Putin and the Presidents: Yevgenia Albats (interview) | FRONTLINE

so I will go back but before I do I want to ask you one question about more recent times and that's the speech that Putin gives in February 24th as he's launching the war he calls it a special military operation and the speech is known as the Empire of Lies speech because he talked about the west and he talked specifically about America when he's invading Ukraine what does that reveal that he's launching this Invasion and he spends the first third or more talking about the United States I think uh Putin's speech on February 24th as many before and some after reveal one on the same mindset it is that the United States of America as it was in the Soviet times and remains in the current uh Russia is the Enemy Number One it is written in the sort of you know in the Russian national security Doctrine all our nukes are first and foremost oriented towards the United States that that was the policy adopted back in the Soviet times then for a while you know in the late years of pistroika and the early yetson's time when Russia became an independent state and sort of proclaimed of going on the road of democracy uh United States became a Russian friend uh Russia was deeply Dependable upon help from the side of the United States however the minute KGB was back in power or you can call them FSB whatever you like um the idea that uh United States is trying to destroy Russia that United States is Enemy Number One go back again it was almost from start so there was a short period of time when uh whatever Putin just became president of Russia and George W bush younger was the president of the United States us strangely enough George Bush younger managed to see a soul to look into the soul of this KGB guy if in fact it wasn't just a joke that you know many of us laughed at but it also demonstrated the inability on the part of the uh the then state department and the White House to understand the nature of people who came into Power after Boris Hilton resigned it was to say that people in the White House and in the American State Department didn't realize that the most repressive institution of the Soviet Union the KGB and the different acronym came into power and was slowly but surely creating the possibility of returning back to the Soviet type politics it wasn't just because of Vladimir Putin as an any guy who was trained in the Secret Service you may say the same about you know guys from CIA or masad or you know MI5 and Etc uh that you know he was trained not to reveal his soul to say so if he has any or he had any but it is that his whole job training he his education his life experience didn't allow him to reveal any inner him any true hymn to any representative of the West West for him West was and as he time and again proved it over this 22 years of his rule remains to be the enemy in United States as the leader of the West is the Enemy Number One so I'd like to get your thoughts on where he is at each of these stages along the way and the first it did that at the KGB agent during the Cold War watching the United States it's framed in the U.S at an ideological conflict and Reagan talks about the evil empire and it's a fight for Freedom how does Vladimir Putin see the conflict with the United States does he see it in those terms you know I mean we can guess because obviously doesn't reveal his real thoughts or understanding of the world but I think that you know he sees United States of America as as his personal enemy and as an enemy of the corporation that runs Russia and given that he equalizes himself with Russia United States is the Enemy Number of one of the Russian Federation that's I think his way of thinking and does he believe when American Presidents talk about democracy and freedom or does he think that that's an American form of disinformation I doubt that he believes in anything sad or done by the United States or any other Western Country he's understanding of the world is that it is an existential war between Russia Russian Empire and the West that the West would like to uh if not physically but morally occupy Russia some of people from his from his closest Entourage like head of his National Security Council General Patricia believes that United States is eager to occupy sibiliary in order to extract Russian resources and to put control over Russian gas and oil resources but I think uh the major point is that uh Putin and his people from the KGB from the graduates from the K of of the KGB uh they believe that the West is trying to conquer Russian culture and Russian way of life in Russian understanding of the world and to replace it with its uh pervasive as they believe culture that cold war that he was trained to fight as a KGB officer he doesn't see it ending when the Soviet Union collapses I don't think that he thinks in terms of the Cold War I think that he thinks in terms of this existential War I think that their conspiratorial minds are filled with this idea that the West has been trying time and again to to put Russian Empire under control to take Russian resources to make Russians believe in the ways of life that are not are not inherited from the Russian past basically Putin and his guys they live with the with their head