Condi Rice: Ukraine war 'will not end well' for Putin, Russia will turn into 'large North Korea'

[Geee]

Just the News

One year into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Condoleezza Rice would tell Vladimir Putin the war "will not end well" for him, if she was offered the chance to deliver a message to the Russian leader directly, the former secretary of state said Friday.

 

His war, she would tell Putin, is isolating Russia internationally, turning his country into a "large North Korea," Rice said at a panel discussion on U.S. Russia policy at the Brookings Institution.

"His international standing, about which he does care — that's why he keeps inviting people to Moscow — his international standing is subordinate to Xi Jinping," Rice said, "and so if I could send him a message, I would say: 'You have lost what you had hoped, and the fact is you will now, if you continue down this road, your country will be a large North Korea. Is that what you're looking to do?'" 

Rice said Putin used to take "great pride in the Russia that was a part of the international system."

Rice, National Security Advisor under former President George W. Bush, was asked about the odds of Russia and China forming a strong alliance in the future.

 

"I do think they have alignment," she said. "I believe it's probably temporary. There are inherent tensions because Vladimir Putin doesn't play second fiddle very well. And Xi Jinping is clearly first violinist here, and so I think that's an interesting tension."

There are "ethnic tensions" between China and Russia to consider, said Rice, who served on the National Security Council staff as senior director of Soviet and East European Affairs under President George H. W. Bush.