 Gary, thank you so much for making time and it's a pleasure to meet you here in New York. Now to introduce your next lecture that you will give on the 21st of March. I have some questions. You chose the topic, timeless values in a shifting world. Why this topic? I think this topic is important at any time because we're talking about timeless values. But the issue of values becomes even more important at a time when the human race is at the nexus, where you have to choose the path for the future. And if you miss it, if you make a wrong term, the cost for rectifying this mistake could be too high. And I think that after the end of the Cold War, the victory made the free world complacent. And nearly 25 years have been wasted without having proper comprehensive discussions about the future. The future built on our values. The values that made the free world successful, the values that helped the free world win the Cold War. And pretending that these values can change with the changing world, it's doing a great disservice for the core foundation of our civilization. So I want to talk about geopolitical picture, but always refer to the values that made the success of free world possible. What is it that drives you? Where is your political commitment coming from? I always believe that my duty as a duty of any decent human being is to contribute time, energy and resources to make a difference. And I felt that I could make the difference first in chess, and now I think I could take, though maybe not as huge contribution as in the game of chess, but still significant contribution for this world to understand the nature of the challenges we're facing and rational ways of dealing with these problems and looking in the future. Because somehow it correlates with what I did at the chess board by analyzing the games, looking for mistakes and preparing for future battles. Yeah. In 1972, Alexander Solzhenitsyn had his Nobel speech, and I would like to quote him. He says, I would go so far as to say that the spirit of Munich is the dominant one in the 20th century. The spirit of Munich is an illness of the will power of the well-to-do. It is the usual state of those who have surrendered to the lust for comfort at any price. They have surrendered to materialism as the main aim of our life on earth. End of quote. I think you agree with this, right? Absolutely. The situation in 1972 was different, but these words can be easily applied to the current situation in the form of a union and actually to other challenges that the free world is facing. Yes. You agree with him, right? So then the question is, how come? He says this in 1972. You say equal things nowadays. How come that in the 20th century and the 21st century, the West is still under the spell of the spirit of Munich? Yeah. Let's be very clear. This is not a linear progression. Yes, there was a Munich. Yes, there was Chamberlain, who followed by Woodson Churchill. And then there was the Yalta Conference, where under pressure from Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt, agreed to give up part of Europe because it was probably very hard to resist the pressure from the dominant Soviet army in the continent. But then there was Harry Truman, who defended the free world, who saved Western Europe, who saved Taiwan, who saved South Korea. And it was always black and white. I'm not saying black and white. It's just different periods. 1972 was not a good period. It was a period where the free world was on retreat. But eight years later, Ronald Reagan and it was the counterattack that ended up with a triumphant victory, with the fall of the Berlin Wall and eventually fall of communism and collapse of the Soviet Union. Naturally, after big victory, complacency, joy, let's celebrate. And we forgot that the disappearance of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union did not mean the end of our fight against evil. Evil survives. Evil could change its forms. But the challenges are always there. History cannot end, as was predicted by Francis Fukuyama. There's no end of history. History is seasonal. That's why I'm coming. I was a book. Winter is coming. Because it's seasonal. It repeats itself, as Munich in 1938 was somehow repeated in the early 70s, reflected by Solzhenitsyn, reflected now. But I've no doubt that the strengths of our civilization that helped us to reach the position where we are now and whether the first time in the history of human race, the free world is much more powerful than all the enemies combined. There is the total domination militarily, politically, financially. But it also creates a psychological challenge because people who are so comfortable with their lives, they have no appetite. They have no stomach to go for wars and conflicts. And they tend to resist any calls to their duties. But again, at one point they recognize that the challenge is imminent and it doesn't go away. And the combination of factors will mobilize the free world once and again to defeat its enemies. But do you already see new Truman's or Reagan's or people standing up? No, I don't see new Truman's or Reagan's in this country, neither in Europe. But I believe there is a huge potential that will be revealed very quickly because the cycle of replacing politicians today is much quicker. You have so many means of communication that could build and ruin reputations and information travels fast. So the moment the public realizes, the public in the United States and the United Kingdom and France and Germany and Holland, the moment probably believes that the free world must present a very strong sufficient response to the threats coming from Putin, from