The Duran Podcast - Let's Talks About Some News (Live)

Episode Date: September 29, 2026

Let's Talks About Some News (Live)

All right, we are live with Alexander McCurs in London. Alexander, how you doing? Very well. I'm very pleased to be here on our live stream. All right, good to have you here on our live stream as well. Good to have everyone here on joining us on Rumble, on obviously, and on locals at duranddollocles.com and on YouTube as well. Hello to everyone that is watching us from wherever you are in the world.

Hello to our moderators. Big shout out and thank you to our moderators in the YouTube chat. And Alexander, are there any stories that you would like to discuss before we get to questions? And any stories? Any stories? Lots and lots, lots and lots of stories. Actually, it's a slow news day today, to be quite honest. We have the RAF Fairford.

I was wondering whether you were going to ask me about that one. Well, I mean, you know, the guys were caught. They couldn't decide whether they were going to find Russian passports or Iranian passports. Anyway, they ended up releasing the five suspects. The Trump administration is really pissed off about that. Rubio is upset. Trump even commented about it. They claim that they have information that one of the guys was a foreign actor.

I don't know if they mean an actor actor or foreign citizen. Foreign actor. It could be Zelensky. I don't know. It could very well be Zelensky, yes. But they're upset. They're saying that they're basically saying that the UK should not have released these guys. Yeah.

What's going on here? Well, I'll tell you what I think. I think that the British arrested these people following an American intelligence to it, I think the Americans are pointing the finger at Iran. That's clearly who the suspects are in this case. You follow the British media closely. It's not Russia. It's Iran.

I should say that it's a misconception to think that this is a British base. I mean, a lot of these bases have British names. And, you know, the prefix RAF, Royal Air Force. It dates from an arrangement, an agreement that was made by Churchill with the Americans way back in the 1940s, which is that Churchill did not want to disclose, make obvious how many American bases there are in the UK. So he insisted that the bases needed to be given British names with designations that suggested that they are. operated by the British Air Force. I believe this is an American base, just to say, purely an American base.

So American intelligence gave this tip of that these people were going to do something there and that they were connected in some way with Iran and they were arrested. And this is the interesting part of the story. The same British media, which is absolutely credulous and believes, about any story connected to Russia. I mean, if it's, you know, a drone is found on an airport runway in Leipzig near to a Ukrainian plane. Obviously, the Russians must have done it. And it's really very unsporting and very unfair to ask for evidence of that.

Anyway, this time, because it's connected to Trump in some way, who's very unpopular here. And because it's Iran, the same reason. British media says, well, where's the evidence? Where's the proof that anything was going on here? What's the real connection to Iran? And lo and behold, apparently the evidence is very shaky and it's entirely intelligence-based. So the police released them on bail.

So, you know, this is an interesting story at many different levels. And it tells you a little bit also about the internal politics here. And the priorities of the British establishment, just to say. Yeah. If the Trump administration had told the UK authorities to depend it on Russia, then the media would have run with that. Absolutely. Because they said Iran, let's work the Iran angle.

They said, we don't kind of like that one. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. Strange. All right. All right. All entirely predictable.

Actually, entirely predictable. Yeah, a little strange and predictable, yeah. Predictable. If you live here in the UK, I mean, the general mood is, you know, Trump is awful, probably he's still working with the Russians in some way. Story is still circulated in many places here. Iran war was a massive mistake. Even newspapers like the Telegraph, which strongly advocated it,

now saying it's a massive mistake. Of course, not by them, but by Trump. And, of course, the real enemy against whom all of us, must unite is the Russians. And if you have any doubts at all about the fact that the Russians are coming, then that must mean that you're either a useful idiot or indeed somebody who is working on their behalf. Forget about Iran, focus on Russia. On Russia, exactly. Yeah, what's, before we get started with questions, what's the situation on the front line in Ukraine, what's going on in Doppropilia, in Harkov, in Kharkov, in.

Orejo, in Sumi, in Kiev, and in Liman, with the latest comments from Beletsky, claiming that they capture 250 Russian soldiers. And now you are seeing the collective West Media really run hard with Beletsky and Liman. Yes, indeed. Well, they are. The evidence completely expected, by the way. Oh, absolutely. I'm talking with us.

What the whole purpose of this only is, after all, it is intended to be that. Well, first to say, the Russians themselves now providing their own accounts of what's going on in Lehman. Radolfka had a big piece about it yesterday, and they said that the Ukrainians have been fought to a standstill, basically, and that they're not making any significant advances. They've captured a couple of villages, but relative to the amount of force that they've been using, They're not achieving very much. Anyway, that's what the Russians say. The Russians have also published some video footage of some of the actual fighting.

And it's interesting because this video footage has been geolocated by some people. I don't myself place vast amount of reliance on geolocation, by the way. I think geolocation in countryside and fields is a very, very dubious. But anyway, for what it's worse, it's been geolocated in locations, which would also suggest that the Ukrainians are not making any significant progress. Bieletsky gave this long video, mostly himself. He didn't show any pictures of captured villages or anything of that kind. So it's really based very much on his own account. And there is this picture of Russian prisoners, that there are some people who are skeptical about that picture.

I mean, you can always round out people, put them in uniforms, claim that they're Russians. Whereas if you are actually in control of a village and you raise a flag there, well, that is a much more concrete information, much more, that's a more challenging thing to do. And that's more likely, therefore, to be real. My general sense of this is that this offensive isn't going anywhere,

that it's getting increasingly bogged down and that Beletsky is basically inventing things. That's my own sense. Everywhere else, everywhere else, it gets from bad to worse. O'Rejov definitely now in course. the Russians leafleting the Ukrainian troops there, telling them to surrender, which is usually a sign that the final collapse is happening quite soon. Dobruppelia, not only surrounded, but becoming falling further and further behind the Russian

front lines. In other words, the Russians pushing well to the north of Dobropelia. and starting this big outflanking operation. By the way, you did a very good program, I thought, with Stanislav Krabibni on the Duran. And Stanislav described a lot of this, and he explained, you know, how we're seeing the eventual big cauldron,

the really big one in Dombas, start to, you know, develop. And we've had also, you know, the continued problems, the Ukraine crisis, the Ukrainians, having in Harikov where another Ukrainian force is surrounded and the Russians are going to start to push south to precisely the area by the way where Berletsky is conducting or claims to be conducting this offensive wrong but the big story in the war at least the immediate story in the

war is the missile drone and other attacks that the Russians are conducting across Ukraine every day every hour of every day now. And there was a piece in The Guardian which basically said it that Kiev now is a frontline city. The pressure from the Russians is now intensifying on Kiev

and it is a front line city. And remember what we discussed, what we spoke about in one of our programs recently, that the objective of the Russians appears to be to push the West and ultimately the Ukrainian government out of Kiev,

well, you can see how Kiev becoming a front-line city plays directly into that. And the pressure, the military pressure, the pressure from the sky on Kiev and on the other Ukrainian cities is worsening the underlying economic crisis. And on top of that economic crisis, there is a financial crisis. And, well, we've discussed again in a recent program, which everybody can watch, the rather desperate things that the Europeans are trying to do to try to prevent this financial crisis from getting out of control.

We were the first channel to point out many, many months ago, Alexander, that the Russian plan appears to be to isolate Kiev. Yes. Yeah. I mean, you pointed to. that out in a video that we recorded maybe four or five months ago. Yeah. That the Russians appear to be working towards some sort of an isolation of Kiev and perhaps to even push the Zelensky regime out of Kiev or keep them stuck in Kiev

with much of the collective West support and embassies, think tanks, NGOs, having to evacuate the city. Yes, yes. which to be clear, the trend of events makes inevitable if he continues the way that it currently is. And the thing to understand is that the Russian drone missile bombing tanks on Kiev look like they're going to continue to escalate. Peskov, Putin's spokesman, spoke in a very implacable way about this whole situation. So it doesn't look as if the Russians are in any mood to slow down. on the contrary they intend to intensify.

That's how it looks to me. So yes, I think that is the Russian plan and I think it's coming into focus. And of course, what is long-term implications are going to be is very, very important. The one person, if they move the government out of Kiev, the one person who, you know, in some ways will be better off, will of course be Zelensky himself.

He doesn't particularly like being in Kiev, anyway, he travels out of it as much as he can. And of course, if he's in law, which is the obvious place, well, if things get even worse, he can take his entire government to the south of France and set it up there, which I suspect has been his intention all along. The person, Zelensky, will be happy to be out of Kiev. Yes.

But the Zelensky regime and Ukraine will be severely weakened. That's absolutely correct. And they can move parts of the government to above, and they can keep other parts in Kiev as well. They can do something like that. Yes, yes. I think that's what initially they're going to try to do. I think they will be very, very reluctant to move out of Kiev entirely.

But of course, as we discussed in that program that we did, doing that is going to mean that those remnants of the government, basically the military and the intelligence people who remain in Kiev are going to be extremely vulnerable. Yeah. The embassies will probably start to move out if the Russian strikes intensify. Yes. Correct? Absolutely. And last night, there was reports that a strike hit a building close to the German embassy. I don't think this is, I mean, it may have been an accident, but we've got to accept the possibility that it was not.

I mean, there was this very bad meeting between Vart Lavrov and Vardifu in New York. And, you know, it would not be entirely out of character for the Russians to, you know, drop a very, very strong message to the Germans. Look, your embassy is very very. becoming very, is in a very whole place in Kiev now. It's time you got your people out. Yeah. Final question.

Is there a deal between Trump and Iran? Axios is saying they're working towards a deal. Trump is saying, no way. Fake news. You see, the thing is, it's probably both are true at the same time. That's the problem. I suspect that there are. against there is discussions i mean there is a faction in iran peshiscan and galibar and people like that

who want to end the war because they still hank up some kind of deal with the americans they want to they they see the future of iran in that way of an iran accepted by the west and able to economically develop and as they would say flourish uh and return to its historic previous alignments, economic, not geopolitical, but economic alignments with the West, which it historically had. And these people obviously continue to try to talk and negotiate with Trump. And I think there are elements within the US government which are also interested in these deals. But I think that overall, by and large, the administration, the administration, the hardliners are not. And I have to say, I think much more likely, whatever is going on in terms of context between the Americans and the Iranians, eventually we're going to return to war. I've no doubt about it.

