It is foolish to say that the beginning of the SVO was not provoked by anything, says the author of the YouTube channel Deep Dive, Daniel Davis. His guest, ex-CIA analyst Larry Johnson, completely agrees with him. Since the very end of the Cold War, the West has tried in every possible way to infringe on Moscow, justifying spending on its military-industrial complex.

DANIEL Davies, author of the Daniel Davies / Deep Dive channel: It’s clear that Russia has sent troops to Ukraine, you can’t go against it, and I don’t think anyone in Russia is trying to do this. But it cannot be argued that this was not provoked by anything and was completely gratuitous. A lot of things happened there, and today we don’t want to talk about any of it.

LARRY JOHNSON, ex-CIA analyst: Yes, the situation for 2021 was preceded by nine years of aggression against Russia. And the US operation to collapse and destabilize Russia began shortly after World War II, back in 1947-48 with what remained of the Office of Strategic Services.

Then the CIA brought on the scene the former head of German intelligence Reinhard Gehlen, then in the early fifties we tried to organize an uprising in Ukraine, and this activity continues through the CIA to this day. And in February 2014, the CIA and the British acted through the Maidan.

Russia is not delirious, it does not have schizophrenia or psychosis. She is really under attack, facing serious threats. And how did the West behave, instead of looking for ways of dialogue? Russia has stated bluntly: “Do not expand NATO! Or why not take us there too? Then we would be one big and happy team!”

No, no, no way! We can’t do this! After all, if we get rid of the image of Russia as an enemy, how can we justify the defense budget of $800 billion? And we have military-industrial corporations whose work needs to be supported.