As Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine, former President Barack Obama says Russian President Vladimir Putin has consistently been a threat on the world stage.
“Putin has always been ruthless against his own people, as well as others,” he said Tuesday in an exclusive clip of an interview he did with TODAY’s Al Roker. “He has always been somebody who’s wrapped up in this twisted, distorted sense of grievance and ethnic nationalism. That part of Putin, I think has always been there.
Obama also said the current military action in Ukraine represents a new approach from Putin that may not necessarily have happened before.
“What we have seen with the invasion of Ukraine is him being reckless in a way that you might not have anticipated eight, ten years ago, but the danger was always there,” he said.
Obama was president when Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Is there a part of him that wonders if he handled the matter properly?
“The situations in each of these circumstances are different, but 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’s doing what it needs to be doing,” Obama said.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, with fighting expected to intensify in the eastern part of the country and reports that Russia possibly used chemical weapons on civilians in the city of Mariupol.
Putin, meanwhile, has reiterated the importance of his country not being taken out of the world stage.
“We don’t intend to be isolated,” he reportedly said during a Tuesday meeting with Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko. “It is impossible to severely isolate anyone in the modern world — especially such a vast country as Russia.”
You can hear the rest of Obama’s interview with Al Tuesday on NBC Nightly News and Wednesday on TODAY.
