Former CIA Director John Brennan said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Deadline” that Russian President Vladimir Putin “badly miscalculated” when he invaded Ukraine.
Brennan said, “I think it’s a combination of, he has now his own prism of looking at the world and Ukraine. Also, I think he has badly miscalculated because I don’t think he has anticipated the consequences and the reaction inside Ukraine, where nationalism runs strong and deep. So I do believe that what we’re going to be seeing in the coming days and weeks is going to be fierce, fierce Ukrainian resistance to this. Even though the Ukrainian people, I think, were surprised and shocked by this, I think they are going to demonstrate the resilience of a national force basically that is going to oppose this Russian effort to subjugate and occupy their country.”
Brennan added, “He has decided to go down this course and is not an easy reversal for him because he is playing to his domestic constituency as well as the international stage. A leader like Putin doesn’t want to lose face and, therefore, how he’s going to recover if there are going to be continued setbacks, not only on the military battlefield but also on the economic and financial front. So I do think he has miscalculated, based on either his perception alone or the advice that he is getting from those sycophant advisors that he has surrounding him.”
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