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Speaker 1: On this episode of News World, I want to talk

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Speaker 1: about Putin's maneuvers in Ukraine and in Europe, and also

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Speaker 1: put in context what's happening when a democracy is reasonable

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Speaker 1: and a dictatorship is unreasonable. In that sense, I think

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Speaker 1: what we're watching happen with Ukraine is remarkably like what

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Speaker 1: happened between Adolf Hitler and Czechoslovakia in nineteen thirty eight.

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Speaker 1: So I both want to put in context Putin's thinking

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Speaker 1: about the situation in Ukraine and what he's trying to accomplish,

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Speaker 1: and the frame of reference for how dictatorships out maneuver democracies,

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Speaker 1: although in the long run it's very dangerous because the democracies,

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Speaker 1: once they feel that they have no choice, can be

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Speaker 1: remarkably powerful. In response, the dance has been amazing to watch.

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Speaker 1: The Biden administration said, well, we would certainly be very

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Speaker 1: upset if he invaded Ukraine, but on the other hand,

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Speaker 1: if he just did a few small things that would

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Speaker 1: be different. They were then promptly said they didn't really

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Speaker 1: mean it, even though as President Biden who had said

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Speaker 1: it in a press conference, But right now they're behaving

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Speaker 1: as though they did mean it. And the reason is

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Speaker 1: that Putin has very carefully modulated what he's doing. There

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Speaker 1: were two provinces in eastern Ukraine which have been engaged

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Speaker 1: in a running war now for over a decade. Both

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Speaker 1: of them are right on the Russian border. Both of

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Speaker 1: them were militarily supported by the Russians. Both of them

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Speaker 1: have had constant skirmishing for over a decade. In fact,

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Speaker 1: I was told at one point that the Russian artielry

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Speaker 1: school graduation exercises to go and fire artillery rounds into Ukraine,

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Speaker 1: and that they do this routinely. So, in a sense,

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Speaker 1: Putin picked the least provocative aggressive action he could take.

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Speaker 1: He simply recognized these two independent regions and then turned

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Speaker 1: around and by the way, occupied the regions he had recognized. Meanwhile,

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Speaker 1: the Biden administration, which I think may avoid ever going

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Speaker 1: to war because it'll surrender first and simply avoid ever

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Speaker 1: confronting anything. The Biden administration, which had totally mishandled the

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Speaker 1: Taliban as now mishandling a dictatorship led by a KGB

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Speaker 1: officer who had been trained to take on the West.

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Speaker 1: And I think the starting point for understanding Putin is

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Speaker 1: his own personal background. This is a man who was

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Speaker 1: in the KGB. He was a colonel, he was serving

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Speaker 1: in East Germany. He saw the United States is the

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Speaker 1: main enemy. He has said publicly that he felt that

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Speaker 1: the greatest disaster of the twentieth century was the collapse

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Speaker 1: of the Soviet Union. Now, somebody who tells you all that,

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Speaker 1: if you study the KGB at all, you realize these

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Speaker 1: are very, very tough people. They're very professional people. He

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Speaker 1: saw Niko as the secondary enemy and the United States

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Speaker 1: is the primary enemy. He's been very open about that

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Speaker 1: for his entire career, and the result has been that

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Speaker 1: we've been up against a very tough guy. Kandi Rice,

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Speaker 1: the former Secretary of State former National Security advisor, in

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Speaker 1: a panel in twenty fourteen, talked about Putin. She said

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Speaker 1: the following, we have a great power in Europe behaving badly.

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Speaker 1: Vladimir Putin never accepted the outcome of the end of

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Speaker 1: the Cold War. He has said that the collapse of

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Speaker 1: the Soviet Union was the greatest tragedy of the twentieth century.

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Speaker 1: That's something when you consider that the Russians lost probably

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Speaker 1: as many as thirty million people in World War Two.

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Speaker 1: It's quite a statement to say that was the greatest tragedy.

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Speaker 1: I remember sitting with him at NATO in two thousand

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Speaker 1: and eight, in his last talk to the NATO Russia Council,

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Speaker 1: and he said something that everybody sort of said, did

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Speaker 1: we hear that right? He said? Ukraine is a made

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Speaker 1: up state, he said. And I can remember going to

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Speaker 1: see Vladimir Putin and in one of my last encounters

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Speaker 1: with him, having him say, you know, us Kandi, you

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Speaker 1: know that Russia has only been great when it was

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Speaker 1: ruled by strong men like Alexander the Great, Alexander the Second,

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Speaker 1: like Peter the Great. And I remember thinking, and then,

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Speaker 1: is Vladimir the Great supposed to be in that line?

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Speaker 1: But I was too polite to ask him a sector's state.

