Putin attempts to show he's not isolated with visits to Russian troops

Transcript

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Russian President Vladimir Putin made visits to two army posts in Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine. The Kremlin released the video yesterday. The trips to Kherson and Luhansk come at a time of apparent infighting within Russia's military ranks. According to leaked Pentagon documents, Moscow's federal security service, known as the FSB, is claiming 110,000 dead and wounded Russian troops, but the official number from the Kremlin says it's just 6,000. Angela Stent is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of "Putin's World: Russia Against The West And With The Rest." And she's with us now to talk about Putin's latest moves.

Good morning. Thanks for joining us.

ANGELA STENT: Good morning.

MARTIN: So let me just get your take on the latest from the front lines. Ukraine's military says despite multiple assaults, Russian forces have failed to break through their defenses. It seems very clear that the war is not going well for Russia right now. What's your take on that on why?

STENT: Yes, it certainly isn't. I mean, this is a grinding war of attrition. And the Russians have already lost a fifth of the territory that they've taken since they began the war in February of last year, and that's because, I think, of corruption in the Russian military. We know about that. The equipment is rusted, and they haven't trained their recruits properly. So they have not made the kind of progress that they thought they would. And the Ukrainians have been fighting very valiantly back. But we are really - now we can see in Bakhmut where there's hand-to-hand fighting - this is a city that both sides are trying to take - that neither of them are able to vanquish the other.

MARTIN: What message do you think that Putin is trying to send with this visit to military troops in Kherson and Luhansk?

STENT: Well, I think he's been accused by some of the pro-war bloggers of kind of living in a bunker and not meeting with the troops, so I think he wanted to show that he is not in a bunker and that he supports them. And I think in view of the - what we think will be an imminent Ukrainian counteroffensive, that he wants to support them. And also, President Zelenskyy, of course, is visiting his troops regularly, so I think it's also partly to show that Putin is not isolated from what's going on in the war.

MARTIN: How is Ukraine reacting to Putin's visit? Is this a - is - an important subject there? Or is it being widely covered?

STENT: Well, you know, one of Zelenskyy's key advisers yesterday on social media was saying, you know, that this is a tour of the mass murderer's (ph) author in the occupied and ruined territories to enjoy the crime of his minions for the last time. So they're basically saying he's just visiting scenes of the crime. They're criticizing this, and they're belittling, really, his role in it.

MARTIN: So before we let you go, we have about a minute left. I wanted to ask you about the Kremlin's use of the court system. Vladimir Kara-Murza, a notable Kremlin critic, a columnist, just sentenced to 25 years in prison on charges of treason, and then, of course, the jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich denied bail by a court in Moscow. What is your sense of - again, I'm sorry - we only have 40 seconds left - what - the use of the courts here, is this part of the war effort?

STENT: This is part of the war effort. And it's really a message to the outside world; don't criticize us. It's a message to Russians - two very important - you know, we are going to prosecute this war, and you have no right to question it. So this is part of Putin's real clampdown domestically since the war began last year.

MARTIN: Angela Stent is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Angela Stent, thank you so much for sharing these insights with us.

STENT: Thank you.

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