Wow Great Interview

2014: Stephen Cohen on Russia Ukraine Crisis

I cannot recommend highly enough this highly articulate, incisive, and informed interview with the late Professor Stephen Cohen, in which he discusses the Russia Ukraine Crisis as it was in April, 2014. The interview is highly digestible—just 15 minutes long—yet covers a lot of ground. Cohen was an historian of Russian history, so he gets into the history, but he was also a student of US-Russian relations—he goes there, too, in spades.

I’ll embed the video, but first I’ll provide a transcript of a few minutes from the middle of the interview to whet your appetite for the whole video. This segment begins after Cohen has been shown a video clip of Obama speaking:

Let's consider one thing that [Obama] said that I consider to be unwise and possibly reckless. He went on to say that Russia wouldn't go to war with us because our conventional weapons are superior. That is an exceedingly provocative thing to say, and he seems to be unaware--President Obama--that Russian military doctrine says, when confronted by overwhelming conventional forces we can use nuclear weapons. They mean tactical nuclear weapons.

I don't think any informed president, his handlers, would have permitted him to make such a statement. In fact, depending on how far you want to take this conversation about the Obama administration, I don't recall in my lifetime, in confrontations with Russia, an administration--I speak now of the President and his Secretary of State--who seem in their public statements to be so misinformed, even uninformed, both about Ukraine and Russia. For example, when Kerry testified last week to Congress that all the unrest in Ukraine was due to Putin's meddling and his provocations, he denied the underlying problem--which is divided Ukraine! I mean, everybody knows that history, God, whoever's responsible for our destiny, created a Ukraine that may have been one state but wasn't one country. It may be two, it may be three countries. ...

Russia already felt encircled by NATO, with member states on its borders--the Baltics are on its borders. If we move NATO forces, including American troops, toward Russia's borders, where will we be then? I mean, it's obviously gonna militarize the situation, and therefore raise the danger of war. I think it's important to emphasize ... Russian will not back off. This is existential. Too much has happened. Putin--and it's not just Putin--we seem to think Putin runs the whole universe. ... Putin will compromise at these negotiations, but he will not back off if confronted militarily. He will not.

How prescient do you want it? Here it is:

Following up … if you follow this next link you’ll get a lengthy string of smart people warning against the exact “policies” that the US continued to follow. Reckless policies advanced by idiot globalist ideologues:

Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand

Most fascinating thing about the Ukraine war is the sheer number of top strategic thinkers who warned for years that it was coming if we continued down the same path. No-one listened to them and here we are. Small compilation 🧵 of these warnings, from Kissinger to Mearsheimer.

And, again, giving credit where it’s due …

Senate Republicans Release 2022 Ad Campaign to Support Ukraine and George Soros

March 1, 2022 | Sundance | 92 Comments

Senate republicans produced a video today announcing their position toward Ukraine.