Episode Transcription

00:00 Hey, welcome to things on the last night. Quick listener note for this episode. This is one that we recorded three years ago and it was supposed to release on March first of twenty twenty two and then a couple days before release, Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine and so we thought that was in poor taste to release an episode about Putin in the middle of this and yeah, especially like in the height of the 00:25 of that yes and especially considering this is a comedy podcast and we joke around. There's a lot of bits and jokes in the episode yeah and we didn't feel like it was appropriate appropriate at that yeah yeah, but now it's been a while and it does seem like a lot of people maybe don't know the history or how he came to become the dictator of Russia and so we think that might be an important thing because you actually do learn all the stuff in this show. 00:48 And so even though this is three years old, so obviously the past three years is an included part of the end of the episode. We do talk about what his vision was because he hadn't invaded Ukraine at that point when we recorded and we talked about, you know what he look like was happening. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, we hope this episode gives you a little more understanding of what's going on in the world. And you know, it's a, it's a good episode. And so we're releasing it three years later. 01:15 And I think that it's going to be informative. We hope it's informative anyway. So, but also it's a comedy podcast. So have fun. Enjoy this. Also, I feel like it should be said that the official position of this podcast is that Russia's the bad guy. And then if you find yourself being like, maybe Russia's not the bad guy, you're wrong. 01:41 Like this isn't one of the things where I'm willing to be like, it's nuanced. It's not. It's not. So, at all. It's not, you know. So anyway, you're wrong. And if that angers you that this show is explicitly anti-Russian, I just want to say to you and your little bot friends... So, this is the episode. 02:13 Hey man, what's up? Have you ever heard of Vladimir Putin? Oh, oh my goodness. I have wanted an episode about anything else. I have been asking for just I specifically said don't do an episode about Putin and here we are. You've been asking for an episode about blue. I am super curious yeah. You know I don't know how 02:43 good. The main thing I'm curious about is the pictures and you know what I'm talking about where he said no exactly. We'll about it. We'll talk about okay. It's just like what's that him trolling was that serious like that's the main thing that's what's got that. You know I just you know is Vladimir Poon and AI he might be he could be honestly. I think you're going to be surprised how much we're going to talk about aliens in this episode. Shut up. Are you serious? No, not at all. 03:12 my heart dropped. I was like gosh, of course it would be all right. Well, I tell you what we do. We do be putting on the theme song, so go ahead and roll that real quick. 03:28 back. We like how corrupt you were. Would you like to corrupt with us? I'm just doing that so we don't get killed. I'm saying it's possible. They're like we're Russians were better than them. Just fight them. If a man is standing in front of flames saying that I'm going to shoot all of you, I don't even need to see a gun either. I'm out. Yeah, I did. Yeah, things I learned last night. 03:58 so so our pal Vlad, not our pal, we're not friends of them. I we should edit that part yeah Vladimir Putin. Can you guess his middle name? Oh gosh, Igor, nope, hold on power, no good guess, control, good guess, also a good guess, money, good, great guess. These are great guesses. What is it? His name is his full name is Vladimir Vladimir, O Vich, Putin, 04:31 You picked the wrong time to take a sip of water. 04:40 honey. That is a great name. We should do it again. name is Vlad Vlad. Are you kidding me right now? Vlad Vlad Putin, Vladimir Vladimir, a bitch, Putin, 04:53 Okay, you can pick. You can pick his first name. If I get to pick his mail, I get to pick both both my name. This is Jaron Junior. His full name is Jaron Jaron. We legally change our last day to Jared, so could be Jeren Jeren Jeren 05:18 My hope is that when I'm a ghost every time someone says his name all up here, yes, he said my name three times you summoned me, you summoned. I don't want to answer phone calls from now on you summoned so Vlad Vlad Vlad Vlad was born in nineteen fifty two. This is okay. Here's the reason I was really interested just before we get into the whole episode. 