Russian President Vladimir Putin’s op-ed in the New York Times is really an argument for Russia’s return to world power, Richard Haass, president of the Council of Foreign Relations, argued on Morning Joe.
Putin’s op-ed, published on Wednesday night, argues against American intervention in Syria and criticizes the nation for seeing itself as exceptional.
“First of all, he can’t resist gloating. One gets the sense vodka and the caviar are flowing rather heavily in the Kremlin these days. Russia’s back, central stage, you need us, and Putin can’t resist it. This is his moment literally after decades of Russian humiliation. It’s a reminder that Russia is back and that’s the larger argument,” Haass said. “This is a way of telling the United States, you think you can be a great power and run the world and organize without us? Guess what, you can’t. You need us. We can make things better for you or we can make things worse for you. Because there’s also implicit threats in this op-ed. He says we can do things in Iran or other places, don’t think you can ignore Russian interests.”
Watch the full discussion on Morning Joe.
Jane Timm