The Duran Podcast - Putin interview; Furious with Merkel. Biden predictable and hostile

Episode Date: February 18, 2024

Putin interview; Furious with Merkel. Biden predictable and hostile

All right, Alexander, let's talk about Putin's latest interview with Pavel Azarubin. And this is perhaps his first proper interview. It was on the sidelines of a Russia future forum or something like that. Let's take a place in Moscow. Putin's favorite journalist, I think it's his favorite journalist, the person that he probably feels most comfortable with. And he said some interesting things, not only about the interview with Tucker Carlson. He talked about U.S. elections, talked about Biden, about Trump. And he talked about the Minsk agreement, Germany, France, and even, you know, it's interesting when Putin talks about Germany, France and Germany, but especially Germany.

Germany really hurt him with their deceit and their lies about the Minsk agreements. That's obvious. Putin is someone that lived in Germany. He speaks German. He had this trust for Germany, this affinity for Germany. And he got burned. And he admits it, which good on him. Good on him.

He admits it. And so he made some interesting comments with regards to Germany and France and the Minsk agreements. Anyway, what are your thoughts with this? It was a very interesting interview. And of course, the question immediately arises why having done an interview with Tucker Carlson, which has now had about a billion views, which is incredible. I mean, I have never heard of an interview getting a billion views that this one has.

But anyway, having given an interview like that, why did Putin decide that he needed to give another one? And note that this one essentially is for a Russian audience. And, I mean, Putin does give some explanations. He says that Tucker Carlson ran the interview. He had a plan. It wasn't the plan that Putin himself had been expecting. He'd been expecting a more combative interview. He'd prepared for that.

He had much to say about Tucker Carlson. He thinks that Tucker Carlson is clearly an extremely clever man. In some respects, he even outwitted Putin because by letting Putin speak, he said Putin was drawn into discussions, which took Putin away from some of the things that he really, he himself wanted to talk about. And at the same time, he says,

you know, Tucker Carlson is a dangerous person. He's clever. He's smart. He went out of his way to say that Tucker Carlson basically ran the interview the way he wanted, not the way Putin wanted. And, you know, he could see that he has an awful lot of respect for Tucker Carlson. Despite being, as you put it, he didn't enjoy the interview.

He was actually rather uncomfortable at times over the course of it. And he also said something which I think people in the West ought to know. He said if people come after Tucker Carlson after doing an interview like that, I mean, it will be another sign about the real state of democracy and free speech at the West. And he made comparisons between Tucker Carlson's fate. in that case, and those of Julian Assange, Putin scarcely ever references Julian Assange, but he did in this interview. And he said that if they go after Tucker Carlson, it would be even worse and more shameless than in terms of what they did with Julian Assange. So I just wanted to say

all of these things, because you could see that Putin was surprised and actually has a lot of respect to Tucker Carlson who conducted this interview in a way different from the one that Putin expected. So that brings me to Putin's reason for conducting this interview because what he wanted to do was to say some of the things that he'd saved up to tell Tucker Carlson, but which he didn't find the opportunity to say. And there were things that were very interesting. He talked a lot about, you know, the relationship between Russia and the Jewish people. He talked about the pogroms. He talked about Secretary of State Blinket's ancestors and the way that they fled the pogroms.

And he pointed out that, you know, they were part of the time in Kiev. Lincoln talks about this as being Russia, which is a kind of admission that Kiev is actually Russia. not Ukrainian at all. Anyway, Putin had an awful lot to say about things like that. But he did turn to more immediate topical issues. And first of all, he wanted to make it absolutely clear what the reason for starting the special military operation was. It was not an imminent attack by NATO upon Russia.

