Revealing Ukraine (2019) - full transcript
For the last 5 years, Ukraine has made many headlines in the press and television news, but what has really changed in the life of Ukrainians? Why is there a civil war still raging on the East Ukraine, in Donbas, even though it has been contained and de-escalated? How is it possible that such a troubled third world country as present Ukraine successfully meddled in the presidential election of 2016 in such a superpower as the USA? "Revealing Ukraine" by Igor Lopatonok continues investigations on of the ongoing Ukrainian crisis following preceding "Ukraine on Fire". In addition, it analyzes the current political backstage and its dangerous potential for the world. In the movie the main speaker - heavyweight Ukrainian politician, opposition leader -Viktor Medvedchuk is being interviewed by the renowned filmmaker Oliver Stone. Oliver Stone also sat with Russian president Vladimir Putin to ask him a questions about Ukrainian crisis. They share their thoughts on the reasons for the conflict and ways to solve it. The audience will be guided through a behind the stages of the real "games of power" in a way that they can't see in any mainstream mass media.
- Yes, hello.
- Nice to meet you, I'm Oliver Stone.
Nice to meet you.
- Oksana.
- Hello.
- Welcome to my hotel.
- Thank you.
- Please, join me at my table.
- Yes, please.
- Nice place.
I can sit because I wanna
talk on Ukraine now.
- Well, your English is very good.
And this interest in Ukraine,
why are you interested in Ukraine at all?
Where is Ukraine and where is America,
Russia, big countries, big politics?
And suddenly, Ukraine?
- Because I care about war and peace
and I'm a citizen of the world.
I was in Vietnam War.
I don't wanna see my country
go down this militaristic path.
I knew nothing about Ukraine
until I interviewed Mr. Putin
and I learned a lot about Ukraine
and I worked on Ukraine on Fire.
And, action!
- Good morning, Mr. Viktor Medvedchuk.
I'm honored to be here to talk to you.
So, just to introduce yourself
to people who don't
know anything about you,
can you just tell us a little bit
about where you come from, who you are?
You were born in the 1950s, right?
Viktor Medvedchuk
was born August 7th, 1954,
in Pochyot, Siberia, where
his family was exiled.
In 1978, Medvedchuk graduated
from Kiev University
with a degree in law.
He soon rose to great
heights in his profession.
During the Soviet era,
Medvedchuk was never a member
of the Communist Party.
Since 1990, he has been the head
of the Lawyer's Union of Ukraine.
During that period, he began to transition
into the political arena.
He was elected a member of
the Ukrainian Parliament,
the Verkhovna Rada,
where he served from
March 1998 to April 2002.
The Ukrainian economy
showed its biggest growth
during this time, reaching
an impressive 12% per year.
But after a new president came to power,
the economy drastically stagnated,
becoming a sixth of what it once was.
Medvedchuk also had great
success in the business world
with his law firm, BMI,
soccer team Dynamo Kyiv,
and trading in the energy sector.
He returned to his political
and public in 1998,
eventually rising to the position
of the first vice-chairman
of the parliament.
He was the head of Ukrainian President
Leonid Kuchma's administration
from 2002 to 2005.
He was in the opposition
to both Presidents
Yushchenko and Yanukovych,
who succeeded Kuchma.
Medvedchuk is considered
to be a close friend
of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Putin is the godfather of
Viktor's daughter, Daryna.
- Yeah.
- Oh, well...
I thought it was a big honor
for you to be the
godfather of his daughter.
- Ukraine split from the
Soviet Union in 1991.
In Moscow, the Hammer and Sickle
is lowered for the last time
and an era comes to an end.
Can you describe the moment?
Myself, like many of my peers
and the older-generation people,
we didn't know what the
standard of living would be
in Ukraine as an independent state now.
Gorbachev was
on Ukrainian television
still arguing for a
Moscow-based central government
linking the parts of the old Soviet Union.
Otherwise, he predicts anarchy.
Although most people
supported that path of independence,
we thought the path of
self-sufficiency and sovereignty
would lead to greater success
than it was in the Soviet Union.
On December 1st, 1991,
at the Republican Referendum,
the population of Ukraine,
by a majority vote,
expressed support for
secession from the USSR.
On December 5th, the Bialowieza
Agreements were signed
and the Soviet Union stopped existing.
In Ukraine, it seemed that
after gaining independence,
the republic could, in a short time,
become a prosperous European country.
There were all reasons for this:
a huge scientific and
industrial potential,
qualified specialists,
developed agriculture,
and the absence of inter-ethnic
conflict in Ukraine.
The determination to be
self-sufficient in practice
has led to a reduction in
relations with Russian partners
that were worked out over the decades.
25 years after gaining independence,
all illusions were dispelled.
After the 2014 coup in Ukraine,
there is no developed economy,
no peace.
Control over parts of the
territories has been lost.
I'm a supporter
of a sovereignty of Ukraine
and I believe that the
path that was chosen
in 1991 was the right one.
The governance of the country was
and remains being incorrect though.
The problem is that people
did not really benefit
from sovereignty and independence.
This really is a problem.
- And I gather that because
of your husband's positions,
you were blacklisted, so to speak.
Being a wife
of an opposition politician
is very hard, especially
in the last five years,
when the "democrats" came to power
"that preached democratic values."
And they
are ready with a hot iron
to finish those who they don't like,
who is undesirable and says
something that they don't like.
- What about your show?
What happened to your show?
Your colleagues?
People who worked with you?
I've produced 13 seasons
of the most successful shows in Ukraine:
X-Factor, Ukraine's Got Talent.
But after the American sanctions
were imposed against Viktor, I was fired.
And, of course, it was
a political punishment
for me as a wife.
And it is terrible that
a family, the wife,
in a democratic country,
are punished, in fact, for her husband.
- We are imposing sanctions
on specific individuals
responsible for undermining
the sovereignty,
territorial integrity,
and government of Ukraine.
- You're also on the sanctions list,
the United States sanctions list.
I was one of the first
put under US sanctions, one
of the first in March 2014.
The official
White House documents
indicated that I was subject to sanctions
by the United States because,
first, that I defended the principles
of building a federal
state structure in Ukraine.
This is strange for a
country that is a federation
and against the Ukraine being federation.
Interestingly,
the views of Medvedchuk
on the need to give more freedom
to the regions of Ukraine
are shared by the vice
president of the USA, Biden.
Anyway, on December 8th, 2015,
speaking in the Verkhovna Rada in Kiev...
- Thank you very much.
He practically repeated
the ideas of the opposition
leader of Ukraine.
- This issue of federalism
is the thing that almost
prevented our nation
from coming into being.
This is all
because of disagreement
with my position, which I
state publicly and openly,
and which neither the government
nor the national radicals like.
At first, I was very afraid.
It was terrible when you were
absorbed by this feeling.
I asked Viktor, "Let's leave."
Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians left;
talented, promising.
But Viktor said, "Where would we go?
"This is my country.
"This is my homeland.
"This is my home.
"I can be disliked by someone.
