Great post! History is not my strength and I appreciate your weaving history into your posts. I knew nothing of Ukraine. It seems to me, the Republican party has been taking classes by Putin and his minions on how to create national domination aka authoritarianism. Victor Rud’s proposal makes sense. Make Putin look inward to distract his focus. Disrupt Putin’s plans. Wishing Biden and Blinken consider Rud’s approach, but removing sanction on pipeline doesn’t indicate that intent. Frankly, we have nothing to lose. Oh. Wait. We do. Democracy!
Frankly, we need to cancel FOX NEWS! It's the arm of Putin and controls the news cycles in the US. We allow Fox News to tell Americans who we are/and how we ought to behave to be Americans. Most of the people I see around me in the US don't act as if they get it. I've been around. I've taught Graduate level Architecture for over 30 years. I've seen a big changes in American students. IT's not too late, but we need to grab the bull by the horns, and turn this ship around. NOW. We also need to put our best and brightest to work figuring out how to broadcast an AMERICAN station into Moscow and its surrounds to sow deep seeds of discontent. We need to SELL the American Dream again!
Thank you and Victor so much for this amazing episode. I appreciate you guys going into the history of Ukraine, the country of my birth, and emphasizing that it is definitely NOT Russia. It's something that's definitely needed to be known to many people in the West.
It's also refreshing to hear someone, who understands the real threat Russia represents to the United States and other Western democracies. Victor is absolutely right, when he says Russia has to be dealt with in a much stronger manner. Putin is a "gopnik", a thug basically, who can only be defeated by his own methods. Anything less is considered a weakness by him and he's just laughing at the West and its weak moves to pacify him. That Churchill quote was on point!
Personally, I think we should keep hitting them the way Victor has described, until Russian Federation ceases to exist as a sovereign country. Carthago delenda est!
I may not know anything about the Ukraine and Russian history, but I do know how Putin, and by extension Trump, have to be dealt with. Magnitsky Act. Criminal prosecution. Sanctions. Tough back alley diplomacy.
Thanks, Alex. And thanks for subscribing! I know more than a lot of people, and this was all news to me. It's insane that our leaders and lawmakers are clueless about this stuff. I love calling him a "gopnik" because it contains GOP. Ha!
Interesting post, Greg! I would direct you to the excellent work of medieval historian of the Kyiven Rus' Christian Raffensperger. He is one of the few historians writing about the Kingdom of the Rus' in English. What is interesting is that Moscow was not founded by Putin's ancestors: it was founded by the kingdom of Novgorod (now Belarus). The Scandinavian-Slavic groups that established both kingdoms had significant connections to the Byzantine Empire, but also were affected by the Ottoman, Saxon, and Salian "push to the East"--the expansion of the Germanic "Holy Roman Empire" into the region--and the Teutonic Knights (origin of Prussia) who promoted "crusades" in Livonia (Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia). There were plenty of other groups who occupied those regions and engaged with the medieval and early modern European powers, despite the invasions of the Khans and the Ottomans.
I think that the US failed to capitalize on the Soviets getting bogged down in Afghanistan. Instead of leaving well enough alone, we armed the Taliban and al Qaida on the basis of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." Then we did the ultimate stupid thing and got bogged down in Afghanistan ourselves. We failed miserably to understand that Russia was never going to be a working democracy; that the Russians themselves were not terribly interested in democracy; that they much preferred to return to the Christian Orthodox autocracy of the Tsarist state, which had been replaced by a Stalinist autocracy. Putin desires to reconstruct not the Soviet Union, but the Russian Empire. He wants to be Tsar.
Thanks for that, Linda. So much interesting history! I didn't realize Novgorod was in Belarus. (White Russia, so called because "White" meant "West" in the four-color Turkic directions model. Also why Black and Red Seas are called that).
And you're right about Afghanistan, the Graveyard of Empires.
One of my cousins married a "White" Russian. I never knew what that meant. I always assumed it had something to do with his escaping to the U.S. and that Abe was Jewish.
My Russian friend told me White Russians settled in Locust Valley, L.I. Took refuge there in a community. That’s all I knew... a kind of “superiority” about them. Did not know any background of it. It builds this great informative picture to know more.
