The Duran Podcast - BRICS Kazan, a world outside the USD w/ Samuel Trapp (Live)

Episode Date: October 8, 2024

BRICS Kazan, a world outside the USD w/ Samuel Trapp (Live)

All right, we are live with Alexander Mercuris. And today we have with us Samuel Trapp, who has a fantastic YouTube channel. Also is a radio host. And Samuel, it is great to have you on the Duran, the first time on the Duran. What would you like to plug? Where is the best place that people can follow your work? Well, in Russian language, you would follow me at Samuel Trapp on my YouTube channel.

And in English, I am a host on dam radio.com. And I have a show every Tuesday and 30, Tuesday and Thursday at 4 p.m. Central Time. And so that's an English program. I usually focus on international topics, war in Ukraine, bricks are probably my two favorite issues. All right, I will have those links as a pinned comment when the live stream ends. And I already have Samuel's Russian language YouTube channel in the description box down below. Though you do have a couple of videos on that channel in English as well, right? Right, Samuel?

That's right. It was really a fluke that I started. I just threw something in Russian after listening to the Tucker Carlton interview in Russian and in English. And I thought, I love the guy, but I thought he missed a few opportunities. especially listening to it in Russian. It's like I felt like Putin opened the door for him to a couple of areas that he could have gone into a little deeper, but because of a translation that didn't quite hit the spot, as it were. He missed it.

And he didn't miss anything. He did a great job, but I just felt like, no, no, I'd have gone there. That's another question. So anyway, that's how I got started in Russia. There were so many people in Russian that watched it. I just kind of started doing one. Yeah. All right.

Fantastic. And now you are with us on the Duran. So let's say a quick hello to everyone that is watching us on Odyssey on Rockfin, rumble, the durand.orgals.com and on YouTube. A good day to everyone that is joining us for this live stream. And a big shout out. Hello and a thank you to our moderators on the chat. Peter, hope you are doing well. Peter, great to have you with us.

Zareel. Zareel is back in the house. Hope everything is going well, Zareel. And I think that is it for the moderators and Alexander, Samuel. Let's talk about what is happening in the world, what is happening in Russia, what's going to be happening in a couple of weeks in Kazan with a big, Rick's event, Alexander Samuel. The floor is yours. Because there's no one better to discuss all of these things with than Samuel, because Samuel is in the general area. He's not far from Kazan in Russia, and he is familiar with the town itself, the city, I should say, and of course he takes

a particular interest in the development of the bricks. And I should also say that Samuel, who's speaks Russian, has been very familiar with Russian affairs. He's able to discuss with us the situation in Russia and give us a sense of where he's going. I'd like to say a few things quickly about the city of Kazan, because it's a place that people are not familiar with. I suspect quite probably that they will become very familiar with it. Like everybody talks about Brett and Woods because of what happened there in 1944, where the financial, the financial, global architecture of world trade was created basically by John Maynard Keynes and Dexter White to an American and a British diplomat and a British official.

Anyway, that was in 1944. Kazan might lead to something analogous, but Kazan is a very interesting place by itself. It's a city. it was the capital of the Tata carnate within Russia, well, what became Russia. Those who know Eisenstein's film Ivan the Terrible will know that it starts with Ivan marching his army to capture Kazan. Kazan then becomes part of the Russian Empire. Important family based there, the Yuzovs became the Yuzovs became the Uy,

Uzupovs, who married into the Romanov dynasty, and one of them, by the way, was involved in the assassination of Grigory and Espoutin. So, you know, this is a major, powerful local family converted to orthodoxy. There's, at the same time, in Kazan, it's still the capital of the Tatar people of Russia. It is an economic powerhouse. It is an intellectual powerhouse. It has a tremendous Kremlin, a fortress, where there is both a cathedral and a mosque. And I should say that the communities, to my best understanding, work with each other very well. There is a famous university, one of whose alumni is a man called Vladimir Ilich Ollianov, better known to the world as Lenin.

And not far away from Kazan, there is also a gigantic factory where Russia and before that the Soviet Union built strategic bombers and they also built helicopters and Kazan so it's an industrial economic intellectual powerhouse and it's distinctive in many respects from other Russian cities. That's a brief account of Kazan, a place which perhaps, given that it is, at least in theory, geographically in Europe, people in Europe should know better about but they don't know very much about. But anyway, Samuel, this is not your first time in Kazan. You've been there before the conflict began. You've been there now. Tell us what your impressions of the place is and indeed your impressions of Russia at the moment.

I mean, is this a place buckling under the weight of the sanctions or is it something else? Absolutely not buckling is what I would say. I've been here quite a bit in the last five years, a couple times a year I come here, and into Kazan is where I fly most of the time. And a little bit of changes you can certainly talk about post-sanctions are that money has a little bit more of a problem. You can be pretty easy over here. Could use my Google pay, could use, you know, Samsung pay and whatever. Now you can buy a debit card or get a debit card over here and put money on a debit card so you don't have to carry cash or just get cash. So they've made it a little bit harder for Westerners, but there's nothing that's not, well, you can get around use problems, you know.

And everything, the people have always been fantastic and the area has always been great. Latitude-wise, it's on the same level as Russia. So the climate is pretty similar. And so it's now a good fall. They have two seasons here. And very beautiful. I like touring and seeing the memorials, which there are quite a few of them.

And I like to post information like that. I come here once a year and go to a sanatorium, get health care. And that's a shock. They're shocked to be an American that would do something like that. But it's, and I'm very much interested in the politics and in the, and in what people think and how they think. And I think that 30 years ago I worked in arms control and I believe if we had done things differently after the collapse of the Soviet Union, we wouldn't be where we are today. But I think the U.S. in particular, and I met served in the U.S. military.

I think the U.S. in particular has made some mistakes over the last 30 years that, you know, I'm not in charge. So obviously, you know, nobody's going to listen to me about that. But I think that our experts either aren't really experts or are just telling people what they want to hear. And so you can go where you want with that. And I came over specifically to get into the BRICS conference or in hopes thereof. I've submitted my paperwork. I feel good about it. I can't imagine that I won't be able to get some information from some people that are in the area wanting to go.

Tell us a little bit about the economic situation. Now, before we get onto BRICS, I mean, you mentioned that it's difficult to access money, but did you see signs of hardship, economic, strain, shops, closed to people homeless. Is there anything like that? Because sometimes we do get in the West in certain sections of the British media impressions. Well, you know, things are all right now, but it won't be so for much longer. And they've gone over to a complete militarized economy.

And they're only producing shells and the shortages of everything else. I mean, I have read articles like this and articles that are talking this way. Was that your impression? That is not my impression at all. In August, I spent two, three weeks in Ladikovkaz, which is southern Russia, down by Georgia. And the reconstruction, if you want to call it that, the renovation, the remoderation, the remodeling, the building of old places. It is going everywhere.

Everything is quite modern. The roads are 10 times better than they were years ago. They are spending money in the right places, is my impression. Last year, I spent six weeks, and I know this isn't Russia, but in a former Soviet Republic, and they're strongly connected, you know, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and I tell you what, one big thing that you get is, and here too, I mean, not Mederezhni tell me about two or three hours from Kazan and families. When you see people having families and lots of younger children and see that, you're not having, it's not like they don't have any hope.

you know what I mean? It's going to have a family in a place where you're not going to be able to raise them or offer them things, offer them good schools. And so I disagree strongly with those people who say that Russia is backwards, that Russia doesn't have. And a lot of that funding I know is extended to the places that used to be part of the Soviet Union, too. But all of them are experiencing great development. which is why I wanted to come to Bricks.

