vladimir putin will invade ukraine, others disagree, others think putin hasn't made his mind up yet. can you guide us through putin's decision-making? gen. breedlove: anybody that tells you they know what putin is thinking, take that with a grain of salt. let me make observations based on what we see. we have to remember, first, this crisis is contrived. it is manufactured by putin for a purpose. what is important is, what is that purpose? what is he trying to get from us? at that has manifested itself over the last couple of days, and we need to keep our eyes on the thought of protecting against the united states taking actions that might be inappropriate, this is nato, and we stay on our turf and work with our allies rather than speak for our allies. mr. putin has made a huge investment, and that brings a need of recouping from that investment. he is going to want to get the demands he is made and i believe he will continue to use this moment he has manufactured and the power on the grand -- on the ground until he gets those. i do believe he is taking a look at the cost spirit -- t

putin and to his government. as you know, energy is the cash cow that enables these kinds of military deployments, so putin needs the energy to flow as much as the consumers need it but more broadly we have been counseling europe for almost a decade now to reduce its dependence on russian energy including our opposition to nord stream 2 and nord stream 1 and our opposition to turk stream and turk stream 2 and to find alternative sources of hydro carbons but also to continue their efforts to go green and end their dependencies. >> and how are our discussions going with the ukrainian government in regards to the contingency of a russian incursion as to what type of assistance they'll need from the united states? >> conversations are ongoing at every level. we had secretary blinken talk to president zelensky yesterday. president biden will speak to him either later today or tomorrow. we've had the defense minister, foreign minister, national security adviser in washington, secretary blinken also sat with the foreign

putin is saying ukraine is ours. by the way, there were mostly natives to crimea totally ignored by russia. it yes, as a result of russians actions, putin lost ukraine. that's true. what we are afraid of now is a large military offensive. we are also afraid of a so-called limitary military offensive. putin may try to seeds strategically important --seeds strategically important cities in ukraine in the east like when he did in 2014 and 2014 despite the cease-fire, russia continued -- hibatallah: if i could jump in for a moment, what kind of assistance would you want from the u.s. and the west? if it is not in the form --if russia were to invade ukraine as you believe, if it is not in the form of direct military assistance, it would be troops because ukraine is not a nato member. what other assistance would you expect? alexei: well, i think that economic sanctions, increased economic sanctions, which should be applied, not only in the case of large military offensive but also if putin would start a militant -- limited

putin in january? america and the west in general lost so much of their credibility in recent years and months on the front lines in afghanistan, kurdistan and elsewhere. what will happen in ukraine, will credibility be intact? do they have the means to be heard and believed and taken seriously? i pray for that. because if putin happened to invade all the cities in ukraine, it will be a very very dirty war. this is what i foresaw when i was there a few months ago. i cross my fingers. i pray. i beg the biden administration and the american administration to take the real dimension of the reality which is now cooking. thank you very much. >> thank you so much, bernard for those profound remarks and that warning. we are so delighted you're here. thank you for your leadership on ukraine and around the world. it is my pleasure, and bernard we cannot wait to host you at the atlantic council in person in january so we look forward to seeing you then. in the meantime you are right to keep praying for peace in

can s you talk about the ukrainn sentiment for putin. we have polling data and we also know that after putin's action to annex crimea, that sort of send a shockwave through jeff ukraine. so, if he thinks he's just going to sort of have a little bit of a fight and no resistance, i think it's important that he be disabused of that fact. can you speak to that? >> i should have said this in response to senator murphy as well, you know, ukraine and russia obviously the people have lived side-by-side forever, and there's a lot of intermarriage and trade back and forth. before the invasion of crimea i think 60, 70% of ukrainians had a favorable view of russia. and today after not only those invasions into biting off pieces of ukraine but also all of the stresses and tensions that have been sued otherwise, i think the support forwards russia this is among ukrainians is at an all-time high that a 12%, something like that so this is what putin's own policies have brought and he needs to understand that. and i hope that his advisers are telling the

