Latest / International Flavor: Where the Truth Tastes Better / Sergiev Posad: History, Culture, and the Bridges We Still Can Build

Transcript

Sergiev Posad: History, Culture, and the Bridges We Still Can Build · International Flavor: Where the Truth Tastes Better

• 0:01
  Hello, good evening and welcome.
• 0:03
  I am Samuel Trapp, this is International Flavor.
• 0:07
  You are listening on demradio.com forward slash live, or you are listening to
• 0:17
  me on my live stream on Podbeam.
• 0:25
  Either way, you are able to do a call in, but only tonight.
• 0:29
  Well, since the sound, I listened to last night's show, a little bit of it and
• 0:35
  went through because I was a little concerned about the sound.
• 0:37
  I am not in the studio.
• 0:41
  I am literally in an apartment room and I am worried a little bit about the
• 0:50
  quality of the sound, but I think the sound is coming in okay.
• 0:54
  It seemed to be okay last night when I did the show.
• 0:58
  And so we're gonna go ahead and act like everything is coming in just perfectly
• 1:04
  and that we are able to give a full and complete set of content here.
• 1:13
  I hope that people will join in and will listen to the program and listen to
• 1:18
  what we have to say.
• 1:19
  Tonight, I wanna talk to you about my impressions of I'm still in Moscow.
• 1:25
  And so this is incredible to me that technology allows me to do my show live
• 1:35
  from as far away in the world as I am from Osage Beach, Missouri, or Lake
• 1:41
  Ozark, Missouri, or anywhere in Missouri or Florida where I have previously
• 1:46
  done the show.
• 1:48
  And so I just think it's incredible that we have the technology available to
• 1:55
  share.
• 1:56
  I do apologize a little bit about the quality.
• 1:59
  It sounded to me a little bit like I was speaking out of a tube.
• 2:03
  That's because there's not any noise buffering, I suppose you would call it.
• 2:11
  I'm not sure what you would call it to stop the noise from echoing a little bit
• 2:17
  around the room.
• 2:18
  I am not in an official studio.
• 2:20
  So for that part, I apologize, but I am glad you're joining in and I hope you
• 2:26
  find this topic interesting.
• 2:28
  I got to thinking a little bit about the show today and one of the things I
• 2:33
  wanted to talk about.
• 2:34
  I, in particular, one of the things that I disliked the most about the failure
• 2:42
  of the, mostly on the US end, I've got to say, since I was in
• 2:52
  the arms control business years ago is that we have intentionally turned Russia
• 3:00
  into an enemy when I don't believe that they are.
• 3:07
  And so it's somewhat frustrating to me, quite a bit irritating to me that we
• 3:15
  have lost out on the opportunities that we have been given to, after the
• 3:22
  collapse of the Soviet Union, to create a safer world for future generations
• 3:32
  and for all of us.
• 3:34
  So as I ease out of middle age and into older age, I reflect back on the time
• 3:44
  when I was a younger man and was here in Moscow doing arms control and some of
• 3:53
  the things and how positive I felt back then.
• 3:56
  Maybe part of it was just the naivety of youth and being so, I don't know what,
• 4:03
  so positive about what was going on.
• 4:06
  And frankly, at that point, how could I not have been on top of the world as a
• 4:13
  young man with the authority and the, I mean, I wasn't in charge of anything
• 4:18
  really.
• 4:18
  I was just an interpreter.
• 4:20
  All I did was translate, although I did some pretty responsible things.
• 4:25
  I was a team leader on quite a few missions that got to equipment delivery for
• 4:33
  nuclear weapons testing, stuff like that.
• 4:36
  I did an entire, I was a team leader for an entire US agency for international
• 4:43
  development trip into Moldova.
• 4:46
  And even back then, I remember thinking what a boondoggle and we had an old
• 4:55
  colonel that used to call it, he goes, there were some funny stuff that you
• 5:00
  would get in the army and you don't have to disagree with the concept of it
• 5:04
  all, but the visuals of it all are just incredible.
• 5:09
  And there were, you'd always have a good commander or a, I remember even in
• 5:13
  basic training, I had a drill sergeant who would say something like, you guys
• 5:18
  make me wanna go home and kick my dog, and then he'd drop kick, he'd make this
• 5:24
  drop kicking motion like he was gonna kick something if he was far away and he
• 5:29
  saw us.
• 5:30
  You guys are so screwed up, you make me wanna kick my dog.
• 5:34
  And then, you were always a screw up in the army, right?
• 5:37
  You're just supposed to be, you couldn't be anything good or you weren't ready
• 5:42
  for development.
• 5:43
  And anyway, there was a colonel that said to me once, we got captured in some
• 5:53
  war exercise and I was in charge and we got captured and I told him not to do
• 5:58
  what we were gonna do and we did it anyway.
• 6:00
  And then I come out and we had been captured and killed in this exercise that
• 6:07
  we were doing.
• 6:08
  And he goes, he said, Sergeant Trapp, who's in charge of this jug of fuck?
• 6:15
  That was, and sorry for being rude there, but the visual of that was just, I
• 6:22
  lost it.
• 6:23
  I was like, that would be me, sir.
• 6:25
  And I started laughing, you know, and even then I was not as serious as I
• 6:31
  probably ought to have been.
• 6:33
  And then there was another one that would say, you guys are as screwed up as a
• 6:40
  crew.
• 6:41
  And I really apologize, but always in the army, it was a bad word, you know?
• 6:47
  And one guy said, you guys are about as competent, you guys are about as
• 6:54
  competent, competent as a bunch of monkeys trying to fuck a football.
• 7:02
  And I remember these things and I don't know why I'm even sharing them, but
• 7:07
  that's kind of how I feel about how the US government has squandered the
• 7:14
  opportunities to create something valuable with the Russian counterparts after
• 7:23
  the collapse of the Soviet Union.
• 7:25
  From Bill Clinton giving away and talking about information and discussing NATO
• 7:32
  membership of Russia way back then and then changing his mind, George Bush too
• 7:41
  doing something similar and George Bush one saying, we're not going to go
• 7:48
  another inch to the east.
• 7:50
  And then all of the screw ups of this Russian disinformation BS and all of the
• 7:57
  crap that we have done in Ukraine and all of the destruction of a beautiful
• 8:02
  bunch of people in Ukraine by turning them into Nazi loving, history denying,
• 8:11
  gay embracing, which I don't really care about, but that's not them, you know?
• 8:19
  And to force them into that because that's what you want them to be in a
• 8:25
  Western sort of manner to be accepted by the east, they're sellouts
• 8:34
  and their government is anyway.
• 8:37
  And I feel in a large part that our own government, the US government has sold
• 8:43
  us out as well.
• 8:45
  So I babble on about that to talk to you a little bit about a continuation of
• 8:53
  my impressions of Russia.
• 8:56
  And what is different?
• 8:58
  What is the same?
• 9:00
  What is unbelievably awesome about the place?
• 9:05
  And I wanna talk again about the Metro system that I went to today.
• 9:11
  There was something extremely interesting.
• 9:13
  So basically the Metro system in Russia is or their transport system in Moscow.
• 9:23
  And granted, this is not everywhere all over the country.
• 9:28
  And I have not been all over the country.
• 9:30
  I got on some of the public transport in Naberezhnye Chelny, in Kazan, in
• 9:37
  Vladikavkaz areas, mostly buses and sometimes electric trolleys and whatnot,
• 9:46
  that I've gotten on.
• 9:47
  But Moscow, my God, it is involved.
• 9:50
  So you get on the Metro and you're, from what I understand, and I've only had
• 9:58
  it happen to me once.
• 9:59
  And there were a couple of weird things that happened today.
• 10:02
  And I went on, so basically the trip went like this and the entire trip
• 10:08
  together cost, round trip was 600 rubles, 608
• 10:18
  rubles to go to a place called Sergeyev Posad, a historic journey that was, and
• 10:26
  return.
• 10:28
  So 608 rubles for that, plus two Metro rides.
• 10:35
  Okay, the trip to one of the outlying areas, which Sergeyev Posad is on the far
• 10:40
  outskirts of Moscow, right, it's a separate town, city, whatever you want to
• 10:44
  call it, but a very distant suburb.
• 10:47
  And probably 40 kilometers out, something like that.
• 10:53
  And at any rate, well, it took an hour and 15 to 20 minutes to get there by
• 10:59
  train.
• 11:00
  And so that train ride was the 608 rubles round trip.
• 11:06
  Well, figure that out.
• 11:08
  There are 80 plus or minus, call it 80 rubles in the dollar.
• 11:14
  I mean, think about that, eight bucks, you know, 10 bucks, whatever it was, I
• 11:19
  mean, it's less than 10, you know, $8 to go there and back, unheard of, on a
• 11:27
  train that was clean, that was nice.
• 11:29
  I must admit, got mistakenly into a train that was going somewhere else.
• 11:36
  And I was reminded of the 90s in a train I got in in Moscow.
• 11:41
  And boy, it was bad.
• 11:42
  And it smelled horrible.
• 11:44
  Like there was somebody that had peed in a corner days on end, and that was
• 11:50
  bad.
