Zelensky interview

[Horace]

Lex Fridman achieved an interview with Zelensky.

Link to video

A lot to go through there, and it was mostly a monologue, and if you believe Zelensky getting his words out is a good thing, you should probably also believe the interview was a good thing.

And some commentary from someone who presents as serious:

Link to video

[Horace]

Some context about Fridman, he is a controversial figure because he's been polarized by the left, as a member of the out-group. But meanwhile, as far as I can tell, from having listened to probably too many hours of his interviews, he genuinely just wants people to talk, present their views, and let the ideas play out.

[Renauda]

I don’t believe Fridman is controversial. He’s learning his trade and not afraid to tread in the deep end. Sometimes though he gets water up his nose in the process. No big deal. The interviews I have seen him conduct are fine, he listens and at least tries to make intelligent comments and thoughtful observations.

I will watch interview with Zelenskyi as well as Vexler’s break down of the content. Hopefully sometime later this week.

[Horace]

@Renauda I will look forward with interest to your commentary.

[Renauda]

@Horace

Haven’t forgotten, rather just preoccupied with other things going on this week.

Anyhow, I just finished watching the first hour and a half of the interview. Zelenskyi is candid and at times pretty intense. Lex is doing okay - he’s very affable - although he comes across as quite naive and Polly Anna like regarding Putin’s character and willingness to negotiate in good faith. There’s a lot to digest once the interview hits about the 55 minute mark. I will try to watch the rest before the weekend is out. Will hold off on commenting more until then.

Have not watched Vexler’s breakdown yet. Wanted to watch the Fridman interview first before delving into Vexler’s thoughts. I will say though that to date, videos that I have seen from Vexler are good if not impressive. I suspect that his video on this one is especially good since he is fully fluent in all three languages in the Zelenskyi interview.

[Horace]

@Renauda said in Zelensky interview:

@Horace

Haven’t forgotten, rather just preoccupied with other things going on this week.

Anyhow, I just finished watching the first hour and a half of the interview. Zelenskyi is candid and at times pretty intense. Lex is doing okay - he’s very affable - although he comes across as quite naive and Polly Anna like regarding Putin’s character and willingness to negotiate in good faith. There’s a lot to digest once the interview hits about the 55 minute mark. I will try to watch the rest before the weekend is out. Will hold off on commenting more until then.

Have not watched Vexler’s breakdown yet. Wanted to watch the Fridman interview first before delving into Vexler’s thoughts. I will say though that to date, videos that I have seen from Vexler are good if not impressive. I suspect that his video on this one is especially good since he is fully fluent in all three languages in the Zelenskyi interview.

I like that Vexler is fluent in all languages too.

[Renauda]

I completed the 3 hour Zelenskyi interview just before supper last evening.

My overall take away is that Zelenskyi was primarily focussed on the American audience who would tune into Fridman’s podcast. Hence the emphasis he placed throughout on the incoming Trump Admin and specifically the personal role he hopes and expects Trump to play in brokering a just and lasting peace with Putin. I also sensed that while Zelenskyi never says it outright, he has come to accept that to attain a lasting peace there is no point in expecting Putin to relinquish control over Ukrainian territory occupied since 2014. To that degree he is practical and views the situation objectively.

I believe too that Zelenskyi has Putin’s character nailed. Putin will not stop unless he there is a credible deterrent in place in what will be left of Ukraine when a peace is brokered. Although Zelenskyi’s overall comparison of Putin to Hitler I think is hyperbole, he is quite right in seeing Putin as a warlord who believes Russia and the Russian people are morally, intellectually and culturally superior to all others. In that sense Putin is classic Tsar, an authoritarian overlord who stands far above and removed from the people in all respects. Hence Putin loves only his inner circle so long as they feed this self image and the power it has accumulated the past 25 years. In this Tsar’s Court, as in past Imperial Courts, any or all members of that inner circle of favourites, are completely dispensable.

