PBD Podcast - "I Trust Putin More Than Zelenskyy" - Exiled Zelenskyy Top Insider Alexey Arestovich TELLS ALL | PBD Podcast | Ep. 254

Episode Date: December 23, 2024

Patrick Bet-David sits down with Alexey Arestovich for an exclusive interview about the Ukraine war, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and the powerful outside forces shaping the conflict. In this rive...ting conversation, Arestovich unveils secrets and reveals truths never before shared with an English-speaking audience. ---- 📕 PBD'S BOOK "THE ACADEMY": ⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/41rtEV4⁠⁠ 💳 VT MERCH GIFTCARDS: ⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3P28SnM⁠⁠ 🧥THE NEW VT SWEATSHIRTS & HOODIES: ⁠⁠https://bit.ly/4f5fnAM⁠⁠ 🧢 PURCHASE THE NEW VT HATS: ⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3ZFAPrH⁠⁠ 📰 VTNEWS.AI: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3OExClZ⁠⁠ 🎙️ FOLLOW THE PODCAST ON SPOTIFY: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/4g57zR2⁠⁠ 🎙️ FOLLOW THE PODCAST ON ITUNES: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/4g1bXAh⁠⁠ 🎙️ FOLLOW THE PODCAST ON ALL PLATFORMS: ⁠⁠https://bit.ly/4eXQl6A⁠⁠ 📱 CONNECT ON MINNECT: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/4ikyEkC⁠⁠ 👔 BET-DAVID CONSULTING: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3ZjWhB7⁠⁠ 🎓 VALUETAINMENT UNIVERSITY: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3BfA5Qw⁠⁠ 📺 JOIN THE CHANNEL: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/4g5C6Or⁠⁠ 💬 TEXT US: Text “PODCAST” to 310-340-1132 to get the latest updates in real-time! ABOUT US: Patrick Bet-David is the founder and CEO of Valuetainment Media. He is the author of the #1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller “Your Next Five Moves” (Simon & Schuster) and a father of 2 boys and 2 girls. He currently resides in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/pbdpodcast/support

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Starting point is 00:00:56 Get started today at questrade.com. Even now I have to be watching my words very carefully and select my words just not to damage the country This is a very important question for you to answer Do you directly or indirectly know that he's gotten paid from all the money that other countries are giving to chair Maksimov? The level of corruption is off the charts Catastrophical. Zelensky is an extremely Authoritarian and strict person. Everybody played him like the owner of this puppet, but it's all the opposite. You know what they're gonna do in your country if you go out there and you talk like this?
Starting point is 00:01:32 You think they're gonna let somebody like you win? I think I will win. Really? Yes. Who do you trust more? Zelensky or Putin? Putin. You trust Putin more. Why is that? Because the enemy is a better teacher.
Starting point is 00:01:53 So imagine all the conflicts going on right now between Ukraine and Russia and you, let's just say your name is Alexei Arestovich and you are Zelensky's top advisor, your background is military intelligence, right? And you're in there and you're making all of these predictions and you keep getting right on when Putin's going to invade Ukraine. Over and over, everybody's like, why does this guy get these things right? You're on the inside, then all of a sudden there's a big fall out between the two of you, Zelensky and Aristovich, and then suddenly you are in exile because you have three criminal
Starting point is 00:02:24 prosecutions that's going on with you, investigations that's going on with you. You leave Ukraine September of 2023. Now this is somebody that you are considered as a number two candidate for being a president that you can potentially take over Zelensky's job. While that's going on, he came in here, we did a two-hour podcast together. The things we discussed was mind-boggling. I asked him a question, I said, so how much time have you spent with Zelinsky? He says weeks, hundreds of hours. I said great. How different is he from the one we see on stage versus the one
Starting point is 00:02:57 he is behind closed doors? His answer will shock you. I asked him about the visit that Boris Johnson had. Three visits Boris Johnson from UK comes to Kiev and they're talking about, hey, we'd like to prevent the war and stop the war, and Boris is saying no, and then we went through the sequencing of Boris Johnson coming here. He's in the meetings while these negotiations are taking place and Boris is making that recommendation, and then he leaves his timeline of stepping out in September, then Liz Trust coming in as a prime minister for one month September, October, North Stream pipeline happens, then I ask him the question of who he thought it was behind it, you have to hear the answer
Starting point is 00:03:40 here. His breakdown and analysis on Putin was very unique. You're going to be enamored by the way he broke down Putin's strategies and what Putin is doing. But all in all, this is not somebody that Zelensky likes. This is not somebody that Zelensky trusts. I even asked the question of how many people that are in Zelensky's camp right now that trust him, that are in communication with him, specifically when I asked the question about corruption and the amount of money, how much of that money flowed to Zelensky, this is a tell-all conversation here with
Starting point is 00:04:14 probably the most qualified person to speak on the topic of Zelensky. With that being said, enjoy this two hour sit down with Alexey Arestovich. Okay, so we got an interesting interview here right now and it's very Timed well because just three to four hours ago Putin made an announcement in an interview that will play for you here in a minute that he's agreed to be willing to compromise with Trump on the Ukraine war and For us we've been going back and forth about wanting to do an interview my guest today And that is Olexi Aristo, which let me kind of properly introduce him to you. So, you know who he is He has been an exile From Ukraine. I think the last time he was there was September of 2023. I'll be
Starting point is 00:05:25 very technical, he'll correct me if I'm off on any of this stuff. I think there's three criminal prosecutions that he's going through. He has not gone back since then. He was the former top advisor to Zelensky and then there was a falling out and even at one point a lot of the people who are following the Ukraine-Russia-NATO relationship, he was accurately predicting the fact that in February or 2022, Putin will be invading Ukraine. And a lot of people were like, why would you say something like this in 2019? And he got it accurate.
Starting point is 00:06:00 He got it right. So a lot of people are watching his prediction and the things that he was saying. And so finally, with his background, intelligence, strategy, everything that he's doing, we agreed to do this interview together. Here as we're doing this, the audience that's watching this, he will be speaking in Russian. There will be a translator. You will hear the translator in English. I will be going back and forth with the question.
Starting point is 00:06:22 The interview is also being uploaded in Russian on our Valuetainment Russian channel. So if somebody wants to watch this right now and they just want to watch it in Russian, we're going to put the link below on the YouTube channel that will take us to our Valuetainment Russian channel if you just want to listen to this whole thing in Russian. Having said that, Olex, it's great to have you here on the podcast. Olex DeRuwe Nice to meet you. Olex DeRuwe Likewise. So a few things when we're talking about this. One, your background for the audience
Starting point is 00:06:47 doesn't know specific to Ukraine, Zelenskyi, and Russia, if you don't mind sharing that with the audience. In 1998, I finished the same military school as General Zaluzhny. We know each other since that time. We're friends since the military school. Then I was serving in the Ukrainian military intelligence, specializing on the military and political analysis. Within that framework, when I retired in 2005, I predicted while analyzing the situation and predicted that Russia will invade Crimea. I described it and there's a video of that in the internet from 2008 where I describe how they will invade Crimea. And that's actually how they did it, the literally same stages and same steps as I had described then. There was a video in 2015, 18, 19 where I predicted the war will break out. Since 2014 I was participating in the second Maidan and military operations in the East,
Starting point is 00:07:45 and I became famous as a military commentator, military reviewer. When Zelensky came to power, I criticized him very sharply because of his approach towards war and towards stopping the war and so forth. So harsh that one time they invited me over to talk. I was especially critical of the informational coverage of the Minsk process. And I received a call from their office and they invited me to a meeting in the Minsk process. And when it finished they said, what's your opinion? What do you think that the informational policy should be? I described it, what I would do, and they offered me to become an advisor and speaker of the Ukrainian group in the Minsk process.
Starting point is 00:08:23 Parallel, there was the Normand process happening. And about three weeks after that, I met with Yermak and he offered for me to become the advisor to the office. And I was an advisor on strategic communication in the air of national defense. In that capacity, I went through the Minsk process, the Normand process. To Zelenskyky's office. When the war began, I became the main speaker, one of the three main speakers. The first was Zelensky and Podolak was second and I was the speaker on the military issues. Then it happened that there was an explosive growth in popularity and influence. I became the
Starting point is 00:08:58 second most popular person in Ukraine and I took part in the Stembul process where I was also the head of the military subgroup and the talks with Russia. There were four subgroups, the economic, political, cultural, and I was in the head of the military subgroup. At this time when this is happening, is your relationship with Zelensky good? Are you guys spending time together? There's a good relationship. He trusts you, you trust him or is there instability?
Starting point is 00:09:21 Is there friction between you, the two of you guys? I never really was. I was always a black sheep. I've never was a member of his team. More likely it was just their method to draw near the people who are criticizing them in order to disarm them. Then in the middle of March, 2022, half a month after the beginning of the war, it became evident that I was ranking second most popular person in the country. Him or his people around him began undertaking systematic action against my popularity. They started a campaign that continues until today to portray that Aristovich is the concentration of all things evil in Ukraine.
Starting point is 00:09:57 Moreover, considering that I'm expressing direct political ambitions, this campaign is growing more fierce every day. So could that be that you were a threat because the fear was your ambitions were you were building your own identity because you eventually wanted to be the president? And that could be threatening to a guy like Zelensky where they want to get rid of you. Is that a fair assessment or no? Yes. It's like when two narcissists found themselves in the same den and it has become too tight for both of them And you would say you're one of the narcissists you're comfortable saying they call me that way
Starting point is 00:10:29 I don't consider myself to be one. I've been studying psychology for many years as an amateur But nonetheless and so I know what Narcissist is the definition and it was just sort of a joke So so and I appreciate that, you know, what you're saying. But for me, I think that you need a little bit of it to be a president because to think you can lead a country, you have to think very highly of yourself. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. But going back to it, so what caused the relationship to get to a point that you had to leave the
Starting point is 00:11:01 country and be in exile? What led to that event? Look, in 2000, the steps were as follows. It began in March 2022, then later in July of 2022, I was given an interview to a very famous Ukrainian journalist, Dmitry Gordon. I openly stated there, he asked me if I was going to run for president, and I said yes. And since then it was clear that the set of problems standing before Ukraine resonates with me, and I understood that this is my life goal to help Ukraine to resolve these issues. I have my own views on those
Starting point is 00:11:31 things and after that there was a totally crazy campaign that was set in motion against me inspired particularly by people surrounding Zelensky not only by them but also other political opponents. The systems began working against me. Then aussian missile hits a residential building in Dnipro which is the second city in ukraine by size actually third after harkiv this happened in january 2023 and in an interview i had a daily show with the russian oppositioner mark vigan 500 000 people would watch it every time every day 500 000 people it was very popular and on that show live i was very tired and i misspoke when they asked me about, it was very popular. And on that show, live, I was very tired.
Starting point is 00:12:05 And I misspoke when they asked me about whether it was possible to intercept that missile. And I said that in my opinion, I think it was a Russian missile. But only after it was intercepted by our defense system, only after that it in turn hit the residential building. So when I misspoke, it was used in a huge campaign against me. And they actually suggested that I... What year is this? What year?
