The Duran Podcast - Gloves are off (Live)

Episode Date: July 3, 2026

Gloves are off (Live)

Okay, we are alive with Alexander McCurice in London. Alexander, how you doing? I'm doing very well. Beautiful sunny day here in London. Lots of very interesting news. And by the way, rather disturbing news about a new act that is going through Parliament, apparently, which I'm going to have to study with great, great care, because apparently it can create an offence if you receive information from the wrong people.

But there we go. We'll see what it's all about. What does that even mean? What does that even mean? A designated hostile party and what is exactly information? I mean, you know, all of this, apparently the act is going through Parliament and it's going to be rushed through in one day. That's the plan.

So it's not surprising because we have a prime minister who, shall we say, was very friendly with certain people who were. work in the corridors and who might even have been chosen by them and he's leaving. And we have a new prime minister coming in who perhaps is seen as a little less reliable. So they're getting this act through as fast as they can. Europe is sinking. Europe is sinking. And Britain is sinking fastest.

To repeat again, what I once said in a program we did recently, way back in the 19th century when there was talk about restricting the sale of alcohol by pubs beyond certain hours. And an English peer got up in the House of Lords and he said that he would rather see England drunk and England free. So we've moved a very long way from that sort of perspective. Yeah. Yeah. The UK and Germany, I think, are the two worst. Well, absolutely.

our countries to be in when it comes to freedom freedom of speech or anything like that. Absolutely. Anyway, there it is. All right. Let's get to, should we talk about what's happening a bit? Or should we just go straight into the questions? Let's go straight. I think so.

I've got lots of cover. And I think pretty much everybody can go. Everyone knows what's going on. It's really up. Everyone knows what the news is. Yeah. Everyone knows what's going. Thank you to everyone that's watching us on Rumble, on Odyssey, YouTube, and the duranddata.orgos.com.

We are also on substack as well. So check us out there. Alexander, you want to say something? I just wanted to say one very quick thing, which is that I'm starting to see that more and more people, even in independent media, but also in Iran itself, are coming round to our opinion that the MOU is a Minsk agreement, essentially. So that's one little thing I wanted to say. They're actually using that word. No, well, they're even starting to use that word, I believe, yeah. So can I just say, can I just say, you know, again, you get the news and the analysis first here. It's just.

We don't say that. Who does? Who does? You used the Minsk Agreement about three weeks, four weeks ago maybe? Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you to our moderators as well.

And in the chat on YouTube. I saw Zareel in the house. and who else? I think it's just, it's just me and you, Ariel. Just the two of us. All right. Well, the two back, you know, the, the A team, if I can say, though, of course, the A team will probably get bigger and bigger as the light stream continues.

All the moderators are the A team. All right, let's get to the questions right, Alexander. Right. And let's start things off with Elsa, who says, well, if you want to justify strikes on Ukraine, then there are always enough reasons to retaliate to no problem to planet advance, just saying. That's exactly right. That's exactly what the Russians are doing. I mean, we know, we can, that all sounds very cynical, but it's war. It's the way things are done. We should not be surprised about it. Heroku, thank you for our gifting five memberships. Tim Durand, thank you so much.

345 says, why didn't Iran exactly run out of weapons and U.S. couldn't destroy them? That is, I think, one of the most important questions in the world at this time. Why is Iran, which, you know, is a second-tier country definitely, able to keep producing weapons and maintain big stockpiles? And the United States, the first-tier country by excellence, why was it? not? Well, I think the answer is industrial systems. The way in which the industrial systems and the two societies work is profoundly different. And obviously, the Iranians produce weapons that are technologically far less sophisticated and far more easy to build, whereas the Americans have,

and by the way, throughout my life, have always had an extreme bias towards technological complexity. So I think that's probably the single best reason. There are problems with the financial systems, the industrial systems, all of those things. But those are the main reasons. Better for profits. That's exactly the point. Oh, Gwal says, good day. Zoran says, I don't know what's going on, what happened. Lots of stuff happening. Gloves are off, Alexander, on all sides. Absolutely. I mean, we're heading. Russia, NATO, collective West Ukraine. Well, indeed.

There's been an incident. I didn't have whether people know about this, but there was apparently an incident between a Russian corvette and a German coast guard in the Black Sea over a tanker. The German coast guard tried to approach the tanker and the Russian missile corvette, which is nearby, told them to stay away. and the Germans actually scuttled off and stayed away.

But, you know, we can see that this is going on all the time. And things are getting more and more tense with every single day that passes. P. Walker says, I don't think the Iranians have any delusions about the MOU. We all know the USA is agreement incapable. Well, I think the Iranians themselves are divided. There's a big debate about the MOU now in Iran. The new supreme leader, Mostada Khamene, has said that he really wasn't very happy with the MOU to start with, but he eventually approved it. And there are now increasing numbers of people in the parliament and apparently in the IRGC who are openly saying this was a mistake.

And Ghalibagh, especially, is trying to defend himself over it. So there we go. Not lengthy, he says, should Iran and Russia become strong allies? Well, yes, and I think probably in time they will. To repeat again, something I've said in previous programmes, there is a lot of very difficult history between these two countries. And it's not history that can be easily put aside. And especially on the Iranian side,

they have very, very good historic reasons to be very suspicious and sceptive. of Russian. Nikki, Nikki Ball says, how to fight the propaganda. Within Europe, we used to twin cities that brought about friendly exchanges. Are there Russian film clubs we can belong to or films we can view in local clubs? Do people still have pen pals? What about hosting visitors? Well, that's an excellent, all excellent ideas and excellent, excellent thoughts.

I think all of these things to some extent still exist, twinning of towns between Russian towns and European towns. I can't speak for the whole of Europe, but in Britain, that has essentially stopped. I mean, many of the towns in Britain that had twinned with Russian towns have now severed that link. And in the case of Oxford, I know there was a lot of complaints from people in Oxford

that that was going to be done, but the pressures from on high and from some people from below were too strong. About pen pals and things of that kind, I think that still exists, but nobody should be any doubt about this. It's going to become harder and harder because there is increasingly a campaign

to make this less and less possible. Josias says Alex and Alexander, thank you very much for your work. Question, what should Russia do for the West to finally leave it alone so that Russia can develop in its own way as a sovereign country? Or is the real problem that the West simply does not accept any independent country that refuses to obey itself-imposed? Well, if we go back to Vladimir Putin, the starting point of all of this was in December 2021, in which he said that the best way for Russia to achieve peace on its western border was through an agreement with the United States. He made a speech about that long, detailed speech discussing this very question

in great detail to the Russian Foreign Ministry in December 2021. And I think it has informed his policy to a great extent since then. One of the reasons he went the extra mile with Trump was he thought he's, still hoped that through Trump, perhaps he might be able to get there. I think the Russians have lost all illusions about this. I think Putin himself has gradually lost most of his illusions, too, at least about Trump. And in the meantime, I think that the only way that the Russians can assert their interests is through war, the war in Ukraine. Putin, I think still will. I think still wants to limit it to the extent that he can to Ukraine.

Of course, there's some people in Russia, people like Professor Karaganov, who say it needs to go beyond them. Nikki Ball says, Alexander, I have often wondered about the part of the troubles in Northern Ireland in regime destabilization and how the techniques of terrorists were copied and refined.

The IRA trained and linked with groups in Colombia and with Basque separatists. The British government rang an undercover agent called Steakknife who ordered killings within the ranks to protect his identity, which side, if any, were the neocons on, was blowing up the British King David Hotel, a landmark in terrorist atrocity? Probably. I mean, so you're putting together different events.

I mean, the blowing up the King David Hotel happened in the 1940s in the British mandate of Palestine, the British authorities at that time were in conflict with some elements of the movement for Israeli independence. Some of those movements, an organisation called Irgun, for example, led by the former Israeli Prime Minister, well, the man who eventually became Israeli Prime Minister, Manachian Begian, and an even more hardline group called the Stur stern gang led by another man who eventually became Israeli Prime Minister, who was Isaac Shamir, I think. I may be getting his name wrong. Anyway, they engaged the British in what certainly the British considered a terrorist campaign, and that eventually involved planting bombs in the King David Hotel, which is still, by the way, the main hotel, I believe, in Jerusalem.

and over the course of it, several British officers were killed. So that was one example of a violent campaign that used what, at that time, the British authorities had no hesitation in saying it was terrorism. So that's one example. The other example that you're citing are the troubles, as they are called in Britain, the conflict between the British state and the Irish Republican Army. in the 1960s and 1970s and the Protestant community in Northern Ireland or the North of Ireland and the Catholic community in the South, in North of Ireland, who of course backed and supported the IRA.