that's just not putin. anybody thinking that will happen doesn't know putin. what a matter he is at this. this is a game he likes to play. this one-on-one with head of state. he have go audio. >> john: no question about it. a lot of practice being in power so long. general, we want you to come back on the other side of the briefing from jake sullivan. >> sandra: jussie smollett back in the hot seat at his trial a day after calling claims of the, attack on him being false. >> john: and the vaccine mandates in new york city the strictest in the nation. why they are concerned. coming up next. one dose can quickly stop my migraine in its tracks within 2 hours. don't take with strong cyp3a4 inhibitors. most common side effects were nausea and tiredness. ask about ubrelvy, the anytime, anywhere migraine medicine. i was just blown away by how much my 23andme reports taught me about my health. and that's why i knew how meaningful this gift would be for my family. this season give the most meaningful gift for just $129 ok everyone, our mission is to provide complete, b

this is a win-win for putin. he facilitates a crisis and demands legal guarantees what nato will and won't do. or he invades and creates a slippery slope. after ukraine will be our allies in poland, hungary, romania and certainly in the baltic states. again, meanwhile can hold western europe hostage with the nord stream 2 pipeline here. he playing chess here and i'm afraid we're playing checkers. >> martha: the big question is what if, what if he begins to invade. the sanctions come on and they don't rattle them too much. what are we prepared to do? ukraine is not a member of nato, which is painfully apparent to them. what would we do? >> we can follow a model of what president george w. bush did when russia threatened georgia. jake sullivan mentioned that. we had troops in afghanistan and they innovated georgia. we deterred them from the full invasion of georgia. one of the things president did, hi sent military cargo flights in to georgia's capitol, which put american boots on the ground, not in a combat role b

did putin bring this up, and did president putin agree to start those talks? >> i'm not going to get into the details and characterize what president putin said. and i will say that formal agreements or formal treaties were not on the table in the conversation today, but the straightforward notion that the united states flanked by our european allies and partners would be prepared to talk to russia about strategic issues in the european theater. that was on the table, and we are prepared to do that as we have been prepared to do that throughout both the cold war and post-cold war eras. what the right mechanism is for that, what the agenda is, and what comes of that, that is all to be worked out as we see how things proceed in the coming days. >> since late october, why hasn't the u.s. given additional material to ukraine yet. this has been escalating for weeks? >> as i just pointed out in response to an earlier question, we are continuing to deliver defensive material assistance to ukraine. we have done so just in the past few days. >> president putin proposed

president putin was deeply engaged. i am going to leave it at that in terms of trying to characterize where he is. all i can tell you is, there is a task coming out of that meeting to their teams to start talking about how we might think about the diplomatic path. the president made clear throughout that diplomacy has to come in the context of de-escalation rather than escalation. now we will watch what unfolds in the coming days. thank you, guys. >> now, live to london for british prime minister's question time.

we're not a tall vladimir putin's fault. president joe biden and veteran putin spoke via video link for more than 2 hours, during which biden threatened economic sanctions against russia. if, as any military escalation, u. s. and its allies are concerned, russia is planning to invade its neighbor. after massing tens of thousands of troops near the border, russia denies any such plans and describes the accusations as hysteria. what we know from a senior administration official is that the message that you as president joe biden intended to convey is that there would be inflicted on russia, polishing, economic and financial sanctions if it chose to invade ukraine. now what we know is that in terms of those sanctions, this could mean that it would essentially isolate russia from the global financial system. this would be done in coordination with european allies, including italy, the u. k. france and germany. and he's 38 people, have been killed in a fire at the main prison in burn these political capital dozens more were injured in the early morning, blaise and take their reports. the fos

putin? smr i think three points. the first is that vladimir putin standing behind then president mcdebta in 2008 invaded georgia when we had 150,000 troops deployed in iraq and afghanistan. the question between our foreign wars and calculus when it comes to the post-soviet space, there is not good evidence to support that. number two when it comes to nord stream 2. the fact is the gas is not flowing through the stream 2 pipeline, which means it is not operating. which means it is not leverage for putin. indeed, it is leverage for the west because if vladimir putin wants to see gas flow through that pipeline, he may not want to take the risk of invading ukraine. number three, the president has shown over the course of the past eight months, he will to what he says he will do in response to russian action. he said he will impose costs for novale and solar wind, if vladimir putin takes the same action, she not doing this to save irrattle, to make idle threats. he is dock it to prepare and direct with both the russians a

