Latest / International Flavor: Where the Truth Tastes Better / SPIEF Part 2: Putin’s Forum, Zakharova’s Red Folder, and the Bucha–Starobelsk Double Standard
Transcript
- 0:00Good morning. I'm Samuel Trapp. This is International Flavor. Happy Tuesday to ya.
- 0:10Coming to you live from Lake Ozark Real Estate of the Art Studio.
- 0:14Please feel free to phone in 5 7 3 7 4 6 8 0 2 0 and let's see what else can we tell you of
- 0:24interest this morning. You can follow damradio.com forward slash live every single day
- 0:33and listen to all the wonderful programming that we have here with other folks that get on and
- 0:39chat with you like I do and then wonderful music in the interim. You know whilst nobody is here
- 0:48chatting it up as they say. So very curious and exciting things going on on the planet
- 0:58and quite a few of them occurring right around here locally and in our area of influence.
- 1:10So I was talking to you yesterday about SPIEF, S-P-I-E-F, St. Petersburg International Economic
- 1:20Forum. Yesterday I published the show. You know after the show I always put it out online so
- 1:29people can download it on the podcast version at internationalflavor.com and I entitled it
- 1:37SPIEF, S-P-I-E-F, Part One, The Beginning. And I talked about Vladimir Vladimirovich yesterday
- 1:47and his matter, his discussion on the, at the beginning of SPIEF. I spoke a little bit too long
- 1:59and didn't get finished with his initial introduction and you know we spent yesterday
- 2:11talking about, he was talking about the economics and he was talking about
- 2:18you know sovereignty. He was going through the GDP and through all of the various debt loads
- 2:27of the world and talking about how low Russia's debt load is and you know how compared to the
- 2:41rest of the, what do you call it, industrialized world. And that I think is noted. So then he
- 2:55started talking, because there's only like, I forget what he said, 16 percent, 16.4 percent and
- 3:01it may go up to 17 he said in the next year or something. And because of what they have going on
- 3:08and the, we spoke about the threats of Zelensky toward Putin on the open letter which I shared
- 3:18with you, all of it. And then we had gotten to that part but I kind of rushed through it.
- 3:28So I don't want to, I don't want that to be downplayed at all because the response,
- 3:38you know, and I shared Zelensky's letter and all that. So, sorry, I gotta quit watching
- 3:47the screens on TV. They gives me comical stuff, comical relief. Anyway, I want to go back to the
- 3:55old Vladimirovich and at least summarize the rest of his speech about that. Like he had just
- 4:03gotten to the part where he was talking about the Uzbekistan president showing up. And I think
- 4:13this is important because, I don't know if you know this, but there's a, you probably don't know
- 4:20this. I found it interesting when I went to Russia and you go over there all the time. Their Amazon
- 4:26works differently than ours does. It's a different company, of course. It's called
- 4:33Wild Berries, okay? English word, wild berries, everywhere it's wild berries. And, you know,
- 4:40sometimes they can't pronounce it correctly, just like we don't pronounce their rolling R.
- 4:45We don't pronounce their R's correctly in a lot of ways. And, but they all use wild berries and
- 4:52wild berries is their form of Amazon, but it works differently. They still ship it to you,
- 5:01but they have wild berries pickup centers all over the place. So you order it and it comes
- 5:09to your local wild berries pickup centers. And I, and I, what I say all over the place,
- 5:14I really mean all over the place. Like every, in, in the city of Naberezhnye Chelny, if I would
- 5:24walk to the, to the, I don't know, to any morning coffee place, you know, I like to go to a place
- 5:33called Kofta Coffee. And, and their coffee shops are different than ours too. They're extremely
- 5:40nice. You go, let's put it this way. They have coffee stands on the street as well, where you
- 5:47can go and just buy the coffee on the street for, you know, a little bit of money, but you can walk
- 5:52and within, I don't know, a kilometer, let's say you want to get your, your, your, your, you know,
- 6:00get a couple of, get some steps in, right? And you, you walk for your morning coffee and easily
- 6:06within a kilometer, you'll find a very nice coffee place. And you get to go in and they have
- 6:11the, the Russian bakery, you know, with all these beautiful
- 6:18morning treats, if you like that kind of thing. And, you know, similar to some of the things we
- 6:22have here, better than Starbucks, Kofta Coffee was better than Starbucks. And there were a couple of
- 6:28other ones that I really wish I could remember the name for, but it was an event to go to one
- 6:32of those places. And man, it was really nice stuff. And when you walk past them, you'd walk
- 6:39past, to get there, you walk, call it 10, maybe 10, 15 minutes in the morning. And I would pass
- 6:47four freaking Wildberry stores when you walk by to go pick it up. And it's not anywhere far,
- 6:54you know, it's just like from walking from your house to the, the subway station or from your,
- 7:01you know, your apartment to the, to the trolley stops, you know, and, and so it's, it's,
- 7:08everything's within walking distance, you know what I mean? And on the walk there, you'd go past
- 7:13four freaking Wildberries and Wildberries is there. So Putin's talking to, and see, I always
- 7:20get distracted with these stupid stories, but you'd go talk about, he's talking about the growth
- 7:29in, in Russia and the far East compared to the rest of the world and how it's not growing as
- 7:35quickly as it was the GDP percentages and stuff like that, but it's still happening in the,
- 7:40in the center of growth is going to be the far East, the sub, sub, no, the subordinate countries
- 7:51of Russia that were pre previously there Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia,
- 7:58Georgia, Azerbaijan, places like that, all, all down there on the Southern belt of Russia
- 8:05that we've been trying to create chaos there. And, you know, it's, it's happening. I mean,
- 8:10it's, it's reality, just like we have in Ukraine, you know, trying to get countries
- 8:15in the far East to join NATO. I mean, you know, nonsense, but at any rate, he was talking about
- 8:22the president of Uzbekistan being there and he says, today, I've already mentioned our friends
- 8:26and partners and the Republic of Uzbekistan. Here's another prime example. The turnover
- 8:33of Uzbek goods through wild berries platform alone amounted to $418 million in 2023.
- 8:43That was in 2023, two years ago. And in 2025, it is now almost 1.5 billion with the prospect of
- 8:55reaching a level more than $2 billion in the current year. Now, what I told you of having
- 9:00been in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, um, and, uh, Kazakhstan is the, everybody's pushing a stroller.
- 9:10They're young country. I was, I'm old, you know, I got wandering down the street there and they're
- 9:16all 90 year old going by and they're all young families everywhere. They're, they're, they're
- 9:23everywhere. Young kids all over the place and all pushing strollers, you know, and having families
- 9:30and, uh, spent spending money on coffee and wild berries. I mean, it's a, it's a, it's a good,
- 9:38but you know, I'm not telling you Uzbekistan is the greatest place on the planet, but UNICEF,
- 9:43UNICEF is there spell, uh, uh, repairing all these ancient silk road places. It's freaking amazing.
- 9:53And, uh, you can go and see it. Tourism is amazing. You know, there was a decent number of
- 9:58Americans over there when I went there and there's a lot of Americans go there and teach. They, you
- 10:05know, they get it done with their school and they go over there and teach. They, they learn Russian
- 10:09or Uzbek and they go to a country like that and spend several years and whatever it does pays off
- 10:15your loans or something. There are all kinds of projects like that where you get to see the world
- 10:19and you get to go, uh, be a teacher in these places. You just got to learn a foreign language
- 10:25and you can go and be a teacher because your English is what they want. They want your English
- 10:30and they want you to teach it. You can go to Arabic country, stuff like that. Anyway, continuing
- 10:35with Putin, what does this tell us that producers of goods, different goods, including small and
- 10:41medium sized producers through the structure, through the platform are, are, um, cooperating
- 10:47with the Russian market and not only the Russian market, by the way, the use of our platform and the
- 10:54markets of other countries as well, though, mainly in the case of the Russian market and the volume
- 10:59is growing. The Russian market is definitely growing. People work effectively and earn well.
- 11:05They're small, medium enterprises are developing. And with all of this, it happens through modern
- 11:09logistics, payment of taxes, customs duties. Uh, all of these things can only be well,
- 11:15welcomed turnover. And he means economic turnover has grown by three and a half times and continues
- 11:21to increase, including through all access of all consumers to the Eurasian economic space and to
- 11:29our partner companies, for example, on the dynamic African continent, they're integrating, you know,
- 11:36we're dictating, they're integrating. And this is today, the Russian platform business receives
- 11:43access to almost half a billion potential clients around the world. And the number is growing.
- 11:49So the Russian platform solutions are becoming the real driver of development for our partner
- 11:55economies. Platformization in Russia covers not only trade, but transport finance, logistics,
- 12:02tourism, and areas such as healthcare, education, the media sphere, and others. Of course, it's
- 12:08necessary to increase the pace to engage in further platformization of sectors with the
- 12:13introduction of artificial intelligence and autonomous systems. We've adopted a national
- 12:19strategy for the development of AI. And I asked the government to prepare similar national
- 12:25strategies regarding autonomous systems and digital payment platforms at the future technology forum,
- 12:32which takes place beginning next year, I propose discussing the development of ecosystems
- 12:38of the platform economy. See, he's stealing my word here. I have the modern law ecosystem and
- 12:44we're creating that for you. Go on out to modern law ecosystem.com and check it out.
