June 23, 2022 - Epoch Times
10:26
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| Good evening, and right before we dive into the main topic, I wanted to quickly mention that earlier today we published an exclusive episode detailing how, for the past 18 months or so, there have been dozens of January 6th prisoners languishing in D.C. jail, many of whom are actually in solitary confinement for 22 hours a day. | |
| Now, that episode is phenomenal, and it includes great interviews as well as awesome speeches, and if you want to check it out, the link will be right there at the very top of the description box. | |
| And let's dive into the main topic of today's discussion. | |
| This right here is a map of Eastern Europe. | |
| And the little part in red that's highlighted there, it looks like it should be a part of Poland. | |
| But it's actually not. | |
| That little piece of land that's highlighted in red is actually Russian sovereign territory. | |
| Specifically, it's what's known as the Kaliningrad Obelist. | |
| Because you see, most people outside of Eastern Europe don't know this. | |
| But if you took a look at a map of Russia, you'll see that it's divided up into about 85 different federal subjects. | |
| Now I say about 85 because some of these subjects are disputed, like the Crimean Peninsula, for instance. | |
| But for today's discussion, let's just put that aside and say that they have about 85 subjects that are under direct control of the Russian Federation. | |
| And when you look at the map, you'll see that these subjects come in different varieties. | |
| In green, you have what are known as republics. | |
| In orange, you have territories. | |
| In blue, you have the autonomous regions. | |
| In red, you have the federal cities, and in yellow, you have the obelists, otherwise known as the provinces. | |
| And notice something. | |
| When you look at the westernmost part of the map, you see the Kaliningrad Obelist, completely separate from the main Russian territory, and it's surrounded on all sides by members of both the EU as well as NATO. You have Lithuania to the north and the east, Poland to the south, and of course you have the Baltic Sea to the west. | |
| Now, the historical reason that Russia even has this little piece of territory goes back to World War II, when the Soviet army moved in, seized the land from Nazi Germany, and they've kept hold of it ever since. | |
| And it's actually a pretty strategic port for Russia to have access to the Baltic Sea. | |
| Now, there is a lot more to the story behind this little piece of land, but that's outside the scope of our discussion. | |
| The main point that I'd like to make today is that Kaliningrad is as much a part of Russia as, let's say, Alaska is a part of America. | |
| And just as a fun fact, Kaliningrad actually has a larger population than Alaska. | |
| Regardless, you can tell just by looking at a map that the geography of Kaliningrad puts it in a bit of a precarious position because after the collapse of the Soviet Union and especially after Lithuania joined both NATO and the EU, Kaliningrad became surrounded on all sides by forces that were not especially friendly. | |
| However, until now, the situation was tenable. | |
| That's because back in the year 1993, Lithuania and Russia signed a treaty, you can see it up on screen for yourself, allowing for Russian supplies to go through Lithuania to Kaliningrad using both rail as well as gas pipelines. | |
| And so for the past three decades now, this geographical setup has not really been a problem. | |
| However, that all changed this past weekend. | |
| That's because the European Commission in Brussels, they ruled that, quote, sanctioned goods and cargo should still be prohibited even if they travel from one part of Russia to another, but through EU territory. | |
| And because of that ruling, the government of Lithuania announced that they were banning the railway transit of all goods subject to EU sanctions from Russia to Kaliningrad starting this past Saturday. | |
| Here's in fact how Reuters, reporting from Lithuania, described the situation. | |
| "News of the ban came on Friday through a video posted by the Kaliningrad's governor, Anton Alikhanov. | |
| The EU sanctions list notably includes coal, metals, construction materials and advanced technology, and Alikhanov said the ban would cover around 50% of the items that Kaliningrad imports." Furthermore, the Lithuanian foreign minister, he added that this action was simply the country complying with the overall sanctions that were already imposed by EU as a whole, and they were only taken after, quote,"...consultation with the European Commission and under its guidelines. | |
| Sanctioned goods will no longer be allowed to transit Lithuanian territory." Now, despite the fact that almost no media, in the West at least, gave this adequate coverage, this might be the biggest real-world escalation between a member of NATO and Russia since the beginning of the Ukraine war. | |
| And in fact, soon after this partial blockade was announced, the Russian Foreign Ministry released an official statement calling it a form of open hostility. | |
| Here's part of what the statement said, quote,"...we pointed out that we consider provocative measures of the Lithuanian side that violate Lithuania's international legal obligations to be openly hostile." Now, | |
| of course, there is a lot of irony in the Russian government expressing such outrage at Lithuania for breaking their treaty, especially given the fact that just eight years ago, Russia signed this other treaty here, committing to, among several other things, quote, However, And | |
