Latest / International Flavor: Where the Truth Tastes Better / Lavrov, China, Brat 2, and the Changing World Through Russian Culture, Power, and a Different View of America

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Lavrov, China, Brat 2, and the Changing World Through Russian Culture, Power, and a Different View of America · International Flavor: Where the Truth Tastes Better

0:00
Hello.
0:00
Good morning.
0:01
Welcome.
0:01
I am Samuel Trapp.
0:03
This is international flavor.
0:05
You are listening to damn a radio coming
0:08
to you live from the Lake Ozark real
0:10
estate of the art studio.
0:13
Very glad you're here this morning.
0:15
I want to give a couple of massages
0:17
to you.
0:18
Um, as a inspector, a clue.
0:22
So you said the massage, uh, for you,
0:25
sir.
0:26
Um, tomorrow is, uh, our 7 a.m.
0:34
iteration of civic outlaws.
0:36
I have published one more article, uh, that
0:41
I'm going to be going through in detail
0:44
tomorrow, uh, on Missouri law.
0:48
Uh, this one particular to overreach and, uh,
0:53
uh, interesting methods of, uh, of, uh, attacking
1:00
video lottery terminals or whatever they call those
1:04
VLTs.
1:06
The, uh, the, uh, part that, uh, they
1:09
don't know whether it's legal or illegal, but
1:12
they've decided they, geez, come out with something.
1:14
Anyway, I've, I've published it already on my,
1:17
uh, on my LinkedIn page.
1:19
You can go out and find it.
1:20
And, uh, and can get a, a view
1:24
of it there.
1:25
And, but I'm going to cover the bulk
1:28
of that tomorrow.
1:29
And some, uh, recommendations will be made for,
1:32
for legislation, for, um, how we discussed that,
1:37
that show civic outlaws is on every Friday
1:41
from, uh, Oh my God.
1:43
Did you know the commander of our U
1:45
S central command is named Bradley Cooper.
1:48
That's awesome.
1:50
He's boy, that boy's got some, uh, some
1:52
decorations on his, uh, on his uniform.
1:57
That boy's getting awards every other week.
1:59
That's good for him.
2:01
Um, at any rate, um, I wanted to
2:04
go through a number of things today on
2:07
the, uh, last episode of the week for
2:11
international flavor, at least in English.
2:15
Um, I can't decide if I'm going to
2:17
come in tomorrow from, uh, I think I'm
2:20
going to do it on Sunday again to
2:22
come in and do my Russian version, just
2:25
because I want to video it at the
2:27
same time that when I do video.
2:29
And so I've got a, a new plan
2:32
for how that show is working out.
2:34
And so when my, on my Sunday shows,
2:38
I'm doing a, uh, a video feed at
2:41
the same time and doing it in Russian.
2:44
And what I'm trying to do is summarize,
2:49
uh, many of the topics that we've discussed
2:51
through the week, only, uh, not Ruscom in
2:54
Russian and, uh, and, and, you know, put
2:58
it out, uh, for people who are interested
3:01
in how an American feels about, uh, or,
3:04
or thinks what will we, uh, what we
3:06
discuss.
3:07
Um, today I wanted to jump on, uh,
3:11
there was, I watched with, with, with pretty
3:14
great interest.
3:15
And I usually do when they're somewhat major,
3:19
but, uh, Sergei Viktorovich Lavrov, a couple of
3:23
days ago, I shared with you, um, uh,
3:26
Vasily Nebensia's, uh, berating of Kaya Kalas, uh,
3:33
at the UN and he's the ambassador to
3:36
the UN for Russia.
3:37
And boy, he beat up on her.
3:39
Well, deservedly so too.
3:41
I mean, and, and when I listened to
3:43
a lot of the, a lot of the
3:45
rhetoric going back and forth, it's just how
3:48
similar is the world?
3:50
You know, I saw, um, something last night,
3:53
there was an interview on the state TV
3:56
for this, uh, the new guy in Hungary,
4:02
Magyar or Magyar, depending on how you put
4:04
the stress.
4:06
And he was interviewed by the state TV
4:12
station.
4:14
And the state, I mean, most, most European,
4:17
Eastern European, especially, uh, Ukraine, particularly there is
4:22
no independent media.
4:24
It does not exist.
4:26
Okay.
4:27
Just so you know, they are seriously curtailed
4:32
in what they get to say.
4:33
And so it's somewhat foolish to believe them.
4:37
Um, so, uh, to believe if it is,
4:41
is out there.
4:42
And so he got interviewed this new guy
4:44
Magyar and one of the comments he made,
4:46
and I'll find the quote for you as
4:48
we go through the show today, I will
4:50
be jumping around a little bit.
4:51
Um, that, uh, cause it's kind of comical
4:55
that, uh, he's going to shut down the
4:58
state media.
4:58
He said, it's one of his first jobs.
5:00
He said for 16 years, they've been pumping
5:03
BS about, uh, about, uh, Hungary through the
5:07
state media for on behalf of Orban.
5:10
So now he's got to take over it
5:12
himself.
5:12
And what's pretty funny is, uh, is for
5:15
me, I look at it in a much
5:16
bigger picture, uh, is that now nobody anywhere,
5:24
with some limited exceptions, nobody trusts their government.
5:29
Nobody it's everybody knows it's crap.
5:33
Everybody knows that the people in charge are
5:35
just, uh, uh, feeding you whatever lines they
5:38
need to feed you to get you to
5:40
shut up and move on and don't pay
5:43
attention.
5:43
It's all the wizard of Oz, you know,
5:45
don't pay, pay no attention to the man
5:48
behind the curtain.
5:49
You know, it's pretty funny.
5:51
Uh, in, in my opinion, of course, I'm
5:54
a slightly cynical when it comes to that,
5:57
but Lavrov, he gave a, uh, like an
6:03
hour and a half, um, press conference.
6:06
And I liked the fact that he does
6:07
these long press conferences.
