T. Belman. This interview was informative and fascinating. Tucker was out of his depth. Putin was brilliant. I particularly liked Putin’s explanation of the need for denazification. Putin talked about the dollar, the world economy, China and BRICS.
I thoroughly enjoyed the two hours.
Tucker Carlson, X February 8, 2024
It’s not military adventurism. There are real threats we are faced with still from muslim terrorists.
Hi, Sebastien.
Congratulations, on being the first one here to respond to Putin’s center-staging of Khmelnitski:
Putin definitely belongs in the “Russian Nationalist” category. Peloni, Felix, Belman and others completely ignore that awful era of Russian antisemitism; but one person who definitely does NOT ignore it is Putin, who provided Carlson, with apparent pride, with physical evidence of the Russia-Khmelnitski connection.
Peloni,
I accept your apology about the confusion. It’s understandable. I cannot hide my admiration of Laura, though, one of my great frenemies here. She makes me think of Rhea Perlman, in “Canadian Bacon”
https://www.alamy.com/john-candy-rhea-perlman-film-canadian-bacon-1998-characters-sheriff-bud-boomer-honey-director-michael-moore-08-june-1995-warning-this-photograph-is-for-editorial-use-only-and-is-the-copyright-of-polygram-video-andor-the-photographer-assigned-by-the-film-or-production-company-and-can-only-be-reproduced-by-publications-in-conjunction-with-the-promotion-of-the-above-film-a-mandatory-credit-to-polygram-video-is-required-the-photographer-should-also-be-credited-when-known-no-commercial-use-can-be-granted-without-written-authority-from-the-film-company-image476576547.html
I did not focus on these events; Putin did. It was also Putin, who blamed Poland for starting WWII, by refusing to bow to Hitler’s “reasonable” demands. As Denys Davydov pointed out, Putin has an obsession with Poland; and as I am pointing out, the Russian President’s defense of Hitler is in stark contrast to his hypocritical claims of being concerned about “denazification”.
Felix,
you would also do well to note these things, in your ramblings.
@ Felix
@Peloni
Yes, I agree. It’s a good video. But, I am also hilariously reminded (as I am by nearly everything, as you may have noticed) of this quote which you used to see on tee shirts by Robert Fulghum, author of “Everything i ever needed to know I learned in Kindergarden”
😀
Let’s be sure and share this video with every leftist we know who would never ever ever vote for Trump under any circumstances but might otherwise vote for Biden.
@Felix
Good video by Kennedy. He is an articulate speaker, capable of clearly diving into the root of the matter in such a short clip.
Robert Kennedy JR
https://youtu.be/LD6kvDHbIYY?si=b7f5WnI1iqz_vdTt
(This is a very sharp 3 minute video. Quite amazing clarity about what Ukraine and NATO is all about. Don’t miss it)
For Jews the really big problem is that if the documents re Ukraine since 1991 are not being investigated in an objective way then those like Michael and Laura do not have a leg to stand on when it comes to the false claims of Hamas/Fatah and against Israel.
The whole question of verification is a UNITY, cannot just be in switching off mode.
There must be a technical name for that. Would fraud do? Bouts of deafness selectively applied seems too much like playing a game. Over a million dead is too much.
I could never understand this very common reply “But it was never written down”.
But the promises to Russian leaders were made by many NATO leaders and who are still alive and active, such as Clinton and Burns.
Just ask them Tucker.
The problem is that other press do not do their job. They are instead given a free pass.
I have never seen Bush being confronted over the invasion of Iraq.
The promised to Yeltsin Surely can be verified.
@Laura
I didn’t twist myself into knots, but I would hardly proscribe something which I, myself would have done in Putin’s place, and I would certainly seek out an alliance with Iran if I felt my nation was at risk of being overcome by a belligerent, expansionist, military empire such as the US, and I had no other choice. If you were honest, you would admit as much as well. As I noted, this was a result of America’s isolating Putin, nothing else.
But do please tell us if you were the leader of an isolated nation, without any allies,, and in need of additional arms to win the war, would you simply capitulate? I would suggest that anyone would respond as Putin did, and if they did not, that would have been an unforced error for which the citizenry of that nation would suffer.
