July 20 – A Military Analyst of the Ukraine / Russia Crisis; How Russians See the Crisis; Hawks are Driving the Ukraine and Gaza Wars

Full Program

Part 1

We begin and go to Moscow for an analysis of the military situation between Ukraine and the pro-Russian rebels and Russia, which is supplying and supporting the secessionists in Eastern Ukraine who likely shot down a Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 killing all 298 passengers aboard. Dr. Pavel Felgenhauer, a Moscow-based defense analyst, columnist and journalist joins us to discuss the unlikely proposition that Vladimir Putin will back down under pressure from the West and sell out his proxies in Eastern Ukraine, and the more likely scenario that he will double-down militarily as the new Slavophile reactionary politics he has unleashed have Russians in a fevered patriotism whipped up by the avalanche of lies from Putin’s propaganda machine.

Part 2

Then we speak with Masha Gessen in Moscow. She is the author of the scathing biography “The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin” and more recently “Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot”. We discuss the alternative universe in which as outrage increases in the rest of the world, Putin popularity at home continues to rise to an all-time high as the downing of the Malaysian airliner is blamed on Ukrainian fascists manipulated and managed by shadowy American forces out to humiliate Russia.

Part 3

Then finally we address the on-going Israeli military offensive in Gaza and its impact on the region with Alastair Crooke, a former senior intelligence official with Britain’s MI-6 who is the founder and director of the Conflicts Forum and a regular contributor to Bitter Lemons International. We also discuss the apparently close working relationship Obama has with Putin that may be the only way out of this crisis, although the Ukraine war seems to be an existential issue for Putin, while Obama is under pressure to escalate the crisis militarily from Republican politicians like John McCain who called Obama a coward.