Ret. U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt told Newsmax that Moscow's honoring of the Russian pilot whose actions led to the downing of a U.S. surveillance drone is propaganda.
Holt made his comments Thursday on "Wake Up America" after a video showed the pilot receiving a medal for his actions.
"He might have traded a medal for his wings because he's still an incompetent Russian fighter pilot, which was very obvious to me." Holt said. "But you can't miss in the propaganda value of this."
Russian Su-27 jets struck the propeller of the unmanned drone, making it inoperable, the Pentagon said, according to Reuters.
Russia's defense ministry blamed "sharp maneuvering" of the drone for the crash and said its jets did not make contact.
"He could have destroyed his entire Su-27 around that drone and ejected and they would have put the Hero of Russia medal on him," Holt said. "But it's all just theater."
Holt also weighed in on the meeting between China's Xi Jinping and Russia's Vladimir Putin regarding Ukraine and a plan to end hostilities.
"This has been a very interesting and a very long visit by Xi Jinping and time spent with Vladimir Putin," Holt said. "He hasn't had a phone call yet with President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy.
"And what I'm looking at is if he decides he doesn't want to pursue the phone call, then my mind goes to, 'What exactly did Putin and Xi agree to when they said this is a historic meeting and it will change the arc of history for the world for the next 100 years?'
"I don't have any indication from my sources in Ukraine that President Zelenskyy has rebuked or turned off the idea of a phone call yet. I just think that President Xi, in the next four days, we're going to find out if he wants to stick with that. And again, the question we have to ask ourselves is, 'What is strategically going on with Russia and China and how does that threaten the United States position in the world?'
"They want to get rid of the U.S. dollar as the standard of currency in the world. If you don't like this economy right now, get ready for what that looks like when we don't have it in the future."
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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