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Speaker 1: Pillow conspiracy Realist. We are returning to you with a

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Speaker 1: classic episode we recorded in December of twenty twenty. It's

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Speaker 1: about one of our pal Dylan's favorite guys, Daddy vladd

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Speaker 1: Vladimir p you know I love him, PJS.

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Speaker 2: On the Horse, No shirts Man, Masters of the Universe,

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Speaker 2: Ninja Turtles abs on that guy.

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Speaker 1: So we are talking about the current leader of Russia

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Speaker 1: of Vladimir Putin. You know him, you know him. He

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Speaker 1: has back in twenty twenty, we had a huge gallows

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Speaker 1: guffaw of laughter when we learned that the Russian government

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Speaker 1: was going to pass an unusual law giving quote any

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Speaker 1: former or current Russian president a legal immunity for everything,

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Speaker 1: just whomever that be.

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Speaker 3: WHOA, That's a superpower if I've ever heard one. It

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Speaker 3: does remind me of this Supreme Court case what was

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Speaker 3: it called Trump v. United States from twenty twenty four,

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Speaker 3: something about official acts have immunity, but unofficial acts No, no, no,

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Speaker 3: those do not have immunity.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, because we're not Russia, and again you know, yeah, right.

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Speaker 1: We spend a lot of time in this classic episode,

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Speaker 1: if I recall correctly, emphasizing that the letter of the

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Speaker 1: Russian law doesn't mention Daddy V by name. It just

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Speaker 1: says whomever they might be, and anybody who is president

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Speaker 1: of Russia. Should you know, it's like tagging base.

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Speaker 4: Mm hmm for lifetime.

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Speaker 3: That's pretty great, man.

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Speaker 1: I wish we could get that. Can we get can

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Speaker 1: we get that?

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Speaker 4: Yeah?

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Speaker 3: But what would you do with it?

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Speaker 1: I don't know, Like, are you asking me to pitch

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Speaker 1: off the top of the head. I would never pay

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Speaker 1: my library fees.

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Speaker 4: Again, it's really good.

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Speaker 3: I'm just saying, why would you need that kind of power?

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Speaker 2: Right?

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Speaker 3: You gotta be up to some stuff.

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Speaker 4: Just in case, you just so you have it just

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Speaker 4: in case.

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Speaker 3: Okay, okay, okay, you don't need to use it.

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Speaker 1: But in case parking in Moscow is crazy. I try

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Speaker 1: to make a better world for the Russian people, but

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Speaker 1: I keep getting hit with these parking fees.

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Speaker 4: Columbia houses lawyers will never get me. Now, that's what happened.

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Speaker 1: But got too deep with ordering CDs from Columbia.

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Speaker 3: It's only a couple of rules at a time, and

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Speaker 3: then you just.

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Speaker 1: Next thing, you know, all right, We're gonna roll the tape.

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Speaker 5: From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is

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Speaker 5: riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or

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Speaker 5: learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A

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Speaker 5: production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 3: Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,

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Speaker 3: my name is Noel.

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Speaker 1: They called me Ben. We are joined as always with

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Speaker 1: our super producer Seth Nicholas, the Shadow Johnson. Most importantly,

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Speaker 1: you are you. You are here, and that makes this

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Speaker 1: stuff they don't want you to know.

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Speaker 4: It's good to be.

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Speaker 1: King, as Tom Petty and the Heartbreaker said, it's also

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Speaker 1: terrible for your health because heavy weighs the head that

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Speaker 1: wears the crown. And the thing about being a very

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Speaker 1: important person in the world of politics or governance is

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Speaker 1: that often, well historically speaking, retirement can be a really

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Speaker 1: risky endeavor. You know, I know that we've got a

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Speaker 1: lot of folks in the audience today who have either

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Speaker 1: been in a career that doesn't often that doesn't always

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Speaker 1: end peacefully, or know someone who has been in a

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Speaker 1: very dangerous job. You know what I mean there. It's

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Speaker 1: it's almost hilarious that there's not a you know how,

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Speaker 1: you know how Discovery Channel used to have that Dangerous

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Speaker 1: Jobs show and they look at ice road truckers and

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Speaker 1: lobster fisheries and stuff.

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Speaker 3: I think so I more remember the dirty jobs one,

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Speaker 3: but I think I know what you're talking about.

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Speaker 2: I was considering those as well. I was thinking, like

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Speaker 2: the person that has to clean out the septic tanks.

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Speaker 2: But that's dangerous too, you could drown and poop.

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Speaker 1: That's true. Yeah, in their entire like social caste systems

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Speaker 1: that like curse people to have to do that work

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Speaker 1: because everyone hates it. Well, dangerous jobs. To me, it's

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Speaker 1: funny that there's not an episode of how dangerous it

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Speaker 1: is to be ahead of state as a job. Like

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Speaker 1: it's a it's a really dangerous thing, regardless of whether

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Speaker 1: you agree with or disagree with the given person in power.

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Speaker 1: And today's show is a follow up on a strange

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Speaker 1: news segment we did earlier. We have to work this

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Speaker 1: in somewhere, so let's just say it at the top,

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Speaker 1: booting on the ritz.

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Speaker 3: Boo, no the ritz. Well, you know, it's a really

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Speaker 3: great pointment that you make. And we've talked about this

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Speaker 3: a little bit before, the concept that a lot of countries,

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Speaker 3: within their constitutions, within the laws of their land, they

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Speaker 3: protect standing government officials, specifically those who would be in

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Speaker 3: an executive position, the ones who have to sign the

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Speaker 3: thing at the end, who decide this is where our

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Speaker 3: troops are going to go, or this is you know,

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Speaker 3: the thing that is potentially a war crime internationally speaking

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Speaker 3: or humanitarily speaking. The countries will protect that person by

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Speaker 3: saying they are immune to prosecution for those types of

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Speaker 3: crimes while they're in office, while they're hanging out still

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Speaker 3: making decisions. And today's episode is about how long should

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Speaker 3: those protections really last?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and how deep should they go?

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Speaker 4: I mean, what about forever? And really deep?

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Speaker 1: And it makes sense to have that kind of limited immunity,

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Speaker 1: not just for the international stuff. This is important point. Like,

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Speaker 1: imagine you're the president or prime minister of a country

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Speaker 1: and someone is adversely affected by a policy that you

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Speaker 1: put into law, right, and so.

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Speaker 4: If you did not.

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Speaker 1: Have immunity, then it is possible that someone who was

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Speaker 1: say who lost the loved one or had a debilitating

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Speaker 1: injury due to what they see as your healthcare policy,

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Speaker 1: it would be possible for them to sue you for

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Speaker 1: some kind of criminal act. Maybe, but you can't do it.

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Speaker 1: And honestly, you shouldn't be able to do that because

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Speaker 1: it would make it impossible for people at the executive

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Speaker 1: level to do their job. Today's episode is about, as

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Speaker 1: you said, how far, how far could this actually go?

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Speaker 1: Here are the facts recent news from Russia. In case

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Speaker 1: you missed our Strange news segment earlier in November, some

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Speaker 1: very very strange reports hit the press. The Russian government is,

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Speaker 1: as we record today, considering a bill that would grant

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Speaker 1: all ex presidents of Russia lifetime immunity from criminal prosecution

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Speaker 1: for anything, not just stuff they did while they were

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Speaker 1: in office, for anything like they do afterwards under current law,

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Speaker 1: like many other countries, Russian presidents. I keep saying Russian

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Speaker 1: presidents because it's written like, it's not written for this

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Speaker 1: one guy.

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Speaker 4: Right, it's just too though, right.

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Speaker 1: There are two.

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Speaker 4: You're right.

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Speaker 1: Under Russian law currently, these presidents cannot be held liable

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Speaker 1: for crimes they committed, as you said, Matt, while serving

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Speaker 1: their terms. But this new proposal is very different.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and there's a senator that we may be referring

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Speaker 3: to a few times in this episode, and forgive me

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Speaker 3: for brutalizing it, Senator Andre Clichos Clisius Clichesos.

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Speaker 2: I think it's pronounced clidus. Really, I know I'm kidding.

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Speaker 2: I don't have no idea. Okay, I think you're doing

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Speaker 2: a fine job. Okay, it strikes me.

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Speaker 4: As a bit of a klidus.

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Speaker 3: Well, yeah, this is this person is the co chair

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Speaker 3: of the Federation Council's Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building. Yeah, hey,

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Speaker 3: it feels good. Feels good. This is the parliamentary working

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Speaker 3: group that created this whole concept, this proposal that would

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Speaker 3: become a law if the bill is signed. You know,

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Speaker 3: you remember the the song. It's just a bill right now,

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Speaker 3: it's only a bill. It's going to Duma hill, I guess.

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Speaker 3: But this is the co chair of the group that

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Speaker 3: created this bill. And this is a quote from Andre Clisius.

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Speaker 3: This expands the time frame of immunity guarantees for a

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Speaker 3: president who stops exercising their powers. I mean, it's just

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Speaker 3: right there on the page, right It's just it's exactly

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Speaker 3: what it is. This is, as soon as the president

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Speaker 3: is done, they are still immune from getting in trouble

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Speaker 3: administratively or legally for all the things they've done.

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Speaker 6: No take back seats for anything, really anything really like, well,

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Speaker 6: could you go go in the middle of Times Square

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Speaker 6: and shoot somebody for example.

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Speaker 1: So there is a mechanism to make this seem a

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Speaker 1: little bit less dystopian, and that mechanism is the following.

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Speaker 1: If again, some Russian president, any Russian president, if that,

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Speaker 1: if any Russian president happens to be a used of

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Speaker 1: some felonies, mainly high treason, then the Russian Parliament can vote.

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Speaker 1: If both sides of Russia, the lower and the upper

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Speaker 1: part of the Russian Parliament agree, they can they can

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Speaker 1: vote on whether to remove this immunity, and if they

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Speaker 1: get a two thirds vote in favor, then they can

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Speaker 1: remove the immunity and prosecute for that specific set of crimes.

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Speaker 1: But like if you're if you if your thing is

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Speaker 1: as next president is just like shoplifting, you're golden. Nobody's

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Speaker 1: going to do anything. As a matter of fact, why

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Speaker 1: would you even bother paying for stuff?

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Speaker 3: And I don't want to jump too far ahead here, guys,

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Speaker 3: but this concept that you would need two thirds of

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Speaker 3: a majority of the parliament to agree that yes, we

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Speaker 3: need to prosecute or we need to remove immunity for this,

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Speaker 3: you would need two thirds of that parliament to not

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Speaker 3: support said president, whoever this president might be in the future,

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Speaker 3: and you know, as we know right now, the Parliament

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Speaker 3: of Russia supports the current president, the one who's been

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Speaker 3: around well, I don't know how many twenty twenty years

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Speaker 3: in power.