6:09
I liked them.
6:10
I think that you get a lot of,
6:14
uh, what the government is thinking, what the,
6:18
the, the propaganda or what the, what direction
6:22
they are going, you know, where, where they
6:25
are, where the government is headed and agree
6:30
or disagree.
6:30
You know, Russia, the, the, the same core
6:34
group has been running the country for a
6:36
long time.
6:37
Now you could say in America.
6:39
So one of the things they always talked
6:40
about with, uh, you know, places that are
6:42
allegedly dictatorships, right.
6:45
That, uh, they are dictators.
6:46
While like, uh, you know, the crown prince
6:49
is anywhere in the GCC countries or any
6:52
of the people that are running it, they,
6:53
they run the show.
6:55
You don't really go against them, but their
6:57
countries are still good.
7:00
Uh, and I always say that, and I'm
7:02
not for or against.
7:03
And one of the, there are several, I
7:05
don't want to call them negatives, but unfortunate
7:09
truths about our version of democracy.
7:16
Okay.
7:16
Number one is you can't get anything done
7:19
on the federal level because everything is done
7:21
privately.
7:22
You know, uh, we saw the experiment of
7:25
my entire lifetime of, of, of NASA and
7:28
sure.
7:28
NASA had some great successes, but private individuals
7:33
have done far more, uh, in the recent
7:37
years to, uh, make it a profitable venture.
7:41
Our country, you can't get anything done without
7:45
the bureau bureaucracy.
7:47
And that is depressing.
7:50
You know, it's, um, it's a, it's, it's
7:53
very depressing because you know, we can't get,
7:55
can't seem to get anything done.
7:58
So it's, that's an unfortunate part.
8:02
The other part that's unfortunate is, uh, you,
8:05
you, you can't have any long-term plans.
8:10
There are no long-term plans in America.
8:14
Everything is right now.
8:16
And that, and it has to be, you
8:18
don't think long-term, you just don't do
8:21
it because you know, the four years from
8:23
now, you're going to have a bunch of
8:24
crazies.
8:25
And so everybody can take the very cynical
8:27
view like I do.
8:29
Well, if you don't like it, just wait
8:30
around, you know, there'll be, those people will
8:33
be gone before too long.
8:34
You hate, you hate Obama.
8:36
Don't worry about it.
8:37
The longest he can be there is eight
8:39
years.
8:39
And then the entire government changes, but it
8:43
really does.
8:44
And you know, the deep state never does.
8:46
And then the third part is you can
8:48
never get public infrastructure off the ground for
8:55
things that are huge, you know, ports are
8:58
private.
8:59
Um, they might be funded by the government,
9:02
but everything is private about them.
9:04
And the, and the, the, the costs are
9:06
astronomical.
9:07
Uh, obviously we can't get any high speed
9:11
rail.
9:11
We can't get any regular rail because all
9:15
the bureaucracy and all the politicians have to,
9:18
have to, uh, get their, uh, portion out
9:22
of it.
9:23
You know, they gotta, they gotta suck out
9:25
their, their money.
9:26
And those are some of the unfortunates.
9:28
Well, when these other countries like, like Russia
9:31
for the last 25 years, there was a
9:34
brief period when Medvedev was in there and,
9:38
um, you know, that was, uh, you know,
9:42
but still basically the same, you know, a
9:45
lot of people, uh, they, they don't talk
9:47
about who's going to, what's going to happen
9:49
after Putin.
9:50
I'm interested in knowing, but a lot of
9:52
people, they don't, they don't talk about it.
9:54
It's not like it's a, it's a given
9:56
what's going to be after Xi Jinping.
10:00
Nobody knows.
10:01
But the fact is they've been able to
10:05
help their countries far more than hurt them.
10:09
You know, uh, Vladimir Putin is credited in,
10:13
in, in a lot of respects correctly with
10:16
taking the, uh, taking Russia out of the
10:23
horror story of the nineties.
10:25
And I'm going to go into some, some
10:26
movie references because last night I happened to,
10:29
uh, be a flipping through and saw, uh,
10:34
uh, brought to one and brought the Vaughn,
10:36
uh, that were there.
10:38
And a couple of my favorite movies, CO3,
10:41
which is sisters, uh, brought means brother.
10:43
And so there's all by Sergei Bodrov, uh,
10:47
who was killed in an avalanche.
10:49
One of my favorite, one of my favorite
10:51
actors and it's very nostalgic.
10:53
And so I'm going to start with this,
10:55
but we're going to be weaving through culture
10:57
and history and things like that.
10:59
And, and, uh, and why, you know, what
11:03
the world is changing because the world's definitely
11:05
changing.
11:06
And had we had it, had we attempted
11:10
back in the nineties and I like to
11:12
think that I have tried to understand from
11:16
the very youngest days to understand why we
11:21
were so different.
11:22
We were so similar Russia and the United
11:25
States or the Soviet Union and the United
11:28
States.
11:28
So very similar patriotic, uh, nationalism, you know,
11:33
we, we, we, we love our countries.
11:35
We will defend our countries and they did
11:38
too.
11:38
And they had great, uh, romanticism for their,
11:41
for their country and what it stood for.
11:44
Great patriotism and all of that, even in
11:46
the USSR. And what's happened is in the
11:49
nineties, it kind of fell away.
11:51
And in, in the post nineties and post
11:54
post, uh, uh, you know, horror story of
11:59
the U S and the Western, uh, demonization
12:03
of Russia.
12:04
It, it, they have quite a bit to
12:06
be proud about, proud of themselves.
12:10
And so that has kind of rebuilt and
12:13
it took a while and it was, there's
12:15
some bad stories that you could talk about
12:17
in there.
12:17
And so I'm kind of tying the two
12:20
themes together because Lavrov is speaking about a
12:24
changing world and he's been around even longer
12:28
than Putin.
12:29
Lavrov is longest serving foreign minister on the
12:34
planet.
12:35
Okay.
