Judging Freedom - Alastair Crooke : The Gloves Are Off!

Episode Date: September 8, 2025

Alastair Crooke : The Gloves Are Off!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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That's an equivalent to $15 a month. Limited time new customer offer for first three months only. Speeds may slow above 35 gigabytes on unlimited. plan. Taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. Hi, everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Monday, September 8th, 2025. Alastair Crook will be here with us in just a minute on. The gloves are off, but first this.

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relationship between the West on one hand and Bricks and Shanghai Cooperation on the other? Who's rising, who's diminishing? Well, I think it's fairly clear. Certainly, after that stunning military parade that we saw in Tianman Square, I mean really stunning, the synchronicity, the organization, and the weapons that were produced, several new weapons, showing that China now has a triad, an effective triad of nuclear weapons, and other things, other weapons that we'd not seen before. It was a very clear message, and the message was this, if you want to try us, we're ready, that's all. We're ready. We're not trying to be aggressive, but we're ready if you want to try us. And I think the other elements of it was that the clear sight of the bonomis, the closeness of Modi and Z and Putin was so evident.

It wasn't, didn't need to be contrived. It was there visibly. There was empathy between the men. I mean, real empathy, political empathy, but also physical empathy. And a lot came out of that. We don't have all the details of what was decided behind the doors. But what I hear from Russia is that although the time was short,

they put into place really most of the, covered most of the potential vulnerabilities for America imposing sanctions on Russia and to a certain extent on Iran also. So that was not announced. It was not very much in the forefront, but that was about it. And I think the third element, which again was very quietly said, was actually, this development on, if you like, China's new, what I call it the super monetary highway. This new currency and other that they're starting, of course, your friends in the gold world will already know about it. But China quietly has made the Juan gold tradable. It can be

transferred. It is tradable into gold on the Shanghai. money exchanges. But what they're also doing is setting up a whole series of if you like vaults for gold storage. One is already in Hong Kong. Another one is being planned and is under construction in Saudi Arabia. And others are planned elsewhere so that if you choose or have gold, you can trade it on Shanghai, but take delivery in Hong Kong or somewhere else. else. This is going to be huge. I mean, and what's more, a lover of a few weeks ago, just said, again, quietly, no Rasmath, no great announcement. He said, we're going to extend the technology. This is the bridge technology. It originally, it was run by the BIS, the Bank for

international settlements. And there was an experiment. They called it Embridge. But, but But then eventually the BIS said, oh, we can't do this because, you know, who knows it might be used for evading sanctions, and that's after four years of running this thing. It was Chinese technology, so the Chinese have revamped it and put it into a new form, and it is now called the Remembe settlement process, but it's also called Bridge for short. But this is going to be rolled out now to effectively the BRICS, the SCO, the Belt, the Belt Initiative, the East Asian Economic Community. We're talking about about 80% of the world's population.

No very quietly done, no great noise. These were some of the decisions, the events taking place behind the scenes, that we are not being told about. But it's preparation for escalation, essentially, and that is what was going on quietly. Was this planned by the BRICS nations and the Shanghai nations who are effectively the same, at least the core nations are the same, before Donald Trump came into office and did he with his crazy tariffs just accelerate this? I think that the sort of the final impulse to this was in the wake of the Alaska meeting,

the meeting in Anchorage. That meeting, and I think I've mentioned this before, essentially was that the Russians wanted to see how much room Trump has, had, given all of the constraints, the sort of pressures that are on him of various sorts, how much actual room for maneuver did he have, how much he really heard Putin's message about how to resolve the Ukraine problem? And so, yes, some of that, I think what came out of Alaska and Anchorage was it seems that Putin heard.

the Putin's talk was heard and assimilated to an extent. And at that same time, Trump sort of indicated that he would push back, he wouldn't put any sanctions on. They would delay any action taken against Russia. However, that's proved to be short-lived. Already, Trump is saying, no, he's going to do this. And I think, as I mentioned, I think, last week, and I said, you know, that I said last week after the Shanghai meeting, when there was uncertainty whether Trump, how serious still, how serious Trump was. I mean, is he wanting war or was he wanting peace or just continued escalation?

And they saw that there was really little sign of any progress towards a solution from the American side on Ukraine. I mean, remember, and Putin made a point of this because it's not been widely reported. But he said, you know, unless there are changes in Ukraine, unless the martial law ends, unless there's a referendum able to be given. And if there is a referendum, there has to be presidential elections. That's the Ukrainian's constitution. And Putin said, I don't see any of that. I don't see anything of that happen.

