worked hard to get the right russian word. ♪

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brian: by 2009 ample reason for the west to worry about vladimir putin but they had to deal with him to in the new american president barack obama believes he had an approach that would work. >> obama wanted to reset with putin and be friends with russia. >> we want to reset our relationship.

>> the mistranslated reset button the hillary clinton brought and made a joke out of. >> we worked hard to get the right russian word. >> russians don't respect this kind of incompetence even the little things. they think if you cannot translate a button properly. >> this idea that we need to reset relations with russia because our relations are so bad. each time they go bad again. part of the issue is not with the united states and putin sees as the world. >> what happened next was on a secret. the 2010 military doctrine of russia is identified the united

states and nato and security threats number one. >> i laid the groundwork for putin's next move. his return to the presidency and his ultimate showdown with the west. ♪ >> in september 2011 putin and nato came out and announced that we decided putin has to run this time. >> this unleashed very, very widespread and serious demonstrations against putin. the solemn of the demonstration was russia without putin, russia without putin. >> putin came very close to being overdrawn. this is something that is not well known.

>> he started cracking down on new favors. he started designating nonprofits that were affiliated in some way with the united states or nato as foreign agents. >> he understood that the danger to him comes from the streets. >> one cracked on the gain worldwide attention. it really irritated putin. they were performing. to undermine his whole strategy of using russian orthodox church and the geopolitical weapon. >> he has come to see russia as a true embodiment of historic

european conservative christian values and he has a notion the west has lost its way with gay rights multiculturalism he sees that as defined the west. >> he can use religion to get his people and population back on track and alcoholism, improving marriage situation and he threw them in jail. >> despite the unrest putin won reelection in 2012. through the eyes of the world and the ballot box he had a share of western critics. >> the state department and hillary clinton was very vulnerable about that. we talk about irregularity and putin's legitimate. >> a bunch of people came to protest. whether the crowd was 100,000 people in putin saw that as a

sign that the united states was actually behind in funding these protest. >> he openly repeated the declaration that the united states and nato were a threat in that russia was going to combat cultural revolution whether from ukraine, georgia. >> this is why he reacted so violently to the revolution in kyiv. >> the specter of hundreds of thousands of people in the streets in kyiv frighten the russian leaders. that was the reason for the seizure of crimea. >> it would be a hint of what was to come. ♪ plain aspirin could be hurting your stomach. vazalore 325 liquid-filled aspirin capsule is clinically shown in a 7 day study to cause fewer ulcers than immediate release aspirin.

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>> after the invasion of crimea in 2014 putin announced to the world what the ultimate goal was that was the west listening. >> he said this is not about crimea this is about russia's ability to exist in the world so we have to fight back to preserve our independence in our sovereignty as a country. putin's invasion of ukraine came

during the obama administration. ukraine turned to nato and the united states for help. particular it was helping and there was a famous incident where they wanted antitank weapons and obama gave them neil's ready-to-eat. >> 's way of thinking about putin was if we arm the ukrainians effectively we will make russia a considerable enemy. >> from everything that i see has no respect for this person. >> that's because he would rather have a cuppa as president spivak it is pretty clear you will not admit that the russians. >> in america 2016 a clash between hillary clinton and donald trump and attempting to throw in a monkey wrench was vladimir putin.

>> let's start with the fact that election interference is one of putin strategies to destabilize the united states. >> russian security services hacked into the e-mail with the democratic national committee and hillary clinton campaign advisor and provided those to wikileaks and those were interjected into the media space at an important time during the campaign. >> in the end it hurt putin because many people were so outraged at the idea that russia was trying to interfere in the election. this led to more sanctions against the russian government. they really were not a better position at the end of the term presidency than they were in the beginning. that confirm that america is always out to get us. >> in 2020 joe biden defeated

donald trump in a contested election when biden took office in 2021 putin did not necessarily respect. >> the intelligences services has assessed president biden of weak character and putin's position to be russians friend and smooth out the situation. >> biden was his representative to ukraine. i remember the visit that biden paid to kyiv where he came in with blustery words and empty hands. >> the greatest mistake they not even how he handled russia but his withdrawal of afghanistan. >> he saw the chaotic withdrawal he saw the weakness that was projected by the way in which nato was humiliated in the u.s. was humiliated on with the way the war ended and he saw the reaction a home and the way the

withdrawal is carrying out. >> i gave them some hope that they could bring concessions from the u.s. or they could dictate terms to the u.s. >> and embolden putin faces the most brazen move on the international stage. ♪

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>> it is two decades leaving russia one thing about vladimir putin he knew how to hold onto power and is willing to do whatever it took to keep it. does that explain the devastation he is raining down on ukraine or has something changed with vladimir putin? >> it is a misunderstanding on this man. that has cost us a lot. had we really paid attention and then her homework, because

he never made it a secret. spaghetti connect the dots from the fitting kgb history you see a long trail of laying the groundwork for the invasion we are seeing is a pretense to go into ukraine to swallow european nation. >> is there something more going on? russian troops are trying to take control of ukraine capital. >> it seems sporadic but there is an ever deepening rendering of history. >> it is something i personally have never seen before. look at the senior intelligence chief just hours after parliament and the fear in the eyes of the intelligence chief until that was part of vladimir putin's inner circle, that is very telling to me. we are now back to an era we

have only those videos to go by. >> it's widely known he doesn't use the internet or a cell phone he's very cut off from the rest of the world. >> putin has self isolated himself because of covid. so he is seeing a smaller group of people. he is in isolation. stewing about how things have not been going the way he wants them to. particularly with respect to ukraine. >> everything that putin has done since 2000 has been predicated on the belief everything between the united states and russia. >> there is a lot of appeasement over the years of vladimir putin. the redlines were not drawn or enforced and that is why we have this autocratic leader who threatens the entire world with nuclear weapons.

>> who is vladimir putin? the answer is being written as we speak. will this lead to new you're powers are his ultimate demise or something in between? what is past is prologue whenever he has done until now the current crisis may be how history defines him. >> i've never been to work and never even fight that i think i'm ready. >> we were minding our own business