It's a different way of thinking completely than the way, and I'm an American, born in America. You know, I'm a patriot. I love America and all of those things, but I'm not so sure we're going to be the greatest country in the world as long as we think we are, especially if we don't start thinking a little differently. You know what I mean?

Absolutely. Let's start talking about the Bricks, Before we do, what do people in Kazan make of it all? I mean, because the city is now hosting this event, presumably preparations are underway to receive everybody. Is there excitement? Are people talking about it? Is this something that the local newspapers and television is talking about?

Or is everybody just going about their normal lives as usual, even as great events happen around them? Just asking? My impression, and again, I only get to, to see the people that I meet on the street and in cars. But I always talk to everybody. I'm a talker. And so I try to get their impressions and they know about it,

but they're curious as well. And they are Patriots too, you know, and they're excited about these things. It seems to me that they think very positively of it. They like to see it coming together And I spoke with a guy giving me a ride in a Yandex, their Uber, basically. And the driver was telling me, you know, about the strong growth in factories. He says, you know, I work in a factory and that factory I can make a good wage.

And in the, on the way home from work, he drives 45 minutes back and forth. he used his car to be a Yandex driver, and I happened to catch him on his way home from work. So the same is us in America, you know what I mean? There are big things that are happening and they're paying attention, but they may not be obsessed with them like some of us aren't, you know, me in particular, but I like talking about those things, but generally very positive, and they know quite a bit, very well informed. Tell us about the bricks, because of course, if you read the media here in Britain, and I'm obviously based in Britain, but I think the same is true of the United States.

One of the most interesting facts about the bricks is that nobody ever talks about it. I mean, you find the odd article in the Financial Times in London, but elsewhere, there's hardly ever any discussion of the bricks, any recognition that it even exists. So what is it exactly? Just, well, not exactly, but in general terms. Tell us what it is. Well, it started with the five countries, Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa. And basically, it was in 2014 that they started. And we're looking, Russia was under an enormous amount of sanction.

Sanctions in the U.S., I don't want to say they didn't exist, but they were extremely rare before Bush 2. And then Clinton had a few, you know, nobody's, Obama had a few, but they really started to grow under Trump. And they've exploded under Biden, Paris, and in part because, you know, Russia's alleged invasion, if you want to call it that, of Ukraine, I don't, but some people would like to. And for years,

and this is kind of my point with we live in a different world now. People have ignored what they call the Global South. They've ignored that there is a huge portion of the planet that doesn't like this unirul. One ruler, and that ruler happens to be an old daughtered in the one. White House. People have liked it even when it

wasn't an old doctor in the White House. And it's just been getting worse since the collapse of the Soviet Union. And with our American, I mean, I'm on American base, our colonialist

attitudes worldwide connected to nothing. Handouts given in Africa to the right leader. if we appoint the leader, we give him money, but he doesn't really give that money to the people or spread it out to do anything. People have, all you have to do is join the SWIFT system

and all you have to do is claim that you're a democracy and life is grand and the U.S. will keep pumping money into your coppers and you can do to the people what you like. And the rest of the world has seen that as exactly what it is. something that hasn't worked very well. The third world is still the third world, although it's really not. But in America, we claim, you know,

those are third world countries. But if you travel to them, you're going, wait a second. They have the same things we have. They're just as fancy as we are. You know, I've been around a bit. I've been to 51 countries, and I like to travel and go to places that are different.

I like to see what they have. And if the U.S. had ever, we spend all of our money abroad and the U.S. citizen doesn't know why. You know, we don't know why we're wondering why we're pumping all this money in the Ukraine and what does Ukraine give us. The rest of the world is wondering why we're forcing U.S. standards, if you want to call them that, or demands upon them. and bricks had come about when people and the sanctions, namely in places like Russia, where we're tired of it. But you can't get around them because of the oil dollar and the swift banking system. And so if you can get around the oil dollar and the swift banking system and the U.S. making money off of those for as many years as they have and pocketing it or financing their own. internal politics and games in the United States, if you can get around that, maybe there's a chance to change it.

I don't know if I pronounce his name right whenever I say it, but one of the strongest proponents of this is a little bit of a surprise because he's very positive. He's pro-Western, too. And his name is Jai Shankar, the foreign minister from India. I don't know if I said his name right. I never do, but I don't mean to if I'm incorrect. But I love listening to him. I think he says it hits it right on the head every time. You know, our ability to take care of our country of India by making a deal with Russia or oil.

There's nothing to do with the United States. Nor should get, by the way, his words, you know. And people are frankly tired of it. That's dictating to people what they do. He gets his oil for bio reports, five to 10% less than he would get it if he had to do it through the U.S. banking swift oil dollar system, which is collapsing. If you pay any attention to bricks at all, and if you, those five countries, they've added another, is it, is it, five or six? that are actual members. They have another 10 to 12 that are actual application

that has been filed. And they have another 40 to 80 that want in. And the issues that they're discussing are whether they're going to allow them in just because they want to be in or whether there's going to be some kind of standards. And this past week, the big news was that Vladimir Putin put out something regarding standards. I'm not sure if you're familiar with it, but he said, anyone, you know, we are expanding and going to accept more people, but anyone that wants

in is going to have to commit to, we don't sanction people. And if you have sanctions against other people, you must remove them. And I, you know, I don't want to say, well said, you know, People say, but truly, it's a different way of thinking. And if the U.S. and the Western bloc doesn't come around, this year they've fallen to number two in the U.S. and the West is now trading less globally than the BRICS. countries between themselves. The BRICS. between themselves surpassed the U.S. and others, the Western world. They surpassed the dollar. China surpassed the dollar individually with the yen. More transactions have closed with the yuan than they have with the dollar after the second quarter of this year. And so whether we like it or not in the West, these things are changing.

And I came here specifically in an effort to find out more about that because the United States also was an talking about it to your point that in Britain they don't speak about it, you don't hear about it. Whether they're afraid of it or not, I had somebody say to me, oh, you know, Bricks is just a buzzword. I was like, oh, really? Well, that buzzword is about to destroy the United Nations and create a difference. They complained about United Nations and the Security Council and whether five people should be able to control the planet, or five countries. And, you know, I'll give you a chance to respond to all those things I've said. I think your point that world trade, that the greatest part of world trade now happens outside the Western system.

That is the key point. It is a revolutionary change. The West, the Atlantic trade, has dominated global economic activity, since. the 16th century. I mean, that was when we, you know, the Atlantic became the focus of global trade. European merchants established their connections right across the globe. The empires, the colonial empires followed. The United States emerged out of them and merged out of the British Empire. But it meant that the West, until very recently, was at the centre of the global. trading and ultimately economic system because where trade happens, that's where economic activity

is centred. And for the first time, since then, since the 16th century, we have the shift away. We have a shift back towards the Pacific, towards China, towards the Eurasian states. and this is something that ultimately is going to dictate everything else. It's going to affect and change everything. This is my own view. And what we're seeing, what we're going to see in Kazan, what the bricks is all about, to my way of thinking, is how to organise this change, which has come about organically,

and basically to set out the broad rules for how it is conducted, because trade does need rules. You need to know how to transfer funds. You need to also be confident that when you do transfer funds, they will get to the other side to where, you know, you're moving your money to. You want to ensure that your contracts are adhered to and abided by. So you need to work through all of that system.

And that I think is what Briggs is ultimately about. It's about setting up the trade and architecture of this changed world, which is no longer centered so much on the West. Now, just before I continue, I would first ask you whether you agree with that perspective. The second is, can you give us some idea? Because you said that we have the core states, but lots of others are coming. maybe you could tell us a little bit about who is coming, you know, which some of the Arab states and the oil producers are in the static coming. But also now all kinds of other countries want to join Turkey, Syria, Cuba, I believe, has just made an application.

