The Duran Podcast - War and Peace w/ Daniel McAdams

Episode Date: November 20, 2025

War and Peace w/ Daniel McAdams

All right. We are live with Alexander McCurice in London, and we are joined once again on the Duran with the excellent Daniel McAdams. Daniel, how are you doing today? Greetings, gentlemen. Great to be with you. Great to have you with us. And before we get started, Daniel and Alexander, Daniel, where can people follow your work? Sure. At Ronpaltl Institute.org is the institute site. We do. a daily news analysis show Monday through Friday at the Ron Paul Liberty Report. We'll live on Rumble at noon Eastern time. Fantastic. I have those links in the description box down below, and I will add them as a pin comment when the live stream ends. And before we get started, Alexander, and I pass it off to you, let's just say a quick hello to everyone that is watching us on Odyssey on Rock Finn.

Rumble. Hello, Alex, you're first. locals. Yeah. And also check us out on substack as well. We have a substack site, substack community, which you will find in the description box down below.

So Hello Tower moderators as well on YouTube. Thank you for everything that you do. Alexander, Daniel. We have quite a lot of crazy, chaotic news to get to. so I pass it off to you, gentlemen. Absolutely, completely chaotic. We have an endless succession of different situations with this administration, with this particular president.

I have followed many American presidents. I can remember going all the way back to Lyndon Johnson. That's as far back as I go. And I have never known a administration that is quite as unstable in its course as this one is and one which reacts to events

in this extreme way as this one does. Now, can I just say, I go back, I remember in 1967 when Kesegan, the Soviet Prime Minister of that time, met with Lyndon Johnson in Glasper. It's just within the tip of my memory.

It was a big event at the time. And it's set in train, a whole succession of negotiation, and discussions between the Soviets and the United States, which led to a process which we called at that time, detente. And it was incredibly structured. We had very carefully organized negotiations, mostly conducted in public, the work-backed channels,

but even then the whole negotiation process was careful and thorough and meticulous and extremely well-organized. What we see today is something which is completely different from that, and I'm not sure that it's going in any particular direction. The other thing to say is that domestic politics plays a paramount role in these events. And this is why talking to someone like Daniel, who has an understanding of American politics, and particularly, I would say, American congressional politics,

where he was very busy is absolutely invaluable. So, Daniel, first of all, are we actually at a breakthrough point with the Russians between the United States and Russia? Or is this just another chapter in an increasingly complex and muddled book? Are we going to see wars in other places in Venezuela? What is really going on with the Middle East? And what is this president doing? was going to be the president of peace. He was going to be the president of America first. He was

going to focus on the domestic economy. He was going to do various major reforms to the United States. What has happened to all of these programs? Now, I am not going to ask you all of these questions, expecting you to answer all these questions that I've just posed in one answer. So let's take them step by step. Let's start, first of all, with the negotiations. I mean, there are negotiations going on secretly, except it's not secret between the Trump theme and the Russians at the moment. I mean, what do you think is going on? Is this actually a project that the president himself is committed to, or is he going to change course the next moment of something different comes? Well, I know it's a cliche, gentleman, but I do feel like Lucy holding that

football, or Charlie Brown holding that football, you know, each time, or Lucy holding it and Charlie Brown kicking it and having it pulled away, because just as I start feeling optimistic that something has actually happened, and I think there are some indications that something significant is happening right now. Practically, as we speak, you know, we have the Secretary of the Army Driscoll who went to Kiev, it was going to be just a sort of a basic mission to discuss some aspects of the war. And it turned out that he was actually on a mission to be Keith Kellogg and it turns out that he Keith Kellogg better than Keith Kellogg and Keith Kellogg and he walks away with Zelensky, you know, in an absolute panic saying, okay, I'll talk about this plan. I'll talk about this plan, whereas he wouldn't even

considered it just a few days ago. So I think so many things have cascaded, and I know the two of you've followed them very closely as well, so many things have cascaded, including an incredibly conveniently timed, massive corruption scandal that is absolutely rocking Ukraine to the core. People don't even know who is in the administration anymore. Between morning and night, people are dropping like flies. They're fleeing to whatever country they can flee to. And the pressure on Zelensky, even within his own servant of the people party, is mounting. So it's an incredible, incredible backdrop for this to happen. What do you think? Why has the president suddenly decided to go with this? Because first of all, I'm going to make, there's just two points I want to make, and I wonder whether you can comment on them.

But firstly, it looks as if the Russians and the Americans are actually working on a paper, in other words, a document. They're putting things down in writing. Now, I've been involved in many negotiations in my time. When that happens, when people are no longer exchanging ideas verbally, but are actually putting things down. in writing, that is usually an important moment in negotiations. That's the first question. I wondered whether you agree with that. And the second is, is it because of the situation on the ground?

The fact that the Ukrainians are losing and losing clearly and obviously that the fiction, because I think it was a fiction, the lie actually, that the war was in stalemate, that the Ukrainians were holding their own. That has just fallen apart. And this has suddenly panicked the administration into trying to do something fast which can turn the situation around. What are your thoughts about those two points?

I mean, ours is unfortunately the job of speculation, which is all we have. But certainly when you look at what is happening, it appears to me as if the administration has finally jettisoned Keith Kellogg. And Kellogg's role has been to give Whitkoff the same Kellogg, plan over and over as you've covered so well on the on the Duran the same plan over and over

for the Russians to refuse over and over again well it seems this time that the the cards have been arranged differently and that Kellogg is no longer in the process in fact planning to resign we here by the end of the year and so you have you have a whole new team you have Driscoll you have Whitkoff who's always gotten well with with Russia who's who's who's uh who's negotiated very well with Russia's with his counterpart there's Russian counterport uh Kirol Dimitriov uh they seem to have a rapport their but Dimitriov is you know went to American universities he speaks English perfectly he's the the opposite of sort of a Hollywood version of a Russian negotiator or a Soviet negotiator and so I think with jettisoning Kellogg if that's indeed what

happened and we don't know um and bringing in Whitkoff to do his Whitkoff thing and also bringing in Driscoll, a new face in the process, probably talking to Zelensky about the real facts on the ground, because we have to presume, and it's absolutely certain, there are people, and I know people in the Pentagon, they know what's happening there. They're paid to know what's happening there, but as with Iraq, only certain type of intelligence gets stove piped up for the consumers, and the consumers don't want to hear the bad news. Well, it looks like there's a come-to-Jesus moment that they've had, and again, speculation, but someone must have come and said, Mr. President. President, everything that Keith Kellogg has told you is absolutely not true, and here's the facts on the ground. So that's my speculation.

Can I just ask about this? What about the Senate? Because this is where I always get the sense that the real big congressional opposition is going to be. They're pushing again for these big sanctions that Lindsay Graham and Richard Blumenthal have been talking about. the president just a few days ago seemed to be giving support to this. How is this going to play there? If these reports that we're getting about these proposals are true, they basically undermine the whole premise upon which these key figures in the Senate, Lindsay Graham, the other hardline is there, have been working. And what is the mood in the Senate?

I mean, are they going to accept this? Are they going to be pushed back? What can they do? One of the things that's very interesting, if you can take it at face value, is that Lindsay Graham, of course, remember, he was golfing with the president just over the weekend. So they were physically close and they spent a lot of time together. Well, he was interviewed. I think the piece was out in the hill. And he said, I don't know anything about this 28 point piece plan, but, you know, something like it sounds like a good idea.

