The Duran Podcast - EU fantasy to weaken Russia. Energy strikes continue

Episode Date: May 2, 2026

EU fantasy to weaken Russia. Energy strikes continue

All right, Alexander, let's talk about what is happening with Project Ukraine. What is going on with the 90 billion gift that they are going to be receiving from Europe any day now? We have the fast track of Ukraine into the European Union, which has hit a stumbling block. But Zelensky is pushing hard for the EU to accept Ukraine by 2007, 2007, 2008. Many EU member states are not so hot on the idea. And then, of course, we can talk very briefly about what is happening on the front line, if you like, and go over that a little bit. Anyway, let's start off, I guess, with the diplomacy and the money and all that stuff.

Or do you want to go to the front line? No, let's talk first about the loan, because you're absolutely correct. They've now got this 90 billion euro loan. and as you've I think mentioned on X, it's increasingly looking as if 20 billion euros of it is going to come from Germany and it's going to go directly from Germany to Ukraine, which looks like the Germans are cutting up completely, all questions are going to the bond markets, financial markets and things of this kind. My increasing senses that this is going to be a direct,

financial transfer from Germany to Ukraine, Barryma, Ukraine, only in line to get 30 billion euros anyway, is the Germans give Ukraine 20 billion euros. That's two-thirds of Ukraine's actual allocation from the loan. And it's not a loan because Ukraine will never pay it back. Russians will never pay reparations. Mertz determined to keep project Ukraine going, obsessed with conflict with Russia, is going to give Ukraine, or so it looks to me, 20 billion euros dressed up as a loan.

I have to say this, it's looking to me like a confidence trick played on the German people. That's how this whole thing is starting to shape out. And given the kind of obsession that Metz has, that should not surprise us. I don't know whether you have a different view, but that at the moment is mine. No, no different view. Germany is on the hook. We'll get into Germany in a different video. Yeah, yeah.

But they're already implementing austerity. Yeah. Austerity measures, while at the same time they're going to be giving tens of billions of euros to Zeletsky, which is money disappeared. Or at least a part of that money is going to go to the MIC, which is Merch's pet project is to build up the military, to give contracts to military companies. Yes.

I mean, dare I say it, this is what you'd expect from Mr. BlackRock, the kind of chancellor of that he is. But I'm going to say something else. I think it's the sort of accounting trick, and this is a very shabby accounting trick, there can only really be played once. I think the mood in Germany, and I'm in touch with people in Germany,

I think the mood in Germany is hardening, and I don't think they'll be able to pull this one off a second time. That's my view. Obviously, there is an enormous momentum, even within Germany, to keep this whole thing on the road and going. but that's my sense. As you said, we will get to talk about Germany in another program.

Suffice to say that he does look as if Zelensky over the next couple of weeks is indeed going to get a lot of money, though nowhere near as much as he wants. And as we discussed in a previous program, he's coming back for 19 billion euros more. Because with Zelensky, however much you give him, it is. never enough. Now, the other big thing that's happening is that we've now reached that point where the European Union is being asked by Ukraine, by Zelensky, to fulfill its promise. The Ukrainians are now banging on the door and they're asking for EU membership. and they want EU membership now.

And this is absolutely crucial because this entire conflict, this whole crisis began, not because of Ukraine's desire to enter NATO. If you go back, say, to 2008, when the idea of Ukraine joining NATO was floated at the the Budapest summit meeting, the NATO summit meeting in Budapest. Most Ukrainians, the vast majority of Ukrainians at that time, were not interested in joining NATO. What they were interested in, what they were constantly told, what they were endlessly promised was EU entry. And as I remember, and of course, as you remember, this whole crisis, the original Maidan crisis began in 2013 over an association agreement between the EU and Ukraine, whereby Ukraine, agreed ultimately to join the EU single market and to put its entire economy. on a footing where it was abiding by EU regulations, the famous ACI, the system of laws that

the European Union has. And this was absolutely seen and understood by people in Ukraine to be a pathway and a promise to eventual EU membership. And the whole issue, what gave the whole protest movement in 2013-2014 traction, which led to the collapse of the Yanukovych government, the arrival in power of the regime, which basically is still there today, was this issue of joining the EU. In fact, the Maidan protests at the time were called Euro-Maidan. And there were flags of the EU all over the place, all over my down square. And as I'm sure you remember, I think you saw more of them than I did. There were all sorts of films being produced by the EU about the glittering life that Ukrainians would have if Ukraine did join the EU.

