Great conversation, now I would like to see some more decisive action from our politicians. Frankly I do not understand what they are waiting for. The time to act is now!
Now is not the time for the leaders of the west to emulate the example of Neville Chamberlain. Appeasement is the act of feeding your neighbors to a hungry alligator, hoping it eats them before you.
David Satter provides a chilling description of Russia's disregard for the value of human life: "What became dogma under the Soviets was the notion of the individual as raw material". The value of human life is established by the rule of law.
You should look into American history of genocide and atrocities before so eagerly jumping onto the Anti Soviet bandwagon. Russia has a long way to go to catch up to that history. In the illegal Vietnam war alone America killed an estimated two million people ( some estimates 3.5 million ) mostly civilians by carpet bombing Hanoi. The list of Americans atrocities is a long one the result of being at war for 242 years longer than any other country in history. You are clearly speaking from a position of ignorance
A very interesting guest. His observations about Russian culture and psychology are spot on with my observations when I was there for 10 days in 1968. Such a shame. I had such great hopes back then for rapprochement, peace and love, but Russian culture is just historically and inherently corrupt, bloody and imperialistic. Even my Russian-born niece-by-marriage, who used to coyly say she admired Putin as a "strong man", is now appalled at how he has destroyed not just Ukraine, but her own Russia as well. So sad that so much potential for the positive has been wasted and turned into a geopolitical negative. Russia is a dead man walking. RIP.
Jonathan, thank you for keeping this discussion going. We are in World War Three and we just haven’t recognized it yet because the issues are huge as you and Mr Satter say.
Two years of my senior European friend educating me on Russian thinking still leaves me struggling with their don’t care about loss of life attitude. Their overbearing, arrogant attitude makes it a whole lot easier though.
David Satter is a fantastic guest. I thoroughly enjoyed his narrative style along with his thoughtful insights into the modus operandi of the russkie mir. I look forward to reading his book “ …The Less You Know The Better You Sleep”. (I just finished The Sister by Sung-Yoon Lee and any lurching towards that type of scenario would be disastrous for us all. Thanks Silicon Curtain.
Exactly. I wish more people would realise this in the west. We have to distance and protect ourselves from any kind of russian influence in any way, shape or form
Thank you Jonathan for your insights, videos and guests we appreciate the work you and others do to support the courageous Ukrainian Nation👋🏼👋🏼👋🏼. If the rich Russians who support putin and his corrupted Kremlin regime were forced to put their own children into this evil war of putin and not the weaker Russian people to lose their children to this insane delusional war, the story would be so different!!! Putin has corrupted so many in his desperation to keep control and has turned this nation into a lawless dog eat dog world. We pray for an end to his evil war that has cost too many people on both sides and he and his corrupted gang pay dearly for their dark evil. Ukraine and her Courageous People shine a huge light over putin and his criminal deluded gang, SLAVA UKRAINE 👋🏼🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦💪❤️🌻❤️💪🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦👋🏼
yes! and that methodology of the Ru's was what they tried a bit in CZ (bombing incident) and in several ways in SK (slovakia, via the fake youth groups, etc) So the Ru's are very specific and know who to try to go after. It's a very simple methodology strategically and can simply be thwarted entirely by all the Nato countries, but this DOES mean Hungary will need to adjust itself and stop the b.s.
Wonderful interview. It is so important to get the message out that Russia has no intention of respecting existing borders, ever. Unfortunately that noticeably silent russian community in Germany - which could protest freely if it wanted to but does not - still often insists in comversations that thus is anybody else's fault but their country's. Mr Fink and his guest are right that we in the West need to do much more towards recognizing our failings. russia must also learn to take responsibility for its mistakes. That's the logical fallacy of some of the Left's whataboutism. Some things are always bad - it doesn't matter who did it! When any of us refuse to see ourselves as anything but heros or victims when in fact we are aggressors, this appalling lack of enotional intelligence brings nothing but problems for everybody.
The Russians have studied and learned from the Balkan wars in the 1990s . Aggression and breaking international law was rewarded . The Serbs were given half of Bosnia and all the territory they ethnically cleansed . Russia will most likely be successful in trying to re draw the borders .
Honestly, I think rule of law is the lever we might use to move this huge stone. Think about it: Putin did not go to war, but instead initiated a "Special Military Operation" because he was concerned about the legal ramifications. There is a lot of work to do, but deep down even among the worst predators there somehow the rule of law still has some influence.
😍💯‼ David Satter gives us a sobering reminder of how very vulnerable the US is; a series of elected leaders great in one arena, yet ignorant and arrogant in others emboldened a criminal terrorist state, Russia.
I was listening to David Satter's book "The Less You Know the Better You Sleep" while hiking the other day, and within the first hour of it, I, again, couldn't stop thinking of the connection of 9/11/2001, the destruction of the Twin Towers and Building 7, and the Moskow/Ryzan bombings. The description of what was needed to bring the core of a 7 floor building down (mind you, WTC had 110 floors, plus 7 levels underground), how Putin conjured the name of Bin Laden etc., how only people within the FSB could have done it, and what happened on Felix Dezerzhinsky's celebrated birthday, lesd than two years later, boggles the mind.
This is one of the best speakers in this man has foreseen the future not what is now but what's to become of the world if we continue to allow what's happening in Europe
"There's this terrible indifference in Russia towards those who have died." Reminds me for all the world of Trump's attitude towards imprisoned, maimed and dead American soldiers....indifference and even disdain.