It was the fact that Ukraine was about to attack. the two Dombast Republics, that there was heavy shelling of the Dombast Republics in February 2022, that there was going to be an attack on the Dombas Republics. He had already made it clear to the Western Paris that Russia would not let the two Dombas republics be overrun. And that was why he first recognized the independence of the two Dombas republics. and then came to their defence. And that was something he clearly felt he needed to straighten out. And then the second thing, he said, connected to that,

is the point that you've just been making, which is about the Minsk agreement. He is furious with Merkel. He's absolutely, I mean, his relationship with Merkel has now completely broken down. He says, that we, meaning the Russians, but of course, primarily himself, were given, as he put it, the run around, that the Western powers had no intention of seeing the Minsk Agreement implemented,

that they used the time that the Minsk Agreement gave them to rearm Ukraine, and he said that the Russians, nonetheless, even while all that was going on, pressed ahead and, you know, continued with the whole Minsk negotiation process because they believed they were dealing with honest people. And that, of course, directly refers to Angela Merkel. So Putin says she's not honest. And if you know anything at all about Putin, you will know that is the worst thing you can possibly say about anyone.

I mean, he has completely lost. all faith in Merkel at all and if she were ever to come back into German politics which by the way some people in Germany are talking about she would find that she had a very very cold reception if she ever went to the Kremlin again and that the Russians would not be prepared to deal with her in the way that they have in the past so that was very interesting

it shows how angry Putin feels about that And he went on to say that the fact that he was given the runaround in the way that he was meant that he delayed the start of the special military operation, which logically should have started much soon. And then you have the big statement that has a lot of the U.S. talking, which is Putin's endorsement of Biden, And not really an endorsement, but many people are framing it as an endorsement. You say that that's not exactly what Putin said. He didn't exactly pick Biden over Trump. My opinion is that he does infer it a bit.

He does infer that, okay, Biden, you know, it's the name that came to his head when he was asked a question. He said Biden is more of the old school politician. So, okay, he says Biden. And a lot of people says, oh, he's endorsing Biden. But I mean, whatever you may think about his response to that question, who do you prefer Trump or Biden? I think whether it's an endorsement, an outright endorsement of Biden, or he just infers that the Russian government understands the type of politician Biden is. You know, what other answer could Putin possibly give than Biden? Because if he had said Trump, every, I mean, heads would have exploded across the time of the United States either way.

And I think, I also think Putin likes to troll a bit. He does, he likes to poke around a little bit. He does troll, though he was also very, very clear that he doesn't like his words being misrepresented. And they are misrepresented all the time, including some of the things that he said to Tucker Carlson. And I think it might be just helpful if I just say exactly what Putin. said at this point, he was asked about, you know, who would be better for us, for Russia, in other words, this is the question that was put to him, Biden or Trump. And he replied, he, i.e. Biden, has more experience and he's more predictable to an old school politician.

That said, we will work with any leader of the United States who has the trust of the American people. And of course, every comment that I've seen about this deletes those words about the trust of the person of the American people elect. It's up to them. It's not up to me. Biden is predictable and is old school. But if you actually look at the rest of the statement, the rest of his comments about Biden, what he also says is that Biden is, that Biden is. completely, viscerally, hostile to Russia. So, I mean, you know, he's old school and predictable and consistent in being hostile to Russia. I mean, he's essentially a cold warrior.

I mean, that's what Putin is saying. It's very subtle. It could be made to look like an endorsement. And as you said, he does like to troll. But it's also, if you really. read his comments carefully, all of them, the entirety of them, it's actually a criticism. I mean, he goes on, he says, you know, that Biden, he won't Biden, you're making lots of mistakes. He, by the way, he's very careful to say that he saw no evidence of mental decline on Biden's part,

which is a way, of course, again, of putting all responsibility for the entire disaster upon Biden. himself. Again, people don't get it. Putin is a very sophisticated person. And he's very... Hits his head on helicopters. It hits his head on helicopters. Which is, again, incredibly.

