The Duran Podcast - Russia And War As A Continuation Of Politics (Live) w/ Andrei Martyanov

Episode Date: April 2, 2024

Russia And War As A Continuation Of Politics (Live) w/ Andrei Martyanov

All right. We are live with Alexander Mercuris. And we are very, very happy, very excited to have with us. He won and only Andre Martianoff. Andrei, how are you doing today? I'm doing fine. Thank you, gentlemen. Pleasure to be with you. Fantastic. And I have Andre's information where you can follow him, his publication, his blog, as well as his excellent YouTube channel. It is all in the description box down below, and I will add it as a pinned comment as well when the stream ends. Hello to everyone that is watching us on Rockfin, on Odyssey, on Rumble, on the duran.com. Join us on our locals channel and, of course, to everyone that is watching us on YouTube and our fantastic, awesome moderators. Peter, Zareel, long time, no C, Zareel.

and who else is moderating Tish M. Great to have you with us. Tish M. And I think that is everybody that is moderating at this moment. So Alexander, André, let's discuss why after two years the collective West still can't figure out

how Russia is going about this conflict. It's pretty, amazing, that we're two years into it and they're still, they're still scratching their heads, stuck on territorial gains and stuff like that while Russia is just playing on a different level. Anyway, Alexander, André, get to it. Indeed, let's do so because, of course, with Andre, Andre has been writing, but of course, he knows the Soviet and Russian military system very well. He was part of it. He was part of the Soviet Armed Forces. he's written with great erudition about the Russian military

and about the Soviet armed forces and about the Soviet and Russian political philosophies and how they approach war and matters of conflict and leadership and economic organization and industrial organization, or topics which suddenly people are beginning to recognize are important. and he also has shown us in his various books that things that people are suddenly beginning to understand about Russia actually have long roots, they have deep roots. I particularly remember reading in one of his books accounts about Russian,

Soviet, I should say, missile developments, anti-ship missile developments in the 1960s, far ahead of their time and the West at that time. And the way in which the Russians approach military planning and military thinking, the incredibly scientific and rigorous way they do that, and the way in which, in fact, the whole leadership and planning structure works in Russia. But he talks about Russia, but he also talks an awful lot about the West. And he compares Russian leadership, Russian thinking, Russian strategic thinking, with that of the West as well. And he doesn't just look at Western political leaders,

which he does, and which we all do. But he also looks at the political system here, how it works, the educational system, particularly the higher educational system, and the results which it produces, the various conceptions which inform it, and how this also shapes the military culture. If it can indeed even be called that,

Russians might find it difficult to understand West military cultures. if one, you know, from the perspective of their own. So he sees both sides, in effect. He's written about both sides, and he's written about both sides very, very intelligently. Now, for me, the single thing that I took from reading André's books, which, by the way, should be indispensable reading

to anyone who wants to understand, both the conflict in Ukraine that we are in at the moment, and the conflict between Russia and the West, but also how things are going to develop in the future, is that the Russians have an extremely serious approach to decision-making and management in general, political industrial management in general. Whereas in the West, increasingly we don't.

We just make things up. as we go along. And we have a very, very facile understanding of war, of political struggle, of organizational issues that underpinned

them, and all of those things. Now, Andre, am I summing things up correctly? I mean, I'm talking about you work. Oh, absolutely. Alexander, you are spot on, actually. Yeah, absolutely perfect. You cannot get any better summary

than this. Yes, absolutely. But yeah, my fourth book actually, because obviously it touches largely on special military operation, and we already have people of serious inclination, so to speak, as already Jacques Bo, for example, who already wrote a book on that issue, and he addressed really what has to be addressed, not all this tactical minutiae, you know, that, you know, some drone flies in, blows some tank and whatever. It is, of course, important. And tactical level, obviously, it forms the operational and even strategic reality.

But it is just the tactical level. Those things work in combination. It's a vertical thing, you know, tactical being, you know, the lowest operational art in the middle and strategy on the top. And, of course, many people still cannot wrap their brains around sometimes about simple, really simple concept. There is a military strategy as the tool of the state strategy,

because the state, the nation itself, through its institutions, political institutions, are operating on the level of which would be called today geopolitics, you know, and so the military strategy, and the military is just a tool. It is most important tool in the arsenal, but there are other tools there, which are, of course, diplomacy and things of this nature, you know, which you choose your tools, what becomes the state art, state art, the art of the

controlling and managing the state. And that's where we have problem, because I'm, I live in the West, in many respects, is the Western man, am the Western man. And we have the situation with the elites. dramatic, I mean, catastrophic, really. And we have the precipitous intellectual decline in the last 30 years in people who come to power, including military power, people who run militaries. And evidently, they are in the rut, and they cannot be extricated from this rot because they continue to live in this delusion. And in my book, I call it the effect of the echo chamber.

and the problem is it's not just the people within the echo chamber which are in trouble. It is the echo chamber itself. And that's why it's historic and nature because it's absolutely there. It's completely detached from the reality. And as the result, as Alexander correctly stated, we can talk now about the strategic miscalculation. Miscalculation on the historic level. We're looking at once a millennium, or at least, once half-millennial event, which brought the West already to its knees. And how it will develop

from there is, of course, the matter of speculations and, you know, just trying to make for a guest, I would say. What is it, what I wonder sometimes is this, because, of course, I was born in the 1960s. And for the first half of my life, political leaders who led the West at that time were people who had lived and been shaped through the Second World War. They had been very heavily, I mean, they were imbued with the experiences of the Second World War. Many of them had actually fought in it. And some of them had leadership positions in it. And then what started to happen in the 1980s and even more in the 1990s is that that cohort of leaders began to lead the scene. They died out, they retired, they disappeared. And the people who replaced them,

had never known serious war at all and had never been challenged to make serious political decisions either. And it's like, you know, a very rich family built up under enormous amount of hard work and it's taken over by rather feckless, ill-brought-up children. And they're sort of squandering away the inheritance. It has, for me, something about quality. And the kind of adolescent way in which some of our leaders talk and appear to think

and the writing that you read in, you know, the media, which is, of course, part of the political system, it has that quality also. Like the adults left, but the children who took over never properly grew up. Infantilism is not a buck, but a feature of the modern Western lists. Apart from them being very uneducated and, well, some of them are illiterate people downright. I mean, it's just that. And in terms of Russia, it, Alexander, as you, I also was born in the 60s, in Soviet Union, no less. But we definitely remember they are combined West differently.

Even in the Soviet Union, apart from the art and culture, which was, for example, like Polish culture and Hungarian rock music, you know, you grew up with a French, Italian cinematography, for example, British comedies, you know. So it was kind of like very interesting, kaleidoscopic, bright world of people who through the art and culture and other means, you could see that these were people of some quality. Let's put it this way. Today what you have is, like yesterday, Maria Zafarova, was responding to this so-called Rear Admiral,

is one Mr. Kirby. I don't know how the guy became rare admiral. I mean, and the point is that some of the commenters in my video, to my video, left a wonderful comment, beautiful, you know, just, he said, there is a lot more rear than Admiral in this guy, And he was talking about the fact that about comparing Russians with their manure salespeople who put a lot of manure in their, you know, mountain, you know, because Russia obviously pointed out to the connection between the United States and London to the situation and to the terrorist act to Crocos City. I understand Mr. Kirby could have been really upset about this. But the problem is those people, they don't have class. this Congressman Volberg. The guy is a pastor for crying out loud and he wants to nuke the

Gaza. What kind of first, this has already reached the absolutely grotesque scale with these people. This is the pastor, all right? He calls himself Christian. There's nothing Christian about those people. And he wants to nuke Gaza, kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people and, you know, what can I say? We have the whole implosion of the political system, which is utterly corrupt. And as Alexander pointed out, we have the issue of people who never experienced any difficulty in their lives. They have been pushed through all those, you know, elite universities like Oxford, like Ivy League. They studied for so degrees in political science, whatever that is, which is not real science. They studied, I don't know, sociology, literature.

Nothing wrong with studying literature, but Boris Johnson better should have learned, you know, some things about how to manage the state, you know? But we have these people, and they have no responsibility whatsoever. And then you have the, yeah, Annalina Berbock, who is doing her 360 degrees constantly. So it's like, I don't know, as some people, my friends, they have been to Moscow. I'm coming Moscow very soon too again.

You know, last year I've been there. And the question which Russian elites have is, who do we talk to in the West? There's literally nobody you can talk to. Jake Salomon or Anthony Blinken, these are kids who have no clue what they're dealing with. And one is National Security Advisor. The only his only merit, so to speak, was the fact the guy who invented the Russiagate,

that's the level of his professional competence. He doesn't understand war. He doesn't understand what decision trees are. And these are political operatives who only skill, the only skill, they don't have any other skills, is to get either reelected in legislative branch or get promoted in the executive branch. That's the only thing they know. In Soviet Union, there was a wonderful term for this, apparatuschik. That means these are the swamp creatures who only know how to exploit the apparatus of the state management to their benefit, period.

They don't know what policy is. They don't know how to create some kind of the contacts between them and, you know, appropriate vis-a-vis in other countries. They don't understand anything, literally. It's horrifying, I know, but it's just the reality. It's a sad reality. The other thing that I find, actually, because this is something that I, you know, had not expected or realized, the other thing I find most astonishing and very difficult to understand is that the same kind of atrophy seems to have expanded and involved militaries in the West as well.

