Summary
MSNBC continues its live coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Predicting Vladimir Putin is impossible but reading Vladimir Putin can be done. And reading Putin is the next best thing to predicting Putin. Residents in Kyiv have been advised not to go out again until Thursday unless it is to a bomb shelter.
Transcript
LAWRENCE O`DONNELL, MSNBC HOST: War has everything, Ali, and I`m so glad that you did include that in your coverage. It is the full range of the human experience that is happening there.
ALI VELSHI, MSNBC HOST: Yes.
O`DONNELL: And it`s important for us to see as many dimensions as you can deliver, and you have been delivering everything for us.
VESLSHI: Thank you, my friend. Enjoy your show.
O`DONNELL: Thank you, Ali. Thank you.
Well, today, Vladimir Putin spent the day, as he does every day now, committing war crimes. And after more sanctions were imposed on Russia, including Russian sanctioning billionaire Roman Abramovich, Vladimir Putin offered to history what may be his most childish public demonstration of petulance ever when he sanctioned President Joe Biden and several Biden administration officials, and former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton., And the sanctions Vladimir Putin issued today could not be more meaningless and empty.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: It won`t surprise any of you that none of us are planning tourist trips to Russia, none of us have bank accounts that we won`t be able to access. So, we will forge ahead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O`DONNELL: Hillary Clinton tweeted: I want to thank the Russian academy for this lifetime achievement award.
Yes, she mocked Vladimir Putin`s ridiculous sanctions. Russian millionaires` yachts are being seized. Real sanctions are hitting, not just billionaires, but all of the Russian economy, to the point where the sanctions have forced the Russian stock exchange to close, to close for 20 days now. Every single day of this war, the Russian stock exchange is closed because American and European sanctions shut it down.
And today, Vladimir Putin issued the most ridiculous pieces of paper in the history of the word "sanction" against Americans who live far beyond any Russian reach, Americans who have no assets or business of any kind in Russia to be sanctioned. And Donald Trump said, Vladimir Putin is a genius.
On the day Vladimir Putin started a war that has now closed down the Russian stock market, Donald Trump said that that was genius. Donald Trump`s genius issued the stupidest, most pointless sanctions in history today. And on the same day that Vladimir Putin was publicly exposing how stupid and childish he can be, the brave president who is fighting Vladimir Putin made history again today by addressing the Canadian parliament.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through interpreter): Our feelings over the last 20 days, 20 days of a full scale aggression of Russian Federation, after eight year of fighting in Donbas region, can you only imagine -- imagine that at 4:00 a.m., issued you, you start hearing bomb explosions, severe explosion, Justin, can you imagine hearing you, your children, here all these severe explosions. Bombing of airport, bombing of Ottawa airport, tens of other cities of your wonderful country, can you imagine that? Cruise missiles being falling down on a territory, and your children asking you, what happened? And you are seeing the first news which, infrastructure, objects have been bombed and destroyed by Russian Federation.
They bombed school buildings. They destroyed kindergarten facilities, like in our city, city of Sumy, like in the city of Okhtyrka. Imagine that someone is taking siege to Vancouver, can you imagine it for a second? And all these people who are left in such cities, and this is exactly the situation, that our city of Mariupol is suffering right now.
They are left without heat or hydro or without means of communicating. Almost without food. Without water. Seeking shelters and bomb shelters.
They are, Justin -- can you imagine that every day, you receive memorandums of the number of casualties, especially women and children. You`ve heard about the bombings, currently, we have 97 children that died during this war.
[22:05:02]
They are destroying everything -- memorial complexes, schools, hospitals, housing complex. They already killed 97 Ukrainian children.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O`DONNELL: Ninety-seven children. Donald Trump said, that`s genius. Donald Trump said invading Ukraine was genius. Wars always kill children, always. When you cheer on a war, as Donald Trump did, that`s what you are cheering for. Donald Trump hasn`t apologized for saying the invasion was genius, and he`s never going to feel a thing for those 97 children.
And the hundreds more children who Vladimir Putin plans to kill, Vladimir Putin knows what war does. He knows what he is doing. He knows who he is killing, and he wants to kill more. 97 children is not enough for Vladimir Putin who spends his cowardly days trying to hide the truth from the Russian people.