All right. Let's get to some questions and we'll kick things off with S. Scooby, who says, how does Russia ever stop Ukraine being used as a firing platform when they can just shift the center of government out of Kiev and possibly the country at large. You should not underestimate the impact of Ukraine, of the Ukrainian government leaving Kiev. I mean, bear in mind that Ukraine anyway is a politically very divided society. It's become increasingly, I mean, a lot of these pictures that you see of this, these people being, you know, seized on the streets, bundled into coaches and buses and taken off to the front.

A lot of these are happening in Russian-speaking areas where there is a lot of resistance and a lot of anger towards the government already. If you leave Kiev, then the Ukrainian governments, the current Ukrainian regimes, ability to control the situation in eastern and southern Ukraine is going to weaken. And of course the Russians already dispute its legitimacy.

And Kiev itself will increasingly look like it's being abandoned. Also, it will telegraph to the whole world that Ukraine definitely is losing the war. A government that is winning the war or is holding its own does not abandon its capital. So this would be a momentous event where it ever to take place. In fact, it would be a turning point in the war. So that's one reason, by the way, the Ukrainians will not want to do it. But going beyond that, your point is not without force in the sense that so long as there is a political entity on Ukrainian territory or Ukrainian control territory, aligned with the Western powers, you know, working. with the Americans, the CIA, NATO, British intelligence, German intelligence, all of these

people. I mean, that entity will continue to be a major thorn in Russia's side. And for the Russians, that is a problem, because I don't think they particularly want to go all the way to the West. They want, in fact, the Poles and Hungarians and the Romanians to go there and clean up for them. But the Hungarians, the Romanians and the polls don't seem to be very keen at the moment. So I think that there is this constant discussion within Russia. What do we do? Do we stop? Do we stop somewhere on the NEPA or west of the NEPA,

but do we hold back from moving all the way to L'Holfe? Or is it so important not to have a political entity hostile to us on Ukrainian territory that we have to move all the way to evolve, which will have enormous problems, come with enormous problems in the terms of opposition, not just internal opposition, within Ukraine itself, but from much of the international community, including Russia's friends,

who will not want to see an entire country absorbed by Russia in that kind of way. So if you pointed to a serious question, a problem that the Russians need to think about and are probably already debating amongst themselves. Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if there are some people in the CIA or the MI6 that are probably arguing for a shift to a dirty war, to a covert war, on a basis that it would be easier to manage and cheaper. I think you're almost certainly absolutely right about that. I mean, both the CIA and MI6 are addicted to this kind of thing.

I think that the attractions are exactly what you say is cheaper. They probably think it's easier to control. They're wrong about that, by the way. But they're good at it too. They're very good at it, exactly. I mean, it plays to their skills. Whereas as we see, the clash of conventional armies is something that they're not so good. Yeah. Let's go to Matthew, who says, so is the EU off to war or not?

Well, I think in Ursula's fancies, yes. I think they do. I mean, I think people like Ursula and Kyakhalas, if you listen to them, they clearly are thinking about a war. If you're talking about the Baltic states, I mean, the governments of the Baltic states are already talking about evacuating their entire populations from the national territory in ways that strongly suggest that they are also thinking about a war.

By the way, as a Greek, I find that absolutely horrifying. I mean, all Greeks know what it is like when you are forced to leave your country, that your own government might be planning to inflict that upon you. I mean, that deeply shocked. me, but those plans are there. If you listen to Friedrich Metz, I think Friedrich Metz's solutions to all his problems in his own mind would be more with Russia now as soon as possible.

So I think that they do want that. The people of Europe do not want it. Governments do not, some governments do not want it. The opposition is growing. But at the moment, the people who probably do want it, who probably do work and anchor for war are very much still in the ascendant. Mr. Jabalak says,

I hear Trump tried to sell U.S. weapons to China to help prop up the MIC. What next will he try to sell EU's Ukraine war bonds to Russia? Well, yeah, yes. Trump denies it, by the way. Yeah, Trump denies it, yeah. Yeah, even though his ambassador to China

says that that's exactly what happened. But anyway. There we go. I mean, assuming it happened, which by the way, I think he probably did, Xi Jinping must have come away to answer to himself. What is going on here? I mean, that is so bizarre. That is so weird.

Yeah. Nico says we had the Russian parliamentary elections. I think they were fair with 60% turnout. And the parties on the rise are definitely United Russia and LDPR. the commies lost big time because they are fading out, but you have guys like Daktaro Helmer who say that the election was raped. Yes, I know they do,

and I get very frustrated about this because they say that without a huge amount of evidence to support it. I'm going to actually push back on just one point you say. You say that the communists lost big and are fading out. I'd say they are showing extraordinary resilience

as a political force in the sense that 14% is close to their usual level in the previous Duma election, which happened, of course, before the war, they pushed up to 19%. So they've fallen back from that. But I wouldn't say that they're fading. There were many expectations that they would cease to be the second biggest party in Russia in the Duma. They nonetheless came through. And they are. Nikki Ball says Orwell, according to Helmer, Russia can't achieve its SMO aims of the nullifying Ukraine because already the fanatic nationalist guys in Kiev have infected the whole of NATO, just as Operation Paperclip contaminated the CIA.

Or did the contamination work in the opposite direction? Well, I think in this case, it is working in the opposite direction. What I mean by that is this, if we do avoid a main, military conflagration between the West and Russia, which once I thought was inconceivable, but which unfortunately I no longer do, but provided we avoid that, the degree of fanaticism, which is exactly what you've described, what it's going to do is simply going to make the disaster, the debacle worse, which which will be a disaster for Europe, it'll be a disaster for the West, it's going to make massive problems. It's what I always say. If you play for all or nothing, the risk you always run is you're going to end up with nothing.

And that's exactly where we're heading. West Wolf Esquire says, is there any possibility that final defeat in Ukraine will cause the West to abandon its anti-Russia projects in Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, etc? I, right. If you're talking about the present leadership of the West, at least in Europe, the answer surely is no. On the contrary, they will redouble them. I mean, I can already, I can already hear the rhetoric that, you know, precisely because the Russians have done what they've done in Ukraine. That proves how aggressive they are. So we must stand even more firmly by the heroic Democrats. in places like Yerevan and Kijignor and wherever or, you know, along Russia's periphery. We must give them even more support rather than less. How European public's respond is a different question. Getting the clear sense that in Germany, people are now waking up to this. I mean, there was even a big demonstration by schoolchildren in Berlin.

which is quite a big thing in Germany, by the way, when people like that start to protest, and we're talking about a big protest, then, as I said, that does begin to make you wonder whether the plates are shifting. But the present leadership in Brussels and in all the big European capitals, I mean, they will try to use any disaster in Ukraine in order to double down on the existing policy and escalate still more.

Joanne Lundskis says the U.S. likely to bomb pickax mountain? Well, if we get back into a war scenario after the midterms, then maybe. It's frustrating because I do believe that there are people in Iran who want the deal. And again, I think that a deal could be agreed. And I think it could be agreed in ways that ultimately work out to the long-term advantage of the US. They're already pulling their bases out of Iraq. They're about to be closed out. So the bases around the Persian Gulf, which are,

have proved a liability rather than an asset. They can already be shut down and moved out of there. And I personally believe this overcommitment of the U.S. to the Middle East has been nothing more else for the U.S. than a massive drain on U.S. resources. But anyway, we'll see what happens. Chili Pepper says a British man posted that there are gangs in the UK going around stealing diesel. He thinks the false flag was just these kids. Who knows? I've read that as well, that these are, they may have been stealing diesel and other stuff as well. Well, I mean, absolutely.

And the same may be true of many of these other hybrid war incidents that are attributed to the Russians and to who knows from across Europe. I'm not saying it was the Iranians who were involved in this affair in the air base. All I am saying is that the British media, which are so skeptical about this particular incident, is utterly credulous about other incidents that are supposed to involve Russia. And we have lots of criminal young teenage gangs up to all kinds of things. Those who think that doesn't exist here in the UK are completely wrong. In fact, if you're talking about street gangs, the first country of the world, to happen properly was England.

And we have a history of them going all the way back to the 1700s, just to say. Raptor 22 says, what are the odds that one day men in EU will be snatched off the streets and forced to the front lines the way they are today in Ukraine? Well, I mean, Jacob, Rees-Mogg, you know, former British MP. Obviously, we're not in the EU, and he is against us. joining the EU, but I mean, he's basically outlining a similar scenario here in prison. You know, I have to say that it was a comment that I found especially infuriating coming from him and working class, Britain, if I could put it like that, or more precisely working class

England, was absolutely enraged by this. I mean, you know, as far as they see, a very, very rich man, demanding that poor people, you know, rounded up and sent to the battle to fight for whatever geopolitical objective he has. So, yes, I mean, unfortunately, it's not something you can completely discount anymore. I mean, if you listen to Kayakales and Ursula and Meltz as well, I mean, in Germany, they're also talking about description there again, all about fighting the Russians. So one can't discount it.

I mean, it's going to happen tomorrow, but if these people who remain in the ascendant continue to be in the ascendant, I could start to see something like that. They're pushing hard to reverse Brexit, huh? The past couple of days, the articles coming out about the UK reversing Brexit are incredible. I mean, a lot of articles and a lot of statements

about reversing Brexit. Yes, absolutely. And Andy Burnham was clearly of that view. Remember a few weeks ago, he stood in an election in McAfield, in the Greater Manchester area, a place which overwhelmingly voted for Brexit. He sort of gave the impression

that reversing Brexit would not be a priority. Suddenly, all that is back on the agenda. And that by-election in McAfield happened long ago. Geostone says, would a global depression cause a massive breakdown of bond market and global financial system?

How would this play out? Will this start the major war? I think that is a question for an economist of well, far above my pay grade. I mean, how exactly it would play out, how it would work exactly whether, you know, bond prices would go up or whether they'd go down all this.

sorts of things. I am not going to discuss because I don't know. What I will say is this, in my experience, recessions and then depressions start in the financial system. If there's a major crisis in the financial system, that is both a trigger to a recession or a depression. Or, if there's a major crisis in the financial system, that is both a trigger to a recession or a depression, or is a it is a sign that that recession depression is coming. So keeping an eye on what happens in the financial system is particularly important at this time. Zenschow, thank you for gifting.

