Vindication
Back in 2023 I began a journey of peace. Many have since joined me. Today, some two and a half years later, we are able to see the finish line. We've come a long way, Baby! Now let's finish the race!
In April 2023 I was preparing to board a flight in Istanbul, headed for Novosibirsk. The Russian lady processing my ticket was dumbfounded. I had just handed her my American passport. She stared at it, then at me, and then back at the passport. “The gate for Moscow is down there”, she said, pointing.
“I’m not going to Moscow,” I said. “I’m going to Novosibirsk.”
She just stared at me.
“Why?” she finally asked.
It was a question I had been asking myself for awhile.
The world was a little more than a year into what Russia called its “Special Military Operation” in Ukraine, and what my country and most of the Western world called Russia’s unprovoked invasion of a sovereign European nation.
Russia was being painted as a threat to both the United States and Europe, and the Ukraine conflict had devolved into a proxy war then intention of which was to achieve the “strategic defeat of Russia.”
“Strategic defeat” meant meant trying to collapse the Russian economy through the imposition of stringent sanctions.
It meant wearing down the Russian military in an endless war in Ukraine that sapped Russia of its physical strength (i.e., by killing Russian soldiers and destroying Russian military hardware.)
It meant collapsing Russian society in an effort to trigger a “Moscow Maidan” that would remove the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
It meant trying to bring about the end of Russia.
I had, by this time, been a student of all things Russia for more than four decades, dating back to my earning a degree in Russian history from Franklin and Marshall College in 1984.
During this time, I had followed Russia’s historical path, from the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, through the horribly destructive decade of the 1990’s, and to the coming to power of Vladimir Putin and Russia’s modern-day resurrection—and the resentment this resurrection had caused in the collective West.
This resentment—and the goal of undermining Russia—was known to Russia and its leadership. In 2018, while being interviewed by Russian television host Vladimir Solovyov for his film World Order 2018, President Putin made a very telling statement:
Зачем нам такой мир, если в нём не будет России?
What use to us is a world without Russia?
The collective goal of the United States and its European allies to “strategically defeat” Russia was a thinly disguised effort to undermine and destroy Russia.
I personally didn’t believe the collective West could succeed in their plan.
But that wasn’t the point.
The point was that they were trying to accomplish something which, if they succeeded, meant the end of the world.
Because, as Vladimir Putin noted, “What use to us is a world without Russia?”
Russia, I knew, was not an enemy of either the United States or the collective West.
The problem was that the American people, together with their European counterparts, had been subjected to Russophobic messaging for decades which blinded them to the reality of Russia.
I made it my mission to travel to Russia, to convey a spirit of friendship to the Russian people, and to capture the “Russian reality” and bring it back to America in order to help overcome the blind hatred of all things Russia that unencumbered Russophobia produced.
In doing this, I believed, a groundswell of support for better relations between Russia and the United States could be generated which could eventually manifest itself in a real and meaningful change in the trajectory of US-Russian relations.
So I went to Russia, a journey which at the time was so unplausible that even the Russians couldn’t believe I was doing it.
My motto during that initial visit was “one handshake at a time.”
For 20 days I travelled to 12 cities, meeting the Russian people up close and personal, and shaking every hand I could in an effort to convey the spirit of friendship I believed could, and would, eventually unite our two nations.
I returned to Russia in December 2023, intent on conveying the same message—”waging peace”, one handshake at a time.
I travelled to the places the US government and Europe didn’t want people to know about—Chechnya, Crimea, Kherson, Zaporozhia, Donetsk and Lugansk—in order to learn first hand the reality of the war being waged from a Russian perspective.
While the Russian people appreciated my efforts, the US government did not.
In June 2024 the US government seized my passport in an effort to prevent me from returning to Russia and continuing my mission of “waging peace”.
And in August 2024 the US government sent FBI agents to raid my home, accusing me of being an agent of the Russian government.
Their goal was to intimidate me into silence or, failing that, to imprison me.
But the mission of peace was too important to allow myself to be intimidated or silenced.
Increasingly the message of peace which I had been promoting in virtual isolation in April-May 2023 began to catch on. In America I began to work closely with like-minded independent journalists, tapping into the well-spring of goodwill that exists amongst the American rank and file.
We challenged the tired Russophobic tropes being echoed by the mainstream media.
And people began to listen and respond.
We worked with like-minded people in Russia as well, like Pavel Balobanov, with whom I collaborated to resurrect the 1985 “Citizens Summit” that brought Soviet and American people together through the magic of satellite television by hosting a new “Space Bridge” that linked a New York-based American audience with a Saint Petersburg-based Russian audience for three hours of conversation—the kind of dialogue that is essential if our two nations are going to learn to live in peace.
In November 2024 the American people had a chance to make a decision about whether they wanted to continue down a path that led inexorably toward nuclear annihilation, or chose an alternation route that led to the possibility of peace with Russia.
They chose peace.
Elections matter, and with the political momentum that drove the FBI’s raid on my home and attack on my person now eliminated, I was once again able to resume my mission of “waging peace.”
With my passport in hand, I made three successive trips to Russia—in August, October, and November 2025.
My singular focus of these trips was to promote the betterment of relations between the US and Russia.
To promote peace, not war.
To promote arms control, not an arms race.
And to bring an end to the fighting in Ukraine on terms that resolved the root causes of that conflict, such as NATO expansion and the desire to “strategically defeat” Russia.
This past Thursday President Donald Trump published the National Security Strategy of the United States.
The previous edition of this foundational policy document, published by the administration of former President Joe Biden in October 2022, painted Russia as “an immediate and persistent threat to international peace and stability” and sought the strategic defeat of Russia, with all that entailed.
The new Trump National Security Strategy no longer cats Russia as a threat—as an enemy—which needs to be strategically defeated.
Instead the Trump roadmap promotes the concept of “strategic stability” with Russia premised on the recognition of Russia’s legitimate national interests.
This is a foundational change in strategic direction on the part of the United States.
Americans are no longer being told by their government that Russia is an enemy which must be confronted at costs.
Rather, Russia is a nation with whom we must have stable relations.
A nation that has legitimate goals and aspirations that must be respected.
And nation that American must seek to peacefully coexist with.
As colleagues.
Partners.
Friends.
I wish I could capture this moment, and bring it with me back in time, to that ticket desk in Istanbul.
“Why?’ the Russian ticket agent had asked, incredulous that an American would want to travel to Russia at that time.
“Because of this”, I would respond, showing her how far we had come.
In 2023 I began a journey of peace.
I started alone.
Over the two and a half years since this race began, I have been joined by thousands of others—Americans and Russians alike—who have embraced the same cause.
Today we can see the finish line.
We haven’t crossed it yet—we still have a ways to go.
But we can see the journey’s end.
We’ve come a long way, Baby.
Let’s finish the race.
You are definitely a big guy, Scott. Salute, and a job well done. Peace.
I appreciate that you would travel Russia, to learn about the Russian "man and woman in the street" and their attitude, in order to convey it to Americans via your Youtube channel - and others. But dont you need an equal "travel the country, talk to the people" in America?
Russia never wanted any sort of tension and war. They WANTED to be friends. It's America that wants the aggression - and it's backed by too many ignorant American "men and women in the streets".
I think you should make your next Campaign one across America, to tell the people man to person, that you know Russia doesnt want war, that Russia is a vibrant, growing, rich and happy nation, that only wants to be friends.
Go tell the people of America Mr. Ritter. For they are the ones who need to hear it.