Former National Security Council Director for European Affairs U.S. Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman said Monday on MSNBC’s “Deadline” that President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Ukrainian people resisting the Russian invasion could bring about the “beginning of the end” of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Vindman said, “I’ll start with a sad note and then a happy note and start with Putin. He’s actually the same guy he’s been for a long time. There’s a consistency in his action, and the consistency is also on a trend line of increasingly provocative behavior.”
He continued, “The problem is we just didn’t see it. We had wishful thinking about the relationship. He fed on the hopes that we could have a good relationship and then our fears of a breakdown in relationship with a nuclear power. Ultimately it is the inaction, the failure to uphold our values and interests with this man, that brought us to this point. This is a conflict that was coming. This is inevitable in a lot of ways. The only question is, why now? The why now is largely due to Trump and Trumpism in the United States presenting him the opportunity about weakness, in regards to weakness.”
Vindman said, “Zelensky is the lion of Ukraine, of Europe. He has certainly risen to the occasion. As a Jewish Ukrainian, I take personal pride in calling him amongst our numbers. He is leading the free world in opposing surging authoritarianism. He may very well break the back of surging authoritarianism because I think his fortitude and the fortitude of his people may very well spell the beginning of the end of Vladimir Putin. He somebody that the European Union should welcome in with open arms.”
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