Fiona Hill

“Few issues better illustrate the limits of the Obama administration's 'reset' with Russia than the crisis in Syria.”

“The Russian leadership doesn't operate in the same way as ours does. Informal networks have a much more important role to play than formal networks.”

“I applied to Oxford in the '80s and was invited to an interview. It was like a scene from 'Billy Elliot.' People were making fun of me for my accent and the way I was dressed. It was the most embarrassing, awful experience I had ever had in my life.”

“Because the more you engage with someone who is spreading untruths, the more validity you give to those untruths.”

“For Putin, Syria is all too reminiscent of Chechnya. Both conflicts pitted the state against disparate and leaderless opposition forces, which over time came to include extremist Sunni Islamist groups.”

“The Russians didn't invent partisan divides. The Russians haven't invented racism in the United States. But the Russians understand a lot of those divisions and they understand how to exploit them.”

“I got a PhD from Harvard and a few years later, there was a girl from Sunderland who hadn't got into Oxford or Cambridge, even though she'd got perfect A-levels. Harvard asked me to come and recruit her because I was recruited out of university by Harvard - they were trying to show that people could make it.”

“Everybody used to talk about Chechnya as a place, in the Russian imperial and Soviet periods, that was essentially governed by extended family and regional networks that substituted for older clan structures. But those networks have been destroyed.”

“Putin operates like a super PAC, taking advantage of opportunities for negative campaigning. The purpose is to show that the U.S. has no moral authority.”

“I know Kurt Volker definitely to be a man of integrity.”

“And being forceful with the United States and not letting the United States have its way, is always good politics in the Russian domestic environment.”

“The refugee problem is definitely a disaster for the entire region. Putin - the refugee problem in Chechnya was largely contained inside of Russia itself although there were tens of thousands of Chechens who sought refuge across Europe. Putin wasn't swayed by that issue when it came to Chechnya.”

“There is certainly this widespread anti-Americanism within the Russian elite, a feeling that the U.S. lost any moral high ground it could possibly have because of Iraq, Abu Ghraib, and increasing concern of U.S. intentions locally.”

“Stop pyschoanalyzing Putin, and recognize that there is a certain mind set. The West must draw a line under 'Putinography' and just get on with it.”

“The Cold War was obviously driven by a very intense ideological struggle that was very clearly defined.”

“Putin has become the wild card in his own system.”

“In the instance of Iran for Russia, Iran is a very important counterweight to the Sunni Muslim powers in the Gulf, but Russia's always been very concerned about potentially proselytizing and supporting groups inside of the Russian federation itself.”

“We've got ourselves into a situation where government service is somehow seen to be a political act rather than an act of civic duty or of public service.”

“The unfortunate truth is that Russia was the foreign power that systematically attacked our democratic institutions in 2016.”

“Calling Trump 'Putin's puppet' is a sign of the weakness of the American political system. It appears so weak and fragile that outsiders can actually meddle about in it.”