One point Zelenskyi makes that I do not agree with is when he says Putin is afraid of Trump. I think he says it at twice during the interview. It maybe something that listeners should not take at face value or literally. Putin is not afraid of Trump in any way. Instead I think what Zelenskyi means is that Putin understands that only American power and influence can put in place a credible deterrent to Putin’s long term objectives in not only Ukraine but Europe as a whole. Putin will therefore do everything possible to instigate a fight between Trump and Zelenskyi that in turn will have a negative effect on the future viability of the collective security offered by NATO to not only its members but in reality, Russia itself. Putin knows very well that so long as NATO exists, Russia’s western and southwestern borders are secure. Putin’s real problem with NATO is that the Kremlin cannot control or influence it in any way to become a tool of Russian foreign policy.

Those are a few thoughts for the moment. There is a lot in the interview to unpack. I tried to bring up the Russian language version so as to bypass the interpreter so I could hear for myself what Zelenskyi was saying in the Russian exchanges. I could not, I could only bring up Russian subtitles.

As for Lex, he did his best. I won’t fault him although his Polly Anna like statements regarding Putin and attaining a peace deal were worthy of a first or second year history or political science undergrad. Nice guy though - much more respectable than FuCa. Afraid though that if he is granted an interview with Putin, he will be desiccated and mummified by the end. I’ll leave it at that.

Will now try to listen Vexler’s breakdown sometime today or tomorrow.

[jon-nyc]

Putin as a warlord who believes Russia and the Russian people are morally, intellectually and culturally superior to all others.

I have to admit that's an impressive feat to believe that despite the mountain of evidence to the contrary and almost nothing on the 'pro' side.

One point Zelenskyi makes that I do not agree with is when he says Putin is afraid of Trump.

Maybe he's just trying to flatter Trump.

[kluurs]

@jon-nyc said in Zelensky interview:

One point Zelenskyi makes that I do not agree with is when he says Putin is afraid of Trump.

Maybe he's just trying to flatter Trump.

That makes sense.

[Renauda]

@jon-nyc

Yes, flattery as well as he is speaking to an American audience that he can only surmise as being sceptical of current or future engagement.

I have to admit that's an impressive feat to believe that despite the mountain of evidence to the contrary and almost nothing on the 'pro' side..

Putin lives in a world of make believe all of his own making. Russians are a passive people until they are not. Putin knows that.

[Horace]

@Renauda said in Zelensky interview:

I completed the 3 hour Zelenskyi interview just before supper last evening.

My overall take away is that Zelenskyi was primarily focussed on the American audience who would tune into Fridman’s podcast. Hence the emphasis he placed throughout on the incoming Trump Admin and specifically the personal role he hopes and expects Trump to play in brokering a just and lasting peace with Putin. I also sensed that while Zelenskyi never says it outright, he has come to accept that to attain a lasting peace there is no point in expecting Putin to relinquish control over Ukrainian territory occupied since 2014. To that degree he is practical and views the situation objectively.

I believe too that Zelenskyi has Putin’s character nailed. Putin will not stop unless he there is a credible deterrent in place in what will be left of Ukraine when a peace is brokered. Although Zelenskyi’s overall comparison of Putin to Hitler I think is hyperbole, he is quite right in seeing Putin as a warlord who believes Russia and the Russian people are morally, intellectually and culturally superior to all others. In that sense Putin is classic Tsar, an authoritarian overlord who stands far above and removed from the people in all respects. Hence Putin loves only his inner circle so long as they feed this self image and the power it has accumulated the past 25 years. In this Tsar’s Court, as in past Imperial Courts, any or all members of that inner circle of favourites, are completely dispensable.

One point Zelenskyi makes that I do not agree with is when he says Putin is afraid of Trump. I think he says it at twice during the interview. It maybe something that listeners should not take at face value or literally. Putin is not afraid of Trump in any way. Instead I think what Zelenskyi means is that Putin understands that only American power and influence can put in place a credible deterrent to Putin’s long term objectives in not only Ukraine but Europe as a whole. Putin will therefore do everything possible to instigate a fight between Trump and Zelenskyi that in turn will have a negative effect on the future viability of the collective security offered by NATO to not only its members but in reality, Russia itself. Putin knows very well that so long as NATO exists, Russia’s western and southwestern borders are secure. Putin’s real problem with NATO is that the Kremlin cannot control or influence it in any way to become a tool of Russian foreign policy.

