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‘A lot of people are concerned about Putin's mental capabilities at this point’: ex-ambassador
February 28, 2022 4:16PM ET
Russia's President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting in the Kremlin in Astrakhan on June 4, 2014 [AFP]
William Taylor, a former American ambassador to Ukraine, told MSNBC on Monday that there is growing concern about Russian President Vladimir Putin's mental faculties.
While discussing Russia's war in Ukraine, Taylor talked about the dangerous delusions that Russian leadership seemed to be under about achieving a quick military success.
"They thought when they went into Ukraine, the Ukrainians would welcome them," he said. "It's ludicrous that they could have that thought! So they don't understand Ukraine."
Taylor was then asked about Putin's mental state and whether he might do something truly horrific if he feels "backed into a corner" by the united international response against the war.
"People around him, they know, they can tell, they understand that he's not acting rationally," Taylor replied. "You can tell from some of these videos where he's talking to his people, or he's talking to somebody at his base, and he's contorted with hatred. You can tell he's not well. You can imagine there are people that noticed this and want to be sure he doesn't do anything crazy."
Taylor also said he was concerned that Putin is being surrounded solely by sycophants who are not telling him the truth about how poorly the Russian operation in Ukraine has gone so far.
"People are not willing to give him the true picture of what's going on in Ukraine," he said. "I imagine he's amazed and surprised and probably angry at those people in the room that they have not been able to wrap this up. He thought they would go in there and take Ukraine in one day, and it's five days and Ukrainians are fighting back hard and they don't want to tell him that."
Watch the video below.
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