Masha Gessen, staff writer for The New Yorker, talks to Chuck Todd about Russian President Vladimir Putin and how he has isolated himself over time. » Subscribe to NBC News: http://nbcnews.to/SubscribeToNBC
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#Russia #Ukraine #War
Full Masha Gessen: ‘Russia At This Point Is A Totalitarian Society’
I would like to understand how we can be certain that the same Russian troops who were reluctant to even be in the country, who are doubting the legitimacy of this war, are also committing blatant and easily proveable war crimes while retreating. Of what benefit is it to Russia? All this would do for them is perhaps scare the Ukrainians more, but that’s not necessarily even a good thing for them. The costs are enormous: universal condemnation, potential retribution… I hope these accusations are investigated thoroughly by multiple independent outfits and the results made public. Either the Russian soldiers have had a massive change of heart in a month or there is some other explanation for what is being reported
Individual difference, in the soldiers and their field commanders and the dehumanizing effects of war, my brother. Perhaps the ones who were most likely to think fir themselves and refuse to follow criminal orders have surrendered or were themselves executed.
A lot of people on TV saying really foolish thinks about Russia and Putin – NOT Masha Gessen. She is right about the magical thinking about Putin. More than 20 years of magical thinking about Putin has brought us to this situation
Listen to this bought neocon twit shill for the DC elites…..
Okay, we know that we can’t trust Putin.
Can we trust our own DOJ?.
All the world knows and saw the crimes that Trump did.
And he and all his criminal friends still free.
The law only apply to poor people.
I suspect that horn-blowing was done by someone who had access to this program in a car & supported Putin & was trying to obstruct this interview.
4:02 this is just wonderfully said and people should keep it in mind.
🇺🇸 🇺🇸 first he is good!!!!
Dandy amen Jesus is 👑
HE ONLY NOW FIGURED THIS OUT??? HELLO, COLLEGE GRAD?? HISTORY NOT YOUR MAJOR??? 🙂
What was with the car horn? Lol
I heard a news story interviewing a former associate of Putin who was at one time a billionaire and owned several companies. He voiced opposition to Putin and spent 10 years in prison as well as losing his companies. He said Putin was a criminal with the mind of a criminal. The only thing that causes him to back down is force. Any other option is considered weakness and offers him the opportunity to inflict more harm.
He’s a great leader..you will wake up one day with this understanding, but it will be much later.
Every time Masha Gessen is on air, I have to listen ! Serious intellectual.
Same. I have great respect for her thoughts on these issues.
Why do you have a painting pf a Russian flag in the studio?
What she said about polling is something chuck and his colleagues should take to heart
Polling means nothing if you don’t give all facts when you ask people what they think.
Your propaganda host tried to twist the words of your guest to deflect blame from the very weak Biden administration which is both afraid of Russia and also very timid with military aid. Biden is also responsible for the civilian deaths – she made that clear also NATO and the EU are cowards.I don’t support a no fly zone but to give Ukraine 500 M1’s and 300 F-16’s all now in storage will end this in our interests. They can airlife 10 old M1’s a day and fly over 12 F-16’s a day. Imagine what that would do –
Nobody is all in except Ukraine. Russia even with the brutality we are seeing they are holding back . They have much more than they can bare down on Ukraine . So the west in response gives weapons to Ukraine to not go beyond the balance of the fighting so not to escalate. What you create is a stalemate . This has been the way war has been waged between Russia and the west after the end of WW2 . A balanced fight which usually ends in stalemates where neither side wants to escalate beyond the point of no return . Now the financial sanctions are new and damaging but that was given to them from the west so it can be taken back but that will not deter what is occuring . Soviets lived without before they can do it again . The problem is when the Soviet union failed the balance of power failed . The EU expanded and so did Nato . You have a dictator who grew up in the Soviet system of the balance of power with the west. This was inevitable but it can be the final nail in the coffin for the Soviet mindset but then we still have China
We are not different from our ancestors who in order to avoid a new first world war tried to appease Hitler and got the second world war which was preventable. Now PUTIN achieves the same as Adolf Hitler ….a West with wishful thinking not doing the decisive things. Appeasement does not make dictators want less….it just emboldens them.
Ukraine is being destroyed AS WE SPEAK, and it has NO TIME to wait for the economic sanctions to stop Putin. Ukraine needs the full might of NATO military posture RIGHT NOW.
