“It appears that Trudeau and Zelensky had arranged to meet this guy ahead of time. Which means that’s a further level of clearance. Meaning that Trudeau and his immediate handlers knew exactly who he was and yet he met with him… When they stood up to applaud a Nazi – a literal Nazi – they claimed that was an accident. There was nothing accidental about it! They knew who they were applauding when they applauded him. They’re just not being honest about it today.”
– Scott Ritter, from this week’s interview
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At a time the elites in the West have a problematic figure on the world stage, and you are having difficulty mobilizing the working class to put on uniforms and “fight for their country,” it is helpful to have a second class of pawns to do the fighting instead.
Hence, the Mujahideen in Afghanistan, funded by the CIA, contributed to the destruction of Soviet Union. [1]
Today we have the perfect group of stooges to execute an operation against big bad Russia. The same breed of tyrants in Ukraine who joined alongside the Nazis to conquer the U.S.S.R. appear to be active again following the 2014 Maidan and the coup that ensued. And they apparently don’t need much motivation to carry out offensives against the people of the Donbass region. [2]
So if Russia can be persuaded to come to their assistance, the result could well be Afghanistan 2.0! Arm the Slavic men with Howitzers, rocket launchers, missile systems and numerous other military toys while not a single soldier from the U.S. or any other country dives into the breech of the epic fight.
However, it appears that things are not going quite so badly for the Russians as had been originally planned. The great “counter-offensive” waged by President Zelensky’s forces did not amount to much more than a burp. And the NATO members, including Republican opposition members, are getting tired of throwing more weapons and money into the black hole that is Ukraine. [3][4]
Meanwhile, the Canadian Parliament is reeling from the embarrassing spectacle of being seen applauding a Ukrainian-Canadian veteran taking on the Soviets during World War II – who turned out to be serving on Hitler’s side. A Nazi! [5]
With these and other dynamics in play the Global Research News Hour continues to update listeners on the fate of this war, and the reality of the foreign policy of Canada.
In our first half hour, peace activist Tamara Lorincz joins us to analyze the consequences of the Nazi in the House of Commons and the involvement of NATO in essentially taking over our foreign affairs in recent years.
In our second half hour, military analyst and commentator Scott Ritter not only gives total victory by Russia an absolute necessity to end the war, he expands on Zelensky’s background and fate, muses about the true role of Ukraine Reconstruction Bank for power brokers JPMorgan and Blackrock, and much more.
It should also be noted that both guests expand on their own recent voyages to Russia and what we could learn about the prospects for peace from these experiences.
Tamara Lorincz is a member of Canadian Voice of Women for Peace, a PhD candidate, Balsillie School of International Affairs, Wilfrid Laurier University, and a fellow with the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute .
Scott Ritter is a former US Marine Corps intelligence officer and author of ‘Disarmament in the Time of Perestroika: Arms Control and the End of the Soviet Union.’ He served in the Soviet Union as an inspector implementing the INF Treaty, in General Schwarzkopf’s staff during the Gulf War, and from 1991-1998 as a UN weapons inspector.
(Global Research News Hour Episode 402)
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Transcript of Scott Ritter, September 27, 2023
GR: The great counter-offensive that we were talking about by the Ukrainians amounted to minor gains and spectacular loss of life. Ukraine deaths, I believe, soar into the hundreds of thousands now. I mean, men are actually grabbed in the street to herd into this war. And Russians have suffered too, of course. And NATO countries are starting to run out of resources to send a diminishing army. I have to ask: from your vantage point, as a military expert, what is your analysis of the war as it stands right now? I mean, can you give us an update?
SR: Well, I mean, what we’re looking at it is the strategic defeat of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
I mean, even minor gains is far too optimistic, because a gain has to indicate some sort of progression to an objective. The objective of the counter-offensive was never to capture a village that had a pre-war population of 400. I’m referring to the village of Robotino. That’s in the Zaporizhzhia, that has been at the centre of this counter-offensive since its start back in early June. Robotino was supposed to be the point of entry by Ukraine into the Russian defence network. They should have captured or cleared Robotino on Day 2 of the operation. They should have been at Tokmak, which is the intermediate objective, a town some-20 kilometres beyond the frontline.
And then they should have been at Melitopol’, the major city which was the ultimate, you know, goal of this offensive, that is capturing Melitopol’, severing the land bridge between Russia and Crimea, and putting the Russians in an untenable situation thereby hoping that Russia would come to the negotiating table. And so, unless you take Melitopol’ and sever the land bridge you can’t speak of a “gain,” because the gain has to be seen in the context of the brutality.