I've had, you know, watched generals like General Ben Hodges, General Petraeus, all kinds of senior military officers in Britain, military people in France. And, I mean, they are saying things which are completely, I mean, I'm not a military person, I concede that they are absurd. And I am, again, I struggle to understand how he means. military person can do that. I'd always assumed that military people, the one thing because war was so serious that they were obliged to do in a military situation was to tell the truth. And if you're a senior military leader, the most important thing to do is to tell the truth to power.

And I've been reading books by a man called David Gantz. I'm sure you've heard of him, American historian writing about the Second World War. And it turns out that, for example, Jukov absolutely thought like that, and he told the truth to Stalin, and Stalin listen. And, you know, that was Stalin. I mean, you know, you're not going to face the kind of, you know, dangers by talking to Joe Biden, at least one presumes not. And yet, apparently the military tell the leaders, the political leaders, what they want to hear. And again, I don't understand. I don't understand how that has happened? It's, first, you mentioned a number of the names, like Ben Hodges, like Petraeus, like this so-called

institute for the study of war, which they don't study war there, really. They just write narratives. As I already stated, their political and military political system, especially military political system, the way the militaries interact with the political elites ceased. It's absolutely ceased to operate properly. And you can see yourself not only the issue of the utter military incompetence. As incomparable Alistair Krook yesterday stated, what we know is the only expeditionary warfare, you know,

the colonial warfare, colonial conquest. There would have been no allies in the Western Europe in 1944, if not for the Soviet Union, which actually by that time slaughtered the bulk of the Axis forces and the G-Day was dependent on it and you can read about the strategic debate on this in the incomparably wonderful book by David Eisenhower, the grandson and it's called Eisenhower at war, 1943, 1945. People forget about this. And so now you have these people who are not only fact, they lived all their professional lives after this Turkish shoot and beating the bitches out of this third-rate Iraqi military after the half year of unimpeded preparation

and pre-deployment of forces. And they live with this yardstick. And this is not yardstick. It's absolutely an anomaly, you know. And then suddenly they recognize they have the opponent who is for whom they are near peer, not the other way around, you know. And the question is now that they are in the process of unbecoming and officers. Not only they parade themselves as sore losers, which they are.

United States military didn't win a war. I mean, like, I don't know, in decades since Korea. And Korea was a tie, so to speak. And they have only this thing to which they grasp, you know, as the sinking man grasped for the last straw with this Gulf. war, it's just like it's becoming if you read it naturally any kind of report, professional report

on that thing is becoming nauseating. You know what? They literally beat the kids in the sandbox. You know, the 25-year-old MMA fighter fought the six-year-old kid in the sandbox. Of course, you're not going to learn anything. But yet,

they applied this experience, so to speak, and they thought that they know what they do, and they don't. And now they, indeed, in the process, of unbecoming, they lose any type of the military integrity, which is universal. You cannot imagine a Russian senior or any kind of officer who would go out on the record, as Mr. Miley, former chairman chief of joint chief of staff, went on record, he stated that no Russians should ever go to bed without the fear of having their

throat slit. If that would have been stated by a Russian officer, let alone officer of the level of the chair, chief of the general staff, he would be sucked and then prosecuted for the article 282 of the criminal code for the inspiration of the, you know, ethnic violence and conflict. And here we are. We have all those, you know, big star generals. who wouldn't know how to command the freaking regiment in Russian armed forces in the real war. And they have these issues. They have the personal issues. These are the issues of the, I mean, acute professional envy.

It's jealousy, plain and simple. And because the United States never thought anything like this in its history. And what they observe now. And, you know, I'm not even talking about Ben Hodges. Ben Hodges created compiled in May of 2022, when actually for the first time when the special military operations started in earnest. It didn't start in earnest before Boris Johnson flew in on behalf of the United States and sabotaged Russian-Ukrainian negotiations and Istanbul. So it was the end of April when the special military operations started to basically develop. into what we observe today, because everybody understood in the Russian side that the West

will be participating by much more than just matterly political support. And so we have now Mr. Ben Hodges, who came up that time with their report, allegedly military professionals, about Patomkin Russian army. Apart from the fact that Patomkin myth is a myth, you know, it was created in the West to basically are ridicule Russians. What they described to Mr. Potomkin never happened, actually, with him creating some kind of illusions to impress his lover, Catherine the second.

So, and when you read this, you have to ask a question, how professional those people are those people? I mean, those people come across as really people who are very close to amateurs, honestly. They get into the issue of we get some tactical trick or minutia and we apply it to the, you know, whatever there is military thinking they have. There is an issue with Western militaries. This is T or E table of our organization and equipment, which is from 1980s and 1990s. the whole NATO militarily and military industrial complex wise is stuck in 1990s.

Today is 2024. And then they suddenly have this paradigm shift and they see what is happening. And the only thing which is left for them, they lie. That's the only thing. They lie to their bosses and they lie to themselves. Well, I've come to the view that top military commanders in Russia of the West are simply members of the political class who, where you've been. uniforms. I mean, that's really all they basically are. I mean, you mentioned the Iraq War of 1991,

because, you know, we're discussing here, war serving the strategy of the state, being an extension of politics, a famous thing that Klausovitz said. Well, I think in some ways, that is a good example, because the United States, and I, you know, I remember I've lived through the 1991 Iraq war very well. really set out a clear strategy. It was going to liberate Kuwait, which is a tactical thing, but there was never any clear idea or explanation of what it would do beyond that. Would it stop? In which case some kind of reconciliation, some kind of an understanding with the government of Iraq would have made a kind of sense. And perhaps that, you know, from position of, you know, tough-minded, real politic, whatever you think of Saddam Hussein, would have made a kind of sense.

Or alternatively, did they go walk further into Iraq, trying to change the government there, declare war, have some conception of how they would change the political geography of the Middle East, and what their own objectives would be if they, did that and how that would serve their own interests. But they never did this. They never set out a clear political strategy. Instead, what we eventually got was a series of very badly thought out adventures hatched by a very small group of people within the US government who decided everything in secret without discussing it with anybody. Without, talking to the expert community, such as it is, and about the Middle East, there are a lot of

experts. Alistair Crook, who you mentioned, I would classify as one. And the result is a series of catastrophic adventures, each of which has turned out hideously wrong. And I'd suggest the same is exactly the same about Russia. Now, because of what has happened over the last two years, I've been in conduct with all sorts of people who I would consider to be experts. And I, about Russia, Russian affairs, industry, economics, finance, that kind of thing.

And they all tell me one of the same thing. None of them has been contacted and had their advice sought at any time. Again, if there is a realistic political strategy, I don't know what it is. There again, fantasies and plans, break up Russia, um, played to, chess games with China. I'm not sure that really is what you could call a grand strategy or any kind of strategy. And it is the utopian quality, the amateur quality of what passes for strategic thought, which in my opinion is so much of the problem. I get the sense in Russia, it's completely different. Do you want to comment?

It is absolutely different. And there is this systemic issue in the West. When you look at how indeed military and political class interact, there is no real interaction. The Pentagon are the yes guys. Those people who do understand operational and even strategic issues. And this is the middle level of the planners, you know, those colonels, brigadier,

generals, you know, people who deal with some kind of operational planning. Evidently not very well, but still, in the end, even if they get the right idea, which, for example, for anybody or for any person who ever studied Russian military and Russian economy for the last 10 years, which I wrote three books, basically, they would understand they better not get into the fight with that, because it's going to end really badly. And for now, don't forget, as Vladimir Putin stated, we didn't even start yet, you know, so we haven't even started yet. So, and the problem is that you look at this juncture, so to speak, the joint, it doesn't work. It doesn't work. Indeed, political, as you mentioned

correctly, Stalin. It wasn't just Zhukov, Rakov, Rakovosovsky. Rikosovsky was the guy who actually developed the operation by Gratio. which tore the gods, you know, quoting Mr. Churchill of their access military machine when they destroyed the whole army group center in 1944. And he argued with Stalin, I mean, tooth and nail. Stalin sent him out of his office a couple of times. Comrade Raskowski, go out, think, you know, outside the doors, and come back and tell me what you think. Twice he was out. twice he came in back and he came on Stalin and say, okay, we'll do it as you say. And you know, what a military triumph it was.

So there's nothing like this in the West anymore. There are no people who are competent militarily, economically, and politically, who come in and say, no, you cannot do that. It's going to end up really badly. So you have these people, plus it's an exacerbation. in the United States with the fact that those are neocons who are really fed through the so-called dissident, primarily Jewish, but not only dissident immigrant community of Russians, Russian Jews, and simply other people who have scores to settle.

And they are driven by this with several hatred for Russians. Do not forget, Mr. Clapper, talking about, you know, Russian being genetically inferior. Don't forget those people. They hate, they don't just dislike Russia for the reasons of geopolitics or political reasons. They dislike Russians on the cultural, racial, and other reasons. It's metaphysical almost for them. And this is what drives them. And the same applies, for example, to this comedic really clown French elites,

which are the countries that peepsquee economically and militarily, except for its nuclear deterrent, which is even still small. And yet, look at them, you know, and the same goes pretty much for United Kingdom. When you look at their elites and what they do, it just, what the hell man, it just, this is so ridiculous. And this inevitably brought about what we observe today. It's the collapse of the West.

This is not one day affair. It was happening prior to this, but it was the last, so to speak, the last boulder which initiated the landslide, which became the special military operation. And al-Mahedin, I believe, two days ago, this is the major Lebanese media outlet. They pointed out about if the Putin is the hero for the global South. And they say, yes, he is. And they speak about the history shifting to the right direction, finally. So we are talking the historical scale shift, and it's not only paradigm shift on the battlefield.