turned back back back in the centuries of the Russian history where Russian Empire was conquering on All Peoples around it when you know it was a there was absolute monarchy in the country where and all these pervasions like you know non-binary people for instance don't exist because of course don't binary people existed in order to destroy the Russian psyche in order to destroy you know the Russian way of life you know to try to conquer and you know and even though you know there are plenty of course of gay people around putting himself and among his closest Entourage there are plenty of gay people but that's the way of thinking that anything that comes from the West is is dangerous after all United States as you know as conglomeration of the best academic institutions in the world uh you know you possess huge knowledge about you know uh cleverages that existence in any given Society but you know um about the regimes about you know why people elect autocrats or resist against autocrats anyway you possess the kind of knowledge that is extremely dangerous to put in uh to put in himself therefore in the last two years uh Putin's people basically eliminated political signs from the Russian universities it was replaced by some total nonsense sociology no longer existed you know Paul's and pollsters real poles and real pulses and all existence so basically you know this whole idea that you know they sort of should have to Shadow Uh Russian people from this bad influence coming from the West that's I think that's what happened with them they live in this zero-sum game and you know and that's you cannot change their their way of thinking you can just kick them out replace them with somebody you know more open to the world uh many people many for American journalists and you know European journals they used to try that you know put in such a European man he speaks freely you know German he was exposed to German country culture and I always I was reading this and thinking you know really how did you measure that how do you know that this guy spent years when he was in JDR German Democratic Republic you know this totalitarian you know part of uh of Germany existed uh before uh the reunification of Germany he you know if this information campaign and following Western professors and businessmen in Dresden way he was stationed he was busy you know buying you know carpet in order to send it back to Russian salad and so to be better off when he he was going to return back to Moscow he wasn't reading he wasn't exposed to any Western culture yes he spoke fluent German sorry it didn't help you know Hitler for God's sake also spoke fluent German and quite some other uh you know very bad guys spoke flu in German so no he wasn't the European you know he wasn't the guy exposed to the West he in fact he got totally different uh idea from his time of working in the Soviet residientura in Dresden that West is the threat West destroyed his job which existed uh engineer and then back in Russia because of the West he was unable to become a spy he was unable to join the intelligence Department of the KGB and when he returned back from Germany he got this meaningless job as a you know as somebody who has to keep an eye on foreign students in Leningrad State University anyway to cut the long story short Putin always had these very you know very KGB uh view of the world and of course those 22 years that he has been in power in Russia he became even more claustrophobic and so everything that has to do with the West any ideology anything except for your Technologies and of course you know cheap money that Russians stated don't stay competence were able to borrow in the European countries and therefore that what you know contributed to Russian prosperity uh in the past decade you know everyone which what was coming from the West Was what presented a danger to him personally to his closest Entourage and to his view of Russia uh the way it existed in his head because we're leading into Ukraine what was his view of these countries that became called the near abroad of Georgia of Ukraine as the Soviet Union is collapsing how important was that loss on who he is there would let me put it this way his view of Ukraine has been different over the years when my done happened and Ukrainian people kicked out corrupted president Victory unikovic out of the country Ukraine was seen by Putin as a threat because Ukraine you know people who uh half of we of the population spoke the same language as people in Russia and another half spoke the language that Russians pretty easily can understand that Russians were going to sort of consume wrong ideas in a way they should protest and the way they should deal with their own uh presidents or the president so for him what happened to you know coach was a opened threat secondary Putin doesn't believe that Ordinary People are capable to unite and kick out the tyrant he just doesn't this kind of conception of individualistic will doesn't exist in his head for him it wasn't ukrainians who kicked out uh their corrupted president it was the United States of America who was standing behind those hundreds of thousands of people who were who came to the main streets of Kiev the capital of Ukraine and argued against