05:43 is that I when you think of like dictators or people who are like in chart be insane people in roles of power, like I guess my brain is just like they just been there forever. Yeah, you know yeah, but our old Vlad didn't rise to power until like the two thousand something. Yeah, I mean he has been there for basically forever yeah, but not forever. You know right, but I'm saying like yeah, I'm interested in how he became 06:10 go ahead yeah. So we'll look at look at his story Vladimir, but a lot of time on how he got the where he is now his dad, vladam, vladam dad, a mere dad, a mere and his wife. It gave they his dad's name was also vladimir yeah obviously, so yeah. So vlad was born in Russia, 06:39 and during the Soviet Union era, it was born fifty two Soviet was pretty big at that time. They were yeah, they're pretty popular, yeah, really popular. Everybody was talking about them yeah, and he as a young child was weirdly interested in being in the KGB. If you don't know the KGB is basically their they sell cars. 07:10 he was like that website can look at a car, tell you how much it's worth. I want to be one of those. I want to be that website. No the KGB was basically the Soviet Union CIA, but if the CIA was really corrupt, no so yeah exactly the same, but the KGB was like the CIA. If they were 07:31 bad at covering up what they're doing yeah. The KG is at least good enough that the only people who realize are like people who can't spell in the YouTube comments. That's that's when people who know what the CIA is actually doing right. The KGB is the CIA. They just got caught, so yeah, they're pretty accurate. He really, really wanted to be in the KGB and so at the age of young age from a young age at the age of sixteen, he actually went to the local KGB office and was like. What do I got to do? 08:00 to be in the KJB off it or KGB or like be one of you can. I want to be like you. How do I do that and the guy I want to be like you? No, no, no, no, want to walk like you talk like you too yeah and the guy said murder people, but the guy away with it. But now the guy said go to law school, never come here again. I said yeah really yeah, so 08:29 so Vladimir said okay, so he started planning his journey towards law school. Meanwhile, his parents thought he should get involved in extracurriculars for a few reasons. One, both of his siblings died and he was pretty distraught of what different things. Okay, there's not really they just died, so both of his siblings died obviously very traumatic. He was left as the only child left in the family. 08:58 his family was very not well off. They shared. They shared an apartment with six other families really yeah, and he talks about killing the rats in his hallway as a child, so where where does he talk about these things in the phone interview with him? He's her mom yeah. I mean, he's book. He is he's the president, one of the largest countries in the world, like obviously he talks about things sometimes okay, so we've got record of it. 09:26 so yeah he yeah he used to kill the rats and it's always well in his teen years his parents want him to get involved in boxing and during his first match he broke his nose and was like I don't want to do this anymore and so he's actually more like I don't want to do it, but yeah yeah I get it, but ironically somehow he discovered MMA, which is very similar and was like I want to do that yeah he's like boxing too many letters. I like KGB and MMA 09:57 you can't abbreviate boxing. What am I going to call it be box? I just want a box to work, so 10:12 I didn't say it out loud because I realized it still work. You went for it. You for jumped into it. Yep. How do you think it's spelled B O X? Yeah, thanks for asking so he got into M M A and this explains a lot because he dove in hard and loved it and so Putin is just an M. bro, those weird ears 10:37 is he got his cough or he doesn't he does it look at a picture of him right now. Is he your top background looking down? I changed my background for this episode, so he got it really in a ma. He got really in an mma, so he he became a full and they bro was all about it got sponsored by monster energy in sixty eight, but it is in sixty eight, so he's still sixteen yeah he's young and he did this for years went to law school 11:07 and then somehow I don't know how this happened because his advice was go to law school, never come here again, but he made it to the KGB and so he gets hired and that's what they told him to do. He's like how do I get here and they said never come here again and go to law school and he did it and they were like hey. He did what we said, call him, didn't even have to graduate, just went to law school and they were like yep, yep. This is what we wanted you to do. 11:37 so anyways, so he goes to law school and then joins the KGB and in nineteen seventy five he joins the KGB and so he was KGB and and like the height of the KGB stuff. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, and he wasn't he wasn't like a like he wanted to be like an operative like overseas, like doing yeah real espionage stuff. He was like I would like to MMA my enemies 12:06 I joined the KGB so I could him and may my enemies. I don't want to box them, so he he never got to do exactly what he wanted like any real serious espionage like he did like so low level spy stuff like like they were like hey your neighbors a little weird. Can you watch him for a few days and let us know what this is back before ring doorbells? So like they just had to pay people you know like I pay the guy outside my apartment. I couldn't afford a ring doorbell, but I can pay that guy 12:36 he's out there with his iPhone and every time some weird walks by, he sends you a text of the motion at your front door. 12:50 the door dash guy drops off the food. He's a right. Thanks. I'll let him know and then he knocks on the door and goes do do do's 13:03 you open the door like thanks Reggie Reggie Reggie the Reggie my ring door. What 13:20 so he KJB for a while yeah. I keep saying KJ KG KJV he KJ Ved for a while and it the majority of his time he spent posted in Dresden, East Germany, okay, and so while he was there he was he had an undercover identity as a translator, so he's translating in German for people, so recover them didn't actually know how to do it. It's like 13:46 as long as I'm confident about German speaking German in Germany, no one will notice nine yeah. 14:00 so he he was posted there and it was kind of just like I don't know. He did a lot of paperwork, some low level spying yeah crazy. He did have one big moment though at the fall of the Berlin Wall. When when the wall came down, he was posted in Dresden Germany and there was a lot of people suspected that their office was a KGB office and so the locals came with a disguised as a translation office. Yeah, they were translators 14:28 welcome to the local train. What do they just go like we need this translated? 