The Duran Podcast - Ukraine frontline update & peace deal w/ Stanislav Krapivnik (Live)

Episode Date: February 25, 2025

Ukraine frontline update & peace deal w/ Stanislav Krapivnik (Live)

There we are. We're live. All right. We are live. Yes, we are live with Alexander Rickers in London. And we are very happy to have with us the first time on the Duran. Stanislav, welcome to Duran. How are you doing? And where can people find you? Thank you. Doing good. Glad we could get on, I guess, blocking Moscow. they weren't before. I can be found. I've got a channel called Mr. Slavic Man, all one word with a K instead of a C, on YouTube, and I've got two telegram channels. Stas was there.

It's the English language one, and Stas today and Bratna is the Russian language one. All right, now we'll have those links in the description box down below and as a pinned comment as well when the live stream is over. So a quick shout out to everybody that is watching us, on Odyssey, on Rockfin, Rumble, YouTube, and our awesome Duran community on locals, theurand.locals.com. And thank you to our moderators. Peter, thank you very much, Zaryel. Thank you as well. And, all right, Peter, Zareel. Thank you for moderating.

Alexander, Stanislav, let's talk about what's going on in Ukraine. Let's, indeed, and let's go straight in, because I should say that Stanislav, has a hard stop, so we need to move quickly because he's somebody who can bring us an awful lot of information and an awful lot of descriptions of the situation on the front lines. And also about the humanitarian realities of this wall, which I noticed that Donald Trump talks about, but no other Western politician ever does, which is really quite remarkable. So, Stanislav, you are, if I could say, you've got contacts. in the area you are closer to it you can tell us a little bit about what the situation in the area

and the battle areas are like and you could give us some sense of what's going on there well yeah by birth i'm from lagansk uh that's my birth city uh so yeah i've got i got connections uh i had the unfortunate news to find out two days ago that my uncle passed uh he lives uh he and my aunt elderly aunt They live in Yisinawata, which is the front lines for all intents of purposes. They get artillery attacked on a constant basis every day. I've been there. We're delivering humanitarian and military help for the guy's medical help in Gorlwarka and then drove from Gorlovak to Yersenavata.

And one of the reasons he died was because he couldn't make it to the hospital to get treated for his cancer. in Gorlovka, which they, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the hospital area, can you know, it's getting, uh, rebooted, uh, the guys that, I just absolutely heroes are the, uh, the people that, the utility workers who go out there under fire, uh, the medical people, but it's a, you know, it's about a 20 kilometer drive, not much, but when you have artillery coming in behind you and in front you, and you can hear it fly them overhead. And that's not even that bad, because we're, you're, you're doing,

150 kilometers an hour down this bombed out road, it's still not that bad as opposed to the drones. The drones that can accelerate up to 200 kilometers an hour. And that's the big one. And the Ukrainians will hit anything that moves. I mean, they'll go after military equipment, but they can't. But since that, anything that moves is a good target. And a lot of people won't take that drive, taxi drivers and so on. So unfortunately you couldn't get the medical help and then in the city I you know stood there in

Yusanavada is a small town it's been shelling getting shell for 11 years now now now before the SMO most of the shelling was by the Ukrainians when they get drunk they get drunk shoot off a few rounds into the city wherever it pops it pops after that it became a lot more vengeful there aren't really many military targets in that but there are lots of civilian houses. And, you know, standing there talking to my uncle a year ago and you're hearing rounds flying in overhead, hitting somewhere in the city.

I'm former military, so it's, you know, that's not big of a shock for me, but people who haven't experienced that, one of the guys that was with us, you know, he was scared out of his mind, he was hearing artillery flying overhead. And these people are used to it. It's a horrible thing to be used to, but they're used to it.

A neighbor across the street from my aunt got killed four months ago. This was like a second or third hit on her house. Another house where they had two hits come in. My aunt's got shell holes in her yard. And they won't leave. They're old people. They refuse to leave. I said, you know, we'll drive you out.

You know, where are we going to go? We won't leave. This is our house. We've got animals here and so on. And they stay. but you know the thing that got me the most yeah i spent 11 years on the u.s army i was uh i came out of the captain promotable and refused majors rank uh and a good part of that the reason i refused majors rank uh because in 99 i was in uh the 18th airborne core

headquarters uh i was part of g3 uh and you know all the scenarios that were being run were being run for war with russia it's like that shock when you start seeing the bigger picture. You don't really see it at a brigade level. You don't see it at a battalion level. You don't see it a company level, but you see it the big picture at core level. And then you see that, it never stopped. The planning, the, the work to, the thing is, I guess, up to 99, Russia was killing itself pretty well. So nobody, it was, the planning was still going on, but it was kind of those, you know, yeah, well, we won't need to do this. And then after 99, Vladimir, Ladimurich started putting Russia back on its feet.

you know, things got, I guess, a little more intense. But the U.S. was still bogged down in the Middle East in Afghanistan. But things were going, and they were going the direction that they were going. You know, the Georgian Maidan, the Ukrainian Maidan, and so on. And I was a military advisor in Georgia for a UN mission there. And I knew the guys that were preparing the U.S. prepared brigades in Georgia. And they were getting ideologically correct people That would then go into South Asia and massacre the population then

They got wiped out in the counterattack, but these people were prepared So this whole thing was always rolling step at a time is still rolling forward Once I figure out Russia wasn't going to self-immulate But so now you've got you've got what you've got you've got you've got Gorlwka which is under attack for 11 years years. The front's moved back some, but there's still artillery rounds coming in. You know, we came in there to a humanitarian store room. We're giving people, what people donated, kids, toys, clothes, things.

Because people are losing their houses. They're losing everything. If they're lucky, they survive with their skin intact. They still lost everything. And then you can hear the cassette rounds coming in about half a kilometer away. And the pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, as the rounds are exploding in the air. And this is every day life for these people. And it's, this is how they live. Because the Ukrainians, number one, they have been targeting.

And by Ukrainians, they also mean the mercenaries sitting behind the Himars, because they're not Ukrainian soldiers on the Himart platforms, are targeting civilians. Even when they're out of rounds to engage in combat, somehow they still keep enough rounds to shoot at civilians. So that's a situation. from on the very side. Which I would point out is consistent with what we've also been hearing from Patrick Lancaster,

the Canadian reporter who goes regularly to the battlefronts. And it's an aspect of the wall that never gets talked about. Can I just quickly discuss a few of the events that have happened on the battlefronts because over the last couple of weeks, we've had a number of different, we've had a number of changes. Torezsk, Juergensk, as I know it's also called, has now come under Russian. control that does move the front line a bit further from gorlovka or so it seems to me we got reports i think yesterday or the day before yesterday that bellogorovka which is close to lugansk where you

born that has also now come under russian control and apparently a big slag heap there are we starting to see a situation where the front line is significantly moving or way from the cities because again, if you follow Patrick Lancaster, that seems to have happened to some extent. American Alexander, by the way, Patrick Legg, American reporter. American, I guess, I'm Canadian. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.

Go on, go on, but Patrick tells us that, you know, in Donette City, things have considerably lessened now with, you know, of death care. one of those places having been captured. But do you think this is going to change now in Gorlifka, Lugansk, now that the front line has moved back? I'll rib Patrick next time I'll talk to him that he's Canadian. You know, that whole area, that whole Donbos area, so Donbos means the base of the Don River.

And that area is, you know, in the 1920s, before early 1920s, 1900s, there were posters, the Donbos is the heart of Russia. Because that was Russian land before Lenin created the modern Ukraine. Nobody asked the people there whether they wanted to become, quote, Ukrainian. They didn't even know what the hell of Ukrainian was, let alone Ukrainian language and all of that. They were forced you very nice. But that whole region in the Donbos is just a gigantic, nonstop conglomeration of towns, villages, and cities. So Danyetsk, you've got Dynetsk, and then on and on and on from D'Nets.

It's like American herbal sprawl for those who have been driving in America. It just never ends. It just keeps going. The town names change, but it's just one mass urban sprawl. And this whole area is like that. The reason the war has been going so slowly, one, Russia is trying to conserve manpower and not wasted. And there's, there were issues of beginning of the war that weren't enough soldiers. That's true too. That's not an issue anymore.

The issue is instead of throwing body waves away, the point is to bear the enemy down with heavy artillery, with aviation bombs, and then come in and clean him up when he's no longer capable. If he's going to continue shoving in resources, you continue destroying resources and just wait, slowly taking territory. The same thing that happened in Artjomov, that Bachmoud, that was almost 80,000 Ukrainian troops that were destroyed in that town. Now, that was a little bit different because the Wagner guys were actually using a lot of body waves. They were using conscripts, from which they were no longer allowed to recruit conscripts. That was a slightly different issue. But in the other areas, it's very strictly being held as conserved manpower. We don't waste our people's lives.

We waste the enemy's lives. And that's the aim of it. And the same thing that's happening in Kursk right now. The reason Kersk hasn't been closed is it's a perfect trap. On a strategic level, this is a great trap. The only unfortunate part is there was a segment of the population that could not be evacuated in time. Most of those were, again, old people that refused to leave. It was a perfect trap, perfect balance if you think about it,

where you kept just enough troops to make it look like there's troops on the border, but not enough to hinder them to make it a weak spot. And you have to keep enough troops on the back, still dispersed, so the enemy couldn't get too far. Now, most of the troops that came into curse, they were either from the deep reserve, and it's hard to find them, because they're spread out. Ukraine's not a small country.

