The Duran Podcast - EU bluff called. Nuclear option to "loan" Russian assets

Episode Date: September 19, 2025

EU bluff called. Nuclear option to "loan" Russian assets

All right, Alexander, let's talk about the sanctions on Russia, the seizing of the Russian frozen assets, all of the schemes and the plots that are being talked about at the European Union headquarters to take those Russian frozen assets. We have Azelensky who is asking for $120 billion. That's over the next year or two. And the European Union wants to seize, creatively seize 170 billion. And we also have some interesting statements from Trump in his meeting with Stommer. And I think it would be interesting to hear your take on the meeting between US President

Trump and the British Prime Minister Kirstammer. So where would you like to begin? Well, I'm going to begin with the sanctions and with the confiscation of the assets and all of those things because I think we have just about now reached the end of the road. This particular circus has been on the road. Basically, since June 2014, that was when they really started to sanction Russia. They continued to sanction Russia more and more, even during the time of the so-called negotiations with the Minsk Agreement.

Virtually every month, new sanctions were imposed on Russian individuals. Sanctions were rolled over. We had the sectoral sanctions that were imposed on the Russian banking industry and on the Russian oil and gas industry. In June 2014, they were supposed to bring Russia crashing to a stop and all of that. I remember reading all about that. Then, of course, we had the massive sanctions escalation in February 2022 at the start of the Special Military Operation, the freezing of the assets. Then we've had more sanctions ever since. We've had 18 packages of sanctions.

We've had every conceivable thing thrown at Russia that they can throw. And I think now they've come to a point when they simply have run out of road. Closed flights, closed flights, airspace, closed media. And before you begin, Alexan just want to make one point. we said it a long time ago that when they get to the point of actually going after those frozen assets, that's how we will know we've come towards the end of this. So I just wanted to make that point. That's what we said many years ago when this whole frozen assets thing started.

Exactly. You got it exactly right. Now, let's, and you're quite right, and we did say it. And I think it's important that people remember that we did say. Now, let's just talk about the sanctions because there was supposed to be a 19th sanctions package. The idea was that the EU would impose certain sanctions of its own, but the really big sanctions would come from the United States. There would be sanctions against the Russian oil industry.

They would target the Russian shadow fleet. They would try to block exports of oil from Russia to countries like India and China. We know that the pressure was put on Trump to impose those sanctions. There were the threats made against India. There were the threats made against China. Sanctions tariffs, 25% tariffs on top of existing 25% tariffs were imposed on India. The Indians said we will continue to buy Russian oil. The Chinese said we will continue to buy Russian oil.

We're not going to let you interfere in our economic. relationships with third countries and certainly not with one of our valued BRICS partners. And in the case of China, they threatened an economic war, an economic war, which they would have stopped exports of rare earths. There are apparently already restrictions on exports of rare earths. Germania, which is apparently an essential product used in the defense industries and some of the high-tech industries is apparently in the process of running out. I was reading all about that in the Financial Times. The Chinese and the Indians called the Americans bluff, called Lindsay Graham's bluff,

because it was Lindsay Graham who came up with this particular idea. Nonetheless, the pressure was still on Trump to go ahead and do this, and Trump has now called the Europeans bluff, because Trump has said, look, I will do this. I will go for an all-out economic war with India and China and the entirety of bricks and perhaps much of the rest of the world. But I will only do that if you the European Union do as well. And the Europeans have been in complete silence publicly about this. But we're now getting dribbles of comments in Britain, in the British media.

in the French media, in Le Monde, in the Greek media also, by the way, in other media outlets as well, and the Europeans have decided that they simply cannot do this. They cannot impose massive tariffs on China. They cannot impose massive tariffs on India. They can't go after the Russian oil industry in the way that they were talking. They've even published quiet, squirreled away. commentaries, that they're not really that happy about the fact that the Ukrainians continue to conduct drone attacks on Russian oil refineries. So we can see the fault from wanting to stop

the Russian oil industry in its tracks. They understand completely that they can't do that. So they have now reached the end of the road. They have already been saying and admitting to each other, and articles have appeared about this also in both the American and the European media, that basically the European Union has done all it can from a sanctions perspective. And the Americans are not prepared to go full on into an economic war, not just with Russia, but most of the rest of the world as well. So we've come to the end of the road. And exactly as you said, given that we have.

have now reached the end of the road, given that the demands from Vladimir Zelensky for more and more money continue and continue to grow. What are they now doing? They're reviving again, that ancient idea which has been out there, basically since 2022, to seize the Russian assets. And they're coming up with all kinds of plans. And exactly, as you rightly said, they've are only doing that because the 19 sanctions package has had to be stopped indefinitely, apparently. They can't move forward with it because the Americans aren't moving. And the only thing they have left sees the Russian assets. The numbers change with every variation. I mean, we're getting different numbers all the time for how extensive these Russian assets are.

