WATCH NEXT Why Putin Became A Killer kzfaq.info/get/bejne/b7mFndR627y-eI0.html kzfaq.info/get/bejne/gZp_ZqdoqMy4mHU.html The Riddle of Why Russians Don't Protest Why Russians Rejected Freedom (Gorbachev) kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jKuqaLmku7LUZKc.html Putin's Partial Mobilisation (it's disastrous) kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ftiRqbeKuK-6pWg.html ------ You can now support Vlad's work on Patreon! www.patreon.com/vladvexler Support Vlad via PayPal www.paypal.com/paypalme/vladvexler?country.x=GB&locale.x=en_GB ------- MORE TO WATCH The REAL meaning of the killing of Dugin's daughter kzfaq.info/get/bejne/r5OKnpp8nrvSYok.html The Postmodern Hell Of Russian Propaganda kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ldBmicpo3rLcZWg.html Why the Crimea Bridge Attack Shows Putin's Decline kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fMyqhKl0z6q0g2Q.html THIS explains why Russia starts insane wars kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jJyFnKiJ17zWpps.html

When he talks about a "world without Russia in it", I recall a line from the movie Der Untergang (The Downfall) where Magda Goebbels, as a justification for poisoning her six children, says she doesn't want them to live in a world without Hitler...

This is one of the only channels that truly delve into multidimensional thinking on the topic of Russia-Ukraine and does so in a multidisciplinary way.

If we give in to nuclear blackmail, we'll wake up to a world in which nuclear blackmail is normal. So while it's interesting to ponder the question, I don't see any alternative but to simply ignore the threats entirely. Pragmatically, is better face down one risk today than an endless procession of them tomorrow.

The level of nuclear risk is unknown, but we should all continue to fully support Ukraine unwaveringly and indefinitely.

"Victimized by their own expertise" is a world-class description the whole world needs to chew on these days. That's a gem of an idea, Vlad!

I've said for months now, that we cannot predict Putin's actions by thinking what would be the logical thing for a Western leader to do in his position, because clearly he has been repeatedly doing thing that Western leaders have been considering illogical. We must think what the enemy thinks, not what we would think if we were the enemy. I also fully agree about the multi-disciplinary view: it is not only about military, but also about psychology, culture, philosophy, history, economy, ... I hope your voice will be heard by those Wester leaders who make important calls on the decisions related to the war.

I lived in Berlin, also visited Moscow and have had some exposure to Russian media (past and present). There seemed to be a visible difference between war memorials in the west and Russia. The people lost during wars were remembered for their sacrifices. In Russia it seemed there was a slant towards the glory of Russia through those people. A celebration of how mighty Russia is, how much. Celebration of suffering. Very weird

Glad to see you are feeling better, and happy to see your latest works so valuable to all of us trying to unravel all the madness inside Russia. Thank you!

Madman Theory: the only effective nuclear actors are those mad enough to make a credible suicidal threat.

I love your style of editing! I love all the little touches, and more importantly that you don't over-do it.

I love the way you take us on your journey to find the viewing angle from which complex things can be better understood without oversimplification. After many years as a psychiatrist I’m still fascinated by the way we behave, but I’m increasingly aware that ‘getting from point A to point B’ is achieved by radically different internal steps by people who appear to be doing the same thing. This can’t be overlooked. Thanks once again, and good health to you 😘

This isn't all that new to regulars of the channel, but oh boy is this a concise essay. Thank you, Vlad! I will be sharing this a lot.

If he's not a rational nuclear actor, than we're all in serious trouble.

Although not being of the faculty I am deeply impressed by your analysis. Your content should be made obligatory lecture for all Western leaders. Thank you so very very much!

Great to see that your channel has reached this magnitude! Please keep going Vlad, such great content.

Yes, one of your best. A lot of work, so much appriciated! Each video and chat is an endorphin infusion leaving me much to mull over during the day. Thank you!

Thank you so much for all your work and effort Vlad, you are wonderful!!

Hey Vlad. You're the best. Thanks for making such a complex video while fighting for your health. I never thought that I needed anyone to explain the 'why' and the 'how' and in-between, but you do a good job of making sense of such a complex situation.

there is 1 single rule of blackmailing. It never stops if you accept it

One of the very few places where one can see philosophy, metascience, in action. Thank you, Mr. Vexler.

I really like it when Vlad sets off the lightbulb in my head by introducing an idea, or chain of thought I haven't been exposed to.