It's paradigm shift in the global politics, such as, for example, I was calling for it for a while now. It's not just ignoring the institutions, political institutions which have been run by the West. For example, for Russia, international monetary fund or World Bank, they don't care. Russians don't care about what they think and whatever they say. Same goes, which I said, you need to quit and bicarct International Olympic Committee. It is completely politically corrupt organization, and the Olympic movement is there, period. It's that. It became totally politicized, and there is nothing left there.

And so you see those things, and Russia is kind of leading the way of cutting all those institutions. And same goes for obviously economic issues. And I think that's, you know, we'll see how the Olympics will go in Paris, how many Russians will decide to compete under the neutral flag, you know. So, and again, in the end, if you look at the end of the Crocus City, there's the connection with Ukraine have been established. We know that Ukraine is run by the special services from MI6 to CIA, you know, and, you know, So it's becoming clear that those people will be held responsible for what happened. And terrorism is there actually a weapon of the week. It's terrorism, but that's why it is trueism.

And guess what? They are resorting now to terrorism because they have nothing to answer it militarily, politically or economically. So there you go. About the Olympics, all I'm going to say is this, it is a particularly painful subject for me. my great-grandfather was there at the absolute founding of the first Olympic Games in Athens in the 1890s. He knew Baron Coubertin, the founder. I don't want to say more. I mean, my great-grandfather, well, I didn't know. I mean, he died before my time, but he'd been deeply distressed by what he'd seen. And I'm sure Baron de Coubertin would have been equally

horrified by the history. I wanted to turn to something else, which is that one of the things that I had not realized is how very thoroughly and carefully Russia trains its officers. Now, there are multiple levels of schools, also it seems to me. There's the sort of first tier of schools, like combined armed schools for infantry people. Then there's a sort of higher level, a sort of higher level of school where you take a kind of MA type. I don't, well, I'm not going to use these academic titles because I think that might be misleading. But anyway, high-level schools that go back further up. And then further up still, there is the Academy of the General Staff, which seems to be an extremely elite institution. It is

a level of academic training, which if you compare it, I think it's about, when it's certainly much more than double the length of the kind of academic training that Western officers tend to get. And I get the sense that it is highly rigorous as well. Now, presumably, you went through at least some parts of the system and you will have known people who did also come through the system. I mean, is it as rigorous and as demanding as it looks to me to be? And I should say I've looked at some of the maths part of the syllabus.

And I've actually shown it to a friend of mine who teaches maths at Cambridge University. And he said, this is incredibly difficult. And I said to him, you do realize this is for standard officers. It is not for the artillery, for example. Am I right? I mean, is it really as rigorous as that? Yes, it is extremely difficult academically. Don't forget that when you're entering, I graduated at Naval Academy.

It is five-year-long study, which amounts to six academic years in the West. You graduate with the undergraduate degree in military science and graduate degree in engineering. Russians had this wonderful, which they returned now back to it. It's called specialist. No bachelor's, no nothing. Specialist and then the higher level. So, yeah, that's what you studied there. It's extremely rigorous engineering, military engineering training.

And of course, you studied their overall military sciences. Like, for example, the theory of operations. You study all other things on the level. level of tactics and some basic introduction into operational planning and things of this nature. You are graduated in the talent, and of course you are very inexperienced. You go out and you begin to work your way up. Once you get to the level of the, let's say, step of the brigade size formation, you become the, let's say, battalion commander, you have the path now, apart from other

things which you attend still while you are serving at your initial officer billets, you have the ability to get into what is also coming back now. It is very, very remote analog of the U.S. War College, any kind of war college. Air War College or Naval War College, because there are two-year educational organizations. one number of my actually classmates graduated that, and one actually taught that. He has PhD in military science. And this is two-year-old course,

and this is that prepares you to the command of the brigade level and higher until you get to the division level and higher, and then suddenly you have to go to the Academy of the General Staff, which also is about two years. years. So by the time you are done with which still you're not done, but you actually completed as the operational and strategic level officer, you have at least nine years of education, academic education. It is extremely rigorous in terms of mathematics and physics, because you need to understand the mathematical apparatus behind the operations. And of course,

you need to know the physical principles on which weapon systems and command and control systems operate. And this is a lot of math, physics, all those like system integration, you know. So my specialty, the same as specialty of anybody who graduated with our faculty in my case, 1985, or the specialist in January and national navigational complexes of the strategic missile systems, naval strategic missile systems. We were fundamentally prepared to serve on the Delta 1, Delta 2 types of the strategic missile submarines. Then, of course, you branch off. You know, you branch. Some people go to the border guards. Others go to serve on the surface ships. Others went to serve on the nuclear power submarines. And some of them became actually the

commanders of those submarines. And others went and became the chiefs of staff. And just to give you example, right now, the Vice Admiral Golubiff, who graduated year later than me, he's becoming the commander of the Northern Fleet of Russia. and he graduated the Academy of the General Staff. So it's just to give you an example, it's non-stop education. And how to put it politely, it's difficult. Yeah, it's hard. It's hard.

And does Russia have this system that we have in Britain, and I believe the United States, where it's up or out? Because I've heard a lot of people say that this system is actually very bad. And I've seen the product of this, that what it does within British, American militaries is that it creates conformity. It means that people are afraid to make mistakes, don't take risks, are overly obedient to their superiors, don't engage in, you know, unconventional thinking. I ask this question, because one of the other things that I've gradually come to realize is that

within this very academic world, and people might find it surprising that Russian Street military affairs, military trading of officers, an absolutely rigorous academic discipline. There is extraordinary amount of debate. People can argue and debate with each other. You know, a colonel can argue with a general

about theoretical matters and they can argue things like that in papers that doesn't suggest to me a system where people are afraid to speak out so I'm just wondering what the situation is yeah that's exactly what it is they do argue and sometimes they argue and sometimes it gets nasty actually but the point is there are a number of the very high-level

military publications top of them being of course of course, legendary, Weyen missile, military thought magazine, which for example, CIA and the United States, read vigorously. If you look at those magazines, and you have a range of people from Lieutenant Colonel's,

you know, who are professors and PhDs in military sciences to generals, running things about it. And much of it is extremely mathematical, obviously nobody, who would argue about Mark of chain process, you know, for some strategic planning, you know, and things of this nature. It's like, it's very mathematical. It's very mathematically oriented. And Lester Grau, who wrote, before Colonel Jacques Bo did it, he called it Russian art of war. Colonel Lester Grau, who is the scholar in Russian

military, in 2016, he wrote the Russian way of war. You can easily adopt. downloaded from just, you know, type in Yahoo or Google and it will be there. And one of the points he makes about that Russian officers are not afraid of math. The fact is they think constantly mathematically. You have to. Your operations are mathematics. And some of it, obviously calculus. And most of it are differential equations.

So you have to understand. You have to know you are trained to be what is called to have to have. have developed the ability to recreate or the time space picture of the battlefield. You cannot create it by just mentally reading some historical documents, however important, you know, or just learning some, for example, field menus, which are extremely important or operational directives in operational manuals. It's not just enough. You need to understand what is behind that.

That's what is studied in military academies. You studied the physical essence. And if you shoot something, you have to understand why you shoot it, how you shoot it, and where it has to hit. And this is math and physics nonstop. You are constantly subjected to this technological stuff and, you know, what is end up. Like in our case and many other cases in military academies, in Russia, in what will be called officer colleges. which are still way more advanced than any service academy in the United States,

you are studying the physical mathematical essence of the warfare. And basically it comes down very much to their systems integration very much. So you understand how your weapons work and every aspect of them. Now, just to just to discuss, to actually, demolish one particular myth that I constantly see trot it out, that Russia has no warrant officers, that it has no pader of professional warrant officers. I find this very difficult to understand why people say this, because I hear it's all the time, but that clearly isn't the case. Can you elaborate a little bit about this? I mean, explain what a pop-bors chick and all that is,

Exactly. It's a Cold War myth, which was created probably as the same response as we have today with the sour grapes and professional envy. Russia always had foreign officers. And for example, when I served, I had two what they called chief petty officers or meet shipmen sometimes, which were NCOs, you know, and which were running the combat departments for me. I mean, in the sense of the everyday activities, although in Russia, you still, that is why you see higher than in the United States death of officers.

You know why? Officers are leading. They're not sitting back. And that's why, you know. But everyday life, including some very crucial issues of the combat training, you merely plan it. And they execute. And it was always like that. And this is complete myth, it's garbage, you know.

So, and those people go through the what is called NCO schools. And considering the fact that even from this get-go, there, even today, the average physics, mathematics and scientific stem, what would be called stem realm in Russian public schools, is incomparably higher with the, than the Western schools. You already enter into something which is much more advanced. and they always have been there and CSOs always have been there

and all this is just complete fantasy and mythology which have been perpetuated by people during the Cold War and they continue to run with this total idiocy you need to have NCOs and Soviet army and Russian army

they have NCOs absolutely I mean I don't understand that I mean even Alex Vos Svashin who is one of the thing people around about one of the best people around in the West, seems to have this idea that Russia doesn't have a cader of NCOs as the West does. And I mean, it obviously does if you spend any time actually looking at both the Russian

and Soviet armies, you immediately discover that if you look at the rights sources, which of course people never do, then you quickly discover that, of course, they have NCOs. Now, coming back to this other, you know, the main point, we're discussing because we talk about how soldiers are the army in Russia integrates tactics, operations, operation on our strategy. Is there something that he's understood by the officers, say at this sort of, you know, level of lieutenant major lieutenant colonel? I mean, do they understand that they're working within a particular system? Because one of the things that,

I actually find very remarkable looking at the special military operation. It's the way in which Russians units are able to advance and pull back and then advance. There is retain coherence that doesn't seem to be the kind of issues with morale that you would probably find if a Western army fought in that kind of way. because one gets the sense that officers and soldiers understand that they're part of a bigger thing. I mean, but how far does this understanding work down? Just you raised a very important question. Just to give you example, when you graduate academy, which will be Service Academy,

but it's much more advanced scientifically and engineering-wise. You get out as a young lieutenant, you understand very little. I mean, in terms of you go in, you get your initial billets, but the more you serve, then suddenly you begin to understand that at some point of time, once you get your senior lieutenant, which will be, what, full lieutenant, something like that. I mean, it's a bizarre lieutenant world between Russians and Western militaries. You begin to understand, for example, how your formation operates. You understand how the brigade operates.

