The Duran Podcast - Putin; Sanctions will not be lifted. BRICS is way forward

Episode Date: March 22, 2025

Putin; Sanctions will not be lifted. BRICS is way forward

All right, Alexander, let's talk about Putin's speech at this forum for business and industry that took place in Russia the other day. And a speech from Putin where he talked about bricks, he talked about a new payment architecture, a new payment systems. And he also talked a lot about sanctions from the collective West and the weaponization of the, the weaponization of the, the, US dollar against Russia. All of this, of course, in the context of the ongoing negotiations and bilateral talks with Trump and the Trump administration. So what are your thoughts on this business summit that Putin spoke at? This is an extraordinary speech, and it was an extremely important one. What makes it important is the nature of the audience, because can I say, This is the union of industrialists and entrepreneurs.

This is the major business employers' union in Russia. It's the equivalent of the CBI in Britain or the BDI in Germany. It brings together business, at the business community. So he's addressing the representatives of the business community of Russia, the people who basically are running the economy. and who have to make the investment decisions. Now, he is talking about the future direction of the Russian economy. And he's talking about this publicly to the people who are going to be making the long-term

investment decisions and all of that. So he's not going to misdirect them, because if he does, he's going to affect Russia's economic development. So we can take what he says as in this speech as being a genuine expression of his own thinking and that of the Russian leadership. And basically, the outline that he provided is that whatever happens with the Americans, whatever agreements are made over Ukraine, Whatever long-term agreements are made with the Americans about Europe, security, all of those things, the period of globalization, the period of Russia participating in a globalized economy is over once and forever. He says that sanctions are going to stay. They are going to remain permanent. He does not believe that the United States. is going to lift all its sanctions. He doesn't believe that Europe is going to lift all their

sanctions. He said that even if some sanctions are lifted, others will be imposed on Russia. Justice has happened in the past, and he mentioned the Jackson-Vannock Amendment, which was imposed to restrict trade with the Soviet Union. In the 1970s, the Soviet Union collapsed. the Jackson-Vannick Amendment remained in place, then in 2013 it was repealed and it was immediately replaced by further sanctions. And he's referring here to the Magnitsky Act,

though he didn't actually mention it by name. So he says we're looking into a world of permanent sanctions. But this isn't a problem. It is a challenge. And it's a challenge that Russia can and will need, and it will do so by developing its economy along the same lines that it has been following since 2014, when sanctions first started to be imposed on Russia in a serious way,

and even more so since 2022. So it's going to focus on domestic manufacturing and production, development of Russia's technology and science base. It's going to work on a bilateral basis with other trading partners outside the West. And it is going to prioritize development of the bricks, transfer and payment systems. And he talked about that at very, very great length. There's a certain view that because the Americans have made their outreach, the Russians are forgetting all about that, Putin went out of his way to make absolutely clear to the industrialists. That is absolutely not the case. We are still fully focused. We are still prioritizing all of that. And he also said, if Western businesses want to come and invest in Russia again, they're

welcome to do so, but it will be completely on our own terms. and Russian businesses that have filled niches vacated by Western businesses that exited Russia after the big sanctions were imposed in 2022, that those Russian businesses are going to be protected. So we are looking at economic nationalism in Russia now. This is a return, if you like, to a much, much more nationalist type of economic development, one that reflects perhaps Russian political traditions going all the way to Sergei Vita in the late 19th century. The period of Russia seeking to integrate itself with the West, with Western institutions,

is over once and forever. Listening to Putin speak to these industrialists, I came away with the impression that Minsk 3 falling into any type of Minsk 3 trap is 100% out of the question. It's over. I mean, I think Putin at this event completely killed the whole Minsk 3 narrative. I completely agree. I mean, the idea that he wants to return to the world that. that was. He's saying that world didn't work. We are absolutely not returning to the world that was. We're not going to make any kind of concessions. We're absolutely not going to agree to another Minsk three because this is how our economy is going to be developed from now on. We're not going to go back to the model that we had in the 2000s with these people who were referred to as oligarchs.

still around a few of them. We're not going to go back to that world, you know, freely floating exchange rates and all of those things. It's over. It's over once and for all. We're not looking to rejoin the G7. We're not looking to rejoin Swift. We're not going to do any of those things.

