Rachel Maddow gives a jaw-dropping explanation of 'kleptocratic dictator' Putin's Ukraine invasion

MSNBC News' Rachel Maddow returned from her six-week hiatus just in time to give viewers a comprehensive explanation on Russia's targeting of Ukraine.

On Thursday, February 24, the primetime host slammed Russian President Vladamir Putin governing as she offered a brief timeline of events highlighting what led up to the invasion of Ukraine.

"If you are the kleptocratic dictator sitting on top of a country that you were keeping poor and backward with no plans to do more than that for another few decades, how would you feel about a vague and culturally similar neighboring country where your population and your country had lots of family ties, lots of reason to identify with one another," she said, adding, "And in that large, culturally similar neighboring country, they recently threw out the pro-Russia puppet that you had installed there."

Despite the economic progress Ukraine has made over the last two decades, Maddow explained why Putin refuses to allow the country to thrive on its own.

"They took economic steps to ally themselves with Europe more than with you. They then elected, by a huge margin, a popular, Russian-speaking guy who wants ties with the West and Europe and the United States," Maddow said. "A new, young, charismatic leader who has said that the night that he was elected, that everyone in the former Soviet states should look at his election and know that anything is possible, that anything is possible. Even in the former Soviet world, thanks to democracy."

Maddow went on to shed light on Putin's twisted perspective on how things should be.

"How does that look to you if you are Vladimir Putin?" Maddow asked. "From the corner that Vladimir Putin has painted himself into, in the country he has ruined, the threat posed by a free, democratic, western minded and modern Ukraine, that is like a skeleton hand that might grab you by the ankles if you let your foot drift too far off the edge of the bed at night."

She added, "And yes, it is true, Russia — Russian President Vladimir Putin has delusions about being a new czar and remaking the Russian empire and reconstituting the USSR. Fine. But also, outside of the fairytale books, he also just cannot let any country near him work. Work in a way that may indicate to the Russian people that they too ought to expect their country and their government to work for them. He needs his neighboring countries to be dependent on him, to be corrupt, and to be fundamentally disappointing to their people."

Although Putin would probably argue that his decision to invade Ukraine was one made out of strength, experts argue otherwise as they do not believe the Russian President has a legitimate reason for his actions.

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