the depths of this kleptocratic control and the entanglement of this kleptocratic system in the regionegypt and the gulf states, etc., means that this is actually a different regionalized form of military government that will be harder to uproot. i think this is really what abdalla hamdok, as a conventional economist you had a vision of sudan resuming as a developmental trajectory, is saying. he's saying i cannot find a way back to the economic and social stabilization of sudan. we are in the grip of this monstrous transboundary military kleptocratic system. host: i mean, that's a very dim, grim picture for the future. if in fact, what we have is a situation where the last two years of transition to full democracy has not been that at all, then how painful is the next weeks and months going to be for this protest movement, who are unrelenting in their desire to seek a transition to a full democracy? >> i think that is a real challenge. we have the full determination of the youth on the street to go on with their protests and regain the freedom that they have fought for for years. and w

in africa -- coptic rat -- kleptocrats in africa. republicans had more corruption scandals and they probably needed a cleaner slate the democrats but one of the key issues -- cleaner slate than democrats but one of the key issues is you could set up earmarks directly into private businesses and that really greeted the potential for corruption. i wrote a story for the washington post with a colleague in 2009, about a bunch of people who were trying to start up a new vaio tech company out of boston -- biotech company out of boston, and they had some angel investors who ceded the company with money -- seeded the company with money and one of the first things they did was hire a lobbyist in washington who was asked really well-connected to democrats on the appropriations committee and there were notes and memos about all they had to do was raise $40,000 and they will get $1 million. sure enough, that is exactly what they got. there was never -- there were never charges filed in this case. it may well have been a case that in some ways, t

putin is struggling domestically for the best polling is quite weak and he is propped up by a kleptocratic very severely affected were the thumbscrews to be tightened on any economic sanctions but this is more about actually the west needing to show a united front which is really hard at the moment. when you have got germany for example, who really relies very heavily on russian gas in a way that other countries like ours just if we do not. you have got reports of some italian businessmen having some meetings with vladimir putin this week in those meetings are still going ahead under the guise of keeping a dialogue going. and because we don't actually know, we cannot really look into the psyche of vladimir putin. i can probably put them on my couch for about seven years and might never really know quite what makes him tick, but i do feel that part of this is about some gameplaying to see quite how broken or fractured the west might be, including europe and also the us. so what we need is probably the psychological level being able to present a net in front by talking about economic sanctio

if it succeeds, it will be a huge challenge for putin's russia, which is an you acratic kleptocratic state, very closed. more and more closed all the time. in fact. ukraine is related to russia by culture and by history. and the idea that the ukrainians could strike out on their own is simply unacceptable to putin and he may conclude that it is now or never. he sees the west right now as divided, the u.s. as distracted, particularly following afghanistan. and it might just be this is the moment when he res to re-establish some version the soviet empire and reincorporate this piece of territory whose sovereignty he just can't tolerate. there is no other reason for it. there is no excuse. he might try to manufacture one. but it's more a calculation to do with timing than anything else. >> you have his buildup of troops. you have a tweet from the russian state-owned news agency saying russia will destroy ukraine within ten minutes. and then just this minute the russian defense ministry released video of fighting jets loading up and taking off. why does russia keep saying it won't invade

nowadays autocracies are run not by one bad guy but by networks composed of kleptocratic structures heavily invested in our country and other democracies, security services, paramilitary surveillance and professional propagandists, and the members of these networks are not only connected within a given country but among many countries, so the corrupt state-controlled companies in one country can do deals with their counterparts in another, the police force in one country can arm and equip and train police forces in another. and especially the evil of america. and that there is a conspiracy or a supersecret room where the bad guys meet with a james bond movie. among modern autocrats there are people who call themselves communists, nationalists, the rats. washington likes to talk about chinak about china and chinese influence. but with really thinks this is not china but a common desire to preserve their personal power. so unlike military or political alliances, the members of this group don't operate like a block but a loose conglomeration of companies. and then not by ideals and those to re

in africa -- coptic rat -- kleptocrats in africa.epublicans had more corruption scandals and they probably needed a cleaner slate the democrats but one of the key issues -- cleaner slate than democrats but one of the key issues is you could set up earmarks directly into private businesses and that really greeted the potential for corruption. i wrote a story for the washington post with a colleague in 2009, about a bunch of people who were trying to start up a new vaio tech company out of boston -- biotech company out of boston, and they had some angel investors who ceded the company with money -- seeded the company with money and one of the first things they did was hire a lobbyist in washington who was asked really well-connected to democrats on the appropriations committee and there were notes and memos about all they had to do was raise $40,000 and they will get $1 million. sure enough, that is exactly what they got. there was never -- there were never charges filed in this case. it may well have been a case that in some ways, the

that's a challenge to his autocratic, kleptocratic system, and he may feel it is the last moment, thebook is about the cold war and what it teaches us about the present and about the great power rivalries that we see. to what extent was the moment we have arrived at today almost inevitable, particularly in the light of the fact that not just in past history but in 2008 there was not much reaction, putin didn't pay a price for going into georgia, he didn't pay a price for taking crimea, he got away with it. so he may have well ended up thinking, i can do this again and i can do what i want and act with impunity because the west isn't going to stop me. >> he certainly seems to have learned that the costs of this sort of action are bearable for him. so the western response to the invasion of georgia in 2008 was relatively modest. the response to the invasion of ukraine was a bit better in 2014 but still modest. so i think putin went into this crisis expecting whatever cost, whatever sanctions, whatever isolation the united states and the allies might be able to throw russia simply weren'