• 11:51
  But I think that train was being cleaned in all seriousness.
• 11:54
  I don't think it was, if it was in operation, that's bad news, definitely bad
• 12:00
  news.
• 12:01
  But I think it was not, but I really don't know because it was the wrong train
• 12:06
  anyway.
• 12:06
  There was a guy in there cleaning it, but, you know, and he said, no, no,
• 12:12
  you're in the wrong train.
• 12:14
  At any rate, took a Metro to get there.
• 12:18
  And the Metro, okay, you get on the Metro, it's a subway system, beautiful,
• 12:22
  clean.
• 12:23
  I got pictures, unbelievable, crazy pictures that are just fantastic of this
• 12:29
  trip.
• 12:30
  And you get on, it's, from anywhere in town in Moscow, you walk 10, 15 minutes
• 12:37
  to get to a Metro station.
• 12:38
  You get on the Metro and you can go anywhere else in town for 74 rubles.
• 12:44
  And 74 rubles is less than a dollar.
• 12:46
  And so you can go anywhere you wanna go.
• 12:51
  And your ticket, I believe, lasts for 90 minutes.
• 12:56
  I was trying to read up on it and see how, and if you get to a different spot
• 13:01
  with your ticket, you have to start all over again, you know, if you're on a
• 13:05
  ticket.
• 13:06
  But if you pay with your phone, which is connected to your bank card, then I
• 13:12
  don't think there is a limit because how in the hell do they know?
• 13:15
  But they might know because it's tied to your bank card.
• 13:18
  I really don't know.
• 13:19
  I haven't run into this yet, but allegedly, because I was reading up on the
• 13:23
  signs inside the Metro cars, that it lasts only 90 minutes.
• 13:28
  But I've never run into it yet.
• 13:31
  Because everywhere you can go, you can get there in less than 90 minutes.
• 13:35
  And so, and it's always much less than that.
• 13:38
  But for example, when you come in on one line, like there's a green line, green
• 13:45
  number 10 line comes in and it connects in a three Metro station.
• 13:51
  You meet in this station, you get out, you go up one set of stairs or
• 13:55
  escalators, down another set of stairs, and you're in a different station.
• 14:00
  And then you can get off and get onto a train station, or it's called an
• 14:05
  electric train that is running above ground, and it's more like a trolley.
• 14:12
  And those go above ground in town, short trips.
• 14:15
  And then they have the full electric trains, which are, those trains run to,
• 14:22
  all the way to Sergeyev Prasad.
• 14:24
  And that's the one I had to pay 608 rubles round trip, basically.
• 14:30
  And the rest of them are all interconnected.
• 14:33
  And so you get out of the Metro, you get right onto the trolley line and it
• 14:37
  takes you to the next set of stops.
• 14:39
  So you could go to, if you're from New York or somewhere like that, you
• 14:44
  probably understand how it works, going from one set of boroughs to the other
• 14:48
  or something like that.
• 14:50
  But Moscow's was pretty involved and pretty modern.
• 14:54
  And I got some great pictures and some great video even of it, because they are
• 14:59
  well-designed, they are well, very pretty.
• 15:03
  And there's not a lot of public bathrooms, but they do have them.
• 15:10
  And usually it's when you come out and above, but underground there weren't,
• 15:13
  there aren't a lot down there.
• 15:16
  At any rate, that trip was, again, something impressive.
• 15:24
  And the Moscow Metro system is pretty damn impressive.
• 15:28
  I'll say that.
• 15:30
  And so that needs to be discussed and brought out.
• 15:37
  Well, then I wanted to get into the history and I'm a little bit concerned,
• 15:42
  like I said before, that we have turned Russia into an enemy that it isn't,
• 15:48
  which I've talked about a little bit yesterday, talk about some more today.
• 15:52
  And then I'm sitting there thinking, how in the world do we repair this?
• 15:58
  I wanna start some kind of a charitable organization.
• 16:02
  Like I said, I was talking to Scott Ritter about it and he's talking something
• 16:06
  about this.
• 16:07
  And I think culture is a big deal.
• 16:11
  There was a huge article yesterday about Woody Allen, another one about
• 16:21
  Ozzy Osbourne, something about Lavrov's T-shirt, what he was wearing in Alaska.
• 16:32
  And there is a point to me saying this, and I wanna tie this all together and
• 16:38
  put it all together by saying that we are, how are we going to get
• 16:47
  out of this?
• 16:48
  The only way to get out of this is take the great cultural strides of both
• 16:55
  countries and make sure that somehow Donald Trump can fix it by allowing Russia
• 17:04
  to be in the Olympics, allowing Russia to wear their flags at the competitions
• 17:11
  between people.
• 17:13
  He's made strides by getting rid of this DEI stuff, by getting rid of allowing
• 17:19
  men to swim against women in international competitions and in high schools and
• 17:25
  stuff like that, that are complete BS.
• 17:31
  Perhaps if he put a cultural team together that the sharing of culture, which
• 17:38
  is what really needs to happen, could continue.
• 17:42
  And I wanna talk about this film festival.
• 17:44
  I actually intend to go to part of this film festival and see if I can get in
• 17:49
  and perhaps interview a few people with my press credentials and see if I can
• 17:54
  get in and go to the Woody Allen thing.
• 17:58
  And Woody Allen got slammed on the Western press.
• 18:04
  But, and you know, I'm not the greatest of Woody Allen's, you know, movie, I
• 18:13
  don't wanna say, I'm not the greatest fan, but mostly because I don't know some
• 18:17
  of them.
• 18:18
  I always thought when I saw him personally in movies, he was a little bit dry
• 18:23
  and there was a sort of an acquired taste in comedy and blah, blah, blah.
• 18:28
  But then again, so is Russian filmmaking in Russian movies.
• 18:35
  And I love some of those.
• 18:37
  Some of those are more of a story that they don't have a point.
• 18:42
  I've told you of my love of Soviet sorts of movies, like Spring
• 18:51
  on River Street, I believe it's called Vesna Nazarechnaya Ulitsa, which is
• 18:59
  Spring on River Street.
• 19:00
  I love that movie.
• 19:01
  And I can't tell you why, I just do.
• 19:04
  It ends poorly.
• 19:05
  In my opinion, it doesn't end poorly.
• 19:09
  It doesn't have a hero in the end, but the ending makes you seriously think.
• 19:13
  And I think there's something to be said about a movie like that.
• 19:17
  And Russian, you know, American movies are always about a bad guy, a good guy,
• 19:21
  and the good guy's always American and he always wins.
• 19:24
  You know what I mean?
• 19:26
  And then in the end, there's always a happy ending.
• 19:29
  And that's not always the case in Woody Allen movies.
• 19:33
  It's not always the case in the Russian movies.
• 19:36
  So I think he's a perfect fit for it.
• 19:40
  From what I understand, and I'm no Woody Allen movie expert, but I'm certainly
• 19:46
  a fairly good, certainly a good American movie buff of Russian
• 19:55
  movies and Soviet movies.
• 19:58
  And so how do we correct these things between our countries that are leaving us
• 20:06
  wanting, well, everybody, and are giving the wrong impression of what we need
• 20:12
  in the world.
• 20:14
  We don't need more enemies, we need more friends.
• 20:17
  And why are we creating enemies that truly don't exist?
• 20:21
  Well, because that's what we do.
• 20:24
  We're America.
• 20:25
  And we go out and we create this unipolar world, this hegemonic, nonsensical,
• 20:35
  impossibility of making everyone think the same way as you, and all you really
• 20:40
  gotta do is honor other people's ways of life and other people's differences as
• 20:47
  much as you do your own, and you won't have the problems that we've created for
• 20:53
  ourselves in the world, okay?
• 20:56
  And so how do we fix that?
• 20:58
  We leave Woody Allen the hell alone, okay?
• 21:02
  And let him do what he does best, which is create films.
• 21:06
  But Kiev slammed Woody Allen, okay?
• 21:12
  There's stories of this, where is this story?
• 21:21
  On Woody Allen.
• 21:24
  Come on, let's bring it up, because we want to discuss this.
• 21:32
  We'll get there.
• 21:35
  Well, there's another one that I want to get to.
• 21:41
  Also, oh, here it is.
• 21:43
  Kiev is triggered by Woody Allen's video link.
• 21:49
  Woody Allen made a virtual appearance at a Russian cinema event.
• 21:55
  And here it is.
• 21:56
  The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry blasts U.S. filmmaker Woody Allen for his
• 22:02
  participation in this Russian cinema event, calling his involvement an insult
• 22:08
  to Ukrainian movie professionals.
• 22:11
  This is bull honky, people, that they could take a film great like Woody Allen
• 22:17
  and say that because he appreciates movies of other cultures and you have to
• 22:23
  love only Ukrainian movies, what sort of crap is this?
• 22:27
  This is nonsense.
• 22:28
  You can disagree with people, but Jesus, he's, this is nonsense.
• 22:35
  The 89-year-old film director appeared in a video link on Sunday at the Moscow
• 22:40
  International Film Week, and he spoke about his career and his ties to Russia.