So this endless process is going nowhere. Quote, that's what he said. This endless process is going nowhere. Nevertheless, we are ready for a summit meeting, if necessary, with Zelensky. But really, he's saying, you know, Zelensky doesn't, isn't able to do what is necessary to endorse or ratify any agreement that emerges, even if there was a summit, even if he did meet with Putin. And there was something that came out of it. He isn't able to take that forward and turn it into a sort of

lasting peace process. So there was a lot of, a lot of skepticism, if you like, at the end of the I encourage. And of course, the delay was very short. Last week, I said to you that Putin was going to ring, had planned to ring Trump to say, look, we are going ahead. You know, nonetheless, you have to understand we are going ahead with a special operation. Come what may, we're going ahead with it towards, if you like, forcing the outcome of a peaceful solution. Instead of people, taking that call, Trump decided to take a call with the alliance of the willing, the so-called alliance, the Europeans and others that are standing ready to backstop Ukraine as they see it. And what did he do? He spent his whole time haranguing the Europeans saying, why are you still

buying Russian oil? And if it's not Russian oil, you're buying Russian oil derivatives. And and other goods from Russia. That must stop. In other words, he was pushing the whole sanctions effort away from the United States and saying it's Europe's responsibility. And Bessent is now in talks, apparently, with the Commission, to work out how to put new sanctions,

how to avoid buying Indian refined petroleum products, which were originally taken from Russia oil. How could put pressure? How critical was Trump's decision to impose secondary tariffs of 50% on India? Oh, that was a moment of complete change shift that took place. It was not just not, it was not just the 50%. I mean, that was enough in itself. But the language that was used, particularly by Navarro, I mean, when he said, oh, the Brahmins are laughing at the ordinary Indians and things like this.

It really, I mean, it's not just Modi who's angry. You look at the Indian press, you look at the elites, you look at everywhere in India. They are furious with the United States now. So all of that together changed the Indian position and they're now come in. And there's no doubt that they are going to continue and they've already increased and made contracts during that period in the engine. They made further contracts to buy Russian oil for the future. And they're just going to do it. So this was, I mean, one part of what happened with the SEO was, you know, I mean, a clear statement of different.

You want to go for us? Well, we're ready for it. And we're going to push back, okay? And so the gloves are off. And what has been very apparent is Putin has made it clear that if these sanctions are imposed, as very likely they will, the Europeans are working on them now, then the SEO, then the special military operation is going to escalate. And they've given clear indicators of that, and there have changes coming. One change is, first of all, there was an attack on two military centers which had NATO troops in it. NATO military officers, they call them, you know, hard hands, but they were military people in clothing. Then there were the attacks which we've seen on, first of all, the council, the cabinet meeting building in Kiev, just in the last few days. That wasn't an accident, wasn't a missile that went astray. It was a very clear warning that they are ready now to shift. Russia is ready to shift to decision-making centers, to decision-making people.

as being targets if nothing changes and the war continues and America starts escalating and Europe continues to escalate against Russia. So there's going to be further attacks. There were already attacks just before this on NATO-owned properties like the Turkish drone factory, also on an American electronics factory. All these are really saying, okay, this is it. We've made our proposal to you. We will, you know, quietly move to enforcing and bringing about a political solution in Ukraine. If you don't want it, we're ready for it.

We've made the preparations in those talks in China at the SCO talks. We can survive your sanctions. We have covered all the vulnerabilities we have. You can see that tackling China is just pointless. China is too strong for the United States. And so this was a big no coming out of the SEO. A big no on many fronts, economic fronts, the military front, the political front, quite a defiant, not an aggressive, not a hostile, but a very clear no, no, that says, you know,

the Trump-centric world is over. We're not accepting a Trump-centric world. Here's Dimitri Peskov, who's the official spokesperson for the Kremlin, answering some questions about the Kremlin's attitude of NATO troops. You just mentioned a couple of NATO troops officers being killed in a Russian attack. NATO troops on Ukrainian soil. Chris, this is three days ago. cut number one we're considered a danger for us presence of international forces or any foreign

forces or NATO country forces on the soil of ukraine next to our borders so in our understanding it's it will not it will not um help us uh get closer to the solution of ukrainian country but why doesn't ukraine have the right um as far as russia is concerned to invite whoever it wants whichever soldiers it wants on it onto its territory i mean russia is invited north korean troops then it's a danger for us it's a real danger for us because we are an enemy of nata this is north korean troops are a danger to ukraine written in nato's documents so we cannot afford that and we'll do whatever is necessary to ensure our security and before you uh respond here's president putin saying well the current head of the administration meaning the

head of the Ukrainian government isn't really the valid head of government. But if he wants to come to Moscow, we'll talk to him. Cut number four. It's a path to nowhere to meet with the current head of the administration, to put it carefully. It's possible, I never rejected it. If this meeting is well prepared and will lead to some positive possible results. By the way, Donald asked me if it is possible to hold such a meeting. I said, yes, it is possible.