the corrupted government and finally managed despite of 100 people who were killed by the Ukrainian or Russian Special Forces managed uh to kick out uh a guy who failed to meet the expectations and to elect uh another president that another president he couldn't believe in this ordering people don't do this in Putin's mind wasn't people unable to uh unite other people are unable to be smart enough to to distinguish between good politician and that politician good president bad present it is the United States of America who did that so that was the second problem for him with Ukraine third problem and of course you know any success in Ukraine success of its governance success in its development was in his Putin's you know uh totally sick mind was a real threat to him personally Democratic Ukraine was to present a very bad example to Russians because Russians were watching Ukraine very attentively Russians were stunned when despite of all this rhetoric that time and again they had a Russian propaganda TV that there were Nazi who were controlling Ukraine that you know Ukrainian fascists you know all kind of you know this Ukrainian nationalists you know uh right-wing radicals they were controlling the public and political sphere of that in Ukraine all of a sudden they got to now that those same you know Nazi elected a Jewish president into the presidency and more than 70 percent of those supposedly Nazi ukrainians did that and the same time you know at the time when they elected into presidency prime minister of Ukraine was Mr Griezmann himself also Drew from Vietnam so this didn't come along well wait a second either they are fascists and for our for Russians for us as a Nazi these were Germans who came in 1941 invaded a Soviet Union and Soviet Union lost 27 million people in this Great Patriotic War for them you know there was a clear-cut you know when you say Nazi any Russian immediately have this vision of Hitler and his asses troops you know who are burning uh alive people in The Villages all across uh the former Soviet Union so and that was something that didn't sort of come along well wait a second and then they learned that in fact you know Ukrainian nationalists they failed to get into uh Ukraine Parliament rather apparently you know they didn't get the threshold and once again wait a second you know each and every Russian TV channel kept telling the Russians that ukrainians run by Ukraine Nationals and now you know they failed to get into Radha something so I'm telling you all that that for putting everything what was happening in Ukraine was a direct threat to his power because his subjects were going to get a wrong message a wrong example and his subject sooner or later we're going to say wait a second ukrainians got the right to elect their own president in their own Parliament and we rations what's so what's wrong about us that we couldn't do this and we have one and the same guy for the 22 years on the road third Ukraine is a very different you know this structure of Ukrainian Society is very different from uh that in Russia Ukraine has what we call a political science weak State strong Society it's totally different from what existed in Russia extremely powerful and dangerous state in non-existent society so this is also that for Putin it's very difficult conception to comprehend what does it mean strong Society why do they allow for weak government you know anyway so uh finally um the territory of Ukraine as a perspective Battlefield where Western Powers were going to bring their troops and he Putin doesn't believe that Ukraine possesses any sovereignty you know that it has you know it's independent will as a nation he doesn't buy this for him ukrainians are little brothers you know the way they were treated in the 19th century Russian Empire when Ukrainian writers said Genius of God as Nikola goggle were not allowed to run in Ukrainian or the language was called malarosa you know and Ukraine was called maloche little Russia and so Ukraine language was forbidden and you know and anyway anything that could manifest you know any sovereignty of Ukraine was forbidden Alexander III and Putin basically sis himself as somebody who inherit into the ideology into you know into the conception of the Empire that was developed by zalexander III one of the worst Jazz ever existed anyway but you know he'll have he see himself as somebody who is protecting these conservative ideology of the Russian Empire of the Russian monarchs you know and this ideology of course doesn't allow this conservatism doesn't allow neither for human rights known for non-binary rights no for Women rights you know there are strong man macho man who is running the country and everybody's else place is just to be subordinate to this to those strong men uh so for him you know you have to understand Ukraine is anti-taza to Russia in each and every way but for Putin Ukraine was this little Russia and Ukraine's those little Russians incapable of speak proper Russian and we have to teach those little Russians how to run their own territory thank you they're so helpful in understanding the background of him you have to be you have to understand listen I hate Putin you know with every fiber of my being I hate him because even though