yamiche alcindor, moderator of washington week, and rick stengel, former undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, as well as an nbc political analyst. matt bodner, what's the russian government having to say about, well, what they're going -- what they're doing in the border at ukraine and the president's speech. >> thank you, jose. good morning. well, they continue to kind of deflected on border, ukraine. the really interesting thing about these claims of withdrawal is they never really properly acknowledged most of the deployment in the first place. after biden's speech, obviously, this was a topic of great discussion in today's kremlin press briefing. we heard the spokesman, dmitry peskov saying, yes, they welcome biden's call for diplomacy, but when you really look carefully, what they're saying, continue have been saying, diplomacy is great, as long as it's on our terms. we're not going to let you distract us by dangling arms control, transparency, and stuff like that. we want our core demands, you know, given. we want to see these things all packaged tog

evelyn farkas, ambassador michael mcfaul, rick stengel and greg myre, thanks to all of you.. >>> when we come back, we're going to continue monitoring this breaking development that joe biden says he's convinced vladimir putin has made a decision to invade ukraine. we'll go live to moscow. >>> plus the other headline we told you about earlier, material taken from trump's white house did, in fact, include classified national security documents. did, in fact, include classified national security documents. what happens when we welcome change? we can make emergency medicine possible at 40,000 feet. instead of burning our past for power, we can harness the energy of the tiny electron. we can create new ways to connect. rethinking how we communicate to be more inclusive than ever. with app, cloud and anywhere workspace solutions, vmware helps companies navigate change. faster. vmware. welcome change. power e*trade gives you an award-winning mobile app with powerful, easy-to-use tools, and interactive charts to give you an edge, 24/7 support when you need it the most. plus, zero-d

joining me now is msnbc political analyst rick stengel. y served as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs in the obama administration. rick, hold on a second because we got some more breaking news p and i want to read a little bit from this statement from the eu, the uk, canada and u.s. they are going to be kicking selected banks off the s.w.i.f.t. system. but there is a senior administration official who has been talking to nbc news who says that the second portion of these new round of sanctions is really the one that matters, it's even more important than s.w.i.f.t. this was committing to imposing restrictive measures that will prevent the russian central bank from deploying its international reserves in ways that undermine the impact of our sanctions. so the idea is that vladimir putin has been trying to sanctionproof the russian economy by hording money and that by restricting the russian central bank from deploying its international reserves they'll be able to cut through that protection. >> yes, katy. the ul

. >> rick stengel, always enlightening us and revealing secrets tonight as well. we appreciate it rick. and coming up, why the white house is slamming the republican senator for not being aligned with long-standing american values on ukraine. when the 11th hour continues. the 11th hour continues ♪♪ hey, do you know if i work sunday? sure do! clover does that. who are you? he's from clover. clover does that so i can do this. i like that green. chef, can we hire another hostess? umm... psst. yeah. i was gonna add an exclamation point. and one chicken salad. anything else? yeah, do you also take orders online? yeah, we do that. yeah, we do. thank you. clover does that. this is really good. secure payments, the tools you need, people who can help, we do that. talk to a clover business consultant today the conflict between russia and ukraine is laying bare some divisions within the republican party. gop senator josh hawley has now come out against ukraine's eventual admittance to nato. axios was the first to break the news, saying, hawley is taking out of position incre

so, rick stengel, here it is.nk, this shared mission between putin and xi and the fear that there is a very significant cost, i guess, to questions about america's strength on the world stage. >> absolutely. i mean, xi and putin are united with the idea that they want america to fail. what threatens putin, what threats xi is not nato or even american military power. what threatens them is the thirst for democracy that people around the world want to be able to make decisions about themselves for their own destiny. looking at that picture now, it's very cold war-ish, you know, dr. no, and they're wearing matching ties. i don't know if they decided that in advance, but part of what is going on here and why ukraine is so important is that both of these countries want a sphere of influence world. that means that china has power in south asia and we can't question it, that russia has power in eastern europe and the old warsaw pact. that's what they want. they don't want a world of international global institutions like

