Hello everybody, Hello and welcome. It's Matt Connerton Unleashed and we are live
from the studios of w m n H ninety five point three FM and Glorious
Downtown Manchester, New Hampshire also on Comcast ninety seven. Are in Manchester,
and hello to all of our online listeners across the nation and around on the
globe. You can go to my website Matt Connerton dot com for all of
your live streaming options, social media links, contact in folk show archives,
etc. Etc. Today is a Monday, June twenty six, twenty twenty
three, so nice to have y'all with me. By the way, a
quick point of a note of explanation if you're wondering why that was an unusually
long intro with the music, you know, I always opened usually I opened
with a song or two. That was a bunch of songs. So we're
starting the actual show part a little bit late. I blame the weather.
That was quite a storm that we just had. Now, if you're listening
live and you're listening in the Manchester, New Hampshire area, you probably realize
and I don't know how you could not realize it because and I no joke,
no exaggeration. That had to be the loudest thunder I've ever heard in
my life. Earlier, we just had quite a storm roll through here.
Didn't last too too long, although little bit longer than I would have liked.
But uh so when I when I arrived here at the when I arrived
here at the station, uh we had a little bit of technical issues to
figure out, and I believe it was because of the storm. I think
the storm probably caused a surgeon electricity and a couple of the computers were down
and had to get everything uh back up to speed up to spec if you
will. So starting starting this part of the show a little bit late,
so I apologize, but well, the weather caused me more trouble than that,
though, but we'll get to that. We have a call. Hi,
Welcome to Matt Connerton Unleashed. Is this hello, Matts? So right?
So did Jerry Robinson. Oh my goodness, Jerry Robinson from Jerry Robinson's
video Chronicles and and the the leader of the Rock and Roll Army and so
forth. This is It's wonderful to hear from you again, sir, Yes,
Matt, so listen. I don't want to take up much of your
time today. I understand you're a very busy man and you have many things
to talk about on your radio show. Yeah, I just I just need
to talk really quickly about just how wonderful of a great guide that you want.
You stayed on the phone with me for four hours streak helping me send
a file over email. You said you dropped everything that you were doing,
wife, kids, nothing else, Matt, and I just really appreciate you,
and people need to know that wmnh's is very own matso Ratzo Covington will
do anything in the world for his listeners. Well, Jerry Robinson, I
appreciate you, and that's why I was so willing to help you figure out
how to attach a file to an email and send that email. I mean,
I appreciate you so much. If I were a network news anchor in
the middle of covering the news over the weekend, and and you had texted
me or emailed me and said, Matt, can you get on the phone
I need technical help with something, I would drop everything, Jerry. I
would drop everything. I would drive to wherever you were just to help you
in person. In fact, if I couldn't dispatch a technician, of course,
Uh, you know you're worth it, my friend, You, sir,
are worth it. I really appreciate that, Matt. So another thing,
obviously, I can't see his name because we were over that of course.
Yeah, yeah, there's a coup. I'm taking over. I command
the rock and roll Army. Yeah. I would just like to know if
you would like to be my first Uh my, I guess we'll say,
commander to the Supreme Leader of rock and Roll. Oh my god, uh,
Jerry, I have to tell you, I've I've dreamt of this moment.
I can't believe it's happening. You're actually offering me that the loot.
I'm sorry, what was it again, the lieutenant assistant Supreme something, the
commander to the Supreme Leader of rock and roll. Yeah, yes, the
Commander to the Supreme Leader of rock and Roll. I'll tell you it's a
mouthful, it's it's a little wordy, but I I've dreamt of this moment,
sir. This is truly an incredible honor. Thank you, thank you
so much, and count man, you are officially first member of Jerry's rock
and Roll on me. Thank you very much. Matt. I really appreciate
it. I feel like applauding for that, and then and then I'm applauding
on my end, but I'm holding my jitabug telephone. That's that's one of
the reasons I had issue sending the email because I have the extra lodge buttons,
and you know, because I'm old. Uh but yeah, that's that's
basically what happened. Yeah, i'd pope believe me. I understand. We
all get older. Jerry. It's okay, Yeah, it's it's it's all
right. It's okay to be old, just not old and crazy, apparently
from what we know from sudden people. Lets I just I really appreciate everything
you've done for me. I'm gonna hop off you and I hope you have
a great rest of your day. All the best, Jerry. All right,
bye, Jerry, thank you. Wow, Wow, the great Jerry
Robinson. You can check him out on YouTube and seriously, he's on YouTube
and you do need to check him out. I'm not kidding. Jerry Robinson's
video chronicles I've shared out a few things of him is and uh, yes,
there has been a coup, not that kind of a coup. There
was an almost coup over the weekend, which we will certainly talk about today,
but there can be more than one kind of coup. And I'm just
so excited that he has invited me to be the oh god, what was
it, the deputy assistant colonel in the battalion for Rock and Roll or something,
whatever it is. I mean, it sounds very prestigious, but even
more importantly, it sounds like something where I will have a tremendous amount of
power. And by the way, you can trust me. You know,
they say with great power comes great responsibility. And one thing I would just
assure all of you is you can, in fact trust me with great power.
And anyone who says you can't, boy, they've got something coming to
them. I'm kidding. No, you can trust me with great power.
Very nice, always nice here from our friend Jerry Robinson. That does open
up the line for you. Six three two five six seven six zo three
two five six seven on the studio line, and uh, we do have
another call. Let's see. I think this might be our friend easyg Eric
Gagnet on the line. Hello, Easy, is that you? Yes it
is. Hey. That was quite a storm over here too, Wow,
torrential rain in Nashua. Yeah, yeah, it was. It was pouring
here. I well, I didn't even talk about, you know, like
getting here. Honestly, I was concerned because driving here, the roads were
flooding. Uh quickly, I put off. I actually put literally eric,
I'm standing on the porch where I live, waiting for it to let up,
because you know, I don't mind getting wet, but I also have
my my own computer that I bring in with me, and I have a
bag that I carry it in, but I don't want this to get wet,
and uh so, so I kept I kept waiting and waiting, and
I'm like waiting it, waiting for it to let up, and waiting for
it to let up. And then finally I was like, I can't wait
anymore. I gotta go. I can't be late. It's a live radio
show. But then as I'm driving here, I'm like, oh no,
I shouldn't have waited at all. I should have left immediately. I should
have left on time, because the roads were starting to flood here, um
in spots wherever it doesn't usually flood. And I was genuinely like, coming
over the bridge, I was really kind of worried. I mean, it
was it was happening quickly. I was very relieved once I safely got to
the parking garage. Yeah, I figured, you guys every trouble with the
radio station, said, well, that's a twenty minute opening, doesn't really
that's a long opening. Well yeah, I mean we were on the air
and everything. But um, but in order to start start the show,
you know, I liked to get the Facebook feed going and and of course,
um uh you get everything set to record the show, and uh,
we were just having some trouble with those computers. But those computers were off.
But I think what I assume what happened is because literally, I mean
the thunder was so loud, there was probably a surge of power surge somewhere
in the building that shut those computers off. And then and then it was
different one of them. It was difficult to get it started again. So
you know, it happens. But you know, we're here, we're we're
on the air. We go we go forth. Um, so it's all
good. I had to call Peter White and uh, because I couldn't I
wasn't sure which. Yeah, I just I didn't want to push the wrong
button on the wrong computer and accidentally take us off the air completely. Because
we were we were on the air the entire time, but so Peter had
to had to help me out, but we got through it. Hey that
lost calls familiar, Yeah, he does, he does. He reminds me
of somebody too. I can't quite I can't quite place him, but Jerry
Robinson, I have to say Salt of the Earth, and I'm I'm very
I'm very excited to have been offered the position of oh god, what was
it like the deputy assistant manager of the Rock and Roll Lieutenant major or something.
Anyway, it's it's a very prestigious position, easyg And I'm excited.
Perhaps he'll offer you a position in the Rock and Roll Army as well.
