It’s just under 3 and a half minutes long.
LISTEN and learn something.
I’ll look and see if I can find the video on YouTube for those who can’t watch Twitter video, also a transcript if one is available.
No YouTube of this exists…. yet.
But I saw this and it seems apropos
UPDATE
credit to Progressive Muse in the threads.
Transcription:
Are you having a hard time following what’s going on in Ukraine? Then this video is for you.
If you watch the news these days it can feel like Vladimir Putin is holding all the cards, holding Ukraine and the West hostage. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Putin is actually operating from a position of severe weakness, with a potentially disastrous invasion as his last resort. Let me tell you why.
First let’s do some quick background: Ukraine used to be a Soviet republic, and for most of its post-Soviet independence, its leaders operated in close association with Russia.
But then, in 2013, something happened. The Ukrainian people realized that a political and economic dependence on Russia was a road to nowhere. So they rose up - and they demanded closer ties with the European Union.
Putin and his cronies in Ukraine - they panicked, and they gunned down the protestors.
Now that backfired - big time. Putin’s allies were run out of the country and the nation elected ardent pro-Europe and pro-U.S. leadership.
In response, Putin invaded Crimea - and he invaded eastern Ukraine, but frankly, that just hardened the Ukrainian people’s anti-Russia sentiments.
Still, Putin’s desire to control Ukraine - it didn’t go away. So now, he’s moved 150,000 troops to Ukraine’s border, and he’s threatened a full-on invasion.
Putin hoped that this threatened invasion, all of these troops on Ukraine’s border, would upend Ukraine’s government, collapse it. Or maybe create tensions and fissures within NATO, weakening the alliance. Or result in the West folding and agreeing to his demands.
But none of that happened. In fact the opposite of that happened. The Zelensky government didn’t fall. The United States and the West rallied to support Ukraine’s government. NATO and Europe came together - rallied to support Ukraine’s sovereignty.
And Putin’s list of demands went nowhere.
The West did not give in.
Now, faced with this reality, Putin has only two ways out. Back down - or proceed with an expensive, costly, and potentially disastrous invasion of the largest country in Europe.
It’s hard to fathom what the biggest land war in Europe since 1945 will look like, but it will likely be long and deadly.
The Ukrainian people are not going to submit - they are going to fight back.
And the sanctions from the United States and the rest of the world - they’re going to be devastating - nothing like the relatively mild sanctions Russia has endured so far.
The combination of the cost of the war and the cost of the sanctions, they’re going to threaten Putin’s hold on power. And all for what? To force Ukraine back into Russia’s orbit against Ukraine’s wishes? A nation that used to rely on Russia willingly? All of this just to achieve pre-2013 status quo but with thousands dead and a Russian economy in ruins?
When you think of it that way - how is Putin holding all the cards?
Please see Mark Sumner’s story up now
for details of President Biden’s remarks today and what is happening in response to the Ukraine Invasion (re: sanctions)
Ukraine updates: 'Putin chose this war, and now he and his country will bear the consequences'
excerpt:
The White House has now issued a fact sheet on the new sanctions, which include:
- Severing the connection to the U.S. financial system for Russia’s largest financial institution, Sberbank
- Full blocking sanctions on Russia’s second largest financial institution, VTB Bank (VTB)
- Full blocking sanctions on three other major Russian financial institutions: Bank Otkritie, Sovcombank OJSC, and Novikombank
- New debt and equity restrictions on 13 of the most critical major Russian enterprises and entities
- Additional full blocking sanctions on seven Russian elites and their family members
- Sanctions on 24 Belarusian individuals and entities, including targeting Belarus’ military and financial capabilities by sanctioning two significant Belarusian state-owned banks, nine defense firms, and seven regime-connected official and elites
- Exports of nearly all U.S. items and items produced in foreign countries using certain U.S.-origin software, technology, or equipment will be restricted
- Russia-wide restrictions on technological goods critical to a diversified economy and Putin’s ability to project power; that includes exports of Russian technology
- Tax and fee exemptions for other countries that join in the restrictions on Russia.