The Duran Podcast - US-Ukraine military alliance. Europe dismantles Trump plan

Episode Date: December 15, 2025

US-Ukraine military alliance. Europe dismantles Trump plan

All right, Alexander, let's talk about the diplomacy taking place in Berlin between Ukraine, the Europeans, and the United States. Yesterday, we had meetings between Zelensky, Whitkoff, and Kushner, as well as Merz, but the other reports are that Merch was kicked out of the negotiating room. And today we have meetings between Zelensky, Kushner Whitkoff, and they've, flown in Alexander Stoop to attend the meetings. So we have negotiations taking place between Ukraine, Europe, and the United States, if you want to call what's happening right now, negotiations.

And they're talking about three topics. They're discussing three separate documents or three separate tracks in these negotiations. They're talking about the territory issue. security guarantees and I believe the third one is the economic reparations stuff, the money. So that's what they're discussing over these past

two days. Yesterday's meetings in Berlin were five hours long as we're recording this video the second negotiations are taking place. The big news is that Zelensky has made huge concessions, a massive concession

The media is talking about this, and Kayakales has mentioned how these are just huge concessions that Zelensky is making. He has said that Ukraine is not going to pursue NATO membership yet. We don't even know what exactly he means when he says that Ukraine is dropping its pursuit of entering NATO. But in return, what he wants is the United States, Europe, Canada, and most likely Japan to provide security guarantees, security guarantees that in the case of the United States would have to be approved by Congress, an alliance, a military alliance. Basically, what Zelensky is saying is, I'll drop the pursuit of NATO, but in its place, I want NATO plus Japan. And I want a military alliance with the United States, which basically means that he's asking for not just NATO security, but he's asking for

NATO security and more. At least that's how it looks to me. But what do you think is happening here? Do you think anyone is buying this or falling for all of these fake concessions? Well, the people who will not fall for these fake concessions, and to be very clear, they are completely fake concessions. Oh, the Russians, the Russians have already made it clear, and we'll come to them in a short time, that they're going to reject all of this, every single part of this. Now, let's talk about NATO. What Zelensky's, saying about NATO. Firstly, most important thing, he is not talking about changing Ukraine's constitution. Ukraine's constitution says that Ukraine will one day eventually join NATO. He has ruled out

any changes to the constitution whatsoever. He says that at the moment, and it is at the moment, Ukraine will not pursue NATO membership because he accepts and Kayakales accepts and very as other people except that there is too much opposition within NATO to Ukraine joining NATO. So he says that in accepting this reality, what he wants instead is a treaty of alliance with the United States that gives Ukraine essentially the same protections as those it would have if it was a member of NATO. In other words, there would be a military alliance between Ukraine and the United States and between Ukraine and other Western powers, including, of course, Japan, but obviously Britain and France and Germany and those of the others would all be there. And he wants this

Treaty of Alliance, because it would be a Treaty of Alliance, ratified by the US-guise. Congress. So it would be an international treaty. So in every respect, that is NATO. That is essentially no different from NATO at all. The Russian demand is completely different. Not only must Ukraine commit not to joining NATO, but it, and make an indefinite and permanent commitment that it will not join NATO, but it must also accept neutral, non-aligned status. This is not neutral, non-aligned status. This is an alliance between Ukraine and the West. Ukraine would in effect become a member of NATO in all but name, and eventually, and at some

point, it would still become a member of NATO again. So he is not conceding anything. He is accepting the reality that the Trump administration is not going to agree to Ukraine's NATO membership today. And nor is Hungary and nor are various other NATO countries. So he's not getting second best. He's getting a lot more than second guest. He's going to get an actual military alliance. Now, everything else that I'm hearing about the Ukrainian proposals and what,

What Witkoff and Kushner are discussing with Zelensky in Berlin are Ukrainian proposals, Ukrainian counter-pro proposals, says exactly, says again, the Ukrainians have not changed their plan. They basically are sticking with the Kellogg plan. He says, yes, maybe Ukrainian troops can withdraw from Dombas, but Russian troops must also withdraw from Dombas. That basically then makes it a a ceasefire on the existing conflict lines. I mean, I think this is a thing people do need to understand. If the Russians were pulled back and the Ukrainians pulled back and there is a demilitarized zone between, there is a ceasefire.