Oh yeah, yeah, this one it was almost gone, almost two hour
review of the four through the through the they formed the the Forbidden Door,
and that was it was quite a quite a spectacle. We should clarify for
people who don't know that's a wrestling pay per view. When you say forbidden
Door, Uh, some people might think you're talking about something that would be
more suited to Matt Connor, to Daniel Daniel the yes man got hurt.
I guess he's out six to eight weeks. He heard, Uh, is
I figured what he heard, but he got injured. I did. I
did see something about that, Yes, yes, yes, uh the great
Brian Danielson. Yes, I'm thinking it was true. But Kenny Omega match
what din't match? That was? I guess. I don't forget the other
guy he was rustling, but it was all They were all all bloody.
I don't like. Uh yeah, I don't like a lot of blood either.
I do want to see uh mjf W likes to be edgy, though,
you know they do. I would like to see. Uh. I
know one of the matches was MJF versus Tana Hashi. I would very much
like to see that. I would like to find that online and watch it.
Yeah, I will tell you what happens. Uh okay, yeah,
we'll tell you a story's storyline. Though he said he won the Russell first,
so that way you get the hell out of that Canada I was a
storyline. Of course, probably didn't get the hell out of They probably just
stayed on back. Who knows. M J said, you know that guy
likes to be edgy. Yes he does, Yes he does. He plays
his character very well well. Before I let you go, what is that
thing? That Bobby Heenen said about the cheating. I always forgot that statement.
He said, uh oh u when it I remember, okay, when
if you can lose, if you must, but always cheat and never get
caught. That's what Bobby the brain, and so I want to remember us.
Yeah, I like the old statement, the it's okay to cheese as
long as you don't get caught, right, right. But by the way,
easy g though, these are these are villains in wrestling who say these
things. We are not. These are not our we are men of honor.
These are not our philosophies in life. Yes, I'll leave it this
crazy. I don't know who is rustling up again now, but I believe
this, but the referee store in front of the wrestlers who won the acaman
on the corner there, and uh, can you believe that the referee in
the in the in the match, and I can't believe enjoy it though,
you know, I can't believe when they hit the chair or something, the
refeluc the other way, Frankly, all into the game. It's they're all
part of the storyline. Frankly, I'm shocked. Yes, but yeah,
so sometimes that review of oh yeah, the two almost two hours m review
of The Foreign Door. Sometimes it um somehow evaporates. I found that out.
If you don't watch it, like early in the morning, for some
reason, it gets a race. What does what? What? What do
you want to see? The review? You know, on to YouTube for
some reasons. If you don't watch it like early in the morning, it
disappears. Oh, Fredo is in the chat room, says, remember when
Hulkogen went bad? Oh vividly it was a great moment, joined the n
w O. But do you think that's true? Though? When they put
it on YouTube for a while and then they take then they get written,
then it goes on race. Well, so if someone who is not authorized,
uh put something on YouTube, what can happen? Is and Warner Brothers
Discovery is pretty aggressive about this. Uh they of course, uh you know,
do the television for a wh they will, they will have it taken
down. WWE does the same thing. They'll have things removed. Yeah.
So if I watch it early in the morning, sometimes I've transferred all my
Facebook page and later number one lay it's not there. It's not there.
You know what I do? Actually, if I if something is on the
YouTube that I really want to see and I'm concerned that it might not still
be there when I get around actually watching it. I'll download it and then
I have it. Oh, he's say in the future, now WW gets
it's um it's got together with the other company there, you seef whatever that
place there. You told me that they won't have any other matches on YouTube
anymore. You'll just be able to find it out online and won't it won't
be any video anymore. Huh, I said that. I don't know.
You would tell me when you know the WW is getting together with a new
company there. Yeah, UFC tell me when that happens. He's not gonna
have any of your matches on YouTube. You won't be able to see it
there. I think you told me that. I don't remember saying that.
Um, well, maybe Eric Pipplin is did from and the Uh yeah,
Iowa, maybe he told me that. I don't know. I mean,
you'll always be able to find things on YouTube, just not everything, all
right, So that makes sense in them. Yeah, they think it off
them the YouTube because the somebody's using on authours. Yeah that makes sense.
Thank you. Good, all right, I'll let you go and I'll be
careful to crazy weather. Yes, absolutely, all right, thanks EASYG.
All right, that was our friend, EASYG. How you should have known
by now, easy dovy. That opens up the line for you six zo
three two five zero six zero seven six three two five zero six zero seven.
Of course you can also text me at six one seven nine one seven
four four seven six. I'm on social media at Matt Connerton. You can
email me Matt at Matt Connerton dot com, and of course you can interact
endopine and the Facebook live chat. We will say hello to everybody in there
in a moment. But the best thing to do so that we can hear
and enjoy your dulcet tones is to give us a call at six zo three
two five zero six z seven six zo three two five zero six z seven.
But yeah, I just kinda finish my story and put a button on
that so um, yeah, it started pouring out. I was still at
home, see I do um. I do the bulk of my show prep
in the office at home, and then I come to the station, so
I you know, I have I have it ready. So then I come
to the station and I like to get here no later than three thirty.
I like to I like to be here at minimum a half hour before I
have to go live on the air and get settled in and set up and
everything. But um, it was pouring so hard. I'm standing out on
the porch waiting, Okay, well, it's got to let up at some
point. And like I said, while I was outside, that was the
loudest thunder I've ever heard in my life. And then finally I said,
I can't wait anymore. I gotta go. So I go. Um,
I throw my computer into the you know, because I bring my my computer.
I'm not worried about getting wet, but I don't want to get the
computer wet, throw it into the car. I'm driving here and the and
the water is coming up on the roads really fast, and I'm like,
oh my god, I hope I'm not gonna get caught in a flash flood
here. Um. I'd never that was, you know, I wouldn't have
been a big deal if I still had the jeep. But the car I
drive now, it's lower to the ground, and it was it was a
little hairy getting here. So anyway, I hope, I hope nobody got
caught in that in a really bad way. And of course it's stopped raining,
and I'm sure the waters receded on the streets and everything. But although
I remember a couple of years ago, had to be two maybe three years
ago, there was a summer storm where I think it was in the summer
at least, where there were parts of Manchester that actually had like real significant
flooding in the roads and it was and people got stuck, and it was
it was pretty bad. I remember seeing images online of a parking lot somewhere
in the city where it must have been, you know, kind of below
street level and in the parking lot where they had just like cars were you
know, the water was up past their tires. Really not good. So
it can happen anywhere. We're pretty fortunate here though. We rarely have any
kind of flooding or anything like that, or really any kind of extreme weather
events. So we're fortunate in that sense, you know. And then I
got here and we just like I said, we had a little bit of
tech issues, which I'm sure we're related to the storm. That cannot possibly
be a coincidence. So but here we are, so on this beautiful day.
I mean, it's rainy and dreary outside, but it's beautiful. Otherwise
we'll say he loot everybody in the Facebook live chat and then we'll get into
some stuff because I don't know if you all notice, but kind of a
big day, while a big weekend, I should say, in the news,
and that story is not over yet. There's still a lot we don't
know. We'll get to it, though, we will get to it.
It is certainly top of mind for me and I'm sure for many of you
as well. Hello to Miriam Bannish, who joins us in the Facebook live
chat. Good afternoon. Jenny is in the Facebook live chat and says shalom
from DC. Yes, Jenny is in Washington, DC right now as we
speak. She'll be returning tomorrow. But she had to give a speech yesterday
and another one today which she said was I think the I think she told
me a messenger was the largest crowd she'd ever spoken in front of. So
very proud of her. She's doing great things, Miriam says. Jerry Robinson
sounded a little like Gilbert Godfried and Bernie Sanders combined, which is impossible unless
Gilbert is speaking from the grave. No, that's that's a good insight though.
That is kind of how Jerry Robinson sounds actually although the somebody else he
reminds me of. Fredo also said in the chat room, good to know
EASYG is on the right side of things. Yes, EASYG. He doesn't.
