The Duran Podcast - Russia strategic victory. Ukraine focus on Bakmut. EU diamond sanctions

Episode Date: September 20, 2023

Russia strategic victory. Ukraine focus on Bakmut. EU diamond sanctions

All right, Alexander, let's do a Ukraine update. And let's start off with what is happening on the front lines. And then we can talk about more sanctions, more sanctions against Russia, sanctioning diamonds. They are going to be sanctioning diamonds now. This will definitely bring the Russian economy to tatters, no doubt about it. And we have some interesting statements, interviews from Stoltenberg, from Millie. Abu Danoff gave an interesting interview to the economist. Zelensky talked to 60 minutes.

So let's go through all of these stories one by one. And let's start off with what is happening on the front lines. I will say just one quick thing about the situation on the front line because we're hearing a lot of villages being captured or or the Ukraine military is making progress in various villages in the gray zone. My feeling is that this week, while Zelensky is in the United States, we're going to hear a lot of stories about Ukraine capturing villages. And my hunch is that when he returns back to Kiev, these villages will revert back to being contested or Russia controlling these villages or whatever.

So I think this week, we're going to get a lot of stories about how Ukraine. is making progress in the front line. Anyway, your thoughts. You're absolutely right. This is exactly what's going to happen. So yesterday I was reading in the media, especially in Britain, by the way, Britain remains the ardent supporter of Ukraine. But in the English-speaking media about, you know,

how the Ukrainians have captured a village called Klajewka, which is near Bahmut, and how previously they'd captured another. village at the same area called Andrevka. I'm going to say quickly that neither of those claims is actually correct, or at least that's my understanding of the situation based on reliable sources for, you know, or at least shall I say sources which I have followed. They're all open sources. I mean, I don't have any contacts on the front lines amongst Russian or Ukrainian soldiers or anything like that, but open sources who have reported this war from both sides reliably and have had a consistent record of being factually correct about what is happening, they deny these

claims. But before we do that, let's just talk about the overall situation. So there is basically two areas where Ukraine has been conducting its offensive. One is in the south, you know, the Zaporosia, Herson area. This was going to be the major axis of advance. They were going to break through the Suravikin line, the fortified lines, they were going to take Topmac, they were going to advance all the way to Militopol, they were going to then push on to the Sea of Azov, they were going to sever the land bridge. You know, a lot of people, yourself, Brian Paletic, others, question whether even achieving any of those objectives would have had the decisive outcome that people in the West say, but it would have been dramatic.

And here I have to point out something, which goes all the way back to a video we did before the offensive even began, in which you said that the whole offensive, as it was being discussed and planned, rolling tanks, rolling out infantry fighting vehicles, moving, breaking through the front lines, you know, hail the fire and all of that, that it was straight out of a Hollywood movie. And we now have Zelensky saying this, himself, the people's understanding, of it was that it was, you know, they were thinking that it'd be like a Hollywood movie and the reality is different. And the financial times says exactly the same thing. They're all now using the same metaphor or similarly, I always get the two modeled to describe the offensive in the

South as it was originally planned. Anyway, the Southern offensive has failed. I mean, as of today, unless there's some new dramatic event they haven't broken through the front lines they're not deploying armoured vehicles close to the front lines they're launching light infantry assaults everybody now acknowledges this case

Zelensky says that it's all turned into an artillery duel and in fact the whole situation on the front lines is basically static and can I just say that is a strategic victory for the Russians You can spin it anywhere you like. You can talk about, you know, the fact that the Ukrainians have advanced a couple of hundred meters here, a kilometer or two there in that area.

