ambassador to russia, michael mcfaul, former u.s. ambassador to ukraine, bill taylor, and retired four-star general, barry mccaffrey. general, let me start with you. how worried if at all should we be about putin placing his nuclear deterrent forces on alert and telling the world about that? >> very strange. very strange, andrea. can you imagine how the russian population is receiving this news? anyone with an iq over 80 knows that essentially a nuclear exchange is not possible. you can't first strike the united states and knock out our retaliatory capability, sore putin is telling his own people, i'm willing to vaporize much of russia over a stalled invasion of a friendly sovereign state. this is some very nutty behavior. he's scared. he's getting dangerous. he should not use that rhetoric. it will assist in rallying the global community against what he's doing. by the way, i do think that essentially time is an ally of the ukrainians. and russian casualties are an ally of the ukrainians. so he has a real problem. i'm somewhat surpr

joining us this evening, michael mcfaul, the former u.s. ambassador to russia and a fellow at stanford's hoover institute and personally negotiated with plep. professor, thanks for being with us on this very busy night for you of course. if i don't sound flippant here, why should americans pay attention to what is happening now half a world away? >> well, because what happens half a world away might eventually threaten our security. if you go back 70 years and think about into between world war i and ii, lots of americans said why do we care about czechoslovakia? why do we care what hitler so doing over there? many americans thought that. we now know how that history ended. it ended very tragically for the world. what vladimir putin is doing today in ukraine by invading ukraine, by changing the borders of the state illegally as he just did yesterday, he is threatening to undermine the international system that we put in place in 1945 with the united nations security council to avoid situations like we had with annexation and war that led to

and ambassador mcfaul, if you don't mind staying with us. >> but first, the unthinkable. nuclear devastation not seen in generations, but could it become a reality now? former energy secretary ernest moniz joins me next with a lot of context on this special weekend edition of andrea mitchell reports. edition of and mitchell reports once upon a time, at the magical everly estate, landscaper larry and his trusty crew... were delayed when the new kid totaled his truck. timber... fortunately, they were covered by progressive, so it was a happy ending... for almost everyone. if you have advanced non-small cell lung cancer, so it was a happy ending... your first treatment could be a chemo-free combination of two immunotherapies that works differently. it could mean a chance to live longer. opdivo plus yervoy is for adults newly diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer that has spread, tests positive for pd-l1, and does not have an abnormal egfr or alk gene. together, opdivo plus yervoy helps your immune system launch a response that fights cancer in two different ways. opdivo

. >> michael mcfaul served on president obama national security council,hen as his ambassador to russia. personally targeted by putin and banned from russia. so what is russia's endgame and how should united states and allies respond? >> it is important when negative yoeshating with autocrats to not check your values at the door. >> wha does ambassador michael mcfaul say now? >> firing line. >> reporter: >> the family foundation and by the rosalyn p. walter foundation. corporate funding is provided by stevens inc and pfizer inc. >> ambassador michael mcfaul, welcome to firing line. >> glad to be here. >> more than 150,000 russian troops along with weapons are stationed near the border with u krak, an invasio is an immant threat according to united states officials. you were the ambassador to russia during the obama administration 2012 to 2014, you've spent your career as a democracy activist and academic and policymaker specializing in russia. the inspector of are you shalla invading ukraine has been described as a conflict that could be unlike anything else sin world war ii. what would

corporate funding is provided by stevens inc and pfizer inc. >> ambassador michael mcfaul, welcome to firing line. >> glad to be here. >> more than 150,000 russian troops along with weapons are stationed near the border with u krak, an invasion is an immant threat according to united states officials. you were the ambassador to russia during the obama administration 2012 to 2014, you've spent your career as a democracy activist and academic and policymaker specializing in russia. the inspector ofre you shalla invading ukraine has been described as a conflict that could be unlike anything else sin world war ii. what would war look like? >> war is always bad. war a always horrible. everyone lugss. this would be a major war. 150 thour soldiers on all boarders of ukraine and boats off the coast too. ukraine has a real army as well. a quarter of a million soldiers are ready to fight as well. so it will be a major conventional war, probably the about igest in europe since 1939. ukrainians, of course, will suffer the biggest casualties. tragically, people more expert than i talk about the ca

