This is

this is CBS. I'm John Bachelor and Anatole even of the Quincy Institute for Responsible

is here to help me understand Moscow.

We've talked about the reshuffle of the cabinet in Kyiv by Mr. Zelensky.

No such reshuffle in Moscow to my knowledge, although over the last two years

there have been significant changes at the Defense Ministry.

Certainly, we're an economist now rules and at the National Security Council level but we come now

to an opinion expressed by the Institute of the Study of War that is supervised by

Robert Kagan the well-known commentator, that Mr. Putin has now committed to a war of attrition.

And what that suggests is the last time that was a policy was World War I. A man named

Falconine had command of the Central Powers, chiefly Germany, at the Kaiser's

fingertips, decided that after the maneuver failures in East and West

front of 14 and 15 he would concentrate on bleeding the French white was how he pictured it.

That is very similar to what we hear by Mr. Kagan says or Mr. Kagan's

counselors say is the new Kremlin strategy, or perhaps it's the old Kremlin strategy.

That means that Russia can count on almost inexhaustible manpower and Ukraine can.

Anatole, you have an opinion that Moscow wants to make a settlement here

on the basis of the Dunbas. Is the war of attrition, if that's what it is, I'm

speculating only because I've read it. Is that something that can lead to

negotiation? Well, I have to congratulate Bob Kagan on his perception.

I've been saying this for the past 22 months that Russia has moved to a war of attrition.

No, I mean, I think it's very clear that that is indeed the Russian strategy.

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