APOCALYPTIC BLINDNESS - Patrik Baab on the rise of European militarism

We're with Patrick Bob, the German journalist. We met with him last year in Berlin and we're back and we want to ask him how the situation in Germany has changed in that year and it's probably not for the better. Patrick, thanks for being with us. >> Oh, you're very welcome. Always great to to have you here. Okay. So, let me ask you, we spoke last year about the situation in Germany by repression by the government against free speech, particularly on the Palestinian issue or on Russia. Um, just the other day I tried to get on the website of the Strategic Culture Foundation and I found out that you cannot access the Strategic Culture Foundation in Germany. I had to to use a VPN to go back to the USA where they let you, believe it or not. So, clearly they treat their citizens in Germany as children. They cannot let you read what you want and make up your own mind. They have to protect you from ideas. What is going on here? >> There is no freedom of speech in Germany anymore. Let me start with my own situation. I'm a journalist. I'm writing books and I'm organizing a YouTube channel mainstream upward against the stream gig with dissident positions. But Germany today is a country under a dome of censorship. So many Russian publications are forbidden. You cannot receive them. The digital services act of the European Union means that the platforms, the digital companies have to cut out so-called disinformation. But what is disinformation? It is all against the policy of the EU and a lot of American companies are in the focus of the EU and they have if they don't cut this information in the sense of the EU they have to pay billions of euros and my personal situation is at every sanctions package of the EU my lawyers else are checking out if I am set on the list and that means my bank accounts will be frozen. I cannot travel anymore. I cannot get money. I have to live from nothing. I cannot earn money by my publishers of my books. So it is worse than an imprisonment and these sanctions are extra legal. It's just volunteerism. And in such a situation, if I would find my name on the list, I prepared to flee the country overnight and to leave the European Union to another country. [clears throat] And I also cannot go to Russia because Russian secret services and Russian Russian military detained me several times because of my reporting. of my covering of problems in the Russian Federation. So there >> such as which problem? >> Well, I made films on militant right extremists in Russia. I made a report on illegal oil shipping from Russia to other ports. I made a film on passport smuggling and on my YouTube channel you may find an interview with a mine a Russian mine victim, a young soldier who saw a mine exploding just in front of his face and now he's blind. And well, the government doesn't find it a good thing. >> It's very clear because I'm showing the victims of these wars. >> But but you are afraid of being a victim of your own government. Now, how many people has this already happened? How many journalists or other citizens, you know, more or less has this happened to already where their bank accounts have been frozen, where they cannot earn money because of what they've written or spoken? As far as I know, currently more than 50 persons inside and outside of the EU. Also, Switzerland, Switzerland as well is following the sanctions policy. You see it with uh at the example uh for example Jacu a former Swiss colonel who served his countries in conflict regions for decades and now the Swiss government let him down and well he's living in Brussels and the neighbors have to bring him pulled and he cannot afford living over there because he's under sanctions. And the reason are his books and his analysis is completely different from the propaganda of the western war mongers as my analysis is as well. And we have in Russia Thomas Rupa and Alina Lip. And in Switzerland Natali Yamp. So in effect we see a lot of people under sanctions. Um we have more and more people. So there is no freedom of speech and the organizer of the censorship in the background is NATO because NATO declared at the William summit in 2023 that we have to find as NATO this information and we have as NATO to cooperate with the Europe. European Union in fighting disinformation. That means the find against so-called disinformation is part of NATO's cognitive warfare against the population of the EU countries and the European Union agreed to find this information. So that means the European Union and Brussels is nothing else as a transmission belt of NATO. And this is part of warfare. They want to implement censorship, a complete censorship in the European Union to prepare the population for a upcoming war against Russia. Those people want war and they want war in the next years >> and they must have the population on side afraid of Russia and silent about this. >> Yeah. They mobilize fear. They mobilize, they are mobilizing russophobia and this is a sort of racism in my mind and they want to press millions of Western European people into a war against Russia because the United States want to Europeanize