And all of this. Well, I think what is now becoming clear is that as Ukraine demands, EU entry, there is actually significant, perhaps overwhelming pushback from the member states, the existing member states against EU membership from Ukraine. That is coming even from people like maths. And I think what is becoming now impossible to deny is that the promises. of EU membership that was extended to Ukraine back in 2000s and especially in 2013 was never intended sincerely.

It was always a bait to create trouble between Ukraine and Russia. And it was intended basically to destroy the relationship between Ukraine and Russia. And that at this particular time, today in other words, the priority for the EU is not to get Ukraine into the European Union. It is to continue the war in Ukraine with Russia to prevent the Ukrainians from coming to terms with the Russians. And that is all that they are interested in where Ukraine is concerned. Just as the 90 billion euro loan is turning to be a confidence trick on the German people. So the prospect of EU membership is a confidence trick on the Ukrainian people. And for some people in Ukraine, perhaps they might start to ask themselves at this point,

What was it all for in the end? What was all this nightmare that Ukraine has gone through over the last 10 plus years? What ultimately was it all for if, as is starting to look, possible, Ukraine is not going to become a member of the EU soon. And if it does not become a member of the EU soon, that means it will never become a member of the EU. ever. Well, we've been saying for a while now that it's ridiculous to incorporate Ukraine

into the European Union, even if you didn't have all the issues with Russia, the conflict, even if you didn't have Maidan, Ukraine was simply not ready to join the EU. If you go by the EU's requirements, Ukraine would need, from 2014, Ukraine would have needed 30, 40 years to get its economy, its fiscal policy, it's judicial, all of that stuff in line with the requirements to enter the EU. But the EU no longer admits based on those requirements, really. It's more of, as you've said many times, a geopolitical project. So the number one requirement now to enter the EU is, do you hate Russia?

Yes. Do you want conflict with Russia? And it doesn't mean you're going to get into the EU, but they'll dangle that carrot in front of you, as long as you fulfill that requirement. So Ukraine says yes, we despise Russia. We'll go to war with Russia. Will we get into the EU? Well, here's the carrot. We'll dangle it in front of you, but just keep on fighting. Moldova the same. They do the same thing. Serbia, Serbia, the same, by the way. Serbia doesn't want to fight Russia. No, I know, I know. But they say all the time to people in Serbia. You know, if you want to join the EU, you're absolutely welcome.

Russia. Hey, you have to hate Russia. And the Serbs say, hell no. The Serbs are like, hell no, hate Russia. We love Russia. The Serbs, the Serbs are far more sophisticated and have a much better understanding of what the EU is really about than the Ukrainians do. I mean, people by the EU. The Ukrainians fell for this one, hook, line, and sink. Yeah, exactly. In everything you have just said, you are completely correct. Moldova and Ukraine entering the EU, really? I mean, even if we were having this discussion 10 years ago

and I were to tell you, hey, what do you think about Ukraine and Moldova entering the EU? You'd probably laugh. You'd probably like, come on, it's ridiculous. It's not going to happen for 30, 40 years. I mean, there are countries in the EU, which really shouldn't be into the EU when you think about it, right? They messed around with the books in order to enter the EU.

And it's caused all kinds of problems, hasn't it? Absolutely. Anyway, so Ukraine got duped. The Ukrainian people got duped with the promise of entering the EU and the globalist political class. They got what they wanted, which is a conflict with Russia. Which they want to sustain and prolong. That was my question.

