 So here I'm going to give you some quotes from Putin and now from 10 years ago from yesterday Putin gave a speech yesterday Trying to explain What he's thinking what he's doing why he's doing what he's doing and the speech is very clear the speech Well, I'm not gonna tell you what the speech says. I'm just gonna read it to you So here is Putin these are you know passages out of the speech you can go check them out It's the speeches available translation of the speech is available speech to the Russian people yesterday and again You can you can find the speech you can check it out You can you know see if I've taken out of context or not But it is available fully translated. So here he goes. I would like to emphasize again This is Putin speaking I would like to emphasize again that Ukraine is not just a neighboring country for us It is an inalienable part of our own history culture and spiritual space These are our comrades Those dearest to us Not only colleagues friends and people who want served together, but also relatives people bound by blood by family ties Since time immemorial The people living in the southwest of what has historically been Russian land have called themselves Russians and orthodox Christians This was the case before the 17th century when a portion of this territory rejoined the Russian state and after There's no conspiracy theory here. He's basically telling you He's telling you that Ukraine is part of Russia He's telling that Ukraine is part of the spiritual space The blood and soil of Russia He's telling you explicitly. You don't have to you don't interpret you don't have to speculate you don't have to have conspiracy theories It's right here These are combats those dearest to us. These are people bound by blood by family So Ukraine is not a foreign country to Putin Ukraine is part of Russia Now the fact that in 1991 the Ukrainian people in Ukraine voted To separate from the Soviet Union and establish a separate political entity matters not to Putin He doesn't care and It sounds like many of you don't care the fact that the Ukrainians want to be free of Russian influence the fact that many Ukrainians want to be part of the West not a satellite of Putin Doesn't matter to him. This is his spiritual space Bound by blood and they are Russians Orthodox Christians they are bound together by religion and by blood And what a stick of them blood nothing he goes on to say So I will start with the fact that modern Ukraine was entirely created by Russia Or to be more precise by Bolshevik communist Russia This process started practically right after the 1917 revolution and Lenin and his associates Did it in a way that was extremely harsh on Russia by separating severing what is historically Russian land Nobody asked the millions of people living there what they thought So this is his argument in 1917 Part of Lenin's attempt to consolidate power and to control this vast land You know the communists were not in the majority. They didn't have The most powerful political machinery at the time right after the revolution one of the things that Lenin did was that he gave some of these provinces of the Russian Empire in a sense autonomy not sovereignty, but autonomy and He created an autonomous state of Ukraine and Putin is saying this is a creation of the communists and one of the great tragedies of his hero Stalin is that Stalin put up with this and accepted it Again, don't believe me because hey, I just read mainstream media propaganda You guys know it, right? Here I'm quoting Putin again what Stalin fully implemented was not Lenin's but his own principles of government This is a compliment to put it to Stalin Stalin is is Putin's hero But and here he's condemning Stalin He did not make the relevant amendments to the cornerstone documents to the constitution and he did not firmly revise Lenin's principles Underline the Soviet Union from the look of it There seemed to be no need for that because everything seemed to be working. Well, this is under Stalin in conditions of the totalitarian regime and Outward it looked wonderful attractive and even super democratic Excuse me for laughing but To him it looked super democratic so Putin's argument is Ukraine is a creation of Lenin Stalin made a big mistake by not unifying it under Russia Ukraine is not an independent state Ukrainians 1991 vote to be an independent state is Nonsense What matters is the fact that they shape blood with Russia what matters is the fact that they are Occupying Russia's spiritual space. So of course he wants Russia Ukraine I still don't think he's gonna invade Ukraine. That's not because he doesn't want to But because I think it's too painful for him to actually go to war with Ukraine I mean he'll settle for now for the Eastern provinces and wait for another mode of weakness in the West to take the rest of it He's already got Crimea So I just want to give you a sense of what this looks like so I'll get a map Because I know I know Don't take this personally guys, but Americans have a very very poor sense knowledge of geography so I thought maps always good because with a map I'm gonna get a sense of of Of geography right see here. Let's let's take a look at this Here we go. So what you see here is the Russian Empire. I think this is in You know pre-World War one right this pre-World War one What's interesting about this map you'll notice is Is is how big the Russian Empire is at this point in time There is no real if you look here, there's no real Poland Warsaw is part of the Russian Empire as is Minsk. There's no Lithuania Latvia and Estonia They're all part of the Russian Empire Finland Finland is not an independent state. There's no independent state of Finland during this period of time Finland is part of the Russian Empire Ukraine of course is Completely part of the Russian Empire as is Kazakhstan Kazakhstan is in the bottom Right if you're looking at the screen so in the east the southeast that's Kazakhstan and then of course the Caucasus states Georgia Azerbaijan and and Armenia are not Not independent states. They are all part of they're all part of the Russian Empire So here you get a sense of You know Russian's ambition now It is true that Western Ukraine and this is interesting Western Ukraine a place like Lviv If you've ever been to Lviv beautiful city in Western Ukraine They weren't part of the Austrian Hungarian Empire. So during at least this period. They were not part of the Russian Empire now of course all of this Changes, I mean there used to be a Polish-Lithuanian Empire That fought the Ottoman Empire and and occupied much of this land including parts of Ukraine for hundreds of years Or at least for decades. I'm sure some European here Eastern Europeans gonna correct my history You know The Caucasus had different status and different parts different periods Wars were fought over Crimea the British were involved in wars over Crimea this area this whole area Has been a flux over