Today, the leaders of three other countries, demonstrated the kind of bravery that Vladimir Putin has never, ever had. Not one day of his life. They went straight toward the sound of the Russian guns. The prime ministers of Poland, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic, traveled to Kyiv to meet with President Zelenskyy.
The Polish prime minister said in a tweet, it is here, in war torn key, that history is being made. It is here, that freedom fights against the world of tyranny. It is here that the future of us all hangs in the balance.
Today, the mayor of Kyiv said this --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VITALI KLITSCHKO, MAYOR OF KYIV: The spirit right now, everyone is angry. I talk to the people, they don`t want to leave. In this activity, we bring much more energy to everyone, and everyone understands, they don`t want to leave. They want to defend. Defend our city.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O`DONNELL: And we start tonight as we do every night with NBC News correspondent Cal Perry in Lviv.
Cal, what is the situation there tonight?
CAL PERRY, NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, we`ll start with the orphanage here in the Lviv, to pick up on the nose that you`re playing that children are paying the highest price for this war. The orphanage here in Lviv is out of room. You can expect there will be a second orphanage and most of the folks are fully in the city of Mariupol.
Mariupol is the place we`re going to keep our attention on because the situation is worsening every day. There were some cars that were able to get out of the city today. Around 2,000 vehicles, maybe up to 20,000 people, that still leaves some 380,000 people trapped inside that city. And word in just in the last six hours, Lawrence, that Russian forces are moving into the main hospital there and occupying that hospital, so the patients there, there is no other way to report this, the patients there are no human shields.
Kharkiv is continuing to see a bombardment there. In fact today, it seems like the bombardment was only broken by the sound of Russian jets flying low over that city. Any chance that people had to get above ground there today seems to have failed. That seems to be a show force on top of bombing rubble that the Russians seem to want to carry out. They seem to want to choke that city and kill everybody inside. They have been targeting civilians as they have been leaving the city.
In the capital of Kyiv, it is more and more parent that there is fighting now on the outskirts, that these high rise apartment buildings are either being indiscriminately targeted or directly targeted. Our colleague Richard Engel remains on the ground. He reported yesterday that one apartment building was hit but since then, three others, as well as a park, and a subway station were hit.
We had this extraordinary moment today, you mentioned it, these three prime ministers, Slovenia, Poland, and the Czech Republic. I was afraid to report it this morning because you don`t report the forward motion planning of foreign leaders except, they wanted it reported. It was extraordinary to read a press release of them saying they were going to travel to Kyiv under bombardment to announce it before they left. And you add to that that they did not chopper in or they did not fly in. They took the train from Lviv here.
That train carries humanitarian aid to the capital, and that was how they chose to go there today, a sign, not just of solidarity with the country and the president, but assigned to the solidarity to the Ukrainian people who still are desperately fighting for their survival, Lawrence.
O`DONNELL: And, Cal, can`t help but be struck by the bravery of those prime ministers versus Vladimir Putin safely at the other end of his 20- foot table, that`s a closest anyone gets to him.
PERRY: Yes, and the split screen between President Zelenskyy who every day put out a video, some days he`s in a trench drinking coffee with his soldiers, some days he`s looking at a map, taking a look at how to defend the capital and actually helping to organize that attack, speaking to world leaders.
[22:10:07]
There is an incredible split screen moment happening at the moment between Zelenskyy and Putin. And we`re starting to see world leaders mimic Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
French President Macron today wearing a sweatshirt of paratrooping units from France, looking like Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He`s become a global figure. And he`s certainly becoming a leader here in Europe, Lawrence.
O`DONNELL: Cal Perry, thank you for joining us once again tonight. Stay safe. Thank you, Cal.
Well, the woman who walked on to a Russian TV news said last night, holding up an anti-war protests sign, said this today after she was released from police custody.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARINA OVSYANNIKOVA, RUSSIAN TV PROTESTER: It was my own anti-war decision. My decision by myself because I don`t like Russia starting in this invasion and it was really terrible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O`DONNELL: Last night, Marina Ovsyannikova walked into history by walking onto the set of Russia`s most watched news program on Channel One which was being hosted by Vladimir Putin`s favorite Russian propaganda presenter.
(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)
O`DONNELL: Her sign said, from top to bottom, no war, stop the war, don`t believe propaganda, they are lying to you. Russians against war.
