Shadowing Practice: How Vladimir Putin won Republicans' approval - Learn English Speaking with Video
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In 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin was not very popular among Republicans or Democrats.
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Which made sense given that he's a somewhat murderous strong man with the nasty habit of invading his neighbors.
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This is without question our number one geopolitical foe.
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Breaking news, signs of a Russian invasion in Ukraine tonight.
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Since 2000, 25 journalists have died under mysterious circumstances.
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The Russian military campaign in Syria after a week of airstrikes now escalating dramatically to prop up Syrian President Assad.
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This chart shows Putin's net favorability among Republicans.
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That's the percentage of people who view him favorably, minus the percent who view him unfavorably.
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You can see the net favorability begin to rise steadily through 2014 and 2015.
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And then, all of a sudden, in August 2016, it spikes.
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By December 2016, the share of Republicans who saw Putin favorably had more than tripled.
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His popularity fell among Democrats, but by a much smaller margin.
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So what's going on here, and what does it mean for the United States' relationship with Russia?
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What I think you're seeing is two years of constant Republican propaganda about how Vladimir Putin is a strong leader.
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Putin decides what he wants to do, and he does it in half a day.
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He makes a decision, and he executes it quickly.
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Then everybody reacts.
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That's what you call a leader.
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People are looking at Putin as one who wrestles bears and drills for oil.
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They look at our president as one who wears mom jeans.
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What you see is just this Republican talking point that builds and builds and builds.
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It finally really hits a peak with Donald Trump.
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I think I would get along very well with him.
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I respect Putin.
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He's a strong leader.
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If he says great things about me, I'm going to say great things about him.
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I've already said he is really very much of a leader.
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I mean, you can say, oh, isn't that a terrible thing?
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He called, I mean, the man has very strong control over a country.
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What we're seeing with Donald Trump is that he believes in the great man theory of history, both the great part of it and also the man part of it.
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He's a man who sees himself as a tough, decisive leader, authoritarian if necessary, but willing to do whatever it takes to push through what he thinks needs to be done.
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He looks to Vladimir Putin in Russia, someone who has made clear If you're a dissident and criticizes him, you may disappear.
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If you're someone in the public who isn't fully in support of him, you may lose your job.
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And he looks at them and thinks it works.
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There's also a financial connection.
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Trump has had trouble getting loans from U .S.
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banks following his multiple bankruptcy filings since 1991.
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We know from a speech that his son Donald Trump Jr. made in 2008
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that Russian investors have played a big role in financing Trump projects ever since.
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Most wealthy Russian businesspeople maintain warm relationships with Putin, who holds absolute power in the country.
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That means the investors who helped save Trump's business empire are likely to include several close Putin allies.
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We're in this extraordinary moment where a U .S president is potentially financially beholden to an enemy country led by a dictator.
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There is also an intelligence report in which a former British spy claims that the Russian government has compromising information on Trump,
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information that they could use to blackmail him.
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This isn't Hollywood, this isn't conspiracy, this isn't paranoia.
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This may actually on some level be true.
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Republican voters might be taking their cues from Trump when it comes to Putin, but Republican lawmakers are a different story.
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Vladimir Putin is a person who's killed, he's jailed and murdered journalists, political opponents.
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Putin is an aggressor that does not share our interests.
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Putin is violating the sovereignty of neighboring countries.
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It certainly appears that he is conducting in state -sponsored cyber attacks on what appears to be our political system.
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The Russians are undermining democracy throughout the entire world.
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They're taking land on by others by force.
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They did hack into our political system.
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They're doing it to other political systems.
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Before he was Donald Trump's vice president, then -representative Mike Pence held a similar position.
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And now an increasingly antagonistic Russia has been rewarded for bullying and threatening its neighbors.
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Seven years later, he was singing a different tune.
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I think it's inarguable
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that Vladimir Putin has been a stronger leader in his country than Barack Obama has been in this country.
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When Trump praises Putin, he's also flouting his party's long history of skepticism towards Russia.
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When we think of Republicans and the kind of leader that they venerate, it's Ronald Reagan.
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They come back to Reagan again and again and again.
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I remember when Ronald Reagan was the president.
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He stood on principle standing up to the Soviet Union.
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Ronald Reagan reignited the American economy, rebuilt the military, bankrupted the Soviet Union and defeated Soviet communism.
