Former Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul explains why the crisis in Ukraine matters

As the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine looms, former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul joins Margaret Hoover to discuss Vladimir Putin’s latest provocations, the Biden administration’s response, and the possibility that the world is on the brink of “the biggest conventional war in Europe since 1939.”

McFaul, who served as President Barack Obama’s ambassador to Moscow from 2012 to the eve of Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, recounts his experiences negotiating with Putin and the Russian leader’s personal disdain for him. He reads between the lines on the public demands the Kremlin has made of the U.S. and NATO and Putin’s true motivation.

As a Stanford University professor and a former White House adviser who has studied Russia for decades, McFaul outlines the likely global ramifications of a war in Ukraine, explains why it is so hard to predict what Putin might do, and speculates about Russia’s potential to someday become a “boring, normal European democracy.”

McFaul also discusses the successes and failures of the Obama administration’s “Russia Reset” and what President Biden could learn from his predecessors’ dealings with Putin.

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