@@SiliconCurtain I don’t support trump, but trump ordered Syrian bombs before dinner with Xi. Sold weapons and provided training to Ukraine used at the start of this war, presided when special forces shot russian mercenaries in Khasham and bombed 40 times over. Maybe no honor but definitely business. Never saw any reset buttons that I can remember. There’s actually some stuff to see if you look around.
You have the Best interviews and most interesting guests of ALL of YOU tube❤..keep up your excellent endeavors to understand this insane vulgar and horrid thing of evil that is happening in this world today. Long time subscriber just haven't spoken my mind enuf 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🌻🌻🌻
Interesting interview, great points. I think the answer to the question at 53:42 is that you will see the West supply more weapons and munitions to Ukraine as their personnel issues become more acute. The Ukrainians and Western allies will look to substitute firepower to compensate for depleted personnel. Insert whatever political cover story to explain the uptick in supply rate. Western defense contractors have been gearing up production in the meantime.
I always thought that in the 1970s and certainly 1980s, the good ordinary citizens of Russia lived in rather extreme poverty. They couldn’t get a consumer item to save their lives. Lineups for everything even food. Luxury items almost unheard of. Any Russian or indeed East block girl, would give up her virtue for a pair of Levi jeans. So the collapse of Soviet Russia was inevitable back then. Everyone wanted to get the heck out and live in the west. Although I’ve heard stories that propaganda in Soviet Russia was so effective that ordinary people didn’t believe the west was prosperous. One story goes Gorbachev himself only knew the jig is up when he went to some normal American neighborhoods and saw shelves groaning with foods and other items impossible to find anywhere in the Soviet union. But now Russia has rather vast revenues from extraction, as you point out. Plus they get God knows what wealth from ripping off African countries and their Asian satellite nations. Poverty among ordinary Russians, at least in Moscow and Leningrad now is not inevitable. I’m afraid that even if Russia loses the war, they will be happy to resume kleptocracy with no human rights. That is because enough prosperity trickles down from the rapacious oligarchs to make life bearable. In other words: the poverty that took down Russia in 1990 no longer prevails.
I have conservative friends, along with conservative politicians and pundits who are against funding Ukraine. David Satter considers one of the reasons is moral degradation. That could be, just not sure. One of these friends is even Cuban, so I really don't get it. One friend I asked about the Budapest Memorandum and the Holodomor and he knew nothing about it, but nevertheless, had his opinion about funding Ukraine. So interesting to learn of the Russian mindset. I watched a recent video of how in China when someone is lying down injured, people refuse to help. ua-cam.com/video/wjj_mkc6b6s/v-deo.html
The question is if they are really conservatives, or just progressives in disguise. There's a difference between "we want to be rich, so we want to care only for ourselves" and "this society is so complicated we risk losing more than we gain, so we need to be careful" that conservatism really is made of. It's just that politicians wanting to win a republican election needs to win both these groups.
What you see in China is just the same we see here in Scandinavia: When the government takes a lot of money from you claiming it is because we care for others, people stop to care for others individually as they believe it is a duty of the government, not them. It just becomes way too easy to say "someone else will do it".
@@haraldthi As a Dane I strongly oppose. People help each other in addition of the public program. Both individually and in non profit organisations. Thats what I see here in Western Jutland especially. 💕🌱
My words on returning from Russia for the last time ( USSR ! ) in 1996…. ‘I’m not going back. Russia is turning into a criminal conspiracy.’ Prescient.
Thanks Jonathan, another excellent interview. And my acolades to you for asking, yet again, that doom laden question that none of your guests will ever try very hard to answer. " What happens if Russia defeats Ukraine ? " This is at least the third and maybe the fourth time you've asked - and yet again, a weak shudder, an oblique reference to " ужас " results, but no real meat to focus anyone's mind, despite your clearly stating why we need to consider it. Does everyone just assume that Russian victory will not happen ? I do not want to be a heretic, but I'm not so sure you can dismiss a Russian victory out of hand. All your contributors have real insight, experience, and great intellectual abilities, why can they not even scratch the surface of this question ? With their acknowledged experience it's not enough to say " I don't know " and move on. As I see it, if we have no clear idea of what we are trying to prevent, why bother !.
One thing I noticed from the Soviet society was that your immediate friends and your task teammates were very important but anyone else was regarded with hard suspicion. I took this to be a reaction to the pervasive oppression of the individual central to the system. This eliminates empathy for others in the wider society. Another crucial difference was that the vast majority looked upwards for direction. Again a reaction to the system. This suppressed the creation of new ideas. I found the Russians extremely talented and creative when they were presented with someone else’s ideas and products and expected to improve upon them. This meant in general that Russian technology was reactive in nature. It was sad indeed to see so many fine and talented people being bent out of shape by the wrong turn forced upon their society by the October revolution and relentless propaganda.
On a Macro level ... "Russia's Contempt for International Laws and Norms Went Unchallenged for Two Decades" On a micro level ... "trump's contempt for laws and norms went unchallenged for decades"
Wait a minute. We're seeing reports that warrior survivors are not being paid the benefits they were promised. The families of soldiers are not paid the benefits they were promised. That families of missing in action are not getting anything. So where does he get the information that they are paid handsomely.
Our citizens lack the ability to focus on the big picture because they are extremely stressed by their own circumstances. The US, and to a lesser degree, all anglo versions of liberalism has run rampant and the population is besieged with expenses in necessities, especially housing. They are in high debt and 1 paycheck from bankruptcy and homelessness.