So I actually lived through all of that. And State Knife, just to say, is the name that the British authorities gave to an enforcement. who they had within the IRA, whose job it was to execute IRA officials or agents who were actually discovered by the IRA to be working for the British. The British inserted many informs into the IRA. And Steak Knife was incredibly ruthless about doing all of that. And it's now subsequently been discovered that he took. had been a British agent all along. So a lot of this goes on and goes on in many places. I think what you will discover is that what we call terrorism today, just correctly called

terrorism today, has very, very deep roots going all the way back to the 19th century. And of course, it is strongly collected with imperialism and all of that. And I'm afraid with terrorism as with spying. you're in the wilderness of mirrors, you often find that those you think are your enemies and your adversaries or you've been told are your countries and nations, enemies and adversaries, are in fact being supported by people within the government of your own country. And we've seen that in the Middle East in recent years, and we saw that with people like Steakknife in North of Ireland.

Nikos asks, you've been putting a lot of value on the media image and how. Russia should do better. You are half right. Russia should do a better job domestically. I've always said that the Russian government should pay attention to the younger people. They blame them for not having access to the Western stuff, the West, with their progressive messages and media entertainment, offers the easy way out. And I am telling you people of my generation, take it. Well, I think you're absolutely right, Nikos, and on this, we are in full agreement. I'm going to say one thing.

One of the groups that I had an encounter with in Scoff were university students. I mean, you know, young people between the ages of roughly 18 and 25. And I was very interested and surprised to see that even though some of them came along wearing, you know, usual t-shirts, commemorating with pop groups and rock groups in the West and all of that. Nonetheless, I mean, when it came to the politics and geopolitics, they basically shared the same views as their elders did on relations with the West. They were the same. Now, that was Pskof in other places, maybe in Moscow. University students there might be different.

I don't know. But an awful lot of young people in Russia are pretty patriotic, at least judging by the group that I met in Pskof. Blip Blop Zoop says, please invite Dr. Fad Izadi and Ali Al-Izada to speak about Iran and the war. They are pessimists on the MOU, so it will be an interesting chat. Very interesting chat,

and we should, we should, yes. Megha, while Daddy says, always a pleasure to listen to your analysis, a Russian from Limassol. Thank you for that. Daith Daith O'Dowd. Thank you for that awesome super sticker. Thank you so much for that. Fuzzy Balls says, Alexander, I've been telling you for years that Russia would have to take Odessa to provide more security for Crimea. The best revenge for Russia is doing just this and permanently decommissioning the Ukraine Navy. Well, yes, my man, you are right. You were right. And I personally think that there is an order to that effect. I think it was given sometime last year. I'm in a formal order.

and I think that's ultimately one of the objectives now. It hasn't been publicly announced, but signals that were given by Putin back in December made it absolutely clear that that is, as far as I'm concerned, the objective. Nico says the Russian government should have done a better job explaining this war and the possibility of getting hit. They should give people what they want.

I mean, that last strike really, really, satisfied Russians. They saw Ukrainians afraid in bunkers, hotels, and metro being hit. It echoed Poroshenko. Nobody cares about the power stations, but by causing the shame suffering of Boroshenko inflicted on Dombas is what people in Russia want now. They made their choice and art to blame. Well, I haven't discussed with people in Russia what their response to the strike was. And I will say this, I mean, it was a massive strike. But Kiev has also been, at the receiving end of several massive strikes during this war. And of course, the winter, it went through a period of, you know, long periods of not having electric power and all kinds of other problems.

About your point about the government not having explained clearly the reasons at the very outset for the conflict in Ukraine, the SMO. You're absolutely correct, and many people in Russia have told me this. And in fact, I had a long discussion with a Russian who supports the SMO whilst I was in KSkoff. And he made that very precise point to me. His view was that Putin should have waited, the Russians should have waited, for the Ukrainians to attack Donbass first. and that would have made the whole thing much clearer to people than trying to pre-empt the Ukrainian attack in the way that was eventually done.

Now, there may have been all kinds of reasons and discussions and debates about this in the Kremlin and no doubt that possibility was considered. I am not privy to those discussions. But certainly that view that you've just articulated in Russia exists, I heard it. two, three weeks ago when I was there. Nico says, when it comes to the rest of the world, Putin is right.

You can't win against the U.S. in the media shaping. How do you think the U.S. won the Cold War? The moment the U.S. made Russia the evil empire, it was decided. Russia was and is hated by everybody in the West and the world. While the U.S. is the hero with Ukraine, I am living my Soviet-Afghanistan war. When it happened, everyone forgot Vietnam, just like they forgot what the the US did in many countries. Well, I'm going to say this.

I'm going to push back a bit. I think in the West, an awful lot of people dislike Russia intensely. And I've been basically quite shocked. I was very shocked at the start of the SMO to see how just beneath the surface in European society, there was this enormous animus against Russia that suddenly came to the surface. But I don't get the sense at all that that is true in the global South. If you're talking about regions like India, China, Africa, some parts of Latin America, I'd say that opinions there about Russia tend to be positive.

And if you go on YouTube, by the way, which I, you know, look at the various Indian media outlets, which are now very active on YouTube, you see that on the contrary, they tend to take a rather more sympathetic view of Russia. than they do of Ukraine in this conflict. Gatenomana says, to paraphrase Churchill, Putin had a choice between stability and escalation. He chose stability and he will have escalation. Well, he will have, that may not be wrong, actually. But never underestimate importance for Russian governments of stability within their own country.

Given the recent history of Russia, going all the way back to the 1905 revolution, which, you know, remember if you were talking about, a century of extreme political stress that a government would want, in Russia, would want to show that it protects and preserve stability is completely understandable. That band saw bandit says, no young men left in Ukraine, well done all. the crying emoji Iranian kiddo says Kraschus also said Parthians would run out of

arrows Well that's absolutely good There's a very good book by the way At least it seems to me like a good book by a historical goalsworthy Which looks at interactions Between Iran and Rome

And it has that very very quote in it Just as that It's a new book Not lengthy says If it were up to you how would you make Russia amend to those historic conflicts with Iran? That is a very good question. I would say, first of all, that the Russians need to be a lot more aware

about the existence of these conflicts than they are. I mean, in Russia, it's one of the big blind spots they have about their history. They don't think about them very much. I mean, most Russians are aware, for example, that Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill met in Tehran in 1943, they are completely unaware that the Red Army was actually occupying Tehran at that time. Just the same.

Matthew says, will we avoid a major European war? Well, there are different views about this. I still believe in the end we will. I think we're getting dangerously close to the point where we might find ourselves. in such a war. If you'd asked me this question two years ago, I said that there is no possibility of it. But I have, I underestimate, and I say this frankly, this sheer irrationality as some of the leadership in Europe and by the way in Britain. And, well, they are taking us very, very close to a war.

But I think in the end, it probably won't happen. I think that where, When we get to the brink or closer to the brink, people will see how crazy that is. And in Germany they're now talking about reintroducing conscription. And having quite a few young people in Germany, all I would say is that if you really want to create quickly an organized peace movement in Germany, introducing conscription in order to fight Russia is the way to do it. Nico says, I am searching social media. I see travel vlogs to Russia.

There's this shame about the country by normal Western people that you don't see elsewhere. You're mistaken, Duran, is that you still have faith in people. I don't. People want the easy way and serve. If they are forced to go to war, they will. You have to accept that there's nothing but disdain amongst the people in the West for Russia. it's foolish to think that there's resistance to war. I think there is resistance to war.