And memberships, West Wolf Esquire says, rather befuddled that so many otherwise knowledgeable individuals still continue the trope, Russia is not making progress in Ukraine. One has to acknowledge, firstly the enormous power of the media machine. I mean it bumps this story out almost and relentlessly and all the time. And also, and I think this is fair to say,

this is a very difficult war to understand. I mean, it's, as I said, it's a war of sieges rather than a war of battles. And sieges are not something that people are very used to in the West, especially. So, you know, the capture of a town like Konstantinovka or Pachrosk or whatever, which takes time is not something that, you know, immediately people look at the map and say, well, you know, just move from here to there. What does this even mean?

I was brought up to think about this in a very different way. I've mentioned this in another program. There's a, if you go to Greek history, wars that involve sieges are very much part of, history. And there is a famous novel, children's novel, about a war that was fought during the time of the Byzantine Empire, between the Byzantine Empire and Bulgaria, which is all about sieges, and that war went on for more than 20 years. Wooden, Fespaniel says treating a country as a multicultural economic zone and everyone as a fungible unit falls apart. If anyone who steps on English soil is as native as me,

and as soon as the Ruski's land at Dover, are they not instantly integrated? No, I don't think so, actually. I mean, they wouldn't be instantly integrated. English people and Russians have a fair amount of difference. But, you know, this is a complex topic. In Britain, England is a country, a nation which emerged. over many centuries through various peoples, you know, from Saxons to Celts to Latins to Normans to Huguenots coming and living here and assimilating. This is never a fast process.

And assimilation tends to work best. This is my own experience when the cultures share things in common. So, you know, if it's, we're talking about Huguenots from France, Protestant. European coming to Protestant England, assimilation is quite fast and quite easy, whereas other people of other cultures is more difficult. I think Russians are more different than say Huguenots, Protestant Huguenots in the 18th century England were. Just a second. Nicos says they are not hiding their intentions and people still listen to them. We had the UN summit, the symbol of peace that turned into a call for war.

Zelensky showed up. Hi, hi, you have. had HTS Jolani giving a speech. Latvia announced we are getting nukes and Bricks is bullying Russia to capitulate. Lula was so pathetic. So a week, he's going to lose the election and when Brazil leaves Bricks, then they'll fail. And China will just sit and do nothing. No, well, again, I don't know about this. I mean, I think there is a good chance that Brazil will leave Bricks, actually.

And to be frank, I think that'll be better for Briggs. I think that Brazil was always an anomaly, and I think Alula was really a very effective participant in Briggs. I think the core countries in Bricks are Russia, India, China. And in fact, I personally believe it should have been limited to those three. I think Bricks' expansion altogether was a mistake. East Sellers gifted 10 subscriptions to the Duran on Rumble. Thank you, East Selleish, for that.

As Scooby says, from austerity to monetary dominance, Putin seems intent on emulating Western neoclassical economics. Do you still believe there's a Friedrich Listian influence? Yes, and it is, and it's getting stronger, actually. I don't think this is strictly true. Certainly, the Russian Central Bank and the Russian monetary authorities and Putin himself, place enormous stress on financial and macroeconomic stability. And I don't think this is anything to do with ideology or accepting neoliberal ideas or anything like that. I think it's a direct product of their own experience living in the last years

of the Soviet Union and through the 1990s, a period of extreme instability in the economy and periods of hyperinflation. So they are determined whatever happens to prevent that. And that means very low debt. They don't like running debt. They don't particularly like running budget deficits either. By the way, I've been told, if you calculated the Russian budget in a somewhat different way

on the way it is calculated, you would end up with a surplus. I mean, remember, it's always this way. Hardly what you see is what people measure. But anyway, so there is that. But in so many other respects, Russia works in a completely different way from the places that you talk about. Firstly, you talk about austerity.

Well, it's a country which prioritises full employment. There is virtually no unemployment in Russia. It has fairly generous social security systems. And it's so much of its economy, is in public ownership. The major banks all up. Much of industry is. They're now in the process of setting up

a big giant company to develop microelectronics, for example, alongside Rostec, which does, you know, the more economy, Rosneft, which does petrol and oil and all of that. Rossatom, which is the nuclear power thing. So it does not really resemble the way economies are run in the West. And I think that's one of the reasons for so much misunderstanding about it.

Red Pandapai says, thank you for the addition of the maps in your program, Alexander. Otherwise, here in Spain, I didn't step over a drone with Iranian or a Russian passport conveniently attached yet. Well, thank you for that. Obviously, you need to be careful because these drones are everywhere. You have to be really, really careful about the maps. I should say that yes, they're very good and they're going to get a lot better. There's still a lot of work to do with them.

And Alex and I are working very hard on this. But we are going to improve these maps. You will be seeing further visible changes over time. over a relatively short time. Interesting that no video was released from Leipzig Airport, a Alexander? I know. Absolutely.

Absolutely. You would imagine that it's under surveillance and there's video 24-7, which they could easily release to show what happened. Well, indeed. Who put the where it was found? I mean, after all, after all, you only have an freighter aircraft carrying weapons. So obviously you don't have strong.

security around it. Let's not talk about the fact that you have Ukrainian planes sitting in an airport in Germany full of weapons to be delivered to Ukraine. Exactly. Let's not talk about that. Yeah. O'KUKUroup, thank you for that super sticker. Julie Pepper says, do you think Trump thinking of cutting off diesel to Europe is just a threat to Europe to sacrifice themselves even more or face the consequences? Well, it could be something of that. But I was recently in the United States. I was in Chicago and everybody was talking about the price of diesel there.

So I, you know, I think that what is probably driving this is domestic concerns rather than, you know, these, these things. The United States doesn't need to increase pressures on the Europeans to get them to do things. Because as Alex has correctly pointed out in program after program, the Europeans come and ask the Americans, what more can we do? Tell us what more can we? we do, how we can sacrifice us even more. So I don't think the Americans need to put those sort of pressures on the Europeans, actually. Crazy.

Crazy. What did you say a couple of weeks ago? They're vassals and they're proud of it. They're proud of it, exactly. Yeah, they're vassals and they're proud of it. Zez, Joe, thank you for the 10 Duran memberships on YouTube. West Wolf Esquire says, hey, A&A, been lost in the wilderness for a hot minute. Glad to finally catch a live.

How do you view the German election result in a larger EU context? Well, what happens in Germany ultimately shapes what happens in the EU. I think the big story about Germany is that we actually have a real opposition in Germany. Now, to be very clear, the IFDA is a mix of different people with different views, many of them very mainstream. maybe it isn't as radical the party as some people would like it to be. But what it is opposing is already enough to make it taboo for the European political elite. I mean, opposing the conflict with Russia, wanting to change direction on immigration things. What they're talking about already would mark a radical,

term. And in their leader, Alice Vidal, and you know, I'm hearing this from all sorts of quarters, you know, people in France telling me, you know, what a shame. Marine Le Pen isn't more like Alice Vidal, for example. They have somebody who does come across as the outstanding political oppositionist in Europe today. So, these are important elections because we have an opposition. And we see that when there is an opposition in the core state of the European Union, it wins. It can actually win. But obviously, it is not yet in power in Berlin. It is not in control.

In Brussels, there is an enormous road to cross. And of course, there's massive obstacles in their way. And those obstacles are going to be reinforced and made strong. So, you know, this is a, but we have, we have in Germany at least, a return to politics. Carl Schultz says, my contribution and thanks to a good bit of much needed realism. Thank you for that, Carl. Geostone says, do you think that both Iran and Russia war will be ongoing to 2029, as both Israel and the EU want war to continue and Trump no longer cares about either?

I think if you're talking about the Ukraine conflict, I'm afraid this is a very, very long way to go. It's going to continue long beyond the war itself. So let's assume, for example, the 2027, 28 is the year or when the war ends, when the Russians take Kiev, Dessa, all of these places. Zelensky and his people go off, set up shopping, say, province somewhere in the Kopp, Dazur, or whoever ever. That is in the end of the Ukrainian conflict. That is. In the end of the Ukrainian conflict, That's simply another stage in the Ukrainian conflict. You have exactly what Alex was talking about earlier in the program. You have the dirty war, Escalate.

You have the CIA, MI6, all of those people. That's what they do well. That's what they are most at home with. Some of them, quite plausibly, as Alex also said, are keen on this. This is what they really want to see. So we're going to have all of that. So the conflict in Ukraine,

I'm afraid it looks like it's going to be a permanent feature of the European landscape for quite a long time. I don't want to say. How long? Because I don't know. About the situation in Iran, I am not sure. And I think here the decision really depends. The decisions that matter are the ones that are going to be made in the United States. I think the United States can find a way to end this conflict soon.

The question is whether it's got the political will to do it. Sparky says, great work, fellas. Keep on trucking. Thank you, Sparky, for that. And Zensk-Cho says, when do you think the end game for Zelensky will start? And Zelenskyy, along with his ultra-nationalist government crew, flee Kiev. Well, I think you've answered the question. I mean, if Zelensky and his crew leave Kiev, that is the start of the end game. I mean, at that point, things will start to break down and will begin to unravel.

A government that is forced out of its capital is already in exile, even if it's in exile within its own country. So that is an end game. how soon it is for that to happen. Well, I'm not going to make predictions, too many predictions, and estimates of time have been given over the course of this war. They will try to cling on to Kiev for as long as they can. There will be other people in the West who urge them to stay. And of course there's also the unknown question, always a Russian resolve.

Chili Pepper says, read the cradle, the West's plan B, secure the realm, June 27, 2022, prophetic by Dr. Fadi Lama. They'll be interviewing him. Right, okay. From Wooden, yeah, Wooden Thespian, says, are they actually going to conscript people? I can't see how they can when they've spent years demonizing masculinity, the native, Europeans and anything remotely nationalistic. Well, your point is absolutely to the point. I mean, you know, young men have been told one message for the last 30 years.

And I think it'd be told the opposite one all of a sudden. I mean, already that is going to create discourse, discordance. But beyond that, I think that isn't just young men who are unwilling to be conscripted. I mean, is their parents just, you know, their parents are not going to be, very keen to see them conscripted and sent him to some kind of meat grinder war somewhere. Bear in mind, if you're talking about Vietnam in the 60s, and this is where people have got so much about Vietnam so profoundly wrong, it was not young men protesting conscription that caused the polls to swing against the war in Vietnam.