the war in Ukraine and they want to go they want to focus on its fight against China. So the European vessels have to take over the job and they invested so many money in the Ukraine war more than€1 trillion. They made so many debts that these debts cannot be paid back in peace times. They need war. This is the only option Western European elites have. >> Will they ever be able to pay back these loans even with war? >> It's impossible. >> And in war so everything will be destroyed and debts are you can forget the debts. >> Yeah. And so normal people has to rebuild the country if there is still a country >> because the Russian Federation made very clear, Putin made very clear that a great European war will end up in a nuclear war. But especially the German population, people in Germany are in a state of apocalyptic blindness. They could see what's coming up, but they don't want to see. They want to sleep into the abyss. Why is Germany, NATO, and the United States are motivated to this to go to war against Russia? Is it to overthrow Putin to replace him with a puppet like Yelson to control the finance and the economy and the resources of Russia? Is that behind this? Is there a special German feeling of revenge uh for having lost the war to Russia? What are the motives behind this drive in Europe in general, but particularly in Germany? The motives for the upcoming war against Russia lie in the financial system. For example, as the head of the Netherland, the Dutch government, Maru signed contracts with the Ukrainian government and with the company Shell in the zero years for the exploration of the gas fields in eastern Ukraine. and they invested billions of dollars, huge contracts. But now these regions are in the hands of the Russian Federation and there is no return of investment. So the investments are going mad and they need new collateral for mad loans. You know what I mean? >> No. What do you mean by a mad loan? >> Um foul credit. >> Bad credit. False credit >> for bad credits. Yeah. >> They need new collateral. Mhm. >> for bad credits. And this collateral >> the credit hand >> is the Russian gas fields, the Russian oil, the Russian minerals, rare earth and all that. So first they want to occupy and to win Ukraine and then they want to break up Russia to make the financial system going. And that's the reason and they are deeply involved and so the banks are facing a new great banking crisis. If they cannot get new collateral for their loans for older loans they need a return of investment and they cannot get this return of investment in peace times. They speculated on Ukrainian minerals, but they don't have it because it's occupied by the Russian Federation. [gasps] And they speculate to occupy Russia to get to take their hands on the Russian minerals. That's the background. Human lives doesn't matter. if they're worried about recouping investment in East Ukraine, Dumbbas now part of the Russian Federation, why did NATO and particularly Joe Biden and the US administration so provoke Russia to this invasion? And this goes back of course many many years to the end of the Cold War, the promise not to expand NATO and then in 2009, Russia asked for a new architecture in Europe. It was ignored. Bill Clinton uh denied Putin's request to join NATO. There were all these opportunities to have a peaceful transition after the Cold War, but the American mentality and the Europeans was we won the Cold War and we're going to take over as much as we can of Russian resources and and and we're going to control the politics and they did for the '90s and they impoverished the Russian people. Putin came along and has restored dignity and sovereignty. This is what they hate. So why would they provoke this invasion? I believe they had to have Russia to invade in order to start the war against Russia. the information war, the economic war, the sanctions, and then of course the ground proxy war, which they're losing all three. But why would they do that if if a company like you say Shell is going to lose all these investments? Why would they want Russia to invade Ukraine? >> They really thought they can win a war against Russia. They really thought and the strategy can be read in the papers of the Rand Corporation. For example, one paper of the year 2019, unbalancing Russia, and the strategy is very clear. The Rand Corporation proposed to make the American economy stronger by making the German and the EU economy weaker. And the the way of making European economy weaker is to cut them from the Russian energy from the cheap Russian energy. And the way to keep western to cut Western Europe from the Russian energy and to split up the Russian Western European gas and economic partnership is to press Western Europe and especially Germany into a war in Ukraine. And the war in the Ukraine is just a transmission belt to destroy Europe economically in favor of the United States. And European countries are run by yeah just vessels. There was an elite capture in Europe by the United States. We are run, European countries are run by of Washington and that's the problem. Completely corrupted elites >> who don't care about destroying their own countries