Algeria, Ecuador, I think. Was it where I am not Colombia, I think it was. Anyway, first of all, do you agree with my overall perspective? And secondly, as I said, who exactly is coming to Bricks? and who's going to be representing them there? I mean, you mentioned Jai Shunk. I absolutely agree with what you have said about it's long overdue. It's kind of an organic change that I used to say, oh, six, ten years ago, you know, that everybody knows that China is going to surpass the United States.

It's just a question of when. and they have a plan. They actually plan something. In America, our plan changes every four years. You know, it's a different plan. But you can't really make any forward progress when somebody turns around every four years and goes the other direction.

In China, it's not like that. You can disagree with how they run the place. The same with Russia. You can disagree with how they run the place, but they have a longer memory. So this bridge, has been going on for at least 10 years, maybe a little more. And the founding countries were Brazil, Russia, India, China.

And South Africa came along. They added them. They're the last one that got added to the short, you know, the short, the acronym that got added to the acronym. Since then, and last year they allowed in Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates. It had applications from, here are the ones who have applied but haven't been admitted yet. And Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Turkey, a big surprise, and Syria. And there was talk several months ago of another 24 to 40 that wanted to come in.

And then the U.S., well, Western media used this to beat up and say they've frozen admission to brick. They're falling apart. That's not true. They froze it because they truly want a system going forward. And this meeting in Russia is going to be a foundation to come up with rules. Like the rule I quoted about sanctions, you know, we don't sanction people. That's, you know, you have to commit to that if you're going to be a member of Brick. I expect them to say something about whether you can be an open member of any other organization that does.

force you to sanction people. I think that might be an issue. Although clearly so far, people are allowed to be members of different economic clubs as well. You mentioned the Uranian sphere. There's the Turkey's a member of the EC and whether they have to leave in order to be a BRICS member, you know, remains to be seen. I kind of doubt it from my own point of view in my own perspective out of it and they're going, well, if we as Americans don't do something about it, we're going to end up missing the boat and being at the bottom of the barrel will be the third world country because the rest of the world will be members of bricks and we won't have any part of it. There will be just us in England in our own little economic form and

you know, we win, you know, but whether that's victory or not, I don't know. Meanwhile, you have Trump talking about de-dollarization and his efforts to combat it, which is what? I will sanction those countries who de-dollarize.

Okay, that's quite the threat, but really? So what? We've seen what de-dollarization and sanctions has done in Russia. and in my view, not whole lot. Russia is better than it was five years ago, and certainly better than it was when I was here multiple occasions in the 90s.

It's no longer run by bandits. Your thoughts about what you think of Russian political system can be your own, but they rule the place on behalf of the people, whether they're bandits or, not. You know what I mean? It's, it's, uh, yes, you can disagree with the political theory. You can disagree with whether democracy is, uh, you know, the best or whether a king is better. You know, I lived in Qatar for two years and there was a prince, I believe he was, but the place was run like clockwork. You had no problem there. That place is great. And so, I don't know that I'm so

stuck on democracy in this world that is stuck on democracy is going to lose out if they don't start paying attention to the way that other people run their countries more along the lines of acceptance and diplomacy instead of forcing whatever your view is of Western democracy down other people's throat. It hasn't worked for a couple hundred years and it's probably not going to work going forward, especially now. I think it's going to go faster and faster. I didn't expect Briggs countries to surpass the West for several years. I believe it's coming, and it's coming extremely quickly, and this conference is one of the most, you mentioned Bretton Woods, one of the most important meetings, basically of the 20th century. And, uh, the,

21st century, guess what? It's this meeting, I think, and what they do to organize a global structure because the UN isn't working. If you pay attention to those Security Council meetings, which I know you do, they are strongly

against everyone is. There were at least 10 to 15 foreign ministers that came and spoke against this hegemony and in favor of multipolarism and, you know, honor other cultures, quit trying to shove

the will of five down the throats of the rest of the world. So, where we are. Tell us about this discussion that's going on about payment systems because I noticed that in Russia, Putin had a meeting

just a couple of days. ago, the central bank chair, Nebula led it, which was all about setting up international payment systems. And you mentioned, you talked about Swift quite a lot. What does Putin, what are the Russians, what perhaps does Bricks, because it's clearly connected to the summit meeting. What's all that about? Well, if you go to the Briggs website, it's Bricks, Russia, 24. There is, I did this on my radio show a couple of weeks ago. I tried to point out all of the international focuses that they are making right now. One of them being an international system of payments, there's international legal transactions

and how we're going to do it. Everything that the UN or the, you know, does in New York with all these side meetings and committees, on finance, on how we pay in and out, on banking rules and rules of exchange and how you determine the rate and sporting activities and travel. There's a COVID group. You know, people are meeting to discuss COVID world health. They are literally creating an international, a global society to compete with. the United Nations because they've talked about for 10 years when Sergei Lavrov gave his

speech in the UN and I always listen to him with great interest because he's so well spoken and he said we are meeting an anniversary here where we said that in 10 years we would address this changing the structure for the benefit of the rest of the world with a new committee at the G7 and nobody's done anything. He said, I am embarrassed to be

sitting here knowing we haven't done anything. And you know, I don't believe, this is me and who am I but I don't believe if the UN and the people don't listen to the other 45% of

the population of the world which currently are members of BRICS, all the people that were wanting to apply to BRICS that will increase that number to 65 to 70% of the world are going to make a decision without them. You know, and the UN will become the second class citizen because they haven't paid attention to the new world order that hopefully is built upon equality of nations regardless of their and regardless of their financial status. Bretton Woods created various institutions,

which in theory was supposed to mediate world trade. There was the IMF, which most people don't know, but it was basically, the IMF was basically set up by at the instigation of John Maynard Keynes to regulate the exchange rate system, the system of controlling currencies, regulating how currencies were to operate and to transfer funds to make sure that, you know, currency relationships remain stable. It evolved into something quite different than there was the World Bank as well.

Is there any word from Bricks, you know, that they're going to start creating institutions like that, you know, banks, courts, maybe, because we're going to set up. rules, we need enforcement mechanisms, we need courts. Any talk of that kind? Throughout the month of October in Russia in many different cities, there are different subcommittees of bricks that are meeting, a lot of them in Moscow, quite a few of them in Moscow, in fact. One of those has to do with creating a new exchange system. Russia created its own exchange system about eight, ten years ago. China created its own exchange system back in 2019, I want to say.

And so five years ago. And they want to, and both of those systems allow other countries to trade in the ruble or in the yuan. And they want to create, whether they're going to create a gold-back brick currency, a brick dollar, you know, whatever you want to call it, whether they're going to create a specific. currency remains to be seen. But I believe that if they don't announce a complete banking system this summit, that they will in the very near future, whether whoever hosted next year,

and I apologize for not knowing, but I really have paid attention to anything but this one. whoever hope that next year is going to have a lot of additional work. There are, like I said, at least 40 more countries that want to join. And Russia is the chair for this year. Who knows who it'll be next year? Probably one of the big five still. But, you know, I hope to do this. It's kind of a hobby for me.

