Karen Shakhnazarov, director, national artist: We're now discussing, 'Why did Pompeo come?' 'What did Bolton say?' In my opinion, they themselves don't know what they do or why. And we're standing here, interpreting everything. Look... It's very hard to build a great empire. It's even harder to get rid of it, as we can see. In my opinion, the United States is now reminiscent of a huge ship which no longer has a bottom and has sunk to the seafloor. It still stands high but it just stands. Meanwhile, the crew with the captain and officers imitate some activity until the passengers don't get that they aren't going anywhere. Because there's no other way to explain what's going on. It's just absolutely absurd. For several years in a row, they did everything they could to bring Russia and China together... That's what the Americans were doing. It used to be a part of their politics. Now, they came to their senses and are trying — when they have succeeded — to rip Russia and China apart. If you wanted China to be your global ally... Which was possible because in China there's a huge liberal community, there's a great number of Westerners, it's natural, as 300,000 Chinese students study in American colleges. Those are people who were potentially brought up by the Americans, they return to China. After this, you're introducing such tariffs, thus demonstrating in practice to the Chinese, to this liberal, pro-American part of the population, that you're enemies. It doesn't make any sense! Is there any sense at all? Why did Pompeo come? Why did they, excuse me, arrange all this stuff in Venezuela? It's just total gibberish. Why did they have to do it?
Sergey Stankevich, politician: God destined us to win! That we'll win!
- Look! I'd like to refer you once again to the books that the Americans themselves write. Read Fear by Woodward. It's all written there, we can see how politics in the United States is made. The captains of the crew are imitating some kind of activity, so that the passengers don't say, "Wait a minute! Where are we going?" They say that their main idea is to make America great. What does "great" mean? Actor Kevin Costner has put it well, "It'd be great to make America great, yet no longer possible". You see? It's ripening in the depth of American society. What's this about? How to make it great? What is the purpose? What is the idea? Such an empire cannot do without an idea. You see? All these questions about tariffs or shmariffs, 300 billion or 100 billion? What's the use of decreasing the American trade deficit with China by 300 billion? Meanwhile, America's national debt is now 21 trillion, plus, you need to take into account corporate debt, that's the debt of all of the companies that exist in the USA, its total sum is $73 trillion! It's just impossible to cover it in any way other than printing more dollars. That's exactly what the United States is doing to cover this debt. How can you solve the problem if, according to Woodward, America doesn't produce antibiotics? When Trump wanted to impose tariffs on antibiotics, and his advisors told him, "How can we do that if we don't produce even penicillin?" You see? It's an absolute imitation... Now, we want to create an empire, then we don't. Trump starts to say that he doesn't want it. Now, basically, everything he does is trying... They're trying to imitate it, as they haven't achieved any real success. They didn't have any success with Korea, or with Venezuela, they didn't have any success with China. Now, there's this visit by Pompeo. Vladimir Rudolfovich is right, he'll buy these…
- Matryoshka dolls.
- ...Cheburashkas matryoshkas... Because I have a strong impression that there's no idea behind it. Nikolay Vasilievich may stand here looking sad all he wants, but, you see, this ship can keep standing on the sea floor for a very long time. It's impressive, it's huge, it, so to say, dominates the ocean. It can last for much longer. Such empires persist for a long time. But an empire can't stand still. It must go somewhere, it must have an idea. But modern American politics lacks that. The worst thing about this whole story is not their problem. The worst thing is that, by the way, you and I are the passengers of this ship too.
- Hear! Hear!
- In 1991, we occupied a cabin there. They let us in. Then we started saying, "Can we have an upgrade? We don't like our cabin in the back? We want something better!" They said, "No! Stay where you are". But still, we're on this ship. It's time we start thinking about it. It's time we drop the boat and sail off from this ship. That's exactly what the Chinese have done already, in my opinion. Of course, in this situation, what can the Americans propose to Russia in our relationship with China? There's nothing they can propose. And all these conversations, as we have our own pro-Western, pro-American community that keeps scaring us with China... Look! Mr. Maslov was right here saying, "China has never betrayed us. Never!" By the way, I have to admit that we've betrayed China. We're not blameless for that matter. But they, by the way, have never betrayed us. That's why this tendency just doesn't exist. But I suspect that that's not why he's coming. Yes, he's just coming as a tourist.
