Timothy Snyder ─ Ukraine: Democracy at the Edge

bit.ly/1CECAAp - In this lecture, Professor Timothy Snyder examines the origins, significance, and implications of the Ukrainian crisis. He argues that the roots of the crisis lie not in Russia's fears of NATO expansion, but in Putin's desire to undermine the European Union as a single political and economic entity with -among other things- a common energy policy. The crisis has become increasingly dangerous because at each stage of its development Putin's tactical decisions have failed to achieve their immediate objectives while making it ever more difficult for Russia to stand down. In an ominous turn of events, Russia is now characterizing the Union as weak and decadent and actively financing many of the right parties that are pushing for their countries to withdraw from the European project.

[@potter275]

Seven years hence this lecture stands up very well.. thank you.

[@antarinel_taeryvein]

It's a bit scary to find this video now and see how right Pr. Snyder was with his predictions and interpretation of what was happening. Great talk and great understanding of Ukraine and russia. Thank you.

[@ChornyjKit]

Prof. Snyder proved again that he is the best on the subject.

[@BenjaminMoh]

/aooollppp

[@Nacnud191]

Really good to have become more aware of Prof Snyder. He’s so informed on Ukraine / Russia history. Just listened to him talking with Sam Harris 👍

[@kazkaskazkas8689]

This has been around for so long, and people only now noticing it. Snyder is probably the only publicly known Western expert who has realized what's going on so early.

[@elizabethmcgauleysarfaty6154]

Why such poor sound? Please - help Dr. Snyder check out his volume when he speaks - this low is a torture! Glad there is a print out - but then I must stand at my computer to read vs. being able to sit and listen and take notes for myself! Love this man! Sincerely, ehs

[@Rascalndear1]

Excellent for history, analysis and Ukraine as a country and culture. Thanks!

[@ravindertalwar553]

I congratulate you on such a wonderful presentation and explanation.

[@Cipricus]

Incredibly actual!

[@florianmeier3186]

Regarding bilingual capital: There is Luxembourg and Bruxelles, which I would also call bilingual. Bruxelles is French, but surrounded by Dutch speaking areas and therefore a lot of people can switch between both and in Luxembourg they have their own language, but it is very close to German and officially they use also lot's of French meaning that they use to switch regularily. Interesting that he thought firstly about Bern in Switzerland which is much more clearly part of German speaking area even if Switzerland as a whole is multilingual.

[@karelkieslich6772]

I think maybe someone in the audience said Switzerland and he reacted to that? But yeah, I agree, Bruxelles would be a better example and Bern is really not a good example, but even Bruxelles isn’t bilingual in the same way that Kyiv is. Until very recently, you couldn’t really say if Kyiv was speaking Russian or Ukrainian, it was both. Interestingly, some other cities in central/eastern Europe used to be like this, for example Prague which was both Czech and German until WW1 (between WW1 and WW2 it would be much less so but German would still be very common). I think Eastern Europe lost something truly special with all the ethnic cleansing it happened in it during the 20th century. It’s quite remarkable that before 20th century, West European countries were homogeneous and Eastern Europe was brimming with ethnic, cultural and linguistic diversity (and quite surprising tolerance), and now it’s the other way round.

[@rubysmoke7150]

Prescient for the day

[@theongreyjoy19]

1:13:09 Can someone transcribe what did she say?

[@WatsonInstitute]

Hello, we will provide a transcription shortly. Thank you for your patience.

[@Pandamasque]

theongreyjoy19 "the best time, by the way" from what I can hear.

[@julia_frakes]

***** Thank you! Where can we find the transcripts? Much appreciated...

[@manDdia]

+Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs 18:35 Merkel, not 'Merkle' 29:37 a Pole, not 'a Pol' 29:44 Poles, not 'Pols'.

[@landvaettir_actual]

+MC Jazavac I'm not sure may answer is relevant 8 months later, but he said "hromady" (громади). It's ukrainian word for local communities.

