RT sits down with Stanislav Krapivnik, a former U.S. Army officer 🇺🇸, to discuss the deep meaning of Russia’s Victory Day Parade 🇷🇺.
He argues the West refuses to confront uncomfortable historical truths and continues to distort the legacy of WWII 🧠⚠️.
As Moscow honors its heroes, Krapivnik calls for honesty, remembrance, and a rejection of revisionism 🔍🕊️.
#VictoryDay #StanislavKrapivnik #USArmyVeteran #RTInterview #TruthHurts #HistoricalReality #RedSquare #WWII #Geopolitics #WesternNarrative #HistoryMatters #Russia #GreatPatrioticWar #MilitaryVeteran #Commemoration #FascismDefeated #VDay2025 #GlobalPolitics #SovietVictory #StopRewritingHistory
He argues the West refuses to confront uncomfortable historical truths and continues to distort the legacy of WWII 🧠⚠️.
As Moscow honors its heroes, Krapivnik calls for honesty, remembrance, and a rejection of revisionism 🔍🕊️.
#VictoryDay #StanislavKrapivnik #USArmyVeteran #RTInterview #TruthHurts #HistoricalReality #RedSquare #WWII #Geopolitics #WesternNarrative #HistoryMatters #Russia #GreatPatrioticWar #MilitaryVeteran #Commemoration #FascismDefeated #VDay2025 #GlobalPolitics #SovietVictory #StopRewritingHistory
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NewsTranscript
00:00Well, joining us now in the rooftop studio, former U.S. Army officer Stanislav Kropivnik.
00:06I did try to warn you about the cannons and you barely even blinked.
00:09You said, oh, well, I'm a military man. Nothing like this will shake me.
00:13He didn't blink at all. I was watching him.
00:15I know. It's terrifying.
00:16You know, just picking up also on what Yunnan said, the drawing of the parallels.
00:20I mean, obviously, 1945 came, fascism was defeated and a new world order followed.
00:27We saw Yalta. We saw how it was created and it survived for all these decades.
00:34Parallels are being drawn now.
00:36Russia says we're still fighting the same type of fascism we faced all those decades ago.
00:42Do you think that the conflict in Ukraine is going to engender a similar restructuring of the global order?
00:49You know, General Zhukov said we liberate and for fascism, they'll never forgive us for that.
00:54And we see the same regrowth in all these countries in Europe.
01:00Fortunately, because they're trying to hold on to what was before.
01:03And the U.S. doesn't want to give up the single polar world either.
01:06And they're used to being in that family of we're the West and everybody else has to do what we're told.
01:12But, yeah, the world is changing.
01:14China is a prime example.
01:16Up to the opium wars, China was the biggest economy in the world.
01:19It's retaking its own place before.
01:22Russia is its own civilization.
01:23All of these centers are growing back up to where they were before.
01:26So that unipolar moment was literally just a moment.
01:29But they don't want to face reality.
01:31They don't want to let go.
01:32And they're trying to hold on to what they can't hold on to.
01:34What's your view of the marriage of actual military infrastructure out here today?
01:43Because we've seen a mix of, you know, Soviet things that are still right up to date and also brand new.
01:49We saw the Gurren attack drones very first time as well.
01:52What does that tell us about putting that forward and putting it to the forefront of such a day?
01:58What's interesting about this parade versus previous parades is there's a lot less equipment that's still in development that's being showcased
02:08and more equipment that's been brought up, modernized, that's actually on the battlefield right now.
02:14So you're seeing the equipment, the modernized versions of equipment that's actually doing the job that it's supposed to be doing.
02:20Just on that, just to mention the Oreshnik, because I was expecting something in that.
02:28But the hypersonic missile, it wasn't shown today, was it?
02:31But it is a centerpiece of the military of Russia.
02:36So in terms of its ability, its use, how big of a game changer is this?
02:41It's a massive game changer.
02:42There's nothing that can stop it.
02:44When it comes down, you no longer need nuclear warheads to do massive damage to a specific target.
02:50There's none of the radiation, there's no fallout, there's not a big cloud.
02:54But you're still destroying the object that you're aiming for and destroying it deep in.
03:00I mean, when those warheads are coming down, they're doing Mach 10 plus, and they're just melting through everything.
03:08So this is an entire game changer.
03:10Just to make an example, the U.S. just canceled, quietly of course, the U.S. just canceled the Halo system project for the U.S. Navy.
03:18Last year, they canceled the Aero system.
03:20U.S. can't get first-generation hypersonic missiles to work right.
03:25And they've been trying for 20-something years.
03:27So, of course, they didn't believe that Russia had hypersonics.
03:30It's all CGI, it's all fake, until the special military operation started.
03:35And you saw the Kanjals flying.
03:36And then they had to face the reality of, no, it's not fake, it's real, and we're three generations behind.
03:41I mean, what's interesting, you're comparing that, obviously, the American and the Russian technology at the moment.
03:47I mean, Chinese are also at the forefront of hypersonic missiles.
03:50Russia, too, has also exhibited that.
