Partial translation of the Starikov interview

First, I think we all owe a HUGE THANK YOU!!! to "G" and "M" who did this translation literally overnight (and I know for a fact that "G" did not sleep for a full night because of that). I know that doing a rush-translation is a royal pain in the rear end which is not very different from a refined torture and that is especially true for people like "G" and "M" who have a life and a job and who do that really pro Deo or pro bono and who do not get paid a penny for their hard work. They did not have to offer their hard work - they spontaneous offered their help, and I am immensely grateful to both of them for that. There is a part missing and the translation "only" covers the first 18min and 49 seconds which is really the most interesting part.

If somebody wants to finish this translation - great. If not, no problem. If somebody wants to subtitle the video - great. Is not, no problem either.

One more thing: I would need somebody to translate into Russian Juan's powerful article "Russians are sub-humans in the eyes of the West". I have a contact who wants to send it to Russia and the Ukraine. If you can do that, please contact me.

Kind regards to all,

The Saker
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Translated transcript of the Nikolai Starikov interview: 
I: Hello, Nikolai Victorovich.

NS: Hello

I: I will begin with the question many people are asking for your next video blog – It would be interesting to know, why, for the last 3 weeks there hasn’t been an interview or any video blog recordings with Nikolai Starikov? Are you taking a vacation right now?

NS: No, of course I’m not on vacation. Right now we are preparing for the upcoming elections and the heated situation related to the tensions by our borders. I can’t think of a holiday right now. I just think that the respected readers, viewers and like-minded people do not always follow the entire volume of information that I post on my website. I have been participating in television programs, when I get invited. One of the recent ones is “Sunday Evening with Vladimir Solovyov”, it’s also the ТВЦ (TVC) show Русский Вопрос (Russian Question), I also write articles and I just completed a book about Ukraine (it’s a compilation of articles, but I still had to sort through them and systemize them). Right now I’m writing another book, actually two, so it will be a very long time until I can go on vacation. In any case it is flattering that you follow me so closely and don’t worry that’s why today we are sitting down and I am answering your questions.

I: The Ukraine is still at the top of the news unfortunately. I have the following question: Nikolai Victorovich, I hope it won’t be too difficult to shed some light on President Putin’s reaction to Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics’ request to Russia for recognition of their independence.

