What Next - Joe Biden's Putin Problem
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3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 20 December 2021
⏱️ 23 minutes
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Summary
What does a massing of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border mean? And could this conflict be defused yet by diplomacy?
Guest: Slate’s Fred Kaplan, author of The Bomb: Presidents, Generals, and the Secret History of Nuclear War.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If you Google around enough, you can find these satellite images of stuff building up on the border between Russia and Ukraine. |
| 0:13.7 | You know, it's publicly available. It's not classified. |
| 0:19.6 | Slate's Fred Kaplan says military folks. they know what this stuff is, battalions of troops, |
| 0:25.9 | weapons of war. |
| 0:28.5 | But these latest satellite images from Russia suggest Moscow is now engaged in an unprecedented |
| 0:34.2 | buildup near the Ukrainian frontier, enough to mount an overwhelming invasion. |
| 0:40.8 | Well, it shows that a lot of, about 90,000 troops, a lot of tanks, some of which have been |
| 0:48.0 | moved to the Ukrainian border from as far away as the far southeastern part of Russia. |
| 0:56.5 | The front line between Ukraine and Russia is on high alert tonight. |
| 1:01.1 | All leave canceled for the troops who'll be spending the holidays in the trenches. |
| 1:07.2 | Yeah, I mean, if this was happening on our northern border with Canada or southern border with Mexico... |
| 1:12.9 | Yeah, it would be alarming. It would be alarming. |
| 1:18.9 | If you've heard anything about this troop buildup around Ukraine, alarm is probably what's resonated the most. Alarm is probably what's resonated the most. |
| 1:29.2 | Alarm that Vladimir Putin is testing the West. |
| 1:32.6 | Alarm that Russia might expand an ongoing military operation inside Ukraine. |
| 1:38.3 | But I wanted to talk to Fred, because alarm was not his first reaction to this news. |
| 1:45.2 | What I'm about to say is the kind of thing that, if I'm wrong, |
| 1:48.8 | could be played back six months from now and make me look really stupid. |
| 1:53.6 | But I don't think that he's going to invade Ukraine. |
| 1:57.6 | I don't think that's what's going on. |
| 1:59.7 | Why do you say that? |
| 2:00.5 | If they were really going to invade Ukraine from I don't think that's what's going on. Why do you say that? If they were really going to |
... |
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