Let's start with some international news.
The crisis over Ukraine has again intensified.
Thanks to Russian president Vladimir Putin,
he gave a lengthy speech today in which he aired out.
Russian grievances made historical claims to Ukraine.
And then announced that Russia will recognize the independence
of two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine.
>> I deem it necessary to make a decision that should have been made long time ago.
To immediately recognize the independence and
sovereignty of Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic.
>> In case anybody missed the translation there.
Putin then held a signing ceremony with documents recognized the independence
of the two regions.
And here is the english play by play, as reported by YT.
>> Vladimir Putin is signing the executive decree on
recognition of the Donetsk People's Republic.
President of the Russian Federation, Mr Vladimir Putin signing
the executive decree on recognition the Lugansk People's Republic.
>> Many analysts believe that the move could be a pretext to a Russian invasion
and occupation of those two regions in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, as the Washington post reports,
troops continue to gather near the Ukraine border.
Suggesting that the window for a diplomatic resolution to the crisis is
closing and striking a discordant note from Sunday's news.
That President Biden and
his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin had agreed in principle.
To meet the summit was proposed by French president Emmanuel Macron during separate
calls with Biden and Putin on Sunday.
Officials in Paris and
Washington said the talks would go ahead only if Moscow doesn't attack.
Russian officials were ambiguous about whether the summit would go ahead.
Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov said money.
That they're not concrete plans for Russia US summit by national security advisor,
Jake Sullivan.
Struck a pessimistic court in comments to ABC news on Monday morning.
We never give up hope on diplomacy until the missiles fire the tanks roll, he said.
But the likelihood there's a diplomatic solution given the troop movements of
the Russians is diminishing hour by hour.
Meantime, the head of NATO is now condemning Russia's latest actions.
I condemned Russia's decision to extend recognition to the self proclaimed.
Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk people's republic, said NATO,
Secretary General john Stoltenberg.
This further undermines Ukraine's sovereignty and
territorial integrity erodes efforts towards the resolution of the conflict.
And violates the Minsk agreements to which Russia is a party.
His statement went under again accused Russia of seeking a pretext to invade
Ukraine.
But at least as of the moment, Jack, there's no been no invasion.
Just perhaps even more pressure on Ukraine to see how they might respond.
>> Okay, this is very mixed news.
So I'm gonna break down both sides in a second.
But first, the usual needless comical notes.
So in that video of him sending the papers,
I wasn't sure there was enough space between the desks.
Maybe a little further apart so they can't see each other at all.
What is have two deaths ever been further apart anyway, in the same room.
And secondly, I don't see his festivus pole,
even though he aired an hour of grievances.
Now, having said all that, let's get to the meat of the matter,
which is significant.
So on the one hand, David,
good news in that Russia did not cross the border yet at least.
And America has been saying now for weeks, any minute now,
any second now they're gonna invade, they're gonna invade.
They've been saying the next couple of days for at least two weeks, maybe three.
And the last couple of days they've been saying literally any hour now,
Russia was going to invade.
Now they didn't, so that is good news number one.
On the other hand, saying that those two regions
are should be independent states is not a good sign.
And so Russia had amassed about 290,000 troops on the border.
They have not retreated,
they're still there as far as the latest updates are concerned.
And this was a very bad speech by Russia.
So we thought that there was some chance that America was largely bluffing for
a great number of reasons.
That we explained over the last several weeks and
that we were provoking Russia more than anything else.
We were hopeful that if we just said that Ukraine would not be in NATO,
that it would largely resolve the matter.
And that's the main thing that that Putin was looking for, but David, it appears,
no, that was not the main thing.
That he was looking for that certainly among the things he was looking for.
But declaring these two regions independent republics is a very
dangerous sign of more territorial ambitions.
And perhaps imminent war.
>> And it raises the specter that rather than a full scale invasion that goes all
the way to Kiev.
The capital of Ukraine, maybe it's just a Russian incursion into these particular
regions where there is already strong Russian support.
But the Ukrainian central government would argue.
So what you could get any part of any country and find a majority
population that might support or have some affinity for its neighbors.
That doesn't necessarily mean it should be part of a different country.
There was one troubling development that I saw over the weekend, Jessica.
That is never mind the ambiguity from the Russians about whether or
not they would attend the summit.
But they were actually supposed to pull back tens of thousands of troops that were
stationed in one particular area.
Along the Ukraine border that Russians that had participated in an exercise that
was now over.
And then the Russians said, well,
because we have a lot of tensions there were keeping those troops.
And those troops are the ones that would have the easiest route to get to
the capital of Kiev.
So it's alarming on all sorts of levels.
>> Yeah, so one of our members just throw it in and
we love doing the show with you guys.
Tyt.com/join to become a member and be part of the show trigger incarnate,
wrote in.
Jack Russia's sending in peacekeepers into the two.
And I would add quote marks around republics, right?
But that part's not clear guys.
Yes, he's saying that.
But America is saying that Russia has not crossed the border and
they are sanctioning those two republics.
But curiously not sanctioning Russia itself.
And so I know why they're not sanctioning Russia because they want to reserve that
for an actual border crossing.
And if that happens, then they're gonna hit him with every sanction imagine.
Well, although now democrats and republicans are pushing Biden.
So we just had a representative John Garamendi,
who is a democrat from California.
Was on television on CNN's newsroom saying that Biden should do more.
Of course, Chief warmonger Lindsay Graham saying
that Biden needs to do more to attack Russia.
Whether it's through sanctions or other measures.
So there are people chomping at the bit for war on our side and
that is not a good sign.
