WEBVTT

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Hello, and welcome to Russia Decoded, a podcast

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of the Center for the National Interest in My

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name is Andy Kuchins. I'm one of your co-hosts.

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I'm a senior fellow at the Center for the National

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Interest and also an adjunct professor at the

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Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International

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Studies. And I am joined, as always, by my co

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-host, Chris Monday, who is a professor of economics

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at Dongseo University in Busan, South Korea. Hey,

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Chris, how are you? Great to be here, Andy. So

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much to say. I hope we can fit it all in. We'll

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do our best. Chris has been out for almost two

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months now on a summer holiday in his hometown

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of Los Angeles, but he's heading back for Korea

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in a few days. If you want to know what's going

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on in Russia, you're at the right place. If you

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want to know what the Russians are saying about

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themselves and what they are telling their own

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people through their state news broadcasts, you're

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at the right place. Now, some will say, hey,

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Andy, Chris, that's just a bunch of propaganda.

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I would counter that, hey, you know, so is MSNBC

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and Fox News and pretty much any state news.

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You know, maybe U .S. public broadcasting is

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maybe not propaganda, but it's got the big disadvantage

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of being extremely boring. Okay, that was an

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editorial comment from myself. We are recording

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on Monday, August 24th. The database we use are

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the daily news broadcasts on Viesti, and also

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in particular the Sunday News of the Week program,

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Viesti Nadelli, that comes on on Sunday evenings

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and lasts for up to two and a half hours. Yeah,

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it's a slog. So I just wanted to note that today,

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August 24th, if you are not aware, is Ukraine

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Independence Day, and it's the 35th celebration

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of Ukrainian independence. Of course, this happened

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just a few days after the failed coup in Moscow

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in August of 1991. It's kind of interesting to

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note that in March of that year, the Ukrainians

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had voted to stay in the Union rather than becoming

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independent. Their legislature voted for this

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in August, and then it was confirmed in a referendum

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in December of 1991. So, of course, that was

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a huge watershed year, and things moved very,

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very fast. Maybe too fast, Andy. Maybe too fast.

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Maybe so. So this is the last episode that we'll

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be broadcasting, hopefully, during Dmitry Kiselyov,

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the usual impresario of Vesti Nideli. He's been

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on a lengthy European -style vacation, now about

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seven weeks by my count. And I think we'll both

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be somewhat happy when he returns. These last

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six episodes of SD Nadelli, they lack the depth,

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the creativity, the broadcasting confidence,

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but we soldier on anyway, and we always find

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some interesting things to talk about. So one

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consistent feature of these vacation episodes,

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Chris, has been a lot more coverage of the war

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in Ukraine. And that can certainly continue this

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week. Another feature this week was the elections

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coming up in Russia on September 18th, three

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weeks from yesterday. So combining both Ukraine

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and the elections, the top feature is an interview

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with Vladimir Putin conducted by Pavel Zarubin,

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who show Moscow, Kremlin. Putin, Moskva, Kremlin,

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Putin, has aired weekly since 2018 and has started

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as an effort to boost Putin's ratings. It's quite

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a popular show, and it comes on just after Vyacheslav

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Nadelli, in fact. And so Rubin, he's 44 now,

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he always comes off as very earnest and enthusiastic,

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probably too enthusiastic, about whatever his

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main viewer, and the main viewer, of course,

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is Vladimir Putin, is doing. There's kind of

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an, oh boy, quality about this guy. Wow, we're

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on the president's plane. Look at the carpet.

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He even resembles and dresses a bit like Buddy

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Holly, who wrote, oh boy, nearly 60 years ago.

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So Putin is in election form. He's speaking clearly

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and forcefully with Zarubin. It's not a particularly

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lengthy interview. And the main topic of discussion

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was the escalation in the Ukraine war over the

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summer since Zelensky's 40 -day program of deep

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strikes on Russian energy and logistics targets

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started in late June and technically the 40 days

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ended on August 5th. And they were launched with

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the goal of hopefully making Putin end the war.

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Well, that's not happened and it's not going

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to happen, I think, anytime soon. And so Putin

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asserts his tagline is that Ukraine opened the

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Pandora's box and we have retaliated in kind,

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causing far more damage to the Ukrainian economy

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and the military -industrial complex. At this

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point, I'm kind of paraphrasing Putin. The Ukrainian

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attacks have not altered the battlefield at all

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as Russia continues to make slow but steady progress.

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but the results are catastrophic for Ukraine.

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So yes, Ukraine opened the Pandora's box of attacking

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civilian targets in Russia. Ukraine has created

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some discomfort in our country, but again, this

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is nothing compared with what they are experiencing.

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And Putin also notes the damage to Ukraine's

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agricultural export sector, but claims, don't

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worry, world. the damage to Ukraine's export

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sector can be made up by Russian agricultural

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exports, and there'll be no significant damage

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to global markets for food. We'll see if that's

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the case. Now, Vyacheslav Nadelli also notes

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the arrival in Kiev yesterday of European leaders

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for Ukrainian Independence Day, concluding mainly

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that European billions are not changing facts

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on the battleground, unquote. Chris, my main

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editorial comment on Putin's Pandora's box argument

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is that, in fact, of course, Russia opened this

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Pandora's box on Ukrainian civilian targets from

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the first day of the special military operation

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on February 24th, 2022. And Ukraine has only

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more recently done so with considerable success.

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Now, outside of Zarubin's interview that mostly

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dealt with Ukraine, there were a couple of segments

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designed to threaten Europeans supporting Ukraine.

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Notably, Great Britain was in the hot seat this

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week, not Germany, interestingly enough, for

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deliveries of drones to Ukraine. And this raises,

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as Putin mentions, the question whether they,

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i .e. Great Britain, could be a target for Russia

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or, frankly, any of the countries which are supporting.

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Ukraine with military and financial support.

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Investing in Delhi also shows a map of seven

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strikes on Ukrainian border regions with Poland,

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Hungary, and Romania, with I think the implication

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being pretty clear. Watch out. So, Chris, do

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you want to elaborate on the, I think you do

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want to elaborate on the Putin, on the Zurubin

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interview and Ukraine coverage this week? If

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I was going to title this episode, it would be

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our response or our answer. This is longstanding

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for over hundreds of years. It's always Russia

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is being attacked. Russia is the innocent one.

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They're being attacked and we have to respond.

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We have to respond in kind. And this is just

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continuing this. It's Ukraine that is in the

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West that's attacking Russia. And this makes

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sense to many Russians. i i would like to hear

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if there are any comments this pavel zarubin

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i mean he is uh this is the one interviewing

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putin a veteran he's the one that's always with

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putin and and this guy i mean it's just like

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scratching uh glass i mean it's just really hard

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like scratching a chalkboard listening to him

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i always wonder why they actually have him around

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uh and uh you know honestly He seems, you know,

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he's obviously a kind of beta personality, not

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an alpha, as we usually see in the Russian news.

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Honestly, he seems kind of like a homosexual

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or something. It's very strange. Nothing against

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homosexuals, I would say. No, no. But in the

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Russian context, it's very odd. And obviously,

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Putin, he likes to be around these kind of non

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-threatening males. I don't know. But I mean,

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that's the way he acts. We see this interview,

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this very long interview. It's been played several

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times this week. This is used to frame the news.

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It's Putin who's telling us, you know, giving

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us an overview of what's happening, part of the

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Putin cult. And so, yeah, we see following Putin's

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words about our answer. They're where the Russia

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is firing rockets on Ukraine. They've hit the

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fire point. They keep hitting fire point. And,

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you know, it doesn't seem to really stop the

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missiles and drones, but they hit it again. They're

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cutting off the supply routes. You know, they

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keep showing this. And yet Ukraine keeps attacking.

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They attack a Ukrainian tanker, a railroad, the

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factories. And then they show they splice in

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the Western news to back up the Russian points.

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And so they show the CNN report that Ukrainians

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are out of patriots. They have nothing to counter

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the Russian missiles. And then, you know, the

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Russian news in tone. See, you know, this is

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this is the West. they say. And then we see Pavel

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Zarubin asking Putin about the so -called peace

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talks. And Putin denounces there will be no peace

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talks. Kiev has achieved exactly the opposite

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of what they wanted by attacking us. And he just,

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I mean, he's almost screaming, you know, we're

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going to answer them. You know, we're going to,

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we're going to get, you know, get them. You will

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get it. You will. You'll get it. You'll get it.

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The response. He just repeats this over and over

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again. I think he's really Putin is really angry.

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And then they go in. This is in a later segment

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about the exotic. plan that's what they call

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it exotic plan of the ukrainians where they're

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trying to freeze the lines this is a non -starter

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for russia they will not accept any kind of freezing

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the lines uh and that uh you know they'll they'll

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make some kind of free economic zone or something

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there uh and and uh they repeat several times

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this is just a non -starter, unacceptable. If

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that's actually true, I do wonder. This plays

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well with the public. And then it's very interesting,

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the Russian news intones, why do the Westerners

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always blame Russia and never themselves? And

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then it's very interesting. They say, well, let's

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try to understand the logic of these crazy Westerners.

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Why do they always hate us? And they just kind

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of parrot Putin's words again and again, the

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Pandora box. And then they keep saying the list

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of our targets is widening. When actually we

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see the footage, it's kind of, you know, you

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see some kind of explosion somewhere, but no

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one is actually getting hurt. And I think this

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is very important constraint. is of course the

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russian public they view ukrainians as as part

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of russia and you can't i don't think that putin

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can get too tough uh without some kind of a blowback

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from his own uh you know his own supporters They

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do show what they say is a British Flamingo rocket.

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Of course, we claim that they're made by Ukraine,

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but they're calling it British rocket in Tula.

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And they show Tula. This is by Peter the Great.

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He founded this area to make the arms. And Russians

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are very proud of this area's arms manufacturer.

