In this episode, Russell Brand talks about his recent interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and why he thinks the United States should stop arming and funding the pro-Kremlin rebels in Ukraine. Russell Brand is a comedian, writer, and podcaster. His work has been featured in the New York Times, CNN, CBS, CBS Radio, NPR, and many other media outlets. He is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post, and is a frequent contributor to The Huffington Post and other publications. He is also the author of the book, and hosts the popular podcast, . Russell Brand's new book is out now and is available for pre-order on Amazon Prime, Blu-ray, and also rental on Vimeo. If you haven't yet, please take a few minutes to fill out this brief survey and tag us in the comments section below. We'd love your support, and we'd love to have the chance to sponsor a new show called on the airwaves starting next week! in which we'll be delivering a detailed breakdown of current topics that the mainstream media should be covering, but if they're not covering, they're amplifying establishment messages and not telling you the truth. We'll get to the nitty gritty of current events and give you the inside scoop on what's going on in the world, so you can make informed decisions about what s going on around the world. Stay free, and help us elevate our consciousness. . . . Stay Free, Stay Free! - Stay Woke! and Free, and Let's all of us know that we're waking up to the truth, not just the good stuff! . , Thank You Awakening Wonders Stay Waking Us Up! , - The Best Woke, Thank You, - Russell Brand - Thank You! - - (featuring Jordan Peterson, Veena Shiva, Sam Harris, Gabor Mate, and Vinnie Paul, R.K. Jr., and V Vandana Shiva, and so much more. - This episode was produced and edited by: - Vinnie Mate and Vadim Chayesha, Jr., , and Vaneesh, and Gaborig, and Rachit, and the rest of the Crew, and his amazing team, and more! - Thank you for listening to this episode of Stay Free with Russell Brand?
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00:01:21.000Now, obviously, this fantastic conversation has taken place.
00:01:25.000We're not naïve, or maybe we are naïve, but not so naïve as not to imagine that Vladimir Putin has an agenda and knows how to communicate.
00:01:31.000What a fascinating conversation it was.
00:01:36.000The right of any nation to have their own history.
00:01:39.000The complexity of the concept of a nation.
00:01:42.000For example, look at the relationship between the United Kingdom and Ireland, and the times in history where people in the United Kingdom would have said, but Ireland is part of our country!
00:01:51.000Or the relationship between the United States and Mexico, which once included Los Angeles and Texas.
00:01:57.000Or indeed the relationship between the United States and the people that lived there before the arrival of European settlers, many of whom were from my country.
00:02:48.000And certainly, as we've always said on this channel, the rights of Ukrainian people to live and not be bombed must surely be paramount.
00:02:55.000The complexity from their perspective, from a Ukrainian perspective, obviously has to be considered.
00:02:59.000But what is the obligation of the wider world?
00:03:02.000Is it to continue to pump money into this conflict, a conflict that surely cannot be won without major loss of life and maybe even nuclear war?
00:03:11.000Or is it paramount that at this point we consider peace?
00:03:15.000The threat that the legacy media face from this interview even taking place Is that you and me, people that they like to control the information we gain access to, are able to look at Vladimir Putin ourselves and go, hmm, I don't think this guy does want to invade NATO countries.
00:03:29.000Of course, I'm not unsympathetic to people of Ukraine, not that, you know, an online commentator's views of any particular importance, but all of us should be looking at this from the perspective of what's the best resolution.
00:03:40.000And bear in mind, whenever you've seen Joe Biden, Lobbying for more money that ends up primarily in the hands of the weapons industry.
00:03:47.000Have you ever heard him say, because this is how this will resolve.
00:04:19.000Tell us why you believe the United States might strike Russia out of the blue.
00:04:24.000I think what a lot of people loved is that when Vladimir Putin started to answer the first question, it was a half hour response that explained the history of that region.
00:04:33.000Are we having a talk show or a serious conversation?
00:04:53.000So if you don't mind, I will take only 30 seconds or one minute to give you a short reference to history for giving you a little historical background.
00:06:05.000I think sort of straight away just seeing Vladimir Putin as a human being and hearing that there is a Russian perspective is interesting.
00:06:10.000You immediately get the impression that Russia feels beleaguered and beset by surrounding superpower nations like Germany and the United States who are funding a neighbour's war against them, a war that they regard as a civil war.
00:06:21.000Again, it's not like we all want to get all giddy as if Vladimir Putin is Harry Styles or The Beatles.
00:06:48.000I mean, I think if you get an interview with Vladimir Putin, it'll be somewhat impolite and perhaps not sensible to go, no, shut up, excuse me, but I think this, I've been on holiday.
00:06:59.000He did push on the important issue of Evan Gershkovich.
00:07:02.000You know, this is a person of considerable power.
00:07:05.000I believe that the very fact the interview took place is what's important.