"Someone can hate me.
"I will have a different
opinion, but this is my country.
"I love it; why should I leave?
"We stay."
In 2018, Ukraine was already in
a state of deep economic
recession and political crisis.
The Crimea was lost.
In the east,
a bloody war continued in
the Donbas for four years.
Two stable
concepts have been formed
in Ukrainian society.
According to the first,
Ukraine should set a course
on complete political, economic,
and cultural isolation from Russia.
At the same time, within the country,
it is necessary to eradicate
any manifestations of anything Russian,
including historic monument, religion,
communication, and language.
According to the second concept,
Ukraine cannot and should not
break relations with Russia,
and the Russian-speaking population
should have equal rights to preserve
their customs, religion, and culture.
Viktor Medvedchuk became an expression
of this second concept.
Since 2018, he has been one of the leaders
of the For Life, Opposition Bloc,
the party who represents the interests
of the Russian-speaking
population of Ukraine.
Opposition Platform-For Life
is a political party in Ukraine
founded in December 2018 with
the aim to contest together
the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election
and then the 2019 Ukrainian
parliamentary election.
Government and our opponents
call it pro-Russia, but it is incorrect.
It is incorrect because people who live
and who want to be friends with Russia
who are against the policy
that the authorities profess
in the form of radical Russophobia
and anti-Russian hysteria
and want normal relations
with our neighbors,
people who stand for the
values that unfortunately,
in recent years, have disappeared.
- Your solution, although it
probably is impossible to get,
would be to split Ukraine
into west and east.
A defacto
division has always existed.
When we talk about the
west and east in the '90s,
we precede it from the fact
that there is a split in Ukraine.
It threatens to break up the country.
Unfortunately, the process
of disintegration has begun.
The question is, why?
The fact is Ukraine,
with its current borders,
is a territorial association.
If we analyze the history
of the last 10 centuries,
then the territory of Ukraine
was the territory of various
regional associations.
Since the 10th, 11th
century, it was Kivean Rus.
Then the Golden Horde.
Then the Great Lithuanian Principality,
which occupied most of
today's territory of Ukraine.
Then the Crimean Khanate.
The Kingdom of Hungary.
Kingdom of Poland.
The Ottoman Empire.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The Russian Empire.
And all these territorial associations
created their own culture
here, implanted their faith,
and recognized certain historical facts.
When you underline the
fact, which I oppose,
underline the fact that this would be
more of a Lithuanian principality,
the Austro-Hungarian Empire,
and it was the Russian Empire,
therefore, there is a different faith,
a different history,
and different languages.
The mistake of the current government,
it tries to build a single identity
out of this whole country
where they speak different languages,
where they practice different religions,
where they have different
assessments of historical facts,
builds this identity on an identity
close only to the part of
the people, the population.
That part.
This is a mistake that leads to nowhere.
This is the biggest strategic mistake
made by the authorities in Kiev today,
because this identity will
never establish itself
throughout Ukraine.
On April 25th, 2019,
the Verkhovna Rada of
Ukraine adopted a law
according to which the only
language that can be used
in all spheres of life in Ukraine
is the Ukrainian language.
This law immediately
provoked sharp criticism,
both inside and outside the country.
Ukraine is a political state
where the second language
in importance and spread
is the Russian language.
By its decision, the Verkhovna
Rada announced a defacto ban
for almost half of the country's citizens
to use their native language.
Experts suggest that further, the law,
contrary to the European
Charter of Languages,
will be another factor
in the split of society
and in the future of the country.
Yes, we will now learn English.
- Yeah, well, I understand that too,
but they're trying to
make it more European.
You can't go against your nature.
There are so many Ukrainians
who are different traditional
values, different values.
You don't have to force
America down their throats.
But you're getting the worst of America.
You're getting the America
as a debtor nation.
You're losing your economy.
You're going the worst of capitalism
and you're gonna go past the 1990s Russia.
It's gonna be...
America is doing the same thing
that they did to Russia in the 1990s.
I know you've said Russia and Ukraine
are two different countries
that are united by
history and by tradition.
Both, countries and people.
- And you've made the point
that you're two nations.
Explain what you're thinking.
These are two distinct nations.
Preceding from today, and for
the last 200 to 300 years,
there is the Russian nation,
there is the Ukrainian nation.
But these are close nations.
These are Slavic Orthodox peoples.
This is the basis of
civilization characteristics,
community of Russia and Ukraine.
If, in general, we compare
Ukraine and Russia,
this is one thing.
If we compare with the
western part of Ukraine,
then this a completely different thing.
Imposing this position here,
the influence on the
position of the whole country
is a mistake.
We must understand that no
matter how life develops further,
I believe in it and firmly believe
that we will still be neighbors.
And most importantly, it should be so.
- Yeah, I understand.
Mr. Putin may not agree completely.
He feels that Ukraine
is really a part of Russia historically.
Very close; I mean, very close.
- One people, two nations.
- You think it's one nation?
Indeed, Mr. Putin said
that they were not two nations, but one.
I had long discussions
with him about this.
I think that he is inclined
to my point of view.
When I raise arguments,
these are really two nations.
He never said that this is one country.
It used to be one country
and was called the USSR,
but this country does not exist.
Today, there is an independent
Russian federation,
an independent Ukraine,
and other former republics
of the Soviet Union.
Jubilation on the streets
of the Ukrainian capital as
protestors took control of Kiev
and President Viktor
Yanukovych was impeached.
On the 20th of February, 2014,
on the main street of the
Kiev, horrible things happened.
And this was a point-of-no-return
to Ukraine as we know it.
From the very early morning,
unidentified shooters opened
fire on the protestors
and on law enforcement.
Tensions were very high and
both sides were furious.
President Viktor Yanukovych,
special forces of Berkut,
and Special Security Services forces
were immediately blamed for the killings.
Angry crowds of protestors
began to attack the police.
- Who shot the protestors?
Do you have an idea?
The first official
government investigation started.
Investigators accused
special forces of Berkut,
Viktor Yanukovych,
President Putin's
assistant Vladislov Surkov,
and Russian Spetnaz.
All the accusations
were lacking one thing:
evidence.
Someone who has been
gathering this evidence
is professor Ivan Katchanovski
from the University of Ottawa in Canada.
Professor Katchanovski kept investigating
the events of the Maidan massacre
during the last five years.
In his extensive scientific research
based on a cross-examination
of the video and audio files
throughout the timeline of the shooting,
he got much further in his investigation
than all of the official teams together.
This was quite unprecedented
to have so many television
cameras, basically,
so many journalists
following and witnessing
such a mass killing.
On mostly all television
networks in the United States,
in Canada, Ukraine, Germany, Poland,
all different countries,
with exception of Russia,
it was presented basically as evidence
that this was massacre by police.
Here, police fire on protestors
with AK-47s and sniper rifles.
During the five
years of official investigation
of the Maidan massacre,
very important facts
were completely ignored.
Snipers were located in buildings
under the control of protestors.
During the investigation,
Professor Katchanovski
discovered even more horrifying facts.