And I think you must be very careful in saying that people who would oppose a war with Russia necessarily like the place. I mean, an awful lot of people may dislike Russia intensely, but they still understand that war with Russia would be an absolute calamity and a disaster for them. And that applies to young people, for example, in Germany. They may not be particularly friendly to Russia. but they don't want to fight it because they know perfectly well that if they do, well, they might get killed and Germany, as we know, it might not exist. So that is an important thing to bear in mind. And, well, I would say that the other point to say is that the path of the easiest path is absolutely not the path to war.

going to war is not an easy thing to do at all. And I think a lot of people in Europe do understand it. Akito B.B.D.O. says, I am encountering AI generated Alexander M posts from Hello News. Anyone else catching these fake posts? They're all over the place. There's also more of them appearing on YouTube. They leave me very depressed sometimes. there's one can only do so much one can spend almost time running after and chasing them just to repeat again i am here with alex on the duran i do my own channel i appear on certain shows which are well known

that's the only place you will find me anything else you see anywhere else is not me Josie, says Alex and Alexander, how would you explain the current dangerous world situation to a teenager? As a parent, I sometimes feel guilty that our generation cannot prevent this crisis and that ordinary people can do very little to change it. I think that there is a huge anger in the West that the end of history that they all believed had come in the early 90s has not in fact come and that they find themselves in history. that history continues after all, and that they might find themselves on the wrong side of it. Now, that doesn't apply to everybody. Probably doesn't apply to most people. But the political class is furious about this. Iranian kiddo says, regardless of what happens here, Iran still needs the U.S. to remove the sanctions on oil and banking section.

A situation is really dire in Iran and has been for 10 years. I don't know how Iran can survive this indefinitely. Well, first of all, can I just also say Iranian kid you? I'm very glad that you're back on one of these live streams. I noticed that you haven't been with us recently. You were greatly missed, and I'm very, very glad to hear that you're back. I absolutely agree. The Iranian economic situation is very difficult.

I don't myself believe that the United States has anything. intention of lifting sanctions on Iran or returning frozen assets to Iran or doing any of these things. I believe that Iran is a big country, of great resources, an educated population, enormous engineering skills. I think Iran could do better with its economy than it is doing, and I think there have been problems in the way the economy has been managed. I think that there are other countries, too, which would be willing and ready to trade with Iran. I don't know whether you saw one of the recent programs that we did, but there was an article, admittedly, it was in The Guardian,

and I don't know how reliable it is, but it said that after Iran and China did this massive trade agreement a few years ago, the Chinese got very offended when Iran signed off a whole series of commercial contracts with Western companies and didn't agree a single one with China or with any Chinese companies. And the Chinese soured towards Iran as a result of this. So there is some fence mending to do, and there are some things that Iran should do,

both domestically and to develop trade with countries that would not enforce sanctions. And I think if Iran does that, I think its economy will boom. Festek, Jay says, if Russia hit right medal in Germany, which NATO countries would likely participate in direct combat operations?

Would Turkey and Azerbaijan participate? It's a very good question. I think that if you're talking about Azerbaijan, what I've heard recently is that the Azerbaijanian leadership, which, to be very clear, does not like Russia at all, recently discovered that there is absolutely no way or means for them to bypass Russia,

not just in terms of their Azerbaijan's oil and gas exports, but in a whole host of other competencies in terms of financing, banking, in all sorts of things like that. So that's one of the reasons why they've had to pull back. Turkey is a different story. And Erdogan, I think, in any major crisis, would still try to do what he always does. He'd try to play everybody off against each other and try to benefit as much as he could in whatever way he could.

The bigger question is not what Turkey and Azerbaijan do. It's what the other European countries do and what the Germans do. And here I think there's an uncertainty and an even bigger question is what does the United States do. do if there is an attack on Germany. Does it sit back? I think that people like Lindsay Graham, the deep state in the United States, would absolutely not want the United States to sit back. Just saying. Manfred today says, I read Big Telegram news channels 1 million plus in Russian every day. when a Putin speech is shown and summarized,

it's now mostly laughing emoji reactions. Oh, I know. I'm sure there are. There are all sorts of people of that kind, but I don't think you should get judged too much by that. The people may watch, a million million people who watch, it doesn't follow that the people who put up emojis

and things like that are reflective of the general sentiment. We just had opinion polls from Russia, which I think are reliable. And they've shown Putin's trust in Putin, 77%, which fairly closely accords to what I saw when I was there. Fuzzy Ball says, is Russia able to get Iranian oil via the Caspian Sea? Yes, it can, and it's an alternative trade route. But do please remember, in order for that to happen, and in order for it to work properly, I mean, you need to create a huge infrastructure

system, which would take probably years to complete. Open view, Ozzy says, can you talk about how gasoline imports from Kazakhstan and India make refinery attacks largely irrelevant? Well, I won't say they make them totally irrelevant, but this is a point which I made before. You can fight it's, what I'm going to say is very well known and has been discussed widely in open sources. The place I first learned about it, which was years ago, by the way, is in oilprice.com. Russia has refineries that are very, very capable of producing large numbers of diesel oil. Diesel is what the Soviet economy used to work on.

It's what the Russian economy, to a great extent, still works on. So diesel, there is no shortage of in Russia. Gasoline is a different story. Russia before the start of the SMO had perhaps just enough refineries to produce enough gasoline to cover its needs for any particular year taken as a whole. But during periods when there has been heavy, particularly heavy use of gasoline, such as during the summer months when people go on holiday, Then, of course, at that moment, shortages of gasoline have happened. They happened in 2011. They happened in 2018. They happened in 2021. They've happened, of course, in 2024, 2025. Now, refinery attacks no doubt play some role. But the Russians historically have regularly imported gasoline from refiners in Kazakhstan, in Belarus, more recently in India and

China in order to make up needs for gasoline in Russia during the summer months. Now, you can criticize validly the Russian authorities for having allowed this problem to fester. As I said, it goes back 15. Well, it goes back really all the way back to the Soviet period. Remember, due to the Soviet Union, very few people in Russia. owned passenger cars. So there wasn't the big demand for gasoline that you were seen today. But you could argue that the Russian institutions

have built an awful lot more refineries and developed a much bigger reservoir of refineries to cope with gasoline issues. They didn't. And there's a very simple reason by that is so. And that is that gasoline, refinery construction in Russia is done by the oil. companies, by luke oil, by Tartneft, by all of these. So this is private companies. But gasoline,

the price of gasoline is capped in Russia. It's regulated by the government because they try to keep gasoline prices down as part of anti-inflation policies. So it is not particularly profitable to build new refineries because doing that means simply producing more gasoline that you sell at a lower price than you want to do. So you instead focus on oil exports, crude oil exports, and to the extent that it is more profitable, other types of fuels, like aviation fuel or diesel. So this problem is structural. It has existed in Russia for a long time, and it's not unusual for the Russians during the high peak seasons in the summer to import gasoline from other countries. Maybe they will do so to a slightly greater extent this year than off than usual, but it is not that rare.

So that's a long answer to your question, but I think it is a question that deserves an answer. Niko says just because Iran made some Lego videos, that doesn't mean Americans like them. I've seen them. They oppose ground troops, not the war. They hate them. It's the same with Russia. And that's why if Russia strikes Europe, then people will go to war with them. Russia doesn't have West Germany anymore.

I've been called the Council of Despair by you and others. But perhaps I say the things people don't want to hear, we are heading towards World War. Well, first of all, can I just make a very quick point? The point about participating in an information war is not to make people like you. I do think Iran made any effort in terms of the West to make Americans like Iran. I think the Iranians said perfectly well. That is far beyond their skill. What the purpose of an information war is, is when the U.S. puts out a narrative that Iran is losing, then you put out a counter-narrative in which you say, no, it is not. And the reason it is not is because we're doing this, this, this and this. And that creates doubts on the other

side, which is what information war during a period of conflict is all about. So the result was that in the United States, people could see that the war against Iran was not going well. Because whenever there was any question about it, there was the Iranian Lego video, and it was picked up, and then people asked the questions, and they discovered when the questions started to get answers, that in fact, in fact, what was in the Lego video did have some true. That is what an information war is all about. The Russians basically don't do this.

And this has been an absolute folly for them because it means that narratives about them go completely unchallenged. Now, about adrift to war and all of that, we've discussed this already. I didn't say that you, Nicos, specifically were a council for despair. I've said repeatedly that councils of despair are bad councils and I think you listen to them a little too often. So that's what I've said. Nerda Stra says,

obvious that we are in the warm up to World War III, maybe we could get more overview episodes covering Africa and South America. Well, indeed, because if there is a World War III, they could be involved whether they like it or not, which I hope, as I say, we don't get there. But no, we should have more programs about Africa and South America. But the news flow is dominated by these two conflicts, by the one in Ukraine and by the one in the Persian Gulf,

and perhaps in time by the one in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea. And we have to cover these because those conflicts are the things, that people are interested in, including in Africa, Latin America, in other places. Mr. G. Mann, Dan, says, war with Russia is inevitable as long as the reign of hatred of Russians is maintained in the media. The hatred needs to stop. Don't say that it is inevitable. Say that it is dangerously lightly.