| even though the governor of Kaliningrad released a statement urging citizens not to resort to panic buying and adding that, quote, Well, that didn't really help the situation on the ground, given the fact that videos like these began to circulate online, showing people hoarding food and other items on supermarket store shelves. | |
| But the idea that roughly one million people in Kaliningrad would have to hoard food while they await Russian ships to deliver food through the Baltic Strait is in the grand scheme of things actually a minor issue. | |
| The bigger issue is that this blockade is unfortunately moving us one step closer to a potential confrontation between NATO and Russia. | |
| That's because, from the perspective of Moscow, this latest action is tantamount to laying economic siege to part of Russia's sovereign territory and one million of its citizens. | |
| And in fact, when the EU first floated the idea of this blockade, all the way back in April, officials within the Kremlin issued a warning of a possible war in order to, quote-unquote, break the blockade. | |
| And along that line, here was a statement that was released back in April... | |
| From a prominent Russian senator who serves as the first deputy head of the Federal Council's Committee for International Affairs, again, all the way back in April when the EU was first just floating this idea. | |
| Quote, I think that for now, this is a game testing the waters. | |
| In case of a blockade, as they are saying, the Soviet Union knows how to break the blockades. | |
| We, meaning Russia as the successor of the Soviet Union, have vast experience. | |
| If they want to go to the length of making us break this blockade to save the lives of our people who live there, we can do this. | |
| And indeed, after this blockade was imposed, the governor of Kaliningrad has begun to issue calls to the Russian federal authorities to prepare tit-for-tat measures against Lithuania. | |
| And of course, outside of economic measures, it's absolutely worth noting that any kinetic measures against Lithuania will be equivalent to Russia taking kinetic actions against NATO as a whole, which unfortunately can easily lead us to World War III. And so, common people like you and me are just having to sit by and wait to see what happens next. | |
| Until then, if you'd like to go deeper into the story, I'll throw all my reference material down into the description box below this video for you to check out. | |
| And all I ask in return is that you take a super quick moment to smash, smash, smash that like button for the YouTube algorithm. | |
| And also, if you appreciate content like this, take a quick moment to subscribe to this YouTube channel as well. | |
| That way you can get honest content like this delivered to your YouTube feed every single weekday. | |
| And now, take a look at this right here. | |
| This right here is an American Walking Liberty one ounce gold coin. | |
| And typically, I order at least one of these from our sponsor, American Heart for Gold, every single month. | |
| The reason I do so is because, I mean, as you likely know, the inflation rate in this country is the highest that it's been in, what, the last 40 years now? | |
| Everything like the price of food, the price of housing, the price of gas is absolutely going through the roof. | |
| And in fact, market experts like the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, he's not only predicting a recession, but he's even using words like unprecedented economic hurricane. | |
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| So pick up the phone and call 866-242-2352. | |
| That's 866-242-2352. | |
| Or text Roman to 65532. | |
| The link will also be down in the description box below. | |
| And then let's head on back to the studio. | |
| And now in closing, as I mentioned at the beginning of today's episode, you might not believe this, but as of right now, which is about a full year and a half after the January 6th protest, well, there are approximately somewhere between 40 to 50 people who are currently sitting in solitary confinement. | |
| Let me repeat that. | |
| For the last 18 months or so, there have been people sitting in solitary confinement, where they are in a holding cell by themselves for 22 to 23 hours a day. | |
| And for many of them, this is pre-trial detention, meaning that they have been holed up in solitary confinement awaiting a trial, which quite frankly, in my non-legal opinion, seems to go directly against two parts of the Bill of Rights, the Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial, as well as the Eighth Amendment right against cruel and unusual punishment. | |
| However, despite the fact that the media in this country has by and large ignored the plight of these people, there are still some activists trying to bring these people's plight to light. | |
| And in fact, several months ago, here in New York City of all places, there was a rally held in order to bring awareness of what they called America's political prisoners. | |
| Now my team and I were there interviewing the organizers as well as the attendees, as well as the speakers, in order to get an idea of not only what's happening behind the scenes, but also what this all means for the future of this country. | |
| Now, of course, we can't publish that episode here on YouTube, unfortunately, but if you want to check it out, I'll throw the link. | |
| It'll be right there at the very top of the description box. | |
| You can find it exclusively on Epic TV, which is our awesome no-censorship video platform. | |
| So, again, if you want to check out that awesome episode about the January 6th prisoners who are to this day in solitary confinement, the link will be right there at the very top of the description box. | |
| And then, until next time, I'm your host, Roman, from the Epic Times. |
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