obstacles remain but those numbers are a welcome sign of progress. that does it for me this hour. i'm going to be back here tomorrow morning at 11:00 a.m., and you can always catch me on morning news now on our streaming network at 7:00 a.m. eastern. "andrea mitchell reports" starts next. good day, this is andrea mitchell reports in washington. with new developments from moscow today, vladimir putin in a big display, holding a national security meeting and leaning into recognizing the independence of two russian-dominated separatist regions of ukraine. not annexing them yet. we're formally adding them as mother russia as the white house says president biden would only hold a summit with putin if he does not invade. >> when president macron asked president biden yesterday if he was prepared in principal to meet with pruitt if russia did not invade.

of course president biden said yes. we will not close the door on diplomacy. we will go the extra mile on diplomacy. we are also prepared with our allies and partners to respond decisively if russia attacks. >> that summit, hypothetically would be arranged by secretary of state tony blinken and russia's foreign minister, lavrov, in geneva on thursday. again, they say only if russian troops don't cross the border into ukraine. this latest wave of diplomacy coming as the united states receives credible information. russia has a list of ukrainians to kill or send to detention camps after an invasion, and are prepared to use lethal force to disburse, the top spokesperson calling those allegations an absolute fake and a lie. we'll have a live report from london as queen elizabeth performs light duties after experiencing mild symptoms from her recent covid diagnosis. we begin with nbc chief foreign

correspondent richard engel in ukraine. nbc correspondent keir simmons in moscow, and nbc white house reporter kristen welker. we saw a very public national security briefing from vladimir putin who's been pretty reclusive for the two years of covid, except for the big table, you know, meetings with lavrov and a few other people. so his team and the chairs that they had on the other side of the large room being called to speak by putin. what did we learn from that, you know, clearly staged national security meeting? >> andrea, reclusive is right. in fact, the advisers that were sitting in front of president putin today, few of them, the number we saw are really in his inner circle and what we saw today was putin wearing that familiar unreadable, adviser after adviser stood up to tell him whether he thought he should

recognize those break away regions of eastern ukraine, and again and again, telling him perhaps what he wanted to hear, saying that he should recognize those regions, and even the former prime minister and president dmitry medvedev saying ukraine doesn't need those. finishing that meeting, broadcast on television, first appeared to be live but then appeared to be recorded. the defense minister watch showing a different time to when it was on russian tv. just adding to the sense of theatrics of the whole thing. president putin saying that he will make a decision soon. that decision could trigger a war because the regions that they're talking about are actually wider than the area that is held by the separatists. unclear exactly what area president putin might recognize, but again, it's the drum beat of

war on russian television, adding to the weekend, what we saw, commentator, suggesting that the ukrainians are attacking eastern ukraine, part of their own country, even today, this unverifiable suggestion that ukrainians are trying to cross the border into russia. russian television in the past few days has acted up, if you like, and again, that's being read as a sign that president putin perhaps has made his decision. >> and christian, the national security meeting certainly without the theatrics, also being held today. president biden cancelling a planned presidents day trip back to wilmington. they continue, they say, to hope for a diplomatic solution. all of the background information we have been getting and the stated comments from the white house that the president's friday announcement was clear, declassify the intelligence,

based on intelligence that the invasion was the next several days, and the russian troops had moved toward a decision that vladimir putin had ordered the invasion. >> that's right, andrea, and i think that's why there's so much skepticism when it comes to these potential diplomatic talks. the administration, you heard jake sullivan there saying of course they are going to keep the door open to diplomacy. that is why the secretary of state has agreed to meet with his russian counter part. that is why president biden agreed in principle to meet with president putin, but both of those meetings are contingent on president putin not invading and the intelligence as you point out, andrea, has not changed. president biden believes president putin has made his decision, is determined to move into ukraine. the size and scope remain unknown, but again, that is why they are being very cautious when they talk about these potential diplomatic talks. the other piece of this, andrea, if the president were to have some type of bilateral meeting

