let's bring in damon wilson, executive vice president of the atlantic council. he was a russian-ukrainian expert in both the bush and clinton administration. good day to you. >> pleasure to be with you. >> you know a lot about this region. i want to the play some sound from someone else who does, spent a lot of time in ukraine and talks about the new type of putin we're seeing. >> putin today is not putin in 2000. putin in 2000 and through 2008 was somebody who was consolidating the state, ending chaos in russia as he saw it, doing things we didn't like then even. but above all, building an economy and a middle class. now the economy is flat at best. and to paper it over, i think, in order to find a source of legitimacy, he has asserted himself as this great russian, and in a sense not a neoimperialist, but somebody who's swaggering on the stage, not just as a world actor. >> damon, does a bad economy for russia mean bad geopolitics for the rest of us? >> i think it does. i think we see a president putin that has actually turned to a nationalist agenda, not just

my name is damon wilson. i'm executive vice president here at the atlantaic counsel. we want to follow-up your remarks and dig a little deeper on the issues. i want to remind all of you who are following this on line please follow along using the #acukraine. i want to start by welcoming back minister klimkin to the atlantic counsel wext sha. we shared a stage in july of 2011 exactly three years ago on a conference that i did. at the time, you were deputy minister, very much engaged in the negotiations with the european union moving forward with the negotiations with this complicated text for the association agreement and you also got an earful about concerns about what was happening at the political level with the erosion of democratic practiced and institutions in ukraine at the time. as i've worked with minister klimkin over the years. this is a diplomat who has demonstrated a principaled approach to policy who has always had a degree of strategic clarity of ukraine belonging in europe. we're delighted to see you back in washington this time but again in very diffic

i'm damon wilson, executive vice president here at the atlantic council. we've got about 25 minutes to continue the conversation with the secretary general. first, let me echo the warm welcome from fred and general jones for coming to the atlantic council for this. we're especially grateful as he's just come off the plane, arriving at dulles. second, to remind everyone who's covering this, either online or television audience of the hash tag #futurenato. and finally, before we begin our conversation, thank you for your shoutout to the nato future leaders. i think we have two of them with us today. one of our american delegates, gina jones, and our turkish delegate. they're both over here. terrific. thanks for being with us today. really important program, and thanks for your leadership on getting that off the ground. mr. secretary general, you just delivered a pretty strong message about how to strengthen the transatlantic bond and really capture the spirit of an atlantic council mission, that the solution to every strategic challenge has been transatlanti

i'm damon wilson, executive vice president here at the atlantic council. we have about 25 minutes to continue the conversation with the secretary general. first let me echo the warm welcome from fred and general jones for coming to the atlantic council for this. .e're especially grateful and to remind everyone who is covering this either online or our television audience of the #futurenato for those covering on twitter. and finally, before we begin our conversation, thank you for your shoutout to the nato future leaders. i think we have two of them with us today. one of our american delegates and our turkish delegate. they're both over here. terrific. thank you for being with us today. really important program and thanks for your leadership on getting that off the ground. mr. secretary general, you just delivered a pretty strong message about how to strengthen the transatlantic bond and in many respects captured sort of the spirit of the atlantic council mission. that the solution to every strategic challenge has been transatlantic. i think interestingly f