Judging Freedom - Pepe Escobar : Why the West Fears BRICS and Putin Doesn’t Fear Trump.

Episode Date: July 1, 2025

Pepe Escobar : Why the West Fears BRICS and Putin Doesn’t Fear Trump.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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Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. I'm going to be right back. Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Tuesday, July 1st, 2025. Our dear friend and world traveler Pepe Escobar joins us now. Pepe, a pleasure. Thank you. I do want to spend some time with you on the Western fear of bricks. But before we get there, let me ask you one or two questions about Ukraine. Western newspapers have been reporting that the Russians have lost a million men in Ukraine. This can't possibly be true. What is the true number and what is the state of the special military operation in Ukraine as you understand it from your

perspective and your sources? True number of killed in action is between 100,000, 130,000. And that's guaranteed from plenty of sources, including commanders in Donbass that I know personally. I can say that they are my friends, no more than this. Casualties overall, wow. Then it can go to 700,000, 800,000. Now you're talking about injured. Yes, injured, exactly.

So nobody, of course, this is a state secret coming from the Ministry of Defense in Moscow, but commanders on the field, they have their own estimates. It would be around 700,000 injured. Of course, it's a lot, but these numbers, of course, these numbers are British think tanks, or it's a joke, But these numbers, of course, these numbers are British think tanks or it's a joke and nobody takes them seriously, not only in Russia but across Eurasia, in Kazakhstan, in India, in China.

What is the state of the special military operation? How much longer can the Ukrainians last in Moscow's view? In Moscow's view a few months Let's say another six months max before the end of the year. Certainly. They're not in a hurry But that's that's the Russian way only when you understand the Russian mentality you understand that For instance you read the if you read the British media every day, all the headlines are Russia doesn't know how to fight a war, Russia is going down, Russia has lost a million men, whatever, obviously, because they're not on the terrain. And on top of it, they don't understand the Russian psyche. If you are in Russia, if you go to at least to Donbass once in a while, which many of us foreigners we do, we make the effort of doing that.

And if you talk to the local commanders, in my case, I was talking to some of them at the St. Petersburg forum two weeks ago, in fact, and they're saying, yes, it's going exactly the way we thought it was going by January, February. Is there pressure on President Putin from the hardliners like former President Medvedev? Not really. Not really because the Putin way of doing war, let's put it this way. The National Council's way of doing war. And the Ministry of Defense of doing war is what they have been doing for most of these past three and a half years. With many mistakes, of course. But the attrition war is number one. It's not about conquering territory. It's the attrition war because the war is not only against It's not about conquering territory, it's the Triton War because the

war is not only against the Ukrainian military machine, it's against NATO's gigantic military machine, which is being slowly but surely eviscerated by the Russians in the battlefield. So this is not going to change. The overall conceptualization of the war is not gonna change. Colonel McGregor reported just a few hours ago that the Ukrainians used British storm shadows to fire on Russian military and Ukrainian civilians. Even worse.

In the Donbas, is this true? It is, Colonel McGregor, of course, he has very, very good... Right, right. I'm not questioning him. I want to know if you can corroborate it. I do because the civilians were hit in Donetsk, Judge. Donetsk had not been hit for months, according to my friends over there, who used to be in the battlefield. Now they are in the Donetsk had not been hit for months, according to my friends over there, who used to be in the battlefield. Now they are in the Donetsk administration. For instance, they organized for me to talk to the number two authority in Donetsk,

two weeks ago at the St. Petersburg Forum. So the city after months of, okay, relative calm compared to the past 10 years, it was hit by storm shadows and civilian buildings. So the definition of that thing in Kiev as a terrorist outfit is absolutely correct. And they prove it over and over again. I should have asked Colonel McGregor, and I don't know if you know the answer. Can Storm Shadow be fired by Ukrainians or does it require British handling? Because if the latter, then there's no question

but that the British are co-belligerents. Well, everybody in Moscow, Judge, knows that the British are co-belligerents, which brings us to an extremely thorny question, what to do about it. There's a parallel question. Everybody in Moscow, XPR, FSP, Minister of Defense, et cetera, know that Azerbaijan is playing a double game, not only with Iran, but also with Russia.

What's to be done about it? For the moment, nothing. So this is part, there are lots of questions concerning the long-term relationship of Moscow with so-called allies like Azerbaijan and certified enemies like the UK So for the moment these questions are thrown under a very expensive Turkmenistan carpet You know and nobody wants to to give us an answer very consistent again with what Colonel McGregor said all right switching Switching gears. What is the United States gain? from funding the genocide in Gaza and the Israeli war against Iran?

What does it gain from its relationship to Israel? The United States doesn't gain anything. The Zionist axis from the Beltway to New York City and then the Atlanticist ramifications all the way to Europe and then all the way to Tel Aviv, it's exactly what they wanted since the late 90s. It's the clean break outline. It's what Paul Wolfowitz was discussing with Bibi Netanyahu in 97 98 When the new cons were out of power, it's what the new cons wanted to do when they came to power after 9-eleven

So this hasn't changed and they thought that they had the opportunity of a life With this attack first by Israel and then by the US against Iran. Obviously, they never think about blowback. And blowback is already there. And Iran learned all of the lessons they had to learn about this double attack by, we can say, the Zionist Axis Tel Aviv, Washington. And they are ready. And they are ready.