Also, I am not anti-American, not even slightly. I am simply anti-military adventurism and anti-globalist. I object to fighting wars which could be won by diplomatic means, and America has capitulated all efforts of diplomacy in recent years. Also, I have simply described what the US has done in Serbia, Libya and Iraq as being nothing less than war crimes. Libya was a modern, moderate nation, an ally of the US, which had given up its nuclear program, but due to their efforts to become closer to Russia, that nation was destroyed, and more than ten years later it remains a wasteland of ruin. The war in Iraq was started because of anthrax which came from an American bioweapons lab. Meanwhile there are American biolabs all across Ukraine. While I do not hate America as you suggest, I do see these actions conducted by America as being simply unAmerican. Since you do not, please, tell me, how do you excuse these crimes. This is sincere question if you will answer it, but like most of the questions I raise to you, you will likely not respond, but I do hope that you do.
“…in the course of their campaigns Chmielnicki’s followers acted with savage and unremitting cruelty against the Jews. Chmielnicki aimed at establishing an autonomous Ukraine, if not under Poland, then under the Ottoman Empire, Moscow, or Sweden. After his death, this plan ended with the annexation of eastern Ukraine to Muscovite Russia (1667). Chmielnicki was bent on eradicating the Jews from the Ukraine. From the social aspect, he aspired to transform the Cossack leaders into the ruling aristocracy of the principality while returning the peasantry to serfdom. His activity brought destruction and ruin to the land and did not assure its independence. Nevertheless, the members of the Ukrainian nationalist movement in recent generations have come to see him as a symbol of the awakening of the Ukrainian people, while Russian nationalists regarded him as a “great patriot” who brought about the unification of Ukraine with Russia. During World War II, a military decoration was named after him, and in 1954 the town *Proskurov was renamed Khmelnitski; the name of Chmielnicki was also added to that of the town Pereyaslav (Pereyaslav-Khmelnitski).”
“…the Jewish settlement in Ukraine west of the Dnieper nevertheless continued. The Polish king authorized the forced converts to return to Judaism. The Councils of the Lands concerned themselves with the redemption of captives and the salvation of converts: “Many souls of Israel which were taken into captivity assimilated among and were almost lost among them … we have written an authorization to all the communities and to every place where there is a minyan [quorum] of Jews … to redeem every soul”; various tariffs and the share of the different communities in the acts of redemption were also established (Pinkas Medinat Lita, no. 452). Jews began to return to their localities in Volhynia at the end of 1648, and a short while later were again living throughout the territory up to the Dnieper. Despite the memory of the holocaust of 1648–49, this region was one of the most densely populated by Jews during the 18th and 19th centuries.”
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/chmielnicki-khmelnitski-bogdan-x00b0
@Michael
In fact, my rebuke of you should have been addressed to Laura, as they were her words you were quoting. Please, accept my apologies as they were off target.
Also, I did respond to your comment on the Cossacks but my comment was limited to your supportable, IMO, claim that the events of 1654 were in fact “the real beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine” for all the reasons which I described and which you failed to actually respond, beyond misquoting me, on which I also responded to you. You say that I did not address the topic of 1654, even as Putin found that date relevant. Well, as I explained earlier in this thread to you, those events are not relevant to the current invasion, only to the grievances and distinctive perspectives of those grievances held by the Monists (Nazi/Nationalists) and the Pluralists (ethnic Russians). The year of 1991 was when Ukraine became an accepted independent state, and the guarantees which were described on that occaision are what should be argued out, not the controversies around how you or Putin like to interpret the rebellion of 1654, as I explained to you previously.
I did fail to address Putin’s corruption of the history around the rape of Poland, but this was due to the fact that I believe it requires a much greater response than I had time to make at the time, and which I unfortunately still can not pursue. In any event I will address it in a few days.
Again, accept my regrets for my previous rebuke.
Peloni, you said
Before the age of Xerox machines, we used to copy things using an ultra-thin paper. Your skin would qualify as a good “tracing paper”.
I did respond to your remarks of worshipful adoration of Israel’s enemy, Putin, but you completely ignored them. Enjoy yourself, revelling in your delusions. Some issues your refuised to address:
Bogdan Khmelnitski : Putin made this the centerpiece of his “history”, presenting Carlson with official copies of Khmelnitski’s appeal to Russia to help him in his systematic slaughter of the Poles and Jews. You pooh-poohed that incident as unimportant.
Putin absolved the Soviet Union of its collaborating with Nazi Germany, in the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. Instead, he blamed Poland for frustrating a “fair” Nazi regime in Germany by denying them the Polish Corridor. He used this reason, to accuse Poland of starting WWII. You made no comment on this.