Aha! Until I listened to your last podcast, the magnificent one on Magnitsky and Firestone, and heard you introduce yourself, I had been pronouncing your last name as if it were Irish, “O’Lear.” Thanks for the clarification of your ancestry. 🙏🙏
Greg, back when you and I met, you made some (misguided) comment that somehow I would match and exceed you in some way.
NOT A CHANCE.
I know the difference between the Soviet Union and Russia, and I get all the Nazi Germany references, and I know generally what happened when Russia “annexed” (took by force) that piece of the Ukraine, but all of the rest is brand new to me, a history ignoramus. I am in the same camp with all those Americans, and American politicians who should know better, when it comes to ignorance of this history.
What on earth is “These are яблука and апельсины.” I emphatically do not read that language.
Well, you need to add BRAVE to the title PREVAIL. I find it difficult to intellectualize the US incompetency in foreign policy that I hope, is not mirrored by our inability to to even stop anti-democratic republicans from destroying us.
And they didn’t even use a GRID (well, there was Texas, right?). I’m a fan of hands on David Satter who said in a talk that Russians themselves, regard Crimea as theirs. So... 🤔....can I assume Russians who believe this...are the Republicans of Russia? The breadth of Victor Rud’s insight is fvking reassuring to be frank. My GUT and my HEAD have finally gotten validation together. This is terrifying. They only reassuring thing is.... Rud knows, you Greg found him and now maybe ..... only maybe...(? 😢) someone will hear this who can push a RESULT. Caps because that’s what’s needed. I hate the half informed intellectual chewing of cud we seem to do in America. Damn it.
So now we are “preoccupied” internally and can we respond Internationally as we need to? The last administration really did know what the directions were; create enough chaos inside America... so we can do our thing.
I know I always look a bit crazy, but I’m unrelenting until I find and dig up, the crucial point. It’s the way I’m built. I’m willing to look like a fvking fool to do it....so I’m incredibly grateful for this podcast and the fact you discovered him and didn’t let go of that.
Whew. I’m exhausted and totally energized by this recognition of our mentally lazy and slovenly ways... I do feel it has taken a democratic catastrophe to even begin to wake up “Strategy” genes in Democrats.
I recommend listening to Stuart Stevens on Jared Sexton’s podcast Muckrake... for a sad sad Republican realization (if it is that) that real damage has been done to the democracy that fed that Republican Party for so long. (And that they fed OFF OF.). One can’t be sure of what his book will be “It Was All A Lie,” but I ordered it anyway.
Oooooooo did Victor Rud write a book? I gotta find out more about this guy.
Thanks, Jacqueline. And no you don't look crazy at all. This is all so big. It's hard to wrap one's mind around. Not sure that VR wrote a book, but he has a lot of good articles out there.
I’ve been thinking about this interview. Most alarming is the bad guidance from academic books. This interview popped a lot of brain bubbles for me. It’s the whole point, right? Now, not just grow but grow up. And Fast. We are starved by cable news. Yet fattened up by stuff we don’t need; hype, speed, celebrity. THis is what the Fairness Doctrine looks like to me now; this interview. Not summary sound bites by Haas, or even Ann Marie Slaughter. THey never have enough time to tell you what they are really thinking. It’s all in bits.
This would certainly be one of those posts that I would leave a donation in the tip jar if there was one, Greg.....hint, hint. Thanks (to you & Victor Rud) for the enlightenment and adding a bazillion more questions than answers to those already swirling in my head, but that is probably what true enlightenment is.
Thanks for listening, Heidi. This one is fascinating for sure. I don't have a tip jar per se, but there IS a separate mechanism via PayPal...details on the ABOUT page. : )
Great post! History is not my strength and I appreciate your weaving history into your posts. I knew nothing of Ukraine. It seems to me, the Republican party has been taking classes by Putin and his minions on how to create national domination aka authoritarianism. Victor Rud’s proposal makes sense. Make Putin look inward to distract his focus. Disrupt Putin’s plans. Wishing Biden and Blinken consider Rud’s approach, but removing sanction on pipeline doesn’t indicate that intent. Frankly, we have nothing to lose. Oh. Wait. We do. Democracy!
Thanks. And yes, it certainly does. We don't even need to spread disinformation there. Just the truth, which is that Putin is a murderer and a thief.
