23 Sep 2022

Did Nato get Putin and Ukraine wrong?

We speak a former Nato Secretary General about their experience of dealing with Vladimir Putin.

This week, Vladimir Putin ordered Russia’s first military mobilisation since World War Two. He also warned he would use “all means he has” to defend Russian territory, raising concerns around the world, saying it wasn’t a bluff

With the United Nations General Assembly taking place this week, Nato leaders attacked Putin’s announcement.

But Nato-Russia relations weren’t always quite so frosty. Today, we speak to Lord Robertson, the tenth Secretary General of that alliance, who met Putin nine times and says that Putin even discussed joining Nato at one point in their conversations.

We ask Lord Robertson whether Putin has changed or whether he and the West completely miscalculated what the Russian leader was up to.

Producer: Freya Pickford.

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