Nice interview. It mostly confirmed what I thought already but added useful insights. A 'dig and sell' economy does not need people. It's worse than feudalism because even some feudal lords realised eventually that it was in their long term interest to have people farming the land. And I agree that America seems to be degenerating into introspective provincialism, as if they were still a republic of simple, virtuous frontiersmen and farmers, who just want to live alone, rather than being the global hyperpower. Very damning comment on Obama's presidency at 56 minutes. The US tends to view other countries in economic terms, forgetting that non-democratic foreign leaders who are willing to make decisions which seem irrational in economic terms can exercise a lot of negative, disruptive power out of proportion to their country's size. Putin did not support the 1991 coup because he saw it was badly planned and failing, not because he was against the USSR.
Huge thanks for this presentation. The true horror of a state acting for its interest without regard for individual human lives or a common rule based order has been clearly named by Mr Sherry. May we be aware of it and act accordingly to stop thie spectre of world wide chaos and mafia rule
We missed the bowling opportunity in Russia . This would have redirected their imperialistic tendencies to a sport with uniforms that also allows for heavy drinking and a little cheating. The oligarchs could have had their own leagues. Just think.
I really enjoy your interviews and content in general. Unfortunately the irritating, imprecise back ground clipping and blurring software is so distracting. Its a shame but it makes so hard to view.
For me it’s always been intriguing- never had the ‘rose-tinted’ spectacles. It still is intriguing, but in the way a pathologist might marvel over a particularly unusual tumour, or voracious disease.
Satter rightly points out that westerners usually do not acknowledge the fact that different cultures and traditions do hold very different opinions about the value of the life of individuals. They also have different attitudes towards power and its exertion. And moreover they hold very different views about the purpose of life and of history as a hole. If one does not take such facts into consideration one cannot react properly to the threats posed by these fundamentally adverse or hostile cultures. It is simply not the case that humans want to live a peaceful, tolerant and prospeous life as we in the west think as reasonable.
Mr.Satter and his host seem to be overlooking that in the UK today that "honor killings" in Islamic communities are looked upon as family business, and are not considered murders. It was only a couple of weeks ago that an attempt to change the British statutes to designate these killings as murder failed to pass. So much for Western moral superiority.
This, starting @ 2:54, is what the European Front in this bubbling world will be saved by. Ukrainian enthusiasm for democracy and a social market economy. Or, whatever. A say in their own destinies. Maybe that's the most atomic definition of "The West." The population is made to feel that they have an acceptable level of agency. The Ukrainians want this. So many of the rest of us take it for granted.
If international laws and norms also includes toppling the government's of other countries for example Ukraine 🇺🇦, In other to use the country for your own political ambitions then no one will ever submit to those laws and norms, Even the blind can understand that and given that the world is changing it's going to become harder to hold on to these ideas for much longer.
Kotkin's view is that ex-communist states descend into hyper-nationalism and fascism. But Russian national pride will grate against Chinese dependence. Russians traditionally see Chinese as inferior, the Chinese will be all too aware of this prejudice.
Chilling insight which regretfully confirms many of my prejudices I'd otherwise like to keep at a distance. I get the impression that Russian society still works along the Viking ethics of strength, violence and theft from outside peoples. Pretty much pre-missionary pagan as e.g. referred to in Strawinsky's Le Sacre Du Printemps.
I do not think the Vikings would have been liked to the same as modern day Russia... Even if violence to grab what others had, if they where not willing to let go with trade was well known even before the Vikings as a group emerged on the scene in Europe in the late 7th century.. As an reaction to the push the Christian world had done against friends and allies and tribe fellows south of Danevirke, who where build as an reaction to how Charlemagne had acted in what now is Northen Germany.. The mentality of Russians is more the result of the Mongol invasjon, and the result it had to the rules in Kievan Rus, and to the role Moscow, after a fashion would have in centuries thereafter than ancient Vikings, who had rules, and who build cities and towns along the great rivers - something only the Ukrainian Rus had done before - and where the tribes who become Russian, mainly kept court in overgrown villages... Kiev was a city of 10-20.000 people at a time when Moscow was slightly larger than the average overgrown village of the time, with more churches than people..
Very interesting guest. It has always seemed to me that when it comes to both Russia and China, whilst you may change the names, Tsar to President or Emperor to Chairman of the CCP, over the centuries nothing much changes and the 'ruling dynamic' remains the same. In Russia there will never be a shortage of secret policemen and trophy girlfriends/wives as it is one way of increasing your chances of not ending up as a victim of the system.
You talk about Western capitalistic economy, the western economy is controlled more and more by the 1% swamp that has managed to highjack supposedly democratically elected politicians who by way of lobbying are ignoring or eliminating checks and balances that were put in place to protect the majority. This is giving us runaway capitalism that benefits the 1% swamp and multinationals more and more at the expense of the majority. In the end the Western majority will end up in the same place as the majority in Russia or China and we will realize that the 1% swamp in the West is the same as the one in China and Russia. The 1% swamp no matter where it is the USA, CANADA, THE WEST, INDIA, CHINA, or RUSSIA is the same, their religion and reason for existing is the amassing of as much $$$$$$$$$ as possible and improvising the masses in order to control as much as they can. Ps This same control is also present in Imperialistic Russia as well as in China where the 1% swamp rules the roust, the 1% swamp has no boundaries all it cares about is the amassment of wealth to be controlled by as few people as possible.
Very enlightening video. A must see to understand what is behind Russia's actions in Ukrainne. Also,😨to see how the Ruussian people suffer in silence, while a tyrant like Putin is able to ruthlessly manipulate the Nation.✨️👍
There are Russian men fighting who have left well paying employment and finding Ukrainian men in Ukraine who are not fighting and have no wish to fight and they are wondering why they are fighting with Ukraine and facing horrors of war just for Putin. Tatarstan are also making protestation about the huge losses that they have sustained.