with president putin, that would be risky in and of itself. the optics would be incredibly complicated. that is the backdrop, and we know that the national security team is meeting with the president. right now, the secretary of defense, chairman of the joint chiefs updating the president with the situation on the ground in ukraine as it continues to intensify. the vice president here as well. the window for diplomacy is closing but it still remains cracked open just a little bit. andrea. >> and richard engel, you're literally in the trenches with the ukrainian troops, and right across the border, a mile from the other front line, the decision to stay in belarus, that those exercises were not exercises that were supposed to end yesterday, you didn't suspect they would end and as we watched, it was very clear, they're advancing towards the border rather than going back to their barracks. >> so we have been at this now for a few months where there has been increasing tension,

sometimes day by day, where there have been a lot of stories, misinformation, deliberate lies and one of the biggest one was -- has been that this is all a natural activity by russia, that this is a normal military drill and that russian troops would pull back from the borders as those drills wind down. russia initially claimed it was pulling back from parts of the eastern ukrainian border and parts from the south and crimea. both turned out to be not true according to u.s. and nato officials, that they couldn't verify it, and there has been no evidence that has happened, and u.s. troops, russian troops were supposed to pull out of belarus on the 20th when the military exercises there were supposedly going to wrap up. that didn't happen. so with the troops still there, the question is what comes next, and today, going back to what she was saying, the mood does seem to be different.

we're seeing a different kind of disinformation campaign coming out of russian media and from russian officials where they are now deliberately and explicitly claiming that ukrainian troops are not just attacking pro-russian separatists but attacking russia itself. why they choose this time when there are 200,000 troops on the border to launch commando crusades against russia hasn't been explained but the russians have been put out vaguely sourced videos to support their claims, but no real evidence and the ukrainians have been denying it all day long as one russian allegation comes out, the ukrainians are trying to extinguish that fire, but there does seem to be a flood of reports coming from the russian side that the ukrainians have stepped up an offensive, not just against separatists but against russian territory. >> and before i let you go, i was there, of course, when zelenskyy on saturday was in munich and really chastised the

allies, including the u.s. for, you know, be specific about these sanctions. do it now, you're telling us that the invasion is going to come in a matter of days with 100% security which was the friday night announcement from the white house, well f you're so sure, why do you do the sanctions now, why wait, and of course taking the risk despite warnings he might not get back home becauses russians basically control the airspace, taking a risk of even coming and confronting the allies there in munich. what's the reaction back home in ukraine? >> reporter: the reaction back home is that zelenskyy is seeing a sharp rise in his popularity, even people who were critical of zelenskyy are finding themselves supporting him. they liked what he said in munich. they liked that he was confronting the allies. it's not just the issue of the sanctions. what zelenskyy was saying, if you are convinced this is coming, why not sanction now. he said that before.

he's also going back to history, and this country had a nuclear arsenal, and it voluntarily gave up its nuclear weapons in exchange for guarantees that it would not be taken over by neighboring countries, and now this country is looking at perhaps over the next few hours or the next several days, a potential russian invasion, and they are looking back at those guarantees when it gave up the nuclear weapons, and they do seem quite hollow. >> richard engel and kristen welker and keir simmons, thank you all so much for starting us off. a great start. and joining us is chuck hagel, a defense secretary from the obama administration. now a spokesperson for the national council on election integrity which of course focuses on cyber and a lot of cyber intrusions there as well. secretary, it's great to see you. thank you very much. >> thank you, andrea. >> i can only imagine the deja

vu that you're feeling as you see the russian forces. they went into crimea in 2014. there has been criticism of the obama administration, including from president biden. the obama administration did not push them back. is there a way to resist what will the president and others are telling us could be going all the way to kyiv, targeting kyiv itself? >> well, andrea, good to see you again, and thank you. there's a slight chance that a diplomatic solution can alert a disastrous war, and i say disastrous, because it will be if this occurs. and i hope and i don't know, i'm not privy to all of the intelligence, but i hope that there is some way that we can

