{"id":352828,"date":"2018-03-19T01:47:55","date_gmt":"2018-03-19T00:47:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=352828"},"modified":"2018-03-19T02:34:46","modified_gmt":"2018-03-19T01:34:46","slug":"russian-interview-putin-others-discusses-geopolitics-nationhood-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/editorials\/russian-interview-putin-others-discusses-geopolitics-nationhood-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian interview with Putin (and others) discusses geopolitics, nationhood, and America"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse<\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/off-guardian.org\/2018\/03\/15\/no-russia-no-world-full-movie-world-order-2018\/<\/a><\/span> discusses and presents a new feature-length, interview-laced, documentary, about the way that Russians, and also Putin, view America, and view the future of Russia. Here are, for me, the highlights from the included video (and I shall link to previous commentaries from me at relevant points, so as to clarify some of the references that are spoken about):<\/span><\/p>\n

7:34- Carla Del Ponte, UN prosecutor on Syrian war crimes: \u201cThe important thing is for peace to prevail, so that civilians can return to their homes, so that refugees return to Syria. I think only Russia can achieve peace in Syria.\u201d<\/i> <\/span><\/p>\n

17:15- A Russian soldier says \u201cAnd all of a sudden, the symphony of the power structures and the Russian people, they joined into one melody. In Spring of 2014 <\/i>[right after the U.S. coup in Ukraine<\/span><\/a>, Crimea broke away from Ukraine and resumed being a Russian province], we understood that we are one people, this is our president, our forefathers are behind us, this is our history \u2014 and all of this combined is our whole.\u201d<\/i> His eloquent expression of nationhood moved me. Though I am not Russian, nor have even visited there, and feel no particular personal identification to any of its many cultures, Russia under Putin might now be occupying much the same significance in world affairs today that my own country, America, did under FDR, as the moral leader of an emerging new international order. We all live in FDR\u2019s shadow. Future generations could find themselves living in Putin\u2019s. (That\u2019s if the American aristocracy won\u2019t so crave war, so that there soon won\u2019t be any future at all.) The threat in FDR\u2019s time was the German aristocracy; the threat in ours is the American aristocracy. Perhaps Russia, during Putin\u2019s leadership, is up to that challenge, as America was during FDR\u2019s. I hope so.<\/span><\/p>\n

23:20- Putin: \u201c[In 2012,] They <\/i>introduced the Magnitsky Act under absolutely imaginary pretexts<\/i><\/span><\/a>. \u2026 50 new sanctions, I think. I\u2019d like to draw your attention to the fact that this is 2012 \u2014 before any events in Ukraine, before the reunification with Crimea \u2014 but sanctions are in full swing! \u2026 They have always attempted to \u2018contain\u2019 the development of our country \u2014 so, I think the answer is simple. It\u2019s just a method against competition. It\u2019s illegitimate, it\u2019s unjust, but that\u2019s how it is. And, of course, it\u2019s an attempt to contain the defense capability of our country.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

27:00- \u201c[In 1991,] we expected that with the end of the Warsaw Pact, NATO would cease to exist too. Or, <\/i>at least, as we were told at the time, this organization would not expand<\/i><\/span><\/a>. We assumed some kind of tectonic changes in international relations to take place, but they did not. It turned out that under the guise of this ideological war, there was also a geopolitical war. For geopolitical interests<\/i> [\u2019The Great Game\u2019 as aristocracies call it]. Secondly, they thought that they no longer had to consider anyone else in their decisions.<\/i> [As Obama often expressed this, the United States is \u201cthe one indispensable nation\u201d<\/span><\/a>, which means that all others are dispensable.] \u2026 They started to support separatism and radicalism in our Caucasus region. They bombed Yugoslavia in 1999 without a resolution from the UNSC<\/i> [U.N. Security Council]. They just spat on everything \u2014 they bombed it, destroyed the country. \u2026 If the people of Yugoslavia strove for independence, maybe it\u2019s good. But did you have to do it by that method? \u2026 I doubt it. I am assured it should not have been done. \u2026 Then Afghanistan. Then Iraq. Then two waves of NATO expansion.\u201d<\/i> <\/span><\/p>\n

33:40- \u201cIn 1992 or 1993, the then <\/i>Mayor <\/i>[of St. Petersburg, Anatoly] Sobchak<\/i><\/span><\/a> took me with him to Bonn, where he met with Chancellor Kohl. At some point, Kohl asked all the attendees to leave <\/i>[but] I was left to translate between the two. \u2026 And that was the first time I heard the Chancellor say, \u2018I don\u2019t see a future for Europe without Russia.\u2019 For me, as a former KGB officer, it was completely unexpected.\u201d<\/i> (Putin continued by making clear that he views Russia as being part of Europe, \u201cculturally and spiritually, its science, its defense potential.\u201d<\/i>)<\/span><\/p>\n