The Ukrainians have successfully taken Robotino, but only after they deployed the last three brigades of the 12 brigades they allocated for the task of capturing Melitopol’. And having seized Robotino, they found that they had seized nothing more than a death trap, because Robotino was in the low ground between a series of high grounds continuing to be occupied by the Russians. And when you have the high ground, you have, you know, a superior fire position.
And the Ukrainian counter-offensive is stalled. They have no more reserves, they committed their last reserves. The Russians, meanwhile, continue to hold the totality of their defensive line. They have hundreds of thousands of troops that have yet to be committed into this fighting. Their defence industry is churning out the war material at record numbers with no indication of not being able to sustain this level of production.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s defence industry is non-existent. They’re totally dependent on military production coming from the West, from Europe, from the United States. The Western nations have already indicated they have pretty much exhausted their relevant stockpiles of equipment to send to Ukraine. They are struggling to get new production online. And this means that Ukraine will not be able to replenish the losses that they have suffered. This means as this war goes on and as the, you know, meat-grinder grinds away, gaps will be appearing in the Ukrainian defence line and defence capacity. Gaps that cannot be replenished and these gaps will be further exploited by the Russians, creating more gaps.
And this is a recipe for collapse, and I think that’s the direction that we’re heading on the Ukrainian front. Toward the ultimate collapse of the Ukrainian military’s ability to maintain some sort of cohesive front against the Russians.
GR: Well, with this collapse appearing, you mean a signalling of the end of the war in some sense, it’s got to head somewhere. You’ve got Zelensky still, you know, going around. He was in Canada last week, somewhat infamously, in terms of the Canadian Parliament. And I’m wondering, is he still going to be president a year from now or six months from now? I mean, what do you predict will be his fate with his glorious war, as you said, coming crashing down?
SR: Well, I mean, we need to understand that Zelensky is not Winston Churchill. He is a tool of Western intelligence, of Western governments who used him to manipulate Ukraine into serving as a proxy of NATO in a larger conflict against Russia. He is an actor who has been ably reading scripts handed to him by his CIA and MI6 masters. And he had a successful first season, we could say. The show was well written and the product was seen by the viewership as being worthy of continued support.
But the second season has not been so successful. The second season, I guess we could have called it the “season of the counter-offensive.” And the counter-offensive has failed egregiously, and now the West is stuck with an actor whose script no longer motivates.
When he went on his most recent trip, you know, starting off by travelling to the United Nations where he spoke before the General Assembly. As he left Europe, we saw Poland begin to turn its back on Ukraine. And this is a very problematic issue for Ukraine: Poland is one of the larger supporters of Ukraine. Poland serves as a conduit, a physical conduit, of munitions being sent to Ukraine. Polish personnel have fought by the tens of thousands in Ukraine on the side of the Ukrainian army as mercenaries. Poland has turned over significant numbers of tanks, artillery pieces, and riding vehicles. And now Poland has said it will no longer participate in that, that they will no longer send military equipment to Ukraine. That this military equipment, especially the newer equipment is being used in Poland and being purchased abroad, will be used exclusively for the Polish military.
Moreover, Poland has said that it will not participate in the Black Sea grain deal, meaning that Poland will not allow Ukraine to dump its grain on the Polish, you know, economy. Poland is more concerned about their own farmers, their own agriculture, how to bring those crops to market, how to earn money for these farmers so they can pay taxes so that Poland can do the things that Poland needs to do.
By allowing Ukrainian grain into the Polish market, they really undercut the Polish farmer in terms of pricing. Plus the quality is garbage, much of this grain has been sitting in silos for years and has rotted and is fermented. You know, so it’s sub-quality grain. But this is problematic for Ukraine, because if it can’t bring the grain to market, it can’t generate money that it desperately needs.
And so, having Poland turned its back on Zelensky and on Ukraine was basically the precursor for what turned out to be a disastrous trip. He went to the United Nations General Assembly, spoke before the global community to a largely empty conference room. The people that flocked to hear him in the past no longer care with what he says, because he’s irrelevant. He’s recognized as having zero relevance to this issue. He’s a puppet of the – if you want to negotiate with a puppet, understand that you have to negotiate with the puppet handler. And so, people were starting to say, ‘We’re going to talk with the United States and Europe, we’re not going to talk with Ukraine, because Ukraine doesn’t do anything on its own volition.’ So, a disaster when he went to Washington D.C., he got snubbed by Congress.