Independent brigade, you understand how the decisions are made on the brigade level staff. You obviously cause them constantly, you know, and tell them to go screw themselves, but you understand what they are after, you know, because you are directly involved in the combat training routines. And, of course, you execute your combat tasks. And then, of course, the more you go, by the time you, reach somewhat the level of like i was x-o of the third-rank ship you begin to understand how the district for example works in general and you understand why and how and what they are pursuing

there what are what is called operational coefficients for example like the coefficient of the operational strain there is a thing is called there you understand how the combat patrols are planned, you understand how the weapons are designed for whatever the reasons. And by the time you become the staff officer, which I had the chance to serve for about half a year as the staff officer on the brigade level, then suddenly a lot of things become, oh yeah, wow, I see that. And you begin to look at the judicial part of the issue, So especially when it considered in relation to what was called naval units of the border guards of KGB, USSR, you know, which today they call Coast Guard, but Soviet Coast Guard was extremely militarized and was using all Navy ships. So it's pretty much was Navy onto itself.

But operationally, in case of war, it would have become the part of the Soviet Navy anyway. So that is why you have pretty much very little difference except for the everyday operations. And when you begin to look at this, you already, by the time you are mature young officer, you can see basically where it all goes and you begin to recall what have been taught to you in academy while you were studying. But one thing when they teach you on those departments, how it all works, and then totally another when you suddenly live within the system, and you understand it. Well, guess what?

I want Naval Academy. Do you know the second name? I don't know many thousand people who graduated it will now say, oh, yeah, man. It was called Systema, a system. That's how we called it. We never called it, you know, the Naval Academy or anything. It's just like, oh, are you going to system?

Oh, you know, when you go, you want to go from system and things like that. It's systema. It's already have been embedded into your psyche and you operate as them, well, dare I say, as a cog, because that's what military is. It is a lot of wheels and a lot of cogs in those wells. And did this facilitate, if that? Because again, because the system, as it's often described in the West, is very top-down. At least the West imagines that the Russian military system is entirely top-down. but if everybody has works, if everybody's hardwired, if you like, to think in this kind of way,

especially given mathematical training, which must be equalizing at some level, because if everybody's got it, I mean, it equalizes what's going on because the man, you know, the division, the person who's leading the division has the same kind of mathematical training as the officer. Why? Because if you're a division level, you're a commander of division, you better be after what is called, well, again, two-year war college, which is academics. And believe me, they are, you know, you think very different than the year. But does this because again, I mean, the constant thing that you hear in the West is

that they don't, Russians don't have initiative, that they're closed in into this system, but that in fact, on the contrary, it seems that they do, but that it is done within the framework of working out the overall design. Is this correct? Yeah, it is. Absolutely. And again, you know, this initiative thing is for some reason, it's a perverted understanding of the World War II.

because obviously the only thing they study World War II is from the movie Patton, you know, and that's about the level they understand it. It used to be much better. They were studying real history of the World War II, not anymore. It is complete stolen valor. They think that, you know, what? Oh, yeah, lies landed and defeated Hitler. Well, Hitler was defeated already after 1943. But the point is that they are enamored, and I actually wrote about it.

And this is, and spoke about it. I actually made the video about it from the Joint Quarter, I believe, a Joint Force Quarterly, I believe. Well, one of the wonderful American military thinkers and historians write about it, this stupid admiration for this German augustraq tactic, whatever they held this name, you know, in the name of this thing, which they think this bleedskriek, and for some reason they think that Americans understood it. And he writes about it. There's nothing in common what they think about it and what it really was. Germans were very strict operational planning and on the tactical level. All this thing like, oh, yeah, here's your initiative. Sure, you have initiative within your, either tactical or operational level of thinking. But in the end, there is a plan.

And that's what actually general staffs do. They plan 24-7, 365, non-stop. And you have to follow the orders. But somehow this garbage, which is primarily of the Hollywood making, made it, obviously, to the general public and to American military. They think that, oh, yeah, we can maneuver whatever we want. And, you know, no, you can't. Because if you do what you want, and you justify it by the some abstract, initiative which allegedly was delegated to you, guess what? You're going to be defeated.

You know, and that's the whole thing. But it's Hollywood. And let me quote again. Let me quote again, General Latif, Robert Latif, the author of number of the books, including the future wars, 20 years at DARPA, PhD in physics, no less. And he, I quote him from this wonderful book. Pretty much what a general public and political class in the West know about war is primarily from the entertainment. Yeah, absolutely, which is again very different from the way the Russian military approaches the Second World War, because again, the thing that I found very interesting is the way as much as anything else, the Russian military seems to use the experience of the Second World War.

as, you know, to think through events, to learn about tactics, to do work out what actually works on the battlefield, it seems to provide an enormous amount of data which the system seems to have accumulated and preserved and which is disseminated right through as far as I can see throughout the officers. and which is therefore available to be drawn upon in order to educate people going forward. There is a book. Carry on speaking. Sorry? Carry out. Carry out, Andre. It's his phone, I think, is ringing.

Ah, okay. There is an issue which... My apologies, Andrea. Carry on. No, no problem. So there is a book by great red army strategies, Alexander Svechen called Strategy, where he on their almost 500, I believe, pages tells you that their ideas of their, you know, crushing defeats, which are promoted by people like Tukhachewski and Iserson,

are not really applicable for the real war because you need to exhaust the enemy first and foremost. Now guess what? Mr. Gerasimov, the chief of the general staff of Russia, loves to quote Mr. Svechen. And when you look at that, with the special military operation, you have those people, you have those American and British generals who still live in this Hollywood world that, oh, yeah, we're going to move, you know, like, you know, those Pinser movements. Well, you know what, guys, the real world doesn't work like this. And what you do, and especially after it became known that any kind of negotiations will be sabotaged by the West, and the West will get involved directly in supply in Ukraine and everything. What do you do? You exhaust not just Ukraine, which Ukraine doesn't exist really in operational sense as the armed forces or state for that matter.

You exhaust NATO. How do you exhaust it? you already saw yourself for the last year and a half. And this is not the type of the warfare Western militaries like, because they never fought the one like this. And they don't understand how it works. But there you go. It's a meat grinder after which you just, you know,

the same as it was Kursk. Take it a battle of Kursk. You know what? In other matter that it was compressed. So because of the gigantic scale of, it, there was all together on both sides, about two and a half million people involved some shocking number of tanks and aircraft. And everybody knows about, you know, a battle of Kursk.

Remember how it all started. They knew that they will be trying to pincer movement, traditional Blitzkrieg thing, the crushing ideas of Tukhashvsky also, you know. And guess what? You needed to stop it first. And they did it, both on the northern. and southern faces off the front, and then the counter offensive started. And there you go. After that, the bleeds creep, it's basically after that, Germany, I mean,

the axis never was able to recover. And that's how what is happening, but on the different scale in a different time frame in special military operation. But again, Russian still are attacking, they still, you know, capturing each day. It's like, okay, this Hamlet is taken, this village is taken, this town is, they are already now fighting within, inside the Chassef. R, for example. So yeah, it's the matter of another, I don't know, a week maybe. Russians are acting in a very economy of force manner. They also really trying to minimize their losses while inflicting an incredible pain on the enemy. And this is what you saw yourself.

Absolutely. This is what you see every day. And it is the West completely bewildered because they don't understand war conducted in that way. And of course they don't understand how economic and military and political decision-making are integrated in Russia. One of the things that I find most interesting is the fact that Mr. Shoygo, for example, is regularly involved in the production site. So he goes to factories, he meets technicians, he meets engineers.

He discusses the kind of things that are happening, the production of weapons. He talks about factories. He's having planning sessions at people in factories. No Western Pence Minister does anything like that. I mean, the idea of Grant Shaps going to a factory and actually sitting down for the engineers and talking there with how production should be organized and what is needs and how to set up supply chains and things like that. It just isn't what they do. They have no idea how to do it, even if they wanted to. They wouldn't know how to do it. But in Russia,

that actually does happen. Can I just ask lastly? Because we want to go back to the political thing. because one of the things that Mr Putin does every week, it's astonishing to me how little this gets discussed in the West, is he has a meeting with a body called the Security Council, which so far as I can see brings together a lot of these people who are making these military political decisions. Shoygoo is a member. I see that he's not often mentioned as attending,

meetings but I noticed that Gerasimov also apparently has a right to attend these meetings and I'm sure he often does even though as I said it's not often publicized but again you have a level of integration of political economic because the economic side of the government are also there the the industry ministry the finance ministry they're all they're all present in these in this place. The military are also there. They all meet every week and they discuss and they talk about things. And am I right in thinking that this is where the major decisions, the big strategic decisions, the grand strategy, if you like, the political strategy which the army executes that that's really where it's planned and worked out?

