Judging Freedom - Alastair Crooke: Putin Reshaping the American Mood

Episode Date: June 24, 2024

Alastair Crooke: Putin Reshaping the American MoodSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Thank you. Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Monday, June 24th, 2024. Alistair Crook will be with us in just a moment on how Vladimir Putin seems to be outfoxing everyone. But first this. You all know that I am a paid spokesperson for Lear Capital, but I'm also a customer, a very satisfied customer. About a year ago, I bought gold, and it's now increased in value 23%. So $100 invested in gold a year ago is now worth $123. If you have $100 in the bank, it still shows $100, but $100 in the bank is now worth 24% less. Inflation has reduced all of your savings, all of your buying power and mine by 24%. And gold is largely immune from that. If you want to learn how gold will soon hit $3,200 an ounce,

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Learjudgenap.com. Tell them the judge sent you. Alistair, good day to you, my dear friend, and welcome here. Always a pleasure, of course. The G7 meeting in southern Italy two weeks ago, was that conducted for any ostensible purpose other than election optics? Yes, I think it was. It was setting the scene very clearly. It was always focused on Ukraine, and it was setting the scene uh very clearly it was always focused on Ukraine and it was focused

about more money and about more weapons for Ukraine and about a security pact with Ukraine and all of these things really spelled one thing uh that there was an expectation of escalation. And I know that this is indeed the expectation of an escalation in Ukraine is firmly entrenched in Russian thinking. That's what they think. Lavrov was very clear on that. And so you have to understand that in the sense that this is the context. I know a lot of people have been very excited by what they call a peace proposal coming from Putin. I think it wasn't exactly a peace proposal as such. I think it was much more the last saloon, last chance type of offer. He can see that escalation is coming. He can see, too, and he knows that this next, if you like,

stage of escalation is going to be extremely dangerous because it's aimed at the Russian people, at the Russian state. And we've had over this weekend, just for example, of course, an attack on this missile full of clustered munitions. These are little fragments that spray out as it lands, landing on a beach near Sebastopol in the Crimea and injuring many, many people. Lots of women, children, everyone in their bathing. The videos of them all rushing to try and attend to people who've been wounded in this video. There were five attack and

four were brought down by the defense system. And this one, I mean, the question is open as to whether it was intended to land there or whether it was not. By coincidence, there was also a big American Reaper drone just off Crimea during this whole process. And if you look at the video of it, you do see the drone actually seemingly going in one direction and then doing a kink back and arriving on the beach. But that's not enough because we've also had in this time another Khorasan ISIS supposed attack on two quite separate towns on the Caspian, southern Russia. And they attacked and they slit the throat of a priest in one Orthodox Church, they attacked another Orthodox Church, they attacked a

synagogue as well. You know, this is clearly, this didn't come out of nowhere. This is coordinated, planned, and it has all the hallmarks, really, of what we saw with the Crocus concert hall back a couple of months ago, where the concert hall was so damaged. We're looking at, let me just interrupt you for a minute, Alistair, forgive me. We're looking at the attack on the beach. You can see people sunbathing and umbrellas and lifeguard stands in the foreground.

In the background, you see the result of the attack. The Russians know that this was american hardware and american ammunition that brought this about they've said it the ministry of defense who are normally very restrained in their language said this was an american attack orchestrated by the united states using united states intelligence and surveillance facilities um to perpetuate it um now uh the the because they simply don't believe that this was done by the ukrainians the there might have been a ukrainian that pushed the final button but the whole process of targeting it the feeding in the coordinates into the machine comes from nato personnel and with the attack homes it will be american personnel

that are doing it so this is the first time i've only seen this once before um you won't recall it probably but there was a time some time ago in syria uh when when an Antonov, a Russian intelligence plane, was shot down by an S-300 of Syria because an Israeli F-16 was using it as cover to come in to attack a target in Syria. And the Russians initially, the Kremlin was very cautious about what it said and they said this might have been just a mistake. But the Ministry of Defense in Moscow came out and said clearly this was murder. The Israelis led our people to murder. They used us as a decoy and the F-300 struck the Antonov instead of the F-16.

