Fiona Hill

Well, yeah, but I mean, look, the other thing is that we have to start preparing.

I mean, we have to start thinking about this.

We've got a wartime economy situation.

That's where we are.

We've got the home front to think about as well.

Putin has declared war on us.

He did that on September 30th, and he's done it at other points as well.

We've just not paid attention.

But he was pretty explicit on September 30th.

I mean, go back and watch that speech.

And, you know, he is gambling that, you know, people will go back, you know, to basically taking Russian gas and oil, but it's not going to be that simple as well.

And do people, and then, you know, the question has to be, do we really kind of think he's going to play fair after that when he's kind of also shown that he can leverage that?

It is complicated.

It's very complicated.

Because they're watching what happens.

I mean, for President Xi, he's trying to consolidate his power even further after the party congress, but he doesn't want to look like he made a mistake by backing Putin.

I mean, he thought Putin was also going to be in-out and Ukraine would probably be open for massive Chinese investment.

China was the largest investor in Ukraine before the war.

Largest single investor.

I mean, the EU was bigger, of course.