Red three trees says, hey, both love your work. Why do you think the elites want war with Russia, but at the same time, have mad net zero policies destroying their ability to militarize, as well as mass immigration atomizing their societies? I think what originally happened with the elites was that to some extent, the conflict with Russia served for them a functional purpose. It held the EU together. It made it possible for the EU to push forward.

It's an integration drive. We've had Ursula now controlling who flies in the skies above Europe, something which treaties never gave her the power to do, which he just came out and said it. And we all followed. All the governments closed ranks and followed her line. So I think initially it was seen very much in those very functional terms, I think it has happened, what has happened is that as the war has continued, as the expectations

of a Russian collapse have not been fulfilled, as doubts about what the United States might do, not immediately, not today, not tomorrow, but over the long term have grown. As Chinese power in the background has grown, the anger and the fear in Europe have grown. And the anger, the anger and fear is there amongst the elite, they are no longer thinking about conflict with Russia in quite the same functional terms, purely functional terms that they did before. And when people become angry and emotional in that kind of way,

then of course, logic and thinking calculation starts to fall away and you get very dangerous decisions being made. Not length, he says, if you had a truth serum, what would you ask Mr. Putin? Me personally, I would ask if he has a favorite Victor Tsui album. That's a very good question. Victor Tsui, for those who don't know, was a Soviet rock singer, Soviet rock singer. His entire life was lived under the Soviet Union of Korean origins. He was enormously popular with young people towards the end of the Soviet Union.

And though he was never anti-Soviet exactly, he was absolutely somebody who wanted change in the Soviet Union. His famous song, his most famous song, was We Want Changes and all that. So he was quite a personality. I wouldn't be surprised if Putin, who must be aware of Viktor Tsui, knows about, has the odd album of he's hidden away somewhere. But my sense of Putin is that to the extent that he's interested in music at all, it is mainly classical music. The rocker within the Kremlin, believe it or not, is Dmitri Vedvedev. Just to say, what would I want to get out of Putin via a truth serum? I would really want to know very much about what happened in 1999 and the exact way in which he came to power.

because that story has never been clearly told. So I would want that information. And the second piece of information that I would want to know is what really was going on in the Kremlin. In 2021, early 2022, I'll be hearing lots of stories about how stressed and worried everybody was about the start of the SMO, how many people did believe that Russia would.

collapse, other the population would not support it. And again, I would like to know a little bit more, in fact, an awful lot more from Putin about all of that. Reportify says thanks again, Alex and Alexander. Thank you very much. And it's good to hear from you, by the way. Jeff Files, 5217 says how many leaders could be charged with crimes against humanity for spending money to support immigrants who are ripping and murdering their taxpayers. Well, you've asked about crimes against humanity. That, of course, puts the whole thing on a legal basis, which at the moment it isn't. So I think we have to say that. But certainly, if you want

to hold these people responsible, then you must, people should do this. And they should do this in a political way. And I think that probably more and more people are coming to that conclusion. Certainly they have in Britain. I believe they have in Germany too. And we're more likely to see it happen across Europe too. From Josie S. Alex and Alexander,

could you discuss the role of resentment in international relations? For example, Iran and Russia could have much closer relations today, but historical memories from the Russian Empire, Iran relationship in the Soviet Union. Iran relationships still create obstacles. Similarly, some former Soviet republics blame Russia fairly or unfairly for mistakes of the Soviet period. Instead of building positive relations, many countries remain trapped in old grievances. Thanks. I think this is a wildly, massively underestimated factor in international relations. I think it's one of the things,

for example, that people like Professor Mearsheimer, who I count as a friend, by the way, and who is a friend to this channel, just to add, I think he underestimates the extent of emotion and resentment and anger and ancestral feelings dislike in world affairs. And I agree. I think in many cases, it does play a role.

It played a significant role. It's playing a significant role in relationship between Russia and Iran at the moment. It's playing a significant role in relations between Russia and Poland. I think the Russians of the Poles could do an awful lot of good together with each other, by the way, and have an awful lot of points of common interest and common culture, just to say. So it's not something one can underestimate. It would be something that perhaps would be usefully set out in a study.

but nobody, to my knowledge, has done it. Nico says why nobody isn't criticizing India and China. India came out of silence to join a war project with Japan for the rules-based order. They killed bricks. China cares more about making money rather than noticing the fires around them. Why is it wrong for Iran and Russia to tell them to pound sand? Well, first of all, I mean, if Russia behaved like that, That really would indeed be the end of Bricks.

And Bricks has many problems as I discovered when I was in Russia. And can I also say that I was granted access to some of the email messages that passed between Russia and Iran? And I saw that these could be very forthright indeed. And I heard things that were said to me about what happened in private discussions between the Russians and specifically the Brazilians at one point, when the Brazilians were so taken aback by the very forthright way in which the Russians were talking,

that they said to the Russians, you're being rude, and other countries supported Brazil. And I know which countries, by the way, just to say. So there is an awful lot of open language and open discussion, but if you're talking about India and Indian foreign policy, You underestimate perhaps the extent to which there is open discussion about it in India itself. If you're talking, for example, about India's relations with Iran, there is massive criticism of it inside India. If you're talking about relations between India and China, where here it's more divided.

but again there are people who criticize within India as well what India is doing in relation to China and there are many people who say India should work more closely with the Briggs. What I heard in Russia is that India overall is committed to the Bricks and is making it work or working towards making it work. It is not as quick as it should be but it is not the problem. And in terms of China, it's not the problem at all. Joker 84D says, do you think Western elites have big bunker complexes because they risk nuclear war without concern?

How is that possible? Do these people want to live in bunkers forever and rule over a wasteland? That's an excellent question, actually. I think that there is a degree of fear and paranoia in the law. West are at a level that I have never known in my lifetime. Apparently, we went through a similar period, so some people have told me in the early 1950s, but of course I wasn't alive then, and we did manage to avoid war in the 1950s, so maybe we will again. Miko says China is duplicitous and arrogant.

The China expert you had that said the Chinese make the Russians. well to him, I say, let's see how they do. Well, I have to say this. Again, when I was in Russia, that wasn't the sentiment that most people had about the Chinese. And the Chinese are all over Russia at the moment. And I follow Chinese foreign policy fairly carefully. And I don't think that China is duplicitous in the way that you say.

Where I would say is, China, of course, follows and pursues its own interests as every country in the world does or should do. Alex? Hello? Are you there? I think we've... I don't know whether people can hear me,

but we seem to have a freeze. I'm not sure who's frozen, whether it's I've been frozen or Alex who has. I don't think it's me. But anyway, just to... repeat again. Ah, there you are. You froze for a while, or at least, maybe I froze for a while.

I'm not sure which of us froze. I froze. I froze. I froze. Okay. Where are we? Sparky says, globalist puppet leaders sure are pathetic. It's time to storm the Bastille.

If it is, are the masses now too domesticated to do so? I think people are very frightened. I think they're extremely demoralized. I think that also, as statistics that I've seen, which come from UBS, by the way, the Swiss Bank, show there has been a collapse, a major collapse in wealth in Europe. And that is inevitably going to make people very stressed and very nervous and afraid for the future and probably in the short term, at least, worried about, you know, standing out and saying things that might get them into even more

problems than they are. But at the moment, I don't get the sense that we're anywhere close to a storming the Bastille movement. And, but anyway, we'll see how things play out in, play out in political terms. Your old prospector says, greetings from Russia. Can you share your thoughts? on Western liberals jumping to the defense of Ukrainian nationalist movements? That isn't one of the best questions we've had because it's been absolutely extraordinary. There's a substack site called Events in Ukraine,

which talks about this a great deal, about the extraordinary, weird paradox of Western liberals supporting Ukrainian ultra-nationalists whose attitudes and policies, in theory at least, should be absolutely contrary to what the Western Liberals stand for. I think there's a very simple key to solving, to unlocking this riddle, which is that both Ukrainian ultra-nationalists and Western liberals are united by one thing which they currently prioritize. And that is hatred of Russia.

