and putin does, too.good at the bureaucracy of all of it. >> narrator: by the late '90s, he'd earned the confidence of russia's first president, boris yeltsin. they were an odd couple-- the former spy and a progressive politician who was trying to bring democracy to russia. >> boris yeltsin decided to break totalitarianism, to crush what was left of communism, with a simple idea, which is maximum freedom first. >> narrator: before long, yeltsin promoted putin to lead the kgb's successor, the fsb. >> he undertakes this remarkable rise, basically having nothing to do with the center of power in moscow to running its most important security agency, working in the kremlin. >> narrator: putin convinced yeltsin that he shared the president's democratic goals. >> he's a professional liar. to lie is what he was taught in the intelligence school. he was pretending that he was going to pursue the same development of russia as yeltsin did. but that's all is just one big lie. >> another major shakeup in the kremlin--

putin reasoned otherwise. the swiftist government takedown in a billionaire in the history of a world, collapsing his company, seizing and freezing his assets, arresting him on fraud charges. he was literally whisked from his own plane i represented prison, tried in a glass cage in court in public for all russians to see. that's the cage there. think about this. putin did not proactively plan the bail nair's show of defiance. he didn't know that was coming. but when it happened, he used it as a strategic dictator to send a message he hadn't been able to send in that way, that no amount of money or connections can save you if you cross him. faced with lemons, putin made a kind of dictator's lemonade. then regular russians could see then, and this was in the earlier phase before the poisonings i just showed you, they could see if this is what happened to elon musk of russia, the jeff bezos of moscow, imagine what would happen to you? cortico ski served ten years in prison and was able to be compiled after a lot

he's right that putin has soldiers and putin has tanks and putin has rockets, but putin also needs cashpay the soldiers. soldiers are not volunteering without being paid. as we speak today, russian government is trying to recruit new cannon fodder — the expression used by you — to send them to the new offensive initiatives in the east of ukraine. and for that, putin needs cash. he can print roubles, but inflation in russia is already high. just to give you a magnitude, the first week of the war, russian consumer prices went up by 2% per week, and the same happened in the second week. the same happened in the third week. only now, the inflation is coming down, but it's still at 1% per week. so, inflation is a problem and soldiers who are being paid in roubles would complain, and we hear complaints from their families that these roubles are losing their value. so, in that sense, putin needs foreign exchange. putin needs to be paid for his oil and gasjust to continue to motivate, incentivise his own soldiers and officers. right, but the russians might have just listened very carefully to w

—— that putin's war ends in defeat? this war is about will, it's about the will and determination of putin, about the will of ukrainians, led by zelensky, and also about the will of the west to confront putin. whose will, right now, do you think is the strongest? you know putin well — i'd be interested in your answer. really? because there is a school of thought in the west that putin cannot afford a humiliation in ukraine. and if he is facing humiliation, he will use all of the weaponry at his disposal, including weapons of mass destruction — including, some believe, nuclear weapons. are you saying that fear is misplaced? you visited washington, dcjust a few days ago. you spoke to us officials, you've seen the latest assistance package for ukraine — $800 million of new weaponry perhaps some heavier weaponry that we seen before but still nothing like the list that president zelensky wants of heavy artillery, fighter jets, all sorts of things which he is not getting. as you talk to the americans and to european leaders a

you know putin well, i'd be interested in your answer. really?ecause there is a school of thought in the west that putin cannot afford a humiliation in ukraine. and if he is facing humiliation he will use all of the weaponry at his disposal including weapons of mass destruction, including, some believe, nuclear weapons. are you saying that fear is misplaced? you visited washington, dc just a few days ago, you spoke to us officials, you've seen the latest assistance package for ukraine, $800 million of new weaponry perhaps some heavy weaponry that we seen before. still nothing like the list that president zelensky wants of heavy artillery, fighterjets, all sorts of things which he is not getting. as you talk to the americans into european leaders as well, do you believe that they will never provide this weaponry or perhaps the provided but maybe it will be too late? what is your message to them? this isn'tjust about weapons, is it? it's also about the vast amounts of money that the west, particularly the europeans sent to russia every single day,