Starting point is 00:12:26 This was January 14, 2023. Oh, so this is... you're in war, January 1st... One year after the beginning of the war. They used this against me and Yermak and Zelensky suggested to resign, leave the office. At that point, it was already clear that we differ on a whole range of issues, in particular one of them is the fate of the Russian church in Ukraine or the Ukrainian church of the Russian patriarchy. While being an advisor, I publicly spoke out in his defense also on some other issues. And so to be honest, I was happy to leave because the totality of contradictions between
Starting point is 00:12:59 me and their position was critical in size by then. But since I was phenomenally popular in Ukraine and beyond its borders, I had a lot of invitations to all kinds of international conferences on security. And they were not able not to send me there. I would regularly travel, go there, represent Ukraine in my particular opinion. And then in September 2023, while I was in the US, our visits coincided, my visit and President Zelensky's. And in September 2023, while I was in the US, our visits coincided, my visit and President Zelensky's.
Starting point is 00:13:26 And in one of the programs, I was asked to comment on his visit, and I assessed it as extremely unsuccessful. I changed my rhetoric and predicted all of the troubles that we now have. Because during NATO summit in Vilnius in June 2023, and during that visit, in those statements, I saw all the problems that we have now. And I was warned. And American professional will not name the person, not to return to Ukraine. I laughed.
Starting point is 00:14:00 I already had my return ticket to Ukraine, so I laughed, I said, this cannot be how... I'm the second most popular person in the country, who and how would do that and so forth. Moreover, I myself come from intelligence services background that I know when it's a real threat and when it's not. I did not take it seriously at all. He repeated it three times, do not return. And he said that he will not repeat again.
Starting point is 00:14:19 I did not fly back thinking that the dust will settle in a couple weeks or months and I was planning to go back by winter. I wanted to get the return tickets again. I was making plans. My family stayed back in Ukraine and so forth but every time it was delayed farther and farther and every time it was growing worse and worse and I'm still a political immigrant after a year and a half already I cannot return back to Ukraine. They opened three criminal cases against me not directly but still to be exact two criminal cases. And until now, they're still trying to open a third one to be completely exact. I have a school of philosophy and psychology where I teach with more than 60,000 students
Starting point is 00:14:55 from 60 countries. And right after that interview, they began pressuring the administration of the school. They hacked everyone's phone, installed wire taps in their homes and cars. There was a demonstrative surveillance set up after the lady who is to be the school's administrator and she was on the eight months of pregnancy. So that was the story. The security service came to my house undercover right after the interview. But overall then, even then, it didn't stop me. I wanted to go back calmly, but I was seriously warned from here from the American side that I should not go for now and this for now continues until
Starting point is 00:15:27 Today and is being delayed farther and farther Got it. So the story you're talking about in January 2017. This is when the Dnieper remarks right where yes you were asked to resign that the you know, I think you made a where you were asked to resign, I think you made a resign after stating that the Russian Kh-22 missile that killed 44 people in the Dnieper probe may have been shot down by Ukrainian air defenses. This fundamental error, as Aristovich called it, sparked widespread anger in Ukraine where parliamentaries signed a petition for his dismissal.
Starting point is 00:16:01 Is this the story that you're talking about? Yes, yes, yes. So, and I think later on you came and you publicly wrote and you gave your sincere apologies to the victims and the relatives and residents of the Dnipro and everyone who was deeply hurt by the comments that you made. So that that was a following up with you and Zelensky. I publicly apologized even though until now honestly it was just a gesture of politeness and condolences for the deceased because there were no formal basis to Apologize if you watch the video attentively I said that this version still needs to be verified and verified over again I misspoke and I will explain what this happened every time when I do my show I was also trying to train the people that watch me to process information correctly So I would usually present several versions saying, look, there's a Ukrainian version, there's a Russian version.
Starting point is 00:16:49 Is this live when you're doing it or is this a pre-record? Yes, yes, it's a live show. Yes. Live show. Okay. So anybody can see it. Yes, absolutely. You can watch it.
Starting point is 00:16:58 And I was so tired that day. I had traveled back from the field and I was exhausted and my tongue simply wouldn't turn to speak through each version. Moreover, my co-host interrupted me and said, yes, I think it was our intercepting rocket that hit the Russian missile, which in turn hit the residential building. But I said that this needs to be verified and verified over again. That's all I had strength to do. Then I went to sleep in the morning, I woke up and there is this huge scandal and it was blown up by the
Starting point is 00:17:27 participation of the Russian media and the media from our fifth president Poroshenko and then who is now in opposition and as well the networks of our president's office as strange as it may be their social channels and all the rest. So it was a big and fiery story. So for you because one of the things you pride yourself in in your intro was the amount of times you got predictions right, okay? 2014, 2008, 2019, hey, this is what's going to be happening. When this happened and you made a comment like this, and this error that was made, did that hurt your credibility at all?
Starting point is 00:17:59 That people say, yeah, you know what, I thought I can trust him, but no, I think he's just trying to do this because he wants to undermine Zelensky and he wants to one day be office. His ambitions are getting in the way. Was it viewed that way by certain people? Many smart people understand this, but you need to realize the atmosphere in Ukraine. The people, most of them, carry emotional trauma from the war. It's very severe and it does not let them think freely Moreover, they're under an onslaught of huge amounts of propaganda from different directions from the Russia side from the Ukrainian side
Starting point is 00:18:32 So they're not free in their judgment. Other than that, there's another aspect. My way of speaking is very provoking Narcissistic as they say it triggers and provokes a lot of people I predicted this in March 2022 at at the height of my popularity, when I was crazy popular with people, would not go to bed without hearing me, they would not wake up without me, military people would listen to me from generals to housewives,
Starting point is 00:18:56 everybody would listen to me, everybody would listen to me before going to bed and so forth, so they asked me how is this all going to end, and I said that they will call me a traitor, this is on video, and how did I know? Because it always happens in therapy therapy and I was providing some sort of therapy for the nation While you're in Ukraine. Yes. Yes. Yes. I said this at the height of my popularity It was the third day third week rather after the beginning of the war and I said that they will in the end Call me a traitor
Starting point is 00:19:20 Because it always happens when people put their hopes on someone and then the life Happens and their hopes don't come to pass and the person they place their hope upon Becomes the worst person in the world. It's a known phenomenon in therapy and I was able to foresee it today people Their attitudes are towards me are very harsh and emotional Figuratively many people defy me carry me on their arms and consider me Messiah and Savior and there are people who hate me and consider that I'm the concentration of evil and everything The worst things that could happen with Ukraine. Yes, if you were to put total amount of hours You've spent around Zelensky where you're around him not phone calls physically around him
Starting point is 00:19:58 How many total hours have you spent with Zelensky? Well in the past you see politicians, they trade in audience. Always, that's the main currency that a politician handles. So any audience is carefully protected. I would see Zelensky several times during the period from 2020 through 2022, including the times when I would stay in the office, along with him and Yermak resolving a list of specific military issues. For example, appointing Zeluzhny as a commander-in-chief. I did that. It was my project to appoint Zaluzhny as the commander-in-chief.
Starting point is 00:20:32 And since this was a complex process, a closed-door process, we were discussing this topic in detail several times. When the war began, I was in the immediate proximity. I'm just trying to be precise. I was in the immediate proximity with Zelensky. How many hours would you say? It would be weeks. Weeks. Yes, hundreds of hours.
Starting point is 00:20:53 So you've spent enough time around him to see how he is. How different is he behind closed doors as a leader than he is the way we see him on stage when he's begging for money or raising for money or, you know, pleading for everybody around the world to want to support him? Is he the same person behind closed doors as he is on the big screen? It's two different people. Really? Yes, of course.
Starting point is 00:21:19 On the screen, he plays the role of this unbreakable leader like made of iron in life he carries himself in a much softer way in personal conversations he attentively listens to everyone's opinion but nonetheless he takes decisions himself later on behind closed doors when everyone leaves so you know for for us you know Americans or people around the world who are not directly in there who don't know his story we see the videos of him dancing we see the videos of know his story, we see the videos of him dancing, we see the videos of him being an actor, we see the videos of him going from being a teacher in a show to accidentally becoming a president, right? For you, being from there, that's lived there, to the average person, how did Zelensky get
Starting point is 00:22:01 his popularity and how did he eventually get to a point of becoming a president in Ukraine? It was a huge protest against the old political system that was in action since 1991 through 2012 and during the time he was elected it was the third Maidan, but it was an electoral Maidan, voters Maidan. People were not so much voting for him, even though a good amount of people voted for him, as much as they were voting against Poroshenko in the old system. They wanted to elect a wild card joker person who is not from the system, and they got one. 1991, he's 13 years old, right? This is when the negotiations taking place.
Starting point is 00:22:36 I'm thinking you're talking about the Budapest memorandum, the whole conversation that's happening. random the whole conversation that's happened and hey, if you return, if you give us the 1700 nuclear warheads, we will give you protection, that's what we'll do. And then from that moment on, I'm more interested in Zelensky. So were the puppet masters looking to see somebody that they can use and Zelensky was perfect for the puppet masters? Is that who he was perfect for because he was an image, he was famous? No. There are two main legends around Zelensky's name. The first is that he's someone's puppet. That Kolomoisky, for
Starting point is 00:23:14 example, one of Ukrainian oligarchs. And the second one is that really Yermak runs everything and Zelensky is his puppet. But it's not so. Zelensky is an extraordinarily harsh and authoritarian person. He controls everything and Yermak, when he says that he's just Zelensky's manager, it's true. He's not so. Zulenskiy is an extraordinarily harsh and authoritarian person. He controls everything. And Yermak, when he says that he's just Zulenskiy's manager, it's true. He's not exaggerating their places and issues where they do not let Yermak in, where he decides single-handedly. And the list of those topics is not so short. And Kolomoisky is currently in jail. Everybody was portraying him as the owner of the puppet.
Starting point is 00:23:43 But you see, they were pushing this legend, but you see how it all turned out to be. Well, that's complimentary for you to say that because, you know, if one would think you would say, no, he doesn't know what he's doing. He got lucky. He's done the job because other people are using him and all this other stuff. You're saying no, he actually knows exactly what he's doing and how he got into that position. Absolutely. Oh really? Wow. Okay. So who is Zelensky to you? You know, when, you know, seeing, you know, raising capital, raising money, hey, give me more money here and all this other stuff. Is Zelensky, in America, we were divided. A lot of people were all about, hey, Putin
Starting point is 00:24:24 is a bad guy, Russia's horrible, he's an evil empire, he's a modern day Hitler, whatever, we just got to make sure this guy, we got to take him down and we got to protect Ukraine and everybody was wearing the Ukraine flag pin here. Everybody on their Twitter profile, their pictures, Instagram, shirts, jackets, it doesn't matter who you were, everybody had the Ukraine pin, a lot of people. A lot of people fell for it Right and what what a noble man Zelensky is, you know person of the year. He's amazing. He's doing all these great things
Starting point is 00:24:53 But that's the image a lot of people had and gradually his popularity around the world has declined It's not what it was a year and a half ago. It's not what it was two years ago But from your perspective who's Zelensky to you? For me, Zelensky is a person that when life threw challenges at him, they were beyond his competency. Meaning, if perhaps he was a president during a peaceful time, perhaps he could manage. But when his life confronted him with war, huge challenges.
Starting point is 00:25:24 First COVID, then the war, he could not handle it. He simply was not able to understand and resolve the problems posed before him. Moreover, from my point of view, this is a person who de facto deceived his voters. He promised them one thing and practically did not fulfill not a single, not a single election promise, especially those key issues. Ukraine has about 25% of desperate nationalists who in their extreme nationalism rolled down to chauvinism, especially with the war trauma. 73% of voters voted for Zelensky, practically the entire remainder.