The last time he was in Washington D.C. he was able to speak to a joint session of United States Congress. He had Nancy Pelosi infamously hold up a Ukrainian flag signed by so-called Defenders of Bakhmut, many of whom were affiliated with right-wing political parties. He got her to say “Slava Ukraine” which is the war cry of the Banderist movement which Zelensky has been propping for. He went to the Pentagon and was told, you know, you’re going to have to basically get some victories on the battlefield before we can go back to Congress and get more money.
And then, with his tail between his legs he flew off to Canada. Here, he met with Prime Minister Trudeau in the Canadian Parliament and got some arousing ovations from the Parliament as he delivered his presentation. But near the end of his presentation the camera panned to an individual in the audience who stood up to receive the applause of Zelensky, Trudeau, and others, including the totality of the Canadian Parliament. This was a 98-year old former soldier with the 14th Galician-SS, or Waffen-SS Division, one of, you know, a Nazi formation and everybody who served in it, you know, had to be a Nazi, taken an oath to serve Nazi Germany.
The 14th Galician Division, you know, had a reputation, well-earned during the war, of killing innocent civilians, killing Jewish women, children, the elder men, killing Poles, killing Belurusians, killing Russians themselves. A very, very criminally-laced organization. In 1945, when the war ended, the Galician Division was captured intact by the British army, I believe. And instead of being turned over to the Soviets for retribution, well-deserved, instead they kept them under British custody, turned them into what they call “displaced persons” who were interned in several camps throughout Germany. And eventually, the Galician Division was dispatched from Germany to Canada en masse, in totality, where they were absorbed by the Western Ukrainian diaspora in Ukraine.
This gentleman was singled out, he stood up, and he received a standing ovation from Parliament. Parliament literally applauded a Nazi.
GR: Yes.
SR: Now, the speaker of the Parliament has quit. He apologized, he puts the blame on him. But I will tell you this: I’ve spoken before the Canadian Parliament before, it was a foreign relations committee, but I had to be thoroughly vetted by the Canadian Royal Mounted Police and by the Canadian intelligence services before I was allowed to enter and have connection with these parliamentarians.
GR: Wow.
SR: The security for Zelensky and for Trudeau is even greater. There’s not a single person in the Parliament that wasn’t known by name to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and to the Canadian Intelligence services. But they had to have their names submitted ahead of time to be vetted. So, the Canadian Security services knew exactly who this guy was and what his background was.
Moreover, it appears that Trudeau and Zelensky had arranged to meet this guy ahead of time, which means that’s a further level of clearance. Meaning that, Trudeau and his immediate handlers knew exactly who he was, and yet he’d met with him. Zelensky knew who he was, and yet they met with him.
So, to say that this was an “accident” where only the Speaker of the House is to blame, the Speaker of the Parliament, that this was his mistake, he resigned, he’s taking a bullet for the boss. But the fact of the matter is Trudeau knew about it, he had to know about it. So did Zelensky and their security, so did the entire Parliament. When they stood up to applaud a Nazi, a literal Nazi, they claim now it was an accident. There was nothing accidental about it, they knew who they were applauding when they applauded him. They’re just not being honest about it today.
This underscores the degree to which Ukrainian nationalists with, you know, very very odious backgrounds, people who fought alongside Nazi Germany as part of the Waffen-SS who committed horrific crimes while they served Nazi Germany. They are alive and they are willing – they are alive and they are living in Canada, in Ukraine. Here in the United States we just turned a blind eye to them.
GR: Wow, that’s amazing. I thank you for bringing that to our attention. You know, just to switch gears again: as you have articulated, there is really no hope of Ukraine pulling off a victory in this battle. So, something else has to happen and if they’re going to win either NATO troops can be convinced to join Ukrainians on the front lines, or God help us, a nuclear war could be triggered. Or some sort of truce could be signed. I think that sums up all the available choices. What is your guess as to which direction this US-NATO actually will go?
SR: Well, let me say right off the bat that this is just going to be unconditional Russian victory. That’s the only way this war ends unless NATO intervenes and then this war ends with a general nuclear exchange and it terminates all life on the planet as we know it. There will be no truce, there will be no ceasefire, there will be no frozen conflict. There will be no forever war. This war is going to end – you know, I can’t give you an exact date and time – but it will end, and it will end with Ukraine’s unconditional surrender to Russia, or it will end with the absolute destruction of Ukraine.
When US Senator Lindsey Graham said that this conflict will be fought to the last Ukrainian, he was serious. Because Americans don’t care about Ukraine or Ukrainians. We only care about Ukrainians sacrificing their lives in furtherance of an American goal of bringing harm, of pain, of hurt to Russia. So, we need to understand that’s the reality. This will not end any other way. Either total Russian victory or general nuclear war.