8:38 that's a really interesting point. It even points toward a morbid sort of incentive in society... Betray your cousin who is hiding from the draft and you might get his job.
Oddly enough, the value of human individuals as sacred was initiated by Judeo-Christian faith. While the Russian rule is more in line with the slavery it goes against, taken from cultures that did not go through the transformation the Christian Readers Movement (and the protestants it shaped) has given us. The idea of "human rights" is a construction enforced by the strength western countries have had the last centuries, but sadly it is by no means granted.
@@SiliconCurtain Indubitably. Russians have historically undervalued their own achievements and overvalued those of Western Europeans. Don't tell anyone else, but it works perfectly for tricking all sorts of people to invade Russia. Invaders are the traditional ingredient of Chernozem.
A wonderfully - or rather frightfully - enlightening guest. And I only half way through. A link to the Jerry Hendrix source, please? Could you, in the mean time give a ball park percentage estimate of the expected losses for the US if the ruses-based order preaks down? Just to have a concrete number to hold up against the 'a purely budgetary sum equivalent of 5% of the US defence budget - had it been paid out in cash, which it wasn't'- sum. And has anybody made the calculation of how close the US society is to actually making a PROFIT on the back of the 'equivalent to 5%' donation? Anyone?
It’s a little depressing but the Russian methods can prevail. It brings pride in the sacrifice. So Ukraine needs wider help on the ground, starting with the Baltics, Poland , even Germany. Europe wake up!
Let's usk at the people that are marching for Palestine if they want to raise their Kids to be martirs? - Like they raise ther kids from Russia to Palestine. We just want to Live and Enjoy Life & that's the difference.
These two are older than I am and asked a question that they know the answer to. "What would a Russian victory look like for the west"? The answer is, NOTHING! Because the first twenty years of my life Ukraine was part of the USSR and it meant nothing. Russia adopted the Mongolian hordes tactic of quantity over quality. "Most of the Hordes are comprised of between 50 and 500 Swarmers". But remember that the Mongolians sacked the Kiev Rus Empire using this tactic.
I think i agreed with everything he said (and was relieved to hear someone saying it) until he got to the part about 23 million Chinese iphones being sold in Russia and not working properly. He must have meant to say SMARTPHONES, and i can assure you Chinese smart phones work incredibly well. They have absolutely matched or surpassed the technology of Western phone companies, which by the way are manufactured in China lol. Even the smartphone vs iphone gaff alone is enough to tell you he shouldnt be speaking on the topic.
DAVID SATTER is always a welcomed guest. Thanks for your channel, Jonathan.
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Thank you Jonathan, SO much for the interviews you continue to share with us.
The importance of you and your guests is... priceless.
Great conversation, now I would like to see some more decisive action from our politicians. Frankly I do not understand what they are waiting for. The time to act is now!
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Now is not the time for the leaders of the west to emulate the example of Neville Chamberlain. Appeasement is the act of feeding your neighbors to a hungry alligator, hoping it eats them before you.
David Satter provides a chilling description of Russia's disregard for the value of human life: "What became dogma under the Soviets was the notion of the individual as raw material". The value of human life is established by the rule of law.
You should look into American history of genocide and atrocities before so eagerly jumping onto the Anti Soviet bandwagon. Russia has a long way to go to catch up to that history. In the illegal Vietnam war alone America killed an estimated two million people ( some estimates 3.5 million ) mostly civilians by carpet bombing Hanoi. The list of Americans atrocities is a long one the result of being at war for 242 years longer than any other country in history. You are clearly speaking from a position of ignorance
Another stellar interview! Thanks Jonathon and team 👍
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A very interesting guest. His observations about Russian culture and psychology are spot on with my observations when I was there for 10 days in 1968. Such a shame. I had such great hopes back then for rapprochement, peace and love, but Russian culture is just historically and inherently corrupt, bloody and imperialistic. Even my Russian-born niece-by-marriage, who used to coyly say she admired Putin as a "strong man", is now appalled at how he has destroyed not just Ukraine, but her own Russia as well. So sad that so much potential for the positive has been wasted and turned into a geopolitical negative. Russia is a dead man walking. RIP.
Jonathan, thank you for keeping this discussion going. We are in World War Three and we just haven’t recognized it yet because the issues are huge as you and Mr Satter say.
Thank you! I'm truly grateful for these discussions and the effort being put in this channel.
Yes. Seems to me there should be more explicit emphasis that US support for Ukraine is a national security issue, not a “foreign aid” issue.
Exactly
Excellent. Thank you for all your efforts, as always.
Two years of my senior European friend educating me on Russian thinking still leaves me struggling with their don’t care about loss of life attitude. Their overbearing, arrogant attitude makes it a whole lot easier though.
David Satter is a fantastic guest. I thoroughly enjoyed his narrative style along with his thoughtful insights into the modus operandi of the russkie mir.
I look forward to reading his book “ …The Less You Know The Better You Sleep”. (I just finished The Sister by Sung-Yoon Lee and any lurching towards that type of scenario would be disastrous for us all. Thanks Silicon Curtain.
👍👍👍 his books are tremendous.
Excellent interview
Fantastic interviews!! Thank you Jonathan!!!
Always learning so much from DS, especially in your long interview. Definitely a towering moral voice, and compass.
👍👍👍 he is fabulous!
And it was enough to listen to the Poles who know russians the best and were being ignored and dismissed for decades…
'Ruski mir'' = 'awfull to contemplate'; I totaly agree..bottomless anarchismand moreover, mafia rules.
Great interview.