They planned it and I saw subsequently the Deputy Minister of Defence sometime later and he said very plainly at this meeting, he said, it was murder. And in the sense, I think these sort of same feelings, the Ministry of Defence were quick to set out a response to this. And they said, this is done deliberately and it is done with American equipment and American operatives doing it. Then we have the Coruscant. So what I'm talking about is all around we're seeing an escalation

taking place. And it's an escalation which, you know, was targeting refineries. It's been over the weekend. It was targeting refineries before that, Russia's over-the-horizon radar. It seems clearly intended to try and provoke Russia into some sort of counter-reaction, which is, of course, what Zelensky and Kiev wants because they want to try and find the means to pull at this sort of sensitive time because all of the G7 was about, you know, posturing for the election that, you know, that Biden is tough, he stands by his allies, he looks after them, and he's gathering all the Europeans, corralling them into support for Ukraine and the project there, indeed in a longer war. And I think the point here,

going back to how Putin is seeing this, so he's not only seeing the escalation taking place there, first of all, but he's also seeing, and Lavrov almost said this explicitly, he's saying he's also seeing that, you know, and you see the language from Europeans preparing for a longer war, sort of a further timeline against Russia, a European war against Russia. these talk about conscription and how people will be required and Europe will start to industrialize and, if you like, rearm for this. And then also, Putin understands the situation in the Middle

East could explode into something that could draw Russia into it. If, for example, there is an Israeli incursion into Lebanon to destroy Hezbollah, partly that might well extend to Syria, because Syria is part of the arms route that goes through to Hezbollah, not the only one. Right, right. And so it could, and that could bring Russia. So when he looks at this and people say, you know, well, have you got a peace process or a peace offer? He says, look, this is it, you know, and by the way, you know, if for any reason, you know,

Kiev refuses it or you don't like it, well, that's up to you. And it's not the sort of way he didn't try and sell it to anyone. He said, listen, it's on, you know, there it is. This is your last chance because escalation is coming. Don't complain to me. I put it on the table. You have your chance. Take it or leave it. And he said very clearly, I'm not interested. He said, I want to underline. He said, emphasize, I'm not interested in a frozen country. I'm not interested in a ceasefire or some form of quiet, because really all that does, all that is doing is preparing the ground for Ukraine to be rearmed by the United States. To get rearmed.

And we're back to where we were in 2014. So he said there's only one way, actually, to end this conflict. Here he is just four days ago in Vietnam reminding everybody about the peace agreement which was signed by the Ukrainian representative as well. It means do with the talks in Istanbul? Well, he's right. This is why it wasn't a real proposal. I mean, this was, you know, I can see escalation coming. I realize how serious this is. Given the gravity of the circumstances, here is what could be done to stop the situation developing.

It's up to you. Take it or leave it. It's on the table. It will only be worse if you leave it. It will only get harder. He didn't expect it to be taken up by anyone because anyone who looks at the situation in the whole leave it, it will only get harder. He didn't expect it to be taken up by anyone because anyone who looks at the situation in the whole can see that America and Europe are not in the

frame of mind for accepting a peace proposal anyway up till November, but beyond that even then, it's not going to happen. This is why he said very clearly, there's only one way to resolve this. There has to be a resetting of the security architecture. That is an agreement between the United States and Russia about the limits of their security interests, how far they reach, where the boundary is, and the boundary between that and the heartland, Russia, China and Central Asia.

The modus be vended between, if you like, these two spheres. That is the only way. If that is settled, then the Ukraine takes care of itself because that will be part of that understanding and new security architecture for the Europe and for the world, for, if you like, the NATO, the limits of where NATO... This is what was never done at the fall of the Berlin Wall. You know, the verbal agreements were given and then those verbal agreements were forgotten. NATO has been forever expanding and forever expanding. And the main purpose, and he says, the root of this problem, and he said this, he hinted

at it several times, the root of this problem is that there has to be a change in the mental attitude, not of the United States as a whole, but of the ruling elite, of the ruling strata in the United States who are still stuck in the Cold War mentality, who still think, you know, that Russia is a gas station in the desert and nothing else and has no real strength. They cannot accept, as they did during the Cold War, of any sort of giving any esteem to Russia as a potential partner, as someone that they can work with as a partner.

No, Russia has to be diminished. It is something that literally sort of fell off the American interest and has been treated with sort of sneering disdain by these elites ever since. And so I think quite understandably Putin says, you know, I just don't believe it's possible to do a deal with these people. They won't even talk to us. How can we do a deal? I want to show you a full screen with a statement from Defense Minister Sergei Lavrov in response to these attacks. I'll read it.

