Comments by "LRRPFco52" (@LRRPFco52) on "Why the Russians Need Georgia and the Caucasus || Peter Zeihan" video.

@ericragnar3069 Kievan Rus dates back 1100yrs. They founded Moskva. I've seen Yuri Dolgeruki's statue in Moskva myself.
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@paskowitz 100%. I lived all over Russia, which is a very poor country compared to the 30 other countries I’ve been to or lived in. Poland’s economy grew 6-fold since 1991, which is what Ukraine saw happening and wondered why they couldn’t have the same thing, especially since they have more people and more resources. It’s why Ukrainians wanted out from under the boot of Russian puppets, so I’ve been paying close attention to the events in Ukraine, especially since the early 2000s. I like Tucker Carlson a lot, but he’s simply out of his league when it comes to foreign policy. Sure, you can go to Globus (German mega store) in Russia if you have money and buy plenty of quality food, but most people don’t have that kind of money in Russia. What I noticed in Russia is that adults had no sense of hope, no happiness. Just struggle day-to-day between packs of cigarettes and alcohol, whatever comes is their fate.
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@paskowitz Putin and the oligarchs also need foreign countries nearby who can launder their billions, since Rubles are worthless on the international market. That’s what Burisma was, a Russian-controlled company laundering money for the oligarchs and Putin. Look into Elena Baturina and what industry she’s into.
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 @WolfSpiritMan And they should call it former Hopewell, and the Hopewell call it former Adena, etc.
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See Ukrainian videos of them breaching dragon's teeth. Tanks can't breach mountains and seas.
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@sifridbassoon Yusef Djugaswili was an atheist mountain Jew criminal. Very interesting history.
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@alundra828 He was talking about Carpathians as a geographic boundary to the West of Russian expansion, just like he and George Friedman have since the early 2000s. European geography is something Peter is exceptionally-informed on. He may not get US elections right, but he is better-educated on geography than most college professors and State Dept weenies.
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How much have you tracked US Foreign Military Sales to Europe?
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@nunyabidness3075 Russia has always struggled with access to the seas. To watch a country like Poland grow their economy 6-fold since 1991 was inspiration for Ukraine, and Russia couldn't afford to let that happen. Georgia sits on Russian Caspian-Black Sea pipelines, which is why they invaded in 2008. It was already planned though, according to a Russian foreign ministry secretary who had to be silenced. I was in Estonia when that happened, after having learned about the Russian strategic vision from that source.
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@aleksandrs1422 Yanukovych was Putin's puppet in Kiev, so what anti-Russian regime are you talking about? They were using Ukraine to steal from and launder billions for the oligarchs. That's why Burisma was headed by Zlochevsky, a Russian separatist from Donbas.
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@aleksandrs1422 I lived there 2008-2009. I didn't say Russians can't afford food. I'm saying they can't afford to go on that shopping spree Tucker did on a regular basis. He tried to make it look normal. Every time my hosts took me to Globus, the Yankee foot the bill because I had the money. Compared to anywhere in Europe, Japan, South Korea, and Canada, Russia is in its own world of poverty. I was in Russia during its peak economic time, right before the effects of Putin's invasion of Georgia started to kick in. Too much money is wasted on war material that would be best spent on infrastructure. The lack of infrastructure in Russia is appalling.
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@aleksandrs1422 The Ruble was about 24-29 to the US dollar at the time. I stayed in Saint Petersburg, Pushkino, Moscow, and Obninsk, so I saw a lot of different areas. You really needed a car to shop at Globus. Globus was a German department store that was focused on food, but also had a travel agency, dining room items, furniture maybe, and household goods. The ruble is now 103 to the USD. I have also lived in Germany and Japan. They are different worlds. Strangely, Russia reminded me more of Korea for some reason. I found it far more Asiatic than expected, mainly because of the effects of 250 years of Mongol rule still not washing off yet. But people in Russia were generally very poor, and relied on weird hidden schemes and alternate methods of revenue just to get by, even with energy and food prices deflated by the government.
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You ready to spend 800 billion euros a year for a blue water Navy, strategic bombers, SLBMs/SSNs, 2000+ fighters, 240 billion euros for RDT&E alone?
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@sampsasohlman US Defense budget.