• 22:46
  And Kiev condemns it, of course, describing it as a disgrace and an insult to
• 22:51
  the sacrifice of Ukrainian actors and filmmakers affected by the conflict.
• 22:57
  What a load of crap that is.
• 23:01
  This has nothing to do with your war against Russia.
• 23:06
  It has nothing to do with your war to demonize all things Russian.
• 23:13
  And I think it's time people put a stop to it.
• 23:16
  And the people stood up and said, screw you, Zelensky and company, for this.
• 23:22
  This is nonsense.
• 23:24
  You don't get to lump everything into your dispute with Russia.
• 23:30
  This is the same crap that is out there.
• 23:34
  Let's continue.
• 23:36
  Later on Monday, Maria Zankovetska-Ovov National Academic Theater announced it
• 23:44
  was scrapping its upcoming performances of Alan's stage musical, Bullets Over
• 23:50
  Broadway, which had been set to take place on August 28, 29.
• 23:54
  In a post on its official Facebook page, theater said the show will not take
• 23:59
  place and will be replaced in the schedule.
• 24:02
  The management condemns Alan's appearance at the Moscow film event, stressing
• 24:07
  that while the Ovov production draws on the screenplay of its 1994 film, it's
• 24:13
  not the original work, but an adaptation by a group of writers and producers.
• 24:17
  We have decided not to stage the musical without comment from the rights
• 24:22
  holders.
• 24:23
  Given its Western backers have sought to isolate Russia on multiple fronts,
• 24:29
  including by discouraging participation in local cultural events.
• 24:34
  This is horseshit, in my opinion.
• 24:37
  They claim such involvement serves to support Moscow's actions.
• 24:42
  Right.
• 24:43
  Well, but if you condemn it, you're supporting Ukraine's actions, aren't you?
• 24:48
  And you're supporting Ukraine's Nazism.
• 24:52
  You're supporting Ukraine's fascism.
• 24:55
  You're supporting Ukraine's ability to kill people that speak Russian or to
• 25:00
  degrade and demoralize all things Russian.
• 25:05
  That is deplorable.
• 25:09
  Well, to use a Hillary Clinton word.
• 25:11
  Why don't we pick that?
• 25:13
  That is deplorable behavior on your own.
• 25:17
  Separate yourself.
• 25:18
  What's wrong with separating your conflicts?
• 25:21
  What's wrong with us saying that just because you disagree with one thing, you
• 25:27
  have to disagree with all?
• 25:28
  That's the same thing you see in the US with all the gay people.
• 25:33
  If people disagree with the fact that you are gay, you have to hate them
• 25:38
  completely.
• 25:39
  What?
• 25:40
  That makes zero sense at all.
• 25:42
  Whatever happened to adults in the room being able to disagree about one thing,
• 25:47
  but work together on others?
• 25:49
  I think this is what Donald Trump is trying to repair through his appearance,
• 25:55
  through his discussions with Putin.
• 25:57
  What are we doing?
• 25:58
  We're doing the exact same thing.
• 26:00
  When will an adult stand up and say something?
• 26:03
  Why does it have to be me, right?
• 26:07
  Nonsense.
• 26:09
  Since taking office in January, Donald Trump abandoned efforts launched under
• 26:14
  his predecessor to marginalize Russia, right?
• 26:18
  This is what they say anyway.
• 26:20
  Instead, his administration is focused on seeking a resolution to the Ukraine
• 26:25
  conflict and normalizing relations with Moscow.
• 26:28
  That's because what is going on is completely wrong.
• 26:33
  And how can we fix this culturally?
• 26:35
  In all seriousness, how can we fix this culturally?
• 26:39
  The way we can do it is let people like Woody Allen do what they're gonna do
• 26:46
  without condemning them.
• 26:48
  Think about this.
• 26:49
  Here's another one.
• 26:51
  And this is important.
• 26:54
  This is a great story.
• 26:56
  Ozzy Osbourne passed away not long ago.
• 27:00
  I'm an Ozzy Osbourne fan.
• 27:01
  My God, when I was a kid, Crazy Train and some of the other Ozzy songs.
• 27:06
  Now, I remember there were some bad things.
• 27:08
  Our parents were very much worried about Ozzy Osbourne and some of the things
• 27:13
  that he had to do, but he's got a huge following in Russia, in Moscow.
• 27:20
  And Ozzy Osbourne is to be honored at a Moscow organized event.
• 27:30
  And he has a massive following in Russia.
• 27:33
  He's got a great following.
• 27:34
  So the story goes, Moscow's gonna host a major international rock festival.
• 27:40
  Hell, I want to attend.
• 27:41
  I would love to attend.
• 27:43
  Where musicians and fans from around the world would gather to honor Ozzy
• 27:47
  Osbourne.
• 27:48
  So now is Kiev gonna hate Ozzy Osbourne because Russia likes him?
• 27:53
  Is that what's gonna happen?
• 27:55
  Nonsense.
• 27:56
  The Black Sabbath front man and heavy metal pioneer passed away last month.
• 28:02
  The self-described Prince of Darkness died on July 22nd after years of battling
• 28:07
  Parkinson's disease and other ailments.
• 28:10
  His death came less than three weeks after a farewell reunion concert with
• 28:15
  Black Sabbath in his hometown of Birmingham, which raised millions for local
• 28:22
  charities, right?
• 28:23
  His legacy will be the heart of Moscow's Sandler Fest, a two-day progressive
• 28:30
  music event where musicians and fans play a collective tribute.
• 28:35
  The festival's opening night is on Saturday, August 30th.
• 28:40
  I'm leaving on Friday, so I'm a little depressed.
• 28:43
  And it's at an all-Russian exhibition center and it will feature a powerful
• 28:48
  dedication to the rock legend.
• 28:50
  Bringing together more than 150 music groups, the commemoration will open with
• 28:55
  a mass performance of Mama, I'm Coming Home, which is the ballad Ozzy dedicated
• 29:04
  to his wife, Sharon, whom he called his guardian angel.
• 29:08
  The program will include 15 minutes of silence with rare documentary footage on
• 29:14
  a big screen.
• 29:16
  Each of his 76 years will be marked with a single strike of a gong.
• 29:21
  Fans will also contribute to a memory book titled From Russia, With Love, Music
• 29:29
  Unites.
• 29:31
  Now, how can you disagree with this shit, people?
• 29:35
  And it leaves reflections and messages in Osborne's honor.
• 29:40
  This book, featuring his iconic cross on the cover and a photo from his final
• 29:48
  public appearance on the back will be sent to the Osborne Museum in Birmingham.
• 29:55
  What, does that mean that Kiev is going to want to see that destroyed too?
• 30:01
  Nonsense, Russia has long had a massive fan base for Osborne and for Black
• 30:06
  Sabbath.
• 30:07
  And the reaction to his passing has been emotional, said the Sandler Fest
• 30:12
  organizer and producer, Igor Sandler.
• 30:16
  He is truly loved in Russia.
• 30:18
  We received countless letters and fans took his death personally, he told the
• 30:22
  news portal, NSN, right?
• 30:27
  I tell you what.
• 30:28
  I want to see in America, and I'm gonna do it.
• 30:33
  I'm gonna find one before I leave here.
• 30:35
  Or if I don't find one, I'm gonna have one made for me there.
• 30:40
  I want the jersey that Sergei Lavrov wore in Alaska.
• 30:49
  That's what I want.
• 30:49
  I want the jersey that he wore that said USSR on it.
• 30:54
  And I wanna wear a seat coat over it.
• 30:56
  And I wanna wander through the airports on my way back home to Miami.
• 31:02
  And I want to have pictures of that.
• 31:05
  And I want it.
• 31:06
  I mean, it's stupid, but I wanna do it.
• 31:08
  I mean, how are we gonna bring people together?
• 31:12
  How are we gonna bring people together?
• 31:14
  Culture, music, history, art, humor.
• 31:20
  Me being humorous if I wish to be humorous and wear a USSR shirt under a suit
• 31:27
  coat on the flight home.
• 31:28
  I think that would be freaking fantastic.
• 31:31
  And maybe I'll do something like that.
• 31:37
  I started this show by talking to you about culture and about things that I
• 31:43
  wanted to get to while I'm here.
• 31:47
  I think this sort of thing is a good idea.
• 31:52
  I need to do a show again on what has happened with the Ukrainian conflict
• 31:59
  again, because there's quite a bit going on in that.
• 32:03
  But today I went to this town and I told you a little bit about my impressions
• 32:10
  of the railway and of going out and spending a whole six or $8 traveling to and
• 32:18
  from this town called Sergeyev Posad.
• 32:22
  And think about this.
• 32:24
  If you can share your history, if you can share some things, there's an
• 32:32
  interesting, I've put together a kind of a history report for you if you wanna
• 32:41
  call it that.
• 32:43
  Like I said, I wanna share my impressions of a place I visited just today.
• 32:48
  It's called Sergeyev Posad.
• 32:51
  It's an hour or so outside of Moscow.
• 32:53
  It's part of Russia's Golden Ring, which is a circle of ancient towns that are
• 33:00
  rich with history, art, and tradition.
• 33:03
  Years ago in Washington, DC, when I was in the military, I opened a store in a
• 33:10
  place called Middleburg.