You also refused to comment on a point that Putin labored on ad nauseum — the accusation that the Ukrainians are not a legitimate people, nor a legitimate country. This is the cornerstone of hid policies against Ukraine — policies that oddly resemble those of Hamas toward Israel.
There is more, but I will not expend any effort on it. Your devotion to Putin is set in stone; and anyone who dares assail it is lambasted . That’s the way it is here, and Laura has hit that target dead center.
@Michael
Rather than abusing me with your adhominem attacks, why are you so shy about actually responding to what I wrote. If I am wrong, tell me how I am wrong without mischaracterizing me as does seem to be the limit of your argument. I mean, if I am simply anti-American, as you ignorantly claim, it should be an easy task to intelligently demsontrate why my comment is wrong and where it is in error. Your lack of competence to do so would actually demonstrate that you have no argument beyond mischaracterizing me. Indeed, if the details included in the article are indeed false, show us what you based this fact upon. If the article is correct, show us how it does not support my statement. None of what I said is unassailable if it is in fact untrue, and your use of an abusive nature on this topic does little to credit your position. So please respond to my argument with something more meaningful than your dislike of me.
We can discuss the matter as intelligent men, but only if we behave as intelligent men.
Hi, Laura
This is the truest thing said here so far.
@Laura
Russia is fighting a NATO armed, trained and funded army in Ukraine which was specifically raised to face off against Russia and which was granted historic financial and military means to face and defeat Russia. Also Russians have died by the tens or hundreds of thousands, and the real number is irrelevant to establish the fact that the US has had no such similar event since WWII, which was what my comment referenced. Additionally, the Russian homeland is daily under threat of being bombed by Ukraine, and has done so on far more occaisions than actually took place in the continental US during WWII, reinforcing what I stated as being as described.
The US has had no such similar threat facing it in the past decades, none at all, which again was the reference I made.
@Laura
Oh, but it is not BS:
Russians Around the World Are Facing Abuse and Harassment Amid the Ukraine Conflict
I can’t believe you have forgotten the wave of anti-Russian sentiment which swept the world after Russia invaded, and by anti-Russian I am referencing the abuse suffered on people, restaurants, animals(not joking), trees(still not joking) simply because they were Russian or had Russian names or had the word Russia in their names. I am not related to Russia in the slightest, but I found the campaign against the Russiian public to be quite offensive.
This demonstrated the the animus in the West against the Russian people, and while all of this may have evaded your notice, it was not lost on the Russians. For those in the West hoping that the Russian people would rise up and overthrow Putin’s govt following the invasion, this campaign of Russian animus was an unforced error of some significance.
Well, Carlson is a clown so that’s not surprising. He only challenges interviewees when it’s safe to do so on American soil interviewing American politicians. Apparently, the irony is lost on him as he trashes America for supposedly suppressing freedom of the press and speech while shilling for a truly dangerous authoritarian dictator in Putin and Russia where there really is no freedom of speech and press.
When was the last time Russia engaged in a war with a peer competitor and faced a persistent threat to its own homeland?
Yes, not that any of this will wake up the putinoids and Russophiles.
Like I said, Peloni, there’s nothing so horrible Putin and Russia can do, including against Israel that you won’t twist yourself into knots to defend him. Your support of Putin is irrational as is your anti-Americanism.
I call BS on that.
We are facing a world which is being highly disturbed by the very understandable changes in the overall system. These changed are systematic.
Study of past history is relevant and good.
But such study to obscure role of tyrants like Bush on present events is really evil.
On this issue of Ukraine Michael provides a cover for the NeoCon ideology.
I am certain about this because he never defines these modern events
The trickery of SILENCE
@Michael
Let me correct you once again, as I specifically referenced the post Soviet period when Ukraine became a state not 2014,
Hence, the clock should begin ticking in 1991, not 2014, when the nation of Ukraine was wished into existence based on boundaries which had never before stood as a single state in all of history, boundaries which are today being challenged due to violations of modern agreements, not because of the quarrel which existed between the Cossacks and the Russian Czar.
Notably Putin referenced his description of the history as background:
Putin took more than 30 seconds or a minute in his telling, but it was given as background to the tangible tensions between the Monists and Pluralists who were citizens of modern Ukraine. Hence the history, while quite interesting, is not uniquely agreed upon, and is also not entirely relevant to the US manipulation which actually violated the BM, and NATO expansion which violated guarantees made to Yeltsin that no such expansion would take place.