- 12:53Vladimir Putin. And I asked the relevant interdepartmental mental working groups under
- 12:58the presidential administration to accompany the preparation of this forum. Second, he wants to
- 13:03draw attention to today and in the future, the sovereignty of the country is determined by the
- 13:08people, their knowledge, qualification, ability to master advanced technology and create breakthrough
- 13:14good services, entire market directions. These professional skills, of course, must be well paid.
- 13:19Only in the case of high quality of life and high salaries will our country be competitive,
- 13:24successful demographically and strong specialization and with specialists confident in
- 13:29their successful professional career. And in the future, Russia is one of the most,
- 13:34has one of the lowest unemployment levels among all industrial developed countries.
- 13:39It is approximately 2.2 percent of the active population. This is a very good result compared
- 13:45with other developed states. For comparison, Japan is close to us at 2.5 percent, but India is at 4.2
- 13:53and the United States is at 4.2 and the Eurozone is at 5.9. Over five years, wages in the Russian
- 14:00economy have grown by more than 30 percent in real terms, precisely in real dollars. You know,
- 14:07after accounting for inflation, the pace is certainly high. That's true. I emphasize again,
- 14:13further confident growth of wages must be connected, first of all, with growth in labor
- 14:17productivity as well as the effective organization of production on the base of modern technological
- 14:24solutions. A separate question concerns mobility. When a specialist can find a modern, higher paid
- 14:30work at a new enterprise in another region of the country where the need for personnel is especially
- 14:35high and where production represents growing strategic sectors aimed at producing goods
- 14:40with high added value. I told you about one of these a few weeks ago where they had one, if you
- 14:45want to go to the northeast, you know, the Kamchatka areas of Russia and work on rail and wood projects,
- 14:54those places are booming over there and they're paying huge bonuses to go there. As is known,
- 15:00young people are the most mobile. Those who have just finished their studies or are studying in the
- 15:04final year of institute or university for the good professional start, we agree to legally establish
- 15:09the instrument of internship with clear obligation for the employer, rights for the employees and
- 15:14legal guarantees. We also agree to modernize apprenticeship contracts and adapt them to modern
- 15:20conditions. I know that amendments to the labor code have been prepared. I asked the government
- 15:25and the state Duma to accelerate their adoption. Third, it is obvious that the sovereignty of such
- 15:30a large country as Russia is determined not only by the strength of the capital or several large
- 15:35industrial centers, it is important that every region attract investment, create quality jobs,
- 15:40develop production in the urban environment. At our forum site, exhibition stands have been
- 15:45organized where subjects of the Federation demonstrate strength, success, promising plans.
- 15:50They hold negotiation with investors. That's what SPIEF is all about. And he's talking about this
- 15:54huge forum of people that are there. Traditionally on the sidelines of the forum, the results of the
- 15:59national rating of the state of the investment climate and the subjects of the Russian Federation
- 16:03are summarized. And this year, first place has been shared by Moscow and the republics of Tatarstan,
- 16:09which Tatarstan is where Kazan is, where I went to, where Naberezhnye Tilny is, and Bashkortostan.
- 16:15And Bashkortostan is where a beautiful country, very growing fast in the area. So when you head
- 16:22east from Tatarstan, you run into Ufa. And Ufa is a beautiful city down there. You have Vladikavkaz
- 16:29over in the southeast parts over there on the way to Georgia. And there's some really, really
- 16:33cool places over there. And he's talking about Tatarstan, which I've been to 10 times, maybe.
- 16:41Tatarstan is really pretty cool. And in Bashkortostan. And then they talk about Nizhny Novgorod,
- 16:46which is where I do want to go to Nizhny Novgorod. And Moscow was fantastic last year. And I hadn't
- 16:52been there in a long time. And I didn't spend enough time there, having been there only like,
- 16:56I don't know, 10 days or something, but not enough time to go and see it. This year, I'm going to
- 17:02St. Petersburg. And for the first time, St. Petersburg in the Sakhalin Islands region,
- 17:07entered the number of the best of the best. Among the regions that show the highest dynamics are
- 17:12the Khanty-Mansi and Yamal-Nenetsk Autonomous Okrug. The Okrug is a region district. The Omsk,
- 17:24Vladimir, and Volgograd regions, and the Krasnodar and Primorsky territories. I congratulate you on
- 17:31these results. Anyway, I don't really care about this stuff. When you get to the parts,
- 17:35it has already been discussed. He was talking about finances for quite a bit. He said, I also
- 17:43wanted to point out that we've agreed on the relocation of large state companies and corporations
- 17:48from Moscow to outer regions in order to relieve the capital and give an impulse boost to business
- 17:55development in the other areas of the Federation, strengthen the revenue base of their budgets,
- 18:00and create new jobs in their areas. And this will not harm the overall capital of the country.
- 18:06As a positive example, one may cite the company RusHydro and PSB Bank. A corresponding decision
- 18:13has been made in the United Engine Corporation. Such decisions are in the final stage regarding
- 18:18companies of the Russian Railway Group, as well as other structures working in the field of railway
- 18:24construction. Their railways over there are enormous. And here, you couldn't do it because
- 18:33of our government structure. And I get that. The government structure just wouldn't work. I mean,
- 18:39we all know it would just frigging fail. But over there, it's done with a partnership between the
- 18:47company. And the company is mostly owned by the government for their Zhelezny Drogi. Zhe is what
- 18:58you give. It's two letters, zhe and de. And you are trying to find the railway over there. And
- 19:06it's beautiful because you can get on the railways. It includes all the trolley cars in certain
- 19:10regions, includes the subways in parts of the areas that have subways, includes the
- 19:17on the over-the-road rail, high-speed rail between Moscow, St. Petersburg, includes all that stuff.
- 19:23And so it's definitely growing. Modern entrepreneurship is often not simply business
- 19:27development, but real creation, when more convenient urban environment forms around it,
- 19:33and sometimes entire settlements, comfortable and attractive for life. And we have many such
- 19:37examples. I consider it right to support innovative approaches to private investors. And, you know,
- 19:44I don't, you know, they talk a lot about, he talked about private capital and private business. And he
- 19:53said he wanted to talk about small and medium businesses. Much has already been done. This is
- 19:58where I wanted to get to, because he talked a lot about the bigger businesses and country-driven
- 20:02things like infrastructure that matters so much to development. And much has already been done,
- 20:10so that small and medium-sized, initiative-driven, enterprising people can easily start their own
- 20:17businesses, launch production, and provide services demanded by the population.
- 20:22But when a business grows and develops organizational difficulties and additional
- 20:26financial costs, sometimes a rise in not every entrepreneur is ready to cope with them.
- 20:33It's necessary to minimize the cost and ensure a seamless transition of a business to a higher
- 20:37category, including with the help of ready-made digital solutions. And I asked the government,
- 20:43with the help of their, it's a financial bureau, an economic bureau, to prepare a concept of smooth
- 20:50transitions into the development of growth and business. The reason I'm sharing all this with you
- 20:55is because of the different way that they think. You know, you want to talk about Russia being a
- 21:03dictatorship, or not being a democracy, or whatever. The fact is that they just,
- 21:13they think differently. And by the way, I'm not positive if I don't think a little bit differently.
- 21:19I have a real problem with the fact, excuse me, that American infrastructure just sucks. You know,
- 21:27you can't, it's all private. You know, if you get on American Airlines, you know, their planes are
- 21:32all old and crappy, you know, and you know, that's airfare. And part of it is because it's not
- 21:39owned by the country. There's no capital. It's all about squeezing the last nickel of profit
- 21:45out of a failing fleet, you know. And I don't mean to pick on American. They've been doing some
- 21:50things to upgrade it recently as well, but they're still way behind the world in what they're doing.
- 21:58And Delta's not all that much better. British Airways, definitely not. And it's pretty sad,
- 22:04because the places that you think are dictatorships, like Qatar, and United Arab Emirates,
- 22:12and Turkey, you know, places like that, they have fantastic airlines. Turkish Airways is
- 22:18far better than any of those other ones that I've mentioned. If you're flying internationally,
- 22:23you'd prefer that to their, and they speak English on those planes. They speak Turkish,
- 22:29too. A lot of them speak other languages, but it's, they treat you very well. Oh, look at that.
- 22:36There was a Turkish Airlines plane just showed up on the TV up there, like it was quoting me.
- 22:42But anyway, I say that because economically, our structure may be the best in the world,
- 22:48capitalism, you know, blah, blah, blah. But it's a very select few that are getting billionaires
- 22:53and billionaire sort of stuff. And there's more and more millionaires, but now they're trying to
- 23:00destroy the millionaire class so that they don't become more billionaires. You can't have that
- 23:07competition, can you? And so it's, it's, but they never build anything for the,
- 23:17they never build anything for the global or the countrywide infrastructure, right? It never
- 23:26happens. We don't have anything that is built for railroads, even, you know, bus companies are crap,
- 23:32you know, and you don't, you have small private companies that are nice with nice buses,
- 23:37but there's nothing for, you know, you, you know, where you're going to go in America. The contrast
- 23:44is stark. And I'm not saying that all of Russia's or all of every part of Russia is as modern as
- 23:54Moscow, because it's not. But you can always get a train, it's going to be clean, it's going to be
- 24:00well cared for. You're going to be serviced properly and all of that stuff. And so when
- 24:08you look at the overall infrastructure capital, this economic forum was a big deal.