[@Rascalndear1]

I would say two things: (1) regarding Putin's mistakes. I would suspect that a large part of his miscalculations was because, as a typical dictator, the people around him were not longer telling him the truth but telling him what they thought he wanted to hear. (2) The plan to do Ukraine was probably percolating way back when but took on life in 2008, when NATO rejected both Georgia's and Ukraine's applications for the MAP in April, Russia attacked Georgia and took out a chunk of territory in August, and in November the NATO FM summit reaffirmed NATO's rejection of both countries. The message was loud and clear. I said at the time that Russia had effectively been given carte-blanche to go after Ukraine because NATO didn't care.

[@peremognik8093]

+Rascalndear1 Actually, Rissia made shure that Georgia and Ukriane will never join NATO by capturing some of the territories. One of the main reasons for conflicts is to prevent more NATO bases from appearing near borders with Russia.

[@Rascalndear1]

If you chose to buy into Pootin's pretexts, don't let me stop you.

[@hazelwray4184]

Why did George Bush push for Ukraine/Georgia NATO membership? Both are key transit hubs for Russia. Putin called out US unilateralism, belligerence (Wolfowitz/Bush doctrine) and undermining of international law the year before: 2007. There wasn't a majority for NATO membership inside Ukraine in 2008; the year (Ukraine 2008 wikileaks) Russia told the US that such divisive moves might cause civil war in Ukraine. In 2014 that's what happened. Privately funded Ultra-nationalist batallions went east to crush dissent. Donbas and Crimea had referendums in the 1990s expressing an unambiguous desire for more autonomy within Ukraine; the basis of Minsk agreement. Never since Ukrainian independence in 1991 has the Central government been willing to accommodate that wish.

[@stuartradley1187]

51:13 calculated cacophony

[@kseniamaryniak3833]

"Russian soldiers are dying" but Russian soldiers are killing, raping, torturing Ukrainian civilians. Notwithstanding this one mauvais ton, a brilliant talk that is still, fantastically, 100% relevant and well worth listening to. The Q&A is particularly instructive, as well.

[@Alexander-ou9fg]

The techniques Timothy points out, is called trolling. In this case - state institutionalized trolling. Best solution, is not respond to nonsense, but tell the true fact, which leaders have no guts to do anymore...

[@ericcartman1704]

shut up putin troll

[@ameremortal]

Alexander Filatov Right on.

[@ubroc]

I'd love to see him have a conversation with Jeffry Sachs

[@paulrand7861]

That would be great.

[@zinde2497]

History is the easiest subject to manipulate and turn it into politics or maybe propaganda

[@paulrand7861]

Just ask Mearsheimer. He can give a master class on that

[@FW7737]

Ha, that an interesting view. Also sounds very probable.

[@TheNecessityofVeracity]

I always find this professor's lectures interesting although I don't always agree with him. I wonder what his stance is NOW on his assertion that 'Russia's behavior/actions don't have anything to do with NATO and it's all about the EU?' This video is a few years old so some of the information is dated and he might have changed his opinion since then.... He is wrong when he says there never was a "verbal agreement" that NATO wouldn't expand eastwards. That information was recently declassified and indeed there was a "verbal agreement".

[@James-cb7nb]

NATO is the easy target. Putin can't come out and say eu cause that would destroy his credibility

[@tnndll4294]

Verbal agreements don't count. that's why we have the written agreement.

[@tnndll4294]

What year was the so-called Verb Agreement? look at the map.

[@tnndll4294]

map shows that the Soviet states still existed; and expansion meant east germany only.

[@paulrand7861]

Verbal agreements have no serious standing in the relations between Russia and the West. Anything that is not in writing is not binding. Even Gorbachev has said there was no such agreement. When you are trying to buy a car the salesman may make a deal but the sales manager may say "hell no".

[@MichaelMiller-qm1nl]

There is a lot of russian trols here...

[@alandeacon5690]

Amazing - all this history without mention of NATO or Nuland. That is quite a feat.

[@kazkaskazkas8689]

NATO did nothing back then - that was the biggest problem that caused what is happening today.