ambassador to russia, an msnbc news analyst michael mcfaul.a little right now, we are hearing that russian troops or russian tanks, excuse me, have crossed the border, and are heading into the interior sections of the country. i do want to talk to more about your assessment, and this is video of that, your assessment of vladimir putin right now. give your reaction to something that wagner told me a moment ago, that he was having a hard time finding anybody, in moscow, who supports this incursion. >> with respect to putin, we have been underestimating him for a long time, we kept dreaming about negotiating with them. he has been crystal clear that he wanted this more talking about nato was all just a pretext to this war, and now he has launched a full scale invasion of ukraine. i think it's a worst-case scenario. katie, i have lots of friends all over that contribute crane, i've got 2000 accounts open right now it feels like every city's been attacked, including even in the west. this seems like a major operation. just because we don't see, it

. >> joining us now, michael mcfaul, who served as the u.s. ambassador to russia from 2012 to 2014. he is an msnbc international affairs analyst. ambassador mcfaul, president biden said he is convinced that vladimir putin has made the decision to invade ukraine. that language marks a stark change from earlier this week, when administration officials said that they didn't know if putin had made the decision. >> absolutely. it was a qualitatively different message today. remember, you don't with the president of the united states out before the american people and the world, unless you have something important to say. i would three years at the white house with president obama, and in those decisions, they're not made lightly. just like you said, he was straightforward, he was asked again by reporters to clarify, he clarified. he thinks that putin has made the decision to invade. now, he also said, like you said, that, you know, maybe not yet, hold on. let's get diplomacy one last chance, just because you made that decision, it doesn't mean you can't reverse it. but it's turned pretty

michael mcfaul will have answers ant that.ave been on the front lines, talking to -- when i was there i talked to ukrainian soldiers. they will fight. they will -- they are fighting. we are seeing the ukrainian army putt up a fight in various places and your people described this. it's not a fair fight. ukrainians have been on the battle fronts for eight years. they're hardened. it is brutal. putin does want ukraine and ukraine does not want and the people do not want to be part of the part of europe on the other side of the iron curtain. >> ambassador, was diplomacy a ruse? could putin have been reasoned with? is this from putin's perspective preordained? >> we tried. there's no doubt that the west and president biden and nato tried. we put things on the table to address some stated concerns, security sirans. there was an effort. i think a genuine effort. what appears to be the case is putin was never interested or worried about sanctions or the costs that we said he was going to feel and he will feel them. he was intending a

. >> i want to bring in ambassador michael mcfaul.assador, this is a good place to pick up with you because evelyn was talking about georgia and crimea. right now you have vladimir putin saying to the west, if you guys agree not to invite or allow ukraine into your nato fold that would be important to us. and he is changing the narrative into whether or not that's a reasonable thing to agree to or not to agree to when, in fact, all of this other stuff is unaddressed. russia in crimea is unaddressed. russia in georgia remains unaddressed. russia's naked expansionism remains unaddressed. >> you said it better than i did. that's exactly right. he wants to change the channel to focus on this fictitious threat of ukraine joining nato. nato never attacked soviet union or russia. the russians supported us going to afghanistan and be clear. let's say for instance that president zelensky, we can't tell him what's in the national security interests. he is an elected leader but say that he would entertain this idea of a moratorium on nato. why w

my only said, as ambassador mcfaul just said, it is part of the strategy.cannot be overstated, they never are. and this is all part of a campaign to increase pressure on president putin. and i hope that it is, that it becomes part of its decision-making. but i think at the end of the day, it will be the military assistance, which way is happy to see being increased. and certainly, civic resistance, which i heard ambassador mcfaul speak about as well. >> let's take that piece by piece. ambassador, you are germany now seeing today is gonna send weapons into ukraine. how significant is that development? >> it's great. i wish it would have happened before. for all this military assistance, it's gonna be a lot harder to get into the battle lines, and the cities under attack, then it would have been had we done it weeks and months before. but it's the right decision. it's whether ukrainians want. i'm in touch with ukrainians every single minute. and you listen to president zelenskyy, he summarized it very clearly, when offered, you know, by the united states a wa

