Fiona Hill: Absolute victory over Russia is not possible

UnHerd's Freddie Sayers meets Fiona Hill.

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// TIMECODES //

00:00 - 01:34 - Introduction
01:34 - 05:58 - Nato’s “Open Door” in 2008.
05:58 - 09:30 - Nato as a means for countries to PULL AWAY from Russia.
09:30 - 15:38 - Russia’s role in Europe and the future.
15:38 - 18:45 - The need for international territorial agreements and a referendum.
18:45 - 21:56 - What is the best way to start a negotiation with Putin?
21:56 - 27:17 - How do you create the circumstances for a negotiation?
27:17 - 29:24 - There needs to be a revitalisation of multilateral entities that are not based on the US.
29:24 - 33:00 - Russia or America and their involvement in the Nord Stream 2 explosion.
33:00 - 38:18 - What is the longer-term plan to get Russia to the negotiating table?
38:18 - 41:40 - Would Russia have invaded Ukraine if Trump was still in office?
41:40 - 47:35 - Is “unpredictability” part of the reason that there were no major wars during Trump’s presidency?
47:35 - 48:32 - Concluding thoughts

#UnHerd #FionaHill #UkraineWar

[zinahe]

"I don't believe the USA blew Nord Stream." Oh thank you for the clarification of your position. Who are we to question the integrity of such caliber of intellect ?!?!

[KarlDMarx]

Initially she thought that the Russians blew up the pipeline within 20 km of the border of Denmark. If there had ever been any real suspicion that the "Russians" had blown up their own infrastructure it would have been vociferously called a Russian attack on NATO. The lack of vehement reaction speaks volumes.

[zaynahub]

She says russia cut gas to ukraine 2006, but doesn't say that ukraine stopped paying for russias gas for like 3-4 months. Russia was not going to give gas free of charge.

[garycadogan]

I'm still laughing at Sister Fiona suggesting that Ukraine blew up Nord Stream 2,
She is brilliant the straight face is a real tressure to behold.

[ericberg]

If you listen carefully to her responses to his questions, you'll find she never answers them but instead starts talking about things that have little to no bearing on the question being asked. Rather strange.

[Generative_Midi_]

I was really disappointed with this guest. She is involved in a lot of the debate and discussion with the officials involved. Her initial reaction to the Nord Stream pipeline explosion was that Russia did it, and it had something to do with Soviet-era thinking (or something). Amateur hour. It will be advice from the likes of Fiona that will bring the curtain down on civilisation. Where do they find these people?

[TJ-dxws]

Sevastopol was developed as a port by Russia in the 1700's. Ever since then it's been an important Russian port and military base. The idea that it would become a NATO port instead would seem to be unacceptable to any Russian government.

[jez]

So she worked for the GW Bush admin, the Obama admin, but then quit and turned on Trump - who notably managed to avoid major conflicts during his term? Hardly a ringing endorsement as someone to listen to in regards to ending wars.

[tonihil]

She says that Ukraine joining NATO is OK. After all, Ukraine is independent country. Why does she say that South Africa making naval drills with Russia and China is not OK? Isn't South Africa an independent country?

[Ahmed-mrxo]

Fiona Hill's book "There is nothing for you here" prominently on display behind her, is a fair summation of her views when it comes to an objective audience.

[heinrichjermann]

it’s painful to listen to her but an invaluable lesson in how incompetent our elites can be. Never assume malice where incompetence will suffice. We will end in nuclear conflict just like we ended in the bloody world war despite nobody wanting it.

[thenewpopulists]

US foreign policy has failed repeatedly over the last 40 years yet somehow we still listen to the same people....

[SusanHopkinson]

I worked at the North Atlantic Assembly in the early 1990s and enlargement was all the members talked about. Do we or don’t we? It’s not true that that was a more recent development (06:37). The US started playing on the Eastern and Central European countries immediately after the Berlin Wall fell. I lived in Prague in the second half of 1990 where initially there was no advertising and rapidly all one could see was billboards, stickers and posters for Marlboro, Camel, Coca-Cola and other garbage. When I worked with CIS countries for the European Commission in the mid-to late 1990s, USAID and other assistance was elbowing out European projects nearly everywhere. It was so obvious what was going on we called it USCIAID. The narrative of Russian empire is pure projection on the part of those like Ms Hill who preach the Neocon agenda.

[paulantonio]

"Russia is expanding again, " contends Ms. Hill. Perhaps. But she fails to mention that Russia has "expanded" into Russian-speaking regions, i.e., Donbas and Crimea, whose residents want nothing to do with Ukraine.

[bspag]

With people like this advising, it is no wonder that we are in this war. I feel like she knows all the players and can pronounce all the countries and that's about it.

[ruizhang]

She is wrong. "The territory demand" wasn't at the beginning, when Russia only demanded "Ukraine neutral". The territory is lost during the war!

[tatyanakostynyuk]

I don’t see how you can compare Britain -India and Russia-Ukraine. Britain colonized totally independent India in another part of the world. Russia and Ukraine were one country with Russians and Ukrainians living together in both parts. Ukraine became a country 30 years ago. Interesting how she calls Russia an empire when US has hundreds of military bases around the world. Did you hear Putin saying that Biden must go or Ursula must go? Why some leaders can say Assad must go or Putin?

[erlandhov]

She's admitting that the Wests approach in the start of the conflict wasn't too intelligent. But all she does is argue to continue the miserable fight, so we don't look weak. How dumb is that?

In Norway we have a set of rules for trips in the mountains. One of the rules is "turn in time, there is no shame in turning back" (if you where stupid enough to take the trip in the first place, when you knew there was a good chance of very bad weather). Imagine Fiona Hill in the high mountains when there's a snowstorm coming.

[dolphin]

A complete explanation as to why the world is now in this position because these are the people in charge

[antoniopalacio]

Gracias Fionna, me encanta como no entiende usted nada y sin embargo le pagan por no entender, increíble