Now, to avoid a general nuclear war, the West is going to have to accept the reality that Russia is going to win, and they’re going to win on Russian terms. And so, the question is: can NATO, the United States, the collective West, accept a Russian victory, and what will they do in the face of a Russian victory? Will they, you know, abandon Ukraine but then regroup and seek to confront Russia elsewhere? Or will they abandon Ukraine and recognize that the best way to get out of this situation is to learn to peacefully co-exist with Russia and begin negotiations with Russia about a European security framework that would be acceptable both to Europe and to Russia. These are the only options. There is literally the only – you know, in order to have a ceasefire or truce or some sort of negotiating settlement, you have to have all parties talking about this and ultimately be in agreement. Russia is not in agreement. They made it clear there will be no ceasefire. So, all the options you’ve laid out appear to just be laid out for the domestic political benefit of the nations that are willing to talk about it at this stage of the game. But it will have no impact on ultimately how this war ends. This war ends when Russia decides this war ends. And —
GR: Yeah.
SR: — no other way.
GR: Yeah. I just appreciate your take on another aspect of the war, and that’s the development of the Ukraine Reconstruction Bank. It’s set up with JP Morgan and Blackrock, you know, two of the biggest financial entities in the world. And it’s propped up as the source to allow private investors to rebuild Ukraine after it has already suffered from its rejection by Russia and then now this war. But it’s probably more intended at making big money for the war contractors. I mean, I’m thinking of what Halliburton did in Iraq. What are your thoughts, I guess? I mean, is it as benevolent as its PR says it is? Or is this like the bank and the involvement of JP Morgan and Blackrock an example of the saying by Smedley Butler that “war is a racket”?
SR: Oh, war is a racket and Blackrock is a racketeer. They’re not there to help Ukraine, they’re there to make money. You know, their bet is, as this war goes on, you know, Ukrainian assets that, right now, are worth a lot of money will diminish in value. Of course, Blackrock wants to be there to buy them at the lowest possible value and then reap the rewards through predatory reconstruction.
But the good news for Ukraine is that Blackrock will never have an opportunity to do any of this. Because Ukraine is going to lose the war, and Russia will make null and void any arrangement that Blackrock has signed. The Zelensky government will no longer exist when this war is done and the Ukrainian government that will replace it will not be inclined to honour any agreement made with Blackrock. So, it’s totally irrelevant.
Nothing that Blackrock thinks or hopes will happen from this relationship with the Ukrainian government will ever reach fruition, because in order to reach fruition you need conflict termination on terms that allow not only for the Zelensky government to stay in power, but for the Zelensky government in Ukraine to be in a superior position over Russia, one where these contractual relationships will be enforceable. That just isn’t going to happen.
The Russians will never enforce this, will never agree to this, and neither will any new Ukrainian government. So, I’m surprised at Blackrock for doing this, because it’s a very poor investment and they’re not going to be getting a good return on their dollar.
GR: Okay. I would also like to – before we run out of time. I heard that you spent time in Russia a few months ago. I would appreciate if you could just describe your experiences there. Where you travelled, who you talked to, and what was your impression generally of the country this late into the war.?
SR: Well, I went to Russia in late April. I stayed there for 26 days, returned back to the United States on May 25th. I visited 12 cities during that time. The purpose of the visit was a book tour. I had just had my book “Disarmament in the Time of Perestroika” translated into Russian and published by a Russian publishing house.
And so, I was doing a book tour. But in the process of doing the book tour, I was – I had the opportunity to see Russia, to meet Russians, and get a first-hand view at what the reality of Russia was. My primary objective wasn’t to do an assessment on where Russia was vis-a-vis the war, but rather to learn more about the Russian people, their history, their culture, the Russian soul. And to capture this information and bring it back here to the United States in an effort to better educate and inform my fellow citizens about the reality of Russia to try and create a vaccine, so to speak, to the disease of Russophobia that has gripped the United States.
But you know, when you do that you get a feel for the reality. And right now, Russia is impacted by the reality of this conflict. It’s everywhere you go, you see the Russian people rallying around their government. Deeply patriotic people. Supporting defence industries, supporting the troops, supporting the Putin government.
I was there for Victory Day, May 9th is Victory Day, one of the biggest holidays in Russia, of celebrating the victory of the Alliance over Nazi Germany. And what I can say is that, you know, I’ve been involved with a lot of Fourth of July parades here in the United States. I was a volunteer firefighter for many years. And of course, on the Fourth of July we like to parade up and down our town and receive the applause of the admiring citizens and all that. But you know, basically Fourth of July comes and Fourth of July goes. Victory Day is forever, meaning that the Russians never lose sight of the sacrifices made by their ancestors who came before them.
