Latest / International Flavor: Where the Truth Tastes Better / Victory Day, Putin’s Red Lines, Armenia’s Drift, Hormuz Shockwaves, and Karaganov’s Warning of a Wider World War Ahead

Transcript

Victory Day, Putin’s Red Lines, Armenia’s Drift, Hormuz Shockwaves, and Karaganov’s Warning of a Wider World War Ahead · International Flavor: Where the Truth Tastes Better

0:00
Hello, good morning, welcome.
0:02
I am Samuel Trapp.
0:04
This is International Flavor.
0:06
You are listening to DAM Radio.
0:09
I am pre-recording this show the evening
0:12
of the 10th of May because I shall
0:15
be traveling in the morning.
0:17
Lots of interesting news to go over.
0:19
Well, I only say that so you don't
0:21
phone in on today's program.
0:24
A lot of stuff went on, a lot
0:27
of interesting events in the world.
0:31
I spent some time watching Soloveyov, which, you
0:38
know, I was really worried about the May
0:40
Day, well, worried, I suppose that's not the
0:44
right word to say.
0:45
I was wondering, you know, watching with interest
0:49
whether or not the May Day, I'm sorry
0:55
it's not May Day, May Day is the
0:57
first of May, Victory Day parades in Moscow
1:03
would be attacked by the Ukrainians.
1:09
They were not and that's actually a positive
1:14
set of events that that didn't happen.
1:18
However, they did attack in other locations.
1:28
There were protests around America also over Israel
1:35
and tax dollars.
1:37
I don't know if you've seen any of
1:38
that that I wanted to get to.
1:41
There was a condition that Putin put for
1:44
speaking with Zelensky.
1:50
I watched a, so I watched Soloveyov on
1:53
Sunday night, the Sunday show, and it came
1:57
out, it comes out early in the afternoon
1:59
actually, and so I had a chance to
2:02
watch it earlier in the day and Soloveyov
2:07
did a, for Victory Day, he did a
2:10
two, three day tour around the front and
2:16
he toured with a, I forget the nomenclature
2:22
of the brigade that he was traveling with,
2:24
but he traveled with a brigade that he
2:29
was with them for, geez, at least overnight.
2:32
He spent a lot of time with them
2:33
and lots of show and they were talking
2:37
about some drone activity, air defense.
2:42
The commander spent a lot of time with
2:44
them.
2:45
They went out and saw the launch of
2:46
a few drones.
2:47
They saw the knocking down of some Ukrainian
2:52
drones because they have anti-drone forces as
2:56
well.
2:57
They had a couple of pretty interesting interviews
3:02
that went on and if these things are
3:04
really that accurate, it was, I tell you
3:09
what, the Russians are getting, they're getting a
3:14
lot of experience from this, a lot of
3:17
mileage out of it as well, and they
3:20
are learning some things.
3:22
They were talking about how this particular unit
3:29
had discovered how to set up their drones
3:34
with night vision because shooting other drones at
3:41
night is quite difficult, you know, if the
3:45
drones are going out at night so, and
3:48
drones can't normally see other drones, but apparently
3:52
one of the guys in their unit discovered
3:55
some kind of a frequency that shows how
3:58
to spot a certain temperature that is only
4:03
available on the drone itself and they can
4:09
see these other drones and they can pinpoint
4:12
them in the air and then they send
4:14
them out and they shoot them down.
4:17
They'd been taking them down for a little
4:19
while with these anti-drone forces and so
4:26
it was a pretty interesting report actually and
4:33
it only lasted about, you know, 30 minutes,
4:36
45 maybe that he went through, but there
4:40
was quite a lot of content in there
4:41
and he drove around with them and showed
4:44
quite a bit of content on the anti
4:51
-drone forces and then the rest of the
4:57
show he was arguing with, he got into
5:02
a pretty heated argument with somebody over Armenia
5:06
and what is going on in Armenia and
5:09
if you remember last week I shared a
5:11
story with you about the Armenian president, prime
5:15
minister, whoever he was, Pashinyan, I can't remember
5:19
I think is his name, but he met
5:21
with Putin a little while ago and maybe
5:27
a week ago and Putin was saying, you
5:31
know, that there are some things that are
5:34
pretty positive but they're still trying to get
5:37
into European Union as well and there was
5:44
some, boy, there was some heated argument over
5:47
that and what Armenia needs to be doing.
5:53
I want to study up on it a
5:55
little bit more but that was and give
5:57
you some more events from there because that
5:59
was heated and the basics were that they
6:03
aren't being truthful with the electorate in Armenia
6:06
and Solovyov's point was, well, they don't get
6:09
to elect anyway, just like this is the
6:12
exact way that Moldova was converted over to
6:16
the EU and they're doing the same all
6:19
over the southern border of Russia as well,
6:24
Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, all of those former
6:32
Soviet republics that they're twisting doing the exact
6:35
same thing they did in Moldova that they've
6:39
done in places like Serbia, Bulgaria, all of
6:44
those places to turn them completely anti-Russia
6:48
just like the rest of Europe and he
6:50
made no bones about it that we're fighting
6:52
where, you know, they don't even know what
6:55
Victory Day is in America, you know, they
6:58
don't have any understanding of what it is
7:01
and partially that's true.
7:05
I mean, what do we celebrate around World
7:08
War II?
7:11
Whether or not it, I mean, we really
7:14
don't and so the Russians though, it's a
7:20
big deal to them and so there's Russia,
7:26
let's see, there were some violated the ceasefire,
7:30
there's some news that says the ceasefire was
7:34
violated a total of 16,000 times so
7:42
the Victory Day truce announced by Russia to
7:45
mark the 81st anniversary of the end of
7:48
World War II.
7:49
Man, it just seems like yesterday that we
7:52
were talking about the 80th anniversary and everybody
7:56
getting invited and there was some talk about
8:01
perhaps an American going over there and this
8:05
year FIATSO went but that was it, you
8:09
know, nobody else and he's been ostracized, Merz
8:14
says he's going to have some words for
8:16
him but anyway the Victory Day truce of
8:19
the 81st anniversary, the truce was expiring on
8:25
Sunday but Moscow agreed to extend it for
8:30
two more days.
8:31
In a statement on Sunday, the Defense Ministry
8:34
said the Ukrainian forces carried out drone and
8:37
artillery strikes in Crimea, the Belgrade region, Kursk,
8:42
Kaluga, Rostov region, Krasnodar.
8:45
In Belgrade alone, five civilians including a teenager
8:50
were injured in Ukrainian drone attacks according to
8:54
regional governor Vyacheslav Glyadkov and Ukrainian troops carried
8:59
out 676 strikes against Russian positions using artillery,
9:05
multiple launch rocket systems, mortars and tanks.
9:11
Kiev launched 6,331 drones and eight assaults
9:17
on Russian positions.
9:19
In total, the Russian Ministry of Defense recorded
9:23
16,071 ceasefire violations by Kiev since Friday
9:29
and under these circumstances Russian troops responded symmetrically
9:35
by targeting firing positions, drone launch sites and
9:39
command centers.
9:40
Russian forces strictly observed the ceasefire regime and
9:45
stayed at their previously occupied lines and positions
9:48
and throughout the conflict Moscow declared temporary truces
9:53
during major religious and national holidays.
9:56
Last month Russia talked about and announced an
9:59
Easter ceasefire which the Defense Ministry said was
10:03
violated by the Ukrainian forces more than 6
10:06
,500 times in 32 hours.
10:10
And Ukrainian leader the Green Goblin Vladimir Zelensky
10:14
issued several threats ahead of Victory Day prompting
10:19
Moscow to warn its foreign partners about possible
10:22
consequences.
