Karen Shakhnazarov, famous director, People’s Artist of Russia: I'd like to return. I've said my opinion about Mr. Trump. As a character, he's got charisma.
- Although this wasn't his brightest speech, he's got charisma.
- I don't agree that this was unimportant. There were some fundamental things said which he could have left unsaid in the United Nations because there was much said about the internal workings of the United States. About his struggle against the American global empire. I'm even more convinced now in some respects he reminds me of Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin. Strongly reminds me of him. I think, like Yeltsin at the time... Yeltsin hated the empire. He was sick of it because the Soviet imperial elite didn't admit him. This was one of the reasons why he... I'm not talking about subjective or objective processes, I'm talking about the psychology of the man who was doing that, who eliminated the empire in the Belavezha Accords, and then drank a bottle of cognac in Gorbachev's office having kicked him out of there just to pour a glass for his friends. He later eliminated all the institutions that smelled of empire in Russia — the KGB, the army, everything related to it. He couldn't stomach any of this on the emotional level. I think it's the same situation with Trump. The main rival for him is the American imperial elite which did this Counsel Mueller thing who tries to put him away somehow. Did you notice he has a soft spot for Obama? As if Obama is... Indeed, Obama was building the American global empire.
- If you don't kick Obama, you can't call it a day.
- He can't live with that. This is the most important thing we heard in his speech. Those things about national patriotism, national sovereignty. Another issue is, despite all his statements that America is above of all, he is a threat to the American global empire. Because if the American global empire stops, in a sense, carrying this imperial burden, strictly speaking, it leaves this or that place, it must share. An empire can't exist like this. It must share invariably. It can't go to war, it has to suffer losses. It reaches supremacy this way. When it doesn't do all of this, it starts to collapse. That was what happened to us at the time. The idea of the Russian Federation was that we left a lot of places and we would be okay. As a result, we know how this ended up. It turned out that if you leave Central Asia, you get an uncontrollable flow of immigrants. It turned out it's more profitable to invest, to share and to establish factories in Central Asia, than it is to solve the uncontrollable immigration problem. Then we have issues with Ukraine. We leave Ukraine and we get a Ukraine that wants to reach to the West. And we wonder — why is it so? What should we do? You don't want to carry the burden — you've got these problems.
I think the same will happen to America. I always said that I have sympathy for Trump because I think what he does, despite all of his rhetoric and sanctions against Russia, objectively, he's making it easier for us today. He's giving us a break. He's destroying the European Union, by waging war with China, he's pushing China towards Russia in fact, creating an alliance between us. By the way, I have a kind of a psychological profile of him, and, probably, he's doing that unconsciously to break down the American empire. He understands that it's lethal. Well, he doesn't understand it, but he feels it. He has to destroy the global empire that threatens his power. I don't think to some extent, I can't explain it otherwise, because, from a logical point of view, this is just stupid. From the point of view of the Americans, it's stupid to do what he's doing now to China— by imposing sanctions on Russia which also hit China, he unites the two great powers against himself. It feels like he's doing it unconsciously to destroy his empire It is not a coincidence that his speech was aimed inward. This is towards the inner workings. Because, in my opinion, Trump has come to reflect the interests of that part of the American society that is tired of the burden. The same as the Soviet society was tired of its burden, of carrying the empire and the burden. It's the same situation here. He's expressing their interest. He addressed them in his speech. No wonder he said things unacceptable for a Western leader. He said let's stop tolerating immigrants. This violates all the values of the basis of Western society. All these Western values, the values of the European Union. He said it directly from the UN rostrum.
That's why this speech for me inspires respect and some hope for Russia first of all. Because we shouldn't have any illusions. We, during a period of weakening, and it's obvious to me that there will be further weakening and a crisis of the Western system and the USA, which will give us a chance to implement, to solve our internal problems. If we don't solve them, when I say the West and the USA is growing weaker, it doesn't mean an automatic win for Russia. Don't hope they will collapse and we will win this way. This won't happen like this. They may collapse, but we may have big problems as well.
- We treat China very well.
- I think very highly of China. I understand my colleague in the sense that he meant. Indeed, we had issues with China, there was the Treaty of Nerchinsk, we captured Beijing once, which wasn't very nice of us. We fought the Japanese on the Chinese soil, which they remember as well. On the other hand, we liberated them from Japan. But my colleague meant that China has never threatened us to the extent that the West does. That's what you meant, right?
- Yes.
- Things like the invasions of Napoleon, Hitler, the Crimean War, the Allied intervention in 1918. China never did such things. I would absolutely agree.
- But we had issues with Genghis Khan.
- I didn't mean Genghis Khan.
- China started with Genghis Khan as well.
- I want to say, it was said here that America and Trump want to turn everyone into, as you said, their satellites. Maybe, they do. However, returning to the thought that Trump is a symptom of the crisis of the American empire, I remind you, over the two years that Trump has been in office America hasn't achieved any successes in foreign policy. What America has achieved? Korea? What did they achieve? They achieved nothing! There aren't any results!
- They will sign the peace treaty without him.
- Indeed, North Korea and South Korean can arrange that without America, which is not advantageous for America. They achieved the situation when they have, in fact, lost Turkey as their ally at their most important southern flank in Europe. There's no embrace. Nikolay, what are you talking about? Politics is politics. But the fact is that China is forced to draw itself closer to Russia. It's just forced to. It's not guaranteed they will work things out. I personally think that in general, it's difficult to predict future, but I don't think there will be a multipolar world. It's never been like this. One of the poles is always in charge. China is going to be the pole. In this sense, it's logical for Russia to move towards China. In 2017…
- Just like with open China, yeah.
- We'll never be someone's satellite! We didn't become yours, America, and we won't become a Chinese one! It's you who wants everyone to be your satellite.
- Russia should use the rise of China to its advantage.