So if indeed that is the case that this went on behind the back of Senator Graham, then that in itself is extremely telling. because Graham has made this his hobby horse more than anything else, more than Venezuela or anything else. This is his baby. And so if they have indeed gone behind us back to put this deal together, then I think it is significant. And it signals that the president is willing now, if that's the case, he's willing to actually, you know, to conduct his constitutionally obligations to conduct foreign policy. And I think that may very well be the case. What has bought this about? Why this sudden change?

Now, we've had this course, and I just can take you through this, we had Whitgolf goes to Moscow. Whitcomb meets Putin. Putin and Whitgolf seemed to come to an understanding. Trump and Putin meet. The Russians tell us that Putin went through with Trump, the understanding that he had reached with Whitgolf. Asked Wickgolf, asked Trump,

asked Trump in Alaska. Is this correct? Is this your policy? Is this your proposal? They apparently said yes. Putin says, fine. Let's go ahead. Let's agree with this.

And then, of course, we get this sudden, dramatic shift. We have the president talking about sending Tom Hawk missiles to Ukraine. We have had the sanctions on luke oil. and Rosneft, we've had all the pile up of pressure on the Russians. Was it just the military situation that changed things, or has there been other things? Has there been any effect from the recent elections that took place where the Republic has said very badly? Is it perhaps issues in the economy? Is it problems over diesel, oil, and all of those things?

Because I've seen all that suggested as well, that the President, and certainly understands that an economic war at the moment is something he simply cannot afford, politically. I think there's two things. The first thing is that after Alaska and after previous meetings that appeared to go well, you had one thing that happens and has not happened to this point, which is President Trump getting in touch with the Europeans

and President Trump getting in touch with Zelensky himself. And that's what made Alaska go south, I think, because of that and it hasn't happened yet, although I did notice that Wittkoff was in touch with the German defense minister and he said, hey, if you don't like the points, we can make some changes, whatever. But I think that's one thing. But the other thing that I can only speculate, again, but Trump's style of governing does remind me of that of a real estate developer, you know, oh, you didn't tell me you wanted toilets in that building. That's going to be a lot extra. You know, it's just sort of, I'm going to flex in front of you to get you to accept the deal.

And so maybe that's what the Tomahawks were all about. But you were absolutely correct when it comes to President Trump's domestic popularity. His numbers are the lowest of either of his two terms in office, as I understand it, and sinking rapidly. That's number one. Number two, there's an absolute civil war in MAGA slash America first over what it actually means to be America first. And that's massively important. And you have economic crisis in the United States as well. You have even the president denies it.

You have inflation. They're doing everything they can to hide the fact that there is inflation, including this, this cockamamie story that Thanksgiving dinner is cheaper than it has been in previous years. And how they did that is they just took a few things out of the basket. Oh, you didn't want a turkey, did you? I mean, here, have a can of spam. It's just as good. So all of these things are convening on a president who promised to put America first, who promised to get out of these wars. And no matter how many times he tells us that.

he solved eight wars. The fact of the matter is none of them, as you gentlemen know very well, none of them are actually solved. There's the appearance of being solved, but they're not, they're not solved. And so he needs a W in the, in the ledger right now. And I think, frankly, it's a race against time. And I think that's become obvious if there are any adults in the room around President Trump. And I hope there are, perhaps it's J.D. Vance, who I do, I do think has clear head. Came to him and said, this is a race against time. There is not going to be anyone to sign that paper next week. If we don't get this thing through now,

this is your last chance to walk away from this, to walk away from a lose. And so if you can get this thing signed, we'll work out the details, but we have to move now. I mean, it seems like as good an explanation as any. Yeah. Now, there's going to be a lot of people who are watching us

who are going to say this is a trap, that the United States is laying a trap for Russia. It's laying a trap for Putin. None of this is real. If the Russians sign up to this, it's going to be Minsk 3, all over again. The United States will go back into Ukraine, they'll rearm Ukraine, whatever promises they make, they won't actually abide by. What do you say to that? I think they're possibly, they're probably right.

I mean, it is very dangerous. But the one thing that, I mean, what might be reassuring is the fact that Russia has not wavered from the very beginning, from the day they decided to move in. they saw what happened with the Minsk agreements. They've not wavered. These are our terms. This is what we'll take to end this war. And they haven't changed. And so if they don't change, and it doesn't look like much will change now,

although there are certainly a lot of open questions, things like Odessa and others that remain open. But, you know, there's also a significant amount of political vulnerability that President Putin has. because as you both know better than I, of course, his opposition is on the right, so to speak, the Hawkins side, and the public is probably there as well. So if he, again, tries to kick this football and falls, it's going to be bad for him. So I would say that that in itself suggests an awful lot of caution on the part of Putin. Well, can I just go through some of the things that have been talked about? And I'm going to put the territorial questions for a moment to one side.

But there are talk, there's talk, first of all, about Ukraine reducing its military. Some say by half. Some others say by two and a half times. That is an extremely sharp reduction. There is talk that diplomatic flights to Ukraine are going to be banned, which is again pretty remarkable if true there is there are there is apparently agreement that there will be no western troops or foreign troops on Ukrainian territory that the orthodox church is going to be reinstated and perhaps most extraordinary of all and for me the biggest change and the one which

I think the Ukrainians are going to be most alarmed by but many reasons that Russian will become a state language in Ukraine. Now, the Ukrainians are going to find all that very, very difficult. I know Zelensky is saying that he's going to sort of talk about this, but it's, I think it's impossible that the Ukrainians can accept any of that, and we're not even talking here about the territorial issues. What happens when it becomes clear that they won't accept, and that they will say no? And the Europeans, apparently, are already saying no. France is saying this is capitulation, and that's unacceptable. Other European leaders are talking the same way.

Reuters has an article saying that they're pushing back. The Europeans are pushing back. What happens if this hits the buffers? Does the United States go ahead and make this agreement with the Russians over the head of the Ukrainians and the Europeans, as by the way it can do? It is absolutely capable of doing that. are we going to see them pull back, fall back, and let this process basically falter all over again? And what happens at that point? Well, as damaging as the corruption scandal has been to Zelensky's government,

it's been, I would argue, as damaging to the Europeans as it has. Because look at their reaction. The Germans said today that, well, this is a scandal. it's a real problem, but it will not affect. In fact, we're going to increase our commitment next year financially to Ukraine. So their reaction to it is nothing to see here. The economist had a piece out. I forget the title, but it was like, let's not let this little scandal affect our great Ukraine project.

So their reaction to it, I think, has made it very obvious how irrelevant they are to the picture. Ukraine is irrelevant to the picture. So if President Putin and President Trump, who I, I just, do believe genuinely get along, they see eye to eye, if they make a broader, more encompassing agreement, and not just about this war, but about the future of U.S.-Russia relations. And who knows what kinds of little tidbits are going to be in this agreement. Maybe there'll be a role, maybe Russia's pretty smart, maybe there'll be a little role for the Americans in the Reconstruction, so we can pick up some of the tab for that.

But that will sweeten the pie a little bit for President Trump. Mary Jared will get to build some buildings out there in the Donbass. Who knows? But, you know, I think absolutely the deal can be made. And here's another interesting indication. And I hesitate to put too much emphasis on this. But the U.S. ambassador to NATO, just a telegraph reported, I'm sure you've seen it, reported that the U.S. would like to have a German general for the first time in 70 years take over leadership of NATO, which to me, in the words of the great Alex Christopheros is Audi 5,000, we're out of here, you guys. You take it over. So you want NATO?

