Winners and Losers
Maria Pozdnyakova (AiF): Leonid Petrovich, why is the West working so hard to create conflict with Russia?
Leonid Reshetnikov: The Western elite are furious. They didn’t expect us to show as much backbone as we have in Syria.
The West already stopped paying attention to Russia 20 years ago. In 1992, CIA Director Robert Gates had his own victory parade in Moscow. He goose-stepped across the stones of Red Square and toasted the fall of the USSR with champagne. In the ’90s, U.S. politicians told me to my face, “America’s mission is to rule the world. Understand, and submit.”
The Americans first tried to destroy Russia by supporting the Bolsheviks in the October Revolution of 1917. The second attempt occurred during World War II and the third in 1991.
Maria: People think that the USSR and the United States were allies in WWII…
Leonid: World War II was orchestrated by the same forces now trying to rule the world, forces located in the United States. I’m talking about international companies and the upper crust of the Anglo-Saxon elite. The U.S. pushed Germany and the USSR toward war. They helped both countries strengthen their militaries so that their collision would be catastrophic. That’s why the U.S. actively participated in the USSR’s industrialization in the ’30s.
The Stalingrad tractor factory was built completely overseas, dismantled and shipped to the USSR on 102 transports. The American Cooper Engineering Company built the Dnieper Hydroelectric Station. The Austin Company built Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod (GAZ).* AZLK was a project by Ford.** In 10 years, the Americans built 150 factories, plants and foundries. America built up Germany at the same time. The conflict between the USSR and Germany pushed England off the world stage. Germany was destroyed. The Soviet Union paid for victory with 27 million lives. Yes, we were victorious in the Great Patriotic War — my father was among those who spent four years at the front and went to Berlin — but the real winner of World War II was the United States, which lost 300,000 men.
Furthermore, it was the U.S., and not Stalin, that created the Iron Curtain. The Americans hoped that people in the isolated, devastated USSR would consume each other like spiders in a jar. But they underestimated the strength of our people’s spirit, although it’s true that America became the global hegemon after isolating the USSR.
Maria: And what about the friendship between Russia and the United States in the ’90s?
Leonid: Many people believed in the magical phrase, “The West will help us.” At the same time, our Western “partners” were working to partition Russia into 10 to 15 different entities. Where do you think the fighters in the North Caucasus got their support?
So, after the CIA’s apparent triumph, Crimea has been returned to Russia and we launched our operation in Syria. That was like a bolt from the blue. U.S. Congress launched an investigation into the CIA’s failure to warn them about Russia’s new military capabilities. This is why America hates Vladimir Putin.
Purchased Elites
Maria: Why is Europe dancing to America’s tune?
Leonid: In Germany’s case, after its capitulation a secret agreement was signed with the U.S. that forced Germany to keep its gold reserves overseas. On top of that, there are over 300 American military bases on German territory. The U.S. also usually buys off the governing elite, which is what’s happening in Eastern Europe.
I worked in Bulgaria for several years; they’ve never forgotten that the Russian Empire freed them from 500 years of Turkish hegemony in 1878. However, approximately 50,000 people from the Bulgarian elite — paid off by the U.S. — are carrying out an anti-Russian policy. In addition, the leaders of numerous other countries are easy to control because they’re afraid of being taken out. The CIA is behind dozens of coups, after all.
There’s also an ongoing information war. The Kremlin was forced to refute claims that Putin had given the go-ahead to remove Assad. Nevertheless, our allies still asked me, “Leonid, tell us honestly. Are you really going to fight it out with the Islamic State group to the end?”
When Russia began its operation, Damascus was predicted to fall within weeks. If things had gone the other way, Syria would have been shattered and the Islamic State group would have grown to Russia’s border. The puppet masters here are the same as those who orchestrated World War II. The financial system that took shape after 1945, in which all business lines America’s pockets, is faltering. The U.S. is in a tough situation. It might even be hanging by a thread.
Maria: Ukraine is another bloody front.
Leonid: We are reaping the fruits of a bomb sowed by Lenin beneath the foundations of our state, as Putin said. The Soviet authorities created a geopolitical monster on native Russian territory — Ukraine. This was carried out by Imperial German special forces and the Bolsheviks: Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky. They created Ukraine, slicing off the Russian cities of Kharkov (founded by Czar Alexis of Russia), Donetsk (founded by Emperor Alexander II), Nikolayev, Dnepropetrovsk and Odessa (all three of which were founded by Empress Catherine II). To top it off, Khruschev gave away Crimea. Why create Ukraine? For one purpose — to become the anti-Russia. As long as our little brothers in Ukraine remain brainwashed, their new American masters will use them to fight down to the last Ukrainian.
Maria: The word “war” is hanging heavier and heavier in the air…
Leonid: People can feel it around the world, and they’re looking with hope to our country as a peacemaker. Many countries gave signs of support after the beginning of the Russian operation in Syria. After all, everyone understands how unfairly Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Egypt were treated before then. At closed international meetings people have begun asking me, “When will Russia come to us?” People from Italy, France and other countries have been asking. I was in Pakistan recently. It turned out that their officers were asking the same question, and in a Muslim country no less.
People have understood that a strong Russia is a guarantor of justice. Our “friends” hate Russia, not because she’s an economic or military competitor, but because we are offering the world a civilized alternative. The most important values in the West today are eat, sleep and something that rhymes with “duck.” In Russian civilization, on the other hand, the spiritual has always predominated over the material. That’s why you can never discount our people. That’s why no matter who’s coveted our territory and our riches, they’ve never been able to conquer us.
*Editor’s Note: The Gorky Automotive Plant.
**Editor’s Note: AZLK was a Soviet and Russian automobile manufacturer, the maker of the Moskvitch brand.