So because they both hate Russia so much, and because Western liberals particularly hate Russia and see this as a challenge, see Russia, today's Russia, as a challenge to everything that they stand for and want to achieve, well, they're prepared to overlook the fact that some of the people that they're supporting in Ukraine

are indeed people that they, they pretend in every other circumstance to be opposed to. Iranian kiddo says China and Russia can't do much for Iran economically. Only thing that truly saves Iran is for the U.S. to remove the sanctions on banking sector that would help the real to regain value and lower inflation. Why do you say this? After all, Russian banks are disconnected from Western banks, they've been booted out of the SWIF system. And yet Russian banks appear to be stable. The financial system there seems to be working well. And they have been increasing their

reserves. And were it not for the interest rates, the super high interest rates in Russia, which banks themselves are now complaining about, they would be providing more loans to Russian business people and Russian individuals, which would be helping the economy along. So if Russia can do that, why can't Iran? Iran is a big country. It's abundant natural resources. It's probably able to feed itself.

I believe it can. It has all the energy it needs. It's better positioned to make use of the new. forms of energy, solar panels and batteries than Russia is, which has a more difficult climate. And it has very great technological depth. I would have thought that Iran could actually achieve quite a lot with its financial system. And if it gets help with its friends from the Chinese and the others, well, it could certainly stabilize the real.

Just a second. Tsunami bomb says there is talk about civil war in Europe. It is out of the question because Europeans evidently don't care at all about what happens in their own society. Revolution is also out of the question of coup d'etat however might happen by the new military establishment and billionaires, as incompetent as politicians are. Change will come from above. Maybe so. Can I just say, I haven't heard people talking about civil war in Germany or France or places like that, but it's been talked about quite a lot in Britain. And I would agree with you.

I think the prospects of civil war, outright civil war, or conflict in Britain are very remote, actually. I mean, I don't really believe that in any of that. What I would also say, though, is this. There's that famous expression that when change appears impossible, it becomes unavoidable. And I think we are heading for change in Europe. The only question is, what will that change? be. Fuzzy Ball says, as an American, I can tell you that the American public is at least 80% opposed to any aid to Ukraine despite what the Western media or Nikosa says. I think that's

probably true. That doesn't, by the way, mean, and this just goes back to my earlier point, that 80% of Americans like Russia, the two issues should not be conflated with each other. It is the Western media and all these various people who say that any refusal to help Ukraine proves that you are pro-Russian. From Kalin, who says, love you, Nikos, but I disagree. American here. Most people I know here, like Iran, Americans have no real beef with any country,

unlike the Euros do. I think that may be true, too, by the way. Again, it's while, it's, I haven't been very much to the United States for a very long time. But I do get the sense that in America, They are much more detached from these hatreds that we have in Europe, which have caused all those wars that we have had in the past.

Klaus Clevenson says, I'm traveling to China in August, look forward to a break from anti-Russia and propaganda. Indeed, absolutely. Leimah Lysovska says, Russia did information war at the beginning. The West claimed it a lie whilst lying themselves. truth will come out and the West will be fully discredited. They did it very ineffectively and they barely do it at all anymore.

And I think this is a huge mistake. Kermana Antasova, thank you for that super sticker. Sparky says I still believe a group of hazelnuts to the Romanian NATO base could cause globalists to back off for a bit. A lot of people think that, and I'm not saying you're wrong, by the way. what would happen if there was something like that happened, what would happen in Europe? It's very, very difficult to get in advance.

Nico says you have to admit Duran, the people forget or they don't care. Does anyone even remember the 20 years of failure in Afghanistan or even Maduro, no? Well, I think some people remember it, actually. But, you know, I take your point. But don't assume that that translates into a support for war. If you're talking about Britain, perhaps people don't remember in very great detail what happened in Afghanistan or in Iraq.

But they have gained a general sense that getting Britain into wars of this kind are wrong and a mistake. I think there's a much greater, maybe not so much people. sentiment, but anti-war sentiment in European societies and certainly the United States than you imagine. OMG, Mr. T says, did you guys watch Glenn's talk with Zhang Jekin two days ago? Remarkable that you haven't talked to him. He has a lot of interesting insights. No, I haven't. In big picture style, that I'm sure you would appreciate. I haven't watched it because, frankly, I've had so many other things to read and watch over the last week or

two weeks that there are all sorts of interesting things that go out there that I just don't have the time for. Perhaps I had Professor. We did have Professor Yang. We did have Professor Yang on. We were one of the first channels to have Professor Yang on and then all the other channels. They're asking us for the email. Exactly.

We should look at our lives and our videos from like nine months ago or ten months ago. Yeah. And you'll see the one with Professor Yang. Nico says, and Alex, we can make the maximum restraint policy, but it's the only thing Russia can do unless they want to be destroyed. It's an impossible situation. Well, it's a very difficult situation. I'm not sure it's an impossible situation, but it's certainly a very, very difficult situation. A British historian, I'm not going to say which one, said to me that in some ways, the

Russian leadership today has to make the same kind of very, very tough calculations as it did in 1939 to 41 and as it did in 1913 to 14. And well, we know how difficult those were. And in both cases, it didn't work out well. But looking certainly at the 1913-14 thing, it's difficult to say that they made the wrong cause. The problem was, the other side wasn't thinking rational. Matthew says the EU has no industry and no weapons. How can it even go to war? Surely it can't happen on that basis alone.

I've been told this very thing by somebody who has contacts with the German military. Not the generals, to be very clear, the junior middle ranking officers. He has said to me this. They're telling him the politicians are talking all the time about war. War. We don't have the men, we don't have the weapons. And it's the same in Britain. We don't have the men and we don't have the weapons. And the 15 billion pounds over four years that Kirstama is going to provide the military with in order to beef up the military doesn't remotely come close to resolving this problem. Klaus says there is American soldiers on Taiwan's island 12 kilometers from mainland China. Did anyone say profit? Well, indeed. Good point. Irish partisan says, do you think Latin America will be a new front in the multipolar rivalry?

Russia and China v. U.S. over Cuba, Venezuela, in Nicaragua, Bolivia, etc. Well, we haven't heard very much from Cuba recently, and there was this big flurry of activity between the Russians and the Cubans back in March. And as we all remember, a tanker with oil from Russia came to Cuba, and then another tanker was sailing there, and then I've heard it on pretty good authority, that the Cubans turned it away, and they met with John Radcliffe,

and we haven't heard anything more. So you can only help people who will help themselves. I'm afraid that is one of the iron lessons, and I still think that in Cuba, there remains a very, very powerful group within the Cuban leadership, who say, perhaps rightly. I mean, you know, we mustn't assume that these people are being necessarily unpatriotic.

But they're saying rightly, well, you know, Russia is far away. It's the United States that we must eventually come to terms with in some form or rather getting help from the Russians. All that's going to do is provoke the Americans and land us into even bigger problems. And as for Latin America, altogether, again, I think the Chinese and even more the Russians are probably saying to themselves, and I am sure are saying to themselves, it's too far away, it's too obviously the US's backyard. We see every so often governments appear in Latin America, which appear to be friendly to ourselves.

But ultimately, the countries always go back to the alignment with the US. Let's not get too involved there. And I think that is very much the dominant view. Not lengthy says, sorry, the question about the truth serum question to Putin extended to Alex Christopher. I'd very much like to know his opinion about what would ask Putin if he had truth serum. Well, my apologies. Well, you answered it.

I'll answer mine. I don't know. I agree with yours, Alexander. Those were good questions. But I would also ask Putin if he was pissed off when the Trump administration sent drones into Valdei. What happened there? Right. I thought that was an interesting development.

Absolutely. Anyway. Yeah. Open view, Ozzy says two questions. Has Starlink made nuclear mad less relevant? What's stopping? Russia deploying its own Starlink? Well, it is deploying its own Starlink, which is called Rasfebett, and Putin's

you to suggest that it's about to enter operation. And there are some reasons. There are a few very tentative reasons for thinking that it might be operating, at least at some level. But the Russians have their own Starlink, and the Chinese are going to have their own Starlink, too, and we're going to have three Starlink's, just as we have three GPSes and all of that. So that's coming. Has it made mutual assured destruction less relevant? No. Staling is a satellite communication system. Nuclear weapons are weapons, and they're a completely different thing.