It's all yours. We're going to make a deal with Russia. We're going to build our business relationships. And it'll be to our benefit. You can have this old used car. Very interesting. Well, the other thing is, what about oil? What about energy?

Russia's a major energy producer. The Russians have hinted. In fact, they're not hinted, they've actually said that they're very happy to work with the United States, to try to stabilize energy prices. Putin talked very early on. He said we have similar issues in energy terms to the ones you have. We're an industrial country like you are, but we're also a major energy producer like you also are. We understand that oil prices have to be kept at a certain level to keep the energy system working, but at the same time not so high. that it affects consumers and industry.

Is this another area where the Americans of the Russians could usefully work together? Absolutely. You know, and we have this, it may be a bubble, but we have this AI explosion across the world is consuming massive amounts of energy. It's causing the consumer prices of electricity and energy to go up significantly, making it difficult

for Americans and others to make ends meet, and that certainly will reflect for President Trump. The inflation is a problem, energy costs are a problem. So something that this will stabilize the supply and increase cooperation. It's going to be a big political boost for President Trump. There's got to be something attractive about that. And I think that's why that's part of this 28-point plan would be to get rid of these sanctions, at least from what I've read, to get rid of these sanctions and start this cooperation.

It's a win-win. And President Trump can pull a win out of this loss. It's a loss he didn't have to take. You know, obviously, as we all know, he could have just walked away, you know, on January 22nd, and he would have won. But he got sucked in. That's how Washington is. It sucks you in. Come on, Mr. President.

You're the leader of the world. You can't just turn your back. If we don't do it, nobody else will. It'll never get done. This is the, you know, this is the neocon cry of the past several decades. And it's a siren song that sucks in presidents. It sucks in everyone in D.C. and it's difficult to turn your back on it.

And I think the President Trump is learning the very hard way, not only in Ukraine, but perhaps even in Venezuela and elsewhere, that there is no payoff. The neocons will use you up and spit you out and you'll be gone. Where's the opposition in the United States that is going to come from? Because there is going to be opposition. I mean, you mentioned the neocons. They're still there.

Some of them are still in the administration. They are obviously there in Congress. We were talking about Senator Graham a short time ago, but he's far from being the only one. Some people in the Pentagon, I am sure. I'm not saying everybody there, but some of them are. I mean, one listens to some of the generals, the retired generals, and they seem as committed to this war as ever,

and they still pursue or want victory, or so it seems from the way they talk. So where is the opposition going to come? And how strong is it? And does it have traction with the American people? Well, I think definitely it will come in Congress. I mean, Congress, you know, 11 or 12 years there, the members of Congress and senators

are probably the least well-informed people on the planet. They can't be bothered with reading the news, much less reading anything beyond the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, if that. They're very badly informed. They're very full of themselves. They are treated like gods there, and they don't really care that much about the issues. But the American people obviously have a different view of this.

I think if you look at all the polls for several years now, particularly when we were funding Ukraine, the American people are against it. So they're going to have to hear from their constituents. And I think the good news for those of us who would love to see this come to an end is that that is the one area where the average American does have a lot of influence and the ability to make change. And so, yes, they're going to come kicking and streaming, particularly in the Senate. But I think you'll start to see some coalitions arising maybe in the House because we've seen the Venezuela coalition between Rokana and Thomas Massey.

These are the kinds of coalitions that we were building in the House in the Iraq War. We were working a lot with progressives and with conservatives to bring together these groups and to talk about the Iraq War and the surge and all of these things. If you can resurrect some of that, I think you can start seeing some cement. some momentum coming. But that is going to be the last, that's going to be the last bastion, I think, of this pro-Ukraine sentiment. Can we actually talk about Venezuela? Because I do think the two things are interconnected. Because just two weeks ago, we were looking at potential war. The Gerald Ford was steaming to the Caribbean. It's, of course, there now.

The president was talking about Maduro being the head of the drug cartels and all of that. there's actual talk of Maduro and the president, Donald Trump, talking to each other and negotiating. I mean, it's a bit strange because actually, as I understand it, all the deal has already been agreed, basically. I mean, Rick Rennell met Maduro. They came to full agreement and understanding with each other. But suddenly, it looks as if the president is having doubts. is this again coming from below that the opposition to this intervention in Venezuela is too strong? And is this something, the fact that this opposition exists, which I suspect surprised the president. Is that perhaps why he's also changing tack on other things, like Ukraine, for example?

Well, I saw a poll a couple of days ago and I don't have the number exact, but I think it's something like on the 18% of America wants the U.S. to take any kind of military action against Venezuela. It's absolutely unpopular among Americans. It's the last thing they want, and they're already furious with Trump. The conservatives are furious with Trump. His coalition has fallen apart. You know, he's calling Marjorie Tater Green a traitor. This is one of the strongest backers and most loyal backer. And so I think he sees that he's hopefully seeing that this is a loser. But the real problem is the fact that the Secretary of State and the National Security Advisor are the same person. And that same person happens to be a person for his entire political life.

His dream has been to overthrow Venezuela and Cuba. That's been pretty much all that he's been interested in doing. So you don't have, I mean, the National Security Act of 1947 in many ways was a big mistake. Creating the CIA as it did was a big mistake. Creating the national security state was a mistake. But creating the role of a national security advice. probably wasn't such a bad idea. And you can imagine what you would want to have,

well, certainly in a Secretary of State, you wouldn't want to hawk like Rubio. You'd want to diplomat. But you don't. You've got Rubio, okay. But you'd want to have someone as a national security advisor to balance off of each other. Imagine someone like a Colonel Doug McGregor,

who I think should have been the National Security Advisor and should be. He could sit down Michael Rubio and completely demolish his arguments in front of President Trump. And he did it in the past. I mean, he's the one who came up with a plan to get out of Afghanistan, and he convinced the president to sign off on it. He could do that.

That's what you need to have. And I just wish President Trump would understand that. It doesn't mean you have to take McGregor's or a McGregor's position every time, but you need to have that give and take. And I would have thought that Trump, at least in his business life, from what it said about him, he likes having that. He likes having his employees, people underneath him, at each other's, you know, three. broads practically, you know, and it does work in foreign policy. You need that. No, absolutely. You need a diversity of use so that you can listen to what various people say. President Kennedy did it. Can I just ask this? And this is something I don't myself understand.

Why has Venezuela been such a mobilizing issue in the United States? Why is opposition to this so strong? Because I can't imagine that there is. huge support in the United States for Maduro's government. Maybe there is, but I mean, maybe there is some on the left. But what is it exactly about this conflict in Venezuela, this potential conflict that has galvanized people? Is it the threat of military action? Is that what they oppose?

Or is it because memories of the United States intervening in Latin America is still very strong and people are worried about that? or is it because of, you know, memories of Iraq, or is it because this is so contrary to what the president promised that he would do? Or is it all of the above? I mean, what is it about Venezuela that has been this issue, made it this issue where the opposition seems to have become so strong? Well, foreign policy action always is a confluence of interest, you know.

It's never, people want to say it's the oil. The Iraq war was about the oil. Yeah, partly so. but there were other things as well. And I think that's the case here with Venezuela. What I think they wanted to do is create a Saddam's WMDs out of these ships coming out of Venezuela and getting blown out of the water.