Peloni,
First, let me correct myself: Putin twice mentioned “1654”, not 1652. This refers to the time when Russia first invaded Ukraine, presumably to help the intensely Jew-hating Khmielnitsky. From there, Putin rehearses his false history, saying that the “Ukrainian people” were an invention of Poland and Austria.
Concerning Poland, Putin would have us believe that the Poles collaborated with Hitler, and that this was the cause of WWII. Of course, the history I grew up with notes that it was Russia, not Poland, which collaborated with Hitler and allied themselves with him. But let’s disregard this, because it would destroy Putin’s purported concern with “de-Nazifying” the Ukraine.
I know you’ve said I should ignore all this, and reset my clock to 2014. If that were pertinent here, I would have done it; but it was Putin himself, unbidden, who brought up this history.
Denys Davydov, a Crimean Ukrainian who has been closely following all these matters, does a very good critique of Putin’s presentation:
https://youtu.be/uIWbuhfh7DA
@ketzel2
You are too generous with your kind words, but I thank you all the same.
Regarding Orban, You may be correct that my estimation of the man is not well based, and I do recall your report challenging the sincerity of Orban’s opposition to the immigration racket. I have nothing more than an preponderance of evidence in what I read to base my conclusions on the man, such as they are. This being stated, why do you believe that antisemitic attacks are at an all time low in Hungary, or at least they were last I read on this topic about a year ago, while the rest of Europe is boiling over in antisemitism, if it is not due to the distinctions of the respective immigration policies? In any event, this is a question worth pondering. Also, whereas I have not dismissed your report out of hand, I am still convinced that Orban stands as the greatest hope which Europe has for the future, just as he remains Israel’s only true ally in Europe now that Poland has fallen in line with the Liberal World Order.
@Peloni, you are a very learned person and bring much value to this blog and to me personally, as I am not a scholar, however you do have your blind spots. I lived and traveled in Eastern Europe for three years, and I can assure you that the immigration related things I saw in person were not organic, but obviously sponsored by world organisations, over the objections of the local people. Orban has a reputation for this, that and the other thing, but like Putin, he is not what people want him to be. And this issue is very much related to Israel, because the same organisations that want white people to go away are the ones that want Jews to go away. That is the most likely explanation for those Katyusha rockets.
@Michael
I disagree with your perspective that this period (the year was 1654 by the way) was the beginning of Russia’s invasion, as the troubles from which we are dealing go back centuries as described by the Pluralist (ie Ukrainian ethnic Russian) perspective or well over a millennium, as described by the Monists (ie the Nationalists/Nazi) perspective.
Notably, the resulting memory wars between these groups have led to the underlying conflicts which have actually undermined the stability and viability of the modern Ukrainian state which only came to be recognized in 1991. Ukraine is, or was, something of a Frankenstein state constructed out of a series of political conveniences. This led to it having any number of minority clefts which bear significant animus towards one another based on the respective perspectives of these memory wars which have existed between the populations of Ukraine for a hundreds years now.
In fact, memory wars are at the root of the trouble which has been with Ukraine since long before Ukraine was Ukraine. I don’t support the notion that what transpired in the centuries which lead upto the age of the Horde, or in the centuries which have passed since that terrible time, should drive the conversation of what took place in 2014, but the reality is that the disagreements about these origins, which form the very distinct perspectives of what are in truth the Monist and Pluralist views of Ukrainian history, are the kernel of friction which was twisted by American intervention into Ukrainian politics beginning back in ~2003, and has led to the dual American putschs, commonly described as the Orange Revolution and the Maidan Coup in turn.
The Russians look to the history as depicted by Abbot Innocent, which described the people of what is today Ukraine, Russia and Belarus as being originally one people. The Ukrainians find greater value to be found in the research of Mikhailo Hrushevsky which looks further back to the the Iron Age of Scythia to establish the basis of the two peoples doctrine. The irony is that these two summaries which form the initial analysis of the competing views of the one vs two peoples of Ukraine conversation were actually first described in tomes which were actually written during the 17th and 19th Centuries, respectively.