putin to ukraine, well, listen, er, if putin meant a little, er, he would have a different sense of reality , this would not have happened, because it is absolutely obvious that it was a lose-lose decision for putin himself and for russia itself, but it happened and here we can already analyze why it happened and to talk about the progressiveness of russia and about the existence of putin in the world of soviet images and soviet and soviet propaganda and about the dictator's isolation from the world, and this is precisely where we can mention the coronavirus epidemic because he turned out to be isolated even from his own environment and it is clear that in such a situation a person has a distorted idea of ​​what is happening in the world and of course we can talk about the fact that i work a dictatorial model when the dictator is put on what he wants to hear and see and here i explain all this why putin, why did putin go for this, but putin, well, in principle , again, if you think rationally, then there is nothing to do. well, even if he really took it would have limited himself donbass wo

that putin was bluffing.e seemed overly concerned about the americans urging warnings that russia was about to strike. and then in a moment, life suddenly changed. [noise] [speaking foreign language] >> any future plans ukrainians had were gone. [speaking foreign language] >> they were only priorities now. >> it is crazy, you hear kids screaming, mothers screaming, it is so crazy. >> you can see that man holding his baby up so that he is not crushed by this crowd. the train has opened its doors, but clearly there is not room for everyone. nobody wants to miss this train. [noise] >> people are hugging and saying goodbye, and not sure if they will ever come back to this place. >> ukrainians had to evacuate, or fight. russia was trying to overthrow ukraine in a rapid blitzkrieg. for putin, ukraine is a pretend country that belonged under his iron fist. a fascist, neo-nazi state, that needed to be destroyed. that is the idea. that a bunch of neo-nazis run by a jewish president one day we're going to get a nuclear

why is putin ignoring medvedchuk?ell, first of all, it was questions about special services i think that at the moment we should have worked more effectively at the initial stage regarding the fifth column and about russia's plans to attack ukraine. but after the victory, we will evaluate the activities of all our structures in order to then give an objective assessment of medvedchuk himself and precisely his godfather putin in this situation putin has another priority medvedchuk is actually the material that can be worked out why because at the moment he was one of the executors of that strategy is one of the politicians who should support putin's strategy in ukraine at the expense of the political activities of his supporters and perhaps those people who together went to power in different circles, this is why today in general at the moment when he was detained and when he tried to leave, they practically did not allow him to carry out his operation regarding the removal of putin understood the exchange for medvedch

. >> real questions now about what vladamir putin is being told. >> we believe putin is being misinformed by his advisers about how badly the russian military is performing. >> my guest this morning, secretary of state antony blinken and masha gessen of the new yorker. plus hillary clinton. >> to do what putin decided to do says someone has a stake in trying to stop it. >> i'll talk about putin, the war, and the democrats' midterm headwind. plus the cc is wanting to end the immigration fight. >> every day it's harder to fight public health. >>> and donald trump asked putin for information on president biden's son hunter. >> i would think he would know the answer to that. >> why is the former president again asking for help against a man waging war. amy walter, editor in chief of the "politico" report. leigh ann caldwell and republican strategist brad todd, and cornell belcher. if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." >>> good sunday morning. have we reached a turning point in in war? russia's announcement that it was pulling its forces from kyiv increasingly looks more like an act of necess

does this set putin apart? >> so i do mention putin's experience in the lenin grad city government and charges he was in charge of a food import program in which money came -- money went out of the country and food never really came into the country and there were a lot of allegations that putin was deeply involved in this. another book cover this topics in better detail than i can, and that is really not what this book is about, and it's also not unique for leaders to rely on all kinds of agents at their disposal. now, whether or not that colors his economic policy or his foreign policies, that is the kind of analysis i don't want to do in a book like this because it would require an awful lot of speculation and an awful lot of relying on sources i think would likely be pretty dubious. >> second question: -- >> by the way if anybody wants to jump in on these points and we have a tremendous amount of expertise here so be more than happy to hear from the panelists as well. >> in the meantime the second question,