Those are a few thoughts for the moment. There is a lot in the interview to unpack. I tried to bring up the Russian language version so as to bypass the interpreter so I could hear for myself what Zelenskyi was saying in the Russian exchanges. I could not, I could only bring up Russian subtitles.

As for Lex, he did his best. I won’t fault him although his Polly Anna like statements regarding Putin and attaining a peace deal were worthy of a first or second year history or political science undergrad. Nice guy though - much more respectable than FuCa. Afraid though that if he is granted an interview with Putin, he will be desiccated and mummified by the end. I’ll leave it at that.

Will now try to listen Vexler’s breakdown sometime today or tomorrow.

Thank you for this, Renauda, and I'm sorry for not being capable of responding as well as I would like.

[Renauda]

Have sat down and listened to Vexler. As in other presentations from him, I am not at all disappointed at the end.

My thoughts:

I agree, Fridman, affable and likeable as he is, is a conversationalist and not in any way a journalist on politics and security at this stage. He may become one down the road, but not here and now

Wexler describes the three types of Ukrainian nationalism. Interesting and worth exploring further. Personally have not given much thought to how they interact but can appreciate their importance in shaping the Ukrainian social and national identity over the last twenty years or more. He also correct that Westerners know at least something about Russia but very little, if at all anything, about Ukraine. From personal experience the last couple years I have had my share of “Holy shit, I did I not know or how did I miss that?” moments in learning about Ukraine and its relationship to Russia and the West.

Zelenskyi criticizes Fridman’s Russian and Wexler goes to explain or clarify the problem. The word in English linguists use to describe Fridman’s Russian is that it has become “fossilized”. It happens to all immigrants whose mother tongue is something other than the lingua-franca of their new home. Essentially it means that because Fridman came over to the US as a child and his Russian mother tongue fell into a state of arrested development. It stands to reason therefore that effects of language fossilization of the mother tongue are less pronounced on adult immigrants than their children.

I concur as well with Vexler on what Zelenskyi means by “despising”Russians. It harkens back to my previous observation that Russians are a passive people until they are not. Zelenskyi tries to address them in Russian but they remain deaf and unmoved. It’s the nation’s passivity he despises, not the people.

Interesting as well that Vexler sees Ukrainians as being Zelinskyi’s primary audience. Vexler’s advantage of fluency in all three languages I am sure makes this evident. I am glad that he explains how this so when Zelinskyi explains the paramountcy of US security guarantees in bolstering flagging domestic morale over the war of attrition that has come to characterize the last two years of the war.

I liked Vexler’s description of Fridman’s naive statement that Russia could join NATO. He call it a “seraphic outlook”. I must remember that one, it says it all. As well Vexler does an excellent job to reinforce Zelenskyi’s rebuttal to Fridman’s claim that Putin is just being a patriot who loves his country.

I too think Vexler’s grading Zelenskyi a 7 on a stanine system is fair. An average grade of 7 will get a person into a grad programme in history or political science. Making Putin into a crazed modern day Hitler is too much and quite frankly indefensible. In the world of tyrants in history, Hitler, Stalin and Mao really stand in an evil category all their own. Also Zelenskyi potrayal of Ukrainian victimhood that West did not serve Ukraine in its struggle with Russia. While it can be argued there is a case for that prior to 2022, it is not so since. Likewise Zelenskyi’s failure to provide strategic clarity on how he envisions the future and obtaining peace beyond US brokerage and security guarantees.

Horace, thanks for posting this and the interview itself. Well worth my time to have watched both. Vexler’s had me going back to review sections of the interview. I figure that’s a good thing

Edit: I noticed that I did not delete my running notes while listening to Vexler’s presentation. The substance of those notes are contained in the above and have therefore now been deleted from the post.

[Horace]

@Renauda said in Zelensky interview:

Horace, thanks for posting this and the interview itself. Well worth my time to have watched both. Vexler’s had going to back to review sections of the interview. I figure that’s a good thing

Obviously I have an aggressive personality, and we both do.

[Renauda]

I take that as a compliment, Horace.

So from one aggressive bastard to another….

Tally ho!

Attack!