Another fantastic piece of thought and analysis. More people deserves to get to listen to you. I believe you're an important and sober voice in a time where we are ironically, much thanks to internet, constantly bombarded with promises of doom, victory and quick fixes where what we most of all need is to stay mentally sober while vigilant at the same time. Quite an art form to master.

Putin has overplayed his bluffs.

“No value-free formula will do here, and only that will allow us to see the options before Putin as he sees them, and not as he would see them if he were us.” …So clear and simple and brilliantly spoken.

Hello, Vlad, thanks for the video! Regarding school escalating propaganda, do you envision it spectacularly backfiring the same way as in the late soviet union, when it was openly mocked?

Thank you so much for this content. You and me, we are children of roughly the same decade, in the early 1980s. I grew up in West Germany with the specter of the Warsaw pact and communism looming. And despite me only being in Kindergarden-age, I have early been raised into the fear of what lurked in the east. It is not only relieving to listen to such a eloquent philosopher of Russian origin, it is also showing that the spirit of the free Russian intelligentsia is still out there. I only wish for the Russian people to some day be able to unshackle themselves from the totalitarianism that has been holding this grand nation hostage for such a long time already. Keep the content coming, I will be watching. All the best from southern Bavaria!

Vlad, thank you. You are very lucid and help crystallise thoughts that are swirling inchoate in my head. Excellent sound as well

I am very glad to have found your channel, Vlad. I greatly appreciate your thoughtful perspective, both here and on your chat channel. Thank you for your efforts at providing a little sanity in a chaotic world.

I really, really, really hope somebody that can actually do something about this secretly has a plan that they aren't telling anybody about.

Great video Vlad. Worth the wait !

I too feel that we are blessed to have VV as part of YT content creators. A truly unique voice. Thank you for your work, Vlad!

This might be your best video so far! Very insightful 👏

Its kinda scary that he could be in poor health. Imagine a man with nothing to lose ready to start a nuclear war and take everyone with him

I was incredibly impressed by this. Thank you Vlad and I hope that you are feeling better, you certainly exude vitality in the video.

The first premise of the so-called "realist" school of thought in international affairs is that values never matter. In this video, Vexler exposes the deficiency of this premise.

Excellent analysis again! Thank you very much for your insights! All the best from Finland! 👍😎

Thank you Vlad, very interesting

Thank you Vlad for this thoughtful analysis. I keep reading and watching every bit of news on the matter of russia and the ukrainian conflict, I can find - even thou it probably doesn't help my mental health. Your insight are always deeply appreciated and so is the work you put into these videos. I hope you do and continue to feel better (of course not just because I want to see more videos like this). Best wishes from Germany

@Vlad this one was worth the waiting

amazing video, as always

Have to deal with some serious chronic health issues myself. So I appreciate the extra effort you have put into making these excellent commentaries. All the best. 🙂

always a good thing to see that you've uploaded another video. Whether I agree with your position on this or that -it is important to me that I am challenged in my perspective and for that I thank you and hope your medical issues sort themselves out. Think clearly. Be well. Stay safe and carry on.

Well done and worth waiting for.

Fantastic video, more than worth the wait.

I would like to say that it is an honour to watch your videos. Well spoken, well explained, well-thought-out. If only.. it was less scaring what you say. Anyway - thank you. All the best from Germany!

I love your videos on all your channels 🙂 You combine great knowledge and insight of Russia with a highly intellectual discussion and analysis. Perfect!

Thanks much, Vlad!

Excellent vid! Worth the wait -much to ponder

Vlad, your clarity of thought and nuanced arguments are inspiring. Regarding values, I agree this is central to many issues today. This recalls the philosophy of Jacque Fresco, who believed that values and environment shape our behaviour, and these therefore are also key to improving society. He also spoke about how one can fail to communicate with others who don't already share your values. You previously hinted at how you approach this -- e.g. not belittling other points of view and "allowing everyone on the train" towards a common goal regardless of their individual motivations. But what of people not on the train? Suppose you could speak to Putin or any of his supporters. What would you say to them? And would it even make a difference?

Amazing video! Thank you Vlad

Great Dr. Vexler!!