Starting point is 00:26:01 We're talking 25 and 73. And to them, he promised a wider multicultural project, where're talking 25 and 73, and to them he promised a wider multicultural project, where people who speak in Russian, for example, and Russian culture is an organic part of Ukrainian culture, and so this is why they voted for him, because he said that he will not allow to split Ukrainians based on the language they speak and what church they go to, but he did not do any of that. He did everything to the opposite. Poroshenko, at his time, announced his famous concepts stating army, language, Ukrainian
Starting point is 00:26:31 language and faith. And he consolidated around 25% of voters around himself and the rest voted against that. In the result, Zelensky's administration, it turned out that he supported that very same project. And today Ukraine is facing a serious violation of Constitution, and he himself is supposed to be the guarantor of Constitution. Human rights violations, brutal violations, persecution of the Church, etc. And I began criticizing that when I was still his advisor to his office. Because for me, my personal motivation is very close to a religious one. For me, the issue of conscience, honor, precision are key issues, the issue of truth.
Starting point is 00:27:12 And I'm not able to stay silent, and even now I'm not silent, because he, with all of this negative attitude toward what he does, he's the head. He's the president and the head of our country that's at war, that's at war with a superior opponent. So in my rhetoric and my critic, and I'm being officially in political opposition to him, I must at all time carefully choose my words to make a distinction between the office of the president of Ukraine and Volodymyr Zelensky as a person. I'm trying not to damage the president of Ukraineraine rather to hit particularly Zelensky himself and this may have
Starting point is 00:27:48 a negative appearance as if i'm waging a personal war within him that's not true it's not the case i'm criticizing him as a political leader that is making mistakes in my opinion including strategical mistakes on the inside and the outside refraining from waging war as a matter of principle but oftentimes such reputation may get created and and at all times, even now, I have to carefully select my words as a matter of principle so as not to damage the country. And it's not easy. I can only imagine. And I'm assuming that's why you chose to speak in your native language, because you do speak
Starting point is 00:28:23 English. I speak English and I could provide this interview on the English. Because you know the technicalities of words. But I have to be specified, very specified. I totally respect that. I get it, specifically in this position that you're in. Yeah, I mean, when you think about,
Starting point is 00:28:35 when I look at the numbers, when he won in 2019, 73.22% and he said, I promise I will never let you down. His words that he talked about. Now, transitioning into where we are today, okay? So let's go to Putin in your eyes. When you break down the history of what's happened between Putin and Ukraine and Russia and the history, but I'll even give you a timeline here in a minute and when you see it, I'm sure you recognize a timeline. You're very
Starting point is 00:29:07 critical of Zelensky, very, based on what you're saying. What is your impression of Putin, you know, when you think about what he's doing with the war, with the way he's handling it, with the fact that, you know, US put sanctions on him two years ago. I think it's a little bit over two years that he's set the sanctions. It's at the sanctions. It's affected the economy, the inflation, what they're going through. But what do you think about what Putin did with the first actions? Your impression of him? Putin, he single-handedly took several decisions, single-handed decisions that are directly directed against my country.
Starting point is 00:29:42 And not only. The first is that he that when he took away Crimea in 2014, then the whole activity in Donbass and full-scale war that began in 2022. He is the leader of a country who single-handedly took a decision to go with military aggression against Ukraine. And I qualify him as such no less, no more. That's officially.
Starting point is 00:29:59 Unofficially, I have my particular opinion about him as a person and political leader and how he came to that life Better said to those decisions. I openly state that which does not add to my popularity among Many Ukrainians because I have my own view of things and if you wish I can share this with you But it will take three to five minutes. It's a long text I would love to hear it I want here from my point of view Putin upon completing the Leningrad University and working in the West,
Starting point is 00:30:26 and he comes from political intelligence background, he is the most pro-Western Russian politician until now. His mindset, in his mindset he is the most pro-Western politician. Let's recall his coming to power. His first proposition to the West was to accept Russia into NATO. Then he offered to make Russian missile defense system as part of the Western American missile defense system. He is the first leader who called George Bush after 9-11 and offered his help. He organized a stopover base for the US and NATO in Volga.
Starting point is 00:31:06 It is the same person who today is saying no to NATO bases in Ukraine. And Americans during their campaign in Afghanistan were using Russian territory in their stopover bases in Russia. It took a long time before he switched to anti-Western courts. I can even name you the stages of that process. In the beginning he started fighting with those whom he considered Russia's internal enemies. Those are the oligarchs like Berezovsky, Kousinski, TV channels, etc. So he began taking action as a KGB officer who used to oppress internal opposition.
Starting point is 00:31:40 He got in trouble with the West, particularly with the soft power side, NGO structures that were bringing Western influence, especially the influence that Democrat globalists were introducing through the means like USAID and Soros Fund, etc. He understood that this is the soft power that is directed against him, but he purposefully set up Russia as a non-ideological state, he said economy. From my point of view, Putin is a leader who is a right-wing liberal, conservative type, something like Cesar Rost or Stalipin in Russia in the end of the 19th century, a statesman and a right-wing liberal, free economy, and so forth, so forth.
Starting point is 00:32:20 But he has a KGB officer inside him and he has some traumatizing experience back from St. Petersburg times when he was Subchak's assistant who was St. Petersburg mayor at that time and as they say he was intensely interacting with criminal structures and it left a definite mark on him. So these are the three sources that formed his personality He was asking to join the West with all his might. But then, the revolution takes place. Let's say in 2002, when Ukraine officially under President Kuchma is taking the decision to join NATO. With the background of Chechenian campaign and Russia blaming the West for meddling and
Starting point is 00:32:55 supporting Chechenian majaheds, he took it extremely painfully. Then the revolution in Georgia happens, in Caucasus, which is a key area. For him, he takes it as a Western, particularly American expansion, right on Russia's underbelly. To put it that way then, the first Maidan in Ukraine, the Orange Maidan, 2004, he takes it as a Western intelligence agency, and particularly American agencies, directed against Russian influence. Then some time passes, and in 2007 it's his famous Munich speech, where he declares that he's now enemies with the West.
Starting point is 00:33:31 It took him seven years to get to that point, and they begin planning a definite large-scale special operation against Ukraine. It comprised an entire spectrum of attacks, economic, political, cultural, etc., etc., but they were still not talking about a military decision. Then comes the events in Georgia 2008. Then on that background, Ukraine is emphatically brings the question before NATO and the collective West about accepting Ukraine into NATO. Bucharest summit in 2010, and the American president at the time says that we accept
Starting point is 00:34:00 Ukraine into NATO. But Merkel and the leaders of Germany and France categorically refused. And Putin understands that this is an issue that he can never be at peace with, that from Ukrainian territory and with Ukraine's help there will be a systemic threat to Russia's security, at least how he sees this. We can argue how reasonable this is, but I'm just describing the way he sees that. Then the key event was an attempt of Maidan in Russia. It was the Bolotnaya Square, spearheaded by Navalny and other leaders of opposition in
Starting point is 00:34:32 2012, and that scared Putin to death. He understood that this colorful revolution as the West's method of action as they took it is already inside Russia. Then he turned Russia into an ideological state in order to create an ideology of Russian peace as a software for Russia's expansion. And back then the decision was taken to take away Crimea and it went on further. From Putin's point of view, he's carrying out a defense war. I think if we talk psychologically, he holds a deadly grudge against the West because he always wanted to...
Starting point is 00:35:05 them, to like him, always wanted to be part of them. He was accepted into G8 and kicked out of G8 from that big eight, and he's still angry, and he's trying to prove it to the West with this whole war that they need to consider him, and that Russia has real interest that he's honestly defending. This is his mindset, and this is his logic, from what I understand. Russia has real interest that he's honestly defending. This is his mindset and this is his logic from what I understand. People blame him for supposedly wanting to rebuild the Soviet Union.
Starting point is 00:35:32 I don't think so. Rather, he wants to revenge for the Soviet Union's defeat. It's the motivation. And from his point, the West broke the agreement. They're based on the fact that when Gorbachev brought the troops out from Germany, he was promised that the West will from Germany, he was promised that the West will not expand, NATO will not expand eastward. But there were five waves of expansion and he was bearing with that still.
Starting point is 00:35:52 But when they touched the former SSR countries, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, he took it as an intrusion into his area of responsibility. It's the logic of a person who's like in St. Petersburg in the 90s, who took over a marketplace, as we say. So we agree that this is going to be your territory of influence, this is going to be mine, then you intrude into my territory of influence and there must be some response. So from his point of view, he's waging a defense warfare. From his point of view, he has the moral superiority in what he's doing, and he sincerely believes in what he's doing.
Starting point is 00:36:21 And at the same time, he finds himself in a very difficult position. And it's been three and a half years that I'm in big politics, he believes in what he's doing. And at the same time, he finds himself in a very difficult position. And it's been three and a half years that I'm in big politics, and I continue learning every day. I'm trying to understand what's happening and new things open up to me every day. My experience has convinced me that the average person thinks that politicians lie when they come to the microphone. But all the experience convinces me that politicians tell pure truth 99% of the time.
Starting point is 00:36:45 And when he says that we're not fighting with Ukraine, nor with Ukrainian people, but rather with the Nazi government that took over Ukraine, and Ukrainians are brothers and sisters, as he confirmed today at the conference, he's telling the pure truth. He's truly thinking that way. So it's a complex character with regards to Ukraine and the world with complex motivation. And I tried to express it with maximum precision and the way I understand it, the laying down his foundational motives and the way he's looking at the world. Do you think Putin lies 99% of the time? No, I think he tells the truth 99% of the time when he speaks about key issues. What he mentioned today about 80 kilograms of meat per person per year in Russia, there's a big question where
Starting point is 00:37:29 he got those numbers from. But as to his positions, for example, in his interview with Taker, when he does this long historical, he says what he thinks. Yeah. So, okay. So let me ask you, when you say he wanted to have a good relationship, he makes the phone call, hey, we're wanted to have a good relationship, he makes the phone call, hey, we're willing to entertain being part of NATO, and then, okay, let me go check with the people, you know, Clinton, Bush, whoever it is, hey, we're going to check on the coming, you know, I'm not right now, maybe later on, what do you mean, you don't want me to be a part of NATO?
Starting point is 00:37:57 And then, hey, 9-11, support, I don't like what's happened here, whatever you need, I defend it, I'm not for terrorism and all that stuff. He's kind of putting his foot down. But when you say he wanted to be pro-West and then now it's against West, well the West is who? Who let him down? If you were to give names of people that you think independently, because the West can have nine leaders, six of them were good with Putin, but three didn't keep a promise to Putin.
Starting point is 00:38:29 Who are the specific people that you think that Putin said, yeah, I don't trust this guy, it's out? Is it the entire system of the West he doesn't trust with how we are, or is it certain individuals that got him to this point? For him, the main point of orientation is the United States of America and any of their leaders. Why? Because he's measuring the real weight and he sincerely believes that he's stronger
Starting point is 00:38:51 than any Western state except the United States. He's stronger than France, Britain, Germany, not to mention Italy and the Baltic countries. And the strategy consists of to create a situation when he can have a two-sided relationship with any Western country, bypassing over national structures like NATO and the US, because together all the countries of the West are stronger than Putin, but he's stronger than any country separate except the United States. So he's orienting only against the US.