• 33:12
  And it's in the middle between Washington, DC and Winchester, I believe was
• 33:20
  what it's called, Winchester, Virginia.
• 33:22
  And I almost bought a house in Winchester.
• 33:25
  Kinda wish I had.
• 33:25
  It'd be worth a fortune by now.
• 33:28
  And back then it was gonna be pretty cheap.
• 33:31
  And I decided not to buy a house because I didn't wanna buy one and get stuck
• 33:35
  with it when I was leaving.
• 33:36
  And I probably shoulda.
• 33:38
  But at any rate, that has nothing to do with the story of today.
• 33:41
  But I had a gift shop and I called it the Russia House.
• 33:46
  And in the Russia House, I sold Russian, you know, shkatulki is the word, and
• 33:53
  they are lacquer boxes.
• 33:56
  And matryoshki, you know, the dolls that open up and inside there's another
• 34:03
  one, and inside there's another one.
• 34:05
  When I was traveling, even with my diplomatic passport, after the collapse of
• 34:10
  the Soviet Union, I had purchased two of these dolls.
• 34:15
  I paid about $200 a piece for them.
• 34:18
  And they had 40, 40 dolls each going down the line.
• 34:26
  And I paid $200 a piece for them.
• 34:29
  They stood about two and a half feet tall.
• 34:33
  And they were taken from me even, and I bitched about it, even with my
• 34:39
  diplomatic passport, they were taken from me, two of them at the border and the
• 34:46
  border guard would not let me take them.
• 34:49
  And I could not create, and with a diplomatic passport, I should have been able
• 34:53
  to, but he wouldn't let me.
• 34:56
  And I did not create an issue about it.
• 35:01
  He let me keep a chessboard that I had also purchased.
• 35:06
  And I understand it.
• 35:08
  I feel, I get it now.
• 35:11
  But when I was a young man, all I could think about was that I just lost 400
• 35:16
  bucks.
• 35:17
  You know, I had these cool dolls and I was like, but they were historic and
• 35:22
  they were, oh my God, they were hand painted and they were incredible.
• 35:27
  And they're gone.
• 35:30
  Somebody collected them from me and they got them.
• 35:33
  Well, the only reason I tell you that story is because one of the places that
• 35:37
  had a great deal of art and a great deal of history and a great deal of input
• 35:46
  in lacquer boxes, in artwork, in everything was this place called Sergei F.
• 35:51
  Possad.
• 35:52
  And I knew about it back then when I had my gift shop years and years ago, I
• 36:01
  knew of Sergei F.
• 36:02
  Possad, but I couldn't, you didn't really dictate where you went when you flew
• 36:08
  over and were working with the US government when you came over, you had to do
• 36:11
  what was there.
• 36:12
  And I had always wanted to go and see Sergei F.
• 36:14
  Possad.
• 36:14
  Well, I didn't get to get there until today.
• 36:17
  And I'm sure it's quite a bit different now than it was then.
• 36:22
  And it has quite a bit of history in there.
• 36:28
  And I wanted to tell you a little bit about that history today and some of the
• 36:34
  things that came from there.
• 36:36
  And so these lacquer boxes were one of the key things from Sergei F.
• 36:43
  Possad.
• 36:44
  And if you can use some of these things and some of the art to bridge cultural
• 36:50
  gaps between our countries, I think that truly needs to happen between the
• 36:59
  two countries.
• 37:03
  And if I can help that in some way, I would love to do so.
• 37:07
  So basically a small history of Sergei F.
• 37:14
  Possad, it's more than just history, art, and tradition, more than just another
• 37:21
  old town.
• 37:22
  It is the home of the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, the most important
• 37:30
  monastery in Russia, and one of the most influential centers of Orthodox
• 37:38
  Christianity.
• 37:39
  And I went into one of those churches today and listened to some of the
• 37:49
  songs and chants of people.
• 37:53
  And those, and I just thought it was, incredible to hear.
• 38:02
  And there was a line of people going in there and obviously for them, it was
• 38:08
  quite spiritual.
• 38:09
  I am not much of a church goer, but I'm definitely a history lover.
• 38:15
  And checking all of those things out, I thought was quite important to do.
• 38:24
  And so the chanting that went on between these, there was
• 38:34
  first the priests would do their chant and then other participants, men and
• 38:43
  women.
• 38:44
  And I thought initially it was a recording and then come to find out it was
• 38:49
  not.
• 38:49
  There were people sitting there.
• 38:51
  You would hear the chanting from the chapel inside where the monks or whatever
• 38:57
  religious order they were, were doing their chants.
• 39:00
  And you'd hear the answering from right there next to you.
• 39:03
  And it was really quite impressive and very, I don't know what, spiritual.
• 39:14
  And I'm not one of those guys, okay?
• 39:17
  But it was a pretty influential, even on me.
• 39:23
  And this place is, as I walked in, you go in and there are
• 39:32
  these bright blue domes with gold stars on the top.
• 39:37
  And it was very beautiful and it has been there for centuries.
• 39:44
  And I mean centuries.
• 39:47
  This place has survived centuries of war, reform, revolution, decades of
• 39:54
  suppression, even under the Soviet Union.
• 39:58
  And it's still standing.
• 39:59
  It has pilgrims, art and very living faith with the number of people I saw in
• 40:05
  there praying and chanting and lighting candles and doing all of that.
• 40:09
  And it was, like I said, not for me.
• 40:14
  I always figure if I go into a church, I'm lucky if it doesn't collapse around
• 40:18
  me.
• 40:19
  You know what I mean?
• 40:21
  But for other people, it's acceptable.
• 40:24
  And so I just wanna take a little bit of time to explore a little bit about
• 40:28
  this history, the art, the people who shaped it and how this place might
• 40:36
  actually help us to, I don't know what, to narrow the divide between
• 40:46
  Russia, the United States, Russia and the rest of the world that we have
• 40:50
  created, by the way.
• 40:51
  But they have a lot to offer to us, right?
• 40:54
  So let's talk about the history of it.
• 40:56
  It begins in the 14th century.
• 41:01
  14th century.
• 41:03
  A monk named Bartholomew Kirillovich, who was later known as Sergius of
• 41:11
  Radonish, came to these quiet hills north of Moscow.
• 41:16
  And I got some great pictures.
• 41:18
  And he was seeking solitude and prayer.
• 41:21
  In 1337, he built a small wooden church on Makovits Hill.
• 41:30
  That single act grew into what would become the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius,
• 41:37
  the heart of Russian monasticism.
• 41:43
  After his death in 1392, his reputation as a saintly figure spread across
• 41:49
  Russia and pilgrims came in ever greater numbers.
• 41:54
  By 1422, a stone cathedral called the Trinity Cathedral was built to house his
• 42:02
  relics.
• 42:03
  That cathedral still stands today and I was in it.
• 42:10
  The monastery is not only a religious center, but a fortress.
• 42:16
  During what they called the time of troubles, from 1608 to 1610, it withstood a
• 42:25
  16-month siege by Polish and Lithuanian forces.
• 42:32
  Monks and soldiers defended the walls together.
• 42:36
  And the Lavra's survival became a symbol of Russian resilience, right?
• 42:41
  Under czars, the monastery flourished.
• 42:45
  Ivan the Terrible ordered the construction of the Grand Assumption Cathedral in
• 42:51
  1559.
• 42:53
  And it's modeled after the cathedral in Moscow's Kremlin.
• 42:58
  Later, Peter the Great took refuge here as a young boy during Moscow's
• 43:04
  political upheaval.
• 43:06
  And in the 18th century, Empress Elizabeth elevated the monastery's status and
• 43:12
  commissioned an enormous baroque bell tower, which rises 88 meters into the
• 43:19
  sky.
• 43:21
  But the 20th century brought darker days.
• 43:24
  In 1919, after the, you know, Bolshevik's revolution, the monastery was shut
• 43:33
  down and the town was renamed from Sergeyev Posad to Zagorsk.
• 43:39
  And it wanted to erase spiritual associations.
• 43:44
  And for decades, the Lavra stood silent.
• 43:48
  It was used partly as a museum, but even during those years, people still found
• 43:53
  ways to venerate St. Sergius quietly.
• 43:57
  Now, remember back then, I told you about my gift shop that I owned that said
• 44:02
  some of these things.
• 44:03
  These people knew about Sergeyev Posad and they did not call it, they did not
• 44:09
  call it Zagorsk.
• 44:12
  They called it Sergeyev Posad.
• 44:14
  Even the diplomatic people that I worked with tell me some of these stories.
• 44:19
  And I was always interested in seeing this particular monastery.
• 44:25
  In 1945, near the end of the Second World War, Stalin, who was seeking the
• 44:30
  support of the Orthodox Church, allowed the monastery to reopen.
• 44:37
  And in 1991, this I remember, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the town
• 44:44
  regained its historic name of Sergeyev Posad in 1991.
• 44:50
  Today, it is a living monastery with hundreds of monks.
• 44:55
  And I got photos of them too.
• 44:56
  They were everywhere.
• 44:58
  And the chanting was going on.
• 44:59
  And it was, it would have been nice to go speak to some of them.