But as far as we know, I don't know what it means for
him to have sent in peacekeepers.
And the one thing I do know is they're not peacekeepers.
You don't keep the peace by putting your troops into somebody else's territory.
That's true of Russia, by the way, also true of the United States.
We often send ground troops to countries pretending that there peacekeepers.
But the thing is my most important takeaway from this,
David is overall this is pretty bad news.
Yeah, they didn't send the troops yet, but
declaring them independent regions as clearly territorial implications.
Obviously already and territorial potential ambitions.
And does it look like Putin is trying to reconstitute the soviet union?
Well, that was a lot of his speech was about how Russia used to be bigger batter.
And that they need to go back to having more of that territory and
that is a terrible sign for the world.
>> Well, Jack, I gotta ask you one thing.
I mean a lot of people are confused about what is it the Russians really want in
Ukraine?
And the answer is it's not so much what they want in Ukraine, it's just that,
I mean, Putin presumably is afraid that.
Because Ukraine, since it got its independence from Russia from the soviet
Union has become more western oriented.
And looking there's this fear that Putin has that Russia by the Russians might show
more discontent.
And if they see Ukraine being more successful as an independent autonomous
state from Russia as it has been.
Then that somehow emboldens Putin's uenemies from within.
I sort of wonder if if that is really sort of how that changes now.
And what do you think in terms of how Ukraine should respond,
should Ukraine go ahead and recognize?
Okay, Russian has made these claims, we need some time to think about it or
do they just flat out reject it and take their chances?
>> No, they have to reject it.
It's absurdity to, to consider this.
And this was exactly the problem with this slippery slope when they took Crimea.
And a lot of people were like, well, it's ethnically Russian.
Let's let it go, Well, you let it go.
And then this happens.
And it's creeping imperialism from the Russian side.
So, look what America, Europe and the rest of the world does.
If the Russian troops across the border is a different question.
And I think sanctions are especially for
the oligarchs and for Putin himself are very merited.
Perhaps cutting off the pipeline in Germany etcetera.
I would hope that no military action happens because those are two biggest
nuclear powers in the world, obviously.
And that is nothing but disaster for all of us.
But I've got to clarify a couple of things here to the point of David's question.
The legitimate concerns of Putin, in my opinion are.
Hey, NATO's now all over our border and
Ukraine is as close to the country to Russia as there is.
And then making them part of your military alliance is unacceptable and
putting missiles pointed at us is unacceptable.
Now, the reality is I've always found the missile argument to be absurd.
Because all of our missiles can reach Russia and
all of their missiles can reach us.
We don't need to be on anybody's border to reach those countries.
But yes, countries historically have cared a lot about that,
including the United States.
We've told you many times,
we nearly started world war three because the Russians put missiles in Cuba.
So that was us reacting in a almost literally thermonuclear way.
When Russia did something similar in expanding their military alliance near our
borders.
So those are legitimate concerns of Putin.
The illegitimate concerns are well, Russia used to have a lot of territory and
now we don't and now I'd like some of it back.
No, that is not remotely legitimate.
That's how you start world war three, it is imperialism.
And for the weirdo biased people who historically America has had
a news industry that's completely biased towards America.
In fact, CNN cut off Putin's speech today.
It's not just historic, it's today.
He's doing Russian propaganda.
Yeah, he's the leader of Russia cutting him off and
not hearing his side of the question.
Is we might enter a gigantic war is deeply irresponsible.
It's not news.
It's you being biased saying America is always right and
we don't even want you to hear the other side.
So that is clearly true.
But there is now a contingent in America who are say no Russia is right about
everything.
And if they want territory of course there's a couple of Russians in there.
Of course they should take it right, that's absurd and equally ridiculous.
More ridiculous.
So here I can give you easy examples.
Okay, what if Mexico said we should have new Mexico, that's historically ours.
It even has the word Mexico in it?
Well, those things would be very true then.
What if they turn down and said, well,
ethnically it's an enormous percentage of the people living there are Latino.
And very specifically originally ethnically Mexican.
Well, that's also true.
Okay, so under that logic should we give new Mexico back and
I know some of you right now will be saying yes.
Right.
But no, we should not give new Mexico back because it's well for 1000 reasons.
But also because this is how the world destabilizes.
In case you need one more example, I'll give one for my own ethnic background.
Well, the Ottoman Turks controlled a giant percentage of
the world stretching into north Africa.
Almost all of Eastern Europe, almost all of the Middle East and into Russia.
What if the Turks then went, okay, I'd like Israel back and
I'd like Egypt back and I'd like parts of Russia back.
Well and by the way there's tons of ethnic Turks in the former soviet union.
The Turkish people dominate the central Asian republicans that used to be part of
the soviet union.
What if Turkey goes, I'll take Tajikistan and Turkmenistan,
It's got the word Turk in it.
In the title of the country Turkmenistan.
So you can see easily how this would devolve China gets in and
everybody will make claims and will be an endless wars.
So what I think Putin announced today is a very dangerous for world peace.
An update has just gotten in while we're doing the show live.
Putin has ordered peacekeeping troops into the two so
called breakaway regions.
Until Russia declared them breakaway regions.
They really weren't, they were part of Ukraine.
Everybody considered them part of Ukraine, the entire international community.
And now it looks like Putin is trying to take more territory back for Russia.
And so as we speak now, we're live on the air.
It is unclear if those ground troops have moved in.
But the latest update is that Russia has ordered so called peacekeeping troops in.
You do not cross a border to keep the peace,
you cross the border to start a war.
So that's the latest from Russia.