Ron DeSantis likens Putin to an 'authoritarian gas station attendant' and says France would 'probably not' put up a fight if Russia were to invade

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis likened Russian President Vladimir Putin to an "authoritarian gas station attendant" and suggested that France and other countries would "fold" if Russia invaded them.

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• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said France would probably not put up a fight against a Russian invasion.
• DeSantis said "a lot of other places" would "just fold the minute there's any type of adversity."
• The governor also likened Vladimir Putin to "an authoritarian gas station attendant."

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says he thinks that countries like France would "probably not" put up a fight against a Russian invasion.

"A lot of other places around the world, they just fold the minute there's any type of adversity," DeSantis told reporters at an event at the University of South Florida in Tampa on Wednesday. DeSantis was there to announce a $20 million grant program for cybersecurity training. 

"I mean can you imagine if he (Putin) went into France? Would they do anything to put up a fight? Probably not," DeSantis said.

DeSantis also offered a take on Putin, communism, and why the US should develop its own energy resources to reduce its dependence on Russian oil.

"You know, I analogize him to basically an authoritarian gas station attendant," DeSantis said of Putin.

"You look at their country, it's a hollowed-out country but for the energy. And yes they have legacy nuclear weapons, which makes them much more dangerous than if they didn't have those," DeSantis said. 

"And so (Putin) is being fueled because America is not serious about energy independence. Right now Europe is not serious at all. So Europe is funding this guy. So he has the ability now to go in and flex muscle," DeSantis continued.

DeSantis said that he thought Ukraine had "done a lot better than people thought" by holding the Russian military onslaught off for now, but added that Ukrainians would likely suffer "death by a thousand cuts" through guerilla warfare.

The Florida governor's comments come at a time when France is facing threats from Russian officials of a "real war."

Ukraine has fiercely resisted Russia's invasion, which began on Thursday. On Wednesday, the city of Kherson, home to nearly 300,000 residents, became the first major Ukrainian city to fall to Russian forces.

Insider's live blog of the Russian invasion of Ukraine is covering developments as they happen.

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