I wish to do this and really be in the know. and I expect a lot of things and I encourage everyone to go and look at the BRICS 2024 website and look at all the subcommittees at the work that they are doing. This is not a foolish pipe dream. This is a realistic group of people trying to avoid the World Bank, trying to avoid the IMF, which is how the U.S. and the West have. controlled the rest of the planet for at least 50 years, probably before that too, but it's gotten worse. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, I did a, I was still in the military, and we did a humanitarian aid trip for the IMF on behalf of the State Department, and I was one of

the interpreters sent over there to Moldova. And part of the, it's through the IMF, through the World Bank, and this is how we control new countries. We put a string out there with, you know, a billion dollars on it and say, hey, hey, you know, join in with our form of democracy, join in with the leaders that we want. Join it, join our banking system. Ignore those big, bad wolves to be east of you. and you're in. You can be part of our little group. But if you need the money, you take the money, whether you really want to be a part of the group or not.

The money is a big deal. So that's what gets you in. But if you really deep down have a completely different culture, it can only work for so long. And we're bumping up against cultures that don't think like we do. You know, the Slavic people do not think like me. And I'm in awe by it. I honor it.

I think it's great. But they don't think the way we do. And they have very long memories. They remember and people have lost everyone over here, lost family members less than a generation ago. You know, everyone still talks about the great patriotic war. and they have memorials everywhere. In the United States, yes, we have some,

but most of them are in Washington, D.C. Most of them you bring out once a year. It seems to me that these people, they think differently than we do because of what they have gone through. And the 90s in the East was like our depression in the West, and they remember it.

And so, you know, belt tightening, they're used to it. And I believe it's coming to a place near you in the West if you don't at least start paying attention to Bricks. And a sideline, I'm trying to find a way to invest in Bricks' futures, if at all possible, because no matter what happens, I think they're going to go up, you know, and they don't exist yet. But if they do, I'd like to be on the ground. floor. Can I just my last question? Who exactly is

coming to Kazan? I mean, which individuals are coming? I mean, is it going to be prime ministers? Is it going to be presidents? Will Xi Jinping be there? Will Alula from Brazil be there? Who is going? I mean, Erdogan is he coming? I mean, people of that

kind. Is it going to be on that level? Because that can make a difference if it's... Well, they haven't announced the exact tendee. yet but it'll be foreign minister and above you know for everyone these are big deals Putin is expected to be there which means a lot of other heads of state will be here and I think at least for the opening ceremonies I mean you know how that goes they'll have a initial meeting and then split up and when you're actually approved to attend you get an

attendee packet and all of those things I'm received mine yet still very hopeful and we will see if I do you know I'll certainly let you know but even if I don't I'm going to hover around there anyway and see what I can do and see if I can get in but but the countries that are coming coming all the five all the other six and of the and all of the 24 to 40 there's word that upwards of 97 finding a place to to stay nearly impossible. It is going to be packed. And the Kazan airport I've been into and out of many times,

and it's a good size of airport. I mean, Kazan is about 800,000 people. You know, it's a good size. And it's sizable, but more of a large regional airport us in the West, you know, but it's, you know, well suited to handle them all. It's a real airport and they're real hotels and great places to stay, excellent food. And it's going to be a hack with foreigners and with foreign press and with foreign leaders and lots of information. And people should really pay attention. And it's like you said, the West is

If we ignore it, maybe it'll go away, but it's not going away. Absolutely. Samuel Trap, thank you very much. If you could just stay there a little while, I'm sure we've got lots of questions. I'll pass you over to Alex. Now, thank you for your clear answers to all my questions. Thanks for having me. Samuel, you have 10, 15 minutes to go through some questions from viewers?

Yeah. Fantastic. Matthew asks, given this is all linked to the move to multipolarity, do you see this ultimately ending in global conflict? Will the USA ultimately accept its reduction in power? My initial response would be, I'm not sure that they have any choice. But then the subcategory of that is I felt for years that our country is run by, maybe not the America I mean maybe not the wisest of people and we keep getting pushed toward

global conflict instead of away from it but I'm not necessarily but do I intend to vote for Donald Trump yes I do but I don't necessarily believe that he's a whole lot better than the alternative it's just he's not one of them You know what I mean? And if he is smart, he won't keep saying things like, I'm going to sanction the rest of the world. I'll tell them what to do. Being a global player isn't necessarily being the strongest.

And I'm not so sure that we're really the strongest anymore either. If our weapons in Ukraine are any example, there's a lot of argument to be made that our weapons won't really stand up to a true test. The rest of the world isn't necessarily Iraq 15 to 20 years ago. And so there's a lot of development that has gone on and we may have missed the boat. And so I, unfortunately, my subcategory, I think we'd be foolish to get into a global, more global conflicts than we're already involved in. But part of me feels like some of them are unavoidable as well. I hope not. I hope stain her heads prevailed, but I'm not so positive about that on my end from what I see.

Commando Crossfire says bricks should not expand at this point, in my opinion. What do you believe? Well, I think, again, whether or not it expands isn't based on my opinion or anyone else's. The need for it to expand, at least in the eyes of those who are planning to expand it, is because, like Jaisankar, he's been ignored for 10 years. Like any other developing economy has been ignored at the global level for all intents and purposes. They are told what to do instead of being brought along. It's a different topic completely.

But if you contrast what we do on the Western level, hold out the carrot, beat them with a stick, force them into sanction and give them charity instead of help them. them develop. China gives the roads and bridges. They build infrastructure in these places with loans and build infrastructure without necessarily or without at all, telling them how they must run their government, whether they have to put austerity measures in and not give benefits to certain people if they get the money. No, we give you the money. We wanted to go toward these projects and you know we want you to build this infrastructure but it's not we're not going to sanction you if you don't you know this is what it's for and we want to help you develop they're seeing as more of a partner they say they want to be your partner the west we don't do that we tell

them how they must do it and we force them you do it for the world bank whatever rules we decide to put them my opinion on that makes no difference to the only only ones that matter are those that are in bricks. I believe they think it's a big band. It's just a question of how they do it. And if we had done something differently in the West, perhaps they wouldn't. But they feel they have no choice and have to. And Commander Crossfire has a follow-up to that question.

He says, Bricks needs to mandate union pay and mere, MIRCard as a condition of membership as well as a swift alternative and not expand until it's done in all current members. Well, that's yet another opinion. And the union pay system is a competitor to MIR over here and the payment systems that they use here. It's been very difficult. If you come over here only with your master card and your visa, you're not going to be, you're not going to be paying for it. You better find an alternative way to pay, and sometimes it's not that easy. I believe they do have to expand that.

I was trying to find the Chinese pay system. Union pay is one of them that works here as well, but it's hit and miss whether that works in the West and over here. You might be able to pull currency out on union pay card if you have a system that doesn't, but you can't freely transfer money. So I believe that will be one thing, will be one thing addressed in this conference. If they don't, I don't say I'll be disappointed, but I'll be wondering, you know, what they're up to and why it's taking so long because it's somewhat overdue. They do have these other payment systems, but they're not quite international. China has theirs, Russia has theirs, and they may or may not be acceptable in other parts of the world. Can you make payments with a union pay card now in various parts of Russia?

Have you been to any places where you can actually pay with a union pay instead of a mere? No. I don't have a union pay. I was looking into one to get one in the United States and try it over here, but I was unable to to get that done. But my research on it says that you can pull cash out on a union pay card here in certain places, but they're limited to the large cities, Moscow, St. Petersburg, a couple of other places is what I understand. Don't take that as gospel because that's only, I haven't tried it myself. But on the mirror system now, which I do have a tagged card to it, a mere card.

That's accepted virtually everywhere. Yeah, if you go to Russia, you need the mere. You need it. Yeah. Jungle Jin asks Samuel, could you comment on the U.S. backed coup in Bangladesh, their man in Dhaka, Muhammad Yunus, and the possible impact on India, China, and Bricks? Bangladesh coup and the impact on India, China, and Bricks. Who, meaning the World Health Organization, I presume.

