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I love listening to Matthew speak. I note that OffGuardian is on a bit of a campaign against your ideas, either they don't dare believe or they are controlled opp. But I learn so much everytime you or Cynthia or Vanessa or Eva put out your work, or others in the LaRouche pac. I know Xoaquin does not support Grayzone but Max is really improving even if Aaron is still apologizing. So many thoughtful and intelligent analyses. Thank you. Maybe one day you will have a party for all your subscribers, somewhere in real life.So all of us in cyberland who have been working so hard to keep people informed can finally meet.

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Hey Matt,

Interesting discussion. A lot to unpack here. But a few initial thoughts:

1. Putin has never -- not once -- publicly labeled Chubais a CIA asset. In a now-infamous comment, Putin said Chubais had CIA guys working for him, but that Chubais himself was clean. Putin actually defended Chubais' privatization policies, basically saying that "somebody had to do it." This is the video (in Russian): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJXjZCcrceU

media reports about Putin's remarks: https://ria.ru/20130425/934527207.html

in fact, in December, Putin claimed he already "cleared out" all the "CIA agents" in govt: https://www.gazeta.ru/politics/2021/12/10_a_14300173.shtml?updated

but at the time, Chubais was working as Putin's sustainability envoy, so....

2. Kudrin says he's only on a trip and will return to Russia shortly. Apparently he's giving a speech to the Federation Council on Tuesday. He could be lying, something to keep on your radar: https://twitter.com/Aleksei_Kudrin/status/1512795081912184842

3. this idea that the war in Ukraine ended all COVID restrictions is simply not true. Mishustin recently instructed all regions to ensure that routine medical care is fully restored so that people "can freely receive consultations from specialized specialists, and also perform pending operations." (https://xn--80aesfpebagmfblc0a.xn--p1ai/news/20220407-1509.html). Yes, right up until now, parts of Russia were withholding routine medical care because of "COVID".

As of April 9, only 29 (out of 85) regions have partially or fully canceled COVID restrictions for businesses: https://xn--80aesfpebagmfblc0a.xn--p1ai/news/20220404-1803.html

furthermore, most regions have not dropped their compulsory vaccination decrees, which brings me to my final point:

4. what is the actual significance of Russia not implement fines for unvaxxed people? Are you suggesting that Russia is the only country that decided not to do this? Many, many countries -- probably most -- don't issue fines to the unvaxxed.

Let's not forget that Russia already has compulsory vaccination that can lead to termination of employment or loss of education opportunities.

Many vaxxed-to-the-max countries began aggressively rolling back COVID restrictions in early-to-mid February. UK and Israel are the two obvious examples. So how is Russia distinguishing itself here? I'm confused.

oh, also: I was genuinely confused by the comments about Sobyanin. He's objectively one of the creepiest Great Reset-loving villains in Russia, but you guys were suggesting he's somehow reformed? How exactly? Don't understand.

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Query: Do you see greater support under Chapter 51 of the UN Charter for the Russian special operation in Ukraine than the preemptive Six Day War of 1967, which later Prime Minister Rabin called “a war of choice”, rather than self-defense? In my opinion, and I am a Russophile, the answer is “yes”. I wanted your opinion on account of your grasp of history and analytical acumen. Peter

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Matt, you mention at around 24 minutes that Andrey Kortunov has been fired. Do you have a source for this? In Russian is fine. I can't seem to find any information on it... https://iz.ru/1317333/2022-04-07/glava-soveta-po-mezhdunarodnym-delam-otcenil-posledstviia-vykhoda-rf-iz-spch?utm_source=yxnews&utm_medium=desktop&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fyandex.ru%2Fnews%2Fsearch%3Ftext%3D

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Ivan Illich said something we all need to consider when devising systems: "The corruption of the best is the worst" which applies to the UN now obviously, as well as national banks, governments, health care, and education systems.

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