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b'Vladamir Putin has announced what he called a \\u201cpartial mobilization\\u201d of up to 300,000 reservists.\\n\\nAccording to reports, these reservists are basically former conscripts that will need training.\\n\\nMeanwhile, commercial flights out of Russia are apparently selling out, fast. \\n\\nThe Russian Duma, on the other hand, is passing a law to clamp down on anyone evading their military service. \\n\\nAnd then there was Putin\\u2019s seeming dangling of the nuclear threat again. All against the backdrop of the Kremlin organizing referenda on whether four occupied regions in Ukraine should fall under Russian sovereignty.\\n\\n\\nAnd how do we assess US military support for Ukraine?\\n\\n\\nRichard Fontaine is the CEO of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), bi-partisan foriegn policy think tank in Washington, DC. Prior to CNAS, he was foreign policy advisor to Senator John McCain and worked at the State Department, the National Security Council, and on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He serves on the Biden administration\\u2019s Defense Policy Board \\u2013 which advises the Pentagon.\\n\\n\\nRichard is also just back from a trip to the Middle East \\u2013 so we also talk at the end about the two-year anniversary of the Abraham Accords (a topic we\\u2019ll be returning to from time to time on this podcast) and also the status of the Iran deal negotiations.'