you know, it's important to show putin that biden is serious about stopping putin's aggressive policies. they had a dialogue about ransomware? what about biden addressing the hacking attacks? is russia paying any price for interfering with america's infrastructure? cooperation in the middle east is anything but bringing peace into the region. >> kristen welker, richard enger, and garry kasparov, i appreciate all three of you getting us started on what we'll see if we have averted a military conflict. thank you all. in fact, i want to bring in senator ben cardin. he's a democrat from maryland, longtime member on the senate foreign relations committee, a one-time chair himself. senator cardin, look, we've gotten the basics of what happened today and the conference. you know where garry kasparov is. he's where a lot of folks are who think we should be tougher on russia than we have been. waiting for russia to de-escalate, is that the right call? >> chuck, good to be with you. the situation couldn't be more serious. we recognize russia is accumulating a military force on the border. we have

putin wants the u.s. and nato to pledge that ukraine won't become a full member of nato. analysts said that won't happen. >> that's not going to happen. it's not going to happen for many reasons. it violates the principle of sovereignty. russia believes that big nations have more sovereignty than small nations. we disagree with that. we don't believe in spheres of influence. further, the decision on who gets into nato is a decision for the country applying, in this case ukraine, and the members of nato. it's not up to anybody else. certainly not up to the united states to say. so even if we wanted to, which we don't, we couldn't commit nato not to accept ukraine. ukraine has an open door. nato has said the door is open for you at some point you can be a member. >> you're an expert in diplomacy. what do you think about the two calls this month? is it enough? you have two zoom calls. should there be more engagement? should countries be more involved? lastly. >> absolutely. absolutely. that is one of the oth

but it also gave vladimir putin image a reboot. he presented himself as a patria offender of russia's interests on the world stage. his approval ratings went up to a whopping 80 percent. now, tensions between russia and ukraine are on the rise again. these satellite images allegedly show russian troops stationed near the border to ukraine. u. s. officials put their number at around 70000. but experts say this time around, an escalation won't help putin's popularity was more honest. no, it was, it's putin has exhausted the potential of using his image as a key geopolitical player in order to push up his popularity with in russia. a nice shirt bama booster, talking about how we have returned to russia. his previous greatness is fine. lloyd village, but people are more concerned about what's in their refrigerators. g was wrong with many local support. putin because they think it would be worse without him sport or it's not a question of hope for a better future. it's about preserving what they have made years them will shibel to share

were -- putin invaded crimea and annexed it. what we got here as there is not a legitimate nato threat -- there were not even war plans until a year after their accession. this is hogwash. what you have is a guy here who has a vulnerable domestic position because he has delivered nothing for his people other than this idea of a return to the great wars of the soviet union. a few days ago, the russian hockey team played in the old soviet union jerseys against finland. they lost, so i guess it took them back to 1940. all this stuff about nato expansion is just hogwash. traditionally, when a country joins nato, their defense spending decreases. they actually spend less money on that, and i can tell you i have never seen any contemplation of offensive action only updating plans from the cold war. finally, we got to bear in mind, russia occupies a big part of crimea or a big part of ukraine. they completely annexed crimea. this is not as if there is just something coming from the west. there is a seven-year war going on, and the fact

were -- putin invaded crimea and annexed it. what we got here as there is not a legitimate nato threat -- there were not even war plans until a year after their accession. this is hogwash. what you have is a guy here who has a vulnerable domestic position because he has delivered nothing for his people other than this idea of a return to the great wars of the soviet union. a few days ago, the russian hockey team played in the old soviet union jerseys against finland. they lost, so i guess it took them back to 1940. all this stuff about nato expansion is just hogwash. traditionally, when a country joins nato, their defense spending decreases. they actually spend less money on that, and i can tell you i have never seen any contemplation of offensive action only updating plans from the cold war. finally, we got to bear in mind, russia occupies a big part of crimea or a big part of ukraine. they completely annexed crimea. this is not as if there is just something coming from the west. there is a seven-year war going on, and the fact

so much of this is vladimir putin posturing. you heard jeff saying, well, that putin is at his vacation home. not sure if there's anything to read into that. nothing that he does is by accident. there's no question that he does that by design, to show, well, i'm relaxed, i'm okay, nothing to see here. i know that from covering these issues far long time and specifically covering the bush white house, listening to president bush tell myself and other reporters so many stories about what putin was like behind closed doors. he is all about trying to be a player and to play those he is with. that is going to be the underpinning of this conversation that's going on. >> biden did -- i mean, biden has -- he ran on his foreign policy chops. so many speeches on repairing alliances but also being able to deal effectively with adversaries, russia chief among them, of course. i think the big question seems to be how do you thread the needle here diplomatically? how do you push back firmly but not make things worse since there is clearly ver

