The Journey 88. Wayne Madsen: Putin’s On the March

Publisher RA “Kris” Millegan talks with Wayne Madsen, a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist, author and columnist, about Putin’s attack on Ukraine and his possible plans for the future. Wayne’s work can be found at WayneMadsenReportdotcom. His latest book, “The Rise of the Fascist Fourth Reich: The Era of Trumpism and the New Far Right,” is available on Amazon.

Kris: You have military experience and intelligence experience. I’d like to get your take on what’s going on [in Ukraine]. There’s a whole gamut of mis- and dis-information out there.

Wayne: I’ve taken a deep dive into the background of Vladimir Putin, going back to when he was a senior KGB official in East Germany working closely with the Stasi [the official state security service of the German Democratic Republic – East Germany, the GDR]. Putin befriended many, many Stasi officials, including a number that had been in either the [Nazi] SS or the Gestapo.

As the head of the successor to the KGB, the FSB [the principal security agency of Russia], he adopted many of the tactics of the old Nazi party of Germany and the tactics of the German military of World War II. We’re seeing that Nazi influence play out in Ukraine and in his systematic obliteration of the Russian opposition and [his obliteration of] the autonomy of the Russian republics that was guaranteed in the USSR constitution by Vladimir Lenin.

In an article Putin wrote last July [2021], he said that Russia should control most of what used to constitute the Soviet Union AND the Warsaw Pact. He lays claims to the Baltic States, to Poland, to almost all of Slovakia, a big chunk of Romania, all of Moldova. I would suggest that the only Nazi right now isn’t in Kyiv. It’s in Moscow. And it’s Putin. I believe he’s fully intent on restoring the old Russian Empire in its pre-1917 borders

Kris: I think that streaming almost live intelligence [by the Biden Administration] when this Ukraine situation began was a very good idea.

Wayne: I do, too.

Kris: How do you feel about what American media is putting out on CNN, MSNBC, and places like that? What do you think about how they’re portraying the story of the war?

Wayne: Good and bad. I like the fact that they’re covering the refugee issue. We’re actually seeing the faces of the people, even the kids.