The Duran Podcast - War party meets in Paris

Episode Date: February 18, 2025

War party meets in Paris

All right, Alexander, let's talk about the war party meeting that is gathering, taking place and has taken place in Paris. Macron called this meeting after the Munich Security Conference, after the statements from the speech from J.D. Vance, after the revelation that Rubio and Lavrov had held a phone call, that a peace summit was being prepared in Saudi Arabia, that by the end of the month, most likely we would see a Trump meeting with Putin, the normalization of U.S.-Russia relations. And these statements from Vance, from Hegset, from Trump himself, which is that the U.S.

is effectively pulling out of the project Ukraine game. They're not interested in boots on the ground. They're not interested in security guarantees. They're talking about 50% of the rare earth minerals, but We all know what that means. I think everyone understands what's going on with all of that rhetoric. Macaron, I think Macaron has finally, it's hit him that they're in trouble. They're in trouble, that they've been played, they've been distracted. They were in Munich talking about, once again, talking about delivering a defeat to Putin and to Russia,

while the United States and the Russians have been moving forward very quickly towards a meeting. So we have Paris, we have all of the big names in Europe in Paris to talk about, as Hungarian foreign minister, Peter Ciarto said, about the sabotaging peace. And that is what Ciarto of Hungary, the foreign minister, has come out and said. And he knows these guys. He works with them. He talks with them every day. He understands exactly what they're trying to do. They're trying to sabotage peace. And I think we got the biggest hint of the goal to sabotage any type of reprosh bond between Russia and the United States in the form of Kier-Stomers article in the telegraph. What are your thoughts? Absolutely. It's an incredible article. He still talks about Ukraine being on an irreversible path towards NATO. It's perfectly well that the Russians have said that is unacceptable and is a red line. also knows perfectly well that Trump has ruled it out, but nonetheless Kirstana insists that

it is going to happen. And he is now talking about sending troops, British troops, to Ukraine as part of the peacekeeping force after an agreement has been reached. And again, he knows perfectly well. Or at least one assumes that he knows that this is something that the Russians have said is unacceptable and which the Americans have made clear that they're not prepared to provide guarantees for. I mean, this has been absolutely clearly said, but Stama continues to talk in this way. He's trying to get the other European states to go along and also support this peacekeeping force, which would be a war fighting force to be clear about this in Ukraine. Seattle is absolutely right. What this meeting in Paris is all about.

about is the Europeans, and we really do have to talk about the Europeans, because there are some European countries, Hungary, Slovakia, perhaps before long Romania, if and when your guest coup becomes president. There are a few European countries that are still resisting and opposing this war policy. But the European leadership overall continues to be 100% committed to it. What they are trying to do, they are shocked that the Americans and the Russians are negotiating. They're shocked that they have been excluded from the negotiations. They are shocked about the fact that they were played by the Trump people. They spent all their time talking to Kellogg, and they discovered that Kellogg isn't even the main negotiator.

And as Kellogg has himself now said that Kellogg's job was to talk to the Europeans and to the Ukrainians, and it was for other people to talk to the Russians. So the Europeans are shot by all of that because they were hearing all sorts of lullabide. Did we call that? Did we call that? Yes. We called that. Exactly.

Exactly. I mean, they were hearing all kinds of lullabies and songs and other things from Kellogg about more sanctions and all our economic war on Russia and all of that. And they discovered now that there was no reality to all of this. So they are shocked and horrified. They see Project Ukraine collapsing. They see the Americans and the Russians preparing to come together and to reach not just understandings about. Ukraine with each other, but understandings on many other matters also. And they're saying to each other, we've got to stop this. We've got to stop this process in its tracks before it developed. We've got to come up with all kinds of ideas that are going to rent negotiations, that peacekeepers, NATO membership for Ukraine, more sanctions. I've heard reports of stories about war crimes tribunals to prosecute Putin himself. All of this sort of thing is going to be pushed by the Europeans with even more frenetic energy over the next couple of weeks. For no, for one purpose ultimately to prevent these talks, these negotiations taking place. And the concern

