‘Now he’s expressing a very very deep frustration and resentment against the West, and not only against the West, against the past, against history.’ Putin vs The West: My Backyard, Jose Manuel Barroso, BBC 2023
Vladimir Putin has rocked the foundations of European security. This is the story of Putin’s path to war; how and why he wrongfooted the West through a decade of clashes. ibid.
Armed forces were appearing across the [Crimean] peninsula. These little green men, as they came to be called, wore unmarked uniforms and carried modern Russian weapons. ibid.
The European Council threatened sanctions unless Putin withdrew his forces. ibid.
‘In the hearts and minds of the our people, Crimea has always been a part of Russia.’ ibid. Putin
The EU together with America imposed the toughest sanctions Russia had faced since the Cold War, targeting its energy, arms and finance sectors. But some thought they should go even further. ibid.
With no Western military support, Ukraine’s forces were being overwhelmed by the rebels armed by Russia. ibid.
‘You knew you were dealing with a difficult and dangerous and potentially very bad man.’ Putin vs The West s1e2: Back With a Vengeance, Cameron
In the months that followed Russian bombing in Syria increased dramatically … Civilians were also being hit. ibid.
Putin ramps up his aggression from an audacious poisoning to the moment he launches an invasion that threatens to engulf Europe. Putin vs The West s1e3: A Dangerous Path
‘His nuclear is tippy-top from what I hear.’ ibid. Trump
On 24th February 2022 Vladimir Putin rocked the foundations of European security. This is the story of the year that followed. Putin vs The West: At War s2e1: Invasion, BBC 2024
Putin’s invasion exposes cracks in the global order. And as the Russian president digs in, the resolve of Ukraine and its allies is tested like never before.
British and American Intelligence reported there were up to 150,000 Russian troops massing on the border with Ukraine. ibid.
The assumption that Ukraine would be overwhelmed by Putin’s forces was fast proving wrong. ibid.
What we were confronting was an awful evil. Putin vs The West: At War s2e2: Doubling Down
On 24th February 2022 launched an invasion that shook the world … The impact of the war is felt across the globe. And as Putin tries to build his own allies, Western support for Ukraine starts to fray. ibid.
Liberal shock therapy: The period following the dissolution of the USSR has been folded neatly into the US’s overarching narrative for the 20th and 21st centuries. How Capitalism Destroyed Russia, Youtube 19.03, Second Thought 2022
Russian capitalism was not the product of a democratic reawakening and it was certainly not inevitable. Iibid.
Massive and immediately misery for millions and the beginning of a new period of insecurity. ibid.
An immediate 250% increase in price of basic necessities. Then came the layoffs and the hyperinflation, unemployment skyrocketed by 60%, GDP fell 14.5% in a single year … ibid.
Organized crime found a welcoming home in the chaotic and deregulated environment of capitalist transition. ibid.
Most privatisations went to insiders. ibid.
The last millennium has seen a world shaped by waves of change at a blistering pace. But there is one nation which perhaps more than any other has been witness to a 1,000 years of explosive drama, all concealed behind an iron curtain of intrigue and mystery: Russia. Russia: 1,000 Years of History, 5Select 2023
From a mighty superpower to an empire on the brink of collapse. And now to a new global threat. ibid.
It covers one eighth of all the land on Earth, stretching across the whole of northern Asia and the eastern third of Europe. ibid.
Grand Prince Vladimir 1,000 A.D. At the turn of the century the Grand Prince had been in power for 20 years. ibid.
The man who first made Russia great – 1517 A.D. Ivan the Terrible or Ivan IV – you just wouldn’t want to argue with him. ibid.
A dynasty of 18 Romanovs would take to the Russian throne over 300 years. ibid.
Peter the Great, 1682 … Weighing in at a hefty 600 tons, it’s regularly voted one of ugliest statues in the world … If you’re in Moscow, you can’t miss him. ibid.
Catherine the Great, 1762 … She was born Princess Sophie … At the age of 16 she married the heir to the Russian throne, Peter III, but by 1762 she had seized power in a daring coup. ibid.
In the cities, the workers suffered appalling exploitation and squalor, and its countryside was in turmoil after a devastating famine. ibid.
Nicholas II, the last of the Tsars, 1894: His legacy would change Russia forever. ibid.
What would happen next would become one of the biggest events of the 20th century. ibid.
Over the last thousand years this has been a country defined by its all-powerful rulers. ibid.
Having demolished the oppressive autocracy of the Tsars, an equally brutal leadership now took their place. ibid.
Stalin: How could the man who some estimate was responsible for the death of as many as 20 million Soviets now be remembered as a Russian hero? ibid.
The story of the Russian people over the last millennium is often one of extraordinary hardship and sacrifice. ibid.
The Russian military is taking chips from dishwashers and refrigerators to fix their military hardware because there are no semiconductors any more. Russian industry is in tatters. Ursula von der Leyen
Putin has this idea that it’s [Ukraine] really where Russia was born, and it’s an integral part of Russia. Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War VII: The End of History, Mary Sarotte
By the winter and spring of 1991 there was another factor – Boris Yeltzin. ibid. Condoleezza Rice
Yeltzin, in contrast to Gorbachev, figures out that nationalism is the wave of the future. ibid. Mary Sarotte
Those who want to divide the country up have prevailed. ibid. Gorbachev
Most notoriously, the auctioning off of state enterprises. Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War VIII: Moscow Will Not Be Silent, David Remnick
You ended up in a place where capitalism was much worse than communism … They didn’t have any mecidine in the hospitals. ibid. Browder
Behaving Badly: Yeltzin in D.C.: Drunk, in his underwear, looking for pizza. ibid. Tim Reid newspaper article
Putin, he started collecting taxes from the oligarchs. ibid. Browder
He just wanted to become the biggest oligarch himself. ibid.
I was in prison for ten years. That was very painful. ibid. Khodorkovsky
Putin has been I think consistently underestimated by American and Western leaders. ibid. Glasser
Moscow in his view will not be silent. ibid. Fiona Hill
But we are in a much worse place than we were in the Cold War. Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War IX: We Are Not Dead Yet, Browder
I think he [Putin] saw it mainly as a rant. But in retrospect, it clearly was a harbinger, because he was clearly articulating the views of the West that he has put into practice in the years since 2007. This set the stage for a growing authoritarianism in Russia as Putin tried to reassemble authority in Moscow, and bring these countries back under the influence of Moscow. ibid. Gates
Russia invaded Georgia on a flimsy pretext. ibid. Hill
He [Putin] wants to give everyone a lesson. ibid.
Czar Ivan: History will remember him as The Terrible. Ivan liberates Russia from foreign presence. Ivan IV, Grand Duke of Moscow, first Czar of Russia by the Grace of God. A man, a sadist. Or was Ivan just a harsh ruler who demanded absolute obedience and loyalty in order to radically modernise Russia? Ivan the Terrible, History 2024
Ivan is born in 1530 in Moscow. At the age of 3 he loses his father.
Stalin orders a film to be made that portrays Ivan in a way that suits his interests. ibid.
Ivan is successful and loved by the common people. ibid.