It was that the parents and grandparents of those. people. It was they who said, we don't want to see our boys taken away and sent a fight somewhere in the jungles of Vietnam. So, you know, that that demographic in these conflicts is regularly overlooked. Niko says, even if people of Europe refuse to fight, the military and police is all on board. You've seen what they do to protesters here in Greece. So when Jacob Rees Mosque, Jacob, Jacob Rees, Mogs, or Stubb, say that they'll be at war,

it will happen because people, when the chips are down, they show you their predictable nature. Oh, I think that there's a very good point indeed here. I mean, most governments, most armies, you know, but they possess the coercive instruments. They possess the coercive instruments.

You know, I'm not saying this is going to be easy, Nikos. And of course the other thing about modern war is the way that it's fought. I mean, it doesn't give much room or space for opposition to organize in the way that he did in the United States against Vietnam in the 1960s. So I'm not disputing what you say. I still think that there would nonetheless be a lot of opposition. And by the way, I think within the militarism, there would be opposition to. Nico says, so will it change anything if Russia admits the CIA is behind this, besides giving me and you the satisfaction, the people of the West, don't believe them?

Well, I think that there is Russian public opinion also to take into account here. I mean, again, we've had very strong results for Putin and for United Russia in these parliamentary elections. they might not have been so strong had the war not evolved in the way that he did over the last few months with the big missile and drone strikes by the Russians against Ukraine. Again, I had a meeting with Meersheimer, John Meersheimer, Professor Meersheimer, in Chicago. And he told me, straightforwardly, that people that he met there, Russians, these are senior important people in Russia, So that there had been a lot of criticism of Putin, that things were being taken too easy and too soft.

And that the renewed offensive in the sky, the much harder line over the last few months, did change the mood significantly. And did make a lot of people say, well, at last, the boss is taking this seriously. So, you know, do bear that in mind? O.G.G. Wall says, good morning. Good morning. O.G. W. Puppies says there is a lot of talk about nukes in the Middle East. Wired magazine in the 90s claimed that Israel has ethnic-specific bio-weapons. Well, I'm not sure that such a thing exists, and I'm not going to speculate about it, about nukes in the Middle East. Well, we know Israel has them.

But more than that, I really don't feel able to say. Mother Brigade 150 says, are you aware of Brian Belletic's argument about the rise of the burden sharing network? What do you think? Yes, I do. I think that Brian overestimates, this is my own view,

overestimates Europe's ability to share burdens. It's not that there are people in Europe who would love to be involved in all of this and to bet to share all of these burdens. But the economic and financial and social structures in Europe make it extraordinarily difficult for them to do that. Nikos says you've said that Europeans don't want to fight Russia, but you again have too much faith in people.

This Russia is not my enemy trend is meaningless. You've had protests of 45,000 people in Germany. That's not the majority who hate Russia and will gladly it's not the majority who hate Russia and will gladly fight them if Russia strikes Europe. That's why the elites want Russia to strike first. So just like in Ukraine, they can use the media to trick people into doing their work for them. Well, I was recently in Germany and I spoke to quite a few people there. And bear in mind, I was in Western Germany in the Rheinland-Faulz,

which is very much the heartland of the form of West Germany. and the overwhelming sentiment I sensed was that people were against war. People were against war, whether they were right, left, SPD, CDU, DELINCA, I have done, whatever. They were not keen on this at all. And they're talking about it, which is where I think it's a bit different from what you see in Britain. Probably because of the history, let's face it.

The Germans have fought several wars against the Russians, and we know what the results of those were. But also the sense that Germany is becoming against its will a frontline state. And secondly, and very, very powerfully, a sense that Germany is going down, that its economies, industries are closing down, that its cities are not as they were, that his railway system is a mess, and people are starting to connect these things. So that's Germany. I haven't been to France for many years,

but I get the sense that there's opposition to war there too. And there absolutely is opposition amongst many, many people here in Britain as well. Only it doesn't get articulated politically, because here the political system remains too strong. And I think that a lot of people understand that whatever's happening in their country, all the problems are not because of Russia. These were decisions made by their politicians. I mean, Germany is going down because the German politicians decided to take it down.

Correct. Opinion polls in Germany consistently show that the issues of war and peace do matter. They do shape opinion and they do decide the outcome of elections. They're right up there with issues like my. which is what you always hear about with the IFD. But war and peace is as much a cause of support for the IFDA as it starts on migration and energy policies and nuclear power

and all of the other things are. Yeah. Russia didn't tell them to open their borders. Russia didn't tell them to dismantle their nuclear energy. Russia didn't tell them to blow up North Stream. no Russia didn't tell them to to place all these sanctions exactly these were all decisions made by by the Europeans or by the German government whether it was Schultz or Merz or even Merkel and of course don't forget us on the line who's of course also German yeah and she's been an awful commissioner to put it Mali Foxy Krakken says as a young man Alexander and Alex I cannot

thank you enough for your insights and predictions within the geopolitical sphere. It has helped me very much with investing. My question to you both is what literature would you recommend to develop a deeper understanding on the deep state financial system, which was established throughout the West? Also, Alexander is the Russian central bank separate from the Western central banking system, BIS system. I have always asked the question, did they regain control. But about books on finance, economics and things of that kind. I'm not going to, I'm not going to point you to particular books because this isn't a literature I read very much, but I would refer you to writers. I think Michael Hudson has written very astutely about a lot of this.

And Michael Hudson is an interesting figure in economics because once upon a time long ago, when in the 70s and 80s, he was all over the place. I mean, he was absolutely there on mainstream television. and you'd hear interviews by him. He was taken very, very seriously. The fact that you no longer do tells you that he's onto something. That's my own personal view about him. J.K. Galbraith is another economist.

Maybe more historian than economist, but I still think his books on some of his books on economics and economic history are very, very interested. Now about the Russian Central Bank, the Russian Central Bank, 10 years ago, was absolutely part of the system of global world banks. And Elvira Nabilina was very highly regarded amongst that community, and it was part of Biss and all of the rest.

Since 2014, but even more since 2022, well, that has stopped. today the Russian Central Bank is basically cut off from all of the others and it is evolving. It is changing. It's a way of running the financial system in Russia is starting to deviate more and more from that of the Western Central Bank mainstream. That is a huge topic to discuss maybe some other day. Nico says there's a portion of the Russian population who are blaming the government just for sirens and occasions. gas lines. They are so ungrateful. I see what is happening in Ukraine compared to Russia,

and I don't understand this lack of will by them to understand who is the enemy and endure. What happens when Europe goes to war with them? I'm getting mixed reports on what the Russian people think. On the one hand, you had this youth festival that supported the government. On the other, there's these YouTubers who say everything is bad. Well, you do. I mean, you get YouTubers. You can all kinds of people have just gone. I mean, the election was. I would have thought were the most conclusive answer. And notice that we had the election, we had all sorts of talk about the election,

being manipulated, Shan, rig, but there has been no sign, none at all since then, of anybody within Russia, to any extent challenging the outcome, which I think tells you, tells you the whole story, actually. So I wouldn't pay too much attention to a few years. to a few YouTubers. And yes, of course, there will be people in Russia

and criticised government because in Russia is not, you know, the monolithic, totalitarian place the people in the West, always so many parts of the mainstream media pretends. But they are not representative of the majority. And if you're talking about lack of political will and unwillingness to fight,

well, remember, it is in Ukraine that people have to be seized, off the streets and put on the buses and send into the war, not in Russia where people volunteer. That's different. Nico says, so what is the West's strategy now after the election? The same as before terrorized Russia with drones, which is the only wonder weapon that works. We still have 700 drones a day thanks to China. And even if they cost millions, the West sends them billions and all of it goes to drones.

Well, you go to the program that we did on the Duran, and Alex has set it out perfectly. Get a ceasefire, get Putin to agree it to a ceasefire, and do it by trapping him into a summit meeting with Trump and Zelensky, either at IPAC and the G20 or the G20. I mean, this is their plan now. I mean, destabilization of Russia, the whole campaign that was launched in the spring and summer has failed. By the way, as we on the Duran said it would. I doubt you know, I want to point this out. You remember all those articles? Putin is on his last gasp, Russia's on the ropes.

Everything is going to stop falling apart very soon. Well, here we are, and we see that none of that was real. So that has failed. So now get the Russians, persuade the Russians somehow, trick the Russians, bully the Russians, bride the Russians to get them to stop. And the point of vulnerability, as they think, is Putin himself. So lure him into a summit meeting with Trump and Zelensky, one of these big international meetings that's happening this year

and tried to pressure him there to agree to stop. And I think that is the strategy. As Alex actually outlined it very well in that program, with just on. No, no, I think it's been confirmed by. by German media. I was reading an article on Weld, where they went through the German media after the meeting between Wonderful and Lavrov.

And they're upset that they approach Lavrov. You know, he's the wrong person to try and trick. They really believe, the collective West really believes that the person they need to focus on if they want to trick Russia into a ceasefire is Putin. Yeah. Yes. Yeah.

They really believe that's going to work. and Trump is the guy that they think will be able to trick Putin. Absolutely. And let's face it, I mean, you know, they've got reasons to think that. I mean, again, as Alex said, we have the Merkel Putin romance, which went on for years, and we now know how utterly insincere and duplicitous it was. By the way, we were saying at the time, you know, white Putin, ever trusted Merkel, of all people, is a huge mystery. But, you know, seeing that, they say,

well, let's try it again. Trump and Putin seem to get on. Let's try it again. Maybe it will work this time or this time again. So there it is. Foxy Cracken says, I really hope you see my question from before. Love from Australia. Also, what do you make of the UK government offering pensions to expats if they pay the government. I think we did get your question, your question. Yeah, we got the first question. Yeah, yeah. Pay people so that they can pay as well. I mean, to my mind, what this is, is Andy Burnham to a T. Things that he's supposed to be giving away when he's actually taking. That's what this is.

It is not going to solve any of the underlying problems in Britain. But what it does do is it reaches out and tries to bring in a larger group of people into the tax system so that he can milk them even more. The really big topic at the moment in Britain,

by the way, the one I'm hearing people talk about in London along, is the fact that the Burnham government appears to be intending to reduce the start point of its new mansion tax to one and a half million pounds. Now, people who don't know about Britain, in London in particular, we have a very twisted property market. So it's absolutely common for houses that middle class people occupy. who have paper values of one and a half million pounds. Already I'm hearing people tell me this is a tax on London.

So that's not going to go down well here at all. And bear in mind London historically has been a labor city, a labor voting city. So there you go. E-sellers says, I have seen another report of more North Korean soldiers being sent to Russia. If true, any insight on the role they have this time. No, this time there is absolutely no doubt about it.