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Speaker 1: And I'm not sure he's delusional. I am sure he's

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Speaker 1: not wholly rational, because leaders of great countries don't go

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Speaker 1: around fighting tigers bear chested. He's a megliomaniac, and you

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Speaker 1: have to deal with the five percent chance that he

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Speaker 1: might in fact be delusional. And he is making up

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Speaker 1: his own version of history. And I don't see anybody

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Speaker 1: around him who's telling him, you know, this is not

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Speaker 1: He's talking about Russia becoming self sufficient and autarchic. Again,

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Speaker 1: how long has it been since we've heard those words,

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Speaker 1: Joseph Stalin, This is eight years ago, twenty fourteen. But

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Speaker 1: the fact is nothing has changed much. Putin believes deeply

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Speaker 1: that the Soviet Union can be recreated. He believes deeply

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Speaker 1: that NATO can be driven out of Europe. He certainly

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Speaker 1: believes he can be driven out of Eastern Europe. He

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Speaker 1: regards NATO being an Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, the

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Speaker 1: Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Romanian Bulgaria as aggressive actions against Russia,

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Speaker 1: and so he has a very strong desire to gradually

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Speaker 1: encroach upon them, push them back, create bigger space for Russia. Remember,

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Speaker 1: this is a country that has five thousand nuclear weapons.

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Speaker 1: The Chinese have some nuclear weapons, the Pakistanis, the Indians,

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Speaker 1: the British, the French have some. The North Koreans and

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Speaker 1: the Iranians are getting them. But nobody has five thousand

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Speaker 1: except the United States and Russia. It's very dangerous. He

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Speaker 1: also has a still first rate military equipment operation that

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Speaker 1: produces very good aircraft, very good hypersonic missiles, of a

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Speaker 1: very serious space program. And remember, with the current high

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Speaker 1: price of oil, partly a function of President Biden's commitment

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Speaker 1: to policies which cripple the American oil and gas industry.

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Speaker 1: Putent's making about a billion dollars a day. Russia at

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Speaker 1: least is making a billion dollars a day, much of

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Speaker 1: which goes to the Russian government and enables Putin to

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Speaker 1: sustain all of his adventures and rebuild his military and

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Speaker 1: create genuine threats around the world. So our energy policy,

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Speaker 1: while we talk about sanctioning Russia, the fact is our

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Speaker 1: energy policy has made Putin much richer while also making

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Speaker 1: the American people much poorer. It's truly a stupid policy

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Speaker 1: and reminds me of Jimmy Carter's efforts in nineteen eighty

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Speaker 1: after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, Carter decided that he would

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Speaker 1: punish the Soviets by cutting off wheat exports. And what

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Speaker 1: he did, of course, is he impoverished American wheat farmers

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Speaker 1: while the Soviets simply went elsewhere in the world to

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Speaker 1: buy wheat, and ultimately Ronald Reagan repealed that because it

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Speaker 1: was self defeating, he was making us poorer and not

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Speaker 1: hurting them at all. So I think that what you

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Speaker 1: have here is Prutin is looking at his daily bank

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Speaker 1: account and thinking, as long as the Americans are stupid,

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Speaker 1: I'm going to make a lot of money. And while

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Speaker 1: I'm making a lot of money, I can afford to

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Speaker 1: be an adventurer. Now, what we have to remember is

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Speaker 1: that very clever dictators, when dealing with weak democracies, know

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Speaker 1: that if you sort of nibble away, you don't do

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Speaker 1: anything too rapidly, you don't do anything too big. But

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Speaker 1: if you nibble at the right pace, the democracy can

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Speaker 1: never quite mobilize, it can never quite take you seriously.

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Speaker 1: This was the great lesson of the nineteen thirties, which

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Speaker 1: is why I think there are remarkable parallels between Chamberlain's

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Speaker 1: weaknesses and Biden's weaknesses. Chamberlain authentically and legitimately did not

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Speaker 1: want to go back and fight another World War, and

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Speaker 1: he knew how extraordinary the casualties had been for Great Britain.

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Speaker 1: He knew how many young men had died and how

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Speaker 1: many young men had been crippled, and he just was

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Speaker 1: willing to do almost anything to avoid it. And so

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Speaker 1: he tried to find a way to make Kettler happy

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Speaker 1: without getting involved in a war. And the term appeasement,

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Speaker 1: which has now been considered a term of ridicule, was

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Speaker 1: in fact a legitimate rational strategy, as A. GP. Taylor

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Speaker 1: wrote in a famous book on the process of negotiating

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Speaker 1: in the nineteen thirties. And Chamberlain thought, if only I

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Speaker 1: can find what he wants, give it to him without war,

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Speaker 1: getting to be satisfied, we'll save millions and millions of lives. Now,

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Speaker 1: of course, that's not how it happened, And much like Putin,

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Speaker 1: Hitler was very clever in figuring out the breaking point.

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Speaker 1: First of all, he took the Rhineland, which after all

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Speaker 1: had been German, was demilitarized by the Versailles Treaty, but

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Speaker 1: he occupied it well, occupying it was after all German territory,

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Speaker 1: and both the French and the British found reason not

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Speaker 1: to do anything. Then the Austrians decided they wanted to

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Speaker 1: join Germany, after all, they speak German, their German and background,

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Speaker 1: and again it was the middle of Europe and wasn't

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Speaker 1: a direct immediate threat, so why not relax and accept it?

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Speaker 1: And then he decided that he wanted to somehow occupy

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Speaker 1: the German speaking part of Czechoslovakia, and at that point,

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Speaker 1: he had different problem because the Czechs had a good army.