Oh, absolutely. You're absolutely correct. It is a Security Council, Mr. Shai-Gu is being defense minister. He is the permanent member of the Security Council. Mr. Gerasim of being chief of staff is temporary, as they call it, but what has to be understood, and I actually wrote about this in my latest book. When it comes out, you can see what I specifically elaborate on this issue. If you take, for example, American chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he. also is the part of national security council temporary and obviously in advisory role but there is a critical difference between for example russian chief of the general staff and chairman of the

joint chiefs of staff chairman of the joint chief of staff is not a planning uh figure they are joint chiefs of staff amerarily coordinator so to speak between the operational planning of the services They have Navy, you have Air Force, you have ground forces. All of them, they have their own operation planning, which obviously should go through the joint chiefs or stuff and they will try to somehow integrate it. They've been dreaming about this so-called joint force for decades now. They still are not able to do it. But in Russia, Chief of the General staff and the whole central apparatus of the Minister of Defense,

and that's what is different. In Russia, general staff is the organ of the combat control of the armed forces of Russia. They are the guys who run that. Not only they run forces, which joint chief of staff doesn't do, services and commands do. But in Russia, it is the general staff. And of course, main operational directorate, so-called go-woo. That means also that means that they run not just the armed forces. They run every single facet related to what is called Viennestraegistla, which is literally means military building, building of the military, including obviously the industry.

And that is why in Russia, military industrial complex is designed strictly for the defense of their motherland, so to speak. And chief of the general staff together with the Minister of Defense, guess what? they are talking as the main strategist whose advice better be listened to when they talk about how to defend the country. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Stop, they basically don't control anything, really. So this is the profound difference. And that is why Mr. Geracemov, when Mr. Geracimov talks, everybody listens. Because, of course, he comes also from their opposition, not only the main chief strategist of Russia, military strategies. He also comes through as second half of the Russia's massive intelligence

complex, part of it being SVR, which is the, you know, the foreign intelligence service, then part of it with FSB, of course, which is the basically Russian version of the FBI. And then, of course, you have there what used to be grew. Now they call it grew, but grew, group, which is main intelligence directorate, which is providing incredible volume of information and analysis. And as the result, and especially when you add to this mix, the fact that Russian state owns critical strategic enterprises, they are not private. They are controlled by the state. That is why you have the search capability, and you have the ability to maneuver economically, industrially, so to speak, because you don't need to go to their, you know,

board of directors or you say, oh, you provide, you know, you build tanks, you build summaries, do that, you know, that's what general stuff says. That's what we approved at the Security Council. Do that. If you don't, you will face the consequences. And there you go. And this is how it's, you know, that's how the special military operation is being provided, everywhere, whatever they needed. André Mardianov, thank you. I just wanted to say when we spoke with Jacques Vaux, I said if the Europeans are foolish enough to go to war with Russia,

they must understand that they're taking on an enemy who is thinking all the time. And I think this is just what you've, this is, you've explained exactly how that happens. Thank you very much. Now, I get a hand over to Alex. He's probably got some questions. and we've gone a bit over time, but frankly, I don't regret it.

I hope it's not inconvenience to you. Oh, no, it's fine. Yeah, I have time. Great, great. You have 15, 15, 20 minutes to answer some questions because we have quite a lot of questions here for you. Let's begin with, let's go to Rumble from Ben Redward. Andre, do you see Russia providing Syria anytime? soon with the means to protect its airspace from Israeli attacks?

Was the bombing of the Iranian consulate a turning point? Difficult to say, because obviously people sometimes miscon through, actually, what Russia is doing in Syria. Russia provided Syria with a significant number of the weapons, including very effective S-1-Ponsor air defense systems, plus Syrians modified. number of their older versions like Book M1 air defense systems, which are pretty effective. But do not forget, it doesn't matter if Russia provides Syria with S-500, even. You know why? Because Israel launches from its own airspace or from the Mediterranean Sea,

approaching it from the side of Lebanon. You cannot just go out. You can shoot them. For example, Russian S-400s-300 V-4, which are there, they can shoot them down, but they are Russian. They are there to protect Syria. They are there to protect Russian assets in the Tartos Naval Base and Femimimian Air Force Base. But yeah, you can shoot them even in the Israeli airspace.

Do you know what it means? You don't want to start another gigantic war. there for which Syria is not prepared yet. So that's why it is not technological. It is the political limitations which dictate this modus operandi. And Russians are certainly not there to defense. Obviously, by the virtual presence, they do defend Syria in many important respects. But in the end, it is up to the Syrian government. I'm pretty sure Bashar Assad obviously has a talks with Mr. Putin, and they have their own political plan for that. But yes, that's what it is.

Israel will continue to do what it does. I mean, you know, hiding behind commercial airliners, launching from its airspace, not expecting any retaliation. So there you go. Who knows the way things go now. I don't know what Arabs in general will do, you know, but Syria definitely, how to put it politely, is on the front. lines with the atrocity Israel commits in Gaza right now.

So, and after the bombing of the Iranian embassy, it's like, really, you deliberately attacked the diplomatic outpost, which is covered by the international, you know, treaties? I mean, how can I even explain this? It's just. From tsunami bomb, aren't those NATO sea drones in the Black Sea simply surface torpedoes, much worse than real sub-surface torpedoes 100 years ago? Why aren't they all destroyed by Air Force UAVs, deck guns, far beyond approaching a ship in port?

First, they are not torpedoes. They are essentially their boats with their communication set, killed there and with their number of other navigational means and obviously with the explosives. It's not true. They being defeated all the time. And another matter that obviously they arrive pre-assembled, not pre-assembled, disassembled, and then assembled in their facilities which are easy to hide. So the question here that they get lucky once in a while, you know, so out of, let's say,

100 drones, two, three can hit the target, you know, And it could be very sensitive and primarily for PR purposes. However, unpleasant this could be. But you cannot defeat all of them, although there are some measures are taken, for example, like establishing additional machine guns, 12.7 millimeter machine guns, such as cord, for example, on the ships because you need to increase the fire density. But in the end, the solution of the problem. is not that. People do not understand the issue here. The issue here is plain and simple

the fact that NATO, especially United States, provide real-time targeting to the Ukrainian side. And nothing you can do about it unless you want to start World War III. Russians can easily shoot down R.C.135 or Avax or P.8 Poseidons, which operate over in their Black Sea. But you cannot do this because they operate from international airspace. It's a Russian once sent the message one day, kind of, you know, pour some fuel on the MQ, whatever, the Reaper drone, which crashed. And there was a hysterical reaction on the part of Washington. But this is what it is. It's not the real war for the West.

If it would have been real war for the West, then those assets would have been shut down, including the fighter planes which often escort them. And after that, they would lose a very most important tool which is involved in this type of operations of those drones. It is targeting. Because once you don't have targeting, once you don't know where your target is, it doesn't matter what you have.

You know, and that's the issue. But in the end, I think so once the Addessa is liberated, that there will be simply the closure of the shore for Ukraine and they cannot operate those from Romania and Bulgaria because it will be there. Attack immediately on their NATO countries. Not that really Washington cares about Romania or Bulgaria, you know,

but they know they better not do that. For them, Ukraine is a great, you know, how to put it politely. The great path to bite Russia, you know, from here and there. Well, it happens, you know, But a liberation of Addessa and cutting Ukraine from the Black Sea, that's the solution. From Ben Redwood, Andre, how close is Russia to being able to shoot down any and all nuclear weapons fired by NATO,

thus allowing it to avoid the need of using such weapons in self-defense? Oh gosh, it's a very serious issue. And actually Larry Johnson also elaborated on that, and I elaborated on that and some other people. The issue here is Russia already deploying the first line S-500, which is fully capable to defeat their intercontinental ballistic missiles or other mirrors, multiple independent re-entry vehicles. S-550 also is online now. And then you have their full-blown, what is called ABM, anti-ballistic missile, and anti-hyprosonic weapons system,

which is called A235 Noodle. It's all in place. And I believe what next thing, which is coming up, will be their ability to defeat a massive attack, you know, serious attack, multiple independent reentry. vehicles. And I'm not talking about even 10 or 20, probably way more than that. And that represents the strategic shift for the United States, first, United States doesn't have really operational anti-ballistic missile system. They have those GBI and all, what have you, but these are, you know,

in terms of their air defense and anti-ballistic missile defense and hypersonic weapons, the United States, not even in the same league with Russia. It's a cold, hard fact. So at some point of time, Yes, there will be development, which is coming, I think, which makes, how to put it, reduces their credibility of their U.S. strategic deterrent to a very low level. In other words, they will be able to penetrate most important facilities, including decision-making centers, by attacking Russia with ballistic missiles. And that will represent a new reality. That is why, for example, the United States wanted to, haven't been against signing the START treaty. But they also want to have the access to Russian industries for inspection, quote-unquote, of whatever the means will be coming up online soon.

No NATO country has anything comparable to S-400, let alone S-500, let alone S-5. 500, let alone as 550. Nothing. Not even close. And they know what is coming. That is why they're desperate. From Agu, Russia is focused on action while the West is focused on words. But it seems Russia underestimates the importance of shaping the narrative.

How can Russia do better to get its message across? Russians don't care what is being told. That's what people do not understand. I understand it's going to sound really rough. again, don't forget, I myself live in the United States, but here is the issue. Russians don't care what the West thinks. They do. So that's what people do not understand.