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Speaker 1: Roughly presidents giver taking nine two thousand.

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Speaker 3: Give or take a four year stint where he was

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Speaker 3: slightly not president.

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Speaker 1: Right, A great way to describe it. Yeah, you're absolutely right.

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Speaker 1: There's also something else, So just for the record, on

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Speaker 1: the pro side here, a guy named Pavel Krashinenakov is

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Speaker 1: one of the bill's authors. Also, he says that the

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Speaker 1: aim is to give again any body who happens to

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Speaker 1: have been president of Russia guarantees that are important for

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Speaker 1: the stability of the state and society. But think about

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Speaker 1: this two thirds vote. Okay, here's why this was such

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Speaker 1: an excellent question. Who are the people voting? Some of

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Speaker 1: them are going to be senators. And about a week

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Speaker 1: before this wild ass immunity bill comes into play, President

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Speaker 1: Vladimir Putin submitted another bill that allows presidents to appoint

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Speaker 1: senators for life and also makes it super easy for it. Again,

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Speaker 1: just any ex president of Russia, just in general, just

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Speaker 1: whomever you think of when you think of that term.

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Speaker 1: Allows those individuals to automatically hold lifetime Senate seats. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: pretty neat, pretty way to like pree Pack, you.

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Speaker 2: Know, and isn't I mean like a Russia has an

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Speaker 2: interesting system of government in that they have quite a

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Speaker 2: few registered parties. There's the United Russia Party, Communist Party,

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Speaker 2: Liberal Democratic Party, Adjust Russia Party, Rodina, and the Civic

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Speaker 2: Platform Party.

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Speaker 4: But of those, Putin's United.

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Speaker 2: Russia Party has by far the most amount of power.

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Speaker 1: Which makes sense. I mean, that's that's probably the party

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Speaker 1: where you have the lowest odds of accidentally running into

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Speaker 1: polonium or something, you know what I mean.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it seems the KGB off your back if you're

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Speaker 3: for uniting Russia.

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Speaker 2: Right, And just to clarify, they have three hundred and

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Speaker 2: thirty five seats of the four hundred and fifty in

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Speaker 2: the state Duma.

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Speaker 1: Wow, yeah, that's huge. So here's the thing. When we

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Speaker 1: say senators, it's roughly analogous to what you might think

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Speaker 1: of when you think of a senator and say the

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Speaker 1: United States. But it's a little bit different because, as

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Speaker 1: you said, NOL, it doesn't have the it doesn't have

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Speaker 1: the same you know, functional duopoly that we have here

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Speaker 1: in the US with Democrats and Republicans. You know, our

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Speaker 1: system has been purposely designed by those parties to repress

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Speaker 1: third party candidates, and it's not the same deal. In Russia. Also,

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Speaker 1: senators representatives of the Russian Federation are appointed for six years,

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Speaker 1: or the president can just appoint them for life by

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Speaker 1: saying it happens. I think it's almost like an executive order.

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Speaker 1: If a bill like this passed in the US, then

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Speaker 1: the president of the US, whomever they were at the time,

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Speaker 1: could just decide to make someone a senator, you know

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Speaker 1: what I mean, what's it like at the top. The

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Speaker 1: president of Russia under this new bill can do this,

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Speaker 1: and it's a presidential prerogative, not a duty, so it

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Speaker 1: means that they don't have to do it, but they

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Speaker 1: can also do it whenever they want. Seven times they

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Speaker 1: baked in a number, which makes me wonder what the

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Speaker 1: calculation is, right, was it like, Okay, first off, I

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Speaker 1: should be immune forever unless there's I don't know, treason

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Speaker 1: or something, and then two thirds of the Senate has

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Speaker 1: to vote for that. Also, by the way, I can

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Speaker 1: make seven people lifetime senators and myself.

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Speaker 3: Hey, we got eight eight of us hanging out in

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Speaker 3: the Senate is very very odd.

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Speaker 2: This is the kind of laughter you get when I'm

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Speaker 2: just intensely uncomfortable.

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Speaker 4: None of this is funny at all. This is all.

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Speaker 2: Very scary and clearly something that certain individuals would love

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Speaker 2: to see happen, you know, in this neck of those.

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Speaker 2: I think we've perhaps stemmed the tide of that a

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Speaker 2: little bit, but gosh, knowing what's possible, right, I mean,

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Speaker 2: this level of power goes a long way.

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Speaker 1: Well, there are some requirements like this is We're already

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Speaker 1: in crazy territory in my opinion, but it does get crazier,

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Speaker 1: So there are some there are some constraints or restrictions

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Speaker 1: on who can become a lifetime senator, as you might imagine,

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Speaker 1: dear conspirac realist. Uh, the four of us are out

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Speaker 1: of the game, like the four of us on the

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Speaker 1: show today, cannot be cannot be lifetime Russian senators. You

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Speaker 1: have to The main thing that you need to prove

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Speaker 1: to get one of these sort of rubber stamp positions

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Speaker 1: is that you have never lived somewhere else and you've

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Speaker 1: never associated with another country. So it gives you a

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Speaker 1: sense where the priorities.

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Speaker 3: Are hmm, and little inward facing that's okay.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, sure takes a lot. You know, it takes a village.

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Speaker 1: So for comparison, this is also not a total wild hair.

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Speaker 1: In Italy, there's a similar system. All former presidents are

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Speaker 1: given the title of senator for life. But just so

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Speaker 1: we know, that's the thing about this is this immunity

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Speaker 1: bill is occurring in a context that isn't being explored

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Speaker 1: fully in a lot of other outlets. So if we

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Speaker 1: go back to this new proposal, it tells us a

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Speaker 1: couple of interesting things we have to ask ourselves about

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Speaker 1: presidents and crime, because you know, we've been talking about

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Speaker 1: this a little bit, just a few minutes ago. But

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Speaker 1: proponents of this bill say, look, we're not doing anything weird.

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Speaker 1: This is how the world works. Maybe we're just getting

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Speaker 1: victimized by a propaganda spin because some people don't like

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Speaker 1: Russia and that's unfair. It's true to a degree, this

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Speaker 1: bill is in line with international norms. But and it's

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Speaker 1: all for the reasons we discussed. You know, you can't,

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Speaker 1: we don't. People won't be able to do their job

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Speaker 1: as president or prime minister or whatever if they are

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Speaker 1: bound by the law. As weird as that sounds, on

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Speaker 1: that personal level. But this lifetime immunity is way different.

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Speaker 1: If Labmir Putin for some reason is quits the presidency

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Speaker 1: or loses the twenty twenty four election and becomes ex

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Speaker 1: president or a senator and decides to get really into

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Speaker 1: one of our favorite crimes, stamp fraud, then there's nothing

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Speaker 1: to be done. Uh, he can just make all the stamps.

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Speaker 1: But this is the weirdest part of this. This is

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Speaker 1: the thing that people weren't talking about a lot in

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Speaker 1: the news. The immunity. When we say it works outside

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Speaker 1: of your time in office, that timeline goes both ways.

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Speaker 1: So think about this. If this passes, then just any

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Speaker 1: Russian president is immune from prosecution for stuff they did

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Speaker 1: before they were ever president. And we're talking about a

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Speaker 1: former KGB agent.

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Speaker 3: Exactly, somebody who is getting his hands dirty well before

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Speaker 3: he got that seat of power. Hmmm hm hmmmm.

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Speaker 4: Man, Wait, you don't mean Putin himself, do you?

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Speaker 2: Has yeah been doing shady things like for a long

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Speaker 2: time prior don't track.

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Speaker 1: He has everyone the king of the shade, fake news,

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Speaker 1: fake news. We have always been at war with East Asia.

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Speaker 1: We I've always loved the dear leader. But think about that,

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Speaker 1: that kind of uh, get out of jail forever card legally.

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Speaker 1: It's really impressive. I imagine you were immune from everything you

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Speaker 1: have ever done. Ever, that's a sweet gig if you

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Speaker 1: can get it.

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Speaker 3: You know what this will allow Putin to do. Though,

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Speaker 3: because of all this, you can't get in trouble for anything.

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Speaker 3: He is going to set up full UFO Extraterrestrial disclosure amazing.

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Speaker 3: He can't get in trouble for any of it, for

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Speaker 3: hiding it, for stealing the tech, for murdering all of

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Speaker 3: those grays. He's just gonna come out and be like,

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Speaker 3: guess what, everybody, I'm a center now. And e T

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Speaker 3: is real.

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Speaker 2: Yes, he's also adorable or arguably terrifying.

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Speaker 4: But there's another there's another implication here, Matt.

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Speaker 2: Think about how much dirt that dude has on like everybody,

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Speaker 2: like people from other countries like think, you know, he

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Speaker 2: holds the keys to the kingdom. Man like he could

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Speaker 2: either just like dox all these people, or like blackmail.

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Speaker 2: I mean, he could already do that obviously, but now

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Speaker 2: he can do it with utter abandon you know, and

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Speaker 2: not even have to cover it up. I mean it's

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Speaker 2: just you know, because I mean he's never gonna leave Russia.

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Speaker 4: It's obviously you apply. This doesn't apply.

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Speaker 2: Diplomatically certainly, right, this is only like within Russia and

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Speaker 2: their laws.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, well there.

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Speaker 1: The thing is, when you get into the international sphere,

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Speaker 1: there are the International Criminal Court is notoriously backlogged, and

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Speaker 1: also a lot it's not recognized by a lot of countries.

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Speaker 1: The US, for instance, does it recognize the ICC. And

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Speaker 1: one country can say, look, our guys have diplomatic immunity forever,

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Speaker 1: and another country can say, no, that we know what

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Speaker 1: you did. And the end result in practice often often

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Speaker 1: becomes just a matter of where people can or cannot travel.

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Speaker 1: Like Dick Cheney probably has countries he cannot visit, you know,

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Speaker 1: And if you're a president of any country, then you

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Speaker 1: have to be really careful where you go forever. It

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Speaker 1: doesn't matter who you are.

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Speaker 2: But Dick Cheney was never like convicted of war crimes.

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Speaker 2: I mean it was bandied about, but there's nothing on

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Speaker 2: paper that like charges him as being a war criminal,

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Speaker 2: even though we all know he is.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, for a time there was a rumor that they

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Speaker 1: that he and former President George W. Bush could not

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Speaker 1: travel to Europe due to the threat of arrest. However,

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Speaker 1: it looks like.

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Speaker 3: It.

