ambassador michael mcfaul, what do you make of this remarkable mass exodus of men from russia? is there any precedent for this? is this a tipping point? >> first, congratulations to what ilia is doing. we need people like him. for months i've been arguing wherever i can that the west has to have a much better strategy for encouraging defections from russia. and now this is another moment are we have to do it, we just have to have a strategy for encouraging these people to leave and the brain drain. we want every smart person in russia to leave today, come work here in the silicon valley. we've got to change our system to make that work. and third, i would just underscore, we've been talking about and listening for years about how popular putin is, everybody loves putin. guess what?! they don't. and here we have some very strong evidence that there's real turmoil when this war was far away and not, you know, not on the -- not affecting families, it was one thing. now that it's affecting everybody, it's another thing. and i think we need to be encouraging that to whatever -- othe

operation in ukraine will continue until all the goals that were originally set are achieved michael mcfaul now, former u.s. ambassador to russia michael, thank you so much the war obviously far from over, of course. but how important are these particular gains >> well, first, they're spectacular. nobody predicted it, and they're going on the move. second, these interest biggest victories since the war, the battle of kyiv, if you remember that several months ago when we also predicted that the russians would take the capital they didn't. i think this is the second biggest victory after that and third, after a long status quo stalemate of artillery shells going back and forth, long-range fires, it felt like this war was going to drag on. this suggests that maybe it won't drag on, that this counteroffensive might be successful and i think it's the kind of shoot -- shot in the arm that the ukrainians need to fight this war to the end. >> francis fukuyama said today if ukraine can gain military momentum before the end of the year, it will be much easier for leaders of western democracies to arg

ambassador to russia, now the director of the institute for international studies at stanford, michael mcfaul. mr. ambassador, what do you make of these ukrainian advances? and what are the challenges ahead given the fact that they will need a constant stream of support? >> these are fantastic victories, as you were talking about. they've been planned for a long time. i think it was a brilliant tactical move for the ukrainians to talk about the counteroffensive in kherson as you were just discussing. they kept talking about it, right? i was wondering why are they talking so loud di about the counteroffensive in kherson? that's rather unusual. that's exactly because they wanted the russians to focus on kherson as they, then, pushed them out of all those cities you've been showing on the map in kharkiv. and once you have momentum, ukrainians are there to fight, they are there to defend their territory. the russian soldiers don't know why they're there. and i've watched dozens of videos of russians and ukrainians over the last 48 hours that show that. the russians have no idea why they're there.

joining us now is michael mcfaul, former u.s.assador to russia, nbc news, international affairs analyst. ambassador, we saw videos of some rare public displays of anger, displays in the street. this has to be a very unpopular move, sending thousands of people, many from the far eastern regions to die, to slaughter. how does this end? >> i don't know. and i don't trust anybody who says they do know. what i can say so far is that putin is losing the war in ukraine. he wouldn't have made this announcement were he to be winning. he's desperate he did not want to do this calling up 300,000 reservists to go fight in a war that a lot of people don't understand why they're fighting is a very dangerous political move, but he thinks it's necessary, because he's losing on the battlefield >> i was talking about this with my wife last night, and she asked, how does this end a group of generals pop their heads up and say, we are the government now, western world, you deal with us, putin is no longer in control and we're now the governing force

ambassador to russia michael mcfaul.house saying about how they're going to try to help these two families, what they could tell them? >> what the white house is saying is that they -- the president and his staff have been working on getting these two americans released, bringing them home. they say that the president is regularly updated about this and what he's going to do today is try to convey that to these family members, brittney griner's wife and paul whelan's sister, elizabeth. there will be separate meetings. and the president is there to say this is a top priority for him. that he's working on this and to try to put some personal attention to what's been a very public issue, the president's come under pressure to get the release of not just these americans but all americans who are -- the u.s. says are wrongfully detained around the world. we'll see him today. he's had a phone call with the family members of paul whelan and brittney griner and now he'll do this in-person meeting. however, katy, it's worth notin

