Fmr. Biden Energy Adviser: Putin Has ‘Done Poorly’ on Ukraine War, Peace Deal Could Be a ‘Saving Moment’ for Putin

EXCERPT:

HOCHSTEIN: “As you said, the very tail end of President Clinton, and ever since he's been in power, even though he had a few years where he officially was the number two to Medvedev, but in reality, he was controlling the scene. Look, every president, as you said, Kaitlan, comes in and says, I'm going to -- I'm going to figure him out, I'm going to do the reset, I'm going to understand how to deal with him. And the reality is that Putin seems to be able to succeed. And part of that is, look, he invaded Ukraine for the same reason he invaded Georgia. He has been wanting to restore the old Soviet sphere of influence around the world and to bring Russia into a power. And he has failed miserably. He invaded Ukraine, which was seen as a -- I can tell you from my time at the White House, during the -- early in the Biden administration. The common thinking in the White House, the intelligence community, the military, and around the world, was, If he does do the invasion, he'll be marching down Kyiv within four to seven days. And instead, it's been two and a half years, where he is now still bogged down in this -- in this war, and he's not been able -- and achieving very little, over the last two years, 3 -- 5 percent of territory gains, fought very hard, over the last couple of years. So, he's really done very poorly. And so, I think this could be now a little bit of a saving moment for Putin, if he's able to do this.”