as a journalist I'm supposed to be sort of you know neutral I cannot because he is the guy who as we speak is destroying two countries and impeding the life of 190 million people 145 million who live in on the Church of the Russian Federation and 44 million who live on the territory of Ukraine he is the 21st century monster you know and I'm terrified by the fact that you and I and you know the entire world along with us you know at least on this continent but also in Europe we watch what's happening you know right now as we speak in Ukraine we watch as Russia as we speak annexing about 20 percent of Ukraine territory and there's nothing we can do about that we just talk about that and you know we just allow this Hitler of the 21st century to prevail and really you know it makes me sick and sad and I feel like something so wrong in our arrangement in the world you know it's time and again good people or at least you know people with some decent view of the world are losing to those evils who see murder as the way of running domestic and foreign policy and they keep asking myself is it really 21st century what in that respect what has changed in Middle Ages after everything Europe went through two awful Wars you know Middle Ages then you know uh two awful Wars and at the same time a Renaissance and you know Reformation Etc and it turns out that we didn't learn any lessons that's truly makes me really really sick it feels like a tragedy and it feels like a tragedy that was a long time coming listen it was it was obvious absolutely or best it was obvious back in 2000 when Putin became the president of the country it was dead obvious when Putin ran his uh five-day war against Georgia and once again you know the entire world said okay you know we we're going to be blind we're not going to see this you know we're not going to recognize this it was obvious when you know he crashed Russian Democratic opposition 2012 when he got in Kremlin once again it was obvious when Hira wrote Constitution it was absolutely obvious I just one thing I don't understand if it was obvious for people like Alexa and others people of the rational position in me who was writing about what this why it wasn't that obvious to the rest of the world why American politicians kept looking for some arrest said for you know let us please Putin no no no don't let's not go too far you know after all he's not that bad guy you know no no no he's okay he's okay yeah you know him but you know in this unruly in the country is unlawful and unrulous Rush maybe it's a good idea to have you know a strong man like Putin is why everybody was so blind why did we get to the point when the first thing that we wake up with and we discussed through the day whether it's going to be the nuclear war or not I was facing a nuclear war or not I was going to survive or not but by 2007 he goes to Munich and he gives a speech that sets off alarm Bells maybe not loud enough alarm Bells about how he views the west and how he views the United States what had happened between that time that had been the invasion of Iraq and the color revolutions what happened between him trying to win over George W bush in 2007 when he's saying this you know it sounds like the speech he gets before the invasion of Ukraine the West is manipulating things and or America is manipulating things what's that progression as you remember in 2001 When September 11 happened in the United States Putin was the first to call uh uh President Bush for him it was you know he was given a hand to somebody who got weaker because of what happened and he was happy to say you know we are with you you know just to ped you a little bit on the your American shoulder and to say that you know Russia is with you we're going to help you if you need this however after that elections in Ukraine happened once again we're going back to Ukraine and Putin was trying to install his own puppet Victor unikovic who later became the president he was trying to install his puppet victorianakevich however elections turned out to be very close and as a result yunukovych lost to his operant who represented the Democratic forces of and pro-western forces of the Ukraine and Putin saw these as an assault on him personally so once again you know you CR for him West got involved in the in the Ukrainian elections on the side of uh animus of of Russia and put it himself and he saw these as uh United States and Western involvement in the sphere of Russian influence as he saw um Putin saw all the former republics of the Soviet Union as fear of Russian influence uh as you know as if to say that you know he can do whatever he wants on the charger of the former Soviet republics and neither Americans Noah Europeans should try uh to install the bases or to store their control or influence in those part of the former Soviet Union so he saw this laws in the presidential elections in Ukraine as his personal loans and as if you know he made a deal with bush that Americans are not going to interfere in the sphere of Russian influences at least you know that's the way he saw his talks with George W bush and candel is Horizon Etc so that was the reason so Putin saw these uh what happened in Ukraine in the Ukrainian elections 2000 I believe four Ukrainian