We will trade with the West, but we will trade from now on on our own terms. No, Mitzk 3, no trust, No naive trust in the West or in its institutions. No naive trust in the United States and its institutions. We're going to continue to develop our various sectors, you know, civil aviation, semiconductors, whatever. We're going to press forward with all of that.

We are going to return to that kind of economy. We're not interested any longer in the economy that. was created in the 90s and which ultimately failed completely. We don't even care about sanctions. We don't even care about sanctions. I mean, it would be great if sanctions were lifted. I mean, that's the impression that I got from his speech. If you wanted to lift sanctions, that's fine.

But it doesn't bother us whether the sanctions are lifted or not. This removes the US's whole carrot and stick approach because the entire carrot and stick negotiation approach was will dangle the sanctions. relief if you come towards our viewpoint with regards to project Ukraine or we'll slap more sanctions on you if you don't. And I think Putin also removed that from the negotiating table at this forum. Absolutely. Absolutely.

The stick is actually a tweak. But you can't really put more pressure on the Russians economically than what they've already withstood. And by the way, they're starting to, articles are starting to appear, even in mainstream media in the West now. That's gradually coming, very grudgingly, to acknowledge this. But the carrot doesn't exist either. And this is something which I think a lot of people don't understand. Yes, maybe if the Americans want to come and trade and invest in some Russian sectors, that's fine. But overall, the economy will remain completely Russian, and it will be the development of Russian business that will be prioritized. Now, the other very interesting thing about that speech, and not just the speech, but apparently the discussions that took afterwards, took place afterwards, is that this was what the industrialists and the entrepreneurs wanted to hear.

Then this idea that there is this enormous yearning within the Russian business community to return to the world that was is completely wrong. Maybe there are still some people left, maybe in the banking sector and people like that who want to go back. Definitely there are people like that in Russia. But by now, those people who are opening up businesses taking advantage of the economic situations that have developed since 2014, the major industrial groups that are starting to reenter the economy, the car industry, the machine tools industry, they don't want to go back

to that world because they prefer to continue to develop things the way they are. And it was very interesting to see when Putin was applauded. He was applauded precisely when he was taking this sort of line. Because the Russian economy over the last 10 years has changed so much that the old economy of the oligarchs and all of that is being displaced by this new economy, which is completely different. Yeah, I imagine the Chinese and the Indians and Bricks were very happy with this event, what they heard from Putin.

Yes, absolutely. It was a commitment to Bricks. Yes, yes. Yeah. Well, okay, anything else you want to add to this video? I should wrap it up. Again, I think that it is very important to say, because there's also some commentators who, you know, have, you know, well-intentioned people in many cases who think that the Russians, you know,

that they need to make big concessions because that's the way that they can reintegrate into the, you know, European world and all of that, that the Russians have this great yearning to be part of Europe again, the Peter the great, you know, myth and all this, and that they want to be recognized by the Americans as a great. power. I think this is all illusion, actually. I don't think this takes into account at all the way in which the mood in Russia has shifted, but not just the moods. There are an awful lot of people now in Russia who have a vested interest in developing the economy in the way that Putin said. Certainly, this is, I think, Putin's own preferred way of developing the Russian economy.

He's always been a person who's priced manufacturing, who's never been particularly keen on globalist side of doing things. So I think his biases very much push him in this direction. But now there is a vast lobby. A very, very powerful people in Russia, very well-organized people, people organized in unions of industrialists and entrepreneurs who want things to continue in this kind of way. A situation where Russia does not depend on oil exports, it becomes a self-sufficient, industrially developed, technologically advanced, modern economy. its financial system is not integrated with that of the West. It is self-sufficient as well and is focused and prioritized on Russia itself. This is very much the spirit of that meeting

that took place in Moscow. Well, Russia doesn't want to close the door. No. Or it's not saying it's going to close the door to the U.S. It's basically saying we want to do business, but when it comes to business inside of Russia, you're going to have to do business inside of Russia on our terms. Exactly. We're not going to do business inside of Russia on your terms. We're going to do business inside of Russia on our terms. Exactly. About Europe, a final question.