>> i was listen to go ambassador mcfaul before i came on. agreed, i'm afraid to think about what's next. we haven't unleashed the full force of sanction opportunities. it is worrisome to think of what will happen when and if pughle did make that final move. i would like to be hopeful that we still have those off-ramp opportunities for diplomacy, but it is very, very concerning. we could be collective by worried. a war on european soil is something that's very frightening, and we have seen a few times in our recent modern history. >> do you subscribe to the idea that being a nato nation has been a deterrent to putin or not? i say it this way, he's poised to go into ukraine, not a nato nation, the three baltic countries have been left alone. should that tell us being a nato member is a deterrent or not? >> i don't think that i am confident in making that sort of a statement. i feel as though this is possibly the ability of something longer. maya ainge lieu said, show me who you are once, and i should believe you the first time. putin is very m

>> well, i'm with mike mcfaul.hink we all to listen to vladimir putin, go back and read his speech from last night. what he is after is essentially occupying ukraine. i find it laughable his spokesman this morning is saying there's no intent to occupy. that's the 975th lie that's come out of the kremlin going back to, we're not going to invade. clearly he intends to subjugate ukraine. i think it is the beginning of a significant campaign and it is starting as a military planner would put it together, which is to say take out the air defense systems, take out the command and control, terrify the population to put a huge refugee burden on the outgoing government, terrify the international community. if that's not shock and awe, i don't know what is. i think the next thing you are going to see are going to be pretty serious movements of troops and tanks led by -- and there go the air raid sirens in real-time. we are watching the history channel unfold in real-time here, by the way. we are on a rocket ride back to the

and former ambassador to russia michael mcfaul. msnbc and international affairs analyst, richard, i'll go to you first. what we're hearing from mr. kirby there has been the first reaction officially and formally from the biden administration, to the speech in which the ukrainian president delivered to his people in which he referenced this date coming up, february, february 16th as the potential date that russia may invade. what are you hearing and what do you know? >> so, that speech has caused some confusion here in ukraine. so, let's just take a bit of a step back. for the last several days there's been a lot of speculation about when russia might attack. and in the media, wednesday, the 16th, was the date that had been floated everything times. there were articles in european newspapers, several news outlets pointing specifically to wednesday as the possibility. now, on record, u.s. officials never went that far, as far as i know. they were only highlighting that an attack could come at any stage, that it could come even before

ambassador to russia, michael mcfaul. he was in that role, ambassador, when russia invaded and annexed crimea in 2014. ambassador mcfaul, it is good to see you, thank you for joining us. >> glad to be here, rachel. welcome back. >> thank you. let me just ask you first for how you are feeling. how, as somebody you have been watching this so closely -- you have lived through a smaller version of this before, in terms of what happened in 2014. how you feeling watch watching what is happening in ukraine? what is your overall reaction to what putin has done and what he has been able to pull off as far? hat putin has done and wha he has>> well, my first reactios that i am incredibly sad. rachel, i have lots of friends in ukraine. hundreds of people have trained in our various programs. our programs at stanford, i used to go there often. and when they started to attack last night i was on various platforms, talking to ukrainians. some of them are now rather prominent ukrainians and government in other places. and it was terrifyi

>> that's what i want to talk to ambassador mcfaul about. you look how ambassador mcfaul is sanctioned by the russian government which is far reaching. it is to silence his voice because he is speaking for the press in russia. but you look at our sanctions and it is still sanctions that ultimately protect elites around the world. you look at boris johnson and how tepid he was yesterday. you look at all of the dirty money flowing into places like america, like london, and we aren't really necessarily doing anything that hurts those elites, that hurts the russian elites and their families, frankly. i want to ask ambassador mcfaul, how do you feel about sanctions on putin's cronies and their families that are taking the plunder in the west and going and effectively affecting their lives because sanctions affect ordinary people and cause ordinary people, causing them to starve, what about going after elites and how could we do that? >> i'm all for it. i think it is a moment, it is a time -- by the way, the biden administration even before this h