• 45:04
  I kind of felt like I should, but I didn't.
• 45:08
  Today it is a monastery, it's a cultural site and visitors come from across
• 45:14
  Russia and around the world.
• 45:17
  And now I have been one of them, okay?
• 45:22
  Let's talk a little bit about St. Sergius of Rodonezh himself.
• 45:28
  He is remembered as a humble, spiritual man.
• 45:32
  So they had this bookstore in there and I almost bought some books, all of them
• 45:36
  in Russian, of course, but I didn't know what to pick.
• 45:40
  And I thought about picking one, but I never did.
• 45:42
  And it was, they have these books in there, teachings on raising your children,
• 45:50
  teachings on relationships, teachings on, and they're these little short books.
• 45:57
  And, you know, with, I don't know, 20, 30 pages, you know, just these small
• 46:01
  books with sayings in there on what you do.
• 46:05
  And they were, and it was a series of these books and I didn't know which one
• 46:09
  to pick or anything like that.
• 46:11
  They had some extremely valuable artwork.
• 46:13
  A lot of these monks are in there and they learn, you know, this is where the
• 46:17
  famous lacquer boxes were painted with brushes with two, three hairs in them
• 46:25
  that these small brushes they would make in the detail is incredible.
• 46:29
  And you can still see some of them in there on display for sale today.
• 46:34
  And, you know, if you got tons of money, you can buy something, even here,
• 46:38
  they're not cheap.
• 46:39
  And they're, you know, definitely, and it was some of these sorts of things
• 46:45
  that were taken from me years ago because they were deemed to be of historic
• 46:51
  and cultural value to Russia.
• 46:54
  Even then, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, they didn't want people
• 46:58
  stealing all their treasures and taking them out of the country.
• 47:01
  And those, some of those dolls that I had were considered to be that sort of a
• 47:06
  treasure.
• 47:07
  Anyway, Rodanysh himself is credited with reforming monastic life and
• 47:15
  encourages simplicity, unity, and prayer.
• 47:19
  His influence went far beyond the monastery.
• 47:23
  He blessed Prince Dmitry Donskoy before the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380.
• 47:31
  And it was a decisive victory that helped rally the Russian people.
• 47:35
  The monastery nurtured the arts as well.
• 47:39
  A great icon painter, and there are tons of icons in there, his name is Andrei
• 47:45
  Rublyov, created a masterpiece called The Icon of the Holy Trinity.
• 47:51
  And it was created there in the 15th century.
• 47:55
  That image, three angels seated around a table, is one of the most famous works
• 48:00
  of Russian religious arts.
• 48:02
  And it symbolizes both divine mystery and human unity.
• 48:07
  Later centuries brought people like Simon Ushakov, a 17th century painter whose
• 48:13
  frescoes still decorate the Assumption Cathedral, Ivan the Terrible, who
• 48:18
  invested heavily in building up the monastery, and Peter the Great, who found
• 48:23
  refuge within its walls.
• 48:25
  Even political thinkers like Lev Tikhomirov spent their final years in Sergei
• 48:31
  Posad and gave a layer to its intellectual legacy.
• 48:37
  When you walk in today, you see a living museum to Russian architecture.
• 48:43
  It's just freaking incredible.
• 48:45
  The Trinity Cathedral is small, filled with frescoes by Rublyov and Daniil
• 48:52
  Chorniy.
• 48:54
  I think it's Chorney, Daniil Chorney.
• 48:57
  Pilgrims line up to see the relics.
• 49:00
  I was one of them.
• 49:02
  The Assumption Cathedral is dominating the square, was being rebuilt, being
• 49:07
  redone with its tall white walls and blue domes speckled with stars.
• 49:14
  And you'll find frescoes in the tomb of Boris Gudenov and his family, which
• 49:22
  ties Russian political history to this holy place.
• 49:25
  There's a bell tower built in the 18th century that goes above everything else.
• 49:30
  Its height and ornate baroque style make it a landmark visible from very far
• 49:35
  away.
• 49:36
  Beyond these, there are palaces, refractories, smaller chapels, and even a
• 49:41
  spring where holy water has been drawn since the 17th century.
• 49:47
  The entire ensemble is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• 49:54
  But the Lavra is not just architecture, it's art icons.
• 49:57
  There's chanting, there's processions, and then there were a lot of people
• 50:03
  there being very spiritual.
• 50:06
  The town is also known for making traditional wooden toys, matryoshka dolls,
• 50:15
  like I was talking about, some of those, and some of these really cool birch
• 50:21
  boxes that are kind of like a leather.
• 50:24
  And I had a whole bunch of these previously.
• 50:27
  I didn't buy anything.
• 50:28
  I've got my share of Russian gifts and stuff already.
• 50:33
  But the town is still a hub for religious education, and they have seminaries
• 50:39
  and schools, and there's a lot of tourists, people that are coming to see it.
• 50:44
  You know, there are people buying toys.
• 50:47
  They have cultural centers, great restaurants, I'll tell you a little bit about
• 50:52
  here in a minute.
• 50:56
  And I don't know, why does this matter, and why am I spending my time telling
• 51:01
  you about it today, which I'm very glad you're listening to?
• 51:05
  Well, it's because Sergei of Posad itself is a story of endurance, of
• 51:12
  rebuilding after destruction, and faith that outlasts politics, history that
• 51:19
  outlasts politics.
• 51:22
  We in America, we've been destroying our history, you know, and I've been
• 51:26
  against that from the beginning.
• 51:28
  You don't get to choose your history.
• 51:31
  Your history is your history, and you have to figure out how to deal with that
• 51:39
  history sometimes.
• 51:40
  Sometimes it's stuff that you don't really like or appreciate, similar to
• 51:45
  what's been going on, for example, with slavery, where we have to cancel anyone
• 51:54
  who had slaves previously because we dislike it today.
• 51:59
  Well, you don't get to like everything about your ancestors.
• 52:04
  You know, you learn from them, and you do things differently.
• 52:09
  Well, Russia has a huge history, and quite a history.
• 52:15
  They have a period during the Soviet time periods that if you judged Russia
• 52:19
  based on Soviet, well, maybe that's a bad thing, although there are quite a few
• 52:25
  people who think that it was a good effort.
• 52:28
  You know, the thought process, I've never been against.
• 52:31
  The thought process has always been each according to their need and each
• 52:38
  according to their requirements, you know, and they input according to
• 52:48
  their abilities, right?
• 52:50
  And sometimes that just doesn't work out, and I think it failed, but it was a
• 52:55
  healthy experiment.
• 52:57
  There are religious people, communes, who think the same way.
• 53:02
  You know, I grew up Mormon, and they kind of think the same way.
• 53:05
  In a perfect world, maybe that would work.
• 53:09
  In a Star Trek world, maybe that's the way it does work, you know, but
• 53:13
  unfortunately, that's not how it works in the real world for us.
• 53:21
  Capitalism dominates, and I mean, who's to say that a guy with billions and
• 53:25
  billions and billions needs all of that?
• 53:29
  But who are you to take it away from him if he earned it?
• 53:32
  Okay, I don't know what the right answer is.
• 53:35
  Never said so, but you know, it's certainly interesting, but you can't judge a
• 53:43
  huge country like Russia based on one war with Ukraine.
• 53:51
  I mean, what did I just read to you about?
• 53:53
  That Lithuania and Poland got all the way to the borders of Sergeyiv Posad, and
• 53:59
  were attacking it for two, three years in 1608 to 1610.
• 54:05
  Should we judge them for that?
• 54:07
  Should we condemn them for that?
• 54:09
  And say, you a-holes, we're attacking Russia, maybe Russia should be attacking
• 54:14
  you now.
• 54:15
  Should we condemn them forever?
• 54:17
  Maybe that's the way it's supposed to be.
• 54:20
  I don't think so, friends and neighbors, it's history.
• 54:24
  That's, we have to learn from it, and no matter how long this war goes on,
• 54:29
  guess what?
• 54:30
  It's only temporary.
• 54:32
  We're all temporary, did you know that?
• 54:36
  Crazy, at any rate, because of this endurance and the rebuilding and the faith
• 54:44
  outlasting all of it, if there's a lesson for the relationship between Russia
• 54:52
  and the United States, it might be that these great divides can be overcome,
• 54:58
  but we have to focus on what is long lasting.
• 55:03
  And it seems to me that if you have anything positive you wanna talk about with
• 55:07
  Donald Trump and the meeting he had with Vladimir Putin and the honor and the
• 55:15
  dignity with which he treated Vladimir Putin and with which Vladimir Putin
• 55:20
  treated him, maybe that's the way we need to go.
• 55:26
  And you know what?
• 55:28
  Distance yourself from this ridiculous conflict that shouldn't be there.
• 55:35
  Think about this, the monastery survived the Mongol invasions, foreign sieges,
• 55:43
  czarist power struggles, Soviet repression, and tons of economic hardship.
• 55:49
  But it still stands, not because armies that defended it, but because
• 55:54
  generations and generations of people believed it was worth preserving.
• 56:01
  It's so much worth preserving that they're rebuilding, well, I don't wanna call
• 56:09
  it modernizing, what would you call it, rehabilitating?