It is not a Ukrainian withdrawal from Dombas. So he's going back to the ceasefire, the ceasefire in Dombas, and a ceasefire all across the other. parts of the conflict line as well. And he's sticking to this. Apparently he's still negotiating of the terms of any weak Ukrainian withdrawal from Dombas. He's very resistant to accepting such a withdrawal, but he's floating this possibility. And again, it's a possibility that the Russians are not only going to reject, they have already rejected. They've just said so over the last two, days. And of course, all of the other things that are there in this plan, the size of the

Ukrainian armed forces, up to 600 or 800,000 men, a figure the Russians, again, will not accept economic reconstruction of Ukraine paid for by Russian money from the seized frozen assets. That's not something the Russians are ever going to agree to because that That makes it looks like reparations and the Russians are not going to pay reparations. And of course, the Europeans anyway, are pressing forward, moving as fast as they can to seize those assets. We've discussed this in recent programs because they know that the Russians insist that these assets must be repaid to them. And by seizing the assets, they make negotiations a final agreement impossible. The Russian demands are profoundly different.

The Russians not only want the Ukrainians to withdraw from Dombas. It's clear that they still want the Ukrainians to withdraw from Zaporosia and Heron regions too. And the Russians say they want international, formal, international recognition that these two territories, all of these territories, are Russian. And they want Ukraine to recognize this. also. So the gulf between what the Russians want and what the Ukrainians are talking about remains as huge as ever. I don't actually see any closing of the gap here coming out of these discussions at all. Why is Russia then playing along with this farce? That is what they are doing there.

Are they? Are they? I mean, I mean, you know, they ask questions of Peskov, for example. And Peskov comes out, you know, what do you think of what's going on in Berlin, for example? And Peskov says, well, the United States has not briefed us on what's been going on. They haven't sent us documentation as to what's being discussed. But, you know, we're watching, right? I mean, well, let me rephrase my question.

How come Russia is not coming out with more clear statements saying, look, look, everyone, if the Europeans, Ukrainians, and the United States, if they want to go, if they want to negotiate with each other, that's fine. We can't stop them. But nothing that they are negotiating on is even remotely close to our terms to Istanbul plus. You do have Uschikov. He speaks in this gray zone area, this gray area. He says, well, some parts of the 28 point peace plan are good, other parts are not, we're going to reject the parts that are not good, but there's some stuff that we can talk about. Okay, I understand the diplomacy of what he's saying, that he's being diplomatic in his choice of words. But some of the stuff, most of the stuff that they're discussing

is the Europeans, I mean, the Europeans, the Americans and the Ukrainians, what they're discussing is ridiculous. A DMZ, that's what they're talking about, a DMZ. And remove the Russian withdrawal. Let's say that that isn't part of what they're discussing, whereas Olensky is saying, well, the Russians also have to pull back. Let's say that the Russians don't have to pull back. The Trump plan is still saying that the 20% part of Dombas is going to be a DMZ or maybe even a free economic zone.

I mean, we're talking about stupidities like a free economics. It's just dumb. It's beyond dumb. I mean, you know, you're basically telling Russia, okay, you know, Ukraine's going to pull back from Donbass, but we're going to create a conflict freeze, a DMZ. I mean, that's never going to fly, right? The whole military, the whole alliance, NATO thing is basically, yeah, Ukraine doesn't join NATO, but they're going to get a military alliance with the United States, which would compel the United States to go to war with Russia over Ukraine. And you can imagine all the false flag scenarios and everything that that could push the United States to actually go to war on behalf of Ukraine with Russia. I mean, we see this. We see what they're talking about. We see all of the stupidity and all the points that are being negotiated by the Europeans, the Americans, and the Ukrainians. How come Russia doesn't say, you know, you guys can talk all you want, but all these points that you're discussing.

are absurd. Right. Well, I think Putin actually clarified this fairly clearly in a recent meeting of the Security Council, which is when he discussed the 20, actually discussed the 28 points. And he said that the 28 points contain some useful things. They also contain many things that are completely unacceptable. And it's clear that there are some people in the Security Council who are very impatient with the whole negotiations, idea of negotiations. They don't believe negotiations are going anywhere.

