Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin’s thirty-minute history lecture elicited comments on social media that expressed views ranging from boredom to irritation. Tucker Carlson was irked: ‘I’m not sure why it’s relevant to what happened two years ago.’ The lecture served several purposes.
First, Putin was talking past the gate-keepers: CNN, BBC, Fox, DW, France 24, etc. Historically, legacy media’s gate- keepers had controlled the narrative about Russia. Once the Ukraine War began , they lied, censored, distorted, and propagandized. To censor Russian views, the EU banned Russian media (e.g., RT/Russia Today and Sputnik); and media outlets like Reuters removed Russian media content from the marketplace. Google Play and Apple Store delisted Russian apps. Hence the anger at Tucker Carlson by gate-keepers and their political masters for providing the Kremlin with an unfiltered platform. Putin reached a global audience of hundreds of millions, who will learn about Russian and European history. But the lecture was not for American audiences. Western media and social media users dismissed the interview, but Putin was talking to countries of the Global South: Latin America, Africa, and Asia. He twice used the phrase ‘golden billion,’ which will be lost on Europeans and North Americans, but understood by millions of people who resent the ‘rules-based order’ that favors the ‘golden billion’: Europeans and North Americans. Putin and Russia have high-standing in the Global South, especially in China, Africa, and swathes of Latin America.
Second, viewers will learn that Russia is an ancient country (unlike the United States). Wars and invasions over the past 1,200 years, and the breakup of the Soviet Union, have shifted and shaped Russia’s borders, religions, and ethno-linguistic communities. This, inevitably, creates unresolved border issues, with ethno-linguistic communities becoming minority peoples in different lands; for example, the Hungarians of Ukraine and the Russians of eastern Ukraine.
Third, they will learn that the Russia-Ukraine War did not begin on 22 February 2022, but has roots (1) in the creation of Ukraine; and (2) the Maidan coup d’état of spring 2014.
Fourth, that Russia is not the Soviet Union. This is an important point because many Americans are ‘stuck on stupid,’ believing that Russia is Communist, with an expansionist military agenda. Putin’s statements that: (1) Russia had expected after 1991 that ‘it will be welcomed into the brotherly family of civilized nations … nothing like this happened. They tricked us’; and (2) that ‘we are as bourgeoisie as you are. We are a market economy and there is no Communism.’ These are key points.
Fifth, many/most Americans will appreciate that Russia cannot tolerate a threat—NATO expansion—on its borders. The ‘five waves of expansion’ that Putin mentioned serve to remind that the United States would not tolerate one ‘Warsaw Pact’ expansion to its doorstep, say, Mexico, and definitely not five expansions, say, some Central American and Caribbean nations. Recall the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when the Soviet Union placed missiles in Cuba.
Aerial photograph of Soviet missile site in Cuba
Impact. The full interview will not change the minds of fanatics (neo-cons and their allies in both parties), but it will resonate with millions of American voters who oppose sending more economic or military aid to Ukraine (and other countries); and oppose American military interventions in Ukraine and/or the Middle East. The majority of Americans will agree with following statement:
Why is the United States fighting thousands of kilometers away from your national territory? Don’t you have anything better to do? You have issues on the border, issues with migration, issues with the national debt [now at] more than $33 trillion. You have nothing better to do so you should fight in Ukraine?
Full interview by Tucker Carlson with V.V. Putin
Perspectives 
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