But the fact is the Ukrainians have failed to achieve their objectives in this part of the front lines. So over the last couple of days, they've refocused back towards Bahmert, doing the opposite of what the Americans and the British told them to do. So over the last couple of days, huge Ukrainian effort, lots of troops, lots of assaults by, you know, again, mainly Lydian infantry to try to break through on the southern flanks in Bahman to capture this village. Klacheyevka, the Ukrainians have been trying to capture this village since the beginning of May. they reported before three times that they've captured a village called Andreevka, which is all of 75 people, tiny little place. The Russians dispute that the Ukrainians control Andreevka. Yesterday, the Ukrainians said that they'd captured Klacheyevka.

Again, the Russians dispute that claim. They say this village is all but destroyed. No one controls it. The Russians have some positions in one area of Klaishyevka, the Ukrainians have some positions. In another part of Klacheyevka, neither side really controls Klaishka anymore. The village is destroyed. The major Russian positions in this area remain intact. The Ukrainians have not broken through.

But, of course, reports about the capture of this village. They're appearing yesterday in the British media, just as the reports about Andreevka have appeared. in the British media. You would have thought by now people would have learnt to be a little more careful. There were those reports a few weeks ago about Rabatino being captured. Still see that said sometimes, but the reality is fighting continues to happen in and around Rabatino. Nobody controls it. We had the same claims about the Ukrainian breakthrough of a few weeks ago. Remember that? They'd actually pierced the front lines. Again, we don't hear so much.

about that anymore because clearly it hasn't happened. There was the capture of Starrom Mayorsk a couple of weeks ago in another part of the front line, the Vremivka salient area of the front line. Lots of talk about that.

That was also supposed to be the decisive breakthrough. Again, that particular village apparently remains contested. And the reality is everywhere the situation is stuck but as you said, Mr. Zelens is packing his bags.

He's about to go to New York. He's going to go to Washington. He's apparently not going to address Congress this time. What a surprise. He's going to meet people in Congress, in small groups, it seems. He's certainly not going to meet some of the Republicans like Marjorie Taylor Green, who are very unhappy with him. But he's not going to try and convince them.

But anyway, he's going to meet his friends in Washington. But he's got to come with something. to show that all those tanks, all that money, has delivered something. So you're absolutely right. He's going to pass off claims that villages have been captured. He's going to hail them as proof of great victories. And he's going to say, you know, we're making these advances. We're surging forward.

We're gaining momentum. We're accelerating our advance. So please give us $20 billion. more. I wonder if people like believe him in the House of the Senate. I don't think so. I wonder if they know that they're not making any gangs, but they're just going to play along and pretend that, yeah, Ukraine is captured. Rappellinia for the 37th time. Andrevka, they've captured it another 15 times back and forth. But I wonder if they believe the media when they come out with these stories or if they know the truth.

right i think there may be a few people and we're talking mccano by the way we're talking mccanell and you know graham and um schumer these these types of guys and the people romney and all those people yeah right i think a few of them perhaps do believe it or because they want to believe it but i think deep down none of them do any none of the important ones do any more i think they've heard these these stories too often and this is where all those very interesting interviews now come tumbling up because of course we've had mark milly he comes along and he says suddenly that the offensive has only limited objectives well that was absolutely not what we would be told you know a few months ago when it all began and remember i mean you know people like lindsay graham he went to

keir before just a week before the offensive started he was shown the plans he said this is going to be you know big event the russians are going to get smashed We've had all of these comments by people like betrayers, Hodges, all those ex-generals telling us essentially the same thing. We've had endless numbers of talk shows predicting the same thing. We've had people like Romney and others talking about this enormously successfully offensive. The result is all of these people must know that it hasn't turned out that way. They are probably inwardly dismayed that. Zelensky is coming back cap in hand, having achieved so little. I mean, let's be clear about this,

even if Zelensky could absolutely definitely confirm that his forces control, Rabatino and Klachevker and Starromayyosk, if you could take troops of US and British journalists to inspect these places, which by the way, notice he can't do. He's not able to do that. They're too bitterly contested for that to be possible. So even if you could do that, these people, the McConnell's, the Ronnies, the Lindsay Grahams,

the Schumers, all of the others, they weren't expecting that hundreds of millions of dollars of American aid was going to give Ukraine control of the few villages that nobody has heard of.

