I appreciate @x giving us the opportunity to watch this unadulterated interview in full where Putin took a good portion of the time rationalizing his stance on invading and occupying Ukraine by presenting his “facts” of 1000 year history of bond and separation.

History is complicated and tells us what happened in the past but there is no denying Ukraine has been a sovereign nation since 1991 and its territorial integrity has been recognized by all nations, including Russia itself before the invasion started 2 years ago.

The fact Ukraine used to be part of Russia & later USSR does not legitimize Putin’s action to take back what used to belong to Russia. If Putin’s logic were valid, other bordering countries could do the same, demanding return of their lands lost to Russia, like 1.5M Square kilometers of northern China lost to Russia 200-100 years ago, or Crimea returned back to Turkey because it was part of Ottoman Empire 400 years ago, or Kaliningrad, which is not even geographically located in Russia & annexed to USSR after WW2, handed back to former owner Prussia (now Germany ), or St Petersburg given back to Sweden because it was taken away by Russia four hundred years ago, or 10% of Finland lost to Russia in 1944 by invasion. By the same token, Russia could ask for Alaska to be returned back to itself. Of course, in reality, none of the land ownership change can be reversed under current international norms unless exerting use of force like what Russia did to Ukraine.

What’s lost is lost. We need to get out of entangled histories and move on. Current sovereignty needs to be respected no matter what. Using historical, cultural and linguistic connections to justify annexations is more like BS. If Russia doesn’t change this mindset, more wars over territorial disputes with neighboring countries are waiting to happen. Unfortunately Russia will not stop because its aspiration is to seek never-ending strategic buffer zone in my opinion.

@X did the right thing to allow the interview to be aired so we can all watch and critique. It’s sad that @TuckerCarlson failed to ask Putin some critical questions face to face.