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Speaker 1: It looks like that's not the case, at least there's

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Speaker 1: not an act of warrant out. But these situations do

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Speaker 1: occur and have occurred in the past. So it's a

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Speaker 1: real concern for Vladimir Putin. But if he stays safe

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Speaker 1: in Russia, he just has to worry about domestic enemies,

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Speaker 1: you know, or some actor with the means to reach

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Speaker 1: him on his home turf, which is very difficult because

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Speaker 1: for if you are if you are under about fifty

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Speaker 1: years old, then for the majority of your life, this

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Speaker 1: has been one of the most powerful people in the world,

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Speaker 1: full stop. Maybe Jijinping right now is I think he

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Speaker 1: would be number one right now, but then Putin would

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Speaker 1: be number two. So it's weird the reaction when we

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Speaker 1: talk about this. We're talking about now right now. The

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Speaker 1: big question is, and there's a point you made me

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Speaker 1: think of Matt The big question is this guy's been

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Speaker 1: in power for so long. Why is he just doing

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Speaker 1: it now? He had decades and decay aids and decades.

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Speaker 1: One of his opponents, a guy named Alexi Novelny, said

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Speaker 1: on Twitter, he said, why does Putin need an immunity law.

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Speaker 1: Now can dictators step down of their own free will?

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Speaker 1: And this is the billion ruble question. I love Matt

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Speaker 1: that you said a time when he was less president

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Speaker 1: or whatever. So when he is slightly not president from

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Speaker 1: two thousand and eight to twenty twelve, and ally and

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Speaker 1: a long time associate of his named Dmitri Medvedev the

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Speaker 1: only other living ex Russian president, he serves one term

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Speaker 1: as president. Putin, by the way, is Prime Minister from

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Speaker 1: two thousand and eight to twenty twelve. Now that is

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Speaker 1: a hustle I respect, because in twenty twelve he comes back.

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Speaker 1: He's president again. He's been president of Russia since twenty twelve.

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Speaker 1: His current term is set to expire in twenty twenty four,

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Speaker 1: but they're changing the constitution to make that, you know,

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Speaker 1: up for conversation. Let's just talk.

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Speaker 3: About you guys. I feel so silly here. I could

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Speaker 3: have sworn they changed the presidential term limits from four

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Speaker 3: to six years, and that's why it goes from twenty

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Speaker 3: twelve to twenty twenty four. But it was still just

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Speaker 3: two terms. It's just he has more time than I

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Speaker 3: was reading a BBC article talking about six year terms.

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Speaker 3: Two more six year terms, which is just I guess

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Speaker 3: that changed at some point. I just don't have that.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, info, Yeah, two thousand and eight, it changed when

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Speaker 1: Medvedev was president. They said, Okay, by the way, just

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Speaker 1: like some Russian president in the future, we should probably

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Speaker 1: give them six years, you know, not me. Not me,

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Speaker 1: I'm not changing the law for myself. Interesting, right, So

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Speaker 1: this is still like without getting two in the weeds

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Speaker 1: on this. This is also occurring in the world of

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Speaker 1: a recent vote that occurred this summer that would allow

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Speaker 1: Vladimir Putin to extend his rule until twenty thirty six,

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Speaker 1: after his current presidency ends. So he may be around

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Speaker 1: for a long time, and he remains popular with a

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Speaker 1: big segment of the Russian public. Not all though, so

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Speaker 1: we have to ask ourselves some more questions. We're already

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Speaker 1: in crazy territory, but it's about to get even weirder.

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Speaker 1: So we'll be back, assuming we don't get poisoned after

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Speaker 1: work from our sponsor, and we'll dive deeper into this

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Speaker 1: murky story.

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Speaker 2: And we're back ready to swim in some pretty sinister waters. Gosh,

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Speaker 2: where to even pick up there's so much to unpack here.

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Speaker 3: Well, I just want to jump really quickly to talk

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Speaker 3: a little bit more about the concept that fladmir Putin

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Speaker 3: may may, because of this recent vote, be able to

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Speaker 3: continue being president for another twelve years. So I think

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Speaker 3: it was I think it was March when I was

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Speaker 3: seeing a lot of reporting on that subject and then

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Speaker 3: about like possibly doing a reset essentially for anyone who

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Speaker 3: was going to any again, anyone who's going to run

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Speaker 3: for president in Russia. They were going to reset everybody

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Speaker 3: back to zero, like as in, Okay, no terms have

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Speaker 3: occurred for anyone in the history of Russia right now

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Speaker 3: as of this point. Now, anyone can run for two

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Speaker 3: terms as president. But it's the weirdest thing because he's

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Speaker 3: it's he's the only person affected by this besides Medvedev,

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Speaker 3: and it was just kind of just passed and or

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Speaker 3: has it passed. I think it's passed.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that went passed.

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00:26:52,840 --> 00:26:56,119
Speaker 3: So that's just the situation. He can just decide to

438
00:26:56,440 --> 00:26:58,280
Speaker 3: run for president again if he wants to.

439
00:26:58,600 --> 00:27:01,800
Speaker 1: It's like in the I just I keep harping on this,

440
00:27:01,880 --> 00:27:06,800
Speaker 1: but it's so gut bustingly hilarious to me that they're

441
00:27:06,840 --> 00:27:10,040
Speaker 1: writing these laws as though they are not specifically applicable

442
00:27:10,080 --> 00:27:13,320
Speaker 1: to one, dude. It's like if we were writing a

443
00:27:13,400 --> 00:27:17,960
Speaker 1: law and I had said, you know what, I think

444
00:27:18,119 --> 00:27:22,399
Speaker 1: anybody who happens to be wearing red and black flannel shirt,

445
00:27:22,760 --> 00:27:25,000
Speaker 1: just like in general, they should have free lunch.

446
00:27:25,680 --> 00:27:28,520
Speaker 2: But Ben, you know that's Putin's favorite shade. You know

447
00:27:28,600 --> 00:27:30,760
Speaker 2: that's his favorite pattern.

448
00:27:31,200 --> 00:27:33,120
Speaker 3: You know that Ben is really hungry right now.

449
00:27:35,119 --> 00:27:38,359
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just ordered some full disclosure, guys, I just

450
00:27:38,480 --> 00:27:40,080
Speaker 2: ordered some tay food that's going to come to my

451
00:27:40,119 --> 00:27:41,880
Speaker 2: door as soon as we wrap this episode.

452
00:27:41,960 --> 00:27:44,720
Speaker 1: But while we're recording.

453
00:27:44,400 --> 00:27:46,560
Speaker 2: What, Yeah, you guys were on a roll, I just

454
00:27:46,560 --> 00:27:49,000
Speaker 2: did I have I have the same I get the

455
00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:51,919
Speaker 2: same thing every time. I get the the the lemongrass,

456
00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:54,560
Speaker 2: Vermicelli and a pork bond me and a and.

457
00:27:54,520 --> 00:27:57,600
Speaker 4: A Thie iced tea. But that's not the point, guys.

458
00:27:57,680 --> 00:27:59,000
Speaker 4: The point is this, Uh.

459
00:27:59,400 --> 00:28:02,720
Speaker 2: I think it's genius the way the calculus with which

460
00:28:03,040 --> 00:28:09,840
Speaker 2: Putin operates, because he he he's clearly somewhat concerned with

461
00:28:09,960 --> 00:28:13,520
Speaker 2: the like patina of legitimacy, Like he doesn't want to

462
00:28:13,600 --> 00:28:16,000
Speaker 2: just like slam down his iron fists and say I

463
00:28:16,040 --> 00:28:19,679
Speaker 2: am President for life. He goes through it in seemingly

464
00:28:19,960 --> 00:28:24,080
Speaker 2: you know, legal ways, and by you know, rewriting laws

465
00:28:24,119 --> 00:28:26,320
Speaker 2: and passing new laws that clearly, to your point, Ben

466
00:28:26,480 --> 00:28:27,920
Speaker 2: benefit himself.

467
00:28:28,280 --> 00:28:31,600
Speaker 4: But he does it like through the appropriate channels kind of.

468
00:28:32,040 --> 00:28:32,479
Speaker 4: I don't know.

469
00:28:32,880 --> 00:28:35,399
Speaker 2: I think it's kind of brilliant the way he clearly

470
00:28:35,560 --> 00:28:37,560
Speaker 2: is a brilliant politician.

471
00:28:37,840 --> 00:28:40,240
Speaker 1: Oh, I love it. The guys, the inside of the

472
00:28:40,280 --> 00:28:44,160
Speaker 1: guy's mind must be like a cathedral, you know, so

473
00:28:44,440 --> 00:28:48,120
Speaker 1: filled with chess pieces, filled with chess pieces, and plans,

474
00:28:48,240 --> 00:28:52,000
Speaker 1: lots of plans. So, as we said, this means that

475
00:28:52,800 --> 00:28:57,640
Speaker 1: not only would he not be legally liable for anything

476
00:28:57,680 --> 00:29:01,200
Speaker 1: before rafter he was president, he'd also be completely fine

477
00:29:01,240 --> 00:29:03,800
Speaker 1: with that period between two thousand and eight twenty twelve

478
00:29:04,120 --> 00:29:08,760
Speaker 1: when he was prime minister or you know whatever. So

479
00:29:09,720 --> 00:29:13,040
Speaker 1: now the speculation for some people this bill is seen

480
00:29:13,080 --> 00:29:16,920
Speaker 1: as a sign that he is getting an insurance policy

481
00:29:17,040 --> 00:29:21,560
Speaker 1: kind of that he's preparing to leave the post of

482
00:29:21,600 --> 00:29:25,880
Speaker 1: the presidency as soon as early next year. But that's

483
00:29:25,920 --> 00:29:30,200
Speaker 1: still all speculation. But we know he might still want

484
00:29:30,200 --> 00:29:32,920
Speaker 1: to be involved in the country's politics. Why else would

485
00:29:32,920 --> 00:29:36,800
Speaker 1: he do this automatic lifetime senator thing. But is there

486
00:29:36,840 --> 00:29:40,440
Speaker 1: more to the story, Almost certainly. And the thing is,

487
00:29:40,480 --> 00:29:44,600
Speaker 1: when we ask about this flurry of legislation, things become

488
00:29:44,920 --> 00:29:49,480
Speaker 1: very very murky, very very quickly. Here's where it gets crazy,

489
00:29:50,200 --> 00:29:52,600
Speaker 1: As if it wasn't already crazy, I know. Yeah, that's

490
00:29:52,600 --> 00:29:56,320
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. It's so we're entering the land of

491
00:29:56,360 --> 00:30:00,840
Speaker 1: wild speculation. None of the things we are discussing from

492
00:30:00,920 --> 00:30:03,560
Speaker 1: this point on, the real crazy stuff, none of it's

493
00:30:03,600 --> 00:30:07,320
Speaker 1: been officially confirmed, but it is fascinating. The first one,

494
00:30:08,680 --> 00:30:12,120
Speaker 1: the medical concerns, which is an entire like an ongoing

495
00:30:12,440 --> 00:30:16,920
Speaker 1: kind of genre of speculation of which I was largely unaware.

