'This is the end of the Putin regime': Ex-ambassador predicts Ukraine invasion will doom Russian president
The former ambassador to Russia believes Vladimir Putin's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine will eventually bring his downfall.
Russian forces invaded their neighbor Thursday after weeks of provocation, but former diplomat Michael McFaul told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that Putin's justifications were nonsensical and would fatally wound his power.
"The pressure on the regime will take time and I think it will be measured in years, but it is the same with the society," McFaul said. "If you think about Putin, he said very clearly, 'I want to destroy the Ukrainian military and I want to,' in his words, 'de-Nazify the country.' You have [foreign minister Sergey] Lavrov saying ,'We will do that so people can be free.'"
"Now, that framing is complete nonsense," McFaul added. "There's no Nazis in power in Ukraine. [President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy was elected in a free and fair election. By the way, go look at the map someday. Where he was elected, you know, giant majorities, even in the east that are so-called loyal to Russia -- complete nonsense, right. But it is not nonsense that Putin might take control of Ukraine for a while. We need to be sober minded about that, that he might overthrow the regime and install a puppet regime for a while."
READ: Why Vladimir Putin won’t back down
However, McFaul said, that situation would not last forever.
"Ukraine will be a captive nation, but it will never, ever be loyal again to Mr. Putin," he said. "I really do think this is the end of the Putin regime. I just don't know how long that will be. some day Ukraine will be free, I have no doubt about that. I also just don't know when that will be."
Watch below.
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