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Speaker 1: The part he wanted was the essence of their military

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Speaker 1: defense line. They weren't going to give it up, and

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Speaker 1: they were prepared to fight. And by the way, they

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Speaker 1: had treaties with both Great Britain and with France, and

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Speaker 1: so if the British and the French honored their treaty,

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Speaker 1: they would have to help the Czecks. And it was

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Speaker 1: real doubt that the German army in nineteen thirty eight

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Speaker 1: could have fought a two front war without breaking down

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Speaker 1: and collapsing. So Chamberlain's trying to find a way to

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Speaker 1: accommodate Hitler without war. Hitler, who can intuitively smell the

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Speaker 1: weakness in his opponents, decides that he will invite Chamberlain

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Speaker 1: and do Laudier, who's the French leader, to come to

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Speaker 1: Munich for a conference, and that's received with great relief.

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Speaker 1: We're going to avoid war. We're going to save millions

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Speaker 1: of lives. Let's go and see what Herr Hitler was

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Speaker 1: now much like what's going on right now. They don't

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Speaker 1: invite the Checks because in fact they're going to sell

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Speaker 1: them out and they don't want them in the room complaining.

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Speaker 1: And one of the smarter things I've seen in the

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Speaker 1: last few days was Senator Sassa Nebraska saying any meeting

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Speaker 1: between Biden and Putin should include the President of Ukraine.

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Speaker 1: After all, it's his country that we're negotiating about, and

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Speaker 1: he should be in the room. Well, it was clear

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Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty eight, first of all, the checks were

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Speaker 1: going to be in the room. Hitler wouldn't come. I

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Speaker 1: suspect if the President of the Ukraine is going to

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Speaker 1: be in the room, Putin won't come. And so the

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Speaker 1: question becomes if the only way they'll come is to

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Speaker 1: make sure that the victim is not allowed to be

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Speaker 1: in the room, Is that not, by itself a signal

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Speaker 1: that they're not dealing a good faith But in nineteen

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Speaker 1: thirty eight, in a moment of desperation, trying to avoid war,

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Speaker 1: you have Chamberlain flying into Munich. They have a meeting,

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Speaker 1: they talk it through, and they decide that they will

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Speaker 1: take the Sudetan part of Czechoslovakia, which is the German

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Speaker 1: speaking part, and they will give it to Germany in

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Speaker 1: return for Hitler's promise that this is the last territorial

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Speaker 1: demand that I have Chamberlain comes home declaring that we

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Speaker 1: have peace in our time, and people are wildly enthusiastic.

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Speaker 1: People don't want to go to war over Czechoslovakia. It's

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Speaker 1: a distant country. They don't know anything about it. It

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Speaker 1: was artificially created by the Treaty of Versailles and the

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Speaker 1: Versailles Conference after World War One. The people incident Land,

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Speaker 1: after all, were mostly Germans, So why would you stop

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Speaker 1: ethnic Germans from going back to Germany. There were all

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Speaker 1: sorts of good arguments. The one person who thoroughly understood

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Speaker 1: it was Winston Churchill, and Churchill had the huge advantage

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Speaker 1: that he had actually read minkompf Hitler's book, which he

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Speaker 1: had written when he was in prison in nineteen twenty four,

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Speaker 1: and which he makes very clear what he wants to do.

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Speaker 1: He wants to conquer all of Europe, wipe out the Jews,

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Speaker 1: and establish a German control of all of Cotton Hill Europe.

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Speaker 1: Well Churchill read it and said, ah, I get it.

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Speaker 1: This guy's crazy. The sooner we stop him, the better

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Speaker 1: off we are. When you have the famous scene of

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Speaker 1: Chamberlain returning, getting off the airplane declaring peace in our time,

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Speaker 1: Churchill says the following quote. You were given the choice

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Speaker 1: between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor, and you will

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Speaker 1: have war. Well, a few months later Germany absorbed the

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Speaker 1: rest of the Czech Republic, and that was the final straw.

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Speaker 1: That's the point where the democracies decided, you know, we're

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Speaker 1: going to have to stop him. He'll never stop on

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Speaker 1: his own, and therefore we're going to have to do

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Speaker 1: whatever it takes. And so they issued a commitment to Poland.

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Speaker 1: Now Stalin, who was also a dictator, thought, you know

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Speaker 1: what a great opportunity. I don't trust the allies. The

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Speaker 1: Allies don't like me. I'm a communists. They hate communism.

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Speaker 1: So what if I cut a deal with Hitler? Hitler

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Speaker 1: doesn't care. He's a dictator. I'm a dictator. So they

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Speaker 1: created a non aggression impact and essence, they said, if

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Speaker 1: Germany invades Poland, Russia gets Eastern Poland. Stalin thought, this

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Speaker 1: is a good deal for me. That gives me more

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Speaker 1: space to defend myself if Germany ever desires to attack me.