. >> real questions about what vladimir putin is being told. >> we believe putin is being misinformed by his advisers about how badly the russian military is performing. >> my guest today secretary of state antony blinken and russia putin expert. >> and one-on-one with hillary clinton. >> to let an autocrat do what putin decided to do is something that everybody has a stake in trying to stop. >> i'll talk to the former seth of state about putin, the war, and the democrats midterm head winds. and the democrats look at a policy that limited immigration. >> every day it is more and more difficult for the administration's claim that they're entitled whatsoever. >> and donald trump asked putin for information on president biden's son hunter. >> i would think pute wouldn't know the answer to that. i think we should see. >> why is the former president again asking for help from a man waging war on an ally? >> joining me from insider analysis are amy walter editor and chief and publisher of the political report. democratic pollster cornell, and leigh ann caldwell and republican strategist bra

they believe they still misinform vladimir putin and partly blame fsb for putin's decision to changene and it looks like the military now, they want an all-out war in ukraine. they believe that they still have a peace time army, completely mobilized ukrainian army, with the best weapons provided by the west, and they want more drastic accidents. they want more bombardments and more things to do in ukraine for the infrastructure of the country. >> so they want all-out war and feel that's being denied them by putin now, that's the bottom line? >> yes. >> wow. andre, thank you very much, appreciate your time and sharing reporting with us. >>> next, minority leader kevin mccarthy worried his own party would incite violence against other lawmakers on january 6th, his own party, and naming names, among them, matt gates. >> putting people in jeopardy -- >>> plus my next guest spent nearly a year in space, often side-by-side with russians, why he's convinced these yellow and blue space suits actually had nothing to do with protesting putin's invasion of ukraine. ♪ walking o on ♪ ♪ walking on

so what's more dangerous, putin thinking he's winning or putin being desperate and feeling defeated?on. for people in bucha, kramatorsk and dozens and dozens of ukrainian villages and towns, this question is irrelevant. many are dead or about to be dead. i think at the end of the war we'll have hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties. what else could be worse than that? i heard this logic when americans and europeans contemplated against the assad regime f. we would interfere and stop assad, things would be worse. millions and millions of refugees. i don't think we should think anymore about what putin likes or dislikes. the whole world owes ukraine full support. give them the weapons to fight. nato is not obliged to act on article 5, but nothing prevents nato from offering full help to the country that is against russian invasion and putin's way to destroy european security infrastructure. so that's why i think right now we owe ukrainian as clear statement that the goal of this war is for ukraine to win and whatever happens to putin is not about consideration. >> many people wo

coming up, putin's blind spot u.s. intelligence shows putin's advisers aren't actually telling him the truth about russia's losses inside ukraine. kurt volker, the former u.s. representative for ukraine negotiations is gonna join me on this program. plus, russia, if you're listening, trump wants foreign governments to interfere in a third presidential election, believe it or not. then, what questions remain around what donald trump was doing, and who he was speaking to from the day of the insurrection at the capitol. i am ayman mohyeldin, let's get started. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> tonight, some new developments and the war in ukraine. just hours ago, a key ukrainian negotiator claimed that peace talks between ukraine and russia where i can advanced enough stage, that direct talks between president zelenskyy and vladimir putin may be on the horizon. this, as new satellite images show russian forces pulling back from the capital of kyiv. in a potential major turning point, a senior defense official now confirming to nbc news that helic

i have i'm here to protect you from appreciating putin it's all putin's fault putin's point of view he demonized america's fuel companies some companies are blind they don't want to increase fuel production because putin's increase in the price of fuel. uh, they suggest increasing their profits, now is not the time to think about profits now is the time to stand up for your country and increase production to fight back putin there is a huge problem, americans are well aware of who to blame for all this most 38% blame biden for this crisis and only six percent of me in this way does not go know i'll say, by the way, here. uh, this decision will have to be discussed about millions of banner bars, or yes, the most popular politician in the united states of america is the president of ukraine zelensky and this is not a sensation. this is the last study, which, lord, america, and then what it was necessary to reach, firstly, it's true, it's real. that is, they made up this fact. well, this is a fact, and how should the president of the united states of america react to this fact that the

