I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Wednesday, December 8th.

Susan Glasser, who reports from Washington for The New Yorker, is a CNN, Global Affairs affairs analyst and co-author of the book,

The Man Who Ran Washington, The Life and Times of Jim Baker.

And Susan, as I welcome you back to the show, I'm just going to be transparent for the listeners

and say a big thank you for pinch hitting at the very last minute for Senator Chris Murphy,

who was scheduled for here but had to cancel at the last minute. So thank you, thank you for pinch hitting at the very last minute for Senator Chris Murphy, who was scheduled

for here but had to cancel at the last minute. So thank you, thank you, thank you, and welcome

back to WNYC. Well, thank you, Brian. I guess I'm curious to find out maybe Chris Murphy has

some fascinating new meeting to share with that. Maybe so. You can call them up after the segment.

One of the reasons we wanted Senator Murphy for today is that he's prominent on the

Foreign Relations Committee, and you have deep foreign affairs reporting experience. So let's

start with Russia on the brink of invading Ukraine again, and Biden and Putin's two-hour conversation

about it yesterday.

But my first question is, why should Americans care?

Are there any U.S. interests at stake?

Well, you know, Brian, that is a good and important question.

I think that, you know, first of all, President Biden, you know, has said that the whole

purpose and the whole sort of organizing principle around his foreign policy, the idea that we face

this sort of very dangerous moment in the world when essentially there's a contest between

autocracies like Russia and China and democracies like the United States in a way that

we just haven't seen in decades.

And the front line in that confrontation between Russia and the West certainly is Ukraine.

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