Scott Ritter: Was Anchorage Just a Dance? (Transcript)

And that’s what’s happening right now.

And the best weapon that Palestine has is Israel itself, because Israel now has exposed the fact that by existing, it is incompatible with civilized human life. The world is recognizing that the issue isn’t Netanyahu or the Likud. The issue is Israel. The issue is Zionism. The issue is the evil that Zionism brings, the murder that defines their black hearts.

And Hamas has brought this reality out. It’s going to take some more time, some more suffering, some more sacrifice, but my God, let’s not minimize the sacrifices already been made or denigrate these Palestinian people. As Haaretz noted, they are defending their homeland unlike any other people in the history of the modern world.

International Response and Economic Interests

JUDGE NAPOLITANO: So why doesn’t Turkey stop selling oil to Israel? Why doesn’t Moscow impose some sort of blanket sanction embargo on Israel? Why don’t countries do non-violent things to give the Netanyahu regime pause?

SCOTT RITTER: Well, first of all, Turkey is making far too much money for this. The Turkish political and economic elite are making too much money. Turkey has long-term ambitions of being an energy hub in the region. And you can’t be an energy hub if you start embargoing the energy that comes from your resources, from your territory. Turkey is conflicted here.

Russia is likewise conflicted. Vladimir Putin has acknowledged that a significant percentage of the Israeli population speak Russian and therefore by definition are part of a Russian nation. And Russia simply can’t sanction the Russian nation. This is the reality.

Israel has spent decades insinuating itself into the very life fabric of so many nations. And this is why so many nations have blindly supported the existence of the Israeli state. This is again why it’s up to the Palestinian people and the Palestinian resistance, supported by other steadfast loyal allies like the Houthis, who continue to attack Israel even after Israel assassinated their prime minister.

Again, Israel assassinated a head of state. And the world is silent. I mean, this is stunning. They tried to assassinate the Iranian head of state and the world is silent. Well, you know who’s not silent? Hamas. Every day Hamas is getting up, crawling out of the tunnels and slaughtering IDF occupiers. And this is what it’s going to take to defeat Israel and to bring about an end to this conflict and the reality of a Palestinian state.

Ukraine’s Desperate Situation

JUDGE NAPOLITANO: Let’s transition to Russia and Ukraine. You and Conor McGregor and Larry Johnson and others with military experience have opined that Ukraine is on or close to being on very thin ice, on its last leg, just to use vernacular language. Do the Ukrainian elites, their generals, their diplomats, their government officials – not Zelensky – recognize that?

SCOTT RITTER: I believe they do. I believe they recognize just how dangerous this situation is. They also recognize that at this juncture, given the hell that they have put Ukraine through, that they simply can’t cut and run.

I mean, normally when someone’s confronted with a situation of this nature, you cut your losses and go live in your villa in Italy or wherever else you hid your millions of dollars that you stole from the Ukrainian people and you stole from the West. But we’re talking 1.7 million dead. I mean, the ancestors of these dead will come hunting those who are responsible for this.

So the only chance these people have, not only of continued relevance, but survival, is to extend this war and pray for a miracle, pray for some ability, some combination of factors to align themselves so that Russia will accept a compromise solution that allows these people to remain in power.

But they can only remain in power by sustaining this conflict. And so they’re in a catch-22 that isn’t going to end well for Ukraine. These people, desperately holding on to their political and economic relevance through the corruption of Ukraine, through the sacrifice of the lives of Ukrainian soldiers, will ultimately fall victim to their own greed, to their own avarice, to their own evil nature.

And it will come sooner rather than later. This war will not last forever. This war will end at some point in time. And when it does, it ends badly not only for Ukraine, but for those nations who have supported Ukraine.

The Bandera Movement and Ukrainian Nationalism

JUDGE NAPOLITANO: Talk to us about the ultra-nationalists, sometimes called Banderites, sometimes called neo-Nazis, of whom apparently President Zelensky is afraid. Are they realists or are they blinded by ideology? Do they recognize that Ukraine is at the bitter end and Russia is very close to achieving its military objectives?

SCOTT RITTER: Well, let’s keep in mind that the Banderites have been doing this for a while. Back in 1944, when Germany withdrew from Ukraine, the Banderite resistance, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and their insurgent army began what was a decades-long resistance that lasted until 1954 inside Ukraine, inside parts of Poland, Belarus – resistance that killed tens of thousands of Soviet Interior Ministry forces, Red Army soldiers, hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians caught up in the mix of this.

And the Ukrainian Banderites were decisively defeated. Hundreds of thousands were imprisoned in the Gulag of the Soviet Union. Hundreds of thousands of others were forced to flee and joined the diaspora abroad. One would have thought that that would have been the end of them.

