5 Revelations from the Putin Interview
“Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.”
—Isaiah 49:16
Putin is fine with Russia playing a modest, collaborative role on the world stage
Despite fervent nationalism in Russia, Putin clearly plays a moderating role. He appeases the extreme voices at home while fostering friendships abroad with world powers, as far as he is able. There are obvious red lines for him — NATO and Ukrainian Nazis — that he says motivated him to act. The scrapping of the Minsk Accords is also key.
But it appears he’d rather put an end to all of that, return to normal relations, and put the Ukrainian problem far behind him. There is a niche he sees that Russia can fill that ensures Russian sovereignty and pride while exercising a realistic degree of economic and political power abroad that will never exceed that of the U.S. or China.
Putin is a globalist, but is motivated differently
It’s telling that Putin still calls the powers in the West his “partners,” even as they fund weapons and mercenaries that are killing his own soldiers in Ukraine. He has a strong intuition to cultivate global relations, but he is motivated differently than your average left or right globalist. While they are motivated by power, control, and money, Putin is motivated by his singular dedication to Russia’s interests, and thus he engages in similar globalizing relations.
Despite his boasting about Russia’s ability to thrive while dodging every sanction under the sun, he has no illusions that Russia is a younger brother in the world, and it benefits Russia to lean into that role. It’s not something he would say directly to hard Russian nationalists, I’m guessing, but he signals it through his words.
Some say he was grandstanding, but he was just making the most of the opportunity
This interview wasn’t an interview; it was an opportunity for Putin to express his message to the West in a way he hasn’t previously been afforded. Some say he was grandstanding or filibustering by giving such a lengthy history lesson, that he was putting on a typical Russian display of power and lording over the conversation. It’s not an unreasonable conclusion.
However, from the outset of the interview, his question to Tucker was whether or not they’d be having a serious conversation. It is also telling that Putin’s team had done their research on Tucker. The CIA comment about Tucker’s past is clear. Putin recognized that Tucker provides a less filtered platform than other Western media, and so he sincerely gave his history lesson for persuasive purposes rather than conversational power. You may decide if it was effective or not.
Putin is frustrated that the post-Soviet vision is dead
In his view, Western powers killed the dream of friendly relations with Russia in the post-Soviet era. It’s hard to argue otherwise, especially as Putin himself long ago asked about joining NATO. The American neocon mindset of great power politics prevented this. To them, Russia is a gas station on the way to a larger, apocalyptic conflict with China. Where Putin sees opportunities for diplomacy and partnership, the West sees an opportunity for hostility and subjugation.
Again, that’s not the collective mindset of the people in the West, but that of their leaders — who have reached a level of incompetency and self-importance we have not seen since the elitism of the early 20th century that led to WWI, and then WWII. What you have are bunch of Ivy League lunatics running the country, and their philosophy is killing both American prosperity and global peace.
Putin is prepared to end the conflict with Ukraine at any time, and relations are still salvageable
The biggest takeaway is that Putin was adamant the war would end in a matter of days if a peace agreement (that had long ago been drawn up before it was torpedoed by Boris Johnson) could be reached or funding stopped going to Ukraine’s war effort. The latter is more reasonable than you think. Videos have been released of Ukrainian authorities stuffing people into vans and hauling them off to the front lines. The nation has been bleeding blood and treasure for months. Western benefactors are beginning to appear like slave drivers, whipping Ukrainian leadership into forcing more and more men to walk through the fire. We are drawing out the conflict and forcing old people into a decimated military. Recruits are lasting seconds on the line.
The war could have and should have ended long ago, but our Deep State still will not allow it. Putin suggested they could come up with some kind of excuse that would save face, and he’s right — they will probably do this once we find a way to stop funding the war.
Love him or hate him, Putin is far more practical about the situation because he needs to be. He has skin in the game. By and large, we do not.