00:07:08.000The very fact that we have the opportunity for ourselves to go, Hold on a minute, he doesn't seem like what he's saying is, first of all, I'll invade Ukraine, which used to be part of the Soviet Union until about 40 years ago anyway, and then what I'm going to do is invade this country, Sweden's next, then Finland, then Poland.
00:07:23.000You get the idea that what this is is a person with nativist control.
00:07:28.000I didn't think you meant it as an insult because you already said correctly, it's been reported that Ukraine was prevented from negotiating a peace settlement by the former British Prime Minister acting on behalf of the Biden administration.
00:07:43.000And that's why I asked about dealing directly with the Biden administration, which is making these decisions, not President Zelensky of Ukraine.
00:07:50.000That's a good dig for those of us that are British.
00:07:54.000Notice how often what Vladimir Putin is saying chimes with what you've heard in independent media.
00:07:59.000Notice that the 2014 coup comes up, the regional disputes in 2008, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the tacit agreement between Gorbachev and Reagan not to impede on former Soviet territories.
00:08:10.000All these things are coming up because they're bloody true.
00:08:12.000I'm not saying that Vladimir Putin doesn't have his own agenda.
00:08:16.000But all of the things that you've heard from independent media, like, hang on a minute, haven't we provoked them to some degree?
00:08:22.000And whether or not their invasion is criminal and whether or not Ukrainian people are dying, which is appalling and terrible, we have to think, what is the role of America?
00:08:30.000Because America and Western countries more generally, as their affiliates, could be playing the role of bringing about peace by saying, look, we're going to suspend arms now, which would have the added benefit of meaning that $60 billion will be available
00:08:41.000for US infrastructure for you to democratically determine how it's spent, for example, on
00:08:44.000your border. If that's what you vote for, if that's what you care about, then that's what would
00:08:49.000happen in a democracy. And then peace would be forced. Peaceful negotiations will be forced. It's
00:08:55.000not as simple as "Isn't Zelensky nice?"
00:09:01.000It's clear there are other components.
00:09:03.000It's clear that diplomacy and peace ought be what we're aspiring to.
00:09:07.000And it's pretty clear as well that the West, and Western media in particular, have tried from the beginning to reduce this conflict to some echo from the past.
00:09:15.000He's a bit like Hitler, and if we were to appease him, it's a bit like Neville Chamberlain appeasing Hitler.
00:10:14.000In a way, the interview is like the greatest hits of things you've heard on independent media, isn't it?
00:10:19.000NATO expansionism, ignoring an agreement between Gorbachev and Reagan, 2014 coup, all things you would have heard if you'd listened to Jeffrey Sachs on our show.
00:10:27.000Or, what you might have to call these days, alternative historians.
00:10:31.000There are broader philosophical conclusions that could be reached, i.e.
00:10:34.000the right of a nation for self-determination, what is a nation, how is a nation established, how small and decentralized could a nation become in a truly democratic space, who has the right to determine the history and the future of different ethnic ethnic groups that might have all sorts of alliances and
00:11:20.000Russia with a bunch of bloody Houthis.
00:11:22.000Never heard of them until a couple of years ago, but now they're right bastards.
00:11:25.000Do you see also how we're invited not to trust our own assessment of reality?
00:11:29.000Even the idea that this would be censored or controlled or immediately pre-framed as propaganda shows you that we're not trusted to make assessments for ourselves, that you're not capable of watching this and saying, Well, even though it's clear that this is a person with their own agenda, their own intentions, their own understanding of history, I still am going to listen because I might be able to make my own judgment.
00:11:46.000Increasingly, from the pandemic period onward in particular, we're invited to believe that we're somehow not capable of making decisions for ourselves.
00:12:54.000There you have to decide, is Putin a Hitler-like loony who has expansionist dreams?
00:13:00.000What I'm saying is, when you see him say, we've got no interest in invading Latvia, do you think that he's lying Or do you think that there's a grind going on when it comes to perpetuating this war?
00:13:12.000And I'm not saying these things just because I'm deeply cynical about NATO or globalism just because of some feeling in the pit of my stomach.
00:13:21.000and the Afghanistan war and how these things always play out and what you find out then oh
00:13:25.000there were no weapons of mass destruction Afghanistan was a waste of time and two trillion
00:13:29.000dollars and American service personnel lives. We have a quite a significant wealth of experience
00:13:35.000on which to evaluate the intentions of our own nations and for us to keep believing out of some
00:13:39.000sort of warped patriotism, terror and infantilism in the agenda that is advanced by our own
00:13:45.000government that is more propagandist and ridiculous.
00:13:48.000I'm going to listen to Vladimir Putin and go, well, whilst I wouldn't exactly trust him with my own life, it's pretty plain that what he is is a Russian nativist and just doesn't want people messing with former Soviet Union territories.
