hello and journalist, an activist from canada, dimensions. good to see you. thank you very much for coming over. thank you so much for having me. now, i know you've been here in russia for slightly less than a month. can i ask for a rough estimate of how many russian hands here have taken a over a 100 a from across the span of generations and political orientations. and, and it's been a fascinating and i would say, surprising experience. now i know that you are a successful hoyer from canada. you made a name for yourself in the corporate world and that you know it and said, rather counter intuitive that a person of your professional path was spend time and money and but his own reputation, both professional and personnel on the line in order to come to this country, the military defeat of which is still the state policy goal of your government. my

. well, although yes it's true. my background is in securities law. i started on wall street and then became a curious class actions were that has little to do with my origin as a human being. i am the child of 2 greek immigrants, neither of whom had a high school education, who came from greece in the aftermath of the 2nd world war and the civil war in greece in the 1950s. so i have very humble origins and i have never forgotten that by the time i had practiced law for 25 years, i was economically secure. and i felt enormously grateful for that fact. and i had to think hard about how i could compensate or give back for my extraordinary good fortune. and so i became an activist, a journalist, i don't do that as a living. it's more passion. and when this war erupted, and i became absolutely convinced that this was the most, and i hope i'm wrong, that this is the most dangerous. i think humanity is ever confronted,

not just because of the war, but because of the context in which this is happening, climate crisis and so forth. i asked myself, how can i contribute? how can i do something, anything to try to diffuse the tension. and so i came to russia. now as far as i understand, this is your 1st time you just can train, you've been not only to moscow, but also to crimea in which the canadian government does not recognize as, as part of russia. and before asking about your impressions, i want to ask as a lawyer, do you think you will face in your legal repercussions for traveling to that? well, i shouldn't. as a lawyer, there's, have you checked? yes, of course. yes. i've, i've done nothing that, no, that anybody could plausibly claim to be a violation of canadian law. nonetheless, the authorities don't often don't always act in accordance with the law. so there's,

there's some possibility and i hope that this doesn't materialize, that people in positions of power will try to exploit to that position in order to intimidate me and make an example out of me and prevent others from following in my footsteps. i don't think that's gonna happen, but it's not, and it's not a possibility i exclude because i'm realistic about how the political system operates in our country. and even if the government doesn't have a case against you, i mean canada is home to a very large ukrainian diaspora and some of whom are direct descendants and die hard apologists of fine very radical ukrainian nationalists and nap say, collaborators. i wonder if it's safe to do something like that at a time when people have actually been not only intimidated by but assassinated because of standing against the ukranian authorities are you know,

western authorities who support them well in canada that it's true that there is a very large or ukrainian cane and community, i know some people in that community who are committed to peace and who are, who do not identify it all with the establishment of that community. but it's true that as a whole, and particularly at the elite level of that community, i'm talking particularly about ukrainian, creating congress. they are quite right wing and create quite militaristic interview. up until now, this is not not been to my knowledge, any acts of violence against people who have opposed what i regard as a proxy war. but what i'm more concerned about his reputational assassination, and not from ukrainians, but from the mainstream media and the political class. as a matter of fact, on monday of this week, the flagship newspaper of canada's largest newspaper publisher, newspapers called the national post, published a front page story about me, basically smearing me and accusing me of having come to rush in order to whitewash the crimes of its government and fortunately because of my painful experience with

the media in the past, i recorded the entire conversation and posted it on my my website and invited people to decide for themselves whether or not that's what i have to say. you're saying it makes sense to pursue them, not only in the, in the course of public opinion, but actually see you down for saying what they said about. i've actually had occasion to do that because of criticism that i leveled against supporters of israel in our country. i was accused of being a supporter of terrorism in 2017, by a very, very strident pro israel group. and i sued them for defamation, and ultimately the case settled and retracted their statements and paid some compensation. but i also know as a, somebody has experience with defamation law that the candidates it's, it's a difficult path to recover compensation and information action. and i don't understand why the government is tried to strike a balance between free speech and protecting reputations. so i am very, very hesitant about using the course of law to protect my reputation. i'd rather do

that by means of debate. now i'm returning to the means of debate. how was crimea? what did you expect to find there? and what did you find there in actuality? well, 1st of all, i didn't know that that the crimea was so beautiful. it reminded me very much of the south of greece, where i now have a home in coloma, contend any connections or i didn't know that either. and i visited the community or the ruins of giovanni, so send us a vessel so. so the beauty of it was a surprise to me, the fact that the war was now, i spent a fair bit of time at the altar. i didn't really see any overt signs of the war they're out there but, but at the same time you could tell that people were somber and that it wasn't at all the festive environment. i think people obviously are very conscious of the war when i would just have us to pull, there was actually an attack. i don't, i don't know exactly what happened, but the air defense systems were activated. and then i went to the north of the of crimea to the border of cason and visited refugee center. and there the,