So the key to solving the riddle which question is more mythical, the one or two peoples, ie the perspectives of the Monists vs Pluralist, is strongly influenced by answering the question when did history actually begin. Even after crossing that divide, the dueling versions of the history between the two camps further diverge as we come closer in history to our modern age. It is a complex history and requires us to recognize the fact that while discussing these matters about the region occupied by modern Ukraine, we are actually speaking about the history of more than the Rus which never approached the shores of the Black Sea. In fact, the modern nation of Ukraine as we knew it a decade ago, ie from Crimea to Lviv, encompasses territory which far exeeds the territory described in the domain of Khmelnytsky, for instance. In fact, the nation state of Ukraine is itself a modern myth, a state created out of political convenience and political necessity, and if we are to look to the medieval age for the basis of this modern state, it must be understood that by doing so we are manipulating the history to serve a alternate purpose as there never was a nation extending from Crimea to Kiev before 1991.
Which brings us back to what I noted in one of my earlier posts to keshel2 that we must look to the agreements which brought the Ukrainian state into existence in the post Soviet era. By judging the violations of these documents, we will be far better served than fighting memory wars which only partially tell the truth of what took place in the past, as each side seems to prefer for some reason.
Peloni,
refer to my “chit chat” with Felix at
https://www.israpundit.org/chit-chat/comment-page-123/#comment-63356000272624
I speak briefly about the Cossacks there.
@ketzel2
Just a bit of context which might be relevant to this report. As I noted below, several posts back, the Cossack’s were shipped out of Ukraine, and elsewhere under Stalins policy of removing the warring Cossack Cleft. This policy was later revisited in the post-Soviet era, I believe 2004 or 2006, and the Cossack’s were invited back to their former homes, but not many returned. I don’t know that these people in the report you shared are related to the Cossack’s, but they well may be. It may also be that they are from the Caucuses unrelated to the Cossack return program. Russia has many forces fighting from the Caucuses, and this may well be the price for their significant role in such vicious battles as Bakhmut. Do recall that Russia has a vast number of ethnicities, but they are all Russians, and many of them are in fact Muslim.
Do recall that the Dombas has been depopulated, first from the Ukrainians killing the ethnic Russians for 8yrs, followed by millions of people fleeing that war, to the Russians invading and killing the Ukrainian nationalists, followed by millions more fleeing that war. Few people having left Ukraine will be too eager to return, and this has been stated many times over the years. Yet this region is rich with resources as I noted before, and this means the opportunity will draw in new people, and this will include Russian Muslims in some number. They are, however, Russians, which is far from the ‘immigration racket’ as you suggest.
Russia and Hungary are both adamantly opposed to the immigration racket.
In any event, I don’t mean to keep you up, so have a good rest.
@Peloni, it’s past my bedtime, so this will be my last post, I just had to share a new but related story, I read a twitter thread that documents that Russia is moving Muslim Central Asians into Mariupol. Someday, fans of Russia will say, but Mariupol has always been Muslim.
https://twitter.com/Harpyborea/status/1755862204359086301
This reminds me of what I’ve shared on this blog earlier, when I witnessed Middle Eastern males boarding luxurious tour buses in Belgrade, bound for the Hungarian border. I knew then that Victor Orban was no Hungarian nationalist, but an accessory to the immigration racket. And recently it has become obvious that Orban is more allied with Russia than with the rest of Europe (opposing Sweden’s appication to NATO). So it’s all related, Serbia, a Chinese client state and Russia ally, Hungary, a Russia ally, both facilitating Middle Eastern migration into the rest of Europe, and now we see Russia replacing dead Ukrainians with fertile Muslim Central Asians. When will Russia apologists see what they’re up to? Good night.
@ketzel2
Yes, it has been a long time since America was actually engaged in a war with a peer competitor, in which large numbers of dead soldiers arrived home and a persistent threat to the homeland was a real concern.
Regarding Britney Griner, drug possession by visiting foreigners is a big deal in Russia and elsewhere around the world. Do recall the case of Naama Issachar, the Israeli who was jailed in Russia for the same crime. As to Putin using these high profile cases to his advantage to trade for Russians from the West, these crimes are crimes in Russia and Neither Griner nor Issachar claimed that they were innocent, to my knowledge in any event, just that they should be let go. They were just lucky that they were arrested in Russia and not in Indonesia.