Given all of the talk in Europe about militarization and building up their military so that they can go to war with Russia, what does Russia do with regards to the energy resources that Europe is going to need to militarize? Do you understand what I'm getting at? I mean, is Russia going to help Europe recover or re-industrialize, if that's even possible? I don't think it's possible. But let's just say that that's one of the things that Merch is trying to sell the building up of a big militarized Germany. Is that something that Russia helps with?

Because the only way that I can see Europe doing this is through cheap Russian resources. Well, exactly, which of course, are coming. because that world has passed. I do think the Russians are going to want to reintegrate with Europe in that kind of way. I think this period when there was this symbiotic relationship, the Russians provided gas at cheap prices to Germany, Germany sent back to Russia machine tools and all of that kind of thing. I think that's over.

I think the door has just been closed on all of this. And I think people don't perhaps fully understand that. But there's no interest or incentive in Russia today in rebuilding the kind of economic relationship with Europe that once existed. And the days, you know, Russians shoppers coming to Harrods in London or a foreshan in Paris and buying things there, I think that's pretty much ended too. You know, this is a different type of Russian is now emerging today. And they're much, much more hard-nosed and far less interested in Europe and far less focused on Europe than their predecessors one. By the way, just to say about this, not only do I think that the Russians are less interested

in re-engaging with Europe, but people in Europe, I think still don't understand how critical in terms of lack of resources Europe's position has now become. I was looking at the situation with European gas reserves. Nobody seems to be interested in this topic, but they're now at a six-year low for this time of year. I mean, we are looking at a situation where Europe has ended the winter with its gas reserves at around 30, 30, 35%. In Germany, it's below 30%. And Germany has by far the biggest gas, you know, reserve holdings, places where you can store gas, gas storage facilities in Europe. Now, nobody seems to be talking about this. Bear in mind that you do still need to burn gas

through the summer. So gas is going to be depleted further during the summer. So what do you do? I mean, obviously you import LNG and all of that, but difficult perhaps to do that without raising prices if you're going to try and build up these gas storage reserves. you'll be competing against other countries that also want to buy LNG, China, for example, the East Asians who've got deep pockets. I'm not sure how Europe is going to avoid another energy price shop this year.

And as I said, nobody's talking about this. But I personally would not be surprised if come the autumn, we see another big energy price shock in Europe. And if that does indeed happen, then I get to make a prediction. All these bold, fantastical stories about, you know, spending billions of dollars or rather of euros on rearmament. They're all going to collide with reality. That whole balloon could burst. in just a few months' time, taking perhaps Friedrich Mertz's popularity, down with it, such as popularity as he has, by the way.

So, I mean, I'm not making a prediction. Maybe the Europeans have some cunning plan, which I can't see myself, to get around this. But at the moment, I mean, the situation with energy in Europe doesn't look at all good. we could very well be drifting into a crisis even bigger than the one in 2022, just saying. Their only cunning plan is to create these big giant funds. That's their cutting plan. Create these big funds that they're all going to be able to dip into. Exactly.

That's the plan. Absolutely, which of course will lead to ultimately because either you return to QE, which they might do, I suppose, or the part. up more debt, but one way or the other, I mean, it's starting to look as if the financial basis in Europe, it has something of the quality of quicksand about it. Well, Germany's over. I mean, there are the whole debt break thing. Absolutely.

They just remove the debt break from military spending and infrastructure, but once you remove it from one thing, it's only a matter of time before the whole thing is just completely wiped out. You know, in two or three years' time, don't be surprised. of Germany's debt to GDP ratio is also over 100%. Just saying. I read articles from a lot of articles, actually even from DW, which said that it could reach 90%, 94%.

Well, there you go. Absolutely, there you go. All right, we'll end the video there, the durand.com. We are on Rumble odyssey, bitchew, telegram, rockfin, and X. Go to the Duran shop, pick up some merch like what we are wearing in this video update. You will find a link to the Duran shop in the... description box down below take care