Innocent Russians, and unfortunately their businesses are caught in the crossfire,
as Putin's invasion of Ukraine is underway.
In fact, we have some pretty insane examples,
starting with a restaurant in Washington, D.C., that was targeted?
We don't know exactly who did this, but in Washington,
unidentified people smashed the Russia house broke the windows,
and tore off the Russian flag.
Aaron McGovern, is the owner of the restaurant, and
he spoke to the Washington Post about this and said.
Quote, we are a US owned company trying to survive,
the restaurant suspended operations because of the pandemic.
In comments, he indicated that he thought anti Russian sentiment may have
motivated the vandalism.
We're getting some hate phone calls, he said.
And so look, it's so reminiscent of what Muslims faced, and
continue to face in this country after the attacks of 9 11.
And I mean, look, our audience is so smart.
I don't think anyone who this message is meant for, is actually watching the show,
but on the off chance, please don't do this.
Don't attack ordinary Russian people,
who have nothing to do with this conflict whatsoever.
It makes no sense, none.
>> Yeah, now we have our core audience, but we also have randos that watch.
[LAUGH] >> And we have-
>> Not hate watchers.
[LAUGH] >> We have view watchers,
there's a lot of folks who watch, and
those because they'll stumble onto a video.
So it doesn't matter if you're right wing left wing wherever you are.
Are we all frustrated with the actions of the Russian government Vladimir Putin?
Of course, any decent person would be some on the right,
some of the fake left or not.
They think the Ukrainians made the Russians do it, now but
outside of those lunatics, the rest of us are pretty piste.
And appropriately so, but that random restaurant in Washington didn't do it.
That's nuts, of course, don't do what, come on, of course don't do that, right?
And it's not by the way, we're also sad about the Russian people having to
suffer through these economic sanctions.
They're gonna be devastated.
>> Right. >> And our heart goes out,
they didn't do it either, it was Putin who made that decision.
And by the way, tons of wonderful Russians inside Russia risk getting arrested by
this tyrant to say no, we're for peace.
And we do not want to do this, to our Ukrainian brothers and sisters.
>> Thousands of them have been jailed as a result of their protests,
and so just be smarter.
>> Yeah, these are Russians in Russia protesting Putin, when the war began.
>> Right.
>> Okay, all these wonderful people, all people are the same, of course, and
certainly most of all among progressives.
We all believe that humanity, is the same no matter where you are.
And yes, we all unfortunately, we also have tyrant leaders throughout the world.
It is not specific to any ethnicity, or nationality, or background,
that's obvious to anyone that's a thinking person.
By the way also coincidentally, I've eaten at that Russia house in Washington.
>> Is it delicious?
>> It was delicious, they have good seafood unsurprisingly.
>> [LAUGH] Okay.
>> [LAUGH] >> Okay, but also let me also note that
any time, the Israeli government carries out some sort of
aggressive violent action against Palestinians.
You'll also see hate crimes, against, Jewish Americans increase in the country.
It's the same kind of thing targeting innocent people,
to essentially punish them for
the actions of people in positions of power makes absolutely no sense.
And you have to condemn it, also in other related news,
apparently there is some sort of Vodka boycott underway.
But, there's a huge problem with the Vodka boycott, okay,
I'll tell you what it is first, let's take a look at this fun tweet.
It's from Fox News, featuring jovial gentleman who's really taking a stand
here, Vodka rebellion bars liquor stores in US and Canada.
Say no to Russia's famous export,
the only problem is Russia's famous export is actually not that famous.
Russia doesn't really export much Vodka to the United States.
[LAUGH] so these moves are largely symbolic, and
may even miss their intended target.
As very few brands imported to the United States,
still produce the liquor in Russia.
Many of the top selling Vodka brands that trace their origins to Russia,
are actually now distilled in multiple countries including the United States.
>> [LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] So,
we might be targeting ourselves, and
look I just want to say like these are people who wanna do something.
So, this boycott comes from a good place.
It's just you wanna do a little bit of research,
before you carry out the boycott, right?
Some bar owners are protesting, the invasion by dumping out stoli vodka.
Problem is it's only Russian by name,
which is loosely translated as capital city due to its origins in Moscow.
The Vodka is actually made in Latvia, Latvia and
the country's headquarters in Luxembourg.
A member of NATO, which has spoken against the Russian invasion.
Smirnoff is another brand being confused as being Russian,
although it traces its heritage to the 19th century Russia.
The company has long been owned by British spirits giant Diageo and
is manufacturing Illinois.
>> oops!
