Russia held 'Victory Day' celebrations Monday as the country continues its invasion of Ukraine. Joel Rubin, Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State & President, Washington Strategy Group joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss. 



Opening Bell

Russia Holds 'Victory Day' Parade Amid Ukraine Invasion

joining us. Now, Joel Rubin, former Deputy assistant Secretary of State and president of the Washington strategy group as we circle back to one of today's top stories, Russia holding World War Two Victory Day celebrations as the country continues its own invasion of Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered highly anticipated remarks in his red square address. Thanks so much for joining us. What did you find most noteworthy about this address? And was there anything about Putin that surprised or concerns you here? Sure. Asia, this was a fascinating address because there was a lot of expectation in the national security community here in Washington that there was going to be some type of declaration of war by Vladimir Putin, some ratcheting up. But it was a very defensive speech. There was a lot of remarks about trying to justify again to the Russian people because that was his audience today to justify again this invasion, arguing that it was against Nazis and and and and very defensive quality to it. So in many ways it demonstrates that Putin may feel some pressure at home about how far he actually has the ability to go. And certainly this is a victory day celebrating the defeat of Nazism. But it wasn't a victory for Vladimir Putin. If anything, it's a victory for the Ukrainians who have withstood the Russian assault protected Kiev and are really standing strong alongside allies with the United States and with NATO. You know, what's also really interesting is the fact that he made no mention of Ukraine by name because he wants to promote this idea that Ukraine is a part of Russia. So, I want to bring it back to what you mentioned with the neo nazi regime, uh kind of calling this a new call to battle against that regime in Ukraine. Do you think those calls from Putin are working well, you're absolutely right that he focused on that because he doesn't have any justifications that have either a or legitimate or B have worked in shaping global opinion to his side. So, the Nazi card is the one card that he believes he has to play, but he really is failing on that as well. We just saw about a week or so ago, Foreign Minister, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov lash out at Israel lash out at Vladimir Zelensky, who is jewish arguing that they were somehow supporting Nazis even as jews and there was significant pushback. Vladimir Putin apparently apologize to the Israeli Prime Minister for that. So, it's not a very strong argument, it's very weak in reality, Ukraine is not a Nazi government. Ukraine is a democratic government, it is a government that is fighting for its people. And if Putin only has the Nazi card to play and today today was the day to play it because it was victory day over the Nazis. Uh, this really didn't go over like a big call to arms for his people. So clearly it's not a very powerful argument as well. They're in Russia, you mentioned it not going over as that big call to arms to his people as so many analysts were expecting. What are you expecting now in terms of moving forward of potential, wider conflict. Yeah, the problem is that despite all of this is that Vladimir Putin appears very much bent on continuing to assault civilian population areas across Ukraine to level and decimate cities from afar from airstrikes and ballistic, ballistic missile strikes and really to just punish the Ukrainian people and he has the capacity to continue to do that. The fear is well now looking over the horizon just a bit, is if Putin continues to see a failure to really achieve any significant war aims and he is not will he go further? His his team is arguing about nuclear weapons use. That's a big fear here. But we haven't seen any movement towards the use of nuclear weapons. But certainly Putin is not realizing many gains and he has not demonstrated a diplomatic path out of this and he doesn't seem to have the ability to marshal and mobilize the entire Russian population either. So he's in a losing situation, but he is still causing significant harm and can continue to do so for many more months. So it sounds like the cards are stacked against him. Do you believe that he could be potentially on track to win this war in the end? It does not look like Vladimir Putin is going to achieve his aims at all in terms of subduing Ukraine taking over Ukraine and swallowing it up whole into Russia. No, he will not achieve that. The real question is, will he carve out an eastern component of Ukraine and annexed it as he has the Crimea and call this a greater Russia and continue to assault and and try to intimidate and terrorize Ukraine and the west. And that's what what is is sort of this war of attrition that we're stuck in right now. And that's what the Ukrainians have even said. They don't want they want Russia out completely from their territory. So it looks like the the outlines of a negotiation are being uh waged on the battlefield, trying to see how to get to an end game. But a total victory for Vladimir Putin seems very much off in the distance right now, if it all impossible. Yeah. And Joel really quickly, like 15 seconds left with you. How would you describe the reaction from the White House? Well, the White House is treating this as another nothing burger. Vladimir Putin made a speech today. But the facts are the facts. It's an illegal invasion of Ukraine unjustifiable. And we are going to continue to stand with the Ukrainians as they resist this invasion. All right, Joel Rubin, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and President of the Washington strategy group. Thank you so much for that perspective