Interview with Daniel Fried, American diplomat, sanctions coordinator for the US State Department. Fried has been pushing for NATO expansion and economic sanctions for years. How did similar sanctions ruin the Soviet Union? Was Russia offered to join NATO? What was the idea of ​​expanding NATO? For Russian voiceover, please follow    • "Мы не настолько хороши, чтобы органи...  
00:00 Daniel Fried, Mr. Sanctions, American diplomat, former US State Department sanctions coordinator, on the approach to sanctions against Russia, which could stop the war in Ukraine. The G7 have announced that they are ready to stop profiting from oil. Turkey, China and India will become the importing countries of Russian oil, it is necessary to impose a restriction on oil prices. Use of Russian foreign exchange reserves for Ukrainian reconstruction. The effect will be strong, but delayed in time and will not be decisive in the militaristic phase of Putin's war against Ukraine. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the volume of arms supplies to Ukraine.
07:30 The Russian people are mostly dumb. There are smart, capable people, but in Putin's system, their intelligence and abilities do not matter.
08:00 The United States did not allow Ukraine to join NATO. President Bush wanted to prepare Georgia and Ukraine for membership. Germany, France and other countries blocked it. Putin invaded Georgia and Ukraine in the same year, I don't regret that we tried. We must defeat Putin for the sake of Ukraine. For the sake of Europe. And, frankly, in the name of Russia itself.
12:30 I do not expect Russia to lose this war. The wars lost by Russia led to reforms. Let us recall the reforms after the Crimean War, the uprising of 1905, the fall of the old regime in 1917.
15:50 The concept of NATO expansion. The idea was that we need to build a united and free Europe, without erecting an eternal Iron Curtain. A Russia-NATO partnership that could develop into a real alliance. Russia would be a partner and even an ally.
17:00 There was no transformation in Russia, the fall of the USSR was too traumatic. Russia is neither reformed nor satisfied with its own condition. Putin has publicly acknowledged his desire to make Russia an empire. If NATO does not expand, Putin would definitely try to take back the Baltic states.
24:30 Putin toyed with the idea of ​​Russia joining NATO. Sergei Ivanov: "We do not want to be members of NATO, where we will have the same right to head as Latvia" Relations have deteriorated not because of NATO expansion.
26:46 We were not responsible for the color revolutions. We did not organize any uprisings. But Putin believed that it was all our doing. We are not that good. Putin never realized that in today's world, societies can actually agree on their own future.
33:00 Putin is not interested in building relationships. Clinton, Bush, Obama tried to get through to Putin. All three failed. Because Putin's conditions for good relations are complete freedom of action in carrying out repressions inside the country and aggressive actions outside it. Georgia. Ukraine.
40:16The Minsk Accords are not so bad. Donbass is Ukrainian territory, ceasefire, special status of the Russian language. If Putin needed a settlement of the conflict in Ukraine, he would have agreed to comply with the Minsk agreements.
44:19 Brazil, India, Latin American countries, Asian countries sympathise with Putin. The popularity of Putin's way of doing business could be a problem for the whole world. In the US, there is an authoritarian movement around Donald Trump. Dictators have an undeniable advantage: they can say and do whatever they want. And democracies take time to organize themselves. But democracies are more resilient than their opponents believe.
53:00 There are many people in the West who are convinced that Russia is doomed to slide into its worst historical traditions. Russia has always had tsars, without the rule of law, without a democratic society. But there is a persistent minority in Russian history. Vladimir Kara-Murza or Vladimir Milov, Alexei Navalny. Most likely, after Putin it will be better. If Russia does not conquer Ukraine, and if it fails to keep Belarus, the new leadership may want to revive Russia. Putin must lose. The collapse of Russia: there is such a theory that the Tatars, cities on the Don or Chechnya may try to declare their independence. I am a skeptic about this. A Russian leader may emerge who will succeed in laying the foundation for the modernization of the country. Only under the condition that Putinism will collapse in real time, in front of the people.
64:57 Putin speaks the language of a triumphant. The Russian people will make any sacrifice if they think that their homeland is in danger. If they do not win, and the reasons for fighting are vague for them, they will not accept such a war just for the sake of aggression. If Putin loses, his support will instantly disappear.