And Putin in effect was responding to them. And he said, we want the best outcome for us is a military victory. In, I mean, I'm slightly passing his words, but we would prefer a military victory. But I have spoken to our various friends, to China, to India, to Brazil, to all of these places, and they have made it absolutely clear that they want us instead to see whether we can find a negotiated solution to this. And we've discussed this in the past. We discussed this in 2022. This is what Putin said. And I suspect it's true. The whole Istanbul plus proposed, that came out of Russia in the summer of last year, as I remember, was itself a product of diplomatic pressure that was being exerted on Russia at that time by India and Brazil,

especially, but also to some extent China too, to agree to a ceasefire. And the Russians did not want to agree to a ceasefire. So after a lot of discussion and consultation, Putin came along to the foreign ministry and said, look, we will agree to a ceasefire, but on this basis and this basis alone. And that took the pressure of the Russians for several months. Then along comes Donald Trump. He says, I want a negotiated solution to the conflict. The Russians face similar pressures from their allies.

And Putin, who has to talk to Modi, Xi Jinping, Lula and the others, has to go along with this. But on this occasion, over the last couple of days, the Russians, I think, have been much clearer than they have been previously. They're also been much clearer about what was really agreed in Anchorage. And it's clear that in Anchorage, the speculations that existed, that the Russians agreed to a ceasefire in Sarporogea and Herson region, were actually wrong, that the Russians never agree to anything of the sort, and they are still insisting that it is Istanbul plus or nothing. Ushaka, Ushakov has just spoken recently.

He had a meeting with Pavel Zarubin. He said, we haven't seen these proposals. We don't know what these proposals contain exactly. No doubt the Americans will provide them to us, but everything that we are hearing about these discussions, that the Americans, the Europeans and the Ukrainians are having with each other, suggests to us that this is something that we are going to reject in its entirety. He said quite clearly, if it deviates from what we understood the Americans were prepared to

talk about with us in Anchorage and what they were prepared to talk with us when Wittgoff and Kushner came to Moscow, then this isn't something we are even prepared to look at. We're going to reject it out of hand. and he's trashed the suggestion of demilitarized zones. He said that the Russian police and Russian administration and the Rochskwadia organization, which is part of the Russian armed forces, at the very least, must be able to enter Dombas.

By implication, he's trashed the idea of the free trade zone. The Russians have, as I said, I think made it very clear that they're not prepared to accept these complex ideas about security guarantees that essentially are a pathway to Western membership. They've been, a NATO membership. They've been talking today, that there have to be cast iron guarantees that Ukraine will never join NATO. They spoke yesterday about how if there's going to be any security guarantees provided,

they must also be provided to Russia as well and must be at least comparable to those that Ukraine has, so that at the very least this would be any security guarantees would be up for negotiation. So I do think the Russians have actually been unclear this time. I think they've taken a harder line than usual. What they don't want to do, what they don't want to appear to do, is to slam the door. This is controversial in Russia itself. It is controversial within the Security Council, the Russian Security Council, but Putin, who has to speak with Modi and Xi Jinping and Lula and all of the others, obviously, he is extremely sensitive to. That's it.

Why would... Okay. Putin's explaining this to the Security Council. I understand that. But my point is, how come they don't explain this to the United States or to the negotiators, to the world, that what's going to... on in Berlin is a farce. Okay, he's saying it to the Security Council to other Russian officials who have doubts about what's going on. So he's explaining this to them. But I don't understand

why they don't come out with a statement to the world and say, look, what's happening in Berlin right now is meaningless to us as far as any connection to reality or to Istanbul Plus, because they're not discussing Istanbul Plus. They're doing their own negotiations. The Europeans actually have got what they wanted. The Europeans got what they wanted. They're sitting at the table now. They're sitting at the table and they're negotiating with the United States and by the side of Ukraine. So the Europeans got their demand. Once again, the Europeans got the better of Trump. That's exactly what happened. And I know Trump plays a hard line and he squeezes Europe. But the Europeans know how to work Trump. They know how to work it and they worked their way into the negotiations

in Berlin. First of all, it's taking place in Berlin. So that right there is a concession from the United States. It's in Berlin. So there you go. Now, I just want to go back to Putin saying, you know, India, Brazil, China, they're telling me to find a ceasefire, to agree to some sort of a ceasefire. Why are they dictating Russia's foreign policy and Russia's interests? That's question number one. Why are they dictating how Russia should conduct its foreign policy and what's in its national interest? And wouldn't it be in the best interests of, say, China? It sounds counterintuitive, actually, for China. You would think the narrative that we've been told is that China wants to keep this conflict going

because it serves as advantageous to China. So why would China push for a ceasefire, which would then allow the United States? States and its allies to focus 100% on China while having the ceasefire and they could revert back to the ceasefire once they've dealt with China. So it allows them to put all their focus on China. None of it makes sense. To me, what Putin is saying to the Security Council doesn't make sense. And it doesn't really make Putin and Russia look so strong.