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Speaker 1: Hitler thought, this is great. I'm not going to be

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Speaker 1: faced with a war on the Eastern Front. And so

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Speaker 1: they decide to go to war in August in September

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Speaker 1: of nineteen thirty nine. And at that point people in

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Speaker 1: Great Britain are fed up, and Chamberlain has no choice

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Speaker 1: because his own party has finally said, look, you can't

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Speaker 1: keep appeasing these guys. You're going to have to stand

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Speaker 1: up and stop them. And so World War two begins,

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Speaker 1: but it begins without the Czech Republic, It begins without

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Speaker 1: the strength they could have had, and it begins at

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Speaker 1: a time when the primary fighting is going to be

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Speaker 1: in the East, where the British and the French can't

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Speaker 1: actually project any power, and as a result, Poland's going

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Speaker 1: to collapse totally. And let's look at how did the

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Speaker 1: most sophisticated American diplomat of that generation, the man who

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Speaker 1: ultimately helped design the Cold War strategy after World War Two,

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Speaker 1: George Kennon. Well, this is what George Kennon said in

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Speaker 1: a personal letter. Is he worried, is he shocked? Is

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Speaker 1: he angry? Not at all. Just listen to Kennon, because

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Speaker 1: he gives you a flavor of how the Western elites

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Speaker 1: felt about selling out the checks quote. In the long run,

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Speaker 1: to be sure, the provinces will probably feel the iron

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Speaker 1: heel in many ways. The Jews in particular will doubtless

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Speaker 1: meet essentially the same fate as those in the Reich proper,

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Speaker 1: though it attended perhaps with less of brutality. But for

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Speaker 1: the moment, the Germans have been, in my view, surprisingly

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Speaker 1: mild and conciliatory. In particular, those who have come down

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Speaker 1: from Berlin have not seemed to identify themselves with the

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Speaker 1: Sudate in Germans or with the Czech fascists, and I

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Speaker 1: am encouraged to hope that their attitudes towards the mass

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Speaker 1: of the Czechs may turn out to be a more

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Speaker 1: reasonable one than many have anticipated. It's a letter from

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Speaker 1: George Kennon personally, March thirtieth, nineteen thirty nine. Now when

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Speaker 1: you read that and you know what was actually happening,

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Speaker 1: you have to think this was insanity. But diplomats are

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Speaker 1: good at insanity. Diplomats are good at saying themselves, well,

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Speaker 1: maybe things will be okay. I've watched with total dismay

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Speaker 1: as the Biden administration has said every possible signal of

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Speaker 1: weakness withdrawing American diplomats from Kiv, explaining publicly that the

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Speaker 1: Ukrainians will be defeated, having the Chairman of the Joint

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Speaker 1: Chiefs say that Russia can be in keV in three days,

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Speaker 1: basically creating an economic blockade of Ukraine by creating such

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Speaker 1: a lack of confidence that why would any rational business

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Speaker 1: invest in Ukraine when the US government thinks it's going

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Speaker 1: to collapse. Putin is watching all of this. He's very smart.

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Speaker 1: He's thought about this a great deal. He's uninhibited in

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Speaker 1: his understanding of power. What you have as a hack

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Speaker 1: politician from Delaware in totally over his head trying to

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Speaker 1: cope with a totally ruthless political boss trained by the KGB.

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Speaker 1: It's a total mismatch. I'm not even sure that the

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Speaker 1: Biden team can play tic tac toe, but they sure

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Speaker 1: can't play chess, and they certainly can't play four dimensional chess.

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Speaker 1: And what you have now with Putin is a guy

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Speaker 1: who's thought about this for his entire career, who is

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Speaker 1: methodically expanding the influence of Russian state to recreate the

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Speaker 1: Soviet Union, who tells you over and over that's what

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Speaker 1: he's doing now. Just as Churchill had a better understanding

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Speaker 1: of Hitler because he'd actually read mind comp I want

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Speaker 1: to suggest that if you actually pay attention to the

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Speaker 1: February twenty first speech by the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin,

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Speaker 1: you'll have a better sense of what he's up to.

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Speaker 1: So I'm going to share with you what I think

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Speaker 1: are some of the key parts, and listen to how

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Speaker 1: he describes Ukraine, and then ask yourself, if he believes this,

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Speaker 1: and I think he does, what does that tell you

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Speaker 1: in advance he's likely to do. This is putin quote.

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Speaker 1: I would like to emphasize again that Ukraine is not

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Speaker 1: just a neighboring country for us. It is an inalienable

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Speaker 1: part of our own history, culture, and spiritual space. These

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Speaker 1: are our comrades, those dearest to us, not only colleagues, friends,

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Speaker 1: and people who once served together, but also relatives, people

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Speaker 1: bound by blood by family ties. Since time immemorial, the

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Speaker 1: people living in the southwest of what has historically been

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Speaker 1: Russian land have called themselves Russians and Orthodox Christians. This

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Speaker 1: was the case before the seventeenth century, when a portion

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Speaker 1: of this territory rejoined the Russian state, and after. It

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Speaker 1: seems to us that generally speaking, we all know these facts,

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Speaker 1: that this is common knowledge. Now I can tell you

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Speaker 1: that when Khalista and I were in Kiev and we

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Speaker 1: went and visited the great monasteries and we looked at

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Speaker 1: the history of the region, it's very clear that the

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Speaker 1: center of Russian civilization prior to twelve hundred was in Ukraine,

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Speaker 1: not in Moscow. It's only when the Mongol horde arrives

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Speaker 1: destroys Russian civilization in Kiev, while not doing much damage

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Speaker 1: to Moscow, which is at that time a relatively small

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Speaker 1: town hidden away in the woods, an area that the

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Speaker 1: Mongols don't like to fight in that you begin to

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Speaker 1: see a shift from the south to the north. But

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Speaker 1: there's no question that the original origins of Russian civilization

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Speaker 1: are much more in Ukraine than they are in Moscow.

