The Duran Podcast - Europe Wants U.S. To Fight Russia

Episode Date: September 3, 2026

Europe Wants U.S. To Fight Russia

All right, Alexander, let's talk about what is happening with Project Ukraine. We have threats from Zelenskyy on airports and on civilian airliners. We have Putin's response to those threats. We have Putin's statements about negotiations with Zelensky and Ukraine. He was asked about strikes on the leadership, actually, which was an interesting question, an interesting response from the Russian president. We have Europe escalating with Russia because of this Leipzig drone incident, the dumbest false flag incident in all of history out of Germany. And that's my view of it. What do you think about everything that's going on with Project Ukraine? Well, the most important thing, the thing to understand is that Ukraine is being absolutely shattered. It's being pounded from the air.

It's been blockaded on its coastline. And it is losing positions on the front lines. At that press conference in Bishkek, Putin gave a summary of the situation on the front lines. And we've had a whole swath of other information. which basically corroborated what Putin was saying. The town of Oreckhoff is now about 50% under Russian control, and it is mostly encircled. Dobropelia, another place which is in Dombas,

also mostly encircled, also largely under Russian control. In northern Donbass, there's been a lot of fighting around Leman but we've just had information that the Russians have captured. And actually very well-known town called Sviatogosk is well-known because it is a very important centre of Russian orthodoxy. And there's a very famous monastery there. But the town, maybe not the monastery, are now under Russian control. And there's been further advances in the north,

in Kharkov region, where the Russians have captured another important town, and it is a town, not a village, called Khazachia Lopan, bringing them closer all the time closer to Kharkov city, and where they've apparently surrounded a group of Ukrainian troops in northeastern Ukraine, and we've had other advances elsewhere. And the Russians, even as they advance on the front lines, continue to pound Kiev now every single night, every single day. And it is causing devastating damage across Ukraine. So we are starting to see symptoms of desperation. Zelensky made this extraordinary statement. Firstly, he made a statement on his telegram channel, a video statement in which he said that Europe, Ukraine's allies were on holiday. They were not doing anything, despite the fact that Ukraine was being shattered and blasted in this way. Then he followed up with this awful statement, which he published on X, basically talking about closing down completely Russian airspace,

which, by the way, is physically impossible. You're talking about what is by far the biggest country in the world, but he was basically targeting airports. He was reviving that airport plan that we discussed in a previous video some time ago, the plan that Fyodorov came up with in the early summer for mass attacks on Moscow and St. Petersburg airports to create havoc there. Anyway, Zelensky was now warning airlines to stay away. So Zelensky is making these extraordinary threats, which the Russians are interpreting, describing as terrorism.

And we've had renewed signs of the hardliners in Europe taking steps of their own in Leipzig. There's been this bizarre incident with the drone, the so-called. Russia drone near the Antonov-124, the Ukrainian Antonov-124. I mean, everything about that story rings suspicion. And you're absolutely right, the most ludicrous incident of this kind that one can imagine. But we had Italy stopping and searching a Cameroonian flagged ship in the Mediterranean. The Norwegians have seen. another ship, another actual Russian ship in the Arctic, all of this in defiance of Russian warnings, that if the Europeans did this, the Russians would start seizing European ships.

I think this is now all but certain to happen, by the way. But you can see that there's growing anger, growing panic across Europe, and they're trying in every way they can to create an atmosphere escalation, the ultimate objective, the ultimate purpose being, of course, to try to get the United States back in the picture, the military picture, and to get the United States to come to Ukraine's rescue and to their rescue once they provoke some kind of conflict with Russia. So anger, panic, fear, and perhaps the almost obvious expression of fear and bang, and the almost obvious expression of fear and panic and anger of all, a gunfight in Kiev going on for many, many hours,

which has even been reported in the media in Britain, by the way, between the two Ukrainian intelligence and security agencies. The SBU, which is loyal to Zelensky himself, and the Gour, Ukrainian military. intelligence, which was previously headed by Budanov, the SBU arresting people who are connected with the gore, the gore trying to protect them. There's also some suggestions that this is a turf war for control of economic assets. I've absolutely no doubt that it is. But whatever it is, it is clearly a sign that things are starting to get very bad. And that tensions within Kiev are growing and that the various factions are now openly fighting each other.

Right. The intel agencies in a civil war, in a shoot-out, crazy stuff, because the SPU was arresting or was trying to take into custody, someone with the GUR and there were rumors that this guy was going to snitch on Budanoff or had some information. on Prudanoff and then Budanov sent his GUR guys to take this guy back. And there were people killed in that shootout actually. Absolutely. Or at least people injured.