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And they have a drone school there. And it's

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very interesting. They have a report from the

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drone school. There's a soldier there. And he

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says, My wife told me I don't want to live with

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a coward. And so he joined, you know, joined

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the army, joined the drone force. But he's not

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in direct danger. And then we see this these

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World War Two kind of posters, the Rodin Amat,

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famous, the motherland, the mother that we have

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to protect. Then we see another. There's many

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of these war reports. Uh, another, uh, war report,

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war correspondent showing, uh, the guys, volunteers

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shooting down the drones at the frontiers. These

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are the volunteers who have come and saying what

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will help, you know, shoot down these drones.

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And they say, what distinguishes our people?

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They're talking here about, uh, uh. about occupied

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Ukraine. Our people, we help one another, and

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we're ready, we're solid guys, ready for the

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war. They show these duels where the anti -aircraft

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guns try to shoot down the drones. And the implication

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is, we're learning, we're learning how to counter

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the Ukrainian measures. If I could switch to

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Ukraine, the report on Ukrainian politics. uh

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the main message there is of course ukraine it's

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just a huge mess you know as all this is house

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it's chaos compared to russia where there's order

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uh this is long -standing you know decades well

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that's that's always the message Yes. And then,

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you know, it's very strange. Again, they talk

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about this Mazepa, this historical figure at

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the time of Peter the Great. It's very strange

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from a Russian point of view, I think, that they

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show the crowds, you know, the mob. They tear

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down a monument to Lenin and they put up Mazepa.

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But, of course, Putin himself has criticized

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Lenin. And it's strange why. why that's bad to

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tear down the Lenin statue. Just for our listeners

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who may not be familiar with Ivan Mazepa, we

00:14:36.919 --> 00:14:39.700
have discussed him before, but Ivan Mazepa was

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a big supporter of Peter I, and particularly

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in the Great Northern War, until in 1709 he sided

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with Charles XII and the Swedes, and it turned

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out to be an extremely bad, bad decision. As

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Charles XII, the Swedes were defeated, and this

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began an extremely bad period in Ukraine's history.

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Why don't you go on to Mikhail Fyodorov, the

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former defense minister. Get out of history.

00:15:05.879 --> 00:15:08.419
Yeah, so they're talking about the recent flare

00:15:08.419 --> 00:15:12.379
-up between Zelensky and Fedorov. He was the

00:15:12.379 --> 00:15:15.620
Vunderkin defense minister and was fired by Zelensky

00:15:15.620 --> 00:15:18.440
about a month ago. And it's led to about a month

00:15:18.440 --> 00:15:21.299
of public protests and demonstrations in Ukraine.

00:15:21.539 --> 00:15:24.080
So what's kind of surprising, actually, is that

00:15:24.080 --> 00:15:26.539
the Russians are presenting Mikhail Fyodorov

00:15:26.539 --> 00:15:29.240
in kind of a positive light because he's a political

00:15:29.240 --> 00:15:32.320
opponent to Zelensky. Beware of what you wish

00:15:32.320 --> 00:15:35.980
for. Of course, they frame it as he's being behind

00:15:35.980 --> 00:15:39.779
the scenes, of course, covertly supported by

00:15:39.779 --> 00:15:42.480
Western agents. But the news this week about

00:15:42.480 --> 00:15:44.980
Fyodorov is that he was very publicly called

00:15:44.980 --> 00:15:47.320
for presidential elections. And so that's what

00:15:47.320 --> 00:15:50.639
brought this section on. And so this gives the

00:15:50.639 --> 00:15:53.590
Russians the opportunity to present. Well, not

00:15:53.590 --> 00:15:55.970
only is Zelensky corrupt, but he's anti -democratic.

00:15:55.970 --> 00:15:59.429
He doesn't really have a legitimacy now after

00:15:59.429 --> 00:16:02.750
seven years to continue ruling Ukraine. So they're

00:16:02.750 --> 00:16:05.110
kind of agreeing in principle with Fyodorov,

00:16:05.149 --> 00:16:09.669
but Fyodorov has been a very, very agile and

00:16:09.669 --> 00:16:12.090
difficult adversary for the Russian military.

00:16:12.620 --> 00:16:15.639
Uh, yes. And, uh, but in, in, in the course in

00:16:15.639 --> 00:16:18.259
the Russian propaganda, it's the Russian news

00:16:18.259 --> 00:16:20.659
after all, they're showing that, I mean, he's,

00:16:20.659 --> 00:16:23.960
he's a tool of the West and these meetings there,

00:16:24.000 --> 00:16:26.539
what they'd say, the well -organized meetings

00:16:26.539 --> 00:16:29.179
and the Russian mind, of course, this is organized

00:16:29.179 --> 00:16:31.460
by the West. You know, no one, no one. It's how

00:16:31.460 --> 00:16:33.200
they present it. I think actually they have a

00:16:33.200 --> 00:16:36.340
lot of, they have to respect Fyodorov as a quite

00:16:36.340 --> 00:16:39.210
skilled adversary. yeah it could be it's a little

00:16:39.210 --> 00:16:41.590
hard to hard to read honestly but but it could

00:16:41.590 --> 00:16:44.570
be and then of course they they show uh these

00:16:44.570 --> 00:16:49.350
these uh naboo the anti -corruption agency in

00:16:49.350 --> 00:16:51.909
ukraine and these these uh more of these corruption

00:16:51.909 --> 00:16:55.450
scandals and uh you know play these tapes and

00:16:55.450 --> 00:17:00.350
a lot are really damning for zielinski But again,

00:17:00.549 --> 00:17:02.789
you know, the main thing is that there's, you

00:17:02.789 --> 00:17:05.430
know, there's chaos. There's no hope that Ukraine

00:17:05.430 --> 00:17:07.990
is going to, you know, going to be organized

00:17:07.990 --> 00:17:11.009
or anything. And then interestingly, they even

00:17:11.009 --> 00:17:14.109
say that the leader of the Azov battalions is

00:17:14.109 --> 00:17:17.109
kind of radical. Belitsky, they say he actually

00:17:17.109 --> 00:17:20.049
he could run for president. You know, they always

00:17:20.049 --> 00:17:22.609
throw that out that, you know, the democracy

00:17:22.609 --> 00:17:26.150
in Ukraine is really a sham and there's behind

00:17:26.150 --> 00:17:29.410
the scenes are Westerners and fanatics. And then,

00:17:29.430 --> 00:17:32.470
of course, they compare this, they slice in with

00:17:32.470 --> 00:17:35.849
Mishustin, the prime minister of Russia, is a

00:17:35.849 --> 00:17:38.670
very orderly speech about how we're actually

00:17:38.670 --> 00:17:41.710
the economy is growing and the social services

00:17:41.710 --> 00:17:46.109
and how the occupied Ukrainian territories like

00:17:46.109 --> 00:17:49.309
Luhansk will receive their help for the winter.

00:17:49.509 --> 00:17:53.009
So I think for many Russian viewers, this would

00:17:53.009 --> 00:17:56.500
be very effective, Andy. I think the whole presentation

00:17:56.500 --> 00:18:00.579
is oriented toward the elections. The Putin interview

00:18:00.579 --> 00:18:03.500
is to mobilize support. That's my read on the

00:18:03.500 --> 00:18:05.640
whole thing. You had some additional comments

00:18:05.640 --> 00:18:08.539
about the section on Great Britain. This is the

00:18:08.539 --> 00:18:10.799
most worrisome thing. Of course, they've been

00:18:10.799 --> 00:18:13.759
showing that the Ukrainian, so -called Ukrainian

00:18:13.759 --> 00:18:17.579
drones, they talk about this Neandrone and the

00:18:17.579 --> 00:18:20.380
Flamingo. These are actually made by Britain

00:18:20.380 --> 00:18:23.539
and kind of smuggled in. And the British, it's

00:18:23.539 --> 00:18:26.200
the British that are propping up, faltering.

00:18:27.069 --> 00:18:29.990
Ukraine that would just collapse if it wasn't

00:18:29.990 --> 00:18:32.009
for the British. This is, again, Russian propaganda.

00:18:32.470 --> 00:18:35.849
And they show the new prime minister, Andy Burnham,

00:18:35.950 --> 00:18:39.549
100 percent, 100 percent. Of course, the British,

00:18:39.609 --> 00:18:42.930
they've been interdicting Russian ships and then

00:18:42.930 --> 00:18:46.210
selling them for scrap. And the Russians are

00:18:46.210 --> 00:18:48.710
just irate over this. So we have Lavrov saying,

00:18:48.930 --> 00:18:51.930
well, Russia will answer in kind. We'll start

00:18:51.930 --> 00:18:55.190
interdicting British ships, perhaps in Asia.

00:18:56.299 --> 00:18:59.660
That's the implication there in Asia. Myanmar,

00:18:59.839 --> 00:19:02.980
they have a report on this. And then this is

00:19:02.980 --> 00:19:06.119
kind of actually frightening. There's a threat

00:19:06.119 --> 00:19:09.599
to attack the drone factories in Britain, and

00:19:09.599 --> 00:19:12.740
they show concrete places where we could attack.

00:19:13.200 --> 00:19:16.079
we'll talk about later, they're saying Iran may

00:19:16.079 --> 00:19:18.680
also attack Europe. And so I do wonder, could

00:19:18.680 --> 00:19:21.940
they coordinate some kind of, you know, something?

00:19:22.160 --> 00:19:24.279
And then, you know, they just go on, you know,

00:19:24.279 --> 00:19:27.339
Britain must prepare for war, its own territory.