They're folding to Brazil, India, and China. Well, I don't think they are folding to India, China, India, Brazil and all of these places. I mean, to say it straightforwardly, I think the Russians set out their position in June 2024, and they've not shifted from it. At the same time, they cannot entirely ignore what China, India and Brazil are asking them. Because they know that China, India and Brazil are their partners in bricks. It is an underlying Russian priority to build up bricks. It's important for Russia that is able to continue to trade with these countries. And all of these countries now, India, Brazil, China too, are exposed to the possibility of Western sanctions and Western tariffs.

and they will say to the Russians, look, we're prepared to absorb all of this. We're prepared to accept the pressure from the West. But in return, we want to see that you are taking our concerns into account. And they're not just pushing forward with this war and showing no interest and sign of interest in negotiations. So I think that explains the dynamic. It is not uncontroversial to put it mildly in Russia. itself, but Putin has always shown great sensitivity to the concerns of his allies. And he's now made it absolutely clear to the Security Council that this explains much of the

care in which, much of the way in which he's conducted the negotiations with Trump and the Americans up to now. Now, as to... Can you make the argument real quick that it's been the sanctions that have supercharged the growth of bricks? like the very sanctions have actually helped bricks. Yeah, sure. Absolutely. And of course, that's what Putin still wants to happen.

But he doesn't want a narrative to start to gain traction, maybe not so much in China, but say in India or Brazil, that the Russians are indifferent to what is happening to those countries, that they're just going to focus entirely on the war. and they don't care whether India pays more in tariffs in its trade with the United States, but Brazil pays more in tariffs to the United States, and that that causes sentiment in Brazil and in India to start to turn against Russia and perhaps ultimately against Briggs.

So the Russians have to be sensitive to this, but they're not so sensitive up to now that they're prepared to make, significant concessions. In fact, as far as I can see, since June 2024, they've made no concessions at all. Now, as to a statement, well, the water statement, it wasn't widely reported, but Lavrov called, I think, 97 ambassadors from global south countries to the Russian foreign ministry and gave an absolutely monumental statement there, setting out the Russian position very clearly. And again, it was Istanbul. plus and with some indications that he was prepared to go beyond Istanbul plus.

And he even took questions. He took questions from Bahrain and from some other countries. And he explained the position there fairly well. What the Russians never do, and we discuss this many times, is that they're not prepared. They don't show any understanding of the need to go out there and to challenge this in the global media. So what you got instead, and this is absolutely typical of the Russians, is you get Ushakov, who is, of course, not a person who is informed or well informed about media relations. but a diplomat, a former diplomat. He comes along and he talks to Zadabin, who is, well, he's a journalist, but he's such a

well-connected journalist in Moscow that he is basically a member of Putin's inner circle. And he tells Zaharabin, and it's all done in public. Look, what we're hearing from Berlin really isn't going to work, and it isn't suitable for us, and we're going to shoot it all down. But he does this again in diplomatic language, because he does this again. because he is a diplomat. You don't get the very tough, strong-minded, hardline, well, you know, canny people in Russia who understand media relations, understand PR, all of that sort of thing.

Peskov, who's also, I believe, got a background as a diplomat. None of them really understand how to do this thing, nor disputed. And the other extraordinary thing about it is they don't seem to care. And that's, I think, one of the major problems. But anyway, now, there is something else that I wanted to say about this, which is that, of course, you could criticize the Russians, but the people you should really be criticizing is the Trump administration. That's my point.