They're in the deep. You're not going to hit them with aviation, because they still do have some amount of anti-aircraft, so trying to find them is difficult. And on the flip side, they also took a lot of the experienced troops that they were using as mobile fire brigades to close up gaps in the front, on the eastern front. And they shoved it all into this great thing called a kill sack.

It's a great Ukrainian tradition to run into a cauldron and stick themselves in there and sit there much longer than they should have ever been there. So right now, Kursk is being pushed from every direction, but it's not being closed because it's a trap that keeps in sucking more Ukrainian reserves. You've got to keep the pressure on to keep the numbers falling and to keep them political pressure on, that they have to keep putting them more and more reserves. But they're getting hit from every direction, quite literally 360, because their supply lines that are walking into Kursk's are also within rocket artillery, heavy. artillery, rocket, fire, and aviation bombs down one major supply avenue. And the drones, the new drones on the fiber optic lines are going up to 40 kilometers deep. So that was a very big surprise

in northern Sumer region where Vassou was used to driving without much tactical issues, and suddenly they started getting hit in every direction on the roads. So everything is there to destroy the enemy. Not saying that there are casualties of course they are casualties still being taken and that's that's something that society here has done a lot people people put packages together they buy medical equipment additional for the hospitals you know this civilian volunteers I'd say maybe up to a million people are actively either gathering supplies from other people that are donating or delivering supplies I've been

down there quite a few times, not as many as I'd like for one reason or another, but quite a few times. Getting ready to go down soon again. They take cars down there. There's certain cars, like the Patriot, which is a Jeep that works well, that people donate or buy and handover. So the majority of society is standing very firmly closed ranks behind. And the more videos of what the Vassu and what these Merks were doing in different towns. And Kursk is not an exception. Kursk

is maybe a bit worse than other areas. Because there's no question anybody in Kursk is Russian. In other areas, as they're stepping away, they are murdering any civilians in their left. Because the mindset is if you didn't retreat, then you're pro-Russian,

which means you're Russian, and yeah, we'll just kill you. And that's that's the standard operating procedure that the Ukrainian army has been used, almost from day one. Now that these conglomerations are being broken through, if you look at historically, 1940, beginning 1944 was the same thing. The breakthrough from eastern Ukraine was slow. But once it was broken through, granted Stalin didn't have as many issues of using men up as we do now. But once that German line of defense, which wasn't nearly as prepared as this line of defense,

this is a line that they were prepared for over 10 years, 8 to 10 years. And the secondary lines for two years plus, I mean, pouring insane amounts of concrete. Once these lines have burst through, there's no place to hide, there's no place to hold. Right up to the Nepper. And actually, even after the Nepper River on the other side, it goes on basically the same way. outside of a few major cities you've got villages here and there but okay you make a small isolated strong point you just go around it take care of it later so that once this line is breached they're going to have very very big problems and once Pakorovs goes across the aramis once that goes that northeastern portion of the front

is gone because that is the main supply line now southward the supply line is already cut The rail lines are ready in Russian hands. And as it is, already getting supplies into Pakrovsk is dangerous because it's within a heavy artillery and aviation range. So it starts to attract that logistic chain from Nepe-Petrovsk. The northeast, like I said, once that portion is cut off, it's over for them. Their supply lines are cut and they're going to be forced to start retreating toward Heinekov, the city of Haiku, as a supply base.

Because in the end, it doesn't matter how good your tactics are. It doesn't matter how good your equipment is. If you don't have fuel and bullets and food, you've got one or two choices. Die in place or surrender? You know, it's interesting you said on this. Hello. Hello. There's a rip.

I hear you. There's an echo. Okay. Right. There's an echo, Alexander. Not on my side. Not on my side. I hear everything fine.

You're fine? Yeah. Okay, okay. You're fine? Yeah. Okay. Okay. Very, very brief.

Very good. The comparison I made about Donbass is that it's like the war in Germany, which I know quite well. Which I know quite well. Very dense area of factories, small towns, small towns. small towns, exactly the kind of urban, and industrial. No, there is a heavy, there's a heavy, there's a heavy,

yeah, I think it's coming from your speaker. I think it's coming from your speaker. My speaker. My speaker. Yeah. What can I say? Can I, can I, can I, can I, can I go out and come in again maybe? Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Okay. Okay. He'll go out and come. He'll go out and come in again. Technology is great when it works. Something. Something. No, I think we're still getting an echo.

Is it from mine? Hello? Can you hear me now? Perfect. Okay. Hello? Hello? I have enough. I can't explain it. I can't explain it.

I suggest. I suggest. So you were saying some very interesting things. So just tell us about the negotiations and where you think that is going. Because clearly there's problems with my microphone. Well, negotiations, there's something to consider for negotiations too. First of all, the West, there's a tendency in the West to view Leggimuric as some kind of dictator that does whatever he wants, when he wants, how he wants.

the Putin can do whatever he want. Well, he can't. And that's the issue. He is bound, he is a lawyer. He is bound constitutionally by what he can and cannot do. And part of that, by the way, is Karsono. Kersonov happens to be on the other side of the Nyeper. Russia cannot, by Russian constitution,

give up a single square centimeter of length. That's considered a part of Russia. So no negotiations will proceed anywhere unless the entirety of the four new old oblasts are part of the Russian Federation. So that could be a partial stumbling block. Another issue in this is that, you know, honestly, as a military person, I don't see the conflict ending anytime soon for several reasons. even if we take

as long as there's somebody fire and the conflict's obviously not over so even if the front collapses and everything goes up to the Nyepper River well the Nyepper is not that white it's white but it's not that wide artillery definitely will breach it so Russia has this problem anybody that's east of

the Nyepper River now becomes Russian citizens right well what happens when the Russian citizens and new Russian citizens or the old registers are being shelved or have terrorists coming across the river in parties and destroying or assassinating, murdering, well, you have to do something to control that.

The problem is, is, you know, the war continues until you reach a party that doesn't want to fight. So, okay, so now parts of Harikov or Lugansk are now strictly Russia, but you're getting artillery from Harikov. So you've got to take Harikov to stop. Now that people are Harikov, a Russian citizen. They're getting shot at from Sunni. or Chino Gowa from Kiev.

What are you got to do? You got to take those areas to stop it. Now those people are being shot at. And again, this becomes a domino effect. Either you reach a party that no longer wants to fight or never wanted a fight, or you continue this rolling a fight till it stops, because there's no going back for Russia. This is absolutely from day one has been said,

and it is absolutely an existential crisis. This is a point of either we survive, or we'll take the world with us because if we don't stop this now, there won't be a Russia. And by the way, for those to think that they can split Russia up into little ethnic groups, while there's 180 different ethnic groups in Russia, maybe more. That's native to Russia. That's not counting the Germans, Italians, and others have immigrated over time into Russia. Russians or those who identify ethnically as Russians are a majority in almost every.

single territory. And they're not getting ready to split the country up in any direction and leave. Except maybe the liberals in Yuciterenburg. I'll get some hate mail for that one. But other than that, so the country is basically on a stable block. 82% of population self-identifies as Russian, ethnically Russian. Everybody else identifies as Russian in a big sense of Russian. the majority of population is one religious group, whether or not they go to church or they do go to church.

It's a different area. But orthodoxy is also part of the culture. I'm not saying that Muslims aren't a large percentage, about 10, 12%, but it all goes under one big umbrella of Orthodox culture. And that keeps the country together. It's not split like, say, a Protestant Catholic country may be split. where it's a radically different religion going down an actual border between counties. So it's not in any direction that it's heading that it's going to collapse. And any dream of collapse from the West is a pipe dream.

And no, the light coming down at the end of the tunnel is probably the freight train of the Russian army. So best to take a different fork, but they don't seem to want to take a different form. So from my view, to make it shorter, I won't rant, Trump's doing a lot to actually get America out of this war, whether it's because he wants to fully get America out of the war, or he wants to get money back, put it all on the Europeans and then sell the Europeans equipment and make money off of us sitting back and watching the Europeans fight. I don't know. But the Europeans, especially with Mertz, now the future chancellor of Germany, you've got the three stooges, which in Starrmann, Macron and Mertz. And I don't see anything good happening. I mean, it would be funny in its own way if it wasn't such tragic.

Parallel, so many lives are going to be lost because of these three people. And they're going to do everything they can to either sabotage any attempts at peace or just to ignore them all together and continue the conflict. And I think the U.S., for the most part, if it's making a lot of money off of this, it's going to go, well, we're neutral, we'll sit back. We know our ships are not going to get submarine torpedoed because Russia's not going to bring a big war in. But if the rest of the Europeans get in a big war, you know, Marshall Plan, too. We get rid of our debts to Europe.

We give out credits and rebuild Europe, and we get rich, and we suck it dry. All right. Let's stop. One second. One second. Okay. All right. The echo is coming from from Stanislav.