00:19:27.720 --> 00:19:30.680
They're not prepared. And Britain, you know,

00:19:30.680 --> 00:19:33.380
we could attack the former colonies, we could

00:19:33.380 --> 00:19:36.279
attack Gibraltar. They say all kinds of, all

00:19:36.279 --> 00:19:39.680
kinds of things. But what I, what I, some is

00:19:39.680 --> 00:19:42.910
nonsense for sure. But one thing I do, do think

00:19:42.910 --> 00:19:47.269
I do worry about is that Putin, he could really

00:19:47.269 --> 00:19:51.089
hit the infrastructure of Ukraine so hard that

00:19:51.089 --> 00:19:54.289
you'd have a refugee crisis in Europe. That's

00:19:54.289 --> 00:19:56.710
something I think Putin is capable of. To me,

00:19:56.730 --> 00:19:59.349
the most indicative thing in their section on

00:19:59.349 --> 00:20:02.799
Great Britain here is they show a A Brit former

00:20:02.799 --> 00:20:06.420
defense official, he is cross -quoted and translated

00:20:06.420 --> 00:20:09.900
into Russian on air, on Russian news, saying

00:20:09.900 --> 00:20:13.400
that, no, we don't really realistically expect

00:20:13.400 --> 00:20:16.640
an actual military attack from Russia, but some

00:20:16.640 --> 00:20:19.140
kind of increase in hybrid types of attacks.

00:20:19.400 --> 00:20:22.059
The point being that the Russians did a fair

00:20:22.059 --> 00:20:24.779
amount of threatening of Europe in this episode,

00:20:24.960 --> 00:20:27.900
whereas a lot of the time over recent months.

00:20:28.220 --> 00:20:30.259
They've been emphasizing more kind of the electoral

00:20:30.259 --> 00:20:34.240
strategy for getting more of Russian positions

00:20:34.240 --> 00:20:37.900
in Europe with the current weakness of European

00:20:37.900 --> 00:20:40.500
politicians, elections coming up in Germany,

00:20:40.559 --> 00:20:43.200
in France, of course, next year for a president,

00:20:43.359 --> 00:20:46.920
etc., etc. But let me return to the Russian elections.

00:20:47.559 --> 00:20:50.599
the coverage on the United Russia Congress, which

00:20:50.599 --> 00:20:53.400
took place last week. And this is actually the

00:20:53.400 --> 00:20:55.859
second United Russia Congress that Putin has

00:20:55.859 --> 00:20:58.640
attended in the last month, as Pavel Zarubin

00:20:58.640 --> 00:21:01.759
notes in his interview. And he asked Putin, asked

00:21:01.759 --> 00:21:05.720
him why. And Putin responds, interestingly, well,

00:21:05.920 --> 00:21:08.920
quote, I did found the party back in the day,

00:21:08.980 --> 00:21:11.380
quote unquote. That's the first time I have ever

00:21:11.380 --> 00:21:15.009
heard Putin. actually take responsibility for

00:21:15.009 --> 00:21:18.450
the founding of the party, United Russia. He

00:21:18.450 --> 00:21:21.390
has typically created space between himself and

00:21:21.390 --> 00:21:24.109
United Russia. The precursor of United Russia

00:21:24.109 --> 00:21:27.069
was founded in the parliamentary and presidential

00:21:27.069 --> 00:21:30.809
campaign going back to 1999 -2000. So it has

00:21:30.809 --> 00:21:34.829
a long precursor. And then he also said straightforwardly

00:21:34.829 --> 00:21:37.490
that he supports the party. So this is interesting

00:21:37.490 --> 00:21:40.930
to me, Chris, that Putin talks about united Russia

00:21:40.930 --> 00:21:43.269
in this way. It strikes me as something new.

00:21:43.329 --> 00:21:45.890
Maybe I'm mistaken, but that's my impression.

00:21:46.130 --> 00:21:48.089
And then there's an awful lot of hoopla about

00:21:48.089 --> 00:21:50.690
the Congress, where Putin's speech is featured.

00:21:51.069 --> 00:21:54.430
Dmitry Medvedev gets time in the spotlight. with

00:21:54.430 --> 00:21:56.890
his speech about the party platform. And then

00:21:56.890 --> 00:21:59.589
they feature a number of party bigwigs, including

00:21:59.589 --> 00:22:03.630
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Minister of Finance

00:22:03.630 --> 00:22:07.009
Anton Siluanov, Andrei Vorobyov, the governor

00:22:07.009 --> 00:22:10.549
of the entire Moscow region, not just the city

00:22:10.549 --> 00:22:13.450
of Moscow, Sergei Sibyanin, the mayor of the

00:22:13.450 --> 00:22:16.269
city of Moscow, who's been featured a lot recently,

00:22:16.470 --> 00:22:19.710
and the new special military operations star,

00:22:19.970 --> 00:22:23.940
veteran Yevgeny Padubny. and others, including

00:22:23.940 --> 00:22:27.359
a lengthy Andrei Kondrashov interview with the

00:22:27.359 --> 00:22:29.599
presidential representative on human rights.

00:22:29.740 --> 00:22:32.420
The very attractive, I would say, dressed in

00:22:32.420 --> 00:22:35.420
a kind of a somewhat matronly way, but very tastefully,

00:22:35.519 --> 00:22:39.400
Maria Lvova -Bialova. who is waxing profound

00:22:39.400 --> 00:22:44.079
on social welfare issues. And then they have

00:22:44.079 --> 00:22:47.380
some short pieces on party leaders campaigning.

00:22:47.480 --> 00:22:50.400
So they show Zuganov hosting a meeting with the

00:22:50.400 --> 00:22:53.519
Chinese in Moscow to honor the centennial of

00:22:53.519 --> 00:22:57.000
Jiang Zemin's birth, where Jiang Zemin was the

00:22:57.000 --> 00:23:00.190
successor to Deng Xiaoping. and the predecessor

00:23:00.190 --> 00:23:03.369
to Hu Jintao, who's the predecessor to current

00:23:03.369 --> 00:23:07.569
Chinese leader Xi Jinping. And Zhukanov is effusive

00:23:07.569 --> 00:23:10.150
with his accolades about China. And then they

00:23:10.150 --> 00:23:14.549
show the rapidly aging, I would say, Sergei Mironov

00:23:14.549 --> 00:23:17.809
of just Russia, who's barnstorming in Barnaul,

00:23:18.009 --> 00:23:20.890
a region in the Altai, not too far from the Chinese

00:23:20.890 --> 00:23:24.609
border. And then they show Leonid Slutsky of

00:23:24.609 --> 00:23:28.650
the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia in Irkutsk.

00:23:29.019 --> 00:23:31.000
And, you know, Chris, these parties are really

00:23:31.000 --> 00:23:34.240
tired. I remember a Valdai discussion meeting

00:23:34.240 --> 00:23:38.240
in 2007, in the fall before the December 2007

00:23:38.240 --> 00:23:41.640
parliamentary elections, where we had a two -hour

00:23:41.640 --> 00:23:44.440
meeting with four party leaders on the eve of

00:23:44.440 --> 00:23:46.779
the election. Of course, one of them was Gennady

00:23:46.779 --> 00:23:49.599
Zyuganov of the Communist Party of the Russian

00:23:49.599 --> 00:23:52.839
Federation and Sergei Mironov, the same Mironov

00:23:52.839 --> 00:23:56.480
they're featuring now. And in representing the

00:23:56.480 --> 00:24:00.869
United Russia back then, was Boris Grislov. We

00:24:00.869 --> 00:24:03.430
see him again. I was very surprised. And we show

00:24:03.430 --> 00:24:05.130
him in the audience this week. You're absolutely

00:24:05.130 --> 00:24:07.910
right. I haven't seen him in a long time. He

00:24:07.910 --> 00:24:11.450
was most famous, I think, for saying that parliament

00:24:11.450 --> 00:24:15.349
is not a very good place for discussion. And

00:24:15.349 --> 00:24:19.730
the fourth figure that we met that day was Vladimir

00:24:19.730 --> 00:24:23.269
Zhirinovsky. So 19 years later, it's pretty much

00:24:23.269 --> 00:24:26.109
the same lineup with a couple of replacements.

00:24:26.720 --> 00:24:30.160
I got to say, Zhirinovsky put on quite a show

00:24:30.160 --> 00:24:33.619
that day for us. He started off very subdued,

00:24:33.619 --> 00:24:37.759
and then he kind of caught his fire. And by the

00:24:37.759 --> 00:24:40.279
end, he was literally frothing at the mouth,

00:24:40.420 --> 00:24:44.220
spitting froth in different directions, you know,

00:24:44.220 --> 00:24:46.779
with all of his criticisms of the Europeans and

00:24:46.779 --> 00:24:50.220
the Americans. So the one last election item

00:24:50.220 --> 00:24:54.009
that I wanted to relate, and you... You alluded

00:24:54.009 --> 00:24:57.710
to this, and they're featuring on Ms. Schusten,

00:24:57.809 --> 00:25:00.670
but it starts out, and this is, I think, again,

00:25:00.750 --> 00:25:04.210
mentioned directly in relation to the elections,

00:25:04.269 --> 00:25:07.390
that the Russian economy, starting with the fact

00:25:07.390 --> 00:25:10.690
that Russia has the largest GDP, according to

00:25:10.690 --> 00:25:14.069
the IMF, now I've not verified this, but in purchasing

00:25:14.069 --> 00:25:19.410
power parity terms, in Europe, it's about 7 trillion,

00:25:19.609 --> 00:25:23.740
yeah, about 7 trillion. Which is quite a bit.

00:25:23.819 --> 00:25:26.259
We'll need to verify that. But what do you see

00:25:26.259 --> 00:25:28.880
in these election pictures, Chris? If you're

00:25:28.880 --> 00:25:32.099
a Russian watcher, this is a must -see segment.

00:25:33.240 --> 00:25:36.440
highlights the power structure and what's going

00:25:36.440 --> 00:25:40.019
on. One thing I'd like to say is we see the court

00:25:40.019 --> 00:25:44.160
historian, Medinsky, the former minister of culture,

00:25:44.299 --> 00:25:46.940
who is basically a no one right now. We see him

00:25:46.940 --> 00:25:50.240
featured prominently. And my guess is he's the

00:25:50.240 --> 00:25:52.779
one that's doing a lot of these history segments.