He doesn't like it, you know, when these wrestlers they do you
dirty. He likes sportsmanship and honor. Alex Whiley, one of our friends
from the UK, is in the chat and says, good evening. Pheasant
pluckers. I'd be careful how I said that on the air, and may
make sure to enunciate the words correctly so I don't get myself in trouble.
Uh. Pheasant pluckers? Is that like a term for Americans? I don't
know. I can honestly say I never in my life have plucked a pheasant,
but I don't. I don't like to go near birds. They frightened
me. Charles Richardson from the state of Florida joins us in the Chireman says,
hey people, your nightmare is here. Oh my goodness. Alex Whiteley
says hard to drive through a storm in the aston Martin amatt ha, Oh
my goodness. Well, I'll tell you what I f only I knew,
Although I wonder how those are on gas. Let me give the studio line
again and then we'll get into the news of the weekend. Six three two
five six seven six three two five six seven. By the way, we're
supposed to have a guest joined us today too, and I'd mentioned on Friday,
but I have not heard from her and she's not here, so I
don't know if she caught in the rain or something came up. It is
not a big deal, but she is. Uh, let's just coming in
in the second hour. It's possible I may have misunderstood something. We'll see,
we'll play it by here. But yeah, so on Friday night,
you know, I'm here, of course for Retro Spectrum Radio on Friday nights
from eight to eleven PM. So Friday is my long day here. I
do double duty. I do this show and that show and one of Paul
C's co hosts on that show, and we have a fantastic time. Actually,
this past Friday was cool because so it was the usual crew of Paul
C and myself and DJ Steve and Mike from Queen City Cabinetry, but we
were also joined by Kyle Heavey, very important part of the WMH family.
The host of Off the Mark Sports, which you can hear on Sunday mornings
here on WMNH. So I was cool to have Kyle here as well.
So he's a great guy. I actually was on his show once. I'm
not a sports fan, but when back when Vince McMahon had initially stepped down
as chairman of WWE, I was invited to. I was invited to go
on the show and talk about it. So I had a good time.
But oh, Scott Robinson joins us in the chat and says, uh,
it's a little inside but if you know, you know, Scott said,
is it the state rep elect who is scheduled to come in today, Matt
to clear their name? Uh no, No, mister Crabs is uh,
we'll not be joining us on the premises. No, never again anyway.
Uh so, Uh so I was here Friday night and then the show's over,
we wrap up the show, you know, and then of course we're
here for a few minutes because Paul has to to save the file and upload
the show to uh the website WMH radio dot org, where of course all
the shows are archived. And I'm looking at the news and I see that
something is going on in Russia. And actually the first thing I saw was
somebody on Twitter had said made a comment about there might be a coup going
on right now in Russia, and that sure got my attention. And so
I'm looking and uh, and I see what's happening, And uh, how
do you say his name? Is it? I'm not sure I'm saying it
because you know, you hear you hear his name on the news and it's
uh, you hear it pronounced a couple of different ways. But VEGNI,
uh, you know what, I need to see it. I want to
make sure I'm getting his last name somewhat because I've never until today. Today
will be the first time I've ever spoken this individual's name on the show,
or actually probably the first time i've ever spoken is it. No, I'm
not going to say it correctly. I know I'm not. Let me just
look up here if I see it in front of me. Um. Yeah,
I've never said his name before ever. Pregosion yev Denny. Ye see
it looks like I feel like the why is silent, like it's Evgenny.
That's how I'm going to say it anyway, Evgeny Progosian, I keep wanting
to go dyslexic, dyslexic with it. See I can't even say dyslexic without
jumbling the letters. But uh, Progosian, I just seem to have his
last name correctly, really correct, progosion. Um. I see on the
news, in the news Friday night that progosion Is has formed a column,
a military column, marching towards Moscow, and all hell seems to have broken
loose. And I'm just in awe. I didn't see this coming. Apparently
some people thought it was this might happen, but not as quickly as it
did. But uh, but I was quite I was quite surprised to see
this happening. And then on Saturday, of course, the story continued.
And I'll tell you what I did. Look, I will be completely honest
with you. I did wake up Saturday morning with kind of a fantasy of
Vladimir Putin being dragged through the street. There was a part of me that
really wanted to see Progosion get all the way to Moscow and to see something
happened to Vladimir Putin. Because if you're a regular listener, you know how
I feel about Vladimir Putin. And I say that with apologies to any Tucker
Carlson fans who might be pro Russia, but I am anti Vladimir Putin,
nothing against the Russian people, but obviously I am anti Vladimir Putin, and
I want something terrible to happen to him. But there's the reality I've see.
There's so many different layers to this, which is part of what makes
it so fascinating with what happened over the weekend and what is happening now the
fallout from it, because maybe fallout's not the best word to use, because
we are talking about the potential destabilization of the world's largest nuclear power in terms
of you know, I mean, Russia has the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons
of any country in the world, even beyond that of the United States,
and has almost fifty percent of all of the world's nuclear weapons. So Russia
is a very powerful nuclear state. That's why whenever I hear people, whenever
I have heard people over the years kind of take Russia lightly, even Rhn
de Santis, I think at one point recently I heard him say something about
he called Russia just a glorified gas station with nuclear weapons, and it's like,
okay, Governor but the key is the key words in that phrase,
that you're using nuclear weapons, and they've got a lot of them. I
always like to remind people when when people get a little bit uh, sort
of cavalier about how we deal with Russia and don't seem to be taking Russia
seriously. I like to remind people. I mean, well, I shouldn't
say like, I really take no joy in it, but he should confront
the reality of it, I suppose, and the reality being that Russia has
the capability with long range ICBMs, they have the capability to destroy destroy the
United States and approximately the amount of time it takes a pizza delivered. So
just some food for thought, to continue the food analogy, because I like
pizza, but I don't like nuclear war, so I'd rather avoid that if
we could. So these are things that we need to keep in mind when
we talk about Russia. On the one hand, yes, of course,
I woke up Saturday morning within a mental picture in my mind which gave me
quite a chuckle of Vladimir Putin because I hate him and think he's evil being
dragged through the streets. But the reality is, of course, if that
were to happen, who takes his place, and Progosion is no hero.
He seems to be a hero to some people in Russia. I know that
there were some people who were taking selfies with him and were cheering him as
he was moving closer to Moscow. They had taken over with apparently without firing
a single shot, a city the name of which escapes me, but it
starts with an R. On their way to Moscow, and they got about
one hundred twenty miles close to Moscow when they decided to or Moscow. I
pronounce at Moscow. I know in broadcasting school they tell you there's no mosque,
there's no cow in Moscow. So I say Moscow, but say John
Hopwood yelled at me about that once. But whatever I'm gonna say out how
I like um. So they got about one hundred and twenty miles out and
then that was it. They turned around. Now Progosion again though he's he's
no hero. So while it's interesting to indulge, as I did in my
own mind, the ideas of Putin being deposed and something terrible happening to him
in the process, and by the way, if Putin ever is deposed as
the leader of Russia, it, you know, something it will be because
something terrible is happening to him, because it will probably whatever occurs will probably
occur in a very violent fashion. He's uh, you know, he's not
just going to go quietly certainly. Um. But but we don't know what
or who or how bad they might be would replace him. So so on
on one hand, yes, it's it's I mean, I I had a
mix of emotions just watching this all play out on Saturday. You know,
there's there's the excitement of oh, look, it's it's really coming apart in
Russia for Vladimir Putin. That's great. But then there's the also you have
to think about but wait again, Russia, being the world's most powerful country
from a standpoint of having nuclear weapons, is coming apart. Maybe that's actually
not so great. Um. And then if if progosion does get all the
way to Moscow and is who replaces Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin, ultimately he
might be worse, and he might be willing to use strategic nuclear weapons,
whereas Putin has restrained himself from doing and so forth. So we don't know
the potential consequences. Then, of course, if things really come apart.