• 56:12
  In a lot of respects, they're making sure that it withstands the time, right?
• 56:18
  Maybe there's something needs to be done in this exact same way with the US and
• 56:23
  Russian relationships.
• 56:25
  It cannot be repaired, we can't repair our differences by military posturing or
• 56:32
  even political BS, we can't do it.
• 56:36
  If we're gonna repair these chasms between us, they're gonna be repaired by
• 56:43
  ordinary people preserving culture, by Woody Allen preserving movies, by
• 56:50
  Russian music lovers honoring, Ozzy Osbourne, by me loving
• 56:59
  Vladimir Vysotsky music, by me loving Russian art and music and film and
• 57:06
  history.
• 57:08
  And the history going back, I'm telling you, on this certain day of Pesad, 14th
• 57:15
  century, okay?
• 57:17
  We're talking a thousand years, okay?
• 57:21
  That they're going back.
• 57:23
  And that history is worthy of preservation.
• 57:28
  You wanna judge the entire Russian culture by Vladimir Putin, good, bad or
• 57:35
  indifferent, you're making a mistake, because that is not what, that's not what
• 57:42
  America should be judged upon.
• 57:43
  Should America be judged upon the fact that Thomas Jefferson owned slaves?
• 57:49
  That's what we're trying to do.
• 57:51
  We're trying to do the same thing, condemn the entire country because of it,
• 57:55
  nonsense.
• 57:57
  If we're gonna repair this, it's gonna be by ordinary people sharing and
• 58:03
  respecting history, human dignity, and dialogue rooted in that human dignity.
• 58:11
  That's what I think, right?
• 58:13
  Sergei of Pesad reminds us that unity and reconciliation between us all takes
• 58:20
  patience.
• 58:22
  Think about this, St. Sergius preached humility and service.
• 58:28
  Rublyov painted unity in his Trinity icons and the people of the town protected
• 58:33
  this monastery for centuries.
• 58:38
  Perhaps that's the kind of spirit needed to heal, divides today.
• 58:43
  If anything, Russians are patient, are they not, right?
• 58:49
  As I was leaving there, I was in, I took some pictures on the way out that were
• 58:56
  10 times better than the pictures on the way in.
• 58:59
  And I was only there for a total of four or five, four hours, let's call it.
• 59:06
  And it was amazing, no matter how you slice it.
• 59:11
  But I have the image of those domes and the art and the sense of that place and
• 59:18
  the lessons that it carries for all of us.
• 59:21
  It reminds us that beauty survives turmoil and reconciliation is always
• 59:29
  available to us.
• 59:31
  It's there, it is there, right?
• 59:36
  I wanted to talk to you a little bit about, there was a restaurant that I went
• 59:45
  to that happened to be, and I was sitting at a window seat, looking out the
• 59:52
  window across the street at Sergei of Posad, this monastery was right across
• 1:00:01
  the street.
• 1:00:02
  And you can see all the domes.
• 1:00:04
  And I took, if you wanna look at the picture that I took out the window of that
• 1:00:08
  restaurant, it is actually on my Facebook page.
• 1:00:12
  And my Facebook page, I think my name on Facebook page is at Samuel Trapp too,
• 1:00:20
  I think.
• 1:00:22
  But I don't remember, look up Samuel Trapp on Facebook and you'll probably find
• 1:00:27
  me or look up International Flavor and then link to me from there.
• 1:00:32
  And I took a picture out the window of the Sergei of Posad Cathedral, this huge
• 1:00:41
  monastery that I took a picture of.
• 1:00:44
  And you should probably get a look at it and like that photo if you get a
• 1:00:51
  chance to, or if you wanna see anything about it.
• 1:00:55
  And some of the pictures that I put, I will put some out there, okay?
• 1:01:02
  But when you walk into this restaurant, okay?
• 1:01:05
  And I went in actually to the restaurant before going into the monastery.
• 1:01:13
  And I hadn't been out there.
• 1:01:15
  And when you walk in to this door, it is, there are several rooms in it.
• 1:01:20
  It's like an old house.
• 1:01:22
  I don't think it is, but it's like an old house.
• 1:01:25
  And so each room has a separate sort of theme.
• 1:01:29
  And the first thing that the, what do they call them, hostesses said was, which
• 1:01:36
  room do you wish to sit in?
• 1:01:39
  And picked the one where you could look out the window and right across the
• 1:01:46
  street to see this monastery.
• 1:01:49
  Took some great pictures.
• 1:01:51
  But they also have an entire wall of all kinds of famous people.
• 1:01:56
  There was a picture of Gorbachev having dined there.
• 1:02:01
  And then he wrote a letter about it.
• 1:02:05
  And so Gorbachev has a picture out there, a lot of famous actors that I have
• 1:02:10
  seen in movies over the years, Russian movies were listed there as well.
• 1:02:15
  And of course, my photo was never taken to be added to the wall.
• 1:02:22
  Probably not a good spot for it anyway.
• 1:02:24
  But anyway, the restaurant was just fantastic.
• 1:02:27
  I had some pilmeni.
• 1:02:29
  And it was, they had interior, they had crafts.
• 1:02:33
  It was really good.
• 1:02:34
  They had traditional Russian dishes.
• 1:02:36
  I had some mushrooms that were very tasty.
• 1:02:41
  And there was, and it's so inexpensive to eat.
• 1:02:46
  Well, comparatively, maybe for them it was expensive, but the meal was not very
• 1:02:54
  expensive.
• 1:02:55
  And around the town, there's a lot of old homes, walked past old structures,
• 1:03:02
  cobblestone streets that were quite, quite well kept and taken care of.
• 1:03:10
  And tons of schools, markets.
• 1:03:17
  Even sitting and relaxing and having that meal and checking it out was pretty
• 1:03:24
  cool.
• 1:03:25
  And in between, so in Russia, a lot of times, you don't have to cross the
• 1:03:31
  street or they don't want you to cross the street.
• 1:03:33
  They have tunnels that go under the roads.
• 1:03:35
  And so you go down and under the road instead of having some bridge that goes
• 1:03:40
  over, they have a tunnel that goes under.
• 1:03:43
  And so when you come out of this restaurant, you can go to a number of like
• 1:03:50
  small gift shops.
• 1:03:52
  And there are all these little quaint sort of houses with window fronts that
• 1:03:58
  open up.
• 1:04:00
  And these craftsmen sell their products, whether they're matryoshka dolls,
• 1:04:06
  whether they're scarves, and whether they're shkatulki, these little lacquer
• 1:04:11
  boxes, or whether they're birch boxes or wood crafts or toys or anything like
• 1:04:16
  that.
• 1:04:17
  Kind of a flea market sort of thing, but very nice.
• 1:04:21
  And you can wander through all of those.
• 1:04:25
  And I think that if sanctions or anything like that is hitting people,
• 1:04:36
  is hitting the country of Russia, it isn't hitting the big players.
• 1:04:44
  It may be hitting these small players because people like me, I mean, I'm
• 1:04:52
  pretty brave and I've figured out ways to come anyway.
• 1:04:58
  And not to avoid sanctions, but to deal with them.
• 1:05:02
  And for me, it's not a big deal.
• 1:05:04
  I still have people that ask me, aren't you afraid to be there?
• 1:05:08
  No, I'm not, not remotely.
• 1:05:11
  And I think the positives far outweigh the negatives.
• 1:05:18
  So taking the train today, for the first time, I saw tons of graffiti like you
• 1:05:28
  would see in Boston or New York on their subways.
• 1:05:31
  I don't know what it is about young kids that wanna get out and paint these
• 1:05:35
  huge letters of graffiti everywhere.
• 1:05:39
  And I always think, and I actually saw two kids painting graffiti on the side
• 1:05:47
  of an underpass.
• 1:05:49
  I saw them painting graffiti up there.
• 1:05:51
  They were up there, broad daylight, painting on the side of this concrete.
• 1:05:58
  And whatever they were painting, I didn't really get to see it.
• 1:06:00
  You know, we're by too fast, but they were up there.
• 1:06:02
  They sure as hell were painting.
• 1:06:04
  And so how fast do you have to go and paint to cover all that up?
• 1:06:12
  And why is it so popular?
• 1:06:15
  I truly don't get it.
• 1:06:17
  And, you know, if somebody caught them, you know, I always think of things like
• 1:06:21
  Andy Griffith, you know, going up and grabbing you by the ear and dragging you
• 1:06:25
  out, making you clean it up, you know?
• 1:06:28
  And I don't know, but you gotta catch them.
• 1:06:32
  And, or you have to just keep up the battle.
• 1:06:37
  But for one of the first times I saw a whole lot of it on the way out that way,
• 1:06:44
  because you had to go an hour on the train and it was pretty much the whole way
• 1:06:49
  out there.
• 1:06:49
  And those sorts of things I find depressing everywhere, but Russia has its
• 1:06:56
  share of graffiti as well.
• 1:06:59
  And so there was plenty of that out there.
• 1:07:03
  So I don't know.
• 1:07:05
  I think that culturally, maybe those guys that are painting all the graffiti
• 1:07:14
  would probably be better suited if they found a different avenue to take all of
• 1:07:21
  their efforts, you know what I mean?
