The Alaska Debacle

There is no legitimate reason for talks with Putin.

Putin says that there is no basis for the existence of a Ukrainian people, culture or nation: never was, never could be, or ever will be; "that's history", he says.

As is always the case when sociopathic criminal leaders quote history, that's all just a pack of lies.

Here's what really happened.

Vladimir the Great: Architect of Kievan Rus'

• Born: circa 958 in what is now Ukraine

• Ruled: Prince of Novgorod (970–988), Grand Prince of Kyiv (978–1015)

• Dynasty: Rurikid

• Religion: Converted from Slavic paganism to Christianity in 988, adopting the name Basil

Territorial Expansion

• After defeating his brother Yaropolk in 980, Vladimir consolidated power over Kyiv and Novgorod, uniting much of the East Slavic world.

• He expanded his realm westward into Polish territories, and eastward toward the Volga Bulgars and Khazars, securing the frontier between Kyiv and what would later become Moscow.

• While Moscow itself didn’t exist yet (it was first mentioned in 1147), Vladimir’s consolidation laid the groundwork for the Kievan Rus’, the cultural and political precursor to both modern Ukraine and Russia.

So Ukraine has an existence stretching back at least fifteen hundred years.

Long before Moscow was a lump on the permafrost.

Puty's assertions are merely hallucinations typical of his species.

Talking to him - an indicted war criminal (albeit a balanced conversation - his interlocuter will be a multiply convicted felon and sex offender) about any of the world's boundaries has no basis in legitimacy.