Oliver Stone: The Putin Interviews

Background Information:

See, “US launches long-awaited European missile defense shield,” Ryan Browne, CNN (May 12, 2016). Retrieved at: http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/11/politics/nato-missile-defense-romania-poland/

Background Information:

See, “Chechen soldiers among Russian military police in Aleppo to ‘ease interaction with locals,’” RTNews (January 30, 2017). Retrieved at: https://www.rt.com/news/375551-chechen-soldiers-patrolling-aleppo/

Confirmation:

The distance from Moscow to Damascus is 3,170 km by auto, 2,476 km by plane.

Background Information:

See, “Fethullah Gülen: who is the man Turkey’s president blames for coup attempt?” Peter Beaumont, The Guardian July 16, 2016. Retrieved at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/16/fethullah-gulen-who-is-the-man-blamed-by-turkeys-president-for-coup-attempt

Claim: “The US ship Donald Cook was apparently coming right into the Black Sea when it made a U-turn and didn’t carry through its mission.”

See, “A strange recent history of Russian jets buzzing Navy ships,” Thomas Gibbons-Neff, The Washington Post (April 14, 2016). Retrieved at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/04/14/a-strange-recent-history-of-russian-jets-buzzing-navy-ships/

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

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

Background Information:

See, “The Russian Economy Inches Forward: Will That Suffice to Turn the Tide?” Russia Economic Report – The World Bank (November 9, 2016). Retrieved at: http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/russia/publication/rer