 Hi everybody, and thank you for tuning in and this is Rory, and I'm one of the contributors for SGT report and Also have a YouTube channel the the daily coin and I have on the line today Gentlemen from Ukraine. He's a he's an American citizen But he is currently living in Ukraine and he's outside of Kiev But I'll let him get more into that his name is Roman and Roman give me your last name because I Don't want to butcher it. It's sqasq. It's sqasq. Yep, and We're he's gonna give us some insight to what's actually happening in Ukraine with the protests with the riots with a first-hand account of what's actually happening there and Roman thank you so much for taking some time out today, and if you would just briefly Introduce yourself to the audience and give them your website your YouTube channel and what you're doing in Ukraine My pleasure. Thank you for having me. My name is Roman. I was born and raised in the United States I last lived in Iowa. Here's my t-shirt from the 2012 straw pole in Iowa Where I turned out in support of Ron Paul a couple years ago, I made the move to Ukraine and I'm developing software and writing I was in the American military I was an infantry officer for about six years, and I'm I'm writing a book about About Afghanistan. I've written about my military experiences for Mises.org daily anarchist and a few other sources Right now. I'm blogging pretty aggressively about the protests in Ukraine My website is Roman in Ukraine Com I also have a YouTube channel, which has mostly libertarian book reviews. It's called Romans book report Thank you, and I just want to jump right in and get find out exactly what's going on and If you prefer Roman not giving the name of the city where you're located I understand, but if you would please let people know Approximately how close to Kiev you are and what is the infrastructure like as there is their food coming in It's our water electricity all in operating order. And what is what is daily life like where you're located? Sure. Well, I don't mind I don't mind sharing it. I'm in the western city of Lviv Ukraine it's kind of the The sort of spiritual home of the protests all most of the energy is coming from the western part of the country It's about 300 miles from Kiev and Despite all the fire and mayhem that that is making the headlines the infrastructure is fine it's fine here in in Lviv and And it's fine in Kiev restaurants businesses continue to operate I'm not sure how the businesses look Right where the fighting is happening But I can tell you that when I visited the Maidan about a week and a half ago Like I was amazed to see that even within the perimeter of the camp Oh, I should add the camp occupies the single most expensive piece of real estate in all of ukraine Called chrysoptic the christening. So there's all these like high-end retail shops You know selling selling the latest clothes and everything else And amazingly they all continued to function It the big barricades had gaps in them And customers and employees walk through these gaps in the barricades and it was like it was such It was a little bit surreal. It was just this a normal old city life Happening right alongside these uh these protests now I'm not sure how it looks now that it got violence But as of a week and a half ago You know a week a week and a half ago there had already been I think six deaths and there had already been some fighting But yet, you know the shops were working. Nothing was smashed or looted So it's not as bad as it looks on tv at least not in terms of normal life. Okay. Thank you And that's that's exactly what kind of information that we need Because all the the images that we see are just you know carnage and You know Molotov cocktails flying through the air and so forth and and but we know that there's Something behind that and yes, so as far as getting a getting a good good picture of that That's that's what I'm looking for To see what's going on and it's interesting that that these guys have decided to occupy the most expensive property In Ukraine, you know might as well be in a good neighborhood Yeah, that that's the city center and that's like It's like the it's the center of Kiev like the way the streets are organized It's it's very much the epicenter of the city. Okay, it's it's been always been the the place where protests big and small and uh, we're hearing hear that You know soros is sponsoring Uh, some of the protesters And what is the reality of the protesters? Who are they and where are they coming from? And what is the motivation? Right well, um I guess i'm reacting to What i'm going to say is a kind of a reaction to what I feel has been over reporting About western influence. I have no illusions whatsoever that the western intelligence agencies are here Soros is known to Support femen that's this radical feminist groups that always shows their boobs and Protests about things and when these protests kicked off femen made an appearance that was very embarrassing A bunch of naked ladies walked out with pictures of the president But but I saw that as femen trying to stay relevant um, so I believe I don't have a shred of doubt in my mind that these protests are homegrown And that the west is very actively trying to co-op them and influence the outcome But these protests are not created By the west they're homegrown and let me let me offer a little historical context to to support this view um in 1945 when when all the armies, you know, all the british and american soldiers They all went home and celebrated victory The fighting continued in ukraine for 10 years It was only in in 1955 that armed resistance to the soviet union Uh ended armed resistance by ukrainians to the soviet union ended so they kept going for 10 years You know, obviously that wasn't supported by the west the west was given all kinds of support to stalin at the time The media was calling him uncle joe so So given that historical context You know, I don't think it's so hard to see that the uh the children and grandchildren Of those uh partisans Are are now, you know, motivating themselves to uh to fight what they regard as the kleptocracy as the criminal regime That succeeded the the soviet union and that's kind of uh Held up by the former kgb agent turned russian president putin um, I