12:35
He's been the serving foreign minister for like
12:38
26 years.
12:39
Ever since 2000.
12:41
And, uh, he served during Medvedev's term with
12:45
Shazil.
12:45
There was one term after I think 2001,
12:49
but don't quote me on that, that, uh,
12:51
uh, Medvedev did five years, four years, it's
12:55
five years in there.
12:57
And, um, uh, Sergei Viktorovich was there the
13:01
entire, he's been there the whole time.
13:04
And so when, when, when you listen to
13:06
him, you're listening to history.
13:08
And he made it.
13:10
And the reason what brought this up is
13:12
in the middle of his, uh, speech, he,
13:14
he gave a quote.
13:15
And that quote is from one of my
13:17
favorite movies of the nineties Russian.
13:20
And, and I'll share it with you as
13:22
we get on.
13:22
So what he was talking about, he went
13:25
to China and he had some time in
13:28
China and he was given a report in
13:30
China or not in China on his trip
13:32
to China.
13:33
And then he took questions at the end.
13:35
And so I'm going to share with you
13:36
what that happened.
13:37
And then we're gonna, we're gonna fold that
13:39
into some broader discussions.
13:42
And so he gives, he does what, what
13:44
a lot of, uh, well in Russia, they
13:46
do it a lot, you know, like his,
13:48
his press secretary is a Maria Zakharova and
13:51
she does the same thing.
13:52
She comes out and she gives like a,
13:55
uh, but hers is much longer.
13:57
She'll like speak for 40 minutes and then
14:00
she'll take some questions.
14:01
And the whole press briefing is like two
14:03
and a half hours, but she does it
14:05
at least once a week and for special
14:08
stuff.
14:08
And so, you know, they really, these, these
14:10
press conferences go forever.
14:11
Now we watch on this, uh, at this
14:14
channel, I get distracted frequently by all the,
14:17
uh, press conferences that are up and TV
14:20
shows that are up in the, on the
14:21
screens in the studio that we're watching at
14:24
the same time.
14:26
I try not to get distracted, but I
14:28
don't want to turn them off cause I
14:29
don't want to have to turn them back
14:31
out and figure all that out.
14:32
So I don't do it anyway.
14:33
Uh, so it's, I don't mean to say
14:36
that we don't do some of the same
14:37
thing, but, uh, you know, it's, I, I
14:42
find them very interesting.
14:43
And I think that if you can, it
14:45
can once a week, look at that, maybe
14:47
get some, uh, Solovyov in there and listen
14:50
to some, some Al Jazeera news and some
14:54
other news from other, uh, from other places,
14:58
you know, you could, uh, and even the
15:01
key of Kiev sky approved or whatever that,
15:04
uh, there's a, there's a several, uh, Ukrainian
15:07
ones that I read as well.
15:08
Uh, but Lavrov, this is right from the
15:12
horse's mouth.
15:12
So he started his five minute, uh, detailed
15:15
breakdown of what he says they were working
15:19
on and what was accomplished.
15:20
And this is the part that's important because
15:23
Lavrov framed his visit to China as a
15:26
long, substantive and strategically focused meeting.
15:31
And he said that he spent over four
15:33
hours in negotiations with Chinese foreign minister Wang
15:38
Yi.
15:38
Now Wang Yi is the guy who said,
15:41
don't be screwing around with our ships in
15:44
the Straits of Hormuz.
15:45
And, and, uh, there's a, uh, last Saturday,
15:49
maybe Friday, he gave a, uh, uh, somewhat
15:54
of a warning to the United States.
15:56
Hey, stay away from our ships.
15:58
And then I've been following this and keeping
16:00
kind of track of it because now there's
16:02
been a couple of ships that, uh, have,
16:04
have went, went straight through Ukrainian or Ukrainian,
16:08
um, Chinese ships that went straight through the
16:10
Straits of Hormuz.
16:11
Uh, Ukraine was attacked a Russian tanker in,
16:14
uh, uh, in, uh, you know, uh, the
16:17
Turkish captain is in the hospital, by the
16:20
way, I saw earlier.
16:22
Um, anyway, Lavrov emphasizes that while the bilateral
16:26
relations were discussed, the dominant focus was the
16:31
international situation like Iran, uh, which he characterized
16:36
as a deteriorating set of circumstances due to
16:41
the actions by the West.
16:42
And he cites their Ukraine, Latin America, Hormuz,
16:47
and then broader Eurasia.
16:49
And he put together a bit of a
16:52
central thesis of his entire, um, conference, press
16:57
conference.
16:58
He said that global instability is directly shaping,
17:03
um, bilateral relationships between countries, including Russia, China
17:09
ties.
17:10
And then it's creating a broader non-UN
17:13
blocks like BRICS and the Shanghai cooperation organization.
17:18
Um, and there's a couple more that he
17:21
mentioned, but those are the biggies, right?
17:24
And he highlighted that Russia and China are
17:27
actively insulating their economic relationships from Western pressure.
17:33
He talked about, um, uh, what do you
17:38
call it?
17:38
Siberia, power of Siberia one and power of
17:41
Siberia two.
17:42
And he talked about sanctions and course of
17:45
economic tools.
17:46
I've been speaking for several years now about,
17:49
um, overcoming sanctions and how they do it.
17:55
He mentioned that, uh, they've had trade between
17:59
China and Russia has been growing steadily and
18:03
over 200 billion annually for four consecutive years
18:07
in this, in the areas of, and, and
18:09
cooperation between the two.
18:11
Okay.
18:12
Cooperation, they're, they're next door neighbors.
18:14
This would be like, uh, us in Canada,
18:17
right?
18:17
Only they're 10 times as large, at least
18:20
China.
18:21
And, uh, the, their cooperation is in the
18:24
areas of energy, high technology, space development, nuclear
18:29
research, AI, and education and culture.