Stadislav. It's an echo that's coming through your mic, Stanislav. So what I'll do is I'll have you. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. I'll mute you before. And then when you speak, I'll unmute you.

So, Alexander, unmute yourself. And you can ask the question. Then I'll unmute you, Stanislap, when you need to answer. Right. The question I wanted to ask is this, because Vladimir Putin actually gave a very interesting interview yesterday to Pavel Zarabin, one of his favorite journalists. One of the most interesting interviews he's given, in my opinion, and it's not getting the attention that it deserves. Because he talked about negotiations, and he talked about what Donald Trump is trying to do. And he said that Donald Trump is trying to save Ukraine, that in fact, it might not be in Russia's interests that Trump succeeds and that the major problem that Donald Trump has is the fact that Zelensky remains president of Ukraine. Zelenskyy is going to stop any attempt at negotiations and from Trump's point of view it would be a good thing if Zelensky could be removed. It might not be such a good thing from Russia's point of view because

Zelensky is an irrational leader who makes absurd military decisions, the Kusk operation obviously being won. And of course, the longer he stays, the more likely it is that Ukraine, at least in its present form, will cease to exist. It is a very, very interesting interview, one that, as I said, Putin revealed a awful lot more about his thinking that he has done in the past. What did you make of that? Well, it's hard to say.

Ukraine, the way it is now, obviously, can't exist. First of all, let's begin with the fact Ukraine is an artificial entity. And the interesting thing is, you know, a lot of people in even the western Donetsk Oblasts that would have been living under Ukrainian rule to some degree, or better yet, in Zaporasia, in Kharsan. We're shocked when the Ukrainian army started shelling them. But wait a minute. Aren't we the same just because the Russians are here? But no, you're not the same.

And that's the problem. The people in Yipa Petrovsk, look at the people in Donbos, you're not Ukraine, you're Russians. The people in Ivanovsk, look at the people in Yavutuzov, say, no, you're Russians, you're not us. The people sitting in Evol, look at the people who there used to go, you're all cuts up, you're not us. The people sitting in Galizza, look at the people in Levov and go,

you're some humans, you're not us. So it's an artificial entity that really never coincides into any kind of culture, per se, country. And it never had a time, since it was artificially put together, it couldn't. So now you're looking at an issue of what type of Ukraine needs to be left. Honestly speaking, if the Hungarians, Romanians, Moldovians, Slovakians, and Poles came in and took their chance, chunks out of the western Ukraine, that would not be against Russia's interests. In fact, it would be very much in Russia's interest. The problem for the polls, in particularly, a lot of those territories that they claim, and they have a lot of old property bills, they've been suing over, the people

have been murdered off during World War II or expunged out of those areas. They want those lands back, obviously. I mean, they go down to which apartment belong to which family, and they're being, Ukraine was being sued for that. There's large parties in Poland, even though the Duda may be co-towing at the moment toward Ukraine, though it seems to be less and less of a mask that he wants to wear. The majority of the Polish population and the Poles that I speak with, they are not interested in any kind of friendship with Ukraine.

They want Rech Paspaeta Part 2, the Polish Empire back. Moradamore. So that's they're looking at those areas. The problem for them is, of course, is the male Ukrainian population that's in those areas. About a third of the population have what's called Polish cards, which is basically a Polish green card. They're recognized as ethnically Poles or partially Poles. They speak some amount of Polish language, and they can live in Poland any time they want. The Poles are giving out a lot of that, just like the Hungarians were giving out Hungarian citizenship to a lot of people in Zakarpo.

We're almost half the population has Hungarian citizenship on top of that. So now the problem is what to do with the rest of the Ukrainian manics because the most radical nationalists happen to be in those areas. And I'm not excusing Bandera. Bandera was a Nazi murderer, but Bandera didn't, that the hatred, that level of hatred of Bandera, Una Unzei, didn't come from just thin air. It came from being under Polish rule, where they were forced, Polonized, fourth catholic, and so on.

So again, there was a foundation that both sides hate each other. But for the Poles, the Polish government should do the, what do you do with the Ukrainian men? Okay, the children you can re-educate into future Poles. The women, you can make future polls. What do you do with the men? Well, you know, if you can utilize them on the eastern front against the Russians, it's all the better.

And that seems to be a lot of what they're doing. So the next question, there's been rumors flying around. I don't know if it'll become truth or not. But the next question is, are the polls going to take over recruiting? Because Zelensky literally has almost 100,000 troops spread out and all these little villages and towns and cities, grabbing press gang. They're press gang people.

They're grabbing people off the streets. Those that can't pay enough, they grab. And that's why they let people videotape. by the way, that's commercial. You know, look what's going to happen to you unless you bring us money. See that guy we just beat the crap out of and threw in the van, and he's going to be dead on the front lines in two weeks. Yeah, yeah, bring your money.

We'll give you a white card to excuse you. But that's becoming harder and harder to do. And more than a few of these guys in the press gangs have been getting pushed to the front lines now. There's even, there was even an incident in one of the POW camps in Russia where two press gang POWs met their press gangers. and they literally almost beat him to death before the guards were ever to separate him out. So that's another issue.

But if you want really effective press ganging, you've got to bring a third party. It has absolutely no relatives living there. There has no family that can be targeted by very angry relatives of people they press getting. And the polls happen to be an excellent choice for that. So will that happen? I don't know.

But the polls have already been used as blocking forces and executed the Ukrainians retreating on more on one occasion. So which way this will go? I have no idea. Have it called it. I'm sorry, I got a call that. Breaking. I think we lost them.

Or did we? I think we lost it. Can you hear me? Or did we? Brian. Is this a moment I can ask? a question here, and this is a very simple one, actually, which is, Stanislav, are you there? Can you hear us?

What I wanted to ask, anyway, we'll see what Stanislavs. I thought that was, just to go back, I thought that was a very interesting interview. That Putin gave yesterday. Hello? I don't know what's going on. No, I don't know what's in. Let me make my quick points. I mean, I've got clear points.

Let me make my quick points. I mean, I got the clear set of there. Oh, yeah. I'm proud to be. My phone has just gone insane. I'm trying to be his side it doesn't let me mute. My incoming call just, just wiped my screen and my phone is. I'm going to reload the phone more quickly.

Study stop. Come back out. I'll come back out and back in. Yeah, indeed. Yeah. Yeah. What I was going to simply say is listening to what Putin was saying yesterday, rather reading what Putin was saying,

reading what Lavrov was saying, I don't get the sense of the Russians, are in any mood to make any sort of concessions at all. I don't think that they're going to, looking for any sort of compromise. And I don't think they really believe the war is going to end either. That's my own sense. I just want to ask you a question because I thought Putin's interview was amazing.

He revealed so much. So my question to you is, I agree with you. On the one hand, it looks like the Russians are not going to make any concessions when it comes to the military side of things, though they will go for Istanbul plus. I mean, I believe that they will go for example, a plus. Yes. But on the flip side, both Putin and Trump, especially Putin, they were talking a lot about business with Americans. Yes.

Putin even got to the point where he was about to call the United States partners again. I mean, he even said that word. I don't think he connected it quite to the Americans, but he said, we want to do business with the Americans and our partners. So, I mean, how do you read that on the. One hand, we're saying no military, on the military on the front line, we're going to stay firm, but we're ready to do business, minerals, oil, gas, you name it, we're ready to do business with the U.S. That's exactly right. They're moving the whole topic of discussion away from the conflict in Ukraine, which is, I don't think the Russian state can be settled diplomatically.

I think they're long past the point where they thought that could ever happen to one of genuine normalization, the United States and returning to doing business with the United States. And holding out the possibilities, you know, that the United States could come to Russia and develop rare earths there and they got far more rare earths than Ukraine does. They, Putin even said they could do it in, you know, the territory that the Russians have acquired in Ukraine itself. And this is, it's, it was a completely different shift, if you like, but the kind of dialogue, the kind of dialogue we've been seeing and then simultaneously with all of these moves we get the Americans and the Russians cooperating with each other at the United Nations. Firstly, there

was the chaotic session in the General Assembly where an American draft was put forward and the Europeans rushed through amendments and just under half the countries got completely muddled and voted for it and the U-SRbs have already a apologize to the Russians for doing so because all the mistake and things. But then the Americans and the Russians worked together to ram through in the UN Security Council this very same resolution that the Americans had. And you remember the Security Council carries far more legal weight than the General Assembly does, rammed it through against the wishes of their European allies, the American's European allies. So the Americans and the Russians are now working together.

They are clearly coordinating in ways that would have been considered or was inconceivable just six weeks ago, three weeks ago. I mean, it's just so we are looking at a complete shift. Ukraine is the conflict there is being parked. It's been the responsibility has been put on Zelensky, the Ukrainians to come to a deal. The Ukrainians don't want to come to a deal. The Europeans are giving every sign of one.

to support the Ukrainians. And the Americans are saying, enough is enough. We're going to move forward. We're going to press forward towards normalization. And let's put this whole horrible business, which has gone so catastrophicly wrong behind us. Ukraine is one of many topics that the U.S. and Russia need to work on and need to communicate on. But they're not going to let it prevent their cooperation, especially in the business realm. I mean, that's the sense that I'm getting.