NS: It’s not difficult for me to answer any questions you wish to ask my respected like-minded people. When it comes to questions of state recognition, we have to approach this question while keeping [Russia’s] national interests in mind. National interests and emotions should not have anything to do with each other. Otherwise the country’s leader risks making mistakes for which the people of the country will have to pay for and not him. I will give you two historical examples: Tsar Nicholas II was put under a lot of pressure and to a great deal due to falsifications and pressure put on him, and also emotional pressure, which lead to him to join in World War I. Yes, Germany did declare war on us, but there was an opportunity to avoid it. I won’t go in to details right now. In my book, “1917: The Key to Understanding The Russian Revolution”, this is clearly described. The end result was millions dead, the break-up of the state, due to the coup d’état and the civil war that followed, which is reminiscent of what is happening in Ukraine right now, almost exactly the same. The second situation: Gorbachov, partially due to treachery, but I’m also sure that besides that, there was stupidity and naiveté on his part, this also happened, has destroyed the Soviet Union. Who is paying for this? Not Gorbachov. He lives very comfortably compared to all those people that voted for him to become the President of the Soviet Union. Now look, we have two examples here, therefore the head of state has to consider things from every possible angle. Concerning the situation in Ukraine, I have written about this before, what we can see is, terrible crimes are being committed by the Right Sector factions and unfortunately by some members of Ukraine’s armed forces, but without any question all of this is being caused by Ukrainian politicians, the same people, who are being controlled by Washington, London and Brussels. But what we cannot see in Donetsk, a city of one million people, is at least one hundred thousand self-defense militia members. When we talk about when the people of Donetsk, Lugansk, Donbass came and voiced their opinion, yes they came to the referendum, but t’s an area where at least 8 million people live, if I’m not mistaken in these two regions. How many of them are members of self-defense militia? How many of them took up arms to defend their choice? Just a few thousand people. What this tells us, is that most of the people there have not risen up yet, and that’s why the most emotional of patriots online ask, “why doesn’t Russia intervene?” the question arises – to defend who exactly? A few thousand people protesting in a square in Donbass? What about the rest of the million, where are they protesting, asking, demanding, ready to defend their rights? We don’t see this at all. That’s why any kind of Russian military involvement today, would lead to accusations of aggression, you don’t even need to falsify anything, because a large number of Ukrainian citizens blinded by Ukrainian propaganda, would consider the Russian Army to be an army that is trying to take over. In this situation it is impossible for the Russians to intervene, understanding that this is exactly what the sell-out Ukrainian government and the Americans behind them would want. What do they want? They need/want to drag Russian into a war and write off all the problems [the Ukraine has] that have happened and will inevitably happen in the future, without our participation, on Russia and on the Russian president in particular. What will they say? The IMF has just given Ukraine a loan and only if Ukraine could start implementing the reforms, start living normally again, but as you understand ‘the bloody regime’ has invaded and stole our dream, stole the pensioners’ pensions, raised the price of gas, and all of this happened because of the Russians. Now ask yourselves, why should we give them such a perfect opportunity to write off, as Russia’s fault, everything that they’re going to steal, destroy, plunder and demolish according to Brussels’ orders. Dear Ukrainian politicians, you yourselves are responsible to your own people for everything that you do. I still very much hope that you will answer for all of this before an international tribunal, but first and foremost the Ukrainian people have to speak out against the fascist junta, and in this particular case I don’t only mean the residents of Donetsk and Lugansk, I mean the residents of all of the Ukraine, because for me personally Ukraine is part of the same geopolitical sphere as Russia. Today when a part of Ukraine has held referendums and called itself Novorossia, are they entitled to do so? Of course they do! They have every right. The government in Kiev is illegitimate; the presidential elections were conducted in violation of the Ukrainian constitution. It’s not legitimate, that’s why we have to speak either of mutual illegitimacy with Donetsk and Lugansk Peoples’ Republics and Kiev Republic or their equal legitimacy. In any case, they are equal to each other, this means that Kiev has to sit down and negotiate with Donetsk and Lugansk, but the Kiev government doesn’t want to. It is full of people who