One flyby by the F-35 over Ukrainian skies may have a shocking effect on Russians, and it might stop, or at least put Putin’s onslaught on Ukraine on a pause. Bully and coward Putin will never risk a direct war with NATO, for he knows it’ll be suicidal for him and his cronies.
If we lose Ukraine today, we may lose America tomorrow!
NO FLY ZONE OVER UKRAINE! WAR CRIMINAL PUTIN MUST be STOPPED by ALL MEANS NOW!
Problem is, Russia Has Always Been A Totalitarian Society! Unlike Americans and Ukrainians, Russian people never had freedom. Never. They have no idea what to do with freedom, and how to fight for it. Sad but true FACT from History.
IS THIS a MAN or a WOMEN !!!! FEMINIST PUKE
Masha Geesen seems always cogent, on topic, with reality based assessments that are strong and to the point.
Wake up America. The nazi republicans are trying to be just like Putin and Russians
4:00 A brilliant understanding of how Putin (and other totalitarians like China) uses Western media money-making “model” of jumping on any sensational nonsense without any attempt to understand what’s going on beneath it, and then feeding this nonsense to the as much clueless western public. IRRESPONSIBLE is a very gentle word for it…
Massacre is not a bug but a feature of the armed mob that is the Russian military
I wish we, Nato, could blow them to bits…until they retreat back in their holes
Thank you MS NBC for having Masha on your program. Great to have such a knowledgeable person who speaks with clarity. She seems pretty smart as well.
At this point? They have been since Stalin.
She always adds a perspective you could not have thought of without her
You mean “them”…
Masha : “conducting opinion polls in Russia is irresponsible”…,
“Do you support the war or would you like to go to prison for 15 years“?
According to “Pandora Papers” (from Wikipedia), Zelensky keeps his personal excessive wealth ($millions) in offshore accounts in order to evade paying taxes.
Putin will probably out live Todd!
MSM propaganda of the globalists’ puppet administrations.
Russia, Russia, Russia,
Are you falling for the scam trying to drag U.S. into WW3?
I say we Nuke Russia from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
No one responds to my observation that no one in their right mind would want Putin’s job right now because it is the biggest poison chalice and dead cat imaginable. Putin may be a default president. You cannot in the long run win if you take over Putin’s job right now. Whichever way you jump you are not going to last whatever decisions you make. All Kremlin insiders are first and foremost careerists and taking over from Putin is the worst career move for anyone politically savvy and ambitious. Putin’s self imposed isolation is a blessing for these careerists as it is a great opportunity to hang the entire disaster of this war solely around Putin’s neck and escape their our own personal and political responsibility. The dictator theory of Putin becomes handy in this regard but historically the only dictator in Russia there has been for over a hundred years has been Stalin who made sure he had a close member of the family of his politburo cronies under NKVD arrest or in a labor camp. There is no evidence that Putin has taken a family member hostage of anyone in his inner circle and the career move is to distance yourself from that inner circle while retaining enough internal clout to protect yourself. Also temporary house arrest is not the end of the world and may have later career advantages for maneuvering for a high government post in a new replacement regime.
“Masha Gessen (says) ‘Russia At This Point Is A Totalitarian Society’” so let’s #ConvinceItForward with #SlavaBOHU
Should be spacial operation on Putin like bin laden
close the window
Do we have the moral right to condemn Russians?
Who bombed Yugoslavia, Syria, Libya, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan…
Why were we not outraged then???
Who allowed the Pentagon to create 30 bacteriological laboratories on the territory of Ukraine, where experiments were conducted to create biological weapons?
Who supplies lethal weapons to Ukraine?
Who turned a blind eye to the fascist units of “Azov”, “Aidar”?
Why did we applaud the drug addict Zelensky, who declared that he intended to create an atomic bomb?
Why did our media not cover the GENOCIDE in Donbas for 8 years, where more than 14,000 people died?
As it turned out, many Ukrainians do not believe what was happening in the Donbas…
Why did we block all Russian media?
Why do the media cover only one side of the conflict? Our media are skillful factories of lies! Even our presidents believe them…
Few people know that the Ukrainian army is led by the Joint Chiefs of Staff (USA)
Even Elon Musk provided the fascist regime with his space group.
We have been hostages of the devil’s democracy for a long time!!!
There is not a single proof that the Russians killed civilians!
Russian Russians for the first time faced a mean tactic when the enemy is hiding behind civilians????
Russians are the only nation in the world that has been fighting evil all its history!