If anything starts tomorrow, they are ready. And they are ready. If anything starts tomorrow, they are ready. For instance, I would like to have one minute, Judge, to tell the audience that I am in Rio for breaks. I arrived yesterday. Today, I met by accident an Iranian working for the Iranian embassy in Brasilia and he told me look President Peseshkin may not come but Foreign Minister Ratchi may come and yes everybody in Tehran we are ready. He just confirmed what all of us know talking to our contacts in Tehran and in other parts of Iran. And it's going to be

much, much, much more hardcore than what happened until the so-called ceasefire, which is not going to last too long. So all of our colleagues agree with you. Professor Sachs agrees. I haven't asked Professor Mirsham Riyadis on Thursday. Colonel McGregor agrees, Scott Ritter agrees. In fact, McGregor and Ritter said that Netanyahu was begging, begging for a ceasefire because the damage to Israel was far greater than anything they imagined. Absolutely correct, Judge. And all of us, our small group of independent analysts, the fact that we agree with each other means that our sources of information are rock solid. We don't work with fantasy. We work with facts and certified information.

So this question is factual, but maybe a little philosophical. Is the United States the overlord of Israel or is Israel the overlord, I know you want to answer this, of the United States? You know what it is, to go really philosophical, Judge, and to go back to ancient Asian wisdom, is Ouroboros, the snake biting its own tail. Wow. So you don't wanna say who's the overlord of whom, but they're gonna destroy each other. Because it's Ouroboros, the snake biting its own tail means it's a single organism in the end.

Wow. And you cannot identify where it begins, where is the head of the snake, where is the tail of the snake, you don't know. When you see depictions of Ouroboros in those beautiful, could be Hinduist or Tibetan tankas, for instance. It's a round circle. I have a copy from a Hong Kong calligrapher at my place, and it's beautiful. It's almost like a perfect circle. Right, right. Something I someday would hope to see.

I wanna play for you a clip from a United States Senator, a real character with the name of John Kennedy talks as if he's a Southern hick, but he's a graduate of Oxford University and Harvard Law School. And it's a very interesting observation. I want you to pay careful attention, it's about a minute long, to the last question and the last answer. It might blow your mind. Now he is basically telling a reporter or an anchor from CNN that before Trump dropped

the bombs two Saturdays ago, Iran was days, not months or weeks, days from having a bomb. And she asks him how he knows that. Take a listen to the answer, Chris Cutt, number seven. Before Israel and America did what we did, Iran was within days of having a nuclear weapon. Now it will... Within days? Within days. That's what they told you in this briefing?

Within days. Sir, just to kind of circle back and put a finer point on this, the days that they were to getting a bomb, that seems to be different from what Tulsi Gabbard had testified to in March. Was there a new assessment? Was that the Israeli assessment? Was that a new American assessment?

Was that information new to you in this briefing? It was new to me. This was a good briefing. It was one of the best I've ever attended. I mean, Rubio, Head Seth, Latcliffe, General Cain, they didn't bring out a script and read carefully from it. They just looked us in the eye and talked to us. The assessment that said that Iran was within days

of having a bomb, is that Israeli or American assessment? I don't know. There it is. Was that an Israeli or an American assessment? I don't know. There it is. Was that an Israeli or an American assessment? I don't know. Well, did you ask are you given information from a foreign power and having it passed off as if it's verifiable by Americans? Does this surprise you?

No, it does not judge because it comes straight from a Tel Aviv does not judge because it comes straight from a Tel Aviv scramble. Of course, they have been saying this for decades, not only years, but decades. So now instead of six months, it's a few days. This is ridiculous. When you talk to people who are linked to the Ukrainian, sorry, I'm sorry sorry with the Iranian nuclear program

including Somebody who was killed by the Mossad CNN ABC everybody and Resurrected a few days ago in a public square Ali Shampkani one of Ayatollah Khamenei stop Advisors for foreign policy, but also on the nuclear program. They know, look, we have in reaching off Iran and if we decide to make a bomb, we can do it. But there's no decision because this is a according to Shiite theology is a very complex matter. It would require Ayatollah Khamenei rescinding his fatwa and Komenini's previous fatwa from the 1980s.