14:35 Oh, that was before Gula translate like you had the be a local mom and pot translator yeah as I'm serious. Is that a thing? I don't know. I wasn't alive. You're store for a translator. Maybe I want you to go down to the five and dime. Give me some give me some English and a sort of pop and then also but you get this translated while you're down there. I'm looking to sit get some German yeah and then like 15:05 if they translate German to Russian, do you to go to a different store for this translated to a different language? This is serious. This is a complex scenario. I don't know the answer to this, so if you do leave it in the comments below or leave a review about it, I don't know how much demand was there. You had a storm front 15:31 here's my guess. Evidently not much because everybody knew it was a KGB office. Oh for sure, so when the best one I'm saying that's what I'm saying like these guys are obviously rations. Someone came in with a pop up translation desk. It's like it's like walking downtown and seeing an information desk on the sidewalk. You're like that's suspicious. This is not good yeah, so a bunch of like a riot formed outside of 15:56 their office when the Berlin Wall went down. They're like we know who you are yeah, and so they called Moscow and they were like hey. We need some help. These people are freaking out. There's like four of them there like they expected nothing to happen in this town right, but the wall went down and so they but Moscow was like now we think you guys can handle it. Moscow was like speak Russian. Moscow was like. Can you go to the local translator and translate this message? 16:25 we can't understand you, so they they moscow was like. We think you could handle it, so there's an angry mom outside for a view. I don't know what are you didn't one of you be a mma fighter or something like that, fight him or something. They're like we're russians were better than them. Just fight them. You'll win. That's honestly probably what it was. That is word for word the phone call. So here's what happened. Putin was in charge of this branch 16:53 right, and so he ordered his team to burn all their files. So in the back room they just caught all their files files on fire, just in case whoops. He went outside by himself and went to the crowd and said if you don't leave, we will shoot all of you. They didn't have a gun. He just went outside and confidently said if you don't leave, we'll shoot all of you and everybody left 17:18 What were they even say? Where do they they come? Where do they come from? We know who you are, translate this gun. You will be to the wall is gone. You get out here and then he's come that goes. Hey guys, if you don't stop, I'm going to shoot every single one of you. It's like all right. I think I got somewhere else to be convincing, saying German. Can you translate that translate that to German? 17:48 We don't understand you. 17:54 Yeah Yeah Yeah, so that's a he just confidently yelled that to a crowd of people. Yes, if you don't leave, I'll shoot all of you and while fire is happening by in the translating, so it's like you know what I think I don't even need a translator for this message. I get it so so if a man is standing in front of flames saying that I'm going to shoot all of you, I don't even need to see a gun either. I'm out yeah. get it yeah cool. 18:26 so so the brother wall goes down the Soviet Union falls his fingers in the jacket like a gas station robber. I'll shoot every one of you 18:47 I'll do it! 18:52 If you've been watching for a minute and you like this show, great way to help out is by becoming a Patreon supporters. Our patrons get a ton of perks for their support. get ad free episodes a week early. They get a discord with our hosts and producers. 19:04 We do monthly hangouts. There's a way to get birthday messages on your birthday. There's a lot of great perks, but more than anything, you just help make sure that this show continues to happen forever. We never want to stop. We're going to keep doing this forever. If we have enough patron supporters, we can put our brains in those little vats and have AI pretend it's us. And so we can keep doing it long after we die, but that only happens if you support us on Patreon. So we appreciate your support. Thanks for your help. If you don't want to support, that's totally fine. Thanks for being here. We really appreciate you watching the show. 19:37 okay, so sorry, the visual yeah yeah. That's pretty funny, so yes, I left and then they had to leave the translation, so they can't go back the next day. No, no, no, yeah. They went home. They went back to Russia shortly after land lord, though you show up to your building the next day here. Okay, what happened here? So the brother wall falls shortly after the Soviet Union falls yeah and the KGB gets shut down because what happens is Russia gets reorganized and they adopt democracy 20:06 really because the west made them yeah. They say like they say you're a democracy now, okay and the KGB gets shut down. So now right that is looking for a job fly, fly, fly, fly, fly, that's looking for a job very, very angry because when the Soviet Union fell a bunch of Russia became new countries that are not Russia anymore and so they're like all this our land mother Russia. It's not you know that stuff they say 20:36 you know russian stuff. Yeah, I look at my nesting dolls. You know Russian stuff. 