CNN’s Anderson Cooper says a video from Russia that has gone viral amid the country’s invasion of Ukraine perfectly sums up the fear and weakness of its president, Vladimir Putin.
Cooper, appearing on Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show†live from Lviv in Ukraine on Monday, recalled the footage of Russian riot police arresting a woman in her 80s for protesting the war with handmade signs on the street.
“To me, it was the most incredible image because I thought Vladimir Putin, who likes to appear half-naked riding around on a horse, or in his black belt doing judo as a tough guy, is scared of an 80-something-year-old woman who is simply standing on a street holding up a sign protesting a war,†he said.
Russia’s new law that criminalizes media reports contradicting the Kremlin’s version of events in Ukraine ― which has prompted multiple networks to suspend reporting from Moscow ― was a “sign of weakness†and “fear†and “of the reality of the disinformation campaign that Russia wages,†Cooper added.
Watch the interview here:
