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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn5O0F3ZG5A

Interviewer: My guest today is an incredible man, Scott Ritter. Our last interview with you has gained a total of almost 2 million views. This is a huge, huge number; people like you and people appreciate your wisdom and your knowledge. My first question is yesterday Vladimir Putin said, and I quote, “Russia has not started anything seriously in Ukraine yet.” I think Mr. Putin never says anything for nothing. What do you think his words mean and to whom this message is sent?

Scott Ritter: Well, thank you for putting me in the very difficult position of trying to get into the mind of Russia’s president. What do I think Vladimir Putin meant by this? First, I think he meant what he said. I think we need to understand that the Ukraine conflict is not just a “special military operation.” That it encompasses economic and geopolitical aspects. Right now what we are seeing is basically the initial phase of a military operation; that is the liberation of Donbass. But, we haven’t seen the breaking of the Ukrainian government necessary to the degree to accomplish two stated objectives: One, de-nazification; two, de-militarization. We’re not even close to de-nazification or de-militarization. And there are a lot of people who are singularly focused on the Donbass, the fighting there saying “well, this is everything, this is what is going on.”

There’s another aspect, too, if you recall in the leadup to this special military operation Russia made a concerted effort to engage the United States and NATO, responsibly on the issue of a new European security framework. One that saw NATO withdraw its infrastructure back to 1997 levels and respect Russia’s legitimate security interests in it’s immediate sphere of influence, such as Ukraine, Belarus, etc. We’re not there yet, either. And then we have to take into context the main weapon that the West was hoping to use against Russia in the case of a Russian invasion was an economic weapon. That the idea was that the West was to strangle Russia economically; to destroy Russia economically and thereby to create so much disruption within the Russian state that the Russian people would remove Vladimir Putin from power.

The Russians have on a level that should make every Western economist resign their position, go back to school and learn what global economics really is. The Russian president together with a very capable supporting cast. We keep talking about Vladimir Putin, Vladimir Putin, Vladimir Putin and to do so ignores the reality that Russia has a very effective government, a very effective civil service that is populated by some very competent people who have done a very good job of studying the world that Russia lives in. Unlike, for instance, their American counterparts who only live in a fantasy world of how wonderful America is and how the world revolves around America. Russia has an extremely realistic appreciation of its role in the world, where it stands in the world and how the world operates. And you see this in the Russian response economically and I think the key to this conflict is ultimately going to be economics meaning that Europe may collapse economically before the Ukrainian military does militarily.

And as Europe begins to collapse economically; to give you an example, the resignation of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The Ukrainian government is in a panic because they are losing one of their biggest cheerleaders. The man who was out there in front of everybody loudly proclaiming the support for Ukraine and promoting Russophobic attitudes, etc. He’s gone and the people who have to replace him come from a party that is looking at defeat in the next election. And that defeat isn’t going to be because of their Ukraine policy. That defeat is going to be because of failed economic policies that are a direct result of their Ukraine policies.

And so I think you are going to be seeing a lot of European countries reversing course when it comes to Ukraine; saying that we need to figure out how we are going to survive and survive means we are going to have to figure out how we are going to get along peacefully with Russia. How do we reestablish economic ties with Russia; how do we get that cheap Russian gas. These are going to be the critical points and that’s where I think Putin said, “We haven’t even begun yet.” “We haven’t even begun to deliver the pain. We have so many different ways to deliver pain to Europe right now.” And I think he is saying, “you’re sort of the ones who get to decide how much pain you get. We can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way. The easy way is for you to put on your thinking cap and realize you have lost. You are not going to win. Russia will prevail in Ukraine. Russia will get what it wants in Ukraine and Russia will get what it wants in terms of a new Europen security framework. The sooner you realize that the easier this will be for everybody.

But, if you want to continue to play “stupid games” then understand you will win “stupid prizes.” And the stupid prizes are Russia will continue to press militarily, geopolitically, economically and Russia hasn’t even begun doing everything it is capable of doing to inflict pain on Europe and the United States. The fact that Russia is not rushing to do this shows a level of maturity that doesn’t exist in the West. I will say that right upfront. I can guarantee you if these were Western politicians they would have their foot to the floor trying to accelerate as fast as possible to inflict as much pain as possible. That is why they failed economically because they tried to do everything at once instead of a gradual approach and then adjust accordingly as Russia responded...you come with a plan. But, to have that kind of a gradual approach means you have had to respond it through; you have actually had to war game this out. They didn’t. They just assumed right up the front that if they hit the full sanction button Russia would collapse. They were wrong. Russia is not making the same mistake. This is a very gradual approach. Russia is allowing the West to make mistakes that Russia can then exploit instead of rushing too fast making mistakes that the West can exploit.

Vladimir Putin, I know he is reviled outside of Russia; I think in Russia right now he has a very high approval rating. But, I will tell you this as a historian....one day the history of this is going to be written, decades from now when people have lot the emotion of the moment. And when people talk about this time in the history of the world there are two leaders that are going to be mentioned by name in a positive fashion. One is China’s president Xi; the other is Vladimir Putin and I am betting that Vladimir Putin is actually elevated to being the smartest, wisest, most pragmatic, most responsible global leader. That because of Vladimir Putin the world actually avoided a major conflagration. Yes we are at war in Ukraine, yes there is a potential for different conflicts, but I think the measured way that he is leading Russia right now is actually preventing a wider conflict by giving the West a chance to destroy itself as opposed to requiring Russian forces to destroy it.

I take issue with Ritter here:

“One that saw NATO withdraw its infrastructure back to 1997 levels and respect Russia’s legitimate security interests in it’s immediate sphere of influence, such as Ukraine, Belarus, etc.”

“Influence” my great big hairy anti-commie ass. This is about more than “influence” and Ritter knows it. Putin’s a stuck record, like a British remoaner who just can’t accept that the UK voted to leave the European Union and who will literally spend the rest of their lives feeling butt-hurt and praying for some hero to fly in and drag Britain back into the bloc by its ankles.

When will someone have the balls to tell Putin that his Second Great Patriotic War to reclaim Soviet lands and create Novorussya was a butt-hurt retard’s fantasy from day one, and the more that tankie twat keeps trying to sell it the stupider it gets?

If Russia wanted to have “influence” in Ukraine, instead of invading Georgia and Chechnya, waging cyber war on Estonia for no reason, and taking down western hospitals with ransomware attacks, again for no real reason, MAYBE the oligarchs should’ve been put up against a wall and the TRILLION DOLLARS they stole out of the Russian economy spent on doing things that Russian people actually NEED.

Like, repairing Russian roads that haven’t been fixed since the 1970s. Or getting vaguely modern infrastructure into the rural towns. The BBC followed the funeral of one Russian solider to a town less than 50km outside of Moscow and I was gobsmacked - it was literally like being teleported into 1950s post-war British pre-fab land. Some houses didn’t even have running water. It was literally the most perfect location for filming a mid-20th century cold war thriller - because NOTHING has advanced even to the level of the 1980s there.

Russia is a third world country BECAUSE of Putin and his oligarchs. Unsurprisingly, not a single one of the modernising ex-Soviet states that decided not to indulge his backward-looking circle jerk is tempted by the utterly cretinous “charmless offensive” from their angry retard bigger brother.

Turning the clock back to 1997 merely means, from their point of view, rolling back the clock to a point where they thought Russia was a completely drunken basket case of a rump, ruled by a sack of utter spanners and thieves. The one good thing Russia can count on with a clock rolled back to #97 levels is, in ‘97 the rest of the ex-SSR community thought “It’s early days and maybe these angry drunks will die off or grow out of it.”