for their own career. Is that the reason? >> For a good word of those in Washington, they are ready to destroy their own country >> and the people don't run them out. uh overthrow them through election, through riots, through any means possible. They're not aware what their government leaders are doing. >> They don't want to be aware. The leaders managed to bring the population into a state of a big sleep. They could see what's happening, but people don't want to see. It's a kind of apocalyptic blindness. >> Yeah. >> Maybe we need new blues concerts in that church. >> Absolutely. >> To raise the awareness now. >> Yes. >> We need a new dissident movement in Western Europe. We have to bring our protest into the streets. The only way is to stand up to these leaders. It's the only way. And as you say, they've increased the censorship, the pressure, the sanctions on individuals who are just speaking things they don't want spoken. >> Absolutely. >> Very often the truth about >> Yes. >> But what you're telling me here right now, they wouldn't be pleased with what you're saying. >> And that's why you think you can wind up on the sanctions list. >> I'm in the focus of those guys. Very clear. >> And I'm living in a state. Well, I'm living as a refugee in exile in my own country. That's the situation. I'm living on packed suitcases to leave the country overnight anywhere. Are foreign journalists based here are subject to the same repression or they would just would they uh deport them? If I lived here in Berlin and I continue publishing conservative news, which is highly critical of NATO policy, very supportive of the Palestinians and critical of Israel, what would happen? >> Possibly your citizenship. You have the United States citizenship uh could help a bit. >> Yeah. >> Uh they are afraid of the American government. So, so it's a bit easier I think. But if you are German, an Italian, if you have an Italian passport and well and a British passport as well, it is not EU, right? >> But Professor Richard Zaka Yes. >> of the University of Kent. >> Mhm. >> Was prosecuted under the anti-terror law under the anti-terror act. It's incredible. Those man cannot shoot a gun. He never a gun. Oh, >> it's just for thinking in the wrong way, for thinking in a dissident way from the perspective of the elites in Europe. >> Of course, you're aware of the Palestine action. Anyone who supports them is being arrested. It's a pro-former arrest back on the street, but it's insanity to be arresting people in their 80s, even older, in wheelchair, being arrested because they're holding as high. >> So, this is a Europeanwide thing. Is it mostly Britain and Germany or other European like Spain for for instance is not doing this are they? >> So I think Germany as well is the mecca of censorship. We have overall more than 300 organizations, state departments, academic institutes, so-called non-government organizations financed by the government to press censorship into the society. and we have more than 400 ways of financing those so-called non-government organizations in Germany. So, um the hot spot of censorship in the European Union is Germany. Back to the motives for war. So there was a belief amongst the leadership of NATO and the US that it would be a short-term pain but that ultimately they would prevail over Germany. And uh you said to me earlier before we began recording that there are German elites who some of them harbor feelings of wanting to take revenge against Russia for having lost in the Second World War. find quite astounding to be honest with you that 80 years later there would still be a feeling of having to take revenge against then Soviet Union today Russia. >> Well there is a tradition in families of the German elite that they never accepted the surrender of Stalingrad and they always thought how bring how to bring Russia on its knees. Well, can you explain me why Mr. Mertz is talking about making Germany the strongest conventional military power in Europe? It's completely crazy. What should somebody in Paris, in London, in Volo think about that? They had their own experiences with a strong Germany. So that shows the state of mind of those elites. They never accepted the surrender of Stalingrad and they w want to win a war against Russia and they really think a unified Western Europe at the side of the United States can win a war against Russia and China. They think they can do that because they have no idea of the power of those countries. And this is just a mirror of the great worldwide third war of the uniolar world under the leadership of the United States with its European vessels against those powers who prefer multipolar world led by Moscow and Beijing. And that's the that's the fight. And you can see that at the example of Iran. And this example Iran and the Iran war shows that the powers of the multipolar world like Iran are strong enough to go into a fight with the United States. And you see the United States cannot win. They cannot win this war because Iran, China and the Russian Federation are working together. And so the economic power is shifting away from Europe to Russia, China and Southeast Asia. And the West has not the