also have personal contacts among the protesters Uh, so uh, for example, I developed software my lead programmer My lead software developer who's a super talented programmer Um, he has an suv. He has a three-story house. He has a wife and two kids. We go skiing together He's part of ukraine's tiny middle class You know, as soon as any violence flares up in Kiev, I lose him because he goes there Uh at this latest violence, I sent him on sms. I said, uh, uh, is it time to wish you a Safe journey again or something like that and he texted me back Too late. I'm already in my dawn 300 miles like like it was nothing. Wow. So I don't I don't doubt what for example, paul craig roberts wrote that there's western intelligence here paying uh paying protesters $30 a day to to attend a protest But there's a lot of people like my lead software developer who is not motivated by uh by $30 a day So it's both both things are true. I think it's over reported though Okay, and now you had sent me a video earlier a link to a video earlier today regarding paid protesters or no not paid protesters, but the Russian thugs is the way you you've done it as and they were they had a tack of journalists who was just Trying to what appeared to be reporting on the situation And it was in russian and I and unfortunately I don't speak russian So I really didn't get the gist of what? The cameraman the journalist and the person that he was speaking with I didn't understand what they were talking about, but it seemed to be a very civil Conversation just regarding their surroundings and what was actually going on and then the next thing you know They're being attacked by this group of Of what once again seemingly just regular people But turns out they were actually marauders It was it was pretty vicious from what it from the what little bit of the of the attack was shown in the video Can you can you speak to that please? So that that's a new vocabulary word a titushka And I just actually found out only today after using that word for a few months It's named after a single person vadim titushka Who was just a hired thug by the government and now all the hired thugs from the government are called titushka So that poor guy he has is uh, you know, his last name is is you know forever scorn But uh, it's been a very common practice to hire Usually it's coal miners from the russian speaking east part of the country To just come and either do counter protests or to uh to beat the protesters And there's some pretty brutal videos um Of the titushka working side by side with the police and just And just beating the living crap out of protesters In I think it was early january 300 titushka went out and surrounded the u.s. Embassy in Kiev And there's a raw footage Which I posted on my website roman in ukraine Of them complaining amongst each other that they didn't get paid there I forget whether it was 200 or 300 rivnias to to do that what they're doing to come and surround the u.s. Embassy It's kind of a menacing moment, but it but it sort of dissipated without without ever coming to any violence So the the video I posted was those titushka was an interview with some titushka And the the russian speaking reporter was kind of giving them support like like you guys are heroes Tell me about yourself. Where are you from? You know, tell me about what you're doing And he's walking with this one titushka named topaz Uh, and then he goes to topaz's friends and like just keeps asking these questions Like come on to you know talk because the topaz was very like standoffish and His friends I guess just didn't like the fact that he was filming and just started beating him And the last thing you hear is uh, is the reporter crying, you know screaming topaz a topaz asked him to stop asked him to stop so uh Yeah, so that was pretty dramatic and what I've discovered since sending you that video another video emerged that topaz This is a little frightening. He's in the custody of the protesters now And they took a little short video of topaz saying Why did you come here? And he says I came here to support the president yanukovic and they asked You mean the one that's killing us and he says that's not what they told me and they say uh You know, if you were asked to jump off a building for the president, would you do that? And kind of doesn't say anything. It's a real short video but But it's crazy That is crazy. I mean Just blind faith You know or blind following I guess Yeah, you also sympathize with with his play. I don't you know, he's now in in the hands of the hostile protesters Well, I'm sorry to hear that for him, but you know, I I I can't I can't comment on that Oh, let's see. All all we hear about Is what's happened. All we hear about is what's happening in Kiev How far outside of Kiev are the protests spreading? And are you seeing or hearing about large-scale protests in other cities and what is happening in other locations? Yeah, there was uh, there was a I think in mid january Okay, so ukraine in ukraine the states are called oblasts and there's uh I'm gonna embarrass myself by not knowing the exact number. I think there's about 25 oblasts in ukraine And uh, there was a day last month when it felt like victory for the protesters when it like all at once About half the oblast centers in the country were overrun by protesters It was an amazing thing Uh, this was still when it didn't get real crazy at the time. There were about five people killed Um, and in the past two days there have been 70 people killed So so that happened last month And then in the last week more government buildings have been overrun Here in my city, which you know, it's like 99 support of the protesters Two police stations were overrun. The prosecutor's office was overrun all the records They thought the prosecutor was collecting, you know information on who the protesters were So they they threw all the file cabinets outside the outside the prosecutor's office And burned all the documents of the military barracks was overrun There was a resupply Yesterday or uh, there were supposed to be reinforcements yesterday From the eastern russian speaking city of new prophet throats Brigade of paratroopers was supposed to reinforce Kiev And in that eastern city of new prophet throats people blockaded the roads