Is There a Method Out of the Russia-Ukraine Warfare?

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Within the video above, Lex Fridman interviews Oliver Stone concerning the Russia-Ukraine battle. Stone, an award-winning movie director, was the chief producer of “Ukraine on Hearth,”^1,2 a documentary that got here out in 2016.

Stone additionally interviewed Russian President Vladimir Putin between 2014 and 2016. The interviews grew to become the documentary sequence, “The Putin Interviews,” which aired in 2017. So, Stone has some perception into each nations. Fridman, in the meantime, is half-Russian, half-Ukrainian.

Ukraine on Hearth

“Ukraine on Hearth” centered on the Maidan Revolution³ that started in Kiev in 2013. After three months of peaceable protests in opposition to the Ukrainian authorities’s determination to not signal a complete free commerce settlement with the EU, favoring a proposal from Russia as an alternative, lethal violence broke out.

Petro Poroshenko was elected president in a particular election in Could 2014. In keeping with the official story, Ukrainians had been dissatisfied with president Viktor Yanukovych’s “rising authoritarianism,” and his refusal to signal the EU affiliation settlement, so that they overthrew him.

Yanukovych and different high-level officers, nevertheless, declare the violent revolution was orchestrated by the U.S. for the aim of regime change. Leaked conversations revealed top-level officers discussing how you can implement a coup to overthrow Ukraine’s democratically elected authorities.

You’ll be able to learn extra about this and see the movie in my earlier article, “Ukraine on Hearth: 2016 Documentary by Oliver Stone.” The present president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, a former comic and actor, was voted in in April 2019.

Putin, the Chief and the Man

On this interview, Fridman and Stone primarily give attention to Putin — how and what he thinks, primarily based on Stone’s notion of the person — and Russia’s incursion into Ukraine. Stone presents a distinct aspect of Putin that many People in all probability have by no means seen, and explains why Putin’s habits is, maybe surprisingly, rational.

The U.S. has an extended historical past of anti-Soviet bias. As famous by Stone, the American stance was that capitalism works and communism doesn’t. Fashionable Russia is not communist,^4,5,6 but the U.S. antagonism in opposition to Russia stays, whereas the U.S. authorities, satirically, is now doing all the pieces in its energy, and past, to implement communism right here.

Stone notes that Putin is “very a lot a market man,” and has been very clear that he believes nationwide sovereignty is paramount for world peace and harmonious relations. Putin insists that every one nations should be sovereign, “and I consider america has by no means accepted that,” Stone says. The U.S., Stone believes, is much extra all in favour of conserving nations subservient to it and its ideologies.

In keeping with Stone, Putin has a usually good status in different nations for being a person who promotes the pursuits of his nation, however not on the expense of others. Retaining the world in concord, “this has all the time been in his image,” Stone insists.

When requested if he thought energy had a corrupting affect on Putin, Stone insists that Putin would by no means final if he had been appearing as a dictator. The Russian individuals wouldn’t maintain him ready of energy — which he has saved, on and off, for about 20 years.

Russia is a functioning democracy, and the individuals’s displeasure would reveal itself in a number of alternative ways. The poll field is just one avenue by which they exhibit their dissatisfaction. However, apparently, they assume Putin’s doing a very good job at defending the nation and searching for its wants.

Fridman, then again, notes he senses a mix of concern and apathy towards the management when he speaks to Russian household and mates, and this issues him. Stone counters Fridman’s issues saying he noticed “way more freedom within the (Russian) press than what’s pictured within the West, and which means completely different factors of view. Russians are all the time arguing amongst themselves. I’ve by no means seen a extra contentious nation.”

Stone’s Expertise With Putin

A part of Putin’s political longevity might have one thing to do together with his capability to remain unruffled. “I by no means noticed him lose his mood,” Stone says, noting that whereas most People are typically emotional, Putin, in distinction, is calm, rational, balanced, mature and respectful, even underneath stress. And, opposite to charismatic dictators similar to former Venezuelan chief Hugo Chavez, Putin doesn’t attempt to allure you. He’s a straight-shooter.

All of his interviews with Stone had been granted with out guidelines or restrictions. All questions had been allowable. Nothing was off the desk. Putin additionally didn’t request to see any of the work earlier than it was printed. “He trusted me,” Stone says.

In keeping with Stone, Putin has “no empire intentions,” and repeatedly expressed his want to have pleasant relations with the U.S. Sadly, Putin’s status has been tarnished by U.S. media, individuals appearing from a political agenda, those that by no means met him, by no means went to Russia and don’t know Russian historical past. This U.S.-fabricated persona of Putin as an enemy of each his personal individuals and the remainder of the world has made such relations tough.

Stone’s Preliminary Tackle Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

Stone had a harsher critique in opposition to Putin in a March 2022 Fb put up, by which he had the next to say about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine:⁷

“Though america has many wars of aggression on its conscience, it doesn’t justify Mr. Putin’s aggression in Ukraine. A dozen wrongs don’t make a proper. Russia was fallacious to invade. It has made too many errors:

However we should marvel, how may Putin have saved the Russian-speaking individuals of Donetsk and Luhansk?

Little doubt his Authorities may’ve carried out a greater job of exhibiting the world the eight years of struggling of these individuals and their refugees — in addition to highlighting the Ukrainian buildup of 110,000 troopers on the Donetsk-Luhansk borders, which was occurring basically earlier than the Russian buildup. However the West has far stronger public relations than the Russians.

Or maybe Putin ought to’ve surrendered the 2 holdout provinces and supplied 1-3 million individuals assist to relocate in Russia. The world may’ve understood higher the aggression of the Ukrainian Authorities. However then once more, I’m undecided.