Back in 2007, Putin warned NATO that if it gets close to the borders of Russia, he will respond. Then they laughed at him..
We woke up the Russian bear in vain… He will turn the whole world upside down and become the winner! This was even understood by the Chinese, Indians and Arabs. An unprecedented economic crisis awaits us…
I am against war!!!! I am against fascists in Ukraine!!!!!!
The voice of real America – Lara Logan. She wasn’t afraid to tell the TRUTH! Bravo!!!
Distribution of humanitarian aid. The city of Mariupol. 150 trucks are transported from Russia every day
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgUSoZuWqjA
True news about Russia is only on my channel!
Masha has it absolutely right. Russia is an old fashioned totalitarian state. China, on the other hand, is a new, hi tech surveillance state that is also totalitarian. Birds of a feather, they are.
From a distant shore.
Freedom and peace to the people of the Ukraine.
Freedom and peace to the people of Russia.
Putin must not prevail.
Annoying Jehovah Witnesses, Orthodox Russian/Catholic FAKE versions, even mormons, or CCP oli-sharks -or even within Russian News…. they contain no truth, Putin’s World along w/ Xi, ought know that it is BETTER THAT ONE MAN DIE, THAN ENTIRE NATIONs SUFFER!
I want punch the guy blasting the horn! New law should be passed about using the horn!
Putin is honest and strong
What the Russian’s have done in Ukraine is mass slaughter ,like the Nazis did in World War 2 Sanctions have to be even more Tougher to show the Russian People what Putin’s brought upon himself.
Putin has to be stopped. Period
Silly propagandists. They think people want to hear what they say. Most people don’t believe it anyway.
All of us can help by using less energy so as not to feed the “life blood” to Putin. Use yr bikes for short distances. Put heating down by 1 deg.
👆👆
I’m still gonna keep recommending this same dude above 👆.
His recovery services are the best
Move your car!
Closing the skies is *NOT* going to stop Russian soldiers from killing civilians in the street. It is also *NOT* going to prevent attacks with balisitc missiles, cruise missiles fired from Russian or Belarussian airspace, artillary or any of that. While it is totally understandable Ukraine wants a no-fly zone for military reasons, and that is completely legitimate, the suggestion this is going to stop Russia’s targetting of civilians is objectively false and deceptive when virtually none of those attacks are by Russian aircraft in Ukrainian airspace.
“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and writer. Let us, the supposedly free world help these Ukranian people to the maximum. Oh please, do not stand idly by and permit another monster try and extinguish a people. What are we, if we again permit this?
Finally, someone who said so eloquently my own thoughts. It feels good to have someone express the truth behind this.
Masha needs to be on more shows, more often.
If information is available then People are not brainwashed. They believe that suits them to meet their personal interest.
So, if their personal interest hurt then they will believe other way. For example: Death of any Russian soldier force it’s mother to think war is bad. At the same time, death of Ukrainian people is just the victory in Russia.
If Ukraine wants Russian to remove Putin or stop war , send 50,000 body bags.
SLAVA UKRAINE
God 🙏 bless Ukraine
Praying from India
Someone please help the car that is honking.
Masha! Always truthful.
So Russia is copying the Democratic party now
And using it’s own leftard media exactly like the Democratic party using CNN, MSNBC and most other leftist media to push disinformation.
Funny how you give your idiotic selves away.
Don’t trust putin. Absolute! Glory to Ukraine 💙💛
This country russia does not care for its people. Putin doesn’t care!
The totalitarian card its always useful for liberals…
She Rocks !
This is an example of someone trying to draw the United States in a war…A proportional response is the best course of action…Let’s be clear…..The Ukraine was given the opportunity to join NATO….For whatever reason they chose not to….Poland and many of the other Warsaw Pact countries joined NATO…..
1. Masha Gessen
2. Fiona Hill
3. Julia Ioffe
4. Everyone else
Well said, “Putin was never an extraordinary KGB agent”…I have never been impressed with his strategy or his commentary on any subject. : )
So you speak 🤔 Russian
@Paul Rodriguez Better than your English. : )
PUTIN HAS AIDS ACCORDING TO MASHA MOSSAD?