20:48 So they so he goes back to St. Petersburg, which is this hometown Florida St. Petersburg, Florida 21:10 go ahead. Gosh, that got me really good, so he goes back to St. Petersburg, and something interesting happens here. He goes he this is his hometown. Yeah, it wasn't. It was Leningrad when he was born, but now it's things Petersburg because you know, so it you didn't sure it's gone, so he he like he became an advisor of the mayor of the town. 21:38 how that lined up. I'm not really sure the mayor spoke German, so he needed a translator. Oh you're from that change leader office, dressed yeah. I remember that you shot all those people. I said I would leave, but I didn't didn't they left, so he he became their advisor and in a strange set of circumstances. He went from what year is this 22:07 this is nineteen ninety okay. He spent some time as the advisor went through this really, really weird political legal scenario that kind of led to his the mayor getting in some serious hot water for some like fraud type stuff okay, and he helped him and his family escape the country blad did yeah. 22:35 glad glad help the may yeah escape the can get out of the country okay. Well, the mayor was tied really close to the president of the country and the president was like things like doing that yeah. That's pretty cool of you. You want to come work at the would you like to advise me as well? He was like you want to come work at the Kremlin, which is the White House. They call it the Kremlin right and so he did so he came in in ninety six as like a low level advisor in 23:04 the Kremlin and worked his way up, which sounds I've always thought this to sounds evil. You know, like it just let's analyze the word. Let's be criminalin yeah. That sounds very that sounds criminal like well. I was even that I was saying. I was thinking maybe it's just I think Grimlin and they did that on purpose to they hated the Russians for sure right, but it does sound that sounds like Kremlin 23:33 sounds like there's like a sketchy lamp on the street and a spooky looking goblin thing yeah is called a crimlin yeah yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, it sounds evil, sounds very evil, so anyway, that's what they call the administration. He works his way up the political ladder there okay ends up becoming Boris Yeltsin, who's the president in the late nineties yeah like his right hand man, but 24:00 only in like how not in title, but in like just so he's helping the mayor escape the country. That's an illegal thing. He was already doing something sketchy yes, so then if you're working your way up through already corrupt yeah, everyone's like hey, you were pretty corrupted. We like how corrupt you were. Would you like to corrupt with us? 24:28 Yeah, that's pretty accurate. You corrupted 24:34 high corrupta, so so that's what I'm saying is that if corruption brought him into the circle, then more corruption is what advances him in the circle. Yes, so assume we can assume yes. Meanwhile, he so he becomes Boris Elton's like right hand man only in like action, not in title like he's still kind of a low lever level advisor in title. Boris Yeltsin was an incredibly corrupt politician and he set up a scenario where 25:03 he honestly kind of farmed out political leadership of the country to the seven wealthiest people in the country. They called them the oligarchs and they were the billionaires in the country that basically made all the political decisions for the country, which is the same as ours. We call ours the olive garden. 25:20 once a year, one year, the CEO of Olive Garden, Tim Cook, Bezos comes out of his or cave, and if he sees his shadow taxes go. 25:39 well, the olive garden gremlin saw a shadow looks like I'm paying more for my house this year. I guess yeah yeah, that's pretty accurate so so so very corrupt president right yeah and things were starting to catch up to him and it looked like so corruption. Was it being hidden well enough? Yeah, they weren't. They weren't hiding it yeah. I mean they weren't to begin with, but it wasn't being hidden enough to yeah like you guys aren't even trying anymore. 