That was not what this was supposed to be all about. It was supposed to be breaking through to the sea of Azov putting Crimea under siege, presenting Vladimir Putin with an ultimatum, and perhaps ultimately achieving regime change in Russia. When Millie talks about limited objectives, he is telling us that this offensive has failed. And when Zelensky says that things are progressing very slowly and it's now basically an artillery duel and each side is firing 40,000 rounds of shells a day, which is nonsense, by the way.

That is grotesquely exaggerated. Again, he's telling us, in effect, the same thing. When Budanov is telling us that also, he too is telling us the same thing. And notice, he is the most extreme hardliner of all. He was the one who said, you know, we'd be in primary by the summer, that he'd be holidaying, in Yalta before very long. He was the person who's been the most optimistic and the most confident

of all. And even now, he is now saying, well, it's not going to work out quite like that. And we've had Admiral Bauer of the US Navy. He says, well, was it, what did the US Navy? I can't remember. NATO anyway. He comes more... Power, power. Yeah.

You know, we can't keep up with the artillery demands the artillery. Ammunition is just impossible situation. You can see that everybody now is trying to pick a way through the problems that's the failure of this offensive. Stoltenberg, I forgot, Stoltenberg, perhaps the most important of all. We're not going to achieve clear-cut victory this year. We must prepare for a long wall.

A long wall. And everybody, all of these people, the Romneys, the Schumers, the Germans, the Germans, the Germans. St. Sullivan as well, by the way, they all know that that is not the message that the American people want to hear. That's the first thing to say. And of course, the Pentagon knows that this isn't a situation that the United States realistically can afford to continue indefinitely. But anyway, when they talk about a long war, what they mean is that they have failed to achieve victory. summer with this offensive and it has to be said again the failure of the offensive is a strategic victory for russia so the um the narrative four months ago was three to five days pretty much

and they would be at the sea of azoff it was going to be a quick lightning strike that would lead to the russian military crumbling and eventually lead to uh to the the the Putin government collapsing. Obviously, that hasn't happened. Obviously, after three and a half months, they're not even out of the security zone. The new narrative, because I think all of these people that you mentioned, Stoltenberg and Millie and Schumers, McConnell's, even the Budanov's and Zelensky speaking with 60 minutes, I think they're all betting on the fact that, that, that, that the citizens of the U.S., because at the end of the day, that's the big country, that's the main country, that's funding.

Bankrolling Ukraine is the United States. And if Europe is going to give money to Ukraine, it's going to be because the U.S. tells Europe to give money to Ukraine. So I think all these people are banking on the fact that the U.S. citizens are either not going to care about the hundreds of billions going to Ukraine, or they're going to have a short memory and this new narrative about a long war is going to be the narrative that's that they're going to pass off as being what they've been telling everybody all along, forgetting the fact that, you know, just four months ago, five months ago,

this was going to be a lightning strike, defeat, and collapse of Russia. And before that, it was going to be an economic collapse of Russia. I mean, you know, we've heard all the different narratives. Absolutely. And I'm not a new one. So, I mean, my question to you is, is this new narrative also includes, listening to Bodano, it also includes some sort of military, industrial complex in Ukraine, drones being manufactured, factories being built, a Ukraine that's

that's building up to take on Russia over the next 10 to 20 years. I mean, that's what a lot of these people in the interviews were either saying outright or hinting at. There's going to be this big military, industrial complex, industry. in Ukraine that is going to prepare for this long war and is going to fight this long war. Americans, you don't have anything to worry about. We're preparing for this long war. We're even ramping up our ammunition production as well. Yeah.