03:52And I think President Trump himself recognizes that the U.S. has really lagged behind in this particular sphere,
03:59despite, of course, having the biggest defense budget in the world.
04:01I mean, how do we explain that?
04:03Is it red tape?
04:04Is it bureaucracy?
04:05Because it's hard to imagine that they don't have, you know, the engineers and the scientists to be able to develop it.
04:11Actually, maybe they don't have the engineers and the scientists.
04:14The education system, well, this is a prime example.
04:16The U.S. has the most expensive education system in the world.
04:20The official illiteracy rate was 21% last year.
04:24I mean, you're looking at, we could spend money, but we can't get any results.
04:28And the same thing went to here.
04:29They said, oh, the Russians can't do it because they have a small research budget compared to ours.
04:34Because the whole concept is we have to have a lot of money, not a lot of talent.
04:38And, well, we see the results of that.
04:39We see a country that's trying to hold on to a global empire, a global basis,
04:45but it doesn't have the infrastructure, it doesn't have the money, and it doesn't have the technology anymore.
04:49What the SMO has shown with the equipment that went over to the Ukrainians is that modern American equipment is very outdated.
04:56It had its moment in the 90s.
04:57It didn't evolve.
04:59It was a victim of its own success in the 90s.
05:02And now it's outdated.
05:03I remember covering the, I think it was the 65th, back in 2010, the parade here.
05:13And I remember a lot of European flags as well as U.S. flags.
05:18There was quite a big presence by the U.S. army there marching with their brethren coming together.
05:25That hasn't been seen for quite a few years, though there are veterans here today.
05:29Is that a common occurrence, that veterans come, or do you think that the greater presence is going to increase between the armies?
05:37Well, veterans have been coming.
05:38And as has been said over and over, Russia has always recognized what the other countries have done as part of the coalition that fought the Nazis.
05:48And not just Hitler.
05:49You've got to remember, Hitler had a whole set of alliances.
05:51Most of Europe, as a matter of fact, most of Central Europe, Eastern, large parts of Eastern Europe were all within that Hitler's alliance.
05:59And Russia always recognized all the nations have fought.
06:02But, unfortunately, with the Cold War 2.0, if you want to call it that, that now seems to be happening, Russia's portion is being cut out.
06:12Veterans are being told not to go because you'll be arrested.
06:15You'll be, it's the usual lies to keep people from coming.
06:19And, of course, the...
06:20But do you see a sea change in that now with the new Trump administration in any way?
06:25Because we're starting to see signs of a detente.
06:29Does it extend to that as well?
06:31You know, honestly, I don't.
06:33And I'll say why.
06:34Just this week, we've had Secretary of Finance, Besset, call President Vladimir Vladimierz a war criminal.
06:40We've had Kennedy, Senator Kennedy, came out and said, you know, we're going to turn Russia into fish bait.
06:46We've had Representative Fitzpatrick, who, by the way, is a criminal because the 1883 Neutrality Act, which means Americans cannot participate in military combat against nations that America's not at war with.
07:02He goes to Ukraine, shoots artillery shells at Russia and so on and so on.
07:06So we're seeing all of this and not a word from the White House, not a word to say we don't support this.
07:11And silence, you know, is acquisition to what's happening.
07:14You know, what's also interesting, Trump himself, we know he's a man who likes his social media.
07:19We also know that he likes to take credit, sometimes maybe where it's not entirely due.
07:25And one thing that I think caused slight laughs around the world recently was when he said,
07:31we know that America did more than any other country in the world to win the Second World War.
07:37Now, no one, of course, is ever going to diminish the contribution of the hundreds of thousands, of course, of American soldiers who fell in battle.
07:45But there is obviously a huge discrepancy between the sacrifices, human sacrifice that the Soviet Union made versus the United States.
07:54And my question to you, Stanislav, is do you think it's a genuine belief?
07:58Is that what they're told in America?
07:59Or is this, again, the Donald Trump showman?
08:04It's a genuine belief.
08:05I've known people that actually had history majors that believe this.
08:09When you start telling them the reality of it, they look at you like you're insane.
08:13Hollywood has enforced this belief.
08:16Total rewriting of history in a lot of areas has reinforced this belief.
08:20And people believe it.
08:21First of all, most people don't even understand anything about World War II in general.
08:26And we'll call it World War II because for the Americans, it's World War II.
08:29They don't believe it.
08:30But then you get, you know, for example, I was on a project in Turkey in 2020.
08:36And I was watching a British channel.
08:38And they had a documentary on World War II and the liberation of Berlin.
08:42And they're showing American and British forces.
08:45And they announced the Allied forces liberated Berlin.
08:48Well, yeah, the Allied forces.
08:50You mean the Soviet Army liberated Berlin.
08:53But that's how they're showing it to the people.
08:55And people, well, what do they see?
08:56They see Americans.
08:56They see British forces.
08:57Ah, the Americans and the British liberated Berlin.
09:01So unfortunately, yeah, I believe they actually believe that.
09:04Really interesting points.
09:05Stanislav Kropivnik, former U.S. Army officer and friend of the program.
09:09Thanks so much for coming in on this special day.