We did really well for a generation after 1989 and the fall of communism. Our liberal values expanded in the world, our prosperity expanded.

What [Russians] want to do is undermine the Western liberal order.

No great power is ever satisfied with its sphere of influence. They never are.

That was pretty smooth, because you don`t want something to go wrong when you have a whole senior level of actings. That`s not a position you want to be in. It`s OK to replace your team, but usually you want them to be in place until the new people are confirmed.

The Russians are using the tools at their disposal to weaken Western solidarity, to create doubt, to support nationalist parties, just as the old Soviets supported leftist parties. We need a united Western response to this multi-pronged threat.

In my view, [Vladimir] Putin despises the West in general and the United States in particular, both for who we are, our liberal values, and for what we`ve done, which is to take down the Soviet Empire.

Internal reform in Russia would require a better relationship with the West.