• 1:07:28
  Turn it into something positive.
• 1:07:31
  But I don't know.
• 1:07:32
  After a full day about, you know, wandering through, going to this restaurant,
• 1:07:39
  going to a long train ride, both directions, taking a
• 1:07:49
  long look at the monastery and all of the spiritual things that come about as
• 1:07:58
  part of that, I think it needs to be shared, right?
• 1:08:06
  So again, Posad is an extraordinary place.
• 1:08:10
  And not only because of one cathedral or one saint, it's because of how faith,
• 1:08:21
  well, maybe I'm not saying that right, faith or daily life or art or all of
• 1:08:28
  these things can exist side by side for so long.
• 1:08:35
  Right?
• 1:08:37
  You know, there are pilgrims and worshipers that are kneeling in prayer and
• 1:08:46
  singing while tourists like me are wandering by and buying stuff and reading
• 1:08:52
  books and whatever.
• 1:08:54
  These domes, you know, are just, they dominate the landscape.
• 1:09:02
  And this piece of history dominates the area for miles around.
• 1:09:12
  You know, it is huge.
• 1:09:14
  And that coexistence between faith, between people, between civilization, it's
• 1:09:21
  continuity.
• 1:09:23
  And Russia has it.
• 1:09:25
  America, ours is much shorter.
• 1:09:29
  We're developing it, but it's much shorter.
• 1:09:32
  And I don't know that we've had anywhere near the conflict that Russia has had
• 1:09:36
  over its thousand year history, right?
• 1:09:41
  But for Russia and the United States, when we are so often defined by
• 1:09:46
  confrontation and horror story, the message is pretty clear.
• 1:09:55
  Our strength, if we're ever gonna find it between the two, is not gonna be
• 1:10:00
  found in rivalry, in suspicion, but in continuity and culture.
• 1:10:08
  And in fact, honoring each other's culture, honoring Woody Allen for, and I had
• 1:10:16
  nothing for or against Woody Allen, except I think it's brave for him to say,
• 1:10:22
  hey, you know, I'm connected and I want to stand up and I want to be a part.
• 1:10:26
  And who gives a crap what people in Kiev think?
• 1:10:29
  I think that's wonderful.
• 1:10:31
  I think that's great.
• 1:10:32
  And I'm not against Kiev.
• 1:10:35
  You know, they have their great things too, but quit this nonsense where you
• 1:10:41
  have to destroy others to make yourself look better.
• 1:10:45
  You wouldn't let your kids get away with that.
• 1:10:47
  You know, you wouldn't let your kids do that.
• 1:10:49
  Why in the world do we let countries get away with that?
• 1:10:51
  You know, your kid punches another kid.
• 1:10:58
  Does that mean your kid is forever bad?
• 1:11:01
  Is that it?
• 1:11:02
  There's nothing good at all in this child because he punched another kid?
• 1:11:08
  He acted out?
• 1:11:10
  This is nonsense.
• 1:11:12
  And instead we're supposed to cancel an entire culture, an entire history.
• 1:11:20
  We're supposed to rewrite history like they have in Ukraine, like we have been
• 1:11:27
  trying to in America and we have actually succeeded in doing so in a lot of
• 1:11:33
  respects that has taken place.
• 1:11:36
  You know, we want to condemn Thomas Jefferson and anybody else who owned
• 1:11:44
  slaves.
• 1:11:44
  And you note it as something that you disagree with but it doesn't mean you
• 1:11:52
  discount all the positive things that they did.
• 1:11:55
  You know, you have one bad child.
• 1:11:59
  I would just say the same thing.
• 1:12:00
  Remember in law school, when you go through law school, remember in criminal
• 1:12:05
  law, the history of criminal law is always about punishment versus
• 1:12:15
  rehabilitation.
• 1:12:17
  And if you have a judge, what is this judge supposed to do?
• 1:12:22
  If somebody is found guilty and the judge is going to sentence somebody, a lot
• 1:12:27
  of times you have judge sentencing and not jury sentencing.
• 1:12:31
  Jury is fact finders and finds a person guilty or not guilty.
• 1:12:34
  And a lot of the times the jury doesn't sentence, depends on the rules, but the
• 1:12:41
  judge will do the sentencing and he'll do it after an evaluation of the person.
• 1:12:46
  And they usually do something called a pre-sentence investigation or something
• 1:12:53
  similar.
• 1:12:53
  And what they'll do is somebody is found guilty of, I don't know what, drunk
• 1:12:59
  driving.
• 1:12:59
  And it's a felony and he could go to jail for a number of years, call it four
• 1:13:05
  years, okay?
• 1:13:07
  And, or he could go to jail for a year.
• 1:13:09
  And before a judge sentences somebody, he has somebody do an interview and an
• 1:13:15
  investigation, into this person's life and finds out, whether they have a
• 1:13:20
  criminal history, whether they have a job, whether they got a family, what are
• 1:13:24
  all the positives?
• 1:13:25
  What are all the negatives?
• 1:13:27
  And if this person's got a negative life and a negative history, the judge is
• 1:13:31
  likely to be more strict.
• 1:13:34
  And if he's a first time offender, has got something, judge is likely to give
• 1:13:39
  him a little bit more of a chance.
• 1:13:42
  And the judge has the authority to do whatever they want.
• 1:13:45
  And so, the interesting thing is always about this investigative report.
• 1:13:52
  And this investigative report, also, you have the ability, your attorney or the
• 1:13:58
  attorney for the state, you know, the prosecution, gets to make arguments based
• 1:14:03
  on this report.
• 1:14:04
  Or gets to say, that report is crap.
• 1:14:08
  That report wasn't done right.
• 1:14:10
  Or the person was biased that did the report.
• 1:14:14
  And you can have family members or employers or people that know the person
• 1:14:19
  come in and testify and talk about how wonderful he is.
• 1:14:22
  Or other people come in and say, look, the guy's a crook or a criminal and you
• 1:14:26
  can have a whole separate hearing based on that.
• 1:14:28
  Well, nobody wants to do that anymore.
• 1:14:33
  When it comes to Thomas Jefferson, you just want to say, well, he had slaves.
• 1:14:38
  It was a different time.
• 1:14:41
  It was different.
• 1:14:42
  But I'm not saying it was acceptable.
• 1:14:45
  It was, you know, we know now, it's wrong.
• 1:14:49
  In hindsight, a lot was wrong.
• 1:14:52
  You know, so was Egypt Pharaohs.
• 1:14:54
  But guess what?
• 1:14:55
  They built these huge pyramids.
• 1:14:57
  Does that mean they should be condemned forever because they had slaves?
• 1:15:02
  I'm not for slavery.
• 1:15:04
  Don't go claiming that I am.
• 1:15:06
  But at the same time, I'm anti-history denial.
• 1:15:12
  You're not supposed to deny your history.
• 1:15:15
  And so I do not.
• 1:15:17
  But there are a lot of people that choose to or want to deny their history.
• 1:15:25
  And I don't know what happened there.
• 1:15:28
  Let's make sure that that didn't happen.
• 1:15:33
  And I hope that, is it back now?
• 1:15:36
  I think I touched something that I wasn't supposed to touch.
• 1:15:40
  And I may have messed up my sound quality.
• 1:15:47
  I hope not, because we're toward the end of the show here.
• 1:15:50
  And I want to make sure that everything is appropriate.
• 1:15:54
  And now I'll have to go back and listen to it all at about this point.
• 1:15:58
  But at any rate, I lost my train of thought there.
• 1:16:01
  But I wanted, and we're nearing the end of the show anyway.
• 1:16:04
  We have about 14, 15 minutes left.
• 1:16:07
  And I wanted to make sure that everyone considers, at least,
• 1:16:17
  the fact that our countries need to, somehow, we will get past
• 1:16:27
  all of this.
• 1:16:29
  And our history is going to hopefully be much
• 1:16:43
  more positive going forward than the negative nonsense that we have going on
• 1:16:49
  right now with Russia.
• 1:16:52
  I truly hope that the war in Ukraine ends more swiftly than I currently
• 1:17:02
  think is possible and that many people think is possible.
• 1:17:06
  I would encourage everyone to find out all they can about this Woody Allen
• 1:17:13
  honoring of Russian film making and his own participation in a lot of that.
• 1:17:21
  Ozzy Osbourne and the global influence he has had with
• 1:17:28
  music lovers worldwide.
• 1:17:35
  I think that's important to understand and to know.
• 1:17:40
  And I think that if you can look and find things that
• 1:17:48
  you can share with other people, that you can share with other cultures like
• 1:17:57
  Russia.
• 1:17:58
  I tell you, before I leave, there are two things that I haven't, this is not a
• 1:18:04
  trip that I am taking to find souvenirs or anything like that.
• 1:18:12
  I don't need any of that stuff.
• 1:18:14
  I just am really looking for what I want to find is two things.
• 1:18:21
  One, I want a USSR jersey that I can wear on the way home.
• 1:18:27
  And I think that is a true plan that I wish to have.
• 1:18:32
  And I'll take some pictures of that and have this USSR jersey.