And only recently, actually,
I found a footage which was filmed by
this Belgian television
from Hotel Ukraine.
This video shows they were walking to
the spot of the massacre.
They were not walking just on their own.
They were led by two other protestors
who were very loudly
calling them to the site.
No reason to go there,
and they were specifically
called into this massacre spot.
Victims were escorted to
the places it was planned for
them to be killed and filmed.
In Professor Katchanovski's investigation
that was based on scientifically
organized analysis
of all available video
and audio recordings,
he reached a conclusion.
The Maidan massacre was key
in a plan of an ongoing coup d'etat
and killings were planned in advance.
There were two interviews
published in the recent book
by a Ukrainian pro-Maidan journalist.
And in this book, they produced interviews
of two far-right leaders of Ukraine.
One was head of Svoboda Party
and another was the deputy head
of the parliament of Ukraine
at the time of Maidan massacre,
who was also one of the leaders
of this far-right Svoboda Party.
And they and Maidan leaders
met with some senior Western officials.
And this Western official
told them basically
that killings of a few protestors
is not enough for a Western
government to change support.
They said specifically
end of recognition of
Yanukovych government
basically would change
only if number of victims would be 100.
The Western government policy
changed immediately after Maidan massacre.
Not an accident,
because you have exactly
100 people who were killed.
Over these four years,
a lot of versions have been made public.
A lot of television footage was filmed
about the fact that they
were Georgian snipers
or that someone else did this
in order to provoke
confrontation and bloodshed.
The fact that has not yet been established
who started shooting at the protestors.
And if this has not yet been accomplished
in four-and-a-half years,
then as a person who
understands a thing or two
about law and criminal investigations,
I can tell you that it
will remain unresolved.
- Research has revealed there
were snipers at the Maidan.
The forensics with the
angle of the shooting,
bodies of the police and the protestors,
it was very badly investigated;
not at all, really.
But what evidence we have
seems to point to there
being Georgian snipers.
- I remember you were telling
me about the Obama phone call.
- President Obama and Russian
President Vladimir Putin
still disagree on all the
basic facts in Ukraine,
but the two leaders are
talking about a potential,
and I must capitalize that word,
potential resolution to this crisis.
- Obama and you had an agreement
that there would be no firing.
And he gave you a promise that he would...
But murderers
get away with murder
after a successful coup d'etat.
These events
that occurred on Maidan
that started in the end of November
and ended on February 21-22, 2014,
they were mostly predetermined
as elements of external management
which were then actually implemented
by Washington in Ukraine.
First, nongovernmental
funds, organizations,
and government officials
represented by Mrs. Nuland,
then by Vice President
Biden, and by many others
openly supported the
escalation of violence,
which resulted in the overthrow of power.
The most interesting thing
is that the armed actions,
they really took place,
and there were signs of
a crime in these actions.
These were serious crimes.
But when that happened,
by the time they ended in February 21-22,
the government had
already granted amnesty.
So, a law was passed that
there would not be prosecution
of people who participated
in the protests.
And according to this law, all
participants were exonerated,
including those who committed crimes.
Moreover, in Article 9 of this law,
it is forbidden to collect personal data,
meaning those who later came to power.
So, they established the ground in advance
so those who performed any
criminal activity at that time
couldn't be prosecuted.
We understand that the seizure of power
happened by force of
arms, but no one ever took
nor will ever take the
responsibility for that.
Legislative solution was
adopted in this regard.
I gave you
the example of Article 9,
of the law on amnesty of February
21st, 2014, for a reason,
where it is forbidden
to collect personal data
and to record any actions
that were related to those who protested,
so to those people who could
participate or organize
what you call today using weapons.
- Nationalist groups, they
burned your villa down.
Basically, no.
It was in February 2014,
just in the heat of the events on Maidan.
- Yeah, but who burned it down?
These were
national radicals, yes.
The fact is that over the years,
the investigation pretended
that the case was investigated,
but they couldn't
identify the perpetrators.
- So, no justice?
There is
no justice in this matter
and in general,
and probably there is
no point in expecting it
because this is not the only event
that affected me or my family.
Because in 2014 and 2015,
there were attempts to occupy my office.
And several
times, my office was set on fire.
This is all because of
disagreement with my position,
which I state publicly and openly,
and which neither the government
nor the national radicals like.
By the way, the last attempt
of setting my office on fire
was several months ago,
in September 2018.
And the problem is that since 2014,
the government has lost its
very important function.
As an expert in state-building issues,
I can say this function
is the use of violence.
- So, why do so many
Ukrainians hate Russia so much?
This is related to the processes
that have occurred during
these last four years
in order to bring this division,
a split in relations
between Russia and Ukraine.
This is the policy of today's government,
which has been elevated to
the level of state policy.
Resentment against Russia
has been growing for a long time.
Ukraine claimed a leading position
in the entire post-Soviet era.
One of the largest countries in Europe
could not have been on the sidelines,
but it was losing the competition
for the leadership to
Russia, and it was difficult
for the awakened national
consciousness to accept it.
In addition, it quickly became clear
that it was very convenient
for Ukrainian politicians
to blame all the mistakes in the economy
on the nonconstructive position of Russia.
Until a certain time,
disputes and rivalries
did not go beyond the relationship
of two brothers living
in the neighborhood.
However, with coming of
nationalist President Yushchenko
to power in 2005, the situation escalated.
The anti-Russian policy of
the Ukrainian leadership
has become more pronounced
and the propaganda pressure on
the population has increased.
However, this did not prevent
millions of Ukrainians
from moving to work in a
richer and more stable Russia.
Since December 2013,
anti-Russian propaganda
has become hysterical.
During the days of
confrontation on the Maidan,
fake news was constantly spread.
For example, the Russian special forces
are allegedly already in Kiev
and are preparing to use
force against the protestors.
The death of people on the Maidan
was also readily associated
with the presence of
Russian special forces.
When the situation
is constantly escalating
that Russia is to blame for everything,
then it is perceived by the
majority of the population
as a fact that Russia is an aggressor.
But today, the majority of
the population of Ukraine
considers Russia to be the aggressor.
After losing Crimea,
Russia is openly called
an aggressor in Ukraine.
Tearing away the whole region
was painfully perceived
by Ukrainian society,
part of which grew
and was formed in
conditions of independence.
The war in Donbas was also associated
with Russian interference.
Pro-government media kept telling
that there were whole
Russian divisions in Donbas
and it was them who bombarded
the urban neighborhoods
of Donetsk and Luhansk.
The population of Ukraine
willingly believed it.
It is much easier to think
of Russia as an aggressor
than to accept the fact
that the Ukrainian army
is bombing and shelling Ukrainian cities,
that the killed women and children
are the victims of the Ukrainian army
and the Ukrainian Nazi
military formations.
It was easier to blame Putin directly.
- Mr. Putin, you can win the
fight against the troops,
but you will never win the
fight against the nation,
united Ukrainian nation.