Okay, I think status-love is trying to connect on. Yeah, go on, Alexander. The other thing is, I mean, you know, the Europeans pressing forward with more sanctions, Kirstama pressing forward with more sanctions. It has the look of absurdity about it all. Yeah, it does. It absolutely looks absurd. I think a lot of people are misunderstanding when Trump says, fine, send peacekeepers to Ukraine.

I think Trump's the way he's saying it, at least my reason, is that Trump is saying, go ahead. Don't bother us about it. Exactly. It's not our problem. He's telling Bakarana. You want to send peacekeepers? Go ahead and send peacekeepers.

Who am I to tell you no? But you're not going to see the U.S. getting involved. I mean, Stadislav, can you hear us? Yes, yes. Okay, okay, great. I fully agree. Okay, awesome. Awesome.

I think we have, how much time do we have Stadislav before you have to leave? I can do another about six, six, seven minutes. Let's get status level for another five, six minutes. Absolutely. We were talking about negotiations. We were talking about the fact that Donald Trump and Putin seemed to be working towards a normalization of relations between the United States and Russia. That completely reverses if it's taken through all that thing that you noticed way back in 1999, when the neocons were in their pomp, by the way. which was preparing for war with Russia. Do you think this can work? Do you think that this is going to happen? I mean, what is the sentiment in Moscow at the moment?

Are people in Russia interested in any kind of concessions on the Russian side to end the war in Ukraine? Because I got the sense, listening to Putin and Lavrov yesterday, that the answer is no. They're not going to make any concessions at all. Are people interested in Pete? Of course people are interested in peace. The majority people want peace. Are they interesting concessions? Absolutely no. Russia has made the view on the street for most people is no more concessions.

Russia's made plenty of concessions before. The Istanbul Accords was probably the last go-around for concessions period. All stop on that because we saw what happened when the Russian army and it just of goodwill pulled out of Kiev Oblast and pulled out of Sumi Oblast, you got Boucher, which was the massacre of pro-Russian civilians that was then blamed on Russia. Three days, by the way, after the Russian army pulled out. Because the mayor and Buccia ran that the first day said, yes, they've left. Everything's good. Everybody's back to normal.

And then on the third day, oh, we have a massacre here. Oh, somehow we didn't notice that. So no, the people are not interested after Erdogan allowed the heads of Azov to leave, even though they're supposed to have been in exile to the end of the conflict. It's become obvious there really aren't anybody, there's almost no one, and there are no organizations in the West that can be trusted. You've got Orban, you've got FITSO, and they're looking after their own countries, which is the right thing they do, which is normal.

You can negotiate with people that are looking after the interests of their countries because you can figure out what the interests of their countries are. And then you can work with them on that. When people don't care about the interests of their countries but care about some globalist utopian idea or some such, that's much more difficult to deal with. So for most Russians, no, there is no big interest in any kind of concessions. Of course, they want peace. They want it over, but not at the cost of having it spark up in another two, three years.

or having the West trying to outweigh Putin and starting a new war and knowing that you know there's going to be terrorism The Basso Wu, the Esboo, which are the worst ones the SBAO that were created the terrorist organization the formerly intelligence organization was created by as we were all told by the New York Times by the CIA and by MI6 into a terrorist organization they haven't gone away and unless they're dismantled and destroyed There's no prospects for a long-term peace, an actual peace. What do Russians feel about the United States and the initiatives coming from Donald Trump at the moment? Is there cynicism about them or optimism?

This is my last question, by the way. For Russians, I may be one and the same. Cynicism and optimism. They can coexist in the Russian soul. There's a lot of things they can coexist in the Russian soul. So on the one hand, people want to believe, but on the other hand, people have been burnt so many times, so they're very, very cautious. As far as Western culture, the vast majority don't want it. Russia has a liberal disease also, but this conflict has gone a long way to cauterizing that liberal disease.

So when they look at the West as a cultural entity, no, nobody wants it. Thank you. You can keep it. You can do whatever you want to each other in your own countries. we don't want it. Don't bring it in here. As far as Russian, as far as investment and companies, sure, in some market areas, it wouldn't be a bad thing. But a lot of market holds, you know, sanctions are like when you tell your children, I'm going to punish you. Until they know what the punishment is, it's a lot scarier than until they find out,

oh, I get spanked twice or I get put on a timeout chair or whatever. actually not that bad. The same thing with the sanctions. Everybody feared the sanction until the sanctions came. And then the next day, everyone looked around and said, well, the house hasn't burned down. The stores aren't empty. The sky isn't falling. Oh, okay, I think we can live with this. And then as it got better and better, and Russian companies came in to take up the market slag, the Chinese came in more fully, other countries' companies. They said, you know, Okay, yeah. It turns out we can actually live quite well without the West. So the West, from one side, yeah, investment wouldn't be bad, more investment, but it's not critical. We can live

and prosper without it. So what will this cost? If Donald Trump or his team thinks that he can buy Russian concessions with, hey, we'll do investments. It's not going to work. You can't scare Russians with war. For God's sakes, we've been at war almost nonstop for the last thousand years. from one direction and others. You can't scare us over the war. It doesn't really, never really work. If you come in earnest peace, sure, you'll be given the time of day,

you'll be given bread and salt, but, you know, everything in Russia, we're not sotting by the words, we don't judge you by your words, we judge you by your actions. So everything runs off of that. And we'll see. We'll see. I mean, you still have a lot of people in the U.S. Congress that want Russia destroyed the brought down. And they don't hide that.

So to remind everybody that, you know, it's not quite all that Rosie and Beachy that from the Trump team. There's also a fear about the Trump team of what do they really want from us? Because as Kellogg blumbled through one of his answers, well, you know, Russia has an ally, alliances. now with North Korea, with Iran, with China, they didn't have earlier, they have to step away from those. No, they're not going to step away from those. And that's the fear right now, too, is that all the U.S. wants is still to destroy Russia, but to pull it first away from China,

maybe use it against China or come after Russia after China's dealt with. You know, the crocodile eats you last, but still eat you. And that is an actual quite vivid fear of, you know, If we stick with the Chinese and the Iranians and so on, and the growing pool, they've got our back, we've got their back. But if we separate, or as the founders of the U.S. said, either we hang together or we're all hanging separately. You're all hanging. Your mic. You're mic.

Yeah. So, Stanley to stop. I know we're up against your hard stop. Can I say thanks? We've had lots of technical problems on this live stream, but it's been absolutely fascinating. to listen to all that you had to say. And as I said, you've got that feel from what's going on on the front

lines and in the rear areas and also obviously in Moscow itself. And it's been very informative and welcome to the Duran, and I'm sure we'll be speaking again. Thank you. Thank you, Stan to Flavis. I watch you guys for part of the years. It's a pleasure to be here.

It's great to have you here and we'll have you on soon again. Thank you very much. Thank you. Take care. Cheers. All right. And I have Stadislav's links in the description box and I will add them as a pick comment as well. So let's get to the questions, Alexander. Absolutely, yeah. Let's do it. Nikos says, I know this is not beneficial for Russia, but can they rebuild Western Ukraine like they did with Chechnya as a gesture of goodwill and keep the peace? Well, in what way and in what form? I mean, if the Russians reach,

Western Ukraine, for example, then there's some kind of political settlement and the Western Ukrainians decide to, you know, become part of Russia and stay with Ukraine, whatever it is, I think of that kind. Well, I think the Russians could make a contribution, but of course if we see a new Ukrainian state preserved, which to some extent remains hostile to Russia, why would the Russians do that? Ideally, they're in any mood to do it. And I don't think they would. By the way, just to say about this question of restoration, of reconstruction, the Russians can do it. They were able to rebuild all of these territories after the Second World War when the devastation was far, far greater. People haven't done the

studies about how reconstruction happens after wars, which I have read, by the way. It is nowhere They're near as expensive or as difficult to do as people think. Just saying. Look at Mario Pol. No, absolutely. Good example. Yeah, doing well. Nico says, Duran, I think we underestimated the Germans' desire for a straight course.

Can I ask, is it possible for merch to get BlackRock to fund the war themselves? They are a trillion-dollar asset company. No. Black Rock are not going to do that. That's not what Black Rock is about. Black Rock is about making money, not about funding war. or at least not funding wars where there's no profit. They're about funding war.

Yeah, but yeah, absolutely. I mean, this is a bad investment now. I mean, because everybody can see that it's going to end in one particular way. Yeah. Nico says this is, I think this is a three part or four part. Nico says, the British are hopeless. I saw an interview with the Russian ambassador in Britain. And this woman just couldn't stop blaming everything on him.

Like the ambassador said, it's like I'm talking. but you and your country are not listening. There's hope, though, as every single comment in that video was bashing this woman for her narcissism, even though the people are waking up, their government actually terrifies me. They will plunge Europe into war, which will go nuclear if they send troops. They don't even know what they are walking into, according to DEMA production levels of Russia. Weapons and missiles have reached an unprecedented scale. It's absolutely true.

