Interview to Tucker Carlson

Mr President thank you on February 22nd 2022 you addressed your country in a nationwide address when the conflict in Ukraine started and you said that you were acting because you had come to the conclusion that the United States through NATO might initiate a quote surprise attack on our country and to American ear that sounds paranoid tell us why you believe the United States might strike Russia out of the blue how did you conclude that well it was not about that the United States wanted to surprisingly strike Russia I didn't say so is it a talk show or is it a formidable serious talk that we're having here's the quote thank you it's a formidable serious talk it's a it's it's a serious talk okay you have uh you are trained in history as far as I know yes so allow me I'll allow myself like to spend a minute to give you a a reference note a debriefing if you don't mind that please well look our relationship with Ukraine what was the starting point of the of the relationship where does Ukraine come from the Russian state became centralized which was the year of establishment of the Russian state in 862 when well there is a city of no in the northwest of Russia when they invited Prince ruik from Scandinavia from the Vikings in 862 in 18 6 to 1,000 years since the establishment of the statehood was marked and in there is a Memorial dedicated to that in in nor in 880 to the successor of r b who actually was a regent to to rik's young son came to Kev Ed two brothers that used to be in the past had been in the past uh members of the crew of Rik and so there there were two centers of the statehood in K and in no back then the next red letter date was 888 the the conversion into Christianity when Prince Vladimir accepted Eastern Christianity the Orthodox faith in KF since then decentralized power in in Russia got entrenched with a single territory a single economy one in the same language and after the baptism of of Rose they had the same the same faith and the rule of grand Prince and the centralized Russian state was fledgling thanks to different reasons after the succession the throne practices were introduced by Yus the wise after he passed away there was no direct order of uh succession from father to the eldest son but it was it was horizontal from the demised prince to his brother and all that led to the partitioning few parti FAL partitioning of of ancient Rose same happened in Europe it was a natural process but those that partitioned State Russian state became and fell prey to the Empire established by chisan and khti came to Rus pillaged all the cities and different cities like Ki and others lost their independence by Northern while Northern uh cities of Russia preserved part of their sovereignty they paid tribute to to the yor and later the centralized Russian state became fledgling in in Northwestern part of Russia and the southern lands of Russia were gravitating towards towards another Center the one of Europe the grand lith Lithuanian Duke duy the Lithuanian Russian duy as the Russian ethnic Russians constituted a major a big part and they were orthodo in faith and they spoke the Asian trussi language then there but later Poland the kingdom of Poland and the grand duy of Lithuania were unified and another unification in spiritual sphere was signed and part of the Orthodox priests were now subordinate to the to Pope so in those lands were transferred to the Polish and Lithuanian state but for decades the Poes tried to well convert uh those those people those Russians trying to insert and trench an idea that those were not speci specifically and fully Russian trying to assimilate them Ukraine means uh the trim of the nation the trim of the land the Border area so some of them were were border guards or something but there there was not about a specific ethnic group so the poles tried to assimilate the Russian population there treated those lands in a tough or cruel even way all that led to that part of the Russian land's struggle for their rights they wrote letters to Warsaw claiming that their rights were to be up upheld I beg your pardon can you tell us what period I'm losing track of where in history we are the Polish oppression it was in the 13th century 13th century 14th century 13th century and I'll tell you what happened later and I'll keep track4 earlier the people who controlled in that part of the Russian lands addressed warsa claiming that some Russian ethnicity and Orthodox rulers would be sent to to to govern them wara declined and rejected that and then then they turned to Moscow so that Moscow would establish its power over them just I'm not inventing things don't you think just just what I'll give you these documents it doesn't sound like you're inventing it I'm not sure why it's relevant to what happened two years ago well still these are copies from the archive with letters from banit the one who controlled that part of the Russian landens that is now called Ukraine and he wrote to Warsaw claiming that the rights be up held and when he was rejected he ref received a refusal he started writing to thear of Moscow wishing to to be part of the Russian lands and there is a translation in in in Russian and in English probably Russia would not accept them straight away because they feared that the war a war with Poland would be Unleashed 1650 for uh the zamsky council decided that this part of the ancient Russian lands be accepted as part of the new Russian land and the war was Poland began and it lasted for 13 years and afterwards a truce was enacted after the 1654 act three 32 years after WS the Eternal peace with Poland was established and proclaimed and all the Left Bank on of n of the N River including K Nea NEPA River uh was part of Russia became part of Russia and the right Bank of uh NEPA became part of Poland and in under the rule of Katherine the Great Russia returned all those historic lands historical lands of its and that all happened and last until the revolution but before World War I using the ideas of Ukraine ethnicity and origin the Austrian general staff started promoting the Ukrainian origin and Ukrainian identity because they in the view of the first world war they wanted to weaken the prospective enemy and you know the idea that had been born in Poland that those people residing in that territory were not specifically in holy Russian was later promoted by the Austrian general staff and theorists appeared in the 19th century upholding the independence of Ukraine they spoke of its need to obtain Independence but all the pillers of the Ukrainian sovereignty of the proponents said that Ukraine was to have a very good relationship with Russia they insisted on that well after the revolution of the 1917 happened biks tried to restore the statehood and the Civil War began including uh standoff with Poland a standoff with Poland in 1921 the peace with peace uh treaty with Poland was proclaimed and under this treaty the right Bank of NEPA River once again belonged to Poland in 1939 after Poland cooperated with Hitler and they collaborated with Hitler actually we have all the documents in the archive and Hitler proposed uh Poland a peace treaty and the friendship treaty but he claimed that Poland should give the dance Corridor back back to dancing Corridor back to Germany and that connected the main part of uh Germany with East BR kingburg and after the first world war that part of territory was transferred to Poland and instead of daning the city of Dan appeared it was renamed so Hitler Hitler asked them to give it uh amicably they refused but still they collaborated with Hitler and they together you're making a case that that Ukraine certainly parts of Ukraine eastern Ukraine is in effect Russia has been for hundreds of years why wouldn't you just take it when you became president 24 years ago you have nuclear weapons they don't if it's actually your land why did you wait so long I'll tell you I'll tell you I'm coming to that you know there The Briefing is coming to an end it might be boring but it explains Mary how it's relevant good good good I I'm so gratified that you appreciate that so after well before the before World War II Poland did not accept the claims of Hitler the demands of Hitler but participated in partitioning of Czechoslovakia but it did not give the Dan Corridor to of Germany the polls play too much and you know as a result of that Hitler started the war with them against them on the 1st of September 1939 it was UN Poland turned uncompromising and Hitler had to begin with Poland and the USSR I have read some archives the USSR behaved in a h in an honest way the USSR asked Poland's permission to Transit their troops through the Polish soil to to help help Czechoslovakia but the then polish foreign minister said that even if uh Soviet fly planes would fly over Poland they would be downed he said but that doesn't matter what matters is the war is that the War Began in Poland fell prey to their own policies against Czechoslovakia according to the MTO ribbon drop act part of that territory now belongs to Russia including Western Ukraine and Russia That Was Then named the USSR came back to its historical lands and after the victory in the Great Patriotic War as we call World War II all those territories were enshrined to belong to the USSR finally and definitively and uh actually Poland as a as a compensation received the originally German West easn lands the eastern part of Germany part of the eastern part of Germany some some segments these are now Western lands of Poland and it once again received the part of the coastline of the Baltic Sea and the danig once again was renamed to become Gans so this is how the situation the whole situation happened and when the usar wars established in in 1922 the Bolshevik started establishing the ussi and they established the Soviet Ukrainian Republic that was not existent before hadn't existed before and Stalin insisted that those republics would become autonomous entities unfortunately strangely lenan insisted that they should have a right to withdraw and pull out of the uh USSR and to unknown reasons he gave some transferred some of the lands to that Soviet Republic of Ukraine that belonged previously to Russia and that became part of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic including the Black Sea region that was conquered by the great and it had no bearing historical bearing on Ukraine had no relations in 1654 when Ukraine was reunified got reunified with Russia they were the size of three to four contemporary regions of Ukraine in 1654 well I'm just you obviously have encyclopedic knowledge of this region but why didn't you make this case for the first 22 years as president that Ukraine wasn't a real country yes the Soviet Ukraine received a great deal of territory that had never belonged had now belonged to it including the Black Sea region Russia received those lands as a result as an outcome