Marina was Ovsyannikova was detained by Russian police for 14 hours, during most of the time, no one had any idea where she was, and lawyers could not find her. Today, she appeared in a Moscow court and was found guilty of a misdemeanor and fine 30,000 rubles which is now worth about $280, the charge he faced in court today had nothing to do with the protests she mounted on television. Instead, she was charged with posting this video before she walked on to the set.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OVSYANNIKOVA (translated): What is currently happening in Ukraine is a crime. Russia is a country-aggressor. All responsibility for this aggression lies on the conscience of one person: Vladimir Putin. My father is Ukrainian, my mother is Russian. They were never enemies.
This necklace around my neck signifies that Russia should immediately stop this fratricidal war and our brotherly nations can make peace with each other.
Unfortunately, for the last several years, I worked at Channel One, promoting Kremlin propaganda and for that I am very ashamed right now. I am ashamed that I allowed lies to be told from TV screens, that I allowed Russian people to be zombified. We stayed quiet when all of this was just getting started in 2014.
We didn`t come out to protest when the Kremlin poisoned Navalny. We continued to quietly watch this inhuman regime. Now the whole world turned away from us. Ten generations of our descendants won`t be able to wash away the shame of this fratricidal war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O`DONNELL: After Marina was released from custody today, she said this: I want to thank everyone for their support, my friends and colleagues, these were an easy days of my life because I spent two days without sleep. The interrogation lasted for more than 14 hours. I was not allowed to contact my relatives or provide any judicial help. I was in a rather tough situation, all my comments will be made tomorrow, I just need to rest today.
Today, the Russian news agency TASS reported that Marina could face criminal charges for her protests on television.
In his daily video address today, Ukrainians President Zelenskyy said this about Marina`s protest: I am thankful to those Russians that do not cease trying to get the truth out, who fight against disinformation and tell the truth, tell real facts to their friends, relatives, and personally, to the girl who entered the studio of Channel One, with the poster against the war, to those who are not afraid to protest before your country closes totally from the rest of the world, turning into a very big North Korea.
You need to fight. You shouldn`t miss. Your own chance.
Joining us now, Dmitriy Piskunov who is a lawyer for OVD-info, a Russian human rights organization supporting Marina Ovsyannikova, and Jason Corcoran, a long-time Moscow-based reporter.
Dmitriy, let me begin with you, the lawyer search looking for Marina. You are part of a big team of lawyers were looking for her.
[22:15:05]
How long did that take?
DMITRIY PISKUNOV, HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST: It lasted for approximately 15 hours. We were looking for her everywhere. The problem was that we couldn`t get in touch with her. And there was a lot of information about her being in one police station, or the other, and we had followers on the ground, two from our organizations and they separated looking for her in different locations.
However, the information that we received was not true. She was kept in a completely different location, and we could only find out about it when she appeared in the courtroom.
O`DONNELL: And why wasn`t she charged with a crime for running onto the TV set?
PISKUNOV: Because, for that action, if she was prosecuted by the courts in an administrative misdemeanor procedure, she should not be able to be prosecuted criminally. And that means that she is still facing a danger of prison sentence.
O`DONNELL: So she may still be prosecuted for what she did on television?
PISKUNOV: Exactly. That is the problem now, and then the worst-case scenario, she can be facing up to 15 years of prison time.
O`DONNELL: Jason Corcoran, there was a theory today that perhaps she wasn`t yet charged with the crime of walking on to the television because the authorities did not want to bring more attention to what she did on television.
JASON CORCORAN, BLOOMBERG NEWS FORMER MOSCOW CORRESPONDENT: That`s a good point, Lawrence. There`s a fear now that propaganda in Russia is breaking. This moment today from marina could be the moment that her actions can cascade and be seen with more of her colleagues doing the same.
We saw it in 2014 when it was the annexation of Crimea and the war in eastern Ukraine. It was a number of journalists who work with the Russia Today in bureaus in London and the New York who resigned on air. That was bad enough, but when they`re doing it on domestic TV, which is essential to Putin`s propaganda war, it is very dangerous for his conflict overseas.
O`DONNELL: You tweeted about some others, Jason, on Russian journalism who are also either protesting or quitting.
