Former President Obama said in a new interview that Russian President Vladimir Putin has always been “wrapped up in this twisted, distorted sense of grievance and ethnic nationalism,” adding that the Russian leader is now being reckless in a way officials might not have anticipated during the Obama administration.
In an excerpt of the interview with NBC’s Al Roker aired on Tuesday, Obama was asked about Putin’s nature during the former president’s time in office.
“Putin has always been ruthless against his own people, as well as others. He has always been somebody who’s wrapped up in this twisted, distorted sense of grievance and ethnic nationalism,” Obama replied.
“That part of Putin, I think, has always been there. What we’ve seen with the invasion of Ukraine is him being reckless in a way that you might not have anticipated eight, 10 years ago, but you know, the danger was always there.”
Roker also asked Obama if the former president believed he could have handled Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014 differently.
Obama said that “the situations in each of these circumstances are different.”
“I think that what we’re seeing consistently is a reminder of why it’s so important for us to not take our own democracy for granted, why it’s so important for us to stand for and align ourselves with those who believe in freedom and independence, and I think that the current administration is doing what it needs to be doing,” he added.
The former president’s comments come amid attacks on civilians in the Ukrainian cities of Bucha and Kramatorsk, which have captured the international community’s attention and shown some of the worst devastation brought on by the Russian invasion.
Russian forces are now regrouping in the Donbas region amid failed plans to capture Kyiv. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told NATO leaders last week that the next phase of the invasion “will remind you of the Second World War with large operations, thousands of tanks, armored vehicles, planes, artillery.”
The full NBC interview with Obama is set to air on Wednesday.
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