You know, each ship was argued as killing 20,000 Americans with a fentanyl that's just pouring out of Venezuela, which, of course, is patently untrue. It's obviously untrue. It may be partly, maybe there's sort of a silver lining in the Iraq debacle because people aren't so willing to trust the WMD, and also the growth of social media. I mean, the memes across X and other social media outlets of Colin Powell,

then Secretary of State's famous UN visit where he was holding up this supposed little canister of chemical weapons or WMDs, that made its rounds everywhere in the Venezuela context. And so people immediately, they didn't have to have a think tank in D.C. produce a paper explaining it. You just look at the picture, oh, Colin Powell, oh, man, not this again. And I think that happened. And, you know, in this case, it worked to those of us who were opposed to an attack. It worked to our benefits to be able to do this.

I mean, I'd love to think that the power of our persuasion are decades doing foreign policy and writing papers and coming up with great ideas. I'd like to think that that carries the day. But maybe at the end of the day, it's simply a meme of Colin Powell, you know, ruining Iraq that made the day. Can I come back to domestic policy, politics, and policies and economics and things of this sort? Is it ever understood in the United States a whole number of things that the foreign policy is dictating the economic policy, or rather the economic system, that if you have this kind of, you know, expansionist, if you like imperialist foreign policy, I know some people don't like it

when I use that term about the United States. But anyway, this foreign policy of intervention all the time, everywhere, constantly. That comes with economic consequences that follow. One of the reasons, for example, you could argue why the United States opened up its economy to other countries was precisely in order to win them over in terms of its geopolitical strategies.

There might be an economic argument for opening up your economy. But the reason the United States did it was geopolitical, the fact which I think many people don't quite understand, the president seems to want a different sort of economic policy. That is what he promised he's been. base. That is why people voted for him. But his foreign policy up to now has been in conflict with

it. Is this ever really understood or debated in the United States? I don't think it has been. You know, the consequences of our assertive, aggressive foreign policy have never been clearly seen by most Americans. You know, it's always been wrapped in a flag, of course. You don't support the troops. In the case of Venezuela, oh, you want, you want drugs to come into the country? No, none of us do. but but but that's how it's always been wrapped and they've always been far away oh we blew up Libya you know it doesn't matter to us you know we wake up the next day but I think the economic consequences of the U.S. military empire you know and if if you know if it were only the sort of colonialism where we could actually get something out of it the only people to get anything out of

in the U.S. or the oligarchs but I think it's starting to hit home and I think I think that is the base that is the emotional intellectual base of the Maga movement is we are realizing now that our standard of living here in the United States is undermined by our foreign policy. Definitely Trump 1.0 got it. That's why he won the Rust Belt states. He appealed to working class blue-collar Americans. He spoke their language literally. He could speak to them in a way that they understood, and they voted for him. He's lost that. He's lost his way this first almost year of his presidency. He started out strong. But he's lost his way. He's lost his ability to speak to these people. And these people are getting increasingly angry because they are starting to

understand. You know, the median age of buying a house in the U.S. now was 40 years old. You know, you're trying to start a family with a wife of 40 years old. That's just when you're starting. It's impossible. You know, it used to be, certainly when I was growing up, I grew up in a blue collar family. My father had a job. My mother stayed at home with the kids. They bought a house. It wasn't an elaborate house. That's for sure. But you could afford to buy a house and live in and have a vacation. And young people of my father's age when he bought the house, it's not even, it's beyond your wildest dreams to do something like that. So something has really been lost in the United States. And I think particularly it's driven by this younger

generation who understands that they're going to pay for the excesses of the preceding generations. Let's go back again to the Ukraine negotiations. If, as I said, it pales and it might do. I mean, if I was to actually put money on it, I would say that it's not going to succeed because the opposition from Europe and the Ukrainians is going to be too strong. Is this the moment the president finally walks away? We've all been talking about this many times, but he does have that option. If he's not prepared to impose a solution, which I believe he can do, by the way, at least on the Ukrainians, the Europeans, but he can impose a solution. But if he's not prepared to do that, does he finally

walk away if this fails? I mean, I think he only has two options he had left, which is one, to push this through. You know, he's got to do a, he's got to do a Don Corleone. Mr. Zelensky, either your signature or your brains are going to be on this contract. You know, that's number one. He's going to have to do that or he's going to have to walk away. Otherwise, that's going to be a big L in the column for him. He will have lost this war and it will be a disgrace for him. I don't think he can manage that. He can handle that. So I think those are his only two options left and it really is a race against time. I mean, maybe I'm wrong, but it does seem like the Ukrainian government is literally disintegrating before our eyes. And by the way, Russian troops are in the center

of Severez. And they're not about to stop there. I mean, they're just starting to get to hit the pace. So things are happening very, very quickly right now. And, you know, maybe we're around the edge of a fall of Saigon moment who knows well i thank you for answering my question so clearly and so well daniel um i think we are in very very interesting and complicated times but let's see let's see how it turns out are you able to stay with us for a little time i think alex will have some questions for you from our views if you cannot if you can stay with us sure absolutely all right let's uh let's start with the palatier seven three two one Question for the panel.

What is your view of the hardliner faction in Russia? Are there criticisms of Putin's soft strategy valid or misguided? Who would like to start? Daniel or Alexander? Alexander, you probably know more about it than I do. I focus more on the U.S. internal politics, but go ahead. No, I mean, this criticism is there, and it has certainly grown stronger. and of course it became especially strong over the last few months

in connection with the apparent failure of the meeting in Alaska and the proposal to the proposal that was floating around the United States and which the president appeared at one time to be backing to deploy Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine and there was a whole series of press conference meetings with the media, meetings with public personalities, which we covered on the Duran, in which Putin was directly challenged about these issues by the Russian media. They were saying, you know, why are we agreeing to any of this? Why are we negotiating with the United States?

When they're clearly all the time supporting the Ukrainians. They're talking about launching missile strikes against our country. So that pressure is there and it is growing stronger and it will get much stronger now because, of course, the Russians feel, the Russian public feels we're winning the wall. We are on the brink of victory. Why must we negotiate at all? Why don't we just take Kiev and have an end to this? I think that his Putin's political authority is still sufficiently strong, that provided this is a deal that will stick, and there are, from what we're hearing, there are very big concessions here, perhaps making the Russian state language, Russia, a state language, Russian, state language in Ukraine, again, is the decisive one.

if that happens, then I think he will be able to persuade people to accept it. But there will be criticism. And if you follow the Russian media and Russian social media and the telegram channels, you can see the skepticism there is very deep indeed. So when Daniel says that this is a race against time, for Putin, it is a race against time also. I think he wants to deal with the United States for many, many reasons. But his maneuver room, his space to make that deal is narrowing constantly.

I think the greatest tragedy, if this does end the way it looks, it would be happy that it's over. But we're basically going back to Yanukovych. That's how it ends. So all these people have died for nothing. The country's been destroyed for nothing. And here we are. We're back. And that's the best case scenario we could have.