i felt the proximity of the war much more. there was military equipment everywhere . a high schooler state of alert security and the refugee center workers that i spoke to, didn't want their faces to be exposed to the camera. so there, you know, i felt as i say, that the proximity of war more. but i never got closer than 50 kilometers to the front line and having see what i've seen, i can't imagine how difficult it is to actually live in close proximity to from line up. so okay, and i'm sure it's, i even more difficult for, for the people on the other side, a in ukraine or especially in keith and those areas where there's worse sale going on. now i do ukrainian government definition of victory still includes taking crimea. i understand you are not the military specialist, but having been there, do you think that's a realistic expectation? either in strategic terms or in terms of heart in mind because i'm sure you've

spoken to people. yes. yes, i don't think it's remotely realistic and either set. i did not speak to as a single individual there who expressed a desire to see crimea reunited with ukraine. i spoke to many people who were passionately opposed to that idea and declared their determination to offered themselves up in resistance if that were actually attempted in terms of the military aladin list. but i learned as i approached the border with cad, saw that the only let the only connection between from a land perspective between crimea and for a song or 2 very narrow political peninsulas. and we travel through one of them. and there were several lines of defense, anti tank obstacles, extensive trench works. they were wide open, there was no tree cover at all. there were 2 large bodies of water on either side. and it was apparent to me as a lay person, but any attempt to enter the peninsula through his 2 narrow quarters of land would

be disastrous. i think it's, you know, i don't need to rely only upon my own judgment as lee person american military officials have begun to acknowledge openly that this is a pipe dream and i think that it would be suicidal both from a political perspective and moreover, from a military perspective for the crate, the crane in government to attempt to retake from here. why do you think the ukrainian government gsa continuing to press that pipe idea by to think they need? well, i think i spoke to a gentleman that his name was said to go to batch off who, who i understand no relation to the child or the former presence of it. you know, he is a journalist now a military corresponded. i met him in sebastopol and he said, you know, to well understood that he who controls sir crimea controls of lexi. so i met gin, you know that this is a matter of strategic importance to the ukranian government. there's obviously a tremendous utility that there is a huge elephant in the room here. and this is the more and that i'm sure i agree

with the assessment of your see because that, that issue, that strategic issue was and 14 and the ukranian authorities started talked to how do you understand the genesis of this whole conflict? the way when does that, there have been attempts by the west, although they were unsuccessful and very cover to the relationship between ukraine and the rush. i think it was all the way back to who the really funding and supporting and trying to invigorate pivotal event was the overthrow of general coverage for flaws may have been and he was certainly not a perfect leader. photo also has some very questionable governance scale to elected in his support became as i understand principally from the so 1st to him as a puppet to the putin government. i think he was simply doing orders wanted when he was overthrown effectively. what happened was the vote just re cascaded into one tragedy after another comment. can i ask you something? because you mentioned the early 19th nationalism and the soviet union. and at that

time, the canadian authorities, as well as me. and that's a collaborators ukrainian nationalist and happening because having traveled to the united states having been different, why do you think it's easier for the west then? and it's people because, i mean, we have our flaws, but we're not. we're all human beings in the my interaction with russians has convincing that they're very decent people. and if you get to know them the very warm in, ching, thousands of canadians over her with me in order to enable them to interact it to, in our countries, to distinguish between people, to people, relations and don't represent as you've implied yourself, i think so that only 32 percent of the population support the transfer of every single member of parliament as far as i know, some transfer of weapons to ukraine. so, oh, what is happening at the elite or in policy to washington? and washington's agenda is one of global. they're not even a subtle about this,

you know, they, they will not a country that is both potentially powerful rival and also distance. and then he's a china be ourselves. i mean, yeah, he, we, we don't to land as we please, dmitri, because it's my students. we have been in stadium. ah, i think between this year and the next year, i think ukraine will continue to said, there is no magic one moment when russia collapses. and i'm like say watch my, your show that seriously. why watch something that so did you have the state farm at the c, i a weapons makers, multi 1000000000 dollar change and whatever you do, don't watch my show, stay mainstream direct impact. but again, you probably don't wanna watch it because it might just change the me, her progress, lawyer, journalist and activists from canada,