For the first time in history, and believe me, I'm old cold warrior. The Russian people look at the Westerners with contempt. That's what people do not understand. They don't care whatever Westerners think. They don't care what kind of feelings they have for Russia because it's Russia is done with the West. Yes, Latinau Putin stated a few days ago that, yeah, we don't have, you know, nations which are unfriendly. We have unfriendly elites. But the point is, whatever you do is Peter Tolstoy, Peter Tolstoy, the great grandson of Leo Tolstoy, who is member of parliament, speaking to French TV,

a few days ago, when they, French, being French, this is a very French thing. Why you Russians don't like us? Because why should we like you? You supply weapons for our enemies. You want to kill us and you want us to like you. Just go screw yourself. So there you go. And you know what?

In this case, as once Mr. Lavrov stated, when responding to CNN guys a couple of years ago on the press, And they say, what do you think about this and say, where are you from? CNN? Oh, just make up whatever you want, right? Because you know you cannot talk to West, period. There's nobody to talk to. From Paul Walker, Russian Admiral Alexander Mosdyev has been appointed as the commander-in-chief of the Russian Navy. Britain is arguing over beards for soldiers.

Okay. Well, beers are important issues, believe me. I know. We argued with that too, you know. And they were allowed by regulations, but there were some requirements for beards, you know. So you could have the beard, you know, but it's a very specific type of the beard. So, and as for Alexander Mice, if he was a commander of Russian submarine forces, an extraordinary experienced man. So, yeah. And Yvina is already tired. I mean, he is, it's the day. age, you know, he has to go.

You have new blood. And new bullets, so to speak, are opening for the commanders and vice commanders for the fleets and things of this nature. So, yeah, it's a good move. My safe is very respectful. Excellent. Dear Durand, thank you for inviting Andre to your stream. I like his podcast about military topics very much from Latimer Ro. Thank you, Lada for that.

And from Zicknas for Andre, how useful is American Stealth F-22? on modern battlefield in terms of RCS today, given that electronic warfare and jamming has evolved a lot, citing the case of Italian F-35 being successful, suppressed by SU30 in June 23. Absolutely useless. The modern air warfare is a combination. It's integrated. That's why Russians have the VACIS. Obviously, Air Force is a part of VACAS, which is the air space forces, which, by the way, was copied by the United States by creating this Star Wars Forces, you know, which is, did you see their uniforms? My God, it's just ridiculous. But the point is the whole American view on the air war is absolutely obsolete.

It doesn't matter what, there's no stealth anymore. What you have, you have the law observability for some range of the frequencies, but the modern battlefield, especially modern air defense. battlefield and especially early warning system, they operate on what is called net-centric principles. They fuse their data, which also happens to be, and they conduct what is called probabilistic analysis of their targeting. So modern Raiders sees all those F-22s, F-35 is just fine. So it's absolutely.

That's why, for example, Russians didn't go full stupid stealth on, as you know, as you 57. It's a law observability aircraft. And then again, when you have R-37 missile, air-to-air missile, with the range of up to 400 kilometers, and you can actually there, what is called, operated within combat cooperative engagement capability, which means what some other people can guide it, not just, you know, but it's actually shoot and forget things. But so, yeah, it's not the air war, which United States thing. it can fight it. It cannot. Right. From T Adams, is it likely Russia will now massively disable Ukraine's critical infrastructure in order to collapse the Kiev regime asymmetrically and avoid the need for big military moves westwards?

Yeah, possible. Russia is already doing this. The Russians already hand enough with whatever is left of this regime. So the destruction of their critical electric infrastructure is number one, obviously, because it obviously paralyzes all kinds of issues with the lines of communication, moving troops, moving transports and things of this nature. And again, Ukraine has been doing this terrorism against Russia for a while, so it's about time for payback, because many people do not understand that. not many Russians view Ukraine today as brotherly nation. So, you know. And Sayir wants to must know the same thing. Does Andre think Russia has started now in light of the recent targeting of the power production plants rather than distribution? So I think you answered that.

Marika wants to know, what are your thoughts about the hyping by the west of Yolanda, Yulanda, Yulia Navalny, has the potential Russian president in waiting? You know what? Nobody cares what the rat's doing the damster. I mean, you know, she's nobody. She is stupid and she probably was already kind of, you know, cheating on him while he was, you know, still there, you know, in the West. So it's for tabloids, you know, let Daily Mirror deal with this issue. Okay. That's the level. Okay. Serious people not going to talk about this. I mean, it's just complete trash. I mean. is. Audrey, from Zareel, why did you choose the name Smoothie X1-2? Okay. Gosh, yeah, it has nothing to do with OnlyFans

because if I would have the fans only, whatever OnlyFans account, I would break the industry and it will go bankrupt. But the point is that at some point of time, it was a long time ago. I believe it was, I would say, 17 years at least.

On some military forum, I needed to do the login and registration. And so I go, Andre Martianov, Andrea G. Martianov taken. And they am taken. A.M. taken. And so it was whatever I was putting in, it was taken. And at some point of time, after 20 minutes, it's like, really? I mean, so I go on smoothie taken. Like, okay, and smoothie was like, you know, what the hell, you know, just let me do it.

smoothie X taken. Smooty X1, taken. And the frustration, smoothie X-12. Bing. There you go. Smoody X well. So I wish I could be. And now, you know what, this thing stuck to me now.

And, you know, what can I say? I always explain to people to whom I give my email that I don't do porn. Okay, please. It's just the way. this. Let's keep it like this way. And yeah, it became kind of moniker now and even trademark, some people say. All right. You have time for a couple of more, Andre? Sure, sure. Fantastic. Tisham must know. Mr. Martianov, can we be certain that all that has been revealed during this SMO that Mr. Putin and Russia will never trust the collective

West? Yeah, it's all over. I mean, Russia is done with the West, the collective West. Russia will gladly open, which she does, open arms for Westerners, many of who move to Russia. For example, Maria Zahara, a year ago, she went on the record that there are tens of thousands of applications from Germans. And not from Eastern Germany or Russian Germans. We're talking like German Germans from Munich, you know, from Hamburg and all that. People just, you know, migrating to Russia. And I've been on the record for many years when I talk about that Russia is an arc, and she is there west today.

But with what we have today with this West, it's over. It's done. And many people say just erect their wall between us and them. There's a good follow-up question to that. One second. Let me find it. From Santo Ralexico, considering the bleak economic horizon, any advice for Soviet expats in the U.S. feeling the tug of going back to Russia, even after decades?

Well, it all depends. People ask me all the time, do you want to go to Russia? I'm going, I visit there periodically, so it's not like I'm detached from it. But the point is, in our case, for example, in my personal case, in my family, we've been living in the United States for 30 years. It's became our home. It's our home country, essentially, you know, now. Plus, you know, we are specific Russians. I was born in Baku, which is now independent Azerbaijan, which is, you know, completely different country

and a little bit different culture, to put it, minor there. So it all depends. It all depends on the personal circumstances. And we love Pacific Northwest. We are actually madly in love with American West, the most beautiful place in the world, actually. So it kind of has its pros and cons. So it all depends.

I don't feel detached from Russia whatsoever. We have a bunch of friends, classmates, and we visit them. This year we should be going there. So it's kind of, you know, it's a personal choice, I would say. But for us, you know what, it's also kind of, it's a personal issue. I've been through the collapse of the Soviet Union, you know. Maybe I will have some impact in saving whatever good is left in the United States, you know, by the virtue of me being here. Many people say you should stay here.

You should be the voice of reason among other voices. So, yeah, we stay here, you know, so I'm doing my part. Here's an interesting question from Serbio. MSM boasts moral wars fought through immoral means. is there a war that actually brought ethics to the front lines amiss to label the SMO, the STD? SMO is the moral war. And even the World War II, the Nazism, its face was so horrifying that, you know what, it was the moral war in many respects, especially considering what Nazism was trying to accomplish basically.

committing genocide on many levels. So that was a moral war, absolutely. That's Turkle, great Stats, Turkle, wrote in 1980, what is called the verbal history of the World War II, and he called it the book called The Good War. He called it the Good War not only because it was good for United States, while the call of the world was laid in the ruin. United States actually was prospering, you know.

But it also, because there was indeed a very good understanding that, you know, fighting against Nazi Germany was absolutely good war in terms of morals. Because the evil on the other side was so explicit, so into your face that, yes, it was a moral war. Political trauma. Do you think that one of the reasons Macron is behaving like this has to do with the situation happening in Africa? Lopon pushes for the European army to finance his fights. Yeah, that's a part of it, absolutely. Apart from this guy being nothing more than bank teller and having no any skills in life except for marrying, who knows what.

And other than that, yeah, that's his ideas. I mean, the guy still pretends that he's some kind of Napoleon, but my gosh, the guy is, I won't allow him, won't trust him to mow the lawn in the front of my house. I mean, the guy is just, it's pathetic. France is done. It's over French. So Sosier says, Andre, I remember when the Russian Academy of Science was heavily populated by ex-military staff.

Is it still so? And why is it so important? I mean, if you're talking about Russian Academy of Science in general, I mean, yeah, there are some military. People are absolutely under a number of the very serious military scientists who are always developed their not only weaponry, but also the overall move their science had, including the developing all the new physical principles of the weapons. And as such, they are academicians. But, I mean, I would say that there are so many, there are some from what I know, but

primarily it's, there are many people who are civilians, but who are tied to the military industrial complex. that's different matters. Some of them are academicians, outstanding physicists, you know, mathematicians and things of this nature. All right. One more question, and we'll let Andre go. Thank you so much, Andre, for your time.

For Moon Dragon, it seems that Russia is not worried at all at the Napoleon's threat to enter Odessa. Is this the reason why Russia has an extra 600,000 troops outside of the SMO? Yeah. Russia creates another additional two, I believe, you correct me, please. I'm not always up to the latest news. Two additional combined arms armies and 14 other formations of the divisional and core size. And it's more than 600,000 now because actually daily Russia receives up to 1,500 of volunteers.