10:23
The Russian Defense Ministry warned that retaliatory strikes
10:27
on central Kiev would be carried out if
10:30
attempts were made to disrupt Victory Day in
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Moscow and urged residents and diplomats to leave
10:37
the Ukraine capital in advance of that.
10:40
President Putin said the warning reached Washington and
10:44
did contribute to Trump's extended ceasefire initiative but
10:49
he also said that the globalist western elites
10:53
are still waging war against Russia using Ukraine
10:57
as proxies and the conflict is heading toward
11:00
its end.
11:01
I was going to read for you when
11:03
I was trying to find the version where
11:06
I wouldn't have to translate it myself for
11:16
Putin's Victory Day speech and I want to
11:18
share that with you and I will this
11:20
week but I didn't have it prepared for
11:24
for today and you know the talk of
11:29
Armenia um you know the I don't I
11:37
tell you what there's so much going on
11:39
and I apologize for bouncing around a little
11:41
bit but um Moscow expects explanations from Yerevan
11:47
over Zelensky's statements and the Ukrainian leader's remarks
11:53
uh during his visit to Armenia were another
11:58
veiled threat and so Russia expected the Armenian
12:02
you know leadership to explain the lack of
12:06
a reaction to the anti-Russia statements made
12:09
by Vladimir Zelensky during his recent visit to
12:13
Yerevan said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
12:18
Providing a venue for such rhetoric goes against
12:21
the spirit of partnership between the two nations.
12:25
So Zelensky was in Yerevan this week for
12:28
a two-day summit on the European political
12:31
community, an EU-led intergovernmental group launched in
12:36
2022.
12:38
He asked for more military and financial assistance
12:41
from the West and claimed that Moscow was
12:44
scared that Ukrainian drones may buzz Red Square
12:47
ahead of Victory Day celebrations.
12:50
The Russian defense ministry warned that if Ukraine
12:53
attempted to disrupt festivities, a major retaliatory strike
12:58
would follow but Peskov said we would surely
13:02
expect some explanations from Armenia and he pointed
13:06
to a lack of any attempt to balance
13:09
Zelensky's statements on the part of Prime Minister
13:14
Nikol Pashinyan who was hosting the summit.
13:17
Moscow does not understand why anti-Russian statements
13:21
are coming from Armenia and on Thursday the
13:25
Russian foreign ministry summoned the Armenian ambassador in
13:31
Moscow to protest opening the floor for Zelensky's
13:35
terrorist threats.
13:37
Peskov maintained that Yerevan has a sovereign right
13:40
to define its foreign policy and host any
13:43
summits it wants but added that Moscow only
13:46
wants it not to take an anti-Russia
13:48
position and Pashinyan came to power in 2018
13:54
and during his time in office Armenia lost
13:58
a proxy war with Azerbaijan over the latter's
14:01
right to Nagorno-Karabakh.
14:04
Pashinyan attempted to fault Moscow for not providing
14:07
military assistance to to Armenia at that time.
14:19
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military needs to pull back
14:25
from the Donbass for peace to move forward.
14:29
This is what Yuri Ushakov has said.
14:33
He said the talks between Moscow and Kyiv
14:35
remain stalled until then and he told Pavel
14:38
Zarubin who's a journalist said that the Ukrainian
14:43
government already knows this and that they've had
14:47
several rounds of talks and but they've kind
14:50
of fallen flat and according to Ushakov any
14:54
new meetings won't change unless Ukrainian troops are
14:57
withdrawn and until Ukraine makes the step one
15:03
can hold more rounds dozens of rounds of
15:05
talks but will remain in the same spot
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everybody knows in Ukraine that it must be
15:10
done and they will do it sooner or
15:13
later said the presidential aide but the U
15:16
.S. is now more preoccupied with the Middle
15:19
East and they are not abandoning the Ukraine
15:23
issue and that they're still still chatting on
15:28
this subject allegedly so I read a good
15:34
number of opinion pieces as well and there
15:42
was one that I thought was um
15:52
entertaining I suppose well there were a couple
15:55
that were pretty entertaining when the one was
15:59
one was called um when the world's most
16:03
powerful country has no war plan that was
16:08
interesting and then uh another one was Alexander
16:15
Dugin and he's the one whose whose daughter
16:18
was killed in Ukraine and uh uh he's
16:24
talking about uh whites he's attacking whites but
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I wanted to read to share one probably
16:31
all of it um on Nigeria and then
16:34
another one on victory day um with with
16:38
with uh other attacks in other parts of
16:42
Europe when when uh other parts and then
16:45
Trump is angry with Germany so there there's
16:48
a few of them that I thought about
16:50
sharing but I thought the most appropriate uh
16:55
would be to talk about Nigeria because the
17:02
for Nigeria which is Africa's largest oil producer
17:06
and one of the most densely populated nations
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so the closure of the Hormuz Strait in
17:13
2026 has exposed um a problem that politicians
17:22
and technocrats has long preferred to ignore the
17:26
Strait of Hormuz is one of the most
17:28
consequential waterways on earth and it's only 21
17:31
kilometers wide at its narrowest that it channels
17:35
20 percent of the world's oil trade so
17:40
when the artery is restricted you know Brent
17:47
crude prices surge past 114 a barrel um
17:51
I was looking at the gas pump today
17:53
four dollars 19 cents 4.19 at the
18:00
at the lake you know uh Lake Ozark
18:03
Osage Beach area four dollars 19 cents that's
18:07
crazy so we're we're headed back you know
18:11
every nobody's even bitching about four dollars anymore
18:14
so beyond crude oil the closure disrupts the
18:20
flow of petrochemicals fertilizers commodities of other kinds
18:25
which are important in the gulf region and
18:27
among the world the disruption deepens global economic
18:31
strains strain across trade prices finance threatens food
18:36
security of important nations from sub-saharan africa
18:40
to southeast asia and Nigeria is one of
18:45
those countries so there's a you know why
18:50
can't Nigeria can't refine its own oil and
18:54
one of the problems is the energy story
18:58
of Nigeria itself so the nation sits atop
19:02
some of the world's richest hydrocarbon deposits and
19:06
it's for decades has been unable to refine
19:09
sufficient fuel for its own populations and Nigerians
19:14
pay the price through fuel scarcity suffocating queues
19:21
at filling stations and you know the economy
19:25
is perpetually held hostage by the price of
19:28
imported petroleum and the hormuz crisis strips away
19:32
whatever you know normalcy accumulates and the commissioning
19:37
of the of the dango refinery in 2024
19:40
was supposed to be optimistic and with an
19:43
initial capacity of 650,000 barrels a day
19:47
and an ambition to be 1.4 million
19:51
barrels a day it was positioned as an
19:54
answer to Nigeria's chronic refining deficit and its
19:58
industrial yet now it's undermined by a fundamental
20:03
contradiction Nigeria's oil extracted from its own land
20:07
is systematically routed away from its own shores
20:10
international oil companies operating in the country demonstrate
20:15
a persistence and a preference for exporting crude
20:20
to global spot markets rather than supply domestic
20:23
refineries and the result is a structural crisis
20:27
the refinery the dango refinery has been compelled
20:30
to import crude from the U.S. and
20:33
Africa a situation that you can't quite believe
20:38
it's just a complete policy failure so the
20:41
Nigerian National Petroleum Company relies on partial payment
20:47
in nera and dollars to supply the refinery
20:51
has further undermined pricing stability Aliko Dangote the
20:56
president of the Dangote group has publicly you
21:00
know you know complained about the unwillingness to
21:04
sell crude directly to the refinery describing the
21:08
situation as a structure structural impediment to domestic
21:12
energy so when pushed global cruise to crude
21:17
prices to you know 114 dollars a barrel
21:20
it's uh hits them twice number one they
21:24
got to pay more to get it back
21:26
from Europe or from other places I mean
