As a longtime advisor to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Huma Abedin has witnessed firsthand America’s fraught relationship with Russia. And now, as she is watching the Russian-Ukrainian conflict escalate at full speed, she is convinced “the world is on fire, and it will be for awhile.”
Abedin offered that grim prediction on Monday at Forbes’ 30/50 summit in Abu Dhabi during a panel with geopolitical strategist Tina Fordham and Randall Lane, chief content officer and editor of Forbes.
“I have not been able to sleep very much these last few weeks,” she said, “particularly the last 10 days.” Abedin said the images of death and despair, especially of women and children, has been unnerving.
Abedin also called the “defiance and strength” of the Ukrainian people “extraordinary.”
“Whether we want to become isolationists in certain parts the world, we are increasingly dependent on each other,” she told the audience, which included generations of women from both Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list, which highlights the world’s most influential leaders, and Forbes and Know Your Value’s “50 Over 50” list, which celebrates age-defying leaders and entrepreneurs.
“I think what Russia’s doing is certainly not new,” continued Abedin. “Yes, I was there in the room for many of those meetings and conversations when my boss was secretary of state about how to reset the relationship with Russia…I think [Russian President Vladimir Putin] believed it was going to be easier for him to wander into Ukraine and people would say, ‘Welcome and, yes, we believe we are part of this empire.’”
Abedin’s old boss has a long history with Russia. At the outset of her tenure as President Obama’s secretary of state, Clinton famously made a show of resetting America’s relationship with Russia—only to print the wrong Russian word on the red “reset” button. A couple years later, in 2011, she condemned Russia’s parliamentary elections and accused Putin of rigging them. He consequently accused her of meddling in Russian politics. Then, of course, there was the 2016 presidential election that Clinton shockingly lost to Donald Trump, with Russia’s election-meddling, email hacking, and interference campaign playing an outsized role in an extraordinary campaign.
RELATED: Mika: Everyone has the same question for Huma Abedin. Everyone is wrong. Abedin, 45, was entangled in much of that. But on Monday, she looked beyond her more recent past and recounted how she grew up in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and remembered sitting on her living room floor in August 1990 when then-Iraqi president Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. To her relief, she watched the U.S.-led coalition (which included the Soviet Union) liberate Kuwait in the first Gulf War. Turning to the war in Ukraine, Abedin commended President Biden’s government for forcefully imposing sanctions against Russia, but pointed to Russia’s ongoing propaganda war and said she unfortunately believes “we’re in this for a while…This is just our new reality.” Fordham agreed during the panel discussion “The period of time where people from rich industrialized countries don’t have to pay attention to politics is over, she said. “…I think it’s the beginning of a new geopolitical epoch.”Recommended
