we will speak to professor stephen cohen. then to turmoil in north africa and the middle east. >> the general impression is the country's rate close to total chaos, and if they miss this opportunity, it is very difficult to imagine there will be a secure nation in the country that will allow is only to start a new process. >> as libya faces its worst crisis since the u.s.-backed ouster of muammar gaddafi in 2011, we look at a region in tremendous turmoil from syria to iraq to lebanon to yemen to saudi arabia to egypt. we will speak to professor vijay prashad. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. president obama has unveiled his $4 trillion budget proposal for next year, asking congress to raise taxes for the wealthy and corporations to help fund education and fix crumbling infrastructure. the plan includes nearly $280 billion in tax cuts for some poor and middle-class families. it also seeks to recoup losses from corporations that stash an estima

stephen cohen is a russian scholar and a professor are at nyu. reeland, a writer at reuters. stephen sestanovich has worked on soviet and russian issues at and government and think tanks. steve, as the dispassionate think tanker here really from the point of geo politics, why is this problem getting worse not better. >> putin has no reason to stop that has persuaded him. he made a decision last year that his success in crimea was so incredible, created such a nationalist sensation in russia that he was going to try for more. putin has only benefited from it at home except for the blowback the diplomatic isolation, the economic costs. he faces a difficult situation because in many ways this policy has played out very badly for him internationally. domestically, not so much. >> stephen, when it all happened, you did predict putin, this is core to putin and to russia. you see it, i assume, differently in the sense you see this as essentially a kind of core russian national security interest? >> the other steve and i fundamentally disagree. first of a

cohen, stephen sestanovich, chrystia freeland and bill browder. rlier, steve cohen, that you thought we were in a cold war. it certainly seems like that when you listen to some of the rhetoric of russian planes flying over english channel. these are bombers. do the russians really have an appetite for something like this. russia is today 2.5% of global gdp. this is not the soviet union. >> if by russia you mean the russian people they have no appetite for this. neither does the american people. this is something given to us by the elites of the two countries. not only are we in a new cold war, but it's potentially more dangerous than the last one. the center of this cold war is right on russia's border not berlin ukraine. it's existential. when you hear already russian generals talking about the possibility of using tactical nuclear weapons, you know that russia is shall we say, stressed. the problem here in part are the remarks about putin. something strange has happened. the demonization of putin, which is beyond any factual basis, leads to a kin