Observers in the West are increasingly concerned abpit the mental stability of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who put his nuclear forces on high alert over the weekend in a substantial escalation, The Hill reported on Tuesday.
"I'm not going to make an assessment of his mental stability, but I will tell you, certainly the rhetoric, the actions, the justification that he's making for his actions are certainly deeply concerning to us," White House press secretary Jen Psaki told ABC News on Monday.
Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he has observed impulsive decisions in the Russian president lately, someone he previously referred to as a "coldblooded but calculating killer."
"The one thing Vladimir Putin has always valued is emotional control, is the ability to never flash any emotion, and to watch a video of him the other night and those flashes of anger, that's very uncharacteristic," Rubio told reporters on Monday night.
"We have to understand that whatever we think he might have done, or assumed he would do in response to actions 10 or 15 years ago, is not what he might do today, and that's an important thing to take into account. This is a very dangerous moment, in my opinion, because of that."
Michael McFaul, who served as U.S. ambassador to Russia in the Obama administration, said Sunday on NBC News that he was shocked by Putin's temperament since Russia invaded Ukraine.
"I sat in the room with him for five years when I worked in the Obama administration. I speak Russian. I listened to him, and I know what he says. He's increasingly unhinged," McFaul said.
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