At least those are reports that I'm getting. This was a serious shootout. Absolutely. The blogger called events in Ukraine, who's very well informed about situations in Ukraine, says that there's another dimension to this, which is that it was a fight for control of scan cause centers. and that this is a big business in Ukraine and that it's another fight over money, which I think is quite plausible, by the way. It's a huge business.

It's a huge business. The oligarch in Monaco. What was he involved in? Well, exactly. Or his son. Well, exactly. Someone in his family was involved in. Or he was in a court case with all of these.

Exactly. Exactly. So that this is what this is really all about. So again, it looks like the sense. that people are beginning to worry that the money flows are going to stop, and they're now fighting over them, whilst the money flows still continue. So that's obviously from that particular commentator, but he's shown himself to be well informed about situations in Ukraine, and it makes complete sense. Well, it's interesting that you have all of these things happening in and around

call centers, these scam call centers, which I've understood to be call centers that specifically target Western citizens and the European citizens. And the EU completely looks away from all of these call centers. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. No surprise. Anyway.

Besant, he told Fox News that Ukraine is to blame for the shock in energy and gas prices. Yeah, because they went after refineries. That's what Bessent has told Fox News. He said, it is Ukraine's fault that we have energy shortages, that we have prices and increase in the price of gas. It's Ukraine's fault because they decided, he said, to go after Russian refineries. Well, who told them to go after Russian refineries, Mr. Bessent? Who gave them the targeting and satellite data to go after the refineries, Mr. Besson? This is so incredibly bizarre, but maybe when you take a step back, it kind of makes sense as to how the U.S. is now looking at the Zelensky regime and looking at Ukraine.

Yeah. Well, it's a bad sign for Zelensky and for Ukraine. And, of course, we had this very strange incident at the G20 summit meeting where Bessent met Silwan. the Russian finance minister. You know, it's very interesting that the Europeans complain that Siluanov was invited to this meeting, but Russia is a member of the G20. So they have a right to attend this meeting. What the Europeans are saying is that because they don't like Russia, the Americans

should exclude the Russians from a meeting that the Russians have a right to. to attend, just to say. But anyway, Besson went and had apparently a very friendly meeting with Siloanav. I can't imagine that it was very substantive because, well, what are the contacts nowadays between Russia and the United States at an economic level? But you can sense that maybe the Americans are now starting to shift their views on some things. They are aware that there are all these economic problems, there's food shortages, there's energy shortages, that fertilizers shortages, all of those things that the Russians offer the solutions. But as you absolutely rightly said, ultimately, who actually was behind this campaign, Bessent doesn't need to talk to

Zelensky or the Ukrainians. You can just telephone John Radcliffe and have a very nice conversation with him. And they can have a discussion about whether this campaign against Russian refineries and all of that should be continued. It is a ridiculous set of statements by Besson and it is an admission ultimately of how misconceit that whole strategy against Russia was over the course of the summer. But it is all now history anyway because Putin had an awful lot to say about what was going on in the conflict about the fact that the Russians are now well on the way to protecting the refineries. And he gave a press conference in which he basically said that Russia does not negotiate with terrorists.

He all but said that Zelensky is a terrorist and that this statement that Zelensky has made threatening airports is a threat to commit further terrorism. And Putin also basically said that Ukraine is crumbling and that he is convinced that sooner or later it will crumble, though he's not prepared to give a date on it. So it's a very uncompromising interview, press conference rather than Putin gave. There were some interesting aspects to it, which we can discuss. but mostly, as I said, one got the sense of a Putin who's in no mood to make compromises and in no mood to slow down and that the war is going to continue in exactly the same way

that it is doing at the moment. And I don't get the sense that the Russians are going to slacken off. And the Americans and the Europeans have no solutions to the, to the problems that Ukraine has. Well, he was asked about taking out the leadership in Kiev and by a reporter and Putin said that we need someone to talk to. Yes. It was interesting.

It was an interesting comment, actually, because when you read it, he said, we haven't done this up to now because we need someone, we've needed someone to talk to. and then he was continuing that line of thinking. And then halfway through the comment, he stopped and said that if things continue the way they're going, well, we have tools, basically. So he actually left the possibility of a strike against the political leadership open,

more so than he has ever done up to this time. He was also asked about the UK and the facilities in the UK that are providing the weapons to Ukraine. And if Russia is going to go after any of these facilities, and he said that this is classified secret, an interesting comment there. We have the Leipzig incident. We have Norway seizing a ship, which was a Russian ship, but also a civilian ship. a ship that carries passengers from Russia to Svalbard. Yes, yes. A scientific research ship as well.