Starting point is 00:39:19 For him, Ukraine is a proxy power of the US, and so he's trying to speak over the head and come and negotiate, because again, he repeated today, he's trying to speak over the head and come and negotiate because again he repeated today he's not going to talk to Zelensky for him the US is the focus of his grudge attraction and recognition it's a very Russian way of thinking I don't know if you can understand it. Why though? But why is it is it a person because United States is can be five different things under five different presidents, right? So when you say United States, who, which specific president, which leader, which regime
Starting point is 00:39:53 when you say the West? Putin lived through four US presidents and during this whole time he has been the president. And today we know that, for example, the administration, I always underscore that you cannot say United States collectively the West exactly what I'm saying that right administration of Trump's administration and Biden's administration is are two different types of West and two different worldviews and systems of motivation and he understands this moreover he's trying to play with it but he's working with the given he's a professionalover, he's trying to play with it, but he's working with the given. He's a professional intelligence officer.
Starting point is 00:40:27 He's has been taught to work with the given. If it's Biden, he works with Biden. If it's Trump, he works with Trump. But he sincerely believes that a country has objective interest independently from the last name of their leader, the size and the geographical location and real geopolitical interests. And he's always trying to appeal to that. So notice his style is real politics.
Starting point is 00:40:47 He's always talking about real politics, real interests, and he's offering to act within those parameters and framework on the television. What did he achieve in this? And this where he achieved a great success. You remember the debates of Kamau Harris and Trump? There was a very curious moment in there. President Trump says that to Kamala that you failed in your negotiations, your talks with Russia. If it had been me, the war would not have started. It's a very free paraphrasing of what took place. So she's losing it for a second. And then she says, in a very free paraphrasing as well, she responds, why do we even have
Starting point is 00:41:29 to speak to people like Putin and the rest of them? And that's the thing that Putin always feels and it and it touches him very painfully. And he demands he wants for others to speak to him on the same level, like equals. So his interview with Tucker is his attempt to prove why they need to talk to him as an equal. And he's talking about a multipolarized world, not just United States who had usurped the power and were telling everybody else how to live. So in this war, he's posing as the representative of the global south. He tried to put China, India, and BRICS and the Arab world on his side.
Starting point is 00:42:10 So he's showing them, like, I'm the person who is capable to stand against the West, this new colonialism that they're promoting. So he's discussing those terms. For you, I'm the defense against that. And the summit in Kazan, when his political isolation was torn apart and tens of world leaders joined him. So that's the combination of this war of 2022. He is showing that I managed to be this ram from the global south and to force the West to face this new political reality where the world is not single polar anymore
Starting point is 00:42:46 and that it doesn't matter who the president of the US is, even though things change after Trump. Yeah. So to me, I just, I just had Rob pull up a report to see when's the last time president Biden spoke to Putin. The fact that president Biden haven't spoken to boot Putin since February 12th of 2022. That's almost three years. That doesn't make any sense to me.
Starting point is 00:43:10 That doesn't make any sense to me that you don't speak to him. But let me go back to understanding the profile of Putin. So he's made comments where it's like, look, these presidents in America, they don't run America, they're going to come four, eight years, they're gone, four, eight years, they're gone, four, eight years, they don't run America, they're going to come, four eight years they're gone, four eight years they're gone, four eight years they're gone. Where, you know, I'm going to give you my impression of what you're saying, tell me if this is exactly where you are. How long has Xi been in power, Rob?
Starting point is 00:43:33 Can you type in how long Xi has been in power? China, Xi, how long has he been in power? What is the timeline? Since what year? Okay. He has been in power since 2013. That's 11 years. 11 years allows you to know and read how to negotiate and do business with this person,
Starting point is 00:43:52 China. Easier to know the person. Good, bad, ugly. It doesn't matter if they're a criminal or a good person, but at least you see patterns of consistency with 11 years. Do you think a part of, you know, his lack of trust comes from, hey, you know, they sit there and they negotiate with them, and Ukraine says, I'm willing to give up these warheads to you guys in return for protection. So they give up the 1700 warheads, you know, the whatever, the nuclear warheads that they had you know which story I'm talking about and then
Starting point is 00:44:27 while they're doing this Russia says I'm willing to negotiate with you guys as long as you guys don't come east and you have the meeting where James Baker that the time US Secretary of State this is under Bush you got I think it's a regular but I think it's under Bush then German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, they make verbal assurances to Mikhail Gorbachev, February 1990, we're not going to go west. And then Baker famously told Gorbachev that NATO would not move one inch eastward beyond Germany. Right?
Starting point is 00:45:02 Okay. So now Putin's watching all this stuff happen, then he comes into power and then he's trying to find a way to improve the relationship with West and then he realizes they don't keep the promise, NATO doesn't keep the promise, I can't trust you guys. Do you think that's the part where he's like West, whatever they say, don't believe it because in four years it could change. Their promise today is not a 30 years it could change their promise today is not a 30 year promise their promise today is maybe a four-year Promise do you think that's how he looks at the West? from his point of view the West looks
Starting point is 00:45:33 Like people that promise for the period leaders who promise for the period of time while they're in power So it fits To put it this way, roughly. He's in power, he can promise for four years. And then every time you need to deal with new people, many times imposing positions because the opposition comes to power, and he needs to renegotiate from zero every time, every time having those problems. And I think he tried to resolve the problem on a key level.
Starting point is 00:46:03 He showed that in order to defend Russian interests, he's ready to use military force and you can't not consider that. Other than that, in his eyes, Pazdemoyev's system was destroyed, which had been created after Second World War and now we need to build a new collective security system in Europe or the whole world. This is one of the key things. He mentions one of the key things that I myself talk about, but in his opinion, the West does not want to pose the question this way.
Starting point is 00:46:32 So he said today that the West is playing one-sidedly to oppress. I'm offering a collective system of security, but you are oppressing us. You don't want to consider us. This is not equal relationships. We're not par. Who do you think you trust more? Do you think he trusts US more? Do you think you trust China more? I don't think that he poses the question that way.
Starting point is 00:46:52 I think he only trusts, believes in himself and Russia themselves. Look, by the fact, sheer fact of their size and the border with China and the nuclear power, even though they're allies, they're containing and restraining China in a certain measure. When SSR lost the Cold War, and Kissinger traveled to Kitaiden, Nixon in 1975, and this triangle of SSR, USA, China had been resolved not in USSR favor, China and US ended up being allies.
Starting point is 00:47:24 Today the question is posed the same way in this battle of United States and China, which is a key thing for Americans and China. Where is going to be Russia? This is something I always say inside Ukraine. When you want the Russia to be what are the national, extreme nationalists are demanding, that the Russia needs to fall down, that the West needs to destroy, take away their nuclear warheads. And I always ask, do you that the Russia needs to fall down that the West needs to destroy take away their nuclear Warheads and I always ask do you think the West needs a broken Russia or do they need Russia as a factor that restrains China? And Putin clearly understands what he's trading with he's trading with his position in relation to China
Starting point is 00:48:03 He is letting them understand that if things go really bad with the West, I'm going to go and join China. You're going to have to deal with the joint potential of China and Russia. And if not, I'm ready to stay neutral and contain this, play this role of containing China. So this is one of the key arguments in the negotiations. But I'm asking a question a different way. The way I'm asking the question is, you know, who do you trust more?
Starting point is 00:48:25 Do you trust your enemies more? do you trust your friends more? I trust my enemies a lot. Why? I trust the fact that my enemies are doing whatever they can to kill me and put me out of business. Let me quote the Bible here. There's a good phrase in the Bible, my enemy, why did you betray me? Why did you leave me?
Starting point is 00:48:46 And it's clearly saying that the enemy, it's this character, subject that is most honest towards you, more honest than your friends, especially in the politics. I believe you, and I'm fully with it. I fully subscribe to that. So the reason why I asked the trust question is, does he trust the fact that US will not keep their promises? Does he trust the fact that China, that's why I'm asking the question.
Starting point is 00:49:13 Maybe let me ask you the question here for you, because you're at a position right now where a story just came out saying Ukraine to hold, came up a month and a half ago, two months ago. Ukraine to hold elections immediately after war. Zelensky, chief of staff says, I'm sure you've seen this. And when that happens, I think you may be going back for you to run for office because folks want you
Starting point is 00:49:38 to run for president and that's an aspiration that you have as well, that you think you can do a better job than Zelensky can. From your perspective, and I know this is going to be an interesting answer you'll give, I'm assuming I kind of have an idea what the answer is, but I'm again curious what you'll say. Who do you trust more on what they're going to be doing, Zelensky or Putin? Tis the season to treat your family to the great taste of Popeyes.
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Starting point is 00:51:27 Have you ever spoken to Putin? No, never spoke with him. We have incompatible ranks. You guys have not spent time together? No. Okay, got it. Never. Well, I'd be curious to know what that looks like. By the way, going back to what we're talking about with the war, okay? War starts.
Starting point is 00:51:49 It's been chaotic, tragic lives, reporting numbers. You're on the inside. We'll watch the news. The news will tell us, you know, 198,000 Russian soldiers have been killed and 550,000 have been wounded since beginning of the war. And we'll hear these numbers gets bigger and bigger and bigger. And then reports will come for Ukraine and say, you know, we've only lost 31,000 soldiers.
Starting point is 00:52:16 That number today as of December is 43,000 soldiers. But this is what the media is reporting us and we have to believe it. What is the real number? I think that the real numbers, according to my evaluation of killed and missing in action in our condition, what that means, killed and missing, it's around 150,000, more or less, and about 400, 500,000 of injured. And Russian losses are three times as large, I think, of killed and injured. But we need to understand the next issue.
Starting point is 00:52:49 Our relation ratio of killed and injured is better. Ukraine has a very good military medicine. So for one killed, we have five, six injured in Russia. It's one to two, one to three. They have a very poor field medicine. And since they are attacking for them, they have a larger problem evacuating than us, and so they're losing in that ratio between injured and dead. So many people die right there in the field, so they could have 350 people killed and only
Starting point is 00:53:17 about 600-700 people injured, and not the way it was supposed to be, 1.5 million, if the ratio would be as in developed armies in the world like in Ukrainian army Do you remember the story that came out that said? You know Ukraine dug up two million graves because of what's going on with war and all this stuff Do you remember the story or no two million grave graves? Yeah, the story came out that Ukraine had built out multiple places to be able to bury a lot of lives and so that reporting speculated some people to say well you know maybe you know Ukraine's lost more people and and you know we don't know about it. You're saying Ukraine's
Starting point is 00:53:59 probably lost only 150 to 400 and maybe you know Russia's lost 450,000 to 1.5 million people injured. I think it depends how you count it. They're very specific place in this whole thing is losing the people who were drafted from the occupied territories. I'm sorry. Yes. So there's a specific place. This is the loss of people that were drafted from our occupied territories, Donbas, Crimea,
Starting point is 00:54:26 and now it's even Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. And people who died, being Ukrainian citizens died being part of the Russian army attacking us. So, what did Putin do? He forced Ukrainian citizens to fight against other Ukrainian citizens, drafting them from those DNR and LNR. From there about 70- 80 thousand people died. How do we count those?
Starting point is 00:54:48 Is this a loss on the Russian side, Ukrainian side or a separate category? It's a big question. It's not a small amount. It could be up to 100 thousand people. So this is why the general correlation, it's one, two, three. And Kellogg, one of the representatives from Trump. How is that possible? How is that possible for the average person?