Emotes a coffee , the most exquisite delectable a treat~and support! Please keep em coming Jonathan.
Agree with each single word ! 👏👏🎩🎩
Great content Silicon Curtain, ThanksMuch!
Horrible people. We need to disengage from them as far as possible. Not just to punish, but to protect ourselves from their influence.
Exactly. I wish more people would realise this in the west. We have to distance and protect ourselves from any kind of russian influence in any way, shape or form
Thank you Jonathan for your insights, videos and guests we appreciate the work you and others do to support the courageous Ukrainian Nation👋🏼👋🏼👋🏼. If the rich Russians who support putin and his corrupted Kremlin regime were forced to put their own children into this evil war of putin and not the weaker Russian people to lose their children to this insane delusional war, the story would be so different!!! Putin has corrupted so many in his desperation to keep control and has turned this nation into a lawless dog eat dog world. We pray for an end to his evil war that has cost too many people on both sides and he and his corrupted gang pay dearly for their dark evil. Ukraine and her Courageous People shine a huge light over putin and his criminal deluded gang, SLAVA UKRAINE 👋🏼🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦💪❤️🌻❤️💪🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦👋🏼
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yes! and that methodology of the Ru's was what they tried a bit in CZ (bombing incident) and in several ways in SK (slovakia, via the fake youth groups, etc) So the Ru's are very specific and know who to try to go after. It's a very simple methodology strategically and can simply be thwarted entirely by all the Nato countries, but this DOES mean Hungary will need to adjust itself and stop the b.s.
Great guest, and so on point!
Yes! I've been waiting for this for months! Now the day seems brighter :)
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@@SiliconCurtainThank you, Jonathan, for all you do.
Wonderful interview. It is so important to get the message out that Russia has no intention of respecting existing borders, ever.
Unfortunately that noticeably silent russian community in Germany - which could protest freely if it wanted to but does not - still often insists in comversations that thus is anybody else's fault but their country's.
Mr Fink and his guest are right that we in the West need to do much more towards recognizing our failings.
russia must also learn to take responsibility for its mistakes.
That's the logical fallacy of some of the Left's whataboutism.
Some things are always bad - it doesn't matter who did it!
When any of us refuse to see ourselves as anything but heros or victims when in fact we are aggressors, this appalling lack of enotional intelligence brings nothing but problems for everybody.
Great guest, great episode,
I appreciated the balanced but steadfast point of views of David Satter. Glory to Ukraine!
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🌀🙏💯🌀 Je suis impressionné de tous les enseignements qui me sont offerts, par vous et vos invités sur votre chaîne. Grandement reconnaissante❗️🌀💯🙏🌀
The Russians have studied and learned from the Balkan wars in the 1990s . Aggression and breaking international law was rewarded . The Serbs were given half of Bosnia and all the territory they ethnically cleansed . Russia will most likely be successful in trying to re draw the borders .
The phrase "Rule of Law" is incompatible with the words Russia or Russians in the same sentence.
Indeed, that horror story Mr Satter told of what happened in Nizhny Tagil is proof of that....
Yet you’ve managed quite well…
Honestly, I think rule of law is the lever we might use to move this huge stone. Think about it: Putin did not go to war, but instead initiated a "Special Military Operation" because he was concerned about the legal ramifications. There is a lot of work to do, but deep down even among the worst predators there somehow the rule of law still has some influence.
😍💯‼ David Satter gives us a sobering reminder of how very vulnerable the US is; a series of elected leaders great in one arena, yet ignorant and arrogant in others emboldened a criminal terrorist state, Russia.
@@christianmolick8647 good point, especially re: SMO rather than calling it "war", he did do that for legal obfuscation within the RU framework
Superb! Thank you.
such an excellent insight wow thing i never even thought of! thanks
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I was listening to David Satter's book "The Less You Know the Better You Sleep" while hiking the other day, and within the first hour of it, I, again, couldn't stop thinking of the connection of 9/11/2001, the destruction of the Twin Towers and Building 7, and the Moskow/Ryzan bombings. The description of what was needed to bring the core of a 7 floor building down (mind you, WTC had 110 floors, plus 7 levels underground), how Putin conjured the name of Bin Laden etc., how only people within the FSB could have done it, and what happened on Felix Dezerzhinsky's celebrated birthday, lesd than two years later, boggles the mind.
Selten so einen fundierten Beitrag gehört!
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This is one of the best speakers in this man has foreseen the future not what is now but what's to become of the world if we continue to allow what's happening in Europe
Once I've read that Stalin used to be very sarcastic to the russian narod, people. He compared narod to a useful soil fertilizer. Nobody reacted.
💛💙💜💙💛 listening early 😀👍
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Thank you for another one of your clear well informed interviews with another knowledge, intelligent guest Jonathan.
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"There's this terrible indifference in Russia towards those who have died." Reminds me for all the world of Trump's attitude towards imprisoned, maimed and dead American soldiers....indifference and even disdain.
I think Trump is actually revolted by the thought of fighting for honour, and being hurt or maimed. It’s the indicator of an extremely shallow man.
@@SiliconCurtain I don’t support trump, but trump ordered Syrian bombs before dinner with Xi. Sold weapons and provided training to Ukraine used at the start of this war, presided when special forces shot russian mercenaries in Khasham and bombed 40 times over. Maybe no honor but definitely business. Never saw any reset buttons that I can remember. There’s actually some stuff to see if you look around.
@@SiliconCurtain Guessing that Trump is revolted by the idea of playing by the rules when it costs you something that might advantage you.
@@SiliconCurtainNarcissistic to the core.