president biden warning putin. a kremlin official says that putin told biden new sanctions against russia would be what he called a colossal mistake. they didn't come away with any idea on whether putin has decided to invade ukraine. more on that in a moment. it comes as this country is facing what one doctor called the biggest health crisis we've seen, the new cases soaring past 300,000. pediatric hospital admissions are the highest they've ever been over the course of this pandemic. >> we're going to be in for a very rough three or four weeks. i think it's good news that we'll have the boosters for the 12 to 15-year-olds so that will help a little bit but this is going to be a very rough time, not only for the kids but for the adults as well. as we head into this new year's weekend, be conservative, be thoughtful, keep your gatherings small and surround yourself with those who are vaccinated. you don't want to come out the other end of this weekend hospitalized or very sick. >> a source telling cnn the pfizer boo

just hours from now. >> putin is looking at biden. is he looking at afghanistan. he is looking at his ratings and saying there is an opportunity here. >> developing story out of chicago. >> in court jussie smollett testified that there was no hoax. >> you have to be an absolute fool to believe anything else of what is plainly in front of us. jussie smollett light. >> dodged any questions related to hunter biden. >> i was hoping that you can confirm that the laptop is indeed authentic. >>

do you think putin hasn't made up his mind yet? >> i think what we see is that this build up is enormous. 175,000-plus troops surrounding ukraine that certainly, when you take this in context with what happened in april where putin came up to the line with thousands of troops and threatened ukraine and then backed off, that if there is going to be a decision point where putin does not invade, it's going to be because the united states and our allies took action and were resolved and communicated to putin there would be a cost higher than he expects for him to turn around. and that's what this administration is really going to do now is get over that bar to let putin believe and understand there will be consequences for this greater than he believes. >> how do you do that without provoking putin into wanting to do something because he feels like the united states and nato are being so aggressive in their response that to back down would look weak? there's a line here. how does one achieve that? >> nato is not provocative in this ins

so, how did putin respond today? well, according to the kremlin, quote, in response vladimir putin stressed that the responsibility should not be shifted onto the shoulders of russia since it is nato that is making dangerous attempts to conquer ukrainian territory, and is building up military potential in our borders. putin, obviously, verbally not backing down at all. in fact, he is building up. i mean, let's just actually look at the facts on the ground. so, you are looking at satellite images. there is a massive russian troop buildup along the ukraine border. russia has erected supply lines, medical units, and fuel. and the sources familiar with the latest u.s. intelligence estimates say that that -- those fuel lines -- could sustain a drawn-out conflict if moscow chooses to invade. and then, let's get to the number of troops. u.s. intelligence now estimates up to 175,000 russian troops -- 175,000 russian troops -- amassing near the border. i mean, to state the obvious, you don't do that just, you know, to hang ou

biden and vladimir putin met face-to-face in a june summit and publicly, putin has and continues to praise biden ng that he is a professional coup, "does not miss a thing." they admit that flattery only goes so far and president biden will tell putin to back off and recognize ukrainian sovereignty. they will also speak to his ukrainian counterpart, another way to lower the temperature and avoid a superpower confronta confrontation. >> chris: reporting to the white house, david, thank you. earlier here at the reagan defense forum, i sat down with joni ernst, the first female combat veteran elected to the senate who is now a member of the armed services committee. and also michele flournoy, former secretary of defense under president obama. we begin with the growing crisis on ukraine's border. senator, michelle, welcome to "fox news sunday." senator, what you think vladimir putin is up to here? do you really think that he intends to invade ukraine? what should president biden tell him on tuesday? were not going to go to war with russia over ukraine. >> senator ernst: it's hard to know what v

so this is more than just sanctions that president putin has to deal with. >> susan, putin is the one who requested this one-on-one call with biden. there is already a bilateral security discussion scheduled between the u.s. and russia in just a few weeks. what do you think putin was trying to accomplish today? >> first of all, jake, in the russian system right now vladimir putin is the only international diplomat who matters and sees the kwifl ens this should be a leader to leader engagement and super power to super power engagement. notably not included in the conversations are ukraine about whose fate they are discussing. and so i think that is very typical of vladimir putin's approach to international diplomacy. the ambassador is right. this is not diplomacy right now. this is an act of aggression and manufactured crisis by putin. what he is demanding from the united states is not something that joe biden can actually give him. >> phil, putin wants among other things legally binding security guarantees from the u.s. that ukraine will never be allowed to join nato and that nato wil

so what does putin want? >>> plus the survivors of jeffrey epstein's abuse are speaking out after his long-time associate ghislaine maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking. we'll bring you their reaction. >>> a tiger attacks a man at a florida zoo causing officials to have to shoot and kill the endangered animal. we have details on what went wrong here, just ahead. -hey tex, -wooo. can someone else get a turn? yeah, hang on, i'm about to break my own record. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ throughout history i've observed markets shaped by the intentional and unforeseeable. for investors who can navigate this landscape, leveraging gold, a strategic and sustainable asset... the path is gilded with the potential for rich returns. do your eyes bother you? my eyes feel like a combo of stressed, dry and sandpaper. strypaper? luckily, there's biotrue hydration boost eye drops. biotrue uses naturally inspired ingredients. and no preservatives. try biotrue! i don't just play s

senator, what do you think vladimir putin is up to here. do you think he intends to invade ukraine and what should president biden tell him on tuesday. were not going to go to war with russia over ukraine. >> it's hard to know what vladimir putin is thinking and what his true intentions are. we do see a very aggressive action on his part unmasking his troops on the ukrainian border. we must prepare for the worst, not knowing what the intentions are. i do think president biden needs to be very clear and very strong in his message to vladimir putin. he needs to say to vladimir putin, that we are no longer going to allow you to continue with the nord stream 2 pipeline, we need you to know and understand we will defend ukraine. we will provide them assistance. he needs to make that very clear. chris: here is secretary state lincoln talking about the threat of russia and ukraine. take a look. >> we made it clear to the kremlin we will respond resolutely including with a range of high-impact economic measures that we refrained from using in the p

putin is in fact because he's awarel putin is in fact because he's aware it's the _ putin is in fact because he's aware it's the 30th — putin is in fact because he's aware it's the 30th anniversary. - putin is in fact because he's aware it's the 30th anniversary. i - putin is in fact because he's aware it's the 30th anniversary. i think. it's the 30th anniversary. i think this means _ it's the 30th anniversary. i think this means something _ it's the 30th anniversary. i think this means something to - it's the 30th anniversary. i think this means something to putin. | it's the 30th anniversary. i thinki this means something to putin. i don't _ this means something to putin. i don't think— this means something to putin. i don't think anyone _ this means something to putin. i don't think anyone in _ this means something to putin. i don't think anyone in the - this means something to putin. i don't think anyone in the west. this means something to putin. i. don't think anyone in the west even remembers— don't think anyone in the west even remembers it. — don't think anyone in th

president putin has made a decision. what president biden did today was lay out very clearly the consequences if he chooses to move. he also laid out an alternative bath. we'll see in the days ahead through actions, not through words, what course of action russia chooses to take. >> so why are russian and ukrainian tensions reaching such a boiling point again? we know putin's adamantly against ukraine's desires to join nato. he said last week he would call for specific agreements that would rule out any further nato expansion eastward. we don't know if he addressed that with president biden today, but the white house says biden made no commitments, no concessions on the call. so where did they leave things? the two presidents asked both of their teams to follow up, and the u.s. said it would do so in close coordination with allies and partners. president biden will be speaking with ukraine president zelensky thursday, and that's the state of play. i want to know what you think putin is up to and what should the u.s. andt

putin's goal from the call is unclear. yesterday he was playing hockey with the president of belarus, the russian leader is in the process of strengthening a political union with belarus and he may also want to add ukraine to russia's expanding domains. russia says it has no hostile intentions toward ukraine and is merely trying to defend itself against nato expansion. u.s. and ukrainian officials do not agree. >> richard, thank you. that's the backdrop. so, mike, looking ahead, what is the white house's main objective now going into today's meeting? >> reporter: well, joe, again, it was president putin who requested this meeting. while white house officials are saying they don't quite know why he has requested it, they said it wasn't a particularly difficult calculation on their part to accept that request because president biden as one senior administration put it feels that there is no substitute for direct leader to leader conversation like this, especially with the situation as precarious as the one we potentially fac