It's been done quite openly and publicly. There is at least one North Korean missile brigade operating in Western Russia with KN 23 missiles. And well, there's explosions that you sometimes see in Kiev. And people say that these are caused by these KN 23 North Korean missiles. Who knows? I mean, I'm not able to tell. I can't tell a judge of missile from its explosion. explosion it calls it, but there's some people who say they can. And there are significant presence

of North Korean troops in Western Russian now, maybe 8,000, some say more. Zelensky gives different numbers all the time. Their role seems to be not to participate in the fighting in the area of the special military operation. But firstly, to provide Kava for Russia's Western regions, so to prevent another, more raids, like the one we saw in Tukusk region in 2024. And also, undoubtedly, the North Koreans are getting an awful lot of expertise and training and learning lots of things and are being familiarized with drone war and all of that is going on. and their military is getting better as a result. Yeah. As Scooby says, how relevant is Mersheimer's realist theory today

in a world where governance increasingly transcends borders in the West and nations and nation states don't seem to be acting in their interest? Good question. Well, it's a very, very good question. Of course, Meersheimer himself rejects all of that. He says that all of these things that you just be talking about are,

signs, not of realism or of the modern realities, but rather of a flight from reality, that nations absolutely do exist, and that this kind of thinking is preventing the leaders of these nations from acting in the best interests of those nations. So that's very much his outlook, actually. So he argues, he would argue that he's model of international relations is not only the relevant, not only relevant to today, but it is the correct one to adopt for today. Where I have some disagreement with Mears Heimann is that I think he does tend to see things very much in terms of, you know, balance of power, rise and fall of powers, Thucydides, traps, that kind of thing. I personally think that these were theories of international relations based on the experience of European politics basically from 1815

until the start of the Second World War. And I think that the rest of the world isn't the same as Europe. That's just my view. But anyway, I hope I've answered your question. Sufficiently to answer it properly would take a whole discussion. And anyway, we should have him anyway. I was going to say the same thing.

A discussion with Hirshammer. We'll get them out soon, hopefully. We will. We will absolutely. Yeah, we'll talk about this. That would be a great show. Wooden, Thespaniel says, Rysmog, if you don't fight Russia, you'll be ruled by foreigners.

least I can pronounce Russian names unlike the name of the head of his own party. Who is this Reese Mogg guy? I mean, we've talked about him in the past, but is he that important of a politician, of an elite? I think he was pretty important at one time. I mean, he comes to the Reese Mogg family, which is an old gentry family in England, which has been involved in politics and which has acquired a certain, importance in the second half of the 20th century. And he's very rich, obviously.

He's, by all accounts, by the way, very shrewd businessman. So this very studied, slightly otherworldly, gentlemanly look that he puts on, you know, the three-piece suit, the top hat that he sometimes wears all of that. I mean, people are sometimes talking about him as the, Honourable member from the 18th century. He has never been that.

I mean, there is a strong element of a pose about it, which by the way, I dislike. It offends me. I don't like it when people put on poses in that kind of way. But no, he is, he has been a political force. He was apparently a rather capable minister. I mean, he was a good administrator. and a good manager.

I get to say it, I think he's anywhere near as clever or as insightful as he himself believes. And I think he got a lot of support because for a wide section of people, because he, for a time, appeared to be very, very strong on Brexit. And that attracted a lot of people to him. But I don't think he was ever quite as strong on Brexit, as many people thought he was. That's the first thing.

And secondly, I don't think he's come up with anything new since then anyway. He's not in the House of Commons anymore, by the way. Harry says that George Galloway calls him the member for the 19th century. Yes. As I said, I don't think that's right myself. As I said, don't be fooled, as I said, by the Henry Poole, and the Turmal and Asatai and the Eton Assetian, accent and, you know, the studied manners, mannerisms that he has.

As I said, there's a very, very tough, shrewd businessman there. I mean, he's very rich. And obviously he inherited a lot, but he made a lot more. And you don't succeed in business in the way that he has done. If you're quite the otherworldly 19th century figure that many people think he is. That is, it's a pose, it's a show. It's not the real man. Or rather, it's not all of the man.

Right. Chili Pepper says, Stanislav just said that the West wants the EU to be destroyed so they can profit from reconstruction. I think that's probably over-complicated. I think that for most of the globalist elite, the EU is perfection. It's what they would want us all to be.

So rather than destroy it, They not only want to preserve it, they want to extend it and deepen it as far as possible. A system which brings in sovereign states neuters them, reduces their politics to show and has everything controlled by a small group of actually rather incompetent technocrats. That's the ideal. That's just what they want. It's utopia for them. It's utopia, exactly.

Yeah, actually, I'm a poor interview. Ursula and she talked about multilateralism, not multipolarity, not unipolarity. She talked about the rise of multilateralism, which is the rise of these bureaucratic institutions ruling over us. And that's the direction that we should be going. And that's what Amunpur and Ursula were pushing. Multilateralism, the EU, NATO, the IMF, WHO. This is what they want. Exactly. They didn't want to tear it down. They said they won't do it. they want to answer. Mr. Jabuak says at the early 2000s,

I heard about Russia assassinating a Russian in Britain. Was that part of a dirty war? Is that something that might return? I think you're probably referring to the Litvinenko case. I did a very, very, very deep dive into that one. I was asked to, by the way. I was commissioned by the journalists who used to run consortium news. I can't remember his name now, which is terrible of me.

by the way because he was a great journalist. So I went into a very, very deep dive. I went through all of the documents, all of the papers. I discussed the inquest thoroughly and I came to the absolute conclusion that the Russian state had nothing to do with this at all. And you can still find my analysis on consortium news. It's all set it out there in painstaking detail. I don't think anybody has ever done the same for any one of the other incidents that we've heard about. And it's become increasingly difficult because I think one of the things I did, because I went into all that detail, looking into what actually happened in the Litvinenko case,

is that the British authorities thereafter decided that they would provide as little information as possible. So the public inquiry into the Litvinenko case revealed an awful lot the public inquiry into the Sordsbury case, for example, revealed very little. You mean the Scriples. The Scriples, exactly. Yeah, Sonsbury. Exactly. Exactly.

They weren't going to make that mistake again. Now, as I said, dirty wars do happen. The Russians have participated in them in the vast. Quite openly, they've admitted that one of the ways they ended the Caucasus wars was that they started to go around the world, in the Middle East especially, but also in Germany, and started to hunt down and kill

some of the people who were involved in doing all of that. So the Russians have, you know, a record for this kind of thing. But I don't think that event that you're thinking of is a sign of that. Matthew asks, ultimately, will Europe go to war? Robert Perry. It was Robert Perry, just as a Paris, yeah. Consorteminesia. Will Europe go to war then? Well, that is the great question that all of us in Europe need to think and worry about.

I still think on balance, no. I mean, they don't have the armies to fight with. They don't have the populations that want to fight. And I think there's still enough people in the political system or at least parts of the political system who i think would be frightened to go to war and of course there's also the uncertainties about what the americans will say with some opposition from some people in the u.s but if i was to say that this is impossible that this is out of the question i would be saying far more than i know i never imagined that things would get as bad as they are How can I say in light of that that they're not going to get worse? Yeah, I agree.

I fear that they're talking themselves into a war. Yeah. Anak says, if the West relies on hubs like Singapore to legally launder Russian oil to keep prices down, why is Kiev allowed to drone strike Russian refineries? Because we have no coherence in our strategies anymore. I mean, the European Union, buys refined gasoline and diesel from India,

knowing perfectly well that it's produced from imported Russian crude oil, and yet they tried to stop India, persuade India, not to buy crude oil from Russia. I think these impossible questions, impossible questions, which have no rational answers, are best addressed to Ursula and Kayakales, people like that. Let them explain the logic of what they're doing. I don't think they have the answers.

Kallas definitely doesn't have the answers. That's for sure. Puppet Master says, thank you, as always. Gentlemen, Marika says, could the EU commission force Euro-clear to transfer the frozen assets? What are your thoughts on this? I think there will be a lot of opposition, but I think that the pressure to do this now easily than it has ever been. And I think if Germany, if it's Macron, the big European governments gang up against Belgium and EuroClear and support the European Commission in doing this, then it will happen.

I mean, they can send people into EuroClear. They can do all kinds of things. So it is not impossible that it will happen. In fact, if I was a gambling man, I would be betting that it will happen. Wooden Thespanel says, I won't be fighting Russia. My wife is Russian, and I love the country. Not sure among the British at this point in time is wise for the political class. Well, absolutely. I think you put it very well, actually.

Nico says, so stop having faith in people. The U.S. does whatever they want. Did anyone care when 170 girls were deleted in Iran? No, the war is continuing. Speaking of, who is governing Iran? Mastaba is dead. Who makes these decisions that are costing them in the long term? What is happening in Syria?

Well, a lot of people care. And I think that's the first thing to say. I mean, people care in the United States, as Alex and I heard in Chattanooga, and as I also heard in Chicago, I mean, people do care. And I don't just mean elite people. I mean, in Chicago, more than in Chattanooga, I had an opportunity to talk to Americans

who were not in the forum. And again, I was surprised, actually, at how aware of things that are going on, they are. This story that Americans don't know, that they're not interested in foreign policy. It was not my experience, I have to say, when I was in Chicago, just to say. So they do know.

They do, they, they do care. And I think it is a break on what political institutions and governments can do. And, you know, have faith in people. We all need to have some faith in some things. And people are often, when it comes to wars, the point, as I said, where it basically stops. You can't fight wars without armies. And if the people who you want to go into those armies don't want to fight, that that is a problem for you.

Foxy Cracken says, thank you, Alexander, for your insight. I agree with you completely that the expat pension scheme is to increase the tax pool. As a dual nation with the UK, I soon will need a valid UK passport to visit. I am concerned to lose my passport, but I am more concerned to be a permanent tax citizen. And do you think this is a concern with the ever concerning fiscal crisis in the UK? Also, could this be a ploy to increase conscription to pool? This is absolutely what it is. By the way, just to explain what has been referred to here,

if you are a British expert, somebody with British citizenship, unless you have a passport, you cannot enter it. to the UK. This is going to be the new rule. So this is not the rule yet, but it will be very soon. So let's say you live in Belgium and you have Belgium, you have dual citizenship with Belgium, but you also have British citizenship. You will not be able to enter Britain on your Belgian passport. Pretty incredible, but I know all about this because I know one particular individual who's trying to get a British passport sorted out very, very quickly. This is all about, it's all about getting money, knowing where people are, because, of course,

if they have their passports, then the British government is able to keep much better track on where they are. And it is absolutely about taxing them. And it's all about the fiscal crisis here in Britain, the fact that we're running out of money. Lily Pepper says Stas also said that Germany demanded to Lavrov and Lavrov told him to shove it. That's a short meeting. Yeah, absolutely. That's exactly what he was. It was a train wreck.