00:14:01.000And that's going to have to be solved in a sensible way.
00:14:06.000Suddenly, a regional dispute in which they would typically have no chance, they've got 60 billion dollars coming down the pipeline, not the Nord Stream pipeline like which Russia blew up, right?
00:14:16.000That could help them in a conflict that they would never otherwise be able to win.
00:14:19.000So of course I understand that Ukrainian people would have a completely different perspective and I'm obviously very very respectful of that and surely we all ought be.
00:14:27.000But the agenda for any sensible person should be peace.
00:14:30.000And the only way to get peace is through diplomacy.
00:14:32.000Well, the argument, I know you know this, is that, well, he invaded Ukraine, he has territorial aims across the continent, and you're saying, unequivocally, you don't.
00:14:54.000He's doing one against Iran, one against the Houthis, one against Russia, looking for one against China, but Putin's the mad warmonger!
00:15:01.000And a global war will bring all humanity to the brink of destruction.
00:15:06.000That's another one of those things that we intuitively understand.
00:15:08.000Hold on a minute, but won't a global war kill all of us?
00:15:10.000That's why we feel dislocated from our leaders and from our media, because they're not saying things like, a global war is going to kill us all.
00:15:16.000So even though this is terrible for Ukrainian people, let's end this right now.
00:15:19.000It could have ended a year and a half ago if Boris Johnson, another globalist, hadn't trotted out there to extend it for a couple of years just because they've named a cake after him in Kiev.
00:16:17.000We know all this stuff because we watch independent media instead of the BBC, CNN, New York Times, all them lies that won't get done and complain.
00:16:22.000One of our senior United States senators from the state of New York, Chuck Schumer, said yesterday, I believe, that we have to continue to fund the Ukrainian effort.
00:16:36.000This is a provocation and a cheap provocation at that.
00:16:44.000I do not understand why American soldiers should fight in Ukraine.
00:16:48.000There are mercenaries from the United States there.
00:16:51.000The bigger number of mercenaries comes from Poland, with mercenaries from the United States in second place and mercenaries from Georgia in third place.
00:17:02.000Well, if somebody has the desire to send regular troops, that would certainly bring humanity to the brink of very serious global conflict.
00:17:17.000America used to be like that, by the way.
00:17:19.000It was really hard to get America to participate in the World Wars that Britain were in in the last century.
00:17:24.000Now there's this new sort of agenda, I suppose, because America have replaced Britain as an expansionist colonial power, but she's using a corporate globalist aspect rather than the old school monarchistic one that we used.
00:17:34.000Thousands of miles away from your national territory, Don't you have anything better to do?
00:17:41.000Yeah, actually, I'd like to play swing ball.
00:17:43.000You have issues on the border, issues with migration, issues with the national debt, more than 33 trillion dollars.
00:17:51.000You have nothing better to do, so you should fight in Ukraine?
00:17:55.000If this is one of his lookalikes, he's bloody good.
00:17:57.000Wouldn't it be better to negotiate with Russia, make an agreement, already understanding the situation that is developing today, This is it.
00:18:05.000This is what, in a sense, the fissure that's opened is that our interests are more in alignment with Russia's agenda than our own government's.
00:18:33.000Wouldn't you rather just have a little more democracy in your own community and tolerate people that are culturally different in your own nation as long as they leave you alone?
00:18:40.000Isn't it clear that a different vision is required and that no one's offering it to you?
00:18:44.000Because we're living in their vision right now.
00:18:47.000Realizing that Russia will fight for its interests to the end?
00:19:49.000We keep these wheels turning, we can control the domestic population, we can keep running these tax bills, funding this that gets funneled towards military industrial complex companies that people in Congress own shares in.
00:19:58.000Like, in a world where none of that was true, like the military industrial complex was not-for-profit, people in Congress didn't own stocks and shares in those companies, people in our nations had true democratic control over policies of war, then everything would be different, wouldn't it?
00:20:11.000Have a better understanding, a better appreciation, and we would know it was not about hypocrisy and corruption.
00:20:16.000Particularly if there wasn't a long list of failed wars in the last 50 years that all, one way or another, amounted either to policies of dominion or policies of profit.
00:20:25.000So you've got to decide for yourself, whose propaganda do you fundamentally accept?
00:20:30.000Do you want to keep funding this conflict or not?
00:20:32.000And that's what's important here, is Tucker Carlson has given the opportunity to make that decision for ourselves, and the legacy media hate it, and the establishment hate it, and what they'll do is they'll attack Tucker, they'll attack anyone who's interested in peace, because they're supporting and sustaining this machine, because actually the machine works just fine for them, but does the machine work well for you?
00:21:00.000So whose agenda, whose propaganda do you want to believe in?
00:21:03.000I'd say, for a moment, think about your own God, your own sense of yourself, your own communities, and your own values, and make a decision based on that.