[@TMuitgevers]

Fascism also means a fascist mass movement: there is no mass movement of this kind in Russia. Putins fascism is different from the former German fascism.

[@paulrand7861]

Nonetheless it is just as evil and dangerous to the free world. History repeats itself first as tragedy

[@kazkaskazkas8689]

Now there is

[@jdee8407]

This guy has proven himself totally wrong on all this. Not to mention he just rambles back and fort without giving real concrete examples. Its like he is just trying to confuse people into believing his point of view. He is arguing its not NATO expansion that is the cause. But lol what is expansion?!? Expansion is EXPANSION!

[@jorgebatidora1317]

Hallo russian bot!

[@jdee8407]

@@jorgebatidora1317 Im not Russian. I know it goes against your cult of DNC to have people think for themselves by going against your party narrative.

[@michaelmullins3396]

As I understand it this talk was given 7years ago. Snyder should play it back today and see how totally wrong he was, then and still totally wrong today. By the way I’m not a Russian bot, or Putin apologist.

[@Trashcansam123]

If you’re not a troll explain how he’s wrong

[@paladin7422]

What he says is not çonvincing. Russians and Ukrainians are same people, Russia is being encircled by NATO. Must take over Ukraine to protect it self.

[@jazura2]

Hugely lazy to called someone wrong with no arguement.

[@kazkaskazkas8689]

"I'm not a Russian bot" 😅 Sure... a propaganda zombie at best.

[@miroslaw3242]

biggest propaganda than in USSR haha

[@tranngocminh269]

another troll or stupid

[@skippy5712]

Don't waste your time. This bloke must be paid by the CIA ignores proven facts and quotes US and the Ukraine propaganda as facts. Very much doubt he has been there. They are the best commentators. Those have been there. Pity he did not tell us the fees he earns to tell a story that suits the audience he is paid to address.

[@jorgebatidora1317]

Hallo russian bot!

[@peremognik8093]

This lecture is full of BS. Maydan has indeed been organized by the US. Obama actually admitted that the United States “had brokered a deal to transition power in Ukraine” Yanukovich didn't shoot the protestors, there was no point in it for him. It was a provocation from interested parties heat the conflict. It is very possible that they were organized by someone who is now sitting in the parlament of Ukraine.

[@MichaelMiller-qm1nl]

This is a russian trol.

[@LukeHuntGames333]

This is a Russian bot. In Ukraine, Russia, Belarus they're called Kremlebots( a Kremlin bot). They're getting paid for spreading Russian propaganda and praising Russian dictators such as Stalin and Putin. You can easily see these bots on youtube if you check any video about Ukraine. Also, most of them are used on VK(Russian social media), on twitter. If you check, for example, Twitter account about Ukrainian history, you will see how Kremlebots try to falsify Ukrainian history and take all the praises for themselves. And there's no need to talk how many Russians bots on Russians social media as they not only try to humiliate Ukrainians but, also, they protect their dictator because without him they'll be left without money. Well, I think we can easily say that Russians have Stockholm syndrome and that's why they don't want to stop being slaves..instead of that they are being used to spread propaganda.

[@michaelmullins3396]

@@MichaelMiller-qm1nl you mean Snyder I’d a boy, if so I fully agree.

[@paulrand7861]

Maidan was a grassroots broad-based rebellion, not a coup. Coups are led by the military.

[@1midnightfish]

@@michaelmullins3396 No no, when we say "pro russian troll" we mean people like you, too

[@rhetoric5173]

Why is he talking like Ukrainian is an actual language lmaooo

[@andreas7250]

Well if ukrainian as a language didn't exist, what language are the ukrainians supposedly forcing the russians to speak? Polish? Lithuanian maybe?

[@rhetoric5173]

@@andreas7250 dialect

[@andreas7250]

@@rhetoric5173 then, what's the difference between a language and a dialect?

[@rhetoric5173]

@@andreas7250 understandability

[@andreas7250]

@@rhetoric5173 is dutch a language or a dialect?

[@oares00]

It's the first time I see a videolecture without audio. Good reason for not look at! 💩 I hope it is not his "style"