The U.S. is responsible for this massacre, and they will get an answer. All flight missions for American ATAKOM's missiles are programmed by American specialists based on their own U.S. satellite intelligence data. population of Sevastopol, that's the beach scene we just showed you, lies primarily with Washington, which supplied this weapon to Ukraine, as well as with the Kiev regime, from whose territory this strike was launched. Such actions will not go unanswered. Alistair, that was yesterday, that was yesterday. That was Sunday in response to the attack on civilian bathers on a beach. I'm going to suggest to you and then I'm going to suggest that you agree with me. He means what he says. Absolutely. You know, this is what that speech by Putin was all about.

Escalation was expected, is expected, and it's going to be ugly escalation, like the, you know, again, Khorasan, ISIS, come on, we all know who runs those, suddenly appearing on the Caspian seashore, slitting the throat of an Orthodox priest, killing others, attacking a synagogue. These things are not, I don't believe, I've been in geopolitics world too long to believe in coincidences. It's obviously intended to provoke Russia to do something that will escalate it further, so that, if you like, the United States can show that it is being tough on facing down Russia in the lead up to these elections. But it goes beyond the elections. It's quite clearly,

from what has been said in Europe and what the Europeans are saying, that the order has come down to prepare for a more full-scale war with Russia, perhaps in the next two and a half, three years ahead, i.e. possibly one that would mesh in or coincide with a possible attack by America that is being mooted on China. And the European part of this was to escalate and prepare for, if you like, a wider conflict with Russia at the same time. I mean, we've heard this from so many different people. This is not just coming out of the blue. I mean, the Europeans are all talking, talking about conscription, talking about weapons, talking about money,

talking, I mean, every day, demonization of Russia. I mean, another step up. Of what conceivable benefit to the United States would there be to such a war by the West against Russia? Well, absolutely none to the United States as a whole. But if you're talking about that strata, that leadership strata that have taken us through this period, the Wolfowitz strata, that determined that there should be no challenge to America ever, that America would establish a hegemony in the post-Cold War era. To that strata, to that elite, I think they're getting desperate.

And Putin sees that too. He said, you know, the security, the Western security architecture is crumbling, is dissolving before our eyes. And he sees, you know, that the United States has big problems now in the Middle East, possibly a major war starting. And he sees that there's problem on all fronts for this, if you like, the elite of the elite, the insiders that determine these sort of policies. And we don't know.

Who is it? Who is it that is sending this order down to the Europeans to prepare for war with Russia? No European wanted. It's not in the European interest to have a war with Russia at all. Quite the converse. Look at the elections that have come. Why is the United States authorizing offensive weaponry to attack civilians in Russia? To provoke, to provoke, to turn this into something that is much, you know, when people

get desperate, and I think some of the one particular class of America, because I don't think Americans want war with Russia or China has that, or anyone like the Europeans. But there are those in America who are desperate to sort of keep the hegemony going. And the only way they can see it is the usual one. Divide and rule. Chaos. Out of that chaos, we will, you know, look even now. I mean, when we're looking at Ukraine and the peace process, all the grain, all of Ukraine actually now mostly belongs to BlackRock. I mean, all the grain, all the agricultural land has been sold off by Zelensky to BlackRock. It belongs to American corporations. They're invested in this too. So there's big money

interests, big military industrial complex interests in a bigger war. Wars always bring huge profits and the chance to plunder other countries. Well, they've already plundered Ukraine, but they want the chance now to rebuild it after they win the war, as they assume. Is this the reason that the United States State Department, Tony Blinken, will not speak with the Russian Foreign ministry or foreign minister Sergei Lavrov because they do want to provoke them into a war? Of course. I mean, there's no, absolutely no reason. I mean, if you don't build up, you know, an ability to talk, I'm not opposed to talking, you know, when I say this isn't a peace process i mean of course i would like to see peace

in ukraine it's just i have to you know i'm i've been through these things in many different ways before and if the if the if the circumstances are not right you can actually make things worse um by trying to provoke a sort of to to do a peace process. We've seen that just happen with the American White House. With the White House, its botched attempts to try and force an agreement on Hamas and on the Israeli government have actually made it worse. Now there's no communication really between, if you like, the Biden White House and Netanyahu and his government.

