Page 848 - Leverage News Today

Just how far, as peter said, hes prepared to go, is what were seeing leverage to get a better negotiated outcome? does he decide to go in? if he goes in, is it for a slice of the loaf or does he try to get the entire loaf? >> peter, its not as if the united states has the strongest, most stable position in the world. were a couple of years away from an election that might not be free and fair. i think thats a pretty extreme statement, but its not far off from what were seeing with all of the cha...

Member countries near ukraine and russia, he wants them gone. its hard to find that middle ground. what you are going to see now over the course of these next nine-to-ten days before those talks begin is president biden really ramping up the diplomacy, talking with our allies. we expect to see him speak with ukraines president in the next day or two, as well as other key nato leaders, to try to make sure theyre still on the same page, to continue coordinating. because the real deterrence here. t...

And we are denying ukraine at the table for any discussions of the future. putin wants to crush ukraines democracy, they are next essential threat to russia not because of the military threat putin speaks about but liberty, freedom and democracy, that is what scares putin the most if ukraine joins the european union at nato, that would be a clarion call to putins own opposition which he fears so much. todd: to your point he literally created leverage out of whole cloth by moving the troops in. h...

Taking provocative measures and continues to do. so some combination of a very significant support for the ukrainian military and maximum sanctions could hopefully deter putin from going in. >> trace: we know putins list of demands. nato military assets out of poland and other countries and ukraine doesnt become a member of nato. that wont happen. what do you think he would settle for? if this is the negotiation and looking for leverage. what do you think he is really willing to settle for in th...

Knows what putins real intentions are. he has a clear record of aggression. he invaded georgia when george w. bush was president. seized crimea when barack obama was president. he could do it again. on the other hand, it would be painful to invade ukraine, militarily and economically. so he may be trying to get some leverage, trying to get nato to back off a bit. joe biden is not going to meet his demand to promise never to have ukraine join nato. but they could have other steps to try to reassu...

Has a guaranteed pathway to meeting the -- i think its going to maintain that priority for democrats going forward. f. >> if you get to the midterms in 2022, this is something theyll want to see progress on. this is maybe one of the strangest endorsements ive ever seen, but alaskas incumbent governor is running for a second term. he just accepted former president trumps endorsement with one condition. he said alaska needs mike dunleavy as governor now more than ever. he has my complete and total...

Focus his foreign policy not on russia, but on asia, on combatting and containing china. and so putin is aware of that. he knows the u.s. doesnt want to get bogged down here. he knows the u.s. ultimately is not really interested in guaranteeing ukraines defense by inviting them into nato, but the u.s. has made commitments to ukraine. they believe very much in the sovereignty of democratic countries. and so putin believes he may have some leverage here, and it is a very precarious geopolitical si...

Including secretary of state tony blinken working the phones to make sure our allies are fully briefed and also still on the same page. the u.s.s biggest point of leverage is the unity of our nato allies and thats something that is concerning to president putin, clearly, and part of whats going to be discussed today. >> david, what would vladimir putin gain from a phone call with president biden right now? the white house has made a point of saying the russians requested it. >> well, i think abo...

Soviet union, post-1997 -- the soviet union collapsed in 91 -- those 14 countries, he wants them to no longer have any nato forces in them whatsoever, or any nato weapons. that rolls us back to the cold war status. obviously that would undo nato. its an unrealistic request to be sure, but just think of the scope of what he is suggesting. that is really what he wants. the sphere of influence over those countries, he resents significantly the fact that they are under the umbrella of nato now when ...

And so he could, putin, get bogged down the way he did in chechnya, the way the russians in afghanistan, something we know a bit about. and then treasure. big sanctions. cut him off from the swift system, go after the oligarchs, perhaps even putin and lavrov personally. use the nor stream 2 pipeline as leverage. im sure the president will be doing so today. lets hope vladimir putin gets the message. >> in our closing minute, general, why do you think he asked for this call and why is vladimir pu...