Larry C Johnson: Hey George W. Bush, What’s So Damn Funny?

I think the following video is authentic and is not an AI-generated piece of propaganda. It features a joint press conference with Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush. As you will see, Vladimir Putin raised the issue of NATO during his first official meeting with George W. Bush on June 16, 2001, at the Slovenia Summit. During the joint press conference, which is shown below, Putin referenced a formerly classified Soviet proposal from 1954 to join the North Atlantic Treaty. He then read the response from the West… It was dismissed by NATO members as unrealistic.

The reaction of George W. Bush is shocking. He laughs as if Putin has told a joke. Instead of engaging Putin on the matter and charting a new course in Russia’s relations with the West, Bush ignored Putin’s proposal.

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Here’s the video:

https://www.bitchute.com/video/oz1Tx9ZRAVC6

Now look at the timeline of Putin’s views with respect to NATO:

It was in 2008 at the Bucharest Summit, which took place on April 2–4, that the rift between Russia and the West with respect to NATO expansion, particularly regarding Ukraine and Georgia, came to a head. During his speech at the Summit, Putin warned that NATO’s expansion toward Russia’s borders posed a “direct threat” to Russian security. He argued that the inclusion of former Soviet states, particularly Ukraine and Georgia, would undermine Russia’s strategic interests. During the NATO-Russia Council meeting on April 4, 2008, Putin stated that Moscow would view such moves as a provocation, potentially forcing Russia to take measures to protect itself. Was George W. Bush laughing then?

In his speech and discussions at the Summit, Putin highlighted the historical and cultural ties between Russia and Ukraine, and pointedly stated that Ukraine’s integration into NATO could destabilize the region. He notably remarked that “Ukraine is not even a real nation-state” and that a significant portion of its population (e.g., 17 million ethnic Russians out of 45 million) and territories (e.g., Crimea, with 90% Russian population) were historically Russian. He further warned that NATO membership could push Ukraine to the “verge of its existence” due to internal divisions. Regarding Georgia, he expressed concerns about its ethnic conflicts (e.g., Abkhazia, South Ossetia) and suggested that NATO membership would not resolve these issues but might escalate them under NATO’s aegis. Still, the West ignored him.

Putin reproached NATO for ignoring Russia’s legitimate security concerns, accusing the alliance of expecting Moscow to “simply look on” as it expanded. He emphasized that NATO could not ensure its security at the expense of others, referencing the US missile defense system in Europe (planned for Poland and the Czech Republic) as an example. He called for cooperation based on “equality and mutual trust” rather than unilateral expansion.

Rather than try to substantively address Russia’s concerns as voiced by President Putin, the West effectively told him to go pound sand.

This was not the first time that Putin tried to warn the US and the other NATO members about the danger of expanding NATO. The previous year, in February 2007 at the Munich Security Conference, Putin provided an even sterner warning. He explicitly condemned NATO’s eastward enlargement, describing it as a “serious provocation” that encroached on Russia’s sphere of influence. He argued that the alliance’s expansion into former Soviet states and Eastern European countries (e.g., the Baltic states, with potential moves toward Ukraine and Georgia) violated assurances given during the Cold War that NATO would not expand eastward. He stated, “The process of NATO expansion has nothing to do with the modernization of the alliance itself or with ensuring security in Europe. On the contrary, it is a serious factor provoking the reduction of mutual trust.”

Putin highlighted the deployment of NATO military infrastructure near Russia’s borders as a direct security concern. He pointed to the planned U.S. missile defense system in Eastern Europe (later installed in Poland and the Czech Republic) as an example, asserting that it upset the strategic balance and could be used against Russia. He remarked, “Plans to expand certain elements of the anti-missile defense system to Europe cannot but fail to cause concern in Russia… This work proceeds in an unilateral fashion, without the consent of the Russian Federation.” He suggested this could lead to a new arms race, undermining global stability.

Putin framed NATO’s actions as part of a broader US-led unipolar world order that marginalized Russia. He argued that this unipolarity, enforced through NATO, threatened the sovereignty of other nations, including Russia, by imposing Western values and military dominance. He stated, “What is a unipolar world? However one might embellish this term… it is a world in which there is one master, one sovereign… This is pernicious not only for all those within this system, but also for the sovereign itself because it destroys itself from within.”

Besides criticizing the unipolar approach, Putin also advocated for a multipolar world and a new security framework that respected Russia’s interests, implicitly rejecting NATO’s role as the sole guarantor of European security. He proposed that security should be based on mutual respect and international law, not military blocs, stating, “We are seeing a greater and greater disdain for the basic principles of international law… No one feels secure anymore because no one can feel that international law is like a stone wall that will protect them.”

The historical record clearly shows that it was the West, not Putin, who has provoked the current war in Ukraine. Russia’s demands, as expressed by President Putin in 2007 and 2008, were not unreasonable. I think it is important to understand these historical moments if you want to properly assess what Russia’s goals and objectives are now. Russia is now firmly committed to creating a mulitpolar international political, security and economic new world order. He is not just paying lip service to the concept… He is actively engaged as a political mid-wife helping give birth to something new. Does Donald Trump and his team understand that? I don’t think so.

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