economic power anymore to win this war against the multipolar world. It's impossible. But they can lead the whole world into a nuclear amadon. That's possible >> because they won't accept that what you just said. >> Absolutely. >> Do they know it? They must have analysts inside their governments, inside their think tanks. Some of them must be courageous enough to be telling them and they're being ignored, being shut down. Do you know any examples? >> Our former minister for economic affairs, Robert Harbeck, who is now out of office from the Green Party, um prosecuted the warers inside the ministry with secret services. So everybody who wants to make a career in the government keeps his mouth shut. When you talked about um there are elites in Germany who don't accept the defeat at Stalingrad and want revenge for that loss, I couldn't help but think of a certain movement in Germany that could not accept the first world war loss and the treaty. Yes. >> That ended that war and how they needed to get revenge against. >> Yes. This seems to be some similarity. You know, I think you know what I'm talking about. >> But this is the level of consciousness and the level of propaganda. We have another level and this is the the level of the banking, the financial system and economic warfare. And this is much more important. So they have no other opportunity as war. They must go into this war or the whole financial system will be breaking down. >> But they do have an alternative. they'll never accept which is to restore good relations with Russia to restore the pipelines to return to an ostit lots of people including Putin I think there was that euphoria after the cold war from Lisbon to Vladivosto that there would be that's gone >> absolutely Right? That's gone with the elites we have because those elites who led us into this war in Ukraine [music] and into this financial disaster must accept would have be would have to accept that they made a mistake and then they are away and the next generation will come and they don't want to be kicked out of office. So they think they could win this war, but in the face of four years now of not winning this war in Ukraine, they've lost a good chunk of Ukrainian territory to well and they will not accept this. The the sanctions have uh against Russia have hurt Germany probably more than even Russia. Uh they are now firing their missiles, their longrange missiles into Russia using Ukrainian territory to do it. So to try to pretend as if it's Ukraine that's doing, but it's obviously a NATO war against Russia right now. And the Russians know this and Putin's been speaking about this. And there are forces inside Russia, hardline forces who want him to take action against German facilities and British who are making these drones and these missiles that are being used against them. Are they aware here in the German leadership, the government that this is a risk? How or are they inviting that? Do they want do they want Russia to strike a NATO country to give the causes belli to go to war with Russia? >> Yes, absolutely. This is my point of view. They are trying to provoke the Russian Federation more and more. Putin is very careful, but you can see other forces in the Russian elite who want to strike back. And so Western European elites are seeking such a provocation of the Russian Federation that the Russian Federation will send missiles to for example German factories and then they can say now we need a war because they need war to stabilize their own financial system. They need war. Human lives doesn't matter. It's just war. War is the only way out for those elites. >> This is not 1939. There are nuclear weapons now. This is Is this being ignored by >> ignored? >> It's being ignored. >> They think the last American plane will bring them out to Washington. [laughter] >> But climbing off the roof of the building. Well, [laughter] the bosses, their bosses in Washington, they piss on those guys. [laughter] >> They don't understand that, do they? >> They don't understand. No. >> Like Kissinger said, to be an enemy of uh of United States is is something bad. But to be a friend is to be is faithful. Yes. >> Yes. Yeah. That is right. And they don't believe that. They are just in a mental dependence of their bosses in Washington and in the United States and they are part of a of an international elite who is not linked to their own countries anymore. They are linked to their own friends of America. They are meeting the same guys always the same guys on uh golf areas >> in well luxury hotels. This is like a mirror cabinet. It's far away from the perspective of normal people. there is the personality of the American president right now that has caused constonnation uh in every country that has to deal with him. So this long-standing vassal relationship between West Germany now Germany, United States long-standing are they trying to wait out Trump thinking we got to put up with this guy? Uh or could it have been a positive that Europe would be would become more independent from the United States that that vassal relationship would end because of Trump? It doesn't seem to. >> No, absolutely not. Um, so I think from the