So Russia is geared for war. First, French are a joke. Militarily, they are a joke. The only thing they have, which is for them, is their own, not large, but fairly effective and modern nuclear deterrent, primarily through the Tron-Fond-class submarines where most of it is located. But combined answers, please, I mean, just not even serious, you know. What can they possibly deploy there? Even if they deployed it, as already Mr. Putin stated, and everybody else stated that they will be hunted down and killed, period. Nothing they can do about it.

You know, so that's just the way that. One quick question from Odyssey. How is the pay in Russia for enlisted versus the USA? I don't know about for enlisted, obviously the guys who, you know what, burn challenger tanks or Abrams. things. They are awarded handsomely, up to $100,000, which is 10 million approximately robots. There are even jokes about it because they started to blow those panthers and all the, you know, lepers and what have you in the industrial quantities. But I know about the officers. I can tell you that thing. The commanding officer usually kept on second or first rain of the

nuclear power submarine, for example, like Yassin class, they receive equivalent, equivalent of $5,000 a month. But remember, these are $5,000 in Russia, which is practically, probably converts to equivalent of 15 grand a month for the commanding officer of the submarine, nuclear submarine. And you would say that people on the level of the division commander, you know, so yeah, they get, so in rubles, it's of 500,000 plus rubles. So I would say the army commander makes about a million at least. So apart from bonuses and all that stuff and pay for combat zone. And so it's, if you convert it, which is still stupid, you shouldn't do this, you know, like, oh, yeah, this is so.

many rubles, let's convert them. It doesn't work like this. And even in terms of the parity, you know, precious parity power still doesn't work because you have to consider so many things. But I would say that it's a 10 grand in dollars. So, but if you convert how far it goes in Russia in terms of, oh my God, yeah, they make at least, if not more than American equivalents in terms of bail. All right. Andre, thank you very much. Thanks a lot, gentlemen, for this great guest.

Sparky says, great work fellas. And lover of Russian team says, Love Andre, what a great guest. Andre Martiano, thank you very much for joining us on this live stream. I have all your information in the description box down below, and I will have it as a pin comment as well, your website, your publication, and your YouTube.

channel, which is fantastic. Absolutely. Can I just say that? And please keep an eye out for Andre's books if you really want to understand so many things, both about the Russians and about the West today, please do go to his books,

read them. You will learn an awful lot. What is the book out? One more plug for the new book, Andre? I cannot even say it's title yet, but I think so. Once I were done with editing. Now, actually, it's in the editing process by my wonderful editor at Clarity Press, Diana Collier. Once she brings her edits from my Ranglish into proper English, you know, so I will accept them. Obviously, I will. And not only that, there will be obviously some discussion of the political and military points. And once that is done, it's a technical work pretty much. You need to do what is called the Bibliol. and index.

That's about it. And then it goes into print. And that's when basically, you know, comes up on Amazon and other platforms. So, and you will know, I will tell you guys. Fantastic. How about the idea of foreign supporters of Russia being allowed or called upon to join the Army war effort?

Any thoughts on that, Andre? Many are. There are a bunch of, actually, they're wonderful British guys fighting. for Russians, there are Americans fighting for Russians. There are a bunch of many goodwill people, again, those are Westerners, Russia will, you know, meet and is meeting with the open arms, you know,

like this another very popular, the Australian families, Canadian families moving in, you know. So it's, how to say it? If you friend, you friend, you know, and then you become the Russian citizens, you just become Russian and, you know, learn the language. and there you go, just do whatever you need to do for your own, you know, sake.

Pursuit it happened is who would ever thought that Russia will be a free country? It's unfeaking believable. I live through it. It's just sometimes I have to pinch myself that at my 60 plus years, never saw anything like this. And I thought collapse of the Soviet Union was a big deal. What we are observing right now, global realignment of unprecedented level. Yeah, agreed. Andre, thank you very much.

Thank you, guys, for having me. My pleasure. Thank you. Thank you. Bye, bye, bye, bye. All right, wow. A lot of questions for Andre. Great.

So, Alexander, you've got the energy to answer the remaining questions. Absolutely. Yeah? All right. Jerry, welcome to the drag community. O.G. Wall says, good evening. Joseph Kush says very strange how ISIS always tends to strike U.S. adversaries. They did not even come out with anything against Israel.

So often said by so many people and so true. Marcelo says, hi, Andre Alex and Alexander. Great information. Thank you, Marcelo, for that. Tish M says, busy working now, but a small contribution to my fab guys at Duran and Andre. Thank you, Tish, for that. Thank you for that super sticker. Akraman, thank you for a super sticker.

Irina, thank you for that super sticker. Beverly, thank you for that super chat. Darren says, good evening. All, so great to catch a live stream. Good evening. Darren, Commander Crossfire says, all I am saying is give peace a chance. Max D. says, for the third time of my life,

we are stumbling towards World War III. While practice makes perfect, I sure wish the U.S. would calm the F down. Absolutely. Completely agree. Oscar N says, can the UN deny all the terror cases Russia now has on the table and can the pipeline fit in that case too? Can you? Northstream.

Yes. Let me put it off on the screen. Yes. Can the UN deny all the terror cases Russia now has, have on the table? And can the pipeline, the Nord Stream pipeline, I imagine, fit in that case too. This is a good question, actually. what the Russians are doing is they're bringing up these cases now regularly to the Security Council and of course they're also hinting at legal proceedings against Ukraine at the International Court of Justice.

Now I think that in terms of the International Court of Justice, they might be able to get a case started there, but it will take a very, very long time to be decided, a decade at least. So just bear that in mind. For quicker action, you need to go to the Security Council. The Security Council has a Western majority. It's designed to have a Western majority. Three states on the Security Council, Britain, the United States and France are Western states. They have powers of veto.

they can block investigations. But a couple, about a week ago, Glenn Dyson and I on the Duran interviewed Dimitri Pollyansky, Russia's UN ambassador. He said that specifically on the topic of Nord Stream, he'd noticed that the Americans, the American representatives,

on the Security Council, were nervous and unsure. And he thinks that they, the Russians are making headway there. And there is always the possibility if there is a stop at the Security Council, that it can be taken to the General Assembly. And of course, the General Assembly can set up tribunals, it can order investigations, it can do all kinds of things. So don't lose hope. From Ben Redward.

This is for Andre. I just saw it now, Ben, but I think we can answer that. Andre, how can Russia impose on the West a cost high enough to deter further terrorist attacks, yet not so high as to bring about World War III? Well, that's a very good question, actually. That is a very good question. Well, I think what the Russians are going to do is they're going to press on with the war. They're going to be very methodical.

They're going to embarrass the West by releases of information. and they will use their extremely skillful diplomatic call, their foreign ministry, to rally international support. And that does have an effect. It may not be obvious and immediate, but it does work over time. And it creates, it puts pressure on the West. It means that Western officials become embarrassed.

It means that when Western diplomats go abroad, they have doors shut in their faces. or they have difficult confrontations with their hosts, things like that start to happen, and that is not to be underestimated. And I don't just make, you know, people, you know, not speaking to each other. It means that contracts, for example, for big infrastructure deals or arms deals, things like that, start to go differently.

They start to go to Chinese companies or Russian ones or whatever. So it does have an effect. over time. Zareel says thanks to Andre for being here with us. Thank you, Zareel, for that. From Rockgren, from Gio, Gioha, says, not a mention of the Iranian embassy hit in Syria in the New York Times. Does that actually work as censorship?

I made exactly the same point in my latest program, which is now appearing on my channel, that there was clearly some kind of direction, not to talk about this because it was the same with the British media. I think one newspaper I think was the Guardian briefly had it as a headline

and then it came down almost at once and it was extraordinary, this astonishing event, an attack on a diplomatic building protected by the Vienna Convention, the killing of two generals and it's barely

use. I mean it's it tells you so much about the state of the world today. Thank you for a question. From Commando Crossfire, pie in the sky, but the state of Israel should be reformatted into the Union of the Levant with a joint Palestinian Jewish government under UN supervision with security guarantees by Arab and US win-win.

We might end up there if there's ever a negotiation. How do we get that? That's the challenge today. Let's see. from Adam Platt's diplomacy, the only game in the village. The weather the west conducts it, yes.

Now, there was a French diplomat, a man called Cajier, who was the chief negotiator of Louis XIV, and he wrote the first, and some still think the best handbook in diplomacy, and he said

duplicity, lying is something a diplomat, should never do because it leaves poison behind. So there you go. Post-John, thank you for that super-sticker. Ricardo, thank you for that super-sticker. Jeff, thank you for that super-sticker. Adam Platt says, I switched off the 2012 Special Olympic opening ceremony when I learned Russia was banned, not watched since. That's me same here. Trevor Lynn, welcome to the Duran community. Peter says, you all should have. You all should

have Robert Amsterdam on. He's the lawyer defending the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church from the Olensky regime and schismatics. That is a very interesting idea actually. I remember Robert Amsterdam.