Your thoughts? So this is absolutely. Let's let's deal with the military industrial thing because, of course, it's a message to the United States. We don't need to sustain this thing indefinitely because eventually the Ukrainians will become self-reliant. The United States, in the past has made similar claims about its other wars. I'm old enough to remember, for example, in Vietnam, that there was a period process at one point called Vietnamization, that we would withdraw U.S. troops from Vietnam,

and we'd build up South Vietnam and its army, and it would be able to continue the fight all by itself, that South Vietnam would become self-supporting and able to defend itself. And if you remember, they said the same about Afghanistan, that Afghanistan, the military in Afghanistan had been brought up to the level where he could continue the war by itself. And that's the same message that he's been given to the American people now. So let's just keep sustaining the war, just a few more months, a few more years maybe. But there is an end point because eventually we're going to bring Ukraine to the point where it is self-sustaining.

By the way, just to say, Blinken also said that very thing over the course of a speech that he made at Johns Hopkins University, which we're going to eventually discuss. But anyway, that's the new idea. That's the new story, the new narrative that he's being sold to the American people. Budanaf is doing the same in Ukraine. He's telling the Ukrainian people, don't worry, even if Americans. support is going to start to reduce. It's not a big deal because we will soon be able to produce all of this equipment ourselves. So if the US starts to distance itself, well, we've got through the critical period. We've seen off the Russians last year and we're going to see them off again this

year and in the end we'll be able to produce all the weapons that we need we can produce our own tanks our own infantry fighting vehicles our own ammunition will be able to do it will be able to defend ourselves without the americans help now that is absolute nonsense i do think anybody seriously takes that really believes that i don't believe even buddana himself who sometimes seems to me to have a wildly unrealistic understanding of that things actually believes that. Every single day Ukraine gets hammered. The British Defence Ministry has said that the Russians are now clearly stoppiling more missiles in advance of another missile offensive that they're going to be conducting across Ukraine in the winter. The New York Times

has told us that the Russians have been able to restore missile production and they're able to produce missiles at the same rate as they always have indefinitely. And that's, in fact, almost certainly an understatement because I'd be getting lots of private information now, which suggests that, in fact, Russian production of missiles has increased manyfold. So nobody really believes that there is going to be a big military industrial complex established in Ukraine. That is a fantasy. Now, the Americans are also talking about increasing ammunition production. And this has been another thing that doubt they're saying.

They're saying that they're going to produce, increase ammunition production to 100,000 rounds a month. This will be by 2025. Now, previously, by the way, we were hearing that it was going to be 85,000 rounds a month by 2028. Then it was going to be 2025, 85,000 rounds a month. Now it's going to be 100,000 rounds of ammunition a month. This may be true. I mean, I'm not going to query this. At the moment they're producing, according to some claims,

26,000 rounds of ammunition a month. Now, nowhere near enough. Now, the New York Times says that today, the Russians are producing 2 million rounds of ammunition. a year. That's the New York Times. Again, I'm getting other reports that say that it is a lot more than that and it's going to be increasing

still further. But let's go with that figure of two million rounds of two million rounds of ammunition a month. That, according to the New York Times, is what the Russians are producing a month, a year, a year, a year, a year, a year, a year, a year,

two million a year. That's what the New York Times says. double what the United States hopes to produce by the end of 2025, except that the Russians are achieving that production now. So it's, again, a fantasy. How do you get Ukraine through the next two years until the United States is up and ready to produce that level of ammunition? And of course when it does produce a million rounds of ammunition a year, if it does, by 2025,

it can't give all its ammunition to Ukraine. It's got to hold back some, perhaps half of it, perhaps more of it, for its own needs also. It's got to replenish its own arsenals. It's got to replenish the arsenals of its allies. Again, these are fantasy things. And they bring us back that this ultimate. fantasy about the long war. How do you sustain

a long war? A war of attrition way back in the spring before the offensive the US was telling the Ukrainians under no circumstances get yourselves into a war of attrition against the Russians. You can't win a

war of attrition against the Russians you can't sustain a long war now that is what the United States and the West collectively are going to work towards. Well, a few months ago, before the offensive, they were saying was impossible,

which is why the offensive had to happen, and a quick victory had to be achieved. That, according to the new narrative, is the new plan. Yeah, so that's a good segue into my next question before we get to the diamonds and the sanctions issue. How does this talk of a long war work with the speculation that Blinken and various people in D.C. and the State Department would like a Korea-style freeze to the conflict. Is this, once again, two different factions in D.C. in D.C.

