Tyranny Expert Predicts Vladimir Putin’s Dire Legacy For Russia

Yale history professor Timothy Snyder on Tuesday said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine will backfire on Russia for years to come.

The globally condemned war and resulting sanctions on Russia are pushing it “closer and closer to China,” Snyder, an expert on fascism and authoritarianism, told MSNBC’s Ari Melber.

And if Putin “doesn’t let up” on Ukraine, his legacy will not be of re-establishing Russia as a global superpower. Instead, it will be of the country becoming “a vassal state of China,” Snyder predicted, echoing multiple other commentators in recent days.

There are “plenty of people in Russia who realize” the war on Ukraine is a moral, economic and geopolitical disaster, said the professor.

“The question is whether any of them has the courage to speak the truth to Putin and whether he realizes in time that not just his legacy, but his power is being undermined by what he is doing,” he added.