president putin was deeply engaged. i am going to leave it at that in terms of trying to characterize where he is. all i can tell you is, there is a task coming out of that meeting to their teams to start talking about how we might think about the diplomatic path. the president made clear throughout that diplomacy has to come in the context of de-escalation rather than escalation. now we will watch what unfolds in the coming days. thank you, guys. jen: ok. thank you, jake. welcome back anytime. i think i can speak for the group. ok. i have a couple of items for all of you at the top. i want to preview tomorrow the president will be handed to kansas city, missouri, where he will continue highlighting how the bipartisan infrastructure law delivers for missourians by rebuilding roads and bridges, upgrading public transit, replacing water infrastructure, and creating good-paying union jobs. the trip is part of the president and the administration's nationwide tour that demonstrates how the president is following through on

as vladimir putin decides what to do. _ unfortunate. as vladimir putin decides what to do. president | decides what to do. president biden has talked about economic sanctions, joint action from the us and its european allies and russia. are they much of a threat to russia, what form could those sanctions take? we don't know _ could those sanctions take? - don't know for sure but the don�*t know for sure but the types of measures discussed are sanctions against major russian banks which would be a painful thing for the kremlin. sanctions against new sectors of the russian economy for example minerals. even more important and more effective, sanctions against the russian secondary debt market, finance, that would be a major hit to the russian economy and finally, this connecting russia from the swiss financial system which would be a major blow. joe biden will deliver a clear body blow to russia. we joe biden will deliver a clear body blow to russia. we will leave it there, _ body blow to russia. we will leave it there, thank - body blow to russia. we will leave it there, t

question is, does putin order that? and you basically -- i don't want to say you have a split but you have folks who say, honestly, i don't know if he's going to go ahead. he has the ability to. he very well could. but this might, again, be brinksmanship and to susan's point, i mean, russia's been compared to the mob before with that classic pattern of, they create a problem, then offer to fix it, and this would be in that category, right? they've got this massive build-up bz and say, okay, we wt invade but we've got to talk about this nato thing and the nato secretary general told us, that's not russia's decision. whether or not it's a realistic possibility. >> susan, let's talk more about what you call this manufactured crisis and the timing of it. 2014, it was during the obama administration when russia invaded ukraine, and last time that president biden, he was the vice president then. now, even after he had this friendly relationship with the trump administration, this happens again when biden is in the white house

what can putin do with that? >> president putin can lose a lot of russians with that. that is -- the last time he invaded ukraine, back in 2014/2015, ukraine was not prepared for that invasion. ukraine is much better equipped now. its military is stronger, it has better weapons, it is better led, morale is higher, training is much higher. president putin if he sends his troops against ukranian troops will lose a lot, this gets to be very wobloody on both sides certainly. but president putin will have to contend with many casualties, many russian casualties. >> do you think putin underestimates ukraine? >> i think he does. i think he does. i don't know president putin, i don't know what is in his mind. but all the indications are that he does not understand the new ukraine. he understands what ukraine used to be in soviet times. this is what must be in his mind. he sent out a message in the summer describing ukraine as only sovereign under russian control. that is not ukraine today. ukraine since 2014, since the russians invaded, has unified against russia and i don't t

putin at his home in sochi. president biden's warning to putin, do not invade ukraine. what he said would happen if putin does. our cecilia vega then asking, would this involve u.s. troops? and our ian pannell with the flash point on the ukraine border already. and what ian witnessed on the ground there today. >>> amazon tonight reporting a major server outage. what this means for amazon delivery trucks. some halted, weeks before christmas. and streaming services, amazon, netflix, disney plus. and how some of your devices at home have been effected, too. >>> the state of emergency in hawaii tonight. the major storm battering the islands. mudslides slamming into homes. power knocked out to thousands. >>> the dramatic call for help tonight. the plane in trouble in florida. smoke in the cockpit. the enjin failing. and you will hear the pilot. >>> actor jussie smollett takes the stand in his own defense. what he now claims about his alleged attackers, those brothers who he claims shouted racist and homophobic slurs. was there a prior relationship? one of the brothers, when