CORCORAN: Yeah, there`s been two of the journalists, colleagues of Marina`s on First Channel, who have reportedly resigned today according to the insider investigative journalists who are based overseas, of course. And also, NTV, NTV TV channel is probably the most mendacious of all the propaganda outlets in Moscow. And two of their journalists are apparently now in exile, along with many other journalists who are fleeing by the day.
O`DONNELL: Dmitriy, as lawyers, what can you offer to people like Marina and others who really do this? What legal hope can you offer them in Russian courts?
PISKUNOV: Unfortunately, Russian courts are extremely dependent on other Russian authorities. And basically, they perform no real judicial process. It`s only a facade. And at the moment, we can at least try to minimize the damage. We can try to get a lesser sentence. We can try to get a lesser fine.
However, at the moment, it is out of the realm of possibility to be acquitted in the Russian court for actions like this.
O`DONNELL: And, Dmitriy, what is it like for you lawyers who represent people like this and Russian courts? Are you taking a chance yourself just by representing clients like this?
PISKUNOV: There is a general sentiment among the lawyer community that our job, our work is becoming more and more meaningless in Russia unfortunately. However, we still have that there are some little things that could be done that could be important to the individual who were independent.
O`DONNELL: Dmitriy Piskunov, and Jason Corcoran, thank you both very much for joining us tonight.
And coming up, today, President Biden signed into law and aid package for Ukraine that is more than double the annual defense budget of Ukraine. That`s next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:24:04]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Putin`s aggression against Ukraine has united people all across America, united our two parties in Congress, and united the freedom-loving world. This new security funding and the drawdown authorities in this bill, we`re moving urgently to further augment the support to the brave people of Ukraine as they defend their country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O`DONNELL: Today, President Biden signed a $1.5 trillion government funding bill that includes 13.6 billion dollars in humanitarian and security assistance for Ukraine.
And joining us now is former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch. She is the author of "Lessons from the Edge", a memoir that is published today. And it`s already a bestseller.
Ambassador Yovanovitch, I`ve been wondering how much of what we`ve seen in these last 20 days include scenes that you imagined during a more peaceful times when you are serving as ambassador to Ukraine?
[22:25:11]
MARIE YOVANOVITCH, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE: Honestly, I never imagined such a whole scale invasion. When I was ambassador in Ukraine, I thought that keeping a low level war going in the east destabilizing Ukraine in that way with cyberattacks, assassinations, disinformation, economic warfare. I thought that was sufficient for Russia to realize its aims of trying to destabilize Ukraine, and for Ukraine`s desires to join NATO and the EU.
But, we saw the encirclement of Ukraine in the fall and the early winter, and the Biden administration was releasing until the whole time about what the Russians were planning. And it turns out, there are absolutely right, that this is a wholesale invasion of Ukraine. And, it is a brutal war of aggression. And, I have to say, even though we know what Putin is capable of, given his past actions --
(AUDIO GAP)
O`DONNELL: -- was going next.
In that job, ambassador to Ukraine, you spend a significant part of every day thinking about Vladimir Putin. And you`re not a model of his behavior had about the range of possibilities, but he would and wouldn`t do.
And many of us, including you, apparently, saw something like this kind of scenario -- as so deeply irrational with no possible plan of success that, of course, he wouldn`t do that.
Why would he do something that he clearly couldn`t have path to success?
YOVANOVITCH: Well, that is the great question to ask. And it`s a tough one to answer. But I think, there are a number of different reasons. I think that during the Trump administration, President Putin was getting exactly what he wanted. He can see the contempt with which Trump dealt with Ukraine as just a pawn in his own personal and political life.
He saw Trump`s attitude towards NATO. Many people in the administration offset the Trump would have pulled the United States out of NATO, which, of course, would`ve sparked the demise of NATO.
So, no need to do what he`s doing now. But once Trump was -- lost the elections, and president Biden took office, it was clear that it was a new day. And, so, I think Putin started searching for other ways to try to neutralize NATO, neutralize the international order, and achieve his objections of controlling Ukraine.
O`DONNELL: You watched President Zelenskyy campaign for office. You watched him come into office and take on the set of problems that he was facing domestically, internationally.
Would have you learned about him in the last 20 days that you could not have known before this war?
YOVANOVITCH: Well, I think that he has -- the man has met his moment. I think that he has become a wartime president, the president that the Ukrainian people needed at this particular moment in time. He is reflecting their passion and their courage in protecting and defending Ukraine and their homeland, and their families.
