Oliver Stone - The Putin Interviews

VP:Remember how the Ukrainian crisis unfolded. [We’ve discussed it.] The three foreign ministers of European countries were acting as guarantors of an agreement between the opposition and President Yanukovych. Everyone agreed to that. President Yanukovych even agreed to hold early elections. At that time, at the initiative of the United States of America, they told us, ‘We ask you to prevent President Yanukovych from using the armed forces.’ And they promised in their term they were going to do everything for the opposition to clear the squares and the administrative buildings. We said, ‘Very well that is a good proposal. We are going to work on it.’ And as you, know President Yanukovych didn’t resort to the armed forces. But the very next day the coup d’état took place during the night. We didn’t have a telephone conversation, we didn’t get a call, we simply saw them [the Americans] actively support those who perpetrated the coup d’état. And we could only shrug our shoulders. Such conduct, the way the Americans acted, even among individuals is absolutely unacceptable. They should have at least told us afterwards that the situation had spun out of control. They should have told us that they would do everything to put them back on a constitutional track. No, they didn’t do that. They started to come up with lies saying that Yanukovych had fled. And they supported those who performed that coup d’état. How can we trust such partners?

OS:Question—is this when Victoria Nuland, the Undersecretary of State, had that conversation with the American ambassador and said, “Fuck the EU”? [180] Claim: “is this when Victoria Nuland, the Undersecretary of State, had that conversation with the American ambassador and said, “Fuck the EU”?” Supporting: Leaked audio and transcripts of US Secretary of State Victoria Nuland’s conversation with US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt do indeed record the f-word. See, “Ukraine crisis: Transcript of leaked Nuland-Pyatt call,” BBC (February 7, 2014). Retrieved at: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26079957

VP:Well, it doesn’t matter, honestly. It was on February 21st. Or maybe the 20th. The coup d’état took place the next day. So now that Crimea has become a full fledged part of the Russian Federation, our attitude towards it changed drastically. If we see a threat to our territory, just as any other country, we will have to protect it by all means at our disposal. I wouldn’t draw an analogy with the Cuban Missile Crisis, because back then the world was on the brink of a nuclear apocalypse. Thankfully, the situation didn’t go as far this time, even though we did indeed deploy our most sophisticated, our cutting-edge systems, for coastal defense.

OS:But the Bastion is a big missile and the destroyer, the Donald Cook , has Tomahawk missiles.

VP:Yes, certainly—against such missiles as the ones we’ve deployed in Crimea—such a ship, destroyer as Donald Cook is simply defenseless.

OS:Yes, that’s probably why they turned around?

VP:I think this captain was smart and also a responsible person. This doesn’t mean he’s weak…

OS:No, no.

VP:—He simply understood what he was dealing with. He decided not to continue.

OS:But your commander had the authority to fire?

VP:Our commanders always have the authorization to use the necessary means for the defense of the Russian Federation.

OS:Still, it’s a big incident potentially.

VP:Yes, certainly. It would have been very bad.

OS:Were you notified?

VP:Yes, certainly. Where is that ship stationed usually—the Donald Cook ? Where is the base? [181] Background Information: The USS Donald Cook ’s current homeport is Rota, Spain. See, “USS Donald Cook Departs Norfolk for Permanent Station in Rota, Spain,” Retrieved at: http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=78889

OS:The Mediterranean, I presume.

VP:Yes. But I think that the mother port is somewhere in the United States—the place it’s registered. So, thousands and thousands of kilometers from…. And even if the port is somewhere in the Mediterranean, somewhere in Spain, it is still thousands of kilometers from the Black Sea. And we are determined to protect our territory.

OS:I understand. But were you available, were you—

VP:Who was trying to provoke whom? What was that destroyer doing so close to our land?

OS:I understand, but were you contacted at the time? In what timeframe did all of this take place, this challenge?

VP:I think it was real time. Once the destroyer was located and detected, they saw that there was a threat, and the ship itself saw that it was the target of the missile systems. I don’t know who the captain was. But he showed much restraint. I think he is a responsible man and a courageous officer to boot. I think it was the right decision that he made. He decided not to escalate the situation. It doesn’t at all mean that he would have been attacked by our missiles. But we had to show them that our coast was protected by the missile systems.

OS:Was there a warning sent out to him?

VP:The captain sees right away that his ship has become the target of missile systems—there is special equipment. He has special equipment to detect such situations.

OS:And all of this takes place in two minutes, 30 minutes, 50 minutes?

VP:I don’t know—the experts can give you the answer. Seconds, mere seconds, I think.

OS:I mean, does this happen all the time? You sound very cool.

VP:It sometimes happens. And that’s why our American counterparts have suggested we should build a system for exchanging information about the aircraft that are flying over, so as to avoid any kind of incident. Because when an aircraft is targeted, is eradiated by another aircraft this is considered a serious incident.

OS:I’d say.

VP:And this is always a very serious incident.

OS:So there have been others—there have been other incidents we don’t know about?

VP:I don’t know. NATO aircraft are flying over the Baltic Sea without transponders—the systems that are used to identify them—and our aircraft have started to fly without our transponders as well. And once our aircraft have started to do that, there’s been so much ruckus saying that we do not use transponders, but when I publicly declared that the number of our flights is many-fold fewer than the number of NATO flights the ruckus has quieted down. The president of Finland has proposed that we should make a decision making it obligatory for everyone to use these transponders, to detect them, to identify and we suggested right away that this should be done, but our NATO partners have refused. You see we need a dialogue all the time, we do not need new provocations.

OS:I understand, it’s very scary. At that time, you made a strong speech, I thought, addressing NATO. You said, “This is our historic territory. These are Russian people. They are in danger now. We can’t leave them alone. It wasn’t us who staged the coup. It was done by nationalists and people with far-right views. You supported them, but where do you live—5,000 miles away. But we live here and it is our land. What do you want to fight for there? You don’t know, do you? But we do know. And we are ready for it.”