so putin is seeing that. he is seeing joe biden play right into his hand and smells an opportunity or weakness to be able to continue down the path. >> sandra: we will know when we get the read out tomorrow, right? he will be talking to biden. john ratcliffe and also on the record talking about his concerns this could be afghanistan 2.0. very serious question as we finish up here and should congress be doing something proactively as far as being a part of the decision on how the u.s. response here? knowing that in the wake of the afghanistan debacle, you had members of congress on the left and right calling for an investigation into that flawed withdrawal appeared could congress be doing something now to make sure joe biden does the right thing here? >> well, remember we are not talking about sending troops to ukraine. we are talking about hitting russia where it hurts. if you want to hit them where it hurts them up at the sanctions donald trump put in place that joe biden took away on the north stream pipeli

biden told putin, the u.s. would increase military support to ukraine, and the administration said president biden told putin that nato's eastern allies would receive more u.s. troops and training, similar to these 2016 exercises. this week, ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy joined lithuania and poland to call for stronger western sanctions against moscow. >> ( translated ): our common task is to deter the threat posed by russia, and defend europe from russia's aggressive policies. >> reporter: the u.s. says the best way to resolve the conflict is to restore ukraine's border, and to return to the minsk process-- agreements that russia and ukraine sought to enthe war in ukraine's eastern donbas region that began in 2014 between kyiv and russian-backed separatists. putin today said he looked forward to meeting the u.s. in january. the biden administration says it is willing to meet with russia in early january, but the details of the meeting have yet to be worked out. for the pbs newshour, i'm stuart smith

vladimir putin looks poised to invade ukraine. the two leaders are talking right now, and biden's hope is to find an off ramp. >> hello. good to see you again. last time we didn't get to see one another at the g-20. >> plus, big developments today in the insurrection investigation. the former trump white house chief of staff changes his mind and says he no longer plans to cooperate with the select committee. plus, republican of devin nunes is quitting congress. his new gig, running donald trump's media startup. up first the video call, giant video call with huge ramifications for american security. under way right now joe biden engaging in a one-on-one conversation with vladimir putin. russia state tv giving the world a glimpse of the high-stakes meeting. the call comes, of course, as president putin has put thousand of troops and weapons on ukraine's border. the world fears an invasion. u.s. officials promising biden would issue a warning to putin and warn any military aggression would be meet with significant consequences. let's

putin? >> the president has shown in the course of the past eight months that he will do what he says he is going to do in response to russian action, so president putin can count on that. >> a lot to go through listening to the words here. heard mention of sending additional capabilities. back to that question, could that mean u.s. troops? >> reporter: lester, the national security adviser made it clear they will only take action if russia invades ukraine, seeming to leave the door open to sending additional deployments if allies feel threatened. >> despite president biden's warning, there are no signs the russian troops are about to pull back from the border. richard engle is in ukraine for us tonight. >> reporter: ukraine announced tonight russia is reinforcing its positions near the border with heavy artillery and snipers while the kremlin gave its readout of the call between presidents putin and biden. russia accused ukraine of provoking the crisis, in a statement said putin told biden

putin knows he can withstand u.n. sanctions if he has a fractured europe and nord stream 2 is exactly what's going to fracture europe. >> bret: mara, your thoughts. >> nord stream 2 has been a real problem not just for president biden. president trump wanted germany to cancel that he failed to get that done. but, germany is making some kind of, you know, positive noises that they will consider doing something about that if russia invades ukraine. i think the big question from today is when jake sullivan says he looked putin in the eye and says we are going to do things we didn't do in 2014, what does that mean? does that mean canceling russia's access to the international banking system through a program called swift? does it mean that would in effect freeze the bank accounts of oligarchs and president putin? i mean, that would be something that would probably hurt. but if they just do the kind of sanctions that they did in 2014, we know that didn't deter putin from annexing crimea. so we have to see what the u.s. and

well, putin once again made clear— putin said? well, putin once again made clear that _ putin said? well, putin once again made clear that in _ putin said? well, putin once again made clear that in the _ putin said? well, putin once again made clear that in the way - putin said? well, putin once again made clear that in the way he - putin said? well, putin once again made clear that in the way he is i made clear that in the way he is enjoying that tension regarding ukraine, the build—up of forces, and he said that this tension helps russia. he mentioned negotiations with the west, that they need to take place injanuary and that increases tensions and gives him strong points in that negotiations and russia needs that because the russian economy is struggling, the russian economy is struggling, the russian life of an ordinary russian has dropped down dramatically so this is for an internal and external audience. mr putin is blaming it all on the west and during that negotiation it will give him additional strong points. the same with the economic questions. he said that this problem

