Former National Security Council official and retired Col Alexander Vindman called Russia’s invasion of Ukraine the beginning of the end for Russian President Vladimir Putin in an interview with The Washington Post Magazine.
Mr Vindman, who testified in former president Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial, said Mr Putin made a miscalculation when he invaded Russia’s neighbour, adding that Mr Putin could have stayed two more terms in office until 2036 if not for the unprovoked attack.
“It is highly unlikely that he’s going to be able to stay in power that long [now] because this is shaping up to be a catastrophic mistake,” Mr Vindman said. “He’s cut off the Russian economy from the rest of the world. We have not started seeing the effects of that.”
He also said that protests in Russia are different from previous demonstrations.
“Not the socioeconomic protests of people not being able to put food on their plates or the security services not being paid to do their henchman activity and suppress peaceful protests,” he said. “Dealing with the 11,000 dead and the broken families on the Russian side, that hasn’t unfolded. So these are factors that are going to lead to the end.”
Mr Vindman, who was born in Ukraine before joining the US military and working in the National Security Council, said there are many steps the United States could take.
“It needs to implement Lend-Lease, which is this idea of unlimited supplies of equipment going into Ukraine, so Ukraine could fight this war and deal with the humanitarian catastrophe,” he said. “It’s the food, fuel, medicines that the Ukrainians need, but it’s also the armament and the weapons systems that they need to fight and hold off disaster. Because we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg right now.”
He also said his outspokenness likely made it harder for him to return to government, but that Republicans had already labeled him a traitor during his impeachment testimony.
“Whereas under normal circumstances a military officer with my kind of experience on national security issues would probably be welcome,” he said. “And I’m probably burning some relationships on the left because you have a political class on the left that is laser-focused on protecting the chief executive, protecting the party going into upcoming elections.”