and michael mcfaul, former u. s. ambassador to russia and he and bc -- thank you all for being here. let's start on the ground. i want to know how you assess of the situation has changed on the ground in the past 24 hours, both in the threat to ukraine, and its neighbors given the president's decision to move more u. s. troops to protect the country's nearly on the border with russia. >> it has certainly changed. there has been an invasion of ukraine. and then vision is the imposition of armed troops on sovereign territory without consent of that sovereign nation. it does not matter whether it is a squad, 22 tanks, or 200,000 troops. the big change of course is there has been an invasion. administration is using that term vividly, and correctly to rally democratic forces on the military side, the ukrainians themselves are amping up their military preparation to fight. ukrainian forces were under my command when i was supreme allied commander of nato. they are not many members, but their close partners, they have foug

mcfaul: thank you. i will take the first step and say we should hear from general hodges on this, a man who knows more about those kinds of issues. i would say i am impressed with what the biden administration have done so far. it was controversial to move our embassy, and i think that was the right call. it was correct for the administration to call on americans to leave ukraine. that was a very controversial call and it was the right call. the last thing we want to see is , if god forbid putin decides to invade, which would see americans in ukraine die as a result of that. third, i want to remind everybody, ukraine is not a homogenous society. if putin launches an aerial campaign against major cities he will be killing ethnic russians as well. it will not just be ethnic ukrainians, and i hope that is part of his consideration. on the one hand he talks about wanting to unite with our slavic brothers, on the other hand he is threatening to kill slavic brothers right now, not just ethnic ukrainians, ethn

joining me now is the former ambassador to russia, michael mcfaul. michael you have been discussing this all night long before we had confirmation of explosions and the idea that there are troops. you were listening to vladimir putin basically announcing to the world that they are starting this military incursion to protect russians and russian speakers inside of ukraine. a premise that you and i have discussed many times. >> yeah it's such a tragic day, before we talk and analyze putin i just want everyone to understand how horrible this is this is a democratic and free country and the heart of europe they did nothing to deserve this. they have not provoke vladimir putin this is not about the stupid nato expansion debate that we have been having in this country for weeks now. as it that was precipitate. this is an unprovoked war, it reminds me of september 1st 1939 when hitler invaded poland. we need to be crystal clear and not go back to that debate. number two listening to putin it's just completely preposterous what he is saying. let's be clear,

michael mcfaul, you were here with me yesterday.to give just a panoramic overview of this day, including what we just heard from from blinken and kuleba, i want could get your general assessment of how we're doing and where we're going. >> the administration is now using the word invasion or the start of invasion. that's the right way to describe what is happening in ukraine. number two, you had a much wider range of sanctions today than you had yesterday, serious ones a couple of the banks, i dare you to try to say that, john, it's a hard word to say. that bank is used to finance the military industrial complex. veb, we just called it putin's slush fund run by the first deputy prime minister back when i was ambassador. now he's chairman. these are close to putin and they went after the children in the executive order of some of the elite around vladimir putin. that's -- to the best of my knowledge, that's the first time we've done that. i applaud those decisions. and at the same time, i want to emphasize i do not see a scenario in

mcfaul made the same point.at something else has happened here, even though it doesn't look what you think and invasion looks like from the movies or tv. ambassador, thank you for your time tonight as always. retired united states admiral james stavridis, the former nato supreme allied commander. pulitzer prize-winning -- applebaum joins us live. she lived in eastern europe when the soviet union fell apart. she is insightful things to say about what is happening right now. she is insightful things to sa about what is happening righ now. now to be a thriver with metastatic breast cancer means asking for what we want. and need. and we need more time. so, we want kisqali. women are living longer than ever before with kisqali when taken with an aromatase inhibitor or fulvestrant in postmenopausal women with hr+, her2- metastatic breast cancer. kisqali is a pill that's significantly more effective at delaying disease progression versus an aromatase inhibitor or fulvestrant alone. kisqali can cause lung problems, or a

i want to bring in former ambassador michael mcfaul. also an nbc news international affairs analyst. so much happening. we're just getting that information in the last couple of minutes. but as raf just said, you've got explosions lighting up the sky. you have tanks rolling. and then the kremlin says, we're going to belarus, which ukraine believes is emily territory. you believe there is anything behind us that could be serious? behind us that could be serious? -- which he made very clear. at the beginning of this war. one was to destroy the ukrainian military. and to, was to do what he called the nazification. and that to me is a good work for regime change. wiping out the democratically elected, peaceful government of ukraine. and everything he's doing on the ground suggests that he is still focused on achieving those two objectives. if he serious about peace negotiations he might stop attacking ukrainian cities. but he's not doing that yet. >> there's been a surprise that ukrainian forces, for example, have been able to continue to h