off ramp mr. putin and the games that he's playing, i think you have to remember that he was shaped and formed by the kgb. he is a kgb man through and through. he's smart. he's a master at disinformation, misinformation, lies. so it's obvious what we're seeing, and your reporters, especially richard engel brought this up in a couple of things. it's obvious what's going on in that area. 190,000 troops and he's in belarus, but i'm not -- i'm not quite sure absolutely that he's going to do this, and one reason, andrea, i say it, i think he's underestimated the unity of the europeans. and the united states. i mean specifically nato, the eu, i mean, there are slight

differences on tactics and so on, but nato is unified. europeans are unified, and i don't think he expected that. that alone probably won't change his plans, but it's a consideration. the other thing i would say is that he's a smart guy. he understands if this occurs, the consequences are going to be very severe. they will be severe for everybody. certainly the ukrainians, but russia's not going to get out of this without major casualties, and a shut down of their banking institution, the sanctions will bring in every problem that you can imagine for russia, their economy, everything, and so he's smart enough to know that, but all the evidence is clear. it points to we'll invade. there are still some ways that i think we can get him off this highway of where he's going. >> now, the white house did confirm on friday that cyber

attack against the russian defense ministry, against the banking, some of their key web sites from the couple of days earlier, i guess from exactly a week ago or tuesday a week ago, was russian government, which took them a couple of days, but they did confirm that on friday in a very public way at a briefing. so we have yet to see a larger cyber attack, let's say taking out command and control and other ukrainian key sites. what are you expecting there, similar to what the russians did in the 2016 elections interfering with our own, and also with solar winds and some of the other big hits against corporate america. >> well, the russians are masters at this, and they know how to do it, and they're very effective. and i think that's a tool that they will continue to use no matter what. certainly as you say, andrea,

we've seen it before. and they're as good as anybody in the world, and, again, it plays into the putin background and thinking and how he was schooled and shaped. this is rank kgb stuff, and he uses that. so i think that kind of thing will continue, but it depends on the next few days and what happens here. if in fact, president biden has an opportunity to sit down with president putin, that could move this thing in a different direction. then again, it could mean nothing. i don't think the russians are going to give up those -- those tools, cyber attacks, and using cyber as they have very effectively. >> and your message to corporate america in terms of whether or not we're defending ourselves and our own institutions and our own infrastructure against what could become an escalading cyber

part of any potential war? >> well, that's right. and i think the business community is sophisticated enough, and has dealt with cyber attacks, not just from russia, but from china and other countries, and i think the business community is doing very well protecting themselves. i mean, cyber is a deadly, deadly weapon. you never know when it's coming, where it's coming from. it can paralyze power grids, it can paralyze the financial system in new york. it's deadly. and i think it's going to be one that we're going to be increasingly see as a threat to the united states. and the world. but we're preparing for that, and we've got very sophisticated and effective cyber tools ourselves. and the business community is serious about it. >> former defense secretary chuck hagel, thank you so much.

good to see you, sir. >> thank you. and the intelligence brind russia's post invasion plans, targeting ukrainian critics, minorities, and the lgbtq community. former cia director john brennan joins us next. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. next. this is "andrea mitchell this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. so they can be turned back into material that we use to make new bottles. that completes the circle and reduces plastic waste. please help us get every bottle back.

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the u.s. is warning the united nations it has credible information that russia has plans to kill or kidnap large numbers of ukrainian dissidents, journalists, religious and ethnic minorities after an expects invasion. a kremlin spokesperson today calling the allegations an absolute fake and a lie. "nbc nightly news" jake sullivan was asked about the intelligence on "today." >> well, we believe that any military operation of this size, scope and magnitude of what we believe the russians are planning will be extremely violent. it will cost the lives of ukrainians and russians,

civilians and military personnel alike. but we also have intelligence to suggest that there will be an even greater form of brutality because this will not simply be some conventional war between two armies. it will be a war waged by russia on the ukrainian people to repress them, to crush them, to harm them. >> joining me now after that ominous warning is former cia director john brennan who of course worked at the nfc as well as at the cia, in directing the cia. in that letter to the u.n. first obtained by "the washington post," then i obtained it and confirmed it for nbc news, the u.s. details that after an invasion, russian acts in ukraine could include quote targeted killings, kidnappings, forced disappearances, even those of torture. how does this fit into the russian playbook, are you surprised at all by this intelligence? >> well, not really, i think the russians have used the last eight years stood a lot of intelligence collection inside