I mean, who knows, you know, maybe a balkanization similar to what
happened when the Soviet Union dissolved the first time, when the Soviet Union came
apart. And but but we don't know. But but but then again,
who knows. Maybe Progosian would be better because maybe you know, Progosian and
I think this is part of why people some people might have been cheering for
him. Progosian did say, you know, he started pointing out that look,
you know, this war, Russia going into Ukraine and invading Ukraine,
it's based on lies. They're lying to you. Now, he was very
careful though, like he takes umbridge with Shogu the or shoigu Shogu or sho
I think is shoigu Ministry of Defense. I think is a title minister of
defense, kind of like a secretary of defense or secretary of state. Here
he took issue with him and one of the big generals, I forget his
name starts with an M. I think, but avoided directly attacking Vladimir Putin.
But what he did say, is what he started saying, was,
look, they lied to you, and this war is based on lies.
This invasion is based on lies and they shouldn't have done it, and we
want the truth, and that's why we're going to Moscow. So would Progosion
have if the coup had been successful, which he denies that the coup was
ever even in the offing to begin with, But who knows? So if
a coup had been successful and he had taken over installed himself, because there's
no it's not like this some sort of succession plan in Russia. You know,
Putin's been in power for twenty three years in some form or fashion.
And I say it that way because sometimes he's president, sometimes he's prime minister.
You know, there was one point where he'd been president for a while,
but then there were term limits, so then he made himself prime minister
to let Medvedev be president. But Putin was obviously really in control, or
maybe it's even the other way around. It gets confusing, but Putin makes
sure that he's always the guy at the top, and has for more than
two decades now. But would Progosian have gotten in there and said that's it,
We're ending this war. Maybe who knows, but we should be very
clear about who Avegni Progosian is, of course ahead of the Wagner group,
a criminal and a butcher, not a good guy, and nobody should be
cheering for him, and I suppose nobody should be cheering him on. So
maybe I was wrong to even ever have those fantasies about something terrible happening of
Ladimir Putin under these circumstances. But you know, um, but who could
blame me? I mean, you know that the man is responsible for so
much death and misery, and uh, you know, if if there is
a hell, I would hope that there's a special corner there for him.
But um, but but we don't know. We don't know what what the
result of that would have been. By the way, it is probably very
unlikely, and this may have a lot to do with why Progosion turned around
when he did. Probably very unlikely that they would have been successful when they
had gotten to Moscow anyway, I mean, I think, uh, you
know, they had something like, I mean, tens of thousands of troops
in that column, I think, but it wouldn't have been enough to overcome
the army in Moscow. So Putin would have put down that rebellion. Probably
he would have been successful but at what cost? Meanwhile, at what cost
was making that deal with progosion? Put appears to be weakened in terms of
his power and his grip on power in Russia. How weaken dizzy? I
don't know. I'm a little bit concerned that some people in the media people,
as they're analyzing this, I'm a little bit concerned that some people might
be over overestimating the degree to which Putin has been weakened and humiliated and so
forth, because at the end of the day, he is still in power,
and he was able to stop this coup before it really got going.
So I don't know. I mean, one would hope that you would see
and hear more and more people within Russia really kind of rebelling against Putin and
you would hope that what has happened now damages the way people view Putin on
the global stage. So for example, China, does Ji jing Ping start
to look at Vladimir Putin and say, ah, he's not in as strong
a position as I thought he was, So maybe I want to back off
a little bit. You know, they have that they have a relationship where
they said they were remember when they got together. It I forget what some
of it was, and they said, this no limits to the degree to
which they will cooperate with each other and work together and have this alliance.
And by the way, it turned out, thankfully that there have been limits
to that, because Putin did at one point or probably more than once,
went to Jijingping hat in hand and said, will you please start providing us
with weapons because we're running out and China thus far has not granted that particular
request. So that turns out there are some limitations. There might be more
limitations now going forward. So does Jijing Ping start to reava evaluate how cozy
he's gotten with Russia? Um? Modi was here from India. Modi,
by the way, also not a good guy. Uh, And it's it's
wild to see people in the United States cheering for him. Um. I
mean, there are worse leaders than Modi, like Vladimir Putin and ji Jingping.
But Modi's record on human rights isn't great either, and we should not
forget that when we when you know, when we're discussing him, I mean
to you know, he goes to speak before Congress, and the way they're
cheering for him, I understand the pragmatism involved in that you know, we
need India and they need us, and just like with China, we need
China and they need us. I get it to a degree, but jeez,
tone it down a little bit, huh. Anyway, I don't want
to get sidetracked. But the point is, does what happened this weekend begin
to weaken Putin's position on the world stage. I'm not sure that it does
as much as a lot of people think that it does. But I hope
that it does as much as people think that it does. But again,
there are the unknowns. If something happens to Putin, what happens then you
know, honestly, if Russia didn't have an enormous armament of nuclear weapons,
wouldn't care nearly as much. But he does, so we have to worry.
Miriam Banish in the chat Room says, weakening him can make him more
dangerous. He might start making panicked decisions that would suck for all of us.
That is an excellent point, am, Absolutely, that is an excellent
point. Alex Whiteley says, Russia are getting served on toast by Ukraine right
now. Putin bit off more than he could chew. And yes, this
war needs to end right now, well, of course, unfortunately, I
don't think that's going to happen. But but it's about to get a lot
tougher for Vladimir Putin. Oh, easy, Jesus sent me something. Oh
yes, Putin did. Uh, let's see now Putin did. Finally,
by the way, last I knew. Now I don't know if this is
still the case at this moment, but last I knew. No one was
exactly sure where Vladimir Putin was or is. I mean he he did make
an address to the nation, and we will look at this. Easyg sent
this, Thank you Eric. He did make an address, but that doesn't
mean he's necessarily at the Kremlin. And that was the other thing too.
Over the way, so and by the way, where is um where is
progosion? I think he kind of uh put his hand up today and said,
oh, I'm in Minsk. I'm fine, I'm in Minsk, Belarus.
I'm gonna make sure I don't go to the second floor of any buildings,
you know, because apparently that's how Putin likes to kill people. He
likes to have them shoved out of windows. I mean he also likes to
poison them. Alexei Alexey navalni can tell you that. But but apparently there's
one of his favorite modus operendi is to have his opponents pushed out of windows.
But but we don't know that, We don't know who is actually where.
They can tell us where they are, but are they really there?
So let's actually let's look at this. So Eric sent us this from euronews
dot com and is addressed to the nation. Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned what
he called the criminal actions of those who staged an armed mutiny. Russian President
Vladimir Putin thanked the nation today for unity after an armed I'm laughing because as
I read that, when I hear him thanking the nation for unity, the
first thing that pops into my mind, and this is probably true for some
of you as well. The first thing that pops into my mind is the
mental image of Progosion being cheered and people taking selfies with him, and people
applauding him as he was about to be whisked away to Minsk, Belarus.
I like saying that Minsk. So I don't know about the unity. I
think he's I think that's some wishful thinking. I understand he's gonna he's gonna
put on a brave face and try to put a put a positive spin on
things. But anyway, I'm sorry, I just I couldn't get out of
that. I couldn't even get through that sentence without laughing and thinking of you
know, people treating progosion like he's some sort of hero. And Putin's talking
about unity anyway, all right back to it. Russian President of Vladimir Putin
thanct the nation for unity after an armed rebellion over the weekend was aboarded less
than twenty four hours after it began. Earlier in the day, the mercenary
chief defended his short lived insurrection in a boastful statement in his first appearance since
the rebellion ended. Putin also thanked most of the mercenaries for not letting the
situation deteriorate into bloodshed. He said, all the necessary measures have been taken
to protect the country and the people from the rebellion. Wait, am I
understanding this correctly? He thanked most of the mercenaries for not letting the situation
deteriorate in the bloodshed. This is not typical Putin usually, you know vintage
Putin is you crossed me? Or you dared to almost cross me, or
you dared threatened across me, or you dared even allowed the faintest thought or
idea enter your mind to cross me. So now you must die. That's
you know, you won't know it's coming, you won't see it's coming.