Trump derangement syndrome lives on. Especially with narcissist and ignorants…
You have the Best interviews and most interesting guests of ALL of YOU tube❤..keep up your excellent endeavors to understand this insane vulgar and horrid thing of evil that is happening in this world today. Long time subscriber just haven't spoken my mind enuf 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🌻🌻🌻
👍👍👍 your support is massively appreciated. I’ll keep them coming for as long as it’s needed!
David Satter always plesure to listen!
I feel like the best phrase describing Russian society is “depraved indifference.”
Also cynicism and spite.
Hey from Moscow.
@@zer0homer Best wishes to you. I hope you can get out.
@@singamajigy I was about to to Israel, since I'm Ukrainian/Jewish ethnically. You know how it goes))
How about Pavlovian indifference?
@@zer0homer Yikes. Best of luck to you and yours.
Brilliant.
Thanks for enlightening analysis of the Russian mentality.
Russia still has serfs, who never raised their heads. Pavlovian indifference. They are not like us. Mafyia state.
Interesting interview, great points.
I think the answer to the question at 53:42 is that you will see the West supply more weapons and munitions to Ukraine as their personnel issues become more acute. The Ukrainians and Western allies will look to substitute firepower to compensate for depleted personnel. Insert whatever political cover story to explain the uptick in supply rate. Western defense contractors have been gearing up production in the meantime.
I always thought that in the 1970s and certainly 1980s, the good ordinary citizens of Russia lived in rather extreme poverty. They couldn’t get a consumer item to save their lives. Lineups for everything even food. Luxury items almost unheard of. Any Russian or indeed East block girl, would give up her virtue for a pair of Levi jeans. So the collapse of Soviet Russia was inevitable back then. Everyone wanted to get the heck out and live in the west. Although I’ve heard stories that propaganda in Soviet Russia was so effective that ordinary people didn’t believe the west was prosperous. One story goes Gorbachev himself only knew the jig is up when he went to some normal American neighborhoods and saw shelves groaning with foods and other items impossible to find anywhere in the Soviet union.
But now Russia has rather vast revenues from extraction, as you point out. Plus they get God knows what wealth from ripping off African countries and their Asian satellite nations. Poverty among ordinary Russians, at least in Moscow and Leningrad now is not inevitable. I’m afraid that even if Russia loses the war, they will be happy to resume kleptocracy with no human rights. That is because enough prosperity trickles down from the rapacious oligarchs to make life bearable.
In other words: the poverty that took down Russia in 1990 no longer prevails.
I have conservative friends, along with conservative politicians and pundits who are against funding Ukraine. David Satter considers one of the reasons is moral degradation. That could be, just not sure. One of these friends is even Cuban, so I really don't get it. One friend I asked about the Budapest Memorandum and the Holodomor and he knew nothing about it, but nevertheless, had his opinion about funding Ukraine.
So interesting to learn of the Russian mindset. I watched a recent video of how in China when someone is lying down injured, people refuse to help. ua-cam.com/video/wjj_mkc6b6s/v-deo.html
They sound like isolationist populist. No true Conservative doesn't understand what's at stake in Ukraine.
The question is if they are really conservatives, or just progressives in disguise. There's a difference between "we want to be rich, so we want to care only for ourselves" and "this society is so complicated we risk losing more than we gain, so we need to be careful" that conservatism really is made of. It's just that politicians wanting to win a republican election needs to win both these groups.
What you see in China is just the same we see here in Scandinavia: When the government takes a lot of money from you claiming it is because we care for others, people stop to care for others individually as they believe it is a duty of the government, not them. It just becomes way too easy to say "someone else will do it".
@@haraldthi As a Dane I strongly oppose. People help each other in addition of the public program. Both individually and in non profit organisations. Thats what I see here in Western Jutland especially. 💕🌱
They oppose supporting Ukraine either because they are merely partisan or else genuinely pro-tyranny and pro-gangsterism.
My words on returning from Russia for the last time ( USSR ! ) in 1996….
‘I’m not going back. Russia is turning into a criminal conspiracy.’
Prescient.
RESPECT ✡️🔱⭐
PLUCKY UNDERDOG , YOUR MEMS ARE DROPPING.....GREAT GUEST, THANK YOU.
SOUTH PHILADELPHIA, OUT.
Thanks Jonathan, another excellent interview. And my acolades to you for asking, yet again, that doom laden question that none of your guests will ever try very hard to answer. " What happens if Russia defeats Ukraine ? " This is at least the third and maybe the fourth time you've asked - and yet again, a weak shudder, an oblique reference to " ужас " results, but no real meat to focus anyone's mind, despite your clearly stating why we need to consider it. Does everyone just assume that Russian victory will not happen ? I do not want to be a heretic, but I'm not so sure you can dismiss a Russian victory out of hand. All your contributors have real insight, experience, and great intellectual abilities, why can they not even scratch the surface of this question ? With their acknowledged experience it's not enough to say " I don't know " and move on. As I see it, if we have no clear idea of what we are trying to prevent, why bother !.
This is such an
irritant to me too. Essential question, no response. We absolutely need to talk about this.
Whenever good has to go up against evil, Often times evil will prevail, unless good is very, very, careful.
Very good interview. . . thank you.
One thing I noticed from the Soviet society was that your immediate friends and your task teammates were very important but anyone else was regarded with hard suspicion. I took this to be a reaction to the pervasive oppression of the individual central to the system. This eliminates empathy for others in the wider society. Another crucial difference was that the vast majority looked upwards for direction. Again a reaction to the system. This suppressed the creation of new ideas. I found the Russians extremely talented and creative when they were presented with someone else’s ideas and products and expected to improve upon them. This meant in general that Russian technology was reactive in nature.