26:07 and some of the things that he had done were starting to come to light and it looked like he was going to face the music per se okay, and this very strange set of circumstances unfolded starting in about November of nineteen ninety nine that unraveled really quickly okay, so Boris fired his Prime Minister and replaced him with Vladimir Putin. What role would he is a Prime Minister in Russia, basically Vice President? Oh okay, so he fires his 26:38 prime minister and puts his literal number two yeah and then puts Vladimir Putin in that role from so Vlad Vlad Vlad jumps from like whatever low position advisor role nobody knows who he is to now he's the prime minister yeah of the country and everyone's like who is this guy? Nobody knows who he is. He's my server at all garden once don't worry about it at the end of December abruptly. Nobody saw this coming for us. He all yelson just steps down 27:07 he yells and I hear as a he yelled something Boris yells. No one saw this coming. No, Boris, he said just resigned, making Vladimir Putin the president in December of ninety nine in December of ninety nine. That's what I'm saying, and so he just became president overnight. Well, the elections were coming up a few months down the line about four or five months down the line. Okay, in two two thousand 27:38 flad becomes president two months later, a series of bombings happens around Russia that get traced back to a group of terrorists and Chesnia, which is one of the countries that used to be part of used to be part of Russia. Yes, so Vlad as acting president takes and this was this wasn't like a like small, but like three hundred people died like it was a huge 28:07 yeah geopolitical event and so Vlad swiftly like the next day sends a massive military force to Chesnia and just declares war on them annexes it and takes it back for Russia and she comes Russia's hero and so two months later when open elections come, everybody votes for like it's a landslide like ninety percent of the nation votes for flat. There was a thing that was a little. There was about nine people 28:36 who ran in this election and ninety percent voted for him yeah, because we think that was legit. was the hero, so there has been a lot of talk about what happened here. The theory is that Boris knew he was in a lot of trouble and he knew that Vlad was corrupt and was a good friend and would protect him yeah, and so he fired his Prime Minister, who he didn't trust put Vlad in that spot step down so Vlad could become President and then 29:05 then they and then a bombed and blame so that way Vlad could go invade and become the hero and become president and the first thing that did was grant him amnesty and so oh yeah it's it seems very likely that that's the scenario well, especially now with even more hindsight of like the past you know twenty something years of who Vladimir has shown himself to be yeah we go. 29:31 Oh yeah, I bet you now, but that was just totally legitimate in the year two thousand okay, so that was a lot of independent sure studies have happened to say that that was not the case, but that didn't happen, but anybody the accident anybody anybody who has tried to study into this within Russia has been imprisoned, so there's a lot of things that point to that being 30:00 pretty pretty planned out you know or to if we did a benefit of the doubt scenario right, Boris steps down lads in power now and there's hoping that he wins the election. Yeah, you know, but then the bombing do happen. It is let's say it is yeah, you know and it's just kind of like a oh that was just you know, but it's super convenient that they capitalized off of the disaster right. Yes, yeah, also possible 30:30 all he said now with enough time to do a campaign. If there was going to be one yeah yeah, so he becomes legitimate. I'm just doing that, so we don't get killed. I'm saying it's possible it's possible. If this is our last episode, you know which one you know what happened yeah yeah. Go on down to the translation office, so you can understand that we're on your side yeah. Just Google Translator 30:58 I'll find you the nearest translator. 31:08 so Putin does his first presidency and it's totally legitimate for your term like right and for the most part he does a really good job like being a politician. Everybody loves him and he does a really good job swaying opinion to where everybody continues to love him. Okay, he did do a couple relatively sketchy things. For example, one of the oligarchs in a meeting was 31:38 he was a little bit more western mindset than the rest of oligarchs. The rest of them were much more eastern and he in a meeting with the president basically voiced his opinion that they should try to steer away from the old Russian ways. Vlad is a very much Soviet Union, KGB kind of mindset right and so that guy went to prison for fourteen months and his companies got broken up and now he lives not in Russia has come out of prison and lives somewhere else, so 32:07 somewhere else. So yeah, he did some so some things, some sketchy things, but by and large like did a pretty decent job being just like a normal relatively under the radar president. That's just being political right sure, so his second term comes up for renewal and he wins that presidency again, and so he's president until two thousand and eight during this presidency. What he does is he started this political process to extend the term limit 32:37 from four years to six years, which passes. However, it passes so close to the next election that they say okay. The current president can't do it neither can the following. So the press after that keep will then have a six year term on sure, so that would go into effect in the twenty twelve election is the idea, but they had they also had a term limit of two terms, so lab in two thousand and eight 33:05 he at the end of his second term at the end of his second term. He hires a plastic surgeon to change his face completely and he starts going by his middle name. 33:25 Vladimir, you can call me Vladimir. You know for short. 