However now, it’s too late. Putin has allowed himself to be baited and fallen into the entice set by the U.S. and has dedicated his navy, empowering the worst conclusions the West could make. He in all probability, I believe, has given up on the West, and this brings us nearer than ever to a Closing Confrontation. There appears to be no street again.

The one ones completely happy about this are Russian nationalists and the legion of Russian haters, who lastly bought what they’ve been dreaming of for years, i.e. Biden, Pentagon, CIA, EU, NATO, mainstream media — and don’t overlook Nuland and her sinister neocon gang in D.C. This can considerably vindicate the uber hawks in public eyes.

Declaring the toxicity of their insurance policies (Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, NATO enlargement, breaking nuclear treaties, censoring and omitting essential info from the information, and so on.) might be subsequent to not possible. Declaring Western double requirements, together with Kyiv and Zelenskyy’s dangerous habits, will likewise fall on deaf ears as we once more draw the fallacious conclusions.

It’s simpler now to smear these of us who tried to know the Russian place by way of these final 20 years. We tried. However now could be the time, as JFK and Khrushchev confronted down the perilous scenario in Cuba in October 1962, for the 2 nuclear powers to stroll this again from the abyss. Either side want to save lots of face.

This isn’t a second for the U.S. to brag. As a Vietnam Warfare veteran and as a person who’s witnessed the infinite antagonism of the Chilly Warfare, demonizing and humiliating overseas leaders just isn’t a coverage that may succeed. It solely makes the scenario worse. Again-channel negotiations are vital, as a result of no matter occurs within the subsequent few days or even weeks, the specter of a remaining conflict should be realistically accepted and brokered.

Who can do this? Are there actual statesmen amongst us? Maybe, I pray, Macron. Convey us the likes of Metternich, Talleyrand, Averell Harriman, George Shultz, James Baker, and Mikhail Gorbachev.

The good unseen tragedy on the coronary heart of this historical past of our occasions is the lack of a real peaceable partnership between Russia and the U.S. — with, sure, probably China, no cause why not besides America’s want for dominance.

The idiots who saved frightening Russia after the Chilly Warfare resulted in 1991 have dedicated a horrible crime in opposition to humanity and the longer term. Collectively, our nations may’ve been pure allies within the largest battle of all in opposition to local weather change.

In its technical achievements alone, in giant scale science, in its rocketry, heavy industries, and its most trendy, clear nuclear vitality reactors, Russia has been an important good friend to man. Alas, in our century thus far, man has didn’t see or attain for the celebs.”

How Does He See It Now?

Now, two months later, how does he really feel concerning the scenario? “It’s very arduous to be sincere about this as a result of the West has introduced down a curtain. Anybody who questions the invasion of Ukraine and its penalties is an enemy of the individuals,” Stone replies. “I’ve by no means in my lifetime seen such a WALL of propaganda as I’ve seen within the West.”

And, the best way European nations are leaping in with NATO suggests they don’t, in truth, have sovereignty over their very own nations, Stone says. Why hasn’t NATO objected to the massacres happening within the Donbas area of Ukraine ever since 2014, when Ukraine underneath Poroshenko took an anti-Russian place as an ally of america?

There have been dying squads, native management had been being murdered, as had been journalists. An estimated 14,000 Ukrainian Russians had been killed between 2014 and early 2022 by the Ukrainian navy and Nazi battalions,⁸ and the U.S. has supported it, and continues to take action.

Stone claims the logs of the Group for Safety and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Particular Monitoring Mission in Ukraine present that earlier than Russia’s “invasion” of Ukraine, February 24, 2022, there was heavy artillery coming into the Donbas from the Ukrainian aspect. In keeping with Russia’s International Ministry, Moscow’s motion in opposition to Ukraine was a “particular navy operation” to finish the “systematic extermination of the Donbas inhabitants.”

Ukrainian forces had constructed up on the border, and Stone believes Ukraine was really planning to invade Donbas. Russia then responded by sending forces to the border, however this buildup on each side has been largely ignored by Western media, which portrayed it as a sudden and unprovoked invasion by Russia.

In different phrases, we can not analyze the Russian invasion of Ukraine with out taking the Donbas battle, which has been ongoing since 2014, into consideration. Stone is satisfied that Poroshenko was instructed, from the beginning of his presidency, to refuse negotiations with Russia, and to keep up a hostile stance.

“That is very, very harmful,” Stone says. Zelensky, additionally, has maintained this stance since 2019. “The entire world is being damage by this, and nobody is looking it out.”

Stone believes Putin realized that the U.S. is intent on regime change in Russia, and are prepared to destroy Ukraine to do it. So, he took motion. Fridman suggests the Ukraine battle might in actuality be a proxy conflict between Russia and the U.S., and Stone appears to agree with this concept. However that also doesn’t give us any larger perception into this conflict. Putin may have surrendered the Donbas and supplied secure harbor for the refugees. He selected to not, however why we don’t know.

Regardless of the cause, Stone is satisfied that it was a calculated transfer — and never one primarily based on the misuse of energy. He additionally factors out that Zelensky had talked about bringing in nuclear weapons into Ukraine shortly earlier than Russia’s invasion, which may have set off alarms and influenced Putin’s choices.

Stone additionally warns that the U.S. is greater than able to a nuclear and/or chemical false flag. A small nuclear gadget could possibly be set off within the Donbas, and even when it didn’t make sense, the propaganda machine would routinely blame it on Russia. In fact, Russia additionally has a major nuclear arsenal, which could possibly be delivered to the fore.

“Can we stroll again from the brink of nuclear conflict?” Fridman asks. “Sure,” Stone replies. “What do we have to stroll it again?” Stone replies:

“Purpose. Purpose, after which diplomacy. Speak to the man. Mr. Biden, why don’t you settle down and go speak to Mr. Putin in Moscow. And attempt to have a dialogue with out falling into ideologies.”

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