CNN's Tom Foreman says Putin is trying to be ambiguous in his speech. The more he rattles the nuclear saber, West will come together around it, he says. It could well cause problems for Putin with partners like China and India, who have bought Russian oil or gas. He would certainly risk losing their support if he really continued to escalate,. And then potentially most explosively here, you've got a domestic political situation for Putin.
In a speech on Wednesday, President Vladimir V. Putin said that he would require hundreds of thousands more Russians to fight in Ukraine — and alarmed the West by once again raising the specter of nuclear force.
The mobilization signals that Mr. Putin is turning the war from one of aggression to one of defense, offering clues about what the next phase of the fighting will involve.
Guest: Anton Troianovski, the Moscow bureau chief for The New York Times.
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