How Serious Is Russia’s Threat to Europe?

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00:00So as a former CIA officer yourself, how much of a threat is Russia to Europe right now, do you think?

00:08And we're always hearing that could this become a full-blown war?

00:12I do think that Russia does pose a very serious long-term threat, not only to Ukraine, but to much of Europe as well.

00:21Now, whether they would have designs on France is not entirely clear,

00:24but they certainly would have designs on Poland, the Nordic countries, and I don't think there's any question

00:34but that the Europeans right now already see themselves in an existential conflict with Russia.

00:41Ukraine is the front line, but I think they very much see this as only the front line.

00:47The difficulty for the Europeans right now is that they realize that they are essentially on their own.

00:52The problem is that they are simply not in a position right now to fully defend themselves from Russia.

01:01They have become highly dependent on the U.S. security guarantee.

01:05That has to do with missile defense.

01:07It has to do with intelligence, other aspects of their collective national defense.

01:12They simply cannot stand up to Russia on their own yet.

01:16They're scrambling to address that.

01:17They can't do it right away.

01:18And so it's very important for them somehow, for at least some period of time, to keep the Americans on side.

01:25And that is becoming increasingly difficult to do.