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Speaker 1: How did this modern Ukraine occur? This is again putin

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Speaker 1: speaking to the Russian people. Quote modern Ukraine was entirely

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Speaker 1: created where Russia, or to be more precise, by Bolshevik

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Speaker 1: communist Russia. Close quote. He goes on to say, quote,

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Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty four Khrushchov took Crimea away from Russia

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Speaker 1: for some reason and also gave it to the Ukraine.

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Speaker 1: By the way I am told, this was done because

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Speaker 1: Khrushchov's wife was Ukrainian. Crimea is actually about ninety percent Russian,

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Speaker 1: and Russian speakers dominate the area, and it was the

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Speaker 1: one area where you could sense that Russian occupation was

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Speaker 1: not automatically seen with hostility. But the fact is, and

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Speaker 1: what is really a remarkably long speech to the country,

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Speaker 1: Putin is trying to set a framework that Ukraine is illegitimate.

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Speaker 1: He goes on to call it quote Vladimir Lenin's Ukraine,

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Speaker 1: and he says, including let again quoting from Putin, including

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Speaker 1: Lenin's harsh instructions regarding don Bass, which was actually shoved

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Speaker 1: into Ukraine. In other words, from his perspective, don Bass

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Speaker 1: has always been Russian except for Lenin having made a decision.

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Speaker 1: He goes, quote, we are ready to show what real

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Speaker 1: decommunizations would mean for Ukraine. Now I don't particularly think

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Speaker 1: I want Putin and the KGB showing me what real

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Speaker 1: decommunization is like, and I have a hunch it will

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Speaker 1: not be very pleasant for the people of Ukraine. Just

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Speaker 1: a very long speech goes on for page after page

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Speaker 1: explaining how Ukraine ended up being where it is, and

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Speaker 1: he says, quote it should be noted that Ukraine actually

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Speaker 1: never had stable traditions of real statehood, and therefore, in

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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one yet opted from mindlessly emulating foreign models

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Speaker 1: which have no relation to history or Ukrainian realities. Political

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Speaker 1: government institutions were readjusted many times to the rapidly glowing

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Speaker 1: clans and their self serving interest which had nothing to

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Speaker 1: do with the interests of the Ukrainian people. Essentially, the

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Speaker 1: so called pro Western civilizational choice made by the oligarchic

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Speaker 1: Ukrainian authorities was not and is not aimed at creating

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Speaker 1: better conditions in the interest of people's well being, but

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Speaker 1: at keeping the billions of dollars that the oligarchs have

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Speaker 1: stolen from the Ukrainians and are holding in their accounts

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Speaker 1: in Western banks. Now, think about this. He's talking about oligarchs,

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Speaker 1: of which the most famous are Russian. He's talking about

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Speaker 1: stealing from the people, of which Russia is an absolute model,

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Speaker 1: but he's now projecting it onto Ukraine. And furthermore, how

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Speaker 1: are these oligarchs surviving? Quote they are reverently accommodating the

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Speaker 1: geopolitical rivals of Russia. So what Putin is saying to

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Speaker 1: the Russian people is here is the country which should

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Speaker 1: be part of Russia. It has been stolen by billionaires

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Speaker 1: who are puppets of the Western governments, and it is

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Speaker 1: now a base of anti Russian behavior that we should

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Speaker 1: all be offended by. This is his explanation of the

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Speaker 1: nature of political power in Ukraine. Quote. The nationalists who

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Speaker 1: have seized power have unleashed a persecution, a real terror

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Speaker 1: campaign against those who oppose their anti constitutional actions. Politicians,

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Speaker 1: journalists and public activists were harassed and publicly humiliated. Now

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Speaker 1: let me point out for a second, this is the

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Speaker 1: Putin who has had his opponents poisoned. This is the

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Speaker 1: Putin who's had reporters killed. This is the Putin who

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Speaker 1: actually had anti Putin Russian tracked down in London and

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Speaker 1: killed with radioactive material. But notice how he sets it

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Speaker 1: up so that the real bad people are Ukrainians, They're

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Speaker 1: not Russians, and he's projecting onto them the stuff he does.

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Speaker 1: He goes on to say a wave of violence swept

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Speaker 1: Ukrainian cities, including a series of high profile and unpunished murders.

