February 18 - Ukraine's Precarious Military and Financial Situation; Libya Falls Apart as it Runs Out of Money; The Unusual Alliance of the Leaders of Hungary and Russia

We will begin with the shaky ceasefire in Ukraine and the fragile peace that is expected to be temporary. Ambassador Steven Pifer joins us. A former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, he was a special assistant to the president and senior director for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia on the National Security Council and is now the Director of the Brookings Institution’s Arms Control Initiative where he focuses on arms control, Ukraine and Russia issues. We will discuss Ukraine’s precarious military and financial situation and what might restrain Vladimir Putin in his determination to crush the new government in Kyiv.

Part 2

Then we will examine the mess in Libya where there has been chaos since the U.S. and NATO “liberation” of the country from the long and brutal Qadaffi dictatorship. Wayne White a scholar at the Middle East Institute who was Deputy Director of the State Departments Bureau of Intelligence and Research and served as a State Department Intelligence Analyst on Libya, joins us to discuss the impact of the Egyptian bombing of Islamic State fighters in retaliation for the graphic executions of Coptic Christian workers, and Libya’s oil-dependent economy that has all but ground to a halt from raids by the various militias on oil terminals and ports.

Part 3

Then finally, following the meeting in Budapest between the Russian and Hungarian leaders, we will look into Putin’s unusual alliance with Hungary’s Prime Minister Orban and Putin’s funding of neo-Nazi and fascist parties in Western Europe. Kim Lane Scheppele, a Professor of Sociology at Princeton University, who lived in Budapest and Russia for extended periods, joins us to discuss the odd man out in Europe as Hungary drifts to the right and the demonstrations against Putin that took place with banners reading “Putin No! Europe Yes”.