That's all the thing. So how do they do that? How do they continue to dupe the people and the leadership? into believing that there's a pathway to the European Union while keeping them motivated and committed to destroying themselves. Yes. On behalf of the globalist political class in Europe. And of course, all of this is being done because there is the thought that by 2030 plus or

minus, if Ukraine continues to fight Russia, Russia will be significantly weakened and will make it a lot easier for the collective West and for Nican. or to just kind of stroll right into Russia and take it over. Well, indeed. Well, how do they continue? How do they keep this thing going? Well, I can say straightforwardly, by continuing to do that which they have done to the Ukrainians since, well before 2013, 2014, by continuing to lie to them, to tell them, yes, you know,

we do absolutely want you in the EU. You have to just do a few things here and a few things there. and obviously you have to win the war with the Russians first, and we're all behind you on that. We need to get what King Charles, our British King, said to the US Congress a just and lasting peace in Ukraine, which means, in other words, a Ukrainian victory. You have to go out there and fight and die,

because when you do, then you've got this promise. We absolutely assure you that you will get EU membership. membership then. Now, I do think Matt's has no intention of getting the EU into, sorry, Ukraine into the EU. He doesn't want to pay the checks for Ukraine, definitely. I mean, he wants the right checks, lots of checks, but not for Ukraine, ultimately. I mean, it's ultimately for, well, people closer to himself, if I could say that. So I do myself, I'm coming around to the view that Ukraine is never going to join the EU, actually. But it will always be dangled in front of it.

And there will always be, and this is the ultimate tragedy, there will always be a very vocal constituency in Kiev especially, who will basically from the NGOs, who will go on demanding that the fight against Russia be prolonged, be intensive. because the ultimate reward, which is EU membership, remains there. So I'm afraid the deception is going to continue to work. Now, that's the tragedy of Ukraine. The paradox of this is that, of course, there's also now a change in that the Russians until recently have always said, look, we don't object to Ukraine joining the EU. Maybe the Russians figured out long ago that the reality was that Ukraine would never join the EU. But at the time of the Istanbul agreement in 2022, April 22, four years ago, in other words,

they said, you know, Ukraine can join the EU. We're even prepared to support its membership in. As we've discussed in recent programs, the Russians now are starting to say, No, this cannot happen. The EU and NATO have merged. Lavrov recently said that it's a single bureaucracy in Brussels, that the NATO and EU bureaucracies are now, have now unified. And though they haven't yet made a final statement about this, we are coming close to the

point when they will. Now, in a kind of a way, that helps the EU, because they can come to the Ukrainians that say, look, it's not we who are holding back on your aspiration to join us. It's the Russians. So that must mean that you continue, you must continue fighting. You must continue to lay down your lives in tens of thousands, because until you beat the Russians, you can't join. So this hardening of the Russian position may paradoxically have the effect on making this deception that the Europeans are practicing on the Ukrainians easier to practice. Just saying. No, I agree. I was going to say the same thing, actually.

If the Russians come out with a hard statement, like the NATO statement and say, look, the NATO, the EU, same thing. The EU is building a military in order to go to war with Russia. We're not going to stand by and watch Ukraine join the EU. There's no difference between the EU and NATO. If they do say that, then, yeah, the EU, they're going to use that against Russia. And they're going to use that in order to convince Ukraine to continue to fight Russia. So what the Russians should do is they should come out and say, you know, what, we fully support Ukraine joining the European Union. I'm kind of saying that in a bit of a joking way.