18:33
He, it says, this is proof of, uh,
18:37
you know, their resilience against what he calls
18:42
the illegal methods of competition and, and dictatorship
18:47
basically on an economic scale of the West.
18:51
Um, he talked about humanitarian and culture, which
18:53
I'm going to go a little bit into,
18:54
uh, further.
18:56
There's something they called in a, it's a,
18:58
it's not quite the, uh, the, the accurate,
19:01
um, uh, translation, but it's, but it's, the,
19:06
the, the closest you could probably come to
19:08
would be, uh, the, the year of, of,
19:13
of education exchange between the two countries, you
19:16
know, the cross, cross cultural education initiatives between
19:22
Russia and China.
19:23
And they have a long-term soft power
19:26
alignment and the integration of their two societies.
19:29
And this has been going on for a
19:31
number of years.
19:32
Now they've, uh, they've opened their doors, uh,
19:35
to China.
19:35
China's has opened their doors to Russia.
19:38
Now China's doing it on a broader scale
19:40
as well.
19:42
So, and you can go to, uh, from
19:44
what my last readings were, because I've been
19:47
looking into it a little bit.
19:48
I want to go to China is now
19:50
that you can, uh, go for less than
19:52
30 days as an American on just your
19:56
passport.
19:57
You don't have to get a, uh, a,
20:02
uh, a visa to get there.
20:06
Like my recent, my, my, my passport right
20:09
now has been, uh, uh, sent off to
20:12
the Russian consulate to get, uh, a new
20:15
visa.
20:15
Cause my visa expired a month or two
20:17
ago and I need to get another one.
20:20
And, uh, so that'll, you know, it's kind
20:23
of, kind of scary to say it, not
20:25
scary, but it's kind of, man, do I
20:28
want to send off my, uh, my passport?
20:30
Well, sure I do.
20:31
It's, uh, uh, I made sure to use
20:33
a registered mail, but I sent it off
20:36
to find out where it's going to go.
20:38
We'll see.
20:39
And I've done it like four or five
20:41
times now, but, uh, uh, to get it
20:43
back.
20:43
But, uh, used to be, it had to
20:45
go there.
20:45
And so it used to be if I
20:47
wanted to go, it was much different or
20:50
different, much more difficult to, uh, one time
20:52
I went to Washington DC, drove a day
20:55
to get there, waited in the line most
20:57
of the day to get into the consulate,
21:00
um, Russian consulate in, uh, uh, I think
21:04
it's in on the Virginia side and not
21:06
in DC proper.
21:08
And then another time I went to Houston
21:10
to do it in the consulate down there.
21:12
Um, I never had to do the New
21:15
York one, but apparently that's the quickest, but
21:18
it's also the most expensive.
21:19
You go up there, you're going to stay
21:21
the night.
21:21
Oh, geez.
21:22
You might as well.
21:22
You know, not only does it cost you
21:24
a ton of, ton of fuel cost you.
21:28
Uh, last time I went to New York
21:31
was forever ago.
21:32
Of course I stayed right on, uh, uh,
21:34
uh, what's the great, uh, great big park
21:38
there.
21:38
Central park.
21:39
I stayed right on central park.
21:41
Um, and it was great.
21:43
You know where the Christmas tree was or
21:45
when a Christmas time and it, uh, boy,
21:47
that was not cheap.
21:49
And I had a crappy little room and
21:51
it was still like $600 a night.
21:52
It was crazy.
21:53
And, uh, you can't spend very much.
21:56
You don't want to spend much time there.
21:58
If you live in New York, boy, you
22:00
better be making some money and their taxes
22:02
are ungodly.
22:03
Anyway, I don't know.
22:04
I'm, I'm digressing a little bit and if
22:05
I don't watch out, I'm not going to
22:07
get through what I want to get through
22:09
today.
22:09
So, so Lavrov's are ideological argument.
22:12
He, uh, shifted after, you know, these announcements
22:16
into an ideology, uh, sort of thing.
22:20
And, uh, he says that the West is
22:23
attempting to preserve its global hegemony.
22:27
I agree with that.
22:29
They're continuing its historic pattern of exploitation.
22:34
I agree with this too.
22:36
This is, this is what Trump is trying
22:38
to preserve in my opinion.
22:40
Or, and, and by the way, he's not
22:43
alone.
22:43
It was, um, the same.
22:45
He, uh, uh, was, um, you know, Biden
22:51
before him, uh, you know, Obama, everybody's been
22:53
trying to keep the colonialism, uh, train moving.
22:57
He talked about colonialism, slavery, economic dominance, uh,
23:02
hegemony, one, one currency, you know, that, uh,
23:05
living off of the increase of others by
23:12
funding or use it and forcing them to
23:16
join the IMF, forcing them to join all
23:20
of the, uh, uh, Western style things.
23:24
And so he was talking about that.
23:26
And now he says that Russia, China, and
23:28
the global majority reject this model.
23:32
And it is moving faster and faster toward
23:35
the multi polarity we all see right now.
23:37
And unfortunately, I happen to believe that to
23:40
be quite true.
23:41
Um, he then talks about the rapid geopolitical
23:44
sweeps and what's going on.
23:46
He said in Europe, NATO is searching for
23:48
purpose via Ukraine and they can't find it.
23:51
Yesterday.
23:51
Uh, Frederick Merck says, Oh, Russia, you don't
23:54
have a chance to win and just give
23:56
up, capitulate.
23:57
Meanwhile, Russia yesterday, more than a thousand, three,
24:01
three huge rounds of, uh, drone and missile
24:05
attacks to eliminate the new deliveries of Patriot
24:10
missiles.
24:11
So more than a thousand Ukraine is, is,
24:14
uh, they're talking about these missiles and the
24:17
changes and what's going on.
24:18
And NATO is searching for its own purpose,
24:21
especially post the U S, uh, kind of
24:24
easing out or Donald Trump easing out.
24:27
However you want to look at it.
24:28
Um, the EU is undergoing a militarization swing.