Starting point is 00:55:06 How is a smaller country like Ukraine able to kill three times the amount of people to a powerful country with the second most nuclear warheads, some on some numbers are first, you know, how are they able to do that to a nation as a big as Russia? That's a typical ratio on the battlefield between the attacking and retreating, or better said, attacking and defending sides. We are defending everybody who is attacking, usually carries more losses. For them to not carry more losses, they need to have a radical technical advantage, but they don't have that. Moreover, in some…
Starting point is 00:55:41 Three times the amount, so the three times. Yes, you look, there are battles when it's 1 to 10, 1 to 15. That's an average, only comes to 1 to 3, 1 to 5, I would say, more or less. Got it. Okay. So, you know, when you're watching, I don't know if you saw what Putin said earlier today, Rob, if you don't mind pulling up the clip, just three hours before you got here, Putin was being interviewed and he's being asked a question about his willingness to negotiate with Trump for the Ukraine war. And if you want to kind of get one side of the mic on, you can hear what he has to say
Starting point is 00:56:17 if you want to put that on. Rob, if you want to play this clip, here's Putin. Go for it. What's your offer to the President-elect Trump when we meet? First of all, I don't know when we will meet, because he doesn't say anything about it. I haven't spoken to him for more than four years, and I am ready for it. Of course, at any time. And I will be ready for a meeting if he wants it.
Starting point is 00:56:49 Politics is the art of compromise. And we have always said that we are ready for both negotiations and compromises. It is just that the opposite side, in the literal and figurative sense of the word, refused to negotiate. And we are always ready for this. The result of these negotiations is always compromise. Do you believe him? Yes. Okay. He demonstrates a consistent position since March 2022, since Istanbul negotiations.
Starting point is 00:57:19 And you notice today he said that the basis for us is Istanbul talks and the real position on the ground, and we are ready for compromises. Putin is a very complex person, but he has two remarkable qualities, real or figurative. In parenthesis, he perfectly, impeccably maintains the same line that he announced. And in the eyes of everyone in Europe, everybody he deals with, he stated clear goals and he showed that he can achieve them by force, but he has not changed the goals. He consistently says the same thing. Istanbul talks, we're ready to talk and etc. It's more
Starting point is 00:57:58 Ukraine, more likely here that looks like an unpredictable partner that from one side is showing itself as a victim, as a suffering side. From the other side, Putin, it's making us to look like we are constantly refusing to negotiate. This is what happened today. So he's building a perfect trap. See the first step, he says we're ready to talk. Step number two, he says I'm ready to compete with the West over Kiev
Starting point is 00:58:28 and try Oreshnik, which is the mass destruction weapon, and let the Western air defense try to protect them from that. And number three, he says I'm not going to talk to Zelensky, oh, he's not a legitimate leader, if he will be reelected and I'll talk to him. So this is a slap in the face to Zelensky, it's not a legitimate leader. If he will be reelected, then I'll talk to him. So this is a slap in the face to Zelensky. It's like a red rag. So when Putin says he's not legitimate, how is the West hearing this?
Starting point is 00:58:54 Zelensky is a horse who's not even going to participate in the race. Why would we even bet on it? So he receives this emotional trauma, plus this areshnik, this threat to Kiev, and they react very sharply and it's just street Cussing and swearing him and your mug Publishing this posting this outside of any politics political relations even between countries and were just cursing swearing And now Putin says and shows this to this world and says I'm for peace I'm ready to go for a compromise, But these people, you can't even talk to them, you can't be negotiating with them.
Starting point is 00:59:28 And this is how we look in the eyes of the whole world, because with this whole offer and this provocation, how did we react? Saying bad words, calling him names, which liquidate any possibility of normal talks, even thinking about it, even just a ceasefire. This is why Putin has a very clear position. He took it in the spring of last year. It was corrected since 2022. Zelensky is not a legitimate leader.
Starting point is 00:59:51 He's over his time. He does not represent the people of Ukraine. We're ready to talk, but for this we need compromises and the people in power who are legitimately there. And he has not changed positions since then. Since that time, we called him names, got to intrude into Kursk Oblast, and we did many times things that undermine Ukraine's image as the country that really desires peace. Now the prime minister of Hungary spoke twice about the Christmas truce and exchanging prisoners of war, and our government very harshly reacted to that, saying nobody authorized Orban to do
Starting point is 01:00:29 that. So, for Zelensky and his emotional heat, I don't know if he noticed this, but they are painting him as the only public political figure who is against stopping the war. And I am warning them publicly through my direct statements, and I'm sure that they're watching me in Zelensky's office Look what they're doing to you. They are constantly putting you in a position of people who are against Stopping the war and you're the victim side Putin on your background begins looking like an adequate reasonable person who is offering peace of course on his own conditions and
Starting point is 01:00:59 Achieving his what he wants his goals, but this is a very dangerous road and he is outplaying us. You're going to think I'm crazy when I tell you this, but the last 13 and a half years, I've been working on my first fiction book to write ever fiction book to write. And while I finished this book a year ago, I got the strangest phone call about one of the characters in a book where the guy wanted to meet with me and he read the book and afterwards is like wait a minute am I the villain in the book? This is a story about a character named Asher who is half Armenian, half Assyrian, whose father was involved in the Iranian revolution linked to Savak working with the Shah that they escape and he gets recruited to a secret society.
Starting point is 01:01:44 When you go to the secret society, it's been around for a couple thousand years, they've developed some of the craziest leaders of all time, and they test you. There's unique tests that they have at this society where they test to see your emotional mental toughness. One of the tests that they have is very rigorous. It's purely mental. Of course, there's a physical one, but one is mental and emotional. If you're Armenian, if you're Syrian, if you're Persian, this is a book you're going to be
Starting point is 01:02:06 reading and saying, holy moly, this is the kind of stuff you talk about in here? Yes. If you're somebody that's fascinated by history, this is a book for you. Characters, there's a technology that this society, secret society builds where you go into a vault. I won't spoil it for you. When you go down, they have a technology where you get to sit down and watch and have a three, four-hour conversation with Tupac. You can set up a debate between Karl Marx and Ayn Rand. Karl
Starting point is 01:02:32 Marx is in the book who wrote Communist Manifesto. Ayn Rand who wrote Atlas Shrugged is in the book. Marilyn Monroe explains the concept of seduction and sex in the book. When you read the book, it's about development of the next leaders in the world and how they do it and how they've been doing it for many years and it's also about how to prevent the end of civilization and how this organization goes about doing it. So I've never written a parenting book before but if I ever wrote a parenting book this is the closest thing to it because it's all mindset, a lot of crazy stories. Again 13 and a half years.
Starting point is 01:03:05 Trust me, I told myself I will not publish this book until I sell my insurance company and I'm fully disconnected from it, where it's no longer my responsibility 100%. When you read this, if you're a creative person, if you like fiction books, if you enjoyed Atlas Shrugged, if you enjoy Divergent, if you like books like that, I think you can enjoy reading this book. It's the creative side. Business books is very easy. Here's how you do it. Here's how it works.
Starting point is 01:03:32 This is very creative. If you haven't placed your order yet, now you can order it on Simon & Schuster, Amazon. I'm going to put the link up below somewhere here, maybe even in my profile. Go order the book and read it. I sincerely, I've never written a book where I can't wait to read your reviews to see what you think about this book. So I'm going on this wild journey and we have some plans with this book here. If you support the things that I work on, I would appreciate you going on reading the book,
Starting point is 01:04:00 order the book on Amazon, and then post a review. So how do you think it's going to end? Do you think, let's just say the negotiation does take place. Trump gets in, they're having a meeting. There's just no question about it. They're going to have a visit. He's going to go over there and have to sit down the conversation. When they do, what do you think will happen with the territory and regions?
Starting point is 01:04:18 You think Putin is going to get what he wants? I think that the real terms for talks, it will be freezing it on the line of fire that exists today. Putin will not go to talks with Zelensky. I think that's 100 percent. He's not going to go only if Zelensky is re-elected again. Because Putin is a lawyer and he has this lawyery thinking he always prefers to achieve to be reduced to writing an agreement
Starting point is 01:04:47 signed by, but signed by who? If he considers Zelensky as illegitimate. See Trump, he pushes forward like a bulldozer in a good sense of this word. I think he'll have enough strength and influence to do a double ultimatum for Russia and Ukraine and force them to stop the fire. But stopping the fire doesn't mean peace. And Putin will stop the fire, but he will not...
Starting point is 01:05:07 He will talk about some agreements only with the next legitimate president of Ukraine, which the people will choose. And before that, there will be no peaceful agreement. So the President Trump, he can stop the wars, he said, but achieving a peaceful agreement is the next very difficult task, and we still don't know how the first is going to end up working out with the elections in Ukraine, what it's going to bring and how it's going to end. I say that the question is on creating a new system of collective security in Eastern Europe with participation of Russia, Belarus, considering their position, which can compensate and replace the mining system, which is destroyed.
Starting point is 01:05:47 If we don't consider the interests of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, it's not going to work. We can stop firing, but we will not be able to resolve the problem in its core. Will be able Trump, Putin, and you, leader of Ukraine, stop this war in the in the root. That's a real challenge. It's not going to be easy to achieve, but seizing the fire. It's possible. Yes. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:06:13 Yeah. You know, Putin's called Zelensky and a legitimate leader heading a neo Nazi regime. His words on what he called Zelensky for, with where you're at right now, how many of Zelensky's leaders, camps on the inside, call you and speak to you and tell you things that undermine Zelensky? Are you in communication with any of his leaders that reach out to you directly? Let me put it this way. I have fullness of information of what is happening in Ukraine in the most, most tight circles, to put it this way.
Starting point is 01:06:51 But these are people that currently would be part of his administration. I have fullness of information. That doesn't answer the question. I need to be very sensitive because I don't want to I'm not looking for a name, but I told but I totally get it So because there's a difference between directly and indirectly Right if you want this type of an answer. I have an answer. It's information from Zelensky's closest circle This is the maximum precision. I can give you an answer. I'm not gonna ask any more than that That's all I'm looking for. it is directly it's not somebody tell somebody
Starting point is 01:07:27 yes directly indirectly I'll speak directly directly okay good right specifically so so that's so that's good now so if it's directly you're hearing it from him so in this context if this thing was to accelerate and let's just say war you know they compromise Trump goes there They're done. They're good to go. The war is done. How soon will you be returning to run for president? Well, the mood in Ukraine is such that there will be immediately Whole set of key issues that are impossible to resolve without election stopping the martial law, mobilization, opening the borders, because
Starting point is 01:08:10 we're a country with closed borders and very many families have been split for three years, every third, fourth Ukrainian person is outside the country, many times husbands haven't seen their wives and children for many years, this is why it cannot be resolved without elections, and I think within a month or two, there will be a question brought up about stopping martial law and going into the peaceful state. Okay, so next question for you is,
Starting point is 01:08:34 you know, add some friends that were there who are friends, friendly with some of the military leaders. Okay, and story comes out, it's all over the place. I'm sure you've seen it as well. On the money that's being given with the level of corruption, okay, a lot of money's gone there. Okay, and you'll hear stories,
Starting point is 01:08:54 aid given to Ukraine, mortal shell scandal, January 2024, this year, a year ago, Ukraine Security Service, SBU uncovered a corruption scheme in nearly a hundred000 mortar shells amounting to $40 million. The scheme involved senior officials from the Ministry of Defense and an armed supplier
Starting point is 01:09:14 with funds transferred abroad without any shells being delivered. That's one. Two, embezzlement of logistics officers. In November of 2024, the SBU exposed a corruption scheme of two Ukraine and Army logistics officers. They defrauded a state of $27.3 million, approximately $700,000, through a network of shell companies diverting funds meant for military use. Three, agrarian and economical ministry officials in August of 2023, about 16 months ago, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, NABU, uncovered a 1.6 million dollar embezzlement scheme involving the first deputy minister of agrarian
Starting point is 01:09:52 policy and food and a former deputy minister. They were charged with the power abuse and embezzling state fund designated for humanitarian aid. Military catering scandal. Earlier in 2023, there were reports about inflated prices for food meant for Ukrainian troops, leading to the resignation of junior defense minister. The scandal involved buying goods like eggs and potatoes at well above market rates, suggesting a kickback system was in place. Last one, procurement fraud. In January of 2023, another high-profile case involved the dismissal of Vasily Lozinski, a deputy infrastructure minister who was caught allegedly receiving a $400,000 bribe for rigging procurement tenders for equipment-like generators.
