Ambassador discusses Russian aggression throughout history with Mizzou students

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Russia is insecure and has to demonstrate its superiority by invading other countries, retired U.S. Ambassador Allan Mustard on Thursday told an audience in the University of Missouri's Reynolds Journalism Institute about the reason he thinks Russia invaded Ukraine.

"It's all been about the need to unify a single nation under one language," Mustard said about Russian President Vladimir Putin. "He's not trying to restore the Soviet Union, he's trying to restore the old Russian empire."

Mustard was brought to the MU campus as the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources' Professor for a Day. Over two days, he also met with agriculture and journalism students. The journalism school and MU International Programs were other sponsors. There were around 50 people present for his talk in Smith Forum.

Mustard most recently was U.S. Ambassador to Turkmenistan, which has its own history with Russian aggression, he said.

"The Turkmen were tough nuts to crack," Mustard said.

The Russians killed 14,500 civilians at Geok Tepe in 1881. It's known because an Irish journalist reported it, he said.

It was part of Russia's conquest of Central Asian countries. Mustard's time in the U.S. State Department included nine years at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

Ivan III and Ivan IV (the Terrible) went to war with the Mongols. Peter the Great seized more territory in the 1600s.

There were periodic wars with the Chinese, and Russia moved across the Bering Strait to claim Alaska, which the U.S. bought from Russia in the 1860s.

"Russia had outposts in Hawaii and California in the 1800s," Mustard said.

Russia went to war with Japan in 1905.

"The Russians didn't lose one fleet," Mustard said. "They lost two. They got absolutely pounded."

After the Russian Revolution in 1917, the Russian Empire became the Soviet Union. When Germany attacked Poland in 1939, the Soviet Union did, also. The Soviet Union also went to war with Finland.

"The Finns absolutely thumped the Russians," he said.

The Soviets invaded Baltic nations in 1940 and after World War II had control of most of Eastern Europe, but with as many as 30 million dead.

Russia has also been the target of invasions.

"Russia has been catastrophically invaded three times" by the Mongols, France under Napoleon in 1812 and Germany in 1940, he said.

It allows Russia to claim it has been invaded by Western Europe, he said.

"Don't tell us about aggression," he said is the Russian attitude.

Russia started very small and got very big through military conquests.

Russia has a declining population, and around 500,000 people have left the country since it invaded Ukraine, including around 300,000 since Putin announced his mobilization.

"They don't have the manpower to support their aggressive action," Mustard said.

Parts from tanks and other military equipment have been sold on the black market, he said. For every 10 tanks, just one has an engine.

Russia started the invasion with rations that expired in 2015.

"The weaponry is obsolete," Mustard said.

Alissa Skorik, a Canadian MU student from a Ukrainian family, asked Mustard about Russian propaganda. Skorik is a junior studying Russian and communications.

The propaganda all is from the KGB handbooks of the 1950s and 1960s, Mustard said.

"They're doing it here in the United States, too," Mustard said.

"That's not news," said Skorik.

Fox News, especially Tucker Carlson, "regurgitates Russian propaganda," Mustard said.

"Is a coup likely at all" in Russia? Skorik asked.

"I don't think so," Mustard said. "Where's the opposition?"

Anyone who opposed Putin is dead or in jail, he said.

"Putin has become a second Stalin," Mustard said.

There are five organizations with weapons in Russia, each competing with each other and distrusting each other, he said.

"When you're a dictator, you never put all the weapons in the hands of one group," Mustard said.

An overthrow of the government is not likely, he said.

"Who's going to be brave enough to stop Putin?" Mustard said. "Nobody."

Oligarchs also are powerless, he said.

"The oligarchs don't have any political clout," Mustard said. "They're interested in staying out of jail."

Saying she's fluent in two languages but unsure of her skills otherwise, Skorik asked Mustard about careers in the foreign service.

"Don't be scared," Mustard told her. "These are all acquired skills. It's all stuff you learn."

Roger McKinney is the education reporter for the Tribune. You can reach him at rmckinney@columbiatribune.com. He's on Twitter at @rmckinney9.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Former U.S. ambassador at MU discusses Russian military aggression