Trump and Putin in Historical Perspective: How We Got into the New Cold War

A talk by William Taubman, the Bertrand Snell Professor of Political Science, Emeritus

[juusohamalainen]

A lecture that shows the value of lecturer who knows his stuff. It was a pleasure to watch, thank you.

[miguelangelsimonfernandez]

Outstanding and very lucid lecture.
A joy to watch and learn. It comforts me that I was not mad after all.

[ACMCUK]

It's a real shame more young people aren't in the audience . They need this knowledge

[johnrobinson]

Ukraine should never be in NATO. It is just too much to ask given the historic and other importance of Ukraine to Russia.

[bjrnarestlen]

Hello from Norway, very interresting lecture!

[LjubomirLjubojevic]

Although Taubman reseached Soviet/Russian leaders, he is strongly USA-appologist.
1. Not only Putin agreed that Russia "might" become part of NATO, he even asked officially for Russia to be accepted into NATO.
2. Taubman sees USA govt-funded "NGO's" as not interfearing in internal affairs of other nations but as "bringing and teaching democracy".
3. He avoided to mention how USA armed and egged on Sakashvili in Georgia to attack South Ossetia protected by Russian peacemakers killing them.
4. He avoided to mention USA govt spent $5bn in 20+ years before 2014 coup "bringing democracy" and hoe CIA operatives were stationed inside Ukrainian "SBU" (state security ahency) buildings.
5. He avoided to say that law that declared any Russian "NGO" that gets money from abroad must be labeled as "foreign agent" is actually coppied from USA law in WWI that is still in effect.
I could write more, but I got tired and Taubman does not deserve to be talked about, he does not understand Russians.

[scottncy]

When I was young I recall seeing what was said in Pravda and not being surprised because we all knew Pravda was a mouthpiece for the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. No one was surprised at Pravda's ridiculous views and statements having a lack of objectivity. Hearing this lecture reminds me of Pravda during the 1980s. Very disappointing.

[denislavg]

Hey, kind of interesting lecture but wrong reading of the history and sometimes simply not true let say about 30-40 % of what he said. I am from Bulgaria and lived there till 2000. I am willing to discuss with him in a debate - about Serbia, Kosovo, nato. Eastern Europe (besides Poland and the Baltic republics) never feared of Russia. They were faced with the indecent proposal - get in nato and only after that you will get in EU and the poor people affected by the predatory privatization in 1990s were desperate to go to work in western Europe. Ask any of the neighbors of Kosovo what they think about the Albanians in Kosovo - 90% of the answers will be "they deal with drugs, prostitutes and weapons". Depleted uranium from the us bombing killed millions of trees in the western part of Bulgaria, hashimoto... I was there last week and saw the trees. Does he know that miloshevic wasn't found guilty even he died in custody? The leader of Kosovo is a proven criminal - human organs etc but 20+ witnesses suddenly died. Expanding nato is like a dog biting a man and then wondering why he kicked back.

[jianx]

US imperialism should change self attitude

[sycomorech]

absolutely correct statement at 0:11:25 - 0:12:00.
Then again at 0:26 which is one of the driving factors of Putin's current foreign policy

[markm.]

If the audio suck, I will not bother to listen. There is much other quality content to view.

[redonethegreat]

I keep hearing Cruise Chef, Cruise Chef -- wtf is she talking about? Took me a while to work it out. :)

[jbudd]

Thanks for for your lecture. Observant and scrupulous.

[vikramnandakumaran]

a wonderful lecture ...but more american youngsters should watch this and learn

[OleksiyMuzalyev]

I suggest a correction, - Sergey Shoygu, the Minister of Defence, is of Tuvan descent.

[chetpomeroy]

NATO should have been dissolved at the end of the Cold War in 1989-91.

[tjanders]

Taubman is supposed to be an expert on Russia yet he believes the Democrat smear about the Russia hacking. How sad.

[johnrobinson]

How about this: no sanctions on anyone and deal as we go?

[friendlylaser]

I'm Russian and left Russia due to poor economics and political climate, so I'm not a fan of Putin in any way. But I kinda get why he does what he does. I know this mentality, it's honest military thug mentality. He is for right things, but his ways are too straighforward and destructive. I don't know really if anyone can do better in his place. He stuck between plutocratic regime he built and foreign policies. So he do not know ho to really modernize, or revive economics, there is no capacity for that in his post-soviet apparatus. On other hand if he swallow to much things from western partners they will swallow him. America certainly will do that. American citizens can be kind all they want, but american government will not blink an eye subjugating Russia, Russian government, stripping Russian military and eventually resources. And it's also funny to watch this huge difference in mentality - Americans really believe their press and media for some reason, and this overblown stories about "hacking the elections". I face these "russian trolls" and "bots" everyday on the Russian web. They are internet propaganda agency, basically they agitated a bit from fake accounts and that's it. It's not very elaborate scheme either. These propaganda and talking points are so badly done and transparent it could be funny if not so irritating and omnipresent.
Also, about Russian mentality. Basis of Russian cultural beliefs is justice. That's why Russians can be very resentful, upset and angry (I mean more than other nations are generally) if you do them wrong, because you didn't just wronged the person, you violated basic moral principles. As they say you acted non humanly. On other hand it's in Russian culture to forgive completely and easily those who apologized sincerely and try to gain trust back, so there is opportunity to reverse course. Russian culture is more primitive in some sense, that western, more emotion based. Russian are not used to markets and market mentality, when if you got tricked it's your fault and everyone agrees that it's nothing personal, just business. Western people get that, Russians generally not.
Many many anti-western countries are upset in this way with America and its world-policing. No one likes their sovereignty to be taken away by the US. And those countries that don't bend the knee are forced to extremism, terrorism and atrocities. Putin's fault was that he was too naive for international politics and too relaxed about his own economy which goes down the drains (in part because he treats budget as his own personal pocket), despite having a lot of talents in the country, who escape Russia everyday.

[Mrakvampire]

West promised to Gorbachev that NATO won't expand to east, but that promise, as usual, was broken