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And it was really great battle against fascism. It was big victory of the antifascist forces in all over the world. But I may be wrong, but I think it is, first of all, the victory of the Soviet people. And this memory created an image of our country as country which can and must participate in the world relations in order to bring more justice, to oppose imperialist forces. And inside Russia, all activity of our state abroad is shown as anti-imperialist activity in support of anti-imperialist forces.
And it created the big support from below to Putin's policy and to Putin's government - not the government - the whole apparatus, the whole state. From another point of view, there are some real reasons because of the aggressive behavior of NATO countries and the United States. We don't have pictures, but maybe you find on the Internet, there is a wonderful picture of Russia and of NATO bases around all (of the) countries, a lot of them. What will be the reaction of U.S. citizens if Russian weapons, tanks, soldiers, airplanes will be around United States, everywhere - in Canada, in Mexico, in the Pacific Ocean, in the Atlantic Ocean, everywhere?
I think it will be a huge, strong growth of nationalism and the slogan: Pentagon must be strong; CIA must be main agent of our policy. And so on and so forth.
We get that without Russian tanks surrounding the country.
Aleksandr BuzgalinYeah. So, it's unfortunately bad joke. But this is reality. There is threat. And there is pressure. And also, by the way, one of the main supporters of the Putin state, state apparatus of the Putin policy in our country, is U.S. propaganda. You created from Russia, a country of, I don't know, devils or stupid devils, all the negative pictures: Russia is terrible, Russia is aggressive, Russia is dangerous, nothing positive.
And because of it, it's very simple to create an image - we are in a fortress, around only enemies, so we must love our side or it will be terrible catastrophe. And, instead of Putin, we will have Obama, Trump, or anybody else, and NATO soldiers instead of our soldiers. So, if you read The New York Times, you will understand that Russia is a terrible country. One time, if the U.S., not left media like your website, like your resource, but, if mainstream, I don't know, media in the West, could - it's a fantasy - could write Russian government is authoritative, Russian economic policies were neoliberal, why don't you (Russia) make positive steps in the direction of social justice, planification, state regulation, the development of education, more spending for social needs, and so on. Even in West European countries, we have some social protection. In the United States, we have, I don't know, maybe you have nothing. But you can say that you have something, at least progressive income tax.
Such critique will be absolutely understandable for our people. And if you add, but we like Russian culture, we think that Russian people are working hard, and so on and so forth. And we think there are some reasons why Russia can participate in world politics, not only in the United States. It will be another image. And it will be much less support inside Russia to our officials and much more peaceful relations towards Western officials, establishment and media.
But when it is only anti-Russian propaganda, it creates opposite reaction in Russia.
Paul JayBut there's a problem with that.
Aleksandr BuzgalinYeah, so"
Paul JayThere's a problem because if American media covered Russia that way, how would they explain the need for a trillion dollars in modernizing the nuclear-weapons program? How would they explain 14 new Ford-class aircraft carriers? How do they explain a trillion-dollar military budget? I don't think we can go there.
Aleksandr BuzgalinYeah, absolutely. The right economic-class reasons for such type of propaganda, and for opposite reaction in our country. In Russia, it also creates opportunities for the development of military-industrial complex and spendings for police secret services, and so on.
Paul JayThat's a morbid dance they do, the Russian military-industrial complex and the American. They love each other. They couldn't exist (without each other). I mean, also, let's throw in the Chinese military-industrial complex, too. In fact, I was seeing recently that five of the 15 largest arms manufacturers in the world are now Chinese. So, there's a three-way dance going on here.
Aleksandr BuzgalinRussia, we have such funny performance. When one man making from one place, one person from another, and another person, and they're fighting each other. But really, it's one man.
I think it's military industrial complex of U.S. and the Russian.
Paul JayAlthough I must say the Americans are so much bigger and so much worse than either the Russians or the Chinese. No one has committed as many crimes on the world stage as the Americans have. But anyway, let's go back to Russia.
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