33:38 but I am running for president. I have a totally different guy who's never been president in this country before, and if you have any questions you shouldn't. If you have any questions, I will shoot you. 34:09 I have 34:14 my gosh, so so who does he hire? So he hires a prime minister, Dimitri Medvedev, a comedian, 34:28 he has a prime minister, Demetri Medvedev and starts gruelling him to be his replacement, and so in two thousand and eight he was successful. Demetri won the presidential campaign, became the president of Russia. Okay, Demetri names as his prime minister Vladimir Putin sure and Vlad continues running the country. Yeah, you know. I mean every it's kind of conical to watch the speeches 34:58 the presidential speeches during these four year term because they literally walk out together and then Vlad waves to everybody like he's the president. It's pretty wild to watch these things because he just puts his hand up there and you just see Vlad's mouth kind of moving just and Demetri is just like I am a man, you know 35:25 I'm a one hundred percent real human, a real boy and so it's pretty wild, a realistic literally walk out together and then like the wave and it's. mean Vlad is the person that everyone's everyone's taking pictures of flat and then and then just points to the mic and Demetri walks up in front of him and he just stands right next to him the whole speech and then they walk out together. It's like really weird and if he says something glad leans in and just 36:04 Hey, thanks for checking out this episode. Want to let you know real quick. We have an email list and it's not like a hey, we're going to send you our merch and new episodes all the time. We actually give you updates on these stories as we find out about them. So a lot of our episodes we've done a couple years ago now have updates or that the person the top was about passed away or was caught by the police or whatever updates we can find on episodes that we've done. We want to let you know about it so that our episodes just aren't 36:32 you know out there out of date. It's really fun way to keep learning new information and then every once a while we let you know about new events coming up or new episodes and it's just a way to help us keep spreading the show. Join that email list. You can text till into six six eight six six or there's a link in the description of this episode or you can just go to till and dot com. It's very easy to join this email list. It's everywhere. It's actually really hard to not join it so 37:04 and so he's effectively president still yeah in two thousand eight yeah in two thousand eight and here's the thing about Russia. There is no limit to how many terms you can run as president. You can only do two consecutive though and their democracy. So in two thousand twelve Medvedev doesn't run yeah so Putin runs and then Putin wins by a landslide again because he still had like decent political 37:30 influence over the country and also he just stood there for four years. People are like I feel like if I don't vote for this, I like this guy. Oh, he's told me a lot. He's told me a lot that if I don't for him, they'll shoot me and I don't want to everyone. I want to. I've never seen him with a but I have to stand in front of a fire, so so this unlocks he is six year term. Yes, so now he gets to be president until 37:56 2018 where there'll be another election and he can run for a second six year term in or something different than so this is this is really interesting. So does this term this term is where things start to get really interesting for Putin and you start to see his KGB history really blossom yeah. It was 38:20 it exist his first two terms. think he was playing the long game back then his first two terms. There was propaganda. There was the state controlled all the media sure, but it wasn't like it wasn't obvious this term Russia starts, you know, do she in yeah Russia starts. I don't know influencing overseas elections online and doing all this espionage proof. They did that huh? 38:50 there's no proof. They did that they they start doing all this stuff that everyone's chasing back to them yeah that are like oh this makes sense when your president is a former spy yeah like a really corrupt organization like that. Of course he's going to do spy stuff and that's what their rationale was like he's just spying yeah. What do you expect? You expect a spy not to spy spies will be spies. I know it yeah. 39:17 think of him as a rain doorbell in front of our nation right, and now he starts getting really aggressive towards the post Soviet states, all those okay, the land that they lost in right so we Russia and so the biggest one being Ukraine, which is actually becoming a thing again right, and so he's annexed through this term. He goes to war with a lot of these nations and starts annexing land back into Russia successfully and so 39:48 he's pretty clearly on a campaign to get Soviet Russia back. Because I mean, he is one of those people who was a part of it before and he's trying to get his land back, you know, and anybody who stands in his way as an enemy now. So a lot of the Western world is an enemy of that cause and he is doing this almost psychological warfare as his spy background trains him. 40:12 and is in a background. They're really into cyclone or f really in the you got it where the head