Biden Doesnt Know News Today

Get to join nato or dictate its own neighbors decisions about who it gets to aally with. nato doesnt really think ukraine is ready. ukraine wasnt on the verge of joining in any way. so its kind of manufactured by putin. the question is what is he really trying to get out of this? is he trying to destabilize a neighbor? does he actually have military aspirations here that would make any sense? i think thats the real problem for the west is sort of trying to divine whats going on in the mind of vl...

Clear that we are looking and taking steps that weve not taken in the past and that the consequences for russia would be severe and thats something that president putin is going to have to factor into his calculus. our strong preference is a diplomatic resolution of this challenge, but ultimately thats up to russia. >> joining me now is michael mcfaul, former u.s. ambassador to russia and msnbc international affairs analyst and the best person to chat about this with us. the secretary of state s...

Cia director burns doesnt know. sergei rib kof, the deputy foreign minister in geneva also doesnt know. to the best of my knowledge, nobody knows. thats exactly what putin wants. he wants uncertainty, he thinks that gives him leverage, and hes got some historical precedence for believing thats true. number two, though, andrea, i would say so far what were hearing out of geneva is positive. theyve agreed to keep talking that theyre going to go through what i think will be more ritualistic talks i...

More familiar with than just about anybody else. do you sense that the russians are negotiating in good faith or are they simply going through the motions? >> craig, i dont know. peter baker doesnt know. the cia director bill burns doesnt know. president biden doesnt know. foreign minister lavrov doesnt know. thats exactly the way putin wants it. he likes the uncertainty, the ambiguity. he likes seeing us negotiate with ourselves. look what happened last week. during the tense moment, the presid...

Because, there is a cycle of escalation, and i do not see how now is going to be easy for him to get out all of this on the ukraine border from russia, but also from belarus, and elsewhere. >> michael mcfaul, this is your line -- your line of expertise. when you get out of something that looks like it will be military engagement, you need some diplomacy, you need some way of pulling out. does that weigh still exist? the u.s. government and the russians have not stopped talking, nato and russians...

Biden doesnt know, the director of the cia does not know, i dont think sergei lavrov knows, the foreign minister, and from my experience dealing with putin in negotiations, i dont think he has made his own decision yet. i think that he likes this uncertainty. he likes that we are all talking about, you know, negotiating with ourselves, making counter proposals, he likes to watch that. a very important thing that nina alluded to, think about when we are not talking about tonight, we are not talki...

State tv this weekend hell consider a slew of options if the west doesnt meet his security demands. military one of the options. he said its up to the u.s. and nato allies to deescalate tensions along the board. we have the u.s. ambassador to russia during the obama administration. hes an international affairs analyst. thank you for being with us. how seriously should we take putins latest comments? is this saber rattling or are you more concerned than that? >> i dont know. you dont know. biden ...

Crisis environment without actually having an intention of reinvading ukraine? are there things that we should be looking for from the outside or that the u.s. government may or may not understand about his real intentions here? >> i dont know. and the director of the cia doesnt know. and president biden doesnt know. and i dont think vladimir putin himself knows the answer to your question yet, rachel, which is to say, as you said in your setup, he likes unpredictability and makes us all move, m...

Need to talk. i support the idea of talking. i would like to see more coercive diplomacy ahead of these calls rachael. not after them. but i think they have to talk and i hope it leads to some kind of diffusion of this moment. >> do you have a sense as to whether or not putin is trying to create the appearance of a crisis here? trying to create a crisis environment, without actually having an intention of reinvade-ing ukraine? are there things that we should be looking for on the outside, or tha...

I want to underscore that. 100 times. there was no reason for this build up. there is no threat of ukraine trying to take back the area by force. the prospect of ukraine joining nato should be measured in decades not years. he created this crisis but in times of crisis leaders need to talk. so i support the idea of talking. i would like to see more coercive diplomacy ahead of the calls, rachel. not after them. but i think they have to talk and i hope it leads to some kind of defusion of this mom...