We present fragments of Roger Waters' interview for Berliner Zeitung. The full text can be found at Berliner Zeitung (in German) or at Roger Waters (in English).
BZ: Mr Waters, you talk of the voice of reason, the deep union of all people. But erstwhile it comes to the war in Ukraine, you talk a lot about the mistakes of the US and the West, not about the war of Russia and Russian aggression. Why don't you protest what Russia has done? I know you supported Pussy Riot and another human rights organizations in Russia. Why aren't you attacking Putin?
Roger Waters: First of all, if you read my letter to Putin and my writings about the beginning of the war in February...
...you called him "gangster"...
...just like that. But possibly I changed my head a small over the past year. There is simply a podcast from Cyprus entitled “The Duran”. The hosts talk Russian and can read Putin's speeches in the original. Their comments on the subject make sense to me. The most crucial reason for the transportation of arms to Ukraine is surely the profit for the arms industry. And I wonder, is Putin a bigger gangster than Joe Biden and all those who ruled American politics since planet War II? I'm not so sure. Putin didn't invade Vietnam or Iraq? Is he?
The most crucial reason for arms supply is: supporting Ukraine, winning the war and stopping Russian aggression. I think you see it differently.
Yeah. possibly I shouldn't, but now I'm more open to proceeding what Putin truly says. According to the independent voices I perceive to, he rules cautiously, making decisions on a consensus basis in the government of the Russian Federation. There are besides critical intellectuals in Russia who have been arguing against American imperialism since the 1950s. And the central conviction was always: Ukraine is simply a red line. It must stay a neutral buffer state. If it doesn't stay that way, we don't know where it'll lead us. We inactive don't know, but it could end in planet War III.
Last February Putin decided to attack.
He started something he inactive calls "a peculiar military operation." He started it for reasons that, if I realize correctly, are the following: 1. We want to halt the possible genocide of the Russian-speaking Donbass population. 2. We want to fight Nazism in Ukraine. There is simply a teenage Ukrainian woman, Alina, with whom I exchanged long letters: “I hear. I realize your pain. She wrote me back, thanked me, but stressed: “I am certain of 200% that there are no Nazis in Ukraine.” I said again: “I’m sorry, Alina, but you’re incorrect about that. How can you live in Ukraine and not know?”
There is no evidence of genocide in Ukraine. At the same time, Putin repeatedly emphasized that he wanted to reconstruct Ukraine to his empire. Putin told erstwhile German Chancellor Angela Merkel that the saddest day in his life was 1989 erstwhile the russian Union broke up.
Is the word “origin” of the word “Ukraine” not a Russian word meaning “border”? For a long time she was part of Russia and the russian Union. It's a tough story. I think during planet War II a large part of the Western population Ukraine has decided to cooperate with the Nazis. They killed Jews, Roma, communists, and all the others the 3rd Reich wanted to kill. To this day, there is simply a conflict between western Ukraine (with or without Nazis Alina) and east Donbass) and confederate Ukraine (Crim) Ukraine and there are many Russian-speaking Ukrainians there due to the fact that it was part of Russia for hundreds of years. How can you solve specified a problem? Neither the government in Kiev can do this, nor the Russians' victory. Putin has always stressed that he is not curious in taking over western Ukraine – nor in invading Poland or any another country abroad. He says: he wants to defend the Russian-speaking population in those parts of Ukraine, where the Russian-speaking population feels threatened by utmost right-wing governments after the Maidan coup in Kiev. A coup d'état which is widely accepted as arranged by the United States.
We've talked to many Ukrainians who can prove otherwise. The United States could support the 2014 protests. But in general, reliable sources and eyewitness accounts propose that protests arose from within – by the will of the Ukrainian people.
I wonder what kind of Ukrainians you were talking to? I imagine any people say that. On the another hand, the vast majority of Ukrainians in Crimea and Donbasa spoke in referendums for returning to the Russian Federation.
In February, you were amazed that Putin attacked Ukraine. How can you be certain he won't go on? Your trust in Russia seems to have not been breached despite the bloody Russian assault war.
How do I know the U.S. won't hazard atomic war with China? They're already provoking Chinese interference in Taiwan. They'd like to destruct Russia first. Anyone with an IQ above area temperature understands it erstwhile they read the news, and the Americans admit it. ...
Wouldn't you boycott Russia?
I think it's counterproductive. You live in Europe: How much do the United States charge for gas supplies? 5 times what his citizens pay. In England people now say "eat or heat" – due to the fact that poorer groups of the population can barely afford to warm their homes. Western governments should realize that we are all brothers and sisters. During planet War II, they saw what was happening erstwhile they tried to declare war on Russia. They will unite and fight to the last ruble and last square metre of land in defence of their homeland. Just like anyone would. I think that if the U.S. convinces its own citizens, you and many another people that Russia is the real enemy, and Putin the fresh Hitler, it will be easier for them to bargain from the mediocre to give to the rich, as well as to start and advance further wars, specified as this replacement war in Ukraine. This may seem like an utmost political attitude to you, but possibly the communicative I read and the news I collect are just different from yours. You can't believe everything you see on tv or read in newspapers. All I am trying to accomplish through my fresh recordings, my statements and performances is that our brothers and sisters in power should halt the war – and that people should realize that our brothers and sisters in Russia do not live under repressive dictatorship, just as you do in Germany or me in the US. I mean, would we have decided to proceed the slaughter of young Ukrainians and Russians if we had the power to prevent it? All I am trying to accomplish through my fresh recordings, my statements and performances is that our brothers and sisters in power should halt the war – and that people should realize that our brothers and sisters in Russia do not live under repressive dictatorship, just as you do in Germany or me in the US. I mean, would we have decided to proceed the slaughter of young Ukrainians and Russians if we had the power to prevent it? All I am trying to accomplish through my fresh recordings, my statements and performances is that our brothers and sisters in power should halt the war – and that people should realize that our brothers and sisters in Russia do not live under repressive dictatorship, just as you do in Germany or me in the US. I mean, would we have decided to proceed the slaughter of young Ukrainians and Russians if we had the power to prevent it?
...
When concerts in Poland were cancelled due to your statements about the war in Ukraine, did you just feel misunderstood?
Yeah. It's a large step backwards. It's a symptom of rusophobia. People in Poland are of course equally susceptible to Western propaganda. I would like to tell them: you are brothers and sisters, tell your leaders to halt the war so that we can halt for a while and think, “What is the substance with this war?” The point is to make the rich in Western countries richer and the mediocre in the planet poorer. The other of Robin Hood. Jeff Bezos has a luck worth about $200 billion, while thousands of people in Washington live in cardboard boxes on the streets.
♪ red ♪
photo: wikimedia commons
