According to Putin; Who are the Ukrainians? Who Started the Ukraine War? When Will the War End?

In an interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson, Putin talked at length about the historical developments in the Ukrainian territories. Carlson was quite bored in this interview, probably because he was not used to the Russian mentality.  

Carlson even tried to interrupt him by asking what historical facts have to do with what Russia is doing today, but Putin insisted on telling what was on his mind until the end.

***

Yes, what is it that the Russians want from Ukraine?

Why do they see Ukraine as Russian territory?

The short answer lies in the meaning of the name Ukraine. The word Ukraine in the Russian language means the periphery of Russia, the borders, the territory. The word kray means edge, u kray, on the edge, on the border.

Indeed, in its history, Russia actually lived in an order similar to the way we used to live as principalities in Anatolia, where the Kiev city principality within the borders of today's Ukraine was the chief principality. 

Later on, today's Russian people living in a few older cities around Moscow became a real state with the efforts of Ivan Grozny, Ivan the Fourth, or Ivan the Terrible, as the westerners call him.

In fact, in Russian history, there is also a Tsar, whom we call Peter the Mad and Russians call Peter the Glorious, and this Tsar is the one who made Russia an empire. He opened Russia to the seas.

Peter the Great moved the capital of Russia to today's San Petersburg. 

Later on the capital became Moscow again.

***

Yes, Putin talks at length about the part of Russian history related to Ukraine and says that Ukraine is Russian territory. He goes on and on about how the Poles once tried to Polonize this land, that there were long wars between them, that today's Ukrainian language is actually a dialect of Polish, and so on.

Is he telling the truth?

Yes, he is telling the truth. These are the historical facts.

He even mentions that Ukraine was recognized as a union state during the Soviet Union. He talks about the fact that Crimea and the lands in the east of Ukraine today, which are heavily populated by Russians, were given to Ukraine as a gift at that time.

Tucker Carlson has to listen to this long history lesson with boredom.

Yes, you have to listen to Russians if they say they want to understand something.

We also have to listen to them in our employer meetings, no matter how boring they talk about. Russians like to talk at length.

Putin is trying to justify his intervention today by talking about such a historical development.

***

Was Russia right to intervene?

As a matter of fact, I have an anti-war character. I am against any kind of violent intervention, I am against the death of people, innocent people, for nothing.

So I think it was unfair.

But was there anything else he could have done? That is another question.

I wrote last time that sometimes we have to choose the lesser of two evils.

He could either not intervene and let America squeeze Russia a little bit more, which is a question of survival for Russia, a matter of life and death, or he could, reluctantly, enter Ukraine and tell America to stop here.

Naturally, it chose the second option, and entered Ukraine.

This intervention was nothing like the annexation of Crimea. 

The annexation of Crimea was about the city of Sevastopol, where Russia's Black Sea fleet is located. It was a simpler operation for Russia to annex Crimea, which is part of the Ukrainian territory, instead of withdrawing the navy to a city on its own territory. 

After all, historically, the location of the Crimean peninsula is ideal if you want to own the Black Sea. 

But it didn't have to annex Crimea; it had a little bit of coastline on its own territory. 

It was a case of killing two birds with one stone, so that he wouldn't have to relocate the navy, and at the same time he would have enlarged the small amount of coastline, and he chose to annex Crimea.

But the Ukrainian intervention is different!

It is an intervention that, if its consequences are accepted by the world after a while, could be used to tell America to stop here, this is the limit. And so it was.

Although the Russians are better humanitarians than the Americans, they have the character to fight over fleas when necessary.

Are the Russians too strong?

The Ukraine war showed that their military organization is not as good as expected. Their weapons are not as technological.

In fact, the Russian army is organized on a defensive basis because Russia has so much territory. And their weapons are mostly developed for defense purposes.

So I can say that the Russian army is struggling in Ukraine. 

In the face of the support of the whole of Europe and a huge financial and military power like America, yes, Putin is struggling against Ukraine. 

Even more so in the first days of the war. 

It seems that his army was not prepared for such an intervention.

The practical combat experience of the army was not enough. 

In the meantime, I think he has a much more tactically capable army, even though he has suffered a lot of casualties.