Frankly, we need to cancel FOX NEWS! It's the arm of Putin and controls the news cycles in the US. We allow Fox News to tell Americans who we are/and how we ought to behave to be Americans. Most of the people I see around me in the US don't act as if they get it. I've been around. I've taught Graduate level Architecture for over 30 years. I've seen a big changes in American students. IT's not too late, but we need to grab the bull by the horns, and turn this ship around. NOW. We also need to put our best and brightest to work figuring out how to broadcast an AMERICAN station into Moscow and its surrounds to sow deep seeds of discontent. We need to SELL the American Dream again!
Hi Greg!
Thank you and Victor so much for this amazing episode. I appreciate you guys going into the history of Ukraine, the country of my birth, and emphasizing that it is definitely NOT Russia. It's something that's definitely needed to be known to many people in the West.
It's also refreshing to hear someone, who understands the real threat Russia represents to the United States and other Western democracies. Victor is absolutely right, when he says Russia has to be dealt with in a much stronger manner. Putin is a "gopnik", a thug basically, who can only be defeated by his own methods. Anything less is considered a weakness by him and he's just laughing at the West and its weak moves to pacify him. That Churchill quote was on point!
Personally, I think we should keep hitting them the way Victor has described, until Russian Federation ceases to exist as a sovereign country. Carthago delenda est!
I may not know anything about the Ukraine and Russian history, but I do know how Putin, and by extension Trump, have to be dealt with. Magnitsky Act. Criminal prosecution. Sanctions. Tough back alley diplomacy.
Thanks, Alex. And thanks for subscribing! I know more than a lot of people, and this was all news to me. It's insane that our leaders and lawmakers are clueless about this stuff. I love calling him a "gopnik" because it contains GOP. Ha!
And yes, Carthage must be destroyed!
Interesting post, Greg! I would direct you to the excellent work of medieval historian of the Kyiven Rus' Christian Raffensperger. He is one of the few historians writing about the Kingdom of the Rus' in English. What is interesting is that Moscow was not founded by Putin's ancestors: it was founded by the kingdom of Novgorod (now Belarus). The Scandinavian-Slavic groups that established both kingdoms had significant connections to the Byzantine Empire, but also were affected by the Ottoman, Saxon, and Salian "push to the East"--the expansion of the Germanic "Holy Roman Empire" into the region--and the Teutonic Knights (origin of Prussia) who promoted "crusades" in Livonia (Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia). There were plenty of other groups who occupied those regions and engaged with the medieval and early modern European powers, despite the invasions of the Khans and the Ottomans.
I think that the US failed to capitalize on the Soviets getting bogged down in Afghanistan. Instead of leaving well enough alone, we armed the Taliban and al Qaida on the basis of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." Then we did the ultimate stupid thing and got bogged down in Afghanistan ourselves. We failed miserably to understand that Russia was never going to be a working democracy; that the Russians themselves were not terribly interested in democracy; that they much preferred to return to the Christian Orthodox autocracy of the Tsarist state, which had been replaced by a Stalinist autocracy. Putin desires to reconstruct not the Soviet Union, but the Russian Empire. He wants to be Tsar.
Thanks for that, Linda. So much interesting history! I didn't realize Novgorod was in Belarus. (White Russia, so called because "White" meant "West" in the four-color Turkic directions model. Also why Black and Red Seas are called that).
And you're right about Afghanistan, the Graveyard of Empires.
Huh? Directions of the compass have colors in somebody’s cultural mythology? So much to learn.
Yes. That's why it's called the Red Sea. Red for south. Trippy, right?
One of my cousins married a "White" Russian. I never knew what that meant. I always assumed it had something to do with his escaping to the U.S. and that Abe was Jewish.
It means you add milk. ; )
My Russian friend told me White Russians settled in Locust Valley, L.I. Took refuge there in a community. That’s all I knew... a kind of “superiority” about them. Did not know any background of it. It builds this great informative picture to know more.
Especially interesting since finding out that my father's family came from what was then Poland, and is now Ukraine.
"Olejar," which is my last name's original spelling, I thought was Polish, then Slovak, but is actually Rusyn/Ruthenian. So: same thing.