putin declares a big portion of ukraine, of ukraine. putin declares it as independent. oh, that's wonderful. so putin is now saying, it's independent, a large section of ukraine. i said, how smart is that? it is the next day, in response to criticism of the putin genius comment, donald trump said this -- >> trump said, putin is smart! i mean he's taking over a country for $2 worth of sanctions. i'd say that's pretty smart. he's taking over a country, literally a vast, vast location. a great piece of land with a lot of people and just walking right in. >> today, vladimir putin admitted that the sanctions are hurting russia saying, quote, the most urgent problem here is the disruption of export logistics but donald trump thought that it was worth $2 worth of sanctions, it was $2 worth of sanctions. and donald trump said vladimir putin was pretty smart to take those $2 worth of sanctions and exchange for taking over a country. what he called a great piece of land. donald trump believed that vladimir putin apparently believed that russian troops would be, quote, walking rig

putin remains defiant.tion: putin remains defiant. tuna/mom- putin remains defiant. translation: . ., . putin remains defiant. translation: . . , , translation: the collective west is not auoin to translation: the collective west is not going to abandon _ translation: the collective west is not going to abandon the _ translation: the collective west is not going to abandon the policy - translation: the collective west is not going to abandon the policy of. not going to abandon the policy of economic pressure on russia. we need to strive to maximise the utilisation of our enterprises to create new abilities and increase the global competitive nests of russia as a whole. at the same time, the key economic factor of the economy for i should be the preservation and creation ofjobs, the reduction of poverty, the improvement of the quality of life for people, and the availability of goods and services.— goods and services. let's get a sense of the — goods and services. let's get a sense of the impact _ goods and

happen after putin will be even worse because someone likes putin and may become putin two zero after it will be even worse but i think the first scenario is scary but i hope it won't happen i don't know how it will fall but we are seeing now the beginning of the end of putinism because he made a huge mistake not calculating this invasion of your ukraine but i i hope that there will be a more open and transparent regime in russia after him. thank you, ambassador mccall, for your comments. now i would like to pass the floor to andrii kobolev . it is possible to achieve a full energy embargo against russia. thank you, danylo, i would like to make a few comments about what mr. makf said, and uh, i have extensive experience in negotiations with the russians regarding their energy resources, and i am sure that one of the hypotheses that used by putin and his government is the fact that energy is so important because it cannot be replaced. neither cars nor gas can be replaced in europe. that's why when we talk about the west, i mean the countries oh wed and he they think that they will alwa

putin -- if you use wmds you will get an appropriate response from nato, that actually gives putin onlye, to sit down for real at the negotiating table. >> let me ask you, we are not thinking a lot about this, but if putin somehow comes out of this stronger, if the ukrainians have to concede on a number of issues, do you think he has greater ambitions, that he could at some point attack the baltic states or poland? >> translator: we must understand that in his head putin is at war not with ukraine, he is at war with the united states and nato. he said this more than once. his propagandists have already started to prepare russian society for an attack on nato countries. they're constantly talking about this and this is the preparation of russian public opinion for this. i am absolutely convinced that if putin decides that he has won in ukraine, this is not going to be the last step, the last war. the next steps will be the baltic countries. >> i have always wanted to ask you this question because i figure you probably can answer it better than almost anybody. what do you think vladimir p

that putin was bluffing. no one seemed overly concerned about the americans urgent warnings that russia was about to strike. and then, in a moment, life suddenly changed. any future plans ukrainians had were gone. there are only priorities now. >> the most crazy when you hear children screaming, mother screaming. it's so crazy. >> you could see that man holding his baby that he is not crushed by this crowd. the train has opened, there is not room for everyone, clearly. no one wants to miss the strain. >> people are hugging, saying goodbye. and not sure if they will ever come back to this place. ukrainians had to evacuate. or fight. russia was trying to overthrow ukraine inner rapid blitzkrieg. for putin, ukraine was a pretend country that belonged under his iron fist. a fascist, near nazi state that needed to be destroyed. that is the idea. that a bunch of neo-nazis, run by a jewish president, one day would get a nuclear weapon, join nato and attack russia. that is the reason for all of this. it would be laug