- 24:16And he finished up with saying, we have set ourselves the task of entering the top 10
- 24:24countries of the world by the total weight of our merchant fleet, because they're talking about
- 24:32merchant fleet. I mean, increasing the capacity of seaports and the Arctic transport corridor
- 24:39is global arteries. We will develop our domestic merchant and icebreaker fleet,
- 24:45which is already the largest in the world, build tankers and other vessels of various classes.
- 24:50I asked the government and the Ministry of Transport to continue working to increase the
- 24:57attractiveness of the national merchant ship flag, our own logistical production, technological and
- 25:06financial base, a predictable environment for business and the development of human resources
- 25:12are powerful competitive advantages in the global market. They are the guarantee of successful work
- 25:19with countries and investors who are interested in cooperation and partnership, who want to create
- 25:24an increase, mutually beneficial alliances with us, invest in Russia and joint business,
- 25:33and invite our companies to cooperate. I'm confident that holding such events as the St.
- 25:39Petersburg Economic Forum will make its substantial contribution to this large and very important work
- 25:47and will allow all of us to achieve further success on the path of prosperity
- 25:53for our country and our people. Thank you for your attention. Now, the contrast with what he had said,
- 26:02so this interview, you know, he, or this opening part was really a pretty,
- 26:10a pretty, people talk about the old Trumpster being a CEO. Well, you need to think of Vladimir
- 26:23Vladimirovich as one too, because he is. I read a report, couldn't have been five, six years ago,
- 26:31that he is probably the richest man in the world. And they don't know for positive, but
- 26:41the, all of the, all of the control of the government, certainly he controls it. And so
- 26:49when he directs it, it's like Trump directing it when he says, I want, you know, I want people,
- 26:55and Xi Jinping, they think the same way. I thought that way of the sovereign prince in Qatar. You
- 27:00know, he ran the country. It was him, right? And, and his people did what he said. And as long as
- 27:09he's a decent person who gives a rip, you know, if the trains are running on time and everything is
- 27:14going well, I don't give a crap. It's not like they're stringing people up by the scrotum or
- 27:20anything like that. They're not doing anything weird. They're, they're, they're, they're running
- 27:25a country. And we're allowed to accept that from a businessman or from the president over here and
- 27:31accept it there. I think they do. You know, I don't ever want to say that they do not, but just
- 27:38because your name is Xi Jinping or Putin doesn't mean that the same thing isn't happening in the
- 27:44United States. I think it is. I think we all know it is, but you know, it's not something to talk
- 27:50about. So a difference in government doesn't necessarily means one's better than the other.
- 27:56So he talked about the state visit of Putin to Kazakhstan as well. And they wanted to know about
- 28:02the seven foundations of friendship and good neighborliness and Russia's gift of Amur tigers
- 28:10to Kazakhstan. They, you know, Putin presented him with them when he visited a little while ago.
- 28:15And Putin says relations with Kazakhstan are developing successfully and they're on the rise,
- 28:22but there's an important detail. Kazakhstan is not an easy partner. The two sides have sharp
- 28:27discussions on finance, industry, investment condition, major projects, but both sides will
- 28:32compromise because the shared goal is development and higher living standard. So he's a diplomat.
- 28:39He avoids exaggeration and says, you know, real partners argue, but they solve problems. I think
- 28:46that's important. And so Putin presents Kazakhstan, not as a subordinate of Russia, because they're
- 28:52not, but as a difficult and serious partner, which, uh, you know, that's where their, their,
- 28:57uh, air, uh, what do you call it? Space ports were, were Kazakhstan. That's where their nuclear
- 29:04testing was back during Soviet Union, Kazakhstan, all of that. And in the, in the deserts and in the
- 29:10oil fields out there, Kazakhstan is beautiful, by the way. Um, they talked about that. They talked
- 29:16about China and, and his, his relation with China and he, you know, Putin, he said the question was
- 29:25that they, they, Russia turned East when they were rejected by the West. And he said, and he said,
- 29:32and it was an interesting answer. He said, uh, we reject the claim by the West, which they love to
- 29:38throw out there that Russia suddenly turned toward Asia after Ukraine, you know, the conflict, uh,
- 29:46escalated in 2022. He says, Russia didn't change course and made no sudden pivot. He said the
- 29:52foundation of Russia Chinese relations was laid in 2001 in the treaty. And the relationship rests
- 30:00on geography, geography, geographic history, and mutual interest. Uh, his key idea is Russian,
- 30:08China are natural partners because they're neighbors. They have a border, uh, two thirds,
- 30:13as long as the border between the U S and Canada, it's very long, 4,000 kilometers. And you don't
- 30:19get to choose who your neighbors are and you don't. So you might as well get along with them.
- 30:25And if you don't get along with your neighbor, you're an idiot. Figure out, figure out how to
- 30:29make it work somehow.
- 30:31And he stresses that China's rise is not
- 30:35something Russia watched.
- 30:37They cooperated with it while China developed.
- 30:40And he emphasized trade, military, military technical
- 30:43cooperation, AI, high technology, biology, genetics.
- 30:47They're partners.
- 30:49And Putin's China answer was aimed at beating up
- 30:55on a Western assumption that Russia has
- 30:57been pushed into China's arms.
- 31:00And his answer is that, no, this was always
- 31:03where history, geographic concerns,
- 31:06and economic reality were going anyway.
- 31:10They talked about India, which we're going to skip.
- 31:12Here's the Western slash Ukraine question.
- 31:18Rubio and his comments, stupid comments.
- 31:22Russian losses, Donbass in negotiation.
- 31:25A journalist cited Ukrainian drone attacks
- 31:28in St. Petersburg, smoke in St. Petersburg,
- 31:32disruption at the airport, alleged falling
- 31:35Russian ratings and economy.
- 31:37And Marco Rubio's claim that Russia's invasion
- 31:41has created a catastrophe in Russia itself.
- 31:46So the question asked Putin whether he
- 31:49wants to control all of the Donbass or make a deal.
- 31:53And Putin said, these two things are not contradictory.
- 31:58Controlling Donbass and making a deal
- 32:00can both be part of the same process.
- 32:06In fact, he said that's what they agreed upon with Trump.
- 32:09He then gives a battlefield answer.
- 32:12Now remember, the letter that I shared with you yesterday
- 32:14from the Green Goblin said that Russia
- 32:18was losing $30,000 a month.
- 32:20And Russian forces, and I don't believe those numbers anyway,
- 32:26but pay attention to this.
- 32:29Russian forces are advancing along the entire line
- 32:32of contact, Prikaznavinia.
- 32:35And that is 1,100 kilometer, 1,000 kilometer front
- 32:44that they're fighting along.
- 32:46And they're advancing steadily, daily, across it all.
- 32:51Sometimes bigger stuff, but they're advancing.
- 32:54And he says they're advancing along the entire line.
- 32:57That's true.
- 32:59Ukraine has a, his words, catastrophic shortage
- 33:02of manpower.
- 33:04Ukrainian monthly losses are around 40,000,
- 33:08according to Putin.
- 33:10Forced mobilization, this boosification
- 33:14and beating the crap out of people
- 33:15and throwing them into vans and then transporting them
- 33:18to the front line, produces about 15,000 to 16,000
- 33:22per month.
- 33:24About 14,000 are taken straight out of the hospital
- 33:29and returned to the front lines.
- 33:32Ukraine is losing around 10,000 per month,
- 33:36plus around 20,000 deserters monthly.
- 33:41So desertation is a huge problem, desertion.
- 33:46He says Russia fully controls Lugansk
- 33:49and controls more than 85% of the Donetsk People's Republic
- 33:54and 80% of Zaporizhia.
- 33:57So they got 15% of Donetsk and 20% of Zaporizhia,
- 34:01according to him.
- 34:02He says Russia wants peace on the basis of the compromise
- 34:05discussed with Trump in Anchorage,
- 34:07but Ukraine won't accept those compromises.
- 34:11So the answer, according to Putin,
- 34:15is battlefield diplomacy formulation.
- 34:20He does not say military action excludes negotiation.
- 34:24He says military success creates the basis for the negotiation.
- 34:29The adversarial test is that his casualty numbers
- 34:32and territory percentage are Russian figures.
- 34:35So they want to push back and go, yeah,
- 34:38but our figures are different.
- 34:39Well, you're lying about, do I believe that all these people
- 34:43are being up front?
- 34:44I don't think so.
- 34:45But when dead bodies are turned over
- 34:47and Russia turns over 10,000 and Ukraine turns over 40,
- 34:53what does that mean?
- 34:54Are you saying they're burying them in Ukraine?