Twenty-seven million Soviet citizens, many of them Russians, but not exclusively so, perished in that conflict. And the Russian people feel indebted to them. So, as they prepare for Victory Day, it is a – it has a deeper meaning to them, it resonates with the average Russian citizen. Victory Day itself is an extremely sombre day. Yes, there’s a parade, yes there’s fireworks. But it’s also a day that people go to the graves, that people lay flowers and monuments.
In years past, the Russians have done a parade of – sort of a spontaneous parade by it’s called the “Immortal Regimen,” it’s become a formal thing. And millions of Russians fill the streets in a parade where they hold up the photograph of a relative, you know, from World War II, somebody who served, and it’s now expanded to anybody who served. This was a hugely emotional moment, where people were actively participating in something. Showing appreciation for their relatives, telling their relatives that the current generation has not forgotten their sacrifices and will never betray the cause which is Mother Russia that people died for. And this extends beyond May 9th and the days afterwards it still resonated.
And I – if I went to Russia today, it would still be resonating. People would still be talking about the importance. Because this is part of their DNA, this patriotic desire to serve their nation. It’s a real deal, and I witnessed that. You know, it’s imperative to tell the American people that this is not propaganda, this is not Russian propaganda, this is genuine, this is genuine, this is real, this is visceral.
This is who the Russian people are. And also, to report back that Russia is not being negatively impacted by the economic sanctions. That the Russian economy was thriving, without exception, every local economy seemed to be doing well. There was new construction everywhere.
Russia is a clean nation. Russia is a well-functioning nation. Russia is a nation that appears to have compassion for its collective population. I didn’t see homeless camping out under bridges or, you know, in parks or under bushes. I didn’t see drunks and drug addicts crowding the streets, you know, invading parks. The country was full of a vibrant people who are very proud of who they are. This wasn’t a propaganda exercise, this was a Russian reality.
And I would just encourage anybody who could, travel to Russia to see it for yourself. And what you’ll do is come back with a deep appreciation of Russia, its culture, its history, its people. But also a recognition that everything the West, their governments, and Western media have told you about Russia is a lie.
I’m not going to sit here and pretend that Russia is perfect, that it doesn’t have problems, it does. It’s not perfect. I’m not going to pretend that everything that Russia does on the world stage is admiral and beyond critique. No. Some of it is as selfish as what America does. And you know, every nation should be open to be criticized by its own people. But when you do the, you know, the balance sheet between the sins of Russia and you weigh, you know, looked at the sins of America, the sins of Europe, you realize that Russia has very few sins. Whereas Europe and the United States have a tremendous amount of sins. Russia is on the right side of history. They are trying to be good global community members. They don’t want to dominate the world, they just want to be in the world as equals in a world that respects Russia as much as Russia respects them.
GR: I guess in the one minute – we’ve got one minute left in this broadcast. I mean, is there anything you could say to me? Next week is the global day of action to end the war in Ukraine, October 1st– October 8th. I was wondering if anything from your knowledge of Russia and their people, what you could say that would maybe emphasize in people’s minds that, yes, peace is on the way if we do things right. What would you say to those activists?
SR: I would tell the activists that the best path to peace is a total Russian victory. That you need to stop arming the Ukrainians. You need to stop funding the Ukrainians. This war is not going to end with some sort of negotiated settlement that – where, you know, everybody feels good about this. Ukraine has lost this war.
And the reason why Ukraine lost this war is because the West pushed it into this conflict and then continued Ukraine full of weapons and money to sustain this war. Russia is not going to end this war without achieving the objectives that it set out to achieve. And therefore, the world needs to respect this. And if you hope we could stop sending them the weapons and the money that is being used by proxy to (inaudible, 28:22). And to ensure that future generations of Ukrainians will grow up in dislocated environment , poor education, no stability, a nightmare. If you care for Ukraine, pray for a Russian victory.
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Notes:
- https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-russia-relations-a-review-of-ukraine-russia-history/5778616
- https://www.globalresearch.ca/rise-ukraines-neo-nazi-mps-since-2014-pro-democracy-revolution/5675691
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMGW1mpMlHU&t=36s
- https://www.globalresearch.ca/republicans-ukraine-ad-says-ukraine-war-good-weakens-russia/5833996
- https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/speaker-s-nazi-veteran-invite-profoundly-embarrassing-trudeau-says-as-rota-faces-calls-to-resign-1.6576350