„Vladimir Pozner: How the United States Created Vladimir Putin
4.176.056 Aufrufe
02.10.2018“
„I am an independent journalist. And that’s an animal that is disappearing in Russia
and not only in Russia.“
„I’d like to say, first of all, that we are, at an extremely dangerous moment today.
Never have the relations between Russia and the United States with the Soviet Union,
not what it was before, been at this level. During the worst times of the Cold War,
when I was living in the Soviet Union, and I remember all that very, very well.
Russians were anti White House, Anti-Wall Street, but not Anti-American, in their vast majority.
In fact, there was a kind of a warm feeling, these are the Americans.
Today that’s different. Today it’s Anti-American at the grassroots level.
And there’s a reason for it. Another thing that is, to me scary is that neither side seems to be afraid
of nuclear weapons. 30 years ago, those of you who are of my age
certainly remember an American movie called „The Day After,“
which is about what happens to you and to your country
after a nuclear strike.
There was fear of these weapons
as there was in the Soviet Union, there was a realization
that these weapons can and if used will destroy our country.
Today, there’s a feeling when you talk to people,
it’s as if there are no nuclear weapons.
It really doesn’t seem to play a role in how we act.
And the danger of a not a deliberate nuclear exchange,
but an accidental one has grown because the level of mistrust between the two countries has grown as well.
There have been several times in the past when computers warned of a nuclear attack.
But it never got to the real thing, because people took the time to really check it out.
Now, they didn’t have a long time. If an ICBM is launched from Russia, it will take about 10 minutes for it to hit the U.S. So you know, and vice versa obviously. So you don’t have a long time but you do have some.
But my feeling is that if today those same computers malfunction and it’s on either side,
that an attack has been launched, the response would be immediate.
…
And in such a really short period of time,
how did this happen?
Why are we at the point that we are today?
And I’m not saying who’s to blame..“
„And let me say, just for the record, Russia never in its entire thousand years,
never had democracy, completely absent.“
„It later was incorporated in something that was officially called the Bush Doctrine.
That document was leaked to the New York Times.
And so it became public.
And what it basically said, and you can look it up,
it’s available, you know, just go to Wolfowitz Doctrine, and you’ll find it, what it basically said was this.
The United States should never again allow any other country to challenge it.
The United States must remain the superior country.
And we should tell our allies not to worry about developing their own weapons,
because we will do that for them.
And we must watch out for Russia, because we don’t know which way it’s going to go.
The bear might get up on his hind legs again, and growl.“
„Hillary Clinton said that Putin was a former KGB agent and had no soul and compared him to Hitler.“
„So I think that if there is a desire on both sides to change that attitude, it can be done very quickly.
And that’s why I say that we’re manipulated. We are manipulated.
And we all say, well, I’m totally independent. It’s not true, we make our decisions, and we come to certain conclusions because of what we read,because of what we see and because of what we hear.
So, basically, that’s it. I would say that certainly the internet allows us to get a much broader picture.
In fact, we could communicate with the other side via the internet. It’s not happening very much, but it is a little bit.
So that the, how should I put this, the ordinary citizen could do a lot to change what’s happening in both countries,
and it’s a two way street. And I think it’s people like you, that is to say of your age, they’re the ones who for me, are the reason for optimism because you can do this. Whereas people of my age (84) and slightly younger,
can do far less. So I would hope that, you know, what I’ve said today might lead you to look into this.“
„So that’s what I’m saying that we in a strange way corporate censorship is just as effective and sometimes
far more sophisticated than government censorship.“
„How do we stop people from killing each other in situations like that?“
„How can United States and Germany and Russia get together and stop brothers from killing brothers?“
„And, you know, people are killing each other in many places, in Africa, for instance,
brother’s killing brother and so on. And this is going on everywhere. But I would say that if the leaders of Russia, of Ukraine, of the United States, of Germany, were actually asking that question.
That question they were asking. I think they’d find a way to answer it.
But I don’t think they’re asking that question.
I think they’re asking very different questions.
And they have very different aims.
And that’s why this is going on.
So, to me, the answer is pretty obvious.
How you make people do that, that’s a different question.
Why is it that egoistic geopolitical interests take first place over these things.
That’s the real question.“
„Skripal, he was a military agent, right?
He worked for the former GRU, not for the KGB,
Putin work for the KGB, he works for the GRU,
which is military intelligence,
and they can’t stand the KGB,
and the KGB can’t stand their intelligence.
That’s normal competition.
So, and he betrayed his country.
Let’s face it, right.
He went over to the other side and began to work
for British intelligence.
And he was caught, and he was tried.
And he was sentenced to 13 years.
Now, I don’t know if you’re familiar with what happens
to spies, who to turn against their own country,
and are then caught?
Well, in wartime, they’re shot.
But in peacetime, well, it’s usually something
like 30 years, 25, 13 is a weird sentence.
Not only does he get this rather short sentence,
considering, but he’s exchanged for Soviet,
excuse me, Russian spies who were caught.
Now if he was exchanged that means
that he really didn’t know anything at that point.
He was no danger to the Russian side.
So, you know, let him go and we’ll get ours back.
Now, if Putin, Putin doesn’t like traders, who does?
If Putin wanted to kill him, he was in prison, he would do it.
And you could say that he had a heart attack or that he committed suicide or whatever.
He was no problem killing when he was in jail in Russia.
They let him go, they exchanged him, they could have exchanged someone else,
they exchanged him.
What sense would it make to poison this man under those circumstances, I mean logically.
Putin is anything but stupid. Not stupid, it’s very risky.
The risk of somehow this being found out is always there.
Why do it, this is not a dangerous person.
He can’t do anything.
He can talk about what he knows, but it’s over.
So I try to find, I’m not saying he didn’t do it.
I’m saying I’m trying to find some kind of logic,
logic, not emotions, logic as to why Putin would be involved
in something like that.
Alright, it’s not Putin.
It’s one of those lower, you know, one of the GRU
who think that Putin would like it if they did it
But would Putin like it if it was discovered?
No, of course not, they get their head chopped down.
So why would they risk it?
They’re not gonna get decorations for doing it.
Because if Putin had ordered it, then yes.
So why would they do it?
So to me, it really remains a mystery.
Because it’s stupid, it’s counterproductive.
It doesn’t do anything positive at all.
So am I denying anything?
I’m not denying, I’m saying give me proof.
Please, just show me, yes, there it is.
Now this interview, did you see it?
The interview of Rita, what’s her name?
Sonya, of those two two people.“