496
00:30:17,360 --> 00:30:18,200
Speaker 4: Yeah.

497
00:30:18,240 --> 00:30:23,680
Speaker 2: A British paper, The Sun, cited a Russian professor by

498
00:30:23,680 --> 00:30:27,040
Speaker 2: the name of Valerie Solovae, who is a political pundit,

499
00:30:27,440 --> 00:30:30,480
Speaker 2: who had suggested on a Moscow radio station that Putin

500
00:30:31,680 --> 00:30:36,800
Speaker 2: was being pressured to step down from his first time

501
00:30:36,880 --> 00:30:41,440
Speaker 2: not in a while entourage due to his health, a

502
00:30:41,480 --> 00:30:46,200
Speaker 2: failing health. Specifically, there was the implication that Putin might

503
00:30:46,440 --> 00:30:52,080
Speaker 2: have Parkinson's disease and be preparing to evacuate his post

504
00:30:52,240 --> 00:30:53,080
Speaker 2: because of this.

505
00:30:53,480 --> 00:30:54,840
Speaker 4: The Sun, which.

506
00:30:54,640 --> 00:30:56,360
Speaker 2: Isn't isn't this sound a little bit of like a

507
00:30:56,680 --> 00:30:57,920
Speaker 2: like a daily mail?

508
00:30:59,160 --> 00:30:59,400
Speaker 4: Yeah?

509
00:30:59,480 --> 00:31:02,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, so they're you know, not the most trustworthy

510
00:31:02,080 --> 00:31:02,520
Speaker 2: of sources.

511
00:31:02,560 --> 00:31:03,320
Speaker 4: But we continue.

512
00:31:03,320 --> 00:31:06,360
Speaker 2: The son also quoted a twenty fifteen study from the

513
00:31:06,440 --> 00:31:11,760
Speaker 2: Department of Neurology at Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands,

514
00:31:11,800 --> 00:31:19,080
Speaker 2: which highlighted perceived signs of Putin's walk, his gait, the

515
00:31:19,160 --> 00:31:22,520
Speaker 2: way he moved, indicating Parkinson's. This is sort of like

516
00:31:22,920 --> 00:31:27,280
Speaker 2: you know, a virtual a visual diagnosis, right, which we

517
00:31:27,320 --> 00:31:30,680
Speaker 2: know that's problematic. The researchers pointed out that the sixty eight,

518
00:31:30,880 --> 00:31:36,560
Speaker 2: by the way year old Putin he looks FANTASTICO yuy ripped.

519
00:31:36,640 --> 00:31:39,440
Speaker 2: I can't hate remember those pictures of him riding shirtless

520
00:31:39,440 --> 00:31:41,840
Speaker 2: on a horse that was like not that long ago.

521
00:31:42,240 --> 00:31:44,200
Speaker 3: Well, you know, just a pause here, he's sixty eight

522
00:31:44,280 --> 00:31:48,920
Speaker 3: years old. Just really compare that to the way current

523
00:31:48,960 --> 00:31:52,680
Speaker 3: President Trump looks. Compare compare Leder Putin to the way

524
00:31:53,360 --> 00:31:57,400
Speaker 3: even you know, the common President Joe Biden looks at

525
00:31:57,520 --> 00:32:01,080
Speaker 3: seventy is are they both seventies seventy ish? I know

526
00:32:01,120 --> 00:32:03,240
Speaker 3: they're in their seventies, and this guy is only a

527
00:32:03,240 --> 00:32:08,640
Speaker 3: few years younger, and he looks still like he's, yeah,

528
00:32:08,920 --> 00:32:11,200
Speaker 3: I don't know, like a man of action that could

529
00:32:11,240 --> 00:32:12,920
Speaker 3: go out on the field somewhere and take care of

530
00:32:12,920 --> 00:32:13,880
Speaker 3: business Joe Biden.

531
00:32:13,920 --> 00:32:17,520
Speaker 1: He is seventy eight years old, by the way, seventy wait,

532
00:32:17,600 --> 00:32:21,080
Speaker 1: actually you know what, No, he's not. He's seventy. Yeah,

533
00:32:21,120 --> 00:32:25,040
Speaker 1: he is. He's seventy eight now as of today, November twentieth,

534
00:32:25,080 --> 00:32:27,560
Speaker 1: as we were today, is isbel wow.

535
00:32:28,200 --> 00:32:31,680
Speaker 2: So he will be starting to sidetrack with the oldest

536
00:32:32,280 --> 00:32:37,120
Speaker 2: president that's correct in history, Putin. I have a theory

537
00:32:37,120 --> 00:32:39,480
Speaker 2: about why Putin looks so good because the man don't

538
00:32:39,480 --> 00:32:43,120
Speaker 2: give up. He doesn't need to and hasn't for a

539
00:32:43,320 --> 00:32:44,440
Speaker 2: very very long time.

540
00:32:44,680 --> 00:32:48,120
Speaker 1: I would say he gives a great many but they

541
00:32:48,160 --> 00:32:50,600
Speaker 1: may not be that other people give.

542
00:32:50,880 --> 00:32:54,040
Speaker 4: What I'm saying is he is he is bulletproof. He

543
00:32:54,160 --> 00:32:57,400
Speaker 4: is so like he waves his hand and things happen.

544
00:32:57,600 --> 00:33:00,400
Speaker 4: He's not worried, you know, That's all I'm saying.

545
00:33:00,440 --> 00:33:03,000
Speaker 2: I think worry is what makes you old, and you know,

546
00:33:03,120 --> 00:33:07,800
Speaker 2: criticism and being you know, like but Russian media.

547
00:33:07,840 --> 00:33:08,360
Speaker 4: I mean, I don't know.

548
00:33:08,400 --> 00:33:11,720
Speaker 2: He's so in control of everything that he does and

549
00:33:11,760 --> 00:33:13,600
Speaker 2: of his country that I just don't think.

550
00:33:13,600 --> 00:33:15,640
Speaker 4: I think he's impervious to that stuff. Just a theory

551
00:33:15,720 --> 00:33:16,440
Speaker 4: I think anyway.

552
00:33:16,520 --> 00:33:19,840
Speaker 1: I think he also has a team of like you know,

553
00:33:20,360 --> 00:33:24,760
Speaker 1: there's a The MCU transformation Marvel Cinematic Universe transformation is

554
00:33:25,080 --> 00:33:29,000
Speaker 1: famous for making people like ripped and in really good health.

555
00:33:29,400 --> 00:33:31,800
Speaker 1: And that's why, you know, you see a lot of

556
00:33:31,960 --> 00:33:34,040
Speaker 1: well to do people are going to be in better

557
00:33:34,120 --> 00:33:37,680
Speaker 1: shape often not all the time, not all the time,

558
00:33:37,680 --> 00:33:40,840
Speaker 1: but wealthy people are often going to be in better

559
00:33:40,920 --> 00:33:43,360
Speaker 1: shape because of the access they have not just a

560
00:33:43,480 --> 00:33:47,480
Speaker 1: medical care, but to personal trainers and expertise. Putin has

561
00:33:47,560 --> 00:33:52,560
Speaker 1: just applied himself and used that personal discipline as well

562
00:33:52,600 --> 00:33:58,000
Speaker 1: as probably an army of people monitoring his physical health,

563
00:33:58,080 --> 00:33:59,920
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. It's not like he is

564
00:34:00,880 --> 00:34:04,680
Speaker 1: cutting out time and meetings himself to do a couple uh,

565
00:34:05,520 --> 00:34:08,840
Speaker 1: what's a silly exercise plank. It's not like he's like, okay,

566
00:34:08,920 --> 00:34:11,360
Speaker 1: let's pause the call, I can go to plank for

567
00:34:11,480 --> 00:34:12,480
Speaker 1: my help, you know what I mean.

568
00:34:12,520 --> 00:34:16,600
Speaker 2: They know they always find Putin planking various parts of

569
00:34:16,640 --> 00:34:17,520
Speaker 2: the Kremlin, and.

570
00:34:17,480 --> 00:34:19,600
Speaker 4: He's just like on a bookshelf, you know, like that

571
00:34:19,640 --> 00:34:20,800
Speaker 4: episode of the Office.

572
00:34:21,520 --> 00:34:24,360
Speaker 2: But but but back back to the study. They they

573
00:34:24,520 --> 00:34:28,800
Speaker 2: called this thing that he had this particular style of

574
00:34:29,080 --> 00:34:31,239
Speaker 2: walking or what have you. They looked they pointed to

575
00:34:31,280 --> 00:34:33,759
Speaker 2: that as a as a symptom of potentially it's Parkinson's.

576
00:34:33,920 --> 00:34:37,239
Speaker 2: But very quickly it came out that this could be.

577
00:34:37,239 --> 00:34:37,439
Speaker 4: Ben.

578
00:34:37,480 --> 00:34:38,680
Speaker 2: I love that you found this or I don't know

579
00:34:38,680 --> 00:34:41,319
Speaker 2: if you knew about this already. A gun slinger's walk

580
00:34:41,360 --> 00:34:43,960
Speaker 2: with I think we can all picture what that is,

581
00:34:44,320 --> 00:34:46,719
Speaker 2: you know, with a kind of a wide stance, and

582
00:34:46,719 --> 00:34:49,040
Speaker 2: you got your hands pinned down to your sides, you know,

583
00:34:49,120 --> 00:34:50,880
Speaker 2: to keep your guns close to you in case, you know,

584
00:34:50,880 --> 00:34:52,360
Speaker 2: to whip them out real quick and getting into a

585
00:34:52,360 --> 00:34:56,279
Speaker 2: firefight in a saloon or something. But yeah, that's that

586
00:34:56,440 --> 00:34:59,040
Speaker 2: is a thing that KGB agents are trained to do,

587
00:34:59,080 --> 00:35:02,240
Speaker 2: to keep their weapons tightly pinned to their left hand side.

588
00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:04,960
Speaker 1: And his left arm wasn't moving when he.

589
00:35:05,000 --> 00:35:08,360
Speaker 3: Was Yeah, that's all. So, Yeah, it was either he's

590
00:35:08,560 --> 00:35:12,240
Speaker 3: lost some mobility in that left arm, or he's just ready.

591
00:35:12,480 --> 00:35:15,560
Speaker 3: He's got Yeah, he's strapped, he's got he's got some

592
00:35:15,680 --> 00:35:18,560
Speaker 3: kind of future weapon there just waiting in case he

593
00:35:18,600 --> 00:35:18,960
Speaker 3: needs it.

594
00:35:19,400 --> 00:35:21,560
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's the idea. And you know, of course

595
00:35:21,560 --> 00:35:26,440
Speaker 1: we're not we're not in any way mocking serious medical conditions.

596
00:35:26,520 --> 00:35:29,120
Speaker 1: It's just this is the kind of speculation that happens

597
00:35:29,440 --> 00:35:32,160
Speaker 1: when a person lives their life in a black box.

