Ukraine. in fact, not this would ve happened without failures in the war. this is all about the war. the war is going to be can you imagine the united states, if an armed group was coming up to the capital that our military, our security services couldn t put that down quickly? the fear that vladimir putin shown is fear that perhaps his own military, his own security services aren t loyal to him, and maybe they re loyal to others, or to prigozhin, or they won t act in a case like this. the fact that he had to run to lukashenko the belarusian to solve this crisis, with over 20 years he s created overlapping groups of security services to protect himself, that s really telling here. why haven t we heard from him, john? well you know, frankly, for the last several years, certainly several months, he has been cloistered he. does not speak much. he seems to allow this amount of chaos. one of the reasons he supported
Front yesterday, and gains by the ukrainians as well. chris. el rio clint watts, thank you so much. joining me now, former cia officer, john cipher. cofounder is by cropped entertainment, and a nonresident senior fellow at the atlantic council. it s great to have you. here for the institute and the study of war, as you, know as a washington d.c. based think tank, which has been intently following russia s invasion of ukraine, says that the kremlin failed to mount a response to underscore an internal security weaknesses that is due to weaknesses that we have talked about, also the element to surprise. i wonder if you agree, what do you think the status of russian forces and intelligence as right now? well, certainly the person who comes out of this look at the weakest s vladimir putin. frankly, so to the russian security forces. yes, they re fighting in
Luxury of numbers. he can continue this type of an engagement, and look, let s be frank with each other. every time the russians have engaged with the ukrainians in close combat, they have lost. so what the russian forces are doing, we see this, it s now become the standard operating procedure. they use dumb rockets and they target from a distance indiscriminately. this can continue for the longest time, and i think it s safe to say, erin, that putin is not going to do an about face and depart russia. reporter: so john, let me ask you, there are reports that some russian troops aren t listening to commands in donbas, and you know, it s unclear if that s true. you know, what you see around kyiv from what the russians left behind, the way that they were living and surviving while they were wreaking havoc and terror on these villages was horrific. i mean, i don t think it would surprise people to hear that
Push forward and kill until he can figure out a way that at least makes him look like he s had some sort of victory. thank you both very much. i appreciate your time. john cipher and retired major general spider marks with us here. victor and alisyn, back to you. erin, thank you very much, we will check back with you. meanwhile. prices at the gas pump soaring to new highs. what, if anything, can the white house do now? “few of us will ever dive so deep into our cars, but those who do venture down into the nuts and bolts.” “you hahave to give all of yourself when you do something, and that s when you do your best.” for the e best audio entertainment anand storytelling. audible.
I m erin burnett in kyiv, and there s a grim warning if the u.s. intelligence community that the war here in ukraine will likely drag on much longer than expected and will likely get worse in the coming months. the uncertain nature of the battle which is developing into a war of attrition combined with the reality that putin faces a mismatch between his ambitions and russia s current conventional military capabilities likely means the next few months could see us moving along a more unpredictable and potentially escalatory trajectory. more unpredictable and potentially escalatory. john cipher is the former chief of operations and a nonsenior resident at the atlantic council, retired major army general spider marks is a cnn military analyst. thank you so much to both of you. today s testimony on capitol
Committed by vladimir putin against a free people in ukraine. the united states cannot afford to sit and do nothing and so sanctions are appropriate, all the other measures we are taking now, i believe, are fully appropriate, though, as i said earlier, we need to be on full alert for some form of possible action by vladimir putin directed against the united states. and i m sure we are. jeh johnson, john cipher, thank you both very much for your expertise. well, germany aligns with the european union, and now supports a russian oil embargo. ahead, how this could reshape the war in ukraine. and a special grand jury is selected in georgia in the investigation into whether donald trump interfered with the 2020 election. that s next.
well, erin, those talks will be continuing and broadening out throughout the course of this week. russian russian officials are meeting nato officials in brussels on wednesday. the day after, there will be meetings with the european security organization. only after that, by the end of the week, are we going to get a clearer picture of whether russia is determined to press ahead on ukraine, or whether it can be convinced to step back from the brink. matthew, thank you very much. reporting from the ground in moscow tonight. i want to go now to john cipher, former cia deputy chief of russian operations. so, john, i really appreciate your time. so the proposed sanctions that the biden administration is put out there they say are, quote, star high and stay high, very different than what they did in 2014. they targeted, you know, small banks and low-level military. now, they say big oligarchs, top military, and russian consumers everybody. is putin going to cave to this threat? no, putin s tnot going to gae to the threat. when you when you think about
Right, putin invaded then and and now, he is massing on the border. didn t happen during the trump administration. and i am wondering why you think putin is choosing to do this now, to test no you? now. well, a couple reasons. one is, you know, he is essentially losing in ukraine. in 2014, he you know, people there wanted a democratic future. he pushed back, he invaded, he took crimea. teek the eastern part of the country. um, and since that time, he has tried to undermine their politics. he has tried subversion, he is tried cyberattacks, a number of all sorts of things and none of them seem to be working. ukraine is more western than it was at the beginning of the process. and for him, a problem with if you have a democratic successful ukraine on your border, it is a symbol to people, perhaps inside russia, of what a democratic country could be like and that s that s a danger to him. john, i appreciate your time. thank you very much. sure. glad to see you. you, too. and novak djokovic, next,
Deputy chief of russian operations john cipher. thank you for being with us this morning. we heard from admiral kirby talking about the situation there. we also know that the ukrainian view of the conversation that president biden had with president zelensky is different than the u.s. view of it. why is that? well, you know, i wouldn t put too much stock in this. there is really different perspectives and it is understandable. the main difference they this is over sanctions, i think. so president biden wants to hold sanctions over president putin s head to use in case there is a reinvasion of ukraine, and as you can imagine, zelensky and ukraine is saying, hey, we need to start sanctioning them now. the difference is zelensky is on the ground there. the russians have invaded in 2014 into eastern ukraine, they have taken crimea, they have been trying to destabilize ukraine since then with disinformation and smears and russians going into their
Intelligence here at home. john cipher, there has been such a strategic use of the intelligence products and the new york times has some great reporting from the weekend by reporters about how this has been a concerted effort to avoid war. that declassifying this information is designed to keep putin on his toes. if that s even achievable. your reaction. i think that s exactly what s happening here. the administration is sort of wisely trying to use all of its tools to avoid war. and so there are deterrence. they re working with all of our nato allies and other allies. it s interesting we re using information. selective use of intelligence to put out and avoid this kind of war. i understand oftentimes generals