Former President Barack Obama sat down with NBC “Today” co-host Al Roker on Tuesday to weigh in on the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Obama advised that Putin had “always been ruthless against his own people, as well as others. He added the brutality on Ukraine was a “reminder of why it’s so important for us to not take our own democracy for granted.”
“Putin has always been ruthless against his own people, as well as others,” Obama told Roker. “He has always been somebody who’s wrapped up in this twisted, distorted sense of grievance and ethnic nationalism. That part of Putin, I think, has always been there. What we have seen with the invasion of Ukraine is him being reckless in a way that you might not have anticipated eight, 10 years ago, but the danger was always there.”
Roker asked Obama if he thought he handled Russia annexing Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 properly.
“The situations in each of these circumstances are different, but I think that what we’re seeing consistently is a reminder of why it’s so important for us to not take our own democracy for granted, why it’s so important for us to stand for and align ourselves with those who believe in freedom and independence, and I think that the current administration’s doing what it needs to be doing,” he replied.
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