I mean, can I just say, don't. be intimidated by Britain. People are very intimidated by Britain. There is no reason to be. I live here. I know the sort of mood here. Most British people are very disengaged in this war. I mean, you know, there's no great pushback against the narrative because we only get the narrative, basically. There's very little alternative media here. It's not like the United States. So in that respect, you know, very few people rebel against it. But people do not want to get in in a war against Russia. The country does not have the resources to get involved in a war against Russia. The British military is in a terrible state. The British economy is in a terrible state. Our productivity growth is non-existent and has been so since the 2008 crisis. Living standards have never recovered to the point that they had before the 2008 financial crisis. Britain is not a big player in this any longer, whatever the British might think

and whatever they fool the world to think about themselves too. Petro says, now that USAID scandals have been revealed, what are the odds that countries will repel actions caused by USAID? For example, gay marriage in Greece. Well, we'll see. That's a very, very good question. I mean, one of the problems is that, of course, USAID has been active for a very long time now.

And it's planted seeds in many of these places, which won't just, you know, die. I mean, they won't just stop. So there is a lot of momentum behind this. Now, I think in time, we will gradually see some of this recede, because without, you know, constant, you know, watering with more money from the United States,

it's difficult to imagine that this will continue for very long. It's not as if this is hugely popular, for most people. At least that's my perspective. But elsewhere, if you're talking about political interference in countries outside the narrow circle of the collective West, you will see a pushback. Governments now are very much more better informed about what has been happening. You'll start to see a big pushback against the open society foundations and all of those sort of things. And it's going to happen all around the world. Yeah.

Brulham says Putin is a tyrant dictator because he deals unfairly with journalists and NGOs in Russia. That's a quote. The majority of people scared of Putin in Russia are Western funding recipients. Yes, it's very well put. I mean, of course, you must understand, Brulham, that this is that as far as the West is concerned, NGOs and the people who work for them are the people who really matter, all of the others. tens of billions of them, matter, matter, far, far less. So you worry about them, you worry about the problems that they encounter,

which are not that, you know, we're not talking about Stalin era, even Rejni era levels of oppression. You talk, you just, you, but you worry about the fact that they're not achieving the kind of things that they're achieving, that they're facing legal restrictions and that kind of thing. So that makes Putin a tyrant. And as I said, if everybody else is left alone to get on with their lives, well, that's not your concern because those people are invisible to you.

They don't care. Zisi, thank you for that super sticker. Brulam says, looking forward to see Dr. Nema Parvini on the show again, Shakespeare conversation would be absolutely fascinating. Absolutely, it would be, and I'd be very interested to do it, actually. As a great devotee of Shakespeare altogether, very complicated, an interesting playwright and by the way, poet

these poems are very, very difficult. Just saying. East-West Amity says Totalaya Pabeda-Rosia. The four regions will know peace. Yeah. I think so. Oh, well, I think I've no doubt of it. Nico says,

I see Greek analysts say that not even the weakest Balkan nations respect us. Greece is going to pay massively for its actions against Russia via Turkey. Well, I hope not. I don't want to think too much about this. I do that we've played our hands in Greece at all well over the last couple of years. That's putting it mildly.

And when I say last couple of years, I mean, going all the way back to the disastrous decision to join the Euro, which we should never have done. Yeah, exactly. And which we were given ways to get out of. Absolutely. Deals to get out of it, too. Absolutely. Matthew says, will Trump give America security guarantees? Will the UK just march, march on?

America? Will Trump give me? Ukraine. Ukraine, yeah, probably Ukraine. No, no. And will, and will the UK just march on in? Who knows what the British will do? You know, we have an expression about the Duke of York, the old Duke of York,

who march his troops up, the hill and down again. That's probably what you're going to see with the British. The idea of sending a British military contingent to Ukraine is already starting to provoke a backlash from within the military itself. And even hardline passionately anti-Russian commentators and journalists are now starting to argue against it. So I think this isn't, I just don't really believe this is going to happen actually. If the British do come, well, they'll be smashed.

And I don't think the Americans will help them. That's as simple as that. I don't think he's going to happen. Matthew says, will this conflict just be handed to the EU for America to return to after rearming? Yeah, I mean, we've been saying for America to return to after rearming. So give it to the EU and then America comes back after it's rearmed. What you create, the Russians are never going to let the Russians are never going to let that. But if the EU comes along, and I mean, the Russians have already said that part of a deal has to be the fact that Ukraine disarms.

Any deal that allows Ukraine to be rearmed is not going to be acceptable to them. And they're going to want high-clad guarantees about that. That was already in Istanbul plus. They want the Ukrainian army downsized. I think they're talking about an army of about 40,000 men. which is smaller than today's British army, which is saying something. Nicholas Walker says, why would Russia trust any deal the US-EU-UK make? Putin and Trump may well get on, but these deals need to cover decades, not years.

They don't trust anybody. I mean, I think they've made that absolutely clear. If you listen to, oh, if you read Putin's interview, I mean, you could see that he's skepticism about a deal is all over it. But if you listen to other Russian officials, people like Lavrov and Riyarbkov and all of that, who've been talking quite a lot over the last 36 hours, they clearly have little trust that any deal is going to happen. They do want normalization of relations with the United States. Normalization means that the Americans and the Russians talk to each other,

that they have functioning embassies in each other's capitals, that their foreign ministers meet on a regular basis, that they talk about international relations, and they don't do things to each other that compromises the position of the other great power. So, you know, if crazy ideas about doing further things that will disrupt the oil trade and the energy trade, when that only creates inflation in the United States,

that kind of thing. And if they can agree and work on some things like Reres, Russians are for that, though I don't know whether they seriously expect that's going to happen. The Russians, by the way, are already saying that even if there's a normalization of political relations with the West, even if all the sanctions are lifted, there's no going back to the world before February 2022. in terms of the way the Russian economy is managed, they will still make sure that their key industries, their core industries, develop in a completely different way

from the way they did before. In other words, they'll be preserved, protected, all the structures that have been created over the last three years will remain in place. Sangeva, hey, Sangeva, good to have you back. Greetings, Duran. Sorry, I didn't contribute for some time. Yeah, it's great to have you.

It is indeed good to have you. back. Niko says, I wasn't in your channel during your time with Gonzala. I saw you were physically angry Alex in your video. Do you know what happened to his children? No, I don't. August, thank you for that. Super chat. Sanjava says, hope Putin doesn't settle for another Minsk-style sellout. Too many Russians have died now to settle for some kind words from Trump. Otherwise, we will be here again in a few years, and NATO imperialism will continue. Well, again, the Russians have made it clear that they're not going to settle for another. Lov has just said this has been no ceasefire.

Then Russians are not going to have a ceasefire. Putin has effectively said this as well. They're looking for what they talk about, a long-term, sustainable, secure peace. So that precludes Minsk, which bear in mind was not intended to be a final settlement. of the conflict inside Ukraine at that time. Rather, it set out the steps towards achieving that settlement, which were never followed. Nico says you should do clown world for Pierce Morgan.

Only he would run damage control for Boris Johnson after Jeffrey Sachs humiliated him on the EU Parliament. Always on the wrong side of history, Pierce Morgan. He's all right. Nikos says, people don't understand that collapsing an army is rare, and to conquer countries. You need millions of men. We aren't in World War II era mobilization levels. Absolutely true. I mean, this is completely correct. I think the Russians have run the war, if I have to say this, in the only way that it could have been run if the kind of victory that we're looking at, that they're aiming at, would have been achieved. Listen to what Stanislav said because he knows the area.

I mean, he was born there. We've said many times before, we were saying this right at the start, that the Donbass is unique in Ukraine. It is like the roof. It is a major industrial area. It is heavily built. It's small towns, small industrial towns, lots of factories, some small, some big, very, very dense. it's basically a continuous urban sprawl with rivers, small rivers and streams and aqueducts and industrial facilities.

It is a nightmare to battle through. If you go back and study the Second World War and you read about the concerns the Americans had before they advanced on the row, you will see how difficult it is to break through this territory. In the event, by the way, the Germans collapsed in the rural in 1944, 45, because Germany was already collapsing. But the Germans were very, very worried about how to break through the world. The battle of the world was expected to last months or even years. And Don Bass is like that.

It's a very difficult place to break through. And of course, again, going back to our earliest programs about, the war. We said, firstly, that this war would be decided in Dombas, and secondly, that the objective of the Russians was the Klausovitsian of destroying the enemy's army. We even did a live stream, and we said that the priority was not cities, it was the destruction of armies. And that's exactly the approach the Russians have taken, and it's bringing them closer and closer to victory, as everyone can now see. Wade says, how did Stanislav escape from Fort Bragg? Not everyone does.

You must ask him. Latimeros says, Stanislav, please mute your mic whenever they speak. It picks up the sound from your speakers and makes it go. Thank you, Lazah, for that. Nico says, I mentioned the Chechens before, and they are an example for Russia accepting them. Look at how the most destroyed city on Earth, Groszny looks now. Exactly. There's another example of what we.

construction can achieve and how quickly it's done. By the way, the other thing to understand about reconstruction is that it boosts economic growth. I mean, that's the other thing. Provided everything is done organically. This is the problem with Ukraine. If you're reconstructing an economy and territory that is not economically viable, which Ukraine pushed beyond the NEPA would be. just to say, because I've discussed this already, that the NEPA is the essential economic artery of Ukraine.

