'Chilling to the bone': Longtime Putin observer horrified by his latest speech

Russian President Vladimir Putin this week delivered a speech that telegraphed an intention to crack down on internal dissent, as he said he would not allow a "fifth column" within Russia to undermine his war effort in Ukraine.

Putin then predicted that Russia would undergo a "a natural and necessary self-purification of society" that he said would "only strengthen our country."

The New Yorker's Susan Glasser, a longtime observer of Putin, told CNN's Jake Tapper on she could not remember a more frightening speech from Russia's president.

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"Jake, in two decades of watching Vladimir Putin, I have never seen a speech that was as chilling to the bone as the speech that he gave yesterday," she said. "That was a full-on echo of the worst excesses of Soviet-era totalitarianism. It was a very scary speech to anyone who cares about the fate of the Russian people, because it suggested a kind of purging and self-cleansing, I think, was one of the phrases that he uses."

Glasser then predicted that we would see "a full iron curtain descending" on what remains of freedom of expression in Russia.

Watch the video below.