24:32
Internal divisions between the U S and Europe
24:35
are going on.
24:35
The Middle East and the Persian Gulf is
24:38
a crisis center.
24:40
Uh, he warns against, uh, simple military solutions.
24:46
They do not exist.
24:47
And he says, you know, we, we don't
24:49
want to see Palestine sidelined, Lebanon sidelined, not
24:55
discussed.
24:55
But, uh, from a Russian standpoint, they are
24:58
more concerned with Central Asia and the caucuses
25:02
and the Western attempts to impose influence and
25:05
rules in places like Georgia, Azerbaijan, um, Iran,
25:11
anywhere, Mongolia, anywhere.
25:13
And there's long standing tension in the Asian
25:15
Pacific between China and the West and Russia
25:19
and the West in Korea, straight to Taiwan
25:22
and the South China sea.
25:24
And he says, the main battlefield of the
25:27
next, uh, you know, years, decades is going
25:32
to be Eurasia, the central arena of global
25:36
competition, population, resource rich, strategically decisive.
25:42
Russia and China are coordinating the efforts there,
25:46
uh, through bricks, the SEO, AC, a S
25:49
E a N ties.
25:50
The belt and roads initiative is brought up
25:53
completely separately because that's how a lot of,
25:56
uh, these projects are being, uh, funded by
26:00
China's massive amounts of money that they're no
26:03
longer spending on us debt.
26:06
And that is a big deal.
26:08
Okay.
26:08
Is that they're not spending it on us
26:10
debt.
26:11
They're investing in Russia too.
26:13
You know, these pipelines that they're building a
26:15
power of Siberia, uh, two is what they're
26:18
doing.
26:18
The one through Mongolia that are coming out.
26:20
Right.
26:21
So these infrastructure plans between countries are huge
26:25
and they're, they, they haven't, they haven't, uh,
26:28
they've broken ground, but they haven't really done
26:30
much on power of Siberia too.
26:31
But power of Siberia one is pumping massive
26:34
quantities of liquid natural gas to China.
26:37
And, uh, I read you that the other
26:39
day or shared that with you.
26:41
So, but Lavrov broadens it to talk about
26:46
two things, the global South, which he includes
26:50
both Africa and the Latin American countries like
26:55
Venezuela, Cuba, the, uh, overreach of the, of
26:59
the U S in his view, in both
27:02
of those areas and the prior colonization that
27:05
they, they never cared for in, uh, Africa
27:09
and Africa being a rebirth area.
27:12
So everything is in the other hemisphere of
27:15
the world.
27:16
You know, the, the other part of the
27:18
world, the Indian sea, the China sea, the
27:21
Southeast Asia, the Middle East and, and, and,
27:25
uh, African countries.
27:27
And, uh, he says that most of these
27:31
places, um, are trying to escape dependency upon
27:40
the West, including Europe and the United States.
27:43
So he closes by acknowledging that his statement
27:46
ran a little bit long.
27:48
I ran a little bit long and explaining
27:49
everything he talked about.
27:51
And then he opened the floor to the
27:53
diplomatic transition.
27:55
Okay.
27:55
And he took questions and answers.
27:58
Okay.
27:58
And, uh, first question was, uh, how Russia
28:03
and China define their or define their relationship
28:06
or how he defines the relationship.
28:08
And, uh, Lavrov said he fully endorsed the
28:11
characterization of Russian and Chinese ties as unshakable
28:17
in any storm.
28:19
And he said, this is not rhetoric, but
28:21
a proven reality.
28:23
He says, it's a stabilizing force grounded in
28:26
principles of sovereignty, non-interference and equality under
28:31
the UN charter.
28:32
And he says, this is in contrast with
28:34
this is because he, he, this was definitely
28:36
a political, um, a political platform for him
28:40
to tell the politics of why he thinks
28:43
it's wrong, you know, or why he, you
28:45
know, he's pushing their point of view.
28:47
Right.
28:47
He contrast this was what, uh, with the
28:50
Western hypocrisy.
28:52
And he, and this was interesting.
28:54
He argued that since 1945, the West has
28:58
consistently consistently, and it's hard to prove him
29:04
wrong or hard to say anything wrong with
29:06
this, uh, violated the principles of sovereign equality
29:11
by way of sanctions, exclusion, political coercion, IMF
29:17
and world bank, you know, uh, forcing things
29:22
upon, uh, those who were lesser in view
29:26
of the, the, the prima donnas of the
29:29
UN.
29:29
Right.
29:30
And he concludes that Russia and China do
29:32
represent the global majority far more than Europe
29:36
and the United States.
29:38
I'm not sure.
29:39
I totally agree with that yet, but there
29:40
was a United States and, uh, and, uh,
29:43
Europe certainly are not on the same page
29:46
in there.
29:46
They've suffered a lot of, um, setbacks by
29:53
other countries in the last 30 years, you
29:57
know?
29:58
And, and now he's saying that the, you
30:01
know, the U S I believe he's taken
30:03
a bit of an opportunity because with the
30:05
U S uh, he didn't talk about details
30:08
of future agreements due to the diplomatic protocols
30:12
that are talking.
30:13
They were asking by, he goes, no, we
30:14
don't, we don't.
30:15
And he says this a lot.
30:17
He says, we don't talk about, you know,
30:19
behind the scenes deals and we don't negotiate
30:23
over, you know, propaganda, you know, over press
30:28
conferences.
30:29
We don't go not, we're not like the
30:30
West when we do that.
30:32
Uh, and, and they kind of, I don't
30:36
know, belittle what the Western countries do and
30:39
how they, how they do it.
30:41
Talks about energy shortage, power of Siberia to
30:44
specifically, they said, can Russia supply China with
30:48
energy and, uh, did, you know, increased energy
30:52
because China's looking for more.
30:54
And, uh, uh, Lavrov said that Russia can
30:57
supply energy to China and to any other
31:00
partner willing to engage on equal terms.