No, a coup, the coup d'a on, yeah, coup, the coup on Bangladesh and the impact on India, China, and Bricks. Yeah, there's certainly some conflict there. From what I understand is between Briggs country. This is one of the rule-making plenary sessions that are going to be part of it as far as rule, is how they interact with each other. They don't necessarily have to be allies, as it were, even now. But from a global economic perspective, they will be expected under bricks to keep those things separate,

which the Western system does not. And so I don't know what's going to be the result of that. It's too early to tell. but certainly how conflicts are resolved and in the world legal structure through the bricks. It's also one of the sessions that they're going to be discussing as well.

So I'm eager to find out how that process works too. Elza says Jaisankar about bricks, quote, The G7 will not let anyone, anybody else into that. club so we go and form our own club. The arrogant West did not see that coming. Yes, I'll agree with that. I liked that particular interview and he is always so well spoken when you listen to him and he makes a lot of sense. And, you know, from the American perspective, a bunch of know-it-alls on the world stage,

you know what I mean? And it's long past time for people to really understand that just because you're not from America doesn't mean you're not intelligent or that your opinion doesn't count. And I know that's extremely basic and somewhat condescending, but sometimes from the non-Western perspective, that is how people see us from America. we should ask more questions instead of dictating response to our own questions. You know what I mean?

And so that exchange between Jaisankar and his interviewer whose name I don't remember was, it was like an hour-long interview and extremely well done. And he listed out exactly the multipolar structure that they think is so important. the fact that India in particular since colonial times Britain, geez, they've only been their own country for I don't remember the exact

number of years, but isn't it like 30, 35 years? It's not very long that they've been their own. And they are the largest country population wise on the planet.

They need to be listened to whether you agree with them or not. And he has said, Lavrov has said, and so many people have said from foreign countries at the G7, at the group of five, all of those, there have been, it's not like these are new comments. It's just now they're being more vocal about it and going, hey, we've been saying this for 10 years. We need something different. When are you going to do something about it? Nobody's done anything about it. So they've made their own club.

Exactly what's happening, and it's going to get worse if they continue to be ignored. Worse or better, depending on how you look at it. If you accept the fact that we've been dictating what other people do for years and accept them as a partner instead of a competitor, perhaps things will change. That could be a little, I don't know what, optimistic, I suppose. But then again, why not? You know, it's, what else, what do you have to lose? You know, maybe a few more wars, maybe a few more, you know,

a few more million of people, you know, killed for useless purposes, really. You have time for one more? Samuel? Okay, from Nikos. This is a two-part. question. Let's go with the first question. Recently, Wikipedia declared that Russia and China are dictatorships. Russia and Belarus are both prosperous. So why is the West better than them? I've never believed better than them, and I'm a person who grew up with the Cold War as the

background. I was in the military starting with the Cold War as a background. And my speaking Russian and being part of the arms control effort of the INF Treaty and the Nuclear Threshold Test Ban Treaty, and underground nuclear testing, I was part of the inspection team on the U.S. test site for the last underground nuclear test that was conducted in the U.S., 91, 92. And way back then when they were stopping it, and those were valuable efforts. And even if you go from the point of view, whether or not you believe that Russia is the dictatorship or China is the dictatorship, who are we to dictate what another country should use as their form of government? What made us the ones who get to say that you can't have a kingdom or you can't have communism? If you claim that U.S. democracy is any better than the rest of the world's systems of government, that's a lecture for another, you know, three, four hours that I could conduct and would happily do so. But our government is just the weapon of the people that use it just as much as any dictatorship.

And so that would be point number one, the question number one, whether or not they are dictatorships, Vladimir Putin had at least an 80% approvability factor in his own country. You can believe that or not believe it. I believe it because I've spoken to so many people over here. And not all of them are afraid to say in the privacy of a coffee room chat with Samuel Trapp. tell you what I really think. No, they tell you what they think. They're as vocal as I am.

And the bulk of the people are very supportive of what he's doing. Remember why. He turned around this country. Believe it, don't believe it. You don't have to trust me on that. But the people believe it because they had the 90s. The country was run by bandits. They were stealing everything.

You know, this is something we can feel free to talk about now. I was here during plenty of that, and it's a different country now than it was that, whether you accept it or not. So dictatorship or not dictatorship, different form of government, okay. But if you can back your people on the world stage, nationalists or not, I think Putin has done a good job of doing that. He's not my president. No, I don't have to back him. I don't back him. He's not my president, but a lot of times I don't back my own government.

I'm very vocal about that and about some of the negative things that they have done. But I don't necessarily see that as whether dictatorship or not. I don't believe that. I don't believe there's enough evidence to say that it is the dictatorship. and I could put plenty of arguments on the other side of that. But the bigger point is, what does it matter as far as the world stage go? I don't believe it done. So that was part one.

And part two is we've seen Putin and his accomplishments in Russia and Bricks, as well as his own society. However, I think he has ignored the young people in Russia. I'm not so sure I agree with that one either. I'm somewhat of a follower of current events in Russia, of course, and with the bricks this year, they had a young person's conference, and they invited young people from all over the world. If he doesn't care about young people, I don't see it. And in fact, there are stories of him treating very small children, kindergarten-aged children, you know, conversing with them, giving them time. And it's always been said, you know, if he likes dogs and small children, he's generally a good guy.

But actually in the U.S., but those who hate dogs and hate children that are men, you got to worry about him a little bit. And as far as the youth goes, I believe that he goes out of his way to make sure that he gives opinions on some of that. I'm very curious where the country of Russia goes post-Putin. And I'm not sure that there's enough information about where that's going to be. It's been put off now until 2030-ish whether he goes again. I can't imagine that he would. So sometime over the next six years, there's got to be some form of development of a next generation of political leader that takes care of the country in the way that most Russians feel that Putin has. Whether we agree with that or not in the West, it makes no difference.

They're going to do what they want, what they believe is right for their country and their people. and if you can respect Vladimir Putin for anything, it's for that. What the West does, it doesn't matter to him. He's going to do what he thinks it's best for his country. If that makes me a Putin apologist, well, so be it. But I take a man at his words, and that guy's been saying the same things for 25, 30 years. I've been listening to him the whole time. Our politicians, they change their opinions like most people change their underwear.

That doesn't seem to be the case with Vladimir Putin, agree with him or not. Samuel Trapp, it's been a pleasure having you on the Duran. Once again, I have the link to your YouTube channel in the description box down below, and I will also add it as a pinned comment. Can you once again plug your radio show as well for everyone that is watching? Absolutely. My radio show is at damn radio, d-a-m-radio.com. That's because the big tourist attraction and reason for the town of Lake Ozark, Missouri, is because it was built.

A dam was built there 80 years ago, and it created an extremely large lake called Lake Ozark. And so it's a very big tourist place, and it's where I lived for nearly 20 years and had my radio program and still have that radio program at damradio. Definitely follow Samuel on Damn Radio and also check out his YouTube channel as well. I will have everything linked as a pinned comment. Samuel, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you both for having. Thank you very much, Samuel. Thank you.

And we look forward to you coming back and joining us again. Anytime you let me know. Take care of Samuel. Thank you. Yep. All right. Alexander, are you with me? Absolutely.

All right. Let's answer the remaining questions. From George, welcome to the DRAC community. Thank you, George, for joining us. O.G. Wall says, good day. Good day to you, O.G. Wall. And Andrew Bird is a new member to Drand Community. Let's see here.

