Page 117 - Off Ramp News Today

Trying to dissuade russia from invading ukraine and it reached a height yesterday during the call that president biden had with president putin that lasted nearly an hour long, as you said. and the white house said that biden made clear to putin what he would be risking if he were to invade. now, i want to read you a line from the statement that the white house put out after the call, because it really sums it up quite well. it says that president biden was clear that if russia undertakes a furt...

They show russian camps hundreds of kilometers away from planned joint exercises and close to the ukrainian border. meanwhile, the eighth u.s. shipment of military aid arrived in ukraine on sunday, but ukraine is downplaying the threat. the foreign minister urged people not to believe in what he called apocalyptic predictions. well, cnn correspondents are tracking the developments. melissa bell is in kyiv, but first lets turn to nic robertson who joins us live from moscow, so, nic, as these di...

Administration in the few weeks. vladimir putin, doesnt seem the kremlin is indicating anything that the americans at the west is willing to go with and nato is willing to go with at this point, the diplomatic off-ramp. where do you see the potential for an off-ramp in all of this or has that do you think vanished? >> its not vanished, jim, theres an off-ramp if president putin wants to take it. i think youre right. its a high stakes poker game. president zelensky and president biden are staring...

And indeed, the united states has provided a comprehensive white paper in response to russian requests and keeping the dialogue going. so it is about continued engagement, that makes very clear where the red line are. ukraine decides whether to join nato, not russia, not russias decision but also provides an off-ramp for de-escalation. >> so the last question, being a strong commander in chief of course is one part of a presidential portfolio, we talked to "washington post" reporter earlier toda...

Control? of course he would. he wanted to control crimea. he would like control now. having said, that as you look at the playbook, do we really know or do you have a sense of what would be an off-ramp for him or what an acceptable end game might be short of a complete invasion? >> well, first of all, i think he increasingly appreciates the consequences of a complete invasion. i mean, i think the diplomacy of the last several weeks has made clear, both bilateral diplomacy, the united states, dir...

Less and less relevant. if the cdc guidance they are putting out is now not being followed by virtually anyone, that makes the cdc and our federal public health authorities have less credibility. and so, i really believe that they need to be changing their guidance. and look, they dont have to do it overnight. they could say here is an off ramp to masking. you meet these criteria, and this is how you can begin to remove masks or remove other restrictions. but we need to hear their leadership her...

>> jason: i like what senator braun says, he says the science hasnt changed but the political science has changed. what they are seeing is the polling -- pardon me. you have to make a decision as to whether or not youre going to wear a mask. two years into this year can make your own decision. its about freedom, its about liberty. you should be able to make your own decision on this. but i think its fundamentally wrong to continue. i think where the administration has gone wrong is they didnt fo...

But im wondering how on earth that works in terms of logic and coherence, because if the us does that right now, putin is completely boxed into a corner. the only response he can surely make is to move into ukraine to show that he is not intimidated and weakened by the us administration. you deprive putin of any off—ramp if you put those tough sanctions on now. well, i would say that biden took the off—ramp away when he did the new start treaty for five years injanuary, and then, in may, wai...

Invade, actually launch a full-scale invasion of ukraine. it seems to me finding a diplomatic off ramp that creates a balance of interest in which putin can walk away as a winner, nato could walk away as a winner, the u.s. could walk away as a winner and zelensky can maintain his own political credibility at home, i dont see that balance of interest. and as the days go by, it seems to me the drift and deterioration spells some form of russian military action into ukraine. i just dont see the dip...

President volodymyr zelensky, he comes in for an extreme amount of criticism both on the television here and from the leadership. >> richard haass, would it be fair to say that at some level putin has achieved his main goal, which is that he has rattled the west so much about the prospect of ukraine becoming a member of nato, in any case that was a long shot, it now seems very difficult to imagine the europeans, for example, germany, going along with that, and if thats true, does that oddly prov...