But now I'm going to kill you. That's what Putin usually does. He
doesn't usually thank people for not taking things too far. That's very conciliatory on
Vladimir Putin's part, which makes me suspect that either he's terrified that those same
mercenaries will rise again, whether progosions around or not, which is probably unlikely,
or he's trying to sweet talk them into signing up with the Russian military,
because that was apparently part of the deal. The Wagner group mercenaries who
were in that column marching toward Moscow. They will not be prosecuted, they
will not be charged if they simply agree to sign contracts with the Russian military
and go fight with those clowns and go back in the Ukraine and walk into
the meat grinder that the Russian military walks you into. So I don't know,
or or he's just trying to lull them into a false sense of security
where they will think, oh, we're safe. He's thanking us, he
appreciates us. We didn't let things get too out of control. That's wonderful.
And then he, you know, will kill them. I don't know
anyway, so he thanked them. He blamed quote Russia's enemies and said they
miscalculated. Now this is um, Yeah, this is part of the spin
and by the way, completely predictable. So he wants to spin it as
the United States and the rest of NATO they did this, which obviously he
knows his bs and obviously everyone else knows his BS. But that's what he's
going to try to spin this as. Because from the beginning he's tried to
you know, from the moment that the United States and others began supporting the
rest of NATO began supporting Ukraine in this war, Putin has tried to spin
it as we're not at war with Ukraine, where at war with NATO.
Where at war with the West, and Ukraine is a part of that now,
or they're trying to be that's who we're really at war with. The
Kremlin also tried to project stability today when authorities released a video of Russia's defense
minister reviewing troops in Ukraine. Okay, Yuvegni Progosian, the head of the
Mercenary Group, said he wasn't seeking to stage a coup, but was acting
to p event the destruction of Wagner, his private military company. He said
in an eleven minute statement, giving no details about where he was or what
his plans were. Quote, we started our march because of an injustice unquote.
Okay, what does that mean? Actually, he had said, even
when this began on Friday night, he said, this isn't a coup where
on some sort of we're seeking truth or justice or something. And it seemed
to be in regard to him blaming the Russian military for killing some of his
guys and an airstrike and you know, fog of war type stuff. I
guess, I don't know. I don't know. There's so much of this,
it is so bizarre. Hello to Mike from Queen City Cabinetry, who
joins us in the Facebook live chat. Also Archer Flight, who says we
are watching you from Greensboro, North Carolina. The feud between the Wagner Group
leader in Russia's military brass is festered throughout the war, erupting into a mutiny
over the weekend when mercenaries left Ukraine to see a military headquarters in a southern
Russian city. They rolled seemingly unopposed for hundreds of miles toward Moscow before turning
around after less than twenty four hours. On Saturday, the Kremlin said it
had made a deal for Progosion to move to Belarus and receive amnesty along with
his soldiers. There was no confirmation of his whereabouts today, although a popular
Russian news channel on telegram reported that he was at a hotel in the Belarusian
capital of Minsk. By the way, funny thing about that, apparently the
hotel that he's alleged to be at, So I guess we do know where
he is, assuming that that's true, the hotel that he's at has no
windows, or at least a part of the hotel that he's in, and
that's not a coincidence. Again, Putin likes having people pushed out of windows
if you cross him, so smart, and that guy should not Progosian should
not leave the bottom floor of any building. He should always remain on the
ground floor. Progosian taunted Russia's military today, calling his march a master class
on how it should have carried out February twenty twenty two invasion of Ukraine.
He also mocked the military for failing to protect Russia, pointing out security breachers
that allowed Wagner to march seven hundred eighty kilometers towards Moscow without facing resistance.
The bullish statement made no clearer what would ultimately happen to Progosian and his forces
under the deal purportedly brokered by Belarusan President Alexander Lukashenka. Progosian said only that
Lukashenko quote proposed finding solutions for the Wagner private military company to continue its work
in a lawful jurisdiction unquote that suggested Progosian might keep his military force, although
it wasn't immediately clear which jurisdiction he was referring to. And by the way,
that might be what keeps Progosian alive. See, if it were anybody
else, you would know their days were probably numbered. Because again, what
Putin does to his political enemies, to anyone who daris cross him as he
kills them. In the case of progosion, though you're talking about somebody who
has this very large private military who might just come and kill you if you
kill their leader. So it's not quite as simple. In other words,
trying to get Progosian is not as quite as simple as say, poisoning Alexey.
I can never say his name navalni Okay, the independent Russian news outlet.
Let me rephrase, because I have no idea how to pronounce that.
A an independent a Russian news outlet claimed, so I don't have to say
the name. Claimed the construction of a field camp for up to eight thousand
Wagner troops was underway in an area of Belarus about two hundred kilometers north of
the border with Ukraine. The report could not be independently verified the Belarusian military
or Belarussian I hear, I hear it pronounced both ways. Yeah, we'll
go with Belarussian military. It's easier to say monitoring group, A money monitoring
group. I have no idea how to say that said today on telegram that
it had seen no activity in that district consistent with construction of a facility,
and had no indications of Wagner convoys in or moving toward Belarus. Though the
mutiny was brief, it was not bloodless. Russia media reported that several military
helicopters and a communications plane were shot down by Wagner forces, killing at least
fifteen I didn't realize that. Actually Progosian expressed regret for attacking the aircraft,
but said they were bombing his convoys. Ah, yes, okay, that
goes back to he was he claimed that they were Yeah, that they were
bombing his convoys. Russian media reported that a criminal case against Progosian has not
been closed despite earlier Kremlin's statements, and some Russian lawmakers called for his head.
Andre Gerulev, a retired general and current lawmaker who has had roused with
the mercenary leader, said Progosian and his right hand manned Dmitri Utkin deserve quote
a bullet in the head unquote. That is very um blunt. And Nikita
your Refev, a city council member in Saint Petersburg, said he filed an
official request with Russia's Prosecutor General's office and the Federal Security Service or FSB,
asking who would be punished for the rebellion, given that Russian President Vladimir Putin
vowed in a Saturday morning address to punish those behind it. It was unclear
what resources Progosian can drawn and how much of his substantial wealth he can access.
Police searching the Saint Petersburg office and the rebellion found four billion rubles in
trucks outside the building, according to Russian media reports confirmed by the Wagner boss.
He said the money was intended to pay his soldiers families. Russian media
reported that Wagner offices and several cities had reopened on Monday, and the company
had resumed enlisting recruits. See I have to remember Wagner. You know they
operated in other parts of the world, like in Africa. They have a
large operation there. Part of how Progosian makes his money is, you know,
they steal. They steal from these countries in Africa, they mining operations
and so forth. In a return to at least superficial normality, Moscow's mayor
announce an end to the counter terrorism regime imposed on the capitol Saturday, when
troops and armored vehicles set up checkpoints on the outskirts and authorities tore up roads
leading into the city. The Defense Minister published a video of a defense chief
Sergei Shoigu in a helicopter and then meeting with officers at a military headquarters in
Ukraine. It was unclear when the video was shot. It came as Russian
media speculated that Shoigu and other military leaders have lost Putin's confidence and could be
replaced. Before the uprising, Progosian had blasted Shoigu and General Staff Chief General
Valerie garassimof with expletive written insults for months, accusing them of failing to provide
his troops with enough ammunition during the fight for the Ukrainian town of Bachmut,
the war's long and bloodiest battle. Progosian statement appeared to confirm analysts view that
the revolt was a desperate move to save Wagner from being dismantled after an order
that all private military companies signed contracts with the Defense Ministry by July one.