- 34:58I doubt it.
- 34:59What are they doing, dumping them in the ocean,
- 35:02feeding them to the sharks?
- 35:03What the hell?
- 35:03If we're matching, why aren't there corresponding numbers?
- 35:10So I don't know.
- 35:14I'm far more interested in the war ending
- 35:24than in what the numbers are.
- 35:26They're all getting slaughtered, and it's not good.
- 35:29But the Ukrainians can't fill their gap, not at all.
- 35:34So let's talk about Reshnik a little bit.
- 35:39The moderator asked about retaliatory strikes
- 35:42and on Reshnik.
- 35:43And Putin's answer was interesting.
- 35:45He said Russia's new systems appeared, including Reshnik.
- 35:49But he says Russia has never been
- 35:51able to use Reshnik in Ukraine in the full combat mode
- 35:59because they hadn't tested it.
- 36:01He said some strikes were used in Ukraine
- 36:05to observe results, where the separating blocks landed,
- 36:09how accurately they were dispersed,
- 36:11and what that means for future full-scale application
- 36:14against designated targets.
- 36:17It was an unusually technical and blunt answer.
- 36:20He didn't make this up.
- 36:23If I'm a lawyer cross-examining him, he's like, well,
- 36:27we've been testing those over there.
- 36:28And he was pretty matter of fact about it
- 36:30because we haven't really had a chance to test them,
- 36:33certainly not in battle.
- 36:34But they're certainly not at their full capability.
- 36:39He says Russia has used combat conditions
- 36:42to evaluate the effects, but he didn't characterize it
- 36:45as full operational use.
- 36:47He said that will probably be prepared in the very near
- 36:50future, but that they're not doing it.
- 36:53They talk about the role of Germany, Mertz,
- 36:56and all these other people.
- 36:57I'm going to skip that part.
- 36:59The alternative for Germany in Nord Stream,
- 37:02though, was important.
- 37:03They asked about AFD for Germany,
- 37:06whose members attended the forum and support restoring
- 37:10Russian gas through the Nord Stream pipeline.
- 37:12There were several of them there in the audience that
- 37:15cheered or whatever.
- 37:17Putin says it would be improper to evaluate
- 37:22German political parties, but he says
- 37:24AFD is leading in German political ratings
- 37:28because its leaders are formulating
- 37:30interests that align with the German people
- 37:32and the German economy.
- 37:35Mertz, on the other hand, is what?
- 37:36He's at 21% or something like that.
- 37:39There was a meeting yesterday in Britain
- 37:43with Mertz, Macron, and Starmer.
- 37:47Between the three of them, not a one of them
- 37:52is above 25% favorability.
- 37:56Not a one.
- 37:57And they get together with Zelensky
- 37:59and hug it out outside the building and have a meeting
- 38:04and demand that Russia capitulates.
- 38:06Did you hear that yesterday?
- 38:07It was frigging nuts.
- 38:09Anyway, Putin was careful to avoid a direct endorsement
- 38:13of AFD.
- 38:14He's a politician.
- 38:16But he said, you know, it's really
- 38:17Germany is economically harming itself.
- 38:20One of the pipes of Nord Stream is fully capable
- 38:24and turned on tomorrow.
- 38:25And he said, I'm telling you, all you got to do
- 38:27is push the button.
- 38:28I'll push that button for you tomorrow.
- 38:30I'll push it.
- 38:31You want to do business with us?
- 38:33It's up to you.
- 38:34If you don't, fine.
- 38:35But I'll push the button if you want to do it.
- 38:40Let's see.
- 38:41I talked to you about Ukraine and the peace
- 38:43and what's presenting long-term peace.
- 38:46Putin says the solution would lie
- 38:48in the framework of the understandings discussed
- 38:51in Anchorage.
- 38:53Russia was asked whether it's ready for compromise.
- 38:57And Putin has said, yes.
- 38:58The problem, he said, is that Ukraine is not
- 39:00ready because peace would worsen internal political
- 39:04and economic problems in Kiev.
- 39:07It's actually true.
- 39:09He says the EU could play a positive role
- 39:12by not supplying weapons and by persuading
- 39:15Kiev to accept the compromises that have already
- 39:18been discussed.
- 39:21He talked about Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, France, Reuters,
- 39:27Trump, Iran, and Putin's future.
- 39:30They want to know whether Trump has been distracted
- 39:32from Ukraine by the Iran crisis, whether Trump underestimated
- 39:37the complexity of negotiations, and whether Putin plans
- 39:41to remain in power until 2036.
- 39:44On his own future, Putin says only God
- 39:47knows whether anyone will have the health
- 39:49to live until tomorrow, much less 2036.
- 39:52He says it's too early to discuss 2030
- 39:55and that he isn't even thinking about it.
- 39:58On Trump, Putin said Trump sincerely
- 40:01wants to resolve the Ukraine crisis
- 40:03but didn't expect the complication.
- 40:06He says Ukraine is a local crisis,
- 40:08but Europe is giving it global significance.
- 40:12Iran, though, is clearly global because
- 40:14of the straits of Hormuz and the world economy.
- 40:17He says Trump's proposals on Ukraine
- 40:21can form the basis of peace if Ukraine can
- 40:24be persuaded to accept them.
- 40:27Putin always treats Trump with respect.
- 40:31He doesn't ever say anything negative about Trump.
- 40:36And I think that's important.
- 40:38Of course, he doesn't say much negative about anybody.
- 40:41He just doesn't.
- 40:43And sometimes, every once in a while,
- 40:47he'll get Green Goblin'd, I guess.
- 40:54But he didn't even say anything negative about that
- 40:57when he was asked.
- 40:58I shared with you about the Roboty Tiberatia comment
- 41:01yesterday, where he says, work, brothers, work, to the army.
- 41:06And you wanted to say that that wasn't
- 41:08a moment for the people of Russia
- 41:11because they all know what that means.
- 41:14And by the way, historically, they know what that means.
- 41:19He was asked about Iran, about NATO, about India and China,
- 41:24and Zelensky's open letter.
- 41:29And he wasn't even rude here.
- 41:33He said that Zelensky discussed his age, his time in power,
- 41:38his guarantors.
- 41:40Zelensky rejected Anchorage and wants real guarantees
- 41:44in Europe.
- 41:45And he asks why Zelensky is rejecting the Trump
- 41:49administration while still wanting the US weapons and boots
- 41:55on the ground in between Russia and Ukraine.
- 42:00He mocks him for his dress code.
- 42:05And he said that a Russian businessman called him
- 42:13three weeks ago and said he was invited to Kiev
- 42:17and wanted to know if he should go.
- 42:19And Putin told him that he should go,
- 42:21but he's not going as any sort of official negotiator
- 42:26because diplomacy has to be handled
- 42:28by the foreign ministry, the defense ministry,
- 42:31and trained officials.
- 42:32The businessman went to Kiev and met Zelensky.
- 42:36He returned and reported that Zelensky
- 42:39wanted a meeting with Putin.
- 42:42Putin says he never refused a meeting in principle,
- 42:45but he saw no point in meeting just to pour from an empty jug,
- 42:51is what he said.
- 42:53A Russian idiom meant to engage in empty, meaningless
- 42:58pustyaka, stupidity, emptiness, nothing.
- 43:02He references the Minsk agreements
- 43:06and says Russia has already been burned by these agreements that
- 43:10were admitted by Western leaders to have been used
- 43:12to buy time to arm Ukraine.
- 43:15He talked about Stary Belsk and the Lugansk college attack,
- 43:19which I'm going to get to next with Zakharova.
- 43:22Says that on May 21, Ukrainian forces
- 43:26carried out a terrorist strike on a college dorm in Lugansk
- 43:30where children and teenagers died.
- 43:3221 of them, I think it was.
- 43:34He says there's no military objects nearby, not even
- 43:37a military vehicle.
- 43:38He says he called the Russian intermediary and said,
- 43:41what does this mean?
- 43:42They ask for a meeting and then commit such an act?
- 43:45The intermediary had nothing to say to him.
- 43:48And Putin says that he told him, I'm
- 43:50not going to speak with them.
- 43:52Not after that.
- 43:53He rejected Zelensky's open letter.
- 43:56So Zelensky then writes this foolish letter.
- 44:01And he said his letter contained elements of rudeness.
- 44:08This is not diplomacy.
- 44:09This is what I said when I read it to you.
- 44:11He asked whether this is a way to create conditions
- 44:14for personal talks or a way to create an atmosphere
- 44:17where personal meetings are impossible.
- 44:20He answers that he thinks it's the second.
- 44:23And then he turns to the soldiers.
- 44:29Instead of addressing soldiers, he
- 44:31says one should address not the authors of the letter,
- 44:34but the lovers of the military genre.
- 44:39And not lovers of the, what do they call them, epistles?
- 44:45You know, where you send letters back and forth?
- 44:47Not these sort of lovers of grammatical drama,
- 44:53but Russian fighters at the line of attack.
- 44:56And I told you what he said yesterday,
- 44:58that the best translation was work, brothers, work.
- 45:04Carry on.
- 45:05Keep doing what you're doing.
