'This speech is unhinged': Russia expert explains why he was truly scared by Putin's recent remarks

During a video conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this month, President Joe Biden warned that there will be “strong economic and other measures” from the United States and its NATO allies in Europe if Russia invades Ukraine. Michael McFaul, a Russia expert at Stanford University, explained, in some Twitter posts this week, why a recent speech by Putin has him worried.

The 58-year-old McFaul, who served as a U.S. ambassador to Russia under President Barack Obama from 2012-2014, noted that he has listened to a lot of Putin speeches — warning that “this speech is something different” and describing Putin’s “threats” as “truly striking and crazy.”

During a meeting with the Russian Defense Ministry, Putin said, “We have nowhere further to retreat. Do they really think we’ll sit idly as they create threats against us?”

"Read this speech and then read Munich 2007," McFaul wrote. "The latter has some relationship to facts (even if I disagreed with his interpretation of those facts.) This speech is unhinged."

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Ukrainian officials have recently sounded the alarm that they fear a Russian invasion is imminent. Putin denies he has any plans for an unprovoked attack. However, the ongoing Russian occupation of Crimea, considered to be a part of Ukraine by the international community, has demonstrated Putin's lack of respect for established national boundaries.

Matthew Luxmoore, a Moscow-based journalist, also tweeted about Putin’s speech — saying that Putin offered a “litany of grievances” about the U.S. and complained, “They do whatever they want.” Putin, according to Luxmoore, appears to be “at his wit’s end” and “isn’t hiding his openness to a military solution” with Ukraine.