perspective of the military industrial complex of the United States, Mr. Trump is doing a great job. >> He's speaking silly things all the time. You absolutely cannot trust him. But he tries to break up all logistic energy ways worldwide. It is an energy war, a war of minerals. He wants to cut out China, especially China from its u mineral uh and natural resources sources. He want to encircle Russia and this is the the strategy to grab to have America's hands on the energy resources worldwide to have new collateral for the financial system. That's the point. Why did he go to Anchorage? Why? Where Biden's people would not meet the Russians at all. Would never speak with them. Why did he go there and go through this pretense that there was good chance to have a deal and to end the war and then on terms Russia may have been able to accept actually? >> Well, uh, Anchorage was an idea of Mr. Trump. Putin accepted and Mr. Trump made proposals. Russia could take at least two oblasts in eastern Ukraine and he offered a partnership in exploring in ex in the exploration of the Arctic region. This was the the deal and Putin accepted. The reason for Putin to accept that was from my point of view he needs foreign investments in his own country. It's a huge country. Um, connectivity is a big problem in Russia. He has to modernize the economy and he needs money, foreign money. This was the idea behind. But in the end of the show in Anchorage, the American president refused to accept his own ideas because he was under pressure of the digital and military industrial complex to continue the war. That's the background. And he had no partners in Europe. The European leaders want to continue the war and he didn't find partners in Kiev because the survival of the neonazi regime in Kiev depends on the continuation of the war. It is a it is a minority of Galesian right extremists who is in power in Kiev. They have no majority in his own population, his own people. And Zilinski is a captive of these. He's not really a frontman. >> He's an actor. Nothing else. He's just a frontman. >> And the new defense minister is a criminal who drove a tank in Maropole in May 2014 into demonstrators. I didn't know that. >> So, he's a criminal and he's a right-winger. He said loudly and publicly, "Russia has no right to exist." And this is just an idea of Adolf Hitler. >> Russia has no right to exist. So he's a complete nazy and we are cooperating with militant nazis in Ukraine. That's the point. >> And I think some of them in the Middle East, too. Uh let's look at Al Galani, the head of Syria, who was al-Qaeda operative. He was the head of Syrian [clears throat] uh al-Qaeda and the Americans and the Europeans and the Gulf Arabs worked with this guy. Now he's in charge. That's what they wanted and they won in the end. That seemed like a lost cause as well for the West and in the end Syria won. Is that an example for the European leaders and the Americans to think, well, we may not be doing great in Ukraine right now, but let's keep it going because it things may turn. And some people believe the war is turning because of the drone warfare that has increased. The technology has changed in the war. the way the tank in the first world war was a technological change that influenced the way the war went. Some people saying that the drone technology which is much more sophisticated now than four years ago when the war began is making it harder for Russia to win. Where do you stand on that question? Is the war changing or has this not a real serious uh threat to Russia warfare? >> The way of warfare changed completely. I was at the front line and I know that very well. So it's a complete drone warfare. The war theater is completely under surveillance. Abex completely ax satellites, drones. You cannot bring together great tank armies or tank units. They will be destroyed at the same moment. So the warfare is two or four soldiers are going forward with bikes for example. Yes, they are sitting on bikes and they are driving to the next shelter and then the artillery is firing, firing, firing and made a complete destruction of the area and then the infantry will go forward some small steps. That's the new warfare. No tank rates, everything will go slow. It's a bit like the first warfare, but it's more as the American Civil War. Some fighters in the in the woods are shooting and then they're trying to disappear and then the next one coming up. It's a warfare like that. And during that time, the artillery is firing, firing, firing. And these are not explosives like we had in the Second World War. We have much much stronger explosives in this war. So the explosives of the Second World War um are seemingly kind of toys [snorts] compared with the explosives we have right now. >> The artillery explosives, >> artillery, missiles and drones as well. >> Mhm. So warfare changed completely and the Russian side has another strategy and keep in mind this is the hugest country in the world and the experience of distances of roaming of having great base. It's completely different to the Western European point of view. The Russian perspective is let the enemy come. Let the enemy come. Don't