@Peloni
Look how far back you had to reach in American history, when people who looked foreign were abused. Russia is that way now. BTW, I read Gershkovich’s Wiki page, and whoever wrote that thinks his charges were deliberately inflated because Russia planned all along to trade him for real spies. Remember the black lesbian basketball player who went to a gulag for possession of hash oil. She was traded for a spy. That’s how Russia plays.
@ketzel2
I wouldn’t bet on that being the case. Do recall that the Japanese Americans, who were American citizens, were locked up, simply for being Japanese after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and for which there was no basis beyond the simple hatred of Japanese following that event.
The Russians in America have already become the victims of much abuse following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and this was just due to Russia taking on an American proxy, where there were no American dead, and no attack on the American homeland. Start sending Americans home in body bags as the Russians are today receiving their war dead, or have a few Russian hypersonic missiles land in the US, and the bias against Russians which has already been revealed in the US and elsewhere will very likely manifest itself in ways which will likely leave your Russian neighbors more than bothered.
@Peloni, I live in San Diego and am surrounded by Russians and every other nationality. I’m confident that no matter how bad things get, my neighbors will not be bothered by anyone. This is because Americans are great people and Russians aren’t.
@ketzel2
Let us be clear. As a committed American isolationist, Carlson would never raise a subject so tangential to his values as he holds Israel to be. In fact, he would probably consider it unAmerican to do so.
Regarding the the kid with the Jewish sounding name, all nations at war act foolishly on the home front. The greater the threat in which they perceive themselves to be, the more foolish a given country will react. In fact, I have no way to judge if this fellow is guilty as charged or if he is being charged due to the significant threat which Russia recognizes it faces from the US. This being stated, it is an undeniable fact that the US media is completely blended with the US govt, and the WSJ in particular acts as a third arm of the administration. Hence, it would easily not surprise me to learn that this fellow was smuggling details about Russia’s arms production out of Russia as he is charged. Still, his name would not protect him from being persecuted falsely in Russia, but I would argue that that would be gravy for the goose in reference to either Russia or Ukraine. Notably when you consider that he is an American reporter working for an organization closely tied to the American govt with a Jewish name in Russia while the US is fomenting a war to regime change the govt of Russia…well, if nothing else is certain about the situation, this fellow had guts just to be caught in Russia, with or without the documents he is claimed to have been snookering.
I admit I didn’t watch the whole interview. Can anyone tell me if Carlson and Putin discussed the Katyusha rockets Russia supplies Hezbollah with, which have been launched at Israel for years, including a few hours ago? Should I watch the end of the interview to find out, or did they think it too unimportant to discuss. BTW, that Wall Street Journal reporter who is imprisoned in Russia has a Jewish name, is that why they think he’s a spy?
@Sebastien
Yes, it was a very interesting conversation, even as Carlson was utterly outclassed by Putin. I should have counted the number of times when Carlson had the look on his face of “what the h*** is this guy talking about and how do I respond without appearing to be a complete idiot”. Regardless, Putin was able to make his case to the world, and the world finally heard it unfiltered by Western manipulations. Some will ignore his comments entirely, and others will look for reasons to distract from them, and yet others, who are given to pursuing the history which Putin detailed (the modern as well as the medieval history), will find a great deal can be garnered from Putin’s conversation with the nonplussed Carlson.
@Laura
I know this was not directed at me, but I stand in complete agreement with Ted’s assessment of the the events leading to this war, so permit me my own response, such as it is. In fact, Ukraine’s version requires us to believe lies are true, and I would suggest that this is not what is meant by having an open mind.
The Ukrainian Nazi’s carried out the Maidan coup with the full knowledge and support of the US govt. They murdered innocent people to achieve the overthrow of the legitimate Ukrainian govt, and when these Nazi’s were going to be cut out of the newly formed govt, they threatened to overthrow the govt a second time. Due to the US backed illegitimate govt taking power in Kiev, the ethnic Russians demanded autonomy, and the US backed govt raised Battalions of fascists, rapists and murderers so that they could go to war with the ethnic Russians instead. After the Ukrainain forces were humiliated by letting themselves be surrounded twice (Syrski was ironically responsible for the second of these memorable defeats), the West agreed to enact the Minsk accords, but their agreement to do so was only to gain the time to build up Ukraine’s pathetic military so that they could face off against Russia, as leaders of Ukraine, Germany and France have testified. Furthermore, when war broke out, and the Ukrainians wanted to end the war, they were threatened by the West to not do so, and so the war went on.