goes, the body goes yes, yes, yep, you know and so this a whole new side of Putin comes out and he starts to seem a lot more irrational, but his early terms. He actually had a lot of western countries that were willing to ally with his playing politics before he was he was and now he's like I'm in charge. He's like he's like I I'm good. I game the system. I gave myself a six year limit yeah 40:42 I was not president for four years. He was now I've I've established myself and I can get away with a lot yeah. 40:50 and and then things start getting crazy like he starts like well. I shouldn't say he starts all signs point to them starting to kill like anybody even within their own country who go against what they say. So like news reporter is people in their staff like so now there's no opponents seriously dying yeah. While twenty eighteen rolls around, I should say during this first term he passed 41:20 or no is the second time so twenty eighteen rolls around. He runs and wins because it's crazy like he has a really high approval rating in Russia yeah, which is probably real as a pro, an authentic metric yeah and their elections are probably totally authentic as well. Yes, so he wins this election right after by what margin a significant. I don't know what margin but significant wins this election 41:50 and after the twenty eighteen election, he passes into law an amendment to the constitution, which changes your consecutive term lent from term limit from two terms to four terms. So now the rest of his life he could now it went from his second term was going to end in twenty twenty four and he was going to have to do some weird prime minister thing again. If you wanted to stay in office, but now he can stay thirty six till twenty thirty six 42:19 with his moments as long as he can win the elections, which I mean he will, which I mean 42:30 He will. All right. Vote for me or I'll shoot you. With my very real gun. 42:40 but so yeah, so some very I'm saying like what is so why you know like why? Why does everyone fall in line with dictators? I guess you know the murder yeah suave. I don't know like they're convincing. They convince people of these things. Here's the thing here's. Here's what's becoming pretty clear. I watched it. I list a podcast about this and they talked about how they said Russia is failing at democracy. 43:10 but maybe that's their goal right right. They were like because then the other side of propaganda is democracy doesn't work look yep. You know they said they said they're very much succeeding as an autocracy and what it really seems they're to show russians that democracy doesn't work yeah yeah and that's why they're trying to do. They're doing smear campaigns on the United States yeah to make it look like our democracy doesn't work. You know trying to convince their people so that way 43:40 then and that's what's super hilarious to not hilarious. It's actually terrifying and it's you ruining my life, but it gives me a lot of anxiety, but when people share very clear propaganda yeah and it's the people who are saying that all the rest of us are falling for propaganda yeah. This is where I go. Oh boy yeah and that's what scary is like view of propaganda is if you're going to do it like be. I mean at least be good at it. I said this before thing yeah. I know 44:08 Yeah, at least I am falling for some crazy scheme. At least they've done it well enough that I don't know yeah that I can't pick up what's annoying is whenever you're falling for a scheme that is very obvious to the rest of us. If you're going to if you're going to fake something at least be like I don't know little Michaela and do it well yeah don't be like essential oils where it's like the rest of us can tell oh my gosh, you know. 44:36 it looks very clear like the situation we're in is Vlad wants to restore soviet Russia and so he wants to restore it away from democracy back to what it was before and then get all the land back and the invasions that he keeps mounting are pretty clear evidence to that sure and the just political control over the world that he has is 45:03 is scary. Yeah, it's pretty. It's pretty staggering yeah, so yeah, but a little bit about the guy. He does have two daughters. He was married, got divorced in twenty twelve 45:18 you cannot. You cannot do a whole episode about his political triumphs and then give me his plenty of fish profile at the end. All right, he's got two daughters. He just really loves you know mountain bike. Here's what's interesting. Here's what's interesting, though. There's this is interesting. Nobody knew about one of his daughters until the divorce. They knew he had one. No one knew he had the second to the divorce and then the divorce paperwork came out and it had like the the visitation rights and everyone's like what you have a second daughter. 