That meeting was a train wreck. 20 minutes in a diplomatic conversation is nothing. Remember, Lavrov doesn't speak German and Vardifold doesn't speak Russian. So it would have been conducted entirely through interpreters. I mean, they would have had hardly any time to have any, searching discussions about anything. From what I can understand, they were all but shouting at each other. West Wolf Esquire says,

following on my previous question, if the EU, the West doesn't step back from Georgia, Armenia, Moldova, does Russia have the political social and martial will to fight a proxy or direct conflicts here? Well, it's already, of course, fighting a proxy war in Ukraine. So, I mean, they have that kind of marshal. will. Now, Armenia, Moldova, Georgia, these sort of places, they are not, the Russians don't think of them as Russian. They don't have the kind of connection to them that they have with Ukraine. I mean, much of Ukraine,

Donbass, Crimea, Odessa, Russians think of these places as Russian, Russian cities. And even the rest of Ukraine, it's Eastern Orthodox. So there is that kind of connection to it. Russians like have a very long tradition of liking Armenians, for example. They like Georgians. Well, some Russians like Georgians. But there is an affinity, but there is not the same familial connection that there is with Ukraine. I think probably the calculation in Moscow is that a victim, in Ukraine, which is so much bigger, so much important, more important than all of these

other places, is in itself going to change the geopolitical climate in this part of the world, so that pro-Russian forces which exist in all of these places, maybe we shouldn't even call them pro-Russian, but forces that want better relations with Russia, especially maybe in Moldova will very quickly come into the ascendant again. Chili Pepper says polonium poisoning was done by MI6. Well, I am fairly sure that the man who was behind it was the former Russian oligarch, Boris Berizovsky. Borisovsky undoubtedly had very strong connections with MI6.

Nico says, can you please both comment on the astonishing statement of the U.S. ambassador to Greece who said that they can do to us what they've done to Romania. Kimberly Gilfell, yeah. Did you read that Wall Street, Your Honor? No, I did not. You must answer this one, Alex. I'm not familiar. Look, they asked Gilfowal's office for comment,

and her lawyers, her lawyers, didn't quite dispute that claim. They said it was misinterpreted, I believe, is the words they used or something along those lines, taken out of context or misinterpreted in the discussion that she was having with the energy minister. Just a long story short, Alexander Kimberley Guilfoyle, the U.S. ambassador to Athens, was with the Energy Minister of Greece, and they're trying to get all the countries in Eastern Europe to sign up to the vertical corridor, USLNG gas to Greece, and then sending that gas to Eastern Europe. Anyway, they got into some sort of an argument. The two of them, and allegedly, according to the Wall Street Journal, their sources, familiar with the matter, they claim that Gilfoyle, in reference to,

the Romanian government said to the Greek energy minister that what we did there we can do here in Greece in other words, if you don't play ball with us we can cause a government collapse. That's the reference from the Wall Street Journal article. Wow. I believe it.

I mean, yeah, her lawyers didn't say this is completely false. At least that's the statement that I read unless they've issued a new statement. I don't know. Well, I believe it. Chili Pepper says her China was very angry that Trump didn't take Xi Jinping's offer of a way out of the Iranian fiasco.

Well, I don't know. I mean, I read the Chinese media and the Chinese readouts. My impression was that the meeting went, okay, in the sense that Trump and C, get on reasonably well, but nothing very much of substance came out of it. Secondary says regarding North Korea and Russia, Seoul was furious that North Korea POWs were transferred to Seoul from Kiev, summoned the Ukraine ambassador, interesting move and underreported.

This is a very strange episode because the South Koreans are taking this very, very badly. The fact that Zelensky blurted out this whole business, which, of course, Zelensky always does. I mean, the idea that you can enter into some kind of agreement with him to keep something confidential I mean, people who think this about Zelensky clearly don't know very much about Zelensky. I mean, Zelensky doesn't care about such agreements. I mean, honoring them is something that isn't something that even crosses his mind to do, by the way. But there is something about this particular episode.

There's more to it than we know. The South Koreans are very, very touchy about this. And I wonder whether one of the reasons may be that, the North Korea soldiers actually didn't want to go to South Korea. I say that because I also got reports, I saw reports a couple of months ago, that they were refusing to cooperate with their Ukrainian interrogators. Yeah.

Interesting story. From, one second, from Nikos, China should also be worried. 83% of the Taiwanese people don't want reunification and are willing to fight. They are being supplied with naval drones. The Chinese are worried about that all the time. I mean, it's the major reason

that relations between the US and China are as pretty clear as they are. I don't think people get in the West, get how serious for China, the whole issue of Taiwan is. I read a long article by an American

scientist, Scotland, who basically said we must do everything we possibly can to avoid getting into a war with China. And one of the ways we must avoid that is by redoubling our support for Taiwan. That is exactly the route towards getting into a war with China. 437 THX says, In your opinions, would it be better for Russia to absorb Ukraine or try to leave it as a rub state? I see years of terror acts from a push for. from the West either way?

I think that this debate is still ongoing in Moscow. I think that if you ask Putin, for example, I don't think he's at all keen to occupy the whole of Ukraine. I think he understands that there will be a whole host of problems, and he also understands that the international reaction might not be wholly favorable, to put it mildly. So I don't think he's keen to do it. I think there are others like Medvede, for example,

probably telling Putin, look, whatever problems of it, we have no choice. If we don't do it, then whatever remains will quickly become hostile to us. And all that we will have done is we will have moved our problem further west. Jamila says, do climate activists don't care about the people, but why? All this is going on and why, why the, Why not for the victim? I stand by the victim. Well, I'm going to say, and we're going to say it's a big controversial. Many, many climate activists, many people who are environmentalists, and I met many of them, and lots of them, are absolutely people who care an awful lot about humanity,

the condition of humanity, all of those things. I meant to agree with many of their perspectives and their views, but they do actually have a perspective of saying, well, we have to preserve the environment, we have to worry about the climate, because if we don't, that's going to cause lots of pain and suffering for many people. There is a core of environmental activists

and green people, green-minded people, for whom human beings are not the objective concern. They see them instead as the problem. And that may seem extreme. But I have actually inked counting people like that. Miko says, in my opinion, you should refer to Russia as a superpower. This term in general isn't the same as in the Cold War.

Also, can you comment on their economy? I mostly refer to great powers. I think when we have the Cold War, they were too indisputable. giants who were the Soviet Union of the United States and in those days I think it was valid to refer to them as superpowers. I think in the much more complicated international system we have today, great powers is probably a better, a better term to use to describe, to describe, you know, the powers that exist today. So I prefer to call Russia a great power and basically even the United States and China, great powers to.

What was the second part of the question? The Russian economy. Oh, yeah, the Russian economy. Maybe we should probably do for a show. We should do it. We should do it. The answer is stable. I mean, they prioritized inflation control until the first half of this year.

So that brought them fairly close to a recession. the nebulae eased monetary conditions and the economy started to grow again but they're going to get only something like 0.6% growth this year but assuming monetary policy continues to ease it you will see it grow start to grow faster probably next year much faster the year after matthew says a european war would be nuclear no chance i agree actually i mean i think that the i mean i think that i mean the i think The chances of a nuclear are enormously high. Sanjava says, hey, Alex and Alexander, sorry for not contributing for a while,

hard to time it well due to the differences from Australia. Thanks for what you are doing. Sanjava, it is great to hear from you again, by the way, just a second. Sarah says, what good does attacking a mountain do? The mountain bases were attacked multiple times during the war, I recall. Well, I don't know. I did very, very much. Pickax, like pickax, yeah.

Like all the mouth. I mean, it looks, Operation Midnight Hammer and. Exactly. It looks dramatic. I mean, it looks like a gigantic pyramid, basically. So, you know, you attack it, and you've got lots of film and videos and all kinds of things of that kind that you can probably produce and you could have it out on Fox News and all that. So presumably that's the appeal. Nico says the Russian MOD has hired someone with.

humor. Yes, I've noticed this on their telegram channel. I'm not sure I entirely approved, by the way, but yes, they have. Openview-Azi says, can you talk about the strikes on data centers? Well, we've talked about them a lot in many programs, actually. But briefly, what the Russians are doing is they're knocking out both the transport links and the communications in Kiev. So they're attacking the data centers which attack parts of the telephone system, the mobile phone system, the other data transmission systems, and of course the internet, and parts of the television. So gradually, Kiev is being cut off. It's been cut off because the rail links are starting to be threatened, and it's been cut off in terms of its communications

as well. Nico says, guys, I think you missed a lot of my superchats. I think we got them all Nicos, I think. But just let me know if I've missed one of them and I'll get to it. Valeria says, Turkey will be pushed into a war with Israel, getting Greece into a conflict. A new world order will be announced in China next year. Make Bahrain Iranian again.

Well, I'm going to make a point about Turkey. I think, well, whilst Erdogan is president of Turkey, I think there's almost no chance at all. The Turkey is going to get into war with Israel. That is not what the other one is about at all. I mean, he knows better than most people, how dangerous for Turkey that would be. And for him specifically, so he's not going to do it. So that's the first thing to say.

Yeah. The hockey goalie says, if you were a betting man, how likely do you honestly think we end up in a hot war with Russia by 2030, even if a result of, even if it is a result of sheer incompetence? I am not abetting. man. What I will say is the risks of it happening are catastrophically high. I think that the possibility that he could happen, which I would once have totally discounted, unfortunately is now real. Sancheva says, Alexander, take a victory lap. You predicted Malay is repeating what other Argentinian leaders, other Argentinian right-wing leaders did. Inflation, unemployment,

job creation is stagnant. Even Western media is stating this after the initial euphoria. Well, there we go. Gio Stone says, will Argentina take the Falklands from Britain? Well, probably eventually. And that will be a massive blow here in Britain, because the Falklands was Britain's last military victory, to say it straightforwardly. I mean, so there is a lot of pride attached to it. The Navy, the Royal Navy in particular, will feel profoundly humiliated if the Falklands are lost. From Sangeva, I do disagree with you on Nabilina, however. What else is she to do other than increasing interest rates when productivity is 1% and unemployment is zero?

