James Clapper: “I'm sort of in the Secretary of State Tillerson camp of more moderate rhetoric.”

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

The frequency with which they are occurring, tells me that they're kind of in - they realize they're kind of in a jam.

No, I don't. The Chinese setup is that there is a Polit bureau member who is the overseer -- the senior overseer on behalf of the Polit bureau for the entirety of the Intelligence and Security apparatus of China.

I think it has more to do with the psychology of Putin, and Russia. And he needs to assure his own people, Parliamentarians, he was talking to, and for that matter, himself, that Russia is still a great power.