Iranian kiddo says sometimes you have to do what you have to do for the greater good of your country if you're a patriot. That's what the Iranian government must understand. You have to give up enrichment and arming militias and normalize. Well, I've no doubt that there are some people like that who think in that way in Iran. Sparky says most Americans nowadays don't walk around with hatred towards Russia or Iran. In fact, if Iran was still competing in the World Cup, American crowds would true them on, embarrassing U.S. leadership.

Interesting. Flying Boar says, what is going on with India? A couple weeks ago at the G7, he was cackling with Trump while the U.S. killed three Indian sailors in the Persian Gulf. Well, Modi has been trying very, very hard to maintain a good relationship with Trump. I mean, he's gone far further there in that direction than, say, Putin has done. I mean, he's tried to maintain a good relationship with Trump, even as Trump has lied to things that Modi has told him, or he says has told him over the phone. He's imposed tariffs on India.

He's done all kinds of things towards India. Modi, much more than Putin, has to take into account the fact that there is a very, very powerful, oligarchical group that supports Modi's party and which is concentrated mostly, I understand, in Mumbai, that absolutely sees India's future as closely aligned with the United States. So I think Modi has to keep those people happy. And I think that probably plays an important role in explaining his decisions. It does attract a lot of criticism from other people in India, as I have seen. Iranian kiddo, China needs cheap, sustainable fuel. There are no one's ally. Downalignment has always been an integral part of their foreign policy.

Also, Russia is sanctioned. It's not like they have many options. Well, again, I'm not making that point. I mean, Russia is sanctioned. China, obviously, tries to avoid, has gone through the appearances of avoiding alliances. Does have one ally, by the way. People always overlook this,

but it has a formal treaty of alliance with North Korea, which the Chinese have repeatedly said remains valid. So it's not true to say that China never allies with anybody. And I think it would be difficult to argue, actually, that the relationship between China and Russia today is not an alliance, certainly at some levels. But I come back to this basic question. Russia can see a significant increase in growth and economic prosperity.

As I saw for myself, Skolf here was perhaps, even more interesting than Moscow. Why, given Iran's resources, can it not do the same? Could it be? And I just suggest this to you, Iranian kiddo, that one of the reasons is that Iranian leaders, particularly those in charge of the economy, have been overly focused on trying to get relations with the Americans mended. And the result is they have never.

been able to take they've never taken the necessary steps domestically to stabilize iran's economy red three tree says but why don't they reverse net zero policies reindustrialize and amass immigration why would they be reversing all this now if there were serious about war they ban england flags while wanting me to fight for england well you're going to you're asking excellent questions i think your questions provide their own answers. I mean, they want war, they talk about war and they want to wage it on their own terms without making any changes to the economic and social systems that, you know, sustain them and keep them in the position which they are in, even though those very same economic and social systems and the policies that go with them make the ability

to wage war, factually impossible. Alan says in the USA, Iran hate is fake to sell wars to boomers. These are very interesting points a lot of people have made on this live stream about American attitudes to Iran, by the way, just a same. Laima Lassovska, Putin cares about opinion of Westerners. Western governments spit on people's opinions and gaslight legitimate criticism with accusations of Putinism. The original Vladimir Putin of 1999, 2000,

the man who became president of Russia in 2000, saw Russia integrating with Europe and being friends with the United States. He has been on an immense journey since then. The friendship with China has been a relatively new event in here his career. And I think he's still on that, Jen. Kaleen says in the USA, most people I know like and respect Russia.

Well, there you go. You're hearing all of these people from the United States were coming back and saying these things. We should listen to them. Ashwan Schweiss says you have implied in previous programs that ISIS received some degree of direction from the US. Can you explain this connection with more detail? Well, I can't explain this connection with more, in too much detail, because, of course, you know, you're asking me to get deep into the weeds and talk about things that happen in secret. Two things to say. Firstly, I know for a fact that this is a universal belief across the Middle East and that many people in the middle, many people in the Middle East, overwhelmingly in the Middle East,

ISIS is seen in exactly that way as something that was basically set up in order to promote. Let's not say American policies, but the policies of certain people within the larger structures that guide policy in the West. The second is look at Jalan. Look at the leader of Syria today. He was a close, a high-ranking official of ISIS. He was very close to, you know, the top man in ISIS, I forget, Balmogdadi. He then went to Idlib province.

He split from ISIS. He converted himself. He claims that he's different. And now, of course, he's universally hailed across the West. And by the way, in Russia, too, as the person who is the great wise leader. Syria. To my mind, the whole Jolani affair tells you a very great deal about the realities of the Middle East today and how these various groups were set up and who ultimately was responsible for. PAM 4201 says, why don't geopolitical experts ever talk about the influence of the WEF on UK European

politicians? They're all in on Agenda 2030. We've talked about this many, many times. I would push back there. I think you haven't been listening to all of our programs over the many years, which is unsurprising because why, how can anybody do? But we've talked about the WF on many, many occasions. Jeff Fahley says, Favrecher at the British Museum and why?

Sorry, can you repeat that again? catch that. Your favorite? Favorite treasure? Fab. Fab. The British Museum is one of the great museums of the world. It is piled up with treasures from all sorts of places, including the Arthur, the Parthen and Marbles, which my aunt was trying to get returned to Greece. Just saying. Sparky says China has at least indirectly held back Iran from retaliating. Now that Iran's enemies have again proven disingenuous will China continue to influence Iran to hold back? Well who knows? As I said I I this article in The Guardian did say that there was considerable

a very significant souring of relations between China and Iran and it was Iranian decisions that started it going China wanted the Strait of Hormuz reopened. That's what the Chinese told the Iranians. The Iranians agreed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and this has led to all of these problems that we see. But again, China also at one point during the special military operation told the Russians that it wanted a ceasefire.

And that happened in 2024. China got together with the Brazilians, as I remember, and ultimately the Indians do. The Russians said no, and the Russians handled it much better than the Iranians do. Sticky Marx says, I was robbed for the second time whilst in bed last week. They weren't Russian, though I'm told to fear them.

We're going to war with Russia, fix any of this, I doubt it. LMPs from Russia. It's not fixing them. I'm sorry first of all to hear that you've been robbed, and that's terrible to learn. And the second is it going to fix anything. It's what's making the situation in our countries worse. One of the reasons, not the only reason, but one of the reasons we are getting poorer is because we are locked in this economic war, which we are losing.

Flight of Arro says the systematic and slow destruction of Ukraine is designed to slow any advance into Russia proper by the West. I think there is an element of that. I think that the Russians also probably say to themselves that it means that resistance from Ukraine itself is going to be less eventually. But I also believe, and I say this to, partly it's been a political decision. but also it has been a military strategic decision. As Karulin, who is the Russian journalist, said, when the SMO began, Russia had the equivalent of 100 divisions. Not anywhere near enough.

Now it has 220, I think he said. In other words, the military has grown. The military industrial industries have been completely reorganized. It's got drones, it's got things of that kind. didn't have those in 2022. And I think that to a great extent, one of the reasons the war has played out in the way that it has is that it taken a long time for the Russians to rebuild the military competencies they had under the Soviet Union, but which they came very close to losing. Randolph White Wolf says, as an American living in Russia who worked in the oil fields of rural

Wyoming. I can say that most of my working class peers voted for Trump hoping for sovereignty and peace, including with Russia. Yeah, I'm sure that's true. Iranian kiddo says, I don't know everything in Iran is being traded by U.S. dollar. If the Iranian currency collapses against the dollar price of goods immediately go up, when currency gain against dollar prices go down and people feel confident. I know that, but then I also remember a time. when pretty much everything in Russia was traded in dollars too. I remember going to Russia and paying taxi drivers in dollar bills.

And the taxi drivers would be very, very unhappy if there was even the smallest mark on the dollar bill, for example. So the Russians got away from that. I mean, again, it may not be something that you can do in one day. but if you do it, if you think hard about doing it and work consistently to achieve it, just say. Manfred today says thoughts on Peter Hitchens and David Starkey. I think Peter Hitchens is one of the finest and bravest journalists in Britain today.