- 45:07Do your duty and keep on trucking.
- 45:10And it's a Russian symbol of courage, duty,
- 45:15continuing the mission under threat.
- 45:18So when Putin was using it, he wasn't just saying do your job.
- 45:21He was talking a patriotic and sacrificial phrase
- 45:25recognizable to many Russian listeners.
- 45:29And so that is the end of it.
- 45:38If you don't watch these type of things,
- 45:40or you're not being provided all the news that
- 45:45comes from this type of thing, you'd
- 45:49be thinking that, unfortunately, there's
- 45:52truth on the side of the Green Goblin, you know,
- 45:59and his nonsense that he's putting out.
- 46:04Let us take a call.
- 46:06Are you with me there, caller?
- 46:09Yeah, sure am.
- 46:11Well, what can I do for you this morning?
- 46:16It's my turn to be bigoted on your station.
- 46:19Y'all take turns.
- 46:22Why is this y'all?
- 46:23Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
- 46:24What are you adding me to some mix of what?
- 46:28Did you say bigotry?
- 46:30Yep.
- 46:31Well, how am I involved in bigotry?
- 46:36I hear you all the time.
- 46:38That I'm a bigot?
- 46:40Tell me what have I said that's a bigotry kind of thing?
- 46:47What is it?
- 46:48Everything ain't about you, man.
- 46:50I didn't say it's about me.
- 46:53Tell me how I'm a bigot first.
- 46:55You called, said I'm a bigot.
- 46:57And I told you I don't like it when you call and insult me
- 46:59right off the bat.
- 47:01Tell me how I'm a bigot if you believe that to be the case.
- 47:05You can't just call, say I'm a bigot, and then move on.
- 47:09You know, that's nonsense.
- 47:11I can't do it.
- 47:13I listened to you ad nauseam.
- 47:15I don't remember anything you say.
- 47:17Well, then how do you remember that I'm a bigot?
- 47:21Because I listened to you.
- 47:23I see.
- 47:24OK.
- 47:24Well, quickly, you know what?
- 47:27I'll let you quickly get to your point.
- 47:29But you listen to me.
- 47:32You don't remember any of it.
- 47:34Why do you listen?
- 47:37What's the point?
- 47:38You listen to the radio program, to everybody's program on here,
- 47:42and then call and want to call people names.
- 47:45You know what, Jim?
- 47:45I don't have time for that.
- 47:46Call back when you're ready to speak normally
- 47:49and have a chat with me without insulting people, OK?
- 47:54And there he goes.
- 47:56And I don't understand that at all.
- 47:59I'm always nice to that guy.
- 48:02I don't ever, I don't know what.
- 48:04He just calls with these off-the-wall things.
- 48:06And if you don't want to listen, don't listen.
- 48:10Nobody's requiring you to tune in every morning.
- 48:13And you don't have to do it.
- 48:16And I appreciate that you listen.
- 48:17I even like talking to you sometimes, OK?
- 48:21But I don't like it when all you do
- 48:24is call in and beat up on people.
- 48:28The other shows, they have their own program.
- 48:32I don't tell them what to say.
- 48:33I don't discuss with them what they're saying.
- 48:36I listen to them as much as I can.
- 48:39You know, I'm a busy man, too.
- 48:41But I don't sit and listen to them all
- 48:43and then call and say, you're all bigots.
- 48:45What the hell is that?
- 48:47And if you think it, call them and tell them a bigot.
- 48:50Don't tell me I am, because I'm not.
- 48:52And at least certainly have something to back it up, OK?
- 48:57You have nothing to back that up with, because number one,
- 49:00I'm not a bigot.
- 49:01Number two, even if it was, I'd apologize
- 49:04if you could point something out that would say,
- 49:07you know, I'm the type of guy that I'll try to make it right,
- 49:09if at all possible.
- 49:11Anyway, sorry for the little rant.
- 49:14But I was going to click on a musical part for you
- 49:21and give you a break, because I want
- 49:24to speak about Maria Zakharova and her discussion of exactly
- 49:30what Vladimir Vladimirovich was talking about when he talked
- 49:35about Starobelsk and the bombing of that school, which
- 49:45was kind of disappointing.
- 49:49And I dislike that in its entirety.
- 49:56I just don't like it.
- 50:00Let's see.
- 50:04Where is the song I wished to play for you?
- 50:08I believe this is it.
- 50:12It is.
- 50:13This one I particularly liked.
- 50:15Hold on.
- 50:17We're going to play one song for you.
- 50:19It's six minutes or so.
- 50:21So please enjoy.
- 50:25And there it goes.
- 50:27That was our music for today.
- 50:30That was a remix of Ugalyok on the corner, basically.
- 50:36The corner, you know, something like that.
- 50:41Let's see.
- 50:42Very good stuff, Maynard.
- 50:45I wanted to share with you, because it was actually
- 50:51an emotional sort of thing.
- 50:53I told you whilst I was engaged in grass mowing, which
- 50:59took me for freaking ever because I let it go for a while
- 51:02and it was way overgrown, that I listened to the two things,
- 51:11the economic forum and I listened
- 51:15to Maria Zakharova and her speech.
- 51:19I'd gotten some advertisement that she had spoken
- 51:23or was going to be speaking about the Starobelsk
- 51:29and what happened there, and the lack of any attention being
- 51:35paid to it by the East.
- 51:36And sure enough, she gave a brutal kind of a takedown.
- 51:43And I'll tell you what, she began with the setting.
- 51:53She's talking about St. Petersburg, the St.
- 51:57Petersburg International Economic Forum,
- 52:00international economic and diplomatic activity,
- 52:04and then shifted to June the 4th, which
- 52:08has an international holiday.
- 52:09And that holiday is the International Day
- 52:12of Innocent Children, Victims of Aggression Day,
- 52:17children dying in war, basically.
- 52:19And that date is important to her.
- 52:22She then says that the Starobelsk attack
- 52:27will remain a central theme of Russian diplomatic
- 52:30and informational work.
- 52:33And like Putin, when he talked about it at speech,
- 52:35he was saying that a businessman went over,
- 52:41was trying to set a meeting between him
- 52:44and the Green Goblin.
- 52:46And then when he came back, Putin said, well,
- 52:50you're not a diplomat, but let's see what we can do.
- 52:54And then he called the guy and said, no, wait a minute.
- 52:56How can they want to talk to us and then blow up
- 53:00a school where people are becoming teachers?
- 53:02And this school deal was a big deal.
- 53:06And they double tapped it, 16 drones
- 53:09in three different waves with some serious firepower on them
- 53:13that went over and blew up a dormitory where
- 53:1816- to 19-year-old children were living and preparing
- 53:23for their careers as teachers and stuff like that,
- 53:27learning school.
- 53:28And so Russia has been up in arms about this.
- 53:31And the West won't even talk about it, nothing.
- 53:35And in Starobelsk, here's what it is.
- 53:40She wants to talk about that.
- 53:42And so she says, the West demands moral outrage,
- 53:48verification, humanization, and permanent memory
- 53:51if the victims happen to fit Ukrainian narrative,
- 53:55but they demand additional verification,
- 53:58are completely silent, or just deny it
- 54:01when the victims are Russian.
- 54:04And so she named the dead.
- 54:08And she showed the photographs.
- 54:12She described who they were.
- 54:15She asks the same media system that
- 54:17turned Butcha, which was nothing but a lie,
- 54:20into a global moral symbol.
- 54:24She challenges them to take a look at Starobelsk.
- 54:27And they won't.
- 54:28They absolutely won't.
- 54:29You won't hear a word about it here in the United States.
- 54:32Nobody talks about it.
- 54:35And what's his name?
- 54:37Sanchez was allegedly flying over there to go to the scene.
- 54:41And she told him to be careful in the three-hour thing
- 54:45that she was talking about.
- 54:46And she did a lot of topics.
- 54:48But the first 20, 30 minutes of it was all Starobelsk
- 54:51and was talking about Rick Sanchez going over there.
- 54:57You can find him on YouTube.
- 54:58He has a kind of a cool channel.
- 55:01And he can be believed, let's put it that way.
- 55:07It's his own independent station.
- 55:09And so you can believe that, most of it.
- 55:13And well, you choose what to believe, not for me to say.
- 55:17But I'm far more likely to believe his broadcasts
- 55:24than others paid for by the big dollar people
- 55:29or by the US government, for sure.
- 55:31Don't trust that crap at all.
- 55:35But Zakharova described Starobelsk
- 55:38as a deliberate Ukrainian strike on a civilian educational
- 55:44facility and dormitory.
- 55:47And it's connected to the Starobelsk Professional
- 55:51College of the Lugansk Pedagogical University.
- 55:55And a pedagogue is like a professor, a teacher.
- 56:00And her version of the difference between how
- 56:11she talks about the difference of or the contrast
- 56:15between the way that the US or the Western journalists
- 56:22just ignore crap unless they want it propagandized.
- 56:29They just completely ignore it.
- 56:31And I shared with you when Nibinzia at the UN
- 56:37spoke about it.
- 56:38And he called him out on it.
