by Joe Lindsley, editor, Lviv Now
On the 8 January episode of Spotify’s The Joe Rogan Experience, one of the most widely-consumed media programs in the world, Rogan and entrepreneur-podcast Adam Curry spoke about the riots in Kazakhstan and how he thinks that situation relates to Ukraine, the USA, and China.
«This is what I think is happening,» Curry, a former MTV VJ, said. «For months now, [we hear the refrain] ‘Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine! Putin come on in, to Ukraine.’ … This [Biden] administration in particular are a bunch of Russia-phobes … it has to be war with [Putin] come hell or highwater even if by proxy.
Read more from Lviv Now: In Ukraine-Russia Tension, the Real Debate is About Free Society, Not, as Wall Street Journal Says, the Bones of a Dead Prince
«So the attention has been on Ukraine and then unbelievably all of the sudden we have [in Kazakhstan] almost to a T the playbook that they did in Ukraine ….We led that whole change [during Ukraine’s Euromaidan Revolution].»
Curry proceeds to list American officials whom he believes were essential to Ukraine’s Euromaidan Revolution: Senator John McCain, Secretary of State John Kerry, and then Vice President Joe Biden. During that revolution, also called the Revolution of Dignity, Ukrainians stood in the main square of Kyiv for months, sometimes enduring hostile fire from the secret police until the pro-Moscow regime fled to Russia.
Since then, Ukraine has emerged from the Russian shadow of seventy years of Soviet control and the country has experienced a flourishing of its language and culture.
Curry seems to see the Revolution as harmful U.S. meddling. And now he says, it’s «happened in Kazakhstan on the opposite side of Russia.»
«Why is this important? Someone is playing really brilliant but dangerous moves in the Biden administration.»
«Kazakhstan is where China is connecting their railroad system to Russia,» Curry said, referencing Beijing’s global Belt and Road influence program – a program that has put small countries like Europe’s Montenegro into huge debt to Beijing. During the pandemic, Beijing increased these Belt and Road ties with Ukraine, launching a weekly cargo train between Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, and Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus that had locked down much of the world.
Curry suspected Kazakhstan, like Ukraine, was a much needed connection point for Moscow and Beijing.
«And the biden administration or someone running the show just stopped that shit,» he said. «Someone running the show» references Curry’s belief that «President Biden ain’t running sh*t.»
«And don’t look at Ukraine,» Curry said. «Someone might be sneaking in the rockets as we speak.»
«Jesus Christ,» says Rogan.
Throughout, notably, key details were light.
«When did this happen?» Rogan asked Curry, about the riots that began 2 January in Kazakhstan.
«Probably a week ago,» Curry said.
While Ukraine is the largest country wholly within Europe, Kazakhstan is the size of all of Western Europe. After the riots, initially it seemed over the price of gas, spread around the country, the country’s president called upon Russia for help.
Curry maintains Washington instigated the riots. Kazakhstan’s President Tokayev blamed Islamic militants as ringleaders of «20,000 bandits» who unsuccessfully tried to seize control of the capital, Almaty.
Watch:
Adam Curry explains the uprising in Kazakhstan and what is means for the US, China and Russia on the Joe Rogan Experience. pic.twitter.com/Mmu4QF1M07
– Mythinformed MKE (@MythinformedMKE) January 11, 2022
Joe Lindsley, an American journalist (follow on Instagram or LinkedIn), is editor of Lviv Now.
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Lviv Now is an English-language website for Lviv, Ukraine’s «tech-friendly cultural hub.» It is produced by Tvoe Misto («Your City») media-hub, which also hosts regular problem-solving public forums to benefit the city and its people.
