The Duran Podcast - West Sets Trap for Putin; Lavrov Snubs Berlin; Broke Europe Eyes Russian Assets

Episode Date: September 28, 2026

West Sets Trap for Putin; Lavrov Snubs Berlin; Broke Europe Eyes Russian Assets

All right, Alexander, let's talk about the meeting between the German foreign minister and the Russian foreign minister on the sidelines of the UN. A 20-minute meeting, and we've got statements from Germany, and we have some brief statements from the Russians. What did you make of this meeting? Well, the first thing to say is that it came completely out of the blue. there was no prior notification warning that a meeting like this was going to happen. Secondly, I don't think Lavaov expected it to happen. I don't think he went to New York anticipating that he was going to meet Vadafoufou. All the indications are that the Germans asked for it very urgently.

And that, well, the Russians are telling us the readout makes it absolutely clear that it was Vardifur who wanted to meet Lavaov and wanted to speak to Loverov. And, well, it smacks of desperation. And the reasons for desperation are two. One is that the situation in Ukraine is going from bad to worse every day. But now we have these massive missile and drone strikes taking place across Ukraine. The economy of Ukraine is in free fall. And Zelensky is coming and is asking for money, large amounts of money, which the EU has to find in some form.

And that is proving difficult. And it is proving very, very contentious in Germany itself. So there is that problem. And the other problem, which is, of course, connected, is that the political situation in Germany is becoming more difficult. that it's going to be more difficult to get the Bundestag to fund these payments to Ukraine. And the Germans must be looking at this and they must be saying to themselves, we are in this thing. We are paying all the money and things are going from bad to worse.

And our populations are getting restive. And our parties, both the SPD and the C.D. are collapsing. So one way or the other, it was part of this diplomacy that we've been seeing carried out over the last few weeks, trying to get the Russians in some way to stop, to try to persuade them to stop, firstly to save Ukraine and secondly to save Friedrich Mitz and his coalition in Berlin. The problem was Vardifel went to this meeting. and he went completely empty-handed. He had no new proposals to make.

The Russian readout is almost insulting about the whole meeting. The meeting lasted all of 20 minutes. My impression, very strong impression, is that Vadipul, like Ratcliffe before him, did not go there offering serious talks or concessions. He made more threats, more threats of economic pressure, more threats of possible European military action if the Russians continued the hybrid drone attacks.

And I think Lov himself, frankly, was not interested in having that kind of discussion. Vardifil said that it was, you know, a Lov. It was like talking to someone who, you know, deaf ears. In other words, Lov wasn't interested. And that's why the meeting lasted only 20 minutes. Well, what would the EU offer Russia? What would Germany offer Russia? I mean, they want Russia to stop.

Okay. What's the incentive to stop? There is no... Especially when the German side is constantly talking about war and war by 2030. Actually, Lavrov even said as much. Yeah, absolutely. He said that it's not us that is talking about war. It's not Russia that's constantly talking about war with Europe.

It's the European. that are talking about a war with Russia. And that is a true statement. Yes. That's a statement rooted based in fact, because over the past years, we have been documenting on this channel, the Europeans, European leadership, as well as the collective West media, has fixed this 2030 date, which is going to be some sort of a conflict with Russia.

They're the ones that have talked about this. They're the ones that have put this timeline in this 2030 date. as some sort of a conflict with Russia? Well, indeed, absolutely. I mean, if you read Vardifold's comments, I mean, the lack of any acknowledgement or awareness of any of this is staggering. I mean, he says, you know, the Russians are threatening and talking about de-escalation. And when it has been the Europeans, he've been escalated.

He talks and complains about Russian hybrid attacks on Europe. And to repeat a point which, you know, I think we both made, which is that all of these hybrid attacks, you simply don't have any real evidence to support a single one. Maybe the Russians have been involved in some things. Maybe when the old factory goes up in smoke, you know, it has been something to do with Russian saboteurs. But it's all speculative because we've had absolutely no information, no evidence at in any single one case to prove that. Whereas there is no doubt at all, it is indisputably true

that Europe has been incredibly active in helping Ukraine conduct deep drone attacks far inside Russia. In other words, it is European manufactured and European-funded drones that have been attacking Russian warehouses and Russian refineries. And yet, as is a wonderful, talks about the threat to Europe from Russia, when, as is the actuality is the other way around. And then he demanded, you know, that the Russians start negotiations. And the Russians have always showed willingness to conduct negotiations. Again, this is an indisputable fact. It was the Europeans and the Ukrainians who sabotaged first Minsk won and then Minsk do. It was the Europeans who sabotaged Istanbul.