is not just Ukraine and keeping the war going and keeping project Ukraine going, but to prevent the Americans and the Russians coming to an understanding, an understanding which might make it possible for the Americans to leave, because this is to leave Europe, because this is the ultimate European nightmare. And we're going to hear all the war talk. We are hearing all the wall talk coming out. We're going to have more and more and more policy decisions. We're going to see these, they're going to try to try to play this out in Germany where there are, of course, elections coming. And we're going to see Macron and Stama coming together increasingly, you know, the ultimate war party working with Ursula and the Greens in Germany

and all of those people to try to keep this war. going because they need the war. They need to continue the war in order to keep the Americans and the Russians apart. This is what it is all about now. It's no longer about regime change in Moscow. It's no longer about breaking Russia or, you know, cratering Russia's economy or destroying its army or any of those things. They need the overall. priority is to stop the Americans of the Russians coming to an understanding which would allow the Americans to exit Europe. That's it.

What has become of the European leaders? What has become of them? With the United States possibly disengaging from Europe, for the Europeans, I imagine their fear is that with the US, so goes the money and the past. I mean, that's, that is what it is really all of about. The U.S. money and the power that having the U.S. bogged down in Europe forever gives them. Forever. So they can't risk any type of dialogue between Russia and the United States.

They're going to do everything to sabotage it. What do you think about that statement? And a follow-up question is, how worried are you as to? what Europe and the EU and the UK are capable of. I mean, how far will they take this? We can talk about false flags. You talk about peacekeepers as a type of tripwire. That's what you're saying. Peacekeepers is a type of tripwire in order to get some sort of a Russia-Europe war, which would then commit the United States. I mean, how crazy are the leaders in Europe when it comes to trying to keep the United States bogged down and invested in Europe. How far will they take

this? Right. And the first thing to say, I was going to quickly say that before I get into more details. There is no limits to their craziness and their folly, and they will take it as far as they possibly can, and then they will try to go further still. So one should not look for any self-restraints amongst the leadership of Europe. Now, going back to what you said, you're absolutely right. They've been coasting for decades on the back of American power. Britain and France, especially, to some extent Germany, to a great extent German, having able to go around the world, pretend that there's still important powers, British especially, the French also, the French have been able to run a kind of neo-colonial empire in West Africa, the British have been able to

present themselves in China and all of these places and pretend to the world that they're still important and there's still a great power. And they're not objectively great powers anymore. They haven't been that for a long time now. But they've always been able to say to themselves and to others, we have the Americans behind us. So because the United States is a great power, because recently it was the American hyperpower, you know, during the unipolar moment, it meant that British foreign secretaries

and French foreign ministers were able to stride around the world, pretending that they were important, and at the same time, being treated by third parties, you know, in Riyadh and Beijing and wherever, as if they actually were important. Now the Americans are going, or at least they say they want to go. And that whole pretense is going to be pulled away. And if the Americans do go, the world will see Britain, France, Germany, as what they really are.

exhausted middle-rank countries, middle-rank economies, technologically behind, far behind where the Americans and the Chinese are, and where the Russians are, by the way, also, with stagnating living standards, they're going to see them in a completely different way. The European sense that the Europeans know that, and the single thing that terrified the most, the single comment which I think scared them more than any other over the last week was one that Pete Hegsseth made, which is that the Europeans cannot expect the Americans to remain in Europe forever. In other words, Hegsseth is looking forward to the time when the Americans, with their money and with their power go.