But no, they hung on because of the diaspora, because of the insinuation they had into decision-making circles in the United States and elsewhere. And the continued support of the CIA who funded their operations up until 1990, leading to the 25-year revival – I mean a 14-year revival that manifested in 2014 in a coup in Kiev that saw them come back into political relevance.

Yes, today they are looking at a situation where it’s not looking so good. But this wouldn’t be the first time that they were strategically defeated on the battlefield but continued to survive. Banderism is an ideology, a belief system.

And so long as there are Banderite cells in existence here in the United States – right there in Ellenville, New York, 60 miles away from me, very close to where you are, Judge – is the heartland of Banderism in New York. A summer camp where every summer they cycle through three classes or more of Ukrainian American children who wear the Nazi uniform, burn the Nazi torches, carry the portrait of Stepan Bandera and sing the songs that glorify Stepan Bandera.

JUDGE NAPOLITANO: I did not know about this.

SCOTT RITTER: Ellenville, New York. Right there they have Heroes Hill, they have a monument, Bandera’s portrait or statue and other statues of evil Banderite Nazis are there. It’s not just here, it’s in Canada, it’s elsewhere.

JUDGE NAPOLITANO: And the FBI came knocking on your door? Not on their door.

SCOTT RITTER: Well, look, since the 1980s, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalism has hijacked the American Ukrainian Congress. And these are the people that advised the United States about Ukrainian policy. And these are the people that own the think tanks in Washington D.C. Who pays the Congress to bring over Ukrainians?

As long as they exist, the Ukrainians will believe that their ideology will continue to survive. So yes, they’re facing imminent defeat. But these are fanatics. These are people – remember Stepan Bandera when imprisoned in Poland for the assassination of a Polish prosecutor? When asked about what price he was willing to pay to continue his nationalism, he said he’s willing to see millions of innocent people die in order for the Ukrainian nation that he has envisioned to survive.

So this is what the Russians talk about when they speak of denazification. It’s not just the physical defeat of the Banderites. This is inevitable. It’s ensuring that this cancer never again revives itself.

Look at the Poles. The Poles today are kicking out Banderites. Anybody who speaks loyally – and the idea is if Poland was given western Ukraine, which Naryshkin, the head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service has said is a likely solution, then the Poles would have to deal with denazification, the elimination of this Banderite ideology.

But the bottom line is simply by defeating them on the battlefield doesn’t make this cancer go away. They waited since 1954 to 2014. That’s 60 years if my math is right. They waited 60 years to get a chance. They’ll wait 60 more years.

Zelensky’s Fear of Ukrainian Nationalists

JUDGE NAPOLITANO: Is it your understanding that these are the people whom President Zelensky personally fears would kill him if he enters into a formal agreement with Moscow ceding the oblasts to Russia?

SCOTT RITTER: It’s not that he fears. He knows they will kill him because they told him so. This is Yarush and others who have come into his office, come into the President of Ukraine’s office and said, “If you make any compromise to the Russians, you will be hung by the neck right now. We’ll drag you out of your presidential administration and hang you by the neck until dead on Stepan Bandera Avenue, downtown Kiev.”

So Zelensky knows what his future is. And look at the man that everybody is talking about replacing Zelensky, Zaluzhny, the general who’s currently the ambassador in Great Britain. This is a man who has not only posed giving medals to Banderites with a photograph of Stepan Bandera behind him, but he has just recently said the way forward is to train every child in Ukraine on the ideology of Azov, on the ideology of Bandera.

He’s talking about corrupting the minds and souls of the next generation of Ukrainians to continue this nationalist fight. He’s a Banderite. They’re all Banderites, Judge. They’re all Banderites.

JUDGE NAPOLITANO: Wow.

The Anchorage Meeting and Its Aftermath

JUDGE NAPOLITANO: Since the meeting between President Trump and President Putin in Anchorage, the Russian military activity has notably increased. And the United States has authorized the eventual sale of 3,500 medium range missiles with a range of 280 miles to the Ukrainians. So what was accomplished by their meeting in Anchorage?

SCOTT RITTER: Well, the first thing is we had a President of Russia talking to the President of the United States. And that’s not something that has happened since June of 2021 and something that hadn’t happened since the special military operation began. And they talked about more than just Ukraine. They talked about the broadening of improved relations between the United States and Russia. This has created a window of opportunity that hopefully can be exploited.

The President, though, you saw it. Look, when Vladimir Putin said, “Next time in Moscow,” the first thing out of President Trump’s mouth was, “Ooh, I might take some heat for that.” He knows the fact that there is a huge opposition to what he’s trying to do.

Tulsi Gabbard is in the process of cleansing the CIA and the national intelligence community of the Russophobes. One of these Russophobes was advising President Trump on the Alaska summit right up until the moment of his departure, before she had her security clearances yanked.