Getting lower and lower. Going lower and lower. And we'll come to that. We'll come to why that might be very soon, actually. Seize the Russian assets, cover Ukraine for perhaps a year. Because that's all that there would be if what Osceola is now proposing comes true. Seize the Russian assets, move on. That's all they have left.

And it's a sign that the sanctions war is almost at an end now. Yeah, citizens of the EU member states should not allow this seizure of the assets. It's going to destroy their countries. It's going to destroy my country. It's going to destroy wherever you're watching. If you're in Europe, the seizing of these assets, the stealing of these assets, this creative idea that they have, and you may want to go into that just a little bit, this creative idea that they're cooking up for taking these assets is going to destroy the financial situation,

not only of the European Union, but of the EU member states. And for what? For one more year of Zelensky in power, really? We want to destroy the European Union. The European Union member states, forget the European Union, the European Union member states. We want to destroy Greece and Italy and Cyprus and Germany and France and all these countries are going to be destroyed financially, just so you can keep Zelensky in as president for one more year. Really? I mean, really, that's what this is all about. And you're right. It's one more year. That's what they're going to get from this. One more freaking year. And everyone knows he's going to burn through this money, maybe even in six months. Yes. And then what's going to happen?

He's going to ask for more. Yes. Right? Yes. He's going to ask for more. So, you know, the plan that they're cooking up now according to the Financial Times is the Eurobonds and zero coupon bonds. The way I read it is that the member states, well, allegedly this bond issuance is going to be backed by the Russian frozen assets. I think that's pretty problematic right there. But the member states collectively are also going to guarantee this bond, this loan to Ukraine. And Ukraine doesn't need to pay back the money until Russia pays reparation. to Ukraine. And the only parties that are going to be willing to give this money to take part in this issuance are going to be the EU member states. So effectively, when you break it all down,

what we have here are the EU member states giving money to the European Union and the European union loaning that money to Ukraine and Ukraine never paying it back because Russia is never going to pay reparations. I mean, do I have this right? This is how I'm looking at this in a very simple way. Russia is winning the wall. Why is it going to pay reparations? I mean, the whole idea is ridiculous. Now, just before we get into the details of what you just discussed, it's important to make

one quick point. They are using Russian assets as security. These are Russian assets. They, in other words, belong to Russia. They do not belong to the EU. EU. You described it very well in a previous programme. We did about this. You're using somebody else's assets in order to take out a loan because that's what this is ultimately. So, you know, you want to, you want to get yourself a loan. So you take out a mortgage without the permission or knowledge

or agreement of the other person on the other person's house. This is ridiculous. It makes, absolutely no sense at all. It is it is absolutely wrong on its face. It is it falls by the way squarely within the British legal definition of theft which is appropriating property belonging to another acting as if you own it when you don't and using it for your own purpose which is exactly what this is. It is. And of course, the other thing to say, and this is an essential point to understand, and it's a legal point, but it's a simple legal point, which is that if you come up with all these complicated schemes in order to basically get your hands on somebody else's property, well, you're doing that because you know that what you're doing is wrong. In other words, if you just went

ahead and seized the assets and said to everybody, well, you know, we believe that we are entitled to do this, because the Russians have done X, Y, Z, and all of that. Well, you know, you might have a defense in terms of intent. You could say, well, I didn't actually realize that what I was doing was wrong. I thought what I was doing was right. But when you come up with a complicated, elaborate scheme, which this is, in order to conceal what you're doing, then you are simply highlighting.

your own guilty intent because honest people behave straightforwardly. It is people who are being corrupt, deceitful, dishonest who come up with schemes of this kind. And we know this because Euroclear, which is the main bank or depository, in which most of these assets is held, has come out quite publicly, repeatedly said this is wrong. This cannot happen. It is completely illegal. You shouldn't do this. Apparently, the entire banking industry across the EU are saying the same thing.

There have been endless attempts to find lawyers who will say, well, you know, this is perfectly legal. You can do it. You can seize these assets. You will always find some lawyers who will do that. But not one that I'm aware of has said you can do it on the basis of this kind of skin. I mean, every lawyer that every lawyer that I've read, and they are a very, very tiny minority who say that you can actually seize Russian assets, say you can actually seize Russian assets. Come back into my previous point.