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Speaker 1: One shudders at the memories of the terrible tragedy of Odessa,

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Speaker 1: where peaceful protesters were brutally murdered, burned alive in the

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Speaker 1: House of Trade Unions. Now everybody who watches the Putin

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Speaker 1: dictatorship knows that this is a dictatorship which is willing

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Speaker 1: to kill people routinely. He goes on to say, however,

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Speaker 1: again projecting all this under Ukraine, the criminals who committed

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Speaker 1: that atrocity have never been punished, and no one is

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Speaker 1: even looking for them. But we know their names and

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Speaker 1: we will do everything to punish them, find them and

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Speaker 1: bring the to justice. Now what is he telling you?

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Speaker 1: Exactly what the bidministration has begun saying publicly they have lists.

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Speaker 1: If they take over the country, they're going to track

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Speaker 1: down the people that they don't want and they're going

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Speaker 1: to kill them. And they don't make any pretense about

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Speaker 1: anything else. So he describes the Ukrainian economy and tatters.

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Speaker 1: It's an outright pillage of the country's citizens. While Ukraine

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Speaker 1: itself was placed under external control, directed not only from

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Speaker 1: the western capitals but also on the ground, as the

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Speaker 1: saying goes through, an intil network of foreign advisors ngeos

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Speaker 1: and other institutions president in Ukraine, they have a direct

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Speaker 1: bearing on all the key appointments and dismissals, and on

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Speaker 1: all branches of power at all levels, from the central

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Speaker 1: government down to municipalities. So what he's describing is a

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Speaker 1: Ukraine totally occupied by the United States and NATO through

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Speaker 1: various puppets. He goes on to say, now again, remember

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Speaker 1: this is Vladimir Putin, dictator of Russia, cheerful killer of opponents,

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Speaker 1: a man who was trained by the secret police. But

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Speaker 1: this is his description of Ukraine. Quote, there is no

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Speaker 1: independence of diciary in Ukraine. The key of authorities at

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Speaker 1: the West demand delegated the priority right to select members

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Speaker 1: of the supreme judicial bodies, the Council of Justice and

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Speaker 1: the High Qualifications Commission of Judges to international organizations. In addition,

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Speaker 1: the United States directly controls the National Agency on Corruption Prevention,

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Speaker 1: the National Anti Corruption Bureau, the Specialized Anti Corruption Prosecutor's Office,

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Speaker 1: and the High Anti Corruption Court. All this is done

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Speaker 1: under the noble pretext of invigorating efforts against corruption. All right,

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Speaker 1: but where are the results? Corruption is flourishing like never before.

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Speaker 1: Now to have somebody like Putin, who's a great actor,

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Speaker 1: deliver that line with a straight face israel very impressive.

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Speaker 1: He goes on to say this is even worse. The

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Speaker 1: policy to root out the Russian language and culture and

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Speaker 1: promote assimilation carries on. Finally, he explains Crimea. Quote a

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Speaker 1: few words about Crimea. The people of the peninsula freely

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Speaker 1: made their choice to be with Russia. The key of

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Speaker 1: authorities cannot challenge the clearly stated choice of the people,

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Speaker 1: which is why they have opted for aggressive action, for

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Speaker 1: activating extremist cells, including radical Islamist organizations, for sending subversives

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Speaker 1: to stage terrorist attacks at critical infrastructure facilities, and for

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Speaker 1: kidnapping Russian citizens. We have factual proof that such aggressive

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Speaker 1: actions are being taken with support from Western security services.

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Speaker 1: He goes on and say, this is nothing other than

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00:27:48,200 --> 00:28:08,359
Speaker 1: preparation for hostilities against our country, Russia. In other words,

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00:28:08,400 --> 00:28:12,240
Speaker 1: this entire, very long speech to the Russian people basically

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00:28:12,320 --> 00:28:16,320
Speaker 1: makes the case one that Ukraine is really Russia, two

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00:28:16,520 --> 00:28:20,240
Speaker 1: that the Westerners have taken over Ukraine against the people

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00:28:20,280 --> 00:28:24,560
Speaker 1: of Ukraine and are exploiting it economically and controlling it politically,

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00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:27,600
Speaker 1: and three that it is a base for an attack

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00:28:27,640 --> 00:28:32,320
Speaker 1: against Russia, and therefore if Russia has to in fact

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00:28:32,400 --> 00:28:36,840
Speaker 1: attack Ukraine, it'll be defensive. They will only be doing

437
00:28:36,880 --> 00:28:40,760
Speaker 1: it because they were forced to. Now at that point,

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00:28:41,200 --> 00:28:45,880
Speaker 1: he has recognized the two breakaway regions. Since they're now

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00:28:45,960 --> 00:28:49,840
Speaker 1: broken away, they have in fact invited the Russian army in.