598
00:35:32,520 --> 00:35:34,840
Speaker 1: There's a ton of stuff we do not know about

599
00:35:34,840 --> 00:35:36,799
Speaker 1: this guy. And when I say we, I mean like

600
00:35:37,160 --> 00:35:41,560
Speaker 1: other intelligence agencies don't know some stuff about him. The

601
00:35:41,640 --> 00:35:47,279
Speaker 1: Kremlin responded to this speculation, and they were pretty explicit.

602
00:35:47,600 --> 00:35:53,000
Speaker 1: Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskoff said, this is absolute nonsense. Everything

603
00:35:53,120 --> 00:35:56,400
Speaker 1: is fine with the president. He's in excellent health, et cetera.

604
00:35:57,400 --> 00:36:00,520
Speaker 1: And to be fair, the guy we mentioned, the Professor Solive,

605
00:36:01,000 --> 00:36:03,959
Speaker 1: may not be the best source. He's one of those

606
00:36:04,000 --> 00:36:07,680
Speaker 1: he's a pundit, he's a political commentator. But he said

607
00:36:07,719 --> 00:36:10,720
Speaker 1: weird stuff in the past, and he's also been wrong

608
00:36:10,840 --> 00:36:11,520
Speaker 1: in the past.

609
00:36:11,960 --> 00:36:15,520
Speaker 3: Yeah, he said he was a part of some Illuminati

610
00:36:15,560 --> 00:36:19,520
Speaker 3: type thing, right, this is the guy that's him.

611
00:36:20,040 --> 00:36:23,879
Speaker 1: Yeah, a powerful secret organization. He also said there would

612
00:36:23,920 --> 00:36:27,000
Speaker 1: be no Western sanctions over the war in Ukraine in

613
00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:30,960
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen. That was wrong, and in twenty sixteen he

614
00:36:31,040 --> 00:36:34,720
Speaker 1: said Prutin's going to be leaving office very soon. History

615
00:36:34,719 --> 00:36:37,480
Speaker 1: has shown that was also incorrect, depending on how you

616
00:36:37,600 --> 00:36:38,520
Speaker 1: define very soon.

617
00:36:39,600 --> 00:36:43,399
Speaker 3: Just be here, wow, before we jump off the Parkinson thing,

618
00:36:43,440 --> 00:36:45,520
Speaker 3: and just want to give a nod to Michael J.

619
00:36:45,680 --> 00:36:46,000
Speaker 4: Fox.

620
00:36:46,000 --> 00:36:48,640
Speaker 3: I don't know if anybody else saw this, but he

621
00:36:48,640 --> 00:36:52,680
Speaker 3: he's officially ending his career by his own choice because he,

622
00:36:53,040 --> 00:36:57,000
Speaker 3: you know, of complications to the disease. And you know

623
00:36:57,040 --> 00:36:59,799
Speaker 3: it isn't we talked about this all the time.

624
00:37:00,080 --> 00:37:00,279
Speaker 1: Is not.

625
00:37:01,920 --> 00:37:03,680
Speaker 3: We're certainly not trying to make light of that in

626
00:37:03,719 --> 00:37:07,200
Speaker 3: any way. We've already stated that in this episode. But

627
00:37:07,320 --> 00:37:09,600
Speaker 3: just a shout out to him for being awesome.

628
00:37:09,800 --> 00:37:12,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's There's a great MPR interview with him that

629
00:37:12,560 --> 00:37:16,040
Speaker 1: I would recommend if anybody wants to check out his

630
00:37:16,320 --> 00:37:19,920
Speaker 1: reasoning behind it, as well as some of the philanthropic

631
00:37:20,000 --> 00:37:23,000
Speaker 1: work that he is doing and planning to focus on

632
00:37:23,120 --> 00:37:24,680
Speaker 1: in the future post acting career.

633
00:37:25,320 --> 00:37:27,200
Speaker 2: And I just I do want to point on too

634
00:37:27,200 --> 00:37:29,000
Speaker 2: that he was in a great episode of Curb Your

635
00:37:29,040 --> 00:37:33,520
Speaker 2: Enthusiasm where he you know, sort of makes light of

636
00:37:33,520 --> 00:37:35,839
Speaker 2: his condition and in a very like owning it way,

637
00:37:35,880 --> 00:37:38,360
Speaker 2: which I appreciate it, you know, like it becomes a

638
00:37:38,360 --> 00:37:40,960
Speaker 2: plot point in the show, like in typical Curb fashion.

639
00:37:41,040 --> 00:37:43,120
Speaker 2: But I thought it was interesting that he, you know,

640
00:37:43,280 --> 00:37:46,600
Speaker 2: used a real life condition and obviously a very difficult

641
00:37:46,800 --> 00:37:50,080
Speaker 2: thing to be going through and made it into something

642
00:37:50,120 --> 00:37:51,520
Speaker 2: that could make people, you know, smile.

643
00:37:51,760 --> 00:37:56,080
Speaker 1: And he said multiple He's done that with multiple media

644
00:37:56,120 --> 00:37:59,680
Speaker 1: appearances or appearances on other shows, you know, playing himself

645
00:38:00,600 --> 00:38:06,719
Speaker 1: on air and acknowledging this. So going back to so

646
00:38:06,760 --> 00:38:08,520
Speaker 1: we went to we ended up in Michael J.

647
00:38:08,680 --> 00:38:09,000
Speaker 4: Fox.

648
00:38:09,040 --> 00:38:12,800
Speaker 1: But we're talking about possible medical scares for the president

649
00:38:12,880 --> 00:38:19,680
Speaker 1: of Russia. There's a less dire possibility. Could Vladimir Putin,

650
00:38:20,120 --> 00:38:23,440
Speaker 1: after decades as one of the world's most powerful people,

651
00:38:23,840 --> 00:38:25,759
Speaker 1: just want to kick back, you know what I mean,

652
00:38:26,160 --> 00:38:29,279
Speaker 1: like prop up his feet by the shores of the

653
00:38:29,320 --> 00:38:33,520
Speaker 1: Baltic and live the good life. You know, does he

654
00:38:33,600 --> 00:38:38,000
Speaker 1: just want to buy the farm? Maybe because he is older,

655
00:38:38,080 --> 00:38:40,879
Speaker 1: he is sixty eight years old. But as you could imagine,

656
00:38:40,920 --> 00:38:43,800
Speaker 1: he has a lot of enemies, both foreign and domestic,

657
00:38:44,239 --> 00:38:47,480
Speaker 1: and unless he had protections in place, he could become

658
00:38:47,520 --> 00:38:51,359
Speaker 1: a huge target. He will become a huge target for activists,

659
00:38:51,360 --> 00:38:56,840
Speaker 1: for opposition parties, other oligarchs that he is waged hidden

660
00:38:56,920 --> 00:38:59,440
Speaker 1: war on in the past, or even think about this.

661
00:39:00,080 --> 00:39:03,680
Speaker 1: Prosecutors who are just corrupt, who don't care what the

662
00:39:03,960 --> 00:39:06,359
Speaker 1: what the actual crimes are. They just want to shake

663
00:39:06,440 --> 00:39:11,879
Speaker 1: down this guy. It's an enormously dangerous gamble, but potentially

664
00:39:12,200 --> 00:39:16,920
Speaker 1: it could be a gold mine because do you know

665
00:39:17,120 --> 00:39:22,240
Speaker 1: how wealthy Vladimir Putin is? The answer is no, unless

666
00:39:22,239 --> 00:39:25,560
Speaker 1: you're Vladmir Putin. This guy has so much money and

667
00:39:25,640 --> 00:39:31,560
Speaker 1: has so much control over so many different things that

668
00:39:31,640 --> 00:39:34,719
Speaker 1: no one knows how much cash he actually has, Like

669
00:39:34,840 --> 00:39:39,360
Speaker 1: we don't know his wealth is dot dot dot question

670
00:39:39,520 --> 00:39:44,360
Speaker 1: mark and you can see some you can see some

671
00:39:44,520 --> 00:39:48,880
Speaker 1: stats that gather, like the estimates. You'll see someone saying

672
00:39:48,920 --> 00:39:52,359
Speaker 1: that he's worth two hundred billion dollars, someone saying that

673
00:39:52,920 --> 00:39:59,959
Speaker 1: conservatively it's more like seventy billion. It's tough. There's one

674
00:40:00,120 --> 00:40:03,560
Speaker 1: quote that I think was really weird. A Russian banker

675
00:40:03,920 --> 00:40:07,879
Speaker 1: who is now living in exile called Sergey Pugachev one

676
00:40:07,960 --> 00:40:11,759
Speaker 1: time said that quote, any attempt to calculate Putin's net

677
00:40:11,800 --> 00:40:15,120
Speaker 1: worth won't succeed. He is the richest person in the

678
00:40:15,120 --> 00:40:16,800
Speaker 1: world until he leaves power.

679
00:40:17,200 --> 00:40:19,760
Speaker 4: It's wild. Yeah, it really is wild.

680
00:40:20,760 --> 00:40:24,759
Speaker 3: Maybe it's just that concept of in many ways, when

681
00:40:24,840 --> 00:40:26,799
Speaker 3: you're the head of a state, you kind of had

682
00:40:26,840 --> 00:40:31,839
Speaker 3: to have unlimited power to print money. Yeah, that's odd though,

683
00:40:32,040 --> 00:40:36,080
Speaker 3: but it's not just the money, right, I mean, uh,

684
00:40:36,880 --> 00:40:41,520
Speaker 3: power comes in many forms and yeah, even you know,

685
00:40:41,560 --> 00:40:44,520
Speaker 3: well you've probably heard of this before. Forbes magazine, or

686
00:40:44,640 --> 00:40:49,440
Speaker 3: was once just Forbes magazine, but Forbes the entity it

687
00:40:49,800 --> 00:40:55,120
Speaker 3: in twenty eighteen considered Vladimir Putin to be one of

688
00:40:55,160 --> 00:40:58,839
Speaker 3: the most most powerful people on the planet. There were

689
00:40:59,080 --> 00:41:04,680
Speaker 3: the top two, right, Xi Jinping? Who is I think general?

690
00:41:04,840 --> 00:41:08,000
Speaker 3: Is the title General Secretary. I forget the exact title

691
00:41:08,080 --> 00:41:11,719
Speaker 3: that he holds, but I think it's essentially big Dog,

692
00:41:11,800 --> 00:41:16,400
Speaker 3: big Dog of China. That was the number one, and

693
00:41:16,440 --> 00:41:18,319
Speaker 3: then Vladimir Putin was number two on.

694
00:41:18,360 --> 00:41:21,520
Speaker 1: The list General Secretary. Sorry, I feel.