- So, Mr. Putin, who's the
godfather of your daughter,
is the bad guy here, is
the face of the enemy.
It seems to me, from
having talked to Mr. Putin,
that he's been trying to keep a balance,
trying to keep a lid on this violence.
There is a great danger.
I'm sure that Mr. Putin has pressure
from his own nationalists
who are unhappy with the situation,
so he's trying to keep the peace.
He's not just balancing.
Putin's attitude to Ukraine
is extremely positive.
- Mr. Medvedchuk would be a good liaison.
In a move
that has angered Russia
and fueled massive uncertainty
over the future of the war in Ukraine,
President Donald Trump
has approved the sale
of lethal munitions to
the Ukrainian government.
- Ukraine can be used
to push against Russia
'cause it sits right nextdoor to Russia
and because there's a history of animosity
between half of what was
Ukraine and with Russia.
They're able to really push on
some real background animosity there
that a lot of Americans
just don't understand.
It goes back generations.
And the press's job in all of this
hasn't been to report on it;
it's been to cover it up.
And anybody who actually
looks at the facts
of the Ukraine coup in 2013 and 2014
can see how the US was directly involved.
Thank you, thank you!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
- But it wasn't just an end in itself.
It was a means to an end.
And the end that they were going for
is a way to antagonize Russia.
We'll give Russia
no chance to invade Ukraine.
That's why we are doing
everything possible
to provide extra financing
for the armed forces.
- And then, when Russia
responds in any way,
then they can say, "Well,
see, they're the aggressors,"
and they've done this over and over again.
They've stirred up
aggression against Russia
right at Russia's border
and then blamed Russia for
anything that happened.
- This is a act of aggression by Russia,
that these were Ukrainian
vessels traveling peacefully,
seeking to go through the Kerch
Straits to a Ukrainian port.
On November 25th, 2018,
the first armed incident
between Ukraine and Russia
took place in the Kerch Strait.
A conflict
that could've escalated
into major hostilities.
Ukrainian warships attempted
to enter the Sea of Azov,
violating the state maritime border,
according to the Russian version.
The Ukrainian side claims that its ships
were in neutral waters.
During the conflict,
Russian border guards acted
aggressively and used weapons.
The ships of Ukraine were detained
and the crews were arrested.
- I haven't seen you
since the Kerch Strait.
Any comments on that?
Even though Viktor Medvedchuk
was in tough opposition
to the administration
of President Poroshenko, he went to Moscow
to negotiate with Prime Minister Medvedev
on the release of Ukrainian sailors.
It wasn't the first time Medvedchuk
engaged in the fate of
Ukrainian prisoners.
Practically, he fixes the passivity
and inactivity of the
Ukrainian official authorities
by addressing humanitarian concerns.
- How often do you go
down there to Donbas?
You know, I
used to travel very often;
have been to Donetsk and Luhansk.
I had direct negotiations
on the liberation of our citizens there,
as well as in Moscow.
So, I have been engaged in negotiations,
exchanges since December 2014.
- The Donetsk People's Republic government
say that moving forward
there can be no communication with Kiev
other than prisoner swaps
that might be in the pipeline.
Only Russia could act as a mediator.
- I feel sorry for Ukraine
because I don't quite
understand all the forces
that brought this division,
this polarization of the country.
From the American point of view,
it's simply a button,
a leverage point to use
to excite the Russians
and go after the Russians.
So, I would be very worried
if I was anybody in the world,
a citizen, that the United States
is gonna use this Ukraine
thing at any moment
to push towards a hot war.
- The whole world is watching you.
That's a fact.
They're watching you,
because their hope's for your success.
- Do you think that was a plan
of the Wall Street people,
of the Western people,
where they wanted to make
Ukraine a dumping ground?
You know,
I don't even have to speculate
about, I'm sure of it.
At the time of the collapse
of the Soviet Union,
many experts reasonably included Ukraine
in a top 10 of the most
developed countries in the world.
Starting positions of
the independent Ukraine
One-third
of the whole USSR industry,
the largest Black Sea
shipping company in the world,
rocket, aviation, and space industry.
As a result, after
reckless economic reforms,
after breakdown of economic
relations with Russia
and other post-Soviet countries,
Ukraine had a failure.
Since independence, its
economy has shrunk by a third,
ahead of the poorest countries in Europe.
After 2014, Ukraine took a sharp turn
towards de-communization.
Memories of the Soviet
time fade one by one.
But together with the monuments,
Ukraine is parting with
its industrial grandeur.
- Okay, what happens?
So, Wall Street people make money on this?
Does Ukraine become a junk bond?
Do they trade the future
of Ukraine on stock market?
Ukraine as
part of the Soviet Union
was the largest republic in
the production of locomotives
and diesel locomotives.
De-industrialization in
Ukraine led to the fact
that we now purchase
these diesel locomotives
from the United States of America.
Who benefits, Mr. Stone?
This is beneficial to those who today
are lobbying illegal methods
affecting economic integration,
the sale of their products.
Five years after
the Revolution of Dignity,
suddenly it became clear to everyone
the West is not going to open
its sales markets to Ukraine.
Nobody needed to have
unexpected competitors.
It was much more profitable
to force the Ukrainians to
eliminate their potential.
Ukraine used to be one
of the few countries
that could produce aircraft carriers.
Now, there is no ship-building in Ukraine.
Ukraine used to create space rockets.
Now it has no space industry.
No aircraft industry.
Ukraine doesn't have its
own automotive industry.
The military-industrial complex
once brought up to $3 billion
annually to the budget.
Today, most of the enterprises are closed.
Some of the enterprises
are located in territory
not controlled by Kiev.
Naturally, to say that today
we are trying to export these products,
these amounts are insignificant,
which, of course, cannot come
close to what it was before.
Because the less we produce,
the more we will purchase,
that this is one of the elements
of this external expansion,
an external management that
Washington has introduced
in relation to Ukraine since 2014.
- Kiev looks fantastic.
Another amazing
experiment over common sense
was the coal scam.
Ukraine, which has rich
coal deposits in the Donbas,
has suddenly turned from an exporter
into an importer of coal.
It seems that in Kiev and Washington,
they agreed to give a
new meaning to the saying
to carry coal to Newcastle.
After the start of the
conflict in the Donbas,
Kiev definitely refused
to buy Donetsk coal
and decided to replace
it with imported coal
from the USA and South Africa.
It was possible to buy it in Russia,
but the politics took over.
The second example,
Pennsylvanian coal is much more
expensive than Russian coal
and it is more expensive
than coal from South Africa.
And can you imagine the difference
in transportation logistics:
Ukraine and Russia,
Ukraine and the United States of America,
and Ukraine and South Africa?
At the same time,
today we buy 63% of coal
imports from Russia.
And we already buy 30%
of all imported coal
from the United States of America.
Is this not the result
of what you ask about?
Is it not the result of who benefits?
Who does it?
Those who benefit from the sale
of their products in Ukraine
in order to avoid domestic production
so that the country from the manufacturer
turned into the country of
the acquirer and the buyer.
