Russia and Ukraine: The Push for Peace

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday morning. With us today is Cato Hechinoff, and he’s been working with my wife on running the Russian Heritage Foundation in St. Petersburg, Florida. And he’s been a friend many, many years that we know him, and he’s always done a great job. And Cato, you have a lot of friends in Moscow and a lot of friends in Russia.

0:28 So we always talk when we’re together. Give us the pulse of the situation. What is going on in Moscow? And because the American people want to know what the heck is going on.

0:40 Speaker 2 Well, first of all, John, it’s a pleasure to always speak with you. And I appreciate the introduction. Yes, I actually do stay in touch with my friends overseas, in this case in Russia. And all three of them are located in Moscow. One is Green Beret, who’s been out there for just about six years now. Mike, who’s in finance,

1:07 has been out there since 1993. And Paul, who’s been there since 1991. These three individuals, I consider them intelligent and very New Yorkers. But then again, if they were to come back to New York today, they would see a different New York probably, right?

1:28 Speaker 1 Absolutely. New York has changed significantly in the last 25 years.

1:33 Speaker 2 Right, right. Well, they do travel occasionally, right? But I didn’t ask how often. So let me just get to the point about them, though. And You know, I just ask them, basically, what do— first question was, you know, what do you think that the Russians think about the Russian-Ukraine conflict?

1:52 One is, basically, say that they support the troops, majority of the people, okay? Mike actually said it is necessarily an evil, and things would have happened had it been for worse. it’s an evil thing, this conflict, right? No matter how you look, there’s nothing good about it. But it had to happen, right? It had to happen one

2:22 way or another. It came to that point. And Paul basically says, you know, people support it in all wars. It’s like in their DNA, Russia has been attacked so many times that The people are aware that this is somehow it’s always going to happen again, and yet let’s try to keep calm about it. So that’s the idea

2:49 of the Americans, right, who live there. You know, what do they think? Then I got brought up another question. What do you think about Americans in the USA? Are they misunderstanding about what’s happening in Russia? Well.

3:07 Speaker 2 The Green Parade said, well, past and present. Cold War ended 35 years ago. And some of the people, especially— he’ s talking about Americans, right? Some of the Americans actually think that Russia is still communist. It’s—you know, but it’s not.

3:23 So Mike, the finance, he says, well, Russians have, you know, strong values, and they’re feeling as— They want the American— America doesn’t see them as just leave us be. That is, let them be. They want the Americans to look at Russia and just, don’t bother us. We’re not bothering you guys.

3:53 Don’t bother us. Right? So that’s the feeling. Paul, who’s been there since 1991— He says there’s more freedom of religion, and it seems at times that it’s even more freedom of speech. In a sense, what goes on in the bedroom stays in the bedroom, right? So this is— I’ m trying to really bring this down to.

4:21 Speaker 1 See, Cato, I’m trying to ascertain. You know, you work for the church in St. Petersburg, Florida. Yes. You’re the assistant in St. Andrew’s Russian Orthodox Church in St. Petersburg. I work for the Archdiocese in New York, and I’ve never had a problem with the Russian people. You know, there was communism. Now, in the last 30 years, it’s

4:46 just odds and ends. And a lot of American people don’t understand, don’t understand, What is going on? Why the war between Russia and Ukraine?

5:02 Speaker 2 Okay, so this is my view, but pretty much everyone’s view over there. There’s been a conflict, right? What came first, the chicken or the egg, right? And Ukraine and Russia was really developed, baptized by St. Vladimir of Rus, Kievan Rus.

5:23 And that’s how it all originated. The Russians and Ukrainians are brothers and sisters. They’re actually, you can’t really tell them apart. If you’re standing there with two of them, they’re the same, the same beauty, the same culture.

5:39 Speaker 1 So why are they killing each other?

5:43 Speaker 2 It’s a political issue, right? Back in 2014 is when the Euromaidan happened, when they overthrew the democratically elected... Yanukovych from Kiev in Ukraine. He was democratically elected. And someone wanted to change this. So another way to look at this, again, to understand, NATO, which has been creeping up to the borders, and that was happening already basically from the late 90s to,

6:16 you know, Euromaidan of 2014. And when they started getting into Ukraine, and this actually is not just 2014, John. We’re talking about 2008, when the conflict actually began with the conflict between Georgia, Soviet Georgia, or Russia, sorry. How would you say? Georgia, the south border of Russia, when they had the conflict with Russia, when they had the

6:46 tanks rolling in. And that stopped, right? And it just continued onwards to Ukraine. Why is that happening? Well, NATO forces want to have their bases or their establishment or their missile launchers, whatever way you want to look at it.

7:06 We won’t know the true answer. But this all started years ago, John.

7:13 Speaker 1 Well, understood. But let’s continue this conversation again real soon. but because we’re out of time today, and I want the American people to understand what’s going on, and maybe there’s some way we can bring peace together.

7:30 Speaker 2 We want that, John. I think we all must. Who wants war, really? Nobody. Who wants war? Nobody. Nobody wants war. So I think Ukraine, Russia, America, including Europe and all the Asian countries, Put away everything that’s going on and find peace. Get peace of chance.

7:48 Speaker 1 Thank you so much for coming on this Sunday morning, and we’ll catch up again real soon.

7:53 Speaker 2 Sounds good, John. Take care. God bless. Thank you.