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And they come back to him because they think he won the Cold War
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and because they think he beat the Soviet Union.
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The march of freedom and democracy, which will leave Marxism, Leninism on the ash heap of history as it has left other tyrannies,
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which stifle the freedom and muzzle the self -expression of the people.
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This is not just a break with Republicans on the Hill in 2016.
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This is a break with the last 30 years of Republican ideology, dating back to the president, Ronald Reagan, that they held up as a near god -like figure.
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Trump has also been slow to accept the CIA and FBI's conclusion that Russia sought to influence the presidential election.
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Russia hacked the Democrat National Committee servers.
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It hacked the personal email of John Podesta, Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman.
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As far as hacking, I think it was Russia.
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But I think we also get hacked by other countries and other people.
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Vladimir Putin weaponized the fact that we have a free press, used WikiLeaks to kind of launder the information, and then dribbled it out day by day by day.
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So for weeks in the run -up to the election, all you saw was negative press coverage of Hillary Clinton driven by selectively chosen leaked emails.
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In response, President Obama issued economic sanctions against Russia, which Donald Trump doesn't have to keep.
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These were weak, these sanctions.
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They're going to do nothing.
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Vladimir Putin will look at this and say, I got what I wanted, I can pay this cost, I'll do it again.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 83 sentences and 1100 words to shadow. The speech runs for 6:04. The speaker talks fast, about 181 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. Only 79% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| journalist noun | /ˈd͡ʒɝnəlɪst/ | The keeper of a personal journal, who writes in it regularly. |
| investor noun | /ɪnˈvɛs.tə(ɹ)/ | A person who invests money in order to make a profit. |
| percentage noun | /pə(ɹ)ˈsɛntɪd͡ʒ/ | The amount, number or rate of something, regarded as part of a total of 100; a part of a whole. |
| chart noun | /t͡ʃɑɹt/ | A map illustrating the geography of a specific phenomenon. |
| server noun | /ˈsɝvɚ/ | A program that provides services to other programs or devices, either in the same computer or over a computer network. |
| conclusion noun | /kənˈkluːʒən/ | The end, finish, close or last part of something. |
| sudden adjective | /ˈsʌd.ən/ | Occurring quickly with little or no warning or expectation; instantly. |
| potentially adverb | /pəˈtɛnʃ(ə)li/ | In a manner showing much potential; with the possibility of happening in a given way. |
| increasingly adverb | Increasing in amount or intensity. | |
| extraordinary adjective | /ɪksˈtɹɔːrdɪn(ə)ɹi/ | Out of the ordinary; exceptional; unusual. |
| principle noun | /ˈpɹɪn.sɪ.pəl/ | A fundamental assumption, fundamental law or guiding belief. |
| reward noun | /ɹɪˈwɔɹd/ | Something of value given in return for an act. |
| praise verb | /pɹeɪz/ | To give praise to; to commend, glorify, or worship. |
| triple adjective | /ˈtɹɪp.əl/ | Made up of three related elements, often matching |
| margin noun | /ˈmɑɹ.d͡ʒɪn/ | The edge of the paper, typically left blank when printing but sometimes used for annotations etc. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| get along verb | To interact or coexist well, without argument or trouble. |
| hold up verb | To wait or delay. |
| push through verb | To force (legislation or a plan) to be passed or agreed to or a decision to be reached. |
| stand up to verb | To object to or interfere with the actions of (someone seen as bullying, pushy, or controlling). |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 17 contractions and reduced forms, such as isn't, they're, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: wealthy /ˈwɛl.θi/, threaten /ˈθɹɛt.n̩/, authoritarian /əˌθɑ.ɹəˈtɛɹ.i.ən/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: conclusion /kənˈkluːʒən/, potentially /pəˈtɛnʃ(ə)li/, invasion /ɪnˈveɪʒən/, sanction /ˈsæŋkʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: potentially /pəˈtɛnʃ(ə)li/, extraordinary /ɪksˈtɹɔːrdɪn(ə)ɹi/, conspiracy /kənˈspɪɹəsi/, popularity /ˌpɑ.pjəˈlæɹ.ə.ti/, mysterious /mɪˈstɪɹi.əs/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like journalist, investor, percentage.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | I've already said · has made · have played |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who view · one who wrestles · one who wears |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | be done · has been rewarded |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.