We may see things coming to a head sooner rather than later with regards to Crimea. The Russians abandoned Kherson without much of a fight because they couldn't supply the civilians and military forces there with the needed food, fuel and weapons/supplies. The same applies to all of Crimea, only now Russia has about 3 million civilians to provide for and a larger military force to take care of logistically. I wouldn't be shocked if the Russians were not forced to abandon Crimea as well, and this may be so unacceptable to Putin that he resorts to the overt nuclear threat mentioned by Vlad in his comments. If evacuating Kherson was difficult, imagine trying to pull out millions of civilians and thousands of troops from Crimea, with only one lane open across the bridge. If Putin drew criticism for abandoning Kherson, that was only "part of Russia" from an occupation standpoint for less than a year and from an actual annexation standpoint for only a few weeks, imagine the criticism that will come from abandoning Crimea. I do agree that we cannot give in to nuclear blackmail. Once that has been done once, it will happen again and again in the future. When Putin says that "A world without Russia is unimaginable", he really means that a world without Putin is unimaginable to himself, but that is not true of all Russians, including those with some power around him. My guess is that they are already thinking about a world without Putin, especially if some of the health rumors are true, and I would be shocked if many of them were willing to die by suicide, which a full nuclear exchange would be, simply because Putin was afraid of seeing a world without him in power.

Thanks for another deep dive into a subject of extreme significance. I'm no philosopher but I'm keenly interested in the thoughts of philosophers. It's important to realize our view of the world is not necessarily that of Putin. My mind is reeling from the exercise of adjusting to that thought.

Superb video. Thank you

Lots of love mr Vlad!

If he were going to use a nuclear weapon. He would have done it by now. His bluff has been called, and he has a hand full of nothing.

Yes, rationality needs to be comprehended from the person who we're trying to understand. I have met, tried to understand their "world view" and figure out the values they hold. It's certainly not easy when dealing with fanatics, "every means will justify the end". It's a scary trip, mentally, to follow without being disturbed. Thank you Vlad. It's scary, it's alarming, but we need to use our own imagination. 💝

Great video.

Awesome presentation

Well said as always! Slava Ukraine 🇺🇦 Glory to the heroes.

Thank you for your valuable and ongoing insights, Vlad. You are an incredibly talented orator and have such a deep understanding if concepts that the west do not focus on enough in Geopolitical terms.

exciting!! just started watching it!!

Excellent… as always. Thank you. 😎

Vlad, I thank you for this video. I am a huge fan, particularly of the chat channel where I watch all of your work. I hope that any health issues that may have delayed this video have improved. My only variation on what you say is that while I completely agree we should assess Putin based on his values and not ours, we should assess him based on our best evidence of what his values actually are, not on what his outward statements, when taken at face value, imply they are. Yes, he projects a quasi-religious view of Russian destiny, and for him that view may be heartfelt to the extent that it is a possibly subconscious yet convenient justification for every act he has performed to expand and maintain his personal power, but statements like his in the video to the effect that the world shouldn’t exist if Russia was to collapse seem to me to be a calculated performance that copies three generations of the strategy of the Kim family of North Korea, where they consciously try to seem too crazy to be trifled with. Frankly, and I hate to admit this, I think I would say the same kind of things as Putin if I were in his shoes and wanted to intimidate the West, and I would probably deliver the message with the same smirk. For me, the best evidence (but not the only evidence) of Putin’s real values has been the ridiculously long tables he used for meeting his interlocutors during the pandemic, where I can see no propaganda benefit of that behavior that would advance his claim to be Russia’s savior, while he must know it looks absurd to outside observers. Thus I think the best explanation of this and other evidence about his personalllity is that Putin is a coward who definitely does not want to have himself, and perhaps also does no want to have his family, be obliterated by nuclear war. In fact, although what I am about to say will probably reflect badly on me, I think that associating Putin with suicide bombers insults the commitment to cause that actual suicide bombers have. So while I believe there is a danger of nuclear holocaust if the West either invades Russia or rains down conventional missiles on Moscow or Petersburg, there not much danger otherwise. Thus the current tragedy is that Moscow can destroy the Ukrainian power grid with impunity, leaving the people of Ukraine to freeze this winter, while it is (and I very reluctantly agree) too dangerous for the West to give Ukraine longer-range missiles that would bring down the Russian power grid tit-for-tat. In this sense I am a coward too. I look forward to your future videos.

Thank you Vlad. Every time I listen to one of your presentations, I feel my brain expanding beyond the mundane functions of my day to day life. I'm trained as a computer scientist, and before that I was a soldier, and always someone who has tried to figure out how life and the universe works. I have learned through experience that many people look to oversimplified quantification to guide them in the automated analysis of people and complex problems. In both cases there may be things that cannot be measured that have value in relationship to the overall performance of a system/agent nonetheless, leading to poor decisions and outcomes (unintended consequences). I pray that the people making the decisions get it right, or close enough to avoid destruction beyond the current boundaries of the war.

insightful as always Vlad. Thanks for the video!