How else is she going to keep inflation stable? Well, I think this is a huge discussion. My own personal view is that her keeping interest rates as high as she does reduces investment, which lowers productivity. So I think that's partly, partly, you know, resolves the question. If interest rates will lower over time, investment would be higher and productivity would be strong. And let me again repeat. I am not ever the person who says inflation, you know, the central bank should not worry about inflation. I'm, it's a difference of 1%.

She has a 4% target, which I think is too rigorous. I think a 5% target would make all the difference. Zensky Joe says, for coffee. Thank you so much for that great super chat. I appreciate it. Nick Maslowich, thank you for that super sticker. Elena Diaz says, has the quantity of mercenaries decreased or are they still more? From what countries are those who are now in Ukraine?

The word is that mercenaries from Europe and the United States, the number has sharply reduced, but that lots more are now coming from Latin America, from the Andean republics, Ecuador, Colombia, and those sorts of places. And I mean, that's dangerous because some of these are people who have been involved in the cartels. Others are people who have been involved in various insurgent groups. And they're now getting training on the actual battlefield, which when they come back to their countries, they might start to apply. Yeah.

Jay Basgill, thank you for that super chat. Hatton Klaug says thank you both for all your hard work. Thank you. Jay Bagsgale, thank you again for that super chat. Dan Walda says, I'm a retired truck driver who owned and operated my own truck. The fuel price I noticed yesterday was $699 a gallon. There is no way we can operate for long at that price. Well, indeed, absolutely.

And I mean, we were talking about the, export ban on diesel I mean I didn't have it that's going to solve the problem but given that those kind of numbers I can understand why it might be coming yeah it's a political

whether for political decision than anything else to show that you're doing something but ultimately I imagine Alexander if they ban it for too long it's just going to lead to an increase in gas prices yes yeah anyway Sancheva says I echo your frustration

with Modi, that man is beholden to two Indian industrialists, Adani and Ambani, and also maybe Burla, families who have significant interests in the West. Their Davos darlings, Modi has to break out. Yes, frankly. Iranian kiddo says, after Andronikos, the first short and brutal reign that ended with his horrific death, probably the worst of all Byzantine rulers, his successor ended the decades-long war and married a Hungarian princess. Yeah.

Gosh, you are into the histories of the Pala Lugans as well. Interesting. Chilipa says, do you think the US will really invade Cuba? Very sad. Well, I hope not. I think that would be a huge mistake. I wouldn't surprise me in this situation. There is a mystery about Cuba,

which is how is it keeping going? just to say. And I wonder whether, despite all the blackouts that we hear about, they aren't getting some oil from someone, just to say. And whether that isn't what's now leading to all of this talk about some kind of military intervention. Jamila says Alexander, here's one like. Thank you for that. Nicos says, our only difference, Duran, is our faith in people.

But I hope I'll be wrong. when war happens, I'll immediately defect because I'm not proud of Greece. Very generous comment, Nicos, don't despair of Greece. War will not. Don't despot where, Nikola Levi says, could Padoliak become the president of Ukraine? Well, why not the rule? I mean, you know, what do they say, Zelensky? He'll need to choose his successor. And most people who always try and find somebody even worse than themselves.

slightly worse than themselves. Padoiac. Chili Pepper says, do you think Iran will attack the U.S. blockade? Well, I think to certain extent, they already have. If things become,

if we, one thing I'm fairly sure about is that this situation we have at the moment, when there is really, there is a war type situation, but it's not being fought, isn't sustainable. It's,

unstable. So unless some kind of political decision is reached to end this, sooner or later there is going to be inevitably a flare up and an escalation. And that could very, very easily spiral out of control. Colbury, thank you for that super sticker. Chris Morgan, thank you for that super chat. Brick 4186 says, thank you, gentlemen. Eric Cracken says, thank you so much.

and Alexander, Monty 105 says, Europe can't win a war with Russia because Russia's army in general and its strategic missile forces, in particular, are light years ahead of anything Europe and the US can offer. Absolutely, you know, there was an article in Unheard by Wolfgang Munchau.

It was a first question commentator, I know, to make that precise point. Kethoko says, Michael Hudson shows the Crusade-age popes and the dollars behind them as leading to the nation state. Now the money is centralized to kill the state. I get to say something about Michael Hudson. The fact that he has all this historical material undoubtedly has an extra dimension to his writing. But what always I find interesting about Michael Hudson, which goes all the way back to the time I used to watch him on television, as I said in the old days, was when he discussed his mother.

and financial problems now. Then I think that's when I'm most interested in learn most. Because about the history, well, I have quite a lot of the knowledge of that history, and I don't always agree with his takes, but about monetary and financial and economic policy today, there I find him extremely interesting. In the Ovid Films says, what did you think of the recent Swedish election?

did the Swedish Democrats adoption of a Maloney-style approach play a role in their defeat? Yes, in a word. That's exactly what happened. Ladoshka says, hello gentlemen, a question to Alexander. Do you think the UK eventually abolishes a monarchy? Thank you. Well, difficult to do in Britain for constitutional reasons. But putting all that aside, there is something else,

I think people outside Britain never quite understand. If Britain abolishes the monarchy and becomes a republic, then it is another English-speaking republic with a very probably inadequate constitution. Why not, in that case, do something altogether more rational and logical? Why not join the great English-speaking republic across the ocean? Why not unite with them? And of course, that's something a lot of British people don't want,

because we are different from the Americans in many things. And in order to cling on to our difference from the Americans, we cling on to our monarchy because that is what makes us different. Secondary says, keep your head up, everyone, no matter how crazy things get. God bless. And Foxy Cracken says, Alexander, I don't want to push any buttons, but can you touch? No, wait, I forget about that. Sorry, sorry, Alexander.

That, e-cellar says, could you tell us something about a possible diesel stop from the US? Thank you. Well, if it happens, Europe isn't a mess. And Britain goes into freefall. We used to have 18 oil refineries in Britain in about 1980. We're now down to four. We don't produce anywhere near enough diesel. And I believe we have six weeks of reserves.

And most of the diesel would import, apparently, is from the US. So we are in Britain. We're in a very, very big hole indeed. And the Europeans are somewhat better off because they have larger reserves of diesel oil. But inflation is going to just take off across Europe in ways that are just unimaginable. And bear in mind, we have a crisis in terms of low reserves of natural gas too. Wooden, Thespaniol says Nicos is wrong, in my opinion.

Like Ireland couldn't conscript, I think the West will find it hard as there is a tiny police and military force to perform it. Most people don't want war with Russia. They are just too apathetic to protest. I think on balance I agree with you But against that I mean you know do understand that A police force and a military They may not be a numerically big percentage

Of the population But they do have the monopoly of coercion In a society And that does carry weight In any political crisis Neil Mett that says thoughts on the UK-based false flag. We talked about it in the beginning, but I don't know if you want to. I don't have anything much to add. I mean, I probably was that, by the way. Just to say.

Klaus Cleminson says the Chinese are out-competing European Airlines. All routes to China now use exclusively Chinese planes. They are the only ones that fly over Russia, saving a lot of time and money. Well, yeah. I mean, we see Chinese planes. I think mostly for the moment they're American-made. We don't yet have the Chinese wide body in production. We will soon. Sparky says some boomers upon the realization legacy TV news is fake, go back to reading newspapers instead of going online.

Normally taking a step back in tech is reasonable, but these folks are left clueless. I agree. I find it strange that they do that, by the way, because the mainstream media today, in Britain at least, is totally different. from what it was 30 years ago. So what they think they're going back to

is nothing like what it was. From sparky, countries not aligned with the US need to effort to have an effective military even if it's only a small one to make them less convenient for the US to attack than countries which don't have one. Yeah, I'm a friend that's true.

Open Viu-Azi, can you discuss RASVET countering Starlink and how data center strikes affects Starlink and USAI systems employed against Russia? I had a very, very interesting email, and it was full of technical material, not all of which I understood. But basically, what's my take on it, and I have to be very careful what I say, because some of it, I suspect, is classified, is that RASVET is not just one type of satellite. It's an array of satellites that operate together but do various different things. And that one type of Rassavet satellite

is able to monitor and pinpoint where Stalink signals go to and come from. And that then opens the way. for obviously the Russians should they wish to target particular terminals, Starlink terminals. Fasie Ball says, do you think Russia takes Odessa before 2028 United States presidential election? Well, who knows?

If it happens, might not make such a difference in the U.S. presidential election. If Ukraine falls, that's a different thing. But do Americans know very much about the desk? Jim Maiji says, Alexander, have you heard or read a book published in 1997 by U.S. think tanks called 2025, how most of the points have become more or less real? No, I haven't. Klaus Clemenson says,

I've been in China for a month. It's great to be with people who think about development, relationships, and cooperations. Europe has forgotten that. Well, indeed. I think that we are really very, very unfamiliar with the realities. You know, National Review, this is this neocon journal in the United States, having a piece about China and saying, you know, it's a poor, underdeveloped, uneducated country. That is not at all my impression of what today's China is like. If people still think like that, then they are getting.

getting dangerously out of touch with reality. Fuzzy Ball says, Alexander, I would love an episode with a UK expert to go over all the social cuts in Britain to pay for Ukraine and any projected cuts as well. That is an excellent idea. I would say that because it is a very taboo subject here to talk about this,

there isn't that academic research, on this that you might expect there would be. We all know it's going on, and we do know about some of the, well, the size of the transfers of funds, and we can look at the budget crisis as well, and we can make a fairly good general analysis, but going into the granular detail that you've just described

might be a bit more difficult. Some day somebody will do it. Nico says you have such reverence about the Byzantine Empire. Personally, I think it was our worst period as Greece. A thousand years of the same mistakes that we see today, there was a civil war over. Icons, we need to stop believing in fairer tales like religion and focus on science, real stuff.

That's the only thing the Soviets did correctly. Atheism wouldn't give Israel the religious excuse to rage war. Well, you say I have a reverence to the Byzantine Empire, but I know an awful lot about Byzantine history because it is the history of Greece. That's the first thing to say. I wouldn't say that I put it higher than other periods in Greek history. I mean, you know, the time of Pettles, for example,

which did anything rate higher, Alexander of Macedon, Alexander the Great, megas Alexandros. I mean, again, is, you know, a personality of Byzantian produced no one quite like that. And if you're talking about the period that we call the Byzantine Empire, which of course they never did. They never called themselves that. They were, as far as they were concerned, they were the Roman Empire.