Aha! Until I listened to your last podcast, the magnificent one on Magnitsky and Firestone, and heard you introduce yourself, I had been pronouncing your last name as if it were Irish, “O’Lear.” Thanks for the clarification of your ancestry. 🙏🙏
So you are writing about the world of your own ancestry. That’s always electrifying. And occasionally chilling.
If I had a media company it would be called No Apostrophe Productions.
😄
Greg, back when you and I met, you made some (misguided) comment that somehow I would match and exceed you in some way.
NOT A CHANCE.
I know the difference between the Soviet Union and Russia, and I get all the Nazi Germany references, and I know generally what happened when Russia “annexed” (took by force) that piece of the Ukraine, but all of the rest is brand new to me, a history ignoramus. I am in the same camp with all those Americans, and American politicians who should know better, when it comes to ignorance of this history.
What on earth is “These are яблука and апельсины.” I emphatically do not read that language.
Thanks, Roland! I don't read it, either. Pop it into Google translate and enjoy the joke. ; )
Brings Anthony Burgess to mind
Same here & hungry to learn more!
Gr8 piece but those intrusive tones 😖
It was his notifications which he couldn't turn off. I edited most of them out.
This was fascinating. A huge historical hole in my life has begun to be filled. Thank you!
... and I’ve discovered so many more holes along the way, 😂
Fantastic episode. I gotta read up on Rud’s stuff and some Ukrainian history now. You keep me reading, thanks!
Well, you need to add BRAVE to the title PREVAIL. I find it difficult to intellectualize the US incompetency in foreign policy that I hope, is not mirrored by our inability to to even stop anti-democratic republicans from destroying us.
And they didn’t even use a GRID (well, there was Texas, right?). I’m a fan of hands on David Satter who said in a talk that Russians themselves, regard Crimea as theirs. So... 🤔....can I assume Russians who believe this...are the Republicans of Russia? The breadth of Victor Rud’s insight is fvking reassuring to be frank. My GUT and my HEAD have finally gotten validation together. This is terrifying. They only reassuring thing is.... Rud knows, you Greg found him and now maybe ..... only maybe...(? 😢) someone will hear this who can push a RESULT. Caps because that’s what’s needed. I hate the half informed intellectual chewing of cud we seem to do in America. Damn it.
So now we are “preoccupied” internally and can we respond Internationally as we need to? The last administration really did know what the directions were; create enough chaos inside America... so we can do our thing.
I know I always look a bit crazy, but I’m unrelenting until I find and dig up, the crucial point. It’s the way I’m built. I’m willing to look like a fvking fool to do it....so I’m incredibly grateful for this podcast and the fact you discovered him and didn’t let go of that.
Whew. I’m exhausted and totally energized by this recognition of our mentally lazy and slovenly ways... I do feel it has taken a democratic catastrophe to even begin to wake up “Strategy” genes in Democrats.
I recommend listening to Stuart Stevens on Jared Sexton’s podcast Muckrake... for a sad sad Republican realization (if it is that) that real damage has been done to the democracy that fed that Republican Party for so long. (And that they fed OFF OF.). One can’t be sure of what his book will be “It Was All A Lie,” but I ordered it anyway.
Oooooooo did Victor Rud write a book? I gotta find out more about this guy.
Thanks, Jacqueline. And no you don't look crazy at all. This is all so big. It's hard to wrap one's mind around. Not sure that VR wrote a book, but he has a lot of good articles out there.
I’ve been thinking about this interview. Most alarming is the bad guidance from academic books. This interview popped a lot of brain bubbles for me. It’s the whole point, right? Now, not just grow but grow up. And Fast. We are starved by cable news. Yet fattened up by stuff we don’t need; hype, speed, celebrity. THis is what the Fairness Doctrine looks like to me now; this interview. Not summary sound bites by Haas, or even Ann Marie Slaughter. THey never have enough time to tell you what they are really thinking. It’s all in bits.
This would certainly be one of those posts that I would leave a donation in the tip jar if there was one, Greg.....hint, hint. Thanks (to you & Victor Rud) for the enlightenment and adding a bazillion more questions than answers to those already swirling in my head, but that is probably what true enlightenment is.
Thanks for listening, Heidi. This one is fascinating for sure. I don't have a tip jar per se, but there IS a separate mechanism via PayPal...details on the ABOUT page. : )