They fell trees on the roads and they they did all kinds of stuff to prevent that That reinforcements from arriving and amazingly They succeeded. Um, and that brigade of paratroopers never deployed to Kiev Having been a paratrooper in the 82nd airborne division. I cannot imagine that happening But I think the soldiers here are a lot less motivated, especially if they've been tuning into To youtube. Well, I mean, I think that the American soldiers would I would like to think that they would do the same You know, I don't know You you were in the in the 82nd Yes, yes, so you would be able to speak better to that than myself because I've never served in the military There there are reports of soldiers refusing to confiscate weapons during Katrina Which which really warmed my heart And I don't know how much the uh, what's that movement the oath keepers. Yes. I don't know how much leverage they have I certainly hope it's a lot actually, I ask uh Have gotten into the habit of asking Soldiers that I see on the street If they are an oath keeper and surprisingly Most if not all have replied yes And they know and they know exactly what I'm talking about That's that's the part that I really like because they know that's amazing. They know exactly what I'm talking about Although I do think the the military is really good at at vetting at vetting people for loyalty And building special units that that would obey and I think the recent purge of generals might have had a lot to do with the With vetting the the upper levels of command for for loyalty for blind loyalty to the administration Which is a bit terrifying. Yes. Well, I mean they're brown sharks throughout history and there always will be you know, I mean Let's see Well, if it if it comes time to get out of the us, um, you know, feel free you have an open invitation to come to the beef Well, thank you Uh, are there are the protesters armed and if so, what type of armament aside from the Molotov cocktails do they have? Right, so, uh Well, these protests they began in november most people forget that wow And they they escalated so Slowly for two months It was people just standing in the streets singing the national anthem and waving flags And then it was stones and barricades and Molotov cocktails And now there are guns Uh, I I know that about 13 police officers have been killed. I don't know what types of guns the protesters are using I do know that there are two classes of guns, which I never really considered guns until I came to ukraine But the first class of guns was a compressed air power guns Uh, the second class are called the Traumatic guns and they're guns that are modified to only fire like rubber pellets And for the last 20 years since independence Uh, those are the only two types of guns that non-military non-police have been able to acquire Uh, the compressed air power guns and the the rubber bullet only guns I don't know what the protesters are protesters are using I do know that those types of guns are very widespread Um, and I also know that 13 police have been killed Although I don't know how they've been killed whether it was burned or beaten or or shot So but the but the citizens are not armed like they are here in the states No, and that's why they have to go out and fight in my opinion. Yeah, exactly. That's that's a big part of it That's it It's it's a little easier to control people when they aren't armed right and uh from your perspective, uh Where do you see where do you see this thing heading? Where where are we going from here? Uh, where are we going or where do I want it to go? Well the reality There's actually a tentative tentative peace tentative peace deal announced today just hours ago. Wow, okay, um, and it's gonna It's gonna involve a rollback of presidential powers The backstory to presidential powers is this uh, when when the orange revolution happened in 2004 and the The non-russian guy became president. They were like, ah, we need to scale back presidential powers So presidential powers were scaled way back And then when the villain of the orange revolution arose again And became president. They're like, ah, we can restore presidential powers So uh, so that they were restored in 2010. So the tentative peace deal that's that's being discussed right now is going to roll back the presidential powers again and uh create immediate elections, so um I think the most likely outcome is one of the opposition candidates will become president probably the tolly flitch go um, I think that's will be uh an improvement but kind of a kind of a like a lost opportunity to because Ukraine as it always is in history is kind of between two civilizations In history, they they allied with the with the Turks to sack Moscow way back in like the 16th or 15th century They made a treaty with the the Moscow to fight the Poles. They allied with the Poles to fight the Turks That's the story of Ukraine is just like cutting a deal with one civilization to fight the other And that's where Ukraine is today between Europe And between Brussels and Moscow And I feel like both the tyrants in Moscow and the aspiring tyrants in brussels Want to keep ukraine's bloated overgrown ineffective corrupt bureaucracy intact So they can just put their man on top right the best thing for ukraine would be You know demolishing that centralized system and coming up with either local solutions Or private solutions to all the problems that the government is now pretending to solve But I think what's gonna happen is uh a new president I think things will get a little bit better. I think ties with the eu will be closer and that will be an improvement But it's kind of a also a missed opportunity from my perspective now The person that you mentioned Is he's one of the uh clowns that victoria newland made reference to Yeah, so so there are three, uh, there are three opposition candidates There's a very Uncharismatic guy called yachts and nuke a former lawyer kind of a shadowy background. Nobody really knows where he came from That's one Number two is the nationalist firebrand olig chak ne bok um Two years ago when I first arrived in ukraine him he and the nationalists will without party had very little standing Um, most people believe that they were supported by yandukovic by the party of regions by