The Virtual Interview: Edward Snowden – The New Yorker Festival

http://russia-insider.com/en/politics_ukraine_opinion_media_watch_snowden/2014/10/17/02-55-08pm/ri_exclusive_oliver_stones_full Quoted from the hyperlink... "On the internet you can find good reporters who do not work for a lot of money, but it’s their mission." (He's talking about RI! - editors) Oliver Stone, one of America's most celebrated film makers, was in Moscow in September, working on his upcoming biopic of Edward Snowden and a new documentary about the Ukraine catastrophe. He gave this long interview to a major Russian newspaper. Small parts of it have been published in English elsewhere, but we got our hands on the original transcript, and are delighted to share it with you here, in full, for the first time. In the interview, Stone slams America's foreign policy, media and historical revisionism. Stone is a remarkable phenomenon on the American cultural scene. Best known for a slew of iconic films like Wall Street, Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July , he has also created many films that are harshly critical of the US - about the JFK assassination, 9/11, US funded terrrorism in Latin America, Richard Nixon, Vietnam, corruption on Wall Street, and Cuba. He is an ardent defender of Edward Snowden, which is why he's making a movie about him. He is an outspoken and relentless critic of much that is wrong with America today. His latest film, which aired in the US in 2012, is a 10-part documentary about the history of the US since WW2, which he describes as the most important thing he has ever done. In the film, he seeks to debunk what he sees as lies which are widely taught to Americans, and largely accepted as true. The series will air on Russian television in the near future. This is an extraordinary interview. We agree wholeheartedly with most of what he says. We found ourselves wondering, how is it possible, that this man, not a professional journalist or historian, understands what is going on in Ukraine and Russia and the mess the US has gotten itself into, better than the combined western media and Washington policy makers? One reason is that he gets his news from blogs, not from the mainstream media. We pulled what we thought were some of the best quotes from the article. Sorry for the long list, there were just so many of them! "We are hurting ... ourselves. Russia will find new partners in the East and Eurasia. ... Russia will go on with or without sanctions." "Today it is impossible to get the truth from [the American media]." "And now with the crisis in Ukraine stories continue to be false... (the) American people are being fed by television and other media with stories about Russian aggression. This is very dangerous." "In my opinion, Russia is a natural ally of the United States.... it’s a shame." "I think many Americans would agree with me that the United States is on the wrong path - the path of war and aggression." "America is trying to surround China and Russia. The prize in this fight is Eurasia where the biggest resources lie." "The people in Washington feel that we have a right to rule the world, and so it’s in our interest to destabilize Russia: divide Ukraine, to change the government in Moscow. It started a few years ago. Remove Putin, remove new Russia, and then go after China." "I’m working with Ukrainian producers who are making a documentary 'Ukraine on fire' about the history of the crisis in that country." "When Putin took the Snowden decision or, for example, when he made an offer to destroy chemical weapons in Syria, he really helped the world and contributed to the peace on our planet." "I'm working on a drama about Edward Snowden. ... We hope to start shooting early next year and have it out by the end of 2015...I met [Snowden] in Moscow, as well as with many other people around this situation." "Russians have a completely different point of view on the First and the Second World Wars. Americans don’t understand a lot of the history of these wars ...I care very much about teaching history to younger people." "The crisis in Ukraine in some way is as serious to me as the Cuba crisis in 1961-62 years and the Berlin situation. It's scary to me." "In my opinion, the Russian destruction of most of the German military machine saved at least a million American lives." "We had to thank the Russian for that, to be their allies and to trust them. But President Truman and business elite in Wall Street hadn’t a single moment of thanks. American bankers and the rich have always hated Russia." "In 2008...I just felt so depressed about what was happening to the United States - my country that I love. Bush distorted everything I believed in as a child and as a young man. I began to study American history..." "...the United States had misrepresented the spirit in which Gorbachev made the agreement with Bush on the reunification of Germany, the expansion of NATO and others..." "The United States is a strange country. Studying its history one can come to a conclusion that it always needs an enemy, whether it’s a communism or something else." "The United States wanted to make Russia a capitalist country, sending its experts, so-called Harvard boys, who advised and freed up economy. And the result was a gangster economy." "Taking back the state back from the hands of the gangsters was a very important move for Russia. On that basis I certainly admire Putin as a strong man." "People in Moscow ... have a deep soul, and when you spend time with them, you realize that they are warm and giving people. Certainly it’s not the picture painted of Russia or Putin. I like Russian people." "I understand why Putin could not give up Crimea. Western institutions - EU, NATO, IMF - would like to have influence, run and control Ukraine." "It is the United States that is invasive and pushing constantly the limits of patience of Russia, as it was with NATO's eastward expansion. It’s a very dangerous situation." "For a man who went to war McCain seems to have learned nothing. In my mind he was on the wrong side of every political decision the United States made since the Vietnam war. I think something is wrong with him." "The United States never experienced war, we don’t know how devastating is it. ... We go and bring harm to others, militarize countries and regions."