Al Qaeda, from ISIS, from all sorts of facts who are threatening to destroy the values of our civilization. I'm sure democracy always provides its pelagins. There will be warriors that will be called by the public and I think it will take almost no time. Will your lecture be a call to the public to take up arms and fight? My lecture will be an attempt to explain why this threat that we're facing today is existential. And we don't have to waste time as we did in the 30s or in the 60s or 70s to wait for the day of doom to wait for this threat to become real existential. You don't have to prove it to everybody who has no interest in politics. You don't want German bombs dropped to London so you don't want Soviet troops in Afghanistan and the world at the edge of nuclear apocalypses. You'd better deal with the problem when the cost of solving this problem is still not extremely high. And I will be communicating this message to people in the audience and way beyond this audience that this is not a simple response to militarist threats or political maneuver to sort of outsmart Putin's on this well. This is a very important moment for us to lay down the vision for the future. The future that will be built upon the values that made us successful. You know this famous quote of this French conservative philosopher Joseph de Maetre. He said, he must have said every nation gets the government the leaders it deserves. Now the Russians with its gigantic cultural heritage the Tolstoy's all the dancers the musicians the poets we have science, we have space race space race What does Russia deserve Putin? What about German heritage? Philosophy, science music I mean you name it and Hitler burning books it seems to me that almost every nation goes through the period of madness and what we are facing today in Russia is the ultimate power of this propaganda machine that could turn millions of people into zombies even despite alternative sources of information available it's hard to resist such pressure with 24-7 propaganda machine that has been working on the oral principles the war is peace slavery is freedom it's a complete lie and many people simply couldn't believe that such lie can become sort of a permanent a permanent a guest or just it's not a guest, it's totally occupied Russian media space I think it's it's temporary I think it will go away again, it happened before history it will happen this time in Russia the problem is not what will happen with Putin with the rat in the bunker that's no doubt about it that's what happens with guys like him the problem is what price Russia Ukraine and the entire world will pay for Putin's madness because unlike Hitler he has his finger on the nuclear button and that's why I'm calling for decisive actions today I called yesterday or day before yesterday because from history I know that one simple things, a lesson that we can learn even if the price of confronting dictator today a dangerous dictator might look high and even the consequences may be very potentially dangerous tomorrow the price goes up tomorrow the price will go even higher so sooner we confront this dictator and to confront him today we must recognize it's inevitable because his algorithm of staying in power includes conflict within Russia outside of Russia and in neighboring countries and also with the rest of the world because that's the only way to prove his sensibility for Russian public to keep up millions tens of millions of people in the zombie status you have to sort of raise the stakes all the time you have to keep bluffing with very weak hand in poker but keep bluffing threatening even with nuclear Armageddon to scare off your opponents so we have no choice and again this is not a simple fight between us and them this is a fight between civilization that is responsible for most of great things happening on this planet and we must protect it and we must do it remembering about these great timeless values that made the success of this civilization possible my final question your lecture is very political philosophical these are not particularly things young students nowadays are very much interested in why would you urge especially young students to come to the lecture I think I will tell them a few interesting things I was always curious to hear people that have something to say I think that I can present in a concentrated forum very important ideas for them to think of I'm not sort of laying down my vision for the future or telling them this is the only road that they have to choose but I want people to think I want them to become active again I think it's very important to revitalize democracy by bringing people in democracy is not for people in Washington Berlin, Paris big London democracy is for everybody to be active and we have unique opportunities now with all these communications techniques with new technologies to get our message straight to the desks of those who are making decisions and I will begin also addressing the audience especially young audience asking them to become active not to wait before crisis comes to you think use the technology use the experience accumulated from reading the books and also again collecting this data from internet predict this crisis, see the problem before it becomes too too big and address it democracy is a very vibrant thing it survives and it flourishes when people are actively engaged it's about using the power and wisdom of the crowd and that's one of my messages because it's also part of the time of this values Gary, thank you so much for this interview and all of us are very much looking forward to your lecture on 21st of March see you very soon