You know, there are people stabbing him in the back. I’m just going to straight up and say, Marco Rubio is stabbing this president in the back. Scott Bessent is stabbing this president in the back. These are Russophobes, the long term Russophobes who do not want good relations with Russia. They have no choice but to hold their nose while the President meets with Vladimir Putin, and then they turn around and stab him in the back as he moves forward.

Rubio’s Opposition to Peace

JUDGE NAPOLITANO: I agree with you on Rubio, but what did he do that you characterize as stabbing in the back? I realize it’s a euphemism, but what did he actually do?

SCOTT RITTER: He goes back and he promotes sanctioning of Russia. He promotes the denigration of the concept of peace, he criticizes Russia, he promotes the European vision of ceasefires. He does everything but say the President. And what you need to do at this point in time is not put up the negatives. You need to only accentuate the positives. And that’s not what Marco Rubio is doing.

Neither is Scott Bessent, who today is all about sanctions, sanctions, sanctions. Sanctions would be the end of this peace process. Marco Rubio supported the sale of these ATACMS missiles that you talk about because he’s trying to get the Russians to back away. This is his strategy, is to make Russia take a step backwards. Not the President. But it’s not going to work.

The Fake Missile Deal

Let’s look at these missiles for a second. You know, I went and researched the companies. The primary company involved in the manufacture of this missile has a current $34 million contract with the Department of Defense to produce a single prototype of this missile. The due date, the delivery date of this prototype, October 2025. You heard me right, Judge. They haven’t even produced a prototype of this missile yet.

Once they produce the prototype, then they can transition into serial production. But it’s going to take time to ramp up serial production. The maximum output, once you get everything ramped up, will be 1,000 missiles a year, which means they haven’t even started building these missiles yet. But even if they do, at maximum output, you wouldn’t deliver 3,000 missiles until the fall of 2028.

This is a fake contract. This is a fake deal. It’s fake. Everything about it is fake. And this is the genius of Donald Trump, because what he’s done here is outmaneuver those people who are saying, “You have to give Ukraine the ability to strike back. You must give Ukraine the weapons to do this.” And he said, “Okay, Europe, pay me $850 million for a missile that ain’t going to be produced for another year, and we’ll sell it to Ukrainians as if this somehow changes the strategic balance of power.”

It doesn’t. It’s a fake deal. It’s the fake support of the United States. And Russia sees this. Russia’s smart enough to know all this. This is why you see nothing but patience coming out of Russia. They will continue to do what they do. And yes, it’ll put the United States in a bad light if we continue to articulate support for Ukraine.

But the bottom line is this war ends when Russia decides this war ends. And there’s no other factor that matters. Europe doesn’t matter. And frankly speaking, the United States doesn’t matter. The best thing Donald Trump could do is recognize the inevitability of a strategic Russian victory, seek to mitigate the consequences of this by improving diplomatic relations with Russia so that when this war ends, we move forward in a positive trajectory, hopefully bringing Europe alongside.

But the worst thing we could do is align ourselves with Europe, who’s committing suicide as we speak. Economic suicide. Delinking themselves from cheap Russian gas, turning around and buying that same Russian gas at five times the cost as it’s put through various middlemen. This is the stupidity of Europe. Hopefully, it won’t be the stupidity of the United States as well.

Embassy Staffing and Diplomatic Failures

JUDGE NAPOLITANO: Have our embassies grown to full staff? Are they still skeleton staffs in both Moscow and Washington?

SCOTT RITTER: You know, Marco Rubio just approved a budget that slashes the budget of the Department of State, I think, by one third. So I don’t imagine if you’re slashing the Department of State overall, that you’re going to see a beefing up of the embassies anywhere in the world, let alone Moscow.

And this is problematic because our relationship requires that we have competent people that deal with the various issues, the whole myriad of issues that define the relationship. Competent people that can talk to one another. I know for a fact, the Russians are fully staffed with competent people. We don’t.

The Russians have phones, they pick it up, they dial a number. Nobody’s picking up that number in Washington D.C. because the appropriate positions haven’t been staffed. This is a huge weakness, a failure. A failure on the part of Marco Rubio. Again, the worst Secretary of State we’ve ever had. A man who is dual-hatted unconstitutionally as the National Security Adviser of the United States simultaneously as he destroys our vehicle of diplomacy.

This is a man who is allowing the Department of Defense under this wannabe Emperor Pete Hegseth to dictate how America represents itself to the world. And in the Department of Treasury, I mean we’ve got Scott Bessent who is destroying, single-handedly destroying the credibility of the dollar.