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@aleksandrs1422 I lived in Russia from 2008-2009 in various cities. My wife and I were watching a guy from New York who is a travel vlogger exploring a weird place in Eastern Russia I never heard of. They arrested him on suspicion of being a spy. It would be very foolish to travel to Russia today for Americans.
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@inquisitivenessandcontempl9918 Russians are trying to make the imperialist argument that there is no Ukrainian identity, therefore Ukraine belongs to them. I pointed out that a Kievan Rus prince is the official founder of Moskva, as explained to me when seeing his horse-mounted knightly statue in Moskva in 2008, and that the Kievan Rus pre-date whatever gaggle of Ruriks were scattered around the region, eventually congregating and expanding Moskva. So the Kievan urbanized center started by Vikings is the impetus behind Russia's early civilization and current capitol city. I also noticed among the Russian intelligentsia that they scoff at the identities of Finns, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, and Bulgarians. None of these people are real to them, just Russian territories.
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@inquisitivenessandcontempl9918 I would argue that Russia is on-track similarly with the post-Mongol years of Tsarist expansion, using the Russian Orthodox Church as a functionary of the state (Peter did this in 1721), and the normal polity of the Tsar, Boyars, and serfs. Those cultural traditions run very deep in Russia, which is why Russians aren't political and know they just need to support the Tsar, as long as he wins.
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@aleksandrs1422 I think the late 2000s was peak for the economy because the sanctions for the Georgian invasion hadn’t kicked-in yet and Germany was still investing heavily in Russia with places like Globus. Even up until 2014, there were still a lot of European investments flowing in. Logistics problems for me were facing the possibility of being stuck in a dacha village that became very muddy as the snow thawed heading into “spring”. Most vehicles high-centered in the mud and would get stuck. I didn’t spend as much time as I wanted to in Saint Petersburg though, even though I did stop there many times. The Peter the Great Naval Museum was of great interest to me. I never made it to to the Herrmitage.
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@aleksandrs1422 I’ve been all over the world, but I really want to explore the ancient Amazonia civilization. They had over a hundred pyramid cities along the Amazon, from Peru in the West to the Brazilian coast on the East. It can’t be argued anymore because they have LIDAR’d much of it from the air with Laser imaging. I have climbed the Pyramids at Teotiuhacan and Chichen itza. There are some huge pyramids in the Peruvian Amazon that haven’t been explored yet. Most of the Amazonian cities were built with a lot of mud brick, so they aren’t obvious.
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@aleksandrs1422 Historically, the world has been dominated politically by empires and Kingdoms. The concept of nation states is quite recent, with maybe exceptions to the Spartans.
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@aleksandrs1422 The thing I noticed among Russian intelligentsia was that surrounding states were dismissed in their cultural identity, "Who are they!", and it was asserted that those territories belong to Russia. Estonians aren't a valid identity. Finns aren't different, just a barking little drunk dog. Central Asians, anyone once occupied by Imperial Russia are merely parts of the Russian sphere of destiny. It was very interesting to see that mentality, since my family is from Finland on my mom's side, and I know so many Finns, Estonians, Latvians, Poles, Czechs, Ukrainians, Romanians, etc. There's a kinship between all these nations based on Russian oppression, with no love for Russia. Yet people who think about these matters in Russia feel a sense of ownership and superiority over the others.
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European parliaments did that all on their own. Since World War 2 they've been packed with weak people, who wasted billions on social welfare jobs programs while the US provided security.
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@tjk3430 Our social welfare spending will bankrupt the Nation in the 2030s, even if we eliminated the entire defense budget. We're headed into $1.3 Trillion for Medicare. Not enough payers, too many collectors.
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@Chr1s-fm6bi Like how Trump saved Putin at the Battle of Khasham in Syria, Feb 2018, by unleashing JDAM Arc Light missions on Russian forces who crossed the Euphrates, then sent $150m worth of Javelins to Ukraine the next month on March 1, 2018?
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 @stevanjakovljevic8390 Or South Korea, El Salvador, Columbia, Japan, Philippines, Thailand....
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 @stevanjakovljevic8390 Clinton was on Soviet payroll since the 1970s.
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 @stevanjakovljevic8390 South Korea, Japan, El Salvador, Columbia, Philippines, Thailand....
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STRATFOR had the best regional maps.
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