of the Russian Turkish Wars and they were called new Russia or nov Russia but that doesn't matter but actually Lenin the founder of the Soviet state gave Ukraine its own territory and for decades the Ukrainian Soviet Republic was part of the USSR and to unknown reasons the Bolsheviks promoted the Ukrainian culture and language ukrainization ukrainization was called and uh the similar things were done in other Soviet republics the the ethnic profiles of those republics were raised and uh promoted this is how Soviet Ukraine was created and after the second world war Ukraine received part of the lands that belonged to had belonged to Poland before and part of the land that had belonged to Hungary and Romania before so Romania and Hungary were were deprived of part of their lands and uh these lands were snatched and given to Ukraine and now they're still part of Ukraine so in this sense Ukraine is an artificial state that was estblished has a right to take its land back from Ukraine and that other nations have a right to go back to their 1654 borders I'm not sure whether they can should come back to the 16 54 but if anyone believes and everyone believes that the Stalin Stalin regime rule saw a lot of violations of human rights and violation of the rights of other nations in this sense actually one can state that they may have a right to claim those lands back have you told Victor Orban that can have part of Ukraine never I've never told him I've never told him not not not a single time never we haven't even had any conversation on on that but I actually know for sure of course the hungarians who live over there they want to get back to their historical land moreover just an interesting anecdote a personal one I would like to share with you you know let me diverge a little bit uh somewhere in the 80s I think uh I went on a road trip through the USSR from Leningrad on a car via Kev then I went to Western Ukraine I went to the town of bavo and all the um names of the cities and towns over there are in Russian were in Russian and also in one language I didn't understand it was Hungarian it was not Ukrainian so I went through a village and there were men sitting uh next to their uh houses and they were wearing uh black suits uh three-piece suits and then in cylinder hats and I was wondering whether those were artists and I was told these were hungarians and I asked what are they doing here and they say this a historical land they live here it was during the times the 1980s and they had managed to preserve the Hungarian language Hungarian names National attire and they felt Hungarian and they were Hungarian and there's a lot of that though I think many nations are upset about Transylvania as well as you obviously know but many nations feel frustrated by the redrawn borders of the wars of the 20th century and Wars going back A Thousand Years the ones that you mentioned but the fact is that you didn't make this case in public until two years ago February and in the case that you made which I read today just you you explained at Great length that you felt a physical threat from the West in NATO including potentially a nuclear threat and that's what got you to move is that a fair characterization of what you said yes I understand that probably a long cqu does not fit the genre of an interview so um I asked whether that was a show or a serious talk and you said it was a serious talk so serious talk so bear with me please so we are coming to the point where the Soviet Ukraine was established then in 1991 the Soviet Union collapsed and everything that Ukraine had got as a gift from Russia well it with it and generally I'm coming to the current point in time the the collapse of the Soviet Union was basically the initiative of the Russian leadership I do not understand what they were thinking back back then but I suspect but there were several elements to their rationale several reasons first I believe that the then Russian leadership thought that the fundamentals the fundamental basic relations between Russia and Ukraine such as common language because 90% back then SP Russian familial ties because uh you know one in three Russians have families or some other tires in Ukraine common culture common history common religion these are fundamentals you know also been in one single state for hundreds of years these are fundamentals just as the economic interconnections and that is what drove the Russian leadership to think that inevitably the relations would be good between the two countries and secondly as an American citizen I want you and your audience to know that the Russian leadership thought that okay the USSR would cease to exist but there would be no more divisive lines of ideological nature they also thought that Russia you know voluntarily of its own valtion decided to dissolve the Soviet Union thinking that the Civilized West as it were would see that as an invitation to friendship and Alliance that is what Russia was expected expecting from the us and the collective West as a whole there were some smart people in particular in Germany Egan Bart he was a prominent uh politician from the Social Democratic party and in personal talks with the Russian the Soviet leadership before the collapse of the Soviet Union he was insisting that a new collective security system should be established in Europe yes he thought that help should be given to uh the reunified Germany but also it was supposed to create a security system involving the uh US Canada and he said if NATO would expand then it would be uh back during like during the Cold War but only closer to Russian's border he was very smart but no one listened to him and you know we've got some talks from archives and he got angry he said if you don't listen to us I am not never setting my foot in Moscow once again he was very frustrated with the Soviet Union and his prophecy came true well it of course it did come true and I and you've mentioned this many times I think it's a fair point and many in America thought that relations between Russia and the United States would be fine with the collapse of the Soviet Union in the end of the Cold War that the opposite happened but you've never explained why you think that happened except to say that the West fears a strong Russia but we have a strong China the West does not seem very afraid of uh what about Russia do you think convinced policy makers they had to take it down the West is afraid of a strong China more than it fears a strong Russia because it's uh just 150 million people in Russia and it's 1.5 billion people in China and also China's economy is growing at more than 5% a year so the potential is enormous you know bismar used to say the most important thing is the potential and China potentially is the biggest economy in the world in terms of purchasing parity it's uh out stripped uh the us but let's not talk about who is afraid of whom let's not talk in such terms Let's uh get back to the fact that after 1991 when Russia expected that it would be inducted into the brotherly nation of civilized Nations it didn't happen well uh you you tricked us well I'm not talking about you personally I'm talking about the us we were promised that NATO would not expand eastwards but there were five waves of expansion and we bore with that we tolerated that we were trying to reason with them because we were saying we we are like you right now we are you know a capitalist economy let's come to temps let's find an agreement you know let's look at yelon times there was a moment when you know the great cat crossed our path as it were you know yelson came to the US he spoke in Congress he said the good words and these were the signals these were the signals telling you let us in but then you know remember the developments in Yugoslavia before that yelon was lavished with praise but then he raised his voice in support of serbs and we couldn't but do that yes I understand there were some complex processes underway but Russia couldn't help raising its voice in support of Serbia because Serbia is a brotherly Nation also an orthodox culture so gon spoke in favor of but what did the US do in violation of international law and the UN Charter they started bombing belgrad and the us and it was the US that led the Gin out of the bottle moreover when Russia was indignant when it was uh uh protesting it was St that the international law and the UN Charter had become obsolete right now they're all referring to international law but back then they were said saying that the international law was obsolete yes some things need to be changed but not in this manner and then yelon came under heavy criticism he was accused of alcoholism of understanding nothing he understood everything okay I became president in 2000 and I thought okay Yugoslavia as a thing of the past Let's uh give a shot at rebuilding the relation let's reopen the door that Russia had tried to go through more over I said that publicly and I can reiterate there was a meeting here in the kremling with the outgoing uh president of the US Bill Clinton we uh uh sat in the room next door and I tell him Bill what do you think if Russia uh asked to be uh admitted into NATO do you think it would happen he said you know it's interesting I think yes but in the evening when we had another meeting for dinner he said you know I've talked to my team no not going to happen not now so you can ask him I think he'll watch this interview I wouldn't have said anything like that if it hadn't happened were you sincere would you have joined NATO listen I asked a question I said is it possible and the answer was no but if he had said yes would you have joined NATO if he said yes then the process of rashman would have uh commenced and it might have happened in the end if there were some sincere wish on the side of our partners but it didn't happen okay think that is just to get to motive I know you're clearly bitter about it um I understand but why do you think the West rebuffed you then why the hostility why did the end of the Cold War not fix the relationship what motivates this from your point of view you said uh that I feel bitter because of that rebuff no that's not bitterness I'm just stating the facts because you know we're not and groom these are not the terms we've got to use in speaking about such uh matters we understood that they were not expecting us there okay we said let's uh build relations in another manner Let's uh look for common ground elsewhere why we got that negative response you should uh ask uh your government I could only guess it we would be too big of a country with its own opinion well I I saw how NATO solves and settles matters just an example I would like to site it applies to Ukraine you know the US says something and all the uh rest just uh tune in and they follow and they wake I'm not going to open any secret to you or say anything new but you know after that conversation we made different attempts at