Wow! One of your bests! Many thanks, and keep up!

I first came upon your channel in search of the very things you talk about - trying to understand Putin's values and rationale. I do think that one mistake Putin made was in the assumption that the West does count economics over values. As I always see elements of projection in people's actions, it does give me hope that economics does play a part if his own calculations. How do you assess this logic?

In a sense it doesn’t matter, what’s important is that we are rational actors in the situation and that, being stronger, our rationality can be brought to bear; Don’t escalate unnecessarily Don’t concede to threats (and state their will be punishment if threats are carried out) This sets the boundaries within which he can act while minimising the potential for reckless escalation - this would have to be by Putin, and that raises the possibility he couldn’t command others to carry it out.

Nice to see you pal, hope you are doing well ✌️❤️🙏

Lots of love

As an American, I really don't want to think too deeply on this topic. It scares the living $%&/ out of me. Slava Ukraine.

excellent presentation and argument... i believe you induced your audience to ponder the world outside of their box ... i think they might start to comprehend that the world is not just a vacation destiny promoted by western media and their "school" book ideals...

Absolutely brilliant !!!!!

Well done. Thumbs up, both of them. Thanks Vlad.

President Putin is a complicated man shrouded in secrecy. It's hard to figure out what's going on inside his head, so this was an interesting analysis.

“You need yoga (da!), you need a shower (da!). You need to learn how to handle real power!” Mikhail Gorbachev

Very interesting Video, thank you

Congratulations Vlad! You’ve made it!

First!

I think you are being too hard on the conventional western view of Putin being a rational actor, and more importantly think you have found the wrong flaw in it. The economic view of the question, as dictated by game theory, a concept you clearly alluded to but didn't name, allows for different players in the game, actors as you formulated it, to have different values and that the analysis can still come to correct conclusions on what the players will do. So the flaw in the conventional analysis you are highlighting isn't that "Putin has different values therefore your frame work is unworkable", but rather "your actual analysis of Putin assigns to him incorrect values and/or weights of those values, therefore you will get the wrong answer". To reiterate I don't think any of what you said is wrong, except that it occurs not on the basic level of assumptions you think it is on, rather a level above that where the West is incorrectly judging Putin's values. Another point of minor disagreement, I would argue you can get to the conclusion "Under no circumstances should we stop supporting Ukraine do to nuclear blackmail" from the only assumption of Putin's/Russia's value of "they want to win the war" using game theory. If we withdraw support due to nuclear blackmail then that means next time Putin wants to annex territory, or just do anything, the west opposes then he can push the nuclear threats to the same point that got the West to back down in Ukraine and either the West will back down again, or they will not. If they don't then by definition we are as close or closer to an actual nuclear war than we are now, since Putin created an analogous situation, so the payoff for backing down now is essentially nothing. This situation can repeat an arbitrary number of times until Putin has everything and the West nothing. Needless to say this is a bad outcome for the West. Thus to prevent the West from being slowly destroyed over fear at some point the West must stand up to nuclear blackmail. Following on from that, the sooner the West does not give in the lower the payoff for Putin will be, thus now is the time to say no to nuclear blackmail.

A fine piece Vlad, & absolutely correct summary.

Thank you Vlad! For this one, again. Quite advanced, and just as useful.

I very much enjoy the content of your channell. Keep it rolling, Mr.Vexler!

An Awesome analysis nobody else can give but you!

Bravo! Excellent work, Vexler!

you were right, Vlad. this was your best yet

Brilliant. Simply sublime. Really excellent arguments, very much helping me think about this. I thank you sir!!!

Yaaay a new video

bless you Mr Vexler, you do anything but vex me superb hard-hitting video clarity+

Excellent ! I will save and rewatch until your wise words are committed to memory. Thank you.

Top content

You're very good at this.

Thank you Vlad.

I support your channel and love listening to your lecture. It's poem like in its subtle reasoning, whose beauty I grasp at like at a butterfly, and it slips away, never totally in possession of it, but never tire of trying to comprehend it and possess it.

Thank you mister Vexler. Amazing thought-provoking work as usual.

Hi Vlad, addictive and clear as always, but also very fast. So here’s some love for your cannel, as ordered. ❤

Excellent quality. Really helps me understand the war more clearly.

Well said, sir. Your analysis is impeccable as always.