Neutral Russia that does business with the EU and the neutral Ukraine that does business with the EU. Russia both. It's terrible that we've had to go through all of this. They've had to go through all of this to get back to the starting point. From Vincent 7-9-424 says, given Trump's massively disappointing first year, Daniel, do you think that he will survive politically through the rest of his term? I think he's going to have an extremely difficult time in the midterm elections. We've got a preview a couple of weeks ago. Robert Barnes did a magnificent job in my opinion of really digging into the fine grain of the fault lines in American politics. There's no way I could even approach his level of

analysis but I think it's very clear for people to see that there is a very very strong likelihood that the president will lose certainly the House maybe the Senate and if that's the case then we're gonna be mired for two years in endless kinds of sort of impeachment hearings and in things of this nature so he and he's still fighting Republicans rather than trying to fight to get more seats for Republicans. So he needs a wake-up call certainly, but he doesn't have a lot of time left to do it. You know, we're going to wake up. It's going to be January, and you're going to start hearing a lot about primaries. You're going to

start hearing a lot of things happening. And there's just not a lot of time. There's not a lot of time to turn the economy around. So, I mean, I sense as much, I mean, I love a divided government because nothing gets done, which is the best thing for us. But nevertheless, for Trump, politically, someone has got to tell them, look, you don't have a lot of time here. You don't. From John Roberts TV, what will it take for the U.S. to pull our bases out of Europe and or Japan and South Korea? I don't see any signs that our military budget will ever be cut. Even Doge did not attempt any defense cuts. Economic collapse, which is right around the corner. Maybe the AI bubble will burst, just like the dot-com bubble burst. the housing bubble burst in 2008.

As terrible as that would be for the most vulnerable Americans, that may be what it takes to be a wake-up call for everyone else. From Mr. Sancho Relaxo, millions of social studies grads, no STEM engineers. Western collapse was inevitable. If empires can't make anything, they go and break everything. Your thoughts? So you mean the influencers aren't going to?

They aren't going to make the day. They're not going to bring us into the land of milk and honey. That's how disturbing that is. Can I just make a quick observation here? Because, of course, I live in Britain. So this is, if you want to have this pattern of a country that starts enormously technologically efficient, where engineers are highly valued and things of that kind. Well, of course, that was what Britain was in the 18th and early 19th centuries.

And empire always, always takes away the emphasis from that. Because what the empire wants are imperial administrators, not people who are engineers and technicians and scientists and things of that kind. And in fact, your entire engineering base starts to become skewed. So, you know, you start focusing on, you know, big cars like the Rolls-Royce with its, you know, seats and its, woodwork rather than the engineering that say produces the model T Ford. Things of that guy. So that is a consequence and a productive empire.

If you want people to go and do STEM in the United States, you need to make it attractive to people to do that, not by forcing them to or creating quotas or things like that, which we're doing in Europe now, but just by allowing the economy and society to develop organically and in a Republican way, a Democratic Republican way, just the same. Dariel, yeah, go ahead, Daniel. They might be one of the bright points in the Trump administration so far

is fulfilling his promise to open up oil and gas exploration in the U.S. That takes a lot of engineers, they make a lot of money, they do very well. So that sort of thing does help. But, you know, the U.S. empire began in 1913 with the creation of the Federal Reserve. That's been our, it's not really the physical basis all over the world, this is the creation of the U.S. as the dollar reserve currency. And that's been sort of a blessing and a curse to the United States since then. Zayayal asks, why is Donald J. Trump killing his only base, only MAGO works?

I can only conclude ego, you know, ego. They dare challenge him. Thomas Massey dared to challenge the big, beautiful bill, which turned out to be. an absolute nightmare for America and for the president, but he dared to say no. President Trump loves people. He loves the Swiss to come in to bring gold bricks. He loves to see the European leaders sitting there like school children to be lectured. He doesn't like someone like Putin, although he respects someone like Putin to stand up to him. But he doesn't like when people in Congress stand up to him. He's one of the strangest presidents. And my memory goes back to Nixon, almost as long as you're as Alexander.

But I don't think we've ever had anyone as strange just in a personal way. You know, they've all had their foibles. But Trump's a strange person. Mark Hewitt asks, Kellogg has gone. Who's next? Is Kellogg the first official in the Trump White House to leave? Waltz. Waltz.

Well, yeah, Waltz, yeah. He left. I mean, yeah. He got put in the corner. the end of the UN. But is Kellogg, is he going to be the first official to step away? I think so in this term. I think so. I think so. It'll be interesting. I mean, I don't want to, you know, I wonder about Kellogg. I mean, I wonder, because I do think that this whole,

this corruption scandal was very conveniently timed. And I just, certainly I don't have any information, but I wonder who else might be caught up in it, who might have been told, look, we would hate to see some of the stuff getting out, you know, and I'm not saying his name, but who knows how far it reached. There's a lot of, it's not just the Ukrainians who are corrupt, you know. We have our own military industrial complex here who loves all of this stuff as well. Yeah, good point. Good point.

From the Palantir, 7321, if you are in Russia's shoes, what guarantees do you have that the U.S. is negotiating in good faith with the peace plan and not luring you into the warring you into to Minsk 3. I think your best guarantees are called a Reschnik and Budavestnik, Poseidon. I mean, these things are real things. They exist, you know. And at the end of the day,

does it really matter to Russia if there's a signature of Zelensky on the paper? It doesn't matter to them. Now, Kyakalas might be upset because she doesn't think that Russia is making enough concessions. Because, of course, we all know in our study of history that when you win a war,

you're the one who makes the concessions. That's how it's always been, right? That's how it always works. Elza asks, Mr. McAdams, are there American politicians who take the EU seriously and who are interested in Europe, or do they all share Newlands F-The-EU attitude? I don't think they know anything about it or care for the most part. There are people in Washington, I believe, in Congress who like the trappings of it, but I don't think they know very much about it. They don't know very much about anything. You know, you have Joe Wilson, the congressman, South Carolina, who for years and years ended every House floor speech with, God bless America, and we will never forget 9-11. Well, two weeks ago, he was sitting there with the head of Al-Qaeda from Syria in his office with his arm around him. You forgot 9-11, Joe. That's Congress in a nutshell.

It really is. Good point. Arcane eclectic says, did Xi Jinping tell Trump hands off Venezuela? Xi Jinping, but unlike. Something is unlikely, but something is putting doubts at least sort of doubts in Trump's

decision to go into Venezuela. Xi Jinping? Domestic politics, domestic events, I think, is much more likely. I mean, if only 18% of the people support it, a president who is as

unpopular as Trump has begun, probably feels he can't risk it. All right. One more question, comment from Zareal, and we will let you go. Daniel McAdams, great show. Zareel says, the VW is closing the glass manufacturing in Dresden. Bentley, Rose Royce, Mb, BMW, Audi, all dying, slowly but surely, thanks to NATO and the EU neocons. I remember I was at UC Berkeley in 1988, I think it was, and Helmut Cole came and gave an address.

And it was the cold war was over. Germany had succeeded. The great industrial powerhouse, Helmut Cole, you know, for all of his faults, a giant of a man in more ways than one. Here he is speaking. I mean, it was an amazing moment. I grew up with such admiration for Germany. This is the place where the trains ran on time, even after World War II. You know, industrial powerhouse.

It's absolutely depressing for me to see what's happened. If everything that's being reported is true about, and you look at the layoffs in Germany, the destruction of the auto industry in Germany, it is just on a personal level. It is so depressing. It is true. I'm sorry to say. I mean, I have gone down to the journey. It is absolutely true.

In fact, in some ways, I get to say it, I think it's even worse than the actual reports that one hears because Germany is a country of large numbers of medium-sized businesses which do all kinds of important things. And they're being particularly badly hit. And that doesn't make the headlines in the same kind of way. Elza says, great guest. Thank you. Such a pleasure. Second that. Thank you, Daniel McAdams. Absolutely.