I have never had a dog in this fight, but the facts speak pretty clearly as to who is right and who is wrong, speaking from an open mind.
As to Russia being an ally of our enemy, the Russian alliance with Iran has been a consequence of the proxy war being waged against Russia by the West, demonstrating the fact that continuing or supporting the Neocon project against Russia simultaneously supports a threat against Israel as well. In truth, I don’t fault Putin for seeking allies where he could find them, as he is being pursued by the greatest military threat in the world, even as it has been led by political incompetence such that it has a strong record of being defeated over the past decades. Also, I do not dismiss the threat which the alliance between Russia and Iran represents to Israel, but this concern, even as great as it stands, should not warp our views of the facts, such as we find them, with an open mind of course. Indeed, if we allow ourselves to change our view of history based upon such subjective needs of the moment, it wouldn’t be history which we would be discussing, but propaganda instead.
Good interview and Putin presents a strong case though it pains me to say this since I’m having so much fun teasing Felix.
@ketzel2
1. The provinces were not originally Russian. In fact, this was part of the long description of the history of the region which Putin described whereby the ancient Ukrainian state became part of Russia, and later, due to various claims, changed their mind, later characterizing their oath of allegiance to the Czar as being made under duress, leading to the ‘borderlands’ becoming something of a disputed region between the Cossack and Russians. This well predates the era of Stalin, but during the age of Stalin, Old Joe did in fact reward the Cossack population, who mostly rose up to ally themselves with the Nazi’s, by deporting them to Siberia. Even those Cossack who actually remained loyal to Russia and fought in the Red Army during in WWII did not evade this translocation of the Cossack cleft. In any event, these matters are complicated, as the Cossacks and Russians only limited their cyclic pattern of slaughtering one another based upon their ability to actually do so over the centuries. None of these memory wars, however, are relevant to international law and the modern agreements under which the Soviet Union broke up into its many parts (see below). In the years after the Soviet Union broke up, there was a program whereby the descendants of the Cossacks were able to return to their home countries (the policy of Cossack deportation was not just pursued in Ukraine).
2. There are far more than natural gas deposits involved in these lands, as the soil of Ukraine is some of the most fertile land in all the world.
3. I am unaware of Ukraine altering the situation at the Zaporizhzhya power plant the day before the invasion, but there were veiled threats made regarding the loss of nuclear weapons to use against Russia, and given Ukraine’s possession of both the biolabs across the country and the Zap power plant near the Russian border, these potential sources of WMDs would have been obvious first targets in any invasion, and Russia quickly took possession of the Zap power plant. The plant was, however, shut down because of Ukrainian attacks, not because of Russian control of it, as was made clear by the UN inspectors who came under direct Ukrainian assault during their inspections.
When the Soviet Union broke up, several agreements were made to support the new normal in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Russians, unlike those in Finland, were to immediately have full rights to their heritage, their property, and their citizenship as guaranteed under the original Ukrainian Constitution, which was later ‘redrafted’ following the Nazi/Monist overthrow of the legitimate Ukrainian govt in the US brokered coup. These rights were completely eroded by the consequences of the Maidan Coup and the inability of the US to control the fallout of the coup which they began.
Additionally, the Budapest Memorandum, was betrayed by the West over and over again in the decade before 2014, but it was quite thoroughly and openly shredded when the West refused to allow the Ukrainian govt to consider not joining the EU. This is what set off the Maidan Coup.
Under the agreements signed in the BM, there was to be no influence (economic, political or military) pressed on Ukraine by Russia or the West, yet the US openly boasted that they put $5 Billion into Ukraine in the decade prior to the Maidan Coup. The financial ‘aid’ paid out to Ukraine by the US, which came to play no small part during the Orange Revolution, were nothing, however, as compared to the outrageous role played by the US during the Maidan Coup.
So while the history is relevant to describe the frictions which were exploited during the Madian Coup and the decade which came before and after the coup, it is the Western violations of international agreements and the Monist/Nazi violation of simple rights of the ethnic Russians which pushed those long held tensions into open war
Hi, Laura
Elegantly put! I agree! But in today’s world, where men go to girls’ bathrooms, Americans are thrown into prison for visiting the US Capitol, opposition candidates are indicted for questioning election results, dictators like Bashar Assad and Xi Jinping are put in charge of the world’s human rights, a “miracle vaccine” that is killing millions is mandated, American demonstrators declare the US flag to be “fascist” and tear down monuments to our founding fathers, insanity no longer seems to be a minority condition.