Life is the fun. Thank you for that super sticker. commander crossfire says member of hostile military alliance can't join bricks well indeed meeting nato indeed absolutely well this is this is going to be an interesting question because of course erdogan says that he should be able to join despite the fact that he's going to remain native he wants to turkey to remain in native can i just make a few observations about some of the points that commander crossfire actually made firstly i should say and this is a general point that economic change, big, huge economic change,

the change that we're talking about, Bretton Woods and all that, when it happens, it can be very, very sudden. So things move and change gradually and build up to a certain point, and then suddenly, boom, everything changes. The last big year when there was massive economic change in the world economic system was 1931, when basically sterling, the British pound sterling, lost its value and ceased to be the linchpin of the global economic system. When the British had to take it off the gold standard defaults of their debt to the United States.

And that created a shattering blow. And it was the single biggest factor, by the way, that triggered the depression, more so than the Wall Street crash. that had taken place two years before. Wall Street crash was a sort of quake that led us towards that bigger crash that happened two years later. So, you know, that's the first thing to say. But on a number of points

to command a crossfire made, about making union pay and mere obligatory, I think two things to say, these are national. systems and I think that what the BRICs countries will want is not to extend national systems, but to bring together other systems and to create an international system that connects all of them. And SWIFT and things like that are starting to look like rather old technology now. They're creations, basically, of the 1990s.

And if you go to Russia, which I haven't been to for a while, or you go to China, one of the things you immediately struck by is how much more advanced they are in these kind of flexible technologies and the use of them than we are. So I'm going to make a guess. I think we're going to get an international payment system. And it is going to be very, very different. and that Swift is going to look very, very old-fashioned very soon, and that it will not be based on mere and union pay.

Just saying. Commander Crossfire says Bricks needs its own credit rating agency, cut the West once. It already has, it already has them. They've already set them up. And Commander Crossfire says Bricks needs to establish a joint fund to immediately pay off World Bank IMF debt owed by members, make a condition on joining no IMF or World Bank debt with free economies. Well, that is moving forward.

But I mean, why, I mean, you know, why you insist on something like that? I mean, you can have rival systems, and people will prefer one to the other inevitably. They will go where the good money is. That's always been my experience, actually, competition. Exactly, competition. And just to finish off the questions from Commandal Crossfire, or this line of comments, he says, please join Brick's space station program to Mars. Yeah. You know, I'm going to tell you where I think the tension may be in the sense of Commander Crossfire.

You're making bricks sound a little bit like a block, which is precisely what the Brick states. say they do not want to become. They want to become a global spanning economic financial and trade system. And they don't want to be restricted by the problems of trying to create a block. And the reason that they don't, they want to avoid doing those things is because, of course, within bricks, tensions do. exist, there are tensions between China and India over the border. They're negotiating on those, but there's still. There's tensions between Ethiopia and South Africa, about African matters, which have held up many issues, for example, about security council, UN Security Council reform. There's tensions between Brazil and some of the other Latin American countries that want to join Briggs.

So creating a block would be both incredibly difficult and very time consuming, whereas what they want to do is move forward with these economic things that they want to do so that they can get trading flows going. And that, I think, is the primary urgency. And that's why at the moment they're focusing on international payment systems and credit systems and things of that kind. joints sets of rules for how movements of goods takes place, rather than saying, well, you know, if you join us, you can't be a member of that, or if you take money from us, you can't take money from someone else. I think that they want to avoid that, simply so that they can get this thing up and running and moving forward and moving forward as fast as it can go. Nick, thank you for that super sticker. Michael G. says two questions.

What is the likelihood of Russia taking Kharkov and Odessa? Also, what are your thoughts on continuing to invest in gold long term? Right. Let's start with. No investment advice. No investment advice. Absolutely. Let's start with Kharkiv. Let's start with Kharkiv and Odessa. Again, I've said this many, many times, and I want to say this once again, I do not imagine. I cannot imagine. any situation in which this conflict in Ukraine ends without the Russians making some kind of arrangements concerning both Kharkov and especially Odessa. I mean, there's an enormous emotional connection to both places, especially Adessa. Both cities have been historically a key part of the Russian economic landscape.

And in the case of Adessa, there is also the ultimate issue of control of the Black Sea, in the sense that if Adessa remains part of a pro-Nato Ukraine, then the position of the Black Sea is insecure for the Russians. And I think that's now become very clear and is a major priority for them. How that will happen, I don't know. It could go all the way from outright annexation, which, by the way, I suspect a lot of the people in these two states, cities would want, they would want to be back in Russia again, or there might conceivably be

other arrangements. But that will depend on the bigger question of how this war ends. And that's partly a decision for the Russians, but it's partly a decision for the Ukrainians as well. I mean, if they negotiate now and try to come to terms with the Russians, they could save something. If they go on fighting, as they seem inclined to do, then of course they might end up with nothing, in which case annexation of Aders and Kharkov becomes a real possibility. But one way or the other, the Russians will want to have some say on what happens to those two cities. And absolutely, they will be very concerned about the welfare of the people that. Now, about gold, I suggest the person to go to speedershears and people like this, because as Alex correctly says, we are not investment advisors.

The Black Cat, thank you for that super sticker. From Nikos, he says, good economy and order are not enough for the young people in Russia who are against Putin at only 20% support. As a Greek, I cannot understand this. Why do you where do you get that figure 20% support? Yeah I haven't seen that anywhere at all On the contrary And I'm taking this increasingly from the media Here in the West

I gather that not only just Putin has support Amongst young people But that that support is rising And is getting stronger And in fact that amongst Russian teenagers one of the effects of the war has been that they've taken a very, very strong patriotic turn. Now, can I just say my wife used to go to Russian universities.

This is obviously before COVID and before the war and all of that. But I mean, she did. She used to lecture at places like Bauman, the Bauman Institute in Moscow. She had connections with many universities. And she also went to universities and the murals. this is as part of a project, by the way, to encourage study in English literature. And it was, you know, a British government-backed project. I accompanied her on some of these visits.

And as a result, I met a lot of Russian university students. And I didn't find that this characterization of them as anti-Putin liberals had any connection to reality whatsoever. It was absolutely not my impression. at all. They seem to be deeply patriotic. If they were critical of Putin, as some of them were, at that time, they tended to lean more towards the Communist Party. That was my impression, not that they were pro-liberal or pro-Western. I think this is all based on myths and beliefs that people in the West have and perhaps some of the activities that Navalny's.

got up to in Moscow, but I absolutely do not myself see any evidence of this. And I don't really see where these opinion polls have come from, that you're quoting. And if they do exist, I suspect that those opinion polls are profoundly wrong, and they don't match up in any way with the opinion poll data that I see. Just saying. Nikos says Greece became as of 2003 the most stressed and depressed nation in Europe our cities have ruined houses and our streets are

filled with garbage. Too many Russian to my Russian brothers appreciate what you have. I think I would agree with your sentiments about Greece. I haven't been there actually for a while at least not very much and when I go for all kinds of reasons I tend to end up in Athens.

But my brother tells me much the same as you. Nikos says Putin has governed Russia since I was born. Question, Duran. Who is going to succeed him? My choice would be Maria Zacharova because she is a badass. Yeah, well, she put it. Maria Zaharva is not going to be. He's not going to be the one.

I am not an expert on Kreblinology. So can I just say that? I mean, on the one occasion when I ventured a guess, which was back in 2011, I thought Medvedev was going to run again and I was wrong. So there you go. So I am not going to try and venture further guesses. The rumor in Russia, the person people are talking about is Alexei Duman, who is the former governor of Tula region, who's had a background in Russian special forces and is considered to be an extremely capable. administrator and manage the military and industrial industries in Toulogler very well, and who's widely liked, and who's just been promoted to a position in the Russian Security Council.