Starting point is 01:10:35 Do you believe Zelensky has gotten any of the money that's been given to Ukraine? Whether he personally received corrupt money, to clarify the question? So for example, somebody can work for my company and they can be my, I don't know, executive assistant, let's just say. And with my contacts, they can have one company that is going to be a $100,000 job I do, that they're my contact, they can go find another person and they'll do $120,000, but the $20,000 more, they'll say, pay it to my wife. So the paper trail is not to them.
Starting point is 01:11:17 Do you think there was any corruption? Let's be formulated this way. Most of the cases that you're naming are happening in the realm of national defense and security, which is the direct area of responsibility of our president Zelensky as the commander in chief. According to the laws and Constitution of Ukraine, this is his direct area of responsibility. He carries full responsibility for everything that happens then, especially in a country that is in a state of war. I'm asking a specific question. So let me restate my question. Let me restate my question. This is a very important question for you to answer.
Starting point is 01:11:50 And if you answer it in a way, it's catastrophic for him. Do you know the answer? You don't have to answer it if you don't want to. Do you know the answer whether money ended up flowing to him through a shell account or other people, or people on the inside have said, you know, Alexei, listen, everybody here knows how much money this guy's making. Every time we give him $40 billion, $20 billion, $10 billion, $5 billion, there's so many other accounts, shell accounts, that he has money that's going to overseas and all this
Starting point is 01:12:19 other stuff. Do you directly or indirectly know that he's gotten paid from all the money that other countries have given to him? I'm answered with maximum precision. I do not have information that he received money from corruption scandals. But I can tell you for sure that the level of corruption is off the charts, catastrophical. With him or with his people? And people surrounding him in the zone that he's responsible for. Catastrophical. With him or with his people?
Starting point is 01:12:45 In people surrounding him in the zone that he's responsible for. Does that benefit him or it benefits his people? At a minimum, it benefits the people who are surrounding him. Okay, but that's not benefiting him. I do not have such information. But he carries full responsibility for what is happening in his area of responsibility for the level of corruption that is happening there and the measures that he's undertaking to put it mildly, I find them unsatisfactory.
Starting point is 01:13:14 Okay. Let me go another thing here. When you think about your country, Ukraine, natural resources, plenty. It's a beautiful place, a lot of incredible natural resources that a lot of people are interested in that they want. Russia, when you think about the number one country in the world in natural resources, it's Russia. Seventy-five trillion dollars of natural resources. A lot of these big companies want to get into Russia, right? There's a concept called economic hitman. I don't know if you're familiar with this author. He was a guy that wrote a book on economic hitman.
Starting point is 01:13:47 He comes to your country, he says, I'm going to bring some companies and they're going to invest $10 billion in your country. When they do, that's what he used to do. This man right here, John Perkins, was an economic hitman. He would go to different countries and he would tell them, we're going to come here, we're going to do this, we're're gonna put ten billion dollars into your country if you don't We're gonna do something to you and on the back end sometimes they pay these people right Story comes out on rebuilding Ukraine right around if you can pull up the story
Starting point is 01:14:19 rebuilding Ukraine four hundred billion dollars, I think it's chase and I want to say BlackRock. $400 billion, is this the one? Zelensky BlackRock announced a new investment initiative to rebuild Ukraine and can you do control F400 to see if it goes to it? There you go. Ukraine established a program to attract up to $400 billion in foreign investments to target various areas of the economy from clean energy to
Starting point is 01:14:47 defense to natural resources. Zelensky believes this is the greatest opportunity in Europe since World War II. Do you think the motive of others, not Zelensky, let's set his motive aside, do you think there's a motive of others to have war because now they can raise money and come in and build infrastructure and make more money? Do you think there's profit as a motive to have this war and continue the war? From whose side? Our side? The Ukrainian side?
Starting point is 01:15:17 Or US side? Not from his side. Not even the American side. From the banking and the financial sector. I don't think that they arranged the war but they're definitely use its results that's for sure got it okay so then that's that's still a your position is more noble they didn't promote the war but if it happens hey guys let's capitalize we're gonna go
Starting point is 01:15:40 make a bunch of money okay I got you okay so that's interesting that you're saying that that's good that you're saying that. That's good to know for us. Now, I heard a story that in 2022, Boris Johnson, if I'm not mistaken, came there and there was a conversation that there was a 90% chance of a peace deal. But Boris Johnson influenced Zelensky to not reach a peace deal with Putin and Russia because the West would not support the type of peace deal. Is this a true story with Boris Johnson and Zelenskyy?
Starting point is 01:16:07 I was a participant of the negotiations group on March 29 in Istanbul. We signed an agreement. We come back to Ukraine on April 1st and 1st, 2nd April. The second, I believe, the Buccia tragedy is discovered. Then on April 9th, there was supposed to be a meeting of Putin and Zelensky, at which time the ceasefire was supposed to take place and open talks. Johnson came, either the 4th or the 3rd, I don't remember exactly, I need to check on that date, and Arhamiya, the head of the parliamentary majority of the ruling party, Zelensky's party,
Starting point is 01:16:45 directly in an interview said it, yes, Johnson was the person who said, continue the war. That's his words. I do not know why he said that. Probably he wanted to shift the responsibility over to the West. We have a tendency to do that. But I was not present at the meeting with Johnson. I did not receive information from Johnson. I don't have any direct testimony.
Starting point is 01:17:07 People who could testify to that. One thing I can say that the talks within Istanbul format continued until May 17, meaning another month and a half after that. They still were discussing them. And Rammstein, for example, was only on April 26 when the first coalition met for the first time by the Minister of Defense of the US Austin, who brought armament for Ukraine. What exactly happened? If you're interested, I can tell you what I think.
Starting point is 01:17:34 I'm looking at the timeline here. February 1st, 2022, Johnson travels to Kiev. Yeah, he came on the 9th when there was supposed to be a meeting between Zelensky and Putin. It was planned and it was disrupted by the Bucza crisis. Well, why, why, why do you do this? What's the reasoning to? I think it was not only Johnson doing this. I think there were corresponding signals from Biden's administration.
Starting point is 01:17:59 I don't know, but I think so, because Johnson as an argument wouldn't be enough. The main orientation is obviously, of course, the position of the American country. For us, it was most probably something along the lines of, okay, Putin is losing the war, his invasion has been thwarted, we're going to help you out, so you continue fighting and get to a better position to negotiate, get a better place for negotiation, more leverage. I don't know, I'm guessing, so it's not only just Johnson, but the fact that Britain in this conflict is pursuing their own interests, I'm sure they do, 101 percent, and these interests
Starting point is 01:18:37 actually many times go against the American interests, it seems to me. Why we listen to that, I don't know, It's a big question for me, separate question. I think that we truly thwarted his invasion and the Russians were really lost and confused in those talks. They were going to big concessions and plus the emotional trauma from the Buccia. And it was a big mistake strategically to continue the war. A huge mistake on the Ukrainian side. What happened exactly? I'm just here in the realm of suppositions, assumptions when I'm answering this to you. Yeah, so I'm going through a timeline right now.
Starting point is 01:19:14 Okay. So right here, February 1st, 2022, they meet. The biggest security crisis Europe has ever faced. Okay, great. April 9th, 2022, a surprise visit. Johnson meets with Zelensky to demonstrate solidarity while the conflicts take place. During the meeting, he pledged to continue assistance military, including 120 armored
Starting point is 01:19:32 vehicles, new anti-ship missiles, as well as an additional 500 million dollars from World Bank leading to Ukraine. June 17, 2022, Johnson returns to Kiev to meet with Zelensky for a third time where he announced a major training program for Ukrainian forces aiming to have training up to 10,000 soldiers every 120 days. This initiative was intended to bolster Ukraine's defense capabilities. Okay, great. Then, September 6th of 2022, he steps down. Boris Johnson, if you want to pull up when he steps down, Rob, it's September 6th, 2022. The date is what I have here. So when he steps down, if you just type in, Rob, all you have to type in is when did Boris
Starting point is 01:20:13 Johnson step down? Right, there you go. September 6th, 2022. No problem. So he's out of the picture. Then you have Liz Truss. Liz Truss comes in during this time, and I'm so curious to know what you're gonna say
Starting point is 01:20:26 because I'm trying to find a timeline here. Liz Truss, when Nord Stream Pipeline took place, can you type in when Nord Stream Pipeline happened, Rob? If you just type in Nord Stream Pipeline event, Nord Stream Pipeline event happened when? Okay, so this is getting very interesting for me. Very very interesting. When did Boris step down? September 6 2022. When does North Stream pipeline happen? September 26 2022. Three weeks later. Okay. Who do
Starting point is 01:20:59 they blame? Russia. What does she text?'s done? Okay, then Wall Street Journal comes out with this article if you want to pull this up and Americans are like sitting there saying you know You know and by the way for the audience that's watching this you can pull up and who lists trust is so they know who lists Trust is Rob if you can just Google and see who lists trust is so we can explain to everybody who lists trust is into audience tracking. So she was the British politician who served as Prime Minister of UK for one month, literally folks, one month, September to October 2022. So then she texts, it's done. Then Wall Street Journal comes out with this article September 28th. We're supposed to believe a drunken evening, a rented yacht, the real story of the North Stream pipeline,
Starting point is 01:21:50 sabotage, a private businessman funded the shoestring operation which was overseen by top general President Zelensky, approved the plan, then tried to unsuccessfully call it off, but it was too late. Are we really supposed to believe this story or is there another story you have to tell us what really happened here? I have deep sympathy towards Britain, British people, British culture. I've been brought up and that my family has been brought up on British literature. But all I know about Great Britain, 20 plus years of political-military analysis, it shows that their historical goal is not to allow a union between Russia and continental Europe, especially Germany. Their whole history of external politics of the United Kingdom shows that their main goal is not to allow the union between Germany and Russia.
Starting point is 01:22:46 I do not know who exploded. The North's from now officially unofficially Ukraine is blamed. There is an investigation done by Germany, Russians. Putin says that there's some Anglo-Saxon did it. I do not know anything about Britain's role, perhaps in that explosion and sabotage, but I do know that this event could not be outside of Britain's interest, even if the Great Britain did not inspire it or conspired it or got involved. Remember that Great Britain before that created a whole block of northern countries, Sweden,
Starting point is 01:23:20 Finland, Denmark, Netherlands, friends of Ukraine, and their main interest was to restrain Russia and the Baltic Sea and the Baltic theater. What really took place there is one of the biggest and most interesting questions, and this war that still needs to be investigated, but I don't have even the least of data and suppositions of what happened there. I do not know at all. You don't? I do not know it all. You don't? I don't know at all.