39:00- The documentary announcer criticizes Merkel\u2019s immigration-policy: \u201cAs admitted by German experts, \u2026 4 out of 5 migrants don\u2019t wish to study<\/i> [to learn German and to learn skills to become productive in the economy]. They want to receive benefits.\u201d<\/i> If this is true, then perhaps America\u2019s billionaires are aiming to destroy the social-welfare states in Europe, so as to spread America\u2019s sink-or-swim economy, make the public as desperate as possible. Perhaps that\u2019s one reason why Europe\u2019s role is to take in the people who have lost their homes and their life’s savings in the countries that we\u2019ve bombed and that we\u2019ve aided the jihadists to decimate and destroy \u2014 that it\u2019s in order to flood Europe with culturally alien \u2018third-world\u2019 immigrants, who (with those difficulties) will drain, instead of grow, Europe\u2019s economy.<\/span><\/p>\n

41:25- Putin: \u201cIn some places, liberalism is giving up its positions. \u2026 The multicultural model they tried to build in Europe, not only did it not work, but my <\/i>[European] colleagues who wanted it, today say themselves that it failed.\u201d<\/i> Q: \u201cWill we lose our national identity?\u201d <\/i>A: \u201cUs? No. It\u2019s too dear to us. \u2026<\/i> [Some] Russians convert to Russian Orthodox, other Russians convert to Islam, but, still, together, this is \u2018us\u2019 <\/i>[regardless of religion].\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

56:45- Putin, referring to Ukraine\u2019s violations of the Minsk agreements it had signed that established a pathway by which Donbass would democratically re-enter being part of Ukraine: \u201cThe law on amnesty is not<\/i> [even] being signed<\/i> [by Ukraine]. The law on special status of Donbass<\/i> [within Ukraine] is not signed. Practically<\/i> [on Ukraine\u2019s side] nothing is signed. To the contrary, they signed a law on \u2018de-occupation\u2019, which doesn\u2019t mention the Minsk agreements at all. They do this to themselves, with their own hands.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

1:07- Putin is presented with Western media characterizations of him as an evil man and \u201cPutin\u2019s War on The West,\u201d<\/i> and is asked \u201cWhat\u2019s it like to be the main global villain?\u201d<\/i> He answers: \u201cI have some very good anchors. Those anchors are the interests of the Russian Federation and its people.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

1:14- Q: \u201cWe see the targeted approach to distance our allies from us. They\u2019re working Belarus, Kazakhstan, working Armenia very actively. We see the way they drip poison into their ears. How can we counteract this?\u201d<\/i> A: \u201cWhoever drips poison anywhere will end up drinking it themselves, at the end of the day. We have a good saying about it: \u2018Don\u2019t spit into the well <\/i>[from which we all drink]\u2019.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

1:27- Putin: \u201cWhat we have to do in the near future is to ensure that it is technological innovation that is the main driver behind Russia\u2019s development. If we can achieve this \u2014 which includes all of its components: digital technology, biology, fundamental sciences \u2014 then without a doubt, Russia will preserve the status of a great superpower.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

On 3 June 2014, I headlined \u201cHow and Why the U.S. Has Re-Started the Cold War (The Backstory that Precipitated Ukraine\u2019s Civil War)\u201d<\/span><\/a> and, with a number of graphs, showed the drastic improvement in Russia\u2019s economy under Putin, and in the lifespans and other welfare-indicators of the Russian people, and I explained why the U.S. aristocracy want to get rid of him. But, given that America\u2019s anti-Russian war (which has thus far included Serbia, Iraq, Georgia, Syria, Ukraine, and other Russia-friendly governments, and is now moving on to Russia itself) was established on 24 February 1990<\/span><\/a>, before Putin was even in the picture, there\u2019s no reason for him to take The West\u2019s insults personally. This has been the U.S. Government\u2019s plan even before there was any President Putin. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of\u00a0 They\u2019re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010<\/i><\/span><\/a>,<\/i> and of<\/span> \u00a0<\/i>CHRIST\u2019S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse https:\/\/off-guardian.org\/2018\/03\/15\/no-russia-no-world-full-movie-world-order-2018\/ discusses and presents a new feature-length, interview-laced, documentary, about the way that Russians, and also Putin, view America, and view the future of Russia. Here are, for me, the highlights from the included video (and I shall link to previous commentaries from me at relevant points, so as to clarify some of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1254,"featured_media":221652,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461,519],"tags":[535,543,524,523,755,49,76,1024],"class_list":{"0":"post-352828","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-editorials","8":"category-newswire","9":"tag-global-news","10":"tag-putin","11":"tag-russia","12":"tag-ukraine","13":"tag-usa","14":"tag-usa-news","15":"tag-warfare","16":"tag-ww3"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1254"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}