don’t listen to their own citizens, so what options do people have? They can either agree with their policies or stand up for their rights. That’s why until all the people rise up, maybe not all the people of the 40+ million Ukraine, nothing can be done there and this is what needs to be understood. Nobody can decide the fate of the people of Novorossia, but themselves. This is how the world of politics is designed. In any case, if things are done differently it will inevitably end up looking like aggression [from Russia]. The citizens of Donetsk and Lugansk themselves will accuse Russia of sending troops there. Same as the citizens of Russia in 1917 have accused Nicholas II, who fell for their patriotic aspirations, and started fighting the Germans and the Austrians for their Serbian brothers. Unfortunately people’s love [for the state/tsar] cannot even be compared to juvenile kind of love. It passes even faster. And there is nothing you can really do in this situation. We must help, we must support, we must prevent atrocities and bombings, but only by diplomatic means. If there are volunteers in Russia, who are willing to help the Donetsk Republic, we never doubted this, because the desire for justice is one of the main characteristics of our people, which is being violated in front of our very own eyes today. There are volunteers from Russia in Novorossia and they will keep arriving there, there are NGOs, there are commercial organizations, which provide humanitarian aid. Russia should by no means interfere with that and should support it by all means, but Russia as a state, as a military force, as the Russian Army cannot participate in this conflict, in this civil war taking place in Ukraine today. This is what is necessary to understand. There are of course volunteers from Russia, but local volunteers in much greater numbers from Novorossia and from Ukraine are needed, but so far we haven’t seen this taking place. Where are the 4000 Berkut fighters? If I am not mistaken that is how many there used to be in all of Ukraine; some of them are in Crimea, some of them moved to Moscow, but that’s just 10s maybe 100s, where are the rest? Where are the officers of the Internal Forces, at whom Molotov cocktails were thrown? The soldiers, who were beaten with chains and whose skulls were crushed together with their helmets –where are all those people? Are they now on the side of those who were in charge of the people who killed their fellow comrades? How can this be? This is the situation; the Ukrainian Army is keeping to arms neutrality or even worse, acts on the side of the so-called legitimate Ukrainian Government. Should we send our troops to fight the Ukrainian Army? No. The most important thing that Novorossia is not doing today, at least I don’t have such information, maybe I’m wrong, they’re not running any propaganda. At the same time, when a civil war is first and foremost about ideology, why is it always so brutal? Why is it more violent than wars between nations? Because when a German soldier is sitting in his trench, the Russian soldier who is sitting on the opposite side has a lot less to grumble about, because this German [soldier] was drafted into the army and he sits in his trench, but he never had any other choice. But when a Russian soldier is fighting another Russian soldier, a mutual animosity takes place, because if they speak to each other, they can accuse one another of being on the wrong side of the conflict, they had a choice. Situations like this are the ones that cause the terrible excesses of civil war. We don’t see today any processes at all, where Novorossia would use means of propaganda to convince the Ukrainian forces to switch to their side. Rather than raising the flag of separation of Ukraine, the flag in the name of liberation of Ukraine from the pro-American marionette government, which in a few months of being in power has driven the country into ruins should be raised before the country is totally ruined, before the country is completely destroyed. This is what is important to understand. The aim of Poroshenko types is total chaos in Ukraine, division and annihilation of its statehood. They would not do anything good on American orders. They will raise tariffs, wage war, kill or do anything else, but you can be sure that there will not be a flourishing, united Ukraine. So, today those patriots of Ukraine, who find themselves on the opposite sides of the barricades, due to their oath, due to misunderstanding what is happening, those people need access to information, which can convince them to switch sides. Just remember the Red Army versus the White Army; the main goal of the Red Army was never to destroy everyone from the White Army, and likewise the task of the White Army was not to annihilate the Red Army down to the last Red Army soldier. The objective in a civil war is to get your adversaries to switch sides. Then today’s captives can tomorrow become your brothers in arms. This is how to lead a confrontation in a civil war. If people in charge of Novorossia are not doing this, then it will be very difficult for them to achieve victory. Unfortunately this is how a civil war works.