But it's, you know, it could be a strategy. I think the best thing for Russia to do is not to say anything, I guess, when it comes to Ukraine joining the EU. I mean, they have the NATO statement and they should just leave it at that. And to be honest, would even if the Russians did say if Putin or Medvedev, Medvedev has said it. Yes, posted about the EU. I don't think Putin has said anything definitive. But if there was a statement to say, look, no more EU for Ukraine, I don't think anyone

would take it seriously anyway. I mean, a warning like that wouldn't be heated by anybody coming from Putin or Medvedev at this point. Well, well, the Europeans still insist that Ukraine is on an irreversible path towards NATO. So, I mean, they still reject Russia's red line on NATO membership. They would reject Russia, certainly reject Russia's red line on EU membership. I mean, it's all going to make any difference at all, practically. So probably, you're right, probably the best strategy for the Russians is to say nothing.

And there might be a discussion about this. But anyway, there we are. I mean, this is extremely shabby. I mean, Shabby's not the right word. I mean, it is hypocrisy and deception and cruelty taken to an almost ultimate level. I mean, there's been nothing like this since the end of the Second World War in Europe to lure a country, a whole nation, to self-destruct simply so that you can act outside. kind of fantasy of weakening Russia is, I mean, there is, there is no word I can, I can find or think of which can describe properly how bad it is.

If anybody wants to have, it has been in any doubt up to now about the kind of people who run the EU, well, I think this, this should really settle the issue. One day the Ukrainians will realize the extent of the deception that has been practiced on them. No, they will. I mean, people do eventually. It will take them a long time. They're nowhere close to that point. But one day they will.

And, well, it would be interesting. It'll be interesting to see how they feel and respond about it. But in the meantime, the war goes on. The fighting continues. It's going despite all the drone attacks. on Troopset and all of these places in Russia. Another one. Another one, absolutely. Number four. All of these drone attacks, all of that going on, on the actual battle lines. In terms of the casualties, Ukraine continues to bleed and die. And I do mean bleed and die.

Reports appearing yesterday that the garrison in Constantine of Canal is almost surrounded. And I think that is true. Pictures of emaciated soldiers in the Kupiansk area where they had been surrounded before. Reports in Sumi region of that city gradually being encircled by the Russians as well. It's a long drawn-out destruction of a European nation, but that's how the war will go on. And as for all these attacks, these drone attacks, on Russia, I've discussed them in many places. In my opinion, they're pinpricks. I've already said, in my opinion, that the reason that Tuatse was not particularly well defended is because I think that there have been American interests involved.

Duatse, the refinery, I should make this clear, the refinery and the port at Tuatse are fully owned. by Rosneft, the Russian state monopoly. But Rosneft, the Russian oil export company, which is state-owned, had very close connections before the war, before the Ukraine crisis with the American oil industry. To upset was being used to export oil from Central Asian producers, which means basically Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. I think that the oil, a lot of the oil that went going through to upset was being labeled, whether it really was, is another question completely, was being labeled as American, as, you know, coming from these countries.

And I think the Americans had a stake in it. And I think for that reason, the air defense isn't too upset were not particularly strong because the Russians didn't expect that it would ever be attacked. I think that's the story of Tuatse. It's been very embarrassing for the Russian authorities, but it is not going to change the course of the war. Well, it's embarrassing, and it also points to the fact that once again, Putin appears to have been duped by the United States or by the West,

because he's thinking, if we go by by, your theory, he's thinking, well, we have a kind of understanding that because this oil refinery is connected to the West or to the United States, they're not going to touch it. In other words, the United States is not going to provide the targeting data to hit this part of the Russian Federation, which that in and of itself is pretty messed up when you think about it. But there you go. The United States says, no, we have no problem providing the targeting targeting data to hit to opposite to the Ukrainian drones? Well, indeed.