But he`s also inspiring them and uniting them. In doing that, he`s inspiring and uniting the world.
O`DONNELL: I know in talking to ambassadors who have served around the world that they spend -- the ones who are not serving in, say, the United Kingdom or France, or places like that, they spend their entire day trying to get people to pay attention to the very existence of the country that they are serving in. That was part of your struggle in Ukraine.
And today, to see President Zelenskyy addressing the Canadian parliament, getting the longest standing ovation there that I think we`ve ever seen, talking to Justin, the Canadian prime minister, as they are friends, this was something that was unimaginable for Ukrainian president before this.
[22:29:42]
MARIE YOVANOVITCH, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE: Well, it`s good to see, and we need to -- we also need to meet the moment. Ukraine is the front line of freedom right now. This is a struggle between freedom and tyranny.
And we need to step up and help the Ukrainians even more than we are doing now. Our assistance, the assistance of other western countries is unprecedented. But given the stakes, I think we need to keep on -- keep everything still on the table as facts on the ground and facts in our political lives change.
And I think we need to continue to rush security assistance to Ukraine as well as, of course, humanitarian assistance. Time is of the essence.
The Ukrainian military and others have fought back bravely against the Russian military machine. But we need to give them what they need in order to continue that fight.
O`DONNELL: Former Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, thank you very much for joining us tonight. Her new book, "Lessons From The Edge".
And coming up, no one can predict Vladimir Putin, but you can read Vladimir Putin. Our next guest has done the homework and has read virtually everything Vladimir Putin has written. And will tell us what we can learn from reading Vladimir Putin.
[22:31:05]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O`DONNELL: One thing you`ve heard very little about on this program is predictive talk about what Vladimir Putin is going to do. That is, deliberate. I do not invite those predictions.
What is Putin going to do feels to me, and maybe I`m wrong, but it feels to me like the laziest question you can ask these days especially because no one knows.
Sometimes, when guests veer off into statements that involve implicit predictions of what Putin will do, I tend to point out, at minimum, that we have entered the realm of guesswork and try to steer us back to reality.
Predicting Vladimir Putin is impossible but reading Vladimir Putin can be done. And reading Putin is the next best thing to predicting Putin.
Our next guest can tell us how to read Vladimir Putin because he has literally done that. He has done the homework. He has read virtually everything Vladimir Putin has written including books, articles, speeches.
Carlos Lozada, in his Washington Post article headlined "How to read Vladimir Putin" begins with the dramatic moment that shaped Vladimir Putin`s thinking, possibly more than any other.
Quote, "The moment is etched in the lore of Vladimir Putin. The Berlin Wall had just succumbed to hammers, chisels, and history. And a KGB officer still shy of 40 and stationed in Dresden, East Germany was in a panic, burning documents and requesting military support as a crowd approached. We cannot do anything without orders from Moscow, Putin was told on the phone. And Moscow is silent."
In an interview appearing in his 2000 book, `First Person` Putin recalls that dreadful silence. `I got the feeling then that the country no longer existed,` he said. `That it had disappeared.`
Two years after the wall went down, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics did, too. A decade after, Putin would ascend to power in Russia, talking about a revival."
On the first day of Vladimir Putin`s invasion of Ukraine, he looked back to that formative moment when he was a KGB agent in east Germany and he said this --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT: In the late 1980s, the Soviet Union grew weak and subsequently broke apart. That experience should serve as a good lesson for us, because it has shown us that the paralysis of power and will is the first step towards complete degradation and oblivion.
We lost confidence for only one moment but it was enough to disrupt the balance of forces in the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O`DONNELL: And with that completely wrong headed analysis about why the Soviet Union collapsed still framing his thinking, Vladimir Putin seems to have marched into Ukraine with the dream of some form of restoration of Russia`s control over the former Soviet Union which, as history shows, was a temporary imperialistic creation that was never really a union.
Joining us now is Carlos Lozada, the nonfiction book critic for the "Washington Post" who won the Pulitzer prize for criticism in 2019 and his new article is titled, "How to read Vladimir Putin".
Carlos, thank you very much for joining us, and thank you very much for doing the homework and reading all of this Vladimir Putin for us. And what you have presented from it has been completely enlightening to me, every line of it.
You make the point that Vladimir Putin, in his writing, is including in effect, a presentation of propaganda, a presentation of the way he wants to be seen. How does he want to be seen?