• 1:18:37
  And the other thing I want to find is a book.
• 1:18:40
  And this book is called in English, Stone Bridge.
• 1:18:48
  But as far as I'm aware, it has not been printed in English copy.
• 1:18:54
  But I've told you a little bit about this before.
• 1:18:56
  It's a history.
• 1:18:58
  It's also a kind of a fictional adaptation of that history.
• 1:19:04
  But it's based on real events.
• 1:19:07
  And the guys done his research.
• 1:19:09
  They made a mini series about it.
• 1:19:11
  That mini series is called Volk.
• 1:19:14
  And Volk means wolf.
• 1:19:16
  And it's of an investigation of a murder that occurred, a murder suicide that
• 1:19:22
  occurred on something, Stone Bridge in Moscow.
• 1:19:25
  And I wish to go to that Stone Bridge and see for myself, hopefully it's
• 1:19:32
  similar to what was seen in the movie, and figure out if, and find that book.
• 1:19:40
  I wish to find that book and purchase it and read it on the flight home in
• 1:19:48
  Russian.
• 1:19:49
  And I would prefer to have the printed book, but I have to buy it online, I
• 1:19:54
  understand.
• 1:19:54
  I'd rather not, but I'd rather have the whole book.
• 1:19:59
  But if you share things like history, like events, like culture, like movies,
• 1:20:09
  then I think that we have a chance to repair the divide
• 1:20:18
  between our countries that frankly shouldn't exist anyway, okay?
• 1:20:26
  If I have anything out there for my own children, for children of America, for
• 1:20:30
  anything like that, it is do not believe what you have been told about Russia
• 1:20:38
  or Russians or all things Russian being your enemy.
• 1:20:43
  Learn something about people you may disagree with, you don't have to agree
• 1:20:53
  with me, you don't have to agree with Russia, you don't have to agree with any
• 1:20:58
  of it, but you should perhaps know about it and be able to speak intelligently
• 1:21:05
  on the subject before you condemn it.
• 1:21:09
  One of the things that was said to me on my interview the other day, which I
• 1:21:13
  haven't received a copy of yet, but they said they're gonna send me a copy.
• 1:21:19
  And one of the things that they said to me is what do other people, what do
• 1:21:28
  people think about Russia?
• 1:21:30
  Is it true that Americans may or may not know?
• 1:21:33
  And one of the things that I said that I truly believe, and I also believe it's
• 1:21:38
  unfortunate, is that when the war with Ukraine first escalated, the
• 1:21:47
  conflict over the Donbass region hadn't been going on since 2014.
• 1:21:54
  And Ukraine itself was bombing those regions, those Russian regions and killing
• 1:22:00
  people there.
• 1:22:01
  And there were uprisings by the people there.
• 1:22:05
  And Kiev was destroying those people just like they attempted to do in Crimea
• 1:22:09
  before that.
• 1:22:11
  And there was some discussion about all of that and the disagreements that come
• 1:22:20
  along.
• 1:22:21
  And they said, what did people in America really think about that?
• 1:22:25
  Well, my point of view, my impression was that people
• 1:22:34
  just didn't know.
• 1:22:37
  They didn't know the truth.
• 1:22:38
  They didn't know what to believe.
• 1:22:40
  Our government was lying as usual and not telling the real story, but telling
• 1:22:47
  talking points.
• 1:22:49
  And people like, here we go again, Lindsey Graham, pushing more war because
• 1:22:57
  that's what they like and creating enemies that did not exist.
• 1:23:02
  And so you'd see all these people waving Ukrainian flags, but they couldn't
• 1:23:07
  explain to you in all truth where Ukraine was on a map.
• 1:23:13
  If you handed them a map and said to point it out, and there were plenty of
• 1:23:18
  these going around on social media where somebody would say, show me where
• 1:23:24
  Ukraine is.
• 1:23:25
  And they couldn't.
• 1:23:26
  Tell me why Ukraine is important and they couldn't.
• 1:23:29
  And these people are the ones who are the most vocal.
• 1:23:34
  These people are the ones who had blue and yellow bumper stickers.
• 1:23:39
  These people are the ones claiming down with Russia, you know, these type of
• 1:23:45
  people.
• 1:23:46
  And I think that is truly unfortunate.
• 1:23:51
  If there's any hope I have for my own program and my own people listening to my
• 1:23:57
  own show, it's that people learn something from it and try to gain a
• 1:24:07
  different perspective on life, a different perspective on culture, on history,
• 1:24:17
  on the war, on all of this.
• 1:24:19
  And stop thinking so damn short term and think long term.
• 1:24:27
  And if what we are doing, one of my biggest approvals of communism of Russia
• 1:24:36
  and communism of China is the long-term thinking, something that doesn't really
• 1:24:42
  exist in America.
• 1:24:45
  And I've spoken about this before, but think about this.
• 1:24:49
  Under communism, they have five-year plans, 10-year plans, 30-year plans, 50
• 1:24:56
  -year plans that don't really focus on the leader, whoever that leader happens
• 1:25:03
  to be.
• 1:25:04
  You can call Xi Jinping a dictator if you like, and he may be, I don't know,
• 1:25:08
  I'm not involved.
• 1:25:10
  But they run that country under communism and they run that country in the way
• 1:25:14
  that they run it, but they also have these plans.
• 1:25:19
  And these plans are real plans.
• 1:25:22
  These are not just one guy's plan.
• 1:25:27
  They are the Communist Party plan.
• 1:25:30
  Russia had them too, Soviet Union had them too.
• 1:25:34
  America doesn't have any plan.
• 1:25:37
  Our plan is all very short-term.
• 1:25:40
  And so we burn brightly and then we change directions all the time.
• 1:25:45
  And in general, we're going forward.
• 1:25:48
  But that doesn't mean it's not three steps forward, two steps back.
• 1:25:55
  We have our share of backward movements and I believe we've been in a backward,
• 1:26:03
  backward, I don't wanna call it a slide, but going in the wrong direction for a
• 1:26:08
  little while.
• 1:26:09
  One of the popular polls that they like to do is to find out whether people
• 1:26:18
  think that when a poll happens, how is the country going in the right
• 1:26:22
  direction?
• 1:26:23
  And 65% of the people say the country's going in the wrong direction.
• 1:26:28
  Well, I think maybe we should track that over the last 30 years and see if
• 1:26:38
  we've been going at least in a positive, in a positive direction or not.
• 1:26:45
  If we've got more negative than positive over that time period, over them all,
• 1:26:50
  maybe somebody should do a study and that could be pretty entertaining to see
• 1:26:55
  if that's the case.
• 1:26:57
  But I think that the negatives of treating entire cultures as if they are
• 1:27:04
  guilty of something is probably a big mistake.
• 1:27:09
  You can disagree with me and you can say we need to hate Russia and hate them
• 1:27:13
  forever.
• 1:27:15
  We hates it, we hates the Bagginses forever.
• 1:27:18
  And we should hate, we should, globalists are trying to encourage you to hate
• 1:27:26
  Russia and destroy them forever, to hate China and destroy them forever.
• 1:27:32
  I don't think it's gonna work anyway, even if you do, if the history of Sergei
• 1:27:37
  of Posad tells us anything, it's that they're gonna overcome and they're still
• 1:27:43
  gonna be here.
• 1:27:45
  And you're gonna have to figure out how to deal with your neighbors in one way
• 1:27:50
  or another.
• 1:27:51
  And the best way to deal with your neighbors is through understanding and
• 1:27:55
  through cultural sharing and not through demonizing and destruction and
• 1:28:01
  destroying people and destroying entire cultures.
• 1:28:07
  And it's a huge mistake to try to destroy the entire Russian culture because
• 1:28:12
  they have added all kinds of good things over the years in sports, in art, in
• 1:28:20
  music, in everything.
• 1:28:23
  Heck, you can even say in war now.
• 1:28:27
  And they have developed some extremely powerful weapons, great production.
• 1:28:34
  They've gone to space.
• 1:28:37
  There's all kinds of great things that they have done.
• 1:28:41
  And so I encourage people to accept, to attempt to understand and to learn,
• 1:28:48
  more importantly, about some of the things that you don't understand or you
• 1:28:53
  haven't paid any attention to.
• 1:28:54
  I appreciate everyone for listening to this program.
• 1:28:59
  I am Samuel Trapp.
• 1:29:02
  You are listening to DAM Radio.
• 1:29:05
  And you can listen to me every night on damradio.com forward slash live at 9 p
• 1:29:12
  .m. to 10.30 p.m. Central Standard Time.
• 1:29:15
  That's Chicago in the United States coming to you live from Russia at this
• 1:29:21
  time.
• 1:29:21
  Our shows are stored on damradio.com forward slash podcasts.
• 1:29:28
  And I save each and every one of my shows on internationalflavor.com where you
• 1:29:38
  can go back and listen to all of them in the series.
• 1:29:42
  So I would suggest that you learn as you can, that you continue to listen to my
• 1:29:48
  show.
• 1:29:49
  I appreciate each and every one of you.
• 1:29:52
  And I hope to have you back again tomorrow night.
• 1:29:57
  Have a very good night.