It was sad indeed to see so many fine and talented people being bent out of shape by the wrong turn forced upon their society by the October revolution and relentless propaganda.
On a Macro level ... "Russia's Contempt for International Laws and Norms Went Unchallenged for Two Decades"
On a micro level ... "trump's contempt for laws and norms went unchallenged for decades"
"To a man; Bullies are made to be defeated into unconditional surrender, or death; whichever comes first." ---- Common Sense
Wait a minute. We're seeing reports that warrior survivors are not being paid the benefits they were promised. The families of soldiers are not paid the benefits they were promised. That families of missing in action are not getting anything. So where does he get the information that they are paid handsomely.
Xcellent!!
"Everything is going according to plan."
-Saddam Putsein
Russia and internation laws and human rights goes together like sandpaper and haemorrhoids.
Awesome!
Spit out my coffee laughing - thank you!
@@christinamuzzu6414 You're welcome :D
Our citizens lack the ability to focus on the big picture because they are extremely stressed by their own circumstances. The US, and to a lesser degree, all anglo versions of liberalism has run rampant and the population is besieged with expenses in necessities, especially housing. They are in high debt and 1 paycheck from bankruptcy and homelessness.
Won’t be long and they will have us back to the beginnings. Friends, family, and a stash of cash put back for hard times.
Nice interview. It mostly confirmed what I thought already but added useful insights. A 'dig and sell' economy does not need people. It's worse than feudalism because even some feudal lords realised eventually that it was in their long term interest to have people farming the land. And I agree that America seems to be degenerating into introspective provincialism, as if they were still a republic of simple, virtuous frontiersmen and farmers, who just want to live alone, rather than being the global hyperpower. Very damning comment on Obama's presidency at 56 minutes. The US tends to view other countries in economic terms, forgetting that non-democratic foreign leaders who are willing to make decisions which seem irrational in economic terms can exercise a lot of negative, disruptive power out of proportion to their country's size. Putin did not support the 1991 coup because he saw it was badly planned and failing, not because he was against the USSR.
Great guest and comments about the nature of the rules based order. Comments about Hamas fair but spicy
Huge thanks for this presentation.
The true horror of a state acting for its interest without regard for individual human lives or a common rule based order has been clearly named by Mr Sherry.
May we be aware of it and act accordingly to stop thie spectre of world wide chaos and mafia rule
We missed the bowling opportunity in Russia . This would have redirected their imperialistic tendencies to a sport with uniforms that also allows for heavy drinking and a little cheating. The oligarchs could have had their own leagues. Just think.
Brilliant. Thanks! The image made my day.
I really enjoy your interviews and content in general.
Unfortunately the irritating, imprecise back ground clipping and blurring software is so distracting.
Its a shame but it makes so hard to view.
Another nail in the coffin of my 50 year long misguided love of Russian and Russia
For me it’s always been intriguing- never had the ‘rose-tinted’ spectacles. It still is intriguing, but in the way a pathologist might marvel over a particularly unusual tumour, or voracious disease.
General Grant was only referred to as a butcher by Southern propagandists. There's no comparison.
Satter rightly points out that westerners usually do not acknowledge the fact that different cultures and traditions do hold very different opinions about the value of the life of individuals. They also have different attitudes towards power and its exertion. And moreover they hold very different views about the purpose of life and of history as a hole. If one does not take such facts into consideration one cannot react properly to the threats posed by these fundamentally adverse or hostile cultures. It is simply not the case that humans want to live a peaceful, tolerant and prospeous life as we in the west think as reasonable.
It's time the world has contempt for Russians.
Mr.Satter and his host seem to be overlooking that in the UK today that "honor killings" in Islamic communities are looked upon as family business, and are not considered murders. It was only a couple of weeks ago that an attempt to change the British statutes to designate these killings as murder failed to pass. So much for Western moral superiority.
Hybridarmyofthefreeworld thank you you are exactly right , I wish our politician would act soon and very soon
This, starting @ 2:54, is what the European Front in this bubbling world will be saved by. Ukrainian enthusiasm for democracy and a social market economy. Or, whatever. A say in their own destinies. Maybe that's the most atomic definition of "The West." The population is made to feel that they have an acceptable level of agency. The Ukrainians want this. So many of the rest of us take it for granted.
If international laws and norms also includes toppling the government's of other countries for example Ukraine 🇺🇦, In other to use the country for your own political ambitions then no one will ever submit to those laws and norms, Even the blind can understand that and given that the world is changing it's going to become harder to hold on to these ideas for much longer.
Kotkin's view is that ex-communist states descend into hyper-nationalism and fascism. But Russian national pride will grate against Chinese dependence. Russians traditionally see Chinese as inferior, the Chinese will be all too aware of this prejudice.
Chilling insight which regretfully confirms many of my prejudices I'd otherwise like to keep at a distance. I get the impression that Russian society still works along the Viking ethics of strength, violence and theft from outside peoples. Pretty much pre-missionary pagan as e.g. referred to in Strawinsky's Le Sacre Du Printemps.
That’s my impression also. The USSR created little value in the heartlands, but leeched off its colonial subjects.
I do not think the Vikings would have been liked to the same as modern day Russia... Even if violence to grab what others had, if they where not willing to let go with trade was well known even before the Vikings as a group emerged on the scene in Europe in the late 7th century.. As an reaction to the push the Christian world had done against friends and allies and tribe fellows south of Danevirke, who where build as an reaction to how Charlemagne had acted in what now is Northen Germany..