the over the centuries over and over and over again, right Lithuania used to be a huge country It used to be the Lithuanian Polish Empire or Lithuanian Empire, but Lithuania used to control Poland and much of Ukraine so Think of it. Maybe all these countries Certainly Estonia Latvia and Lithuania a Part of the Russian spirit the Russian soul the Russian whatever I mean How much blood difference is there between Many of these countries and Russia itself Moscow is not that far from Minsk Russia is not that far it's either. It's as close to Minsk as it is to Moscow and it's not that far from Warsaw mince is of course in what Belarus. I think that's Belarus So all of this is potentially Russian all of this is What Putin would claim is the historical right of Russia Now let's quickly look at the at the map of Russia under the Soviet Union. We have it, right? There there we go. Can you see the USSR? Finland is now Fought its way to independence and has its own section. You can see that in the upper left You can see in the USSR that Kazakhstan has been That's in the lower right not all the way in the lower right But in the middle right in the middle lower section. Sorry in the midst lower section. That's Kazakhstan that big light Red That is a province of the Soviet Union. You can see that the Caucasus have their own Identity you can see Ukraine now in Poland and Lithuania Latvia and Estonia have all been carved out and given their own quote autonomy and then if you look today You see that all of that is carved out you have now Ukraine You have Kazakhstan You have all those countries on the east on the west Yeah, Belarus Yes, Turkmenistan is down here on the on the lower right even further on the on not on the right in the center low 12 the number 12 is Is Turkmenistan? Chakistan Armenia you get Ukraine you get Moldova Ukraine is five She crane is right five the blue what you see is the blue. I mean look at big Russia is It could gobble up Ukraine and you wouldn't even make a difference wouldn't made the dent This Moldova Moldova is not high on my yes, but Moldova is number six It's right kind of on the other side of Ukraine between Ukraine and I think Romania if I remember my geography right So you can see Putin's ambition. He would like all this and of course Kazakhstan We know they're now Russian troops in Kazakhstan to suppress what appear to be an uprising against the authoritarian ruler of Kazakhstan and So, you know just to get a little map just to get it get a little sense, but but think about this Putin is a collectivist Putin believe in some Value some essence that is Russian blood What was it spiritual something? Let me find that Yeah, spiritual space the Russians Occupy the spiritual space all these places are Russian and This is what leads to war the fact that the Ukrainians don't want to be part of Russia's spiritual space The fact that Ukrainians don't want to be a puppet a Putin that is irrelevant It's not a question of what they want or what they don't want it is primarily an issue of What Putin wants and what the Russian people want and what the Russian spirit wants and these bounds by blood and Family ties there's no end to that and that has to lead to war and just just these was a Putin If you are an advocate of individualism if you have any sense of the greatness of American What America stands for if you understand anything about I ran You would declare Putin a villain just based on the speech just based on a few paragraphs I've written I've done in the speech Putin is basically declaring that Ukraine is part of Russian It's not a conspiracy. It's not a story It's his own words now the challenges of course the challenges of course is that You know Putin is weak the challenge she faces Russia is a relatively poor country GDP per capita is very low Russia basically has one industry which is natural resources and that is it Russia must export those natural resources in order to gain dollars Russia is You know Russia is a poor country it has been mismanaged by Putin He has destroyed. Well, he hasn't destroyed. That's a wrong terminology He has prevented Russia From achieving its economic potential He has prevented through his collectivism and nationalism and Statism and fascism really because that's really what he is Putin is a fascist He has prevented Russia from achieving its its economic potential. He has held it back. He has prevented it He has made it poor He is one of the greatest thieves in all of human history to compare him to to door anybody like that is just absurd I mean I will talk about to door in a little bit to door is terrible and awful, but to compare it to Putin God what universe do you live? To door is still not not yet at least executing his opponents To know does not have a one-party rule to know is not invading other countries To know has not stolen from the Canadian people hundreds. Well, not hundreds Billions and billions of dollars Putin is is said to be the richest man in the world Wonder Freeman says yet true yet. Maybe he'll get there But Putin is said to be the richest man in the world Because of what productive ventures that engage in nothing zero none out of his stealing is thieving Ukraine is not a should not be under Russian control. Ukraine should be under Ukrainian control Ukraine should decide if it wants to align itself with Russia or if it wants to align itself with NATO Ukraine should be able to make its own choices make its own decisions Not be forced to do what Russia decides it should do Now I'm not advocating for the United States of a NATO to go to war With Russia over Ukraine, although I think that Europeans should think about it Europeans might have an incentive to go to war with Putin over Ukraine, but America certainly has none zero Putin is a dictator He's a fascist dictator and the fact that he has so many admirers in the US including President Trump and His former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is truly spooky for the future of American freedom The fact that so many Americans admire him. I mean, he Tucker Carlson is a great admirer of Putin and a great admirer of Of Oban in Hungary. I still owe you a show on Oban and I will do that soon Thank you for listening or watching the Iran book show if you'd like to support the show We make it as easy as possible for you to trade with me. You get value from listening. You get value from watching Show your appreciation. You can do that by going to your own book show comm slash support I go to patreon subscribe star locals and just making a appropriate contribution on any one of those any one of those channels also if you'd like to see the Iran book show grow Please consider sharing our content and of course subscribe Press that little bell button right down there on YouTube so that you get announcement when we go live and for you those of You who already subscribers and those of you who already supporters of the show Thank you. I very much appreciate it