21:28
I'm sorry U.S. or other places and
21:31
then they can't they can't get it through
21:33
the Hormuz to sell it anyway so the
21:35
volatility in the first quarter is uh for
21:38
normal Nigerians just means it's unbut they can't
21:42
afford anything and so although Dangote reduced pump
21:47
prices per liter as crude prices came down
21:51
the episode shows that the exposure of Nigerian
21:55
consumers to full volatility of international markets and
21:58
for a population where the majority of livelihoods
22:01
depend on you know small trade and informal
22:04
transportation a 50 percent spike in fuel within
22:07
weeks is a catastrophe so and the crude
22:12
is pledged abroad so they can't they can't
22:17
catch a break is the the point of
22:19
this story and so what can be done
22:22
but you know it's there's some some talk
22:25
about how to uh how to uh correct
22:29
it but one of the the largest is
22:32
of course opening the straits of Hormuz is
22:35
the short-term answer long term they have
22:37
to begin to refine some of their own
22:40
oil and quit sending it all abroad and
22:43
and the straits of Hormuz are making it
22:48
impossible and you know this two-month delay
22:50
now it's starting to go back in their
22:52
favor but you never hear these stories um
22:56
uh in uh American press really so um
23:05
at any rate this is uh here's another
23:09
one for you on draft enforcers opened fire
23:14
Ukrainian enlistment officers opened fire shot shooting at
23:19
people um so and they started firing at
23:28
them so Ukrainian enlistment officers opened fire at
23:32
members of the community who attempted to retrieve
23:34
a man from a recruitment center in Transcarpathia
23:38
in the western Ukraine the incident occurred in
23:42
the village of Mezhgorye on Saturday after a
23:48
gang seized a local man according to Ukrainian
23:52
journalist Vitaly Glagola around 30 people gathered outside
23:58
the office and tried to force their way
24:00
inside the journalist claimed that several shots were
24:04
fired using a pistol and a pistol and
24:07
a Kalashnikov and he added that officials denied
24:10
shooting saying that they'd only shot blank rounds
24:15
which you know contradicted footage that was shown
24:20
and even now the testimony of the employees
24:25
doesn't match what they were saying the confrontation
24:27
was later confirmed and acknowledged that a group
24:31
had attempted to break into the military facility
24:36
and ignored the lawful demands of military the
24:40
threat was localized the attack was repelled and
24:44
um you know boosification was ongoing and so
24:49
now you got people attacking uh recruiting headquarters
24:53
and being fired upon isn't that crazy that
24:59
you know another um another attack they're just
25:08
everywhere well let's see what else we got
25:14
here today well there was a story that
25:21
i don't know if you had heard or
25:23
if anybody had heard this but israel built
25:27
a base in iraq to bomb iran so
25:34
the idf attacked and killed iraqi troops who
25:39
discovered israel's outpost how about this so israel
25:45
secretly built a military outpost in the iraqi
25:49
desert to support its air campaign against iran
25:54
and launched strikes on iraqi troops who discovered
25:58
it according to the wall street journal the
26:01
base was set up shortly before the u
26:04
.s and israel launched their military campaign against
26:07
iran in february the u.s was aware
26:11
of this installation which housed israeli special forces
26:15
and served as a logistics hub for the
26:18
israeli air force and it hosted search and
26:21
rescue teams in case israeli pilots were shot
26:24
down the outpost was nearly exposed in march
26:29
after a local shepherd noticed unusual military activity
26:33
including helicopters and alerted authorities iraqi soldiers moved
26:38
to investigate the site but came under heavy
26:41
fire they left the attack left one iraqi
26:45
soldier dead and two others wounded isn't that
26:49
crazy baghdad blames washington after security forces found
26:54
evidence that foreign military personnel had been operating
26:58
in the area and so it appeared there
27:00
were certain uh force on the ground before
27:03
the strike supported from the air operating beyond
27:06
the capabilities of our units said lieutenant general
27:10
quash al muhammad daoui deputy commander on iraq's
27:16
joint operations command and he told iraqi state
27:19
media after the attack in march this reckless
27:22
operation was carried out without coordination or approval
27:27
and the base reportedly helped israel fight a
27:30
long-range war against iran whose territory is
27:34
over 1600 kilometers thousand miles from israel and
27:39
israeli aircraft carried out thousands of strikes um
27:43
while the iraqi desert outpost gave israeli teams
27:48
a forward position closer to the battlefield the
27:51
idf doesn't comment and refuse to comment on
27:55
the latest report which adds to a growing
27:57
scrutiny of how israel's confrontation with iran has
28:01
expanded into broader regional conflict and pulling the
28:04
u.s deeper inside to the countries and
28:09
hostilities former u.s counterterrorism chief joe kent
28:15
who resigned in march has accused israel of
28:18
driving washington into war despite u.s intelligence
28:21
assessments that tehran is not actively building a
28:25
nuclear weapon which by the way is agreed
28:27
upon by the iaea kent claimed that u
28:32
.s agencies had warned iran would retaliate by
28:35
targeting american bases and attempting to shut down
28:39
the straits of hormuz if attacked and he
28:41
argued that the israeli narrative about iranian threat
28:44
ultimately won the argument in washington and forced
28:48
the u.s into the conflict trump officials
28:52
have denied that israel dragged washington into the
28:55
war um put me in coach u.s
28:58
secretary of war pete hegseth said earlier this
29:02
week that president donald trump acted based on
29:06
america's interest and his america first policy and
29:11
he dismissed the idea that prime minister netanyahu
29:15
pulled the u.s into the conflict he
29:20
calls it a false premise isn't that crazy
29:26
um earlier i was talking to you about
29:30
the anniversary of the 81st anniversary of germany's
29:36
surrender and how it became one of the
29:40
chief celebrations um in russia and i wanted
29:48
to share this with you because people wonder
29:51
about that now i say it's because of
29:54
how much the war and the conflict um
29:59
world war ii touched every family and you
30:04
know sometimes it takes a couple three generations
30:06
to get past it and most if not
30:12
all um people who fought during that war
30:18
in the 40s i mean the people that
30:20
were born in the 40s would be in
30:22
their 80s now right and so um the
30:26
people who fought would be at age 100
30:29
and there there's still a couple you know
30:32
that have appeared and whatnot at victory days
30:35
and stuff like that um i didn't get
30:38
to watch any of the footage from the
30:40
uh i saw a few pictures but i
30:42
mean i didn't get to watch any of
30:43
the parade i heard uh putin's speech but
30:47
i didn't uh watch a whole lot of
30:51
the parade go through but world war ii's
30:56
victory day celebrated in russia on may 9th
30:59
is a very special holiday it was the
31:04
greatest trial and the greatest triumph in russians
31:07
modern history but the celebrations have acquired their
31:11
current shape and form not all that long
31:14
ago and some important traditions were established uh
31:18
fairly recently um the act of unconditional surrender
31:23
of the german third reich was signed by
31:26
field marshal wilhelm keitel on may 8 1945
31:31
at 10 43 pm central european time so
31:38
in moscow it was already the early hours
31:40
of may the 9th that very morning russians
31:44
found out that the war which had claimed
31:47
27 million soviet lives was over and the
31:51
enemy had surrendered the first celebration of victory
31:56
in world war ii or as russia calls
31:59
it the great patriotic war took place that
32:03
very day army reports dropped their official tone
32:09
and described how the residents of prague pulled
32:12
the troops off their armored vehicles and danced
32:16
and drank together in the provinces people ran
32:20
out onto the streets and congratulated each other
32:23
indeed some fanatical nazis continued to put up
32:28
some resistance europe was full of minds and
32:31
reports stated that there were many losses throughout
32:34
