Fiona Hill

“Chechens need to be able to develop their own viable political society and regional economy whether they remain part of Russia or not.”

“The real concern for the Russians is that they're going to get closed out, that there's gong to be a new 'Iron Curtain'... for European expansion and all of its institutional forms.”

“Putin has the ability to advance his interests in many different ways. Sometimes tactical diplomacy can help.”

“The idea is that Putin-Trump would be a win-win for the Kremlin, as they have mutual interests and alliances.”

“Our basic problem is how do we stop the hot war on the ground in Ukraine, and not get into a more and more escalatory relationship with Putin.”

“The people who run the giant companies and the government are all part of the same crowd.”

“Ironically, from our perspective, Russia finds Iran a stabilizing force. This is because Iran provides a counterweight to all of the Sunni Muslim powers in the region, being predominantly Shia. And Putin actually sees, and the rest of the Russian leadership, sees Iran very much as a rational actor.”

“Tough sanctions would mean saying to BP, Exxon, Chevron, Shell, Boeing and Siemens that they can't do business in Russia.”

“Russia and China thawed their frosty relationship in the 1990s and signed a friendship treaty in 2001, but China's rise has increased tensions in every regional relationship.”

“For the United States, in particular, the South Caucasus has been a priority since the 1990s.”

“Russia doesn't want to have a return to the situation where it was the United States and say Israel, making determinations about whether there might be a strike against Iran if the negotiations over the nuclear weapons program weren't going in a direction that they wanted to.”

“President Trump understands that President Putin does not like to be insulted. Putin takes it very personally. He harbors a grudge. He doesn't forget. And he will find some way of getting some degree of revenge as a result of that.”

“The whole purpose of Russian propaganda is to show that the U.S. and U.S. politics is filled with hubris and hypocrisy and to show it is not better than anyone else.”

“We have politicized the issue of Russia to a point that we can't have a sensible conversation about it.”

“So with President Obama, he's a very different style. Very thoughtful, posed.”

“President Putin and the Russian security services operate like a super PAC. They deploy millions of dollars to weaponize our own political opposition research and false narratives.”

“Trump knows how to play the media all on his own. He creates his own Twitter feed and uses it. He knows how to get the media's attention without the benefit of a state-controlled media. He does it all on his own. Trump understands how a free media works.”

“So Putin is not the dictator that he's often accused of being. He has to be very sensitive to public opinion.”

“There is a good supply of Russia experts out there - people who have lived there with lots of good experience - but the demand has just not been there from government.”

“There's no prospect that the Russians are going to send Snowden back. Snowden is in the land of spy swaps now. Putin is not going to give this guy up for nothing.”