 Finally, Putin did give a speech last, I think it was yesterday, or today, before yesterday, I can't keep track of the days anymore. The way he laid out kind of the reasons for invading Ukraine and all these grievances against the West. The grievances came to keep shifting. You know, it used to be put to speech with all the grievances against the West, you know, the West did this, the West did that, the West is decadent, the West is... Yeah, I mean, it used to be that last speech he gave, the speech before this last one, he said, yeah, the West is decadent, they have parent number one and parent number two. You know, he's big on this woke stuff. And then he says, so this speech, he didn't use parent number one, parent number two. This speech, the West, the West is evil because it is in decadent and Russia stands up against this decadence and Russia is the savior of Western civilization, although he doesn't use those terms, that's Jordan Peterson's terms, because, you know, because woke culture is normalizing pedophilia and promoting the idea of a gender-neutral God. That's what really offends Putin, is that the West is promoting a gender-neutral God, which is somewhat true at the Church of England, I talked about this on a previous show, but who cares? God should be gender-neutral, it's bizarre to have a gender for God. Does God have sex? Does God have a sex? So he did his usual thing, you know, Ukrainian Nazis and neo-Nazis and he's purifying Ukraine from the Nazis. You know, it's fascinating how, you know, the left, you know, the left and right have to use these, you know, extreme labels in anybody who they disagree with in order to delegitimize them and in order to be able to say and do whatever they want against them. So many times, if anybody's on the left, they're a communist and that, you know, communism is clearly evil and therefore it's okay to do whatever with them. I've seen many people do that. If you're on the right, you're automatically a Nazi. Of course, for Putin, Putin who's considered like a fascist more than a socialist, so he needs to create, he can't call the Ukrainians communist, he calls them Nazis, they illustrate that he is the good guy. Nazi is a great term to use because everybody knows Nazis are evil. That's unequivocal, that's easy. What makes the Ukrainian Nazis? Nobody knows, right? All the supposed atrocities of the Ukrainians against Russian speakers in Donbass while, I'm sure there were some really bad actions that the Ukrainians took towards Russian speakers in the Donbass. Most of what you hear about that is Russian propaganda. Most of the damage in the Donbass was at the Kremlin's instigation and the support of the Kremlin and it was done by the pro-Russia element in the Donbass attacking Ukraine. So while I don't think Ukraine is an innocent, far from perfect and certainly not a free, pro-capitalist free society, it is like he is better as a society and is like he is more innocent than Russia is in this entire conflict. At the end of the day, what motivates Putin and what motivates the Russian elite is a mystical notion of a greater Russia. Putin said in his speech the other day, he said explicitly that Ukraine is part of Russia, that it's an artificial, it's completely artificial that Ukraine was separated from Russia. Ukraine is a part of Russia, Ukraine is Russia. Of course, so is Moldova, so is other places around Europe, potentially parts of this great Russian empire. And there's absolutely no reason to believe that if he was successful in Ukraine, he wouldn't try to take Tbilisi in Georgia. He wouldn't try to get Kazakhstan back under the umbrella of Russia. It is under the umbrella, but under the explicit rule of the Russians. So, look, I mean, this is a Russian war of aggression. This is a Russian war of expansion. This is Russia's fault from beginning to end. That has been clear from the beginning. It becomes clearer and clearer as we move, as the war has evolved. And the reality is the more Putin talks, the more he tries to explain himself, the more he explains what's going on, the clearer it becomes that everything we have said, that I've said, that others have said about Putin's motivations, about Russia's motivations are true. Russia are the bad guys here, unequivocal. 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 iranbrookshow.com slash support. By going 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 an announcement when we go live. And for those of you who are already subscribers and those of you who are already supporters of the show, thank you. I very much appreciate it.