I: While answering the previous question, you said that the majority of people in the South-East of Ukraine are so far not engaged in protecting their homeland. They do not go to the barricades, they do not fight the junta, and they are waiting for Russia to intervene. It is possible that the following question came from one of such people. This person asks, “how does one survive in the South-East of Ukraine, how does one continue living like that? While we go to work, while we receive our salary, do we carry on or is it time to drop everything and move?” How can you comment this?

NS: You know if we didn’t receive this question, it would be worth raising it ourselves. Here we have a perfect example of what I am talking about. It’s easy for us here in Russia to discuss these topics, but over there [Novorossia] there are shootings, bombings and killings taking place. The situation is such that the civil war has begun and there are two ways to end it. Either the country of Nazis/fascists side of the illegitimate Kiev junta wins or those who do not want to live under fascist rule win. There is no other way to end this civil war. Because Americans would never agree to negotiations, which would result in separation of a part of Ukraine and they will continue the military operation. Therefore, for the people who live there in the Ukraine there is a choice. A person always has a choice –but a very limited choice. You either continue living your average civilian life, and that’s understandable, we understand why people make that choice, they just want to continue living, no person really wants to go to war, a normal person would never want to kill others. The Right Sector would inevitably start shooting at someone, they go into Mariupol, and they go to Odessa and kill. A normal person does not want to kill anyone, but there won’t be any life in the future if you remain on the sidelines of the conflict, allowing Americans to continue doing what they want. This is the point where you have to choose, dear citizens of Ukraine. Unfortunately the reason why we are separated by state borders, is because of the traitor Gorbachov. Today it is a reality. But I am convinced that sooner or later we will be together as part of a supranational entity. Russia can only provide limited aid today. We cannot do this for Ukraine, that is the paradox. When the reader asked this question, he never even considered to take up arms and defend his native Donetsk. He goes to work, he wants to feed his family, the maximum he would do is leave Donetsk, maybe move to somewhere in Russia. But if everyone leaves Donetsk, who is going to defend it? Volunteers from Russia? The Russian Army? That cannot be. The Russian Army cannot be a part of this conflict, Russia should not be dragged into this. This is exactly what the West wants. Things were don quite elegantly in Crimea. The Russian Army was already stationed there, but did not really take part in the conflict. Everything was done by the Self-Defense Forces. This was done beautifully and it is very difficult to dispute that. In Donetsk today, there are Self-Defense Forces, but they cannot deal with the tasks at hand in their current numbers of men.   They have weapons in Ukraine, with supplies of Artyomovsky warehouse you can arm all Ukraine twice. Not enough people who understand that they have no other choice, but to take up weapons to protect their families and freedom. Look at Slavyansk, so frequently women and children are shown to be leaving, but so often you can see young man leaving. They stand by their ladies in shorts and flip flops telling how they hide in basement. They will continue hiding until victory of state of Ukraine. If they want to see end of shelling they have to go and help militias. There is no other option.

I: What is the possibility of Ukraine's scenario in Kazakhstan? Will Americans try to organise Maidan in country who is partner to Russia and how strong is power of Nazarbayev?

NS: It's difficult for me to comment. When I was in Kazakhstan I got impression that he is very respected man something I expected even before my visit Unabatedly it's one of the main driving force of Eurasian reunion. I want to remind you that idea of Eurasian Union and Customs Union didn't came fro Russian leaders , but Nazarbayev's. First he approached Yeltsin and was received with total incomprehension. When Valdimir Vladimirovich came into office this process came into beginning and step by step it moves forward. First January 2015 Eurasian Union comes into force. Lets call things by their real meaning. What is Eurasian Union? It is new embodiment of Eurasian power who use to be Russian Empire, then Soviet Union and now Eurasian Union. We understand the meaning of it, our opponents understand it even better. Because beforehand they organised chaos in Ukraine thus not giving it a chance to join Eurasian Union. Refusal to sign European Union association agreement by Yanukovich could have been first step. But next step Yanukovich could have had taken is entering Eurasian Union. You know, they maidaneded a little bit then parted and went home, so what? It was necessary to overthrow Yanukovich in order to not to leave any chance. But reunification of Eurasia with out Ukraine is difficult. Lets think for a moment with logic of ours geopolitical partners. Do they have a need to organise turmoil like this in other countries? But of course! It's cheap and cheerful! How much did it cost to them to overthrow government in Ukraine? Victoria Nuland says five billion, now they have given credit, but these are pennies for them because they print money out of nothing. But how many bonuses do they get? Well, Crimea they have lost for themselves, they didn't think about it when they carried out overthrow of government. Ukraine is in mess, problems for Europe and Russia are created, again Europe has to discuss gas issues with Russia. In any given moment Russia can be forced to cut off the gas supply if payments haven't been made. All in all it can cause Russia and Europe to argue in between themselves and all that just for some miserable five billion dollars. From the point of view of pragmatic Americans it's a great investment. My question is following. Ten billions for revolution in Kazakhstan is it beneficial obtainment? Of course it's beneficial.
End of translation at 18:49