I am one of that 90% of people who are not war analysts, but I know for sure. The West is helping Ukraine survive from today to tomorrow, so no war is won. The West is as aware of this as they are sure that Putin will not give up as long as he has one capable tank. If they are afraid of Russian threats, then they should not interfere at all. Unfortunately, so far they have shown what the world did not expect, fear. Ukraine needs weapons to blame for this war, the longer the war, the less chance they have. Soldiers and civilians are dying, morale and the desire to win are dwindling, PTSD kicks in and it’s over. They need airplanes, tanks, anti-aircraft missiles, and long-range missiles. Please help Ukraine win this unjust war. Put yourself in their position. Please open your eyes, and admit to yourself that this will have to happen. So, the time was yesterday, today is too late and Tomorrow will be no Ukraine! Gad bless Ukraine and their people. 💔❤🩹❤😞😢😭
BS
The Russian soldiers are doing those atrocities and genocide because they WANT to do it to that horrible stand to please Putin.
COMPARED TO WHOM? AND WHAT?
It’s a dictatorship.
What do they think China is?(Mafia orTotalitarian)If you think USA is bad because it is run by the top 10% , China is like .001%.
Oligarch to the max.
And SO AMERIKKKANAZI is BECOMING the SAME! Wannabe DICTATOR Trump & 1/6/21 SHOWED us this !
NONE of you WERE YELLING to HELP NATIONS: ARABS , So.American & Asians , RACIST Amerikkka 🇺🇸 has DESTROYED !
That honking in the background is so annoying
Give us the weapons so we can murder them who murder us.
No one can read anyone’s mind, news too much speculation. Parrots of WH.GOV
Woody Allen spitin factz
So is Australia
I heard from Andrei Kozyrev, foreign minister under Jeltsin 1991-1996, now living in Miami Florida, and that has been positive even as a minister for Russia to be more like the west, say that everybody is afraid to tell a dictator like Putin the truth being bad news….I am bit puzzled about that, I mean if the truth in a way of bad news is necessary for Putin to know about what to do, to know to make decissions for the future, those “bad news” are helping him more than telling only the good news. Wouldn’t Putin rather be angry with those who did not tell what he needed to know, than on those who told the bad news that helped him more. So then comes the question..what can be considered good news and what can be considered bad news? So then we have to get an idea of what criterias there are for news being considered good or bad news. Just a thought….
Agree completely with Masha Gessen analysis of the situation, Putin is a criminal and the US and Europe are watching pergnant women and children being murdered and finding excuses to not sent warplanes, tanks, missiles etc to Ukraine….outrageous….
Putin chose not so see, just like the West chose to do NOTHING to stop those massacres, as usual.
First of all, They had no just or acceptable reason to invade Ukraine, they have no legitimate right to interfere in the business of another nation, I bet Putin wouldn’t invade China, so what right does he have in this, Absolutely none PERIOD
It is such a relief to hear a serious intelligent person speaking reality to the public. Thank you Masha Gessen.
What I keep hearing from almost every talking head is that this is: 1 – a fight to determine the fate of the West 2 – a fight between democracy and autocracy 3 – a fight to determine the shape of the 21st Century. So, who is actually fighting? Only Ukraine. The US and the rest of Europe are patting themselves on the back for denying the Russians Egg McMuffins. This is how history pivots… on what is not done much more than on what is done.
you can really hear the New York in the bg
Who’s honking outside of Masha’s house lol
Nazi Russia
Masha Gessen thank you for your amazing clarity.
I like gessen but this isn’t a fair representation of the Wests commitment to aiding Ukraine. Obviously we’ve made mistakes, and Ukraine has as well. There is a very delicate balancing act that’s being done as far as military assistance, but we’re delivering tons aid to Ukraine almost every day.
We shouldn’t be complacent but also let’s not disregard the huge effort we’re undertaking.
There is so much “magical thinking” not just about Pootin being ousted but that somehow a “magical” technology will come along to save the world from our insistence on destroying the planet.
Masha Gessen; Fiona Hill, Anne Applebaum; and Marie Yovanovitch. THESE are people who know about Russia and Ukraine. WE must listen. See a pattern in that list. Yeah…not the gender who is generally given much credibility particularly in the “war arena”. NOW might just be the time to change that–or not–but the world is now totally at risk. The end could be very close unless we do SOMETHING DIFFERENT.
When Masha speaks, I stop and listen. Thank you Charles
Side note -your leg movement under the desk is very distracting
Finally someone telling the news anchors that polling in a totalitarian state is absolutely without any significance and should not be repeated. Why is that so hard to understand?
🇷🇺 just remember… “IF”