I’ve known for some time, that Putin is an inveterate liar. The interview has informed me further — that he is boring.
It’s hard to believe all of this Putin worship on a pro-Israel site. You people are nuts.
U.S. Is World’s Largest Oil and Natural Gas Producer—Despite Biden’s Energy-Constraining Policies https://www.heritage.org/coal-oil-natural-gas/commentary/us-worlds-largest-oil-and-natural-gas-producer-despite-bidens
Of course you embraced putin’s version. Nuts! If you had an open mind you would consider Ukraine’s version of events and at least post those.
US is the aggressor in Russia’s war on Ukraine? Also insane. Is your support for Russia just an extension of your anti-Americanism? The Russians are viciously antisemitic. This is a fact. It is the Russians who need to be denazified. Peruse Russian accounts on social media and you’ll see for yourself. Putin is a mass murdering monster but he’s wildly popular with right wingers in the west. It’s embarrassing and disgraceful. It’s especially disgraceful from people who love Israel. I get that you hate America, but at least you should consider what’s in Israel’s interest and it certainly isn’t empowering putin.
Denazification? Coming from someone who supports Iran and hamas. Your worship of putin is revolting. This fiend is an enemy of Israel, but for some odd reason he gets a free pass from you and other right wingers. Not just a free pass, but everyone here but me is a putin cheerleader. Insane.
For a pro-Ukraine commentary on the interview, I recommend the vid I just watched by Chuck Holton, who has a lot of experience covering the war in Ukraine itself, has been there many times. He’s a Christian Zionist and American patriot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAwxs3gHDAo
It’s a long talk of over an hour, so I’ll mention the 3 things he discusses that I haven’t heard before. Fascinating material if true, and how would I know, but it should be considered. 1. The provinces that were the subject of the original trouble weren’t organically Russian. I didn’t know that, it changes everything if true. Holton says it used to be full of Ukrainians, but during the Holodomor, Stalin sent Russians in there, and Ukraine lost population at that time because they starved to death. I knew that part, but I have never heard, before Holton, that those provinces were Ukrainian before Stalin murdered the natives and bussed in Russians.
2. Natural gas deposits have been discovered in those provinces, so this is about grabbing natural resources, rather than protecting Russians as per the conventional wisdom.
3. Putin attacked Ukraine hours after Ukraine took their nuclear power plants off the grid with Russia and reconfigured the plants to supply power only to Ukraine. Russia attacked the Zaporizhia plant first, so now no one can get the power. Russia didn’t have the engineers to run the plant and tried to force Ukrainians to operate it for Russia, but that didn’t work.
Please don’t argue with me about this, it is not my material and I don’t know if Holton is right, wrong, or what. I’m offering it here, not to debate, but as new to me information others may find interesting. I will not defend Holton’s position, it is not my position, I literally had no idea of what he said until I heard him say it a few minutes ago. Feel free to correct these points, I am interested in more background info, but this is not my stuff, I know nothing!
One more interesting thing he mentioned is that Russian Manchuria is bigger than Ukraine and used to be part of China, since the 2nd century. Holton thinks that if Russia collapses, China will take it back. Holton thinks the Manchuria issue is an example of Putin’s hypocrisy, i.e. Putin tells his version of Ukrainian history from the 9th century but doesn’t mention an even bigger piece of land that was part of another country from the 2nd century.
My feeling is that
1. All hands are on deck now aim to bury this interview
2. One thing working against us is that there is already total misinformation about Putin
3. To get full value is needed a good knowledge already about wide areas of history
4. Since that is not there this event has to be an ongoing process
All of that is a massive undertaking
Clearly, the US is the aggressor in the Ukraine war.
Putin didn’t surprise me at all. I fully embraced his version of events from the beginning. Anyone with an open mind would have come to the same conclusioon.
Vladimir Putin is either the most powerful or second most powerful person in the world depending upon which source we consult. Given the size and advanced nature of Russia’s nuclear arsenal and Russia’s position as a major energy supplier, I would lean in the direction that he is the most powerful person in the world. As such, any world leader and country wishing to survive let along thrive is going to need working relations with him and his team. I’m sure this was a fascinating inverview. When I can find the time, I will listen to it.
@Peloni
Your outline is very helpful.
Timestamps by topic:
H/T Dr. Paul Alexander