elections as something as violation of sort of Unwritten rules of the game that he thought he managed to establish with the west and with the United States first and foremost for him it was a sign that the West is not capable to obey to this unreaching agreements and so he was very angry and the result of this was this Munich speech where he was by the way very honest very sincere very explicit he said it all it's just you know the problem on the part of the West that the West was unable to understand all the consequences but Putin warned you Putin told you all back then and unfortunately neither your Scholars nor your uh policy makers know your politicians you know managed to listen to what he said and to understand what he did say let me talk about Georgia because the U.S makes signs about we should come into NATO there's sort of a half agreement Condoleezza Rice says we stand by our friends it's Vladimir Putin testing the United States in that moment is he sending a signal to the United States in the West in Georgia when puto started war in Georgia back in August of 2008 you know he was just showing to the United States that Georgia as any other Republic of the former Soviet Union except for both Republicans was a sphere of his interests of Russian interests and so you know all these pro-western stances by the then president of Georgia sakash really and the presence of lots of foreign advices on the Church of Georgia uh was he got very angry about that he knew that American philanthropist and billionaire George Soros was financing Georgian bureaucracy that was one of the important ways and necessary ways to overcome the kind of elite corruption that existed in Georgia before sakash really so he saw all that as an attempt on the part of the United States to establish control in this part of the Caucasus and he didn't want that to happen so you know thanks to the mistakes that were made by the Georgian side Putin brought Russian troops to Georgia in a matter of three days he reached the capital of Georgia the belisi and you know just you know a lot of people in Moscow in Kremlin you know managed to convince the then sort of to say president uh advantage of not to conquer the ability however you know as a result of that war five-day War United States imposed sanctions and uh gladly forgot about the sanctions three months after that's it the United States and the United States government told Putin don't worry you know we have to calm down you know uh our you know opponents on the Democratic side or in the Congress but don't worry everything's okay yeah we understand you won't judge a ham Georgia so three months later they took the United States totally forgot uh the kind of sanctions that were imposed uh on Russia that was a clear-cut signal to Putin in the next year Obama comes in he's seen Munich and Georgia and at that time led by Joe Biden he was a vice president at the time and he yeah the reset and the message from that it's it's yet again America moving on or ignoring the warning if I remember Obama came to Moscow and uh the then Vice President Biden came to us go in 2000 I believe 11. he was trying to convince uh Putin not to run for the presidency again and of course it was once again it was wishful thinking on the part of the current president and then vice president it was this American arrogance for some reasons some people in the White House believed that it was a key to tell Putin not to run and he was going to say yes sir of course you know he did quite the opposite he was very offended by all these talks and he realized that U.S government was going to be very hostile to him personally if you I hope you can find a video of uh the then prime minister Putin with the then president of the United States Barack Obama and you know the kind of the way Putin spoke to Obama it was upside down approach you know it just you know United States managed to not to notice that Putin is a racist and you know for him you know the African-American president was you know they never believed an African-American was going to win presidency I remember I wasn't in Russia back then and each and every Pals which spouse and his propagandists on the state on channels they kept saying no no Obama is not going to win uh presidential elections because America will never would never vote a black man into president it's not going to happen and that was you know this also was the approach of this KGB guys around Putin because you know they're racist by training so uh Putin wasn't didn't want to take uh President Obama seriously for him it was like wow it should have happened and you know we're not going to recognize that it happened anyway he was very hostile uh therefore When Donald Trump became the president sort of you know things got back to usual to normal in the minds of uh uh they put in the lead rich guy became a present rich white guy became a president great that's exactly the way they understand the United States only reach only guy only white could become the president can become a president of the United States and Putin had been saying America is essentially an Empire of Lies they're hypocritical they don't believe the things that they say and Donald Trump arrives and his rhetoric describing America