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00:28:50,520 --> 00:28:54,480
Speaker 1: So how can anybody complain they've been invited in? They

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00:28:54,480 --> 00:28:58,520
Speaker 1: haven't gone a step further. Meanwhile, the Germans are pretending

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00:28:58,520 --> 00:29:03,680
Speaker 1: to be offended. They have temporarily suspended the North Stream

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00:29:03,760 --> 00:29:08,920
Speaker 1: two pipeline. They have not permanently suspended it. The Biden administration,

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00:29:09,280 --> 00:29:14,000
Speaker 1: in a moment of utter total ineffectiveness, has announced that

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00:29:14,040 --> 00:29:17,160
Speaker 1: there will be sanctions against the two breakaway regions, not

446
00:29:17,280 --> 00:29:19,720
Speaker 1: against Putin. I mean, if you want to have real sanctions,

447
00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:24,400
Speaker 1: you would seize all Russian property. Every oligarch would lose

448
00:29:24,440 --> 00:29:29,240
Speaker 1: control of their multimillion dollars apartment in Manhattan. They would

449
00:29:29,280 --> 00:29:32,960
Speaker 1: lose control of their billions of dollars in investments, in

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00:29:33,160 --> 00:29:36,000
Speaker 1: savings accounts. They would be blocked from coming to the

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00:29:36,040 --> 00:29:38,320
Speaker 1: United States. I mean, there are lots of things you

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00:29:38,320 --> 00:29:41,800
Speaker 1: could do to cause pain. Instead, in a moment of

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00:29:41,840 --> 00:29:45,920
Speaker 1: continued total ineffectiveness, the Biden administration, at least at the moment,

454
00:29:45,920 --> 00:29:49,720
Speaker 1: has done virtually nothing, and the result will be exactly

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00:29:49,760 --> 00:29:53,320
Speaker 1: what it was in Crimea. Remember that the Obama foreign

456
00:29:53,360 --> 00:29:57,479
Speaker 1: policy team is the Biden foreign policy team. The total

457
00:29:57,560 --> 00:30:01,480
Speaker 1: incompetence of the Obama people in Syria and in Crimea

458
00:30:01,680 --> 00:30:05,280
Speaker 1: is now being repeated, and it is to me astonishing.

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00:30:05,960 --> 00:30:11,040
Speaker 1: This is a very, very dangerous situation. I think that

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00:30:11,280 --> 00:30:15,560
Speaker 1: we should not kid ourselves. The current Biden administration inability

461
00:30:15,600 --> 00:30:19,160
Speaker 1: to deal with Putin is astonishing. Biden has no clue

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00:30:19,240 --> 00:30:21,800
Speaker 1: what to do. His staff is worse than he is,

463
00:30:22,280 --> 00:30:26,520
Speaker 1: and they're up against somebody who is smart, ruthless, cautious.

464
00:30:27,080 --> 00:30:30,400
Speaker 1: Notice what he's doing, step by step, inch by inch.

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00:30:30,920 --> 00:30:34,280
Speaker 1: He's not lunging into some great risk. He's just pushing

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00:30:34,280 --> 00:30:36,640
Speaker 1: a little and then stopping, and pushing a little and

467
00:30:36,680 --> 00:30:39,760
Speaker 1: then stopping. He's been doing this for at least twenty years,

468
00:30:40,480 --> 00:30:44,600
Speaker 1: and his goal is to gradually continue to rebuild the

469
00:30:44,600 --> 00:30:49,480
Speaker 1: Soviet Union. I remember in nineteen ninety three I was

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00:30:50,200 --> 00:30:54,080
Speaker 1: on a congressional delegation to Moscow and I was meeting

471
00:30:54,080 --> 00:30:58,280
Speaker 1: with the then Vice President of Russia under Boris Yelton.

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00:30:58,600 --> 00:31:01,160
Speaker 1: This was an Air Force three star general and he

473
00:31:01,360 --> 00:31:03,680
Speaker 1: was in this huge room, I think it was forty

474
00:31:03,760 --> 00:31:07,600
Speaker 1: or fifty feet long, one in Tara wall was a

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00:31:07,640 --> 00:31:11,360
Speaker 1: map of the Soviet Union, and being semi clever, I

476
00:31:11,400 --> 00:31:14,280
Speaker 1: said to him, that's a map of the Soviet Union,

477
00:31:14,960 --> 00:31:16,800
Speaker 1: and he looked at me for a second he said, yes,

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00:31:17,400 --> 00:31:20,480
Speaker 1: it will be like that again. At the time, I

479
00:31:20,480 --> 00:31:23,360
Speaker 1: thought it was interesting comment about his attitude. I believe

480
00:31:23,440 --> 00:31:26,840
Speaker 1: that is Putin's attitude. I believe that he intends to

481
00:31:26,880 --> 00:31:31,120
Speaker 1: push and push and push. His goal as first to

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00:31:31,240 --> 00:31:34,440
Speaker 1: break up NATO, second to drive the United States out

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00:31:34,480 --> 00:31:39,200
Speaker 1: of Europe, and third to establish absolute Russian hegemony over Europe,

484
00:31:39,480 --> 00:31:44,240
Speaker 1: while his good friends in Beijing are establishing hegemony over Taiwan.

485
00:31:44,840 --> 00:31:46,680
Speaker 1: And I think that to the degree that we are

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00:31:46,800 --> 00:31:49,760
Speaker 1: weak in Ukraine, we are sowing the seeds of a

487
00:31:49,840 --> 00:31:53,560
Speaker 1: disaster in Taiwan. And I believe this is an enormously

488
00:31:53,640 --> 00:31:56,479
Speaker 1: dangerous bread and I want to close where I started.

