What messages Putin is trying to send with warships, according to ex-CIA operative

What messages Putin is trying to send with warships, according to ex-CIA operative

CIA’s former head of Russia operations. Now, Steve, I just. What do you make of of what Patrick was talking about there? I mean, what is Russia trying to say by docking a warship and and a nuclear powered submarine in Cuba, which is, again, for a reminder to people 90 miles away from the United States? Yeah, we have to remember that this is this is not unprecedented. This is a relatively routine kind of visit. You have allies visit each other’s ports on a regular basis, but it is sending a message. The first message that I think Putin is trying to send is he’s big on reciprocity, as all Russians are. And so he’s very upset that the West has basically told Ukraine, look, you can fire your weapons, the weapons that we’re providing you into Russia. And so this is Putin saying, look, we can you know, we can put warships very close to your to your country as well. They, of course, could have done that at any time. They didn’t need to do it, you know, in Havana, they could have done it off the East Coast or anyplace else. But but it is a relatively routine thing. I think one of the reasons that you saw a relatively laid back group of Russian sailors is because they’re probably very happy to be in Cuba and not say, near Crimea, where they’d be fighting for their lives. The Ukrainians have been very good at destroying them. So the other thing that I think Putin is doing is he’s sending a message, a political message to the United States. He’s trying to once again influence our political process. Donald Trump and Republicans have said, look, if we were in power, we could resolve this whole problem in a day. And we wouldn’t have Russian warships right off of our coast. And Putin knows that very well. And so he’s feeding into that to that political message as well. So there’s a couple of different things that Putin is trying to do with this visit. Yeah, politics at play here, also optics as well. You know, Cuba obviously isn’t the only Cold War ally of sorts that Russia has been cozying up to of late. If you want to stay in that category. Their ties to China were a big point of concern at this week’s G7 talks. And I’m curious just on that front, how do you read that dynamic between Russia and China at this point? Well, this is another interesting point to to the Cuba visit and you talk we mentioned also Venezuela as a possible next stop for this. And then you’ve got China, you’ve got the North Korean connection. You’ve got Iran providing weapons to help the Russians fight the war. Who would have thought we would ever get to the point where the Russians needed help from the Iranians to fight, you know, a much smaller neighbor? But here we are. But what all that points to is the Russians essentially participating in and vocally supporting a coalition against the Democratic West. So all of these countries, Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Russia, China, all have autocracies. There is no free speech, There is no transparency. There is no open society in any of these countries. And that’s what China, Russia and all those other countries want to see more of. They want to see more authoritarian dictatorships and what they want to see a lot less of is Western style democracies. And that’s another messaging thing that’s going on here. And look, this week we saw G7 nations. They made a strong commitment this week to Ukraine, $50 billion loan, tapping into frozen Russian assets. So so 1 to 1, How is that show of support likely going to be received by the Kremlin? But also how much of that is contingent on the US foreign policy remaining the same as we look towards November and the possibility that that Joe Biden isn’t around the next time any significant form of talks like the next G7 comes around? Yes, it’s not a good couple of days for the Kremlin or for Vladimir Putin, as evidenced by the fact that Vladimir Putin himself essentially announced what his terms for a cease fire or for a settlement, some sort of, you know, agreement with Ukraine to end the war. You don’t make those comments if you’re a world leader unless that’s what you want to have happen, unless you’re at a position where you say, okay, I’ve captured pretty much everything that I can in Ukraine. And remember, when Russia when Putin started this, the goal was to take over the entire country. Now he’s saying, okay, I’ve got about 20% of it, most of the East that borders with Russia. And so how about we settle for that? If you’re winning the war, you don’t stop. You know, you don’t make those comments. You’ll notice that the Ukrainians have said, well, we’re not prepared to discuss it at all. What we have to have is all of our country back because you guys illegally attacked us, illegally invaded us and confiscated all of our land. So Ukrainians are not prepared to stop at all. And they’ve got the complete support, as we saw from the G7. Will that change as as governments both in Europe and perhaps in the United States, move to the right with a potential Trump presidency and other things happening in Europe? It’s possible, but it’s not. It’s not a fait accompli. If Trump were elected, there is now a ten year bilateral security agreement with Ukraine. He could dial that back. He could with a signature of his pen, annul it. But it won’t be that easy and there’ll be political consequences. So I’m cautiously optimistic as we go forward that there’s a lot of support from the West continuing to Ukraine. And it’s not just words, it’s money. Yeah. And as you point out, not just the United States with an election, obviously this November, large swaths of Europe, I mean, across the world at this point, it’s going to be a large, large showing of election and potentially shifting of powers globally. Steve Hall, appreciate the time and perspective as always. My pleasure. Mark.

A group of Russian Navy ships have arrived in Havana, Cuba. Former CIA chief of Russia operations Steve Hall joins CNN Newsroom to discuss the development, including what messages he thinks Russian President Vladimir Putin is sending.
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