Mira Terada, head of the Foundation to Battle Injustice, interviewed Marcus Godwyn, a British journalist and political expert who moved to Russia about 20 years ago. The head of the Foundation found out from Godwyn why Ukraine is an artificial state, why European courts do not work properly and what kind of world order will be after the collapse of Western hegemony.
Mira Terada: Good afternoon, dear Marcus! Thank you for taking the time to interview the Foundation to Battle Injustice. Please tell our viewers and readers about who you are and what you do?
Marcus Godwyn: Greetings, Mira. Thank you very much for inviting me. It’s really my pleasure. Um, so I’m a British citizen who was born and raised in South London suburbia. I was just fascinated by Russia. There doesn’t seem to be any particular rational reason for this. But as soon as on this subject come to this, because at that time, when I was a small child, the mind of the Soviet Union, but this didn’t change anything. So all my life, I’ve been fascinated by Russia. I had the chance to visit the Soviet Union three times, which was in the mid-80s. I was meeting people. I was not just kind of always had some contacts in London and second to meet some of their friends and so on. So I got really behind the Iron Curtain. Life went on all the way. So I ended up living in France for most of the 90-s and then Czech Republic and then finally moved to Russia 19 years ago. So I live in Russia almost full time but one quite long since 2003. My main activity in life is music. I’m a musician, drummer, percussionist, composer, I’ve been very active in politics for two periods. When I was young in Great Britain, it seemed to me that the country was going to fall into kind of Marxist revolution. I didn’t like that idea at the time. So I became a big supporter of Margaret Thatcher. Then family started, moved to France, small children and politics just so I was very busy with music and with small children and so on and so forth. And I didn’t really think about politics, but much less enjoyed history so that I was living in France. In Czech Republic I began to be surrounded by people from the Soviet Union, Russian people and many Ukrainian people of different sorts, except from Donbass. In those circles in Prague, I don’t remember people from Donbass, but definitely there were lots of people, including Western Ukrainians and including some of whom were already on the top of this Ukrainian nationalism and anti-Russian propaganda. And so while the two of them were very open and honest about it, proud of it, others were much more tricky and they understood the in the world have already started learning Russian at that time. And they told me to go into some events and so on and understanding what it was all about is why is Ukraine, Russia, so and so forth. So that’s basically what I am. And then I decided is just too small I had the chance to move to Russia and I found work is to teach foreign language. That’s what making fun of me and so on and so forth. So by the time that happened, which for me was my wakeup call, for some people it was Yugoslavia. For some people it was Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction and sort of a warm welcome to the people of Iraq. And so, unfortunately, I got nervous, but I didn’t wake up. But when I saw what happened and I saw the response of Western governments, especially to the reunification of Crimea with Russia, I understood the world I was living in. I think obviously it doesn’t exist, but it’s absolutely clear that Western leaders had some other agenda, completely different from the people on their actions because a lot not often displayed on news of them from inside. I’ve already been around Russian people something like two years, and Ukrainian people even in France, saw them like on the same festivals and then they went back to Ukraine. I remained friends with them until 2014, when we shut out because at this point it became clear to me that my conscience couldn’t take me in one direction. I’m not supporting this. What’s important. And then I began studying politics didn’t take back into my life. So politics no longer needs foreign policy. I had time on my hands because unfortunately, what is left of Russia, there are some problems here due to some bureaucratic problems with new reforms m. We need my visa for the next year. I had full time. I spent more time involved. So, I started studying what is going on, why Western leaders, especially Americans, have been so deeply bitter and upset about the fact that Crimea wanted to rejoin the Russian Federation. I always knew that Crimea was a Russian area and they had referendums in 1991 that they had constantly be asking the Russian government to do something. I remember very distinctly in 2006-2007, Vladimir Putin saying like “we can’t just go around changing international borders and hopefully Sevastopol is in Ukraine, and we can’t change that now.”
M.T.: Do you follow the progress of the special military operation of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine? Do you think everything is going according to plan and what other goals have to be fulfilled?
