The Duran Podcast - Blinken and Borrell struggle to accept defeat

Episode Date: December 24, 2023

Blinken and Borrell struggle to accept defeat The Duran: Episode 1783

All right, Alexander, let's talk about Zelensky's marathon to our Q&A. Let's talk about statements that Jungle Joseph Borrell made following that Q&A. Let's talk about statements that Secretary of State Blinken made following that Q&A. And I just want to say that during the Q&A, Zelensky said that he's confident that the U.S. will not betray us. And I think within 24 hours, Borel and Blinken, they kind of blew up that statement from Zelensky. That statement is not going to age well, that's for sure. So what's going on here? Yeah, well, let's talk first about what Blinken and Burrell have been saying,

because, of course, they have been absolute hardliners. They've been fervid supporters of Ukraine right through from the get-go. I mean, and, you know, in Borel's case, to an extreme degree, and also Blinken's case, actually. And they have now, frankly, the tone of what they were saying. And indeed, the content of it suggests that they've effectively or essentially given up. I don't want to press this too hard, but, I mean, they're clearly very depressed. they realize now that funding for Ukraine is not going to appear in the United States. On anything like the kind of scale that we've seen in the past,

I mean, it's incredibly unlikely that Ukraine is going to get $61 billion from the United States and $61 billion in 2024 would anyway be around half of what it got last this year and last year. So it's not happening. So Blinken comes along and says, you know, the Ukrainians need to live on their own resources. That, you know, they got to find ways of getting by without the United States. And, you know, they've achieved all these great victories. They've managed to assert their independence. But, you know, now, now the point has come where they must stand,

their own and stand by themselves, which is, of course, the diametric opposite of what Zelensky is saying. Selensky is saying, you know, they mustn't betray us. We need more. We need 17 million shells. We need infinite amounts of money and we need more tanks and more machines and we need to go on the offensive next year, not just this year, but, you know, on the offensive next year also. And Blinken is telling him, no, that's not going to happen. You've got to sort it all out by yourself. And I think that this is because the administration is now weighing the mood in Washington. The Senate failed to agree this week on some kind of compromise deal to move forward with Ukrainian funding. And I think that was a big blow to them. I thought that they, I think they

really did believe that they'd be able to win enough support in the Senate. J.D. Vance, by the way, who I think is shaping up to be a most impressive political leader indeed and somebody certainly to watch. Anyway, he's actually published a statement in which he's, you know, challenged directly the whole mythology that, you know, if Ukraine goes down, it will be because the Republicans aren't providing funding. And he correctly points out the offensive that happened in the summer was massively funded and massively supported. And Ukraine had, all the weapons that it asked for and it failed. So throwing more money at Ukraine isn't going to change anything. So that is the gathering mood in the United States and the Americans are cutting Ukraine off.

I mean, maybe not totally. Maybe it will take a few weeks or months before this is resolved. Maybe some money will be sent there. Maybe some more weapons will be sent there. But gradually support for Ukraine in the future. the in the United States, in the US is ebbing away. And Borrell knows it. And he knows also that without the US, there is really no game to play. I mean, the Europeans can talk. They can talk about 50 billion euros, over four years, by the way, not one year. They can talk about all of that. But he knows perfectly well that without the Americans, this game is lost. He says that, you know, what we must do, we mustn't allow Putin to win his victory. He understands what a colossal blow for the EU,

specifically a victory by Russia in Ukraine would be. And interestingly enough, specifically talks about the EU. He says we must do everything we can to achieve that victory. We must increase ammunition production and all of that. But he says this in tone, in a tones with words. and which make it absolutely clear that he knows it's not going to happen. He's just preparing now for his own departure. And he's going to leave this problem of collapsing Ukraine in someone else's hands. Because again, to reiterate, without American aid, without American financial aid, without American weapons, 80% of the weapons Ukraine has received from the West,

have been American. Without American weapons, the game is up. And Borrell knows it, Blinken knows it. The only person who doesn't know, which is Olenski, who instead talks about Iran would march towards inevitable victory, which he did, by the way. And one million producing one million drones and mobilizing 500,000 people. Yeah. Yeah, but Borel and the EU there, the end for Ukraine came when Ukraine, when they agreed to a session talks for Ukraine. Yes. That was the end. Yes.

People are hailing that as the beginning of Ukraine's Europe integration. No, no, no. That was the end. Because now Ursula and Beryl and Michelle and all these people can say, we did it. we did our job. Now we can move on to the World Bank and the IMF and the UN or wherever they're going to go. Tony Blair's Institute for War, wherever they're going to be placed, they can get their new jobs. And like you said, they can leave it to the next person.

You're going to criticize Borell. Burrell's going to say, look, I accomplished the main goal, which was to get Ukraine on its European path. So that was the end for Ukraine. That that accession talks agreement was the end of Ukraine. Exactly. For Europe. It was the wreath you put on the coffee. I have to say it to money like that.

That's essentially what it was. Now, the Ukrainians themselves, I don't think they figured this out. And by the way, on the question of Borrell himself, and Ursula and Charles, it is important to say that they continue to be as obsessed by this issue as always, not the issue of Ukraine, the issue of Russia. And again, Lavrov gave a really very interesting interview, one of his best in which he said, you know, this whole conflict ultimately has not been about Ukraine at all. It's been about us. It's been about Russia. It's Russia that this is all focused on. And you had another example of this, because all three of these people, as I understand it, Michelle, Ursula and Borrell went to Beijing. They met with Xi Jinping there. and apparently to his increasing frustration. All they were talking about was Russia all the time.