And it is Zelensky who has pulled the Ukrainians repeatedly out of all of the talks that have taken place over the last few years, the last year especially. So again, Waddafiul says these things to Lavrov. and Lavrov must be saying to himself, this man has taken leave of his senses. What he's talking about is so completely the opposite of the factual truth. How can I possibly talk to him? Well, it's obvious what they're trying to do is they're trying to get a Minsk three. They're putting all of the pressure that they can put together,

all the pressure that they can muster. coming from Trump. Trump is working overtime to try and get a Mitzk three. So whenever I hear collective West officials or officials in the Zelensky government talk about how Trump is a traitor or Trump is cozying up to Putin, that is complete nonsense. Trump is working day and night to try and get a Minsk three. They're all, they are all in it together.

And they are all working together. And that's the purpose of this meeting. This is something people need to. understand. This is a concerted campaign that has been underway now for at least a month, probably longer, at least six weeks, I would say. The Americans, the Europeans, they've tried to rope in some of the BRIC states, as we've discussed, India and Brazil. They are trying to find some way to get the Russians to stop on the existing conflict lines a ceasefire so that they can rearm Ukraine and by themselves more time.

Another Minsk three. And this is something that they're all frantically working together. Rubio and Lavrov met. Rubio obviously didn't get anywhere with Lavrov. So now they've roped in Vardiful. Vardifil comes along and makes the same sort of pleas and and threats to the Russians that previously Radcliffe has done. And you could see, you could see that this is something that they're all working upon

overtime. And the reason they're doing it is because their great 40-day campaign over the summer to basically destabilize Russia has failed. And of course, the last nail in the coffin of that strategy, was, as we discussed in a recent program, the Russian Duma elections, which ended up giving Putin an even more supportive Duma than the one he had before. So what they're hoping for is a face-to-face with Putin, or at least Trump. What they're aiming for is to get Trump to meet with Putin either at the G20 or at the ASEAN. I believe the ASEAN is before.

The ASEAN is in November, in China, and then you have the G20 in December in Miami. 99% chance that Putin does not go to the G20. I would be stunned if Putin were to go to the G20. Absolutely stunned. That would be a huge, massive risk. But the ASEAN, he is going to go. Well, he has to because it's in China. Trump will be there.

And I imagine Zelensky will be invited as well. Well, he will try to. He will get invited. He will get it. Yeah, he'll get it through. He'll be the plus one. He'll be like macaroons plus one. Yes.

But anyway, get Putin and Trump to meet in the hopes that you get Putin to default. Right? Because when you go to Lavrov, you hit a firewall. When you go to these people, you're going to hit a firewall. You're going to hit a wall. Lavrov is going to say, I don't want to hear this stuff. And other Russian officials are going to say, I don't want to hear the stuff. What they're hoping for is that that Merkel-Puton.

Putin dynamic that they worked out so successfully in 2015 with the Mitzkwan agreement. That's what they're hoping to recreate. Well, that is exactly right. They want to set up a meeting between Trump, Putin, and Zelensky. This is now, in effect, what Western policy is all about, where the idea is get them all together. That will provide Zelensky with some kind of recognition or legitimacy and then move on to that towards a ceasefire, an actual ceasefire on the existing conflict lines.

Now, I don't think Putin is going to the G20. The Russians are very, frankly, uninterested anyway in the G20. If they do, then, of course, they are on American territory. The Europeans will all be there, and it can all be arranged so that even if Putin doesn't want to meet Zelensky and Trump, he's called into a meeting, for example, with Trump, and lo and behold, Zelensky is there in the room. So something of that kind, which I don't think the Russians want, if I can definitely say they don't want, and I think for that reason, it is all but inconceivable that Putin will go. The Russians have received an invitation, but they've not accepted it. And there are words out that IPAC is more important for them than actually going to Florida, I believe it'll be, and attending the G20.