building relations just to set an example you know during the events in the Middle East and Iraq we were building our relations with uh the US in a very prudent cautious Manner and uh I always uh ask the us not to support separatism in the northern caucuses but they still continue with that financial information support even military support and that support was flowing in from the US and from its satellites support towards uh terrorist bans in the northern caucuses I once talk to a colleague of mine a president of the US and I raised that issue and he said uh it's impossible uh he said do you have proof and I said yes I have proof and I gave that proof to him and do you know what his response would be he said I would give him a good thrashing that's what he said kick their ass he said and we were waiting for some uh response uh reply and I asked a colleague from FSB you know to contact his counterpart in the US and we've got the response uh basically from the CIA and the archives and uh the response goes as follow yes we have worked with the opposition forces in Russia and we think it is the right thing to do and we will continue doing that just ridiculous we understood that no serious convers conversation could be of course is in opposition to you so you're saying the CIA is trying to overthrow your government well of course in that particular case what they meant were the separatists the terrorists that were fighting Us in the northern Caucasus that is what uh who they called the opposition that's the second moment uh another one another aspect also very important I'm talking about the uh setting up of the uh us ABM system the very beginning of that we long tried to persuade them to not to do that I got an invitation from Bush Senor uh he uh invited me uh to visit play some and we had a very serious conversation with President Bush with his team so I proposed the following I said the US Russia and Europe should come up with should set up a joint shared ABM system against the threats against our Security even though you know the uh official statement of the us whether the the ABM system they were setting up was against Iran the threat of Iran so I suggested why not join forces together the US Russia and Europe and I got a very interesting response they asked me are you serious ask what year was this well I don't remember uh we can look it up on the internet when uh I was in the US at the invitation of Bush senior and it's easier to to learn uh from someone I'm going to tell you about in SEC uh and they told me yes that is a very interesting prepares L I said just imagine if we can solve this strategic task together the world would change yes we would probably have differences economic differences political differences but we would drastically change the situation the word and they asked me are you serious and I said yes they said we've got uh we need some time to think and I said okay go ahead and then you know at this very uh room where we talking we we got uh former CIA director Gates and also state Secretary rice they sat here opposite from me at this uh table uh we had defense minister foreign minister and the g said yes we we've thought about that but we disagree and twice you've described US presidents making decisions and then being undercut by their agency heads so it sounds like you're describing a system that's not run by the people who are elected in your telling yes exactly so yes they just uh rebuffed us I'm not going to reveal all the details because that was a confidential conversation but our proposal was uh declined it's a fact and I said uh okay listen but in that case we will have to uh come up with a response and we'll have to come up with offensive systems that are able of capable of overcoming your ABM systems and they said uh your systems are not against you you and we'll assume that yours are not against us and we had to come up with the Hypersonic uh uh Hypersonic InterContinental missiles and we continue to develop this technology and we are a head everyone in the world in terms of hypersonic offensive systems and day in day out we are perfecting these systems we proposed that another path should be followed but uh our proposal was rejected now as for the NATO expansion ewards they promised us that they wouldn't move an inch to the east but it was not enshrined paper so there were five waves of expansion and the Baltic states did join and Eastern Europe in general and now I'm uh coming to the cracks of the matter they came to Ukraine in 2008 at the Bucharest Summit a statement was made saying that the uh doors were open to Georgia and Ukraine to join NATO now as far as decisions are made uh in NATO Germany France allegedly were against as some other countries European countries but you know uh President Bush is a very tough guy and as I was told afterward uh I was told that he had exerted pressure on them and they had to acas so it's like in a kindergarten you know where are the guarantees who are they a you know they got under some pressure and they had to agree okay but then they say Ukraine is going to change join NATO and I say I know that you agreed to uh open the doors to Ukraine uh in 2008 there is no guarantee that you're not going to do the same sometime in the future so I don't know whom to talk to over there we are willing to talk but who to whether Are We Gather the guarantees no guarantees at all and they started entering the Ukrainian soil this was the for history about how that territory developed and what relationship they had with Russia each second or third person they had has had ties with Russia so when the elections happened in in the new Sovereign Sovereign Ukraine as a result of the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine that said that Ukraine was a neutral state but all of a sudden in 2008 NATO doors were opened to that so so interesting but we hadn't agreed to that we didn't come to terms on that all presidents that Rose to power in Ukraine relied on voters on the electorate that had a good relationship and a good attitude to Russia the southeast of Ukraine had always had a good attitude to Russia and you know it was very difficult to to dissuade this electorate and Mr yovic Rose to power afterwards there he won the election after kochman and the rerun was organized that was not enshrined in Ukrainian Constitution this was a coup actually C just imagine someone in the United States wouldn't like the outcome no prior to that before so after president kma retired yanukovich won the election but his opponents did not acknowledge his victory and the United States approv back to the opposition and a rerun was held which actually was virtually A Kar and the United States backed that and as a as a result of this rerun like fancy someone doesn't like the outcome of the American election and the rerun happens that is not enshrined in the American Constitution so Victor yino Rose to power in Ukraine he was a pro Western politician well anyway we stablished some working contacts with him he came to visit us and we went to Kiev we uh had meetings informally also well let them be Pro Weston okay let them do what they want they should have their own domestic developments independently you know after he ruled that country things deteriorated there and as a result yanukovich once again came to power he may not have been the best president I'm not sure I would like to give any assessments but you know the matter of the association with the EU was brought up we always were quite loyal on that okay but when we read the draft agreement it turned to be a problem for us cuz us and Ukraine had a free trade area and open Customs borders and Ukraine had according to that Association agreement open their borders to Europe and that would Flo to our Market duy less and then we said we'll close our borders with Ukraine our customs and yanukovich started doing his Reckoning and Counting whether Ukraine will lose or or or gain and is stated to his Ukrainian counter uh people counterparts that had to think and destructive opposition activity began straight away and it ended up with maidan with a K in more train with Russia than with the EU Ukraine did of course of course it's not about the volumes of trade the quantities it's about the cooperation ties that the Ukrainian economy relied upon and those cooperation ties between Enterprises and factories had been there since the Soviet times like an Enterprise would produce components for final assembly both both plants in Ukraine and Russia and there was very close cooperation but the kud happened afterwards it was perpetrated fortunately well I wouldn't like to speak of details but the the the United States said you you calm yovich down and would mify the opposition they said let it drift they said towards a political settlement we said okay we are in agreement with that let it be so and yanukovich checked to apply for armed forces or police while the armed opposition in kave perpetrated a cudar how can I reckon that and assess that who are you I asked the United States backing of whom with the backing of CIA definitely this is an entity that you wanted to become part of thanks goodness he were not accepted those it's a it's a serious entity my ex counterparts I worked in the first office main director of the Soviet intelligence service and they were our opponents well you know this is work well technically they did the right thing they attained what they wanted the outcomes they wanted they changed the power in Ukraine but politically was a blunder a colossal blunder and the political leadership probably should have calculated otherwise and they had they were to have thought what it would lead to in 8 they opened doors of UK of NATO to Ukraine in 2014 A Kar was perpetrated with a help and this was a katar and those who did not recognized this K were persecuted and they had to they created a threat to Crimea and we had to take crime and protectorate they began Warfare in donbas applying artillery and Aviation against civilians in donbas we have the footages with uh fighter jets bombing donet flying over that and they had a major military operation they failed and had another one and another one against the backdrop of military development of that territory of NATO and open doors of NATO so we actually had to express our concerns otherwise it would it would be negligence criminal negligence on our part it would have been criminal negligence because the American leadership political leadership drove us to the borderline that we could not over step and that would destroy Russia and we had to uh support our Creed mates our faith mates what was the so that was eight years before the current conflict started so what was the trigger for you what was the moment where you decided you had to do this well the trigger originally the trigger was the C in Ukraine and representatives of three European nations came then Germany Poland and France and they