mcfaul made the same point. not to fall into an idea that something else has happened here, even though it doesn't look what you think and invasion looks like from the movies or tv. ambassador, thank you for your time tonight as always. retired united states admiral james stavridis, the former nato supreme allied commander. pulitzer prize-winning -- applebaum joins us live. she lived in eastern europe when the soviet union fell apart. she is insightful things to say about what is happening right now. as a struggling actor, i need all the breaks that i can get. at liberty butchumal- cut. liberty biberty- cut. we'll dub it. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ (music) ♪ i think to myself ♪ ♪ what a wonderful world ♪ allergies with nasal congestion overwhelming you? breathe more freely with powerful claritin-d. get fast relief of your worst allergy symptoms including nasal congestion, so you can breathe be

ambassador to russia michael mcfaul.o julia, how effective husband important been at eliminating any opposition, and does whatever we think we know about putin's frame of mind need to change? >> well, on your first question unfortunately he has been prolific and virtual sick at wiping out what was left of the opposition. it has happened within the last year. it happened when the russian opposition leader returned from germany in mid january of last year, he had been recuperating in germany after having been poisoned by a military grade nerve agent by the fsb on putin's orders. he dared to come home. people came out and protested, and the kremlin hit back, and everybody is basically now in jail, and exiled abroad, or very quietly trying not to end up on either of those places. this is a country where people go to jail for liking things on facebook, for sharing other peoples posts on facebook, for sharing music videos that they themselves did not make. so what happens is when you establish that climate of fear, there is no

that means he's not so afraid to launch a fifth war against ukraine. >> michael mcfaul, thanks again.>> the far away conflict in eastern europe is being felt already at home. russia's invasion of ukraine pushing oil prices to their highest level in seven years according to aaa, the national average for a gallon of gas is up 33% this couldn't come at a worse time, with inflation already scoring. >> russia is the third largest oil producer >> reporter: the threat of a war sending oil prices soaring nearing $100 a barrel, the highest since 2015 experts warning any sanctions towards russia's energy sector could make things even worse today, president biden saying his administration is planning to blunt disruptions. >> i want to limit the pain to the american people are feeling at the gas pump. >> reporter: it's not just gas with russia and ukraine both being large exporters. >> it's going to be sky high, and the potential of sticker shock. >> reporter: if that wasn't enough, the biden administration warning governors nationwide to remain on alert for cyber attacks. >> we're going to be ab

call it helsinki 2.0 michael mcfaul joins us now.mbassador to russia 2012 to 2014 in the room when then vice president biden met with putin 11 years ago ambassador, thank you so much. first, president putin believes he's called by god, you said expand on that first if you would. >> well, president putin has become a very religious figure over the last 20 years, he didn't start that way but he has become more religious. he thinks that his mission in the world is a sacred one. that he is doing this to right the wrongs, as you rightly summarized, thank you for that summary, that was fantastic, some of the things i've written. and that's, i think, important for westerners and americans to understand he is not calculating the cost/benefit analysis of this, how is it going to affect the russian stock market next week he thinks he's playing for a much bigger game and that makes it hard when you're doolg with a idealogically motivated leader that has a lot of power, makes it hard to negotiate with him. >> bottom line, tomorrow when president

i want to bring back ambassador mike mcfaul, he's a former ambassador to russia. i'm just looking at a volodymyr zelenskyy tweet, it's an ukrainian, so i can read, it does appear that he is talking to president biden, that he is talking to the chancellor of germany, he's working the phones tonight. he is trying to get something he. was very clear, in movie eunuch, he's been very clear every day, that we need the west help here, you've indicated there are things that the west can do. wet is zelenskyy asking them to do tonight? >> obviously, i don't know for sure. but we've been talking a lot tonight about the russian military versus the ukrainian military. what would be catastrophic is if the ukrainian military ran out of weapons. javelins, singers, artillery shells. those we probably don't provide, but other things we can provide, that, i think, would be a first order asked that he might be seeking. and then, other ukrainians that we might be talking about, has said they need the kind of equipment for civilian defense, so i think the first order ask will be to mak