00:25:52.900 --> 00:25:55.500
He's known for his kind of cartoon version of

00:25:55.500 --> 00:25:58.440
Russian history. Very interestingly, for example,

00:25:58.460 --> 00:26:02.900
we see Putin say he founded United Russia. When,

00:26:02.940 --> 00:26:05.059
of course, we know this was founded by Boris

00:26:05.059 --> 00:26:08.059
Berezovsky, the oligarch. He was the one that

00:26:08.059 --> 00:26:11.279
founded it. And that's been studiously covered

00:26:11.279 --> 00:26:14.400
up by the Kremlin. The so -called godfather of

00:26:14.400 --> 00:26:17.420
the Kremlin, who kind of stage managed a lot

00:26:17.420 --> 00:26:20.220
of these things. Until about 2000, when Putin

00:26:20.220 --> 00:26:22.220
actually did become president. Yeah. And then

00:26:22.220 --> 00:26:26.599
Putin shut him down. And then we see a very odd

00:26:26.599 --> 00:26:30.180
episode. People are making fun of it. It's very

00:26:30.180 --> 00:26:32.980
cartoonish. Where supposedly they discovered

00:26:32.980 --> 00:26:38.380
the old bones, the remains of one Dmitry Donskoy.

00:26:38.579 --> 00:26:42.640
So Dmitry Donskoy, he's famous for ending the

00:26:42.640 --> 00:26:47.180
Mongol period in Russia in the Russian textbooks

00:26:47.180 --> 00:26:52.859
in the 1300s. Dmitry Donskoy, he led the first

00:26:52.859 --> 00:26:56.599
defeat of the Mongols in 1380. The Mongols recovered

00:26:56.599 --> 00:27:00.640
from that. Most historians look at 1480, about

00:27:00.640 --> 00:27:04.200
a century later, as the Russians finally throwing

00:27:04.200 --> 00:27:07.900
the Mongol yoke. Completely off. But I'd say,

00:27:07.900 --> 00:27:11.359
you know, the cartoon version, you know, you're

00:27:11.359 --> 00:27:14.539
studying quick for some test. That's kind of

00:27:14.539 --> 00:27:18.240
what you learn. Well, Donskoy is a huge, you

00:27:18.240 --> 00:27:20.380
know, he's a huge figure in Russian history.

00:27:20.559 --> 00:27:23.460
I mean, that was a huge victory because, you

00:27:23.460 --> 00:27:26.500
know, we're already talking about 150 years of

00:27:26.500 --> 00:27:30.019
Mongol control of Russian territory. But all

00:27:30.019 --> 00:27:33.000
I'd say is here, for some reason, they say that

00:27:33.000 --> 00:27:37.230
Donskoy, he was fighting. the lithuanians and

00:27:37.230 --> 00:27:40.769
the catholic pope who were standing behind uh

00:27:40.769 --> 00:27:44.890
the mamae so it's very odd and then we see there's

00:27:44.890 --> 00:27:48.039
some historical truth in that it's not you know

00:27:48.039 --> 00:27:51.180
it's it is a little odd i think and then we see

00:27:51.180 --> 00:27:54.140
uh don skoy is presented i mean just a cartoon

00:27:54.140 --> 00:27:56.859
as you know russian bagateer you know the big

00:27:56.859 --> 00:27:59.400
knight you know the key man guy you know the

00:27:59.400 --> 00:28:03.200
uh you know the muscles and uh they say we need

00:28:03.200 --> 00:28:06.859
the mulch we need the power of the relics to

00:28:06.859 --> 00:28:10.500
fight you know our battles uh and so you know

00:28:10.500 --> 00:28:13.039
the whole thing is very odd and cartoonish and

00:28:13.039 --> 00:28:15.839
of course a lot of uh Putin's supporters or the

00:28:15.839 --> 00:28:19.099
so -called Eurasianists who favor the Mongols

00:28:19.099 --> 00:28:21.579
say that was a good time. So the whole thing

00:28:21.579 --> 00:28:24.579
is very odd. My question about this segment on

00:28:24.579 --> 00:28:28.240
the relics of Dmitry Donskoy. is that really

00:28:28.240 --> 00:28:31.180
they were supposedly just now discovered in the

00:28:31.180 --> 00:28:35.460
sarcophagi in Arkhangelsky Sabor, the Archangel

00:28:35.460 --> 00:28:39.200
Cathedral, which is on the Kremlin grounds. Really?

00:28:39.299 --> 00:28:45.240
Just now? It's a cartoon. I think Medinsky is

00:28:45.240 --> 00:28:48.019
responsible. He's done these kind of things before.

00:28:48.220 --> 00:28:50.740
But yeah, it's cartoonish. And then to continue

00:28:50.740 --> 00:28:53.980
on with this cartoon history. As you said, Putin,

00:28:54.160 --> 00:28:57.140
he's rallying. There's a huge rally for the United

00:28:57.140 --> 00:29:00.119
Russia Party. And people are screaming, Russia,

00:29:00.720 --> 00:29:05.259
Russia, Russia, Russia. And Putin, he says, I

00:29:05.259 --> 00:29:09.000
caught this. He says, we've known this slogan

00:29:09.000 --> 00:29:13.140
since our childhood, our childhood. We've known

00:29:13.140 --> 00:29:15.740
this slogan. We've known this flag. They show

00:29:15.740 --> 00:29:18.279
the flag of Russia. But of course, this is not

00:29:18.279 --> 00:29:22.539
true at all. He was born in Soviet times. He

00:29:22.539 --> 00:29:25.779
had a Soviet flag and Russia was... There was

00:29:25.779 --> 00:29:28.660
no Russia. You go to Denver. You're born in the

00:29:28.660 --> 00:29:33.140
early 1950s. Then there is nobody in your school

00:29:33.140 --> 00:29:36.619
saying Russia, Russia, Russia. It is another

00:29:36.619 --> 00:29:40.940
strange historical thing. Yeah, as you said,

00:29:40.980 --> 00:29:43.319
it's very odd. Putin, he adopts for the first

00:29:43.319 --> 00:29:47.690
time that he's the leader. of united russia usually

00:29:47.690 --> 00:29:51.009
uh hana rent i think had this best putin is a

00:29:51.009 --> 00:29:54.589
typical uh you know mass leader who's above the

00:29:54.589 --> 00:29:57.289
parties like stalin and hitler that weren't part

00:29:57.289 --> 00:30:00.829
of her you know a party movement and putin definitely

00:30:00.829 --> 00:30:03.470
used to play this that was the so -called popular

00:30:03.470 --> 00:30:07.980
front but he wasn't a member of a party. And

00:30:07.980 --> 00:30:11.000
now we've seen for the first time this is changing.

00:30:11.460 --> 00:30:13.220
It's interesting in that, I mean, he's not saying

00:30:13.220 --> 00:30:14.980
he's a member of the party, but he's certainly

00:30:14.980 --> 00:30:17.519
taking a lot more. He's tying himself to the

00:30:17.519 --> 00:30:19.559
party more than he ever has. And it seems like

00:30:19.559 --> 00:30:22.019
there's risk in that involved, Chris, in that

00:30:22.019 --> 00:30:24.380
in the elections, you know, of course, I mean,

00:30:24.380 --> 00:30:26.859
the Kremlin, I don't know, how much can they

00:30:26.859 --> 00:30:30.029
cook the books? How much support is there actually

00:30:30.029 --> 00:30:32.609
going to be for the United Russia Party in these

00:30:32.609 --> 00:30:34.970
elections? I would be shocked if it were over

00:30:34.970 --> 00:30:37.950
50 percent of the electorate. It's interesting,

00:30:38.049 --> 00:30:41.160
Andy, because, of course, Alexei Navalny. the

00:30:41.160 --> 00:30:44.039
late opposition figure, you know, he was kind

00:30:44.039 --> 00:30:47.599
of hit and miss, but he had a huge hit with saying

00:30:47.599 --> 00:30:51.920
the United Russia Party was the party of thieves

00:30:51.920 --> 00:30:56.140
and swindlers. It became very popular. You'd

00:30:56.140 --> 00:30:58.700
hear this even on state media. It became a popular

00:30:58.700 --> 00:31:01.839
slogan. And the mainstream, you know, Putin,

00:31:02.039 --> 00:31:04.500
they dumped United Russia like anything. They

00:31:04.500 --> 00:31:07.259
gave it to Medvedev. I'm not sure if they're

00:31:07.259 --> 00:31:10.440
going to be able to get rid of that legacy. We'll

00:31:10.440 --> 00:31:13.740
have the elections in three weeks. Let's turn

00:31:13.740 --> 00:31:17.740
to another part of the Russian Federation. Chris,

00:31:17.799 --> 00:31:20.039
this week marked the 75th anniversary of the

00:31:20.039 --> 00:31:23.559
birth of a former leader of Chechnya, Akhmat

00:31:23.559 --> 00:31:26.400
Haji Kadyrov, who was also the father of the

00:31:26.400 --> 00:31:30.400
current leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov. Now,

00:31:30.420 --> 00:31:34.940
just note that Akhmat He was killed in a Victory

00:31:34.940 --> 00:31:38.740
Day, May 9th in 2004, by a terrorist bomb attack

00:31:38.740 --> 00:31:42.220
at the celebration of Victory Day in Grozny.

00:31:42.380 --> 00:31:45.460
So this is a pretty long segment, Chris. Do you

00:31:45.460 --> 00:31:48.359
think that represents its importance or more

00:31:48.359 --> 00:31:50.930
that it was a slow news week? I'm sure this was

00:31:50.930 --> 00:31:53.490
the inner politics. They're very nervous, of

00:31:53.490 --> 00:31:56.190
course, about Chechnya. And again, this is kind

00:31:56.190 --> 00:31:59.089
of the Medinsky touch, this rewriting history.