Starting point is 01:23:47 You don't? I don't know at all. Okay. All right. I know what Nizhnyu is. So, okay, maybe let me ask another question on this. What chance do you think it was Russia behind Nord Stream pipeline? That Russia themselves exploded?
Starting point is 01:24:04 Yes. I think that's nonexistent. There would be the last people interested in that. That Russia themselves exploded then? I think that's nonexistent. There would be the last people interested in that. Okay, zero. Okay, no problem. What percentage speculation, purely speculating, that Ukraine was behind it? Well I would allow that it could be Ukraine, 20%. Okay.
Starting point is 01:24:26 How about US influencing UK? I think that, let's put it this way, NATO state, 80% that they're somehow this way or the other are involved in this story. Obviously, it was not Germany, which is the least interested party. Okay, so will we ever find out? I think someday we will. But this could be in 70 years. 70. But these are the terms of declassifying documents. 70, 80 years in seven or eight years or 77 70 yes every
Starting point is 01:25:11 state has a hundred and sixteen years old why are you doing this for declassifying it depends on the goodwill and what game they're playing yeah for me I'm interested to know you know know, what's going on there. It could be much earlier. It could be much earlier. Look, if they create a system of collective security in Europe, a new system, it can be only created by politicians with new vision, and these politicians will be interested in definitely cut ties with the past.
Starting point is 01:25:42 It means that they will be also interested in exposing to the maximum the truth about the past. And this can happen within a much shorter term than 70 years. If you've seen the clip with Tucker Carlson and Putin, you know, Putin says that he believes it was US that was behind it. Have you seen that clip? When he said specifically America, he was talking about Anglo-Saxon something, keeping in mind both Britain and the USA. Rob, can you pull up that clip?
Starting point is 01:26:13 It could be. Yes, it could be that it's both. But if you want to play this clip of Tucker and Putin. You for sure. I was busy that day. I did not pull up Nord Stream. Thank you though. You personally may have an alibi, but the CIA has no such alibi. Did you have evidence that NATO or CIA did it?
Starting point is 01:26:52 You know, I won't get into details, but people always say in such cases, look for someone who is interested. But in this case, we should not only look for someone who is interested, but also for someone who has capabilities. Because there may be many people interested, but not all of them are capable of sinking to the bottom of the Baltic Sea and carrying out this explosion. These two components should be connected. Who is interested and who is capable of doing it? But I'm confused. I mean, that's the biggest act of industrial terrorism ever.
Starting point is 01:27:26 And it's the largest emission of CO2 in history. OK, so if you had evidence, and presumably given your security services, your intel services, you would, that NATO, the US CIA, the West did this, why wouldn't you present it and win a propaganda victory? Sephora's biggest fragrance sale of the year is on. Get 20% off full-size fragrance gifts, including designer scents like Valentino Donna, Born in Roma.
Starting point is 01:27:51 How did you know? 20% off floral scents like Burberry Her. Thank you. And 20% off trending scents like Kayali Yum Bougie Marshmallow and Glossier You. This is perfect. 20% off full-size fragrances now through December 24th. Shop now at Sephora and Sephora at Kohl's. In the war of propaganda, it is very difficult to defeat the United States,
Starting point is 01:28:25 because the United States can't win the war. And the United States is a very strong country. And the United States is a very strong country. And the United States is a very strong country. And the United States is a very strong country. And the United States is a very strong country. And the United States, because the United States controls all the world's media and many European media.
Starting point is 01:28:54 The ultimate beneficiary of the biggest European media are American financial institutions. Don't you know that? I have a different explanation. What was that? Because these are actions against the main member of the Union, of the EES. Who is going to announce it, even if it was a victory? Who's going to finance it then? I have no idea. No, no, announce it.
Starting point is 01:29:21 Tucker was asking Putin why this is the largest act of terrorism, why is nobody claiming it is their victory and Putin explaining because it's all controlled by the media and I'm saying because it's an action against the largest member of the NATO so nobody's going to announce it even if it actually took place. Yeah I get that I mean it's catastrophic whoever does and whoever does two three countries are going to be tied So there's going to be two three criminals, maybe more And the level of credibility being lost they will protect that and use propaganda to blame somebody else and that that game is a very very effective game play like he said in there on On what he believes going on but that was it that was a big event
Starting point is 01:30:04 When you think about Nord Stream pipeline. But okay, so let's go to now. Okay, let's go to now with Putin, Ukraine, with the current climate that we have today itself, Trump coming in, temperatures being lower, the world's getting a little bit confident know confident that this guy's coming in Canada Justin Trudeau everybody wants to be on the good side of Trump do you think the climate around the world is gonna be getting calmer because of
Starting point is 01:30:35 President Trump winning of course he came as a person who wants to break down the global system with a big S, which had been built, let's put it this way, by globalists, behind whom stands the neo-Marxist school of political thought, cultural trans-kism and permanent revolution, all of that, things against which the right-wing America is standing, and Trump and me personally. And these structures are very strong. They've been built over dozens of years.
Starting point is 01:31:11 And after 1991, they've been absolutely winners since that time. And to overcome that, which is the goal that Trump's before himself, it's going to be very uneasy, hot and bright. Okay. It's going to be very uneasy, hot and bright. Okay, so let's just say you go back to Ukraine, all right, and you campaign for presidency. What's your vision? What are you selling to the people? Three things. First, in external policy, creating a system of collective security in Europe, Eastern
Starting point is 01:31:42 Europe, considering real interests of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine and all the countries in order so that the war between Russia and Ukraine could not repeat itself. Whichever means of arbitrage, new means to be invented, but there cannot be a war between Ukraine and Russia. There's 10 million citizens of Ukraine and Russia have direct relatives across the border, every fourth Ukrainian. This is not a normal situation.
Starting point is 01:32:08 And there are ways to resolve the problem between us without a war, not to allow a next war to break out. Within Ukraine inside, it would be changing the project from a nationalistic to a worldwide state with wide views where the people's human rights are defended, the rights to go to the church they want, to speak the language they want, so that there is no persecution against people based on ethnical, religious, which unfortunately is not happening in Ukraine currently, basically, so that the Constitution is being followed in Ukraine.
Starting point is 01:32:44 And the third, it would be new industrialization of Ukraine and a change in direction of their development. We did a huge mistake in 1991, we began as a major industrial power in Europe, and today we are an agrarian state with a very small sliver of services, with a destroyed economy by the war and our own actions. And I think we need to bid on a better technological scientific process, switching to a new technological implementation in clusters and sectors. We can. I want an industrial rebirth, renaissance.
Starting point is 01:33:19 I call my whole project Ukraine's renaissance, and we need to bring it up from the ashes destroyed by the war but it's been even more destroyed by our by our corruption and the battle with corruption is subject number one would you would you pursue a relationship with NATO or would your campaign be to not have any interest in wanted to join NATO no I think that Ukraine needs to remain as a neutral country because one of the main reasons of this war with Russia was our desire and aspiration to join NATO officially and flirting with NATO who would be always promising and not even intending to ever receive us, but forever just irritating Putin.
Starting point is 01:34:01 According to the articles of independence, Declaration of Independence of Ukraine, we are a neutral country and we were recognized in 1991 as a neutral state. As soon as we stopped being, or better said, wanted to stop being a neutral country, it brought up a whole chain of consequences internationally. And I believe we need to be a part of the collective West mentally, maybe perhaps not a very developed country. We still need to learn a lot of things, but we need to be a part of the collective West mentally, maybe perhaps not a very developed country, we still need to learn a lot of things, but we need to have a special relationship with Europe,
Starting point is 01:34:29 NATO, United States, but we cannot join, because at this stage it means a third war with Russia, which we will not be able to bear. Okay. So what makes you think that NATO and the West would want a candidate like you? Why would they want somebody like you? Because for us the price of joining NATO is the war with Russia and for NATO the price of receiving Ukraine is the war with Russia.
Starting point is 01:34:56 You remember what they did, I mean think about what they did to Putin when Putin had all these NGOs of people being funded to protest outside. You know what they're going to do in your country if you go out there and you talk like this, you think they're going to let somebody like you win and saying you have no interest of being with NATO? Yes, I think we will win. I will win. Really? Yes. Who will want you? Think about world leaders. Who would want a leader like you be in replacing Zelensky? Would the West want you?
Starting point is 01:35:32 I do not know. Would Russia want you? Possibly for Russia would be one the most comfortable negotiator because I'm the only Ukrainian politician who says that Russia has some real interest as a country. Regardless of the last name of their president, Putin, Navalny, Ivanov, I recognize them, I'm a real politician. Russia as a state, regardless of who the president is, has real interest, and you cannot not consider them.
Starting point is 01:36:00 We have 3000 kilometers of land and sea border that we share. We're neighbors, we were part of the same state, we grew up from the same root, and we are predestined to live together. We need normal relationship with Russia, normal, that are regulated so that the war cannot repeat. And the key, irretent for Russia is joining NATO. And it doesn't matter if it's Putin or any other president, it doesn't matter the last name of their leader. It's Russia's interest.
Starting point is 01:36:29 And moreover, I know for sure that NATO does not even intend to receive us. They're just teasing us about receiving, but they will never let us join. It has been confirmed by the leaders. Absolutely. You talked about it last year, 2023 in July, that they wanted to accelerate your membership to NATO. Yes. And in this year, they many times, multiple times, confirmed the highest levels that someday,
Starting point is 01:36:56 some time, Ukraine will join, but not now. You see, NATO and the United States has a status. There are five countries with that status, a special close member but not in NATO. It's Israel, South Korea, Australia, Jordan and one other country. We can receive that status, but the basis of regional security is the main thing. First of all, requiring good relationship with all the neighbors. Russia, Belarus, we went too far, we got a full-scale war. We need to re-establish, recover these relationships,
Starting point is 01:37:30 at least some level of relationships, including Russia, and without considering their real interests, it's impossible to do, because the real interest of Ukraine is having good relationships with all the neighbors. Who else would want you? Who, from the outside? Outside of Ukraine, external. Look, I don't know how they're gonna react to my program, to my offer,
Starting point is 01:37:53 what other political leaders are gonna say and political powers altogether, but I have a very clear proposal. We cannot allow a war in Europe and we need to create a system that will allow to resolve current Disagreements without a war I think that that's my offer. I think it's reasonable. Okay How are you gonna manage the NGOs that are gonna do propaganda and talk about how you're a Putin puppet? And because that's what they're gonna say as they're saying this now already I know but how are you gonna handle those NGOs? How are you gonna handle
Starting point is 01:38:27 those people that the people that are funding protesting propaganda to paint a picture of who you are? After my victory or before during the campaigning? Pre while you're campaigning. I will be maximum honest and precise and Ukrainian nation will decide. I have a clear message. And Ukrainian nation will decide. I have a clear message to the Ukrainian nation. Ukraine is a failed state and the problems that the war revealed have been accumulated since 1991 because from the beginning we went on a false wrong path, self-destruction of our economy and culture.
