Oliver Stone on Russian invasion of Ukraine | Lex Fridman Podcast Clips

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GUEST BIO:
Oliver Stone is a filmmaker with 3 Oscar wins and 11 Oscar nominations. His films include Platoon, Wall Street, Born on the Fourth of July, Scarface, JFK, Nixon, Alexander, W, Snowden, and documentaries where he has interviewed Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, and Vladimir Putin.

PODCAST INFO:

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[Selenite]

“I’m surprised how quickly Europe fell into the basket” Well Europe feels war closer than Americans. For Americans war is always somewhere else, across the pond, something to watch on the news while you’re having dinner.

[catherinevictorkern]

“When exposing a crime is treated as committing a crime, you are being ruled by criminals.”
- Edward Snowden- Quote copied From Lex Fridman Podcast full episode:

[fireteammichael]

The fact that so many commenters just can't grasp how the west/nato/the U.S. couldn't possibly be complicit in "shady activities" abroad speaks volumes to the prowess of their informational warfare capabilities.

[President.GeorgeWashington]

I am not one to defend the western MSM, but on this issue their coverage is accurate. I am in Poland rn, a town near the Ukrainian border. I have seen Ukrainian refugees (all women and children) pour over the border and settle into churches and other public buildings.I have also met foriegn volunteer soldiers coming back from fighting in Ukraine. These guys showed me videos of what some of the Russian soldiers are doing to these people. There are people in the streets with bullet holes in their heads and hands tied behind their back. One also told me he saw a dead thirteen year old girl with her legs spread open with the "Z" carved in her flesh. He actually started to cry when he told me about the things he witnessed over there. This guy was an American Iraq veteran, and he told me the Ukraine war made his experience in Iraq look like a camping trip. This is WWII level of destruction on a sovereign European nation that was merely trying to join the EU and NATO. Any counter argument about "Denazifying Ukraine" or "retaliate against NATO expansionism" is pure propaganda.

Stone is leaving out a lot of pertinent details when he criticizes Ukrainians and the West. The Moscow regime brainwashing the people of the Donabas with anti western propaganda via public radio and then arming them in 2014 and encouraging them to wage war against the democratically elected Ukrainian government in Kiev is what started this all. Moscow is notorious for dividing the population of their perceived enemy and then conquering them with brute force. Claiming they are invading to "protect ethnic Donbas Russians from Nazis" is simply propaganda, and it does not in any way justify a full fledged invasion.

An even more important detail he conveniently left out is in 2021 the Civil war in the Donbas was coming to an end. Not nearly as many people were dying in 2021 than in 2014 and 2015. Russia is responsible for ramping up the tensions in the region. NOT the west.

Yet, it is funny that the only time Russia started to interfere with Ukraine was when pro western Ukrainians had a populist revolution and overthrew the corrupt Russian backed regime in Ukraine. Ukrainians have suffered under the yolk of Russian tyranny and corruption for years, and they reached a breaking point and started the Euromaidan uprising. I should also add, In the 1930s Ukrainians were starved to death under Stalin's rule. Millions of Ukrainian Kulaks died and some even resorted to cannibalism. These same ethnic Russians in the Donbas that are anti Ukraine worship Josef Stalin, the man who is responsible for these deadly actions that eliminated millions of Ukrainians. It is not hard to understand why Ukrainians feel threatened when Moscow arms these pro russian separatists.

No one is denying that the nazi azov Battalion exists, but they have very little political power in the Ukrainian government. Kiev views them are useful idiots to fight on their behalf so they did in fact arm them. They took the "ends justify the means approach" to the situation. I agree that any war crimes they commit ought to be exposed and the perpetrators ought to be prosecuted. I do not agree with any cruel treatment towards Russian POW's or civilians.

The NATO expansion argument is really easy to dismantle. Before Feb 24 2022, NATO was not a threat to Russian security. Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania are have been NATO countries since 2004, and all three of them border Russian territory. NATO has never fired a single shot at Russia. When Russia claims they view Ukrainie becoming a NATO member as an existential threat, it is not rational, given that fact that NATO has bordered their country for over 20 years and never took hostile action against Moscow.

