Transcript of Putin warns the US after long-range missile policy shift

Well, though, meanwhile, the Kremlin is lashing out at the US and our allies after President Biden gave Ukraine the go ahead to fire the long-range missile that we've provided deep into Russia. The missiles are targeting Russian military sites that are used by Russia to savagely attack our ally Ukraine. A Russian President, Vladimir Putin, with this warning about the use of those missiles.

We consider ourselves entitled to use our weapons against military facilities of those countries that allow their weapons to be used against our facilities. I recommend that the ruling elites of those countries that are hatching plans to use their military contingents against Russia seriously think about this.

Rebecca Koffler, strategic military intelligence analyst, former Defense Intelligence Agency official, joins us now. Rebecca, it's good to see you. You know, many say President Biden should have given the green light to use these long-range missiles long before to push Putin back and help Ukraine. What do you think will happen now that Ukraine is using them and Putin retaliated, in a sense, by using this new hypersonic missile.

We war-gamed this scenario, exactly this scenario back in the intelligence community. We are right now on the escalation letter, inching towards a nuclear war. It's not going to happen today or tomorrow. But the way that it happens, Eric, the Russians and the United States are de facto right now in a war. Why is that? It is because those attackers don't fire by themselves, even though a Ukrainian soldier technically can push the button. But the targeting of the weapon systems, ensuring that there's a proper flight trajectory of the missile, that it destroys the right target, the actual battle damage achieved that we wanted to achieve, it all requires US personnel and US satellites. This is why the Russians have stated that the United States and European targets are now in crosshairs. Every war game that we conducted back in the intelligence community ended up in a nuclear war. There was an escalation ladder, and the Russians have mapped that out in the course of 20 years, and we are on it right now.

Well, some supporters say Ukraine has the right to defend itself, that it's just targeting Russian military that are attacking Ukraine, and this is perfectly legal and appropriate under international law.

Absolutely. From the standpoint of the laws of armed conflict, Ukraine is entitled to its defense, and this is what the United States has been doing. But there's a rational approach, and then there's an irrational, a senseless one. President Biden himself, just two years, he told his DMC donors at the fundraising event in in New York, he explained that the reason why he was not providing those strategic missile systems at the time in quantities needed for Ukraine to actually make a difference on the battlefield is to prevent World War III. Biden also said that the threat of nuclear Armageddon is real. And so what he has done is a 180. So it's unclear right now why he's doing it, but whether he's trying to walk us into this war. Yes, absolutely. There's a difference between the right and between the actual reality. The reality that we are in, we are inching very steadily to the unthinkable that was gamed out by the US intelligence community and the US intelligence community. As recently as September, advised President Biden against providing the attackums because Putin would likely retaliate, including with lethal means, against the United States and against Europe, saying nothing about Ukraine.

Ukraine is being destroyed right now.

At the same time, they've been holding back Russia. He's taking about 18% of the territory. Finally, in terms of Russia, I mean, Putin has had to rely on Kim Jong Un and get 10,000 North Korean soldiers. Now, the report is relying on the Hutsis. I mean, some say the Russian army has been decimated. They We've had hundreds of thousands of losses that without a loss of an American life, the Allies have basically whittled down and practically destroyed the Russian army.

I respectfully disagree with this characterization, Eric. I'm a former intelligence officer. My intelligence assessment, and it is shared by multiple expert, is that no, the Russian army has not been decimated. In fact, the Russian army Army, from the standpoint of combat potential, which is calculated by a combination of weapon systems, armed forces, the capacity of military-industrial conflicts to reproduce the scale up, and defense economics, Ukraine is massively outgunned and outmanned. The Russian military-industrial complex is right now working on a 24/7 basis, three shifts a day, pumping out in those missile systems. Why is that? It's because Putin has transitioned the Russian military and economy on a wartime footing seven years prior to invading Ukraine. I personally briefed NATO, Obama's White House, National Security Council, Strachan, UKAM, and all these key pieces of the US National Security Community about what was coming at the highly classified level. And yet, what the Pentagon has decided to do is use Ukraine effectively as a human shield to protect the Europeans who didn't want to pay for their own security.

And finally, quickly, it seems like a standoff. How do you think this will end? What do you see happening in the next year?

Well, hopefully, President Trump will come in and settle this. He is the only President that Putin fears, the only US President for multiple reasons. One of them is the Russian intelligence designated Trump as unpredictable, which means that when Trump negotiates, the Russians will not be able to tell whether he's bluffing or not, because the Russians are in excellent position to negotiate, the Ukrainians are not. But we have 60 days still when Biden has his finger on the nuclear button, and Biden, multiple experts, designated him as cognitively impaired. So we're in a very perilous situation.

I pray- That's not exactly fair to say that. Others say that he's been able to maneuver this appropriately without a loss of American life. We'll see what happens, Rebecca Koffler. Good to see you. Thank you.

Likewise. Arthel?

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