Putin is 'feeling the pressure' and is being forced to the negotiating table: CNN's Fareed Zakaria

On Wednesday's edition of CNN's "The Situation Room," Fareed Zakaria suggested that Russia is already being forced to the negotiating table by the sanctions put on them over the invasion of Ukraine.

"The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, you interviewed — I have interviewed. He says talks are not easy, but there is hope for a compromise," said anchor Wolf Blitzer. "How do you interpret that when Putin is smearing pro-Western Russians as, quote, 'national traitors'?"

"Look, the Russians are playing a very, very brutal game in Ukraine, but within Russia as well," said Zakaria. "Hundreds of thousands of people have fled Russia. Those comments are significant, Wolf. The information I have from sources who are pretty well-informed is that the Russian demands in the negotiations with Ukraine have lowered. They have gone away from the completely fantastical idea of total overthrow of the regime, denazification, whatever that means, to more practical demands."

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"So I think the Russians are feeling the pressure, both from the Ukrainian resistance, but also from these very lethal Western sanctions, and as a result there's a little bit of a coming to terms with reality on their part," added Zakaria.

Watch below:

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