This was not a military ship. This was not an oil tanker. This was not even a ship carrying grain or food exports. This was a civilian passenger ship that Norway has now seized. And this is all tied into, they're telling us, it's tied into this lawsuit that NAFTA gas has against Russia. And this $4 billion and I guess the thinking from Ukraine or from Norway is that they're going to seize this ship and give it, hand it over to Ukraine as compensation of some sort for this $4 billion that they claim Russia owes them. Yes.

Yes. Well, absolutely. I mean, that's a risable thing because, of course, the amount. That's what they're telling us. Yeah, but I mean, it doesn't come anywhere close to meeting whatever compensation claim, NAFTA gas. claims that it has. It's obviously part of this pattern of harassment. And we've had this other seizure of a ship in the Mediterranean, not a Russian-owned ship and not a Russian-flagged ship, but one carrying Russian oil in the Mediterranean. Now, a few weeks ago, Putin gave instructions to the

Russian Navy that if ships, if ships, Russian ships are seized, he said it's piracy. He said it's piracy, on the high seas. By the way, this is piracy. I mean, to me, this looks like piracy. And as far as I'm aware, there is no legal decision, there's no court judgment that justifies seizing a Russian ship, the ship that you'd say, that's ferrying people to Svalbard in this kind of way. So I have no doubt, because to repeat again, the Russians have received this order from people. Putin, that we're going to see European ships being seized in the Pacific at some point fairly soon. And that is intentional.

This is what these attacks on shipping are intended to provoke in the Mediterranean and in the Arctic. The hope is that you can get the United States somehow involved. You're going to pressure the Americans to take action to try to create a direct clash between the Russians and the Americans. Because that is the only way now that you can help prevent Ukraine going down. Yeah, but the Americans have the EU. They view the EU countries as vassals. So it's the vassal that wants the master to fight Russia on their behalf.

Yes. There's a very good article. There is a very good article about this by an American economist who says that there is a group of people within Europe concentrated geographically in the Baltic and Nordic region, but also including people in Germany and Britain, who want to, who are thirsting for a direct military confrontation with Russia and are trying to maneuver the United States into that. And yes, they are vassals, but that economy has been the very exactly that point that sometimes vassals themselves try to manipulate their overlord into getting them into into these kind of conflicts. And he provided examples, historical examples, where that has happened. Now, it is for the Americans to put their foot down and tell the Europeans this must stop.

We are not interested in getting involved in a conflict with the Russians at this time. It is the Americans who should talk to the Norwegians and tell them to release the ship. It is the Americans who should talk to Maloney and tell the Italians to stop doing this thing. But as we know, the Americans themselves are not united on these questions. So you have people like Besson, who perhaps, given the many economic problems that he has, would rather that a crisis with the Russians was avoided. probably some people in the Pentagon, the same, but others in the intelligence community and elsewhere who are as fully on board with the idea of a confrontation with Russia as everyone else in Europe.

And the president himself, sometimes he leads to the one, sometimes he leans to the other, and he's prepared to engage in extraordinary acts of duplicity towards the Russians, which means that the Russians don't trust him. It's a bad situation. Trump was asked about press gangs. Very bad situation. He was asked about press gangs and he said he was aware of the Ukrainian press gangs. That was an interesting question that Trump got.

But it's a fascinating dynamic in that you have the vassal countries trying to get the master to fight Russia on their behalf. While on the U.S. side of things, the Americans would prefer the Europeans to just fight Russia and keep the U.S. out of it. Out of it. As they sit behind the curtain and they just kind of orchestrate things, they would much rather have the Europeans be out in front and to fight on their behalf in an effort to weaken Russia in much the same way that they're doing to Ukraine.

So they would very much like the Europeans to just be the next proxy. And you can tell that Ukraine is to the Americans very much just a proxy in the way that Bessent spoke about Ukraine when he was talking about the hitting of refineries. You can see that at this point in time for the United States, whether it's the hawks or whether it's the doves in the Trump administration. for them, Ukraine is nothing more than a proxy that is going to keep Russia busy for X amount of time. Absolutely. And that's how they're treating it. And they would like Europe to pick up where Ukraine is going to leave off. Absolutely.

And the hardliners, by the way, I'll know different here than the more, shall we say, realistic people, people like Besson and the others. I mean, Besson might not think much of Ukraine, but some of the hardliners probably. don't think much of Ukraine either. For them, Ukraine is a purely functional question. The difference between the hardliners and the more moderates is that the hardliners are not interested in Ukraine. It's Russia that they are focused on. They want to maintain the confrontation with Russia.