Starting point is 01:39:02 And the real result in this war is showing that the entire system is corrupt. It's rotten It doesn't work and we need to change the entire system and I'm going Coming with this proposal to change that and this I'm similar to President Trump My messages are similar to his that the system is no good and it needs to be fundamentally changed We need to overcome the deep state and corrupt forces. That's my offer Now if the people will vote for me and elect me, they will decide. What do you think about Victoria Nuland? I think that this is one of the leading officers in Biden's administration,
Starting point is 01:39:38 representative of Democrat globalists. Is she good for the country of Ukraine? Democrat globalist. Is she good for the country of Ukraine? She played her specific role. And that role was involving I don't know if it was her task or not. But overall, the task of these people was to make a trap out of Ukraine for Britain. Second Afghanistan for Russia. And we got in trouble with this trap for getting our own real interest and we could have avoided getting in trouble. You got you got a lot of moving parts that you have to go through and maneuver through. Who would be some of the biggest people in Ukraine that is widely respected by others that would come out and say,
Starting point is 01:40:26 we need Alexei as our president. Would the military be on your side? Would the economy be on your side? Would business people be on your side? What sect would be out there saying, we're for Alexei? I have direct support from the side of the business, middle business, large business. I have enough support among the military. I'm a Ukrainian officer, Lieutenant Colonel in the Ukrainian army, two and a half years on the front line and overall. And I have enough support.
Starting point is 01:40:58 I'm a volunteer who brings and gathers a lot of support and help for the Ukrainian army. And I have a significant support among the people, and it's difficult to measure that at this time. I think that you understand that right now it's just a general understanding, but once the presidential candidates will be registered, this always becomes a specific choice. The value of the program you're announcing, the value of your team, the value of every word you say
Starting point is 01:41:26 after the official registration. It's not just people from your country, people from other countries listen to you, that combines both of your questions. So for now it's just people looking overall at the situation, but over there it's going to be a real battle of statements, programs. I can tell you that for now I have sufficient supporters in all of the spheres of life of Ukraine. I can tell you that for now I have sufficient supporters in all of the spheres of life of Ukraine. I can tell you I'm in direct contact with them. You're for sure very popular. I mean, your online following is in the millions.
Starting point is 01:41:57 People listen to you and every time you're putting a live millions of views, half a million, 2.2 million, 1.2 million. But I couldn't find anything in English. The only thing I saw in English was one you did 11 months ago with somebody, I don't know who it was. And how many English podcasts have you done? Is it just one that you've done? When the war has begun, I was made about 30 English podcasts
Starting point is 01:42:21 every day, the first 100 days. Yourself, or did you go on other people's shows? No, no, just other people's shows. I spoke with CNN, with Fox News and you can find it. My, just switching on the air. And I know you did something with Lex Friedman because I think like that would be the one. Yes, yes, two times. Two times, but neither one of them went live? No, but no one.
Starting point is 01:42:44 What happened there? I don't know, we have to ask Lex. Okay, got, two times. Two times, but neither one of them went live? No, but no one. What happened there? I don't know, we have to ask Alex. Okay, got it, okay. Because I know he's a true believer of what's going on there, and Lex is a guy that wants peace, and he's coming from a place of, you can tell he's coming from a genuine, I don't know him, we don't have a relationship.
Starting point is 01:43:08 But is your plan, because when I watch what Millet did, Argentina, socialist, they don't want Millet, libertarian, he's crazy, kissing girls, doing all this stuff, his campaign was very weird, loud, afuera, all this stuff that he's doing yeah exactly right Buccelli young guy coming up Bitcoin crypto all this stuff there was things that were different right so the you know even if you go to Victor Orban there's a lot of them that we can go through and you know a Maloney from Italy or all these things that we're talking about, evicted from Hungary, where would you put yourself politically? Are you a conservative? Are you a libertarian? Are you, as a person, your background, faith, theology, things that you've studied, where would you put yourself politically?
Starting point is 01:44:00 I am more of a right centrist Right centrist rice, okay economically or capitalist. So absolutely. Yes. Absolutely By the mindset, okay, and then woke completely anti woke nothing with you as well No, you're not gonna try to turn absolutely not I completely understand what they what they people who is the people are and what is it ideology inside? They are they use I'm against them well one thing one thing that I will say is I I really enjoy talking to you one thing that I will say is Millet made us be interested in Argentina Bukele made us be interested in El Salvador Who Kelly made us be interested in El Salvador. Victor Orban made us be interested in Hungary, right?
Starting point is 01:44:48 And they did a phenomenal job of us being interested in some of these regions. I think if you, the fact that you're creating content right now is phenomenal. But the people that are listening to you are your people that are listening to you. I think if there's more outer people that are also supporting you We had the Dominic tarjinsky on From Poland. Okay. He was a Polish Parliament, I think And then he was also part of NATO or UN. He was part of unit UN as well if I'm not mistaken
Starting point is 01:45:20 Member the European Parliament EU member to European Parliament and he was a Polish politician. We had him on. Did an interview. 25 million views, all the clips combined. And then we had him on our election night when he was there. Everybody wants him to be the president of Poland now. They want him to run in March, April because this guy's like, so the exposure to English speaking audiences got people more interested in supporting them
Starting point is 01:45:48 and saying, here's a good idea. And that's kind of helping as well. So for you, where you're going, I'd be curious if you're going to take that route and be doing more of these types of conversations, especially at a time like this, because let's just say this does come to an end when Trump and them meet and there's peace. Let's say then you're comfortable to go back and you start campaigning and you're speaking openly all over the place. Momentum rises saying here's somebody that can be the next president there. That could make for a very
Starting point is 01:46:19 interesting story. With Uber Reserve, good things come to those who plan ahead. Family vacay? Reserve your ride as soon as you book your flights. To all the planners, now you can reserve your Uber ride up to 90 days in advance. See Uber app for details. I am so dreading groceries this week. Why? You can skip it.
Starting point is 01:46:42 Oh, what? Just like that? Just like that. How about dinner with my third cousin? Skip it. Prince Fluffy's favorite treats? Skippable. Midnight snacks? Skip.
Starting point is 01:46:50 My neighbor's nightly saxophone practices? Uh, nope, you're on your own there. Coulda skipped it? Shoulda skipped it. Skip to the good part and get groceries, meals, and more delivered right to your door on skip. and get groceries, meals, and more delivered right to your door on skip. Yes, that can be. Look, for Ukraine,
Starting point is 01:47:12 exposure before English speaking audiences, more of a United States, is one of the key things, because the very existence of Ukraine depends on 80 percent from the help that America gives. Not a single Ukrainian can be indifferent toward American audience and their points of view of Americans onto what happens in Ukraine. The person who is represented here, of course, receives a very strong shoulder of support, but the very fact of having an interview for the English-speaking audience, American audience... With regards to the two main points, I want to say the same thing. I'm intending to be a president for all Ukrainians and not just for my supporters.
Starting point is 01:47:50 So people who maintain opposing ideologies will still be under protection. Their rights will be defended. They will have a right to voice because there must be freedom of speech. There must be a battle of arguments and not just suppressing one of the sides. That's a key. And the second point, I'm not a liberal like Millet, but I am supporter of maximum freedom in economics. Ukraine is now on 116th or maybe 123rd place according to freedom for economy.
Starting point is 01:48:19 It's a shame. Russia, we call them totalitarian, authoritarian state, is on 109th place, so they have a higher ranking than us. So my goal is to liberalize to the maximum the economy and allow people to make money, give them freedom of speech and defend their freedoms and rights and expand them. So I'm encouraged by the example of Mele and the leaders you named, but I have my own view on things and it's my approach is rather more American. Maximum private and corporate rights have to be given to the maximum to the people and
Starting point is 01:48:54 the state needs to dictate the main guidelines fighting corruption, maintaining those guidelines for the society and economy and external policy will be the strategic development of the country and relationships with the neighbors. That's my view. The state needs to be shrinked down. The whole government needs to be shrunk down. They should not own anything. That belongs to the private people. And they should not meddle directly into the ideological war, rather to create an atmosphere where some people cannot oppress others using organizations,
Starting point is 01:49:28 government agencies, foreign partners, influences and help from abroad, but provide for the true freedom of speech that we never had in Ukraine. And when the true battle of arguments ideologies begins, that will provide for the true development of the country, regardless of who the leader is. My goal is to create a system of rules, and I believe that the quality of a politician is defined by his ability to provide continuity. Imagine I'm lucky and I get re-elected, I have 10 years, so the goal for these 10 years is to place foundations
Starting point is 01:50:00 that cannot be rolled back, even if my opponents come to power afterwards, to create mechanisms in the country that will hold for the future free economy and freedom and protected. This is a set of tasks. It will be difficult to achieve, but this is exactly what I am aiming to do. I'm excited to see what you do next. And I'm glad we made this work. I really enjoyed the conversation we had. For the audience watching this, we're going to put the link below to all the channels and everything that you have
Starting point is 01:50:26 so they can go out there and find you. And remember, this is also translated in Russian. If anybody wants to watch it, the link will also be below. Lexi, appreciate you for coming on. This was fantastic. Thank you so much. Thank you, everybody. You're gonna think I'm crazy when I tell you this,
Starting point is 01:50:41 but the last 13 and a half years, I've been working on my first fiction book to write ever. Fiction book to write. And while I finished this book, a year ago I got the strangest phone call about one of the characters in the book where the guy wanted to meet with me and he read the book. And afterwards it's like, wait a minute, am I the villain in the book? This is a story about a character named Asher, who is half Armenian, half Assyrian, whose father was involved in the Iranian revolution, linked to Savak, working with the Shah, that
Starting point is 01:51:15 they escape and he gets recruited to a secret society. When you go to the secret society, it's been around for a couple thousand years, they've developed some of the craziest leaders of all time, and they test you. There's unique tests that they have at this society where they test to see your emotional mental toughness. One of the tests that they have is very rigorous. It's purely mental. Of course, there's a physical one, but one is mental and emotional.
Starting point is 01:51:35 If you're Armenian, if you're Syrian, if you're Persian, this is a book you're going to be reading and saying, holy moly, this is the kind of stuff you talk about in here? Yes. If you're somebody that's fascinated by history, is a book for you characters there's a technology that this society secret society builds where you go into a vault i won't spoil it for you when you go down they have a technology where you get to sit down and watch and have a three four hour conversation with tupac you can set up a debate between Karl Marx and Ayn Rand. Karl Marx is in the book who wrote Communist Manifesto. Ayn Rand who wrote Atlas Shrugged
Starting point is 01:52:11 is in the book. Marilyn Monroe explains the concept of seduction and sex in the book. When you read the book, it's about development of the next leaders in the world and how they do it and how they've been doing it for many years. And it's also about how to prevent the end of civilization and how this organization goes about doing it. So I've never written a parenting book before, but if I ever wrote a parenting book, this is the closest thing to it because it's all mindset, a lot of crazy stories. Again, 13 and a half years. Trust me, I told myself I will not publish this book until I sell my insurance company
Starting point is 01:52:44 and I'm fully disconnected from it it where it's no longer my responsibility 100% when you read this if you're a creative person if you like fiction books if you Enjoyed Atlas Shrugged or if you enjoy Divergent if you like books like that. I think you can enjoy Reading this book. It's the creative side Business books is very easy. Here's how you do it. Here's how this works. This is very creative. If you haven't placed your order yet, now you can order it on Simon & Schuster, Amazon. I'm going to put the link up below somewhere here, maybe even in my profile. Go order the book and read it. I sincerely, I've never written a book where I can't wait to
Starting point is 01:53:22 read your reviews to see what you think about this book. So I'm going on this wild journey and we have some plans with this book here. If you support the things that I work on, I would appreciate you going on reading the book, order the book on Amazon, and then post a review.

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