- 56:40And then they said, we just don't have any evidence of it.
- 56:44The lady in charge from wherever, she was Danish,
- 56:48I think, was saying, well, there's just no evidence of it.
- 56:52My ass, there's all kinds of evidence of it.
- 56:56And you just don't want to pay any attention to it
- 56:59because you don't like it.
- 57:00It's like the 200 girls getting blown up in Iran.
- 57:06You don't like that.
- 57:07And I'd respect the process more.
- 57:11My problem is process related.
- 57:13I'd respect the process more if you at least acknowledged it
- 57:20and said, you know, war sucks.
- 57:23And sometimes mistakes are made.
- 57:26I'd prefer that you said, you know,
- 57:29you told the truth that an event happened.
- 57:31But not us, not the West.
- 57:34And us, I try not, but here in the West,
- 57:37we definitely will propagandize in the littlest,
- 57:42the tiniest of events if we can twist it our way
- 57:46and expand it into something it's not.
- 57:48But the truth, we aren't going to say anything about that.
- 57:53We won't even put it out or have the opportunity
- 57:56for the narrative to be anything other than the Green Goblin's
- 58:01letter, let's say, or anything like that.
- 58:04So there were three strikes.
- 58:08And one of them was used to target the emergency workers
- 58:14after they showed up.
- 58:16Three young men and 18 girls died.
- 58:20She and the entire government is using the phrase terrorist
- 58:25attack repeatedly.
- 58:28And Starobelsk was a targeted Ukrainian drone strike
- 58:32on a civilian college dorm that killed 21 young people,
- 58:39three young men and 18 women, and then
- 58:42additional strikes on rescuers that
- 58:45were trying to clean it up.
- 58:48And here's some of what she said.
- 58:52And I wanted to share this with you
- 58:54because it's part of the way that she, I like
- 59:04the way she speaks and attacks.
- 59:06She's an attack dog, and it's pretty cool to watch her do it.
- 59:11She said, unfortunately, we have something
- 59:13to say today about our children.
- 59:16At the last briefing that I gave you,
- 59:19this is where I told you I heard about what she said
- 59:23she was going to do this time, I promised
- 59:25that the terrorist attack in Starobelsk
- 59:28would become a central direction of the information
- 59:31and political work of our entire ministry, our embassies
- 59:35and consulates, and our permanent missions
- 59:37to the international organizations today.
- 59:40I'm going to return to this topic again,
- 59:43and I will continue to do so.
- 59:45I want to return to the reaction,
- 59:48or rather the absence of a reaction,
- 59:51from the specialized international organizations.
- 59:55And take a look.
- 59:57They even have a special date for this.
- 1:00:00They could have prepared June the 4th, she's talking about.
- 1:00:04Their most important task, as written
- 1:00:07into their founding documents, is to do everything possible,
- 1:00:11and by the way, to even try to do the impossible,
- 1:00:15so that such monstrous events are not repeated.
- 1:00:21I'm speaking now not only about Western countries, whose
- 1:00:27politically motivated action or inaction
- 1:00:31is essentially present and ignoring,
- 1:00:35in actual blindness, and frankly,
- 1:00:39their cynical, brazen, shameless lies
- 1:00:43regarding the cold-blooded murder of children
- 1:00:47in Starobelsk, which no longer surprises everyone, anyone.
- 1:00:52Everything is clear with them.
- 1:00:55We have many questions for them, but their silence
- 1:00:58does not surprise us.
- 1:01:00We do have questions for international organizations
- 1:01:04that are aligned with them.
- 1:01:06So I want to ask you again, on June the 4th, 2026,
- 1:01:10will the United Nations and its secretariat wake up?
- 1:01:15Today is not Saturday or Sunday.
- 1:01:17Today is a working day.
- 1:01:19Will this structure find the strength
- 1:01:21to say that on the eve of June the 4th,
- 1:01:24this very international day, when children
- 1:01:27who become victims of armed conflict are remembered,
- 1:01:31will they remember the children who were killed in Starobelsk?
- 1:01:36I do not know.
- 1:01:38Perhaps they are embarrassed that these children were
- 1:01:4117 or 18 years old, and perhaps for them, that means
- 1:01:46they are somehow not children.
- 1:01:48Then let them say that, and we will listen
- 1:01:51to that explanation too.
- 1:01:55We have questions for those very structures
- 1:01:57that have been created.
- 1:01:59And this is written precisely into the preamble
- 1:02:02of the Charter of the United Nations in a direct quote,
- 1:02:07to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which
- 1:02:11twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow
- 1:02:15to mankind, and to reaffirm faith
- 1:02:18in fundamental human rights and in the dignity
- 1:02:21and worth of humanity.
- 1:02:25All right.
- 1:02:26So they do not protect the human person
- 1:02:29when they encourage the financing of the Kiev regime,
- 1:02:32which commits terrorist attacks.
- 1:02:35But surely, they cannot forget the worth of the human person
- 1:02:38simply when it is convenient and necessary to say
- 1:02:43words of condolence and sympathy in connection
- 1:02:47with the deaths of children?
- 1:02:49In 1989, Audrey Hepburn, the greatest actress
- 1:02:53of world stature, the great actress of world stature,
- 1:02:58was appointed as a UN goodwill ambassador.
- 1:03:01In 1989, speaking before the staff of the UN Secretariat,
- 1:03:07she said the words that became the official motto of UNICEF.
- 1:03:12I speak for those children who cannot speak for themselves.
- 1:03:19Since then, that is exactly how the task of all goodwill
- 1:03:23ambassadors has been formulated, to speak
- 1:03:27on behalf of those who cannot do so themselves,
- 1:03:30so the truth about the suffering of children
- 1:03:33does not remain forgotten, so that it does not
- 1:03:36remain unheard, so that their deaths do not pass unnoticed.
- 1:03:41That is why all employees of the divisions of our country's
- 1:03:46foreign ministry are working and will continue
- 1:03:48to work so that objective information,
- 1:03:51including about the terrorist attack in Starobelsk,
- 1:03:54is available even where they are trying with all their strength
- 1:03:58not to let it in and building real barricades
- 1:04:03of lies and omission.
- 1:04:05No, this is not propaganda.
- 1:04:08This is not an attempt to convey information so that later they
- 1:04:12cannot say that no one saw the data.
- 1:04:15This is not an element of an information war,
- 1:04:18as it is a fashionable to say.
- 1:04:21This is something that, for some reason,
- 1:04:23has disappeared altogether from the international legal
- 1:04:27vocabulary, moral duty.
- 1:04:30Moral duty means carrying the voice
- 1:04:32of those who can no longer do it themselves.
- 1:04:36It means forcing the world to hear the words,
- 1:04:39to accept the truth that very many would like to hide.
- 1:04:44Three young men and 18 girls who
- 1:04:46studied at the Starobelsk Professional College of Lugansk
- 1:04:50will never be able to say anything again.
- 1:04:53They will not be able to because they died.
- 1:04:56And if we call things by their proper names,
- 1:04:59they were killed in a terrorist attack,
- 1:05:01cold-bloodedly, cynically, and terribly.
- 1:05:05It is terrifying because such people exist,
- 1:05:08people who fire three rounds at an educational institution,
- 1:05:13three rounds of 16 total drones, three
- 1:05:19rounds at an educational institution and its dormitory,
- 1:05:22understanding that children are living there,
- 1:05:26and then begin shelling those who
- 1:05:28come to help to try and clear the rubble and rescue them.
- 1:05:32And they shell them.
- 1:05:34That is what is terrifying.
- 1:05:36This was a targeted attack by the Ukrainian armed forces
- 1:05:39on a civilian object on a dormitory
- 1:05:42where students lived.
- 1:05:44It was carried out using drones.
- 1:05:46It took place in several waves.
- 1:05:49And the direct perpetrators, their operators,
- 1:05:52and their command knew perfectly well what the target was.
- 1:05:57Read for yourselves what occurred,
- 1:06:00what happened to the American pilot who dropped bombs
- 1:06:04on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
- 1:06:07He went mad.
- 1:06:08He could no longer perceive reality.
- 1:06:11Now, I don't know that story, truthfully.
- 1:06:13I don't know.
- 1:06:14I do not know what will happen to those
- 1:06:16who come to understand fully, in the end,
- 1:06:19that they shall destroy and ruin a building under which children,
- 1:06:23boys and girls, were dying in unbelievable torment.
- 1:06:2821 lives cut short at their very beginning.
- 1:06:3121 dreams never realized.
- 1:06:34No, they were not heroes.
- 1:06:38But they have been given a life in order
- 1:06:40to become what they dreamed of becoming.
- 1:06:43And they will no longer be able to do that.
- 1:06:47And there are the crippled destinies
- 1:06:50of those who survived.
- 1:06:52Yesterday, I spoke with Marina Kim,
- 1:06:54who is a state Duma deputy, a journalist,
- 1:06:58and a documentarian.
- 1:06:59She was there immediately in those days, the days after.
- 1:07:04She spoke with the family.
- 1:07:05She spoke with the young people who survived.
- 1:07:08I think she will make a film.