sounds very similar to what Putin had been saying exactly when When Donald Trump arrived in the White House you know things got back to normal in the mindsets of Putin's Elite now it was everything was you know was the way it was supposed to be perfect you know and now you know and they were able to tell Russians that look that's what the you know real United States look at Trump you know you know that's what you know he represents a real America not Barack Obama or anybody else yes it got back to normal in the mindset of in this pervas mindset of Putin's officials did he think that Trump was undermining America undermining NATO no Trump was doing exactly what butcher was hoping he was going to do for Putin it was extremely important to divide the European Union because it was it it is much easier uh for Russian military to fight with one European country rather than with a big European Union so Trump was doing the kind of job that Putin was just dreaming about when Trump said that uh NATO not the Atlantic Treaty Organization was obsolete it was just you know honey for Putin you know he felt like finally finally there are some guy in the United States who understands you know who's capable to see things the way they should be so yes he was very happy before I ask you about the end and about Ukraine let me ask you one more question about the Obama Administration and Biden there's a period when Biden comes in 2011 he speaks to students and he says the importance of democracy and you don't have to take a Palestine bargain Hillary Clinton come and we hear that Putin took personal offense to this but he doesn't seem to have been afraid of what they were saying because he cracks down after that in the face of protests what was the effect of Americans coming and talking about democracy in Moscow and how did Putin respond to that you know I think it wasn't about Americans it was about those protests about this hundreds of thousands of people who were much in the streets of Moscow and other cities of the Russian Federation and we're shouting down with Putin uh for him it was like it could it couldn't be so it could happen Russians couldn't say this Russian I in love with me Vladimir Putin I'm much a guy look at me you know uh you know why you know with my naked torso I'm great guy you know he loves himself to death so and for him those protests that existed in 2011-2012 in the Russian Federation he could believe that it was Russians themselves who were against him these were of course Americans Hillary Clinton who was supporting who was Pro inspiring Russian opposition to go against him so for him you know in that respect Hillary Clinton became a personal enemy and especially you know when during you know her campaign Hillary Clinton said time and again she repeated that don't forget we're dealing with the KGB man we cannot trust him you know he's a dangerous man I think you know by the way Bill Clinton also when he met Putin in late 1999 he wrote back then that this guy is going to be very dangerous so I think you know this you know your power couple Hillary and Bill Clinton uh they did realize the danger that Putin presented uh to the world but unfortunately it was last days of Bill Clinton's presidency and Hillary Clinton uh lost elections to Donald Trump when Joe Biden says to Vladimir Putin do not invade Ukraine at the end of 2021 and early 2022 and he said there will be Swift and severe consequences why doesn't it dissuade Vladimir Putin from launching The Invasion I think that Vladimir Putin under Spirit Well he knew that when President Biden said don't do this or you know there will be consequences he knew that there was not going to be any consequences we see that where the consequences by the time Britain already decided to start the war against Ukraine he moved troops in the spring of 2021 or 21 and everybody thought that it was just a threat on you know part of that of Kremlin however it was the first uh stage of moving troops closer to the border with Ukraine he already made a decision to start the womb and he was moving troops over there and he also knew that all this chit chat about you know uh there will be you know consequences what kind of consequences sanctions yes you did impose sanctions only you forgot to impose the most important ones you didn't introduce embarga against Russian oil and gas and you didn't cut off Russian Banks from Swift that's exactly what Americans did in 2011 and against Iran and that's what you know basically made around to give up or at least you to pretend to give up on its nuclear program but you didn't impose those sanctions against Russia yes you know there were a lot of you know there were a lot of personal sanctions and but you know still the most important thing to uh sanctions you never you did introduce until now as we speak so that was really important and you know Russia kept receiving one billion dollars a month and that's how it managed to finance its meal preparation Ukraine so what kind of disease of steps you are talking about you allowed this to happen I don't want to say that you're guilty please don't take me wrong it's our Russian guilt we destroyed our Ukraine we started this war we turned uh our nation into the nation of monsters we became the