John Mearsheimer

Now, you disagree with that.

I hope you're right.

And if they can shut down the Ukraine-Russia war, it would be wonderful.

If I'm proved dead wrong, that would be wonderful news.

My prediction that this war is going to go on for a long time and

A lot of people thought when they were having all that trouble, the Russians were having all that trouble with Prigozhin and the Wagner Group, that Putin was vulnerable and was likely to be overthrown.

And what would happen is a peace-loving leader would replace Putin.

I made two points at the time, and I would make those same two points now.

Number one, he's not likely to be overthrown.

He was not likely then to be overthrown.

And I think, you know, as long as his health holds up, I think he will remain in power.

My second point is if he doesn't remain in power and he's replaced, I would bet a lot of money that his replacement will be more hawkish and more hardline than Putin is.

I actually think one could argue that Putin was too trusting of the West before the war started.

And number two, I think one could argue that he has not waged the war against Ukraine as vigorously as one might have expected.

He was slow to mobilize the nation for war.

And he has pursued a limited war in all sorts of ways.

The Israelis, for example, have killed more civilians in Gaza in one month than the Russians have killed over 18 months in Ukraine.

The idea that Vladimir Putin is waging a punishment campaign and killing on purpose large numbers of civilians is simply not true.

All this is to say that I would imagine that if Putin leaves office and someone else comes in to replace him, that someone else will be at least, if not more hardline than him in terms of waging the war and certainly will not trust the West any more than he has.

Oh, I think if you get an interview with Vladimir Putin, there's just all sorts of questions you could ask him.