He's been a major voice of peace for peace. I've not always agreed with him in the past. I don't agree with him about everything today, but I do think that, frankly, he's one of the very, very few voices of reason left. As for David Starkey, he is someone who's also been, if I can say so, on a journey. I remember him when I was at university,

when he was an important, though by no means first rank, historian on the English Tudor, period. He's evolved gradually, very gradually, into a very interesting and very insightful political commentator who, of course, all the usual people dislike intensely. And of course, some of the things he says are controversial. And I'm going to say quickly, I don't agree with him about everything. Daniel Alpha November says, does South Africa have any real influence or impact on the operation of BRICS as a South African citizen. I struggle to see how the economic block has any effect on my day-to-day life. I think that South Africa has very little influence in Bricks and is very much a detached

part of Bricks. When I was in Moscow, again, I heard a lot of frustration about South Africa, as well as Brazil, and as well as been a little bit, some about India too. I think the general, truth about Bricks is it expanded much too fast. It should have stuck to being China, India and Russia and worked out in systems between those three and only then begun expanding. Law Read 1871 says opinion on national security state threats bill. I've just talked about this at the very start of the program. It's the thing I said about, you know, the fact that if you get information from the wrong people, you could find yourself in trouble.

It's a very, very disturbing development indeed. And I would never have believed that could happen in Britain. Obviously, given the sort of work we do on the Duran, it's a bill that I have to study and understand how it's going to work very, very carefully. Fuzzy Ball says if you guys were in charge of Russia and were forced to launch attacks outside of Ukraine, would an EU and NATO headquarters be the most effective targets? I'm not going to talk about that.

I am not going to talk about directing attacks on my own country or on countries that are friendly to mine. I'm going to leave those decisions for the Russian leadership to make. After all, they are the people who eventually will have to make those decisions if the moment comes to make them. Jeff Gustafson says, rest in peace, Gonzalo Lera. Absolutely.

Kaleen says, I'd ask Putin why he went along with the COVID-Saiop. Good question. Well, good question. Absolutely. It's a good question, actually. Radovitz says the enlightened leadership of the cult of European utopia is not to be questioned.

Let's remember all the damned subjects who dared to speak against the approved truth and are paying the price in Sanctuary. hell. Absolutely, yes. Alexander G.P3Z says Gonzalo Lira was arrested in May 23 in Ukraine. Yeah, as I so well remember. Open Vyazzi says, sorry, I wasn't clear. Could Starlink

evolve to destroy incoming nukes making bad less relevant? Is that a long-term U.S. strategy? I doubt that Starlink itself could evolve in that way. As to what ultimate plans there might be, I'm just not going to speculate about that because I don't know, whether Starlink technologies could be used to develop that kind of weapon system. I mean, I just don't know. Josias says Alex and Alexander, do you think the recent tensions between Poland and Ukraine over the heroization of Ukrainian nationalist figures could create serious problems between the two countries and within the EU? or is this mostly political theater, while Poland will continue supporting Ukraine because it benefits

strategically and financially from its role in the conflict? It is not political theater. It is something that comes very much from below. We talk often about how, what a vivid memory the Second World War is in Russia. It's a very vivid memory in Poland, too. And people are absolutely furious about it there. And the political leadership has to react. Now, some people within the political leadership in Poland, like Lavrovsky, almost certainly, are in good faith about it. Others, like Donald Tusk, are not. I mean, they probably fundamentally don't care.

But a lot of people in Poland do care. And I think it probably will have a long-term effect. R.W. Swal says, if Brits knew the truth, the vast majority would be ashamed. horrified at what we've done to Ukraine and trying to do to Russia. Most never hear the truth or are brainwashed to dismiss it. I absolutely agree with you. I think you are completely correct. I think I've discussed in previous live streams,

the group I spoke to in Oxford, because I only spoke to them for a few hours. They all came in pretty much accepting the mainstream views. As the discussion went forward, you could see that they became shaken and some of them became concerned if people were made more fully aware about what is really happening

there would be an enormous revulsion of feeling about it. Iranian Kido says honestly, I don't see I don't really see a big change with Iran giving up nuclear ambition at this point. It's not like they were going to build any weapons or anything. I agree. I absolutely agree.

I think that Iran has a point on nuclear enrichment, keeping, retaining the right to conduct nuclear enrichment. After all, it's there in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Why should Iran be singled out? I think that would be wrong. Where I think Iran went terribly wrong

and made a huge mistake was going for 60% in Richmond. I said this many times, in many places, some people pushed back against this. But I don't see how, in the end, going that far up, benefited Iran at all? P. Walker says the 2012 DNI report said that the USA supported a Salafist principality in Syria. That means ISIS. Well, there you go.

Iranian kiddo says, Boucher, I believe, is Iran's only nuclear power plant, which Russians have been working on since 1992, and it currently put out a mere 1% of Iranian electricity needs. Iran needs two dozen of those just to keep up due to aging, due to an aging grid. Absolutely. It needs a huge amount of investment. It needs an enormous amount of work. Iran, to repeat again, clearly has great engineering skills. As I understand it, they did an awful lot of work during the period of the Islamic Republic in upgrading infrastructure all over the country. but the country is heavily underinvested. And one of the reasons I am sure is because the financial system has been so badly mismanaged.

And again, I don't quite understand why. Sparky says, speaking of ISIS, it says a lot that ISIS never attacks Israel. In fact, they fought alongside Israel in Syria. Well, again, you know, people are coming forward and are providing the information. Nico says American and Westerners in our circle like Russia and Iran, but are the minority. We aren't enough. Also, what the hell is going on in Syria and Mali? Well, about Mali, I think mostly the government, with the help of the Russian Africa Corps, as it's called today, Wagner, in other words, has basically stabilized the situation.

About Syria, Jalani still seems to be pretty much in control, running the place. as Erdogan's viceroy. What I've heard about the situation in Syria is that it is terrible and getting worse. But obviously that's not the story. You mostly hear about whether the people that we hear from about Russia and Iran are representative of general feeling in the United States. Of course, that I can't say. OMG, Mr. T.

T says, just found the vid with Yang. missed that. By the way, both of you say you were massive fans of predictive history channel, so it's time again. He still thinks the U.S. ground troops will end up in Iran. Love to hear your take on this. I'll be interested to hear what he has to say.

Flying Boar says Russia should do Tifratat, armed militia, against the West. Where, exactly? I mean, I mean, if we start getting into those sort of geopolitical games, what would be the place of the world where that should be done? And would that be good for that place? I mean, would making another region into a battleground,

a geopolitical battleground by proxy be a good thing? Just asking. Elza says, I have watched every video of the Duran, Alex and Alexander, since March of 2022. I trust only you 100%, and I can't imagine a day without you, gentlemen. Thank you very much. Thank you, Elsa. Akhrman has gifted the Duran 10 memberships. Thank you for that. Laima Lysovska says Russia has allies, U.S. has vassals, big difference.

I think that's probably true, actually. Eroded Emerald says, I have learned. lot from watching you. Thank you for that. Flying Boers is an update on British politics and Stammer. Well, we've done, we've just done a program on all of this, which I think is coming out fairly soon. We are looking forward to the glorious years of Prime Minister Andy Burnham. In other words, Tony Blair 3, Stammer 2. Flip Shee says, since joining the Durant community, I've become a much better person of reason and compassion. As a result, I now.

comport myself in a much better way. Thank you. Thank you for those kind words. Thank you for that. From one, Asidae, what are your thoughts on baseline education between different nations, example, China, US, Russia? How does skill set and cultural discipline impact the militaries? Could the situation, could the solution to issues be education? There is an awful lot here. I mean, this is a massive, huge, question and comparing educational levels between countries is never a very easy thing to do. I'm going to say it's, I get to see what I generally think. I think in Russia, where I recently went, my sense is that the education levels are extremely high and the technical, the level of technical knowledge in the society is extremely high indeed,

probably higher than in some parts of Europe. Whether that increases understanding or willingness to engage, that's a completely different question again. Elsa says my theory about Putin and COVID, the Russians knew about the labs and weren't sure about the virus. I guess they checked first to avoid any risk. Probably. Alex did make a good point,

actually. What was this? No, it wasn't Alex. It was somebody else who said, you know, finding out what Putin was thinking. Oh, what Putin, yeah. Yeah, that was very interesting. That was a good question, yeah.

