Russian President Vladimir Putin is like a "Mafia boss" who wants to rule Ukraine through a puppet president, and he will "lose face if he doesn't invade" the neighboring country, Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas, said Thursday on Newsmax.
"It does Americans a good service if you look upon Putin more as a mob boss, a Mafia boss," Fallon told Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "He doesn't have to directly rule, as he doesn't directly rule technically in Belarus. He runs the country through, to use the Mafia term, a 'caporegime,' where the captain is the president of Belarus, but he is the president in name only."
And that, said Fallon, is what Putin wants with Ukraine.
"He wants to invade quickly, replace the duly elected president, put in a puppet, and then leave and have him be his collaborator and control Ukraine for him," Fallon said. "I hope I'm wrong, but all indications are that he wants to constitute as much as the old Soviet Union as possible."
According to the Pentagon, Russia has continued sending additional troops to the Ukraine border and is holding military exercises in Belarus, despite world leaders' hopes that Putin would be open to further negotiations.
Fallon told Newsmax that there is "no doubt" history could repeat itself and the U.S. could find itself in a similar position it was in with the fall of Kabul last summer.
"I hope, of course, Ukraine can hold out; but if they don't, we could have as many as 5 million refugees, Ukraine refugees, go west into Poland and other bordering countries," Fallon said.
"[Putin] might have to have an occupation force of like 350,000 Russian troops, which is about a third of their active-duty force. So Putin put himself maybe a little bit of a box, and I think he's going to unfortunately invade. I hope I'm wrong, but you know, time will tell."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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