So that's one obvious trap. And I think the Russians are not going to let themselves. They're not going to take any risks with it. They're not going to, they're going to step aside. probably Lavrov will be the person who represents Russia there, or maybe Michoudin or somebody like this, but it will not be Putin. Now, IPAC is going to be much more complicated. It is in China, China is friendly territory. The Chinese have a much better understanding of what the Russians are worried about, and I don't think they will want to make life difficult for the Russians. But as you rightly say, there's a very strong chance that Zelensky is going to try to invite himself as well. And then there is the other problem, because if there is this meeting, there is this IPAC meeting, Putin goes, he has to go.

Zelensky is there. Putin refuses to meet with Trump and Zelensky. then you're supposed to have this photo shoot at the end of all the leaders. The Europeans as always will stay away. That may not be something that the Chinese like to see. So the diplomacy for the Russians is going to be complicated. But nobody should make the mistake of thinking that it is going to be so complicated that they won't be able to find solutions to this.

I mean, we are talking about the Russians. They do know how to navigate through these problems. They'll be talking to China. They'll be talking to the Chinese officials, the protocol officials. They will be able to work this through and they will be able to work it out. I don't think this is going to be an insuperable problem, but you're completely right. It is a trap. Then that's what the West is now trying to work towards.

That is their objective. That is why Waddefell met with Lavrov in New York. Actually, my sense is that Waddafuk, who in my opinion, is one of these people who gets a lot less intelligent than he believes. In fact, he's very far from being, as I would say, the sharpest knife in the drawer. He went into this meeting so completely empty-handed and at the same time so unbelievably arrogant. that in fact it has worked against this strategy. If Vadifal and the Germans had had two brain cells to rob together, they would have gone into this meeting in a completely different way.

They would have said, you know, Loveroff, this has all gone terribly wrong. What we'd all need to do is to de-escalate. Let's see if we can find a way forward. In other words, set a trap. Set the trap in exactly the way that you said, If you are going to set a trap, then lure somebody into it. Don't be so arrogant and so rude that, in fact, you're giving away the whole game before the game even begins.

That's where Trump comes in. Yeah. That's where Trump meeting with Putin comes in. Even if the Chinese, which I think the Chinese should do, they will not do it. But what they should do is tell the EU cool kids, under no circumstances, is Zeletsky going to come here? So whoever's thinking of smuggling Zelensky in some sort of a hand luggage or something like that to China, no. He is not going to come to this event.

I think that should be the first thing that the Chinese say, but they're not going to say it. I'm not sure about that, by the way. I think it is quite possible they will say it. If they do that good. The problem is if the Chinese say it and the Europeans ignore it, What happens? Kick him out. Well, kicking him out.

Absolutely. If Macaron brings him, kick him out. Macaron, you have to leave. Exactly. Yeah, it's that simple. No. The problem comes with a Trump meeting with Putin because Trump has been ordered to try and get this freeze. Yes.

This ceasefire. Yes. So even a Trump meeting with Putin, which Putin is not going to turn down, that could result in Putin agreeing to, okay, okay, President Trump will freeze everything. Yes. That's what I think they're looking to do. I'm not saying Putin will agree with it. I think that's how they're strategizing this.

Because it's just like you said, guys like Vodafoal are these guys. I mean, they've got the charisma of Iraq. Right? I mean, they're completely, absolutely unlikable figures. You just listen to them talk and you're just down that these people are not diplomats. Exactly. And they don't have any charm. No.

But Trump and Putin, if you can. get them together in a room. And what you're hoping for is that maybe Trump will be able to convince Putin to go back to Anchorage, to go back to Alaska, to agree to the freeze, and to stop now with the strikes on the ports and on the internet and on this deal. And that way you can get what you want. Well, indeed, yes. No, I mean, that is, but then again, I think the Russians are very well aware of this.

and they will work to navigate the pitfalls very carefully. I think that going to the US for the G20 would indeed be perilous. And as I said, all the indications are that Putin isn't going to go. I don't think he is going to go. Going to IPAC, he has no choice but to go. I mean, the BRICS leaders will all be there. They'll be in there at the G20, but Xi Jinping is hosting it. The Asian states will also be there.