I think one of the things that the Russians have not fully understood, and they're not the only people, by the way, is that within the current administration in Washington and within the American political elite, quite apart from all the geopolitical factors, there is a very, very aggressive, very hard-nosed attitude, which is that you start. all energy exports pretty much by everyone, because that will leave the US alone in the game. So, oil from Kazakhstan, oil from Azerbaijan, assuming that it is being exported through too upset, which I believe it was. Well, some American companies, some American business people might have had an interest in it,

But ultimately, it is competing on global markets with oil that is produced in the United States. So for that reason, you want to stop it, just as you want to stop oil being exported from everywhere else. Now, I'm not saying that this is a universal view within the United States, but I think it is a powerful one. And I think it also has, well, I mean, it's the one that, you know, if you have a block of people, who think in that way, you can easily see how they and the neocons and the intelligence agencies could come together and make this kind of combine and hit economic targets in that way. I do think it's just Putin who doesn't get this, by the way. I mean, bear in mind, Putin is the president of Russia. Whether he actually knows what the air defense situation

in a place like Tu Upps, there actually is, whether this is something, you know, that he's, yeah, whether he comes along and talks to Bella Ousef or wherever it is he talks to and says, have we made, taken precautions to provide air defenses around two upsets? I mean, I don't know whether that conversation has ever taken place up to now. But I'm going to make a guess. I think quite plausibly the people who were giving advice to the military to keep air defences away from too upset. Probably wasn't Putin himself, though inevitably he's going to be blamed for it. My guess is it was Rosneft.

Rosnev says, look, we have this relationship, this historic relationship, with the American Don't start bringing in your head offences here because if you do that, you're going to make us into a target because that will draw Ukrainian attacks. We don't need you because we have this longstanding relationship with the Americans. We talk to them still. I know that they do, by the way. I know that companies like Rosneft have been talking to the Americans. And I also know that the Kremlin has actually given warnings to Russian companies, not to stop doing that, but to be very, very careful about engaging these sort of contacts and not to try to engage in any sort of diplomacy without the Kremlin's position. But, you know, Rosnov, I can see how they might have said to the Russian military.

We don't want you here. Stay away. This place is not going to be attacked. If you start coming here, you bring us into the war, and we don't want to be there. And Rosneft might not have understood that they're talking to the wrong Americans. Attacked four times at one week. Well, there you go. It's absurd.

Well, now it's different. Now there will be, now there will be a change. and there will be those arrangements made. But again, knowing Russia, and I have to say this, knowing Russia, I suspect that this is what has been happening there. It makes more sense to me than the assumption that, you know, Putin was discussing with, you know, Trump or whoever and telling the military, you know, don't worry about to upset, I have this understanding with Trump.

You see, this is, I think, something people do need to understand. Putin is not in control of everything in Russia. Joseph Stalin, it would have been completely different, by the way. If it had been Joseph Stalin, absolutely, he would have insisted, I want everything defended. And if you didn't defend it, well, you'd be off to Siberia or worse. I mean, that is the way the Soviet Union in the 1940s worked. But today's Russia is very different place. Well, you know, you can make the same argument for President Trump as well, for any leader.

Yeah. They can't control everything. But the fact of the matter is is that they are the leader, they are the president or the prime minister of a country. And when a debacle like this occurs, they absolutely should get the blame because they're sitting in the chair. one time, okay, two times, okay, but four times in the last week. It shows a level of incompetence. There's something wrong. Without a doubt, there is something wrong. And Putin better get on top of it. That would be my thinking. If I was in Putin's chair, I would be saying, I better get on top of this and figure out what the hell is going on. And I have a sense that the leadership in the Kremlin should just start to make a decision.

Do they want to win this war or do they want to try and please all sides? We have to be good with Trump. We have to be good with the oil oligarchs. We have to be good with these people and bricks and China. And also, let's not forget about keeping the door open for our. European partners, maybe in the future, they're going to come around and come to their senses again. You know, there's a sense of indecisiveness.

And this is just my opinion, my sense of things. I still feel like there's looking at the situation from afar, and I am afar. I'm very far away. So, you know, keep that in mind. But there's an indecisiveness there after four years of this. It still appears to be an indecisiveness. And you have a saying. I mean, you said in the past before that, you know, you can't serve or if you try to please

everybody, you please know. You please. That's the sense that I'm getting still of this Kremlin administration. Yes. Yes. Well, I think the first thing to say is on the front lines, there's no sign of any decision. I mean, there, as I said, it is a remorseless lava flow that just keeps flowing. and doesn't look like it's going to stop.

