You probably think that Russia is a bad country and we are bad people. But there is a large number of people who share the same values as you do in Europe. When the military actions started, it felt crazy, it was hard to believe. We were just shocked.

Russia gathers all kinds of criminal gangs [in Russia]. They're given the nickname "opposition". They arm them heavily, pay them big money. Countless funds are spent on this. It's unthinkable to a normal person's imagination. Tanks, armored personnel carriers, planes, Grads, Smerches, Uragans. Their training happens outside the republic, on Russian territory, at special bases. Russian military specialists, Russian special services. Plus a few criminals of Chechen ethnicity – and they call this whole mixture "opposition". Opposition in the Russian way. In fact, Russism. Typical Russism. Worse than fascism, Nazism, racism, all individual-hating ideologies. Raised to the rank of Russian state policy. Russism is worse than fascism.
Throughout the history of Russia, it chooses the most helpless victim. To a complete physical destruction, and realistic intimidation of the world – saying: "here is how strong, powerful we are, what we can do, how insidious, evil, predatory."
Nagorno-Karabakh – isolated and completely destroyed. It's the training.
They went further: Abkhazia - isolated from the Caucasus, from Georgia. Destroyed all potential.
War with Georgia. Armenia with Azerbaijan – in fact [the conflict involves] Russian special services, Russian troops, Russian weapons, Russian equipment.
South Ossetia - isolated, destroyed. North Ossetia, Ingushetia – isolated.
And the physical destruction of entire nations. Violence, death, blood. Destruction of nation's potential.
The Russian leadership, throughout its history, when it got difficult, fled to sign agreements that it has never respected and will never respect, and does not think [of respecting]. As soon as it gets stronger, it starts again. It isolates the weakest and tortures them.
That's what Russia is – empire of evil. As it was, is, and remains. Its rapacity... greed, ruthlessness, lack of spirituality, immorality it has demonstrated in Chechnya. 250 000 armed forces. 5600 units of armored vehicles on the territory. An unheard number in history against [a handful of] mountain people. Against a territory for which you need a microscope to look for it on a map. They reassured the world community, they made a statement from the Russian President that there will be no forceful solution. There will be only a peaceful solution [they said]. And when on the New Year's Eve... on the New Year's Eve, they mixed sand, earth, sky, human blood and flesh. Mixed and made a bloody mess. And they are not going to move from this policy, they are not going to move from it. That's what Russia is.
If the world, I declare responsibly, if the whole world does not stop this plague, or do not – at least – make it follow rule of law (there will never be democracy, and never was) If – at least in legal terms – they do not comply with the norms of international law, the world will be subject to severe shock.

Few nations elicit such fatalism among American policymakers and analysts as Vladimir Putin’s Russia. For some, the country is an irredeemable pariah state, responsive only to harsh punishment and containment. Others see a wronged and resurgent great power that deserves more accommodation. Perspectives vary by the day, the issue, and the political party. Across the board, however, resignation has set in about the state of U.S.-Russian relations, and Americans have lost confidence in their own ability to change the game. But today’s Russia is neither monolithic nor immutable.

The demonization of Russia is, I believe, one of the most dangerous things that is happening in our world today. The scapegoating of Russia is an inexcusable game that the West is indulging in. It is time for political leaders and each individual to move us back from the brink of catastrophe to begin to build relationships with our Russian brothers and sisters. Too long has the elite financially gained from war while millions are moved into poverty and desperation.

I can say unequivocally from my discussions with many colleagues here in recent days, colleagues from around the globe, the revulsion at what the Russian Government is doing is palpable. There’s a greater determination than ever to stand with Ukraine, to shore up and revitalize the international order that Moscow is trying to upend, to bring to bear even greater costs on the Russian Government, to ensure that people are held accountable for their crimes.

Russia today is terribly sick... But even so, have a conscience and don’t demand that – just to please America – Russia throw away the last vestiges of her concern for her security and her unprecedented collapse. After all, this concern in no way threatens the United States....

Witness the tragic condition of Russia. The methods of State centralization have paralysed individual initiative and effort; the tyranny of the dictatorship has cowed the people into slavish submission and all but extinguished the fires of liberty; organized terrorism has depraved and brutalized the masses and stifled every idealistic aspiration; institutionalized murder has cheapened human life, and all sense of the dignity of man and the value of life has been eliminated; coercion at every step has made effort bitter, labour a punishment, has turned the whole of existence into a scheme of mutual deceit, and has revived the lowest and most brutal instincts of man. A sorry heritage to begin a new life of freedom and brotherhood.

Russia is mortally sick and therefore all evil is unchained, and the criminals have no one to check them. There is crime everywhere in the world, and the unfettered crime in Russia is so powerful that it stretches its hand to crime throughout the globe and there is a great mobilizing everywhere of wicked men. Once you boasted that law was international and that the police in one land worked with the police of all others. To-day that is true about criminals. After a war evil passions are loosed, and, since Russia is broken, in her they can make their headquarters...

/Q: Are there any particular characteristics of Russia’s society or its politics that you think Western media or politicians fail to grasp?/ A: I wouldn’t claim to have any special privileged perspective, but the thing that struck me about the tsarist regime that I think holds true for much of Russia today is actually the weakness of central government in administering the lives of its own population. Bureaucratic inefficiency, corruption and lack of resources frequently subvert the state’s own grand designs. So the appearance of authority and power is often just that, an appearance.

There are things in Russia which are not as they seem.

Russian leaders and regular citizens have felt increasingly insecure... They have a sense that Russia is under siege from without and has been robbed of its rightful status as a world power... Europeans at least have recourse at the ballot box; they can angrily vote in or out whoever they like. Russians do not enjoy the luxury of democracy. Russians do not enjoy the luxury of democracy... The U.S. is many times more powerful and influential than Russia.

In general, Russia suffers from a frightening poverty in the sphere of facts and a frightening wealth of all types of arguments.

I don’t think the Russian people are aware that such things are happening. So I urge the Russian people and the Russian soldiers in Ukraine to understand the propaganda and the disinformation that you are being told. I ask you to help me spread the truth so that your fellow Russians will know the human catastrophe that is happening in Ukraine. To President Putin, I say: You started this war. You’re leading this war. You can stop this war now. And to the Russians who have been protesting on the streets against the invasion of Ukraine: the world has seen your bravery. We know that you have suffered the consequences of your courage. You have been arrested. You have been jailed and you’ve been beaten. You are my new heroes. You have the strength of Yury Petrovich Vlasov. You have the true heart of Russia.

This world is a pretty good place under normal conditions, but anyone who’s read Russian history knows what a bad place it can be.