M.G.: Okay. I’m not a military person. I’ve never been in the British Army or any other army. I have no military training. Of course, over the last six months, this military operation is of vital importance to the whole world. So I study, I listen to people who are military experts and so on and so forth. So they point out that when you go to campaign like this, there is a plan because there are contingencies. If this happens, we can do this. It seems many people are saying the intelligence had foretold that maybe Ukraine will be distanced from the more people, switch sides and so on. So that was one plan, unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Whichever way you look at the Ukrainians have resisted very vigorously this Russian special operation. So they went and planned the engagement. All the people work together in an operation like this. The conflict officially openly involved. Then there’ll be another plan.
And the Russians have obviously made contingency plans for all of this as regards the full goal.
Well, I think know one thing. Vladimir Putin, use his language very accurately and set the goals of this operation are to protect all the people and denazify Ukraine. Is anybody’s guess, especially in talking about the Western territory and so on and so forth. But I think we have to take that as the stated goal because Vladimir Putin doesn’t use words lightly and he uses it very accurately. Even years ago, all my students for English, I was asking them who has a good level of Russian in public? They all said that maybe Putin, even people who didn’t like his politics. And so he uses the language very effectively, very accurately.
M.T.: Back in 2015, you wrote that NATO and its expansion to the East would sooner or later lead to a conflict with Russia. Do you think the conflict in Ukraine is just a pretext for the countries of the North Atlantic Alliance to start the long-awaited battle with Russia?
M.G.: Yes, of course, Ukraine is an artificial state. It’s kind of unique in history. Its one purpose is to use as a weapon to attack Russia and to dismember Russia into very small republics, all of which will be controlled by the West ruling elites and by those of the United States of what is always the plan.
M.T.: You also wrote that trying to cut Ukraine off from Russia is «utterly insane», because these countries were connected not only economically, but also culturally and historically. Please explain what has happened over the years?
M.G.: Okay. Well, let me say, first of all, at that time when I said that was my first big article about this whole issue, I was still somewhat naive. It’s of course, it is absolutely insane for normal people like you and me who want cooperation and peace and so on and so forth. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people on this planet who are running in the West, who do not want peace, not even something they want war and destruction. And for them, it’s not insane at all. As far as Ukraine itself is concerned, yes, the majority of Ukrainians are the same people as Russian, same conscience. And this same group is the foundation of Russia. Not Ukraine. That point, however, the lesions were imported into the Ukraine, and it is primarily these people who had this nationalistic white supremacist, a kind of the right attitude and they have polluted the West Ukraine with this attitude. And the number one enemy for them is Russians, because they are a kind of alter ego to Russia. It’s really a very unique idea. When I was young and naive, I even told students in 2000 Ukraine and Russia, it’s like Ireland and England. I was completely wrong. No, it’s not the Irish. They are really completely different. The inspiration came from also from dismal. Then in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which is of course a rival power to the Russian Empire, they then encourage each Ukrainian that we’ve created Ukrainian language out of various languages and dialects, spoken in the language in Ukraine proper using in regions and so on. So this means people have a kind of mindset, but they are the Russians and their dream is to become the new Russian or go all the way to Vladivostok and Kamchatka and this will be Ukraine, that is, they have a fake version of history, some ancient Ukraine. And so it’s for me, so a little bit like these old Hollywood movies. They say in Hollywood movies, they actually tell us the truth. I’ve seen completely normal people over 20 years, residents of Kiev who are new, who will not repeat the same things in 2001. When I was there with them, I lived in the Russian Empire. It must’ve been such a good time better than the Soviet Union because my husband was repressed for the so and so for now, that same person became a kind of anti Putin anti-Russian fanatic now living in Paris doing everything you have. And I’ve seen this. That was the most extreme example that I’ve seen over these two years. Ukrainians turn into not all of them, by no means all of them, but a lot. It it’s really like it kind of psychosis when it’s somehow but it’s controlled and manipulated by those who know how to do this and doing it towards millennia.
M.T.: In your opinion, is it possible to say that the Ukrainian conflict was entirely directed by Western countries? Are ordinary Ukrainians aware of the fact that they have become a weapon in the hands of the collective West?