Pleasure having you on the Duran. It's been an honor to join you. It really has. And let's have you again, please. Before you go, Daniel, once again, where can people follow your work? Ronpawl Institute.org. You can watch the Ronpaw Library Report Monday

through Friday live on Rumble at noon Eastern time. Those links are in the description box down below. Daniel McAdams. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Great guest.

Great discussion. Absolutely. Interesting insights on Congress. Quite so, yeah. You're saying it a momentous? Momentous couple of days, I think. I mean, not just because of these negotiations, but because what is happening altogether.

I mean, it's all starting to come apart. It's taken a while. It's starting to come apart. We're coming together. I don't know how you wanted to see it. Yeah, whatever you can. Yeah, it's coming apart. Well, whether it comes together, it depends a lot on the...

Yes, whether it comes together depends a lot in the Americans. If the Americans don't make the right decisions over the next few weeks, then it will come apart. Yeah. All right. Let's knock out the remaining... Excellent questions that we have. Starting with Nikos, who says, even though I believe that he was acting out of concern that the West will cause nuclear war, I do agree with you that President Putin has a weakness. He wants to avoid World War III via diplomacy so much he doesn't see the West as the West is incapable of peace.

Dimitriev and Usakov contributed to this wrong strategy. Well, I think Putin is absolutely right to avoid World War III. I mean, let's remember if we get into a World War III situation, humanity ends. I mean, that's the first thing to say. So finding ways to end or trying to prevent World War III is a justifiable and proper policy for any leader. Now, preventing World War III depends on two things. diplomacy and deterrence. There has to be, if you're a country like Russia,

or a degree of deterrence. So this is what the special military operation was all about. This is what developing all of these new weapons, the Ornetsnik, the Burr-Sv-Vessnik, the Sarmat missile, all of that is all about to. So Putin in general and overall, I think has got the balance about right. bear in mind that there has been no major intervention by the West directly in the conflict.

Yes, they have participated in missile strikes against Russia, which is very bad. Their generals have commanded Ukrainian armies, which is very bad. But we have not yet had open clashes between the NATO militaries and the Russian militaries. And overall, I think that has worked to Russia's advantage. Now, in terms of this particular negotiation that we are seeing now, everything I think is still in flux. But what we are hearing about it suggests that the Americans are coming round in a big way to the Russian point of view. They are accepting most of the points that Putin made on the 14th of June 2024. and they are going further beyond them.

So making Russian, the state language, one of the two state languages of Ukraine, the significance of that cannot be overstated. You're preparing a post for Substack and locals, Alexander, which will probably be up tomorrow, I believe. But in that post, you mentioned that, that if these bullet point details that are being

are correct, it would effectively mean that the well, the Zelensky regime would have to go, but Ukraine would probably be looking at a government that is oriented towards Russia, very

friendly towards Russia and even possibly a more federated or federalized Ukraine. Absolutely. You expand on that very quickly. And that post will be on exclusive to locals and to Substact. But if you just want to talk a little bit about it.

Absolutely. First of all, what is being proposed here, bringing back the Orthodox Church, in giving Russian the status of a state language completely cancels the whole direction of Ukrainian policy, not just since the Maidan coup of 2014, but arguably since the Orange Revolution of 2004. And the entire political structure in Ukraine is based around the current trajectory of Ukrainian policy, Ukrainian-Nusination, Ukrainian nationalism, uprooting every aspect of Russia. So if this is what happens, it is impossible for the current regime to survive in its present form. It won't survive at all.

Inevitably, in order to implement this policy, there would have to be a fundamental change of regime in Kiev. And this has been spoken about in Moscow today, by the way. you'll find the quotes, the discussions of this in this article that's coming out. So that would inevitably mean not going back to Yanukovych, but going towards a much more pro-Russian government in Kiev, in order to make all of the various elements of this agreement work together. And if that begins to happen, and this is where the territorial issues start to become important,

the Russians have already made it clear that even if there's a ceasefire, in Hearson and Zaporozio regions. This, as far as they're concerned, is only transitional. These territories will eventually must be transferred to Russia. And in this completely different political system, much more decentralized, the real possibility of breakup and fragmentation with regions

breaking away from Ukraine, holding their own referendums, deciding to join Russia, All of that becomes possible and indeed even likely. Right. From the Palantir 7321, if the latest peace plan doesn't come to fruition, will the outcome of the Ukraine war be a strategic defeat of the West, or is that an overstatement? No, it would not be an understatement.

It would be exactly true. If this fails, there will be a military outcome to the war and no one any longer doubts that that will be a Russian military victory. I say no one, yes, I'm sure there are a few deluded people still floating around. You will always find them. But nobody who retains any degree of grasp of objective reality any longer has any doubt about this. And it is impossible for a military victory by Russia. in Ukraine to be seen as anything other than a major military defeat for the West,

a major geopolitical defeat for the West. It would have been far better for the West, by the way, if in 2022 the Russian army had just moved in and taken over the whole of Ukraine and encountered no resistance, that would have been a lesser defeat than a defeat after a four-year war in which American generals have participated in the fighting. The United States has given some of its best weapons to Ukraine. The European Union has invested hundreds and hundreds of billions of euros. The United States has invested hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars. There have been massive sanctions on Russia. After all of that, the West loses. This is absolutely

a key moment in modern history, it is the moment when the West's ascendancy, the 500-year ascendancy, will be seen globally to have ended. Commander Crossfire says, the crimes and trials of 80 years ago are now done by their victims, now cheered and twisted. When will we have trials for the children of Gaza, silence? Well, indeed, yeah. Well, we'll see. I believe it will come, by the way, day but perhaps not very soon. Nigel says good evening. Can I just just say something? I mean remember what Thomas Jefferson said. I tremble for my country when I remember that God is just and that his patience is finite. Nigel Green says good evening at the Duran and chat.

Good evening, Nigel. Paul Walker says Kellogg touched by the Olensky curse. Absolutely. Then some. By the way, can I just say this? One of the moments of genius in this whole story has been Alex's invention. I mean, it's invention. Discovery of the Olensky curse.

The amazing fact about this is I've even seen references to it in the British media. You will never find anybody, however, who will mention, who will make a proper attribution. Just to say. The Guardian is not going to reference us. It's not going to attribute it to us. Absolutely. The Palantir says, okay, this is the one about if you are in Russia's shoes. What guarantee do you have that the U.S. is negotiating in good faith?

Yeah. Thank you for that. The Palatir. Let's see here. Two, seven, the inability of the West to listen is amazing. I will savor reading the MSM cope. spin. They have started with Naboo, the Golden Throne. Russia should take it all then. They hold the decks, the deck, not cards. Oh, absolutely. I mean, the, well, at the moment, the media, the, the first few hours after the story broke about the, the, the discussions between, um, Demetriyev and Weigoff. And it's clear that many, many more people are involved, advance and others are involved as well.

When it first broke, the media here were in absolute state of fury and horror and shock. What has happened, and I've noticed this over the last few hours, is that somebody has clearly given instructions. Stop this story. It's just not being discussed at the moment. It's kind of fitting that what might do Zelensky in is a gold toilet. It's very fitting, actually. Matthew says, would the UK be mad enough to strike Russia?

No, I don't think they do it by themselves. I mean, there are some very unbalanced and frightening people in this country. But at the end of the day, I don't think the British would ever do a thing like this by themselves. Even Stama, remember, was talking about the British needing an American backstop if they were going to send troops to Ukraine. Tony Connix, thank you for that amazing super sticker. Very much appreciated. Judy Peterson, thank you for that, super sticker. And welcome Tony to the Duran community.