of ukraine, and so i'm sure that they have identified individuals that oppose any type of russian incursion, as well as russian influence, and so the russian security services, i'm sure has put together a list. and under the cover of a full-scale military invasion, i think as jake was alluding to there, a lot can be done to find those oppositionists and to try to root them out, either with assassinations or with military strikes as a way to remove a lot of those individuals who really have tried to rally the ukrainian people against russia. and so therefore, i'm not surprised that the u.s. intelligence has, in fact, picked up indications that russia is going to use the military incursion invasion to take care of specific individuals because i think russia has been building up for this for quite some time. >> director brennan, we've seen national security meetings in both moscow and washington, very very different today.

the one in moscow certainly had a stage feeling, and a picture of defense minister's watch showed that it had a completely different time, if the watch didn't run out of battery, and a different time than the alleged national security meeting. it was very theoretical to put a point on it. if you were still at the cia and watching that video from the national security meeting, and your take in general on vladimir putin's behavior, is he bluffing or is the intelligence correct that he has given the order to invade? >> i certainly don't think he's bluffing. i think he's continuing to take stock of the situation, and i think as chuck mentioned, i think he's surprised at how united nato has been, and also the forcefulness of some of the remarks and the plans of president biden. and so therefore, he's amassed this massive military machine along ukraine's borders and so as we've talked about, is there

an off ramp for him that he's going to be able to save some political face, among his advisers and inside of russia if he doesn't do something, is he able to extract some type of concession he's going to be able to point to he doesn't give the go ahead for a full scale invasion. i must tell you in recent days with the intelligence that and jake and others are providing, it's ominous, and the intentions of vladimir putin is going to change the calculus when it comes to ukraine's position between the united states and the west and russia. >> state tv has announced moscow that he is going to be addressing the russian nation which was the next step that we all anticipated. we also have seen that they are considering declaring luhansk and donesk, as independent

countries not a part of ukraine. of course the ambassador to russia is saying that would precipitate, of course, zelenskyy has to respond and that could precipitate the pretext for russia to cross over. >> i recognize the separatist regions is certainly something very worrisome, more worrisome would be a russian effort to annex those territories, which then they would bring in the military forces to protect luhansk and donesk, if he's going to recognize them, that could be the first step toward a full annexation, like he did in crimea, where he recognized it or annexed it to be part of russia and moved in very large military units there to protect it. and i think if he does that in eastern ukraine in those separatist areas, that is a cautious belly, and i think that will precipitate military engagement between ukrainian and

russian forces leading to i think maybe a full scale war. >> very interesting announcement on twitter from the chinese. there was a lot of speculation when putin went to beijing for the opening ceremonies and there was this new accord, very detailed accord between china, between president xi, and vladimir putin, but what they announced yesterday was consistent with chinese policy. declaring that ukraine's sovereignty should not be violated. this has always been their policy because their policy in taiwan, of course. and they have never recognized crimea as being russian, so is it possible that president xi is not going to backstop and help him on sanctions if there is a war. and that the chinese, beijing, to moscow access will not be as difficult for the u.s. and the allies as we perhaps feared. >> i think that statement was very note worthy, and it is consistent with long standing

chinese policy of recognizing the sovereignty of independent countries. and also i think it just underscores president xi's concern about a russian invasion of ukraine because ukraine does have very important relations with china and i don't believe president xi wants to see russia exert itself against ukraine, but also, i think president xi is just trying to show that china has a very strong voice on the world stage, and i think he's trying to dissuade putin from going into ukraine because i don't believe it's in china's interest. chinese investments, trade, commercial business in ukraine. therefore, i think china has its own interest in trying to prevent a conflict, whether or not it's being accompanied by private messages, back channel messages to moscow, i hope it is, as a way to further deter putin. i think everybody sees now that putin is on a path that seems

inevitable is going to lead to some type of military conflict. >> jon brennan, your expertise, your study of putin for decades in the intelligence world is so invaluable. thank you very much. >> thanks, andrea. and down to the wire, the supreme court pick due this week. the president hoping it is a win he can tout in the state of the union address on march 1st. this is andrea mitchell reports. you're watching msnbc. mitchell. mitchell. you're watching msnbc. and a touch of sea salt. it's like a double double for your tastebuds. subway keeps refreshing and refreshing and refreshing... ♪

