Michael McFaul: Sanctions against Russia should happen every day

joining us now former US ambassador to Russia now the director of The Institute for international studies at Stanford and an NBC News International Affairs analyst Michael McFall uh Mr Ambassador I guess your first reaction to what we're hearing from the White House well I haven't seen the details yet I've just seen the breaking news reports on it of course I applaud any new sanctions I think what's interesting to me in particular is it sounds like there'll be some secondary sanctions that is ag

ainst companies in third countries that are serving as intermediaries to provide technology to the Russian military industrial complex this has been a problem that has been growing uh especially over the last year uh the last time I talked to president zinsky in fact about sanctions back in September in Kev he's devoted most of our conversation to this fact why is it that we allow our technology including American Technology to go to Second uh second countries like Kazakhstan China and Hong Kong

is a big conduit by the way that goes to build missiles that then kills ukrainians so I think that's a welcome step and at the same time we should applaud the Biden Administration today and then ask him what they're going to do on Monday to increase sanctions sanctions should ratchet up every single day I think of it like parking tickets uh if you're if you I don't know how it works where you guys live but here at Stanford if you're parked in the wrong place you get a parking ticket the first d

ay and if you leave your car there you get another parking ticket uh Putin's Army is illegally parked in Ukraine every single day there should be new sanctions so I I know that you are very close with the nalni family um and I would love for you to talk about julan Nala and uh the challenges ahead for her the worries for her how can people help her well um I picked her up at the airport a couple days ago with Dasha her daughter uh she's out here to see her daughter but she also got to see the pr

esident as you just reported that was an important meeting for them uh because they want the United States to do more and I'll I'll let her reveal the convers the details of that conversation uh very directly uh you know their organization and I'll tweet it out right after we're done talking you can donate to them directly you don't have to wait for the United States government you don't have to wait for the European Union to do things they have their own Foundation the anti-corruption foundatio

n and that's a way you can concretely help them and they need that help now they're worried about what happens to their organization uh given the tragic Putin's murder of of of her husband and d''s father um more broadly uh this is a fight as as Julia said to the world in Munich and she said said to me in the car ride uh down to Palo Alto from San Francisco for the rest of her life she's going to fight Putin until he faces the consequences of killing her husband uh and she's goingon to fight for

the rest of her life until there's a free Russia and so that Demands a strategic plan for how to do that and the first thing available is for the US Congress when they get back from their vacation is to pass the aid Bill to arm Ukrainian warriors fighting Putin's uh Invaders it's just that concrete it's just that clear-cut and at every day they don't they're gift they're providing a gift to Putin and so they we should put pressure on them why is it at this moment you are defending Putin uh when

he is killing people in Ukraine every day and of course just killed Alexa navali last week so Mr Ambassador tomorrow is of course the two-year anniversary of Russia's Invasion this invasion of Ukraine want to get your sort of big picture thoughts if you will like reflect upon what has been a remarkable resistance by Ukraine to this point but we're to falter in part because the US does not do its part to help them what would it mean what would the consequences be if Putin were to win well the if

the first year was an incredibly successful uh year for the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the battlefield right that's the year they Li they liberated 50% of their territory uh year two has been a lot tougher uh in part I think because we didn't give them the weapons they needed uh to go on the counter offensive and particular when you talk to ukrainians I just spoke to many of them in Munich last week including Soldiers by the way uh they want to bring the war to Russia uh they want to bring it to

the Russian Federation and especially they want to bring the war to Crimea and right now they don't have the means to do that and right now they're worried without that package that the tide of History will turn for Vladimir Putin they already lost adifa last week as you know uh and if they don't get this Aid they will lose the territory that they liberated in 2022 and over the long term uh uh when you talk to ukrainians and lithuanians and poles was just in vnus last month talking to leaders f

rom that part of the world they think that this is just the beginning of Putin's long-term strategy to reconstruct not the Soviet Union by the way it's the Russian Empire and remember uh the Baltic states and Poland they were part of the Russian Empire and don't believe me listen to Putin uh that that was a pretty horrendous interview that he did with Tucker Carlson but you can listen to the first part of it and hear what he wants to do and leaders there worry about year three year four year fiv

e Russian armies always get off to a slow start uh in Wars but but they're building up and their plea to people like me is Mike wake up wake your country up to this growing threat do not repeat what you did in the 1930s with Hitler stop Putin now in Ukraine so that your soldiers don't have to be fighting him in countries like Lithuania and Poland two to three years from now well and you know um that's that's um of course Ambassador McFall saying that but and what what what the Ambassador said is

exactly what Dan heninger said in the Wall Street Journal yes a extremely conservative guy who has has openly been uh deeply deeply critical of Biden and other Democratic administrations but yesterday he said Trump needs to explain why this is looking like the 1930s why why he's looking like Neville Chamberlain why this isn't Munich 1938 because certainly to most of us including a lot of old Reagan Republicans a lot of conservatives a lot of cold warriors on both sides of the aisle this is look

ing like total capitulation uh to Vladimir Putin's form of fascism and and and so I we do need the speak I really hope the speaker uh will we need him to work for the United States of America right and we we need and not for Russia well we need the speaker of the house we need speaker Johnson to work for the United States of America and what's in our best interest because if Ukraine Falls then taiwan's next Poland's next uh lithuania's next you can go down the line we have learned from Hitler we

have learned from Putin we have learned from Putin that when there's an invasion and we don't respond Georgia in 2008 Ukraine uh and Crimea 2014 we didn't respond that led to the invasion a few years ago two years ago tomorrow M and Donald Trump says he's going to get us out of that war in a day which means he's going to capitulate to Vladimir Putin's form of fascism um and and so we've got to respond and it's not just Ambassador McFall who's saying it it's it's a lot of senators Republican and

Democratic alike it's a lot of Republican house members uh chairman mcll it's a lot of people that need to step up and we really do hope for the sake of America that speaker Johnson will focus more on what's in the best interest of the United States of America and the West than what's in the best interest of Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump