"Cooling of the West support of Ukraine" – Jack Matlock, U.S. Ambassador to the USSR

Today's interview is with former U.S. Ambassador to the USSR, Jack Matlock. He wrote several books about the Soviet regime and predicted the collapse of the Soviet Union.
00:00 Jack Foust Matlock Jr. is an American former ambassador, a teacher, a historian, and a linguist. He was a specialist in Soviet affairs during some of the most tumultuous years of the Cold War and served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1987 to 1991.
01:40 Can the war in Ukraine be seen as a continuation of the collapse of the USSR? The collapse of the Soviet Union did not happen under Western pressure or as a result of the Cold War. The policy of the U.S. and NATO countries was to help Gorbachev maintain a voluntary union. The Baltic states were to keep their independence, they were not part of the Soviet Union, but the other republics were part of the USSR. The idea that the Cold War ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union is wrong. The notion that the Cold War somehow made Russia a defeated country is wrong. That collapse was unprecedented in its lack of attempt to make sense of the conditions of what was going on then.
06:24 What President Putin has done is aggression. It is illegal. He is a war criminal. So was George W. Bush, Jr. who attacked Iraq. Ukraine inherited borders within which there were two very different understandings of what it means to be Ukrainian. In the West, being Ukrainian in general meant accepting Ukrainian as the only language. Yet Eastern Ukraine was mostly Russian-speaking in the cities and Ukrainian-speaking in the countryside. If this were happening in an area close to the United States, we would react as well. But that doesn't mean that what he did is a good thing. It doesn't even mean it's in Russia's interest.
10:32 Henry Kissinger said at Davos that Ukraine should sacrifice some of its territory to achieve peace. Ukraine has gained the borders that the communists actually created. Going back to 2014, it was an attempted coup. We, the people on the outside, were actually bombarded with propaganda and distortions from both sides.
13:37 President Zelensky: When he ran for president, his main promise was to achieve peace. But when an attempt was made to abide by the Minsk agreements, he abandoned it. I do not believe that any Russian government would have been able to accept NATO's expansion into Ukraine and Georgia. This war could have been prevented.
16:04 In the 2000s, the U.S. treated Russia as a defeated country rather than promoting its integration into Europe. But Ukraine did not and does not have the right to EU membership. But I can understand that people came out to demonstrate, they wanted something different. But the idea that just joining the EU and NATO would solve all their problems was a wrong idea.
18:04 We must do everything we can to stop the war. We must make it clear that we have to find diplomatic ways. This does not necessarily mean that Ukraine should admit that yes, Crimea is part of Russia. Some of these decisions could be postponed for the time being. For Russia, the main condition is that they want to retain control of the naval base in Sevastopol. I'm not sure Russia wants Donbass in Russia itself, but they also don't want NATO bases there.
25:37 Will Ukrainian society agree to such a peace when a huge part of the country will be lost? Let's face it: Europe and the United States will simply get tired of constantly pouring assistance. There will be a certain chill on the part of the West in terms of support for Ukraine. I think it is almost impossible to create a prosperous and truly independent Ukrainian state in all respects - within the borders that Stalin and Khrushchev created for Ukraine... unless there is a strong desire for a federal constitution. Ukraine can never be a prosperous country unless it has sufficiently friendly relations with Russia.
33:16 What would Reagan do if he were president of the United States right now? Reagan and Bush never insulted Soviet leaders. He criticized communism and the Soviet system, but never publicly crossed the line. Indeed, when he met with Gromyko and then Gorbachev, his first words were usually, "We hold the key to peace, and we must act responsibly.
50:21 A look at Russia's future today. Is there a real risk that the country will disintegrate? Russia must understand that its strength is not in its military dominance over the rest, it has many strengths. In the long term, Russia will continue to play an extremely important role in the world and humanity. It is a strong and rich civilization. New opportunities for Russia to become even more of a part of the rest of the world. The idea that Russia is a completely autonomous civilization to be defeated is absolutely wrong.

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