31:04
Imagine that if the infrastructure is enough from
31:07
Russia alone to provide liquid natural gas and
31:11
petroleum products all over Eurasia, certainly to China
31:16
and India and all over there and to
31:20
Europe, Turkey, uh, the, um, uh, countries around
31:28
the Mediterranean, you know, the, the North Africa,
31:32
they have, that's a lot.
31:35
Now the U S you know, we have
31:36
a lot too, but there's, there's no reason
31:38
that the, that we should not have enough
31:41
power and energy to go around.
31:44
And these games that are being played about
31:46
the energy, uh, or the moves that are
31:49
being made are, are interesting.
31:51
He expands into this, into a critique of
31:54
Western economic behavior.
31:56
And he said that the U S manipulates
31:58
and always has global energy markets talk specifically
32:03
about Venezuela and Iran as an example.
32:06
And that Hormuz straights, uh, this crisis is
32:10
directly attributable to the U S and Israeli
32:13
actions against Iran and argued that instability is
32:17
a direct consequence of those actions, not of
32:21
Iranian aggression.
32:23
So that, that was, it was an interesting
32:26
exchange that he said there.
32:28
Then, uh, then they talked a little bit.
32:31
Somebody asked him a question, uh, uh, warnings
32:33
against EU militarization in Ukraine specifically.
32:37
And he said, militarization is not hypothetical, but
32:41
is actively accelerating driven by European elites as
32:45
a means of preserving their own relevance.
32:49
Now that's a harsh statement.
32:52
The European elites are only preserving their own
32:56
relevance at the disadvantage of their own citizenry.
33:02
Hard to not agree with that.
33:04
Truthfully.
33:05
Um, he claims the U S is shifting
33:08
the burden of confrontation with Russia onto Europe.
33:11
That's true.
33:11
When freeing itself to focus on China and
33:14
that, uh, these actions, Venezuela, Iran, those are
33:18
anti Chinese, uh, uh, discussions.
33:21
And now China has pushed back in the
33:23
Straits of Hormuz.
33:24
Don't screw with our ships in the Straits
33:26
of Hormuz.
33:27
Um, he describes proposals for a new military
33:31
block, including Ukraine to be explicitly anti-Russian
33:35
and he criticizes Western support of Ukraine, uh,
33:40
naturally.
33:42
Um, he wanted to talk about the, or
33:44
somebody asked him a question about Iran, nuclear
33:47
crisis and enriched uranium.
33:50
Um, so back in, he said, uh, and
33:53
he revisited it completely.
33:56
Uh, Lavrov revisits the 2015 nuclear deal.
34:00
And he emphasized that Russia's role in removing
34:05
and processing excess Iranian uranium.
34:08
As a result of that deal, he blames
34:11
a collapse of the agreement on the U
34:13
S withdrawal and criticizes Europe for demanding Iran
34:16
comply unilaterally with nothing on the other side.
34:19
He insists Iran has a legal right to
34:22
enrich uranium for peaceful purposes and states that
34:26
there is no evidence of weapons development.
34:29
Russia will support any solution acceptable to Iran,
34:34
including storage or conversion of the uranium.
34:37
And he frames the current crisis as a
34:39
consequence of Western policy failures and urges the
34:44
return to diplomatic negotiation that respect both sides
34:48
rights.
34:49
And that don't just dictate to one or
34:51
the other.
34:53
Uh, there were interesting question about Hungary.
34:56
Um, you know, the political figures and, uh,
34:59
uh, there's, and I don't believe it's the
35:01
new guy, but, uh, that, uh, they're having
35:04
some difficulty with some of the, some of
35:07
the leaders there.
35:09
They don't want to call Moscow.
35:11
And he dismisses this as a matter of
35:14
personal choice of the people.
35:15
You know, we're not going to have somebody
35:17
work with us if they don't want to.
35:18
And, uh, he, he did not escalate the
35:22
discussion, you know, because there are people who
35:24
are saying we don't want to work with,
35:26
you know, especially now that, uh, uh, Magyar
35:28
is in charge and, uh, well, he's not,
35:31
but I mean, the exchange is coming pretty
35:33
soon.
35:33
And, uh, when, um, when they exchange and
35:38
Orban is no longer in charge, you know,
35:40
he's, he reiterates, uh, as he should, that
35:43
Russia's always open to dialogue.
35:44
Here's the diplomatic response, but emphasize meaningful engagement,
35:50
uh, has counterparts who represent their own national
35:54
interests and can still work together.
35:56
And, uh, you know, he, uh, is always
36:00
fairly cautious diplomatically.
36:03
So, uh, he was asked again about Iran
36:07
and, uh, you know, to play a similar
36:09
role as kind of a guarantor of any
36:11
agreement.
36:12
He said that he, um, uh, you have
36:15
to respect their rights and regional diplomacy involving
36:19
also Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and others.
36:23
He highlights a Russian and Chinese initiatives to
36:26
create a collective security framework in the middle,
36:29
in the Persian Gulf as a whole.
36:32
So talked about this one.
36:35
I found to be quite interesting about potential
36:38
us action against Cuba.
36:40
Uh, he avoids predicting the outcome and I
36:45
know he has an opinion, but Lavrov's a
36:47
diplomat and he, and he's pretty classy at
36:49
it.
36:50
That's why it's good to listen to him.
36:51
You know, he's not lobbing grenades at everybody.
36:54
He, he allows other people to do that
36:56
part.
36:57
He's always well-spoken, pretty much like Putin.
37:01
Uh, Putin, Putin is pretty well-spoken.
37:03
And these are, these are master diplomats who've
37:06
been in place for a very long time.
37:09
When's the last time you heard anybody in
37:11
China or Russia really go crazy?
37:14
They leave that to Maria Zakharova or Dmitry
37:17
Medvedev or Peskov or one of those other
37:21
people.
37:22
And if they really want to attack, they
37:24
throw it off to the, to the outside
37:26
folks like Vladimir Solovyov.