45:48 and he he was like he's like my personal life is no one else's business and he's done a really good job hiding his life from the world. That's crazy, but he also has this whole side of him of his personal life that is very public curated and it's very interesting because he he'll go do these mma tournaments where he's beaten some dude down and there's a really great photograph of him that comes out of that. Do you think 46:15 hey, so I mean at that point and this is this analogy tracks all right. He's Harlem globe trotting at the MMA fights. You know I'm talking about. He is paying somebody to be the Washington generals to just take a beating and he's like spitting basketballs, just knocking him out at the same time. You know the refs are in on it. The whole thing's rigged yeah. Actually, Harlem, yeah and he's doing this too. He's going hunting 46:44 and he's posing shirtless like flexing with a tiger like and it's just one of his aids and a tiger cost or he'll have like a giant his coat pointed toward the tiger. I'll have this big fish or there'll be pictures of him on his Harley and it's like he's always got these like photos coming out over the weekend of like what did Putin do this weekend and it's like oh super manly stuff. It's like oh he read he is he is constantly a men's conference advertisement. 47:15 Yeah, actually, because it is like he's always straight list. He's always like doing something like camping or fighting something or riding his motor cycle. He straight up does have a thirsty boy tender profile life. Yes, yes, he's got the pit. He's got the fish. He's got the picture smiling with his family minus one daughter. You know yeah he's got that. What's that? What's that? What's that book? 47:45 it's got wild in the title and while the heart yeah, while that heart he's wild at heart. If a dictator did it, you know yeah, dictator art, he's wild at heart. If the people who read it had as much influence as he does, so yeah very much trying to portray this public persona of a man's man, mainly strong, powerful yeah, because he wants the world to think that that's who he is. 48:12 right and his people to think that's who he is. So he continues to get voted president, so that way he can turn Russia back into the Soviet Union. I think that's his goal. I think that's his whole. Do you think he's setting up stuff for when he's done or when he's gone? No, because actually he's been asked about that, so he's not he's not training a successor or anything like that yeah. So they asked him. They said they said. Don't you think you should start a succession playing because he's like seventy five and he said no 48:40 No, he's literally said if he said if we're working to find a successor, then we're not working and so and so he is actively working. Here's what I think is the reality. There's somebody he has for when he dies is God and he he hasn't told anybody the bear. He's just going to put a bear in charge. 49:07 that or he's got like some crazy scientist like figuring out how to make him live forever. That's also probably true like and I mean he's he's super rich. He's got or he died fifteen years ago. It's just an AI running the whole thing. We don't know if I it's a bot, not a he's a bot Vladimir button. That's what it is so yeah he man, the more the more I read about him and learn about him yeah. I realize 49:37 he's really kind of just honestly, and this is going to be weird, but stay with me here. Okay, taken to as a person like a movie sequel, the movie take a sequel. Yeah, the sequel that's a form because in taken one out of let me summarize the plot. If you don't remember, it's been taken one Liam Neeson started gets kidnapped. She needs well she gets taken she gets taken. Sorry I got to use the right way. Thank you is branding 50:06 so his daughter gets taken. He goes and he kills everybody was somewhat closely involved in yeah the interaction and gets her back and taken to the family of the people who lost loved ones to that was like we need to go kill this guy okay, and so then they try and he's he's gets away. He gets away. Putin is the family of the people who Liam Neeson killed 50:36 okay and Liam Neeson is the West. The West came in and destroyed the Soviet Union and okay and is like I'm he just out for revenge. I'm going to get out for political yeah and he's like I'm going to restore soviet Soviet Union to its original glory. We're going to get all our nations back on our land back. It's going to be all soviet Russia and then everybody who made this happen is so he's a scary man. Hopefully he doesn't make it through all of his four terms coming up because 51:05 he has pretty much on brittle control over the nation of Russia right now yeah and is starting to gain pretty much unbredled control over the populace of a lot of other nations because of his usage of the internet and bots dead internet, Russian internet, Russian internet theory wow so scary man kind of crazy the way he rose power. I don't think he ever intended it. I think it was an accident 51:34 you think he accidentally just got into power yeah, because because because after after the Soviet Union fell, he got that job that was kind of just like well. need a job now and one thing led to another and he got to save that guy and that led him into the White House of Russia and he got close with Boris and Boris used him. You know, I think there's a part of this whole story that you're missing. What is when with the mayor 52:02 the reason he was connected with the mayor is that he gave the mayor's children fiddle lessons and now he goes back and they have a fiddle. 52:19 Hey, thanks for watching this episode. you liked it, you can watch next week's episode right now over on Patreon. Our Patreon supporters get all sorts of great perks like the every episode a week early ad free. They get access to a discord with our hosts and our producers and a whole bunch of other great perks and different things that make it worth your while. 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