After all, if Zelensky is ready, he should come to Moscow, and the meeting will take place. I mean, I couldn't even conceive of Zelensky going to Moscow, could you? No, everyone knows that. And he's already said he's not going and sort of countered it by saying Putin has to come to Kiev. Which is even more preposterous. Even more. But I go back to what I said to you, Putin said. This process is going nowhere because there are real legal administrative problems.

America just doesn't address any of them. I mean, there needs to be elections in Ukraine in order that there should be a valid parliament that can, if you like, sign off on a political agreement or a territory. understanding with Russia. It needs that. It can't do that under martial law. And these changes need to be done. And they just are not being done. And so I think the other thing that I know is being discussed, I'm not saying it's a tall policy, but until now, you know, they've given pretty much a blanket assurance to Zelensky that he'll never be touched. But I think they're getting really tired of him and they're getting really tired of his sort of absoluteness. I mean,

he has not offered anything, nothing, no movement on any issue whatsoever. And they're getting a bit fed up with it. So I don't know what's happening, but the attack on that, the cabinet office meeting in Kiev, it was token. It was just a signal. But it was saying, you know, watch out, you know, if you're going to stay in this position much longer. I mean, it's going to change. And as I said, escalation is coming with the SMO on military equipment, but also on the power system. And so it is something that the United States and Trump is going to have to consider. And I think the big question, and maybe you can answer it better than me,

I mean, he's been told no to the main structure of his platform because his platform is really escalatory dominance, both at home and everywhere else, that the United States either financially or militarily has escalatory dominance to, if you like, set and maintain the financial dollar hegemony in the world. and it's going to use it. And he's just heard a very clear, no, you know, don't try it because we're ready for that from the SCO. So is he capable of changing? Is he capable now of going in a different direction? By all accounts, I hear that he's not very good at hearing no, that when people say no to him, whether it is in the courts or elsewhere, he gets very, very angry. indeed. So Russia understands that. They understand who's behind him and who's pushing him and that, you

know, escalation, escalatory. They can't afford a peace with Russia because if there's peace, then there's no potential for later escalation against Russia. And that's, of course, why it was such a stupid question about what was the position, what was the position of Russia about having NATO troops in it that the man asked Putin. Because, I mean, what was the war about? The war was about to prevent NATO in Ukraine. And so to say, well, would you mind if, why shouldn't Ukraine have NATO troops in it? Well, the answer is pretty obvious. I mean, this is what the war was all about, the expansion of NATO and NATO occupying Ukraine. You had talked about Zelensky getting under the Kremlin's skin.

Here's an example of it from three days ago. This is at, I believe, the site of an American or a Western facility in Ukraine that was destroyed by the Russians. And this is the height of absurdity because Zelensky invites President Putin to come to Kiev. Chris, cut number five. He said he will meet if you come to Moscow. He can come to Kiev.

You know, if a person doesn't want to meet during the war, of course he can propose something which can't be acceptable by me or by other, it's understandable. I can't go to Moscow when my country is under missiles, under attacks each day. I can't go to this capital of this terrorist. It's understandable and he understands it. In the same proposition, as I said, that he has to come to Kyiv. So it's understandable that he is doing it for, again, to postpone the meeting. We said, I always said we can't trust Putin. He played games, and he's playing games with the United States. How much longer will Moscow tolerate that?

I just throw that out as a rhetorical question. Does Moscow and Beijing monitor American domestic politics? I mean, for example, if they do, what do they think when Donald Trump says he's about to declare war on the city of Chicago? They monitor it absolutely, very closely, more closely than most Europeans or Americans probably do. They monitor it very closely. And they were never sure, you know, about whether Trump was a war president or a peace president or what he was. But they see now that he's impulsive, erratic. He changes his mind.

Like he changed, you know, at Alaska he indicated Putin wouldn't be early sanctions put on Russia. That's all changed now. They're planning sanctions and their planning pressures on him. So they see, you know, a big question mark. And, you know, he's now being given a big no to his face by India, by the SCO countries, even by Iran. And the question is, you know, how is he going to react to that with wild anger doing something impulsive and dangerous? or what is he going to do? Can he reinvent himself even and perhaps decide,

well, as I can't beat them, I can join them. And I can go and perhaps we can come to some agreements on economic affairs, but more importantly on the nuclear issue. That can be my claim to a Nobel Peace Prize rather than attacking Venezuela or attacking Iran. Alistair, thank you very much, my dear friend. Another deep and very informative conversation, as always. Much appreciated.

We'll look forward to seeing you next week. Thank you very much, and good luck this week, Judge. Thank you. Coming up later today, at 10 this morning, Ray McGovern, at 11.30 this morning, Larry Johnson, at 1.30 this afternoon, Professor Jeffrey Sachs, at 3 this afternoon, At Ritter, Judge Napolitano for judging freedom. Thank you.