And they also want to win the internal bureaucratic battles in Washington. with the more moderate faction. And always that is part of this problem, that it's a question who ultimately controls foreign policy. Is it more moderate people, like on this question, Besson, or is it more hardline people like, say, Ratcliffe? And Rackcliffe doesn't want to lose out to Besson. So Rackcliffe is going to take a hard line about ship seizures, seizures, and things of that kind, whereas Besant might be willing to be more accommodating. But it's purely functional. And if Ukraine goes down, well, it's a blow in a sense for the United States.

But it is not an existential problem to the United States because Ukraine is far away. The American people, as many people have told me, are not particularly interested in Ukraine anymore. This is not a make or break issue any longer for Donald Trump's presidency. The situation in the gas stations, the gas filling stations, that is. So, you know, that's a completely different discussion that is taking place in the United States from the one that is taking place in Europe. In Europe, however, the vassals are different. The vassals want to remain vassals, and one of the ways that they remain vassals is that they don't want the master to walk away.

They don't want the master to say, I've got more important business elsewhere in China, in the Asia-Pacific region, in the Middle East. So that makes them even more belligerent in order to keep the United States in Europe, underwriting the whole process. and helping the vassals also in several cases see through their obsessive feud with Russia, which has been an ongoing thing for them, in some cases for hundreds of years. The U.S. would have no problem with Europe fighting Russia. I don't think they would have any problem with it. After Ukraine, Europe, go ahead. just keep us at a distance.

We just want to see this thing through from a distance. Exactly. That's the game plan. And the Europeans don't want that. The Europeans want them engaged. Exactly. And that's where I think the Americans perhaps are being, I don't say naive because the Americans are never naive. But perhaps they're not being realistic because they want.

They're perfectly relaxed about a conflict between Russia and Europe. But they don't, I think, understand that if that happens, the pressures for them to become involved are going to be overwhelming. It's going to be extremely difficult for the United States to remain completely on the sidelines. So this is the risk that the Americans themselves are running. by pursuing this strategy. You can't just let it go in that way. The only way to have done that, the right way to have done that would have been to follow the advice that we gave back in the

summer of 2024. Say straightforwardly to the Europeans, Russia is not our problem. Ukraine is not our problem. We got lots of other things to deal with. If you want to take on the Russians, do so, but do so by yourselves. If they'd said that in January 2025, they would be in a much stronger position. But after having given so much time and so much effort to Ukraine now, having supplied Ukraine with weapons, having let the Europeans buy weapons from the United States to armed Ukraine, having continued to provide Ukraine with intelligence assistance, having orchestrated this drone offensive against the Russians, it is all but impossible for the Americans simply to walk away from this problem in that kind of way. If they want to avoid getting mixed up in a major

tangle, what they need to do is what they have shown an extraordinary unwillingness to do up to now, which is to call the vassals together and tell them, right, this is where it stops. Yeah, I think it depends, just to finish off the video, what you said, depends on the countries that are trying to suck the U.S. into this conflict. So if we're talking about, say, the Baltic countries, the Baltics, or Romania, okay, if there's a drone incident or a false flag incident and they're trying to pull the U.S. in, I think the U.S. couldn't care less. Absolutely. We don't care. Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, whatever. We don't care.

A Russian drone hit X, Y, and Z. whatever, cry to someone else. If it's Poland, the U.S. starts to care a little more. If it's Germany or the U.K., then the risks of the U.S. getting pulled in are much greater. So it depends as to which country the Europeans are focusing their false flags attempts on as far as getting the U.S. in. So you can see that now they're focusing Germany. Donald Tusk is also not talking about a false flag. The UK is also provoking Norway. So they've moved away where two months ago, it was all the Baltics, Lithuania drone,

and Romania, Romania drone, all these things. And the US couldn't care. You can tell, even the neocons, didn't give a crap about it. But now that we're talking about Germany, oh no, an Antonoff plane or the UK, our most trusted friend and partner, oh no. You know, this can suck the US in. Because these are core allies. They are core allies who, as allies, if you can call them allies, core vassals prefer, if you prefer.

They are an essential part of the American system of power. But I can say this absolutely categorically. The amount of influence that the United States has in both London and Berlin is enormous. If the American ambassador were to call in the British cabinet, they would come. If the American ambassador spoke to the top German officials, they would listen. If the United States said to these people, enough and enough's enough, it stops now. They would do it. They would stop now.

They would be furious. They would be all sorts of horrible articles. appearing in the German and British media, but they have no means of defying the United States. I mean, one thing the United States could very, very easily do, if we're talking about Britain, is it could switch off intelligence assistance. It can do this at the pressing of a switch. And of course, the British like to say that they provide intelligence to the United States, but everybody knows that 90% of the traffic is in the other direction. Yeah.

All right. We will end the video there. The duran. Dotlocos.com. We are also on X and go to the Duran shop, pick up some merch. Those links to the description box down below. Take care.