they acted as guars of the agreement subscribed between yanukovich and the opposition and they put their signatures as guarantees despite that the opposition perpetrated that coup and these countries pretended they they were not the guars they were oblivious and they they uh threw it to the dust bin and I I'm not sure whether there is any knowledge in the United States about the guars and this agreement between opposition and the in yovich government and instead of a political settlement they supported the coup they backed the coup there was no point in that actually believe me because yovich agreed to everything and he was ready for early election and he would not had no chance he stood no chance to succeed to win why then perpetrate this coup and all those victims and why pose a threat to Crimea and launch an operation against donbas I cannot understand that I cannot fancy this is the miscalculation of their and the CIA did its part played its part one of the deputies of secretaries of State said that they spent around5 billion on that but why do do that why have they done that it could have been done legally legitimately and without the loss of Crimea for them and we wouldn't stir a finger we wouldn't have stirred a finger had there not happened the developments the bloody developments on maidan we back then agreed that after the collapse of the US the borders would be as as as great as but we never agreed to an expansion of NATO or that Ukraine would become part of NATO we never ConEd and accepted that there would be NATO military bases there without any talks with us we kept begging for decades don't do this don't do that this actually acted as a trigger to the recent development and with respect to the recent development the leadership of Ukraine stated they would not abide by the Minsk Accords that were signed after the developments of 2014 in Minsk with a plan laid out for peaceful settlement in donbas and the Ukrainian today's Ukraine Ukrainian leadership their foreign minister and other officials and the president said they didn't like a thing about the Minsk package of measures and they would not stick to them and the former leaders of France and Germany said that around a year ago said in public worldwide that they had signed that agreement but they had not been going to execute to fulfill that you know they pulled our leg was there anyone for you to talk to did you call a US president secretary of state and say if you keep militarizing Ukraine with NATO forces this is going to get this is going to be a we're going to act we kept telling them that we kept telling them that we addressed the American leadership and the European leaders claiming that it be stopped immediately and the Minsk uh Accords were to be executed was our requirement our demand I was ready to fulfill to honor this is not uh an easy thing for Ukraine with lots of aut me for donbas but I was positive it was my sincere believe that if we would persuade those people living in donbas to come back to the Ukrainian statehood and they had to be persuaded the wounds would heal I I I was sure and sooner or later gradually that part of Ukrainian territory would fit back into the overall frame of reference of Ukraine and pensions and allowances would be paid once again but no one wanted that in Ukraine they wanted to act with the help of military force only and it ended up with this situation and they stated in Ukraine they would would not fulfill the package of measures and they started the war back in 2014 and our G goal our aim is to stop this war we did not begin we didn't launch it back in 2014 we're now trying to stop that I mean have you achieved your aims uh no at this point of time we have not because one of the goals is the densification to densify Ukraine I mean the prohibition of Neo-Nazi movements in Ukraine this is one of the issues that we discussed that was brought up during negotiations in Istanbul last year at the outset of last year Upon Our initiative it was concluded as the Europeans told us that the context had to be established and provided for the final definitive signature of documents and my colleagues in France and Germany told me just imagine how can they how are they going to uh to sign this at gunpoint you should move your troops pull your troops back from cave as soon as we pulled our troops back from the kave region all of a sudden straight away our Ukrainian uh counterparts are negotiators threw all their Accords and wasted them uh into the Dustbin and they got ready for a long standing standoff and opposition military opposition with the help of the United States this is how things develop what is densification what would that mean well I'm coming to that it is a very important question a pertinent dentification after the start of its independence after they obtained the independence Ukraine started looking for its identity and it could not invent anything better than boting ahead of anything else you know the fake The Falls Heroes that collaborated with Hitler I have already said that in early 19th century the theorists of a future prospective Ukrainian Independence appeared they assumed that an independent Ukraine should was to have a good relationship with Russia but in the course of historical development and those territories were part of Poland ukrainians were persecuted and this identity was pressed upon the crack down upon and that all remained in in uh in people's memory and when World War II began part of that far right or far nationalist Elite began to collaborate with Hitler thinking that Hitler would bring them freedom and the German troops the SS troops did the filf part of the job to eliminate Poes and Jews and they they did it with the hands of the collaborators of those collaborators and that Massacre of the Poes and the Jews of Russians happened as a result it was led by Bandera shushkevich and other characters well known and those people are now presented as national heroes and they kept telling everybody you know nationalism is existent in other countries there are sprouts definitely but you know they're trumbl trampled upon in many countries not but not in Ukraine they're in Ukraine they're converted in National Heroes they're turned in national heroes and monuments are erected to them they are put on banners and their names are chanted by the torch processions across the country but those had annihilated eliminated exterminated Poes and Russians and Jews and probably this glorification should come to an end any any Nation you know I'm telling I'm saying that they're part of Russian people they're saying that we're separate nation if they believe to be a separate nation they have a right to think so not all however building upon the Nazi ideology like look at the French pres be satisfied with the territory that you have now let me conclude the pr thought you asked me about neonazism and denazification so like the Ukrainian president came to visit Canada it is well known but is hush in the west and uh they introduced a person to the Canadian Parliament and that person as the speaker of the Canadian Parliament said that this person waged Warfare against Russians during World War II and who were those who waged war against Russians Hitler and his collaborators and it turned out that he was part of the SS troops he personally killed and slaughtered the Russians and the poles uh and the SS troops made out of Ukrainian nationalists did the dirty and filthy job and the Ukrainian president trose together with the rest of parliament of Canada and he applauded this person how can you imagine how can you fancy that and he he's a Jew by by by really my question is what do you do about it I mean Hitler's been dead for 80 years Nazi Germany no longer exists and so true and so I think what you're saying is you want to extinguish or at least control Ukrainian nationalism but how how do you do that just listen to me your question is very intricate may may I think my uh I think speak up and say my true opinion will you not take offense of course it is a tricky but a NY question you you've been saying that gitler is gone for 80 years but actually his cause is with us and the people that exterminated Jews Poes and Russians are still alive and a president the current president of of today's Ukraine gives this person Round of Applause in Canadian Parliament a standing evasion can we say that we eradicated this ideology Al together if we see such manifestations today this is what I mean to be Den nazification we should get R of these people that that bring this practice and Theory to life trying to preserve that this is what dentification is about right my question was a little more specific it was of course not a defense of Nazis new or otherwise it was a practical question you don't control the entire country you don't control Kev you don't seem like you want to so how how do you eliminate a culture or an ideology or a Feeling r view of history in a country that you don't control what do you do about that I was well you know strange as it may seem to you during the talks in Istanbul we did come to an agreement and you know everything was put on paper uh saying like statements that uh no Nazism neonazism would be cultivated in Ukraine that it would be prohibited at the legislative level so we did come to an agreement on this subject and this can be achieved through talks and there's nothing humiliating in that to Ukraine as a modern civilized state does any country have the right to propagate Nazism no that's it um will there be talks and why haven't there been talks about resolving the conflict in Ukraine peace talks well these talks did happen and they did reach a very high point of uh according our positions uh it had been difficult but these talks were almost finished but once we withdrew our trips troops from ke the other side namely Ukraine simply discarded all the agreements that had been achieved and uh it ordered an agreement uh following the orders of the US and the Western countries to fight Russia until Victory moreover the Ukrainian president introduced a legislative ban on having negotiations with Russia he signed a decree that bans anyone from having talks with Russia how can they have talks if he prohibited himself from doing that and the rest as well yes we do know that there are some ideas with regard to this settlement but in order to come to an agreement you need to have dialogue right well but you wouldn't be speaking to the Ukrainian president you'd be speaking to the American president when was the last time you spoke to Joe Biden well I I don't remember well we could look at look at this up well why do I have to remember everything you know I've got many things to attend to well he's funding the war that you're fighting so I would think that would be memorable well yes he does fund that when did that happen the last time I spoke to him was before the beginning of the special military operation