UN Diplomat Jeffrey Sachs: Russia's War With Ukraine Was Completely Avoidable

Economist Jeffrey Sachs has appeared this week on Piers Morgan Uncensored where the two discussed Russian leader Vladimir Putin just being elected to a fifth 6th year term as president. Sachs speaks from within the establishment, having long served as a UN advisor, but has at the same time been branded in mainstream media as "a Putin cheerleader" - as Wall Street Journal and others have long described him. Sachs had a wide-ranging discussion with Morgan over the Ukraine crisis and other pressing global topics. The guest has long been controversial for his 'unorthodox' views on everything from Syria to Libya to US hegemony and Western regime change efforts in the third world.

"My point has always been, lets end this war in Ukraine," Professor Sachs told Morgan, while emphasizing that Washington has been bent on regime change in Moscow which began in earnest in 2014 with the overthrow of the Yanukovych government in Kiev. Sachs said the tragedy of the Ukraine war ultimately began with the US seeking to destabilize Russia and NATO expansion up to its borders. Sachs lashed out at critics saying "It's not a matter of cheerleading. It's a matter of common sense. I've known the Eastern European region for over 30 years."

Sachs said, "My view is that this war was completely avoidable, and could have been ended in March 2022. But, it persists because we don't have a sensible approach." When asked about his views of Vladimir Putin and the prospect for peace negotiations to finally settle the war, Sachs offered the following: "We're not in a game. We're not in name calling. We're not in a cage brawl," Sachs said. "We're trying to actually not have the world spiral into nuclear war. So it's not that game. The game is sit down and negotiate." Sachs in the interview pointed out that as far back as 2007 Putin was clear on his red lines regarding violating prior NATO vows of not expanding East.

Sachs explained the following on the origins of the Ukraine war:

"I believe that the big mistake of both sides is we should talk this out. And now let me say a word about talking it out. In 2008, when Bucharest happened, European leaders called me because I'm friends with them. They said, what is your crazy president doing, by the way?

Some who are in power right now, I won't name names. What is your president doing? Why is he destabilizing things? He promised he wasn't going to push Ukraine. That's what european leaders say in private. They don't say it in public. We avoided the negotiations. Then 2014 came, sadly, Piers. I saw some of it firsthand. It was ugly. The United States should not be funding overthrows of governments. We did. I know it."

The two also discussed everything from the war in Gaza to the TikTok ban, with Sachs saying of the China-based platform and current controversy: "I think we are in the middle of a very typical American paranoid phase..."

On the Gaza war, which began on Oct.7 and the Hamas terror attack on southern Israel, Sachs said controversally:

"Israel has the most extremist religious nationalist government in its history... there's no end game here politically other than complete domination or ethnic cleansing or slaughter."

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/piers-morgan-vs-jeffrey-sachs-putin-russias-war-ukraine-was-completely-avoidable