That's what the benefit is.
- Is there any oil, gas;
there's nothing here?
You know, we
have oil and gas everywhere,
but we do not produce it.
It needs to be developed.
Therefore, Ukraine is rich in resources,
but resources require investments
that must be made in
the economy of Ukraine
in order to extract these minerals.
But the situation with the investment
and investment climate in
the country is extremely bad.
The economy is not developing.
The investment climate
has not been created.
There is pressure from the
administrative resource,
raider seizure of business,
the lack of a fair judicial system.
So, who would invest?
However, there were brave people
who decided to invest in Ukrainian oil.
The attention of world media
is attracted by one
company: Burisma Holdings.
There are very, very interesting people
on the board of directors of Burisma;
for example, Hunter Biden is the son
of the vice president
of the United States.
Of course, this state
of affairs is welcome,
but one detail interferes.
The son of the US vice president
received his post almost immediately
after the official visit
of his father to Ukraine
in the light of obvious
interest of Biden, Sr.,
in everything that is
happening in Ukraine.
- Ex-Vice President Joe Biden,
his son, Hunter Biden, has a
deal in Ukraine; explain that.
Yes, his son was
and remains on the board of directors
of one of the companies that is engaged
in oil and gas production in
Ukraine, so this also explains
the economic interests
of the Biden family;
not only the son,
but probably his
high-ranking father as well.
Perhaps this was precisely
what allowed Mr. Biden
when he was as curator
when he was in power,
curator from the side of
Washington in Ukraine.
He actually behaved like
a person representing
not only the country that
introduced external management,
but it was a representative
or leader of the metropolis
in relation to the colony,
where the colony was,
unfortunately, my country.
And his speech in the parliament,
I remember it very well.
- Thank you very much.
It was not just instructive.
It was a speech in which he said
what to do and how to do it.
And when stating his position,
he didn't base it on
argument or explanation,
but on the fact that this decision
was made somewhere overseas.
- The Office of the General Prosecutor
desperately needs reform.
The judiciary should be overhauled.
The energy sector needs to be competitive,
ruled by market principles,
not sweetheart deals.
"And you,"
the so-called legislature
before whom he speaks, "should
implement this policy."
- Ukraine needs a budget
that's consistent with
your IMF commitments.
Anything else will jeopardize
Ukraine's hard-won progress
and drive down the support for Ukraine
from the international community,
which is always tenuous.
On March 22nd, 2019,
Ukrainian politicians from the opposition,
Viktor Medvedchuk and
Yuriy Boyko, met in Moscow
with Prime Minister Medvedev.
It was about the conclusion
of a new gas contract
between Russia and Ukraine,
as well as the transit of
gas through its territory.
Interestingly, on behalf of Ukraine,
negotiations were not
conducted by officials,
but it could not have been otherwise.
Until 2014, Ukraine was
almost completely dependent
on Russia supplies.
However, due to disputes
over the price of gas
as well as for political reasons,
Ukraine does without gas supplies
from the Russian Federation;
in fact, as Ukrainian
politicians themselves
have already recognized,
in the reverse mode.
Through the special schemes,
the same gas is purchased from
Gazprom supplies to the EU,
but through European intermediaries;
for example, through Poland.
As a result, over four years,
the price of gas for the
population increased by 1,079%.
That is the price citizens
of Ukraine have to pay
for fictitious gas independence.
And then, a bilateral economic war began.
The thing is that Ukraine
joined the EU sanctions against Russia,
and Russia imposed
counter-sanctions against Ukraine.
And this dealt another crushing blow
to the economic abilities of
selling Ukraine's products
to the markets of Russia
and the CIS countries.
Fortunately, has not found a
replacement for these markets.
- And 30% of the budget
goes to pay the debt.
These are financial burdens
that even a normal
economy cannot withstand,
let alone a state that is in deep crisis.
I want to tell you
that along with de-industrialization,
we are still in a process
that the authorities
and our media do not notice.
This is another process.
It is called de-intellectualization.
Why?
This is due to the harmful
negative educational system
introduced in Ukraine.
This is due to the lack of scientific
and technical development today
because science and the
introduction of new technologies
is not actually financed in the country.
And naturally, the brain
drain goes along the line
of finding use for these brains.
De-industrialization led to the closure
of tens of thousands of large-
and medium-sized enterprises.
And after that, people
were looking for work.
And today, they are
looking for it in Russia,
in Poland, in Europe.
They left because they
couldn't financially support
their families in Ukraine.
- I set up the foundation
in Ukraine in 1990,
which is two years before
the independence of Ukraine.
- Where does George
Soros figure in all this?
Unfortunately, everywhere.
If we talked about some positive results
from the activities of this gentleman,
then we should've noted some success.
But his activity is mainly
focused on those countries
where he took an active
position with his various funds.
We remember the countries in North Africa
where the Arab Spring happened:
Libya, Tunisia, and Egypt.
We remember the Tulip
Revolution in Kyrgyzstan.
We remember the Rose
Revolution in Georgia.
We remember the Orange Revolution in 2004.
And finally,
the consequences of not
only the Orange Revolution
but also the Revolution of
Dignity of 2013 and 2014.
This is also his activity.
He did not stop.
He continued to operate in 2015 and 2016.
- The Russians were successful.
They accomplished what they set out to do.
They had an objective to
sow discord and divisiveness
within our society at large
and to help Donald Trump,
and they succeeded.
- The biggest mistake people make
when talking about the
Trump-Russia collusion
sort of MSNBC/Russiagate narrative...
- The Kremlin offered dirt
to the Trump campaign.
The president's campaign
said yes to that offer.
That's no longer an open question.
All that stuff has now been proven.
- They think that it
started Election Night 2016.
In fact, it's part of a much
longer series of events.
When Barack Obama was elected...
- I, Barack Hussein
Obama, do solemnly swear...
- Hillary Clinton comes
in as Secretary of State.
- I just wanted to have a chance
to publicly say thank you.
I think Hillary will go down
as one of the finest
secretary of states we've had.
- And at that point, she sets
up a private email system.
I think now it's pretty clear
that part of what was going on
is they were setting up the underpinnings
that would set up the Maidan.
She introduced a program
called Civil Society 2.0.
- And what we've done
with Secretary Clinton's
Civil Society 2.0 program
is we've taken one of
America's undeniable strengths,
the strength of our technology
and of our innovators,
and we've put 'em to work
in service of our diplomatic goals.
- This is a way for the US government
to work directly with NGOs
like International Renaissance,
funded by George Soros,
and, while working with those NGOs,
funnel money to them, but also training,
and the kind of training
that would be used
when the Maidan would start.
- I am the Ukrainian, the native of Kiev.
And now, I am on Maidan.
I want to you know why thousands of people
all over my country are on the streets.
- The direct involvement of this
we don't know anything about
because Hillary Clinton's
emails were all hidden from us.
That Civil Society 2.0 program
shows that the understand
that cybertechnology,
that smartphones and
all of that technology,
the tactics of activism were changing.