incidentally I'm not going to go into details but back then I told him I said I think you're making a his a mistake of historical proportions in supporting what is currently happening over there I I told him that and I had said that to him on multiple occasions what did he say well you you should ask him please it's easier for you because you are citizen of the US you can go there and you know ask him I think it would be wrong improper for me since before February of 2022 no we haven't spoken we do have some contact incidentally you remember I told you about my proposal on working together on setting up a joint ABM system well you can ask all of them because all of them luckily are very healthy and all alive and the former president and Kisa and Mr Gates I think and the director of CIA Mr Burns back then he was Ambassador to Russia and I think he was very successful at what he was doing and they were all witnesses to these conversations you can ask them and if you're interested in to know what President Biden responded to my words you should ask him I'm I'm I'm definitely interested but from the outside it seems like this could devolve or evolve into something that brings the entire world into conflict and could um initiate some a nuclear launch and so why don't you just call Biden and say let's work this how solve this how sove what because everything actually is very simple we've got contacts at the level of different agencies and you know I'm going to tell you what we're trying to uh what kinds of signals we are uh sending to them and I what we are saying is if you want this over you have to stop uh the supplies of weaponry and everything is g to end in uh several weeks and then we can uh agree on the terms it's as easy as that so no need to call for that asking them for for that for what because uh yes they are going to supply this and this Weaponry to Ukraine uh and well we're not afraid okay do that do you think NATO is worried about this becoming a global war or a nuclear conflict well uh anyway they're talking about that and they're trying to intimidate their own population using an alleged made up Russian threat and still thinking people an analysts those who work and politics understand full well that this threat is uh simply fabricated they're trying to fuel the Russ you're referring to is a Russian invasion of Poland lvia expansionist behavior is can you imagine a scenario where you sent Russian troops to Poland and only one case if Poland decides if it invades Russia because we have no interests in Poland or in ltia so why do that we have no interests only threats well the argument I know you know this is that well he invaded Ukraine he has territorial aims across the continent and you're saying unequivocally you don't Absolut Abol absolutely no uh I rule this possibility out you don't have to be an analyst because that goes against common sense you know to get involved in a global war because a global war would push Humanity as a whole to the brink of Extinction yes there are means of deterrence that's true you know they were making threats saying that Russia would use tactical nuclear weapons tomorrow or the day after tomorrow but these are well you know it's just like a boogeyman for Rank and file citizens to make the US taxpayers the European taxpayers uh you know to uh pay up for military action in Ukraine and their goal is to weaken Russia as fully as possible one of uh our senior United States senators from the state of New York Chuck Schumer said yesterday believe that we have to continue to fund the Ukrainian effort or US soldiers citizens could wind up fighting there how do you assess that I think it's provocation and a cheap one to boot I don't understand why American soldiers would have to fight you know there are mercenaries from the US in Ukraine uh the biggest number from mercenaries comes from perland and then the us if someone wants to dispatch regular troops to Ukraine then that would no doubt put Humanity on the brink of a very serious global conflict does the US need that why F someone thousands of kilometers from your National territ don't you have other things to look into I think there are issues on the border issues with migration with external public D you know like to the Gen of more than 30 trillion us doar there are other things to do isn't it better to come to an agreement with Russia given the current developments given that you understand that Russia is going to fight for its national interests until the very end so this should compel us to get back to Common Sense to have respect for our country for our interests and to search for Solutions I think this would be far smarter and far more sensible who blew up nordstream you did I was busy that day n do you do uh I did not P up nor stream uh thank you though well personally you might have an alibi but Cia doesn't have one do you have evidence that NATO or CIA did it well you know I'm not going to go into detail but as they say you know you've got to search for someone who had interest in that and in this particular case you don't have you have to search not just for someone who is interested in that but also uh someone who has the capabilities because there are many people who are interested in that but you know not everyone is capable of scouring the bottom of the Baltic Sea but I'm confused I mean that's the biggest Act of industrial terrorism ever and it's the largest emission of CO2 in in history okay so if you had evidence and presumably given your Security Services your Intel Services you would that NATO the US CIA the West did this why wouldn't you present it and win a propaganda Victory well it's very difficult you know to achieve a propaganda Victory because the US controls all the global media and as far as many Europeans European media are concerned the and beneficiary in many cases are American Funds foundations so you know so you know getting m in that well this is one Avenue to pursue but you know it can uh turn out to be very expensive and moreover we might reveal our own sources of information without securing the end result the whole world understands what happened and even the American analysts speak about that publicly but but here's a question you may able to answer you worked in Germany famously um the Germans clearly know that their NATO partner did this but they and damage their economy greatly it may never recover why are they being silent about it that's very confusing to me why wouldn't the Germans say something about it well as confused as you are but the current German leadership is not Guided by national interests what it's Guided by is the interests of the collective West otherwise it would be very difficult to explain the rationale for their action or a mission to act well yes northstream one was uh blown up northstream two has been damaged but one of the strings is still very much alive and you can get gas through this uh line but they're not getting that we are willing to do that but they're not asking for that there is another route via Poland and Poland has shut that but uh Poland is eating from the hands of Germans they're taking money from the European funds whereas the biggest donor to those funds is Germany but uh Poland has shut down the pipeline leading to Germany why did they do that I do not understand or let's have a look at Ukraine Germany is the second biggest donor after the US in terms of financial Aid provided to Ukraine through Ukraine there are two gas pipelines so why wouldn't they take one of the gas pipelines they could ask Ukraine to open uh that up and they would get gas from uh Russia so U the Germans are giving them money giving them weapons so they could ask for gas from Russia and response because otherwise they have to pay triple price for LG and brings down the competitivness of the German economy and they they given money to Ukraine and they could ask in recompense you know to for some economic support like gas so you should ask them why they're doing what they're doing these are incompetent people maybe the world is breaking into two hemispheres one with cheap energy the other without and I want to ask you that if if we're now a multi-polar world obviously we are can you describe the blocks of alliances who who is in each side do you think well you are saying the word is being split into two hemispheres it's our brain that is divided into hemispheres one hemisphere is responsible for one uh field of action the other is more creative but still it's one brain it's one head and the world should be one should be United Security should be together should be common shared it shouldn't be security just for the golden billion and only if it's uh one world then the world is going to be predictable and stable and as long as the head is split into two it's a disease and a grave one too and right now the world is suffering from this grave disease but I think to a large extent thanks to sincere and honest journalism will be able to overcome that disease well let's just give one example the the US dollar which has kind of United the world uh in a lot of ways maybe not to your advantage but certainly to ours is that going away as the reserved currency the the com the universally accepted currency how have sanctions do you think changed the Dollar's place in the world think this is one of the uh gravest strategic mistakes committed by the US leadership you know using the US dollar as an instrument for foreign political confrontation because dollar was the Cornerstone of American prosperity and power and everyone understands and understood that because however many dollars you've printed they go around the world inflation is at a minimum I don't know 3% so 4% which is an acceptable level for the US and you can print as many US dollars as you like you know because the public debt of the US is testimony to that but be that as it may dollar is still the Cornerstone of American power across the world but once the US leadership decided to use the US dollar as an instrument for foreign policy confrontation once they did that they dealt a blow to the American power I would be Lo to you know uh use uh for letter words that are improper but it is a very grave mistake look uh even the American Allies uh do decree their dollar reserves they are starting to search for ways to Shield themselves because if the US applies restrictive measures to certain countries such as uh you know freezing assets or restrictions on uh transactions then it is a very grave uh signal to the whole world what did happen in Russia until 2022 around 80% 80% of uh Russian foreign trade transactions were carried out in US Dollars and US dollar accounted for about 50% of our transactions with third countries whereas currently this figure has been brought down to 133% or so but we were not the ones to prohibit the use of US Dollars this was not our goal it was the US decision to restrict our transactions in dollars which is absurd