the month of may but the big war
32:37
was over and to the sound of fireworks
32:40
people began returning home no one doubted that
32:45
victory in world war ii was an incredible
32:48
event but people were grieving the deaths of
32:51
relatives and friends and their pain was great
32:55
may 9 was immediately designated a national holiday
32:59
but lavish celebrations seemed out of place as
33:03
the country was in ruins and mentally and
33:07
physically crippled soldiers concentration camp prisoners oster biters
33:15
and refugees returned home in western ukraine and
33:21
the baltic states battles against nationalist partisans continued
33:26
in those years victory day parade was held
33:30
once in the summer of 1945 during this
33:35
spectacle the wehrmacht and ss banners seized in
33:39
germany were thrown in front of the kremlin
33:41
but in the following years the celebration became
33:45
more modest but every year on may 9th
33:48
there were it was a fireworks display but
33:51
otherwise from 1947 it was a regular work
33:54
day even though a festive one and vest
33:57
and veterans usually celebrated with friends things changed
34:03
in 1965 by that time 20 years had
34:08
passed since the end of the war a
34:11
new soviet leader leonid brishnev who himself was
34:15
a world war ii veteran decided to once
34:18
again make may 9 a day off from
34:22
then on military parades were held on victory
34:26
day uh in in on jubilees the the
34:30
tomb of the unknown soldier memorial was opened
34:33
on the kremlin wall the tradition of laying
34:36
wreaths at the memorials was established in short
34:39
the holiday acquired a grand scale and became
34:44
quite solemn after the nation's pain had somewhat
34:48
subsided the country is gone but the memory
34:54
remains the annual large-scale celebration of victory
34:58
day with parades held across the country and
35:01
a military parade on red square is a
35:05
fairly new tradition after the collapse of the
35:08
soviet union an obvious question arose what would
35:11
be done with the country's communist legacy and
35:16
symbology for example the day of the 1917
35:20
revolution was observed on november 7 it was
35:24
replaced by another holiday associated with russian national
35:30
heroes minin and pozharsky who lived in the
35:34
17th century but no one ever considered revising
35:38
may 9th as victory day however the authorities
35:46
wanted to separate the holiday from socialist ideology
35:50
ideology in the soviet union ideology and victory
35:58
were inseparable but in the 90s a new
36:01
era came about the ussr was gone many
36:05
war heroes fell prey in new conflicts for
36:09
example vladimir bochkovsky a hero of the battle
36:13
in ukraine and germany became a citizen of
36:17
the unrecognized republic of transnistria which started a
36:22
bloody uprising against the former soviet republic of
36:26
moldova melaton kantaria the standard bearer who had
36:31
hoisted the soviet flag over the reichstag was
36:35
forced to flee from abkhazia when an ethnic
36:37
conflict broke out between abkhazians and georgians even
36:42
though by that time he was a very
36:44
old man so at that time a question
36:48
arose what does victory day mean in the
36:51
new republics opinions differed in baltic states national
36:57
elites believed that in the 40s their countries
37:00
had been held hostage by two totalitarian regimes
37:05
moreover unofficially the nazis were preferred over the
37:10
communists for example in latvia the memorial day
37:14
of the latvian ss legion is celebrated for
37:19
some time in many other ussr republics victory
37:25
day is still celebrated in one way or
37:29
another in russia victory day has remained one
37:33
of the most important national holidays and a
37:37
key moment in russian history but the holiday
37:40
has lost some of its political meaning for
37:43
example lenin's mausoleum is draped on may 9
37:47
in order to avoid ideological ties and a
37:51
new symbol has been added to the celebrations
37:54
the black and orange saint george ribbon which
37:57
resembles both the ribbon of the order of
37:59
saint george the highest military decoration in imperial
38:03
russia and the ribbon of the order of
38:06
glory a world war ii soldier's award russian
38:10
communist and leftists did not like the fact
38:14
that soviet symbols were replaced but for the
38:17
majority of russian people other aspects turn out
38:21
to be more important world war ii impacted
38:25
almost every family in russia and most people
38:30
consider the soviet era as simply one period
38:35
in the country's history therefore national motives are
38:40
considered far more important than soviet symbology however
38:48
an even more pressing question was how victory
38:51
day would look and what it would mean
38:53
following the death of most war veterans world
38:57
war ii was mainly won by people who
39:01
were born in the 1900 to 1920s the
39:05
last generation which really participated in the war
39:09
was born in 1926 by 2010 those veterans
39:14
were already 85 years old and today most
39:18
russians do not personally know anyone who fought
39:22
in world war ii so the answer to
39:26
the question what to do next was found
39:29
and it was offered not by the state
39:32
but by the people an old holiday celebrated
39:36
in a new way in 2012 three journalists
39:41
from the provincial city of Tomsk organized a
39:45
street march the descendants of veterans marched through
39:50
the city bearing photos of their deceased relatives
39:53
who had fought in world war ii the
39:57
event was dubbed the immortal regiment and that
40:01
year 6 000 people participated in the march
40:05
on may 9 and while for these people
40:09
the war was no longer a part of
40:11
their own lives it remained a part of
40:13
their family history after all everyone had a
40:17
grandfather or grandmother who fought and if the
40:21
word great grandfather sounded abstract to many my
40:26
grandmother's father felt much more personal the idea
40:30
of marching with the photographs of their heroic
40:33
ancestors appealed to people all over russia and
40:40
the very next year the immortal regiment events
40:43
were held in almost all the major cities
40:45
of russia the march instantly became a victory
40:49
day tradition and the event gained official status
40:53
an online offshoot of the immortal regiment also
40:59
appeared a platform where anyone can publish information
41:03
about their ancestors who fought in world war
41:06
ii the number of such records on the
41:10
website is approaching 1 million and so may
41:14
9th has acquired a new meaning it became
41:18
not only a veteran's holiday or a celebration
41:21
of military triumph but a memorial march which
41:25
allows people to honor their personal family history
41:30
some of the photos in this story are
41:34
just incredible shows how crowded it was and
41:37
people walking with photos of their family each
41:44
country has its own memorable dates for example
41:48
july the 4th brings americans together but for
41:51
the rest of the world it's just an
41:53
any just another day for china october 1
41:57
the day of the formation of the people's
41:59
republic of china is one of the main
42:02
dates in its history for russia may 9th
42:06
is a date that is permanently ingrained in
42:08
the country's history and culture during world war
42:12
ii the people of the country along with
42:15
those of other ussr republics survived a meat
42:20
grinder that lasted four years they did not
42:24
allow themselves to be broken but defeated the
42:28
enemy and then proceeded to rebuild their country
42:31
from the ruins russia lost a huge amount
42:36
of people in world war ii and victory
42:39
came at an unthinkable price but it was
42:44
unconditional that is why for russians may the
42:47
9th isn't just a celebration of a military
42:51
triumph it is a celebration of victory over
42:55
death so that story or article was written
43:01
by a guy named Evgeny Norin who's a
43:05
russian journalist and historian focused on war and
43:09
conflict in the former soviet union and uh
43:15
you know that's kind of interesting i remember
43:18
seeing those red square parades uh when i
43:21
was in the military myself as a young
43:23
man and watching them and uh seeing them
43:26
today they're still they're still pretty uh you
43:30
know pretty powerful and they put a a
43:33
lot out there but you wonder how they
43:35
you know how that uh tradition evolved i
43:43
guess would be the right word evolved over
43:46
the uh uh over the years um let's