trying to get their policy pushed through with regards to Ukraine. One faction is looking for a freeze, and then they can rebuild and then do whatever they need to do. The other faction is saying, you know, forget the freeze. Let's just keep on fighting, and we'll build this big military industrial powerhouse in Ukraine, and we'll prepare for the long war as Ukraine is fighting. Or are these things connected?

It is, are these groups working together to get the freeze and to achieve a long work? We're kind of like Minsk, get the Russians to sign on to something and then wait eight to ten years as you rebuild Ukraine's military and then trick the Russians into believing that some sort of a long-term peace can take hold. I mean, how does all of these, how do these recent statements? work with the statements from last week, which were focused on some sort of a freeze. I think you put your finger on the most important single question. And I'm going to, I'm going to, because of course, it's difficult always to know exactly what's going on within the administration, but I'm going to make a suggestion. And I think this isn't just, you know, guess work.

It's his informed guest work based upon the records, the records, previous records of these people. Now, I think there is one faction, one extremely hardline faction. Let's call it the Victoria Newland faction, which is there, and it is strong, and, you know, it's not just within the administration itself. Victoria Newland is married to Robert Kagan. Robert Kagan is an influential person, not just in the administration, but in American politics generally, and American foreign policy generally.

They don't want any kind of negotiation. at all. They are absolutely committed to war without end. They still want to break Russia. They still want to see victory. They still believe and say to each other that victory is

achievable. Robert Kagan actually wrote a long piece not so many months ago in which he says that we have the new world in our grasp. It's almost there. All we have to do is keep going a little longer and the Russians will

crack and everything will come right and we will achieve final and total and absolute victory and then we can go after the Chinese that's not quite how you puts it but essentially that's what he says and so I think those people are still there I think their influence is growing weaker almost by the day and I think in the ascendant by contrast are the people who want the freeze and the people who want the freeze is the pentagon because it doesn't want to see its forces to please It's concerned about China. It is Jake Sullivan who wants to win the election. And it is the Tony Blinken group within the State Department,

which is, I think, now started to distance itself from the Victorian Newland Group. And it was very interesting that in that same speech that he gave at John Hopkins University, Blinken went out of his way to lavish praise specifically on Jake Sullivan. He said, you know, this is the great person who's able to integrate defense policy and foreign policy and domestic policy. He was basically, you know, praising Jake Sullivan in a way that I found really very interesting and told us very much that this is the connection that really matters at the moment. the Sullivan Blinken axis.

Now, they want to freeze because even though they are basically hardliners and in Blinken's case, very much hardliners, they also, I think, have still some moorings with reality. And they understand that the United States cannot sustain a long war. I should say, by the way, in parenthesis, that the United States has never been good. at any point since the end of the Second World War in sustaining long wars. That is not what America does. Anybody who thinks it is able to win attrition wars

is simply ignorant of modern history. But let's put that aside. I think Sullivan, Blinken, understand that this isn't really an acceptable, you know, a sustainable thing. So once again, you can see what they're doing. They say to the Russians, well, you know, you've got to talk. You've got to agree to this freeze. Because you see, if you don't agree to this freeze, we will keep going forever.

We will eventually exhaust you. We will provide, we'll continue as long as it takes. We will provide as many weapons as Ukraine needs. We'll provide them with the attack and missiles. We'll provide them. We get our German friends to provide them with the tourist missiles. We'll escalate. We'll increase ammunition production.