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and i thought, yeah, it works for me. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. president biden has said he will name his supreme court nominee before march 1st. that means the announcement could come at any moment. democrats are aiming for a confirmation by april 9th. joining us yamiche alcindor, and david jolly, congressman from florida. senator ted cruz, the key committee that will have to clear the nominee is calling the president's promise discrimination. i would like to get your response to that. >> throughout history, presidents have made it clear when they want to make sure there's diversity on the bench and diversity on the bench meaning it will reflect the american people. there were presidents who when they were replacing someone like

thurgood marshall, they wanted to have an african-american, that's how clarence thomas got on the board. when amy coney barrett was nominated, former president trump made it clear that he wanted to have a woman replace rbg. it is not at all sort of out of the context of history for a president to say that he wants to have a certain type of representation on the bench. and let's remember, that black women in particular, for a long period, for hundreds of years in this country were locked out of being a supreme court justice just because they were black women. so it is not a coincidence that a black woman has never served on the supreme court. i think ted cruz probably understands that but i think there is some rhetoric coming out of the gop including from the senator who was trying to call it discrimination. but this really is president biden in his own words and the people who support this decision saying that he wants to make sure this is a righting a historical wrong, and a black woman, she is going to be

someone who is qualified and someone who represents a part of the american population who have been locked out unfairly. >> locked out and also the american experience, you know, it's not tokenism if the people are so qualified. but they also do understand the experience of being in a minority and of being deprived of so much that is part of citizenship for, you know, centuries. david, could the supreme court fire up republican voters in the midterms? the base responds more to the supreme court as an issue or is it time democrats will get really engaged with what's at stake in the court facing critical votes, decisions on abortion, on guns, on everything. >> look, i think it will energize both parties' base, democrats will have a fresh face and a woman of color who will represent largely a democratic progressive ideology, and they

will give somebody for republicans to oppose. and i think that's the era in which we live. andrea, you'll recall through the reagan and bush 41 years, there were unanimous approvals by the senate, scalia, and kennedy, rbg had three dissenters, now we're in a 50/50 world. i think republicans will galvanize around the pick whomever it is and whatever her qualifications will be. >> we're going to have to leave it there for now. this could happen at any day. thank you very much, both of you, and last ditch diplomacy. could talks with the russians prevent war or simply delay the inevitable. up next, what an invasion could look like and the people in its path, you're watching andrea mitchell reports on msnbc. mitchell reports on msnbc.

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principle if there is not been an vacation. in a summit by french president macron in a two-hour talk with putin on sunday. the white house stresses there's no plan or schedule for a summit which would be arranged by secretary blinken and russia's foreign minister lavrov in geneva on thursday, and that meeting is also contingent on their not having any kind of invasion. it would not take place if russia crosses into ukraine. so joining us now. "new york times" diplomatic correspondent, michael crowley, and retired four star general, barry mccaffrey. president biden says russia is going to invade ukraine but the u.s. is open to diplomacy. is there a disconnect here? do you think a biden putin meeting is even in the cards given what's happening on the ground and all the intelligence? >> sure doesn't look that way, andrea. white house officials are also not optimistic that this is happening. they're telling the "times" today and overnight that they're seeing no indication of a change of their assessment that russia

is preparing a full scale invasion of ukraine, and there will not be a meeting with pursued if hostilities erupt in that way. this is an act of hostility by russia, of course. there's talk of a tentative plan for antony blinken to meet with his counter part ahead of that meeting. that would be happening in a couple of days now. also unclear if there's hope left for diplomacy, and i think as i have said to you before, there's just not overlap. there's not things that vladimir putin is demanding that the west is prepared to accept. it's really difficult to see how a deal is struck. it's not like we're just on the verge of some agreement and we ran out of time. they're just still very far apart. there's not a hopeful diplomatic scenario. >> and a couple of things have happened, scholz has been in touch with vladimir putin, and gave him a very firm lines of

