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

Russia's attack on Ukraine has had us asking the question is Vladimir Putin rational.

Even before we had a chance to see Ukraine's robust defense in action, the attack was guaranteed

to invite crippling sanctions and worldwide condemnation.

But my guest today tried to put Putin's worldview in a different context, one with a thin tie

to medieval history, but with a deep connection to Russia's legacy of authoritarianism

and anti-Western attitudes. Michael Hersh is a senior correspondent in foreign policy

and his column Putin's Thousand Year War has gotten us all thinking, Michael, welcome to the Todd

Cat. Thanks for having me, Chuck. Look your piece I made required reading, you know, there was a

simplistic view of Putin and I say simplistic, look, I don't want to mock, that because Putin

said it himself, you know, that somehow his goal was to restore the Soviet Union.

And what I, what you did was you went deeper and you really sort of analyzed that speech

he gave before the invasion and you, you seem to connect this to something deeper and I,

that goes back much further back in Russian history. And I guess the question I have it and I found

it all fascinating, but is it just Putin searching for a rationale or is there something to this?

I think for Putin and the Russian elites who support him and seem to continue to support him,

despite the invasion getting badly bogged down, I think for them, it is very real. They live this

history. And you know, this goes back much farther than sort of the 30 years as the Cold War,

or even the 100 years since the USSR was founded, you know, in 1922. This goes into the sense of

Russian identity dating back more than a thousand years, Putin himself has made a point of saying

that he, he and the Russian elites within the Kremlin feel a great affinity for St. Vladimir,

who was the first imperial ruler of Slavic empire going back to, you know, the year 1000.

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