Noam Chomsky: Putin, Ukraine, China, and Nuclear War

Lex opens with Chomsky's stark warning that a U.S.-China war would destroy the possibility of organized life on Earth, and frames this second appearance—focused on the war in Ukraine—as a brief, remote, interview-style departure given the healthy 93-year-old's circumstances. He mentions his own haunting travels in Ukraine and the delayed videos, then turns to Chomsky, asking what motivates Vladimir Putin.

Disclaiming any insight into Putin's mind, Chomsky reads his actions over 25 years: overcoming the 1990s chaos after the West smashed Gorbachev's cooperative "common European home," the ruinous shock therapy, and Clinton's NATO expansion despite firm promises. He traces the long-standing Russian red line against NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia, the 2008 Bucharest invitation, repeated Western-diplomat warnings that this was reckless, the post-2014 integration of Ukraine into NATO, and Biden's 2021 enhanced program—after which Putin spurned French overtures and invaded.