The mentality of Russians is more the result of the Mongol invasjon, and the result it had to the rules in Kievan Rus, and to the role Moscow, after a fashion would have in centuries thereafter than ancient Vikings, who had rules, and who build cities and towns along the great rivers - something only the Ukrainian Rus had done before - and where the tribes who become Russian, mainly kept court in overgrown villages... Kiev was a city of 10-20.000 people at a time when Moscow was slightly larger than the average overgrown village of the time, with more churches than people..
❤😢
Very interesting guest. It has always seemed to me that when it comes to both Russia and China, whilst you may change the names, Tsar to President or Emperor to Chairman of the CCP, over the centuries nothing much changes and the 'ruling dynamic' remains the same. In Russia there will never be a shortage of secret policemen and trophy girlfriends/wives as it is one way of increasing your chances of not ending up as a victim of the system.
You talk about Western capitalistic economy, the western economy is controlled more and more by the 1% swamp that has managed to highjack supposedly democratically elected politicians who by way of lobbying are ignoring or eliminating checks and balances that were put in place to protect the majority. This is giving us runaway capitalism that benefits the 1% swamp and multinationals more and more at the expense of the majority. In the end the Western majority will end up in the same place as the majority in Russia or China and we will realize that the 1% swamp in the West is the same as the one in China and Russia. The 1% swamp no matter where it is the USA, CANADA, THE WEST, INDIA, CHINA, or RUSSIA is the same, their religion and reason for existing is the amassing of as much $$$$$$$$$ as possible and improvising the masses in order to control as much as they can.
Ps
This same control is also present in Imperialistic Russia as well as in China where the 1% swamp rules the roust, the 1% swamp has no boundaries all it cares about is the amassment of wealth to be controlled by as few people as possible.
Zack the Russian explains life in Russia extremely well I believe
Very enlightening video.
A must see to understand what is behind Russia's actions in Ukrainne.
Also,😨to see how the Ruussian people suffer in silence, while a tyrant like Putin is able to ruthlessly manipulate the Nation.✨️👍
There are Russian men fighting who have left well paying employment and finding Ukrainian men in Ukraine who are not fighting and have no wish to fight and they are wondering why they are fighting with Ukraine and facing horrors of war just for Putin. Tatarstan are also making protestation about the huge losses that they have sustained.
👍👍👍
8:38 that's a really interesting point. It even points toward a morbid sort of incentive in society... Betray your cousin who is hiding from the draft and you might get his job.
39:14 haha, gently stated.
Oddly enough, the value of human individuals as sacred was initiated by Judeo-Christian faith. While the Russian rule is more in line with the slavery it goes against, taken from cultures that did not go through the transformation the Christian Readers Movement (and the protestants it shaped) has given us.
The idea of "human rights" is a construction enforced by the strength western countries have had the last centuries, but sadly it is by no means granted.
Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. At least in the southern free states in the USA.
Is there any hope for Russia …..In the foreseeable future …??
Thank you for uploading this enlightening dialog! It is very helpful practical example to showcase the mindset of modern day superiority complex.
Really? Perhaps your comment is more indicative of an inferiority complex?
@@SiliconCurtain Indubitably. Russians have historically undervalued their own achievements and overvalued those of Western Europeans. Don't tell anyone else, but it works perfectly for tricking all sorts of people to invade Russia. Invaders are the traditional ingredient of Chernozem.
A wonderfully - or rather frightfully - enlightening guest. And I only half way through.
A link to the Jerry Hendrix source, please?
Could you, in the mean time give a ball park percentage estimate of the expected losses for the US if the ruses-based order preaks down? Just to have a concrete number to hold up against the 'a purely budgetary sum equivalent of 5% of the US defence budget - had it been paid out in cash, which it wasn't'- sum.
And has anybody made the calculation of how close the US society is to actually making a PROFIT on the back of the 'equivalent to 5%' donation? Anyone?
Any one who has been around already know Russia only understands is a big stick.
Remember the Russian Olympics Doping scandal. That's just at a sports level... Zorcs and International laws ..
Zorcs… cheating and lying at every opportunity.
It’s a little depressing but the Russian methods can prevail. It brings pride in the sacrifice. So Ukraine needs wider help on the ground, starting with the Baltics, Poland , even Germany. Europe wake up!
President Biden He's Wonderful!
Lol… yes, affectionately “ Sleepy Eyed Joe” 😁😁 best nickname ever ( my opinion)😁
Let's usk at the people that are marching for Palestine if they want to raise their Kids to be martirs? - Like they raise ther kids from Russia to Palestine.
We just want to Live and Enjoy Life & that's the difference.
These two are older than I am and asked a question that they know the answer to. "What would a Russian victory look like for the west"?
The answer is, NOTHING! Because the first twenty years of my life Ukraine was part of the USSR and it meant nothing.
Russia adopted the Mongolian hordes tactic of quantity over quality. "Most of the Hordes are comprised of between 50 and 500 Swarmers". But remember that the Mongolians sacked the Kiev Rus Empire using this tactic.
Lawyers, banksters, doctors make money going up and going down...
Russias AND US contempt for international law is a problem.
False equivalency isn't the place to start, though.
I think i agreed with everything he said (and was relieved to hear someone saying it) until he got to the part about 23 million Chinese iphones being sold in Russia and not working properly. He must have meant to say SMARTPHONES, and i can assure you Chinese smart phones work incredibly well. They have absolutely matched or surpassed the technology of Western phone companies, which by the way are manufactured in China lol. Even the smartphone vs iphone gaff alone is enough to tell you he shouldnt be speaking on the topic.