ambassador to russia, michael mcfaul. carol, i want to start with you.he'll be meeting with a leader of the philippines. obviously ukraine/russia is the forefront of his comments there. what has the reaction been from the global community to what the president was trying to get across yesterday, that the world must unite to stop this invasion by russia? >> well, i think the president has allies on that, specifically in europe. it's harder to unite the entire u.n. general assembly because it's a very diverse group and some of the members obviously have leanings toward russia or rely on russia for certain things such as energy. but what you're hearing from the administration is they feel very good about the president's speech, the message that he delivered, which was a number of things. if you just take the russian president vladimir putin's rhetoric when it comes to nuclear weapons, we heard the president call that out directly, saying that that was reckless, even though the administration officials say they're not seeing any evidence that there's actuall

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michael mcfaul, former u.s.a, always great to see you, thank you for your time tonight. >> thank you for having me. >> up next, the question of who gets aid, after a disaster like hurricane ian, may depend, very much, on which part of the country we live in. stay with us. before we begin, i'd like to thank our sponsor, liberty mutual. they customize your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. and by switching, you could even save $652. thank you, liberty mutual. now, contestants ready? go! why? why? only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty.♪ so many people are overweight now, onand asking themselves,ed. "why can't i lose weight?" for most, the reason is insulin resistance, and they don't even know they have it. conventional starvation diets don't address insulin resistance. that's why they don't work. now there's release from golo. it naturally helps reverse insulin resistance, stops sugar cravings, and releases stubborn fat all while controlling stress and emotional eating. at

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ambassador to russia, michael mcfaul. i'm so glad you're here, ambassador mcfaul. done? this man does not seem to be stable. he's going around talking about the anglo-saxons blew up the nord stream pipeline, holding a pep rally with these, you know, phony leaders that were elected in these stolen territories and snatching territory and saying it's russia. what can the world do about this? >> first, joy, this is an incredibly tragic, sad, and scary day. i think it will go down in history as one of the worst days in europe since world war ii. annexation of territory the size of portugal, and now he's saying he's going to defend it by any means necessary. this is a gentleman who controls nuclear weapons. and therefore it's scary day. a hard day for western leaders. president biden and his allies and partners to make decisions, but the obvious is to stay the course. more weapons. better weapons, more sanctions, better sanctions. help president zelenskyy return sovereignty to his country. he has pledged to do so. i think we need to help him. >> now, zelenskyy has been v

. >> fleeing the battle, fleeing the draft orders and fleeing the floor of the u.n michael mcfaul, former ambassador to russia can there a way the west can capitalize on what appears to be a lot of unrest in russia? >> well, mr. putin's having a bad several weeks, right he lost the beginning of the war in the battle of kyiv. he has now lost this incredible setback around the second largest city in kharkiv. so he's decided to take this very dramatic step that he promised the russian people he wouldn't do, which is this mobilization and as you just showed, lots of people dent like it. thousands demonstrating. first time we've seen that since the beginning of the war and you can rest assured if thousands are demonstrating, tens if not hundreds of thousands of russians share that view they just don't want to get arrested and then people fleeing in any way they can, causing mr. putin real troubles at home in terms of the legitimacy of this ar. >> those russian troops have already suffered losses. is there any reason to believe these reserves that he is calling up without training or weapons th

michael mcfaul is here and also joining us retired lieutenant colonel alexander vindman.th you. i want to know what putin is doing, that's pretty clear. but it is likely to shore him up domestically? i know it comes as domestic weakness since he's launched a war in ukraine. >> first, i want to emphasize something you've already said. this is very, very tragic day for ukraine, for europe, for the liberal international order, for those that built a new system after the horrific world war ii, the united nations 1945. in part we establish the united nations to stop annexation and to promote decolonization and independence. this is, i think, the biggest step backwards from that since 1945. >> wow. >> to your point about whether this will be popular or not, i don't know. you know, you saw the faces. i listened to the speech. there was, you know, i would say polite applause, somewhere fanatical. most were polite among his elites, but what we've also seen is more people have -- i think more russian men have been mobilized to leave rushy so far than have been mobilized to fight th