695
00:41:21,400 --> 00:41:27,520
Speaker 3: Bad, okay, General secretary, big Dog, thinking of you guys.

696
00:41:27,520 --> 00:41:30,640
Speaker 1: Remember those T shirts, like the big Dog T shirts?

697
00:41:30,840 --> 00:41:33,719
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, there were no fear with the cartoon.

698
00:41:34,239 --> 00:41:37,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, the cartoon women with the large breasts. That was

699
00:41:37,560 --> 00:41:39,960
Speaker 2: something else. That was big Bubba or big j Johnson

700
00:41:40,480 --> 00:41:41,319
Speaker 2: Johnson Excuse me.

701
00:41:41,400 --> 00:41:45,640
Speaker 1: I thought that was brilliant. How what insight, what incisive

702
00:41:45,680 --> 00:41:47,960
Speaker 1: commentary I had wearing those shirts.

703
00:41:48,040 --> 00:41:50,359
Speaker 4: It was a golden dime for novelty T shirt.

704
00:41:50,560 --> 00:41:53,440
Speaker 1: It was we need more novelty T shirts. Check out

705
00:41:53,440 --> 00:41:58,600
Speaker 1: our tea public store. So you're right, power, How is

706
00:41:58,640 --> 00:42:02,640
Speaker 1: it defined? It is a mul thi dimensional thing, right,

707
00:42:02,680 --> 00:42:06,160
Speaker 1: and it exists in many different spheres. But some things

708
00:42:06,280 --> 00:42:11,080
Speaker 1: remain true regardless of the times. You know, we opened

709
00:42:11,120 --> 00:42:13,920
Speaker 1: with some statements about kings heavy as the head and

710
00:42:13,960 --> 00:42:17,120
Speaker 1: so on. There's another statement about kings, which is this,

711
00:42:17,920 --> 00:42:22,840
Speaker 1: if you shoot at the King, don't miss. You know

712
00:42:22,920 --> 00:42:25,080
Speaker 1: what I mean, Not to be too eminem or Hamilton

713
00:42:25,160 --> 00:42:27,080
Speaker 1: about it. It's a one shot situation.

714
00:42:27,880 --> 00:42:32,080
Speaker 3: Yes, for sure, don't aim in the king and miss,

715
00:42:32,200 --> 00:42:35,279
Speaker 3: or you will find polonium or maybe just you know,

716
00:42:35,400 --> 00:42:39,000
Speaker 3: some other kind of pesticide in your water. I'm gonna

717
00:42:39,040 --> 00:42:40,879
Speaker 3: drink this. Let's go to a break. We'll be right back,

718
00:42:47,560 --> 00:42:48,680
Speaker 3: and we're back.

719
00:42:49,440 --> 00:42:53,000
Speaker 1: We have not mysteriously fallen out of any third story windows,

720
00:42:53,080 --> 00:42:56,319
Speaker 1: which is pretty cool. It's good to see everybody. And

721
00:42:57,120 --> 00:42:59,640
Speaker 1: we have to talk about danger. There's another aspect. What

722
00:43:00,520 --> 00:43:05,640
Speaker 1: if the current president of Russia is somehow afraid. You

723
00:43:05,680 --> 00:43:07,560
Speaker 1: don't have to be a weatherman to know which way

724
00:43:07,560 --> 00:43:10,279
Speaker 1: the wind blows, so what if the what if he

725
00:43:10,680 --> 00:43:14,640
Speaker 1: feels an ill wind on the way. There's a guy

726
00:43:14,640 --> 00:43:17,240
Speaker 1: who's a professor at the Center for Russian and Central

727
00:43:17,280 --> 00:43:22,640
Speaker 1: Asian and East European Studies at Jowaharlal Nehru University. His

728
00:43:22,760 --> 00:43:28,760
Speaker 1: name is Sanjay Kumar Pandi. And this, and Pande studies

729
00:43:28,840 --> 00:43:34,920
Speaker 1: this stuff all the time. He initially was ignoring rumors

730
00:43:35,800 --> 00:43:40,000
Speaker 1: about medical concerns, not because he thought it was just

731
00:43:40,080 --> 00:43:44,360
Speaker 1: some anti Russian spin, but because he thought Putin himself

732
00:43:44,400 --> 00:43:49,520
Speaker 1: had planted this fake news to gauge public reaction and

733
00:43:49,600 --> 00:43:52,560
Speaker 1: see if he had supporters. But when he saw this

734
00:43:52,600 --> 00:43:56,400
Speaker 1: new legislation coming in, he said, Okay, we can't just

735
00:43:56,480 --> 00:44:01,640
Speaker 1: call this by conspiracy. Something is deaf wrong, something is

736
00:44:01,760 --> 00:44:05,080
Speaker 1: rotten in Moscow. We just don't know what. So he

737
00:44:05,320 --> 00:44:09,080
Speaker 1: thinks maybe Putin is afraid of losing the next election

738
00:44:09,320 --> 00:44:10,480
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four.

739
00:44:10,760 --> 00:44:13,120
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, and and this is good. Some we're going

740
00:44:13,160 --> 00:44:15,760
Speaker 3: to talk about the details of this. I just before

741
00:44:15,760 --> 00:44:17,960
Speaker 3: we get into it too deeply, I just want to

742
00:44:18,000 --> 00:44:20,320
Speaker 3: point out that the BBC, in a couple other places

743
00:44:20,480 --> 00:44:23,880
Speaker 3: that in the West have been reporting on the effect

744
00:44:24,160 --> 00:44:28,040
Speaker 3: that the coronavirus and COVID nineteen have had on leaders

745
00:44:28,080 --> 00:44:33,040
Speaker 3: across the world, and this situation has certainly negatively affected

746
00:44:33,520 --> 00:44:40,040
Speaker 3: the public view of Vladimir Putin within Russia. And it again,

747
00:44:40,120 --> 00:44:43,919
Speaker 3: this is this is West reporting, So who knows if

748
00:44:44,160 --> 00:44:46,360
Speaker 3: you know how much truth there is to that, But

749
00:44:46,480 --> 00:44:50,600
Speaker 3: it does seem like approval ratings are down. It's I

750
00:44:50,640 --> 00:44:53,239
Speaker 3: think it's the he's got the lowest approval rating right

751
00:44:53,280 --> 00:44:56,759
Speaker 3: now that he's had in his entire career as a politician.

752
00:44:58,160 --> 00:45:00,719
Speaker 3: So just let's make sure that is sitting there in

753
00:45:00,760 --> 00:45:07,640
Speaker 3: our knowledge before we jump in to Sanjay Kumar Pandi's ideas.

754
00:45:07,920 --> 00:45:11,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and he thinks that's a very good point

755
00:45:11,400 --> 00:45:14,879
Speaker 1: because COVID has affected everything. So Pandy also thinks that

756
00:45:15,719 --> 00:45:21,759
Speaker 1: seeing the situation Belaruss may have affected Putin's calculus. He said,

757
00:45:21,920 --> 00:45:25,239
Speaker 1: you know, to paraphrase, he's like, look at the demonstrations

758
00:45:25,320 --> 00:45:30,440
Speaker 1: that Lukashinko, the dictator of bella Us, was facing. He

759
00:45:30,640 --> 00:45:34,719
Speaker 1: knows that if he tried to put in this law

760
00:45:36,080 --> 00:45:41,640
Speaker 1: like in twenty twenty four, in election year, then there

761
00:45:41,640 --> 00:45:44,200
Speaker 1: would be a lot of criticism, a lot of protesting,

762
00:45:45,400 --> 00:45:48,320
Speaker 1: which means a lot of government crackdowns. So he's maybe

763
00:45:48,400 --> 00:45:50,759
Speaker 1: trying to just get in front of this and do

764
00:45:50,840 --> 00:45:54,640
Speaker 1: it in advance. The opposition leaders, one of whom would

765
00:45:54,680 --> 00:45:59,719
Speaker 1: be Gannedy Gutkov, say that Putin probably already agreed to leave,

766
00:46:00,600 --> 00:46:03,480
Speaker 1: like behind the scenes, and this is you know, this

767
00:46:03,600 --> 00:46:06,520
Speaker 1: is building the parachute before you jump out of the plane.

768
00:46:07,120 --> 00:46:10,560
Speaker 1: And this guy also says, to your point, Matt, something interesting.

769
00:46:10,880 --> 00:46:14,560
Speaker 1: He said, Putin has been behaving strangely since the beginning

770
00:46:14,560 --> 00:46:18,200
Speaker 1: of the pandemic, and he's become much worse at speaking.

771
00:46:18,560 --> 00:46:20,960
Speaker 1: And to sew this up, as we mentioned before when

772
00:46:20,960 --> 00:46:22,920
Speaker 1: we were talking about this on a Strange News segment,

773
00:46:23,360 --> 00:46:26,480
Speaker 1: these things do not occur in a vacuum. These bills

774
00:46:26,520 --> 00:46:31,200
Speaker 1: became public knowledge while there was an incredibly divisive US election,

775
00:46:31,680 --> 00:46:34,520
Speaker 1: and you have to wonder whether the possibility of a

776
00:46:34,880 --> 00:46:39,800
Speaker 1: different US administration might have in some way pushed Putin

777
00:46:39,840 --> 00:46:40,720
Speaker 1: to pull the trigger.

778
00:46:40,840 --> 00:46:45,400
Speaker 3: Now absolutely, and combine that with these COVID restrictions where

779
00:46:45,520 --> 00:46:49,680
Speaker 3: in Russia I think currently and as these bills are

780
00:46:49,719 --> 00:46:54,560
Speaker 3: being talked about in passed through through their parliament or

781
00:46:54,680 --> 00:47:01,080
Speaker 3: the Duma, they citizens can't gather in large numbers to

782
00:47:01,160 --> 00:47:05,759
Speaker 3: protest any of this because of the restrictions. Like how

783
00:47:05,800 --> 00:47:10,040
Speaker 3: crazy is that it doesn't matter if you support food

784
00:47:10,120 --> 00:47:12,799
Speaker 3: or not or the current government. There's nothing you could

785
00:47:12,800 --> 00:47:16,680
Speaker 3: do about it to show I mean, even anyway, there's

786
00:47:16,680 --> 00:47:19,040
Speaker 3: a that's there's a lot to unpack there, but I

787
00:47:19,080 --> 00:47:20,840
Speaker 3: think that's another piece of the strategy.

788
00:47:21,400 --> 00:47:25,480
Speaker 1: Very smart, astute man, I like it. You may have

789
00:47:25,800 --> 00:47:28,560
Speaker 1: you may well be in the running to be the

790
00:47:28,560 --> 00:47:32,480
Speaker 1: next Russian president with a with a sharp mind like that.

791
00:47:32,520 --> 00:47:34,440
Speaker 1: We just have to just have to get over the

792
00:47:34,440 --> 00:47:35,520
Speaker 1: fact that you're from the US.