And that is, as I said, the absolute nightmare. It's a terrifying nightmare. I mean, put aside that it leaves them having to deal with the Russians by themselves, which they won't like to do. Leave aside also that it would mean that they are left dealing with each other without the Americans to keep their rivalries under control. As I said, it strips them away. It exposes them not as emperors without clothes, but as naughty children without clothes,

pretending to be emperors. That is what they're really, really scared about. So what will they do to try to prevent it happening everything that they can? I can easily see them, for example, coming to direct agreements with Zelensky to, for him to agree to European and peacekeepers being deployed in Ukraine. They might preempt the outcome of negotiations. They might deliberately put their own troops in harm's way, precisely in order to create a crisis and to wreck talks. You could easily imagine force flag attacks. You can expect unrelenting criticism of what the Americans are. There's already been another article. You've talked about Kirstarva's article in the Daily Telegraph, an astonishing article, by the way, but there's been another one in the Daily

Telegraph which tries to revive all the Russia Gate allegations. It speculates about whether Donald Trump might in fact be some kind of agent of the Kremlin after all. So you can see how they're going to pull every stop to prevent this ultimate nightmare happening. And they're all going to meet together, and what they are meeting together. And they're just, they're just, talking about, it's with each other and they're planning what they can do. And as I said, you're dealing with people who on this question, which for them, not for their nations, but for them themselves, is existential. They will accept no limits. Who does Trump, the Trump administration, who do they have to fear the most when it comes

to sabotage? Is it the UK? Is it the UK partnered with France? Poland, for example, has given out mixed messages. They've talked about sabotaging the peace deals. Obviously, they're part of the group. I don't want to say they've talked about it. They're part of the group that's looking to sabotage the peace deals. But they've also said, look, we're not going to send military into the west of Ukraine because Poland does want to keep good relations with the United States.

And they do, for the most part, a part of the Polish political elite, they do have close connections with Trump in much the same way that Hungary and Urban have close connections with Trump. I'm not saying all of the Polish government or people like Tusk, but there are parts, pockets of the political class in Poland, which do like Trump and do want to remain in partnership with the United States. So you do have some countries which are at this meeting actively trying to sabotage the negotiations between Russia and the United States,

but they don't want to take it all the way because they do want to keep good relations with Russia, but you also have countries which are ready to gamble at all. What are those countries? Which are the people that are going to really try to take down Trump in Europe? And are they going to partner with forces in the United States to do it, with media companies in the United States,

with Democrats in the United States, in the United States to try and derail Russia-U.S. relations and to try and take down Trump. Right. My own straightforward guess, I mean, you mentioned Poland. I will quickly talk about Poland because I know quite a lot about the country and I know lots of people from there. I think Poland is not going to be a fundamental obstacle. As you correctly said, it wants good relations with the United States. And I happen to know that there are many, many, many people in Poland, including well-connected and influential people in Poland, who have always been critical at this whole strategy anyway.

Poland is a much more complicated and much more sophisticated society than people know. But besides, it doesn't have the ability by itself to shape the entire conversation in the United States where it matters. Who will oppose it most? Who, from an American point of view, is most dangerous? The Scandinavians, obviously, Norway, Sweden, Denmark. Denmark, of course, has its issues now with the Trump people over Greenland. But Sweden has now evolved into an extraordinarily anti-Russian country and it's furious

with the US. Anyway, it could be a problem. Obviously, the European Commission, Ursula and her sidekicks and her various lacquette across Europe, including in Germany as well, but above all the British. And the British are going to be a significant problem because the political class in Britain and the deep state in Britain are fully unified behind the anti-Russia, keep the Americans in policy. For the British, it is even more existential to keep the Americans in than for any other European country. Remember, it was Lord Ismay, who was a Britain, a British official who

back in the 1940s spoke about NATO being about keeping the Americans in, as well as the Russians out and the Germans down. The British more than any other country, because they claim to be America's closest ally, have been able to trade and put on a show on the back of American power. The British, in their own self-conception, are part of this Anglo-American five-eyes type complex. And of course, there is the five eyes. They do have the connections with the intelligence community in the United States. They do have their friends in the media, in the Democratic Party, in the Republican Party, at many, many levels in U.S. society. There are still Americans who come to Britain for Rhodes scholarships and things like that,

which remember Bill Clinton did. So the British still have, in front of the United States. influence in Washington, which they will play. And of course, they have the same language as the Americans do. The British can sound sometimes very fluent and very plausible. They're trained in debate and all of that. They can say the most idiotic and absurd things, and they can still manage to package them to sound convincing. So the British are going to play this constantly and relentlessly. we saw the role the British played in Russia Gate, it's the British that the Americans have to worry about most, or at least the Trump people have to worry about most.