Exactly the point. It's not that I'm because you say they don't care about the media, spin, the Russians, but they have on the other side of the table a president, that's all he cares about is a media spin. That's it. Exactly. Exactly. So again, and by the way, Shukuf has asked this question. He said, why is the administration giving the Europeans the time of day? The Russians who said clearly what they would prefer to see is a bilateral negotiation between them and the Americans. And there is no reason why that can't happen. So why are the Americans wasting their time negotiating with the Ukrainians and with the Europeans,

instead of negotiating with the other party, which is actually the Russians. The Russians said back in August, apparently, in Anchorage, look, you've come up with these proposals, these points, NATO members. membership, no NATO membership for Ukraine, a cap on the Ukrainian armed forces, a Ukrainian withdrawal from Domba's, lots of things we still need to talk about. But yes, we can sit down and we can talk about this and we can set up negotiating teams. Putin spoke just a few days ago about the importance of setting up proper negotiating teams. He said, I don't know any other way to do this. Trump doesn't want that. And it doesn't happen.

So we have a situation where the Americans take one step towards the Russians and then they talk to the Europeans and the Ukrainians and they then go five steps back. And we've had this happen repeatedly ever since Trump was inaugurated in January. And frankly, I don't think it's ever going to happen. I mean, Trump is relying on Whitgold. who is undoubtedly a clever man and who speaks some Russian and has had interactions with the Russians and probably understands them fairly well by now. We've had Kushner come in. Kushner isn't even a member of the US government. He isn't properly speaking a member of the administration. The State Department isn't involved. The Defense Department isn't involved. Heg says has apparently

blocked Dan Driscoll from taking any part in the discussions at all. So again, we have this weird setup where Witkoff and Kushner, people who are at the very least semi-detached from the United States government, spent hours of time talking with Zelensky and with the Europeans and going round and round and round in circles again. And that's exactly what's going to happen. Whitkoff is going to go to Moscow. the Russians will tell Whitkoff, nice try, nice drive Steve, but no thanks and go away and start again. And we will have more comments from Trump about disappointed with Putin, he is, and maybe we'll get a few more sanctions along the way. And then the whole process will restart all over again as it is dictated by the situation on the front lines. But it is the most bizarre way of conducting negotiations I have ever seen.

I have repeatedly said, if the Americans want to understand how this is done, look at the Paris negotiations between the United States and North Vietnam. The South Vietnamese were there. They were in the room. But ultimately, it became a bilateral negotiation between the North Vietnamese and the Americans. And that's the only way this can end. The Trump administration, they don't do quiet bilateral negotiations, right? Trump doesn't want that. No.

He doesn't want negotiations behind closed doors without all the media and all the reporting, which is exactly what the Russians are saying they want. Yeah. Right? The Russians have said it. We don't want a megaphone attached to these negotiations. We prefer to do everything quietly behind closed doors. doors and to go through a proper process, a proper diplomatic process. That's not what Trump wants.

He doesn't want that at all. So the Russians are not going to get this because the Trump administration doesn't want this. Trump wants to put up his truth social posts and he wants to announce a big win. Zelensky was sitting to the left of me. Putin was sitting to the right. They didn't like each other. And then I brought them together and they shook hands and they started hugging. And there you go. I'm the great negotiation. That's exactly what he wants to announce. It doesn't even care if it's a lasting piece or one or two year ceasefire. Just look at Cambodia and Thailand. Right? He just wants something that can get him through the next six months, a year, two years, three years, whatever. That's what he's looking for. The problem that Russia has in all of this is that the Europeans,

the Americans, and the Ukrainians are going to come along with some sort of three-part plan three documents. They're going to have security guarantees. They'll have money. They'll have the whole territory, DMZ thing. They're going to come out with a very clever narrative to underpin all of this, which will be Ukraine says no to NATO. And that right there is, there it is. Ukraine says no to NATO. So what's your problem, Russia? What is your problem? And most people are not going to try to get into into the details of all of this or into the weeds as to why this is not really a concession. They're just going to read, Ukraine is saying no to NATO. Well, there it is.

How come Russia doesn't accept this peace deal? And that's exactly what they're going to throw to Russia. Russia's going to say no, and they're going to get into all their detailed reasoning to everything. But it's going to be blamed out of Russia at the end of the day. And the media is going to run with it. And the Europeans are going to come out with states. And then Kaya Callas is going to come out with her 19 countries invaded in a hundred years, lying that she's been fed from her scriptwriters.