demarishes, if you will, if he recognizes the independence of the russian speaking provinces of ukraine that that is a violation of the previous accords, all of the previous agreements, the so called minsk agreements, that's a trip wire, and belarus, the exercises did not end as they claimed they would, the forces are moving closer. so how are you seeing the situation on the ground? >> well, it's hard to read this. every element for an air, ground, sea attack on ukraine is in position, and from the highest levels, we're having secretary blinken and the president of the united states saying an invasion is imminent to include seizing kyiv. astonishing, bad judgment. even a limited attack to seize at donbas, and perhaps a land

quarter from crimea to the eastern regions, would face a pe -- why putin thinks this would pay off in the face of enhanced nato solidarity, by the way, generated quite effectively by president biden and his team is beyond me. one other thought, andrea, to add in, you know, i was part of -- i was a strategic planner for the jcs when we went into the dissolving soviet empire and tried to round up all the nuclear weapons and the launch vehicles and get them back in the russian federation. i was in kyiv, and negotiated with ukrainians, and said you got to hand these weapons over, and we'll guarantee your independence. i'm thankful we did, otherwise we'd have -- those weapons were all over the soviet empire, so they have been rounded up. we then helped them with billions of dollars of l money

to safeguard them. it was an appalling situation, but clearly now the independence of a sovereign nation and the heart of europe is at threat of stalinist style blatant aggression, astonishing. >> you know, general, i'm so glad you mentioned that because i was covering the nonlugar talks, the legislation, you were on the ground implementing them, and we interviewed sam nunn last week, and they are real heroes of those years, the threat of ukraine when the umpire fell, having that whole arsenal right there was just profound, and you know, i was in munich this weekend, i just got back last night. i have never seen the nato allies this together. covered this for years, nato meetings going back, my first one was 1982 with reagan in bond when it was the capital. never seen them as together as they are. yeah, there's some, you know,

well, why didn't the americans share the intelligence sooner and all that, and they did hear zelenskyy and he was really exercised. i was right there, but putin has just gotten what he said he never wanted, nato on his doorstep, stronger than ever, right? >> look, you know, invasion combat violence, the destruction of these societies is baked into europe. world war ii was yesterday. it devastated everything between the euro mountains and the english channel, and so -- and germany in particular suffered terribly, appropriately so, i might add, from the devastation of their entire country. so i think now what you're seeing is they're remembering that nato isn't just a political figment. it's an actual defensive alliance to prevent aggression out of russia, and putin has

gone into syria, crimea, invaded the eastern part of ukraine, seized a good bit of georgia, had combat operations in moldavia, he has a history of killing people in his own country and abroad, so this fellow is now turned a new page. the next people up online is poland, romania and the baltic states. we're going to see a new environment, political and diplomatic and military in europe in the coming years. >> michael crowley and general mccaffrey, i want to also point out, we just got this -- someone's giving me zelenskyy tweet saying given the statements made at the meeting of the security council of the russian federation, i hold urgent consultations with emmanuel macron, and olaf

scholz, in kyiv. the tempo is increasing on all sides. thank you both so very much. up next, covid and the crown, britain's 95-year-old monarch turning 96 in april testing positive for covid. we go live to buckingham palace next. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. this is "andrea mitchell this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc.if we buy a new house? mmmm... and our son just started working. oh! do you offer a complimentary retirement plan for him? as in free? just like schwab. schwab! look forward to planning with schwab. looking to get back in your type 2 diabetes zone? once-weekly ozempic® can help. ♪ oh, oh, oh, ozempic®! ♪ ♪ oh, oh, oh ♪ ozempic® is proven to lower a1c. most people who took ozempic® reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it.