putin is currently on almost every front page.heir slavic brothers. russia is admired. and few criticize its war against ukraine. >> i think this war has been inevitable for a long time. the west is hypocritical. especially western media that report on it. >> we are the largest balkan nation, we should feel the greatest responsibility. but we have not learned from our history. that's awful. reporter: one group with a long history of fighting for civil and human rights are the “women in black.” but few joined their protest against the war in ukraine. the activists said the low turnout was sobering. they believe it was linked to the fact that many serbians long for a strong leader, rather than a true democracy. stasa: do serbians like russia or putin? what they like are authoritarian governments. that has nothing to do with russia, per se. reporter: not long ago, german foreign minister annalena baerbock visited serbian president aleksandar vucic. the meeting was tense, as vucic is known for his close ties to putin. since the war br

to putin and has invited putin, zelenskyy, the chancellor of france to come to budapest.you see that as any possibility? and should putin be invited? everyone wants an end to the conflict. negotiation is the only way even with bad actors. should he be invited to a nato country right now? >> there's an interesting question for the war crimes we've seen committed on the ground and there's an interesting question about what accountability he has for that and what the icc's investigation might want to do about that accountability. i think we would take our cue from president zelenskyy if he sees value in talks, then that's one thing, but he is on record as saying after the atrocities we've seen, it's very difficult for them to sit down with the russians and that's understandable. >> and so after the atrocities we've seen, will that ratchet up world outrage and world action, new sanctions from the united states, your country the uk as well, including cutting off russian coal. but the foreign representative told the eu this is the math. $1 billion in arms, weapons assistance si

>> reporter: putin's risk tolerance had gone up.been loosing the war in ukraine and they are angry and putin may lash out. that could manifest of him targeting the u.s. elections. he did not need an excuse to do that. he did it in 2016 and 2020. his actions that he orders could be more aggressive than we have seen and targeting election infrastructures itself. there is no direct intelligence right now. we are told that putin made a decision to interfere in the elections, the midterm election could be one of his fatargets here. how he wants to retaliate against the west and the american election may be a prime target for him. >> thank you very much natasha with that breaking news. >>> the former army, and steve hall, let me start with you, steve, you hear natasha that putin may take more aggressive actions against the united states. you heard her words. risk tolerance is up traumatically. why now and how serious is this? >> the most alarming thing is the risk tolerance piece of this. there is no doubt that most of us understood as th

it is not for putin. could we accept that putin dictates that finland and sweden are not allowed to join nato? obviously not. it is a ridiculous idea. i really agree with antony blinken and i would caution against this movement in the u.s. that rand paul represents, which is an isolationist take view -- isolationist view that will end up becoming the u.s. retreating from the world. we know from history that once the u.s. retreats, you will leave behind a vacuum internationally. that document will be filled with the bad guys -- that vacuum will be filled with the bad guys. that is exactly what the presidents of russia, china, and north korea have done in the previous years. we need a determined american global leadership. host: our first call for you comes from robert in new jersey. you are on with the former nato secretary-general. robert, go ahead. robert new jersey, hello? caller: hello. host: go ahead please. caller: i'm not a voted for republican, but i must say that i completely a glue -- i completel

and i hope that vladimir putin listens to those warnings. i wish i could tell you, you know, the perfect answer to, you know, a really difficult question of what should the right response be to using nuclear weapons? i hope what happens is that we are able to draw in the rest of the countries that are sitting on the fence now, wondering, you know, who is going to win this war, that we are able to convince europe to cut off the spigot to russian energy, because that would really, really hurt russia. >> you worked closely with joe biden when he was the vice president of the united states and you were the american ambassador to ukraine. and i've heard you say that he is walking a "very, very narrow path," trying to both support ukraine and deter russia, but without crossing a line that would broaden the war. so far, that hasn't been enough to change putin's calculation or, frankly, meet president zelensky's pleas for assistance. what else should the white house be doing that might change the ajectory of this conflict? >> well, i understand, fro