So he might be the rising man, but, you know, don't take it from me. I don't know. From Ralph Steiner, how can the USA pay off a $36 trillion national debt and $220 trillion of unfunded liabilities without imperial pillage and plunder. One must be realistic. Well, you're absolutely correct. I mean, he can't, but he can't pay them off anyway. I mean, even if it engages in absolute plunder, there's not enough value in the world to pay off a debt on that scale.

I mean, that's the reality of it. Part film Co-op says, is the official story of World War II worth revising? In many respects, yes. though I think I would basically stick with the overall contours. There is a lot of details that are still mysterious. And there's a lot of things that are said, which are, I personally have great doubts. I'll give you one very minor example. The official line in Britain is that the Germans were unable to run spies in Britain.

So the British detected all of them. I have good reason to believe that that is not true, actually. And there were spies, and that some of those spies got access to pretty high-level information in London. But anyway, I mean, that's a detail. I think that there's an awful lot more that we can find out. But as I said, I think the overall contours of what happened in the Second World War, probably we've got that about right. Samuel Moroni says,

it's crazy to think that once Russia even wanted to join NATO, I think it will be remembered as maybe the greatest lost opportunity of the 21st century. You know, it happened twice. The Soviet Union applied to join NATO in 1954. The proposal of the Soviet foreign minister of that time was Vyajislav Malortov, who had once been Stalin's number two. So they applied then. And then after the end of the Cold War, of course, they wanted to do it all over again.

And what happened was, obviously, in the 1950s, it was not even, there was no possibility about it. But in the 1990s and 2000s, the Americans didn't want it. And many European countries didn't want it because, of course, if this very big, potentially very powerful country joined NATO, then the United States had a potential rival to its leadership at NATO. They knew that Russia couldn't be controlled. So that's why they said no. Studio Reiner says, what the hell is Israel even doing anymore? Well, I think I asked myself many times the same question,

because the policy is getting more and more out of control. And they're doing things which I think are going to end up being disastrous for themselves. James. Jeffrey Mulford, thank you for that super sticker. Studio Reiner says World War II was Stalin's war. The U.S. didn't want to admit they were compromised. No, I think that's altogether far too simple, actually. I don't think Stalin started the Second World War. I don't think that was how the Second World War began. The key decisions, the key decisions were made in Berlin. I think on that, I absolutely go with the consensus, which I think is exceptionally well documented. And Commander Crossfire says Russian jet shut down, Russia done. Was it hacked or what? Are you referring to the incident of the S-70 drone? Now, this is sort of super advanced stealth.

drone, which was flying over Toretsk in Ukraine, and it malfunctioned in some way. And so it was shot down by a Russian fighter jet, a Sukoy 57, stealth fighter jet. And there are huge amounts of speculations as to what happened, whether it was just because it was a new piece of equipment and something went wrong, and that's why it happened, you know, crash to earth in that way, or whether in the alternative the Americans and managed to hack it and it was being guided to some Ukrainian base in order to prevent it falling into American control. The Russians destroyed it. I don't know. I mean, nobody told me about these things. The Russian general staff presumably knows. The Russian Air Force knows. Putin presumably knows.

but they don't share that kind of information with me. Alan Shepard says just a bit of insight about Hezbollah. He is hated by half of the Lebanese people. They are the one we're opposing to elect new president, and they are the ones who stop investigation into corruption. Most of Lebanese and Syrian, Muslim Sunnis are celebrating in secret what Israel is doing to Hezbollah, as they have been involved in the civil war in Syria.

There is lots of problems and divisions in Syria, and there are lots of opponents of Hezbollah in Syria. There are also a lot of supporters of Hezbollah in Syria, getting a huge amount of information from people in Lebanon, and I've had lots of contacts with Lebanese people in London. Some of them, by the way, do not like Hezbollah, and a Lebanese friend in Switzerland, just to say. The general consensus, the general sense I get from all of these people is that Hezbollah has gone through ebbs and flows of its popularity, but at the moment its popularity is rising.

That's the consensus of information that I get in. Zareel says, great October start. Hello, gents, and have a good one. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Zareel. Thank you, sir. Ralph Steiner says, did the Americans give up when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell, when the Germans bombed pro harbor, hell no. And they aren't giving up now because when the going gets tough, question mark.

I'm a little bit confused. Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. But the Russians, if it's the Russians that you're referring to, they're not going to give up. If it's the Israelis you're referring to, well, at the moment, they're all. They're all in as far as I can see. And if you're talking about Iran and Hezbollah, it seems to me that they're determined to resist.

So there we go. I mean, that's, I think, the summary of the situation of the present time. Studio Raynor says, seriously, what the hell is Israel doing? Do the Arab states not realize without U.S. aid that they'd be conquered by Persia? Well, whether the Persians, the Iran, has the ability to conquer the Arab states, I very, very strongly doubt, if I have to say. And I think that they started that kind of operation, the global community would oppose it anyway.

And I don't get the sense that that's really what the Iranians are in for at the moment. Iran is widely overlooked, but 2023 up to October 7th had been for Iran a miracle year They'd got admitted into bricks. They'd signed major economic deals with the Chinese and the Russians. They'd achieved a rapprochement. With the Saudis, very important rapprochement for them. With the Saudis, their economy finally was starting to boom. Living standards were beginning to rise.

And every indication I have had, everyone suggests to me that the Iranians wanted to keep it that way. They wanted at least five years of peace and quiet so that they can develop all of these things and put their economy on a strong, stronger footing, consolidate the political situation in Iran itself, work out who the successor to Harmony is going to be. Remember, he's 85 and not particularly in good health,

and build up their armed forces. They were not looking for a conflict at this particular time, and they certainly didn't have any plans to conquer the whole of the Middle East, which is far beyond their resources to do, as they very well know. 437 TH-TH-1138 says the U.S. Military Industrial Complex is not going to give up that cash flow. How far will they go? I'm worried about it. Well, that is the big question that lies, you know, know, in the background, in all our programs, how far will they go?

What will the United States do? Will rational voices prevail? Will people in the United States understand that trying to maintain this kind of hegemonic system is bad for the United States and ultimately very dangerous? And will certainly fail in one form or another. Or will the United States take a turn? start to prioritize its own problems, in which case if it starts to do that, I'm confident that you can again prosper. This is the big unanswered question, and so much depends on how things develop in the United States and the elections that are coming.

Of course, are going to be an important message and also, you know, a pivot point. But, you know, I can't answer that question. Again, it's one of those. huge questions that is very difficult to give a simple answer to. Alan Shepard says, Alex, why are you still single? Time to find a lady and get married. This is addressed to me, Alex. Obviously. Well, you know, I mean, I got there. I got there in the end, but perhaps later, certainly a lot later in life that Alex is.

2025, Alan, 2025. I will make it happen. Thank you, Alan, for that. Nigel Greed says another interesting stream, lads. And finally, Studio Reiner says, oh, right, about World War II prior to Hitler, the Allies were all united against Stalin, but Stalin had spies everywhere. Its why France fell so easily.