So this is a very complex matter. They don't need it. They have their ballistic missile program, which is enough to erase Israel if they want it. And the Pentagon now, I assume, knows that for a fact. Just looking at the one-third of central Tel Aviv destroyed by some of their missiles. This is what really matters. And coming back to JCPOA in 2015 in Vienna, Judge, Already at the time, the number one preoccupation of the Obama administration was not the nuclear program, was the ballistic missile they wanted to insert

in the negotiations day after day after day. It was a miracle in the end that we got JCPOA 1.0. Wow. Let me switch gears. Why does the West fear BRICS? This is what we're going to see next week, Judge. Today is Monday, right? BRICS starts on Sunday. There are a lot of preparatory meetings here. I would not say great expectations, because compared to the Russian presidency last year the Brazilian presidency this year is Meek to say the least and I'm being diplomatic, but They have I would say a rare earth style chance To come up with something really really meaningful with all of them on the table

Unfortunately, we're not gonna to have Putin and Xi Jinping here. They're not coming. Foreign ministers, Lavrov and McGee are coming. And maybe President Pescevsky won't be here, so there'll be Arakshi. But even if we have our district top bricks, their foreign ministers, it's already very, very important. And the fact that the three can tell the other bricks, look, wake up, this war is against all of us. Are you ready to do something about it? This is what we are expecting from BRICS. I'm not sure we're gonna have, for instance, a final declaration next week. That is gonna be really hardcore. But we are expecting at least a signal that BRICS

understands that this is a war against all of them. When you say this is a war, do you mean the economic war or the the violent military war? Both, both judge. Geoeconomic war, for instance, I'll try to give you and our audience the 32nd version of why Iran was attacked now. Because Iran is the absolute essential crossroads in terms of connectivity corridors in Eurasia. From the Chinese point of view, east to west, and from the Russian point of view, North to South. Iran is where the Chinese Silk Roads meet with the International North-South Transportation Court. So this involves at least four top groups, Russia, China, India and Iran. So if you have a war and you have destroyed Iran or a regime changed Iran, with one stroke, you destroy the whole process of Eurasia integration via connectivity corridors.

This is as concise as possible. You know, of course, we could go on forever about this, but this is the headline. And this is the main reason for this war in fact. Wow is Turkey going to be there? As an observer, as a partner not as a full member so that's Turkey is very complicated judge because Turkey and now we have the Turkey-Azerbaijan connection, which is a lot of people in Moscow and in Tehran are starting to ask serious questions about Turkey. Because Turkey, 40% of Israel's oil, still coming from the BTC pipeline, arrives in Turkey. And of course, Erdogan never did anything to stop it.

And those drones that were being launched against Iran, they were being launched from Azerbaijan. So the Iranians are very, very angry about it. So and the Russians are looking at Azerbaijan playing double games with them, Russia and also with Iran, and they're starting to ask questions as well Tell us about the Russian Iranian Defense Pact. Has it finally been finalized? Well, the fact is finalized judge because the pact was approved first by the Duma and Then the Iranians took over a month to have the Majjulis, the parliament, ratify it as well. They wasted a lot of time.

Well, it's not a full military alliance like the military alliance between Russia and North Korea, DPRK. But guess what happened last week at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting of ministers of defense. This is my latest column in fact that I should have sent it to you but it came out only a few hours ago. The title is 10 defense ministers walk into a room in China and guess what happened? They were talking to each other and of course you got the three ones, the three BRICS guys, especially Russia, China, and Iran talking about, ah,

so you need J-10CE Chinese fighters, no problem. Ah, you need more SU-35 jet fighters, no problem. So soon we're gonna see Iran buy from China and from Russia state-of-the-art jet fighters and of course probably more S-400 air defense systems. For the moment Iran has only as far as we know one S-400 system. They need at least 10 or 12. And the Russians said, if you need it, no problem. Peskov said on the record,

it all depends on what our Iranian partners ask from us. Last subject matter, the resistance to the Israelis on the ground in the Middle East and in the councils of government in the Middle East? Where is the resistance? This is a very complex question. Conceptually, the resistance, let's say the van waarde of the resistance, to use a terminology of the real movements in the 60s and 70s is Iran. And this has been proved to the whole planet.

Do you know that the Iranian for, you know, people who work for the foreign ministry in Iran, they have been saying under the counter to a lot of people, do you know that governments from all over, they come to us and they tell us, look, I wish you win, we support you, although we cannot say that in public. And this comes from all over, George, from Latin America, from Africa, from Central Asia, from South Asia. So the ground, there's a ground swell of extra soft power accumulated by Iran in a matter of days, because everywhere, in every latitude, this was identified as Iran by themselves alone, fighting the full machine of the empire with their aircraft carrier in West Asia.

So this is enormous enormous and the repercussions are gonna be immense, in fact. And of course, many of these countries, they are BRICS nations and they'll be here in Rio in a few days on the same table. So I wonder how they're going to discuss this on the table. Of course, I would say that this is the number one non-discussion discussion at BRICS

in last week from now. Okay, after the war on Iran, what do we do? Are we going to stop being a hyper-polite group of emerging nations or are we going to take a stand against the empire? Frontal stand against the empire. Got it. Well, whatever you hear, let us know. And if it's dramatic and newsworthy, reach out to Chris and we'll bring it on like that. You too, Judge. We should do a live from Rio next week.

You got it. You got it. By the way, some of the people in the chat room are commenting that your hair is merging with the wave in coming up tomorrow Wednesday at eight in the morning, Professor Gilbert Doctorow at two in the afternoon, Aaron Mate at three in the afternoon,

Phil Giraldi at four in the afternoon. We will find him for you, Max Blumenthal, Justin Paul Townell for Judging Freedom. MUSIC