- 1:07:09A real big and honest film.
- 1:07:13Talk to her.
- 1:07:14Interview her.
- 1:07:15Her name is Marina Kim.
- 1:07:17She will tell you.
- 1:07:18I'm going to try to find her, in fact.
- 1:07:20She will tell you.
- 1:07:21I do not know where she gets the strength.
- 1:07:24She is a mother and a woman.
- 1:07:26I do not know where she finds the strength
- 1:07:28to live through this grief again and again.
- 1:07:31But this grief broke not only into the families
- 1:07:35of those who lost children themselves.
- 1:07:38It entered dozens of families
- 1:07:40in the Lugansk People's Republic and our country
- 1:07:43and around the world where normal people
- 1:07:45perceive the grief as their own
- 1:07:48and understand what happened.
- 1:07:50As Audrey Hepburn said,
- 1:07:52we must speak for those children
- 1:07:54who cannot do it themselves.
- 1:07:56I am moving into my red folder.
- 1:07:59She had a red folder on the desk
- 1:08:00while she was talking about it.
- 1:08:02And she said, I'm going to show you photographs
- 1:08:04and tell you about these children.
- 1:08:07I think their parents will not be able
- 1:08:09to do this for many years.
- 1:08:11It is impossible, but we must do it.
- 1:08:16I will show you the photographs
- 1:08:17and then you will also see them on the screen.
- 1:08:21And then she named all of the people.
- 1:08:24She went through it.
- 1:08:25And she was crying when she did it.
- 1:08:28And she went through and she talked about it.
- 1:08:30And she said at the end,
- 1:08:32let's see if I can get to that part.
- 1:08:34And she talked about, you know,
- 1:08:36the differences between what matters here.
- 1:08:40And, you know, not as lengthy as what she did,
- 1:08:46but I think it's, you know, they have real names,
- 1:08:50real, the faces, the pictures, the parents,
- 1:08:53you know, everything, where they were born, you know.
- 1:08:56They have Yelena Martymyanova, 19 years old,
- 1:09:00student, second year preschool education,
- 1:09:03the best of the best.
- 1:09:05A bright person, positive, supportive,
- 1:09:09you know, and talked about her.
- 1:09:11Taisiya Gerasimenko, 18 years old,
- 1:09:14first year student, studying records management,
- 1:09:17loved to dance, was active and always had initiative,
- 1:09:22you know, stuff like that.
- 1:09:25Alina Chikrigina, 19 years old.
- 1:09:28Anna Pogrebnichenko, 19 years old,
- 1:09:34a second year preschool education student.
- 1:09:37You know, Maxim Bugakov, a 20 year old young man,
- 1:09:41third year programming student,
- 1:09:43very optimistic, positive, blah, blah, blah.
- 1:09:45I don't mean to say blah, blah, blah, that's not right.
- 1:09:47But she gave, and the reason I'm telling you this
- 1:09:50is because, well, I'll share that with you at the end.
- 1:09:54Artyom Kovtun, 20 years old,
- 1:09:56third year programming student,
- 1:09:57very responsible, exemplary, respected, hardworking.
- 1:10:01A girl named Sofia Fan,
- 1:10:03a second year preschool education student.
- 1:10:05Daria Serdyuk, 19 years old,
- 1:10:08student at Starobelsk who dreamed of becoming an educator.
- 1:10:11Activist in the movement of the first
- 1:10:13and participant in college press center,
- 1:10:16was mischievous, kind, strong, brave.
- 1:10:20Tatiana Berezhnaya, 19 years old,
- 1:10:22second year preschool education student.
- 1:10:24Aleksandra Protasova, 18 years old.
- 1:10:27Aleksandra Postavets, 21 years old,
- 1:10:31a student specializing in record management
- 1:10:33and archival work, was very patient, purposeful.
- 1:10:36Aleksandra Budkova, 19 years old.
- 1:10:39Oksana Tereshchenko, 22 years old.
- 1:10:41Veronika Doshchenko, 19 years old,
- 1:10:44student at Starobelsk who wanted to be a teacher.
- 1:10:46Volleyball was a major part of her life
- 1:10:49and she achieved recognition and prizes for that.
- 1:10:53Yana Prudnikova, 19 years old.
- 1:10:56Anastasia Vasilenka, 18.
- 1:11:00Victoria Zaratuchenka, 18 years old,
- 1:11:02student at Starobelsk College
- 1:11:04who wanted to warm kindergarten children.
- 1:11:07With her own love, she considered preschool education
- 1:11:10her path in life.
- 1:11:11Activist in the movement of the first as well.
- 1:11:13And she, a participant in Lastochka, volunteer detachment.
- 1:11:18She was one of the professionals.
- 1:11:19Alisa Bryukovetskaya, 19 years old,
- 1:11:23first year student who dreamed of becoming a primary teacher.
- 1:11:28Irina Zhivatikova, second year student,
- 1:11:30dreamed of becoming a teacher.
- 1:11:32Serious about studies,
- 1:11:33interested in professional knowledge.
- 1:11:35Anastasia Kovalenko, 19 years old.
- 1:11:39That's the list.
- 1:11:41Second year student, dreamed of becoming a teacher.
- 1:11:44All of these kids were talking about, you know,
- 1:11:47their lives and going forward and what they were gonna do.
- 1:11:52And, you know, all of them were gonna, you know,
- 1:11:54give to younger generations.
- 1:11:56This is a pedagogicheska, a pedagogue university
- 1:12:01for teachers, instructors.
- 1:12:03This is what they're planning to go through.
- 1:12:06And their schooling system is different over there.
- 1:12:09So you have your basic school.
- 1:12:10It doesn't go like ours does to age 18.
- 1:12:13It goes to, you know, depends on which path you're taking.
- 1:12:16They choose their paths in life
- 1:12:18quite a bit earlier than we do.
- 1:12:20And so they are actually in the part
- 1:12:23where they're being educated for their future stuff.
- 1:12:29And, you know, I apologize for having to rush
- 1:12:33through those names, but, you know, you're not gonna,
- 1:12:37the trouble is, is I did that,
- 1:12:41I added them here in this show on purpose.
- 1:12:48Because the argument is always,
- 1:12:51oh, geez, they're making it all up.
- 1:12:53And what Zakharova did, like a lawyer would, okay,
- 1:12:57she gutted the Butch documentary after this.
- 1:13:03So if you don't know what Butch is,
- 1:13:05you should go look it up, okay?
- 1:13:07Because they still are out there spouting this nonsense,
- 1:13:12this BS off.
- 1:13:14I reported it when it first occurred,
- 1:13:17or not when it first occurred.
- 1:13:19I reported it when, on an anniversary of it
- 1:13:22or something like that, because it happened
- 1:13:24in the first months of the conflict, okay?
- 1:13:31And BBC, CNN, everybody went nuts over this Butch event.
- 1:13:39And it's nothing but a lie.
- 1:13:44You can even see that it is, you can verify it.
- 1:13:48And I don't mean to laugh about it,
- 1:13:50but it's complete crap.
- 1:13:52And the entire world media jumped on board
- 1:13:56and spread this crap that Russia gunned civilians
- 1:14:00down in the street and left their bodies laying,
- 1:14:05and the Ukrainians came in and collected them.
- 1:14:09Now, the Russians have video footage of them,
- 1:14:13this is during the, Russia retreated, okay?
- 1:14:16So Russia comes in, takes over a large portion of Ukraine.
- 1:14:21They were even into the Zaporizhia
- 1:14:24almost all the way through,
- 1:14:25and they were down below in the Odessa area.
- 1:14:29They were much further than they were.
- 1:14:32And after the successful talks in April, May of 2022
- 1:14:39in Istanbul, they withdrew,
- 1:14:45except from Donbass and the Donbass areas.
- 1:14:50And they backed off, they eased it.
- 1:14:54And immediately, because nobody wanted to end this war,
- 1:14:59you know, this is where Bojo, Boris Johnson,
- 1:15:04came in and told everybody that,
- 1:15:06oh, geez, you need to keep on fighting,
- 1:15:09we're with you, Ukraine.
- 1:15:10You know, as long as your people are dying,
- 1:15:11what do we care?
- 1:15:12According to Lindsey Graham, right?
- 1:15:15Your people are dying, that's great.
- 1:15:17You know, this is great for us.
- 1:15:18Let them kill off Russia.
- 1:15:20You know, we'll just keep supplying them,
- 1:15:22but it ain't our people dying, it's theirs, right?
- 1:15:24And zero respect for the lives of Ukrainians.
- 1:15:29And at all, you know, Zelensky too.
- 1:15:32And they came and they took dead bodies
- 1:15:35that had been dead for quite a few days
- 1:15:38and dragged them and placed them into places
- 1:15:41and then drove trucks in between them,
- 1:15:43you know, weaving through these bodies,
- 1:15:45nine, 10 bodies they just threw on the streets.
- 1:15:49And then took videos of it and go, look at these Russians.