00:31:59.690 --> 00:32:03.049
Of course, we don't, there's just a lot of mysteries

00:32:03.049 --> 00:32:05.230
with Chechnya, of course. There was president

00:32:05.230 --> 00:32:09.970
or leader, the head of Chechnya, Dudayev, was

00:32:09.970 --> 00:32:12.470
leading the, you know, beating the Russians.

00:32:12.769 --> 00:32:16.289
And he was killed, it's very strange, in a missile

00:32:16.289 --> 00:32:19.900
strike. And to this day, we don't know. It would

00:32:19.900 --> 00:32:22.819
be very strange if the Russians did this. That's

00:32:22.819 --> 00:32:25.859
not how they do things. And there's a lot of

00:32:25.859 --> 00:32:27.680
speculation that it was actually the United States

00:32:27.680 --> 00:32:33.880
that killed him in 1996. And then since then,

00:32:34.019 --> 00:32:37.440
it's just been, you know, it's very hard to visit

00:32:37.440 --> 00:32:39.900
the place and there's very little information

00:32:39.900 --> 00:32:43.339
coming out. And we do wonder, 2004, there was

00:32:43.339 --> 00:32:46.019
all kinds of things going on. I wonder, you know,

00:32:46.019 --> 00:32:49.559
who actually assassinated the father, Akhmet

00:32:49.559 --> 00:32:53.460
Kadyrov. But anyway, we do see Ramzan Kadyrov.

00:32:53.799 --> 00:32:56.200
He's still looking very sick. But, you know,

00:32:56.279 --> 00:32:59.440
he's this has been two years now. He's supposed

00:32:59.440 --> 00:33:02.420
to have died. And, you know, he's still he's

00:33:02.420 --> 00:33:04.519
still there. He's still standing. He's talking.

00:33:04.960 --> 00:33:07.660
One thing I notice is he always puts on this

00:33:07.660 --> 00:33:10.599
act like he can barely speak Russian. And he

00:33:10.599 --> 00:33:14.299
throws in Chechen words when he speaks like Don

00:33:14.299 --> 00:33:19.940
Don. You know, this is how, you know, so. So

00:33:19.940 --> 00:33:22.519
anyway, he throws in these little Chechen words.

00:33:22.680 --> 00:33:25.619
I wonder, we do know behind the scenes, he's

00:33:25.619 --> 00:33:29.460
a key player. He talks with the insiders. And

00:33:29.460 --> 00:33:32.559
I doubt that his Russian is actually that bad.

00:33:32.759 --> 00:33:34.500
It seems like he's just kind of playing the fool.

00:33:35.140 --> 00:33:37.980
We do see, it's very interesting, these pictures

00:33:37.980 --> 00:33:41.400
of so -called New Chechnya, the reformed Chechnya

00:33:41.400 --> 00:33:44.680
under the Kadyrovs. And it's just striking, Andy,

00:33:44.839 --> 00:33:47.599
I watch the North Korean news every day, how

00:33:47.599 --> 00:33:50.799
much it looks like Pyongyang. I mean, I think

00:33:50.799 --> 00:33:55.539
that Kim Jong -un, he must have copied Chechnya

00:33:55.539 --> 00:34:00.579
a bit in his street planning. I mean, it's very

00:34:00.579 --> 00:34:02.259
hard to tell if you're looking at... I agree

00:34:02.259 --> 00:34:04.259
with you. I think there's a lot of similarity

00:34:04.259 --> 00:34:07.400
in the regime type there. Father and son. The

00:34:07.400 --> 00:34:09.800
Russians have to be nervous about Chechnya if

00:34:09.800 --> 00:34:14.880
Ramzan is as sick as he seems to appear. I'm

00:34:14.880 --> 00:34:16.940
not sure about how well he can speak Russian.

00:34:16.980 --> 00:34:19.280
I'm a little more skeptical. One interesting

00:34:19.280 --> 00:34:22.539
thing, Andy, for Kremlin watchers is we see the

00:34:22.539 --> 00:34:27.099
reappearance of the military leader, the Chechen,

00:34:27.239 --> 00:34:31.460
Abdi Aludinov, who's been disappeared from the

00:34:31.460 --> 00:34:34.139
media for quite some time. And there's talk that

00:34:34.139 --> 00:34:37.699
the Kremlin wants him to replace Kadyrov. I think

00:34:37.699 --> 00:34:39.340
that's probably right. I mean, the Kremlin has

00:34:39.340 --> 00:34:42.340
to be thinking about succession there. Good luck

00:34:42.340 --> 00:34:44.579
with that. Good luck. But, you know, the guy

00:34:44.579 --> 00:34:48.539
that had the responsibility for. 15 years or

00:34:48.539 --> 00:34:52.340
so of managing Chechnya directly was Surkov,

00:34:52.559 --> 00:34:59.659
the gray cardinal of the Kremlin, but he's been

00:34:59.659 --> 00:35:02.099
on the outs. The other thing that struck me in

00:35:02.099 --> 00:35:05.579
this section was the video going back to 2004.

00:35:05.920 --> 00:35:10.019
Just how young Vladimir Putin looked. Looks very,

00:35:10.079 --> 00:35:12.940
very different than he does today. Quite a bit

00:35:12.940 --> 00:35:16.519
thinner and a lot thinner in the face. You know,

00:35:16.559 --> 00:35:18.960
we all age. Chris, there was another interesting

00:35:18.960 --> 00:35:21.500
feature on the war in Ukraine, and this is the

00:35:21.500 --> 00:35:24.349
start of the legal proceedings. Croatia, which

00:35:24.349 --> 00:35:26.429
I didn't quite understand why it's in Croatia,

00:35:26.570 --> 00:35:28.469
but maybe you can explain that to our listeners,

00:35:28.610 --> 00:35:31.090
against the alleged perpetrator of the bombing

00:35:31.090 --> 00:35:34.389
of the Nord Stream pipeline four years ago, the

00:35:34.389 --> 00:35:37.289
Ukrainian Zhuravlyov. And this section kind of

00:35:37.289 --> 00:35:41.050
segued then to Sean Penn, the actors Sean Penn

00:35:41.050 --> 00:35:44.889
and Adrian Brody, and even Andy Garcia in kind

00:35:44.889 --> 00:35:47.570
of an interesting way. Why don't you take the

00:35:47.570 --> 00:35:50.610
lead on this? These Hollywood stars, Sean Penn,

00:35:50.769 --> 00:35:53.929
who's quite close to Ukraine, and Zelensky, visited

00:35:53.929 --> 00:35:57.530
many times. They're making a movie, apparently,

00:35:58.570 --> 00:36:02.429
about how the Ukrainians decided to blow up this

00:36:02.429 --> 00:36:07.329
pipeline that was going between Russia and Germany.

00:36:07.989 --> 00:36:12.849
And this was a huge scandal, to say the least.

00:36:12.849 --> 00:36:15.400
Under the Baltic Sea. Under the Baltic Sea, yes.

00:36:15.500 --> 00:36:17.699
It was a huge project. It was a signature project

00:36:17.699 --> 00:36:20.659
of Putin and Gerhard Schroeder. Schroeder, yes.

00:36:20.840 --> 00:36:24.599
It was a big source of income for Russia, but

00:36:24.599 --> 00:36:27.320
it was also a key part of the German economy,

00:36:27.480 --> 00:36:30.780
and Germany hasn't recovered from this yet. So

00:36:30.780 --> 00:36:34.579
in the Russian take, of course, this movie is

00:36:34.579 --> 00:36:38.900
all, they call it agitka, from agitation. You

00:36:38.900 --> 00:36:41.719
know, it's just a sheer propaganda. And they

00:36:41.719 --> 00:36:45.159
show that, you know, Brody loved Russia and learned,

00:36:45.239 --> 00:36:48.440
he says, learned the Stanislavski method, right?

00:36:48.519 --> 00:36:51.280
So learned, you know, how to act from Russian

00:36:51.280 --> 00:36:54.480
masters. He even, and he notes, he shows on screen,

00:36:54.539 --> 00:36:57.380
he's that he, I played Rescue, in fact, in the

00:36:57.380 --> 00:37:00.940
film. Yes. But then I thought the key part, Andy,

00:37:01.119 --> 00:37:03.539
and the Russians have done this many times, is

00:37:03.539 --> 00:37:07.449
of course. they question the mainstream narrative.

00:37:07.630 --> 00:37:11.730
In the mainstream Western news, we've never gotten

00:37:11.730 --> 00:37:14.789
a proper account of how this happened. I think

00:37:14.789 --> 00:37:18.530
it's very shameful. And so we see the infamous

00:37:18.530 --> 00:37:21.989
Tucker Carlson interview with Putin. They play

00:37:21.989 --> 00:37:26.630
this again, where Putin tells Tucker Carlson

00:37:26.630 --> 00:37:29.789
directly, you, the United States, blew up the

00:37:29.789 --> 00:37:33.130
Nord Stream pipeline. And of course, I do have

00:37:33.130 --> 00:37:37.130
to say, Andy, that many insiders favor the version

00:37:37.130 --> 00:37:40.130
presented by Seymour Hersh that asserts that

00:37:40.130 --> 00:37:44.619
it was an American operation. And I just worry

00:37:44.619 --> 00:37:48.659
because we have not had any kind of proper accounting.

00:37:49.099 --> 00:37:53.099
And there's many people worry about Russian disinformation

00:37:53.099 --> 00:37:58.019
and the Russians are fooling us and we have to

00:37:58.019 --> 00:38:02.019
fight this. There's a Nina Yankovic who ran an

00:38:02.019 --> 00:38:06.079
anti -disinformation center. But the problem

00:38:06.079 --> 00:38:08.699
I ask, I think it's a huge problem, is what happens

00:38:08.699 --> 00:38:12.769
when our own government is involved? with disinformation

00:38:12.769 --> 00:38:16.309
campaigns? What do we do? And I do worry, you

00:38:16.309 --> 00:38:19.050
know, about our own free speech. You know, these

00:38:19.050 --> 00:38:21.829
kind of issues, Russia's just going to hit us

00:38:21.829 --> 00:38:24.110
again and again. I don't think it's a good look

00:38:24.110 --> 00:38:27.309
for our own country. Oh, it's a great topic for

00:38:27.309 --> 00:38:30.050
the Russians who love whataboutism, right? But

00:38:30.050 --> 00:38:32.389
there's a lot to whataboutism. I mean, whataboutit?

