The complete interview of Putin by TASS News Agency is now available on YouTube, broken own into clips by topic, with English subtitles. The playlist is available here:
This is the first clip on the list and each subsequent clip should automatically play after the other.
Fascinating stuff, Natylie, not only Putin’s answers, but also the interaction between him and his Tass interviewer. To me, the section on Ukraine was especially interesting. Russia’s attitude to Ukraine is heartfelt, sentimental. Ukraine’s history underlies Russia’s in the way that Britain’s underlies ours, with a much more intimate geography. Putin is sad, of course, about the divide. But what he says about the concept of “ukraine” is provocative.
I disagree with your statement, “Ukraine’s history underlies Russia’s in the way that Britain’s underlies ours.”
Our founding fathers decided to form an independent country based on the enlightenment philosophy of self-determination.
However, Ukraine and Russian were separated mainly due to foreign intervention, such as, Mongol invasion, the Lithuanian expansion at the cost of Golden Horde Khanate disintegration, the Polish-Lithuanian dominance of Ukraine, the Crimean Khanate invasion of Ukraine, and Nazi-German invasion of Ukraine, and disintegration of Soviet Union, and the NATO instigated Ukrainian revolution, etc.