. >>> stanford professor michael mcfaul, an u.s. ambassador to russia during the obama administration, has also negotiated face-to-face with vladimir putin. professor mcfaul has been a valuable resource for us at nbc during this invasion. >> everything they're doing today is going to have implications for every country of europe in the coming days and weeks and months, and americans too. if you listen to him closely, i don't hear him saying we plan to attack a nato ally. but i think we want to do everything we can to make sure that gets to a zero probability as possible. >> while the professor praises nato's unity thus far, it's important to remember if energy prices soar, that unity could be challenged. a lot of analyses into vladimir putin and his motivation for this invasion. our scott mcgrew says the russian leader speaks untruth mixed with truth and an appeal to history. >> reporter: russian president vladimir putin spoke to the russians about the sacrifice their grandfathers and great-grandfathers made in the second world war.

ambassador to russia, michael mcfaul. julia, founding partner and washington correspondent for puck news and david, columnist for the daily beast and "usa today" and the deep state podcast. david, it was your rant that captured my attention today because it -- i've come to expect very little from the republican party to be blunt. i understand that they prefer autocracy and believe white christians need to rule the united states without elections. got it. but this is really at this point open. this is nevell chamberland behavior. that is new, i feel like that is something trump brought to the the table, your thoughts? >> i find the whole thing hard to believe, you know, in most of our history, when we were threatened or our allies were threatened by an enemy, we tried to come together. doesn't mean we always agreed but we tried to make an effort to present a united front to the world and we looked after american national interests first and foremost. here, you have an entire movement within the republican party that is pra

ambassador mcfaul, i'm curious your thoughts on the same question.letely and brazenly a country can lurch to sort of full authoritarian down with putin identity, and it struck me as just wild and crazy that the most watched host on one of the most watched cable channels in america is en route to visit orban again. >> i didn't know that fact. i think i know who you're talking about. but nicole, i want to answer both questions. to this question, it gets back to something you and i have talked about many times. the fight between democrats and autocrats is not between the east and the west like it was in the cold war. it's within democracies. so, we're having that fight here in our country. you talk about it always. viktor orban, you know, ideologically, i think is closer to vladimir putin than he is to president biden. and in many other countries in europe as well, and that struggle, i don't think many -- we're not focused enough on that ideological struggle, in my view. and the fact that these guys are buddy-buddy, i think, underscores the point. to th

said michael mcfaul, who is the u.s. ambassador to russia when annexed crimea. and so now, today, we have the opposite. the u.s. government is declassifying and published signing at -- what it says it knows about russia's plans. from the movements of russia's forces to its alleged plans to launch false flag operations to new urgent warnings that an invasion could come any day. according to the times quote, the hope is that by disclosing mr. putin's plans that will disrupt them. it is quote, information warfare. between the u.s. and russia. not only do we the american public find ourselves caught in the middle of this information war. but so of course does ukraine. ukraine's president has expressed frustration with the everlasting alarm bells being wrong by the biden administration worry that those bells will cause panic in his country. ukraine's president is actually inviting president biden to visit ukraine in the coming days. but that seems unlikely. the wall street journal reports today that, not only is the state department evacuated most embassy staff in th

also with us international affairs analyst, former ambassador to russia, michael mcfaul and andrea mitchellc news chief foreign affairs correspondent. this is no one to be with you than you four when all this stuff is happening. ambassador, i want to start with you. talk to us about what vladimir putin said in this speech tonight in moscow, what it means and the implications and is it really as bad as i characterized it in the lead-in to the block? >> i think it's worse. i'd like what you said be it is worse. first he met with the security council. and talked about why they needed to go ahead with the recognition of these two republics, the people's republics. luhansk and donetsk. that's what stalin imposed after 1945. there's an echo of that. then went on national television. i haven't had a chance to listen to it. a long speech. i listened to a lot of it in russian. it was a very, very angry speech. this is a man who feels agrieved, justified and sounded like much more to come besides recognizing the two republics as inspected countries and then he sat down with the two leaders, figurehea