37:30
So, but it's, you know, you have to
37:32
follow them all or you really don't know
37:35
what the hell's going on.
37:37
And, uh, uh, or the different point of
37:40
view, somewhere in the middle of all that,
37:42
kind of like ours, you know, what is,
37:44
what do we do?
37:45
We throw stuff out to, to, uh, you
37:47
know, we want to proclaim our victory everywhere.
37:50
Right now, we just send it out to
37:52
Fox News.
37:53
And, uh, when Biden was in office, they
37:55
sent it out to CNN and MSNBC.
37:58
And, uh, so, you know, it's the same
38:00
thing.
38:01
And he says that the US policies against
38:04
Cuba have historically been ineffective and, uh, you
38:09
know, Russia's providing material support to Cuba and
38:13
signals that both Russia and China will continue
38:16
that assistance.
38:17
And, and that, and that was, you know,
38:20
a part of their discussions with the, uh,
38:23
with the West.
38:24
So, and then the last one was trying
38:26
to prevent escalation in the Middle East.
38:30
Uh, he says that the primary danger to
38:33
escalation in the Middle East is the US
38:38
and Israel, um, and their continued attacks on
38:43
Iran and others in the region that they
38:45
are the catalyst behind continued war virtually all
38:50
the time.
38:51
Now you can believe that or not believe
38:53
it.
38:53
I don't care.
38:54
I'm just telling you what, what he said.
38:56
I'm not saying I necessarily believe it.
38:58
There's two sides to every story, but seems
39:01
to me that, uh, that, uh, Israel in
39:05
particular is quite pleased with the outcome of
39:09
what's going on now.
39:10
They're, they're using the sweeps right now to,
39:12
to, to, uh, take huge swaths of, uh,
39:16
of land and, uh, create what Netanyahu calls
39:20
a buffer zone, you know, and, and getting
39:23
rid of it, getting rid of whole areas.
39:26
And, uh, they're, they're pressing their advantage.
39:29
So he criticized a proposed UN resolution that
39:35
ignores root causes and, uh, you know, about
39:39
us bases and, and Israel being a protagonist.
39:44
And he said the need for continued negotiations
39:47
and restoration of the freedom of navigation and
39:50
horror moves.
39:51
And he said that, uh, further escalation will
39:55
be a huge damage to global trade and
39:57
energy.
39:58
So basically if you take it down to
40:01
his main themes, the whole way along is
40:04
that Russia and China are at the core
40:06
of new, new stabilizing, you know, they're stabilizing
40:12
access and they're trying to paint everybody else.
40:16
Well, the West mostly is a bunch of
40:18
loonies or as you know, they're the creators
40:24
of instability.
40:26
Um, he reframes global crises as a consequences
40:30
of Western policy.
40:32
I certainly agree with, with most of that.
40:34
It is our policies and our failure to,
40:38
uh, follow the rules that we expect everybody
40:41
else to follow in the West.
40:43
I mean, and I don't mean us, us,
40:44
like certainly not us in mid Missouri.
40:47
And, uh, he advocates the acceptance across the
40:51
board of a multipolar system that is anchored
40:55
in national sovereignty of every player and regional
41:01
integration.
41:02
Everything else, energy, Iran, Ukraine, Cuba, everything he
41:06
talked about is anchored into that framework is
41:09
plugged in right there.
41:11
And so, uh, I find that, uh, it
41:15
was an interesting press conference and, uh, I'm,
41:19
I'm very glad that I watched it.
41:21
I think it was helpful.
41:22
I'm glad I could summarize it for you.
41:24
I wanted to share for you.
41:27
We're going to take a, uh, small, uh,
41:33
a small break and listen to a song
41:39
from the 90s, Russian.
41:42
Very cool.
41:42
And, uh, I've always liked this song.
41:45
Um, it's called, yeah, he's got a TBI.
41:47
I was looking for you.
42:08
I was looking for you in the dark
42:15
courtyards of a wine magazine among friends
42:25
during the day.
42:26
I
42:27
was
42:39
looking for you in the dark courtyards of
42:43
a wine magazine among friends during the day.
1:15:47
Cuckoo, sing Should I
1:15:58
stay in the city or in the village?
1:16:01
Should I lie down or burn like a
1:16:05
star?
1:16:09
Like a star My sun, look
1:16:18
at me Like a star My palm turned
1:16:28
into a fist And if there is gunpowder,
1:16:36
give me fire Like this
1:16:47
Who will
1:17:05
follow the lonely one?
1:17:09
The strong and the brave put their heads
1:17:12
in the field Like a star In the
1:17:18
battle Few people are left with a clear
1:17:25
memory In sober mind and with a firm
1:17:30
hand I rise I rise My sun,
1:17:44
look at me My palm turned
1:17:54
into a fist And if there is gunpowder,
1:18:03
give me fire Like
1:18:13
this Where
1:18:31
are you now, free will?
1:18:36
Who are you meeting in the gentle dawn?
1:18:44
I rise It's good to be with you,
1:18:51
but it's bad to be without you Head
1:18:54
on shoulders, patience I rise I rise My
1:19:09
sun, look at me My palm
1:19:19
turned into a fist And if there is
1:19:28
gunpowder, give me fire Like
1:19:40
this My sun, look at me
1:19:55
My palm turned into a fist,
1:20:06
give me fire My
1:20:57
sun, look at me My palm turned into
1:21:04
a fist And if there is gunpowder,
1:21:14
give me fire Like this And if there
1:21:16
is gunpowder, give me fire Like
1:21:19
this
1:22:18
And if there is gunpowder, give me fire
1:22:18
Like
1:22:21
this
1:22:48
The Brat 2 was like, well, you know
1:22:51
what?