But you're quite right, you know, they're going to walk away. They have no choice. Burrell is clearly dejected about this. So is Blinken. But with Congress now turning its back, they can all see that the writing is on the wall. Now, they're not going to change their policies. They're not going to change their language. They're going to remain as virulently hostile to Russia as they always are.

The European political class is going to continue to be that. We see further moves in Germany to aggravate relations with Russia even further. We see Germany is going to position of armored brigade in Lithuania, or so they say. We see similar rhetoric in Britain. So they're not going to change their policy, which is about Russia, not about Ukraine. But Project Ukraine is lost and they know it. Deep down inside themselves, they know it. And if you listen and watch Borrell as he's talking, you can see this.

Yeah, B, that's the narrative shift that we have now. It's not about Project Ukraine anymore. It's about the Russian threat. And even Putin brought this up in the state. that he made at the defense ministry, he said that now the narrative is all about the Russian threat to NATO. So Ukraine fades away, and now NATO and the neocons and the collective West, they focus on the Russian threat to NATO, and they can put money into defending against the Russian threat. I mean, that's essentially where we're heading. Absolutely. And remember,

But I mean, the EU has enormously impound itself as a result of this crisis. They've been imposing sanctions on Russian oil. They've been blocking access to Russian aircraft. And, of course, they're going to use the Russian threat to Europe to do that even more. They're going to start giving the EU itself more and more of a military dimension. they're going to whisper behind the Americans back that, you know, look at what the Americans did over Ukraine. We can't really trust them. So we've got to integrate and centralize and control even more.

We've got to do away with the veto that member states have. We've got to empower the commission even further. And they're going to use the Russian bogey in order to push this. further still. The EU is becoming an anti-Russian project, like all by pan-European projects, eventually always do, by the way, every single one.

You know, from Napoleon's continental system to the various arrangements that the mustarshared man in the 40s conjured up, the EU in that one respect is a similar, it's just another iteration of this. And they're going to use the Russian boat, as the pretext to centralise, to integrate, to control, to impose even more controls on European

businesses, on European information flows, European speech, things. Central bank, digital currencies, all of that than before. Censorship. Yes, and before long we'll be getting EU policing agents. an EU equivalent to the FBI, for example. We'll be seeing all of this. It's on its way. Barel and Ursula and Michelle clearly already,

and they're all thinking in these terms, and they're going to do more of it, more and more and more of it, until and unless people in Europe finally say enough and finally wake up to the fact that the bear is not on the prowl and is not coming their way. But that is what we're going to see over the next few years. Yeah, to counter the Russian threat. Yeah.

For the U.S., one last questions. So for the Biden White House, I imagine the plan, going off of Blinken's words, he said that it would not make sense to completely ditch the investment in Ukraine. I mean, he used those words, the investment in Ukraine. And he did say that it's important. Before we let Ukraine go off on its own into the world, he said it's important to help them make it through the winter, spring, and summer. So I think it's safe to say that their plan is, as we have been saying for a long time

now on this channel, going off of, you know, the, I imagine the advice of Jake Sullivan, who is, as we have been saying at the end of the day, he's not a diplomat, he's not a policy guy, he's a campaign manager. The plan is let's just get Ukraine to November 2024. I think going off of Blinken's words, winter, spring, summer, let's just get them to November. Absolutely. That is exactly right, because of course we've got to avoid a collapse in Ukraine before the election because that is what this is all about now. It's not about winning in Ukraine anymore. It's not about achieving regime change in Moscow.

We understand that's not going to happen. Ukraine isn't going to win the war. It's going to lose the war. But we have to try and play this out and prolong this as long as possible. Create a narrative shift. Do you remember I sent you an article by Gideon Rackman, in which he actually talks about this quite straightforwardly, that US official actually told him straightforwardly.

What we've now got to do is we've got to ship a narrative on Ukraine. And it's there in an article in the EFT. They're now talking about this with each other quite openly. So control the narrative, prevent the collapse this year. If you can't do that, make sure it's the Republicans in Congress, that get the blame and at the same time reassure the American people that this isn't really going to be an open-ended commitment anymore because, you know, clearly the American people aren't keen on that and they want to move on to more important and serious things. So this is what this is all about.

It's all about narrative management and PR and the elections now. And nothing else, the wider, grander ambitions have gone. And you can see that. They're now telling the Ukrainians to go on to the defensive. Lincoln tells them, you know, you can actually perform well with even a fraction of the money that you had before. You can somehow hold it together. You go on to the defensive. So we avoid this total collapse.

We've sent a general to Kiev to explain to you how it should be done. And you do something else. Here again, I have to say to you, Alex, this is, I remember you telling us, telling me on these programs that this is what they would start to do two years ago, which is gradually, gradually, gradually make this story disappear. And we've just had the Washington Post, for example, they have that column on the top, you know, all the various topics that you could press the button and you'd find. and Ukraine was one. And surprise, surprise. Yesterday that column vanished. It's no longer there.

You know, it's this great country trick. And we're going to be having more and more of this over the next few weeks and months all the way up to November. All right. We'll leave it there. The durand.com. We are on a Rumble Odyssey. Bichute, Telegram, Rock Finn and Twitter X and go to the Duran shop, 20% off. Season, sale, holiday season, sale, use the code Christmas 20. Take care.