793
00:47:36,080 --> 00:47:38,480
Speaker 3: Well, just get there's some you know, forge a couple

794
00:47:38,520 --> 00:47:39,399
Speaker 3: of documents will be fun.

795
00:47:39,719 --> 00:47:42,319
Speaker 2: You do a pretty pretty sweet Russian accent. If I'm

796
00:47:42,320 --> 00:47:46,080
Speaker 2: not mistaken, I I don't know what that is bad

797
00:47:46,560 --> 00:47:47,399
Speaker 2: taking to someone else.

798
00:47:47,520 --> 00:47:53,320
Speaker 1: That's method. He doesn't do characters in accents. He becomes yes,

799
00:47:54,440 --> 00:47:58,560
Speaker 1: so so yeah, you're right, that's that's a really good point.

800
00:47:59,560 --> 00:48:02,000
Speaker 1: There's an other thing that popped up that I think

801
00:48:03,480 --> 00:48:06,040
Speaker 1: maybe a little Pepe Sylvia to connect these, but they

802
00:48:06,080 --> 00:48:09,360
Speaker 1: occurred around the same time, which is that Edward Snowden

803
00:48:09,440 --> 00:48:14,320
Speaker 1: received permanent Russian citizenship. He's been living there since twenty thirteen.

804
00:48:14,800 --> 00:48:18,680
Speaker 1: Initially he was granted asylum. He fled the United States

805
00:48:18,719 --> 00:48:26,360
Speaker 1: after leaking information on US intelligence agencies just incredibly insidious

806
00:48:26,760 --> 00:48:30,560
Speaker 1: and successful methods of electronic surveillance and how they were

807
00:48:30,560 --> 00:48:35,320
Speaker 1: eavesdropping on everybody, including other countries, and breaking several laws.

808
00:48:35,920 --> 00:48:38,440
Speaker 1: In October, just last month, as we record this, he

809
00:48:38,560 --> 00:48:43,239
Speaker 1: was given permanent Russian residency and recently this month, he

810
00:48:43,280 --> 00:48:46,719
Speaker 1: announced plans for he and his spouse to apply for

811
00:48:46,840 --> 00:48:51,640
Speaker 1: full Russian citizenship. So he's not leaving well.

812
00:48:51,680 --> 00:48:56,960
Speaker 3: And it's really interesting because Snowden himself, like the whistleblower

813
00:48:57,000 --> 00:49:00,719
Speaker 3: and activists, now, he was playing chess right like, there's

814
00:49:00,760 --> 00:49:04,359
Speaker 3: no doubt he was making moves there, and you have

815
00:49:04,440 --> 00:49:07,360
Speaker 3: to think that eventually he figured he was just gonna

816
00:49:07,800 --> 00:49:10,240
Speaker 3: make this move to stay in Russia and to get

817
00:49:10,480 --> 00:49:15,440
Speaker 3: citizenship essentially. But you also have to wonder if like

818
00:49:16,280 --> 00:49:19,839
Speaker 3: Russia itself in Vladimir Putin, who again has been in

819
00:49:19,880 --> 00:49:23,400
Speaker 3: power since since all of that has begun to occur.

820
00:49:24,120 --> 00:49:28,200
Speaker 3: In what was it twenty thirteen, we said, like, is

821
00:49:28,280 --> 00:49:31,640
Speaker 3: he is snowed in a chess piece that is being

822
00:49:31,719 --> 00:49:36,440
Speaker 3: played by Russia right by keeping him there? And like

823
00:49:36,480 --> 00:49:39,240
Speaker 3: what other information? Did he really release all the information?

824
00:49:39,320 --> 00:49:41,799
Speaker 3: There's so much speculation to be to be done there,

825
00:49:41,800 --> 00:49:46,200
Speaker 3: and it is speculation, have like, have no doubt, but

826
00:49:46,239 --> 00:49:47,720
Speaker 3: it is fascinating to think about.

827
00:49:48,120 --> 00:49:54,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, and there's there's another consideration of what. Look, we're

828
00:49:55,239 --> 00:49:58,920
Speaker 1: we're saying some offhand things, but we are referring to

829
00:49:59,160 --> 00:50:03,279
Speaker 1: true events when we talk about poison and so on.

830
00:50:03,440 --> 00:50:07,239
Speaker 1: There is no secret that the Putin administration has made

831
00:50:07,239 --> 00:50:11,080
Speaker 1: a name for itself based on some pretty brutal, classic

832
00:50:11,400 --> 00:50:15,719
Speaker 1: Cold War power moves. We're talking about poisoning journalists and dissidents,

833
00:50:16,080 --> 00:50:21,040
Speaker 1: rigging elections, putting your opponents just in jail for the

834
00:50:21,080 --> 00:50:23,879
Speaker 1: heck of it, shutting down the media. The list goes

835
00:50:23,920 --> 00:50:26,759
Speaker 1: on and on and on, and then cracking down on

836
00:50:27,440 --> 00:50:29,799
Speaker 1: oligarchs even if you used to get along with them,

837
00:50:29,840 --> 00:50:32,400
Speaker 1: if they don't toe the line, like one of my

838
00:50:32,480 --> 00:50:35,600
Speaker 1: favorite examples. Feels weird to call this a favorite example,

839
00:50:36,120 --> 00:50:42,120
Speaker 1: but there is proof. There is hard evidence of Vladimir

840
00:50:42,160 --> 00:50:48,080
Speaker 1: Putin's personal involvement in the assassination of his leading opponent

841
00:50:48,160 --> 00:50:53,920
Speaker 1: in twenty fifteen, former deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov. It's

842
00:50:54,520 --> 00:50:57,280
Speaker 1: we can't I guess I can't say it's conclusively proven

843
00:50:57,400 --> 00:51:01,760
Speaker 1: because it hasn't gone to court, But various institutions, including

844
00:51:01,800 --> 00:51:05,920
Speaker 1: the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, have witness

845
00:51:06,040 --> 00:51:11,560
Speaker 1: testimony saying yeah, I know when and where and how

846
00:51:12,000 --> 00:51:14,960
Speaker 1: Putin gave the order for that assassination. Like we can

847
00:51:15,080 --> 00:51:19,600
Speaker 1: give you the quote A Russia ignored it. He's literally

848
00:51:19,640 --> 00:51:27,000
Speaker 1: known for doing this assassination. Zero consequences. But that, to me,

849
00:51:27,200 --> 00:51:30,640
Speaker 1: all that means is that whatever the real motivation for

850
00:51:30,719 --> 00:51:36,440
Speaker 1: this new legislation, this legal conspiracy might be the problem.

851
00:51:36,680 --> 00:51:40,080
Speaker 1: Whatever it is is something that cannot be solved by poison.

852
00:51:40,160 --> 00:51:43,880
Speaker 1: This time. Courts are not perfect. But unlike journalists, they

853
00:51:43,920 --> 00:51:45,239
Speaker 1: are immune to polonium.

854
00:51:45,640 --> 00:51:48,640
Speaker 3: Well, I don't know when has anyone tested it yet?

855
00:51:49,160 --> 00:51:54,359
Speaker 3: The entire court gets polonium, So get on.

856
00:51:54,600 --> 00:51:58,759
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're always sunny an episode, So right now, the

857
00:51:58,800 --> 00:52:00,799
Speaker 1: story is ongoing, but we can tell you a little

858
00:52:00,840 --> 00:52:07,240
Speaker 1: bit about where we're at currently. These proposals, this immune

859
00:52:07,239 --> 00:52:10,719
Speaker 1: from anything forever, rush your shoulders off if you're a

860
00:52:10,760 --> 00:52:13,399
Speaker 1: Russian president law. It hasn't passed yet.

861
00:52:13,880 --> 00:52:16,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I don't know that given his track record,

862
00:52:16,040 --> 00:52:22,400
Speaker 2: I don't really see any particularly insurmountable roadblocks, do you,

863
00:52:23,040 --> 00:52:23,600
Speaker 2: fellas well?

864
00:52:24,040 --> 00:52:26,640
Speaker 3: Well, it's really all all that has to happen is

865
00:52:26,800 --> 00:52:31,239
Speaker 3: the lower House of Parliament has to approve right, right,

866
00:52:31,320 --> 00:52:34,200
Speaker 3: and and then there are two other votes that have

867
00:52:34,280 --> 00:52:36,840
Speaker 3: to occur. It has to go I think it's the

868
00:52:36,920 --> 00:52:41,680
Speaker 3: upper House, and then reviewed again and then sitting by

869
00:52:41,719 --> 00:52:44,200
Speaker 3: the man himself, right, yeah, goes to his office and

870
00:52:44,239 --> 00:52:47,200
Speaker 3: he's like, hey, this sounds like a great idea, came

871
00:52:47,280 --> 00:52:47,600
Speaker 3: up with.

872
00:52:47,560 --> 00:52:51,640
Speaker 2: This brilliant But again, those houses of the legislature you're

873
00:52:51,640 --> 00:52:53,320
Speaker 2: talking about, those are all his people.

874
00:52:54,160 --> 00:52:57,000
Speaker 3: Well it's not all of them, but certainly the majority.

875
00:52:57,080 --> 00:53:01,400
Speaker 4: Right well, right, I don't see it not passing.

876
00:53:02,040 --> 00:53:06,520
Speaker 2: And what a power move. I am now, superman. You know,

877
00:53:06,719 --> 00:53:09,279
Speaker 2: you cannot touch me as much as he was that

878
00:53:09,320 --> 00:53:12,520
Speaker 2: already before. And it's something that I'm sure our current

879
00:53:12,600 --> 00:53:17,440
Speaker 2: sitting president is keenly interested in, but alas I do

880
00:53:17,520 --> 00:53:20,319
Speaker 2: not feel that we have the mechanisms to do such

881
00:53:20,360 --> 00:53:22,560
Speaker 2: a thing here in the United States.

882
00:53:22,840 --> 00:53:27,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's incredibly sensitive in the US. Any talk of

883
00:53:29,239 --> 00:53:34,120
Speaker 1: changing the term limits on the presidency is a political

884
00:53:34,239 --> 00:53:35,040
Speaker 1: no go right.

885
00:53:34,920 --> 00:53:39,680
Speaker 3: Now, for sure. Pay But adding people to the Supreme Court,

886
00:53:39,760 --> 00:53:47,040
Speaker 3: let's do it anyway. Everything's fine, Everything's okay, Ring Grace, Yeah, exactly.

887
00:53:47,160 --> 00:53:50,080
Speaker 1: Have our country has nine ring rates and they're in

888
00:53:50,160 --> 00:53:55,959
Speaker 1: charge of everything, and you can't elect them, and they're

889
00:53:55,960 --> 00:53:58,920
Speaker 1: here forever. It's just that's the best way to explain

890
00:53:59,000 --> 00:54:02,960
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court to people outside of the US.

