James Clapper: “I think Putin's mind is made up. And he might improvise as he goes he I think he would do he would do that anyway.”

I think this reflects Russian insecurity. And it's almost like, Putin needs a rhetorical security blanket, of making threats, like this.

He has a grievance eating at him for about 20 years and has made a decision, I think, to try to redraw the national security architecture of Europe.

Ties with Tehran offer some regional governments a means of staking an independent position on Iran, thereby mitigating its isolation while also attempting to extract Iranian financial aid and investment for economic and social projects.

it's a question of time. It's not if, it's when we have some sort of confrontation that we're going to have to respond to, the NATO will have to respond to.