especially from the point of view of the interest of the US tax space because this decision has dealt a blow to the American economy undermining the American power across the world incidentally our transactions in U accounted just for 3% right now uh We've uh up to 30% in transactions in Rubles and 34% in yuan in reding B so why did the US do that I think it's self-c concede they thought that the Russian economy would collapse but it didn't moreover look at the other oil developing oil producing countries they are doing the same thing they are following our suit they start to pay for oil in ren do they understand what they're doing in the US what are they doing you know it's like undermine their their own Prosperity here ask anyone uh who is the thinking person in the US I think that's a I I think that's a fair assessment the question is what comes next and maybe you trade one colonial power for another much less sentimental and forgiving colonial power I mean are is the the bricks for example in danger of being completely dominated by the Chinese the Chinese economy uh in a way that's not good for their sovereignty do you worry about that you know these spooky stories we've heard them before Bo stories China and us our neighbors you know you cannot choose neighbors or relatives we share a border with them 1,000 kilm this is number one number two we're used to one another we've been around for centuries in terms of our coexistence third the Foreign Affairs philosophy of China is not aggressive their main tenants are about uh searching for compromise for a tradeoff and we can see that the next point is as follows and I try to lay it out mildly in mild language we said that the volume of cooperation and trade with China keeps growing while the pace of the growth of China's cooperation with Europe is higher outpacing uh the cooperation with Russia just ask the Europeans are they not afraid of being exposed to China they might be but you know anyway they want to enter the Chinese market when they face the economic issues now they're facing economic issues now in the Chinese Enterprises and companies are tapping into the European market and there a lot of Chinese entrepreneurs and businesses in the US well the policies are to the effect of confining they are damaging themselves actually trying to confine limit cooperation with China you're damaging your economy this is a very intricate matter and there can be no Silver Bullet Solutions as also regards the dollar well with respect to the legitimate from the perspective of the and chter sanctions one should have a second thought whether to make such decisions or not so you said a moment ago that the world would be a lot better if it weren't broken into competing alliances if there was cooperation globally one of the reasons you don't have that is because the current American Administration is dead set against you do you think if there were a new Administration after Joe Biden that you would be able to reestablish communication with the US government or does it not matter who the president is let me finish the previous thought we have 200 million billion dollars this is the uh Target of uh myself and my friend that of my friends s Jinping the president of China we want to reach $200 billion do of mutual trade and we have smashed that we have exceeded that we have around 230 billion dollars of of bilateral trade and the Chinese statistics say that it's around $40 billion dollar and what is important is that is a well balanced type of mutual trade mutually mutually complimentary in energy and scientific Solutions and technological solutions and other things it's well balanced in an equilibrium with respect to Bricks by and large Russia has assumed the presidency there since the start of the year and you know bricks countries our Powerhouse economy is rapidly developing oh I hope my memory wouldn't let me down in 1992 the G7 country's proportion global economy equaled around 47% in 1992 in 2022 it slumped down to 30 something per. while the bricks sh was 16% in 1992 now it is an excess of the G7 share in global economy and that has nothing to do with Ukrainian developments the global Trends manifest themselves in this way this is inevitable this will keep happening it's like the rise of the sun you cannot prevent the Sun from rising you have to accommodate and adjust the United how does the United State accommodate that with help of force I pressure bombings Armed Forces applied everywhere this is about conce your political Elite does not understand that the world has been changing and it is an objective process a natural process and you have to make proper decisions timely decisions to preserve its uh level of dominance and such gross actions would lead to the opposite results this is obvious today you've just asked me whether another Administration in the US would change things it's not about the leader the personality or administration had a very good relationship with George Bush and I know that in state in the United States He is treated as a simple Countryside guy that has little idea of things but it's not true and with respects to Russia he did a lot of mistakes also I told you about the Bucharest Summit of NATO in O8 to open doors to Ukraine but you know it was under Bush and he put pressure on the Europeans but actually I had a good personal relationship with them interpersonal and he was no worse than any other American or Russian or european politician he knew what he was doing as well as other people I had a good relationship with Donald Trump it's not about the personality of the lead it's about the sentiment of the leads if the American society has the prevalence of domination at all costs with the help of resorting to force things will deteriorate keep deteriorating but if they come to a conclusion they come to INF world is changing and it is a natural process that cannot be um helped they have to adjust themselves using the advantage that the UN American uh Nation still has in this case something will change for the better the Chinese economy has become number one by PPP they have outpaced the in volumes and then uh there is India 1.5 billion people living there then comes to Japan fourth and Russia is fifth Global largest economy last year it became the largest economy in Europe despite all the restrictions and sanctions do you think it is natural a lot of sanctions are exerted against us we have been disconnected from Swift transaction system and our ships are under sanctions are uh vessels oil carrying vessels and aircraft Wells the biggest number of sanctions in the world is applied against this country and we have become the biggest economy of Europe over that period of time the instruments and the policies of the United States are ineffective so they should think what to do if they come to to understand that I mean the elites the ruling classes things will improve and and the the leader of the country will probably act in the interests of the voters and the decision makers at different levels but you're describing two different systems you say the the leader acts in the interest of the voters but you also say these decisions are not made by the leader they're made by the ruling classes you've run this country for so long you've known all these American Presidents what are those power centers in the United States do you think like who actually makes the decisions I don't know America is a very complex system on the one hand it's conservative on the other hand it is it has been changing rapidly and it is uh hard to have an idea an exact idea of what is happening and each state has its own legislation each state has its own regulation and they can bar people from candidates from elections and they have the two stage two tier electoral system it is very hard to to to know it for to know it quite well there are two main parties dominating parties the bipartisan system and you know there is the decision- making Center but anyway look after the collapse of the USSR there was an erronous unfounded policy against Russia the policy of pressure uh NATO expansion means and the backing of separatists in the caucuses and the ABM the missile defense system establishment is also about pressure then Ukraine was dragged into NATO it is also an element of pressure why so because excessive production capabilities were created lots of think tanks and centers and Soviet studies professionals that knew no other thing and they persuaded the political leadership that they should keep pressing Russia mounting pressure to partition Russia with several quasi uh States on its territory so that their aggregate potential and capability would be used for further struggle with China this is a mistake um because there have been too too many too many professionals dealing with the opposition to the USSR probably there there is Need for new fresh blood en forces and people that are forward looking and know what is happening worldwide look at Indonesia 600 million people a huge population that you have that you cannot turn a blind eyeon and Indonesia is now entering the club of the leading economies and despite all economic problems the US has a good economic situation and the growth rate is around 2.5% if I'm not mistaken but actually if you want to provide for a good future you have to change the approach to what has been happening the world will will anyway change irrespective of what is the outcome of the Ukrainian situation the world has been changed and you know the pundits and experts in the US start writing that gradually the United States changes its policies to the world but whether it's abrupt quick and painful or smooth and gradual this is the question and this these are the the ideas of people that are not anti-American in nature that just they are looking and tracking the global developments and you know we need and to have more forward-looking people that can analyze things and recommend uh something to the political leadership I just have to ask you've said clearly that NATO expansion Eastward is a violation of the promise you all were made in 1990 it it's a threat to your country right before you send troops into Ukraine the vice president of the United States went to the Munich security conference and encouraged the president of Ukraine to join NATO do you think that was an effort to provoke you into military action well we repeatedly on many occasions suggested the decisions to the problems that emerged in Ukraine after the coup in 2014 should be found with peaceful means but no one listened to us but the Ukrainian leadership that was under the Ukrainian the American control stated all of a sudden that they would not honor the Minsk Arrangements they didn't like a thing about that and they kept waging Warfare in that territory and the NATO military structures you know tapped into the Ukrainian soil with tring centers and military bases established under these guys and in Ukraine