If you are doing this complicated scheme, it means that you don't believe these lawyers' advice. That's what it means. So, anyway, we are exactly. As you said, heading for the worst of all worlds, because we're going to take these assets of security for a loan, for which European taxpayers are going to be liable. Ukraine will never repay that loan. They will never repay that loan. And to the extent that the security is there, the Russian assets, that that security still,

and always belongs to Russia. And using security, using somebody else's assets in the way that is being proposed is already illegal and we are liable as countries and as financial systems in the EU for the misuse of these assets in this way. It is not a clever scheme. It is the worst of all worlds, and it will absolutely destroy the credit worthiness of the European financial institutions, maybe not creditworthiness as measured by the credit ratings agencies, but as the real people in the markets, the people who are likely to deposit their funds in European depositories, the big governments in the Middle East, the Saudis, the Emirates, people like that. They will look at this and they will say Europe cannot be trusted. Europe is not a responsible place in which to put money.

We're going to reduce our dealings with Europe. We're going to reduce our dealings with the euro. The euro has already lost credibility anyway. It is now the third most used global financial asset behind the dollar and gold. and people are going to pull out of the euro and you're absolutely correct it will probably be a relatively slow burn but this is going to be a disaster

for Europe and for its people and by the way just to say something else something which you are very familiar with more familiar with than I am but you know about it from Cyprus if they're prepared to misuse other people's money in this kind of way well they can do it to you

They did it to Cyprus. They did it in Cyprus back due the financial crisis there. They dipped into people's accounts and took money out of those accounts. Then they've now done it or proposing to do it on a far bigger scale. Sooner or later, they will do it more and they will do it further because when this kind of practice starts, it gets worse and worse. and there is no stop. So this is a terrible thing that has been proposed. The people of Europe, as you absolutely rightly say, should be protesting.

The governments of Europe should be protesting. The important governments, far from protesting, incredibly, bizarrely, inconceivably, are giving every sign of wanting, something like this to happen, and all so that Vladimir Zelensky can remain in Kiev for another year burning through all that money every bit as fast as you say and probably faster still. Is this a way to get to Eurobonds? Of course it is.

Because Germany has always been against the idea of Eurobonds and some other countries as well, Finland, the Netherlands. They have not liked the idea of. of supported the idea of Eurobonds. Now you have Germany supporting this bond, this war bond, to Ukraine. But in effect, it is also a way to get one step closer to actually moving towards zero bonds, which is something the European Union has been wanting to do. The globalist core European Union

leaders have been wanting to do this since the EU's inception. And much of the global south, much of the European South has also wanted to have Eurobonds put into effect because obviously everything is done collectively so they'll be able to really ramp up the borrowing.

But it will most likely be the countries like Germany, which will have to pay for all of this. Well, that's what the people in the South think. They, they delude themselves by thinking that if Eurobonds are introduced, there will be the beneficiaries, and we're starting to get fiscal transfers, because that's what Eurobonds are all about, fiscal transfers from the rich north to the poorer South. It's not going to work out like that. That isn't the way it's going to work at all. Because remember, Eurobonds, the European Union has discretion ultimately as to the way the funds that are going to be produced and the Eurobonds are going to be used. But amongst the people who are going to be liable to repay these Eurobonds are the people who are there in the Southern Europe every bit as much as in Northern Europe.

That is the nature of the thing. So yes, the Germans initially are going to carry the bigger burden. But as this whole process develops, ultimately everybody is going to be affected. And just as I said, just a moment ago, this is one route to getting possession of your funds because the euro bonds will have to be repaid. They will have to be repaid by governments. Governments are going to have to repay them. by increasing taxes.

Eventually, sooner or later, inevitably, that will lead to demands for the European Union itself to set up its own tax system, its own tax inspectors. We can know exactly where this is heading and they will be wanting to know what's in your accounts and what your money is and you'll be paying taxes to Germany if you're German and France, if you're French, but you will also be paid taxes directly to the European Union. So a whole new layer of taxation is going to be inflicted on top of you with tax, police, and all of those things that you find in every other place. So this is where this is ultimately going to lead to.

And of course, this is exactly what the European Union has always wanted, because it takes them one big, massive step further towards. consolidating their position as effectively the government of Europe. And they're not going to spend the money in the way people in the EU think. They're not going to help Italy sort out its debt problems or sort out Greece's debt problems. They're going to spend their money on the things they want to do on European armies, on rearmament, on infrastructure projects which benefit their friends, on that kind of thing.

