Rice said on “Fox News Sunday” that she’s met with Putin many times, noting that he was always a “KGB man” and “calculating and cold.”
Today, however, he is very different, she said.
“He seems erratic,” Rice said. “There is an ever-deepening, delusional rendering of history, it was always a kind of victimology of what had happened to them, but now it goes back to blaming Lenin for the foundation of Kyiv in Ukraine. So he’s descending into something that I personally haven’t seen before.”
Rice said she wants to make sure that Putin does not try to connect Kaliningrad, which is between Poland and Lithuania, to the rest of Russia by going through the Baltic states.
“We have to make sure he really understands that the cost would be extraordinary to try to cross an Article 5 line,” she said, noting that Baltic states are part of NATO and have its protection.
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- Discussion
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Condoleezza Rice describes Putin as "delusional," "erratic" https://t.co/gLBQKQzZ1e pic.twitter.com/Q66HUMVvUE
— The Hill (@thehill) February 27, 2022
2/ “But most telling is this is a man who has long prided himself on emotional control. His recent flashes of anger is very uncharacteristic and show an erosion in impulse control.”
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) February 27, 2022
Putin apparently did not expect the Ukrainians would fight back. He may have thought he could just walk into Kyiv and take over without resistance. He probably also did not expect the backlash from other countries. He has threatened a few of them with retaliation if they side with the Ukraine, but it seems most of these nations are thumbing their noses at him.
He also may not have expected so many in Russia to be opposed to the war. I read an opinion piece that said this would be a good time for a coup by his inner circle. But I believe any coup attempt will be made by ordinary citizens, especially as casualties mount. That is how the last czar lost his grip on Russia. Revolution began as an uprising by ordinary citizens with the military and prominent leaders like Lenin joining later.
Not only did Soviet aggression turn Jimmy Carter into a new Cold Warrior, but as Politburo advisor Georgii Arbatov later admitted. the Soviets themselves helped to bring people like Reagan to power. (Interestingly, this is only in the *Russian* version of his memoirs.) /2
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) February 28, 2022
The Putin of 20 years ago seemed to be a sensible and relatively measured leader. The crazy old man we're dealing with now is like the worst mashup of Andropov and Khrushchev and even Stalin, an isolated boss who doesn't understand the world around him anymore. /4x
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) February 28, 2022
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