the russians in order to radicalize the opposition That was when I arrived two years ago However, they they do a lot of very public and effective like protests And demonstrations. So they're they're Standing has gone up in the last two years. However, the protesters don't support any of these don't support him Or yachts and nuke and the third guy is latimer klitschko Who has the most respect because he's a heavyweight boxing champion um And you know, so he at least he's at least courageous genuinely But when he's probably the most liked But when he went to go talk to the protesters last month They sprayed him in the face with a fire extinguisher And there's some internet mimes portraying the three as just as clowns. However, I think after all the violence um, I think the protesters will settle for a snap elections In exchange for giving up the protests and that will probably lead to one of these three coming to power And uh, tragically the preservation of this horrible centralized corrupt ineffective bureaucracy Well, the reason I refer to them as clowns is because they were, you know, cia operatives that Yes This person was you know, they were trying to sneak in the back door or or in the front door However, you want to look at it, you know, yes It was just one of the people that they not that any of the folks that you're talking about would be I mean, I don't I don't know I don't know the local politics and And I don't pretend to so I just um I'm going by some of the reports that I've read and and the interviews that I've listened to well Is there anything that that we need to know? That you feel is important that may be Overlooked at this point as far as some of the reporting and think you've done a great job In bringing us up to speed into some of what's actually happening on the ground and the reality of it And I really appreciate that but if there's anything that that we need to know At this point, I mean you said that there was a peace deal on the table just hours ago. So right That's to me. That's that's breaking news and If there's anything like that, please share or you feel that's just that you feel is important Sure, well I guess Two other I guess just two pieces of analysis are kind of generally being missed There's a number of reporters Probably feeling very smart because they they post maps of you how Ukraine voted in the last election And you see a split between people who voted for the Yanukovych and people who voted for For, you know, the opposition but But it's not a struggle between Ukraine's Russian population And Ukraine's Ukrainian population. It's a struggle between the government And Ukraine and the Ukrainian population with some sympathy from the Russian population So it's not really a civil war. It's still the people against the government. There are no counter demonstrations There was there was recently an interview of a of a Crimean politician Russian Russian guy in Crimea And it was an interview on some Russian news agency and they thought he was anti protest and pro pro-yanukovych But he started talking about how how the regime how The political class keeps stealing land in Crimea stealing this beautiful beachside land and on the Black Sea So they cut off the interview mid-sentence and put an end to that So it's not it's not a civil war. It's still it's not one part of Ukraine against the other It's one part of Ukraine against the government with some mixed sympathy from the other part of Ukraine Uh, that's one thing and the other bit of analysis that I feel has has been missed especially in in our libertarian circles is um Is uh, uh, uh, the enemy of your enemy is not your friend, uh, you know, uh Putin he's doing a lot of propaganda here just as the United States is Um, I agree with Ron Paul's analysis that America should stay out of it But by staying out of it Uh, I would include not parroting kremlin propaganda without at least a little bit of thought and and analysis Thank you. That's uh That was part of what what you and I discussed yesterday and I really appreciate you bringing that bringing that up especially the uh Any enemy of my enemy is is my friend and he's not I mean and I when when we were talking about that I commented that you know Putin is like the uh, the best-looking mayor at the slaughterhouse. I mean it's still you know, or the only the the only one seemingly speaking with the same voice in a room full of insane people, you know, it's Who do you listen to? You know, who's who's telling the truth or who's getting the closest? to the truth You know, I mean they're all liars in my opinion. I mean if they're they're a politician. They they're probably lying So I met a really interesting guy at a libertarian conference here in levy of the Yaroslav Romantru He was a former presidential candidate in Belarus. It is a very dangerous thing to be a presidential candidate in Belarus Uh, but we were we were joking about, uh, russia today the the russian news station We we were talking about how great it is in the united states And it would be like the perfect like uh, the perfect joke if the united states Sponsored a russian language libertarian news station in russia Because russia is sponsoring a libertarian news station in english in america It's like it's like the the um, the teleponnesian war when athens and sparta They both did so well because each would free the other slaves. Um, I think that's what's going on russia Seen from america like russia as a counterculture to america is awesome. Uh russia up close and personal Uh is a lot less awesome and and uh, you know come come see for yourself. You know, believe me Well, maybe maybe we will do that and and on that note I would like to uh, thank you for your time and and point people in the direction of your website once again uh, roman's book report and the youtube channel Oh the youtube channel roman's book report and roman in ukraine.com. Okay, and I'd like to ask if I can stay in touch with you and and I will be following your website and and Keeping up with with your reports out of there And I will get this uh posted as soon as possible because I feel like it's very timely And I really appreciate your time roman and is there And I guess I'll just talk with you soon All right. Thanks for the opportunity. Have a good one