national security analyst, frank figliuzzi, and former undersecretary of state for public diplomacy rick stengel president biden said with lester holt last night. he basically said, we're not trying to do this. direct conflict with russia is world war iii. those were literally the terms that he used. he said, everybody get out. this is not going to be "argo." what is the purpose of the united states right now engaging in diplomacy or sending troops to poland if the president's made it pretty clear that we're not going to get into armed combat over ukraine if the russians invade? >> well, we were never going to get into armed combat, jason. i mean, ukraine is not a nato country, as we all know. i mean, i think what happened with -- between president biden and that kind of extraordinary press briefing that jake sullivan did is they said the die is cast, which is kind of an appropriate expression because that's what caesar said when he crossed the rubicon to invade rome. all the preparations seem to be in place for an invasion. i hope they're wrong. you want to go the extra mile for peace, which is

i want to also bring in rick stengel, now an msnbc political and list. we just got the word from mark milley, and secretary blinken. what do we know about what's happening inside the west wing this morning? >> reporter: we know the president is now meeting with his national security team. as you pointed out, you see all of those cabinet secretaries arriving, the vice president we no there as well. they are discussing the crisis in ukraine. his defense officials updating him on the movements by russia at this hour. and of course president putin meeting with his national security team this morning as well. so that is significant and the administration has been very focused on that as well as the latest provocations by russia. now, all of this comes as there is still this tiny window and possibility for diplomacy. you have that meeting that is scheduled to take place on thursday between secretary of state antony blinken and his russian counterpart, sergey lavrov. if that goes forward, it will only go forward if russia does not invade. they will then discuss

let's bring in nbc news correspondent janis mackey frayer live in beijing and rick stengel, former topl analyst. janis, the international olympic committee has come under a lot of criticism for its inaction on china, particularly with peng shuai. why won't they get involved even further? >> reporter: well, the ioc is fond of saying that it's not a political organization, that it's its job to keep in touch with athletes and put sport above politics, and in the case of sport above politics. in the case of peng shuai, they're practicing political diplomacy. in being a go-between china between china and the outside world. it should be noted this interview that peng shuai did with the french newspaper was done so with coordination with the ioc. it happened in an olympic committee hotel within the closed bubble of the beijing olympics, so a very controlled environment. questions were sent in advance. there were no followups allowed. there was an official from the chinese olympic committee that sat with peng shuai and did the translation for her. another thing worth noting, ayman, people aski

. >> rick stengel, always enlightening us and revealing secrets tonight as well.preciate it eric. and coming up, why the white house is slamming the republican senator for not being aligned with long-standing american values on ukraine. when the 11th hour continues. the 11th hour continues at you. you mastered the master bath. you created your own style. and you - yes, you! turned a sourdough starter into a sourdough finisher. so when you learn your chronic dry eye is actually caused by reduced tear production due to inflammation you take it on, by talking to your eyecare professional about restasis®... which may help you make more of your own tears with continued use twice a day, every day. restasis® helps increase your eye's natural ability to produce tears, which may be reduced by inflammation due to chronic dry eye. restasis® did not increase tear production in patients using anti-inflammatory eye drops or tear duct plugs. to help avoid eye injury and contamination, do not touch bottle tip to your eye or other surfaces. wait 15 minutes after use before inserti

now to talk about this is nbc news's erin mclaughlin in kyiv, matt bodner in moscow, as far as rick stengel former undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, and retired admiral james stavridis, a an international security and diplomacy analyst. matt, the arrival of those russian surface-to-air missiles in belarus comes just before a joint military exercise. questions have been raised if this is part of a military exercise or part of a continuing buildup of russian troops there at the border. >> reporter: thank you, jose. the kremlin deflects when you try to pin them down on the size and numbers of this. the kremlin spokesman asked, how big is this. he said, it's a significant movement. and that's very trues. when you look at what they're bringing to the table, that doesn't give you the full picture. you mentioned these anti-aircraft systems and we've seen fighter jets, and grounded attack aircraft, kind of like the russian equivalent of the a10 warthog. this has been going on for several weeks. they started piling this stuff in at the end of last month, declaring that they're preparing