If you do that, then you can throw as much money in as you want. You can even build shiny cities, but it will be a permanent drain upon you. If, on the other hand, you reconstruct a economy that is organically sufficient, that functions, it can function, then reconstruction will actually result in economic growth because all those people who are involved in clearing the rubble and all of that and who have been paid will be people who will then consume goods that will get the consumer goods industries functioning then they'll start to pay taxes everything starts in that way

to create what's called in economics a virtuous circle and that was what happened in Germany after the Second World War it was what happened. People don't know this in the Soviet Union after the Second World War when economic growth in the 1940s and 1950s was very fast. And it is what happens afterwards. Just saying. Elsa says reports from the front lines sound like Merkel should come and beg Putin for Minsk 3,

not that he would agree. Oh, exactly. Brohom says, how does Russia conceive itself civilization? at this time. Spengler considered Russia a primitive civilization, youth in contrast with Senaul West, not pejorative. Yeah, I know it wasn't pejorative, but of course Spengler was writing way back in the 20s, and of course today it's a very different place. Russia's a very, very different place. Anybody who goes there who sees the cities in Russia, I would not come away with the thought that this is a backward, primitive place. Many people in the West continue to think,

that and the way images of Russia are projected for example to people in brison might reinforce that idea but it's actually a very very modern advanced place in many places that's not a denying that there are places where there is still poverty and things that you know don't work and that utilities are not connected we're talking about the biggest country in the world but the cities and most Russians live in cities are sophisticated and advanced places. Now as to what the Russians think of themselves, what their place in the world is, I think they're still on a journey. If you'd ask them 50 years ago, they'd just said we were Europeans. I don't think they'd say that today.

Brodholm says, are they, according to Vico's ages, in the age of God's, heroes, or men? Spengler, spring, summer, fall, winter. No, I'm not going to go down there because I'm not really in a position to say. I'm going to say this. And I've been saying this for a while, and with every year that passes, we can see this. I think that Russia is right for an economic boom. This is again, it's a point I've been making. But if you look, there is still, there is this enormous resource base.

There is a highly educated population. Savings have been steadily building up now for about 20 years and are now at a high level. The banking system is very well organised. and there is very, very little debt. There's very little government debt, and there is very little debt at a corporate or even personal level relative to what you see in mature economies. So all of this creates the conditions for an economic boom.

Now, because the country is so huge, because the economy is so enormous, it only gradually picks up speed, but eventually when it does, you will notice it. And already, even in the periods when people were saying that it was only achieving two or three percent growth, in reality, the country was changing significantly and all the time. So that I think is where we are.

And that's what I'm going to say and talk about in the future. And when an economy booms, the population starts to grow, people have more children, all of those things, start to happen. Margo says, what do you think of the so-called peacekeeping troops from Britain and reports that President Putin apparently okay with it, according to President Trump? No, the Russians have already said that that wasn't so. Peskov was asked about it, and he said that this is, he referred back to previous statements saying that it was unacceptable. I think that what Trump was doing, he was always, Trump loves to play these verbal games.

I think he was playing cat and mouse constantly with Macro. What he was doing was saying, look, you know, if you want to do it, go ahead. Your problem, you're talking over with the Russians. You're talking over with the Ukrainians. It's got nothing to do with us. That was what he was basically up. Brohams says, is Russia in a renewal after a period of cargo culting the West and finally shedding its skin after all civilization is uncommunicable?

Please expand on your views. That's a very good point. actually. And, you know, again, this is, I talked about the fact that Russia has all the conditions for an economic boom. If you've been listening to what we've been discussing on the Duran many times, we've gone over this many, many occasions. The single factor that has held Russia back over the last 30 years is a lack of self-confidence. I mean, when Americans do things economically, you see in America always there's this enormous self-confidence. There's a tremendous optimism, which until recently has been the thing that has kept America going. Over the last 10 years,

that confidence and optimism has ebbed. Trump seems to be trying to bring it back. In Russia, after the disasters of the last Soviet years, you know, the 1990s and all of that, The country was held back by this atmosphere of cynicism, pessimism. People were saying, well, you know, we're not really going to make it after all because we never have. They didn't believe in themselves. Well, there is no better way to restore confidence to a society than a victorious war. Area, welcome to the Duran community. Jeffrey, thank you for a super sticker.

Mark, thank you for a super sticker. Winston says, the British are irrelevant spoilers. records when when will they their malevolence stop when their internal economic situation deteriorates further well indeed that is an excellent question when the british elite is either replaced or finally faces to the reality that britain is no longer a great power i mean they've resisted acceptance of this continuously and the result is that they can't constantly get Russia involved in all kinds of things, or in all sorts of places, fights with the Russians,

quarrels of the Chinese now, I mean, which is incredible, and all of those kind of things, which make absolutely no sense for what is now a middle-ranked power. If the British put this all aside, they will not only stop being spoilers, they might start addressing the real fundamental problems of their own society, and do it intelligently and purposefully, in which case we could finally see that British recovery,

which has been often talked about and sometimes attempted, but which has never really come to fruition. Hijin Bama in 1961. Thank you for that super sticker. And from Humming Pylon, is Ukraine practically Yugoslavia 2.0? What's next? I don't think we should make those.

Well, there is one comparison between Yugoslavia and Ukraine. And that is the incredibly malign effect of Western meddling in its affairs. I mean, the West meddled in Yugoslavia, they basically supported all of the various secessionist movements within Yugoslavia until it came to the Serbs. And when the Serbs wanted to secede from the various entities that had been created, well, of course, West said no and that was why we got all the Yugoslav wars but I mean the West played a big role in bringing breaking Yugoslavia in creating the Yugoslav wars so Western meddling was disastrous there Western meddling has been disastrous in Ukraine as well just saying and even as they supported secessionist movements in Ukraine except Serbian ones so they have opposed all the secession

movements within Ukraine by Russians while supporting Ukraine's secession from the Soviet Union, in other words, from Russia. So you can see what they do there. That is, however, you know, the one thing that connects the two conflicts. It's important. But the societies, Ukraine and Yugoslavia, very, very different from each other. And one shouldn't push parallels to. for. Christian, thank you for that super sticker. Latimeros says, I wonder what President Trump replied little Napoleon Macron's proposals and demands. Did he tell him to sit down and shut up? Yeah, pretty much. Actually, if I have to say, it was vintage Trump. It's the style that he's basically developed over the last couple of months. I saw it in action in September, when

he met with Zelensky in Trump Tower. I mean, he's jovial, he's jolly, he's humorous. And at the same time, when you actually go away and listen and look at what he's done, he's given absolutely nothing away. He gave absolutely nothing to Macron at all. He didn't agree anything with Macron that Macron could take away with and say that he's brought Trump on side or has managed to make Trump change his views. It's actually, I mean, as a piece of theater, it's very funny. I have to say this. And it's,

and it's very, very clever. Kim Moe, welcome to Dran community. Sophisticated Caveman says, will Russia demand control over Hartkov and Sumi Oblasts in negotiations as a result of Western incursions and attacks using these territories? Who knows? It depends very much on what kind of negotiations we get. If the Ukrainians today were to say that we accept Istanbul plus, what Putin proposed in June last year, then I think the Russians would have to say, well, you know, they've accepted Istanbul plus. That means that Kharka from all of these places are not going to become part of Russia. They might become part of a demilitarized zone or something like that, but technically they will remain in Ukraine but with every step that the Russians take further west and they're now starting to make

significant incursions into Kharkov region the dynamic changes as was pointed out some time ago on one of the live streams whereas the Russians previously when they captured a village or town or settlement in in Kharkov region used to say they, you know, we've captured this village or that settlement or that town. Now they say we have liberated these places. Now, when you're talking that way, it doesn't look as if you really seriously intend to give them up. Latimeros says, it is impossible to tank economies of countries with vast resources like Russia and China. West took upon themselves a fool's errand to do so.

Absolutely correct. By the way, in some respects, Russia the most difficult of all. country that's self-sufficient in energy and self-sufficient in food. You're going to start trying to put it under siege. An absurd idea. Ginger, thank you for that super chat. Alexander says, is there any danger of Trump's reforms collapsing the USA, like how the Soviet Union fell apart under Gorbachev? I don't think that the outcome can be the same,

in the sense that I think that the United States has a, you know, has too many things that hold it together for it to break apart in the way that the Soviet Union did. But we are at the start of a very complicated process of reform. I think Trump has made, Anne Musk, have made a very impressive start. Probably before long, the opposition is going to start to organize and grow. you know, if I was to say that I was absolutely sure that this was going to succeed, I wouldn't be telling the truth. If it fails, I don't think we will see the United States fall apart. What I fear, what I think is more likely is that we will have a restoration to the Obama-Biton-Clinton way of doing things,

which would be a terrible disaster for the world and for the American people, and which might eventually result in that crisis, which could cause the United States perhaps to fall apart. This is America's last real chance. This is why I think. Fuzziabal says, as long as Ukraine has Black Sea access, Russia will always be vulnerable. Russia wants to further annex Mikhailayev and Odessa than linked to Transnistria. Well, I mean, again, these are issues that the Russians are obviously very well aware of, and they will be thinking about and they will be taking steps over. Remember, they want demilitarization of Ukraine.

