'Obsessed with taking Ukraine': Robert Gates believes Vladimir Putin 'will hang in there' despite heavy losses

29 January 2023

On Sunday's edition of Meet the Press, former United States Secretary of Defense Robert Gates shared his perspective regarding Russian President Vladimir Putin's resolve for dragging out his invasion of Ukraine, which is now approaching its one-year anniversary.

Given the extent of the devastation that Putin's war has wrought across Ukraine, along with the catastrophic losses that his military has faced, NBC moderator Chuck Todd wondered how far Putin will go to achieve his goals.

"Russia was your portfolio back in the day at the CIA and then some. What you knew about Putin. What, what do you think the real red line is with him? He is, he has had a lot of bluster, and so far, we've crossed all these supposed red lines that he was drawing about us supporting Ukraine, this or that, NATO doing this or that. None of it has come. He's had a lot of bluster, but he's not folded. Is there any red line that he's serious about that we should be concerned about?" Todd asked Gates, who served from 2006 to 2011 under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

"I think potentially Crimea could be because their big naval base in Crimea basically gives them control of the Black Sea. So I think it has strategic importance. But Putin believes it's his destiny to recreate the Russian empire. And as my old mentors, Big Brzezinski used to say, 'without Ukraine, there can be no Russian empire,'" Gates said, referring to Polish-American diplomat, scientist, and national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter, Zbigniew Brzezinski.

Putin "is obsessed with retaking Ukraine. He will hang in there," Gates continued. "I think that he does believe that time is on his side, that support in the US, support in Europe and so on will fray."

Gates added that Putin is "doing what Russian armies have always done, and that is sending large numbers of relatively poorly equipped, poorly trained conscripts to the front lines and in the belief that mass will overcome."

Watch below or at this link.

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