2022-01-28
Vladimir Pozner, independent international journalist of many years standing, reviews (October 2018) the history of US-Russia relations in the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union.
There's a great deal of history here, which provides much of the context that our younger (and many older!) readers may not fully appreciate.
This is history from the conventional perspective based upon the assumption that our leaders work for the good of their populations (an assumption that has taken a severe battering over the last two years in the view of many).
Nevertheless, there's a great deal of insight here that should inform our thinking about Russia's current attitude to the West, and maybe our own relationship with our national leadership.
"We are in a new arms race"
"We are in a new Cold War"
"The danger of an accidental nuclear exchange has grown - we no longer seem to fear that"
"... as someone who works in media, I should like to say that Russian media (mainstream) ... paints America black ... controlled directly or indirectly by the government shows an extremely negative picture of the United States ... , and much to my surprise, mainstream American media does exactly the same thing vis a vis Russia, which to me is amazing because this is supposed to be a free media ... the fact that we don't seem to question our media is really quite interesting ..."
"Herman Goering ... was interviewed by an American journalist shortly before he committed suicide. Here's what he said:
'Naturally the common people don't want war ... that is understood. But after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is the democracy, or the fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers ... for exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country'
"
Recent events tell me that our leaders still appear to be following the same playbook.
(40 minutes, plus 1hr 12 minutes Q&A session)
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