Madeleine Albright Described ‘Small and Pale’ Putin as ‘Almost Reptilian’ in Final Op-Ed

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Madeleine Albright died Wednesday, but 30 days before her passing, she took a shot at Russian President Vladimir Putin in a blistering op-ed.

The former Secretary of State died of cancer at the age of 84, her family said in a statement. She remained active by commenting on international affairs until the end of her life.

The Czechoslovakia-born first female head of the State Department often wrote guest essays. In her finally piece for the New York Times, Albright evaluated Putin.

On Feb. 23, a day before Russia’s autocratic leader ordered an invasion into Ukraine, Albright lit him up.

In a piece titled “Putin Is Making a Historic Mistake,” the fiery former diplomat described an encounter with him,

In early 2000, I became the first senior U.S. official to meet with Vladimir Putin in his new capacity as acting president of Russia. We in the Clinton administration did not know much about him at the time — just that he had started his career in the K.G.B. I hoped the meeting would help me take the measure of the man and assess what his sudden elevation might mean for U.S.-Russia relations, which had deteriorated amid the war in Chechnya. Sitting across a small table from him in the Kremlin, I was immediately struck by the contrast between Mr. Putin and his bombastic predecessor, Boris Yeltsin.

Albright wrote after a three hour meeting that, in contrast to Yeltsin, Putin behaved without emotion. She also used the word “reptilian” when she described him:

Flying home, I recorded my impressions. “Putin is small and pale,” I wrote, “so cold as to be almost reptilian.” He claimed to understand why the Berlin Wall had to fall but had not expected the whole Soviet Union to collapse. “Putin is embarrassed by what happened to his country and determined to restore its greatness.”

Albright also opined in the piece that she believed there was a very good chance Putin would invade Ukraine, which proved correct.

She also stated she believed Putin is incapable of admitting mistakes, and that he longs for the days of Soviet domination.

“Mr. Putin must know that a second Cold War would not necessarily go well for Russia — even with its nuclear weapons,” she wrote. “Ukraine is entitled to its sovereignty, no matter who its neighbors happen to be. In the modern era, great countries accept that, and so must Mr. Putin.”