Anyway, the history of that is very long and is very, very different in different periods. So Justinian at their daughter, in the first. 5th century, very different from Basil the 2nd in the 11th century, the 10th and 11th centuries, then the Palaiologans that we were hearing about before from Iranian Kido. It's a different period again. The conflicts between the followers and the opponents of the icons, which is a very interesting event, by the way. Again, it's different. So you mustn't make the mistake of thinking, you know, that this is a single block of history. One point I will push back on that. I mean, you assume that perhaps because Byzantium was a religious empire, it was anti-science.

Very much the opposite was true. I mean, it was very ahead of science and far ahead of science than anywhere else in Europe at its time. I mean, you can see this in the way that they carried out building and, of course, in their developments of military technologies and all kinds of things. Peter 9744 says, thank you, the Duran. Thank you, Peter, for that. And Easy Winner says,

What's your thoughts on the integrity of the Mecca pact? What are Turkey and Pakistan's current positions and now after the Houthi successful attacks? Well, I think the Houthi affair has exposed the limits of this, because I think that the Saudis were looking to sort of ensure themselves by taking out these alliances with these major regional military powers, Pakistan and Turkey. But what they've now discovered is that Pakistan and Turkey have no interest in Yemen or going to war there. The Pakistanis and the Turks went into this deal,

because they see Saudi Arabia as rich with deep pockets, and they always hope that the Saudis will give out money to them. The Saudis recently paid a debt, for example, a $3 billion debt that Pakistan owed to the UAE. So for them, it was all about money. For the Saudis, it was about other things. It was generally about defense. But whatever a NATO or a coherent military alliance like NATO, it is not.

Jamila says, Alexander and Alex, of all your trips, which one did you like the best in which country to go to again this year? Well, the one I enjoyed the most was Chattanooga because I've never been to the south because I like the town, because there were all sorts of people I like there very, very much. because we were hosted by Robert Barnes, who's a great friend of ours. The most interesting, I have to say, was Russia. Because I haven't been to Russia for a very, very long time and going to Russia again.

Well, I've been to Russia the year before, but I hadn't been to Moscow since 2019, seeing the differences, seeing the sense of normalcy that exists there, talking to people in scoff. That was very, very interesting. And it did affect my understanding of many of the contemporary events. I should say that I've enjoyed all the trips that I've been to.

And Chicago was great fun. And I met all sorts of people we all know there, Meersheimer. Miersheimer was one. Ray McGuven was another. Max Blumenthal, all sorts of interesting people there. So it was great, great fun. But Chattanooga, as I said, was special. And Moscow and Russia was very interesting.

Yeah, agreed. Chattanooga was amazing. If you guys get the chance to go to the event next year, definitely go. It's a really, really fun time. A great trip to Chattanooga. And a really nice city, Alexandra. Lovely city. Absolutely nice city.

With very warm, friendly people. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, Moscow's always great. I would like to go back to Switzerland and explore Switzerland a little more. I don't know. You've been to Switzerland, Alexander? Oh, yes.

I mean, I used to go to Switzerland lots. And we went there about two, three years ago. We actually met Zareil briefly. We'll see where we go next, Jamila. We will see. I can tell you. I mean, next month, I'm invited there by Pascal of neutrality studies. So I go to Kyoto.

That's the first time I've ever been to Japan. So I'm very interested. Yeah. I would like to go China. Thailand, I think, would be interesting. Very interesting. Kazakhstan would be interesting. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Monarchin says, what are your thoughts about Sweden? It's a nation that conducts all major diplomacy through UN and EU, not independently. It also has aggressive stance. I have to say that the Sweden of today is a completely different place from the Sweden. I used to admire hugely. I feel about Sweden, the same way I feel about Canada. My parents used to visit Canada and love the place and thought it was tremendous.

and I had tremendous admiration for Canada's foreign policy and that we got people like Justin Trudeau and, well, little more need be said. Sweden was another place which my parents used to visit. They enormously loved and admired it. I greatly admired its foreign policy. Everything I've heard about Sweden today, about its domestic policy, makes me very unhappy

and the foreign policy is awful. From Iranian kiddo, Russia's economy is about the size of New York, smaller than those of Texas or California. Calling Russia's superpower is probably not the right term. You know something Iranian kiddo, that is so profoundly not true. If you've been there, if you've visited Moscow, Moscow itself, I guess, as an economy, Moscow region, about the same size of New York. And if we're talking about industries and that kind of thing, probably more so. It doesn't have a financial district in the same way.

But these constant misunderstandings and miscalculations about Russia have been part of the tragedy that we have lived through in the modern world. It's John McCain's stupid gas station masquerading as a country that has landed the collective West, the United States and Europe in this mess. Exactly. Exactly. Open view, Ozzy says, Alexander, do you think Putin will stay until the war ends? He doesn't seem like the type to leave it to someone else. I think that's exactly bad, and I think that you put your finger on it.

Fuzzy Ball says if Russia ends up taking everything up to the Deneper and all of the Black Sea coast, isn't 300 billion and seized assets a bargain for that territory? Well, yes, this is the answer. I mean, no question. I still think they won't it back. Sparky says, people focus on when science was in conflict with religion, but many scientific breakthroughs were made by people

very connected with their church, if not directly sponsored and encouraged by it. Correct. Completely correct, actually. Ronnie and Kiddo says, didn't know you love Tennessee that much, must be the whiskey. It's great. It is great. I have a bottle of whiskey that I got there, by the way, upstairs.

Rye whiskey, I should say. The whiskey is good, erotic. That's for sure. Anyway, all right. Alexander, that is everything. That is everything. Fantastic live stream, by the way. Massedly enjoyable. Yeah, great live stream. Let me just do a final check, Alexander. Do you have anything else to add? We have a couple more questions from e-cellars.

I'm off to work. Thank you both for what you do. Alex, please watch your step carefully during your walks. and talks those sneaky russians have drones everywhere good day gentlemen jaffa zero one says keep up the good work thank you for that alexander do you have any no i i have nothing i think we've covered ever at the ground incredibly well we we do live in very interesting times the war in ukraine is entering its most dangerous praise not because you know the war itself is dangerous wars are dangerous but the the mood in europe is going to turn very ugly as events in Ukraine themselves play out.

Order out of peace. Thank you for that super sticker. Ladoshka says, I want to say thank you, thank you to both Alex's for their channels and for their channels. My special thing to Alex's sense of humor, your programs, Alex often make my days for that. Smavoroi says, Mr. Mercuris, do you have any recommendations on books on the Eastern Roman Empire? Oh, goodness. Now, let me think about that. Let me think about that properly, because that's a challenge. A lot of the books that I know are written by Greeks, by the way, and some of them are in Greek. So where to begin? Can you just wait

there just just a second this is cool we're seeing Alexander for the first time interacted with the bookshelf there is a very very fine book on the 8th on the 7th century crisis this is when the Arabs broke through and captured Egypt and Palestine and for a time besieged Constantinople itself. And it tells you an awful lot about how Byzantium, the empire recovered and the forces that existed within the empire, which made recovery possible. And I think that is extraordinarily, extraordinarily interesting. And then there's certain books by a British historian called Stephen Ronseman. He's probably a bit out of date now, to be honest. I don't think he's fully up to speed with

contemporary scholarship. But he wrote a very fine biography of a Byzantine emperor called Constantine the, I think was the ninth, Porphyrogynitos. And again, that also provides you a very interesting history of the empire. at his speak. Skip his book on the Crusades, though, which I don't think is particularly good, just a second. And go on. I love the comments. I was always wondering if the bookshelf was real, lots of books to choose from. I've never seen Alexander do this. They are. They are real. They are absolutely real. No. I have a section on Byzantium here. That was cool. That was the first, Alexander, by the way. I think that's the first time that you've actually stood up to

interact with your bookshelf. You picked up about books before by just grabbing it. That's the first time. Yeah. Well, there you go. Consult it. It is real. It is real.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Anyway, let's wrap things up.

Sparky says the whiskey at Chattanooga venue was quite good. Yes, it was Sparky. Raptor says in World War II, losing 20 aircrafts per one air campaign was just another day. Today, losing one makes the headlines. How come? and cost

is your chance I mean look at the price of these things I mean the amount that they cost is enormous and the amount the cost of training pilots

is enormous Iran and Kido says Russia's nominal GDP is around 2.3 trillion New York's is 2.4 trillion yes but yeah that is nominal GDP and it's a meaningless thing

the I think purchasing power parity. The World Bank says it's around $8 billion. I might be putting it too high, which makes it the world's fourth biggest economy. But I spoke to somebody at the World Bank. Just listen to this. He said that in his opinion, this is hugely underestimated. I'm talking about the purchasing power parity figure, that it is about a third to 40 percent bigger. So that puts it. around 11, 12 billion, trillion, rather.

As Scooby says the same, purchasing power parity. Yeah. GDP is not a way to measure an economy. No, no, no. As Scooby agrees, confirmed. And Sparky says, how many assumed the bookshelf was a green screen? Hmm.

I'm slightly bothered that I can't find this book. Ah, here we are. I've seen it. You found it. There you go. You see it? The Byzantine Revival. 780 to 842.

Warren Treadgold. All right. There it is. Puzzy Ball says I knew it was real. Okay. There you go. Miller Pepper says, I'm shaken still by the special bookshelf operation,

the SBO. Yes. Well, can I just say, you know, if somebody asks, So I get to think about it. Since people seem to enjoy it, I'll do it a little bit more in future. Iranian-Kito says, of course, to see how good average citizens is doing, we should look at the medium income.

Manfred today says, will the failure to ban Russian energy imports to the EU by 2007, ironically coincide with some political collapse for Zelensky or even bring it about? Well, possibly. Who knows? All right. We will end it there. Thank you to everyone that joined us on this live stream.

Thank you to everyone that sent us amazing questions. And thank you to our moderators in the YouTube chat. Thank you to everyone that joined us on Rumble, on an Odyssey, on YouTube, and a special thank you to everyone in our locals community, the durand.com. We will be back with videos on Alexander's channel. and on my channel as well. So keep posted for videos coming today.

Take care. Thank you.