It's stopped. And we are on the brink of a war that could widen and could be catastrophic for those involved. So, I mean, you know, this is what's happening. So they don't want any communication, they don't want people to say anything. The horror that came out when Nigel Farage in England, he said these forbidden words and, you know, they almost swooned in the UK because he said, no, the problem in Ukraine was started by NATO's expansion. What? Ah, you horror. Is he the only prominent British politician saying that? Does Sir Keir Starmer say that? No, they say the opposite. Oh, it's Russia's fault. Unprovoked,

illegitimate invasion of wait for it, of a democratic European country. Oh, good lord. What a confection of lies. Anyway, so, yes, they don't want, you know, their narrative

to be questioned. I think when people get frightened like this, I've always found that when people get frightened, they feel things coming apart. They've been used to being in a little secret society of like-minded people. And then suddenly things start to go and they look down and they see, you know,

there's nothing below them. They're over the cliff. The hole, there's a void. What is going to sustain them? Where's their next career move coming? Where's their next sort of appointment to some military company coming from? Where's the magic carpet? It's all been pulled from us.

They get frightened. And so they want to keep the old system going as long as they possibly can, because they feel comfortable in that sort of tight embrace of being part of a secret cabal that is plotting the future of the world. You recently wrote in one of your articles, quote, equal status between Moscow and Washington is out of the question, close quote. Does the State Department not respect Moscow, the Kremlin, as an equal superpower? Absolutely not. It treats them with disdain and sneer. It sneers at them. You know, what is Russia? You know, it's a failing state. And they still believe in that old Cold War imagination that somehow, you know, what's happening now, the beach incident, the attacks on the churches on the Caspian. All of this will force, you know, Russians will say, what's going on? Putin has lost his grip.

He must be weak. We will have to do something to connect it. We must put in someone else in it. They still think it can lead to the dissolution of Russia into its constituent parts, and then BlackRock can come in and take more of Russia as well as Ukraine. Only it's not going to happen. It's not going to happen at all like that.

Now there is going to be, I believe there's going to be a riposte, but Putin will consider this, he is like the resistance in terms of Israel, very carefully calculating the escalatory ladder and how to control, if you like, the heights of the flames as the conflict expands. The conflict is underway. We are in a war. We're at war now. And how to manage that is vitally important. So he will be calculating that. But there are, and I just want to say this,

because lots of people then say, oh, but that'll end up with a nuclear exchange. It won't. Putin understands there are many, many steps, financial, trade, as well as technical, as well as military military that Russia can take before ever getting to the question of the dilemma of a nuclear weapon. It won't happen. In my belief, it's there. But the most dangerous thing of this issue is because the West doesn't believe it. Ah, the financial times, right.

Ah, this bluff about nuclear weapons. We don't take it. It's all wearing thin, these threats from Putin. It's all wearing thin. We can safely ignore that, and we can go on escalating because we know that he would never use it. Well, they're wrong, very and dangerously wrong, because that is not the case that it can end up in a nuclear exchange if it gets out of control. And this is what, you know, this whole talk, the address by Putin to the foreign ministry board was about saying, look, things are going to escalate. It's going to be ugly.

So I feel bound to explain why we've got to where we are and to say, this is the last chance. If you don't take it, it's up to you, but it's only going to get harder to have a solution in the future. Do you foresee a time in the near future where the Ukrainian war is over, where Ukraine collapses, or you don't think these European powers would allow that to happen? Oh, I think that could happen at any time. And so we have, you know, I mean, this is the thing that makes it so hard and which I don't predict because it was Macmillan who used to say when someone asked him, what do you fear most in politics? And he said, events, dear boy, events. And yeah, it could implode. It's very close to imploding. So it may change. And that will be part of Putin's calculus also. Is this, you know, are they going to be able to continue? They're suffering huge losses on the battlefield at the moment and things are not working. I mean, the military side of it is a disaster. So they can only resort

to these things of firing at beaches and attacking priests on the Caspian Sea and other things which they think is going to cause Russian people to get agitated. Actually it has the opposite effect. I saw that I was in Russia shortly after the crocus. Actually it made people much more resolute. They knew they were in a war. They're in a war. There will be casualties. We know that, but we have to win this war. Alistair, my dear friend, thank you very much. You're passionate this morning, and it is deeply, deeply appreciated. We have a short week next week because of American Independence Day, the 4th of July. You know what that is. That's the British election day. We'll see you at Trust next Monday. Have a good week. All the best, my dear friend.

Thank you very much. Thank you. It is kind of funny that on the 4th of July, American Independence Day, is the day that the British have their elections. Just to remind you of what's coming up later today at 10 o'clock this morning, Eastern Ray McGovern. At 11 o'clock this morning. Eastern, Larry Johnson at 2 o'clock this afternoon. Eastern, Kyle Anzalone at 4.30 this afternoon. Eastern, Scott Ritter. Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom. Thanks for watching!