Speaking at the two-day Black Sea Security Forum in Odessa May 30, former CIA Director and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered what one observer described as a “terrifying” keynote speech, as reported by The Gateway Pundit and the Kyiv Post, which was also a sponsor of the event. Pompeo’s first 10 minute presentation, in which he demanded that the West pursue “total victory” over Vladimir Putin and Russia, was then followed by a longer 19-minute “fireside chat,” during which he answered questions from Oleksei Goncharenko, the Forum’s Chairman of the Board.
He initially told the audience that “there is only one outcome that is remotely tolerable for the world and that is victory–it’s winning.” A peace agreement with Putin “is unrealistic,” he said. Putin “has no intention of changing”—he wants to restore the Greater Russian Empire, the Soviet Union. His vision hasn’t changed and won’t ever. “That means that our resolve must be forever”—presumably a “forever war.”
Forget about agreements, making a deal, bringing NATO closer together, he said. “The model of deterrence must remain.” But, he cautioned, deterrence doesn’t end with a ceasefire, or on the day that Vladimir Putin says he’s going to stop. “This is a man who has no intention of changing. “He has been pursuing the vision of restoring what he once knew as the greater Russian Empire, the Soviet Union. His vision has not changed and is not going to change. That means our resolve must be forever.”
