Putin won't take peace with Ukraine without restoring empire, former Defense Secretary Gates says
Russian President Vladimir Putin believes it's his destiny to recreate the Russian empire and won't back down in Ukraine, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in an interview with "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan."
Gates said Putin's aims can be unclear, even in one-on-one meetings.
"I'm not sure even in a face to face that you can judge Putin's intention," said Gates, who served as defense secretary under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. "My own view, having dealt with him and having spent most of my life working on Russia and the Soviet Union, is Putin feels that he has a destiny to recreate the Russian Empire. And as my old mentor, Zbigniew Brzezinski once said, without Ukraine, there can be no Russian Empire."
While campaigning for a return to the White House, President Trump promised a swift end to the war that began three years ago when Russia invaded Ukraine. Now more than 100 days into Mr. Trump's second term, talks to end the conflict have been inconsistent, with little sign an end to fighting is in sight.
"I think the president is — based on what I read — is getting the sense that, as he put it, that Putin is 'tapping' him along and … Putin hasn't given up on any of his original goals in Ukraine," Gates said, referring to an April 26 social media post.
In the post, Mr. Trump wrote of Putin, "maybe he doesn't want to stop the war."
Gates said Putin hasn't shown a willingness to make any major concessions.
"He's going to insist on occupying all four of the eastern provinces of the Donbas, perpetual recognition of Russian ownership of Crimea, a pro-Russian government in Kyiv and a Ukrainian military that looks a lot like an enhanced police force. And no membership in NATO and probably no membership in the EU," Gates said.
President Trump said Friday he's moving to set up direct talks with Putin as soon as he can. Talks with lower-level Ukrainian and Russian delegations took place in Istanbul Friday, but there was little concrete progress beyond an agreement to a major prisoner exchange in the coming days.
The conflict in Ukraine dates back to 2014, when Russian forces seized Crimea after protests in Ukraine led to the ousting of the country's pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych. Gates believes Putin wants the Ukraine that existed before that uprising.
"He wants Ukraine, basically, to be a client state of Russia, and I don't see what it would take to get him to walk away from any of those goals in the foreseeable future," Gates said. "I mean, when you look at 900,000 or so Russian soldiers that have been killed or wounded, he's paid a huge price – the Russian economy and so on."
"It hasn't deterred him in the slightest," Gates said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Associated Press
27 minutes ago
- Associated Press
What to know ahead of Putin-Trump summit in Alaska, AP explains
The summit will take place Friday in Alaska, although where in the state is still unknown. It will be Putin's first trip to the United States since 2015, for the UN General Assembly in New York. Since the US is not a member of the International Criminal Court, which in 2023 issued a warrant for Putin on war crimes accusations, it is under no obligation to arrest him.
San Francisco Chronicle
29 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Trump's takeover of D.C.'s police force isn't just another diversion from Jeffrey Epstein
It can be tempting to view President Donald Trump's meandering, deeply dishonest press conference on Monday as just the latest 'hey-look-a-squirrel!' distraction meant to divert the nation's attention from his involvement in the Jeffrey Epstein matter. Flanked by members of his cabinet, Trump invoked Section 743 of the Home Rule Charter, which permits him to send in the National Guard for a fixed period, and announced federal troops would be seizing control of the Washington, D.C., police force to address what he called a 'crime emergency.' Like many in his party, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., saw an ulterior motive for Monday's action. 'In another transparent ploy to distract America from his coverup of the Epstein file, Donald Trump now wants to militarize the District of Columbia,' Raskin said in a written statement, 'to attack crime and clean up graffiti in the capital city despite the fact that crime is at a 30-year low in Washington and graffiti seems to be pretty sparse.' Whether intentionally or not, Trump has indeed mastered the art of diversion. During his press conference, for instance, he bounced from D.C. crime to his forthcoming summit with Vladimir Putin, to tariffs on Chinese imports, to transgender athletes, to his own real estate experience. But his longstanding desire to deploy federal troops in blue state cities to bend them to his will should not be discounted as mere sleight of hand. 'Local 'youths' and gang members, some only 14, 15, and 16-years-old, are randomly attacking, mugging, maiming, and shooting innocent Citizens, at the same time knowing that they will be almost immediately released. They are not afraid of Law Enforcement because they know nothing ever happens to them, but it's going to happen now!' Trump explained in a comically hyperbolic post on Truth Social last Tuesday, explaining his rationale, adding, 'The most recent victim was beaten mercilessly by local thugs.' That recent victim was a 19-year-old Department of Government Efficiency employee, in case you were wondering what crime got Trump out of the golf cart this morning. To be clear, we're all against these ugly crimes, of course, and under the D.C. charter, sending in the National Guard isn't illegal. It's just ridiculously performative and profoundly unnecessary when you stop to realize that Justice Department data backs Raskin's assertion that crime in the district has hit a 30-year low, Data, of course, is beside the point for Trump. Just as his administration