The only thing that could have prevented this war is if Ukraine became a NATO memember sooner. It really is unfortunate that this did not happen. All the the responsibility for this bloodshed is on the hands of the Russian oligarchs that instigated it.

[klausbloemker]

Oliver Stone wrote on March 3 about Putin's "mistakes": 2) "Overestimating the military's ability to achieve its objective." - He doesn't say what the objective was and Lex doesn't ask him.

[yeuxvseyes]

I am really pissed of this crazy war. So many things that should have been avoided. My heart goes for all the innocents.

[BomChickyBowWow]

Stone certainly knows whose hand feeds him that’s for sure.

[explde]

"Decapitating Ukraina government is as assumption, we have no idea what they would do."

Wow, just wow.

[valmb]

Ukraine invading Donabass? Tell me, how can you invade part of your own country?

[ruma]

Incredible how much bs he says in so little time. To take an example at 14:40, he talks about the 14000 deaths in Ukraine between 2014 and 2022, and pretty much attributes ALL OF THEM to the ukrainian military. If you read the UN report he takes the figure from, more than 4000 of those were... ukrainian military. It's almost as if there was a conflict with two sides who killed each other (and civilians). But no, they were all killed by the ukrainian military or "accident, and this, and that".

The man just repeats any and all talking points and propaganda from the kremlin, which has never done anything wrong ever, and Lex just eats it whole.

[VFL]

Thank you comrade for this masters class in victim blaming.

[lippylucy]

Every time i click on thumbs up, i feel youtube is putting me into a category.

[Polentaccio]

He makes some good points that everyone should ask...but the contested regions belong to Ukraine and Stone has also ignored the amount of weapons and para military that Russia has organized in Ukraine since 2014. Let's not forget they shot down a commercial airline...this isn't a bunch of rag tag farmers with rifles. This is thousands of Russian and russian Ukranians well armed and organized. It isn't a surprise though that Russia is using the " liberator" card to push for more resource rich territory though. The west is doing it too. But this ends quickly if Russia opens the ports or export of grain and pulls out or at least negotiates a peace based on the eastern regions. They aren't going to win this war in any way long term.

[alexmykhailov]

Telling something about Western or Europes propaganda just showed how this man is hooked onto the russian propaganda

[matutenss]

"What people dont understand is that Ukraine is a terrorist state, anytime any ukraninan has stated something in favour of Russia they have been bla bla bla". Is he really playing the freedom of speech card to defend Russia against Ukraine?
By his logic Russia is also a terrorist state so what gives? Why defend a terrorist state?

[invisibull]

He actually gave Ukraine being about to invade its own country (Donbas) as a pretext for Russia invading Ukraine. What hilarity.

[drunduk]

Not gonna sit here and find excuses for simply absurd misinformed view of someone who has literally no idea of what is actually happening on the ground in Ukraine or Russia. As someone who has lived under the corrupted rotten Russian regime for a long time, it’s hard to tolerate someone’s audacity to speculate about the mind of a dictator while the war crimes have been documented so evidently well. Lex, please be mindful of who you provide your platform to, sometimes the truth is so hard to take that it’s tempting to lean towards another conspiracy theorist, but I think it’s the facts that people should be looking at, not opinions at this stage, or at least get someone Over who has actually been in either Russia or Ukraine in the past years…

[BortolanAlexandre]

Is this what they mean when they call someone a "tool"?

[bradburke]

Did he say "Ukraine was amassing troops to invade Donbas"? Donbas is internationally recognized Ukrainian soil...I could spend all day explaining everything wrong with most everything he says (and the list is long) but it's seriously not worth my time. Couldn't be more obvious who's buttering this guy's bread and he's playing ball with intent. Shouldn't be giving this guy a platform Lex...

[borisreljanovic]

Putin carefully choose Stone for his interview! He played him like a little baby. This is the reason Stone supports Russia. It"s hard for him to condemn Putin after all these interviews. Putin sold him his story. It makes Stone look completely stupid.