Masha Gessen is a Russian journalist who not only wrote the first biography of Vladimir Putin, but also recognized from the start what a devilish man the Russian president is. No wonder she soon had to leave her homeland. She now lives in the US and works for the “New Yorker”.
A passage in the interview between Putin and Tucker Carlson caught Gessen’s attention, even though much of the hyped interview was simply boring.
However, the passage in question is actually explosive. It is about Hitler’s invasion of Poland, which Putin legitimizes as follows:
If you apply this statement to the current situation, it is clear that Putin sees himself in the same situation with regard to Ukraine as Hitler saw with Poland. At the same time, he wants to curry favor with Donald Trump, whom he hopes will move back to the White House next year.
This is being widely shared on Russian social media pic.twitter.com/mCnztpEMLL
— Nanette van der Laan (@NanettevdLaan) November 9, 2016
Unfortunately, the hope is justified, as is the historical comparison. As MSNBC star host Rachel Maddow notes in her recently published book, pro-Hitler sentiment in the 1930s in the United States was much more pronounced than previously thought. The TV channel arte has now broadcast a documentary program about the British master spy William Stephenson (the real James Bond), which also sheds light on this dark chapter.
Stephenson managed to significantly influence the mood in the US. At the outbreak of World War II, only 17 percent of citizens supported America’s entry into the war. Thanks to Stephenson’s clever manipulations, this soon rose to 60 percent, and it was only this change in mood that President Franklin Roosevelt was able to grant the British generous military aid packages against the Nazis.
If you replace Hitler with Putin and Poland with Ukraine, today’s situation is strikingly similar. And the whole thing only becomes truly frightening when you realize that conservative America is apparently increasingly willing to abandon Ukraine. Combine this with the comments Donald Trump made last Saturday at a rally in South Carolina and it becomes downright creepy.
“The president of a major (NATO) country stood up and said, ‘Well, sir, if we don’t pay and we’re attacked by Russia, will you protect us?’” the ex-president said. “If you haven’t paid, it’s your own fault,” Trump replied to the head of state. ‘Then I won’t protect you. Yes, I would even encourage the Russians to do whatever they want. You have to pay. They have to pay off their debts.”
Not to mention the fact that this dialogue is most likely fictional, it is also factually incorrect. NATO is not a club where you have to pay membership fees. It is a defense alliance in which members are encouraged to spend at least two percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on their own military.
Most NATO members, especially Germany and France, do not comply with this request, something that not only Trump but also previous US presidents have warned about time and time again.
Poland, on the other hand, is the country that not only meets this requirement, it actually spent 3.9 percent of GDP on military purposes in 2023, relatively more than the US, which achieved only 3.49 percent of GDP. Nevertheless, Trump’s statements were extremely poorly received, especially in Poland. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk explicitly emphasizes: “The NATO promise applies indefinitely. All for one, one for all. And let me make it crystal clear: any downplaying of the NATO guarantee is irresponsible and dangerous and only in Russia’s interest.’
Trump’s encouragement of Putin to invade other countries and do whatever he wants to them may be the biggest threat the ex-president has made yet. It can be interpreted not only as a license for Putin for further attacks, but also as an invitation. Poles in particular feel particularly affected by this because of their history.
Poland is not yet lost
Rightly so: “It goes without saying that Putin has taken the time to associate Poland with Nazi Germany and Hitler’s aggression,” says Gessen. “Just as he did with Ukraine, he now wants to portray Poland as a legacy of the Nazis. In his conversation with Tucker, he mentioned Poland more than thirty times. If I were Polish I would be very scared.”
Poland is not yet lost. Fortunately, there is also hope. The Senate approved the Ukraine aid package with twenty Republican votes. Pressure is growing on Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House of Representatives, to also put this package to a vote.
The American media are gradually starting to realize how dangerous Trump’s statements about NATO are. Combined with a guilty conscience for making Biden’s age far too prominent and neglecting the much more important NATO issue, they are starting to take countermeasures. For example, all the hosts at MSNBC have made Trump and NATO the focus of their reporting.
The ‘New York Times’ also spreads ashes over his head. She has now published a guest commentary by a leading neurologist that massively puts the president’s memory problems into perspective. And she notes with relief that Trump has done Joe Biden a great service with his NATO statements.
“Trump’s astonishing statements this weekend not only distract from memory problems, (…) they also allow the Biden team to shed new light on the upcoming election,” the New York Times notes. “You can now say that the sitting president may be an old man who occasionally forgets something, but his challenger is both old and dangerously reckless.”
Soource :Watson
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