they proclaimed that the Russians are not an original Nation not an authentic nation and they enacted laws that would limit the rights of the ethnic Russian and Russian speakers Ukraine received the southeast as a gift from Russia but all of a sudden they stated that Russians were not an authentic ethnicity there in their totality all these things brought about the desire to stop the war launched by the neo-nazis in 2014 in Ukraine with use of force do you think zilinsky has the freedom to negotiate a settlement to this conflict I do not know the details I can hardly judge but I probably think he he he has or he father was at war against the Nazis in the Second World War I spoke with him once about that I told him let why are you supporting the neonnazi in Ukraine today when your father fought them it was the front line I would Soldier I would not respond what he wouldn't say what he responded it would be inappropriate but but you know with with respect to Liberty and freedom well of his he rose to power on the well with the help of the Ukrainian expectations that he would bring peace to Ukraine this is why he had a landslide Victory but when he rose to power he figured that probably it would be better not to quarrel with the neo-nazis and nationalists because they are aggressive and you can expect anything they lose can and the second point is that the West will keep supporting those who are against Russia always because it's beneficial so this is why he adopted this position despite the previous uh promises and pledges to his people to stop the war in Ukraine so he deceived his own voters but do you think at this point as of February 2024 he has the latitude the freedom to speak with you or your government directly about putting an end to this which clearly isn't helping his country or the world can he do that do you think why not well he believes himself to be head of state he won the election although we believe that Al those things that happened after 2014 originated from the kar and today's authorities are flawed deficient and you know he believes himself to the president and the United States and Europe recognize him and acknowledge his status well we had talks with Ukraine in stul and we nearly came to terms and he knew about that and Mr Rami who led the negotiating team of Ukraine still is head of Ukraine's ruling party faction in in in their Parliament so he still is head of that presidential faction so he's still an MP and he subscribed the preliminary uh instrument in Istanbul and publicly later he said that we were ready to sign it but uh Mr Johnson the then prime minister of the UK came and dissuaded us to do so saying that better go to war with Russia and we they would give us anything in everything so that we would return all the lands were lost he said and and they agreed uh he said his statement was made public he said it publicly and openly can they come back to that or not do they want it or not and afterwards the Ukrainian President issued a decree prohibiting to to negotiate with us let him let him strike it down let him repeal that decree whether Russia is ready we hear these questions but would not decline to talk let him abandon and repeal this decree and the fact that they obeyed the um persuasion of the former UK prime minister Johnson is ridiculous and very sad I think altogether as Mr Aram said a year and a half ago we could stop the Warfare but actually the British persuaded us not to do so and we and we turned it down where is Mr Johnson now and the war is Ono that's a good question where do you think he is and why did he do that hell knows this was a mainstream idea everybody had was delusioned that Russia could be defeated at the battlefield this was about uh self assurance seat and uh uh very few reason very little reason this was with with a with a whole heart but with little reasoning you've described the connection between Russia and Ukraine you've described Russia itself a couple of times as Orthodox that's Central to your understanding of Russia you've said you're Orthodox what does that mean in for you you're a Christian Leader by your own description so what effect does that have on you well you know as I mentioned previously in 988 Prince Vladimir underwent baptism as his grandmother Olga had done and then his armed troops also got converted and then other Russians converted into Orthodox Christianity it took some time and then it uh put some Roots very deep roots in the minds of Russian people when Russia expanded taking other nations and peoples professing Judaism Islam Buddhism Russia was always very loyal to those who followed other religions and this was the source of Russia's power there's no doubt about that all world religions I have mentioned and which are also traditional religions of the Russian federations have uh almost the same precepts the values in these world religions are very close if not identical and the Russian authorities have always cherished the uh culture and the religions of peoples admitted into the field of the Russian state which served as the Cornerstone of security and stability of the Russian Nation the Russian people because all peoples almost all peoples living here view Russia as their motherland say if there are people coming to the US from Latin America or there are migrants coming into Europe very often they come from their historical land to you to European countries whereas those who profess other religions than Orthodox Christianity in Russia still view Russia as their motherland we are all one big family and our Traditional Values are very close I said this is one big family but each family also includes other smaller families and this is the basic Foundation of our society and if the family has tight need connections then that is exactly the case because you cannot assure a normal future for your children unless you ensure a normal future for the whole country can I can I say the one way in which the religions are different is that Christianity is specifically a non-violent religion Jesus says turn the other cheek don't kill how can a leader who has to kill of any country how can a leader be a Christian how do you reconcile that to yourself well it's easier to reconcile if you need to protect yourself your family your country we have not attacked anyone what was the starting point of the developments in Ukraine the starting point was the the kud as well as the flare up of violence in donbas and we are protecting ourselves our people our country and our future as far as religion in general is concerned the thing is it does not manifest mostly externally it's not just about going to church every day and kneeling to the ground religion resides within your heart this is our culture it's very human oriented you know dovi is very well known in the west as a genius of the Russian culture and the Russian literature and he spoke about that a lot he spoke about the Russian Soul the thing is Western Society is more pragmatic whereas a Russian person a Russian is more concerned about eternal things moral things values maybe you'll disagree with me but I think Western culture is more pragmatic I'm not saying this is a bad thing this is what gives the golden billion uh the uh chance to uh show some very good achievements in Practical terms and science the thing is we look the same but our conscience our mind said are somewhat different so so do you see the supernatural at work as you look out across what's happening in the world now do you see God at work do you ever think to yourself these are forces that are not human no honestly I don't think that I think the world Community is developing following the inherent laws and these laws are what they are and there's no escaping that it was always like that in Mankind's history some countries Rose some peoples got bigger got stronger and then they left the international stage losing the quality they had been accustomed to well let's look at jisan or the golden horde and the conquerors or let's remember the Roman Empire you know you might think that there was nothing greater than Ro Roman history and uh uh the history of mankind but then the barbarians got stronger got more numerous and Rome fell head start their economy started to grow stronger and the regime osed by the Roman Empire fell apart but it took five centuries the Roman Empire had been disintegrating for five centuries the difference from the current state of affairs consists in the fact that right now the developments are far more rapid than they used to be during the Roman times so when does the AI Empire start do you think you are asking increasingly more complicated questions in order to respond to this question you would need to be an expert in big numbers and big data mean AI the thing is humanity is facing a lot of threats uh and uh terms of genetics for instance because right now geneticists can go as far as to you know create a specialized human being like an athlete or a genetically engineered military man do you know and a chip has been incorporated into the brain by musk well I think uh there's no stopping Ilan musk he's going to do what he thinks he needs to do but you need I don't know to find some common ground with him you have to search for ways to persuade him I think he's a smart person and you've got to you know come to an agreement come to terms with him this process needs to be formalized and subjected to certain rules Humanity has to give them thought to what's going to happen to humanity due to the uh new developments in genetics or in AI you can forecast what's going to happen in a more or less accurate fashion but once Humanity felt an existential threat coming from nuclear weapons back then all countries who possess such weapons decided to come to terms with one another because they understood that nuclear weaponry could drive Humanity to Extinction so once an understanding comes that unbridled development of AI or genetics or other fields which cannot be stemmed you know you can't stop them research is going to continue as it was impossible to you know prevent powder from being used and once Humanity understands that this the threat comes from these fields then the time will come to come to an agreement on an interstate basis intergovernmental basis on how to regulate these fields I I appreciate all the time you've given us I just got to ask you one last question and that's about someone who's very famous in the United States probably not here Evan gersovitz who's the Wall Street Journal reporter he's 32 um and he's been imprisoned for almost a year uh this is a huge story in the United States and I just want to ask you directly without getting into the tales of it or your version of what happened if as a sign of your decency you would be willing to release him to us and we'll bring him back to the United States well done so many gestures of Goodwill out of decency that I think we've run out of them because we've never