And that's what's going to happen. And everything's going to be blamed on Russia. And then you're going to get into the cycle of escalation, right? That's what's going to happen in all of this. Yes. It's clear as day. Yes. I should say that Usherkhov made it absolutely clear that if the Russians are presented

with anything like this, I think his words were they will not hesitate to reject it. And I think that is exactly what is going to happen. I mean, they will reject it, but my question is. And they will be blamed for rejecting it. Just as they were blamed, if you remember, in the summer, when they rejected the unconditional ceasefire, the Kellogg Plan, and they will be blamed for that all over again. I think we've now reached that point where the Russians probably don't care very much about this.

After all, they've been blamed for the whole crisis. all along in Europe. They criticize every day and all the time. And they say, well, if we get a little bit more criticism, what does it matter? Provided... But it does dedicate a lot of time to Wickoff though. This is true. He does. He does. He does. He does. But provided our friends, our true friends, are okay with this, then what the media say in London, Paris, Washington, New York and Berlin is not something we're going to spend any time, lose any sleepover. So I think this is what the Russians are saying to each other and what they're going to do.

I think that where it becomes more complicated is that I think that, again, and this goes beyond the issue of, keeping the allies, the friends, Brazil, China, India, on side, is that I also get the sense that at some fundamental at deep level, Putin still doesn't want to close the door completely on relations with the United States and with Donald Trump. I've had this sense for a long time, and I think this is one reason, while when Witkoff does come with this proposal to Moscow,

The Russians will say, no, it's unacceptable. We can't work on this. We have to go back to our earlier understandings, the ones that we reached in Anchorage, and the Russians will try to explain this to the Americans and will go through this whole motion all over again. I think the Russians, and I say this many times, I do think that they understand the extent to which Trump himself

is focused on public relations. I do think the Americans have ever quite grasped this. When Putin says, I don't know any other way to conduct negotiations than, you know, the more conventional ones, I got a sense that he was baffled why the Americans can't see this, why Trump can't see this. And I think that Putin still thinks at some deep level that the Americans will eventually come round to his way of thinking. if he keeps the door open to them. And of course, the National Security Strategy document that was published recently by the US

will probably reinforce that view because it says that it is a core interest to the United States to stabilize relations with Russia. So Putin says, let's not shut the door, let's keep the door slightly ajar, and let's wait and talk to the Americans politely and eventually, in a year, two years, five years, ten.

come around to us. Right. I mean, it's, it's important for the United States to reestablish relations with Russia as they continue to fund and finance the conflict in Ukraine and continue to attack Russia. Well, I think that's, with drones, with attacks on tankers. Actually, the collective West media even came out with an article. I think it was the Wall Street Journal or maybe the Washington Post where they said that most likely the United States is behind many of the tanker attacks that have taken place in the Black Sea. They admitted that. I, I, I, I, I, I, I mean, it's pretty damning what they're saying. This is where I think Putin himself is going wrong,

because I think, again, he probably, like a lot of Russians, and remember he was already there when this was going on, he's 73 now, so he probably remembers this. Though obviously he was a young man at the time, a teenager. But some of the other officials of the Russian foreign minister, he remembered the Cold War. And they remember how during the Cold War, there were situations like the one in Vietnam when the Soviets were helping the North Vietnamese. They were providing weapons to the North Vietnamese.

They were, as we now know, helping directly. There were Soviet personnel in North Vietnam, helping to shoot down American aircraft with fighter pilots inside it. And notwithstanding all of that, notwithstanding all of that, U.S. and U.S. Soviet relations throughout the 1960s improved. And I think the Russians still believe in some level, or at least some Russians still believe, the older ones, people like Putin and Usherkov, who were there during the Cold War, that perhaps if they are patient, they can return to that world again. My own view, and I share it with you, I think that world has gone forever.

The idea that the Americans will ever go back to holding the type of summit meeting that Kassigin and Lyndon Johnson had in Glaspera in 1967 is impossible. And as we've pointed out in many programs, I mean, what the Americans are doing now, the missile strikes inside Russia itself, the attacks on the tankers, all of these things, go. far beyond what happened in the 1960s at any point in the Cold War. So I think that that, but I do think that that, you know, Putin himself still clings on to this. And I don't think he's the only person, by the way. I suspect there's a few old veterans in the foreign ministry who think the same. I think the younger people take a much tougher and stronger view of all of this. But anyway, we are where we are.