Russia-China Strategic Partnership

I don’t know if you saw what happened in China this past week at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting, but we saw Modi, Xi and Putin come together. Putin and Xi just signed the largest ever strategic energy agreement. It’s a binding treaty. Now Russia has completely replaced Europe as a necessary market and now China is that market. And Russia will supply China with the energy it needs to grow its economy for decades to come.

This is a strategic defeat for the United States, a strategic defeat for Europe and a huge geopolitical win for Russia and China.

BRICS and Economic Warfare

JUDGE NAPOLITANO: The attacks on BRICS by Donald Trump and the criticisms of BRICS by Scott Bessent have strengthened it, have brought it together. And the same thing with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, isn’t that so? I wonder if these guys, I know Trump doesn’t, but Bessent should even understand economics 101. What did they gain by this tariff on India?

SCOTT RITTER: Not a darn thing, Judge. I mean this is purely, basically Scott Bessent has fallen into the trap of the simple minded. He’s talking about tariffs generating economic lifeblood for America. Trillions of dollars of potential income that will offset this, that and the other thing. But you know, who’s paying the price? Not the nations that sell goods. The American people are.

We’re paying the price of, you know, it’s an indirect tax on the American public and it’s unsustainable. It doesn’t solve anything. It weakens the US Dollar. Today, the dollar is collapsing. I’m not an expert in the bond market but what I’m seeing right now is a collapse of the western bond market. We’re not able to sell our debt, to manage our debt, we’re going to have a debt collapse and then, you know, it’s game, set, match, it’s over.

And Scott Bessent’s response was… Donald Trump, fire this son of a bitch. Excuse my language, Judge. Fire this man. He is destroying our country. He’s not making America great again. He’s destroying America and he’s destroying you.

You have a chance for peace with Russia that could be built upon to create stable relations with Russia’s friends and allies, China, now India, who used to be an American friend and ally. But thank you, Scott Bessent, thank you, Marco Rubio, and thank you, Donald Trump, for listening to them. You just need to stop listening to these people, start bringing in smarter people who give you sage advice.

There’s a role for America to be played in the world today, a very constructive role, a positive role, a leadership role. But what’s happening with Marco Rubio and Scott Bessent is that we’re being mocked, we’re being humiliated. The world is turning away from us. We are no longer the exceptional nation or indispensable nation. We are the least exceptional nation out there and the world is disposing of us.

Venezuela Strike and Military Overreach

JUDGE NAPOLITANO: The Associated Press just reported that President Trump announced that the United States has carried out a strike in the southern Caribbean against a drug carrying vessel that departed from Venezuela. The president said… The president on Tuesday offered scant details of the operation. Secretary of State Rubio said on X that the vessel was being operated by a designated narco terrorist organization. Well, that in their minds could be the government of Venezuela. The press office of Venezuela’s government did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the announcement. From the Associated Press. This is just four minutes ago. What happens if he dispatches 4,400 marines into Caracas?

SCOTT RITTER: 4,400 body bags coming home. I love the Marine Corps and we have a tremendous history. We have the ability to close with and destroy our enemy. But we’re not immortal. We’re not invincible. Math does apply to military operations. And 4,400 marines is not enough to take on a nation of millions.

Even if we fire all 265 Tomahawk missiles that are loaded on board the various ships that can comprise the naval task force floating off of Venezuela, you know… Wow, you mean we deployed at great expense one of the larger naval task forces in modern history and we sank a narco ship? Man, we’re really good, aren’t we?

This is stupidity in the extreme. You know, the Coast Guard could have done this. You don’t need a navy to sink this ship. This is pure theater on the part of the president, muscle flexing, where you don’t need to flex muscles. It’s creating even greater tension in a region that’s already a keg of dynamite.

Does he want to lose all of South America? Because this is what he’s getting positioned to do. While we’re sitting there spending all our money sinking a single narco ship, China’s built one of the largest ports in Peru, building rail line connectivity from Peru to Brazil, bypassing the need to go to the Panama Canal and completely dominating the South American market. And we’ve sunk a narco ship. Wow. We’re really good.

JUDGE NAPOLITANO: Scott, thank you very much. Thank you for letting me go all across the board. I didn’t know we were going to end up with Venezuela, but I knew if we did do that, that you’d have an informed response as you did. Thank you. My dear friend, always a pleasure to chat with you, no matter how bad or good the news may be. And we’ll look forward to seeing you next week.

SCOTT RITTER: Thanks for having me.

JUDGE NAPOLITANO: Thank you. And coming up tomorrow, Wednesday at 8 in the morning, Professor Gilbert Doctorow at 11 in the morning, Aaron Mate at 1 in the afternoon, Max Blumenthal at 2 in the afternoon, Karen Kwiatkowski at 3 in the afternoon, Phil Geraci. And on Thursday, among others, Anya Parampol, our resident expert on matters in Latin America, Judge Napolitano. For Judging Freedom.

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