not putin.'d yield two minutes to the gentlewoman from pennsylvania, the distinguished member of the rules committee, ms. scanlon. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized for two minutes -- the gentlewoman from from pennsylvania is recognized for two minutes. ms. scanlon: our nation has an unfortunate history of political opportunists who attack the latest wave of immigrants and seek to stoke fear and chaos to gain our cling to power. whether those attacks were against my ancestors, the irish, those at the southern border today, or the many other groups in between. we have heard the same language and scare tactics year after year, generation after generation. but then as now those attacks are a sham. the attention seeking to divide and distract us from their proponents' lack of seriousness, their lack of uct. i rise today in support of the ukraine democracy defense land lease act and hope to send it quickly to president biden's desk. the senate acted quickly to pass this bill and

, and putin. who _ unpredictable, and volatile, and putin, who haven't done as well has he thought— putinn't done as well has he thought he would, i think he thought— he thought he would, i think he thought it — he thought he would, i think he thought it would be a walkover, is getting _ thought it would be a walkover, is getting increasingly desperate and, you know. — getting increasingly desperate and, you know, the russian armies are behaving — you know, the russian armies are behaving atrociously. but i think one has— behaving atrociously. but i think one has to — behaving atrociously. but i think one has to remember this, you know, boris _ one has to remember this, you know, borisjohhsoh — one has to remember this, you know, borisjohnson did his thing, he turned — borisjohnson did his thing, he turned up. _ borisjohnson did his thing, he turned up, he has always wanted to be this— turned up, he has always wanted to be this great leader, and in very pleased — be this great leader, and in very pleased that we are supporting the ukrainians with weapons but we are not, ukrainians with we

but indict putin. indict him. and you'll see some people running like rats on the ship part of his regime knowing they will be held accountable and in jail for the rest of their life. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york. mr. meeks: reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york reserves. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. mccaul: i'm prepared to close if the gentleman from new york has no further speakers. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is prepared to close. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. mccaul: thank you, madam speaker. we rise today not as democrats, republicans, but as americans. as a united congress on behalf of the american people condemning these atrocities. you know, madam speaker, there's a group called the wagner group that's entering ukraine right now. they are the worst of the worst. they're mercenaries. they're cold-blooded killers. mr. putin has sent them to africa to kill people in mali and libya, and they have been on the donbas previous

they'll disappear putin putin doesn't need them anymore.eed to consider getting more aggressive. so if putin says hey we find out there's a bunch of wagner group guys in ukraine, or wherever in the world, and putin says they are not bare, then who will miss them if they disappear? maybe we should take them out. or find people to take them out. >> maybe we should. who's the oligarch that owns this paramilitary operation? >> the guys is sometimes called putin's chef as a nickname. he is in putin's inner circle. he has an umbrella corporation called concorde group. under this corporation has the wagner group which is not a legal entity is with a college other. in st. petersburg the internet research agency also owns a bunch of oil and gas and mining companies. the way he has worked in the past is he uses the troll factory to create a fog of war. the mercenary group slithers through that fog of war for victory for the way they get paid some of it comes the russian government allowed us to the oil and mining companies this oligarch also owns. it

the thinking here, john, is that a putin cornered is a putin that is more likely to lash out against the united states, and sort of targeting american elections is one way that he might be able to do that, john. >> and so an attack on actual voting systems, that would be an escalation even over what he's done in the past. i mean, how much concern specifically is there about that canine of a cyberattack? >> yeah, look, u.s. officials are certainly taking this as if it is a real -- or treating this as if it is a very real threat. the u.s. officials we spoke to did emphasize that the intelligence community hasn't seen any specific threat that they're tracking here. they don't have any direct intelligence or evidence that putin has issued any kind of a warning here -- or sorry, any kind of an order here, i should say. the way to think about these assessments, john, is that they are analysis. they are the result of the intelligence community having spent years watching, trying to understand the russian president. and this is part of their attempt to try to predict the way he will respond