And I don't think, as I said, just to finish, I don't think that Putin and other Russians who think like him understand the extent to which the United States, America itself, was changed. Well, I wonder how many tankers need to be attacked or how many more drone strikes or missiles need to be launched to the Russian Federation until they finally leak it over this Cold War. dream that they have, is this reprash, Cold War reprash, moan narrative that they cling on to. Well, I mean, we've had now, I mean, they are not starting to take counter steps. I mean, they conducted attacks against the Turkish ship in Odessa. They do seem to be moving towards blockades and things of that. But still, these are retaliations against the Ukrainians. They've not yet acted in a way that directly retaliates in a kinetic. way against American interests.

Well, non-kinetic way they haven't retaliated. I mean... Well, I mean, they've seized. I mean, they've frozen American assets in Russia and done those sort of things. But it's all on a very, very restrained and measured level. They never acted as aggressively against the Americans, as the Americans have acted against them. And as I said, I think that this generation of Russians brought up during the Cold War, to

some extent in all of the United States, because the Soviets, as I well remember, were very much in awe of the United States, hankering for a relationship with the United States, they probably have to move on before we see a decisive change. But we will see that change. And the future generation of Russian leaders will not only be much tougher relative to the US and to Europe as well, by the way. But there will be much, much more versed in public relations and media spin and all of those things that the current lot are. Because Russia now does have a media. It has to have an important public opinion. People do ask questions. Putin has himself been asked tough questions in press conferences and things of that kind. So as I said, this is a transitional period that is

going to pass. But to finish my points, no one should expect that the Russians are going to make substantive concessions, any concessions. They haven't done so up to now. They're not going to do so again. And Ushikov has already said that all of these ideas, all of these discussions that are taking place in Berlin, what's coming out of them is basically dead on arrival. A final question to wrap of the video. How much power does Trump really have in these negotiations with Russia in this reproshment with Russia? Do you get the sense that sometimes the deep state is allowing Trump to go along and play this negotiation game, this negotiation theater? Let Trump, Whitkoff and Kushner do their little negotiations thing. It's not going to really change our policy towards the conflict. We want to continue the war. We want the griff to continue. We want the escalation to continue. I'm talking from the perspective of the deep state, the globalists and the deep state, whether they're in Europe, whether they're in the United States or the UK, whatever. They're saying, you know what, let Trump and his team, his real estate buddy and his son-in-law, let them do their 28-point peace plans. Let them go through all the theatrics of this. We've made our decision. We're going to try and keep this war going as long as possible. And eventually we'll turn to China as well. If we can't get a freeze, then we're going to. to just let the war play out in Ukraine and we'll do the government at Exxon and all this. We've talked about this in a previous video because we always come back to the same point

that we've been making over and over and over again. If Trump really wanted to end the war as president of the United States and if he really had the power to end the conflict, then he would do it. He controls Ukraine from top to bottom. The United States controls Ukraine from top to bottom. They pay the salaries. pay the parliament. They control Zelensky. They control the actual war. They have their command center in Germany. They provide the intel, the Starlink, everything. They run the entire country.

They run the entire conflict. And they also control all of Europe. They control Europe as well from top to bottom. So if they really, really wanted to just turn off the conflict, snap of a finger. He can do it. And then he can get into diplomatic reprosm. with Russia and business with Russia and Arctic, Arctic and oil and everything, if he really wanted to as president of the United States. But we have this theater that is playing out in Berlin and with Wiccoff going to Moscow and with and with Amarov in Florida, meeting with Bongino and Patel, and we have all of these things going on.

What do you say to that? No, absolutely. I'm going to say, I mean, in reality, of course, the people that probably talk about doesn't understand this, but the people he's negotiated with in Berlin, except, of course, it's not really a negotiation. The people who are rewriting his plans in order to set them up to fail are the deep stake.

I mean, you know anything at all about Alexander Stubb? You would know exactly what I mean. Anyway, I don't want to say too much because of the sensitivities here. But everybody gets it. I mean, you know, the people he's negotiating with all of the Europeans. And, of course, the phone calls,

the messages, the emails, all of that. They're moving constantly. And of course, there's American officials in Europe who talk to European officials in Europe. This goes on every single day. And of course, it's exactly what they want. They want to keep Trump busy and preoccupied dealing with this thing bogged down

over this interminable negotiation, which always an invariably leads absolutely nowhere. He loses credibility and support. His mind is focused on instead of much more important and useful things that he could be involved in in the United States itself. We discussed this right before when we said back in August of last year that if he began a negotiation, he started to get into negotiations. The deep state and the Europeans would bog him down. That's exactly what's happened. They bogged him down. They've trapped him. They've He's in exactly that quagmire that we want he would find himself in.