That part of it I did not realize. Interesting, because I've been trying
to understand why, why would Progosian do this to begin with, He's essentially
now as a price on his head, you know, presumably he's got to
be in terrible danger. Progosian said, most of his fighters refused to come
under the Defense Ministry's command and the force plan to hand over the military equipment
was using in Ukraine. On June thirtieth, after pulling out of Ukraine and
gathering in the southern city of oh This is the name of the city I
was trying to remember earlier, Rostov, Rostov on Don, Rostov on Don.
That's the city that they took over without they claim, Progosian claims,
without firing a single shot. He accused the Defense Ministry of attacking Wagner's camp,
prompting them to move sooner. Russian political A Russian political analyst said on
Twitter, Actually, I might be able to say this. Tatiana stanta Vaya
said on Twitter the Progosian's mutiny quote wasn't a bid for power or an attempt
to overtake the Kremlin unquote, but a desperate move amid his escalating rift with
the military leadership. While Progosian could get out of the crisis alive, he
doesn't have a political future in Russia under Putin. It was unclear what the
fissures opened by the twenty four hour rebellion would mean for the war in Ukraine,
where Western officials say Russia's troops suffer low morale. Wogner's forces were key
to Russia's only land victory in months in bach Mute. The UK Ministry of
Defense said today and Ukraine had that Ukraine had gained impetus in its push around
bak Moot making progress North. Okay, we're getting into the little bit into
the weeds here. But but but there is more. There is more to
dig into here. Like I said, there's quite a few layers. But
we are we are well past the top of the hour. So let's do
this. Let's take a break. Welcome back, everybody is we proceed into
our final set today on Matt Connerton Unleashed. We are live from the studios
of w m n H ninety five point three FM and Glorious Downtown Manchester,
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is Monday, June twenty six, two thousand twenty three and the studio line
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give us a call at six o three two five six seven six two five
six seven. UM. Of course we've been talking about today the big big
news over the weekend, UH, the UH the coup attempt, although Progosian
says it was not a coup, not a coup and it certainly didn't didn't
get very far, but quite the news coming out of Russia over the weekend,
and it will be fascinating to see what happens from here. UM.
Obviously, you know, the Ukrainians were We're very happy to see this,
and I think that they would have been happiest if there had in fact been
fighting on the streets of Moscow. The Wagner Group versus UH the Russian military
there, but they would have been happy to see that. But the truth
is, um, you know, if you take the Wagner group, if
the Wagner Group is no longer in the fight than the Ukrainians already, I
mean, this is a big victory for them, because going forward, if
the Ukrainians are having to fight trying to fend off the largely incompetent, undertrained,
inexperienced Russian military, I mean, they've really underperformed people. I remember,
very early in this conflict, when Russia first went in and began to
invade Ukraine, people were pretty surprised at the apparent and competence of the Russian
military. They did not seem to be performing up to the standard that one
would have expected, which is a good thing, right and you know,
and it helps that the Ukrainians were willing to put up a hell of a
fight and that we were helping them, aiding them with weapons and so forth.
But now what happens now that you take the Wagner group out because you
had a the reason that Putin wanted the Wagner Group in there helping to fight
is that not only are they ruthless, you know, the Wagner group.
These are mercenaries who I think most of them, if if I understand correctly,
are criminals there that you know they were in prison and you know someone
comes along and says, hey, you can get out of prison, but
you know you can. You can go with us and fight and you might
very well die in battle. But if you're lucky enough to live your record,
your criminal record will be expunged and you can have a life again.
And so people take that deal and they go and uh Progosion as a commander
seems to know what he's doing because they had a lot of success m but
the gains that the Usan military was able to make, however, in most
cases temporary. They might be like taking bach Moot for example, that was
the Wagner group. That wasn't the Russian military. That was a Wagner group
who was able to do that. So now you take them out of the
equation and what do you have. You just have an incompetent Russian military to
deal with. So it's definitely a win for Ukraine. I mean again,
I'm sure if you're sitting in Ukraine and you see what's happening in Russia and
you see the Wagner group marching towards Moscow. You know, you're you're pulling
out the popcorn and you're having a good time watching this. There was somebody
who actually I think somebody in Zelenski's administration who even posted a picture of himself
eating popcorn and watching what was happening or something like that. But but you
take the Wagner Group out of it, and you know this. I mean,
I'm not saying that now Ukraine will be able to successfully kick Russia out.
I think this war is going to grind on no matter what. But
it just got a lot tougher for Vladimir Putin. But the other thing is
too. Not only has the Russian military been shown to be largely incompetent,
but morale. How much lower is morale going to get? See? I
wonder, I wonder how much of this filters down, how much of what's
going on Because we live in a world where, you know, you have
the Internet, and I realize that in some places the Internet is restricted somewhat,
so you can't necessarily access all the same information and data in Russia,
or in China or in a run or many other places that you can in
the United states and in NATO countries and so forth. Right, you know,
government's control as best they can what information filters down to their citizens,
but you can't control all of it. You can't block all of it.
And there are apps that are used, like I guess telegram is very popular
in Russia, the telegram app, because you can communicate with that and they
can't. They can't keep you from communicating with it. So how much of
this is filtering down? Two? These conscripts. Remember many of these people,
maybe most, I don't know the numbers of these individuals that are fighting
in the Russian military. They were drafted, they're not even volunteer army.
And of course we know many of them who even were volunteer army. They
were told, you know, before the conscription started, before the invasion of
Ukraine started, they were told, yeah, we're just going on a training
exercise. Oh yeah, we're gonna go We're gonna go to the border.
We're gonna go to the border of Russia and Ukraine. But it's just a
it's an exercise. It's a training exercise, that's all. And then next
thing you know, they're going in and they're invading. It's no secret that
they were lied to. So what does it do to the morale? Because
if you want to have your military be successful in any kind of an operation,
you want them to feel good about what they're doing in some way,
right. I mean, it's probably impossible for most people, unless you know,
you're a total psychopath, to actually feel good about going and killing people
people who, in this case, people who aren't much different from you,
people who look like you, who speak the same language, you know,
people who you might even know. But you want them to be motivated,
right, Well, what is what is something like this to if morale is
already low? Because first they were told what's just a trading exercise, and
then it turned out to be a full scale invasion, and then I'm sure
they were old by their commanders well okay, yeah, whoops, Yeah,
it's a full scale invasion. But don't worry, we're just taking Ukraine.
We're much more powerful, we'll overrun them. It's gonna be great. Then
it turns out not to be so great because Ukrainians fight back. They're not
just going to roll over and die for you. And you know, over
the course of this season, what has it been now it's been, has
it been a year and a half. No, not quite right, I
think it's been. Has it been a I'm not good at math. That's
been almost it's approaching a year and a half. So we've all heard the
stories and seeing the stories about supply line issues in terms of getting ammunition to
the troops, getting food to the troops, getting military equipment that works properly,
functions correctly, all of this. So all of that us to take
a take a terrible toll on morale. And then and then on top of
all of that, here you are fighting in the Russian military for a cause
that you're probably not too enthusiastic about to begin with, or maybe even feel
terribly about. You're just trying to get through it. And then you start
hearing about the Wagner Group marching towards Moscow, and you start hearing about how
how Progosian has been saying, you know, the guy running the Wagner group
from the beginning that well, and then recently saying it pretty loudly that you
know, you've all been lied to, and this is just those in control
of the military and Russia trying to line their own pockets. They're just doing
it for themselves and their own enrichment. They don't actually even care that much
about Ukraine. It's all a scam boy, that's all got a way on
you, right. So so this is all very good for Ukraine because you've
got an incompetent Russian military to begin with. It couldn't get it done on
their own, so they needed the Wagner Group. And now the Wagner Group
is going away. And oh and bonus. Now if you're in the Russian
military, some of your new fellow soldiers will actually be from the Wagner Group
because they either have to agree to sign up to be part of the actual
Russian military or they might get sent back to prison. I say back to
prison because a lot of these people are convicts to begin with, and they
got out of prison by a green to fight for the Wagner Group. Well,
now these people are going to be fighting alongside you, and they are
vicious. The Wagner Group is known for being quite vicious butchers. You don't
know if you can trust them. You don't know what is there going to
be another mutiny? Now you're going to be caught in the middle of it.