demetria just before the public support army ukraine. and it's, you can argue that it's, you know, people, people's opinions change depending on where they're narratives. and i want to quote candidates a year ago when this conflict was in its opening stage, the russian tyrant and his armies are entirely one question the canadian society. because if miss freeland wants to, you know, put in more than just wars, the cold, the costume war. i don't think the government just by what said in the west, i don't think the government d, as is the policy of every nuclear powers. if existentially sending weapons to my country and those weapons are being used tactics a lot, they were, they have been several terrorist attacks and crime us is supporting terrorists. absolutely. and you know, ultimately going to end up in the hands of criminal organizations. just a last, we were turned from ukraine with prohibited weapons in france. and i think it's quite clear from the, there was an excellent article by james goldman to the west and they are to russia

. so you also have, i think there's a range of ways in which this war will ultimately d, stabilize the other prominent american political voices. richard recently published an article in foreign policy calling for the united states. you define the, the goals of this campaign. now you've done that and, and in that now, as if they do that for electoral going to do, do you think they will continue sticking for when you crank it up a tight if the american stopped supporting this travesty, i think. but i think that the canadian government understands perfectly well that the only way this war can be said it will become a bit player and will be forced to withdraw the citizens. citizen diplomacy can play a role, especially grows and especially between canada and russia and eighty's when athletes or are to rush and vice versa. and i remember them back in the time the west. why do you think there is so much a position to it now?

because as a rush work there. so why do you think the western authorities unlimited, for example? well, because interaction results in, you realize what in fact is going on. it's very easy and to misrepresent what's going on there because they don't and, and so they lie relentlessly of hope. it's, it's, it's actually to their poll. where's 32 percent? what one imagines how low the number would be if people were our relationships with direct people to people, relationships and or, you know, when, when the immediately band ortiz, an act of defiance. because i cannot object strongly enough to the idea. are government funded, even if they have a pro government perspective, so do aren't the hundreds i approve of that, but i understand why they would so because we do i express often the position of the russian government, you know, news and opinions and we try to be transparent, but if the con russian culture, i mean, i think that something dan,

defies any critical read racism to be perfectly blunt about it. i saw a report yesterday, the russian tennis i to a tournament on polish airlines simply because she was russian, represent the narrative of the west about the legality of this war. why virtue for nationality, it's a, it's an effort to demonize all things right. is this robert fuller, who traveled out frequently to this of something that sort of a form of personal response had been well then that he applied it not only to the soviet union, but on the goals or ambitions, or wishes to trouts as well? have you been to iran? have you been to syria? i know i visit within the next to one to 2 years. every official enemy of the west, the ledges that the genocide is occurring, there are wants to go to iran within the next year or 2. so that one's a, that, that, that initiative has been taken care of, but the honestly able to undertake, i'm very fortunate to do that to try to open the eyes of the west to the will follow you on social media or in writing. so there are people who are extraordinarily supportive people who've come from people who would normally be my

political opponents of for then you have people who are sort of what they don't know what to make of it and they want to have. and then there are people who are just as i say, engaging and open records, difficult part of this whole thing. now one of prominent versus conflict that, or at least one of the reasons where they say the west see social progress in very different terms. for on a liberties and some abstract ideas. and that's perhaps a concert for russia, for china, for venezuela, for many of this country's, it's giving people our basic social services and ensuring that there is any truth to that as far as you are concerned. and of the sam judge code limit behind as judge a mental frameworks of house and for, for the country and the people and see how, how far they huston, exceptionalism is so indoctrinated into the population of the same importance to material been sits in well being as they do equal here, i don't really,

they're not avid. ah, well worth it are among the russian people has quite impressed me. i drew up in the greek orthodox church. commitment to orthodoxy is a little bit unusual for me. and i said that's made a big prim moscow now is how high school teacher and she, he actually did a ph. d had ox recounted to me what the russian people went through with the collapse of the soviet union. the nicest ability that has in the cohesion level of social cohesion that has the russians that matters a great deal more than profits agree, and that's made it be difficult for you to comprehend. but we just have a different and we is the western. this is why say, i think personal interact to surly, agree with the western narrative about their country. they would understand we have to live in there, but it's been a fascinating conversation. thanks so much for that. then delta sir, again unable to part. mm hm. ah

ah no strong sanctions to day russia is the country with the figure features look when was the cosigner as he's been all in ports of russian oil and gas duty nike of her schoolwork, a griffith had sent us into the letter. come russia, you has destroyed the american economy so there's you ah, for all things are considered on i'm peter lavelle, you k defense.