So, you're pouring out Vodka manufactured in Illinois.
I was thrilled to read that because I was, hey,
we're manufacturing things in America, yay.
>> Less than 1% of Vodka consumed in the United States, is actually produced
in Russia,, yayand the brands include Green Mark and Russian standard.
So, if you're trying to take a stand first off, look,
maybe you're doing it to feel good.
Cool, I'm fine with that, those are the brands to target I guess.
But look, individual actions like that,
I would argue don't have much of an impact, right?
But if you feel good about it and that's, what you wanna do, go for it.
I'm here for it.
>> So, we always give credit where credit is due, so one of the few governors
who got it right, was actually Republican governor of Ohio Mike DeWine.
And he only banned Russian standard,
because that's the main Russian Vodka in America.
He didn't ban any of the other ones,
including ones manufactured in his home state.
Okay, so that is the correct and logical thing to do.
Guys Look, there's two different problems when you go in this individual wrong,
hateful or violent or physical direction, right?
Basically vigilante justice, especially when it comes to the physical things,
like throwing a rock through the window of the restaurant.
Number one, you almost always get the wrong guy, right?
So when, people were really mad at the bankers in Greece, they raided the bank.
And they killed one of the tellers, who was just the low wage worker, right?
It makes no sense at all, when people were angry at Muslims after 9 11,
they attacked six who are not at all Muslim.
But, were turban for their own religion, which is completely different than Islam.
So they get the wrong guy, almost all the time, right?
Second of all, who cares if you got the right guy?
You shouldn't get the right guy either, right?
In this case Smirnoff sounds Russian, but it's not, I don't know if you know this.
But US, British, German companies have bought almost everything on the planet,
[LAUGH] almost everything is gonna get traced back to them eventually anyway.
And if you had hit a Russian, that person didn't authorize the war and
by the way, a lot of times they escaped oppression in their home country.
And hate Putin, more than anybody else does.
And certainly true Muslims that are here,
they escaped oppression in a lot of Muslim countries.
And love America, you couldn't be hitting a worst person.
And by the way, when anytime that happens,
I was like there was an incident here in L A.
During the latest incursion that Israel had into Gaza,
were livid about it on the show here.
There's some jackass went to a restaurant around here and said,
are there any Jews here?
Because they were looking to attack them, and I so
wished I had been at that restaurant.
I would have gotten up and said, yeah, I'm jewish, what are you gonna do about it?
And I would encourage all of you, whenever anyone is attacked, you are them ,okay.
>> Stand up for people.
>> Yes, fight for someone you don't know.
So today, we're all Ukrainians, because of what Putin has done to Ukraine,
but at the end of the day we're all humans.
And so we also our hearts go out to the innocent Russians,
whether they live here or in Russia itself.
>> And there's one other action, that's being taken and to be honest, Cenk,
I didn't really think this made much sense, but you might change my mind on it.
So, it has to do with Russian athletes.
So the IOC Executive Board recommends,
the International Sports Federations and sports event organizers not invite.
Or allow the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes,
and officials in international competitions.
The olympic games, the Paralympics games, World Championships, and
World Cups, are among the international sporting events.
The IOC is recommending Russian and Belarusian athletes, be removed from.
>> No, that one is super important.
>> Yeah, so they're making the recommendation,
the IOC doesn't have the power to do this unilaterally.
So, they're making the recommendation to see what happens,
I was like why punish Russian athletes, for what the government is doing.
>> Yeah.
>> But, you made a really good point about South Africa,
when it was an apartheid state.
>> Yeah, so like I said, it's not about punishing the athletes, and
the olympics just ended.
But World Cup is everything,
to the whole world into Russia in specific.
And and so, if they got banned from the World Cup, if it lasted that long,
and they've already been, well action has begun.
The Russian flag was taken down at a qualifying event.
They did not allow them to sing the national anthem, but
they did allow them to play.
Now, if they actually get banned from all World Cup qualifying, and
they can't go to the World Cup.
The Russian people are going to be devastated, and furious at their leaders.
And so there's historical example for this,
when there was a movement against apartheid in South Africa.
A huge part of it, was that they were not allowed to compete in international rugby.
And it drove South Africans crazy that they couldn't do that, you don't have to
think that it's irrational, you just have to know that it exists.
So, banning them from playing soccer, and the other sports across
the world could have a massive impact, it did in South Africa.
And so, I think that one makes a lot of sense.
I feel bad for the Russian athletes who've been waiting for
this their whole lives, but this one is effective and works.
Money works, and amazingly sports works in terms of sanctions.