Extracts From Putin's Speech
On The Occasion Of The Four Oblasts Joining The Russian Federation.
Pretty much speaks for itself:
MESSAGE TO KYIV
"I want the Kyiv authorities and their real masters in the West to hear me, so that they remember this. People living in Luhansk and Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia are becoming our citizens. Forever.
"We call on the Kyiv regime to immediately end hostilities, end the war that they unleashed back in 2014 and return to the negotiating table.
"We are ready for this ... But we will not discuss the choice of the people in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. That has been made. Russia will not betray them."
DEFENDING 'OUR LAND'
"We will defend our land with all the powers and means at our disposal."
In this next section Putin is referring to the decision of the then Communist Party.
'NATION DISMEMBERED'
"In 1991, at Belovezh Forest, without asking the will of ordinary citizens, representatives of the then-party elites decided to destroy the USSR, and people suddenly found themselves cut off from their motherland. This tore apart and dismembered our nation, becoming a national catastrophe ...
"I admit that they did not fully understand what they were doing, and what consequences this would inevitably lead to in the end. But this is no longer important. There is no Soviet Union, the past cannot be brought back. And Russia today does not need it anymore. We are not striving for this."
'GREAT, HISTORICAL RUSSIA'
"The battlefield to which fate and history have called us is the battlefield for our people, for great historical Russia, for future generations, our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren."
NORD STREAM 'SABOTAGE'
"Sanctions were not enough for the Anglo-Saxons: they moved on to sabotage. It is hard to believe but it is a fact that they organised the blasts on the Nord Stream international gas pipelines, which run along the bottom of the Baltic Sea ... It is clear to everyone who benefits from this."
'NUCLEAR PRECEDENT'
"The United States is the only country in the world that has twice used nuclear weapons, destroying the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and setting a precedent."
"Even today, they actually occupy Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and other countries, and at the same time cynically call them allies of equal standing."
WESTERN 'SATANISM'
"Now they have moved on entirely, to a radical denial of moral norms, religion, and family ...
"The dictatorship of the Western elites is directed against all societies, including the peoples of the Western countries themselves. This is a challenge to all. This is a complete denial of humanity, the overthrow of faith and traditional values. Indeed, the suppression of freedom itself has taken on the features of a religion: outright Satanism."
COLONIALISM
"The West ... began its colonial policy back in the Middle Ages, and then followed the slave trade, the genocide of Indian tribes in America, the plunder of India, of Africa, the wars of England and France against China ...
"What they did was hooking entire nations on drugs, deliberately exterminate entire ethnic groups. For the sake of land and resources they hunted people like animals. This is contrary to the very nature of man, truth, freedom and justice."
EDUCATION AND GENDER
"Do we really want, here, in our country, in Russia, instead of 'mum' and 'dad', to have 'parent No. 1', 'parent No. 2', 'No. 3'? Have they gone completely insane? Do we really want ... it drilled into children in our schools ... that there are supposedly genders besides women and men, and [children to be] offered the chance to undergo sex change operations? ... We have a different future, our own future."
Among the many troubling aspects of our myriad current national crises is the cognitive dissonance that plagues our ability to see clearly the true challenges we face.
Case in point: I generally respect and appreciate Maria Bartiromo's efforts every Sunday morning to get to the bottom of the Russia Hoax and its impact on...not only Trump's presidency...but the integrity of our system of government. I think she would agree (as, presumably, everyone here would) that the allegations of Trump's 'collusion' with Russia were utterly false, as were allegations of material Russian government efforts to influence the 2016 election. If Mrs Clinton's allegations were false (and they were), then who was the enemy of truth and integrity in the 2016 election? I think Ms Bartiromo would agree with me on the answer.
But then she turns around and interviews warhawk Republican Congressman Mike Turner who advocates increased Western aid for Ukraine, including escalating military involvement, and possible use of nuclear weapons. She knows Russia is not the real enemy (see above) but apparently she can not resist joining the jingoistic American chorus which insists that the Ukrainian cause is just and that the billions of dollars of US expenditures and devastating loss of life in Ukraine as well as the increasing destabilization of Europe is equally justified.
At the end of the day, I don't think we can have it both ways. One of the narratives will fail.
Here is the Kremlin's English-language transcript of Putin's address: http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/69465. It is worth reading in its entirety.
Here is the NYT response to Putin's speech: https://archive.ph/anmsl. I'm not sure that the Times reporters and editors read the speech. If they did, they certainly did not report it accurately or address the factual accuracy of the allegations Putin makes.
I suppose this is why resolution of our differences seems so unlikely.