It is a pleasure having you with us. And from the Palantir, if I were Putin, I would be extremely skeptical. There was Merkel and the Minsk deception, then Operation Spider-Web, then backtracking on Alaska. Very good points. Absolutely good points. And there are going to be many, many people in Moscow who are going to be reminding him of this all the time. I'm going to say something else, by the way. And it is important.

The Russians did not want the fact that these talks were going on to be made public. Again, they were, I think, taken aback when reports about these talks, the working on this paper became known. Kellogg, sorry, not Kellogg, Wittgof was clearly upset about this. He apparently briefly posted a message on X saying that it had all been leaked by somebody called K. It's not difficult to work out whom he means. Exactly.

So the Russians, the Russians are not going to be happy about that at all. And why are they not happy? Because many people in Russia are not happy. are not happy about the fact that Putin is still negotiating with the Americans. Just to say. You know, it was Whitkoff that was being rumored to be leaving in January. I know.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. How quickly things changed. Well, this is what makes this such a difficult administration to keep track of. I mean, nothing ends until it ends. Yeah, true. Commando Crossfire says, All I am saying is give peace a chance.

Absolutely. Kenjera says, if things are coming apart, Ukraine is phase one, Venezuela, phase two, and Palestine will be the nail in Trump's foreign policy. Yeah, yeah. He's taken extreme risks. Again, Alex made a point in one of our programs that he spent more time on foreign policy than domestic policy this year. And that has been disastrous. I think it's true, objectively. It is absolutely true.

From Boa Omega, is Satan enjoying his puppets playing war. I'm sure he is. Mark Hewitt says, any comments on General McGregor's recent suggestion that Japan and Korea are waiting for the U.S. to leave their lands? Well, I don't know. I think that Japan, my sense about Japan, is that the whole, political system there is now absolutely committed to the alliance with the United States. I don't think they want the US to leave at all. And I certainly don't think they want to be left

facing China without the United States. Because I get the sense also that the Japanese political class continues to be intensely rivalrous towards China. Korea is different. I went there a long time ago now, about 25 years ago. And I was struck. even then by the extent of Chinese influence. And I'm talking about obviously South Korea. So I think the Koreans have a different view. And I think they probably would like the Americans to leave, or at least many people in Korea probably would like the Americans to leave.

And probably they would be willing to come to some kind of long-term relationship or stabilize their relations with China. But that's not to say that it's policy, that is what the South Korean government is working to achieve. I think that's a different thing. Man for today says chances of London-Moscow flight route returning. I wish. I haven't seen any sound. Well, I mean, the UK is not in the EU, so they could reinstate it very easily, right?

Of course. Absolutely. It would be fine. But at the moment, as I said, there's no talk of it. If the United States, of course, reinstate flights, then, I mean, they will all follow. I mean, Europeans will follow, and so will the British. I think the British would definitely follow. The EU might put up resistance.

But if the United States reinstate flights, then I think there's a very good chance that the UK would do the same. Yes. Yeah. Jamila says, why does the EU fight other people? This is not their war. Very good question. Once upon a time, long ago, I remember when the European Union was supposed to be an economic association, which did not concern itself with great power politics and foreign policy and any of those things.

And being in those days very much younger and far more innocent about these things, I naively assumed that that would continue to be the case. Of course, today the EU is something completely different. It is a, well, I'd say a monster that wants to grow, devour everything around it. And of course, in order to keep itself going, in order to maintain unity, in order to justify its ever-expanding control over the domestic politics of the member states of Europe, it has to have an external enemy, and that is Russian. All right. Serafim says, don't mistake Putin's rationality and restraint as weakness.

If need be, he will protect Russia with everything he has. Best we don't go there. You're absolutely correct. And I agree. I think this is an essential thing to say. Whatever concerns you have about Putin, and I know many people do, the fact of the matter is he has consistently, ever since he became leader of Russia, defended Russian interests. That is why there is so much hostility to him in the West. Kat from Limassal, this is a three-part.

Seems to Westerners what drives Chinese foreign policy is desire to inflict revenge for a century of humiliation. I see you guys are opposed to the allegations for fentanyl production subsidies. I was hoping you could elaborate. I've seen what heroin did. to where I'm from, Russia by flows from the south. Let me find the third one, Alexander. Another third.

Okay, that's, okay, two parts so far. I don't know if can you answer? Well, I don't think China is driven by any massive desire for revenge. I think that what China is much more concerned about is not revenge, but making sure that the century of, humiliation never repeats itself. And that does make China very assertive in defending what it sees as its own sovereign interests. So it is not going to allow the United States, for example, to dictate whether it's going to have good relations or not with Russia or buy oil from Russia.

But I don't get the sense that China is out to seek revenge over the West. And I don't Remember, if you're talking about which countries were most predatory towards China during the century of humiliation, it was not the United States. And the Chinese historically have always made that distinction. It was the European powers. And China, in particular, has sought over the last 30 years good relations with the European powers. Here's part three. it came in just now Alexander.

From common sense, it seems likely that China would enjoy serving poetic justice and I haven't heard something to convince me otherwise. Well, I think the Chinese would say it is not common sense. They would say that it's incredibly dangerous and that from their point of view,

what China needs is stability and peace to continue with the very successful economic development it's achieved over the last 40 years. So I think that is the priority in China. I don't think, as I said, there, you know, revenge or putting the West in its place in that kind of way is what China is about. I was there. I have to say, I've been there. That was overwhelmingly the sense I got when I was there. Jamila asks, why why does Russia trust

the Europeans or the United States. They're always breaking promises. Thank you, I don't know that they do. And of course, Putin himself has said that he trusts nobody. He actually said that. So I don't think the Russians trust the West. I don't think Putin actually has enormous amounts of faith in the United States. If what we are hearing about this document is true,

and of course we haven't seen it, I haven't seen it yet, But if it is true, then the concessions the US is making to Russia are very, very big indeed. And if they were ever implemented, they would be impossible, I think, to create the kind of trap that people are worrying about. If Ukraine is reduced to an army two and a half times smaller than the one it has at the moment, to an army of, say, 50,000 men, then it's absolutely no match for Russia at all. If it loses the line of 45 cities, it has no ability to hold back the Russians

if it starts to break promises. And if Russian is the state language, remember, most Ukrainians speak Russian and increasingly, apparently, they are reverting to using Russian as their everyday language. If it becomes the state language, which is an a-state language,

which it has never been since Ukraine gained independence, then the entire political system, the entire political culture in Ukraine, changes completely. You will see Russian start to displace Ukrainian very, very fast. And it's difficult to imagine that that is not going to lead to a greater relationship, a much stronger relationship with Russia. And also the Orthodox Church,

part of the Moscow patriarch. Indeed. That has to go back to how it was. That's also huge. And bear in mind now, it is a persecuted church. It is a church that will have survived a period of persecution. It's going to have a very different outlook from what it had before 2022. Yeah.

I think if the details that are being leaked, are to be believed. Yes. There's a lot of ifs. Yes. But if this is indeed the case, I think the one big contentious issue for Russia, what they're going to have to deal with is the part where it says there's a freeze in Zaporosia and Herzl. Correct.