You thought it would be 85,000 rounds by 2028. We're going to reduce 100,000 rounds by 2025. This is the narrative that's being said. So we're going to continue and we're going to exhaust you. We're going to run you down. So better take this deal now whilst it's. still on the table because when you're run down, when you're exhausted, we might not be quite so accommodating. And that's their diplomatic strategy. I think the Russians know it's a bluff,

and of course they will call it. All right. So sanctions, another bluff. You know, they ran out of things to sanction a while ago, but it seems like they're still trying to picket certain industries and find something that they can sanction Russia with. Ed, they found diamonds. Now, they've talked about diamonds in the past, but they've never actually got through with sanctioning the diamonds. There was some resistance from Belgium with regards to sanctioning the diamond industry. And there was just the reality that sanctioning diamond production was not really going to do much damage to Russia anyway. So why go through with it? But because, because, they've exhausted all of their sanctions possibilities, they've now come to the point where they

have to make the political decision and place sanctions on diamond production. And this is going to have a very bad effect, not only on various EU member states, but it's going to have a bad effect between the relations of the United States and India, which you message me about before we did this program. That's an interesting one. So what is going on here? Yeah, absolutely, because of course, what the United States is again doing,

not just the United States, with the neocons, the barebox, the Habex, the Ursula's, all of those people, you know, the enthusiastic supporters of endless and unlimited sanctions. Of course, as you rightly said, they run out of sanctions

that can work. The oil price cap, remember that, isn't really working. They have to import liquidified natural gas from Russia, so they're importing that in ever greater quantities. So, you know, you can't, however, admit the sanctions have failed. That's impossible. And you have to keep the pressure of sanctions up against the Russians.

That's the narrative. And, of course, you have to tell people, your own people, that your conviction, your determination remains unfaltering. So even if you are buying more LNG from Russia, if you're doing all of these things, well, you know, they shouldn't misunderstand that. It's, you know, we have to smooth out a few of the wrinkles and the economic system that ultimately we're still going to press ahead with more and more sanctions. And of course, there is an addiction to sanctions as well. You know, once you, it's clear to me, once you start down this road, I mean, you can't give it up. It's like one of, you know, all these other things people get addicted to do.

It becomes ultimately compulsive. So you've got to come up with another set of sanctions. So you come after diamonds. And diamonds, you know, they're bright, glittery, they're visible, they're concrete, everybody likes them. So, of course, sanctions, you sanction the diamonds. And of course, diamonds also have, let's never forget something of a reputation. I mean, we've always heard about these stories. about blood diamonds from Africa.

So these are the new blood diamonds. They're the diamonds from Russia. So you come after diamonds. Now, Russia is a major producer of diamonds. It's along with, I think, still the African states, it's the major alternative producer of diamonds. And the Russians are, by the way, involved in diamond production in Africa.

And they're a major trader in diamonds. But having said that, that. I looked at some of the figures here and we're talking about a trade that provides Russia with export revenue of around $4 billion a year. Apparently that's the value of this trade for the Russians. Now bear in mind, the sanctions that are proposed is an absolute prohibition on the import of Russian diamonds into the collective West. So the Russians could still export diamonds to other countries, to China, to India,

to all sorts of places. So they're not going to lose all of that trade. Let's say they lose half of it, which is probably an overstatement. Well, it's not going to make any dent on their finances at all. I mean, this is not going to make any

difference. But it is going to affect business people in two countries. Now, if we're talking about Russia, in terms of Russia, the diamond industry is basically concentrated in one giant, I believe, state-rent company, which is Al-Rosa. It can absorb the problems in the disruption of the Russian diamond trade like the big Russian oil majors have done. But the big country now involved in polishing diamonds, and it's true to say that that's mainly diamonds that are used in jewelry,

but the big country there is India. India apparently accounts 90% of polishing, processing dual-grade diamonds. And this is an industry which involves lots of small business people. And the other country that's important in the diamond trade is of course Belgium. Belgium Antwerp is where diamonds traditionally are traded. So you want to buy diamonds, especially again, dual trade diamonds, you go to Antwerp. And there's various brokers there. who will do it for you. Now, again, these are not big businesses. These are small businesses,