[22:39:55]
CARLOS LOZADA, NON-FICTION BOOK CRITIC, "WASHINGTON POST": Well, one thing he is fixated on is his writings is the fear of Russian decline. It`s something he denies and he laments all at the same time. In all his rhetoric and propaganda, it`s all about life and death for Russia.
So his concerns about NATO expansion is part of that. But really, it`s been part of his story for a long time. Just before he took over the presidency in late 1999, he published something called his "millennium message", sort of this lengthy manifesto. And his big concern at the time is that Russia would slide into second or third tier status.
So he projects himself as the man who can prevent that, who can restore Russia to the greatness that he thinks was robbed from it at the end of the Cold War.
O`DONNELL: You also describe his history of being not a good communicator, which continues to this day as we`ve seen in some of these rambling speeches that he`s given.
You write, "According to "First Person", his KGB instructors found him withdrawn and tightlipped, and even his former wife understood him so poorly that when he was proposing marriage, she thought he was breaking things off.
How did such a poor communicator get control of the Russian government?
LOZADA: Well that`s -- I mean that`s a really interesting story. It`s sort of part of the -- part of the history of Vladimir Putin. He wasn`t considered to be necessarily a big up and comer after he came back to Russia. You know, after the fall of the wall, after the end of the Cold War.
He had a not super high level job working in the mayor`s office in St. Petersburg. But there`s one detail that I think is very telling of how he sees himself. How he saw himself even at the time.
One of his colleagues, and this is quoted in the book, "First Person" that was published in 2000. One of his colleagues pointed out that, you know, all the people working on those offices had the standard portrait of Boris Yeltsin, you know, up on the wall.
Vladimir Putin specifically requested a portrait of Peter the Great. He sort of liked to think of himself in those very grandiose terms. He`s constantly talking in his writings about his sense of historical mission.
You know, he`s someone who imagined that the restoration of a Russian power was his mission as a figure in the world, and of course, the end of the Soviet Union was, to his mind, a great tragedy.
O`DONNELL: So, you also note that last July, he published an essay where he said what he has said since invading Ukraine, that essay was titled, "On the historical unity of Russians and Ukrainians". The two nations are really one people, sharing a faith culture and language, he asserts, and modern Ukraine as little more than a creation of the Soviet era.
That is almost word for word what he said after invading Ukraine.
LOZADA: Yes, you see a lot of echoes in his writing. I mean clearly, the status of Ukraine is something that he`s been fixated on for a long time. He sees them as a really one nation, one language, one culture.
Clearly, the Ukrainians don`t see it this way.
But he also sees this as a way of really restoring the losses at the end of the Cold War. One of the things that he talks about in his writings is that these things were just taken away (AUDIO GAP) motherland. He talks a bit more as a reunification than an invasion, almost as if he`s just taking back what was sort of unlawfully dispossessed.
O`DONNELL: And, he talks about memories of childhood of dealing with bullies and other things that give us -- and he does it in a present tense, in ways that gives you the feeling that this is the way he is as a strategist.
LOZADA: Yes, he talks about when he was in school. You know, at the same time that he brags about his high school grades, which seems like a weird thing for any adult to do, let alone, someone like him. He talks about how he liked to be the unspoken leader. That`s when he felt comfortable in school.
[22:44:47]
LOZADA: And even as he did well in his classes, you know, he was a bad boy. He was a hooligan. That`s how he likes to present himself.
There`s also a moment in "First Person" in the book that was published in 2000 where one of his former KGB officers and instructors is quoted. And in the book, they said that he had a lowered sense of danger. And that wasn`t thought of as a good thing, you know. They felt that, you know, a KGB officer needed to have a very kind of heightened sense of risk. But at least, Putin likes to present himself as someone that doesn`t fear risk. That is not easily deterred.
Now, obviously, a lot of these things, even propaganda is revealing in the sense that it shows you how someone wants to be perceived. And I think that`s how Putin wants to be perceived when it comes to wartime.
He discusses the crackdown in Chechnya in the late 90s and says, really, his attitude toward that, toward Russia`s enemies was, if you become jittery, your enemies will think that they are stronger. And the only thing that works in those circumstances is to go on the offensive.