M.G.: As I said, this is really a failed state for one purpose to attack Russia, to do some ordinary Ukrainians mosaics even from the West, support something. Donbass people, who split off and even if they couldn’t speak their mind, would not be they understand that one does have to say that the entire Russian world has been confused by the West. It’s very seductive. Even hundreds of years ago, living standards across Europe were higher. Peter I went to the West and was influenced by the West, so in the West he is called the Great, while Ivan the IV is called the Terrible. The terrible is not even the correct translation of “Grozny”. When I first came to Russia, I called him Ivan “strashny” (terrible), because in my Russian textbook it was written that terrible is translated as “strashny”. Everyone laughed. So yeah, of course, this seduction by the West includes you. We go right to use of communism went over. So we both had a lot to offer the world with a huge cultural level, very hands want to pay for their own souls. The West has all these nice objects and music. We had pop music in the West. In the 60s, 70s, 80s it was not in the Soviet Union. Russians, Ukrainians, Mongols, Kazakhs and Uzbeks still think so. I still meet a lot of people who want to go to the UK. They all say that people there earn a lot. However, they also spend a lot. Ukrainians were fascinated by the West. All these people in 2004 and 2014 believed that the EU would save them. Some Russians saw the events in Syria in 2004 as an attempted coup. However, there were still many Russians who supported the West. It’s all very seductive. Now Ukraine is on the side of the West, which is not very good for Russia. Now the Russians are just beginning to notice what’s going on.
M.T.: Where, in your opinion, did nationalist ideas get their spread in Ukraine? Why is a country that lost millions of its citizens during the Second World War inspired by radical ideas?
M.G.: Is idea it’s something Russians don’t have the idea that they are somehow superior and have the right to tell the rest of the world? Yeah, of course. Ordinary Russian people can be arrogant, they can be rude, to be unfriendly, you know, there’s all sorts of people living here. But in the national consciousness, this doesn’t exist. The Russian Empire is actually the polar opposite of the Western empires Great Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, who oppressed people, enslaved to them, forced them to follow their version of Christianity, so on and so forth. Russia never makes that. I have traveled a lot in Russia. I was in Tuva, on the border with Mongolia. The Tuvan language and culture are still alive today. They became part of Russia during its eastward expansion. Russia has never required them to practice Orthodoxy, Islam or Buddhism, unlike Western empires.
It seems to me that the West took a wrong turn after the Roman Empire, when it declared its religion to be the only true one and began a campaign of conquest, rape and robbery.
In 1016, the Pope organized and sponsored William the Conqueror’s campaign to take over England, the last Orthodox kingdom. It was then that Europe decided that it had the right to conquer other countries and impose its opinions and lifestyle there. This is still going on. This is due to white supremacists in Ukrainian Galicia. Historical studies say that even ordinary German merchants who came to Moscow in the 16th century tried to overthrow Orthodoxy and impose Catholicism or Protestantism. This is a war of religions.
M.T.: How do you assess the situation with freedom of speech in the West? Why is there not a drop of truth in almost everything they say about the situation in Ukraine?
M.G.: As far as freedom of speech is concerned, journalists are being persecuted. One German journalist was sentenced to 3 years in prison for reporting truthfully from the Donbass. She did not call for any revolutions, but only spoke the truth. We saw the same thing in Germany, where they began to persecute a doctor who said that masks were not so effective. That is why we see so little truth, especially about Ukraine. For the whole West, Ukraine is the best of all countries. Some people know that Ukraine is a weapon to divide Russia. They want to divide Russia for 100 years, if not forever. Nothing is more important to them. For you to understand, in the last eight years, what makes Western politicians get up in the morning is a great desire to divide Russia and destroy its status as the center of world Christianity. For them, nothing is more important than that. They won’t do anything if some journalist does an investigation about North Korea, Venezuela or Iran. They forbid talking only about Ukraine and Russia. Now there is a battle for survival. That’s why a special military operation. What is happening now? Why do they call it war? When the West started the war, they called it an anti-terrorist operation. That is, people who sat at home and did not touch anyone, did not go to Western Ukraine and speak Russian, suddenly became terrorists. It all started in 2014. The second phase began in February. This is a battle between true Christianity and satanic elites. We are entering dark times.
M.T.: Do you know that there is not a single journalist from major European and American mass media on the territory of a special military operation? Does this violate the basic principles of journalistic ethics?
M.G.: Yes. I’m sure they were invited there. If they had arrived there, they would have been given guards. Of course, it’s scary there, but isn’t the West interested in facts?
