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Hello there, I'm Chuck Todd and this is the Chuck Toddcast.

So tensions between Russia and the West remain pretty high as over 100,000 Russian troops

remain deployed in Belarus and on Ukraine's eastern border.

But what happens next is something of a mystery apart,

because Russian President Vladimir Putin's playbook is designed to be unpredictable.

Is he just trying to push the buttons of those in the West?

Or is he an imperialist who wants to extend the borders of Russia right up to NATO?

Or is he just trying to distract Russians from problems at home?

I guess today's David Remnik.

He's not just the end of the New Yorker, but he's a former Moscow correspondent author of six books,

including two about post-Soviet Russia.

So to try to at least do a little friend-leonology here, probably as good American as anybody, Mr. Remnik.

Welcome back to the Toddcast, so let me start with, to me the most fundamental question we have to figure out here,

is Putin a rational actor?

We will see.

I mean, isn't that the right, isn't that the whole, if he's rational, I think we all know what he's not going to do.

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