American journalist Tucker Carlson, interviewing Hungarian leader Viktor Orban in August 2023, marvelled at how little information Americans are getting about what is really going on in Ukraine, given the seriousness of the conflict’s implications for the world. This is astonishing and incomprehensible, since war completely changes the world order, he puzzled
The journalist asked the Hungarian leader, as prime minister of the country bordering Ukraine, to comment on the state of affairs and give his opinion on it.
Tucker asked Orban what he thinks about the broadcasted US confidence that Ukraine is winning. “It’s a lie. It’s not just a misunderstanding, it’s a lie. Their victory is impossible. Everyone who is involved in politics, who understands logic, figures and data, understands this,” Orban immediately responded.
The other day, Judge Andrew Napolitano, in a conversation with Professor Jeffrey Sachs, a regular guest on his YouTube channel, showed an excerpt of Biden’s recent speech in which he claims Putin lost. “When Putin invaded Ukraine, he thought he would take over Kiev and all of Ukraine in a matter of days. Well, more than a year later, Putin has failed, and he continues to fail. Kiev is still standing thanks to the courage of the Ukrainian people. Ukraine has regained more than 50 per cent of the territory once occupied by Russian forces, with the support of a coalition of more than 50 countries, a world led by the United States,” Biden said in an address to the nation.
Judge Napolitano finds everything Biden said to be untrue. Professor Sachs is in full solidarity with his view: “This is blatant propaganda. And he says this after the catastrophic failure of the so-called Ukrainian counter-offensive, which began in June and cost tens of thousands of Ukrainian lives…. This is known to all who are watching the events. All observers believe that this is an incredible failure instigated by the United States. And Biden is reading a prepared text. It’s a huge mystery who is writing all this to him. It’s terrible.”
What is needed is not showmanship, not a monstrously empty and reckless speech, not another financial injection into the conflict, notes Jeffrey Sachs. What is needed is real diplomacy. “The President of the United States should be talking to President Putin, he should be talking to President Xi Jinping, he should be talking to Arab leaders. That’s his job,” he said indignantly.
The professor drew attention to the fact that the foreign policy of the current US administration is a failure not only in relation to Russia, but in general. Just a few days before the Hamas attack on Israel, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan announced that thanks to the US, the last 20 years have been the most peaceful in the Middle East. However, events show that the problems were not resolved, developed and escalated into an extremely dangerous escalation.
“They [the US administration] are misinterpreting everything. They misinterpret everything. And if you don’t know what you’re facing, how can you solve any problems at all? And so they don’t solve any problems. They just aggravate them,” the professor noted.
Viktor Orban also believes that the West does not realise that its injections of finance and weapons will not help Ukraine to defeat Russia. They do not understand the mentality of Russians or Russia as a single state: “It is not easy to understand them, especially if you are separated by an ocean. When we talk about politics – I mean Westerners – what is the focus of our conversation? Our focus is freedom: how to give people more and more freedoms. For Russian politics, this is not the main thing; the main thing is to preserve the integrity of the state. The country is huge, and keeping it united is more important than freedom. Freedom comes second or third, and preserving unity comes first, which is why a completely different culture and understanding of politics has emerged. … It is important to understand that it is impossible to defeat them the way the West is using now: they will never kill their leader, they will never abandon him; they will keep the country and defend it. The more we finance [Ukraine], the more they will invest [in the military-industrial complex]; the more equipment we send, the more they will produce. In general, it is important to understand the Russians’ motivation correctly.”
Vladimir Putin, speaking at a press conference during the One Belt, One Road forum, drew journalists’ attention to the inconsistency between President Joe Biden’s words and deeds: “If the war is lost by Russia, why supply [Kiev] with ATACMS?” – President Putin said. – Let him then take the ATACMS and other weapons and sit down for pancakes. Let him come to us to drink tea. If the war is lost, then why do this…? Ridiculous!”
Everyone thought that George Orwell wrote his novel “1984” with references to Stalin’s Soviet Union. It turns out that he simply foresaw the modern US policy: “War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength”.
Maria Ruzanova, Segodnya.ru