00:38:32.530 --> 00:38:35.690
Those responsible for blowing up the Nord Stream

00:38:35.690 --> 00:38:39.530
pipeline were either Ukrainian. American or it

00:38:39.530 --> 00:38:42.989
was a Ukrainian -American joint operation. But

00:38:42.989 --> 00:38:46.590
we're never going to hear that from the American

00:38:46.590 --> 00:38:51.250
side. So they do have a Ukrainian that is being

00:38:51.250 --> 00:38:54.110
held. There was another interesting story, Chris.

00:38:54.309 --> 00:38:57.590
It's about Russian higher education, right? And

00:38:57.590 --> 00:39:01.730
the claim that it's getting harder and harder

00:39:01.730 --> 00:39:05.530
and harder to get into top Russian institutions

00:39:05.530 --> 00:39:09.440
of higher learning. which is actually mirrored

00:39:09.440 --> 00:39:12.159
in the United States as well. It's a lot harder

00:39:12.159 --> 00:39:14.619
today than it was, I think, than when we were

00:39:14.619 --> 00:39:17.639
going to universities. Let me turn it over to

00:39:17.639 --> 00:39:19.639
you, and there's this feature of this remarkable

00:39:19.639 --> 00:39:23.820
family of wunderkinds, young geniuses, who are

00:39:23.820 --> 00:39:27.719
matriculating to college at the age of 9 or 10,

00:39:27.820 --> 00:39:30.980
graduating at 11 or 12, sometimes with multiple

00:39:30.980 --> 00:39:34.039
degrees. And they show the father quite a bit,

00:39:34.039 --> 00:39:36.179
a little bit of the mother. But it's a family

00:39:36.179 --> 00:39:40.179
of nine children. Nine children. And the tenth

00:39:40.179 --> 00:39:43.380
apparently is on the way. It's an incredible

00:39:43.380 --> 00:39:47.019
story. Of course, the most anti -Russian propaganda

00:39:47.019 --> 00:39:49.980
you can find isn't Ukrainian or American, it's

00:39:49.980 --> 00:39:52.480
Russian. And here's a typical where they just,

00:39:52.500 --> 00:39:56.000
I mean, it's just making absurdity of Russian

00:39:56.000 --> 00:39:58.719
universities. They're showing that, yeah, this

00:39:58.719 --> 00:40:03.300
family with nine children, there are 13 -year

00:40:03.300 --> 00:40:05.920
-olds going to university, and it's basically

00:40:05.920 --> 00:40:10.760
a trick. And most of them girls. Yeah, there's

00:40:10.760 --> 00:40:14.809
some bogus degrees. and psychology. And I noticed

00:40:14.809 --> 00:40:17.510
that the Krasnoye Diploma, when you get honors,

00:40:17.630 --> 00:40:20.590
you get the red degree and it's all the blue

00:40:20.590 --> 00:40:24.110
degrees. So, I mean, they didn't really study

00:40:24.110 --> 00:40:26.750
too well. But, you know, they say these parents,

00:40:26.969 --> 00:40:31.889
you know, they went too far. And the point of

00:40:31.889 --> 00:40:35.849
this is to show that, you know, the Russian universities,

00:40:36.090 --> 00:40:39.769
there's a lot of excesses. And then leading on

00:40:39.769 --> 00:40:42.500
to this is, of course, Prime Minister Mikhail

00:40:42.500 --> 00:40:47.920
Mishustin, he's been slowly cutting the available,

00:40:48.260 --> 00:40:52.000
they call it budjetniknest, the sponsored places

00:40:52.000 --> 00:40:55.420
to go to the university. the free places, which

00:40:55.420 --> 00:40:57.920
are very important for Russian kids. So basically,

00:40:57.960 --> 00:41:00.699
it's getting harder and harder to get into a

00:41:00.699 --> 00:41:03.539
Russian university. And Mishustin's been steering

00:41:03.539 --> 00:41:06.539
these kids into so -called practical degrees,

00:41:06.820 --> 00:41:09.980
basically community colleges. And for me, Andy,

00:41:10.300 --> 00:41:12.380
I mean, this is going to be a huge sea change,

00:41:12.519 --> 00:41:15.679
long -term sea change in Russian culture. As

00:41:15.679 --> 00:41:18.820
you know, Andy, when you go to Russia, it's full

00:41:18.820 --> 00:41:22.760
of educated, maybe overly educated people. Everyone

00:41:22.760 --> 00:41:25.380
has a university degree and they're all smart

00:41:25.380 --> 00:41:29.360
and they all study different exotic things. And,

00:41:29.460 --> 00:41:33.320
you know, that was a huge, huge change. The family

00:41:33.320 --> 00:41:35.480
that they featured is kind of bizarre. The father,

00:41:35.579 --> 00:41:37.719
kind of long, almost a hippie -like hair with

00:41:37.719 --> 00:41:41.239
a long beard. But he's got the build of a former,

00:41:41.480 --> 00:41:45.079
you know, lineman in American football or a shot

00:41:45.079 --> 00:41:47.730
putter. Kind of like that sort of bill. All of

00:41:47.730 --> 00:41:49.909
these girls. I thought at one point that they

00:41:49.909 --> 00:41:51.230
were kind of getting at, well, you know, this

00:41:51.230 --> 00:41:54.349
is like a prime example of they love featuring

00:41:54.349 --> 00:41:58.210
the multi -child families. Well, this is like

00:41:58.210 --> 00:42:00.909
the multi -child family kind of on steroids.

00:42:01.449 --> 00:42:05.510
At any rate, let's turn quickly to the visit

00:42:05.510 --> 00:42:09.730
of Min Aung Hlaing from Myanmar, Burma to Moscow.

00:42:09.929 --> 00:42:14.329
So this was featured earlier in the week. At

00:42:14.329 --> 00:42:16.429
first, it just seems like a little, you know,

00:42:16.449 --> 00:42:19.150
this place most Americans haven't heard of, Myanmar,

00:42:19.590 --> 00:42:24.510
Mandalay Bay, right? Burma, some call it Burma.

00:42:24.969 --> 00:42:27.849
So this is an Asian country that's very close

00:42:27.849 --> 00:42:30.750
to India and China. You know, there's a lot of

00:42:30.750 --> 00:42:33.610
rebels that fight there and Russia. This is the

00:42:33.610 --> 00:42:36.530
one country that's supplying arms to fight these.

00:42:37.190 --> 00:42:40.030
So the government, the dictator, can fight these,

00:42:40.130 --> 00:42:44.289
mow down these rebels, basically. And so what

00:42:44.289 --> 00:42:47.809
I saw in this visit is this is a concerted part

00:42:47.809 --> 00:42:51.590
of Putin's Asia policy, where we saw last week

00:42:51.590 --> 00:42:55.030
he visited the Kuril Islands, which are disputed

00:42:55.030 --> 00:42:57.829
territory with Japan. Of course, I think you're

00:42:57.829 --> 00:43:00.449
going to mention North Korea is huge, you know.

00:43:00.469 --> 00:43:03.710
And so Putin, he's really got his footprint in

00:43:03.710 --> 00:43:06.920
Asia. And this is a little bit of... Conspiracy

00:43:06.920 --> 00:43:11.099
theory, Andy, is what I see is China, they know

00:43:11.099 --> 00:43:14.059
they're unpopular in Asia. They can't move too

00:43:14.059 --> 00:43:16.619
far. For example, in Myanmar, there was a huge

00:43:16.619 --> 00:43:19.599
scandal in 2011. They tried to build a big dam

00:43:19.599 --> 00:43:23.340
and the people just protested. They didn't want

00:43:23.340 --> 00:43:27.019
their farmlands flooded. Dams are often controversial.

00:43:27.659 --> 00:43:30.579
Yeah, China knows they're very unpopular. And

00:43:30.579 --> 00:43:33.880
in North Korea, they're also not popular, China.

00:43:34.199 --> 00:43:37.079
They're not popular Koreans. And so basically,

00:43:37.119 --> 00:43:39.579
I think what China is doing is getting Russia,

00:43:39.800 --> 00:43:42.780
getting Putin to do the dirty work. That's what

00:43:42.780 --> 00:43:45.280
I'm seeing. I thought, Chris, this week that

00:43:45.280 --> 00:43:48.340
my dog that did not bark, the feature that we

00:43:48.340 --> 00:43:51.019
always close on every week, you know, what is

00:43:51.019 --> 00:43:53.460
Viesti not reporting on that we think is significant?

00:43:53.719 --> 00:43:56.039
I thought my dog that did not bark was going

00:43:56.039 --> 00:43:58.519
to be virtually no mention of the United States

00:43:58.519 --> 00:44:02.119
and the Iran war. But then at two hours in the

00:44:02.119 --> 00:44:05.519
broadcast, 120 minutes, there was a segment.

00:44:06.199 --> 00:44:09.059
And it starts with Trump's announcement of the

00:44:09.059 --> 00:44:12.340
crushing economic sanctions on Iran and secondary

00:44:12.340 --> 00:44:15.519
sanctions against those that do not comply. And

00:44:15.519 --> 00:44:18.239
they add the question, is Washington really going

00:44:18.239 --> 00:44:21.139
to go after China? Kind of a rhetorical question,

00:44:21.280 --> 00:44:24.940
I think, for Russian news. And the vestigial

00:44:24.940 --> 00:44:28.639
editorial position on the war is that right now

00:44:28.639 --> 00:44:31.400
Trump is at a dead end and he's grasping at straws.