43:55
see we're gonna talk about the uh you
44:04
know prime minister Fetzo remember he was in
44:07
moscow um and he attended victory day um
44:12
he described a new iron curtain between the
44:21
eu and russia and called for restoration of
44:26
dialogue with russia instead of continuous hatred you
44:32
know he's been pretty vocal about this kind
44:35
of thing and uh he described himself as
44:42
one of eu's black sheep over his stance
44:47
on russia and he's the only sitting eu
44:51
leader to travel to moscow for victory day
44:55
and to meet with president putin and he
44:59
drew harsh criticism from brussels and several member
45:03
states in a video statement posted on facebook
45:06
on saturday fetso accused the eu of downplaying
45:11
the soviet union's role in defeating nazi germany
45:16
and he was on board the slovakian government
45:20
jet returning from moscow he warned that brussels
45:24
russia policy was damaging the bloc's competitiveness and
45:29
energy security he also shared some footage of
45:34
his visit he said also i reject a
45:38
new iron curtain between the union and russia
45:42
we are interested in standard friendly and mutually
45:47
beneficial relations with this world power by the
45:52
way it's um they say now mertz said
45:55
that there's going to be some repercussions for
46:00
this and brussels germany you know what are
46:04
they going to do they're going to attack
46:06
their gas through the pipeline so druzhba's reopened
46:13
and magyar who took over for orban in
46:20
hungary has you know now they're going to
46:24
be pressuring him because this is what they
46:27
did to him remember he collected all that
46:30
money which they wouldn't give to uh the
46:38
prior leader of hungary orban and they wouldn't
46:43
give it to him and now they're going
46:45
to do now it's going to be they're
46:47
going to be exactly the same thing that
46:49
they do to fitzo to try to destroy
46:52
him and try to get him thrown out
46:54
and they're they're they're already pushing and advertising
46:57
that sort of thing but fitzo argued that
47:02
the eu is making a huge mistake by
47:04
relying on sanctions and military support for ukraine
47:10
instead of talking you know doing some sort
47:13
of diplomacy with moscow he said his talks
47:17
in the kremlin focused on energy cooperation he
47:21
accuses the eu of pursuing ideological policy of
47:25
cutting off russian energy supplies at the expense
47:28
of european competitiveness and he said we cannot
47:32
just out of hatred for russia replace one
47:37
energy dependence with another this time american he
47:42
argued according to energy data the u.s
47:45
supplied more than half of the bloc's lng
47:49
imports in 2025 and european commission reportedly removed
47:55
a proposal to fully phase out russian oil
47:59
from its near-term agenda amid concerns that
48:02
the iran war and continuing disruptions in the
48:06
strait sahur moves would cause further fuel prices
48:11
and destabilize europe's energy supply isn't that terrible
48:18
well this is the point where i would
48:22
normally provide a song you know in a
48:29
break but i'm gonna uh proceed what i
48:36
wanted to do next was uh putin gave
48:40
after the victory day he gave a press
48:48
conference and this is pretty recent and uh
48:53
so he wanted to uh well
49:03
the journalist wanted to question him over several
49:06
things and uh there's uh a journalist named
49:12
lana samsonia she's from interfax and she talked
49:17
about victory day trump's ceasefire proposal security measures
49:23
uh she wanted to talk about the uh
49:26
overall assessment of the conduct of victory day
49:32
especially in light of president trump's initiative for
49:37
a three-day ceasefire kiv's provocative statements before
49:42
may 9 and the fact that the parade
49:46
was held in a reduced format because of
49:50
security concerns and so putin was a at
49:57
the ministry of of defense and had not
50:01
yet received any military report about any provocations
50:07
but he explained that russia had already decided
50:11
to hold the victory day ceremonies without a
50:15
display of military equipment not only for security
50:18
reasons but because the armed forces should remain
50:22
focused on the military operation he said russia
50:26
responded to kiev's threatened statements uh through the
50:30
defense ministry and the foreign ministry and uh
50:37
you know he talked about these uh emphasizing
50:42
that russia you know was still planning on
50:47
uh uh taking retaliatory strikes you know and
50:56
he he stated that they had already warned
51:00
and talked to partners including china india united
51:04
states other centers in kiev he has still
51:09
hasn't ruled that out you know and he
51:12
had already um proposed exchanging 500 servicemen but
51:18
uh ukraine they wanted we're going to exchange
51:21
some prisoners but uh his bottom line was
51:26
that russia supported the u.s's humanitarian proposal
51:31
and another one was a guy named uh
51:36
well it doesn't matter what the names of
51:38
these journalists are i suppose and he talked
51:41
about armenia being absent and the bilateral meetings
51:47
and with armenia that we talked about a
51:50
little bit here previously and he asked about
51:55
armenia being absent from the parade especially given
51:58
that armenian prime minister hosted zelensky and allowed
52:03
him to you know talk about those anti
52:05
-russian statements and putin said the main subject
52:09
of the meeting was victory day itself the
52:12
shared victory over nazism preservation of the historical
52:17
memory and the need to prevent anything similar
52:20
from happening again and he shifted into practical
52:23
matters and he emphasized russia's relations with belarus
52:27
kazakhstan uzbekistan laos highlighted the scale of trade
52:32
with belarus the growth of kazakhstan uzbekistan importance
52:37
of the southeast asia on our media he
52:40
said that there were no um uh invitations
52:46
that had been formally sent because this wasn't
52:50
one of the jubilee events you know like
52:52
every five years 10 years anything like that
52:55
like last year's was so it shouldn't be
52:58
over emphasized that they're they weren't here this
53:02
time and he praised certain leaders that came
53:05
anyways you know fitzo and he said he
53:09
talked about armenia's move toward the european union
53:15
he actually was pretty strategic here he said
53:17
russia would support whatever is genuinely beneficial to
53:22
armenia and armenian people but that armenia must
53:26
calculate the economic consequences he said armenia receives
53:31
significant benefits through eurasian economic arrangements and that
53:37
russia armenia trade is a large uh you
53:42
know especially relative to armenia's gdp and putin
53:46
suggested that a referendum would be a logical
53:49
way for armenia to decide its future direction
53:53
um and if armenia chooses the eu then
53:58
russia would seek a mutually beneficial divorce is
54:03
how he put it he said a soft
54:05
intelligent mutually beneficial divorce you know when i
54:10
practiced law i used to say stuff like
54:11
that you know the divorce needs to be
54:14
uh you know you guys need to be
54:17
adults about this and uh you know with
54:20
the people who play games man i was
54:22
never interested in that you know i just
54:25
want to want to screw that so and
54:29
so over oh my god i hated to
54:31
hear that stuff uh anyway he also used
54:35
ukraine as a warning an example and he
54:37
argued that ukraine's first move toward the eu
54:40
created a practical trade and regulatory problems involved
54:45
customs agriculture industrial goods and in putin's um
54:52
statements european rigidity over these issues contributed to
54:58
today's political crisis certainly the maidan coup crimea
55:03
southeast ukraine resistance and ultimately war and his
55:08
message to armenia is clear decide calculate and
55:13
try not to drift into a crisis is
55:15
uh basically what he was saying um let's
55:23
see um a guy from a magazine called
55:28
uh commercant uh he asked why putin was
55:34
silent when zalinsky responded to russia's may 8
55:39
ceasefire by announcing a ceasefire to begin on
55:44
may 6th he asked also whether slovak prime
55:49
minister fitzo had delivered a message from zalinsky
55:53
to him and whether putin had to enforce
55:59
himself to deal with zalinsky and putin said
56:03
that he described his phone conversation with trump
56:06
sam trump spoke respectfully about the shared allied
56:10