. >> joining us now is michael mcfaul who served as the u.s. the obama administration. he is an msnbc international affairs analyst. and, ambassador mcfaul, did the russian people hear what president biden tried to say to them today? >> good question, lawrence. they don't watch our television programs, but it will be translated in various ways. i thought it was exactly the right message to both the russian people. but especially to the american people. i think the biden administration has put together a pretty good strategy of diplomacy. it doesn't mean that it's going to work, because i've smaller cards than putin does in the standoff, but they haven't really explained it to the american people. and i thought the president did an excellent job today of trying to lay out and explain what we are doing, also what we are not doing, which is we are not going to send american soldiers to ukraine. and explaining why this is just bigger than ukraine and it's about all the liberal international order, and we cannot lead big countries like russia annexe

ambassador to russia michael mcfaul. and msnbc national security expert evelyn farkis.and this whirlwind over the weekend and up until coming on the air today. what is your understanding of where things stand at this hour? >> right. things have been moving in a pretty straight direction here where the white house and administration is talking about moves that point towards a possible russian invasion. the navy forces to the soutd, build-up of troops to the east and the north, military overflights near ukrainian territory. pointing to the possibility that russia could launch an invasion very soon and don't know precisely when. >> ambassador, on friday you wrote this. if putin does agree to negotiate then biden and the team should not just offer defensively minimal concessions to freeze the crisis. in concert biden should seize the offensive and counter with a grand bargain to enhance security. it could refresh the helsinki accords signed in the cold war that stabilize the continent. where are you on the optimism scale that's still a possibility? >> not optimistic at all.

ambassador, michael mcfaul, will join us. in the 73 million dollar settlement families of the sandy hook victims have received. they have agreed to sell a lawsuit brought against the gunman. that made the murder weapon. we'll speak to a mother who lost their son that day about this victory. how to keep the momentum going. let's get started. it has been a bad week for anyone with the last name trump. on thursday, a new york judge issued a bombshell ruling in that state's investigation to donald trump's finances. not only must trump now produce a troll of documents that he's been hiding. his children, ivanka and don jr. are being ordered to testify in the case. that ruling, following the messy public breakup between trump and his now former accounting firm, mazars. last week, mazars cut ties with the trump organization after it said nearly a decade's worth of trump counting statement should no longer be relied upon. the trump can't try to claim that this means that there is no need to continue an investigation into trump organi

you hear michael mcfaul they're calling out his bluff. we all know, to a certain extent, the russian president is lying about this. so who is he playing to? >> well nato in general. the united states in particular, nato overall. this is vladimir putin fighting a war in ukraine for seven years now. he's not winning that war. so this is a continuation of the war that he started in 2013 in the husk. and this is his way to solve the ukraine question. nato has built up over the last several years, not really on russia's borders, not in the way he describes it. and he's testing the lines here and he's looking at the airlines altogether, if the nato alliance will help the ukrainians, if the nato alliance will see to his demands to move back pre 1997 levels which means all the baltic countries, hungary, romania, things like that, will not be nato members anymore. so you want to see if that will give him -- its very clear over the past 72 hours that they are not what >> i am going to ask my panel to stick with me, we have a lot more to talk about.

i want to compliment ambassador mcfaul on the piece.ho do we the allies turn a crisis into an opportunity we have been reacting but not acting as allies and what one is hoping for here is to turn that around you talked about 1938. what people here are talking about. that was chamberlain and hitler and appeasement. people talk about 2007 15 years ago almost to the day putin came here and declared cold war 2 it was a revengist statement he said he doesn't accept the world and wanted things to revisited. he has used the time since 2007 to georgia, crimea and syria he's been busy while the alliance itself is trying to act as if the issue is now china, not russia that russia could be part and now we know from the joint statement of two weeks ago that china and russia are actually joined at the hip so this is a really dark time right now and people are coming in hoping to unify and worried about what will happen next. >> first your response and then the ambassador i think on a lot of minds is why now. why would putin choose this moment in tim

ambassador mcfaul tweeted "this is a big deal. at one time this general was one of the most respected and hawkish leaders in the military of defense. russian leaders don't usually get involved in public policy debates, especially ones like this general. >> that is huge. i couldn't see the general's name. it doesn't matter what the russian people think in their system. what matters is the elites around putin, it's a very small circle, but they're the people that will advise him. in 2014/15, i was in the situation room with my colleague, many now who are helping president biden, we watched as putin was taking away more ukrainian territory. in 2015, there was a very bloody time period, a lot of fighting going on and the russians held a meeting and we thought they would advance further militarily and they didn't. they do have these conversations and they do make decisions, ultimately putin is the final decision-maker but people around him can have an impact. russian generals do not speak out publicly and they're usually standing next