I was going to mention the Five Eyes and the role that they played in Russia Gate. So, I mean, this is not going to be Trump's first go with the UK and the Five Eyes, because he had it with Russia Gate. He experienced it with Russia again and everything that went down in the UK, in London, in Cambridge, with steel, with helper, with all of these people. Yeah, I mean, with Alexander Downer and Australia. So, yeah, he should be prepared for stuff like this, shouldn't he? Absolutely. Well, I think he's actually playing with a great deal of skill, actually.

I mean, he's hearing from the British crazy things about Ukraine and incredibly abusive things about Ukraine. He still talks to the British and say, yeah, no, no, let's get together, let's do a deal, let's see whether we can sort something on the tariffs. He called Stama unexpectedly during some tariff discussions. So you could see how he's working at them. He's stringing them along because, of course, the British are desperate, always to remain on the good side of the Americans anyway. So Trump seems to understand that. So he is stringing them along, even as he carries on with the really important discussions, which are the ones that he's undertaking at the moment with the Russians. But sooner or later, eventually, even the British will see that they're being played.

and then they will turn, and then he has to be ready. Just a final question, Macron, France? Right, France is different. What do you think their role is? I mean, they are organizing. They are organizing and they are important. But the major difference between Britain and France is that within France, opposition to this whole approach,

the approach that we've been seeing is much, much more advanced. And there has always been a, current of opinion in France, which says not only was getting involved in Project Ukraine, a disastrous idea right from the outset. But France should try and return to its goless past, actually welcome independence from the United States, start to forge its own policies and its own friendships around the world. And obviously, worked to maintain good relations with the United States, but not adopting this kind of slave mentality that all of the other Europeans have. So Macron himself, he's obviously fully committed to

Project Ukraine. He's fully committed to more, you know, Project Europe, which, by the way, It means project EU. He talks about more Europe, which is the solution to every problem. He wants to talk about European armies and all of these fantasies. He still wants to talk about all of those things. He is a problem, but he's not the only political figure in France, and he's deeply unpopular. And there are others in France who could potentially take a completely different. approach. The same is true in Germany. I mean, the United States, the political class in the

United States, the Democrats, the deep state in the United States, has had many, many allies in Germany for a very, very long time, as we know, they basically run the media there. But in Germany also, there is now opposition, there is now criticism, there is the IFDA. There is Zara Vargichnecht. There are people like that who are speaking out. The difference with Britain is that there is no one really like that in Britain for the moment. Dominic Covings, who speaks Russian, by the way, and knows Russian. He has suggested an alternative approach in the past, though absolutely not from an anti-American

position. And I want to stress that. And Nigel Farage has published, Or D.C. published, I think, two articles in the Telegraph, which he said it's absolute nonsense to say that this war in Ukraine was unprovoked. Of course it was provoked. And why are we pretending otherwise? And he's got a good relationship with Trump. So you sense that deep down Nigel Farage, who is a British national,

doesn't agree with this approach either. But he's had to be very, very careful what he says, because the mood in Britain, the political mood in Britain, is very, very intolerant of dissenters. And that means that there is practically no debate about this issue in Britain at the moment. And that means that the British, on this issue, speak with a united voice, even if it's, you know, imposed unity in their voice. But that makes them

dangerous in Washington. All right, interesting dynamic. We will end the video there. The durand. Dotlocos.com. We are on Rumble Odyssey, pitch, you telegram, Rockfin, and X, and go to the Duran Shop, pick-up some merch, like what you see in this video update. The link is in the description box down below. Take care.