Ah, what a miserable time to be a Russian soldier fighting this war.
It's all got away on you. And how are they going to keep
these Hou's Putin going to keep these people motivated? Meanwhile, Putin is in
the weakest position that he's been in in twenty three years. What happened over
the weekend. Again, just because it was over quickly doesn't mean that the
damage is not long term. Now, I said earlier in the show,
and for those of you just joining us, you didn't hear me say it,
but I did say earlier in the show, I'm a little bit concerned
that there might be some degree of a rational exuberance when people are talking about
Putin's weekend position. Time will tell if his position has been weakened as much
as some of us would like to believe that it has. Time will tell
hopefully it has. Hopefully it's been weakened even more than any of us think.
But I'm not so sure we should be racing to that conclusion, much
as we want to believe that. But um, in all of his time,
I mean, he's never he's never faced anything like this, and we
know, you know, historically when there's a coup attempt, sometimes it works
out, sometimes it doesn't um. I mean, there was a coup attempt
in nineteen ninety one, Hardliners attempted to take over and that didn't work out.
But then by nineteen ninety three Gorbachev was out anyway, So again there's
lasting damage that is done even if even if there is no coup. And
again I get it. Progosian said, well it wasn't it was never meant
to be a coup, Okay, But regardless, there's there's damage done and
Putin does seem to be in somewhat of a weakened position. Alex Whiteley says
in the chat room, I think all this does is give the Ukrainians a
bit of respite at best. Well, yeah, I would say, though
I don't think. I don't think there's any respite in that they're going to
They're not going to let up at all. That's the thing. The Ukrainians
just continue, you know. They they every opportunity they have to fight back,
they take it and they push it as far as they can. So
I think they're just going to keep fighting harder and harder and really take advantage
of this. Alex Whiteley says, I could all be smoke and mirrors.
Propaganda designed to throw Ukraine off its guard. I doubt it. I doubt
that, Alex, because that's a hell of a risk for Putin to take
the damage to his own reputation in the process of this. Um, yeah,
that'd be I mean, it's an interesting theory and I had thought of
that too, but it seems unlikely to me. Ron is on the line,
high Ron, Yeah, Matt, jeez, I wish he had another
two hours. You you got such a great show going on here. Oh,
thank you so much. In forward, this is the kind of stuff
that I collect. Tell me about winter, Um, it's come and gone
just once. It affected Ukraine more than Russia. What did what did once
they have to do with the war as far as uh, getting people,
recollecting, resupplying, I don't know. And I'll thank your answer off.
Yeah, okay, thanks Ron, appreciate it all right. That was our
friend, Ron, And um, yeah, I don't know. I think,
Um, I think this past winter, Um, there was a lot
of worry about how Ukraine was going to survive. Although, to be honest
with you, see when I think of Winter and it's effect on the war,
I don't think so much of I mean, look, the Ukrainians have
shown themselves to be very tough, tougher than anyone imagined, especially Vladimir Putin.
I think, right, you know, so they dig in and they
get through it. I don't know if I think in some ways winter might
be might actually help the Russians because something that went wrong for the Russians if
you think back to the start of the invasion, because I was in February
of last year when Putin rolled the tanks. It was still winter, so
the ground was still frozen, and we operate under the assumption that Putin thought
that it would be easy, that this whole thing would be over quick and
easy a couple of days. Maybe he thought, you know, they'd be
greeted as liberators quote unquote, remember that phrase from American history. But what
happened was, you know, they got bogged down because the Ukrainians fought back
again more so than Putner or anyone probably expected. And then so it's winter
turns to spring, and the ground is beginning to thaw and everything's turning to
mud, and these big Russian tanks are getting stuck in the mud. So
I think as far as rolling the tanks, it was an advantage during winter.
It is an advantage during winter, but in the but then when the
thaw comes, you know you got you got tanks getting stuck. But honestly,
when I think of winter, the first thing that I think of in
terms of this war is not Ukraine or Russia or the fighting. The first
thing I think of is Germany. Because I like to give credit where where
credit is due. So for example, very early in the war, I
said, hey, shout outs to Poland, because Poland really stepped up huge
in terms of taking taking in refugees, refugees spilling over the borders, and
they didn't complain about it. They were glad to do it. I mean,
I'm sure it caused a lot of internal strife within the country, but
they really stepped up and did it. But I also, whenever I think
of winter, I always want to give props to Germany. Germany had always
been has been very heavily dependent on Russian energy, and Germany said, this
winter, we are not going to use Russian energy to keep warm. We're
going to be self sufficient. And nobody thought they could do it. And
I think everyone understood, Okay, Germany is going to do the best that
they can here to cut off Russia. But Germany cannot allow itself to freeze
to death either, so you know, there might have to be some compromise
there. There might have to be some give Germany didn't give in. They
got through it, they figured it out and they got through the winter.
And much respect to Germany for that, um. But also I know,
I mean in terms of Ukraine, I know the winters there are brutal,
and uh so, I'm sure it's it's very difficult. Fighting there is probably
more difficult than the winter in that sense. But other than that, I
don't know. I hope that somewhat answers your question. Ron, I'm not.
I'm not sure I know enough about the fighting in the different seasons to
really really answer that effectively. But but it's a good question, and you
know, unfortunately, there may be more winters to come as this war drags
on. There might be more winters to come where we yet to observe that
if this war does drag on for years, which it very well may.
But then again again, you take the Varner group out of the equation,
maybe it doesn't, maybe it doesn't. It's possible that Putin's going to have
to come to the negotiating table, because again, the Russian military in itself
just isn't enough to do this without the Wagner group. You know, they're
they're gonna, they're gonna continue to be decimated. Um and but there's no
clear off ramp for Putin either. Um. What was the It was something
else. Oh, Adam Kinzinger, who I think he's an analyst now for
CNN. You know he didn't he left Congress. He uh, he was
part of the part of the committee, the January sixth committee, of course,
one of the two Republicans along with Liz Chenney on the committee. And
since then he's been I think he's I think he works as an analyst for
CNN primarily. But um, interestingly enough, now you've seen in the Republican
Party in recent years some Republicans who are seem to have somewhat of an affinity
for Russia and for Putin, UM hopefully less so. I think some of
them have found that not tenable to maintain that. But you know Tucker Carlson,
who is kind of a almost a spokesperson for the Republican Party in a
sense with his show. I remember when the when the war started, Carlson
openly said that he was he was rooting for Putin. His exact words,
he said, I'm rooting for Putin. Um, so there is certainly a
pro there seems to be a pro again, hopefully it's shrinking, but a
pro Russia wing of the Republican Party. And uh, this is from Newsweek.
Adam Kinsinger mock's Republican Russia lovers as Putin faces mutiny, says your former
representative. Adam Kinsinger took aim at high profile Republicans who he called Russia lovers
on Twitter, as Russian President Vladimir Putin is currently facing a rebellion within his
own country from the Wagner Group. Wagner Group founder Vegni Pregoshin, who was
once a Putin ally, revolted against the Russian military defense and accused the Russian
military of attack and his group's positions in Ukraine. He also targeted Putin.
Okay, we know all that. I'm going to skip down here. In
a tweet on Friday, Kinsinger, an Illinois Republican, took a shot at
former President Donald Trump, GOP Representative Marjorie Taylor Green of Georgia, and Republican
Senators Ted Cruz of Texas in Josh Holly of Missouri, as well as former
Fox News host Tucker Carlson and former Representative Tulsey Gabbard of Hawaii. Notably,
Gabbard previously served in Congress as a Democrat, but left the political party last
year and has aligned herself with conservatives on a number of issues. All of
the individuals mentioned by Kinsinger of criticized US military support for Ukraine and in some
cases spoken highly of Russia. Um. This is what t's Kinsinger tweeted.