1:22:52
You're really not all that different than us
1:22:54
Because the two brothers come over to America
1:22:56
And experience nothing but criminal or shady behavior
1:23:01
From the very first day Daniel buys a
1:23:05
car in New York to drive to Chicago
1:23:07
And his brother flew into Chicago Because they
1:23:10
were avoiding, you know, the Ukrainian mafia that
1:23:13
way And they're splitting up, as it were
1:23:16
And he bought a car And somebody scammed
1:23:18
him on the car It broke down in
1:23:20
Pennsylvania You know, he had to hitchhike to
1:23:22
Chicago And so he got scammed on that
1:23:25
One of my, there are two favorite parts
1:23:30
Stupid favorite parts But I get it It's
1:23:34
a play on what's going on And one
1:23:37
of them, Victor, the brother So Daniel's brother
1:23:39
is Victor He's an older brother He was
1:23:44
quite a few years older 12 years older
1:23:47
than his brother, Daniel And he also was
1:23:51
military And he also was a killer And
1:23:55
he has been in the mafia for a
1:23:58
while You know, in a small part of
1:24:01
it Or gangster-style stuff Well, one of
1:24:04
the key scenes is He comes into Chicago
1:24:09
at night And the first thing he does
1:24:11
Is he goes into a liquor store And
1:24:14
he buys a bottle of bourbon Or a
1:24:15
bottle of vodka And he comes out, he's
1:24:17
sitting on a park bench In the park,
1:24:19
drinking this And a cop comes up and
1:24:21
says You can't sit here and drink He
1:24:22
goes, what are you talking, leave me alone
1:24:24
I'm just here drinking And that's okay, I
1:24:27
mean, you can drink You know, in a
1:24:29
park, in Russia Depends on where you are,
1:24:32
of course You know, probably shouldn't do it
1:24:34
in Red Square But the rules are different,
1:24:37
right?
1:24:37
And he's going, what are you talking about?
1:24:39
I'm just sitting here having a drink And
1:24:45
he goes, you're going to jail And Victor
1:24:49
beats the crap out of him Takes his
1:24:52
wallet, takes his money Takes his gun, and
1:24:55
then leaves And the next day, he's waiting
1:24:58
for his brother To come from New York
1:24:59
And he's on a gangster tour bus And
1:25:03
it's called Untouchable Tours Chicago's original gangster tours
1:25:08
And there's a phone number on it And
1:25:10
so here, it's a play On the thing
1:25:13
that here's a gangster Riding on a gangster
1:25:16
tour And in the end, he ends up
1:25:18
staying He's the same brother who goes, I
1:25:20
love it here This is great, it's all
1:25:22
legal here You know, it's basically This is
1:25:25
how people live over here, you know And
1:25:27
the other guy's going, no, no, no, no
1:25:29
Victor's an actual criminal Sitting in a bus
1:25:32
like a tourist Blending into the crowd It's
1:25:35
a throwaway, but it's kind of a gag
1:25:38
Crime as history versus crime as reality In
1:25:42
America, crime is sanitized And turned into tourism
1:25:45
Victor comes from a place Where crime is
1:25:48
still very active Raw and current Basically, you
1:25:52
turn your gangsters Into folklore And ours are
1:25:56
still walking around And Victor fits right in
1:25:59
Nobody notices him And that's the joke Nobody
1:26:03
even notices him And he's not out of
1:26:06
place He's not shocked He just absorbs it
1:26:11
And it's as different As they pretend that
1:26:13
they are, right And it's a subtle shot
1:26:15
At the American image American self-image Of
1:26:18
being clean and orderly And they package its
1:26:21
own Criminalism as entertainment Just like everybody That
1:26:26
has a Russian accent Is in the mafia,
1:26:28
you know The other thing I'm going to
1:26:32
share with you And then we're going to
1:26:33
have to Probably wrap it up The irony
1:26:36
is, he's probably Victor He's an authentic gangster
1:26:44
How he got on the bus was Beat
1:26:46
the crap out of a cop Take his
1:26:48
stuff Killed a Ukrainian mobster And was hiding
1:26:51
out So that's Balabanov, the guy Who directed
1:26:57
this movie One country turned its past Into
1:27:00
a story The other one is still living
1:27:02
it And so it's a pretty good scene
1:27:04
There's one more scene That come across At
1:27:12
the end of the movie At the end
1:27:13
of the show Well we had the hockey
1:27:14
And the businessman conflict And that was interesting
1:27:17
But then he rescues A Russian hooker in
1:27:21
Chicago And actually ends up Taking her home
1:27:23
with him And where they're sitting there In
1:27:25
the end waiting for Victor To show up,
1:27:27
you know Sitting on one of the park
1:27:28
benches Along Lake Michigan there And waiting for
1:27:32
him to show up And
1:27:42
he says What does it mean When an
1:27:44
American says How are you And he says
1:27:46
And basically he's making A joke about it
1:27:49
Why are we talking about This What is
1:27:56
Do they really want to know How you
1:27:58
are And she says no That's just throw
1:28:01
away language They don't mean anything by it
1:28:11
Seriously around here Conversation doesn't matter They're just
1:28:15
In a way to speed up And you
1:28:19
know End the conversation Get on their way
1:28:22
They don't really care how you are But
1:28:25
he goes But in Russia if we ask
1:28:27
somebody How are you They think we're interested
1:28:30
And they would answer How are you And
1:28:32
she's And anyway I hope
1:28:42
you've enjoyed the show today I will be
1:28:46
here tomorrow For civicoutlaws.com Forward slash podcast
1:28:51
It'll be live tomorrow From seven to eight
1:28:54
thirty You can listen to International Flavor This
1:29:00
show and all others At internationalflavor.com And
1:29:04
go back and hear all the All the
1:29:06
priors At your own convenience For your own
1:29:10
listening pleasure And on damradio.com Forward slash
1:29:14
podcast You can also find them As well
1:29:17
as all the other Good content From other
1:29:20
good talk Hosts Here on Dam Radio I
1:29:26
appreciate you being here Hope you're here tomorrow
1:29:29
And I'll see you next week For International
1:29:33
Flavor Have a good day