profitable businesses, businesses that make people, you know, comfortable lives, not as comfortable as in some businesses, but they do. Now, these businesses are going to be massively disrupted. And India, which is very important altogether in trading gemstones, has not been consulted about this and they are furious because of course they buy diamonds from Russia they polish them in India they some of

them get exported they get traded through Antwerp there's now going to be apparently or allegedly a prohibition upon this there's going to be all kinds of regulations and rules about you know you have to register where

you know the provenance of any particular diamond which comes from you can see already the massive smuggling opportunities that are going to develop here. And, you know, we're talking about India, which is to be, I'm not saying anything against the Indians, but they have, let's say that they're very skilled in getting ground regulations. I mean, India is one of the most bureaucratic countries on the planet. It could only function if people in India were possessed already those skills. So this is going to be another smugging. dream and it's going to happen, but it's going to cause real trouble to the Indian diamond

industry, which as I said, has not been consulted about this. And of course, the other thing it's going to do ultimately is it's going to destroy Antwerp as a diamond trading centre. You remember when they imposed the oil price cap, all those confident claims that the London insurance market, Lloyds of London would be able to police it because other countries around the world wouldn't be able to replicate the services that Lloyds of London can provide. And sure enough, it turned out that they could. And Lloyd's, as a result, London, which is already declining in importance as an international financial centre, has taken a massive push down in a trade that was critically important

for London. Well, of course, exactly the same thing is going to happen to Antwerp. Antwerp. What's going to happen is that the trade is going to move, probably to India, possibly to somewhere else, maybe in the Gulf. Dubai might be a possibility, you know, K.L. You know, Malaysia might be another. You know, I don't know. I'm not going to try and speculate. But that's what's going to happen. inevitably so that is what always happens when you impose these sort of restrictions

so what you're doing is you're annoying the Indians the Indian government is going to be very annoyed by this bear in mind that you know diamond trade abolishes diamond cutters

these as it's small businesses they're the heartland vote for someone like Prime Minister Modi he's not going to be pleased about this so he's going to want to defend the interests of these people because they're the people who vote for him. And of course the people in Antwerp are going to be smashed. So

utterly self-defeating, just as the oil price gap was. It will cause some disruptions to the market initially. The oil price cap, all the oil restrictions did affect the Russians for a couple of months. They've now adjusted to that. Their oil and their energy revenues are now back to normal, apparently. Same thing will happen with diamonds. A lot of lot of middlemen, a lot of smugglers will do extremely well out of this. A lot of people who run small businesses in Antwerp and in India will face extreme difficulties. The Indians will get through. It's far from clear that the Belgians will.

And in the meantime, India and Prime Minister Modi has been given another reason to be an angry with the Americans and another reason to want to push on with the bricks and set up an alternative trading system in which India is a part and where it can trade without disruption. Yeah, set up an alternative location for the trading of diamonds outside of the collective West. Every move they make just further accelerates the multipolar world. It's incredible. Yeah. I'm starting to think they want a multipolar world. world to happen. That's why they're coming up with these sanction schemes. Unbelievable. And they're going to be hurting. The EU is going to be hurting an industry in their own backyard.

I mean, they're in Brussels. They're going to be hurting an industry which is right next door to them. They don't care. Absolutely. They don't care. They're not interested or concerned about this. They don't. I mean, it's something, as I said, the Belgians put up a fight against it. But, you know, little Belgium, what can it do? France. Germany and all the others support this thing. And that's what's going to happen now. And there's no stopping it, perhaps. Yeah. There's no stop in it. All right. The durand. Dotlocals.com. We are on Odyssey, bitch shoot, rumble, telegram, rock fin, and on X. And go to the Duran shop. Use the code. Good day. Get 10% off. All merchandise. Take care.