ambassador to russia michael mcfaul.ssia. >> the way we think about him now is somebody does something bad and we give them a parking ticket and then we just let them park there forever, so crimea, where as my view they have to ratchet up. >> that hearing is coming as u.s. lawmakers are struggling to present a unified front, no surprise there in the ongoing tension. texas representative colin allred said "ukraine's fight is our fight." adding "regardless of ideology, we must come together here in the united states to turn back this tide before it is too late." and congress colin allred was recently part of a congressional delegation that visited ukraine. thanks for joining us on this busy morning. you mentioned the tide. you talking about the tied of autocracy as we are watching this house oversight subcommittee hearing on russia. what do you want to see come out of this, the action that is needed to get moscow under control? >> well, when i was in ukraine, i went as part of a bipartisan delegation and we were united in

with me, richard engel and ambassador michael mcfaul. richard, russia is not only holding exercises in belarus but holding naval exercises in the black sea. ukraine says exercises that could cut-off vital sea routes. what could it mean for ukraine/russia? >> well, if russia were to cut-off this country access to the black sea, it would be crippling economic blow. it would be a severe blow to the government. and i think that's what this ill all about. from here you can load off the ship and go through the seas. then into the mediterraneans. from here you can connect with the world. if they lost access to this port and the sea exposure, they would be a landlock. it is not just the threat of military invasion. they are worry of a small scale operation and and combined with subversive act that there could be a staged demonstration that could come before or during or instead of a massive military operation. when you talk about u.s. military seeing nine possible incursion routes from a major invasion, here in ukraine, there are thousands, goin

mike mcfaul, this is all so heart breaking. thank you.taking cover, how ordinary ukrainians have hunkered down or fled to stay safe in the invasion. you're watching special coverage of the russian invasion on ukraine. this is msnbc. this is msnbc. moves you've evern good for you, but shingles doesn't care. because 1 in 3 people will get shingles, you need protection. but, no matter how healthy you feel, your immune system declines as you age increasing your risk for getting shingles. so, what can protect you? shingrix protects. you can protect yourself from shingles with a vaccine proven to be over 90% effective. shingrix is a vaccine used to prevent shingles in adults 50 years and older. shingrix does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients or to a previous dose. an increased risk of guillain-barré syndrome was observed after getting shingrix. fainting can also happen. the most common side effects are pain, redness, and swelling at the injection site, muscle pain, tiredness, headache, s

i taught this, as did mcfaul. i teach this at stanford.n you go into a country uninvited, a sovereign country with your military, this is an invasion. and it was. i think what they saw overnight, the intelligence and movement that courtney has been describing as well as the way vladimir putin described it today which was to expand on the separatist areas to enlarge those borders it clearly is an invasion. i don't think that i got to the original question that there's a meeting with lavrov this week. they will hold that off. but they don't think it would do anything but create another propaganda platform for lavrov who is not that close to putin. he's the foreign minister, he travels all the time and putin has been so covid-adverse. you've seen him with the long table. he merely deals with his top intelligence man, those are the people he has face-to-face contact, they are hardline and not as well versed in the complexity what has happened in ukraine over the years. i think secretary of state might travel to nato or some other ally to reinf

but if it really happens, how worried should the administration be about fall out, and as michael mcfaulut it, you know, the reverberations throughout the global economy? >> yeah, the president has been very intentional about communicating with the public, what to expect throughout this entire crisis. and i think it's paying off with people supporting his move for sanctions i think one poll put it at 63% of americans support that move. and when he did that in his speech, naming that we're gonna feel this, is making a tangible and real about the impact that we're gonna feel here, giving people a heads up essentially. and i think it also went on to say that he and his team are gonna look into mitigation efforts to address what could be high rise in expenses for energy. he has to give on the public asap, because republicans are gonna jump on this as their newest talking point about him adding to people's woes right now, about him creating additional problems right now, especially during a midterms cycle. and republicans have already shown that they're willing and able to attack him on russi