It appears the dream of at Tucker Carlson, at Ted Cruz, at Hollymo,
at Tulsei Gabbard, at Rep. MTG and so many more of a
strong Russia are evaporating even faster. Tag your favorite Russia lover. Um.
In another tweet on Saturday morning, Kinsinger said this good morning to everyone except
those who thought Russia was a stable, strong country with which to model ourselves
after I'm thinking like hashtag Holly m O and at I'm sorry at Hollymo,
not hashtag sorry. The Greensboro, North Carolina contingent has me confused. I'm
thinking like at Hollymo, Josh Holley of Missouri and at Tucker, Carlson and
of course Trump. Many of us knew it would fall apart, just a
bit earlier than most expected. Unquote. In a Friday afternoon tweet, the
former congressman mocked Carlson and Gabbard, saying sorry at Tucker Carlson, at Tulsea
Gabbard, and all the Trumps and their toadies. In addition, Kinsinger slammed
Carlson last year over his support of the invasion of Ukraine after new evidence of
atrocities committed by Russian troops surfaced. Carlson has been regularly featured on Russian state
television and has been utilized as propaganda by the Kremlin due to comments he has
made about the war. By the way, that's something to keep in mind
for those of you who maybe you oppose Russia, but you somehow find a
way to rationalize in your own mind all these pro Russia people saying they're pro
Russia stuff. You find ways to kind of overlook that. Just be aware
everything these people say gets used on Russia state television as a means of saying,
oh, look, here's some honest Americans who know we're right. You
got to understand, you know, we can say that everyone has a right
to their opinion, everyone can express themselves. If you have these people in
our government and in media who are pro Russia and they want to say it,
they have a right to say it. But if they happen to be
someone you like, I'm not saying just because you disagree with them on that
one thing, you should now condemn them. But just be aware of how
that is used on Russia state television. You know, every time Tucker Carlson
publicly praises Putin, praises Russia, talks about how he can't can't wait until
Russia is finally done of viscerating Ukraine. Every time Tulsi Gabbard spews her pro
Russia nonsense, you know, any of them, Marjorie Taylor maybe maybe maybe
they have enough sense to realize Marjorie Taylor Green is just backcrap crazy, and
they don't bother using her stuff. But you know, just be aware.
If you like these people and you agree with them on most things, fine,
but don't be afraid to speak up and say, hmm, I don't
like when they do that, because it's the enemy. Literally, the enemy
takes that and uses it for their own propaganda and Russian State TV as the
name as an implies, we call it Russian State TV because it's run by
the state. It's run by Russia. The message that Vladimir Putin himself wants
Russians to see him here comes from Russian state controlled media. That's why it's
state controlled. And they love seeing Tucker Carlson talking about how pro Russia he
is. So just be aware of what these people are doing. And by
the way, not for nothing. But you know, we're talking about some
pretty big media names here, but there's also people in the online media world,
some high profile podcasters who you're not going to see them on cable news,
right They're they're operating more just strictly online media. But there's some pretty
big people like Jackson Hinkel, for example. You may have heard of him
if you're interested in podcasts and so forth, although he has appeared on cable
news. Oh and guess who interviewed him on his show, of course,
Tucker Carlson. So Jackson Hinkle has appeared on Fox. But Jackson Hinkle is
very anti Ukraine, pro Russia. But here's the thing you look at,
who's funding some of these people who spread this nonsense. You know they're not
they're not independently wealthy. Somebody's paying them. Somebody like Jackson Hinkel. You
know he gets he gets paid. In other words, they're they're not so
much. They're not journalists, they're they're influencers, and they're paid to push
a specific agenda. Not really unlike how if you're in cable news, you're
also paid to pay a paid to push a certain agenda. Right, you
know if you're I mean simple as easiest examples. If you're on Fox,
you're paid to push a conservative agenda. If you're on MSNBC, you're paid
to push a liberal agenda. It's no different in the world of podcasting,
except they're more brazen and more shameless about it. And you'll see these podcasts.
Jimmy Dora is another example. Gee, I'd like to know who's paying
Jimmy dore Right. He used to be with the Young Turks, super progressive,
liberal guy, but somehow he's anti vax he's uh and he loves Putin.
I guess his pro Russia. Um. Gee, I wonder where he
gets his money. Um. And by the way, I can say this
because I know that these we're talking about people who are who are big enough
that they they're they're like legitimately famous or at least Internet famous. They don't
they don't even know I exist. So it's not like they're gonna, oh,
do you hear about what that guy in Manchester, New Hampshire said about
you? That's that's not going to be an issue. Um, let's see.
Just to finish up on this, And by the way, I'm sorry
for going off on a tangent, but I just I want people to understand
when you look, if you agree with them, fine, if you're pro
Russia, so you agree with other people who are pro Russia, fine,
you can all be pro Russia, and that's too bad. I'm sorry to
hear that you're pro Russia if you are, but you have a right to
do that. But I'm just saying, just be aware. If you're not
pro Russia, but you hear people spreading this pro Russia rhetoric, it's not
it. This isn't something that just happens in an echo chamber. There's a
larger purpose for what they're doing. And I just I'm worried that people don't
realize that and they're naive to it, and then they act as enablers without
meaning to for that kind of thing. Okay, just to finish this off.
In twenty twenty one, cruise ted Cruz was accused of promoting Russia propaganda.
While Green has repeatedly ripped the Biden administration for sending military and humanitarian aid
to Ukraine and as obviously criticized Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenski, Trump has described Putin
as quote very smart, unquote and repeatedly touted his positive relationship with the Russian
leader while criticizing the administration of Joe Biden's response to the war in Ukraine.
During an appearance on CNN on Friday, Kinsinger called Progosian's stands toward the Russian
military a massive blow to Carlson, who he accused of quote parroting Putin talking
points and lies. Kinsinger also said, quote I think, on the other
hand, too, this is extremely good for the war in Ukraine because even
if even if as Progosian is marching on Moscow, even if that fails,
Wagner is out of the fight, and they were a significant part of the
effort against Ukraine. Not to mention that all around the world, Wagner protects
Russian interests, whether it's in Africa, Libya and other places right right exactly.
By the way, that is part though, of what what Kinsinger points
out there about Wagner, about Progosion and the Wagner Group specifically in their operations
around the world. It almost in a way to me, makes it even
that much more puzzling Progosian's behavior, because it seems to me he's got quite
a business going, He's got quite this international business going, and he put
it all in jeopardy. He rolled the dice and risked throwing it all away
over the weekend with his march towards Moscow, and for what for something that
he knew, He had to have known couldn't possibly work anyway, or he
wouldn't have blinked. Now you could argue that he blinked, or the Putin
blinked, or they both blinked by making the steal, which neither of them
comes out. Nobody comes out of this situation looking good. But anyway,
we are about out of time, my friends. I think I'm gonna play
one more track from Heels Throne, Hales Throne, how do you say it?
Heels hails from Germany, this song Faded that I really love. We
do have let's see, I wanted to mention to just quickly. Tomorrow we
have Alex Cormier, who I think is coming in studio with us. He
will be our musical guest Alex Cormier on Wednesday, we have the Jaritones.
Thursday, Kevin Hammer, who is not a musician but a New York Republican
who will be skyping in. Enjoy talking with him. And Hue the Gecko
will be our musical guest on Friday. So Hue, he's fascinating. He
was on recently with Aaron Bildo. But so we've got a big week ahead
today. Today was just just me, but just as well in a way
because it gave us a chance to kind of dig in on what happened over
the weekend, so with Russia and Ukraine and the Wagner Group and all of
it. So anyway, if you miss any part of today's show up,
we'll be up in just a little bit at wm H radio dot org and
on my website Matt Connerton dot com. And uh, we gotta go.
I'm gonna play, Yeah, I'm gonna play one more track from Hale's Throne
faded. This is my favorite to close out today's Matt Connerton Unleashed