The scandal
that has become well-known
throughout the world,
which for some reason is
called Russia's intervention
in the US presidential election,
erupted in Ukraine.
- They're calling it the
digital equivalent of 9/11.
- A new report from the
US intelligence community
says that Putin and the
Russian government conspired
to help President-elect Donald
Trump's election chances.
- This is an electronic Watergate.
- Russia did not help me.
- The FBI, as part of our
counterintelligence mission,
is investigating the
Russian government's efforts
to interfere in the 2016
presidential election.
- Obviously, Russia's
been accused and accused
over and over again of
interference in the 2016 election.
- But now in the US,
there's been investigation
about Ukraine's interference
in the election.
It was a very confusing situation.
Poroshenko seems to have been
very strongly pro-Clinton, anti-Trump.
- Do you think there was interference?
For some reason,
we are talking about the
interference of Russia,
associated primarily with
the former campaign chairman
of the then-presidential
candidate Donald Trump,
Mr. Paul Manafort.
- Lock him up!
- Lock him up!
In this scandal,
which erupted in Ukraine,
he played an organizational
and ideological function.
- Let's talk about this new reporting
from the New York Times this
morning about Paul Manafort
and his dealings in the Ukraine.
In order
to organize this scandal
to discredit the presidential
candidate and his campaign,
which he actually managed,
Mr. Manafort was removed from
power of the head of staff.
Last August,
a jury convicted Manafort
of eight felonies, including
tax and bank fraud.
One month later, he pleaded guilty
to two more counts of conspiracy
and agreed to cooperate with
the Russian investigation
in exchange for a lighter sentence.
- Paul Manafort, he was consulting
with the Party of Regions.
The Party of Regions
is a political party of
Ukraine created in late-1997
that then grew to be the
biggest party of Ukraine
between 2006 and 2014.
- So, Andrew Kramer publishes
a story in the New York Times
about Paul Manafort's name being
found in this black ledger.
Serhiy Leshchenko
is a Ukrainian journalist
turned lawmaker who staked his career
on fighting corruption.
- This use to be office of Paul Manafort.
This, he says,
is where a potentially crucial
bit of evidence was found:
a suspicious invoice that
appears to be personally signed
by Paul Manafort.
- So, the person who put
the accusation forward
about Manafort was Serhiy Leshchenko.
- Today, I present the documents
signed by Paul Manafort.
Leshchenko, he has the image,
I call it primitively inaccurate,
the fighter of corruption.
- The problem of corruption,
this is a problem
of the whole period of
Ukrainian independence.
But he fights against corruption
following orders.
There is an order to fight with
a corrupt person; he fights.
If not, he does not.
He has lost a lot of slander
lawsuits directed against him,
because often some of the
information that he has presented,
considering his authority as a journalist,
is not simply implausible,
it is deceitful.
It was he who, as a member of parliament,
as a former journalist,
was instructed to make
these records public
from this ledger of the Party of Regions.
The interesting fact of the matter
is that when the story
of the so-called ledger
of the Party of Regions came to light
and when he first reported about it,
there was no mention of Paul Manafort.
He spoke about other people.
That is, there was a test
run for the main strike.
All this was done with one goal:
to strike at the presidential
candidate Donald Trump.
Why am I sure about this?
I have good arguments for this,
because in this ledger,
there were the names
of hundreds of people
for these four years.
There were huge amounts,
tens of millions of dollars,
many tens of millions of dollars.
There were specific people
where not only their names were indicated,
but also a personal signature
that they received the money informally.
No criminal cases have been investigated
on these records yet.
No one has been prosecuted.
Hence, the conclusion
is that this was done
for a concentrated, focused
strike against the main target.
This main target, which
was dictated from overseas,
was called presidential
candidate Donald Trump.
- Serhiy Leshchenko and
his anti-corruption team
have every reason to wanna
see Donald Trump defeated
this election because of
his support for Russia,
which is currently at war with Ukraine.
- And this is the point in the story
where the music changes
and gets ominous and dark.
And it succeeded.
Manafort was removed as
the campaign chairman.
Such things can't happen
in the autonomous mode.
They can take place
only if the authority
gave the green light.
Therefore, these actions
cannot be regarded
as nothing other than an interference,
especially as interference
as a term is very popular.
- Russian...
- Russians...
- Russia...
- Russia...
- Russian...
- Russian election interference.
- Russian witch hunt!
They just talk about it
mostly when it comes to
Russia's interference
with the US presidential elections.
But in this case, even the court found
that these actions were illegal,
which influenced the electoral process.
I am sure that Mr. Soros
is behind this too,
because this is a team of Democrats.
Nuland, Soros, Biden,
in favor of the interests
of Hillary Clinton,
did everything to prevent Mr. Trump
from being elected in the 2016 elections.
- People use the word dossier
and it has such an official sound to it.
I mean, let's just call it for what it is:
rank hearsay put together by an FBI source
who was later defrocked,
paid for by the Democrat
National Committee, and,
oh by the way, Christopher
Steele hated Donald Trump too.
- Throughout the summer of 2016,
Victoria Nuland was being
updated by Christopher Steele.
In early-2018, Victoria Nuland admitted
that she's been being briefed
by Christopher Steele.
She talked openly about it
on CBS's Face the Nation.
- During the Ukraine
crisis in 2014 and '15,
Chris Steele had a number
of commercial clients
who were asking him for reports
on what was going on in Russia,
what was going on in Ukraine.
- Why is that?
Okay, my conjecture here,
they were concerned.
They wanted to get ahead of the reporting
and explain why they were
talking to Christopher Steele.
- Chris had a friend
at the State Department
and he offered us that reporting free
so that we could also benefit from it.
- Victoria Nuland said,
"I immediately urged
him to go to the FBI."
- In the middle of July,
when he was doing this other
work and became concerned...
The dossier?
- The dossier, he passed two to four pages
of short points of what he was finding.
And our immediate reaction to that was,
"This is not in our purview.
"This needs to go to the FBI."
- And you'll find a spate of people
who urged Christopher
Steele to go to the FBI.
John McCain urged him to go to the FBI.
Everybody urged him to go to the FBI.
And why is that?
I think they're setting up a cover story.
They wanna say, "We told
him to go to the FBI."
I think, in fact, what they were doing
was setting up the information operation.
- I used to work in the Ukrainian Embassy
here in Washington in 2015, 2016.
And one day, I was approached
by the DC Ukrainian
Embassy, Oksana Shulyar,
asking me to meet a person
she knows really well,
and I met with a DNC
operative, Alexandra Chalupa.
- Alexandra Chalupa, who, as a lawyer,
she had worked in the Bill
Clinton Administration
as an intern, she'd been a DNC
operative for about 12 years,
and she's the Ukrainian-American
whose mother was deeply
involved in politics.
In 2015, Alexandra Chalupa and her sister
start campaigning very
hard against Paul Manafort.
- This is who Paul Manafort is.
He is a puppet master
of some of the most vile
dictators around the world.
- Manafort was from Connecticut.