That's a thought. We should contact him and we should also contact like Jay Dyer to talk about the Orthodox. Just the news. I think that's a good topic that we should work towards. Yeah. Yeah. Commander Crossfire says,

Russia needs immigration to help prop growth, but reaction to Moscow-Hall attack is to tighten immigration controls even against fraternal CA states. Was planned to sow discord among family of nations like in Ukraine? I think there might have been that purpose, but I don't think it will work over the long term. I think that, in fact, reading the latest, assessment from the Russian Central Bank. It seems that Russian companies are succeeding in increasing

their employment levels, and that suggests that more guest workers are coming. Now, it's important to understand these are guest workers. They are not immigrants. They might be able to apply for, you know, immigrant status at the moment, but they're going there to work. They're not going there to gain citizenship and it is a much more regulated situation than, you know, just, you know, they're just people turning up and taking jobs in Russia at the moment. So, you know, this is, this is not immigration, it is, but it is movement to fill empty slots in factories and such places. Crusader General says a warrant officer and NCO are not the same.

No, but in Russia, it's different. This is what's so confusing because Russian ranks don't necessarily correspond exactly to Western ones. Communism Incorporated says the problems with Western elites are systemic and enduring. Peace is the only sensible path forward for our increasingly interwoven global community. Nothing else is sufficient. Our leaders hate peace. I completely agree. Game of chair says, will Zelensky, number five, be available?

in the Duran shop, possibly, came of chairs, possibly. Death dealer says, is the West still going to send F-16s to Ukraine or did they finally realize that it was a terrible idea on their part? Well, they're saying they will send them. I think they will send them.

I think it will be so embarrassing if they don't send them that I'm sure they will send them. I don't think anybody any longer has any doubt that this is a terrible idea. All those people who were saying, you know, a year ago when this idea was first brought up in the United States and the Pentagon, this is a terrible idea, have been proved right. And they're going to be proved even more right when they turn up and can't operate from airfields and start getting shot down. J.F. Thank you for that super chat.

Jeff says, yeah, it's a movie. Thank you, Jeff. Ralph says, what is Andre's opinion on the effect of Seletsky, number five? very strong effect Ralph very strong Zareel okay we answered that C Hood says very interesting analysis

thanks chaps at large 47 thank you for that super chat Sparky says sorry I'm late I'll catch what I missed on the replay Moon Dragon we answered that question a cash

we answered that Sparky Nino NPC says Andre if Trump gets into office Did you think Putin will work with him in mending relations? I think that he actually answered this question. He actually answered that? What are your thoughts? I mean, I think that the Russians have no trust. I think that they will be extremely wary about any offers and proposals that come from the Americans.

I think Donald Trump would have to work extremely hard to persuade the Russians to come round. I actually think on balance that if the only person, who might be able to do that. They were Donald Trump. Yeah, I agree. DS1993 says, if by any case NATO and Russia go to war, who do you think is going to come to Russia's side?

Well, it depends on the wall. At the moment, Russia has many more friends in the world than the West does. That's something that this crisis has exposed and which the West is finding very difficult to accept. Quantum Zen says really nice program, as always, Duran.

One of the mysteries for me was the existence of top-notch military scientists, first-class physicists in Russia, such as Jakob Zeldovich, the co-inventor of the MRLS, and discoverer of the black hole radiation. Mr. Matiano's story on the thorough math science education of Russian cadets

gave me a hint. I can now see the central role played by the Military Academy and Military Science Labs in Russian Basic Science. Yes, well, can I also say something because, of course, my wife, who is, by the way, British, but has had interactions with Russian universities. And of course, she's from a humanities background, an English literature background. But, I mean, she has been very, very impressed by the heavy, heavy stress in mathematics and science in Russian schools. I mean, you know,

the Russians teach maths very seriously. And the other thing that she has found really surprised her is that in the engineering schools, like the Bauman Technical University, where she has also taught, even though they do teach the heavy sciences and engineering, there are also literature courses. So, you know, the Russian Cs,

to believe that you need to have some understanding of both, that you can't be a really educated person, it can't be a really good engineer if you don't also have some knowledge of the humanities as well. There's a very balanced and very, very rigorous way in which education takes place in Russia. and some years ago, the Russians, in order to integrate their universities with those of the West, adopted the Bologna system. And they didn't like it at all. They thought he was much, cause a major falling off of standards. And now that the sanctions came with a huge relief, they've dumped it. And they've gone back to what they had previously, which they think is much more rigorous and far better.

Trevor else, thank you for that super sticker. N.V. Stormin says, thank you to Rand. Thank you for that. And Rath, Dundra says, thank you so much for your work. You are the reason I didn't go mad in the beginning of the CBO. My mother was in Kiev in the airport. She is safe now.

Thank you. That's good you. Safe. Thank you for that. Rafael says, when Putin said, America, you are not ready for a nuke war. I knew well what he said. do you think everyone else heard and understood what he said? Well, hardly, because if you're talking about most of the West,

they don't listen to what Putin says. They don't understand anything about how Russia works. We were talking about things like the Security Council. You would never hear about the Security Council. When did you ever read about this top policy-making decision body in Russia in any Western New Spectre? As far as they're concerned, it might not even exist. everything is Putin, Putin, Putin, and nothing that he ever says is charisma for it properly.

Basil, Beshkov says, should the West hire actors, their spokespeople seem insincere. Excellent comment. Excellent comment, yeah. Excellent comment there. De Love, thank you for that super chat. Tapato Matato says, Alexander recently mentioned a Chinese diplomat in Ukrainian. What are they doing and what can they accomplish? Also, Macron is Le Petit Napoleon. He certainly is. The diplomat I was referring to was Lee Hui.

He was appointed by Xi Jinping as the Chinese representative to try to promote the ideas that the Chinese set out last year in what was misdescribed by the West as a Chinese peace plan. It was not. It was a set of underlying principles which the Chinese presented saying that these could form the basis for future negotiations. And Lee Kui's job was to travel around trying to persuade all the various countries involved in this conflict to sit down and talk. And he went, he goes to Russia regularly, he goes to all the European countries, he went to Ukraine. he's always received very politely in Russia. He arrived in Ukraine.

He suggested to the Ukrainians that they needed to sit down to the Russians and talk to them without preconditions. And he got a torrent of abuse directed at himself with really awful things said about him publicly by the then-secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council, Alexei Danilov, who has since departed the scene. But Likwe is there. He's a very hardworking diplomat. He's a constant presence. And perhaps, who knows, in time, people will listen to what he says.

Mind tab. Thank you for that. Awesome. Super chat. Thank you very much, Mindab for that. Elza says, even if the thought is flattering, is it realistic that Ursula will have to answer for ordering the jabs for the EU?

Politico's reporting on it, which is interesting. Yeah, no, who knows. Random name, thank you for that super sticker. Sparky says, make Israel Syria again in those Ottoman Empire days, Levant Jews got along fine with their neighbors, whether Muslim, Christian, or otherwise. We discussed this in another live stream, I think. You made the same point there. Sparky, I remember right.

Thank you, Sparky for that. Elza says, is the White House still collecting information about the attack on the Iranian embassy? What a different take compared to the attack in Moscow? well true well sparky says do you not suffi Israel Basil Bechkov says

is it time to say the empire has no close yes I mean that that has been the most brutal effect in some ways in terms of geo-strategic consequence

of the whole Ukraine conflict because it is it has stripped the west bear of so many of its pretensions his military looks inadequate its political decision-making looks hopeless his foreign policy has failed and its economic and sanctions policy has failed the emperor really does it turns out have no clothes joe public says is the new israel in rump ukraine a likely scenario

is new israel in rump ukraine no no i don't see it i really don't as arael says trump walked to North Korea, so maybe, but I don't trust him. Well, he might, he might do. I mean, he's talked about this before. Of course, he wasn't able to do it in his first term, you know, sort out issues with the Russians, not for want of trying. And I don't think he's to be blamed in any way for the fact that he failed. I mean, the odds against him were, I mean, incalculably huge, ludicrously huge, whether in this new conditions of a second term after the West has suffered a big year strategic defeat in Ukraine. He'd be more successful.

I really don't know. But it's difficult to under state the level of dismay with the West that exists in Russia now. I mean, it's, and distaste for the West, or at least for the leadership of the West, that exists in Russia now, including amongst ordinary Russians. Valies, thank you for that super chat. And Alexander, that's a wrap. Well, that was an amazing live stream. That was a wonderful live stream. And by the way, wonderful questions of a wonderful guest,

but wonderful questions that we answered to. Thank you, everybody, for tuning into this live stream. Once again, all of Andre's information in the description box. And I will add it as a pinned comment as well. Thank you to our moderators. Ariel Valies, Peter, Tish, M. Who else? I think, are those all the moderators?

Did I forget somebody? I have a feeling like I forgot some moderators. I don't know. It's late here. Thank you to everyone that watched us on Rockford, Odyssey, Rumble, the Duran.orgals.com, and of course on YouTube. Any final thoughts, Alexander?

I mean, I think I think that we've just had a wonderful explanation of things from André Martiano. And it complements so well what Jacques Boar has been writing, writing, was telling us the other day. I mean, as those two know each other, I should say, they've done a program together. but Jacques Bov studies the Russian military. Of course, Martianif actually comes from the Russian

military, the Soviet military, and he studies the West. So it, you know, it works perfectly, if you like. There's the ideal symmetry. And note how they complement each other, how the two say,

to come to, you know, essentially the same understanding from the different positions that they had gone. They converge to the same point. Yeah. Commander Crossfire says 400,000 subscribers. Good work. Did we get to 400,000? Well, I was going to say, I thought we were almost there. I think we're like 399.

Yes, I think we are. Maybe we are. I don't know. Maybe we are. That's the case. Thank you to everybody. Yes, thank you to everybody. and that's tremendous when it comes,

but as I said, it's the community that's brought us there. Yeah, and Delsa says the emperor has no clothes and paid a lot for it. Sure enough. Billions. Billions. All right. Take care, everybody. Take care.