with the olympians , putin was at close range.nge sea-launched missiles on the territory of the zaporizhzhya aluminum smelter destroyed hangars from a large batch of foreign weapons and ammunition supplied by the united states to european countries for ukrainian troops arrivals zaporozhye aluminum another detail promptly to russia 59 military facilities of ukraine were hit overnight as a result of strikes over 120 nationalists and 35 armored vehicles and vehicles were destroyed. russian air defense systems shot down 18 ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles. in addition, a ukrainian tactical missile was shot down over the village of ilyichevka . faster faster. well, the day before in moscow we will meet with general secretary. he is antonio guterres in the course of negotiations with the president of russia, secretary general. the un stated that it was paying attention to a fundamentally important point, of course, not only russia's claims on the situation in ukraine, but also on security issues. however, guterres suggested that putin

just how much to the influence president putin thinking?nov was present putin's chief economic adviser. he nowjoins me from washington. in 2015, president putin famously said our sovereignty is not up for sale, and applying a financial cost will not prevent him from claiming territory that he considers to be his. how much does this dominate his thinking. for the last 40 days or so, especially during the latest stage of president putin's war against ukraine, we have learned for putin his imperial ambitions are much more important than anything else, including the livelihood of the russian population, the national situation in the country. even the financial state of his government. over the past few years, president putin has repeatedly tried to raise spending on social welfare. he said in 2019, there are too many poor people, we should focus our attention on fighting this phenomenon. does he regard us as important to maintain his grip on power, or is itjust words he feels he needs to say? we cannot exclude, initially come in at the first ye

what do you imagine putin's plan is now in ukraine? >> putin is opportunist.ives are, but he's opportunist. when the man was assassinated in london, we knew he was behind it. we also knew he was planning other assassinations on british soil, and the only way we prevented these until the attempt in salisbury ten years later was massive security on our side, but the threat to russia about the action we would be taking if there were further attempts at assassination of our soil. in other words, the only thing he understands is threats, the only thing he understands is strength and we've got to show that this united strength that has started this approach to dealing with this crisis continues and that will mean, i'm afraid to say, for germany and others, they will have to do oil and gas sanctions, they will have to cover all the banks and not just some of the banks, and it would be ridiculous if we ended up paying the post of putin's war by allowing the continuation of payments from the west to russia for oil and gas over a very considerable period of time. >> gor

so vladimir putin is going to have that as an out apparently and i think from putin's perspective it's going to be very, very difficult for him to accede to giving ukraine any kind of territorial concessions . so this is going to be a difficult one to say the least. i don't see a quick solution certainly, although what's clear is vladimir putin has seen significant defeat in ukraine. he did not expect to see the level of resistance he's seen and frankly, it's the courage of the ukrainian people that's come through during this conflict. indeed it is that always good to get your insight. thank you for coming on , sir. we appreciate it. thank you , chris . meantime, judge ketanji making history as the first black woman to sit on the nation's highest court late monday, the senate voted to discharge the nomination from the senate judiciary committee. the discharge vote became necessary after the panel deadlocked 11 11 on whether to send the nomination to the senate floor. nevertheless, jackson confirmation as the next supreme court justice is pretty much a done deal . in addition to having

putin's prized warship is underwater. russia just admitting that the flagship of its black sea fleet sank after a major explosion on board. the russian state news agency is saying this, right? this is the government saying it sunk while it was being towed. now, ukraine claims the explosion was due to a ukrainian missile strike. claim the united states believes is credible. make no mistake, the sinking of this warship is a major blow to putin. this is the 50th day of his ukraine invasion. he only has three of those shipsle only has three. so now, a third gone. poof, gone, sunk, bottom of the black sea, along with a lot of the weapons that he has already been hemorrhaging in ukraine because that ship was packed with anti-ship missiles. surface-to-air missiles, long-range missiles, a dual-barrel canon. the ship is equipped with advanced radar, which was playing a crucial role in helping defend the rest of russia's fleet from ukrainian strikes. and russia has now moved half a dozen of its ships further away of ukraine's coast