891
00:54:03,000 --> 00:54:07,720
Speaker 2: Like other ring raiths, other kinder, gentler ring raiths potentially right.

892
00:54:07,960 --> 00:54:10,520
Speaker 1: Or more evil ring raiths, you know what I mean.

893
00:54:11,080 --> 00:54:14,000
Speaker 1: Because either way it's true.

894
00:54:15,800 --> 00:54:18,680
Speaker 3: I love that idea of just like, let's just increase

895
00:54:18,760 --> 00:54:20,080
Speaker 3: the number of ring Raiths.

896
00:54:21,040 --> 00:54:24,719
Speaker 1: That sounds let's expand the franchise. You guys, you know

897
00:54:24,760 --> 00:54:27,560
Speaker 1: what I mean? What about what about Duke of the

898
00:54:27,680 --> 00:54:33,319
Speaker 1: Rings or Lord of the Bracelets? You know, get at us?

899
00:54:34,000 --> 00:54:37,480
Speaker 1: So yeah, you're you're right, and you know you're bringing

900
00:54:37,560 --> 00:54:43,480
Speaker 1: up a really good point there, Noel, it's it's it's

901
00:54:43,520 --> 00:54:48,760
Speaker 1: nearly it's absurd, right, It's absurd to have the idea

902
00:54:48,800 --> 00:54:52,080
Speaker 1: of this guy signing a bill going, oh what who

903
00:54:52,120 --> 00:54:55,520
Speaker 1: came up with this? You guys, you shouldn't have Well,

904
00:54:55,600 --> 00:54:59,080
Speaker 1: it goes twist my arm. That's bizarre, and that's maybe

905
00:54:59,120 --> 00:55:02,279
Speaker 1: not the way government sho work. Right as we were

906
00:55:02,280 --> 00:55:04,319
Speaker 1: going in, we talked about this little off air. Right

907
00:55:04,360 --> 00:55:07,000
Speaker 1: as we were going in, we learned that a couple

908
00:55:07,120 --> 00:55:10,879
Speaker 1: days ago putin and sparked even more speculation about his health.

909
00:55:11,520 --> 00:55:14,920
Speaker 1: There was a televised meeting about coronavirus with some top officials.

910
00:55:15,040 --> 00:55:17,680
Speaker 1: It's like an hour and a half meeting, and he

911
00:55:17,760 --> 00:55:22,719
Speaker 1: had a coughing fit. And that's totally understandable. People cough,

912
00:55:22,800 --> 00:55:28,279
Speaker 1: people fart, people sneeze, whatever they're people and the thing

913
00:55:28,400 --> 00:55:31,960
Speaker 1: that they massively I think dropped the ball on is

914
00:55:32,080 --> 00:55:35,200
Speaker 1: they when they re aired the video on the evening

915
00:55:35,239 --> 00:55:39,759
Speaker 1: news or later iterations, someone had edited the coughing out

916
00:55:39,840 --> 00:55:43,920
Speaker 1: of the video, but everyone had already seen it. So

917
00:55:44,120 --> 00:55:45,320
Speaker 1: take it from us, folks.

918
00:55:45,840 --> 00:55:47,920
Speaker 3: If you want to start.

919
00:55:47,680 --> 00:55:52,319
Speaker 1: A conspiracy theory, editing a video in an obvious way

920
00:55:52,560 --> 00:55:54,480
Speaker 1: is a fantastic first step.

921
00:55:55,480 --> 00:55:56,319
Speaker 4: Yeah, it really is.

922
00:55:56,680 --> 00:55:59,799
Speaker 2: They didn't even edit out Giuliani's makeup mishap. You know,

923
00:56:00,520 --> 00:56:02,279
Speaker 2: we got to give him credit where that's due.

924
00:56:02,360 --> 00:56:03,040
Speaker 1: Makeup or blow.

925
00:56:03,120 --> 00:56:06,360
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I was gonna say, or in Russia

926
00:56:06,400 --> 00:56:10,960
Speaker 3: and in Putin's case, you could just edit you know,

927
00:56:11,080 --> 00:56:15,200
Speaker 3: photographs of people or just completely take them out of

928
00:56:15,360 --> 00:56:16,560
Speaker 3: historical photographs.

929
00:56:17,880 --> 00:56:22,200
Speaker 1: And photoshop still never never gives Stalin the shout out

930
00:56:22,840 --> 00:56:27,080
Speaker 1: he deserves from that photoshop, right, Photoshop, I guess you know,

931
00:56:27,160 --> 00:56:29,919
Speaker 1: shouting out Stalin is probably kind of a tone deaf

932
00:56:29,960 --> 00:56:31,600
Speaker 1: move a little bit.

933
00:56:33,239 --> 00:56:36,759
Speaker 2: Stalin is like the top person credited in the Like

934
00:56:36,880 --> 00:56:41,120
Speaker 2: dev team credits Photoshop about me, you know section.

935
00:56:42,160 --> 00:56:47,919
Speaker 1: So right now, as we mentioned, Putin is younger than

936
00:56:48,320 --> 00:56:51,120
Speaker 1: people may imagine, and he certainly looks younger than he is.

937
00:56:51,440 --> 00:56:55,320
Speaker 1: He's sixty eight years old, he has no publicly endorsed

938
00:56:55,440 --> 00:57:00,359
Speaker 1: successor to his presidency. They're protest multiple Russian cities. As

939
00:57:00,400 --> 00:57:03,160
Speaker 1: you said, Matt, his numbers in the polls are plummeting.

940
00:57:03,920 --> 00:57:07,279
Speaker 1: His party is losing some local elections. Even the loyalists

941
00:57:07,520 --> 00:57:10,040
Speaker 1: in his crew are starting to say, well, what's next?

942
00:57:10,560 --> 00:57:14,840
Speaker 1: Can we do Putinism without Vladimir Putin? And if we

943
00:57:14,880 --> 00:57:18,360
Speaker 1: could look inside the cathedral of this man's mind, what

944
00:57:18,480 --> 00:57:21,960
Speaker 1: does he see in the future. Is this a setup

945
00:57:22,000 --> 00:57:25,360
Speaker 1: for peaceful transition to power, a reaction to something else,

946
00:57:25,560 --> 00:57:31,600
Speaker 1: a hidden medical condition, or is this as the Kremlin said, fine.

947
00:57:31,600 --> 00:57:36,080
Speaker 3: So fine, all is fine? Uh I M yeah, Just

948
00:57:36,120 --> 00:57:37,440
Speaker 3: we want to know what you think. We know what

949
00:57:37,480 --> 00:57:39,840
Speaker 3: we think, and we've you know, we've talked about a

950
00:57:39,880 --> 00:57:42,760
Speaker 3: lot of it today, but we we certainly want to

951
00:57:42,840 --> 00:57:45,240
Speaker 3: know where your head is out, especially if you are

952
00:57:45,280 --> 00:57:49,880
Speaker 3: listening to this. Are you listening to this somewhere in Asia,

953
00:57:49,920 --> 00:57:54,120
Speaker 3: in that region or like, we'd love to just hear

954
00:57:54,280 --> 00:57:57,680
Speaker 3: what people are thinking and not have it filtered through

955
00:57:57,720 --> 00:58:01,680
Speaker 3: the BBC or you know, some other Western outlet as

956
00:58:01,680 --> 00:58:05,240
Speaker 3: we're getting information, So please please please find us on

957
00:58:05,280 --> 00:58:10,440
Speaker 3: social media. We are conspiracy stuff at Facebook and Twitter,

958
00:58:11,040 --> 00:58:14,240
Speaker 3: on Instagram where your conspiracy Stuff show. You can find

959
00:58:14,320 --> 00:58:18,760
Speaker 3: us on YouTube. It's YouTube dot com slash conspiracy stuff.

960
00:58:19,080 --> 00:58:21,920
Speaker 3: You can see some of these podcasts and chats on

961
00:58:22,120 --> 00:58:25,880
Speaker 3: video us hanging out in our houses with our you know,

962
00:58:26,040 --> 00:58:29,960
Speaker 3: Jimbase and such and if you if you don't want

963
00:58:29,960 --> 00:58:32,920
Speaker 3: to do that, you can always give us a call.

964
00:58:33,320 --> 00:58:33,680
Speaker 4: That's right.

965
00:58:33,720 --> 00:58:35,640
Speaker 2: You can reach us at one eight three three st

966
00:58:35,760 --> 00:58:38,760
Speaker 2: d w y t K. Leave a message at the

967
00:58:38,800 --> 00:58:43,080
Speaker 2: sound of Ben's dulcet tone, and then you can tell

968
00:58:43,120 --> 00:58:45,400
Speaker 2: a story about whatever float your boat.

969
00:58:46,640 --> 00:58:50,440
Speaker 3: What Ben's face was incredible when you can set an

970
00:58:50,600 --> 00:58:52,160
Speaker 3: a dulcet tone.

971
00:58:52,120 --> 00:58:54,600
Speaker 1: It's just I'm just speaking that face. I appreciate it,

972
00:58:54,680 --> 00:58:56,800
Speaker 1: but my my throat's crazy.

973
00:58:56,880 --> 00:58:59,080
Speaker 4: No no COVID, but oh good.

974
00:58:59,160 --> 00:59:00,880
Speaker 2: You can tell us the storyorry about whatever you know,

975
00:59:01,040 --> 00:59:03,919
Speaker 2: whatever is on your mind. Preferably keep it to three

976
00:59:03,960 --> 00:59:06,479
Speaker 2: minutes and make it about something relating to the show,

977
00:59:06,680 --> 00:59:11,840
Speaker 2: and then you will, I guarantee, potentially be featured on

978
00:59:11,920 --> 00:59:13,760
Speaker 2: the show. Just let us know if that's okay, and

979
00:59:13,840 --> 00:59:15,560
Speaker 2: how you want us to refer to you first name

980
00:59:15,600 --> 00:59:16,640
Speaker 2: only anonymous.

981
00:59:16,840 --> 00:59:17,560
Speaker 4: We're here for it.

982
00:59:17,800 --> 00:59:19,240
Speaker 3: And if you don't want to do any of those things,

983
00:59:19,240 --> 00:59:21,200
Speaker 3: but you'd still love to get into contact with us.

984
00:59:21,240 --> 00:59:25,040
Speaker 3: We have a good old fashioned email. It's simple here.

985
00:59:25,080 --> 00:59:47,320
Speaker 1: It is conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.

986
00:59:47,520 --> 00:59:49,600
Speaker 3: Stuff they don't want you to know. Is a production

987
00:59:49,680 --> 00:59:54,240
Speaker 3: of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

988
00:59:54,320 --> 00:59:57,480
Speaker 3: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.