Absolutely not the kind of thing that the people of Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Malta, the various Baltic, Balkan regions of countries the way that they would want

that money to be spent. And because it's going to be so expensed centrally by the European Union, it's important to repeat again that the people of these countries have no way of holding the people at the center to account for the way the money is spent. It's a perfect plan, huh?

It's a perfect plan. And it's all going to be done with the digital euro as well. Absolutely. So, yeah, Russia and China, they announced that they're going to be setting up a euro-clear competitor. So, well, so that's an interesting development. Let's, yeah. Why? I'm not unexpected.

And you think this is all chance? You think this is coincidence that this has happened now? Of course. And they're going to get a lot of business. Of course they are. They're going to get a lot of business. I mean, the Gulf states, I predict they're going to transfer all their funds steadily out. They would do it one, you know, immediately in one go.

But they will do this increasingly. They will transfer their funds into this depository because it's safe. The one in Europe isn't. And now we all know. Yeah. Okay, so let's shift gears and talk about Trump and Kier Stommer. Yeah. One interesting thing that Trump is saying when it comes to sanctions is that the Europeans,

because I'm including the UK in this as well, since he was in the UK meeting with Kirstammer, the Europeans, they have to stop buying Russian oil. Once Russian oil, once the price of oil in general, Russian oil is low enough, according to Trump, the war ends. That's what he said. Once the price is low, the war ends. But in order for that to happen, the Europeans have to stop buying Russian oil. Once they stop buying Russian oil, then Trump said that he will also place sanctions on Russia. He hasn't said what exactly he's going to do when it comes to sanctions against Russia.

No one has asked them either. What exactly are going to be these sanctions that you're going to place on Russia, these major sanctions? But anyway, that's what he's saying now. and a lot of people view this as as Trump's way of being done with the whole thing. Well, I think it is because, I mean, it's not going to happen, at least in any sane world. It's not going to happen. And bear in mind, he seems to be including in Europe countries like Turkey, which, of course, are not in the EU, and Turkey and Erdogan follow their own policy.

Turkey imports 57% of it's all from Russia now. They're not going to give that up. And it is inconceivable that Erdogan, who has spent the last 20 years building up a strong economic relationship with Russia, at a time when Turkey's economy is under perennial stress is going to sabotage all of that by stopping buying Russian oil. And of course, the extraordinary thing is Trump talks about, you know, lowering the oil price. when of course as Trump clearly himself knows, what he's proposing would actually increase the oil price. Because if the Europeans stop buying Russian oil, if Russian oil is taken off the markets, how can that you're reducing supply and how can that given stable demand, how could that reduce the price? It's going to increase the price.

Of course, what he says is that the United States will make up the difference. But we already know that oil and gas output in the United States is at a plateau and that the price of US oil and gas on European markets is much higher than the price of Russian oil and gas is on European markets. So what he's proposing, I mean, I'm sure he knows this. and he's talking to Tung Chi. But what he's proposing is would not, if it was ever carried out, lower the price of oil.

It would increase it. We probably would see a reduction in oil trades, but the Russians would still be able to sell oil to India and China and other countries. And that would happen against a background of oil shortages and an increase in the price of. oil. So it's likely that the Russians would make more money, not less. That's the way the market actually works. And of course, with oil becoming a more valuable commodity, despite all of the attempts to clamp down on the shadow fleet and all of that, the so-called shadow fleet,

I mean, you've discussed this many, many programs. We've discussed this in many programs. There isn't such a thing. It's just a misunderstanding of how the shipping world works. But the point It sounds good. It sounds good. It looks as I said, Pirates of the Caribbean style style thing. But anyway, put that aside, the point is, as Russian oil becomes a more valuable cargo in conditions of a worldwide energy shortage, you're going to find even more ship owners willing to ship Russian oil because the business is going to become more profitable. And I know now various companies that are around the world that are prepared to provide insurance, even for the most risky parts of this trade, the most complicated parts of this trade, says there will be no problem doing it, just to say. Yeah, and it's interesting that Trump is now saying China.