I am absolutely sure of this, want some kind of presence in Adessa. That might still leave Adessa potentially, you know, within Ukrainian territory, but it might be a very different Ukraine, just saying. Ginger Porter, thank you for that super chat. truth scares them, says, question, is there a chance that this push for peacekeepers by the West is not to protect against Russia, but to mitigate the post-war neo-Nazi rampage? Well, I doubt it, actually. I think that that would presume forward thinking that Kirstama, who is the great advocate, simply doesn't have.

I don't think he even acknowledges that those people even exist. I don't think he even wants to believe that they exist. I mean, he is infatuated with Ukraine. He believes that he's Churchill. That's as far as he goes. I always say with Stahler, don't assume more depths to this man than appear because they don't exist. Yeah, the UK should just ban any talk about Churchill and Neville Chamberlain. I mean, it just gets exhausting.

Oh, it's, it is exhausting. It's enough already. Yeah. Just enough. Ex-Captain Taco X says, your thoughts on Zelensky being the Antichrist. No, I don't think he's the Antichrist. I think of the Antichrist who face,

you'll be a rather more impressive person than Vladimir. Just wears a green t-shirt. Exactly. He's an actor. He's an actor. He's an actor. He's an actor, yeah. Yeah. Fuzzy Ball says it's not a coincidence that Belgium once a nothing country gets richer at the expense of Europe. The rise of Belgium has been interesting to watch.

You know, it's very interesting, but some anti-EU people in Britain, you know, Brexit people have long referred to the EU as the Belgian Empire. Just say. From the other side, hi guys, from Minsk, Belarus. Hello, from the other side. side. Good to have you with us. Annen Kalarisian, think of a super sticker. Kevin T.K. says Russian consulate in Paris was attacked. Any thoughts about this?

Does it surprise you? The mood at the moment? I mean, it's surprising that there have been so few attacks on Russian embassies and diplomatic facilities across Europe, given the paranoia and the anger that there is at the moment. And the fact that, you know, there's all sorts of rather, angry people from Ukraine in Europe now. Just saying.

Jamila says, hi, Duran. I'm happy to catch a live show. Guys, can you invite George Galloway? Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. That'd be great. Brulham says, do you agree that protectionist policies, tariffs, and others on Finnish goods would be a net positive for America.

And the major problem of tariffs highlighted during the conversation with Dr. Hudson has to do with natural resources. Right. Well, I'm glad you mentioned Dr. Hudson. Because the point Dr. Hudson made over the course of that very good program that we had with him is that Taras, he's not, first of all, notice that he's not against Taras. He's not somebody who says protectionism is inherently bad. He said that it can work, but as part of an overall economic plan.

The United States in the 19th century, when it did create tariff wars, had an economic plan. It had an economic strategy. It was called the American system. It was adopted by the US government. It was continued from one administration to the other. It started, by the way, with Abraham Lincoln's administration in the 1860s. It developed on clans previously associated with the Whigs, you know, the political party. that had existed before the Civil War.

And it was all about building up infrastructure, creating the great industrial complexes that we saw in the United States, harnessing investment capital to that objective. And Dr. Hudson's concern is that at the moment, he's hearing an awful lot about tariffs, but he's not really seeing much sign of a plan. And I think he's right about this.

Now, I'm going to say one thing about this, though. I mean, Trump does have at his side in Elon Musk. I know this is personally that people have strong feelings about, but one thing cannot be disputed about Elon Musk is that he does industry, he does manufacturing. He is a very good organizer of both. So he knows how to do these things. And perhaps just as he will have,

has a role in bringing down the government's size and trying to tighten up spending and all of those kinds of things. So maybe he will help to develop whatever economic plans are developed in the United States over the next four years. We'll see. Raphael says, I love Putin, but I believe it is time to bring a closer. Russia needs to tell Putin, we do not need another Erdogan. in charge we need a closer i do think Putin and erdogan are at all alike they are very very different

people just just just to say erdogan for the for the record is all of the things or many of the things that the western media says Putin is he lives in a vast palace he's massively corrupt his family's massively corrupt Putin is none of those things uh uh the one works with cronies and all kinds of people of that kind. Putin is a very methodical, systematic institution builder. I do think there is any similarity between them. I think the overwhelming sentiment in Russia at the moment is, thank God Putin, State, for the additional term.

I mean, absolutely someone needed to be there to pilot Russia through the crisis that we've just had over the last few years. And I think the overwhelming sentiment in Russia from every part of the political system is that his job is far from finished. They'd like to see him stay for at least another term in order to work through the diplomacy that has to happen and to make sure that the economic changes that are now in place are followed through. Eric Hatchet says you guys are simply the best. Thank you, Eric for that. Um, two-part question, says the notion of primitivity isn't about material wealth in cities.

It's about the position in the cycle of civilization versus attempt to imitate. Can you hear? Yeah. It is about the position in the cycle of the civilization versus attempt to imitate the West rather than stand on the shoulder of their traditions. giants, focus on materialism is typically indicative of the end of a cycle tied to the power of merchants and economics rather than the soul of a nation. Thank you very much, both. Excellent content. Thank you for your words. And thank you for your explanation. Well, in that, in that respect, no country that I know of talks so much about soul, spirit, you know, spirit, those kind of things as

Russian does. I mean, this is very, very much a characteristic of the way of Russian, modern, contemporary Russian discourse in a way that Westerners perhaps would find strange. Just saying. Arcan eclectic says Trump is a paradigm, not a panacea. Oh, I think there's some truth in that, actually. I think he is an expression of American needs. at the present moment in U.S. history, just saying. From Brulaham, great men of history have, which is laughed at by contemporary historians is showing once again to be correct in real time by giants like Trump, Xi, and Putin. In rank order from less to more, these people are misguided. Well, can I just say something?

I mean, there is an expression known to historians that the time. bring forth the man that when you have a major crisis, people will sometimes emerge who can prevail over it. I think you've seen that with Putin, actually. I mean, you look at, you remember the Russia of the 1990s. It was an, I mean, I don't want to even discuss what it was like. And then a person that was completely unknown to most people suddenly emerged as Russia's leader. And nobody thought that he would affect any significant changes. And under his leadership, whether you like it or whether you did, the fact is Russia was transformed and has materially prospered

and has returned to its historic position as a great power. So that is an example of the times bring forth the man. Is that also true, Donald Trump? I wish we were saying. Sophisticated caveman says, What should Germany do to reconcile the long-term? terms differences between east and west. Can it be done? Well, of course, it can be done. There's a good article by Conagall, by the way, on naked capitalism today.

You know, the problem in Germany is that the political class there simply cannot understand that the policies it remains committed to, every single part of it, the CDUCSU, the Greens, the SPD, the FDP, all of them, the delinker, that the policies that they are committed to are leading Germany into the abyss. He had a wonderful metaphor about how the economy is circling around the drain. He's absolutely right. Now, that doesn't mean that there are no alternatives that could be followed. There are. They could sort out relations with the Russians.

They could build up relations with the Chinese. They could improve relations with the United States. Friedrich Merck is talking about making relations with the U.S. worse. They could do all kinds of things, but they are not doing them. And that is the crisis. Nico says, see, I didn't put columns this time. I didn't exhaust you, Alexander. Side note, you should watch the story of how a British banker saved the Raketa watches factory.

check the channel Sasha meets Russia I know all about Rakita I know all about Rakita too absolutely yeah yeah I've actually seen their operations yeah yeah yeah nice watches

I mean you know better than I do Alexander and watch as Arial is also always an expert on watches but good watches yeah they're good watches I think so I have to say the 24 hour ones are hopeless

I mean for my vision I can't make kettle of them. So, I mean, as timepieces, they don't work for me at all. But the one with the zero at the top, I rather like action, particularly the... Because of your vision. My vision. I mean, they're very clear. Yeah. Rafael says, after watching the tapes when Macron was insulting Putin on the phone about the accord, telling him how stupid he was for accepting it, Peter the great, Catherine the Great would not have accepted that. Well, don't be social. I mean, again, Peter the Great is somebody who's history, I have read very, very closely. And bear in mind, Peter came to Europe and he wanted to find out what the Europeans were up to. He was at all times, and this is an important fact to understand about Peter, very, very much a Russian patriot, a Russian nationalist.

I mean, he wasn't spellbound by Europe in the way that people say. But it was important to him to understand how Europe worked and what it was and to meet the European leaders. And he was patronised and condescended to, especially, by the way, by William III in England. And he put up with it because he saw it as being in the interests of Russia. So don't make that assumption. Humming Pylon says,

does the US want Europe to stay dependent, hence peace? Can you just say that? Ask that question again. Does the US want Europe to stay dependent, hence peace? Well, I think that the lesson we've learned is that the way to keep Europe dependent is through war. Just to say, I mean, that is, I mean, the effect of the effect of the, the of the war has been to make Europe more dependent on the United States, not less.