00:44:31.420 --> 00:44:34.460
It's not an editorial conclusion that I disagree

00:44:34.460 --> 00:44:37.360
with. I think the answer is pretty clear. And

00:44:37.360 --> 00:44:40.139
Destinagelli also notes the strength of the sanctions

00:44:40.139 --> 00:44:44.139
depends on allied support for them, with the

00:44:44.139 --> 00:44:47.340
implication that allies in Europe, Asia, and

00:44:47.340 --> 00:44:49.719
especially the Middle East, who are frankly not

00:44:49.719 --> 00:44:53.280
that enthusiastic about the war in Iran. You've

00:44:53.280 --> 00:44:55.480
talked about the country that you live in, South

00:44:55.480 --> 00:44:58.400
Korea, many, many times. I mean, look at Canada

00:44:58.400 --> 00:45:02.730
right now with another senseless. senseless tariff

00:45:02.730 --> 00:45:05.250
war against the Canadians. It's like we're just

00:45:05.250 --> 00:45:09.489
gratuitously making enemies out of friends and

00:45:09.489 --> 00:45:14.170
allies. It really is mindless. And they note

00:45:14.170 --> 00:45:16.869
that Iran announced that whoever supports the

00:45:16.869 --> 00:45:19.349
U .S. military and economic sanctions efforts,

00:45:19.570 --> 00:45:23.280
they make themselves targets of Iran. And so

00:45:23.280 --> 00:45:26.400
it's very analogous to what Russia is saying

00:45:26.400 --> 00:45:30.719
about the European supporters of Ukraine. Fair

00:45:30.719 --> 00:45:34.119
targets. They also note Turkey's proposal to

00:45:34.119 --> 00:45:37.500
discuss the war at the UN General Assembly coming

00:45:37.500 --> 00:45:39.860
up in about a month. But they add that Xi Jinping

00:45:39.860 --> 00:45:43.280
is not scheduled to be at the UN General Assembly.

00:45:43.900 --> 00:45:46.860
And in fact, I looked it up and it is true that

00:45:46.860 --> 00:45:49.619
he's scheduled to be in Washington for only one

00:45:49.619 --> 00:45:53.139
day of real talks, arriving on the evening of

00:45:53.139 --> 00:45:56.860
the 23rd, maybe the afternoon, talks on the 24th

00:45:56.860 --> 00:46:00.599
and flying back to Beijing on the 25th. That's

00:46:00.599 --> 00:46:03.579
not suggestive that Xi Jinping expects anything

00:46:03.579 --> 00:46:06.639
particularly positive to emerge from these talks.

00:46:06.800 --> 00:46:08.800
At least that's the way it looks to me. And that

00:46:08.800 --> 00:46:10.719
was the only appearance, by the way, of China

00:46:10.719 --> 00:46:14.380
in the show. Now, I had an article with Fena

00:46:14.380 --> 00:46:16.519
DeVos, who was an intern at the Center for the

00:46:16.519 --> 00:46:19.099
National Interest today about Russian perspectives

00:46:19.099 --> 00:46:22.880
on the war in Iran. And amongst other things,

00:46:22.960 --> 00:46:26.300
we argue that the Iran war has made Russia a

00:46:26.300 --> 00:46:28.380
lot more confident, I think, in their alliance

00:46:28.380 --> 00:46:30.880
group. We've talked about this before, Russia,

00:46:31.019 --> 00:46:33.659
China, Iran, North Korea, and Belarus, that is

00:46:33.659 --> 00:46:37.639
consolidating while U .S. alliances are faltering.

00:46:38.150 --> 00:46:41.909
Greenland, tariffs, the Iran war, you name it,

00:46:41.929 --> 00:46:44.809
your perspective. I just can't agree with you

00:46:44.809 --> 00:46:47.489
more, Andy. We're on the same page. One thing

00:46:47.489 --> 00:46:51.289
I'd like to note is they point out that Iran

00:46:51.289 --> 00:46:56.570
might attack Europe, European bases in Europe,

00:46:56.650 --> 00:46:59.389
American bases in Europe. And Russia is talking

00:46:59.389 --> 00:47:02.230
about this at the same time. And so I do worry

00:47:02.230 --> 00:47:04.829
there could be some kind of coordination or at

00:47:04.829 --> 00:47:06.909
least, I mean, there's some kind of threat of

00:47:06.909 --> 00:47:09.760
this. And Putin, I'm sure, is using this to back

00:47:09.760 --> 00:47:12.179
Europe down. And you kind of have to take it

00:47:12.179 --> 00:47:14.760
a bit seriously since Iran has attacked U .S.

00:47:14.780 --> 00:47:17.360
military bases in the Gulf states. Yeah, yeah.

00:47:17.420 --> 00:47:20.599
Well, I mean, if it's coordinated, that could

00:47:20.599 --> 00:47:23.260
be very bad. As they point out, Britain doesn't

00:47:23.260 --> 00:47:27.519
have any type of anti -air defenses. I think

00:47:27.519 --> 00:47:29.079
it's pretty clear also that the Russians have

00:47:29.079 --> 00:47:31.760
been providing targeting assistance for the Iranians

00:47:31.760 --> 00:47:36.000
in the Gulf states. So this is real. It's a bad

00:47:36.000 --> 00:47:39.940
sign, Andy, when the Russians do not cover. They've

00:47:39.940 --> 00:47:43.340
obviously been told not to cover Iran too much.

00:47:43.699 --> 00:47:46.619
One thing they do say is, it's very interesting,

00:47:46.679 --> 00:47:49.500
is they do cover this strange story about Israel

00:47:49.500 --> 00:47:53.619
attacking a Turkish base in Syria. I think it's

00:47:53.619 --> 00:47:55.920
a Syrian base, but there are Turkish military.

00:47:56.730 --> 00:47:59.809
personnel that were there. It's a big gift for

00:47:59.809 --> 00:48:03.550
Russia, for sure. All right, let's get to our

00:48:03.550 --> 00:48:07.670
dogs that did not bark. Chris, mine is one of

00:48:07.670 --> 00:48:09.530
your favorite places of study. It's like, you

00:48:09.530 --> 00:48:11.409
know, Vladimir Putin has been my main topic of

00:48:11.409 --> 00:48:13.150
study for the last 26 years. That doesn't mean

00:48:13.150 --> 00:48:17.889
I like him, okay? But it's North Korea. And North

00:48:17.889 --> 00:48:20.949
Korea was pretty much totally absent from the

00:48:20.949 --> 00:48:24.190
news, despite the fact that it's been reported.

00:48:24.309 --> 00:48:28.099
This has been reported as a fact. by CNN at least

00:48:28.099 --> 00:48:32.139
three days ago that an additional 8 ,600 North

00:48:32.139 --> 00:48:36.480
Korean troops have arrived in Russia, including

00:48:36.480 --> 00:48:41.059
amongst them 400 drone troops for the fight against

00:48:41.059 --> 00:48:43.940
Ukraine. Again, CNN reported this three days

00:48:43.940 --> 00:48:47.579
ago. If true, it's interesting that Russia News

00:48:47.579 --> 00:48:51.159
is not mentioning it so far. That's my dog that

00:48:51.159 --> 00:48:53.409
didn't bark. They talk about North Korea all

00:48:53.409 --> 00:48:56.150
the time, but they never talk about what's actually

00:48:56.150 --> 00:48:59.349
going on. For example, we've never, ever once

00:48:59.349 --> 00:49:03.869
seen any picture or footage of any North Korean

00:49:03.869 --> 00:49:07.039
weapons. in russia are being used in ukraine

00:49:07.039 --> 00:49:08.800
they've never they just block it out although

00:49:08.800 --> 00:49:11.880
this is a huge huge factor we don't actually

00:49:11.880 --> 00:49:14.380
see what the north korean soldiers are doing

00:49:14.380 --> 00:49:16.880
what their health is but as you said i suspect

00:49:16.880 --> 00:49:19.619
it's rockets and drones i would like to point

00:49:19.619 --> 00:49:22.659
out if i could it's very interesting uh blog

00:49:22.659 --> 00:49:26.019
by alexander slat kolf we talked about him the

00:49:26.019 --> 00:49:30.659
war correspondent He has his own blog, as Anton

00:49:30.659 --> 00:49:33.900
Sakhalin from NK News pointed this out. In his

00:49:33.900 --> 00:49:37.679
blog, he says, this is the war correspondents,

00:49:37.679 --> 00:49:40.039
like Kolf, who's at the front. He claims, I'm

00:49:40.039 --> 00:49:42.900
at the front right now. He talks about rats and

00:49:42.900 --> 00:49:46.500
mice and the trenches. And he says, guys, talking

00:49:46.500 --> 00:49:49.539
to the men, don't worry. We're not going to have

00:49:49.539 --> 00:49:53.880
any kind of war mobilization. This is all just

00:49:53.880 --> 00:49:58.590
empty talk. empty talk. What's happening, he

00:49:58.590 --> 00:50:03.710
says, right now, there are 50 ,000 North Koreans

00:50:03.710 --> 00:50:07.730
fighting right now in Ukraine, and they're fully

00:50:07.730 --> 00:50:12.289
equipped, and they're going to be rotated. And

00:50:12.289 --> 00:50:15.510
so we will not have any kind of mobilization.

00:50:16.159 --> 00:50:20.300
Uh, so of course, uh, that is very strange. They,

00:50:20.400 --> 00:50:23.239
they did not have this in the Vesti in the news.

00:50:23.460 --> 00:50:26.179
It's not that that was not covered. 50 ,000.

00:50:26.179 --> 00:50:28.320
That is. Yes. He said they're already there.

00:50:28.460 --> 00:50:30.800
They're already there. As if I heard him. Sladkov

00:50:30.800 --> 00:50:33.980
should be in a position. To know. To know. Yeah.

