From the Abraham Lincoln radio studio at the George Washington Broadcast Center,

Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.

He Armstrong and Getty show.

Putin had the opportunity to escalate.

He told the world and his people he was going to escalate and then he blinked.

And I think that to me may be the most important lesson from this mutiny in Russia for the

war in Ukraine.

That this notion that he's going to double down and escalate, one, he may not want to

and be, he may not have the means to do so.

So I guess I was led by the first tweet I saw about this from Ann Applebaum, who's written

many books about Ukraine and rights for the Atlantic and I was following her Twitter

feed, where she wrote shortly after the news was announced, I guess, Sunday morning

our time that progoation had turned around and was headed away from Moscow and Apple

baum tweeted that I guess he chickened out.

So I was kind of going with all right, Putin stared him down and he backed off, but everybody

else seems to feel like Putin chickened out and blinked by, well, first he gives a speech

and says this is traitorous behavior.

I will not stand for it blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and then says and everyone involved

will be punished and everyone knows it.

And then said that's his interior minister there and then says, no hard feelings.

Do you so do you agree, did Putin blink?

Who blinked?

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