is busily rewriting federal scientific assessments that contradict Trump's view that climate change is a 'hoax,' declining violent crime rates in liberal-run cities are an inconvenient truth that doesn't square with his vision of a Washington that has been 'taken over by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals.' Trump's not-at-all hidden fantasy has been to become, to be charitable, something of an authoritarian. And the D.C. deployment is yet another dictatorship cosplay warm-up exercise. Under the Home Rule Charter, Trump's order expires in 30 days, but it remains to be seen whether he'll abide by it. After all, in apparent violation of the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, 250 National Guard troops he deployed are languishing around Los Angeles. Of course, Trump's newfound enthusiasm for mobilizing the Guard is in stark contrast to his delay in doing so on Jan. 6, 2021, the same day he suggested Vice President Mike Pence deserved assassination by the mob Trump had summoned to block the transfer of power. But that was then. 'We have other cities also that are bad. Very bad. You look at Chicago, how bad it is. You look at Los Angeles, how bad it is,' he said. 'We have other cities that are very bad. New York has a problem. And then you have, of course, Baltimore and Oakland. We don't even mention that anymore there.' Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said on X that 'Trump's raw authoritarian power grab in DC is part of a growing national crisis … He's playing dictator in our nation's capital as a dress rehearsal as he pushes democracy to the brink.' As his cabinet minions looked on, knowing they were props in yet another Trump late-night comedy fodder bit, Attorney General Pam Bondi dutifully executed Dear Leader's orders. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth seemed to relish the expanded marching orders. Only FBI Director Kash Patel briefly seemed to go off-script when he correctly noted that murder rates in the U.S. 'are plummeting.' Facts may not matter in the White House briefing room, but they could still matter in court. California's lawsuit against the Los Angeles troop deployment proceeded in San Francisco on Monday, where the state is arguing that the Trump administration doesn't have the right 'to execute or assist in the execution of federal law or any civilian law enforcement functions by any federal agent or officer.' During her own Monday press conference, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser struck a low-key response to the takeover of her police department, calling the action 'unsettling.' Oh, it's unsettling all right, just as it was in L.A, and this shock-and-awe arrival of U.S. troops could soon be coming to a blue state city near you. As Trump's long-winded presser drew to a close, some reporters shouted out questions about Epstein. By then, the president was already on his way out of the briefing room.
San Francisco Chronicle
29 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Texas Republicans plan another special session to deliver Trump more GOP congressional seats
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Republican leaders said Tuesday that they were prepared to end their stalemated special session and immediately begin another standoff with Democrats in the GOP's efforts to redraw congressional maps as directed by President Donald Trump. It's the latest indication that Trump's push to redraw congressional maps ahead of the 2026 midterm elections will become an extended standoff that promises to reach multiple statehouses controlled by both major parties. Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows confirmed the plans during a brief session Tuesday morning that marked another failure to meet the required attendance standards to conduct official business because dozens of Democrats have left the state to stymie the GOP's partisan gerrymandering attempts ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Burrows said from the House floor that lawmakers will not attempt to reconvene again until Friday. If Democrats are still absent — and they have given no indication that they plan to return — the speaker said Republicans will end the current session and Gov. Greg Abbott will immediately call another. The governor, a Trump ally, confirmed his intentions in a statement. 'The Special Session #2 agenda will have the exact same agenda, with the potential to add more items critical to Texans,' Abbott wrote. 'There will be no reprieve for the derelict Democrats who fled the state and abandoned their duty to the people who elected them. I will continue to call special session after special session until we get this Texas first agenda passed.' Abbott called the current session with an extensive agenda that included disaster relief for floods that killed more than 130 people. Democrats balked when Abbott added Trump's redistricting idea to the agenda. Burrows on Tuesday did not mention redistricting but chided Democrats for not showing up for debate on the flood response package. The redistricting legislation would reshape the state's congressional districts in a design aimed at sending five more Republicans to Washington. The scheme is part of Trump's push to shore up Republicans' narrow House majority and avoid a repeat of his first presidency, when the 2018 midterms restored Democrats to a House majority that blocked his agenda and twice impeached him. Current maps nationally put Democrats within three seats of retaking the House majority — with only several dozen competitive districts across 435 total seats. Texas Republicans have issued civil warrants for the absent Democrats. Because they are out of state, those lawmakers are beyond the reach of Texas authorities. Burrows said Tuesday that absent Democrats would have to pay for all state government costs for law enforcement officials attempting to track them down. Burrows has said state troopers and others have run up 'six figures in overtime costs' trying to corral Democratic legislators.