They went to Connecticut
and protested against him.
It's not clear to me exactly
why he was being targeted,
but Alexandra Chalupa has said
she was pulled out of
retirement to work on this.
She was asking
any more information on dirt,
that's how she put it, to
get Trump off the campaign
in September/October of 2016,
right before the elections.
- Most of the key evidence
that shows the collusion
between the Ukrainian government
and the DNC, operatives for the DNC,
came in an article that was
actually published in Politico
before the inauguration.
Ken Vogel and David Stern
wrote an article in Politico
that talked about how
the Ukrainian government
had tried to collude and interfere
on behalf of Hillary
Clinton in the 2016 election
and, furthermore, how Petro
Poroshenko was very worried
that the Trump Administration
would figure out
they'd been working against him.
And anybody who's watched
Donald Trump for a few minutes
knows he's fairly vengeful
to people he feel has wronged him.
- John McCain received a
fake and phony dossier.
Did you hear about the dossier?
It was paid for by crooked
Hillary Clinton, right?
And John McCain got it, he
got it, and what did he do?
He didn't call me.
He turned it over to the FBI,
hoping to put me in jeopardy,
and that's not the nicest thing to do.
- So, Petro Poroshenko was
concerned that that would happen.
Two reasons:
one, because of the arms deals
and the economic deals and the
loans, but also personally.
Petro Poroshenko, since he'd been elected,
had become a very unpopular president.
At one point, I think his approval rating
dipped down under 10%,
a shockingly low number.
In fact, polls showed that Ukraine
has the least confidence
in their government
of any country on the face of the Earth.
So, after Poroshenko was put into power
by the United States,
things have been disastrous for Ukraine.
So, Poroshenko was also worried
that if he could not
withstand a reelection bid
that he was gonna have Donald
Trump in the West mad at him.
And you can see his fears evolving.
The first thing they
tried to do was make sure
they patched up things
diplomatically for Ukraine.
But then later, he started
to throw people under the bus
just to protect himself.
Because it was a failure
of Ukraine's foreign policy.
The interesting thing is
that the court acknowledged
the fact of interference
by such actions in the
US electoral process.
I heard the accusations of Russia
interfering in the US electoral process,
which is not confirmed by real evidence.
There is a court decision.
Moreover, this court decision
established the illegitimacy,
but it has also been established
that the actions of these individuals
as citizens of Ukraine
caused significant harm
to the foreign policy of Ukraine.
- So, in the spring of 2016,
Alexandra Chalupa goes
to the Ukrainian Embassy
in Georgetown and she's
introduced to Andrii Telizhenko.
And he's introduced to Alexandra Chalupa
by the ambassador, Chaly,
and Alexandra Chalupa
tells Andrii Telizhenko
that she's trying to dig up
dirt on Donald Trump and Russia
and trying to dig up dirt
on Paul Manafort and Russia.
- She actually did want
to use this information,
not for some intelligence
purpose or legal purpose.
She did wanna use it to
interfere in an election.
- From what I saw, yes.
- Alexandra Chalupa admits this
in that article for Politico.
She doesn't deny that at all.
She also tells Telizhenko
that she doesn't want him
to coordinate or help the
Trump campaign in any way.
Now, Telizhenko, he's a loyal Ukrainian
who'd been part of the Maidan.
He doesn't like this.
He thinks it's illegal
and he thinks it's stupid.
And he thinks it's stupid
because if you bet on the wrong horse,
this could come back to haunt you.
He turned out to be exactly right.
He went to the ambassador, Chaly,
and said, "This is illegal."
"I don't wanna be any part of this."
Chaly yells at him.
He gets in trouble.
He leaves the embassy about a month later,
goes back to Ukraine.
Cut to Trump gets elected...
- I've just received a call
from Secretary Clinton.
- Now, Ken Vogel and
David Stern of Politico,
they've caught wind that
the Ukrainian government
had colluded with the DNC
to intervene on behalf of Hillary Clinton
and they start to do a
very well-researched story.
The talk to Andrii Telizhenko.
They get denials from Chaly.
But the story's reported once
and then it's completely forgotten,
and you'd think it would be significant.
There was one key piece of
evidence in the Politico story.
It's the most important piece of evidence
in this whole thing
is the email that Wikileaks would publish,
and this is an email
from Alexandra Chalupa,
the DNC operative, to Luis Miranda,
who is the comms director of the DNC.
Let me explain why Luis
Miranda's important.
Very significant.
The Hillary Clinton campaign
had actually taken over
the DNC back in 2015.
So, when you see Alexandra Chalupa
reporting directly to Luis Miranda,
that means she is reporting
through one layer of separation
to the Clinton campaign
itself, not just to the DNC.
In that email, Alexandra Chalupa brags
that she has arranged to
speak about Paul Manafort
and that she's gonna have this
Ukrainian journalist go back
and dig up dirt on him.
Now, that completely violates
what you're supposed to do
with the Open World Leadership Center.
The Open World Leadership Foundation
is a part of the Library of Congress.
Because they're part of
the Library of Congress,
they're not supposed to be
involved in election issues.
And it was confirmed to me by the people
at the Open World Leadership Center
that they had in fact
warned Alexandra Chalupa,
"Don't do that."
The other thing that's significant there
is that Chalupa reveals
that she was with
reporter Michael Isikoff.
Now, Michael Isikoff is
legendary in Washington, DC.
He's well-known as a bulldog
investigative journalist
who worked on the Monica
Lewinsky story, for instance,
and he is hanging around
with Alexandra Chalupa
throughout the entire 2016 election.
In fact, right before the election,
when everybody thought
Hillary Clinton was gonna win,
he publishes an article where
he names Alexandra Chalupa
as one of the most important
people in the 2016 election.
To me, the most interesting thing
about that group of journalists
was those journalists were
chosen by the embassy in Kiev.
In other words, those
journalists were picked by
and sent by the US State Department.
And that's part of the evidence
that the State Department was
involved at the deepest level
in this election collusion
and interference.
In December of 2018, both
Leshchenko and the head of NABU
were convicted in a Kiev court
of election interference.
- The unindicted co-conspirator there
was Petro Poroshenko himself.
Poroshenko was so worried
that the Trump Administration
would pin stuff on him,
he started to throw Leshchenko
and NABU under the bus.
It was a form of misdirection.
He didn't want the Trump Administration
to realize his direct involvement.
- Will your relationship
with the US change
now that President Donald Trump
will be in the White House
come five days from now?
- Look, Ukraine, during
the last three years
gained very strong bilateral
support in United States.
- Trump gave a photo
opportunity to Poroshenko.
- It's a great honor to
have you, Mr. President.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Trump did not like Poroshenko.
Why/why not?
I think, first of all,
because Poroshenko had his own position
during the US election campaign.
He supported Hillary Clinton
and he did it openly.
Why openly?
Because the ambassador of
Ukraine to the USA, Mr. Chaly,
openly supported the
representatives of the Democrats.
He acts as the guy
who's got the economic experience,
the governing experience.