putin loves it. who stood on the stage in helsinki and shook his hand and through 16 intelligence agencies under the bus. trump did. come on. it's a joke, it's propaganda. it's all a game for these people. ok? do this, do that. european countries, if they wanted us to come over there to do that, they would have said. so far they haven't said it. host: let me get your reaction to this bbc article about this pipeline. the bbc, this is from september of 2020, they say it's not that merkel and her conservative party were enthusiastic cheerleaders of the pipeline. she inherited it from her predecessor. mr. schroeder enjoys a backslapping bromance with vladimir putin who he famously described as a democrat through and through. they noted, the bbc, the article caller: no, it can't be stopped. natural gas over here, the fracking and everything else, goes on the ship and it goes over there, the business people in capitalist people over here say hey, there's an opportunity. take it all and throw it over there.

military threat putin speaks about but liberty, freedom and democracy, that is what scares putin the most if ukraine joins the european union at nato, that would be a clarion call to putin's own opposition which he fears so much. todd: to your point he literally created leverage out of whole cloth by moving the troops in. here's the statement from the white house, president biden urged russia to de-escalate, he made clear the united states and its allies and partners will respond decisively if russia further invades ukraine. i to drill into the chess match that is happening here as you see it going forward. >> we will see a meeting on january 10th between wendy sherman and foreign minister rickhalf. and demand specific guarantees for de-escalating the crisis they have themselves created and the question for the biden administration is whether they cave or not. vladimir putin is betting they know but putin thinks the biden administration wants to deal with covid and build back better and other domestic priorities. solve this problem for me, exactly the way i would like it and that wou

putin requested this call. what does it tell you? >> poppy, i'm a little unsettled by the fact that putin requested this call. i mean, obviously president biden had to accept it's the right thing to do. he said he is putting diplomacy first and if the russian president wants to talk what's better than -- it is better than the alternative. i feel putin was probably at the minimum taking a measure of president biden and the u.s. resolve to counter putin to provide assistance to the ukrainian military should ukraine be reinvaded -- invaded again and also, of course, take measure of our resolve on sanctions at a minimum i said. in addition to that putin could have had other tricks up his sleeve. we don't know whether he made additional demand which could have been like ultimatums a the united states, or if he used -- if he can use something out of the call as pretext for invasion. >> steve, how do you think biden is handling putin so far? >> you know, poppy, i think pretty well so far. that is an important thing because there are a lot o

has putin given anything? no, nothing at all. putin has got away with annexing sovereign ukrainian territory. he's gotten away with effectively annexing two regions of eastern ukraine. the worry is, we know with putin, one thing, which is he is very good at exploiting other people's weakness. at the moment, there's a president who's not going to do anything and there's weakness in the three major powers in europe. germany with the new government, britain with the government in meltdown and france with an election coming up. that is an opportunity, but what we don't know with putin is his own state of mind. he's been in power now for 21 years. he has eliminated all opposition and is surrounded by yes—men. the question i guess it is really, after the orthodox new year, is he really going to do something and invade? because he knows there won't be a military response from the west. fascinating questions. sanctions after crimea didn't last long. we will watch this. chance now for you to remark on something that you don't think has

biden told putin, e u.s. would increase military support to ukraine, and the administration said president biden told putin that nato's eastern allies would receive more u.s. troops and training, similar to these 2016 exercises. this week, ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy joined lithuania and poland to call for stronger western sanctions against moscow. >> ( translated ): our common task is to deter the threat posed by russia, and defend europe from russia's aggressive policies. >> reporter: the u.s. says the best way to resolve the conflict is to restore ukraine's border, and to return to the minsk process-- agreements that russia and ukraine sought to end the war in ukraine's eastern donbas region that began in 2014 between kyiv and russian-backed separatists. putin today said he looked forward to meeting the u.s. in january. the biden administration says it is willing to meet with russia in early january, but the details of the meeting have yet to be worked out. for the pbs newshour, i'm stuart smit