Russia-Ukraine conflict: Western sanctions so far are ‘embarrassment’, former US Nato rep says

As Russia’s stranglehold on Ukraine tightens, much of the world is looking for clues to President Russia’s aggressive intent.

Well, there were a few: his air raids on behalf of President Assad in Syria, the invasion of Crimea in 2014 and Georgia in 2008.

And even before that he publicly outlined his rejection of the entire post-Cold War system in a now infamous speech in Munich in 2007.

Well one man who was in the room when Putin made that speech is Kurt Volker, the former US Ambassador to NATO who was also US Special Representative for Ukraine negotiations under Donald Trump.

We spoke to him earlier and started by asking should we have taken Putin more seriously at the time?