And in terms of negotiations, I mean, first of all, there aren't any. I mean, I think that's an important thing to say. And as I've discussed many times, if you go back to Putin's various statements, I mean, he's never given an inch that we know about. I mean, the June 14th, 2024, Istanbul plus demands. have never been watered down. There is this mystery as to what was actually agreed in Anchorage. But my sense about Anchorage increasingly is that Anchorage was a case of the Americans making concessions, not the Russians. And maybe the Russians did agree some kind of scheduling issues.

In other words, the Ukrainians would first withdraw from Dombas and then they'd be a pause. And then they would withdraw from Zaporosia and her son was something of that kind. But it doesn't seem to me from everything I've seen that they negotiated everything, anything substantive. Now, in all other respects, well, firstly, you're absolutely right. Putin is the president. The buck has to and does ultimately always stop with him. If something goes wrong in a place like Tuwasa, you know, the time. it is he who is going to be criticized because irrespective of who made the decisions and who

acted in any particular way, he must take the responsibility because he stands for the entire leadership of Russia. That is the nature of politics. Any political leader who has any seriousness about them understands that. I think that there are actually. At this particular moment of time, there is going to be, and there probably almost certainly already is, a lot of anger and recrimination and discussions within the leadership about the situation atu-ups. At the same time as Putin was talking to Trump the other day, Medvedev was issuing a ferocious message of his statement of his own, in which he made perfectly clear that he thought

the Americans were the enemy and all of that. I think that kind of discussion does take place. But in terms of indecision, I think, again, it's something people have to understand. It's like Putin, it is keeping this entire huge country moving steadily in that kind of direction. Putin cannot simply ignore the oil oligarchs. He cannot simply ignore the bricks. He has to keep all of these constituencies at least feeling that he is listening to them and is paying attention to what they do. Because he needs to keep everybody moving in the same direction.

Now, if you're looking at Russian history, another example, another example, of this is a Russian ruler with whom Putin, by the way, identifies, and he's discussed this many times, who was Tsar Alexander, the Tsar who defeated Napoleon. He too was relentlessly criticized for being weak, for being decisive for failing to make strong positions. He had tensions within his family. His sister was furious with him because he was agreeing to meet and talk to Napoleon at all.

But eventually he got to Paris. That's, I think, what we need to stay to keep in mind. You could argue the same about Abraham Lincoln. If anybody who started the American Civil War will know that Lincoln went through exactly the same process as the one Putin is going through and encountered exactly the same criticism. he also, in the end, won.

Ultimately, when this war is concluded and the Russians have won, all of these things will fade into the background. That's my view. We'll see what the timeline brings us, and we'll end it on this point. The Europeans are moving towards some sort of a 2030 timeline. What that means, could be a grift. It could be serious. They may actually believe their own BS.

They may actually believe their own BS. This is, let's not discount this. No, absolutely. I personally do think it is a 99% of grift, but there is 1% of fanaticism. I mean, there's a lot of fanaticism. I would put a lot of high. There's a lot of fanaticism as well. And, of course, the thing about rhetoric of the kind that they're in.

engaging in is that even people who don't perhaps take it completely seriously, eventually get swept along. It's very difficult when you talk in the way that they've been doing to simply stop and say, look, this is as far as it goes. So, you know, I absolutely accept the point that you just made. Yeah. I mean, that's the dangerous part. That is the dangerous.

As we push forward, will we get some EU leadership to say, look, it was just all a money crap. Don't worry about it. Or will they buy into it and actually decide to push forward? Yeah. Anyway, all right. We'll end to the video there. At the durand.orgas.com, we're on Rumble, ex, and telegram.

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