489
00:31:57,520 --> 00:32:03,479
Speaker 1: Russia has five thousand nuclear weapons. It has capable of

490
00:32:03,640 --> 00:32:07,960
Speaker 1: levels of violence we can't even begin to imagine. Trying

491
00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:11,400
Speaker 1: to manage this in an intelligent way is very difficult.

492
00:32:12,040 --> 00:32:15,320
Speaker 1: I think that under somebody like Ronald Reagan, you would

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00:32:15,360 --> 00:32:18,360
Speaker 1: have seen a significant build up. You would have seen

494
00:32:18,760 --> 00:32:21,920
Speaker 1: a dramatic increase in production of oil and gas. You

495
00:32:21,960 --> 00:32:25,400
Speaker 1: would have seen an effort to build as many liquefied

496
00:32:25,480 --> 00:32:28,960
Speaker 1: natural gas ports as possible, and a deliberate effort to

497
00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:32,040
Speaker 1: wean Western Europe off of Russian natural gas, and a

498
00:32:32,160 --> 00:32:34,320
Speaker 1: deliberate effort. I know this from having been there in

499
00:32:34,360 --> 00:32:37,560
Speaker 1: the early eighties. We drove down the price of gasoline

500
00:32:37,960 --> 00:32:40,959
Speaker 1: until we bankrupted the Russian economy, and that was a

501
00:32:40,960 --> 00:32:45,280
Speaker 1: major factor in Gorbuschoff Ultimoleak. Facing the collapse of the

502
00:32:45,280 --> 00:32:50,160
Speaker 1: Soviet Union. Reagan had real strategies. He was very realistic.

503
00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:52,960
Speaker 1: He wanted to avoid war, but he also wanted to

504
00:32:52,960 --> 00:32:56,800
Speaker 1: avoid defeat, and he understood that only was strength and

505
00:32:56,880 --> 00:33:01,400
Speaker 1: a sound, consistent strategy. Could you do that? This administration

506
00:33:01,760 --> 00:33:05,840
Speaker 1: has no strength, has no strategy, deludes itself about who

507
00:33:05,840 --> 00:33:08,560
Speaker 1: it's dealing with. And I think this is a very

508
00:33:08,680 --> 00:33:11,400
Speaker 1: very dangerous period. And that's why I wanted to take

509
00:33:11,440 --> 00:33:14,880
Speaker 1: the time to share Putent's speech to understand this is

510
00:33:14,920 --> 00:33:18,760
Speaker 1: who we're dealing with is a very tough, very smart,

511
00:33:18,920 --> 00:33:24,000
Speaker 1: professional KGB officer who has spent every day from nineteen

512
00:33:24,080 --> 00:33:26,680
Speaker 1: ninety one to today trying to figure out how to

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00:33:26,720 --> 00:33:29,760
Speaker 1: rebuild the Soviet Union, and who is prepared to run

514
00:33:29,840 --> 00:33:33,160
Speaker 1: considerable risks to achieve that. We'll see how it works,

515
00:33:33,280 --> 00:33:36,640
Speaker 1: but I think that it's a very dangerous time to

516
00:33:36,760 --> 00:33:40,400
Speaker 1: have a very weak, deluded president who just doesn't understand

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00:33:40,480 --> 00:33:43,200
Speaker 1: what's going on. Thank you very much for letting me

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00:33:43,240 --> 00:33:49,680
Speaker 1: share these ideas with you. Thank you for listening. You

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00:33:49,720 --> 00:33:52,200
Speaker 1: can learn more about the Russian invasion of Ukraine on

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00:33:52,200 --> 00:33:56,120
Speaker 1: our show page at newtsworld dot com. Newtsworld is produced

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00:33:56,120 --> 00:34:00,200
Speaker 1: by gingwishmree sixty and iHeartMedia. Our executive producer who is

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00:34:00,240 --> 00:34:04,200
Speaker 1: Guards Sloan, our producers Rebecca Howell, and our researcher is

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00:34:04,280 --> 00:34:07,880
Speaker 1: Rachel Peterson. The artwork for the show was created by

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00:34:07,880 --> 00:34:12,040
Speaker 1: Steve Penley. Special thanks to the team at Gingwish three sixty.

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00:34:12,440 --> 00:34:14,920
Speaker 1: If you've been enjoying Newtsworld, I hope you'll go to

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00:34:14,920 --> 00:34:18,480
Speaker 1: Apple Podcast and both rate us with five stars and

527
00:34:18,600 --> 00:34:21,080
Speaker 1: give us a review so others can learn what it's

528
00:34:21,080 --> 00:34:25,160
Speaker 1: all about. Right now, listeners of Newtsworld can sign up

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00:34:25,160 --> 00:34:29,240
Speaker 1: from my three free weekly columns at Gingwish three sixty

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00:34:29,320 --> 00:34:33,960
Speaker 1: dot com slash newsletter. I'm nut Gingrich. This is Newtsworld