It was already weakened. Well, I mean, Stalin did have spies in many places. He certainly had lots of spies in London, and as it turned out, he had lots of spies in Berlin as well, by the way. He wasn't always listening to the information his spies were giving him, as we now know. I think the collapse of France in 1940 is, again, one of those huge events, which changed the shape of history. And they had many, many different causes, most of which connected with a deep-seated crisis within French society, which I'm not going to talk about in a program now because this is a whole huge historical subject that we could talk about endlessly. But basically, France was still working through the major changes that had, during the French revolution. in the 1920s and 30s, there was still an awful lot of people in France with monochist sentiments

who resisted the revolution, the ideas of the revolution. There was a huge rise in communism, support for communism, major labour and working class unrest, all the same problems that afflicted other countries because of the Depression. And there was an ossification within the political system and within the military as well. And all of this cumulatively created a crisis in France, which meant that when the country found itself up against a dynamic adversary, which is what Germany at that time was, with enormous interest in technology, it simply wasn't ready to withstand what happened. But as I said, it wasn't just a question of spies, a few spies here and there. It was problems, deep structural problems within French society. And of course, the Germans had a part of play.

Ralph asks, does Israel have any spies in Washington, D.C.? I'm sure it does. Well, we all know it does. The big question is not whether they have spies in Washington, D.C. As by the way, one would expect them to do. I mean, given how important the relationship with the US is, I mean, the Israelis would be negligent. They were taking steps to find out what's going on in Washington,

even if it's not necessarily has to be done through spying, but they will have their own people in Washington, keeping them informed and briefed about what's going on. And that's understandable. The big question for me is, Does Washington have spies in Israel? Because I think it should do. I think it needs to be much better informed

about policymaking and decision making in Israel than it is. And I get the sense that Washington, not just the administration, but Washington generally, has very, very little idea and understanding of what is going on there. And from Samuel Moroni was the USSR collapse inevitable?

Could it be, could it have been avoided? I do think anything is ever inevitable in history. And I can imagine that things might have been done, which could have had different outcomes. But I get to say something, the Soviet Union of 1984 before Gorbachev came, that was unsustainable. as everybody, everybody, including the Soviets, including, you know, members of the Communist Party who opposed Gorbachev, all understood. The question was not whether there should be change. It was what direction that change should take.

Gorbachev took it in one direction. There were a lot of others who wanted to take it in a completely different direction. Maybe if they'd been, if they'd won out in the power struggle, in the Kremlin. They'd have that worked out better. But again, also, you always have to remember

that the Russian people also had their say. I mean, they were not just passive onlookers to what happens. They had agency too. And again, they were wanted changes and they wanted changes

of a particular kind. I doubt that in 1984 they would have wanted the union to Raqa. But, well, who knows? All right. On that note, we will end the live stream. Your final thoughts, Alexander, as I do a final check. We're in a pivotal time. I mean, this is a moment in history, which people are going to look back on, and they're going to look at and say, you know, all of these things were going on and people in the West were oblivious to them. And just as Bretton Woods was,

you know, the small meeting of people in this small town in the United States. And if you'd been following the news in 1944, if you've been reading all the newspapers in Germany and Britain and the United States, you might not know anything about Bretton Woods. You'd be interested in what's going on on the Eastern Front and the Western Front, the fight against Japan, and all of that. And in fact, Bretton Woods was a colossal event. I think it's going to be exactly the same with Kazan. We are rightly, heavily focused on, you know, the wars in Ukraine, in the Middle East. But what is going to happen in Kazan is at least as important.

And the fact that all of these wars are going on, even as this meeting, as this new restructuring of the economic system are taking place, these are connected events. They're all signs of the great transition that we're going through at the present time. And Commander Crossfire says Putin said the USSR collapse could have been avoided. Yeah, I know. Absolutely. And that's, you know, quite plausibly, he's right. I should say that the proposals for economic reform in the Soviet Union went back to before Stalin's time. We know quite a lot about what Stalin was up to in the last years of his life. And we know that he was planning a very extensive economic reform himself. He wanted to reintroduce market aspects into the economy. He wanted to move towards a gold-backed convertible ruble, though it's not exactly clear what that would have involved, but he wanted to introduce it by 1958. He already was seeing that there needed to be changed,

is even that far back. The problem was that his successors lacked his authority and weren't able to conduct reforms and never had a clear idea of what those reforms should be. And the final two questions, Alexander, final two super chats. Studio Reiner says first time in history, one year live genocide. It's like the Hunger Games. That's from Studio Reiner.

And from Ralph Steiner, no one saw World War III coming, right? Nobody saw it. But nobody saw World War I coming. Lots of people saw World War II coming. Just to say. So, you know, some of those people can see. can see wars coming. And from Tabernac getting high

on our own supply law of attraction is in a military or political strategy. Believe, conceive, achieve is for yoga, not world affairs. I completely agree. I totally agree. By the way, on the question of seeing wars coming, I just would point

out that we were saying back in August that was going to be a big smash in the Middle East. We said it. Just go back and watch our programs. And Studio Reiner says, Yerdy Bezimov,

the Cold War never ended. We are Soviets now. Well, it certainly feels like that. I mean, you know, with all the things that are going on in the United States, the information, the attempts to control information flows,

the hysteria, the denunciations, the trials, which aren't really trials, the court cases, which aren't really court cases. Those of us who studied Soviet history do indeed get a very profound sense of deja vu. And Aisha says, I'm a young Russian. I sort of support our foreign policy, but concerned about the censorship here. They banned all Western social media here, thoughts. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I also think it was a mistake, actually.

It was a mistake. It was a reaction as well. It was a reaction as well, which is we did a program a short time ago with Ian Proud, former British diplomat. He said that the Russians are very symmetrical in their thinking. He said the West does something. They tend to counter by doing the same thing back to the West. And sometimes that is

not actually a good idea. I think there would have been much better advised, leading things, basically as they were. Just say. Certainly with YouTube. Just to say. Well, yeah. If there was no banning in the collective West, there would not be, there would not be banning in Russia either. But still, I think that the banning was not the right move. Even though symmetrical, I don't think it was the right move. They could have done something else. They should have left the platforms open. Yeah. Jamila, Jamila says, great work, gentlemen. And quick question, why is why Russia is not going a little bit faster?

I ask this question all the time. I think that the Russians have developed their own idea about how to conduct the war, and I think that they feel that it's working well for them. It limits casualties. It prevents excessive political strains back home. It's also acceptable to their international backers, China, India, Brazil. they can work with the Russians whilst it is conducted in this way. And last but not least, and I think this is something that I hadn't myself thought about

until fairly recently, but last but not least, I think that by going slow now, it ensures that when the Russians achieve their victory in Ukraine, it will be a a total one, that resistance there will have been ground down to the point where further resistance beyond the wall becomes basically unthinkable. And Ralph Steiner says, did you just fall out of a coconut tree? According to Kamala Harris. All right. Well, yeah, we'll leave it there on Ralph's super chat.

Yeah, we will leave it there. All right. Thank you to Samuel Tram. for joining us on this live stream. Thank you to everyone that watched us on Odyssey, Rockfin, Rumble, YouTube, and the duran.orgals.com. Please join us on the durand.com. That is where you could find all of our work, just in case something happens.

You can find everything on our locals page. And what else, Alexander? I think that's it. That's it. You have anything else? No, I've got nothing else. Absolutely. Well, of course, absolutely.

Well, become moderators. But fascinating program, fascinating program about, as I said, an event that people are going to be writing about in 100 years time. Absolutely. And just as, you know, Keynes and Dexter White and all of those. Dexter White, by the way, was in contact with Soviet intelligence, just to say. But anyway, just as. As those people shape the world, we've always, we've known. Kazan, the people who meet Jaisankar and Putin,

Xi Jinping will, of course, also be there. And a beulina will remember their names decades from now. And people will be writing books about what happened because that's my firm view. Yep, hit the like button on your way out. Absolutely. hit that like button. All right. Take care, everybody.