struggle against nazism and supported the idea of
56:14
a ceasefire um surrounding may 9 and he
56:18
said that uh russia had announced may 8
56:21
and 9 and had received no immediate reaction
56:25
and then kiev later gave its own may
56:29
6 proposal because it didn't want to simply
56:32
accept what russia offered putin framed kiv's conduct
56:37
as gamesmanship and contrasted it with russia's view
56:41
of may 9 as a pretty much a
56:45
sacred day tied to the enormous soviet and
56:49
russian losses in world war ii he said
56:52
that russia was not playing games with victory
56:55
day they just wouldn't do it and he
56:58
said that russia had proposed a prisoner exchange
57:02
on may 5 including 500 ukrainian servicemen and
57:08
welcomed trump's exchange proposal but on the question
57:11
of meeting zalinsky putin said he wasn't gonna
57:15
refuse to meet with him just on the
57:17
basis of principle but he said anyone who
57:20
wants to meet may come to moscow and
57:24
that a meeting in a third country would
57:26
also be possible but only when specialists have
57:29
already finalized a durable peace agreement ready for
57:33
signature and putin argued that high-level negotiation
57:37
without prior substantive agreement are usually pointless and
57:42
he cited his own experience with minsk the
57:45
minsk process where leaders would talk day and
57:48
night and no result and notably putin doesn't
57:53
appear to give a direct confirmation or denial
57:56
about whether fico fitzo delivered a message from
58:01
zalinsky to him so um he wanted to
58:07
know another journalist wanted to ask about how
58:11
putin continues to view ukrainian settlement efforts involving
58:19
the united states especially given that negotiations installed
58:24
after uh you know contacts and marco rubio
58:28
suggested it's not worth spending time on the
58:31
process remember that from several weeks ago where
58:34
rubio says it's just a waste of everybody's
58:37
time well putin's response was short and he
58:40
said the conflict is a matter between russia
58:43
and ukraine if others want to help russia
58:47
welcomes that help but he said that the
58:49
current u.s administration and trump appear interested
58:53
in settlement and he emphasized that the u
58:55
.s has other priorities and does not need
58:59
this conflict so putin said that russia is
59:02
grateful for such efforts but he returned to
59:05
the central point the core settlement issue is
59:08
between russia and ukraine another journalist asked him
59:14
about long-range attacks inside of russia and
59:18
whether the west has gone too far and
59:22
he said that the terrorist threat from the
59:26
kiev regime is growing he cited attacks far
59:29
from the border in places such as yekaterinburg
59:33
perm chibok chibok sorry and the question um
59:38
asked about whether the west has allowed itself
59:41
too much since western officials themselves acknowledge that
59:46
kiev couldn't continue the war for long without
59:51
outside support and putin said that he defines
59:55
the west more narrowly as the globalist wing
59:59
of western elite elites which he said uh
1:00:04
russia you know is fighting russia uh with
1:00:08
the hands of the ukrainians and he said
1:00:11
the conflict was provoked by western disregard for
1:00:14
uh russian interests and by using ukraine as
1:00:19
a geopolitical instrument and so he returned to
1:00:23
nato expansionism saying russia has been deceived since
1:00:28
the early 90s i thought that was important
1:00:31
when he said that and he said that
1:00:33
uh you know talking about nato expansion and
1:00:38
the deception that surrounded it was one of
1:00:43
the more blunt things that he uh he
1:00:47
has said now he said it before but
1:00:50
usually is a little more diplomatic and this
1:00:52
one he's just like well they you know
1:00:54
basically pulled the wool over our and uh
1:00:58
by claiming they weren't going to and then
1:01:01
they did then he revisited the 2022 istanbul
1:01:05
negotiations and talked about how they had already
1:01:09
initialed an agreement and then western leaders intervened
1:01:13
he said macron told him that ukraine wouldn't
1:01:17
sign a historic agreement with a pistol to
1:01:21
its temple after which russia withdrew forces from
1:01:25
near kiev now that part i hadn't heard
1:01:28
before where macron told him that ukraine uh
1:01:32
wouldn't sign an agreement with a pistol to
1:01:34
its temple because people were wondering remember russia
1:01:37
was already inside of kiev or very very
1:01:40
close to it and uh macron uh told
1:01:45
him all right well they're not going to
1:01:46
sign an agreement with a pistol to well
1:01:49
the gun to their head and so uh
1:01:52
russia withdrew its forces from kiev and then
1:01:56
um boris johnson came to kiev and said
1:01:59
you know they weren't going to sign anyway
1:02:02
convinced him to not sign anyway and putin
1:02:06
used this as continuing evidence that the west
1:02:09
is uh prolonging and has prolonged this conflict
1:02:12
and he said western elites expected russia to
1:02:16
collapse in months but that it didn't happen
1:02:19
and it's left them stuck in a confrontation
1:02:22
they cannot exit and then he added that
1:02:25
uh you know sensible political force still does
1:02:29
exist in europe and he expressed the hope
1:02:32
that such forces will gain influence or possibly
1:02:37
even return to power and then he also
1:02:40
said something about the u.s and iran
1:02:43
and he described it as difficult for russia
1:02:46
because moscow has good relations with iran and
1:02:50
friendly relations with the gulf and he said
1:02:53
russia remains in contact with both side and
1:02:56
hopes the confrontation will be stopped quickly and
1:02:59
his warning was blunt that if the escalation
1:03:03
you know continues everybody loses and um he
1:03:11
said um you know another journalist asked about
1:03:15
the coalition of the willing he said that
1:03:19
there may be another coalition emerging that wants
1:03:23
to restore contact with russia and the uh
1:03:28
this journalist said that the um uh head
1:03:34
of the european council mentioned the search for
1:03:38
a person to represent them and asked putin
1:03:41
who he would prefer and whether any rational
1:03:44
politicians remain in western europe that's a great
1:03:48
question by the way and putin said that
1:03:51
personally he'd prefer german chancellor the former german
1:03:55
chancellor gerhard schroeder and beyond that he said
1:03:59
europeans should choose a leader they trust and
1:04:01
one who has not said nasty things about
1:04:04
russia his broader point is that russia has
1:04:06
never closed the door and russia has never
1:04:10
refused talks europe has and uh so you
1:04:16
know uh these were this was very interesting
1:04:20
to hear him speak because there was a
1:04:21
lot of wartime rhetoric going on here a
1:04:24
lot of a lot of i don't know
1:04:27
these questions were were pretty pointed you know
1:04:31
and attacking and this next one was a
1:04:34
pretty big one about baltic airspace there was
1:04:39
a woman who asked about baltic region becoming
1:04:42
a corridor for ukrainian drones and about drones
1:04:46
being used against russia that were assembled from
1:04:50
factories in europe she asked what russia is
1:04:54
going to do with this information and whether
1:04:57
the security zone russia is creating near its
1:05:00
borders needs to be expanded all the way
1:05:03
to ukraine's western border so that was pretty
1:05:07
uh pretty uh uh um interesting question you
1:05:13
know obviously a smart-ass question and uh
1:05:16
putin's answer was uh short but uh you
1:05:21
know pretty pretty uh wide reaching he said
1:05:24
that that the journalists had answered her own
1:05:27
question that russia make must make sure that
1:05:30
no one can threaten it and he said
1:05:33
that is what russia has been seeking to
1:05:35
achieve he said that europe supplies technology and
1:05:39
that equipment is partially assembled there and he
1:05:42
calls this an unprecedented escalation but he said
1:05:46
europe now appears to be seeking contact with
1:05:49
russia because that it understands maybe finally that
1:05:54
raising the stakes is proving far more costly
1:05:58
then there was a question about iranian enriched
1:06:03
uranium and russia's uh proposed mediation and uh
1:06:09
it um talks about iran's uh nuclear program
1:06:19
enriched ucranium at ucranium uranium and putin said
1:06:23
russia had already played this type of role
1:06:25