Flying Boar says, if Israel wants to go after Turkey A, let it be. I won't shed tears for Erdogan. The guy burned too many bridges. Oh, I mean, I wouldn't shed any tears for Edewan. I might shed tears for Turkey. Peter Zemin says, how long do you prepare for your videos

every day. Hours. I mean, both of us work very hard. Too long. Tuck, Thummer says, should Russia push forward in Ukraine? That brings more refugees and people who lost homes, etc. How is that really a good move in the end? Well, I think the Russians probably would say that they have no choice. They are pushing forward in Ukraine. Jeff Gustafson says, A&A, what are your favorite periods of Greek history? Oh, very, very good question. Well, obviously the 5th century, which is particularly well chronicled, by the way, the period of the Peloponnesian War, of the golden period of Athens,

the Persian Wars, all of that. Byzantine history too. That of the Macedonian dynasty in particular. particular, which basically reigned from about 800 to about 1,100 AD. I like the years of Bassoc, Alexander. Recent. Yes, the recent. Yes, recent history is interesting.

Greece has lots of good history, by the way. Pasoq, the austerity, all of that stuff, which we lived through. We lived through, yeah. And which has shaped us. Yeah. Game of Chair says the only sensible. British politician in the UK today is Count Binface. I don't know who that is.

B-I-N-F-A-C-E? No, I've never heard of this person. Is that is that a joke? It sounds to me like a joke. Maybe. Maybe. I don't know. Yeah, it's a joke.

It's definitely a joke. It sounds like it's a cool name for a count, actually. We don't have counts. in Britain, by the way, counts are European, is a European title. We have earls instead. That would be cool if you had counts. Open view, Ozzy says, why is Russia? We have, we have countesses. So the wife of an earl is a countess, just to confuse everyone. Open view, as he says, why is Russia losing most of its USSR satellites? What's wrong with these people? Will it lose Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, etc., too? I would say on the contrary, over the last 10 years or so, they seem to have strengthened their relationships, especially with Central Asia.

There was a period after the US enters Afghanistan, when the US had bases in Central Asia. And I know the Russians were very worried about it, but the bases have gone. and most of the Central Asia is now pretty friendly to Russia from what I can say. Sparkey says Iran and Russia's enemies are called fools for depending on Black Swan events to turn the tide. But Russia and Iran should take it to account that given enough time, black swan events do happen. I'm sure they do take it to account. Certainly I'm sure the Russians do. Flying Boar says China needs to understand if God forbids Iran falls, NATO goes through Central and

Asia to take on China. China better get serious. I think the Chinese do understand it, but China is a huge country. The government there is enormous. There are probably many complicated things. And I know that the Russians at least think that the Iranians are

difficult people to help. And I wouldn't be surprised if the Chinese think the same. Cap and Lear, thank you for that super sticker. Flying Boar says Antiburnum. I don't have hope. With him because he is just like the rest.

Let's not forget, Burnham tried to move 2018 FIFA World Cup away from Russia. I have an even more negative view of Andy Burnham than you do. But basically we think the same. The hockey goalie says, if a site in the UK was hit, how do you realistically think the government would actually be able to respond? I fear capabilities are vastly overestimated and it's a concern. It is absolutely a concern. And I think that the level of fear and anger and hysteria and panic here would be extraordinary.

But remember, it's the anger you need to worry about. And even though the capabilities really don't exist and the dangers of doing anything in that kind of situation are extreme, you are not dealing with fully rational people. And I don't know. I mean, about attacks on my own country. I should also quickly say, the whole topic makes me feel very uncomfortable. Sticky Mark says, sorry for my cynicism. Thanks, lads, and all of the Duran community, love and peace from the crazy old Nana in Yorkshire.

Thank you. Thank you for that. Open view, Ozzie says, hi, guys, I've been watching you since the Stone Age. I'm still waiting for the Russian history series to restart. Oh, so we. Iranian kiddo, thanks for that. And Kiddha says some Iranian cities now go dark regularly for about two hours a day per schedule for the last couple of years. This was unheard of when I lived there in the 2000s and the 2010s.

And dams drying up isn't helpful. Absolutely. No, Iran has massive problems. And these are partly connected to the sanctions, undoubtedly. But I come back to what I said. I don't understand. There are many things about, I mean, I don't know the political system in Iran. very well. Clearly, Iran has tremendous competences. The war has shown that, which begs the question

of why many of these problems have been allowed to get worse than the way they have been. Mark Hewitt says, I've been suspicious about Farage after the appearances of Bill Browder on his G.B. News show. Yeah, absolutely, yeah. R.W. Swal says Putin is the art of the possible. He always ensures that what he can do always far exceeds what he what he can do for the West the reverse is true. This is very true.

Putin is very rational and very realistic. I think you're absolutely right in what you've said. I think where sometimes he goes wrong is like many rational people. He underestimates the irrationality of the people on the other side. Pope and Master Fu says,

as Jonathan David Harvey, also known as Count Binface, is a British comedian and novelty candidate. Binface is an independent space warrior who wears a large bin-shaped helmet. Okay, right. It is a joke with the better. He stood as a candidate in Uxbridge and South Ruslip constituency at the 2019 general election against the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, and again at the 2003 by-election that followed Johnson's resignation. He also stood in the London mayoral elections of 2021 and 2024. He sounds like the ideal candidate to be our next prime minister.

Rather, I'm prime minister after Prime Minister Bernard. Yeah. Choker 84D says, do you think the left-right divide still makes any sense? Shouldn't the anti-war people on both sides work together to prevent the ultimate catastrophe, specifically talking about BSW I have dead in Germany? Speaking as an old leftist, what I used to be, once upon a time long ago, I can say definitely that it makes absolutely no sense anymore at all. I think absolutely people who believe in peace should stand together and put aside these labels which have no reality anymore. Kaleen says dislike the term Byzantium. They were Romai Roman.

You're absolutely correct. And I stand corrected. I mean, they were the Roman Empire, which continued up to 1453. From Benedict, what makes you think Europe and the USA will take Russia seriously? Previous behavior is clear that Russia will not do anything to retaliate. Putin still craves they will call him back to meetings, and he does not want to spoil that. I think they take Russia extremely seriously. You can't read newspapers. listen to rhetoric here, they take Russia very, very seriously indeed. Whether you, what you mean by that is whether they take Putin's and Russia's warnings about military action against the West seriously if the West goes on escalating. Well, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a question. But I don't think Putin himself any longer has any illusions that he's going to be invited to the top table in the West. He's repeatedly rejected all the invitations to rejoin the G7.

And he's made it very clear that he has no time for the Europeans at all and doesn't want to talk to them. Night 345 says the U.S. doesn't allow Iranian athletes to remain in the U.S. after World Cup Games. They have to travel to the U.S. from Mexico for every game. Yeah, but, you know, that's the U.S. government. It may not be repriments. representative of how Americans generally feel. Flying Boar says you cannot be pragmatic when you are facing hyenas, threatening you 24-7. Flying Boar also says Iran needs to put its ego aside and ask China and Russia for help. Yes, I mean, I did hear, again, but this is on a Russian channel that the Russians are now,

that they've now made 17 Suhoi 35s for Iran and that the first will be delivered at the first weeks of 2027. We'll just have to see. From Daniel Alpha November, how is that Dominique Cummings discussion coming along? Greetings from Cape Town. I won't say he's a friend. I mean, that would he do strongly, but I found him a very interesting man to speak to. I've learned an awful lot. It's the same. From Sir Muzgame, Alex on a serious note, Disclosure Day. What's the ETA on Duran Beach Tows? Cool. I don't know when we'll have those ready. Probably not this summer. Unfortunately, but we'll try. We'll try to see what we could do.

All right. Alexander, that is everything. That's it. That's everything. Well, that was a fantastic live stream. And thanks to everybody for joining us today. I think we did right just to go into the questions. I said people are very, very well involved. Yeah, we had a lot of questions. Yeah, a lot of questions today. So thank you to hear Sparky.

Count Binface sounds like a variation of the unknown candidate who ran for office in the US 40 or 50 years ago. He wore a paper bag over his head to remain unknown. There we go. There we go. All right. Thank you to everyone for all the questions. Thank you for joining us on all the platforms. Thanks to our moderators.

And we will be back with video. today. Indeed. Indeed, we will. All right. Thanks, everybody. Take care. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Bye.