00:50:34.079 --> 00:50:36.420
Yes. I mean, he's there. He's saying he's there

00:50:36.420 --> 00:50:38.920
in the trenches at the front. And we saw other

00:50:38.920 --> 00:50:41.400
reports this week where he's there. We saw him

00:50:41.400 --> 00:50:44.059
visiting the deli. He's there. So, I mean, in

00:50:44.059 --> 00:50:46.900
theory, he could know when this is like a big

00:50:46.900 --> 00:50:51.079
hot tip. But, you know, the South Korean intelligence

00:50:51.079 --> 00:50:54.599
says this is not true. They don't have evidence

00:50:54.599 --> 00:50:56.719
of this. I think it would be very hard to cover

00:50:56.719 --> 00:51:00.619
up. Yes, I agree. 50 ,000 North Koreans would

00:51:00.619 --> 00:51:04.389
be hard to. So it could be that a lot of this

00:51:04.389 --> 00:51:07.730
talk is actually inspired by the Kremlin to trick

00:51:07.730 --> 00:51:12.550
the Russian population so the men don't leave

00:51:12.550 --> 00:51:16.849
Russia and there will be some kind of huge mobilization

00:51:16.849 --> 00:51:20.389
or huge draft. That's another possibility. But

00:51:20.389 --> 00:51:22.769
it's very strange, Andy. Chris, you published

00:51:22.769 --> 00:51:25.949
an article this week in North Korea News on the

00:51:25.949 --> 00:51:28.780
new Russian ambassador in Pyongyang. If people

00:51:28.780 --> 00:51:32.139
could read it, I'd be very happy. Mikhail Podolyshev.

00:51:32.260 --> 00:51:35.579
So this is a veteran diplomat. He's a common

00:51:35.579 --> 00:51:39.699
man. He went to NGIMO, you know, the top diplomatic

00:51:39.699 --> 00:51:42.280
school, basically the Russia Georgetown, which

00:51:42.280 --> 00:51:44.420
would be very hard during Soviet times to get

00:51:44.420 --> 00:51:47.320
in. Must have been very smart. He studied Korean.

00:51:47.639 --> 00:51:50.880
He was stationed in the 80s in North Korea. So,

00:51:50.960 --> 00:51:54.460
I mean, he has four years. He was there and he

00:51:54.460 --> 00:51:57.920
worked with other top Russian diplomats. So this

00:51:57.920 --> 00:52:01.960
Karloff is very respected. And then, of course,

00:52:02.000 --> 00:52:04.159
he's been stationed in San Francisco and Turkey.

00:52:04.340 --> 00:52:08.010
He's a very experienced guy. Nigeria. And now

00:52:08.010 --> 00:52:10.010
he's going back. He's going to be the new point

00:52:10.010 --> 00:52:13.550
man. And one thing I do have to point out, Andy,

00:52:13.590 --> 00:52:16.170
and just that's very frustrating as an American.

00:52:16.920 --> 00:52:19.800
The Russians, their economy is small. Things

00:52:19.800 --> 00:52:22.300
are not always good there. There's corruption.

00:52:22.599 --> 00:52:25.239
But the diplomatic staff is excellent, and they

00:52:25.239 --> 00:52:27.619
just outplay us again and again. We've seen it

00:52:27.619 --> 00:52:29.840
with Myanmar. Now we're seeing it with North

00:52:29.840 --> 00:52:33.659
Korea. They outplay us. We just don't have the

00:52:33.659 --> 00:52:35.980
experts. We don't have the people to get in there

00:52:35.980 --> 00:52:40.559
and play our hand. It's just the Russians. It's

00:52:40.559 --> 00:52:43.460
a big difference between the Russian Ministry

00:52:43.460 --> 00:52:46.820
of Foreign Affairs and the U .S. State Department

00:52:46.820 --> 00:52:49.440
is that the State Department, you know, they

00:52:49.440 --> 00:52:53.000
move their people around a lot more, you know.

00:52:53.000 --> 00:52:56.039
So, I mean, part of the rationale, I understand,

00:52:56.119 --> 00:52:59.019
is so that, you know, they don't kind of suffer

00:52:59.019 --> 00:53:03.400
from localism. They don't go native. But I think

00:53:03.400 --> 00:53:06.000
the downside is greater than what you're saying

00:53:06.000 --> 00:53:08.860
is that you just don't have the level of the

00:53:08.860 --> 00:53:12.570
regional. expertise and the networks to really

00:53:12.570 --> 00:53:15.510
understand you know what is what is happening

00:53:15.510 --> 00:53:18.550
and you know that the great amount of time that

00:53:18.550 --> 00:53:21.710
we've spent in russia we would both agree that

00:53:21.710 --> 00:53:24.750
it's it's just absolutely vital for you know

00:53:24.750 --> 00:53:28.369
deeply understanding uh the place okay yeah i

00:53:28.369 --> 00:53:30.550
think you have a time for one more dog that didn't

00:53:30.550 --> 00:53:33.619
bark if i could Could very quickly, Andy, this

00:53:33.619 --> 00:53:36.460
is from Adam Blanco. There's barbershop whispers.

00:53:36.460 --> 00:53:39.980
He pointed this out. It's a very important story

00:53:39.980 --> 00:53:43.989
is that there was this Sergei Batchkarov. He's

00:53:43.989 --> 00:53:47.230
the Russian general prosecutor. He was dismissed

00:53:47.230 --> 00:53:51.409
and Putin put him back in. So why is this important?

00:53:51.650 --> 00:53:54.949
Because this man, Bashkarov, along with Igor

00:53:54.949 --> 00:53:57.829
Krasnov, who's also been moved around, Putin

00:53:57.829 --> 00:54:00.969
keeps insisting these guys are there, is they're

00:54:00.969 --> 00:54:05.010
in charge of this nationalization effort. Since

00:54:05.010 --> 00:54:09.409
the 90s, we had the 90s privatization. And since

00:54:09.409 --> 00:54:12.179
then, Putin really hasn't touched. the assets,

00:54:12.340 --> 00:54:15.139
besides, say, Khodorkovsky or Berezovsky, who

00:54:15.139 --> 00:54:18.840
we mentioned, he's let the oligarchs be. But

00:54:18.840 --> 00:54:21.760
now this seems to be changing, and he's putting

00:54:21.760 --> 00:54:24.539
these guys in place. We could see, especially

00:54:24.539 --> 00:54:28.260
after the war, some assets being seized, and

00:54:28.260 --> 00:54:30.860
we could see, you know, formation of new military

00:54:30.860 --> 00:54:34.059
oligarchs. Perhaps I'd say, like, maybe war veterans,

00:54:34.300 --> 00:54:37.260
you know, they get the good stuff. So it's a

00:54:37.260 --> 00:54:40.440
very serious story that we should be watching.

00:54:40.889 --> 00:54:43.210
It's already happening in that the Russian government

00:54:43.210 --> 00:54:46.690
is finding new and creative ways of seizing assets.

00:54:47.070 --> 00:54:49.650
And so I think that the return of Sergei Bochkov

00:54:49.650 --> 00:54:52.949
is quite significant in that regard. I mean,

00:54:52.969 --> 00:54:55.630
the Russian economy is managing under some very,

00:54:55.630 --> 00:54:58.210
very difficult circumstances, but there is a

00:54:58.210 --> 00:55:01.579
real squeeze on money. Maybe less people will

00:55:01.579 --> 00:55:04.440
be leaving the country as compared to like in

00:55:04.440 --> 00:55:08.739
September of 2022 after the mobilization or the

00:55:08.739 --> 00:55:11.360
big conscription. But there's got to be a lot

00:55:11.360 --> 00:55:13.980
of I mean, the issue of capital flight, you know,

00:55:13.980 --> 00:55:16.300
must be very significant. And this is what I've

00:55:16.300 --> 00:55:19.500
been arguing for years is a truly myopic policy

00:55:19.500 --> 00:55:23.030
on the part of U .S. sanctions. is that they're

00:55:23.030 --> 00:55:26.750
not allowing money to come into U .S. financial

00:55:26.750 --> 00:55:29.869
institutions. And so that just makes it so much

00:55:29.869 --> 00:55:33.269
easier for Vladimir Putin. Yeah. OK, great. We

00:55:33.269 --> 00:55:35.030
can't send it to the Americans. We can't send

00:55:35.030 --> 00:55:37.610
it to Europe. We're actually helping Putin's

00:55:37.610 --> 00:55:40.869
policy of nationalization. Yes. So we need to

00:55:40.869 --> 00:55:43.400
wrap up. Chris, thanks so much for your time.

00:55:43.780 --> 00:55:46.659
We wish you a very safe flight back to South

00:55:46.659 --> 00:55:49.159
Korea. Enjoy your last few days in Los Angeles.

00:55:49.320 --> 00:55:51.780
Thanks so much to our listeners for tuning in.

00:55:51.880 --> 00:55:54.900
We really enjoy hearing from you. Actually, I

00:55:54.900 --> 00:55:57.400
got a big compliment this week from a gentleman

00:55:57.400 --> 00:56:01.039
based in New Zealand. We do have fans all over

00:56:01.039 --> 00:56:03.579
the globe. All over the world. So please, you

00:56:03.579 --> 00:56:06.119
can find us on LinkedIn. You can write us directly

00:56:06.119 --> 00:56:11.019
at RussiaDecoded at CFTNI .org. And most importantly,

00:56:11.300 --> 00:56:13.900
we are very, very grateful for our producer in

00:56:13.900 --> 00:56:16.219
Washington, Jordan Henry of the Center for the

00:56:16.219 --> 00:56:18.219
National Interest, who always makes us sound

00:56:18.219 --> 00:56:21.260
better than we actually are. All right. See you

00:56:21.260 --> 00:56:22.739
next week. Yeah, see you next week.