He writes that you have to hit first and hit so hard that your opponent will not be able to rise to his feet. This is how Putin wants to be perceived when the country is at war.
O`DONNELL: Carlos Lozada, thank you very much for doing this reading for us and showing us how to do it. And thank you for joining us tonight.
LOZADA: Thank you, Lawrence.
O`DONNELL: Thank you.
And coming up, we`ll get a live report from Kyiv where residents have been advised not to go out again until Thursday unless it is to a bomb shelter. That`s next.
[22:46:46]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAKSIM KREIDA, UKRAINIAN CITIZEN: I want to say that Russians are saying that this is a special military operation because of Nazis here. Where can you see any Nazis here? We`ve got no Nazis. We`re some patriots who truly love their homeland and are going to protect it until the end. I`m originally from Kyiv.
My father died here. My great grandfather, my grandfather -- all of them are buried here. And I`m not leaving the city. This city is mine. This city is ours. The city of Ukrainians. This city we are going to withstand until the end.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O`DONNELL: The governor of the capital region, that includes Kyiv said today, streets have been turned into a mush of steel and concrete, people have been hiding for weeks in basements.
Joining us now from Kyiv is Isobel Koshiw, a correspondent for "The Guardian". Thank you very much for joining us.
I`ve been reading your reporting and you are delivering more reporting on Russian atrocities than I have seen and most of the reports, including one incident of a man being executed in the street by Russian troops while his wife watched. What are people telling you about these atrocities?
ISOBEL KOSHIW, CORRESPONDENT, THE GUARDIAN: I think news about these atrocities is only just starting to trickle out because those regions that were heavily affected over the last couple of weeks have essentially been cut off from communicating with the outside world.
So several people told me that Russian forces went door to door and they confiscated phones and laptops. In other instances, they check peoples phones and laptops to check that they weren`t filming or recording anything.
And essentially, people were left without electricity, water, access to medicine, so they had no way of communicating what was happening to them, and they had no way of escaping.
Eventually, some people started to just escape (INAUDIBLE). Some humanitarian corridors were establishment and people escape through them, but as we know and I`m sure your audience know that not all of these humanitarian corridors were recognized -- sort of, abided by Russia. So people actually died just trying to come out as well.
As you said, there have been several instances, not just that one man, it was that man and his neighbor who were essentially executed.
There was another story that I heard about a teacher who was feeding her chickens with (INAUDIBLE). There was also an elderly woman, and I think you`ve probably seen the videos of elderly woman confronting tanks elsewhere.
So presumably this elderly woman thought, I will be safe because, you know, I don`t pose any threat to anybody so I`m going to go out and I`m going to state my position, and she was shot.
So yes, I think that these stories are only just coming out. And there are still thousands and thousands of people trapped in those areas.
O`DONNELL: There`s reports of explosions in Kyiv right now. Are you hearing any of those explosions?
KOSHIW: I`m not hearing them right now. I`m a little bit further away from where those are happening, luckily. I did hear some -- quite a few today, especially sort of this evening and this afternoon. Lots of sort of thumping sounds and the walls were shaking, and the doors were shaking.
But yes, essentially there`s been an uptick in the last two days. Kyiv city itself has been relatively quiet for over a week.
But with this uptick that we`ve seen and I can see in the images that you are showing now, people have basically come to, you know, the sad conclusion that there may be potentially a big assault on Kyiv and that`s why the authorities have called this curfew.
O`DONNELL: Isobel Koshiw, thank you very much for joining us. Thank you for your reporting. And please stay safe. And join us again. And thank you.
KOSHIW: Thanks.
O`DONNELL: President Zelenskyy gets tonight`s LAST WORD, next.
[22:54:53]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O`DONNELL: Tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. Eastern, President Zelenskyy will speak to the United States Congress. MSNBC will carry that live.
Here are President Zelenskyy`s last words to the Canadian parliament today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We want to live. We want to have peace. I am grateful to everyone of you in the parliament of Canada who is present there, to every Canadian citizen. I am very grateful to you, Justin. I am grateful to Canadian people.
And I am confident that together we will overcome and we will be victorious. Glory to Ukraine. Thank you to Canada.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[23:00:05]
O`DONNELL: And the applause went on much longer than that.
Presidency Zelenskyy gets tonight`s LAST WORD.
"THE 11TH HOUR WITH STEPHANIE RUHLE" starts now.