Arkady Babchenko: All Reichs Collapse

The famous journalist purchased military equipment, and it is already fighting on Russian territory.

Famous journalist, author and volunteer Arkady Babchenko, who, together with the Estonian SAB UA Foundation, helps the Armed Forces of Ukraine, has sent about two hundred cars and a lot of other equipment directly to the front since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion.

In an interview with Charter97.org, he spoke about how he started with the purchase of clothing and body armor for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and now he has come to the supply of armored vehicles.

In the conversation, Arkady Babchenko also shared his opinion about the Russian system, which, according to him, "crystallized" into the new Reich, and also assessed the prospects for the West's reaction to North Korea's participation in the war:

— Over these three years, we have sent all kinds of assistance worth about 3 000 000 euros. We started, of course, like everyone else — with bulletproof vests, socks, winter clothes, shoes and all that. And eventually came to tracked armored vehicles, now are buying Humvee, for example. During this time, we have sent more than two hundred vehicles.

We do not buy the cheapest vehicles for infantry, which will live for two weeks, a month — that's all. Our vehicles go to specialists, Azov fighters, marines, reconnaissance — they need more specific vehicles, so we buy good ones, costing from 5 000-7 000 euros, and ambulances can cost 18 000 euros. We load the cargo in each vehicle — drones, medicines, spare tires, stretchers. Recently, an ambulance was loaded to the max — it weighs more than four tons, but it is more important that the equipment reaches the right guys.

And we sent about two hundred such vehicles, the cost of one such loaded car can easily reach 50 000 euros. We also ship Saurer trucks. It seems that everything in Europe has already been bought up. We definitely bought up all the Unimogs in Estonia, sent two Finnish Sisu, this is such a two-component tracked floating all-terrain vehicle. We sent hovercraft and sniper systems to Ukraine. There were still certain things that I will not talk about now, but in general, there were a lot of everything.

At the moment, I think that we are now the largest foundation in Estonia, despite the fact that our team consists of only 4-5 people.

— Earlier in your blog you often wrote that "you will return to Russia by the Abrams." Now the equipment purchased by you and the SAB UA fund turned out to be in the Kursk region of the Russian Federation. Is the minimum plan completed?

— Well, we haven't bought Abrams yet, but on the way to it, the dynamics suit me. I cannot go to Ukraine personally — I had no permission as a citizen of Russia. As soon as the war began, I drove the first car, I did not have the rights yet, I was refused then. I need to get a visa as a citizen of Russia, and embassies do not accept Russian citizens during hostilities. It is necessary to act through some kind of nepotism, to go somewhere through acquaintances.

I don't want to do it, and I don't need to do it now, because I'm a poor soldier. I am already 50 years old, my legs are all broken, my spine is covered with protrusions, I run 50 meters and fall. But over these three years, I have found my niche — it turned out that I know how to make good money to buy these tracked vehicles and send them to Ukraine. Therefore, I am in my place, and my equipment is now in Kursk.

Just yesterday, the guys from the 501st Battalion reported that our car was hit, just in the Kursk region. Thank God that everyone is alive, but the car is smashed, we will look for a way to change it. So yes, the minimum plan has already been fulfilled, at least our vehicles are already in the Kursk region.

— As a person who has been watching Putin's Russia for so long, tell me please, what are the pain points there today? What to put pressure on today?

— There are no more pain points. That's all, the Reich has "crystallized", the Reich is not even in the stage of decay, on the contrary, they are now only in the stage of strengthening. Putin just came up with, in my opinion, an ideal scheme for waging war. Russians as a whole are not touched by this war, they see it only on TV. Sometimes something flies to Belgorod, but screw it, the most important thing is Moscow and St. Petersburg, such large cities. This war does not affect them at all.

Did the prices jump? Well, yes, indeed, they have grown, but they can afford some Chinese cars there on credit. Moscow is in general a garden city now, there is no, I do not know, conditional Singapore and it did not stand next to it in matters of comfort, service, and anything else. There's glass, marble, big money, and they cleaned up the whole dump.

Whoever wants — goes to fight for money, if the one dies, then the family, consider, is provided for the rest of its life. You can hire all these North Koreans for the war with oil money. And in this situation, they can fight a war for years, damn it, if nothing changes.

— What needs to change for these pain points to appear?

— Surely someday something will change, all the Reichs collapse. Well, to specify the collapse... At least — they come down to the level of Iran or North Korea. Again, let's take Iran — 40 years under sanctions, nothing but sand and oil, still the regime of the ayatollahs is quite stable, all the protests are crushed easily. And now the war with Israel will begin, so patriotism will generally increase there.

The North Korean regime — they have been eating grass there for 70 years, they are starving to death, but the regime exists. So dictatorships are much more stable things than we would like. For Japan to cease to be a dictatorship or for the Third Reich to cease to exist, it took Hiroshima with Nagasaki and World War II.

— The North Korean military should enter the war in the near future. Will the West wake up? Will they realize that they must not indulge tyrants?

— They will act somehow, South Korea will send some of its own military to Ukraine. But what other actions do you expect? Sanctions that could have been imposed are in place. What is left for the West? Declare a nuclear World War III to two nuclear powers, absolutely crazy, who have been preparing for this for 70 years? No one will do that. Some steps will be taken, but the backlash is already very small.

— What can be done as part of this backlash?

— There will be presidential elections in the United States. If Trump comes, no one will do anything. If the Democrats and Kamala stay there, they will give them long-range weapons, they will allow them to strike 300 kilometers deep. Maybe, there are chances for this.

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