You need Biden for an attaboy
and to get the deets to
stick, so Biden's willing.
Okay, great.
Mr. Yatsenyuk,
whom we recalled spoke frankly.
And in these words of Trump's assessments,
there were insults.
He stated that
the USA as a powerful country
deserves to have an intelligent,
intellectually developed president.
In other words, he doubted these qualities
as inherent to Mr. Trump.
Mr. Avakov, a representative
of the same Yatsenyuk party,
the minister of the interior,
stated that Trump is
a marginal politician.
This altogether
meant the one-sided position
of Ukraine in the US elections,
which is exactly what should not be done
by any country in the world.
When what happened happened,
Mr. Donald Trump won the election.
It was a shock for the Kiev authorities
and for those individuals that I listed.
They were confident that this victory
would never take place.
I think that
if what you are saying is true
that Trump thinks badly of Mr. Poroshenko,
then there were real reasons for this.
- So, Mr. President, may God
bless you and your colleagues
and the people of Ukraine,
and may God bless the
United States of America
in being able to continue
to help you in your efforts.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you, Mr. Biden.
- I came about this by accident,
investigating Ukrainian
collusion with Democrats
to affect the election.
And over the next three to four months,
you're gonna find out all about that.
So, I've decided I'm not
gonna go to the Ukraine.
You're not gonna go?
- I'm not gonna go because
I think I'm walking into
a group of people that are
enemies of the president,
in some cases, enemies
of the United States,
and in one case, an
already-convicted person
who has been found to be involved
in assisting the Democrats
with the 2016 election.
I'll give you his name.
Gentleman by the name of Leschenko.
After two
years of ignoring this news,
ignoring the fact of
Ukraine's interference
in the elections in the United States,
Ukrainegate began to attract the attention
of political heavyweights.
- I will step back and
I'll just watch it unfold.
In 1997, a man who did a lot
to determine US foreign policy,
Zbigniew Brzezinski, said,
"Ukraine is a new and important spot
"on the Eurasian chessboard.
"It is a geopolitical center
because its very existence
"as an independent state
helps to transform Russia."
In the book, The Grand Chessboard,
he wrote a lot about Ukraine,
but always in the same way.
Ukraine is a means of pressure on Russia;
no more and no less.
The border
between Ukraine and Russia
is 2,300 kilometers.
Any destabilization in Ukraine
affects the interests of Russia.
And the external influence
of Washington in Ukraine
makes it possible to manage the
processes of destabilization
that directly affects Russia.
If you look
at what happened to Ukraine
in the 21st century, there
is a feeling of deja vu.
It's as if we are part
of that well-known legend
about the pied piper
who led the charmed
children to go nowhere.
Millions of people were deluded
by the sweet promises of rapid prosperity
with the help of the United
States and Western Europe.
Very little time passed
after the so-called Revolution of Dignity,
and all expectations have collapsed.
Instead of prosperity, there
is the collapse of the economy,
mass exodus of people from the country,
and the death of now thousands of people.
And the most important thing,
Ukraine is in confrontation with Russia.
The function that its real
owners left for Ukraine
works flawlessly.
- Anybody who actually looks at the facts
of the Ukraine coup in 2013 and 2014
can see how the US was directly involved,
but it wasn't just an end in itself.
It was a means to an end,
and the end that they were going for
is a way to antagonize Russia.
They've stirred up
aggression against Russia
right at Russia's border
and then blamed Russia for
anything that happened.
But it's always interesting.
Do puppeteers understand
that sometimes puppets begin
to live their own lives?
The fact of Ukraine's interference
in the elections in the United States
is the first wake-up call.
And then, war between Ukraine and Russia.
Yesterday, it was unthinkable.
Today, it is a probable scenario.
It doesn't matter who starts first.
It is important to note that the shockwave
from the first explosion
has spread too wide
and affects those who prefer
to wait out on the side.
Does the pied piper who
leads those who believe him
further and further to nowhere understand
that Russia will never accept
a hostile state near its borders?
- Sounds like you've had
a tough few years, sir.
A hard time.
The following
years will be difficult
and I would say that especially 2019
will not be easy for Ukraine.
Are you afraid of something?
- Yes.
The world blowing up.
One day, that
gunshot could be heard.
For example, Ukrainian military boats
could again try to break the borders
that Russia considers its own
and thereby provoke response fire
from the Russian border guards.
It's the Russian military
going head-to-head against
the Ukrainian military.
There will be victims.
Russian President Vladimir Putin
blamed the Ukrainian
government for the crisis.
And then the war begins,
in which Russia will naturally
be declared the aggressor.
- Fighting has intensified.
Russia set off
an international crisis.
- In Ukraine, Russia's now at war there.
Ukrainian tanks
will move to the Donbas
in order to destroy
the unrecognized republics with one blow.
- Will President Trump finally confront
Putin's act of aggression against Ukraine?
And in order to save citizens,
Russian troops will come
forward to meet them.
The Hungarian army will
defend the Hungarian citizens
living in the west of Ukraine.
The mayor has
declared a humanitarian crisis
and has appealed to the
United Nations for help.
Poland will announce
the mobilization of reservists.
There will be a real
chance to return the lands
that were torn off by
the Soviet Union in 1939.
The UN Security Council
will hold an emergency
session on the Ukraine crisis.
And what the whole world feared
during the Cold War will happen.
Moscow's, Brussels', and
Washington's bad dream
will come true.
- We wanna return now to some
breaking news this morning.
We're just learning about the movement
of the aircraft carrier USS
Nimitz and four other ships.
No one wants a full-scale war.
For those who are still
in control in Kiev,
the only way to avoid
defeat and destruction
is to organize a provocation.
The armies of Russia and NATO
will come into military conflict.
This will be the beginning
of a withering Armageddon.
Only scorched earth will
remain in place of Ukraine.
The world will be
engulfed in a giant flame.
Probably the last war for humanity,
just because someone in Kiev
really wants to remain in power.
So, nothing good will happen.
- Well, does he see this historically as,
does he see these two countries
coming together again?
Ukraine will
have two election campaigns
that predetermine the
country's place in the world
and, most importantly, power in Ukraine.
That is, new opportunities
are opening up for Ukraine.
The new president of Ukraine,
Volodymyr Zelensky,
won because he promised to
stop the war in the Donbas.
One order of the commander-in-chief
is enough for the war to be ended.
And thousands of human
lives could be saved.
No one can prevent him
from giving such an order,
but the days go by and
there is still no peace.
The hopes of Ukrainians for the new course
are fading with each passing day.
The opportunity to improve this situation
is to elect politicians to
the parliament of Ukraine
who are able to fulfill their promises
to the people of Ukraine.
We have a
parliamentary presidential
form of government, and
therefore, having won
the parliamentary
elections, holding a faction
that can influence all
processes in the country.
- Yeah, well obviously you do.
We use the
life principle with Oksana.
"Do what should be done
"and everything will be
as it is supposed to be."
I think this is the right way of life,
the right life principle,
and we have to implement it.