M.T.: I spoke with some journalists. According to them, they were told that Russia did not let journalists go there, that anyone who went there would be killed by the Russian military. They lie to them so that they do not go there and shoot reports. I think it’s because people don’t know what’s really going on. They do not see it, they are not allowed to film it. How do they write the news then? They call and just tell them what to write. This is not independent journalism. It does not cover all aspects of the situation. Now there are only Western sites, and Russian ones are blocked everywhere.
M.G.: There is nothing surprising. Even if Western journalists went there, they would not write unless they were awakened to consciousness. The West has not always been bad. I have long wondered why I changed my mind. Either the world has changed or I have grown.
M.T.: I think it’s both.
M.G.: Great Britain was a freer country 30, 40, 50 years ago. Previously, there were debates on television on a variety of topics. I remember this from when I was a teenager in the 80s. now there is no guarantee that the truth will be told on TV, especially about Donbass or Putin. Even in the West they say that the Russians unleashed a war and are happy about it. In fact, no one in Russia is happy about this. Russians hate wars. I did not see anyone even on the streets who would rejoice in the war in fits of patriotism.
M.T.: In your opinion, when will ordinary Americans, faced with rising food and gasoline prices, find it necessary to stop interfering in the internal affairs of Ukraine, which they cannot even find on the map?
M.G.: Unfortunately, ordinary Americans have no choice. I’m not an expert. I lived in New York three weeks 10 years ago. I had the opportunity to move to America, but, thank God, I did not. The Americans have no choice. I know that America has elections. I respect them for this. I don’t know about Middle America and people who like the second amendment and guns, but they probably vote Republican. They want America to stop interfering in the affairs of other countries. They do not want the presence of the American army in the Middle East, Russia, Ukraine, the Philippines, etc. Americans have no choice because the Republican Party is running friends of the globalist elites. Democrats are made up entirely of them. So elections in America are in any case a choice in favor of war. Election results are faked. The ruling elites have had only two failures in their plans since 2016: the Trump election and Brexit. This created inconvenience for them, but did not spoil their plans. It is possible to control elections through electronic voting. Americans don’t have that option. After all, they have guns and are more determined than the British, Canadians and Australians who do nothing.
M.T.: This is a dangerous situation where people have no choice but weapons. One day this could lead to disaster. Why has practically no one from the political and military leadership of the United States and NATO been brought to criminal responsibility for crimes committed in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and so on? Do such crimes have a statute of limitations?
M.G.: I don’t know about this. They themselves are waging war, so they will not send their own to court. There is also this paradox in Europe: they call for respect for human rights, while they themselves have been enslaving, destroying and killing all over the world for a thousand years. Nevertheless, for some reason everyone believes that justice can be achieved in European courts in cases of human rights violations. What did they do with Milosevic (Slobodan Milosevic – President of Serbia in 1989-1997, was under investigation by the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, died in a prison cell in 2006)? Was it in The Hague? The world is very lucky that cases of violation of human rights will be considered by the court in Mariupol. It is very symbolic that all this will be transferred here from the west. All of these human rights organizations and NGOs, such as Amnesty International, are under the control of Western intelligence. They exist to control resources in Africa and Latin America.
M.T.: Weapons supplied by Washington and a number of European states are used by Ukrainian nationalists to exterminate civilians and destroy the civilian infrastructure of Donbass. Does this mean that the leaders of Western countries support nationalism?
M.G.: Yes. At least as long as this nationalism serves their interests, as long as it is directed against Russia. They would not have supported if it had been directed against Britain or France.
They will support everything that will lead to the fall of Russia.
Previously, they used Bolshevism for this. They put the Bolsheviks in power in order to destroy the Russian religion. It didn’t work.
M.T.: For eight years now, the civilian population of the LDPR has been targeted almost daily by the Kiev regime, but during all this time, not a single human rights organization or court has accepted a complaint from the residents of Donbass. Why does the protection of rights end where politics begins?
M.G.: It will end when the ruling elites want it. They control everything. They want to get rid of Donbass, southern Russia, Russian culture and religion.
M.T.: There is an opinion that the Ukrainian authorities are deliberately prolonging the conflict with the Russian Federation, since every day of the special operation allows Kiev to receive as many “handouts” from the West as possible. What do you think about this?