And of course, the result is whenever he puts forward proposals and they eventually get rejected by the Russians, which they are, it builds within the internal power struggles in Washington, the deep state narrative. The Russians are implacable. They're not interested in negotiations. They are maximalist demands. We can't proceed with what Trump is talking about because there's never going to be stabilization with the Russians who are out to conquer first Europe and then the United

States and then the world. I mean, you know, that kind of absurd narrative that gets floated around. And Trump is a fool to continue with this. And if he's not a fool, well, he might be a fool. something even worse, it may be that there was something to those collusion allegations after all. And by the way, in the media here in Britain, the collusion allegations are referenced and brought up every time it does seem as if Trump is making some step towards moving this process of negotiation forward. And of course, all of that does have a cumulative effect and it

weakens Trump's position. So I think the deep state, I'm not saying they're in. enjoying it and loving it, but they're absolutely running circles around him. And they're doing it with their friends in Europe. And they're doing it with their friends in Ukraine too. Yeah. We did so many, since it's August of 2024. We did so many shows on what Trump should do. We did so many live streams, me and you, me, you, and Robert Bards.

We've done live streams, me, you, and Brian Berlick. And we've outlined all of this, all of us have outlined everything in great, detail as to what would be the best outcome, not only for the United States, but for the entire world, and for Ukraine, and for the, and for the soldiers fighting in Ukraine, and for peace in Europe, and for the multipolar world, for everything. But, you know, as you said, the deep state has been running circles around Trump. It's not Trump, sometimes I get to sense that it's not Trump playing 5D chest. It's a deep state that's playing 5D chess.

That's the impression that I get. Yes. Well, if you worked in a bureaucracy, which I have done a governmental bureaucracy, you know how they're behaving. I've never seen anything done on this epic scale, but the bureaucracies I worked in were relatively small. The deep state is perhaps the biggest bureaucracy in the world and amongst the most sophisticated. And obviously, they know what they're doing and they know how to do it, and they've done it in exactly the way that we predicted that they would. Trump has never really understood his own adversaries, the nature of the adversaries that he's facing in Washington. And I'm going to say it, people might not agree with me, but I think when he closed down Doge and quarreled with its creator, he made the biggest mistake of all in his administration up to now.

Yeah, that's a very good point. Just a final point to all of this, if he loses the midterms, if the Democrats gain the House and or the Senate, they're going to start all of the Russiagate impeachment stuff all over again. And they're going to target Trump. They're going to target his cabinet. They're going to go after everyone. I think they already are preparing all the cases.

They're already laying down all the foundation to go after him. So, I mean, I just wonder, does he have? have any time to get out of Ukraine at this point, or is he done? I mean, and there's a very good chance that the Democrats are going to win. That's how the polling numbers look. Yes. There's an extremely good chance, and I think they quite possibly will win, and you absolutely will. As night follows day, they will bring impeachment proceedings against him. All I would say is that, in my opinion, both of the two previous impeachment proceedings that were brought against Trump, ultimately backfired against the Democrats themselves.

I think that in the end, the basis upon which they were brought was so incredible that Trump, who had, especially over the course of the second impeachment, already lost a considerable amount of support for his base over the coup and all of that. I think that at that point, strange enough, it led to a pendulum swing back in his favour.

So I don't want to predict too far. But the key thing is, of course, if the Democrats win, then the administration is paralyzed. The Trump agenda is gone. The tariffs almost certainly will be reversed and buried. And we will be back where we were at the beginning. There will have been a huge amount of action. activity, hard work done, and it will all have been for nothing.

And again, by the way, if you go back to our programs, going back to August 2024, we predicted that if Trump got involved in negotiations to end the war in this kind of way, that was exactly what would happen. It would wreck completely his domestic agenda. What he needed was to get the United States out of the war fast. sort out some kind of relationship with the Russians, stabilize energy prices, bring down inflation, bring down the cost of living in the United States, and that would have put him in pole position to move forward and strengthen his positions as his administration continued.

But of course, he didn't do that. None of that happened. He took the wrong, he took perhaps entirely predictably the wrong turn. we see where we are. Yeah. All right, we will end the video there. The durand.com. We're on next.

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