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concerns for the queen today after buckingham palace announced on sunday the 95-year-old monarch tested positive for the coronavirus. queen elizabeth said to be experiencing only mild, cold-look symptoms and carrying out light duties as boris johnson plans to drop the remaining restrictions today, part of the living with covid strategy. >> look at the efforts we've made in the country over the past two years, we can now deal with it in a very different way, moving from government restrictions to personal responsibility. >> he of course has been under fire for a lot of his own violations of the covid restrictions. and raff sanchez joins us

outside of buckingham palace. what are you learning about this positive test from the queen? buckingham palace does not traditionally share rolling health updates. prince charles suffered from covid about two weeks ago and had seen his mother, as well as his wife camilla also getting covid a week later. any updates on the queen's health? >> reporter: andrea, the line from palace officials is they are not going to give a running commentary on this. as you said, that is what we would expect from them. there is not the same level of transparency of the queen's house as there would be of an american president. as you said the queen is expected to continue carrying light duties from windsor castle. we expect she will speak to prime minister boris johnson by phone. she may do some virtual meetings with foreign ambassadors presenting their credentials, but the line here is keep calm and carry on. as you saw, the british

government and royal family continues as planned. andrea? >> well, what is good news. no news is good news in this case, we hope. thank you very much. and disclose and disrupt. the white house strategy of declassifying information on russia nearly as fast as they confirm it, potentially catching putin off guard? we'll see. this is "andrea mitchell reports reports"on msnbc. " reports"on msnbc on msnbc. on msnc

they've taken the unusual step of declassifying intelligence to let vladimir putin know and let the world know what he is up to, part of the strategy to try to take away some of putin's tactical advantage. perhaps that would change his mind about invading? joining me is susan page and press secretary robert gibbs. robert, you've dealt with

vladimir putin and all of that going into summits. talk about the challenge facing the biden administration trying to take on putin, prevent a war in europe, at the same time you have to be worried about the political fallout. already marco rubio and republicans saying if putin invades, it's going to be joe biden's fault and he's coming back politically with the way the afghanistan withdrawal played out. >> yeah, look, there's a lot of challenges that this presents to this white house. i think their rapid declassification of this intelligence has really enabled them to set putin off a little bit and to make him a bit uneasy. he's used to being the person that everybody has to react to as the cagey adversary. i think that's put him a bit more on the defensive and i think on an almost daily basis their updating of this intelligence has allowed a sense

of urgency to take hold, not just in the world but among our allies to help stitch that coalition together. in the end whether it changes putin's calculus, it really is unclear and we'll probably know more about that this week, but i think they've done everything that they could do to keep him uneasy and to keep him guessing in a situation that i think he went into this thinking he controlled all the cards. >> yeah. and, susan, so sadly we don't have john mccain in the republican camp. i was in munich and that was always a john mccain, joe biden venture. on the other side you've got to ted cruzes and marco rubios and some of the others with 2024 stars in their eyes and there's no bipartisan foreign policy on possibly the eve or, you know, a

moment of possible invasion. >> well, of course some republicans, as you mentioned, especially those who might want to run against joe biden or the democratic nominee next time around have been critical, but i think the fact is there are other republican leaders in positions of leadership who have either been supportive or have kept quiet about it. it's been interesting to see president biden apply some lessons learned, i think, from his unhappy experience last year with the withdrawal from afghanistan. he's kept the congressional leadership more informed, kept our nato allies and the american people informed about what be ahead, including higher gas prices. >> exactly right. i don't think we can take this any further because we're going to broach into the chuck todd "meet the press daily" time zone. but thank you both. we'll have a lot more opportunities to talk. this does it for this edition of

"andrea mitchell reports." follow us online. garrett haake is indeed in for chuck todd starting right now. >> if it's monday, putin appears to address the people at any moment. so what's next for eastern europe as they brace for war? we'll speak with a former military commander who led forces in europe the last time russia invaded ukraine, as well as a top world leader who just returned from munich. and later, the impacts of the war abroad at home as the president and his party prepare for a prolonged political battling while also preparing to reset their messaging. welcome to "meet the press daily." i'm garrett