Yes, it is also struggling in terms of ammunition. He himself realized that he was very weak, especially in terms of the latest technological weapons.

Nevertheless, he did not stand idle during this period, he emphasized the production of technological weapons. 

It also found foreign support. China, in particular, is happy to supply the necessary spare parts for the production of technological weapons.

Iran also provides support in its own way.

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Ukraine, of course, is not sitting idle either, on the one hand, it is making as much noise as possible to the world public opinion, demanding more arms support, and on the other hand, it is trying to produce weapons with its own means.

But Ukraine has also lost a lot in the war. What has the whole country become because of the Americans' gaslighting and their eagerness to become a member of the European Union, to join NATO! 

So many people have lost their lives, the war is still going on and people are still dying in these lands.

War is a bad thing!

***

Who won? Who lost?

Russia has started exchanging yuan with China, can there be a balance in this exchange?

Why not? Russia is energy rich and China is technologically superior to Russia.

Russia has fertile land.

Ukraine is a grain country, but Russia produces at least as much grain as Ukraine. And it has much more land than Ukraine.

China has billions of people to feed, it buys grain from Russia, it buys oil from Russia. Russia buys technological equipment from China.

Their trade is in balance! 

In a balanced trade, does it matter in which currency the exchange is made?

***

How long will the war last?

To be honest, I would prefer it to end immediately, but the Russians will not leave those lands. If they do, there will be no Russia left. It will fall apart!

Russians like the status quo, time heals everything!

The status quo will be established in Ukraine and in time everyone will accept their position.

Maybe in the spring the Russians will try to reclaim the Black Sea coast and Ukraine will try a little bit to regain the lost territories.

There will be war casualties again, bombs will explode again, the war economy will run again.

But one way or another, the parties will eventually have to accept the situation.

The status quo will be established.

***

In short, I found Putin to be quite cheerful in his interview. So many people have died, so much suffering has happened, but what difference does it make?

Everybody got what they wanted. The US has given Russia a bit of a beating, while at the same time creating opportunities for American arms dealers to trade. 

Russia has proved that it can stand up to American hegemony, while at the same time, by developing trade relations with China through the yuan, it has dealt a blow to America's financial dollar empire.

Europe is looking for, and perhaps has already found, other ways to meet its energy deficit.

It has already guaranteed to be the marketers of a new technology in the future.

So the whole world has its own gains.

Only Ukraine is in shambles!

***

We are? 

We are, as always, a member of the losers' club.

Even the last prisoner exchange between the parties took place in the United Arab Emirate.

We can't even trade with Russia.

We have lemons on the branch, but no one picks them. 

The garden owner says if you want to pick as many as you want, the picking fee doesn't cover what I will charge, so I have to leave them on the branch. He says he will cut these trees down anyway.

The market vendor sells the lemons he can find for 10 liras per kilo, which is 30 rubles in Russian money. 

Here in the market, lemons come from Morocco and cost 180 rubles a kilo. It was 100 rubles until yesterday. 

Even if it is 100 rubles, it would be over 30 liras a kilo in Turkish money. So it is actually a very profitable trade.

We can't even sell lemons to Russia, yet Russia is a great market to trade with. 

There is not a single Turkish product in the markets.

There was Sütaş cheese until yesterday, right next to Greek and Bulgarian cheeses. They have also disappeared from the shelves. 

Yes, Russians think that even feta cheese is Greek or Bulgarian. We couldn't even teach Russians that feta cheese is Turkish culture.

Yogurt is the same.

So we are members of the losers club.

Reyis has stopped developing trade relations with foreign countries, he is traveling from square to square, he is only worried about the elections these days.

The Ukraine war did not even put Ukraine in the winners' club, but it did not push it as hard as us. 

Even Ukraine's inflation is considerably lower than ours.

So it seems to me that we will remain a member of the losers club for a long time with this mentality.

(Should I bring a truck of lemons from Turkey?)

***

This is the state of the war in a nutshell. 

Putin is happy, the world is happy, everyone is happy.

Even I can say that I am satisfied, even though I live in a country that is at war.

Life is much more comfortable here. The infrastructure is much better.

What about you? 

Are you satisfied with the situation?

Love and respect to everyone from Moscow