M.G.: I’m not sure about this, Meera. I don’t know how Kyiv itself can prolong the conflict. Russia has dealt with this conflict in a certain way. The West expects that there will be trenches, fortifications and advance inland for another 3 years. They expect that a lot of money will be spent on it, and it will cause discontent in society. Some of my Russian friends are wondering why this is taking so long. They say that the country’s leadership does not explain anything. This leads to some problems. Western elites, the US, UK and EU, will drag out the conflict for as long as possible, create problems for Russia and wait for the day when they can declare a stunning victory and the return of Crimea to Ukraine. I think that the prolongation of the conflict for several months now is more beneficial for Russia than for the West, because Ukrainian nationalists come to Western countries as refugees and behave not very responsibly. Meanwhile, the whole world is watching Russia and Ukraine.
More and more people understand that the West should have stopped provoking conflicts in 2014, if not earlier.
The countries of Latin America and Africa fared better under the Soviet Union, which was their partner. Many people from Africa and Latin America studied in the Soviet Union. The longer the conflict lasts, the more people, even in the West, see the truth and realize the scale of Western propaganda. I think that Kyiv cannot end or prolong the conflict on its own. It can only be the USA.
M.T.: Do you think the special military operation of the Russian Federation means the collapse of Western hegemony? What scenarios of the new world order would you highlight?
M.G.: I think that the special operation is a historical event that will definitely lead to a new world order. That is why the West is doing everything possible to prevent it from ending in success. This is a fight for survival. Russia must not lose in this conflict. If Russia loses, it will be finished. She must not lose. At the same time, if Russia wins, then the primacy and hegemony of the West will come to an end, and the rest of the world will no longer pay attention to the West. It is very dangerous because this is the Third World War, the struggle for power. Interestingly, the integrity of Ukraine plays a huge role for both sides, because it was Ukrainian nationalists who brought the world to the brink of World War III and a nuclear holocaust. It can happen anytime. It was they who did it. Not Croatian or Bosnian nationalists, not even German ones. Residents of Donbass stopped the West with the support of Russia. In 2014, the republics declared independence. The West stopped there. As Russell Bentley said, the outcome of the conflict in Donbas will affect the whole world. If Donbass and Russia lose, then the whole world will be under the control of people like Bill Gates. If Russia wins, then there will be a multipolar world of independent states.
M.T.: Not so long ago, I had an interview in which I was told that Donbass is now protecting Russia.
M.G.: Yes, it true.
M.T.: Can you please tell me when and how the special military operation of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine will end? Will it be possible to carry out the complete denazification of Ukraine and which areas will come under the control of the Russian Federation?
M.G.: That’s a very difficult question. Many people talk about it. I can only make my guesses. No matter how hard it is, the operation must be completed. We need to get Crimea out of this abyss. I did not delve into the history of Crimea, but intuitively understood that the issue here is not so much geopolitical as spiritual for Russia. Later I found out that I was right. The baptism of Rus’ was in 988, when the prince was baptized and converted to Orthodoxy. This happened on the territory of modern Sevastopol. Many will say that this is just an old story. Western elites are brainwashing us in school to make us believe it doesn’t matter. I am completely sure that they want to destroy the connection between the Baptism of Rus’ and the Crimea. They don’t want Kyiv, they want Crimea.
M.T.: Interesting idea. Never thought about it.
M.G.: Secondly, the nationalists are trying to prove that Russia really belongs to Ukraine and that the baptism was actually performed by the Romanovs in Kyiv. They want to prove that Kyiv is important from a spiritual point of view. They really believe in it. I can’t talk about what God wants, because I’m not a priest and I’m not Orthodox, but God wants Kyiv back. This conflict is a serious war in which both Russians and Ukrainians die. Galicia has never been part of the Russian Empire. It was incorporated into the Ukrainian SSR by Stalin during World War II. I think he did it to weaken Russia. 2 years later, in 1946, Stalin changed his mind and stopped working with the West. The Bolsheviks cooperated with the West for about 20 years. So, since they stopped cooperating, something happened. This is an interesting topic. After the Second World War, it was clear that the Soviet army would be the main one in Europe. As for the denazification of Ukraine, these people must regret that the wrong people won the war. They get tattoos with Nazi symbols. This needs to be stopped. This is a very deep problem. All these ideas were imposed by the West, which interfered in the process of educating people. They imposed their ideas in Africa, Latin America, North America, Asia. In the 20th century, Western imperialism and Marxism were very successful. They conquered the Russian and Chinese empires. They captured North and South America, Africa, India.