It's about stop the purchase of Russian oil from China. Two weeks ago, it was stop the purchase of Russian oil from India. Now it's shifted to China. Anyway, yeah, we understand what this is all about. How would you rate the meeting between Trump and Stammer? What were your thoughts on it? Well, again, and this is something that Stammer perhaps ought to thought about before he invited Trump. Any meeting between Trump and Stammer is going to shift all of the attention away from Stammer

on to Donald Trump. I mean, he's been in the UK. He dominates any meeting with Stama. He's obviously the person who is dominant and in control. It just makes Stama look like a lesser, more inconsequential politician, which is, of course, exactly what he is. I mean, it's not the same dynamic that you used to have, say, between Reagan and Thatcher, when they were clearly partners.

or God help me, Bush and George W. Bush and Tony Blair. Again, I mean, it was uneven. But nonetheless, you know, they did look partners. They did look some, you know, as if Bush did at least listen to what Blair was saying. I mean, Trump has come to Britain. He's been with the king. he's met the soldiers in Windsor and all of that. He's had all of the usual things that the British are very good at laying out,

but he has dominated the images. He's clearly enjoyed himself. I think Trump has, I mean, he generally likes this sort of thing, and I think he's enjoyed himself. But politically, nothing has changed. There's been no shift or change of direction in US policy. There's some talk about Britain and the United States forming an AI alliance. We have no AI to speak of in Britain.

It's the idea that Britain has anything to bring to this table is ridiculous. I mean, I'm overstating things. But we are talking about an AI colossus on the one hand, which is the United States. And a country, Britain, which, let's be polite, is not very significant in this field. So again... We don't have the energy. We don't have the energy. Exactly. We don't have the energy. We don't have the, we don't have the, we don't have the, well, we've got nothing here. And we've got, we've got some good mathematicians and some clever people. And if we had a government that was focused on sorting out these things, maybe in a couple of years' time, we might have something to offer there. But we don't know. And Kier Stama's absolutely not the prime minister who's going to offer it. So we have those kind of things going on. But Stama,

This isn't helping him. He's party, the Labour Party, doesn't like Donald Trump, unsurprisingly. So they don't like the fact that Stama is with Trump all the time. And every day now I get more and more reports. I learn more and more things about the fact that the plotting to replace Stama is intensifying. More and more people are meeting. There's been more and more conversations being had. people are saying, because they were saying it just a week ago that he's got until May,

more and more people are coming to understand that May is really too far. And there's some talk that it will be much sooner than this. Yeah, just a final quick question. Maybe Stommer's goal in all of this was to take away attention from himself, understanding that Trump was going to take up all of the media and all the talk in the UK. and Stommer can just kind of sit back, at least for a couple of days, and not have any focus on him? Well, it's interesting that you said that. Now, the first thing to say is that this invitation was first extended to Trump in February,

which is, of course, a different world in politics and geopolitics. But over the last two weeks, as Stommer's political position has imploded, you have have had people close to him saying exactly what you have just said, that this comes at a very good moment for Stama, because he's the prime minister, nobody's going to move against him whilst he's hosting the president of the United States. So it gives Stama a couple of days of relative quiet and control, where he can sort himself out, put the disasters of the last couple of weeks, the Angela Rainer affair, the Peter Mandelson affair, the fact that he's lost another one of his key advisors and yet another scandal. I'm not going to get into the details of

that scandal. And the fact that everything's going wrong and the economy, all of those things, he's going to be able to put all of that behind him, the fact that he's relaunch, believe it or not, he was trying to relaunch just two weeks ago. It's just catastrophic. It's just catastrophic. We could put that aside. We have all of these wonderful pictures of Trump in Britain with Stama, Trump with the King, all of those things. My own view is that far from helping Stama, it does the opposite. As I said, it again demonstrates to the British people that up against Trump, Stama is a zero. I know that's never a good look. Secondly, it annoys people within his Labor Party, who for reasons, which are not difficult to explain, I mean, the Labor Party in Britain

is very, very close to the Democrats in the US. And I mean, you know, the absolute mainstream Democrats, the Biden-Harris, Schumer Democrats, I mean, they're not happy at all to see their prime minister with Trump. So I think it's reinforced hostility to him within the Labor Party. And of course, the people of Britain are completely unimpressed, and some of them are listening to things that Trump is saying. Trump is not popular here, but he does say things from time to time that cut through, like saying, why don't you use the army in the way that I'm using the army or to control the border and things of that, or at least, you know, the security forces to control the border. That isn't the kind of thing that Stama wants the U.S. president to be saying at all.

especially not when the US president is here. So that's the situation at the moment in Britain today. I think this visit, well, it's given, as I said, Stum, a few quieter days, but he's not going to be able to capitalize on it in any way, on the contrary, for him it's a minds. All right, we will end the video there, the durand.locals.com. We are an X and telegram and rumble and go to the ranch shop, pick up some merch like what we are wearing in this video update. There's a link in the description box down below.

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