I mean, you know, it was actually funny because, again, he's playing. He loves to play, to play words. He says one thing. Oh, he's fine. He hits his head on helicopters. But we all do that. I mean, there's that kind of, you know, of course, you know, he has to, read and follow his notes. Well, then I read my notes too. I mean, it was, it was very clever,

but nonetheless, the point was he was putting the blame squarely on Biden ultimately for the way in which things have gone catastrophically wrong. And he's not going to allow Biden, and the alibi of, you know, having, being able to say, well, it wasn't me. It was my team. And I wasn't all there. And people were playing all this around me. So, I mean, that was what Putin was doing, he's being incredibly careful in his use of words, but saying ultimately, it's not for me to decide. It's for the American people to decide. I'm not involved in this election. They have to make the decision, not me. Yeah. Just in closing, I think it was the perfect response to that question. Because once again, if he had said something like, you know, we'll go with whoever

is president, but I get along well with Trump, I mean, that would have been. Oh, yeah. I mean, people would have flipped out. Yeah. So I think he gave a really good answer. Yeah, it's a very clever answer, actually. Clever than people in the West understand. He was also, by the way, he was also absolutely brutal about Annalina Bearball. And again, this is, this is a part, this is one of the most interesting and actually funny parts of the entire interview because they've

raked up the fact that Beirboch's grandfather was an ardent Nazi and he fought them in the Vemma and all of these kind of things. Apparently there's been some issue about this in Germany itself. So again, Putin pretends to come to her rescue. He said, you know, no, no, people shouldn't be held responsible for what their ancestors did. It's completely wrong to talk about that. And then, of course he talks about Berbock herself. And first of all, he pretends that he's forgotten her son which is inconceivable. He then, and remember, as you said yourself, he's beat to Germany. He speaks fluent German. He pretends that he doesn't know how to pronounce a sermon. So, I mean, already he's making her sound a little bit ridiculous. And then he says, well, you know, she clearly

doesn't like Russia. She's very hostile to Russia. But she is hostile to Germany as well. Look at what she's done. Look at what the Green Party have done. The way they wrecked Germany's energy policy, the way they brought all these problems upon Germany. So, I mean, you know, he appears to be defending her. But in fact, actually, he's obliterating her. He says, you know, don't waste your time looking at what her grandfather might have done. Just look at what she is actually doing. He doesn't like Berbock much. But again, very few people do like Berbach.

The 15% of the greed voters in Germany like Berbock. That's about it. Absolutely. But I mean, coming back to your earlier point, I mean, what also comes across from this is, again, his feelings about Germany. He staked a huge. amount on a good relationship with Germany. And he feels very, very let down. He felt that he'd got a good relationship with Merkel, at least not a good relationship, but a stable and effective relationship with Merkel. And he now feels that she straightforwardly deceived him,

which he did, by the way. I mean, there's no doubt about that. He's very angry about that. He's very angry about Germany altogether. And of course, he followed that up with something which, again, nobody's going to discuss, but he went to a company, a factory which makes rolling stock trains. And one of the things the Russians, one of the big relationships that the Russians had with the Germans was that they were importing high-speed train technology from Germany. In other words, Siemens was building high-speed trains in Russia. And of course,

Siemens joined the sanctions and the relationship between Germany and Russia in development of high-speed trains. Basically came to a stop. And of course, that many people thought, meant that Russia would not be able to move forward with high-speed trains. Well, he turns out his factory.

He's got a model of a Russian-designed high-speed train there. and he talks about the fact that the Russians are in fact going to move ahead with high-speed trains. It's difficult, again, to avoid the feeling that what he's said in the journalists is, look, you did all of this, you did all of this to yourselves, you thought we couldn't do these things, actually we can. We don't need you. You have completely messed up. We will go ahead.

You've slowed us a little, but in the end, by pulling up, You've hurt yourself and you might even have helped us. They hurt themselves a lot. You can see that in the economic figures. Anyway, all right. We'll leave it there. The durand.com. We are on Rumble, Odyssey, bitchew, telegram, rock fin, and Twitter X,

and go to the Duran shop, 15% off all t-shirts. Take care.