Lavrov said, Labrov has all but said that this is transitional and has also said that the Americans have accepted that, That he's actually said in an interview with Coriera de la Cera. But of course, what the Americans say to the Russians and what the reality is can be completely different things. I agree. That is going to be very contentious and very difficult. And there will have to be an awful lot of explaining in Russia to people in Russia of what that is all about.

Yeah. The Hockey Gole says, I've always seen Ukraine as USA's Suez, the potential peace treaty would be capitulation. How do they recover, given Afghanistan, etc.? Well, it is better to do that, to come to an agreement with the Russians, which might at least establish some good relations with the Russians,

then not just to be defeated, but to be defeated in a way that makes it impossible to deny any longer that you've lost. It's always better to, as I said, come to an agreement before the final disaster happens. And I think that's what's driving this. I think the understanding has suddenly, you know, come in Washington. If we leave this much longer, Ukraine is going to go down.

In a few weeks, months' time, the Russians will break through Donbass and they will be other NEPA. So this is what's galvanised the whole negotiation process at this time. And I think that is right. Obviously, obviously it will be a defeat. However, this is spun, but better to limit the damage in this way than to let the whole thing play out in the kind of humiliation that Sue is ultimately turned out for Britain to be. Sarah Femes says, if there is a peace deal now, would Russia abandon its plans for Odessa for good, or will it expect Ukraine and NATO to eventually break the peace? If the plan is implemented, and this is a massive if, I mean, you know, there's so much

that we still don't know, and there's still so much, there's still in the works. But if we have a situation where Russian becomes a state language in Ukraine, the Orthodox Drugs Church is re-established, all of the other provisions that Putin has demanded about the scaling down of the army, no NATO troops ever in Ukraine, all of that kind of thing. Then, frankly, I think the Russians will probably be saying to themselves, one day we will not only have Aders, we will have pretty much all of Ukraine too. I think that will be there at the back of their minds as well. In the meantime, some degree of decentralization, federalization, in Ukraine is, well, a virtual certainty.

And as I said, the country's breakup is not impossible. Zizi Karayani, thank you for that amazing super sticker. Dixon, dangers. Welcome to the Duran community. Samuel I. Maroni says, will NATO survive after the defeat in Ukraine? Well, no. Well, yes, it will in the short term. But I can't help but think it's going to be a.

terminal blow. I mean, this is a war in Europe. NATO committed itself to defeating Russia in Ukraine, and instead it will have lost. I can't really see how there is any coming back, especially at a time when doubts about NATO in the United States are growing. That's the reason why NATO has been so determined to keep this war. going. And of course, according to Dimitriyev, the plan that's being worked on also contains provisions about re-examining the security architecture of Europe. And if that really is the case, then it is indeed the death now for NATO. A lover of the Russian team says, respect President Putin. Thank you for that. Sarah Fem says, can you do a program someday talking about how the Duran came to be.

We'd love to hear your background story. Thank you guys for what you do. Well, of course, we could probably one day. Yeah. Of course. Thank you, Serafim, for that. And from Elza on locals, two things.

The Hill, the EU decided to die on, turned out to be a gold toilet. And memes will save the world. The gold toilet, Alexander. The gold toilet, yeah. Look, what sits on a gold toilet? I mean, I've asked this question many times. I just cannot understand that.

A golden throne, maybe I can just, I can understand. But a toilet seat, it's so weird. It's excellent script writing. It really is. It's excellent script writing, no doubt about it. Yeah, they got Zelensky on that one. Absolutely. Kim, Kim Moe, says, did Trump and Putin deliberately let the war drag

on until Europe and NATO bled dry and until Western citizens finally saw the insanity of their own leaders. So their own leaders were to accept a Russian dictator peace. Well, I have floated this. I mean, if you want to take a really clever view of this whole process, you could say that Trump and Putin came to this understanding in Alaska, Trump realized. Trump realized. that it was being impossible cell, given the situation that existed in August. So he went running along with the neocons for a few more months,

knowing that everything would eventually fall apart. And when things did start to fall apart, that was the moment when he struck and went back to Alaska. And that Putin had been tipped off about this, and Putin, this is one of the reasons why he was so calm and measured about it. I don't believe it for one microsecond.

I want to make that absolutely clear. I don't believe anything like that happened. I don't think that Trump has that level of cunning, and I don't think Putin would have played along with something like that either. But anyway, if you want to believe that, it's a point of view. Let me point like that. I mean, I think the argument is that he took such a big hit on his approval rating

for all the things that he's been doing over the past six months that there's no way that this was some sort of five-by-sixty chess. Exactly, exactly. I mean, he's had something like a 40-point drop amongst, I believe, under 25 or something like that. I mean, just a huge drop, yeah. Iranian kiddo says, War and Peace, 1965 is a great Soviet movie, if anyone is interested to watch.

It's seven hours long. Yeah, it is. It is amazing. It is an absolutely incredible film. Bondarchuk, it is of course a dramatization of Leo Tolstoy's novel. And it has the best battle scene ever made. The Battle of Borodino, thousands of soldiers were actually recruited to restage it. And it is incredible.

But it needs to be seen on a big screen. If you get the DVD or the Blu-ray, then make sure you watch it on the big screen. You can find on YouTube, by the way, I believe. Marcos 588 says, thanks, gents. Can we get Dr. Paravini back? Yes. We must. Absolutely, definitely.

In fact, we need to. Things are becoming very interesting here in London. Just to say. Yeah, 2003 ref. Thank you for that super sticker. And the last one from Commando Crossfire says, War, War never changes. Yeah, absolutely.

True. Thank you for that. And Bin Lin, is a member of the Duran community, 31 months. Thank you so much, Ben Lind for that. Iranian kiddo says Trump is, in fact, cunning. That's a requirement to become a New York real estate mogul. Oh, absolutely.

Cunning is one thing. Ability to play 5D chess. I just don't think that's him. I mean, I just don't believe it. I mean, as Alex said, I mean, 5D chess, which causes your rating to collapse, doesn't seem to me like what a genius, a match. you're very ingenious does yeah let's see I've got all the questions one sec yeah I think that's everything Alexander bought from the same supplier Trump used on Trump on Trump Force

1 at the Durant yes it's a it's a photo of the Hulk holding a shield sign away all right thank you thank you for that boa omega and that's everything absolutely live stream yeah absolutely Final thoughts, Alexander? What extraordinary times. I mean, it's, we, this thing, as I said, it just turns and turns and turns. But what has changed is the military situation, as I said, nobody can deny the objective reality anymore. And that's what I've always said this.

It's what shapes events ultimately. 2003 refs says, please learn how to pronounce Russian names. I think we do a good job. I think Alexandria has all the names down. Yeah. We'll take that into consideration. Thank you for that. Marcos 588 says the Russians also made a great production about 20 years ago called Admiral about Alexander Kochuk, well worth a watch.

It is absolutely. It's very interesting, and it gives a very interesting idea of the perspective of the whites during the Civil War. All right. Thank you to everyone that joined us on this live stream. Thank you to Daniel McAddo's, of course. Great guest, great conversation. I will have his links in the description box down below and as a pin comment. And thank you to our awesome moderators.

Zareel was moderating. And I think it was just Zariol. Zareel and myself moderating today. So thank you, Zareel. And thank you to everyone that watched us on Odyssey, on Rockfin, YouTube Rumble, and our locals community, the duran.locals.com. Join locals, join substack. There will be some more more exclusive articles from Alexander on those two platforms.

Take care, everyone.