in 2015 and that iran trusts russia because
1:06:29
moscow doesn't violate its agreements and continues peaceful
1:06:33
nuclear cooperation with iran including the boucher nuclear
1:06:38
project putin said russia had offered to repeat
1:06:41
that model and iran could transfer enriched uranium
1:06:45
to russia and it could be handled transparently
1:06:48
and under the iaea and he said that
1:06:52
at first the u.s iran and israel
1:06:54
all agreed on this then the u.s
1:06:56
hardened its position and demanded the material be
1:07:00
exported only to the u.s iran said
1:07:03
no and refused to export the uranium anywhere
1:07:06
and putin said iran has proposed a different
1:07:09
format joint ventures on uranium territory to dilute
1:07:14
uranium inside iran and russia was not opposed
1:07:18
if it could de-escalate but putin said
1:07:21
the united states and israel wouldn't accept that
1:07:24
and he says the track is deadlocked and
1:07:28
he insists that russian proposal remains on the
1:07:31
table because it would allow iran to transfer
1:07:34
material to a friendly country keep peaceful nuclear
1:07:38
cooperation intact and place that process under the
1:07:42
iaea and reduce tension without russia seeking you
1:07:47
know some sort of leverage and he said
1:07:49
russia would support any solution that broke the
1:07:52
deadlock and so i mean that would be
1:07:57
um you know worthwhile um now there's a
1:08:03
i think it's coming up the preparations for
1:08:08
uh um trump go i mean obviously trump
1:08:15
and xi jinping are supposed to meet in
1:08:17
china here before too long but wanted to
1:08:20
know because putin's visit to china is coming
1:08:23
up as well and so uh a reporter
1:08:29
asked whether there's any connection between the two
1:08:32
visits and she asked what key issues putin
1:08:36
is uh wanting to discuss with uh xi
1:08:39
and putin answered that russia china cooperation is
1:08:42
one of the most important stabilizing factors in
1:08:46
international relations because many security disarmament and nuclear
1:08:52
arms agreements have either collapsed or disappeared and
1:08:56
he said china is russia's largest trade partner
1:08:59
um he says that about 140 billion a
1:09:03
year and he says it continues to grow
1:09:06
and diversify especially in the high technology sectors
1:09:10
and he thanks xi jinping personally for supporting
1:09:14
the diversification of late and then he listed
1:09:18
major areas of cooperation in nuclear energy alternative
1:09:22
energy space traditional energy oil and gas he
1:09:26
said russia and china are close to agreement
1:09:28
on a major step forward in oil and
1:09:31
gas cooperation but he didn't give any details
1:09:35
and i wonder if this is saving any
1:09:38
patok 2 um not saving a patok uh
1:09:42
putin siberia something like that it's a siberia
1:09:47
2 uh road to siberia or and uh
1:09:50
it goes through mongolia and so into china
1:09:54
and they were trying to talk about that
1:09:57
and i wonder we've spoken about that uh
1:10:00
several times before and i wonder if that
1:10:03
one is uh finally they have some news
1:10:06
regarding that so regarding trump's visit and with
1:10:11
xi jinping that's allegedly coming up putin welcomes
1:10:14
such talks and he calls them another stabilizing
1:10:17
element because the u.s and china trade
1:10:20
relations affect the whole world he said russia
1:10:23
hopes there will be no illegitimate sanctions for
1:10:26
unnecessary economic tension between the two powers and
1:10:32
his view was that stable and constructive u
1:10:35
.s relations uh tend to benefit russia so
1:10:39
i thought that was an interesting perspective um
1:10:43
let's see um a reporter from ria novosti
1:10:52
uh asked about the historical memory asked why
1:10:56
europe now avoids mentioning heroism of soviet soldiers
1:11:01
and even bans saint george ribbons she asked
1:11:05
whether this trend will worsen and what russia
1:11:08
can do about it putin answered that the
1:11:11
stronger russia becomes the faster this behavior will
1:11:15
disappear and he said that europe's treatment of
1:11:18
soviet memory as a form of of uh
1:11:23
re re-entrenchment by the same globalist western
1:11:29
elites that he already criticized earlier in the
1:11:33
briefing he argued that those elites expected russia
1:11:37
to collapse within six months under sanctions factories
1:11:40
would be stopped banks would be broken and
1:11:43
millions unemployed instead he said russia's maintained very
1:11:47
low unemployment and has avoided the collapse the
1:11:51
western elites expected and that just hasn't happened
1:11:57
and so he then suggested that some european
1:12:01
actors hoped to grab something from russia if
1:12:04
it had weakened now i've talked about this
1:12:07
before too that a bunch of the globalist
1:12:09
elites all they had ever really wanted was
1:12:12
for russia to collapse so that they could
1:12:15
part it out and ukraine could steal a
1:12:18
bunch finland could grab some the pre-baltic
1:12:22
he could get some and then uh of
1:12:25
course the u.s through uh uh you
1:12:28
know investment and things like that could uh
1:12:31
split a bunch of it up as well
1:12:33
at least in the influence level but that's
1:12:37
not what happened um he said that finland's
1:12:41
nato accession was also a problem and there
1:12:45
were no territorial disputes with finland and fin
1:12:49
never there just haven't been any and that
1:12:51
finnish leaders knew this and he implied the
1:12:54
move was motivated by opportunistic forces rather than
1:12:59
real defense he said europe is now beginning
1:13:02
to realize that russia is not just going
1:13:04
to collapse and that it might be better
1:13:08
to seek a return to normal relations and
1:13:11
mutually acceptable arrangements instead of lopsided pro-western
1:13:16
ones and he said that russia has always
1:13:19
dealt with europe on a base of mutual
1:13:22
respect and consideration of its interests even if
1:13:27
europe did not do the same and his
1:13:30
closing point was that relations with many european
1:13:32
countries can eventually be restored and that the
1:13:36
sooner that happens the better it will be
1:13:39
um for both russia and europe and he
1:13:44
of course finished the press conference by wishing
1:13:49
everyone a a happy victory day i saw
1:13:56
a very uh interesting interview um of a
1:14:01
guy well i guess more of a conversation
1:14:05
well i suppose what else would a good
1:14:08
interview be but a good conversation with a
1:14:11
guy named sergey karaganov and he isn't just
1:14:15
some you know i don't know um blogger
1:14:20
you know he's a russian foreign policy intellectual
1:14:25
and he's got deep soviet post-soviet academic
1:14:30
and and other credentials and he isn't speaking
1:14:36
as an official kremlin guy um and but
1:14:40
he is speaking from inside of russia in
1:14:44
their strategic intellectual framework you know he taught
1:14:50
that he's an important person and his argument
1:14:53
helped explain why moscow increasingly believes that old
1:15:00
western um you know escalate but assume russia
1:15:06
will just bend over and take it you
1:15:09
know that model is gone um and you
1:15:14
know alexander i'm sorry sergey alexandrovich karaganov is
1:15:19
one of russia's most influential foreign policy and
1:15:24
security thinkers um he's not military field command
1:15:30
he's a strategic analyst foreign policy security doctrine
1:15:35
elite advisory work the university lists him as
1:15:40
a graduate of moscow state university department of
1:15:45
economics in 74 doctoral work at the institute
1:15:50
of usa and canada studies and a research
1:15:54
trainee where he worked at the soviet un
1:15:59
mission in 76 and 77 he gave a
1:16:04
79 dissertation on transnational corporations in us foreign
1:16:10
policy he worked at at the institute of
1:16:14
usa and canadian studies about u.s and
1:16:18
soviet relationships u.s military strategy arms control
1:16:24
and european security his resume is institutional heavy
1:16:30
and since 91 he's been a member of
1:16:33
the scientific advisory council of the russian foreign
1:16:36
ministry from 93 to 99 he served on
1:16:39
the presidential council of the russian federation since
1:16:43
93 he's been on the advisory committee of
1:16:47
the russian security council from 2001 to 2013
1:16:51
he was an advisor to the presidential administration
1:16:55
on foreign policy and he's also been tied
1:17:00
to the council on foreign and defense policy