No, Denmark said it the other day. Freddrichs, Fred Fred Fredrickson said peace is more dangerous than more. Absolutely, exactly. She made your point right there. Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, Prime Minister of Denmark. Jeff Bickford said, can't really accept the idea that the West would go to war with Russia without there being some serious challenge to the wealthiest and most powerful,

like they feel some existential crisis. I think that's absolutely correct. I mean, before the war began, long before, we've been talking about this on the Durandville forever. Not just the two of us, but many members of our community have. We could already see, we can already see, the underlying crisis that exists in the West. And this is a crisis that ultimately affects the elite of the West,

for whom the West is as much a project as it is anything else. So, of course, they wanted the conflict, and it was partly intended to bolster the system, which in the short term it has done. If you're talking about the EU Centre, it has expanded massively in power over the last three years. Raphael says there are no gold in Paris, London and Fort Knox, and you are going to have to show your golds in the future for everybody to see. Dollar, I see trouble. Well, you'll find out, no doubt, fairly soon.

The Elon Musk really doesn't want to get a look inside. We will find out, Raphael, very soon. I hope we find out. I hope they go in and see golds there. We'll find out. Herbert, take your fat super sticker. sophisticated caveman says, could Russia agree to Polish, Baltic and Romanian

peacekeeping forces in Ukraine in exchange for those countries leaving NATO? It's not happening. I mean, they will never agree to leave NATO, not in that kind of, not in return for that sort of deal. I mean, these are

the sort of ideas we can come up with theoretical ones, but they have no reality in terms of practical station. I don't think anybody is talking about. Double down says tariffs are a tool for economic divorce with vassals. Yeah, too. It's a good point, actually.

Banos, thank you for that. Amazing super sticker. Thank you, Banos, so much. Samuel Maroni says, do you know how many troops are actually fighting on the front lines in Ukraine on both sides? How many troops would Russia need in order to take Kiev? This is an excellent question. Well, Putin said that the Russians would need a million men to take Kiev. He said that in an interview, in a discussion he had with Russian war correspondence about,

well, it was, I think it was in 2023. It was, he said it was a joke, but he said we need a million man army in order to do that. They are almost there. Just, just, just say. Now, how many of those troops are actually fighting at any one time on the front line? Very, very difficult to say because, of course, the Russians don't give figures. the Ukrainians give fake things. Zelensky says that Ukrainian army is over a million men.

I've heard that the number of actual Ukrainian troops close to the front lines is probably more like a quarter of a million at any particular point in time, and quite often less than that. I've heard that the Russian forces are more. I mean, even if you have a million troops, you don't want to have them all at the front line. all at the same time. I've heard that the Russian forces are about 350,000. So the Russians have a numerical advantage, but not an enormous one. Niko says one final chat. What does it say about

historians when they ranked Joe Biden as an above average president versus people's opinion, second worst precedent? Well, I mean, what he tells you is that the study of history in the United States and Europe and wherever has collapsed. I mean, The idea that Joe Biden was anything other than an absolutely pathetic president. I mean, the worst American president in history. And I'd say that without any hesitation. I mean, that was blindingly obvious to anybody. I remember, I can remember having a discussion.

I think we did it. It was a live discussion that we had on the Duran before the 2020 election. And the man there, Alex Christopher, who said, that, you know, the only thing that could really cause a real crisis for the United States, a true American decline would be if Joe Biden was elected president. And, well, sure enough, he was. And sure enough, we see the legacy he left behind. Worse than we ever expected him to be.

He was awful. Jamila says, yeah, awful, yeah, Jamila says, I really hate Erdogan. He's acting like a Muslim, but he's not in my. opinion he is a terrorist? I don't think he is not a Muslim. I think he is an extremely dangerous man. I think he's clever in a certain way. He's obviously charismatic and he has wide support within Turkish society which should not be underestimated. And I think he is a product of many of the pathologies that Turkish society has developed ever since the fall of the

ultimately, just so. Brulham says, U.S.AID is the tip of the iceberg. These programs are widespread across five eyes. All XL NGOs, corpse, and Pentagon Intelco. It is fantastic that this knowledge is now more

widespread, but it is only the beginning. I agree. Elza says, Russian joke. Peter the Great opened the window of Europe and Putin closed it. I add, the air coming from the west has become a stink. That's why. Yeah.

From Michael Zemrovsky. Sorry for my previous behavior. I hope I have your forgiveness. Very. No, whether there was any. Okay. I guess I'm not sure what it was. I don't know what happened.

Thank you, Michael, for that. The pallet here says, what do you believe Russia will do with territory and controls in Harkovo Blast, which is not currently included? in the Russian constitution. Well, I've said already, I mean, they're talking about the fact that they've liberated it. If this goes on much longer and the Russians establish a continuous belt of territory in Harkavre region,

which they are starting to come very close to doing, then we could probably at some point see a referendum there. Most of the people in this area speak Russian. Historically, they identified as Russians. it's not impossible, that we would see another oblast wanting to join Russia, just saying, this is something that I think is not understood in the West. Raphael says,

I was talking about Peter's willingness to fight the Europeans when he got out of line. Catherine was not a dove. Any intransit was chaotic. Well, I accept that. But I mean, the point is, of course, Peter was prepared to fight

some Europeans, he also had excellent relations with others. His best friend in Europe, by the way, was the King of Prussia. They were the soldier king of Prussia. I just forgot his name. I think it was Frederick William I, it was the King of Prussia who lent him, who gave Peter the Amber Room that was installed in the palace in near St. Petersburg. and the two got on really well and had very many things in Com. So Peter had, was a very skillful diplomat. And like Putin, he picked his wars carefully.

And the great Northern War, which he eventually won against Sweden, was everywhere as grueling as a war as the one that has been fought in Dombas and lasted very, very much longer. All right, Alexander, I think that's everything. Let me just do a final check and you can give your final thoughts. Well, we're in an extraordinary times. I mean, the most astonishing events, in my opinion, were the ones yesterday in the United Nations.

The UN Secretariat, which is neocond liberal to a man and woman, by the way, they're in shock about what happened. I've been reading the UN website. And it's fascinating to see how they're trying to absorb the news that came out there. We are at the middle of what looks like a diplomatic revolution. And the fascinating, yeah, go ahead. No, go ahead. No, you're going to say very, the fascinating thing is that so far,

there's been really very little pushback in the United States itself against it, which suggests that this trend will continue. Josh Wood said, given recent developments, do you still maintain that the post-war Russian-Ukrainian border will still be west beyond the Teneeper? Yes, ultimately it will be. I don't know how it's going to happen, but I think that's where we're going. I personally would not be surprised if we eventually get a Russia-friendly government in Kiev, which eventually seeks reunion again. I'm not predicting it, but I would not be surprised if it happened. And if it doesn't happen, it might be because Moscow decides that for all kinds of reasons, it would rather preserve an independent Ukraine, friendly to Russia,

than have all of these territories brought back under Moscow's direct control. Double down says treat vassals like pawns, and soon your board will become empty, isolated from great powers, de-romanticized in the global south and Europe is weakened? Well, I do understand that, but I've always believed that the secret to maintaining a stable political situation in the world is for the great powers to work together.

What we've had up to now is a situation of conflict between the great powers, driven by the United States. States and to some extent forced upon the United States by the obsessions of its allies. So I think if the United States now starts behaving like a conventional great power and seeks to work with the other great powers far from becoming isolated, I think America will enjoy peace and the world will and American influence and popularity around the world will grow again. American popularity has sharply fallen over the last 30 years in most places in the world. Sophisticated caveman says, will Blinken, Sullivan, Millie, Austin, and others be held accountable?

Or will they get off scot-free? I'm disgusted and angry with them. Will some of the Millie, for example, have had pardons? So it's very difficult to see what can be done. We'll see. Elsa says, Alexander is the novel Peter the First by Alexei Tostoy historically correct? I love that book. It is brilliant.

It is one of the best places to learn about these. I won't say that it is historically correct in every detail because it is a historical novel, but it is written with great understanding of the subject. And after very extensive research. By the way, there are two very good film adaptations that were made of that novel in the late Soviet period, which is worth tracking down. And Burlacham says, if Trump offers Russia river delimited territories in Ukraine, plus remainder enters NATO, plus US leaves NATO now, would Russia accept these terms? It seems like a positive that Trump crashes the EU and NATO before the end of his term. I still don't think the Russians would agree.

I don't think they will ever agree to Ukraine leaving, adjoining NATO, because I think they will say to themselves, well, even if the United States says that it's leaving NATO, is it even for real and might it not rejoin again? So these are the things that they would have to think about. And as I said, first of all, I don't think that that kind of proposal will ever be made, but even if it was, I don't think the Russians could accept it. All right. All right. That is the live stream. Thank you to everyone that watched us on Odyssey on Rockfin, Rumble, YouTube, and the durand. DotLocals.com. Thank you to our moderators, Peter Zareel. Thank you so much for helping to moderate. I'm not sure if there were any other moderators.

But I think Peter and Zareel. Thank you so much. thank you to stanislav once again for joining us his very much his information his information is in the description box down below and i will also add it as a pin comment take care everybody thank