Live from Music Row Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed international relations expert and contributor for The Epoch Times, Dominick Sansone, in studio to describe the characteristics of Vladimir Putin that make him an expert in geopolitics and the relationship between NATO and Ukraine.
(Joe Biden clip plays)
Leahy: Well, that’s Joe Biden, the legal but not legitimate grifter in chief. Some say commander in chief. Well, he is the President. He’s legal. He’s not legitimate.
We’ve talked about that a lot. But today they say elections have and fraud-filled elections also have consequences. Let me restate that. Non-legitimate elections have consequences. And in this case, catastrophic consequences.
Now listen to that clip Dominick Sansone, our expert Epoch Times columnist, the resident Tennessee Star expert on Ukraine and Russia and who spent some time in Bulgaria. You know a lot about Eastern Europe.
To me, I look at this and it seems that it’s actually the Biden maladministration policies that encouraged or led to the point where Vladimir Putin felt he could get away with such an invasion, but also gave him a sort of rationale for this invasion filled with atrocities on his part. Dominick, do I have that right, or what has the Biden administration done that led to this circumstance in Ukraine?
Sansone: I certainly think that’s part of it, definitely. Putin in the past has proven himself an astute geopolitical actor. If the geopolitical situation wasn’t right for an invasion, I don’t think he would have done it.
That’s very true. We could get into the policy. But I think that it’s also very important when we just look at the optics of Joe Biden, the optics of the Biden administration. And again, that goes for the Afghanistan withdrawal as well.
The terrible tactical and operational failure of the Afghanistan withdrawal. It just kind of exuded ineptitude. And he’s aware of that. Again, we hear about it all the time how he’s a KGB agent and everything.
He’s certainly a very good observer of human behavior, and he understands that the Biden administration is weak and that he can’t rally support.
In general, he looks at our military I think he looks at all these woke advertising commercials and these pushes for diversity. We have General Milley, the highest military official in the land, talking about white rage and these issues.
Leahy: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Sansone: Yeah, that’s right. Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff. And I don’t think that Putin is as concerned with the issue of white rage in America as General Milley is. And so I think that he saw these things and as we were talking about before, the energy situation is integral to this.
It’s integral to understanding the geopolitical calculus in Moscow. He knew that Biden that was the first order he made was to cancel the XL Keystone pipeline here.
Just this generally very hostile regime to oil and gas and these dirtier fuels, as they call them. What an upper hand for him. Also, just the generally deteriorating situation with a lot of our allies, such as Saudi Arabia.
Leahy: The relationship between the United States of America and our allies since Joe Biden became the legal but not legitimate President has gone steadily downhill. Why is that?
Sansone: The ones who sit in Brussels, sort of these multilateral institutions like the EU and these very liberal regimes
Leahy: European Union, European
Sansone: Very Liberal regimes. They’re happy with Biden there. They loved Obama. They always hate Republicans. But they especially hated Trump.
Leahy: Everybody especially hated Trump and the rest of the world. But they feared him.
Sansone: That’s right.
Leahy: He was unpredictable. And I think they knew he was willing to use our military power. He didn’t always do it, but he certainly had the nerve to do it.
Sansone: That’s right. And they knew for a fact that it was always on the table. That was beyond a doubt. And that’s the difference in statesmanship for someone who understands, not that I’m saying that I’m as wise as Trump or any of his advisors, but for someone who understands the basics of geopolitics, these things matter.
And that’s why, again, now you have North Korea sort of making a scene down in Southeast Asia as well sort of ramping up and in China as well. China just recently talked to Antony Blinken to the Secretary of State.
Leahy: You got the name wrong. It’s not Antony. It’s the beta male who was previously partnered with the law firm of Winken, Blinken, and Nod. That guy. This is a guy, who does not inspire fear in the hearts of our adversaries and enemies, does he?
Sansone: No. Inspiring fear. I don’t think that really goes with the Biden administration in general. When you see him standing there with the two people behind him with their little masks on and everything.
Leahy: Let’s talk a little bit about this. Explain the nature of the relationship between NATO and Ukraine. And NATO, which the United States is a part of, and Russia and why Vladimir Putin was so aggressively opposed to Ukraine joining NATO, and why I think the Biden administration signaled early on back in November or so that they were open to and would not object to Ukraine joining NATO. Why was that such a difficult and problematic communication of the Biden administration?
Sansone: This is the crux of the entire issue, is NATO, no matter what anybody wants to say. Putin says that at the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia received a verbal guarantee that NATO would not expand eastward from Germany.
Leahy: Let me just stop about that. Is that a true statement?
Sansone: Who knows? Who knows? But certainly Russia would not be happy about that statement.
Leahy: That’s his story, and he’s sticking to it.
Sansone: That’s the KGB agent story. He’s sticking to it. So do with that, which you will. But even taking that, if we look at actual geopolitical events from then. Basically, in 2004, there was the last round of NATO increase where you saw a lot of these different countries in Southeast Europe join NATO as well as the Baltic states, which of course border Russia.
Then in 2007, you had Putin basically say that NATO, Ukraine, and Georgia basically could not be a part of NATO, and then at the 2007 Munich Security Conference.
Then 2008, NATO announced that, yes, Georgia and Ukraine would eventually achieve NATO ascension. And that’s also when Russia then invaded Georgia. Because of that.
Listen to the interview:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
