Fiona Hill

What is it that we want to convey?

And that's exactly what happened.

And then, you know, people aren't really prepared what they wanted to convey.

And, you know, they prepared, you know, a nice sort of fulsome, you know, PowerPoint-like approach.

We never even got there.

And so God knows what, you know, he took away from it at the end of it.

And that's, you know, think about Putin.

He's going to be kind of impatient.

We see the televised things where he, you know, kind of sits at a table a bit like, you know, people won't necessarily see us here.

And he puts his hands on the table and he looks across at the person and he says, so tell me, you know.

What's the main things I need to know?

And of course, the person's mind probably goes blank, you know, with the kind of the thought of like, oh God, what's the main thing?

And they go and they start, well, Vladimir Vladimirovich.

And, you know, they start the kind of, you know, they're revving up, you know, to get to the point and then he cuts them off.

So you think about that and then you think about, well, what information has he got?

And then how does he process it?

And is he suspicious of it?

Does he not believe it?

And what inside of his own history then, you know, leads him to make one judgment over another?

He clearly thought the Ukrainians would fall apart in five seconds.