My Recent Appearance on the Russians With Attitude Podcast
Two hours of bantz with Kirill and pigdog
I’ve known Kirill and pigdog (Nikolai) for almost a decade now. Since the war in Ukraine began, they’ve blown up in terms of popularity. I recorded an episode of their then-very new podcast prior to the war. I decided to return for another go after they recently invited me to do so.
The episode is two hours long (!) and you have two options for your listening pleasure. The first is 30 minute sample on YouTube:
Or, you can listen to the entire thing for free by clicking on this link:
Please consider becoming subscribing to their Patreon. It’s well-worth it!
Let me know what you think of the episode in the comments below:
I've just finished listening to the podcast. I get the feeds from Russians with Attitude. I think that it's important to get non-American perspectives about foreign affairs in order to properly understand what's going on. While I am an American patriot, the "my country right or wrong" leads to a poor assessment of one's place in the world. Soldo believes that the US has been wrong most of the time since WWII. I share that perspective. We've squandered trillions and needlessly wasted lives in tilting at windmills through our foreign adventures trying "to make the world safe for democracy". Angelo Codevilla in "America's Rise and Fall Among Nations" cogently made the argument that once we strayed from John Quincy Adams foreign policy of attending to our own business and interests and being a friend to all who simply wanted to trade with us, we left the path of a righteous foreign policy, such as it is in that realm, and have continually headed down a path of perdition. In addition to wasting precious resources, we've incurred the enmity of many who otherwise would have admired our republican tradition.
Interesting discussion.
What I remember from the start of the Yugoslav wars is a bit different from what you tell. I see the Badinter Commision as the great evil. And I have always wondered who influenced them.
Badinter was a Frenchman famous for campaigning and achieving the abolishment of the death penalty in France (He died two months ago). When Yugoslavia became a hot topic the EU asked him to from a commission that advised it over how to deal with the issue. And they slavishly followed his advice. It has always wondered me why he was selected. As a constitutional lawyer he wasn't very fit for the job. But he probably had the right connections.
If I remember well the Croat population at that time consisted at about 20% Serbs and the Croat nationalists who were in power wanted to half that. So they employed the usual tricks: loyalty declarations and denial of housing and jobs. There was one ray of light: they seemed to be prepared to discuss border changes. Then the Badinter Commission came with its recommendations:
- They declared Yugoslavia in a state of dissolution. A very clever way to say that Yugoslav law should no longer be applied. They probably were inspired by the dissolution of the Soviet Union less than a year before that at that time still was seen as a success by many.
- They said that minority rights within the Yugoslav republics were no longer applicable. So the Serbs in Croatia lost the minority rights that they used to have.
- They said that borders were not allowed to be changed. The former state borders had to become the new country borders. This was probably their strangest decision: normally countries have the right to change their borders in mutual agreement. This blocked further negotiations between Croatia and its Serb minority. It also had major effects in Bosnia and Kosovo. Serbia might resign in some kind of independence for Kosovo when it gave up the ethnic Serb north tip. The Western countries still refuse this. In reaction Russia has taken similar measures in Abkhazia and South Ossetia after the war in 2008.
This put the Serbs in Croatia in an impossible position were establishing facts on the ground was their only option. As they say: the rest is history.