threat to the entire world this is all our guilt and this is my guilt personal because you know I was in a rational position and we lost and I'm citizen of the Russian Federation so I be all responsibility for what was done by the Russian army and Russian government even though I never voted for Putin my entire life and I was always since day one in opposition to President Putin however it's true too that all these or you know we're going to take this sorts of steps please please go and learn what this is of steps all about Putin tell show it gives you examples time and again what this is of steps are all about he said that he was going to start the work he started the war he said that he was going to uh to destroy Ukraine he is doing this he started that he's not going to allow Ukraine to divorce from Russia and that's exactly what he's doing he said that he was going to enacts characters of the of Ukraine and that's exactly what he's doing that's what is what is this season of steps are all about and you just talk I once again it's your right not to endanger uh your own businesses or you're running your own foreign policy etc etc etc etc you know but just don't tell me about this steps you didn't make any decisive steps you allowed for my country Russia to destroy Ukraine and you keep allowing this to happen as we speak and what you're saying throughout this interview is that it wasn't just at that moment when the troops were on the border it was a lack of decisive steps of taking the warnings all the way back since 2000. listen put in time and again gave a lip service to all these proclamations of the American decisive steps he gave a leap service because he knows very well that it's just words it's just about talking talking and talking once again I'm not here to blame American Presidents or American people it is your life your comfort your country your great you built a great country and it's your uh this decision and desire not to be involved in this European mass or in the mess that existed in Eastern Europe you gave a lot of money and a lot of weapons to Ukraine and thank you for doing this even though you know your weapons are killing my uh soldiers of of the Russian army however it was very important and it's still very important that United States provided Military Support to Ukraine and thank you for doing this but please don't talk about the season of steps so let me ask you to wrap this up where are we now Vladimir Putin's in trouble on the battlefield in domestically he's ramping up mobilization there's a danger more of a danger domestically for him he's talking about nuclear weapons how dangerous is this moment how dangerous is this man at this moment or you know I really don't know how to read the crystal ball that's not my job I see that the situation is going is getting from bad to us I doubt that what's even is going to start a nuclear war he has been he and his and people around him has been preparing for the comfortable retirement for the last you know 22 years they were still in whatever was possible to steal from the Russian budget and from the Russian wealth which belongs to the entire nation uh so I don't believe that this government of millionaires and billionaires are ready to perish and to turn their wealth into the nuclear waste however I am very much afraid that Putin is going to destroy whatever is left from Ukraine I hope that West doesn't understand that if Putin succeeds in Ukraine he's not going to stop he doesn't understand that uh Europe in general is not going to reinstate relationship with himo with Russia he doesn't understand that a special countries of the Eastern Europe will remain Her Style to him therefore he will go further I don't know whether it's going to you know he will get into Moldova or this these are going to be Poland or you know a lot of Lithuania and Estonia you know I don't want really you know to gossip about that because I don't now but I am absolutely aware that unless he's going to get stopped he's going to destroy Europe just the way Europe failed to stop Hitler in 1939 hoping that Hitler was going to get satisfied with Czechoslovakia and then Poland and then Hitler turned Europe into debris so I basically think that it's time for the Western public opinion in Europe and Americans first and foremost as you are the major supply of help to Ukraine to realize that we are dealing with somebody who is no better than Adolf Hitler and the situation is as dangerous as it was back in Munich of 1938 or in September on September 1st 1939. these guys they don't stop until they destroy everything around them and I guess that's what we've seen in the last two weeks was that he made that decision he's not gonna he's not gonna stop he's not going to stop if the United States once again will choose the policy of you know tempting the Tiger in his cage you know trying to pet the tiger you know then unfortunately we will see the repetition of History maybe not at the scale that existed during the second World War II but pretty close to what happened to Europe back uh 70 plus years ago

Channel: FRONTLINE PBS | Official

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Length: 53min 57sec (3237 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 09 2023