move so much. Go back and wait for the winter. And at 30° C below zero, things will be changing. Half of the of the army of the enemy will be frozen and then the cosaks come. This is the Russian approach and they don't want to conquer Slavansk. They want to kill Ukrainian soldiers in front of Slavansk. You know what I mean? They want to kill the enemy. They don't want to conquer the area. >> They have area. They have enough area, right? >> They want to kill Ukrainian soldier. And this strategy works. >> According to my information, we see 2.4 million casualties on the Ukraine side. And on the Russian side, 250,000, I estimate. >> Mhm. >> 1 to 10. >> How long can Ukraine uh and NATO sustain these losses? NATO seeks a ceasefire um at the situation of the front line right now because they want to gain time to rearm Ukraine and to rearm Western country and Ukraine is bleeding out. They don't have enough soldiers, but the Germans have. And it is a question of time. And the Americans say, "And now the Germans to the front." And with our leadership, with our current leadership, they will follow this order because they are completely crazy. And so for Washington, it is the best deal. Two countries in Europe, Germany and Russia are destroying itself in favor of the United States of America. That's [snorts] the strategy of the United States. And well, the main enemy in this strategy is China is Beijing. And uh China has completely other strategy. They don't want to have a strong country in its north under American control and they need the Russian minerals as well and the Russian resources. The strategy of China is not to stop the war in Ukraine, but to make the Russian Federation strong enough to go further step by step and to show the West you are in full decline and you have to accept our terms and the terms will be written in China in Beijing. >> That's the way that's the strategy. But the longer the west refuses to accept that, the more likelihood of a major confrontation, a world war. >> So nuclear war. So the leaders in Beijing and in Moscow are not thinking about destroying Europe. >> They are thinking about how to avoid a nuclear war with this completely irrational and crazy Western elites. That's the idea of the strategy in Beijing and Moscow. >> Are they more worried about the Europeans than Trump in terms of that in terms of war? >> But Trump is not really the guy running the show. Obviously, as you say, the American military-industrial complex is getting what they want out of him. He's a frontman the way Zilinsky is. Correct. >> No. No. Um, it is in Russian interest to split up the transatlantic partnership and that was for Putin a reason to accept this meeting in Anchorage. you want to separate >> uh and to separate the enemy means to weak the the enemy and that's the way and uh so in the Kremlin nobody believes in the words of the American leaders they don't believe in a single word of Mr. Trump. They don't believe it's just a show negotiation, >> right? >> And they don't believe a single word of the European leadership. They are ready. Russians, >> the ambassador of the Russian Federation right here in Berlin, Mr. manager have told me um when we will come under pressure, we will fight to the last blood we have and that means nuclear war and the Russian Federation is ready to fight a nuclear war. This is exactly what Professor Caragato said. >> He's more than saying that. He's several >> advocating it in a way and Putin has been resisting him, right? He still is. >> Yes. You have two lines uh in the Russian elite. The first line is u the more aggressive line. We have to fight back. We are attacked in the Russian mainland or our oil and gas factories are attacked, refineries are attacked. So we have to fight back and we have to attack for example German and British refineries or factories that are producing missiles and drones. We have to fight back and um the group around Putin says we just have to wait. Europe will destroying itself by sanctions for example if they hit a German and British factories or facilities that's an article 5 waiting to happen isn't it what would the response they would have what they what they need the Europeans to start a war a direct war but are is the German military and the Europeans up to the task of a a conventional war at the [clears throat] beginning they're not built up yet, are they? That's why they talk about 2030, right? >> So, the British army could mobilize 60,000 men. The German army could mobilize 60,000 70,000 men. The French army can mobilize 40,000 50,000 men. And well, the Russians have 800,000 soldiers in Ukraine and they mobilized 1.5 million soldiers. >> So, that means >> well, it's a laugh. an army of 100,000 or 150,000 men will be uh just an expedition army in the western Ukraine will be destroyed in one week completely by the Russian troops. So that's the background. So they want to mobilize their own people and they want to lead their own people in a nuclear war. They want that and they think we can leave Europe with the last American aircraft. They think really they think yes those elites are criminals. >> Okay, let's stop it. I'm tired. Thank you very much. Thank