1:17:02
since 92 and he's uh honorary chairman of
1:17:07
the presidium academically he helped build the higher
1:17:10
school of economic faculty of world economy and
1:17:14
international affairs and he created and headed that
1:17:17
faculty for more than 15 years so he's
1:17:21
kind of a powerhouse in there um he's
1:17:26
not the you know he's more intellectual think
1:17:30
tank insider russia and he was asked about
1:17:36
the developments that had been nearly unthinkable during
1:17:39
the cold war nato countries assisting with missile
1:17:43
attacks on russia and that they backed the
1:17:47
kursk incursion assisted attacks on russian nuclear triad
1:17:53
and early warning systems and the underlying question
1:17:56
just isn't what's happening in ukraine it's whether
1:17:59
nato has crossed a red line without seriously
1:18:04
even discussing russian security concerns and karaganov answers
1:18:09
pretty severely he says russia has procrastinated too
1:18:15
long tolerated western aggression and the hope that
1:18:19
some negotiated solution would be found in his
1:18:23
view this hope is absolutely exhausted and he
1:18:27
argues that russia must now escalate and punish
1:18:30
european enemies because they are conducting all-out
1:18:34
war against russia and he calls the conflict
1:18:37
a world war um you know either the
1:18:41
third or the fourth one and he says
1:18:43
ukraine is only the opening theater now that
1:18:46
is a little bit frightening and the deeper
1:18:49
issue in his view is the systematic transformation
1:18:54
of the world order from western dominance toward
1:18:58
multi-polarity why does this matter because karaganov
1:19:03
isn't trying to move the discussion away from
1:19:05
ukraine war and turd toward world system war
1:19:09
um he's you know that's matters because if
1:19:14
moscow accepts this framing then the battle isn't
1:19:18
limited to donbass crimea kharkov kursk it's europe
1:19:23
it's middle east it's south asia global finance
1:19:28
everything that i've been talking about for a
1:19:30
year and a half um and and so
1:19:34
in old fashion terms once you define a
1:19:41
changed system everything connected to it is warring
1:19:47
and that's you know pretty powerful especially when
1:19:52
europe is already saying that war is coming
1:19:54
by 2030 anyway and uh karaganov says that
1:20:00
russia has to win for two reasons um
1:20:04
he says uh he says russia must win
1:20:10
first to stop the bloodletting in ukraine which
1:20:15
he says is endless um and second he
1:20:19
says russia has to prevent horizontal escalation which
1:20:24
means the spread of destabilization beyond ukraine into
1:20:28
south eurasia middle east north africa and southeast
1:20:32
asia he argues that the iran issue isn't
1:20:36
really about iranian nuclear weapons but about destabilizing
1:20:42
a vast region from the maghreb toward southeast
1:20:46
asia now that's frightening and from karaganov's point
1:20:51
of view ukraine is an intermediate battlefield but
1:20:54
the larger war is over the future architecture
1:20:57
of eurasia and he sees american western strategy
1:21:02
as an effort to destabilize the southern belt
1:21:06
of eurasia to preserve western dominance and why
1:21:14
does this matter uh because he's not saying
1:21:17
that russia has to defeat ukraine he says
1:21:20
that russia has to prevent a larger western
1:21:23
destabilization project from spreading across eurasia and whether
1:21:29
you agree or disagree that's the architecture of
1:21:32
the argument and by the way that's a
1:21:34
common theme i say the same thing this
1:21:37
war these these two three wars they're all
1:21:41
about one they're they're not about politics these
1:21:44
are about uh resources it's all about i
1:21:50
mean what has trump done trump has done
1:21:52
he's he's all about resources you made no
1:21:55
bones about it it's uh he wants to
1:21:58
dominate the western hemisphere he wants to keep
1:22:01
dollar hegemony and he's pushing that all the
1:22:06
way over into iran and if it wasn't
1:22:10
for him trying to dictate what russia and
1:22:14
china will do i might not believe this
1:22:19
you know and if it wasn't for him
1:22:21
being so resource heavy it's possible that my
1:22:24
thoughts would would change in this matter but
1:22:27
i continue to see it as as vital
1:22:30
i i don't know if you remember when
1:22:32
i first said i was gonna go over
1:22:34
to the to the BRICS conference and learn
1:22:37
about what was coming here well BRICS wasn't
1:22:40
all about economics BRICS is about a changing
1:22:44
world and uh i i believe these wars
1:22:50
are about a changing world too and karaganov
1:22:53
was pretty a pretty similar thought process on
1:22:58
these world wars aren't really about uh politics
1:23:02
they're about um keeping the same old you
1:23:07
know hegemony that was there before one size
1:23:12
fits all and it's western only you know
1:23:16
um then he got into a little bit
1:23:20
about uh nuclear escalation um because karaganov had
1:23:29
said something in the interview about whether uh
1:23:32
um nuclear weapons should ever be used and
1:23:38
what he said was that war has benefited
1:23:41
russia socially and spiritually by forcing the country
1:23:46
to recover its soul and its honor and
1:23:51
value real meritocracy soldiers doctors scholars officers but
1:23:58
he says russia is paying too high a
1:24:00
price in human lives and his proposed solution
1:24:03
is to climb the escalation ladder conventional strikes
1:24:09
on symbolic or logistic points in europe and
1:24:12
then if europe doesn't back down nuclear strikes
1:24:16
and he says he's not calling for a
1:24:18
massive nuclear war and he says that he
1:24:21
hopes it's not necessary but this was somewhat
1:24:26
alarming but he says that european elites have
1:24:30
all lost their minds and their sense of
1:24:32
history and the russian nuclear doctrine should be
1:24:35
rewritten not only to deter attacks on russia
1:24:38
but to punish european elites including their hardened
1:24:45
command structures and and uh reuters reported in
1:24:49
2024 that karaganov was urging russia to adopt
1:24:53
a more assertive nuclear posture back then i
1:24:56
remember sharing that with you and that he
1:24:58
viewed the existing nuclear doctrine as inadequate because
1:25:02
it didn't convince adversaries that russia might actually
1:25:06
use nuclear weapons remember that this is karaganov
1:25:12
believes deterrence has failed anyway because the west
1:25:15
no longer fears russia enough and his answer
1:25:19
isn't diplomacy first it's fear first in his
1:25:22
view the purpose of nuclear escalation isn't apocalypse
1:25:27
but compelling people to do things forcing europe
1:25:30
elites to stop doing what they're doing um
1:25:34
so karaganov is arguing that nuclear weapons are
1:25:38
politically useless if the enemy assumes you will
1:25:42
never use them now everybody else argues that
1:25:46
you know well it's not us that's ever
1:25:48
used them it's only the united states so
1:25:51
if anybody's crazy out there it's the americans
1:25:54
right but that's the not what karaganov says
1:25:59
he says well you know if we have
1:26:01
to use them first well maybe we have
1:26:03
to so he says that his view is
1:26:07
no longer the minority view but the majority
1:26:11
he says that the historic west is losing
1:26:18
cultural political economic predominance that allowed it to
1:26:23
dominate and exploit the world for centuries and
1:26:26
he portrays the present crisis as a western
1:26:29
effort to reverse that decline and he's not
1:26:35
reassured by changes in u.s administrations he
1:26:38
doesn't even see the problem as biden versus
1:26:42
trump democrat versus republican anything like that just
1:26:46
same people you know same same platforms different
1:26:54
people basically and he says the spirit of
1:26:57
alaska has to be dismissed as a joke
1:27:02
you know he talked a little bit about
1:27:05
arms control but it doesn't look like i'm
1:27:08
gonna have time to give that to you
1:27:10
today um we'll have to continue that theme
1:27:15
tomorrow um i'm gonna be traveling so it's
1:27:19
gonna be uh uh uh you know a
1:27:24
possibility of doing it live and a possibility
1:27:27
of pre-recorded like this one um i
1:27:30
hope you enjoy it i hope you join
1:27:32
me every day on damn radio and international
1:27:35
flavor here at damnradio.com forward slash live
1:27:39
or at any time at internationalflavor.com thanks
1:27:45
for being here this evening