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Russian ‘Preemptive Strike’ Not Likely ‘Before Finland Is Formally Within NATO’: Gen. Petraeus - YouTube
Channel: MSNBC
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joining us now retired army general
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david petraeus the former cia director
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during the obama administration four
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star general thank you very much general
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good to see you again
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good to be with you
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well the bite administration says that
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grinder is being wrongfully detained
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what can the u.s do i know now that she
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is being
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wrongfully
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detained that means that the u.s hostage
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negotiators can get into this
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uh they were waiting for a while to see
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if maybe they would release her right
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they can and you know they'll try to uh
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come to some kind of agreement perhaps
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there will be some kind of deal this has
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been done in the past in fact there was
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recently a successful
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uh release of uh someone who is being
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held
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so again i think that's very possible
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but of course it just adds another layer
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of complication to the u.s russia
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relationship
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at a time when russia really is finding
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itself in a bit of a quagmire
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of putin's own making
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in ukraine and of course experiencing
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enormous damage to their economy their
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financial system putin's inner circle
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and the business community and also
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watching as some 350 000 or so of the
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most talented russian citizens have left
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the country they don't want to live in a
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country anymore that is the pariah of
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the world
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now after weeks and weeks months really
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of trying to get the russians to take a
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call from the pentagon defense secretary
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lloyd austin did speak with the russian
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minister of defense today it's the first
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time since before the invasion since
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february 18th
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and that they spoke for about an hour
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according to the pentagon that there was
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back and forth communication
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secretary austin stressed the need to
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keep the communication lines open thinks
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that that message was received
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you know it's highly unusual as you
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would know better than i that there was
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no communication up until now how
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important is it that they're finally
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talking
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well it's perhaps an indication again
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that russia is trying to think its way
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through
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at least the beginning of what could be
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an end game but
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let's keep in mind that the individual
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who is probably the most important in
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that particular
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equation is president zielinski of
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ukraine who has seen his forces now
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strengthened enormously by the
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tremendous addition of
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heavy artillery pieces 90 of them plus
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190
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000 rounds of ammunition just from the
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u.s but also from
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uk and other nato nations and a variety
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of other weapons systems other military
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capabilities and supplies
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they are on the counter-offensive to the
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east of our keith it appears that they
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could actually drive the russian forces
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not just out of artillery range of the
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city but all the way across the russian
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border in the east and then the question
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is
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does that give president zielinski and
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his forces a sense that they can go on
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the counter offensive elsewhere can they
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continue further south from that
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threaten the lines of communication
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between the russian logistical hub in
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belgorad in russia of course
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uh and the russian forces that have been
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trying to push in from the east uh the
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new focus of russian uh elements since
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they withdrew from
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kiev and also uh from chernhee and sumi
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in the north so i i think that's the
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dynamic uh that we need to watch in the
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days and weeks that lie ahead
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whether or not the ukrainians can
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with the additional support from the
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arsenals with an s on the end of
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democracy
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uh push the russians back and if so then
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president zielinski's objectives will
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continue to expand i would assume
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and the question is going to be then how
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far can they do that
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noting that of course president putin
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did not declare mobilization
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during the celebration of world war ii
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victory victory uh in moscow on monday
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nor did he declare war he is still
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calling it a special operation
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so
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that's where we are i think and again
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president zielinski is the one really to
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watch
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because it's going to be his aspirations
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i think in the possibilities
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that the battlefield
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is presenting to him
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with the additional support from the u.s
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and other nato countries
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and russia now says that it will
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retaliate if finland joins nato
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uh they're now saying that they are
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going to join they're being welcomed
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with open arms the president uh spoke to
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the prime ministers in finland and
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sweden today indicating such strong u.s
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support bipartisan support
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this will double the size of the border
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with russia and nato do you think that
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this is going to be provocative to
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russia or is russia so far back on its
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heels that it
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it may take this in stride i mean is
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there any way to predict what putin
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might do next
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well it will be provocative the question
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is what real options does russia have
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the last thing they need is to open up
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another military front they can't even
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deal with the one
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fully that they've established with the
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invasion of ukraine
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they're going to be fighting very very
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hard with the forces that they have
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available with not much in the way of
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replacements for either forces or the
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weapons systems that they've been losing
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in very substantial numbers
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they have announced already they're
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going to cut off the electricity that
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russia flows into finland that'll be the
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first of the actions they'll take
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presumably there could be some others
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involving whatever else they export to
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finland that might be of value to
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finland but at the end of the day i
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think the military options are really
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relatively limited and i don't think
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you're going to see some kind of uh
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preemptive strike before finland is
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formally within nato and of course it's
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also important to note that
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the uk prime minister has been up there
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recently he and also the u.s have
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provided assurances
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to finland for that period between the
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time that they apply for membership uh
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and are actually accepted and that
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should be a fast-track process according
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to the nato secretary general
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[Music]
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