seen anyone reciprocate to us in a similar manner but on the whole we are willing to talk we do not rule out that we can do that if there is a movement to accommodate us on the other side and when I talk about the partners I'm talking about our special services and the special services are in contact with one another they are talking about this subject there is no taboo on discussing this issue it can be solved and we're willing to solve it but there are certain terms that need to met that I discussed via special services channels I think an agreement can be reached so typically I mean this stuff has happened for obviously centuries one country catches another spy within its borders it trades it for one of its own Intel guys in another country I think what makes and it's not my business but what makes this difference is the guy's obviously not a spy he's a kid and maybe he was breaking your law in some way but he's not a super spy and everybody knows that and he's being held hostage in exchange which is true with respect it's true and everyone knows it's true so maybe he's in a different category maybe it's not fair to ask for you know somebody else in exchange for letting him out maybe it degrades Russia to do that well you can uh give different interpretations to what constitu as spy but there are some uh things under law if a person gets some Secret does that confidentially then that is qualified as Espionage and that is precisely what he was doing he was receiving some confidential information he uh getting that information in secret maybe had been uh implicated in that maybe he did that out of his own Val or due to carelessness but as facts stand this is qualified under law as Espionage and he was called red-handed when he was receiving that information and it's been proven so you know if it had been some farfetched excuse something some fabrication then it would have been a different story but he was called red handed when he was getting in secing some confidential information but are you suggesting he was working for the US government or NATO or he was just a reporter who was given material he wasn't supposed to have those seem like very different very different things I don't know who was he was working for but I would like to reiterate that getting confidential information in secret is quote Espionage maybe he might have worked under the banner of American special services I don't think he was working for Monaco even though Monaco might be interested in getting that information but it's up to the special services to come to an agreement and some groundwork has been laid there are people who in our view are not uh tied to special services you know there is a person serving a sentence uh in an ally country well in a country that is an ally of the us and that person due to patriotic sentiment uh eliminated some bandits in one of the European during uh the developments of the caucuses do you know what he was doing I don't want to say that but I'll do that anyway he was laying our soldiers taken prisoner on the road and then he drove his car over their heads what kind of a person is that do you think that's a human being and um you know a patriot decided to eliminate that beast and one of the European countries he did that at his own Val not well that is a different question yeah but that I mean that's a completely different I mean I mean this a 32y old like newspaper reporter he's not just a journalist he's a journalist who was getting confidential information in secret yes that's different but still I'm telling you about other people who are basically controlled by the US authorities wherever they are serving a prison sentence and there is an ongoing dialogue among the special services and this has to be done in a calm responsible professional manner the contacts are ongoing so let them do their work I do not rule out that the person you've uh referred to can go back to his country Mr gich more however it would be senseless to keep him in prison in Russia but we want our counterparts the special services in the US should also think about uh helping our special services and achieving their goals so we are willing to talk moreover these talks are continuing and there were many successful examples of these talks crown with success and maybe this is going to be crowned with success as well but we have to come to an agreement I hope you let him out Mr President thank you I also want him to go home and I'm absolutely sincere with you but let me say once again the dialogue continues the more public we render things of this nature the more difficult it becomes to resolve them I wonder if that's I wonder if that's true with with the war though also I mean I just want to I guess I want to ask one more question which is and maybe you don't want to say so for strategic reasons but are you worried that what's happening in Ukraine could lead to something much larger and much more horrible and how motivated are you just to call the US government and say let's come to terms well listen I think I said that we do refuse to talk to negotiate we're willing to do that it's the western side you know and Ukraine is a satellite uh country for the US it's evident you know I don't want to you to take that as a swear word no but we understand that that is what is happening you know the financial support is there it's enormous Germany is following suit does thousand of billions of US dollars are fueled into Ukraine there is a huge influx of arms of weapons so you should tell the current Ukrainian leadership well let's stop let's sit at the negotiating table resin this absurd decree sure but you already said it I didn't think you meant it as an insult because you already said correctly it's been reported that Ukraine was prevented from negotiating a peace settlement by the former British prime minister acting on behalf of the Biden Administration so of course there a satellite big countries control small countries that's not new and that's why I asked about dealing directly with the Biden Administration which is making these decisions not president zinsky of Ukraine well if uh zy Administration in Ukraine refuses to talk then I think uh they've got uh the instructions from Washington that's what I well uh you should explain to Washington that this is not the right uh pretext they have to you know come up with some explanation which is not going to uh insult anyone so it was not our decision it was their decision and they sub to them to re that decision to go back on it they took the wrong decision so uh why we are the ones to uh find out a way out we don't need you know to correct their mistakes if it's their mistake they have to correct it themselves so I just want to make sure I'm not misunderstanding what you're saying I don't think that I am I think you're saying you want a negotiated settlement to what's happening in Ukraine right and we were there there was a very huge document which we prepared in Ean and it was initial by the head of the Ukrainian delegation he opposed his signature to the document and we published some of the provisions he put his signature and he said they were willing to sign it and the war would have been over 18 months ago but prime minister Johnson came and he dissuaded us and we lost that missed that chance yes it's a mistake but let them get back to that is as simple as that why do we need to bother ourselves and correct other others mistakes well yes you can say that uh this might have been our mistake that we have decided to escalate and use uh weapons arms you know to to put an end to the war that started back in 2014 but let me get you back further to history I told you let's get back to 1991 when a promise was given to us not to expand NATO let's get back to 2008 when the doors were open to Nato or let's get back to the Ukrainian Declaration of Independence that proclaimed it as a neutral state or let's get back to the developments when uh American and British bases started to be set up in Ukraine or let's get back to 2014 the kud you know but it's sensless you can go back to history and go to and fro at infinitum uh it's a mistake yes but let them correct that and we are willing to talk do you think it's too humiliating at this point for NATO to accept Russian control of what was two years ago Ukrainian territory well I said that let them think how to uh come out of this in a dignified manner if uh the will is there up until now there's been a lot of talk about the need to secure a strategic defeat on the battlefield against Russia right now they're coming to realize that it's impossible I think it's impossible it's never going to happen inherently and I think they're coming to realize that I mean those who control powers in the west and once the realization has set in they have to think about that and we're willing to talk moreover would you be willing to say congratulations NATO you won and just keep the situation where it is now well this is a matter for talks for negotiation and no one is willing to talk about that with us well maybe they want talks and I know they do want it's not just I see that I know the will is there but they don't know how to go about that they've driven the situation to the point where we are at and we're not the ones to have done that it's our partners our counterparts okay it happened but they have to think about how to reverse the situation but maybe we shouldn't say that on camera you know it would be funny if it were not so sad you know and this incessant mobilization in Ukraine the hysteria you know the domestic problems they've been plunged into sooner or later we'll come to an agreement I know it might sound bizarre in the current situation but be that as it may the relations between the two peoples will be rebuilt it'll take a lot of time but they will heal and there are you know some examples to side an example the Ukrainian soldiers were in circled I'm just drawing this example from real life our soldiers were shouting to them there's no chance uh surrender yourselves and uh you'll go out alive and they are shouting speaking perfect Russians uh perfect Russians saying Russians do not surrender you know from the Ukrainian so what is happening currently to a certain extent is an element of Civil War and everyone in the west think that the hostilities have uh driven a wedge into these two Nations splitting them apart forever but it's not going to happen they will get back together what are the Ukrainian authorities dismantling the Ukrainian orthodox church because it brings together not just the territory it brings together our souls and hearts and no one will be able to separate that so shall we uh end here or is there anything else no I think that's great you thank you Mr President you thank you

Channel: kremlin

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Id: hYfByTcY49k

Length: 125min 42sec (7542 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 09 2024