Fiona Hill

I mean, obviously, Afghanistan, but that was more complicated because it was also supposed to be an intervention, right?

I mean, it wasn't supposed to be to annex Afghanistan.

It was to try to prop up or reinstall a leader there.

Syria, you were in there to help your guy, Bashar al-Assad, turn away the opposition.

Chechnya was a debacle.

the Chechens fought back big time.

And it was only by dint of, you know, horrible, violent persistence and ruthlessness and nasty, dirty tricks that, you know, kind of Putin prevailed there.

But then, you know, you wonder, did he prevail?

Because what happened?

You know, Chechnya sometimes describes the most independent part of the Russian Federation and Ramzan Kadyrov, you know, plays power games in Moscow.

Yeah, his predecessors, even his father and others wouldn't have done that.

Ahmed Khedira and, you know, before that, Dudaif and Maskardif, I mean, they were wanting to make a compromise, but, you know, they wouldn't have had, you know, the same position that Khedira has had.

So, you know, I think that, again, it's your perspective and where you stand and which bit of history you start to read.

And that's why I say that, you know, I think Putin, it's again, it's the information, the way that he processes it.

I think most Russians also can't believe that they've done something wrong in Ukraine.

I mean, maybe at this point things are changing a bit, but that's why there was, you know, so much kind of support for this in a right way.

I mean, I have Russian friends, again, I said, but look what, you know, was happening in Donetsk.

Look what was, you know, the Ukrainians were doing to our guys.

you know, look what was happening to Russian speakers.

You know, we were defenders.