- 1:15:52And the Russians have been demanding in the UN
- 1:15:54and everywhere else, every time somebody brings it up,
- 1:15:57specifically BBC, the UN and all that stuff,
- 1:16:01they've been demanding, if these are the people,
- 1:16:03show us where they're buried, tell us the names,
- 1:16:06give us the data that we've been asking for from day one,
- 1:16:10let us investigate, let's bring news people in,
- 1:16:14let's check it out, but let an independent body
- 1:16:18come and do it, they've provided nothing.
- 1:16:20You can go look today, go try to find the names
- 1:16:22of the people that died in Bucha, you can't find it.
- 1:16:26And so her lawyer take was this.
- 1:16:30She says that according to Ukraine's representative
- 1:16:33at the UN Security Council and the collective West,
- 1:16:38you should have heard the idiot from,
- 1:16:40I think she was from Denmark, I think.
- 1:16:45And oh my God, what a moron she was.
- 1:16:47She told Nobenzia, oh, they're not,
- 1:16:50we don't have any proof of that.
- 1:16:53When Nobenzia read it and Nobenzia about came unglued
- 1:16:57in there, when this idiot, this moron,
- 1:17:00even if you don't believe it, you can say something else.
- 1:17:04You know what I mean?
- 1:17:05And it's nonsense, but Zakharova said
- 1:17:10that according to the Western representative
- 1:17:12at the UN Security Council and Ukraine
- 1:17:15and the collective Western minority,
- 1:17:18these young people did not exist, were not students at all,
- 1:17:25or were military personnel and command staff.
- 1:17:29That's what they said.
- 1:17:31They said, no, those are military personnel
- 1:17:33and command staff.
- 1:17:34Ukraine said it too.
- 1:17:36Those aren't, you know, we blew up a barracks
- 1:17:40full of people, right?
- 1:17:41But none of the reports of that.
- 1:17:43And she invited immediately and said, come,
- 1:17:46come and send anybody you want to over here.
- 1:17:49And that Rick Sanchez went, interviewed some of the people.
- 1:17:53Anyway, her argument is that Western officials
- 1:17:55and media have repeated the Boucha narrative
- 1:17:58for four years, but she asked whether anyone
- 1:18:01has ever publicly shown in the same way that she just did
- 1:18:06the photographs, the date of birth, the full name,
- 1:18:09the address, the school, the workplace,
- 1:18:12their family memories, and personal stories
- 1:18:15of those allegedly killed, you know, like she did.
- 1:18:19She makes a, she says, and frankly, I'm on her side,
- 1:18:26I believe her absolutely.
- 1:18:27Well, I don't believe her, I agree with her.
- 1:18:30How do I wanna, I believe her on this,
- 1:18:32and I'm on the point of view that this is,
- 1:18:37she said it this way, everything they've told you
- 1:18:40about Boucha is a lie from the first word to the last.
- 1:18:45And frankly, she has a very good point.
- 1:18:49And that is her position, and when Russia gives names,
- 1:18:55pictures, identities, survivors, witnesses,
- 1:18:57location to inspect, invites everybody to come and see it,
- 1:19:01and UN officials still say they need additional verification
- 1:19:04and they're not gonna go, she says to them,
- 1:19:07exactly, she says, come, verify, come to our hospital,
- 1:19:11speak to the injured girl who was buried
- 1:19:13under reinforced concrete slabs and crawled out,
- 1:19:16wounded by shrapnel, speak to the,
- 1:19:18and I watched an interview of a couple of these girls.
- 1:19:22I watched one of the parents get interviewed
- 1:19:24while her son's laying, passed out on the bed
- 1:19:28in the hospital, and he's missing a leg.
- 1:19:32They had to cut his leg out to get him out
- 1:19:34from underneath the rubble, and he's missing a leg,
- 1:19:38and obviously, she was rather upset.
- 1:19:42And the kid was out.
- 1:19:45You know, he was probably induced coma of some sort.
- 1:19:52But when people say, oh, we need additional verification,
- 1:19:56she's invited them.
- 1:19:57She invited CNN, she invited BBC.
- 1:20:00She says, come verify, speak to the witness
- 1:20:03who heard the children moaning under the rubble, she says.
- 1:20:06And she gives, says the same officials
- 1:20:09didn't demand any verification before publicizing
- 1:20:13Bucha all over the planet into a global political symbol.
- 1:20:17They went there, repeated the claims,
- 1:20:20treated the narrative as established,
- 1:20:23never provided anything to Russia.
- 1:20:26They refused the request for names or verified lists.
- 1:20:29They haven't ever provided one.
- 1:20:31And she singled out the BBC journalists.
- 1:20:33She said the BBC journalists played an active role
- 1:20:37in fabricating Bucha.
- 1:20:39They refused to go to Starobelsk,
- 1:20:42and said Russia organized a trip
- 1:20:44for many foreign correspondents
- 1:20:46and took 51 journalists from 20 countries
- 1:20:50to go and see the aftermath and interview people
- 1:20:53and talk about what it is.
- 1:20:55And her closing line in this portion
- 1:20:57is that Starobelsk will not be swept under the rug.
- 1:21:01She said, we're not gonna allow you
- 1:21:02to sweep this under the rug,
- 1:21:04and that Russia will do everything possible
- 1:21:08to break what she calls
- 1:21:11the information blockade of dehumanization.
- 1:21:15Information blockade of dehumanization
- 1:21:19is what she's talking about.
- 1:21:22And, you know, the, I tell you what,
- 1:21:25it's, you know, and part of me feels like
- 1:21:30that story was a little bit rushed, you know.
- 1:21:33If, you know, those children,
- 1:21:38whether you believe it or not,
- 1:21:39kids that get blown up,
- 1:21:41the girls who got blown up in the school in Iran,
- 1:21:43and all, you know, all those things,
- 1:21:46we just sweep on the rug, under the rug,
- 1:21:48and we don't talk about it.
- 1:21:49These are people.
- 1:21:51And these are people with dreams and lives
- 1:21:53and livelihood and family and positive and negative,
- 1:21:58you know, and they have every right
- 1:22:04to have the basic human right to live as you see fit,
- 1:22:10to live as you choose to live.
- 1:22:13So the issue here isn't whether every Russian statement
- 1:22:16has to be automatically accepted.
- 1:22:19That's not what I'm trying to get you to believe.
- 1:22:21That would be foolish.
- 1:22:23The issue is whether Western audiences
- 1:22:25are even permitted to hear the Russian side of the story.
- 1:22:31You know, it's like what I say about grand juries.
- 1:22:34You only get one side of the story.
- 1:22:37What other result are you gonna come up with?
- 1:22:39Come on.
- 1:22:40If you can't get somebody to offer an indictment
- 1:22:43in a grand jury, what are you gonna get?
- 1:22:45Well, if you only see one side of the story,
- 1:22:48if the only victims you're allowed to mourn for
- 1:22:51are victims that are useful to Ukraine,
- 1:22:54then that's not journalism.
- 1:22:57That's like some kind of religious, you know,
- 1:23:01Israel's always right crap, and they're not.
- 1:23:04And if only children whose names matter
- 1:23:07are the children whose deaths can be used against Russia,
- 1:23:11then human rights is nothing but political branding.
- 1:23:16That's what it is.
- 1:23:19The dead in Starobelsk had names.
- 1:23:23Zakharova read them to us.
- 1:23:25She showed us their faces.
- 1:23:27She said their parents won't be able to talk about them
- 1:23:30for years, because the pain is too great.
- 1:23:34So she did it.
- 1:23:35And by the way, she was crying most of the time.
- 1:23:38Well, I don't mean to laugh about it.
- 1:23:40While she was reading it, she was crying while reading it.
- 1:23:43This is an emotional moment, right?
- 1:23:45And so she spoke for the parents.
- 1:23:47The question for us, though, is simple.
- 1:23:50Why do we have to hear those names from Moscow?
- 1:23:54Why didn't we hear them from the BBC?
- 1:23:57Why didn't we hear them from CNN?
- 1:23:59Why didn't we hear them
- 1:24:00from the same international institutions
- 1:24:02that claim to speak for children everywhere?
- 1:24:07Because Russians don't count because they're orcs.
- 1:24:11That's what you're led to understand.
- 1:24:13Russians are beautiful, wonderful people,
- 1:24:15just like Ukrainians.
- 1:24:17And war is bullshit, pardon my French,
- 1:24:20no matter how you slice it.
- 1:24:22And it needs to end.
- 1:24:25But targeting by one side, which is okay,
- 1:24:29it's okay to sweep this under the rug
- 1:24:31because Ukraine did it, and ignoring it,
- 1:24:33that's okay, would never be accepted if it was Russia.
- 1:24:37My name is Samuel Trapp.
- 1:24:38This is International Flavor.
- 1:24:40I'm glad you joined us today.
- 1:24:41Please join us every day.
- 1:24:42Tomorrow's the biggest day in radio on damn radio.
- 1:24:45And I look forward to seeing or hearing,
- 1:24:49or you hearing me then.
- 1:24:52Let's see, what else do we have?
- 1:24:54If you wanna take those shows
- 1:24:56or any past shows and listen to them,
- 1:24:59please go out to internationalflavor.com and download them.
- 1:25:03Have a very nice mid-Missouri day.