They are the countries that Russia wants to develop trade and commercial relations with. So Putin has to go to the IPAC meeting. How is going to be managed? I don't know. But I think that Putin himself by now, well, Putin is an incredible. extremely clever man, let's not forget this. He knows exactly what all the perils and problems are. And as I said, I think he will be avoiding, he will be, he will make, he'll be very careful to make sure that these problems don't happen. I personally think, by the way, that it is not impossible, especially if Zelensky does turn up in China, that there will be no Putin-Trump meeting. Yeah.

I think I said the ASEAN. It is the APEC in China. I think I said Asian at the beginning. Yeah. Yes. So just to finish off the video, we do have some bad news for Russia, very bad news. For Russia, very good news for Project Ukraine and for the collective West. The Sunak is back.

Of course. Sunak is back and he is demanding. Look, they needed leadership. ship and they finally got it. Sunak has returned and he is demanding the Russian frozen assets. That's going to solve everything, according to Sunac and an article that he wrote for the, I believe, the Sunday Times. Yes. His brilliant plan is to stick it to Russia, to show Russia that the Europeans really mean business and to just take that 200 or 300 billion in Brussels. What do you make of Sunak's return? His triumphant glorious return.

Well, that's absolutely correct because, you know, we have a political genius here in the person of Rushi Sunak. So inevitably, we should be listening to him. We've had both Sunak, by the way, and Blair himself coming back to Blair's other great idea is that Britain should move forward immediately to rejoin the European Union without any possible delay either. And he's been very busy talking about this also over the last couple of days. He says this should be the actual priority of the Andy Burnham government. No, yes, but I mean, we can laugh. But the plan to try to seize the Russian assets is absolutely back on the table. I mean, it never went away.

So last year, the Belgians said no. Ursula was very, very unhappy about it. We got the 90 billion euro loan. Zelensky's going through that at incredible speed. That's the thing to bear it. He's gone through it. I mean, exactly. It's all gone.

I mean, exactly as we said. I mean, what makes it even more incredible is that he's used it as a kind of credit card or in effect as not even as a credit card as a kind of guarantee for spending. So he's been spending it before he's actually received it. I mean, it sounds very weird to say, but it is an accident. I mean, he's engaging in the kind of thing that reckless bankrupts do. He's telling people, look, I'm going to get this 90 billion euros from the European Union. So, you know, give me, so I'm going to spend 10, 20, 30 now.

And don't worry, you're going to have all the money paid because eventually I'm going to get this money. from the European Union. So that's what he's been doing. So now, of course, he's running an immensely enormous, he set himself a cosmically high budget deficit. He needs the money fast. He needs 27 billion euros. He says, if I don't get the 27 billion euros, I can't even produce drones anymore. And I can't continue with this great drone offensive that we all launched. And so I've got to have this money. And of course, the Europeans can't stop. giving him money without seeing this whole project Ukraine that they've invested so much money, so much of their prestige in, so much of their political capital in.

They can't stop giving him money without seeing it all collapse like a house of gods. So one way or the other, they have to give him money. So they're coming back looking at the Russian frozen assets. Ursula's been setting up parties, you know, work. party is to look at how it can be done. Others have been talking about this as well, the Swedes, the Spanish, I believe the Italians, they've all been talking about it, the polls, obviously. And of course, now, Sunak's been roped in and he's undoubtedly been put up to do this too. In London, they've always wanted to seize his Russian assets, because it's not going to help.

Ukraine, exactly. Well, it will help Zelensky for a few more months. He will get through the 200, let's say 200 billion euros. He will get through that every bit as fast as he's getting through the 90 billion. He will shoot through this money very, very quickly. But it does mean that in the short term, they are protected. They can give Zelensky the money he's asking for, they can cover his already accumulating debts, and they don't have to increase their own budget deficits, or go to European taxpayers via the parliaments and ask for more appropriations there. So the attractions are enormous, but of course we've run into all the same problems

that we've run into many times. This is obviously completely illegal. They're coming up with many schemes again, which are essentially the same schemes that they came up with last year. I've discussed this many times. We've talked about this many times on our programs. When you are creating a scheme to make something which is illegal, legal, you are not actually making it legal.

That is impossible. You are simply highlighting not just the illegality of what you're doing, but the fact that you know that what you're doing is illegal. You are throwing away the defence that you acted in good faith and were ignorant of the implications of what you had done. But, you know, I don't know that Metz, Vaddaful, Ursula, Sonak, any of these people frankly care about this now. They are so deep in that they have to come and find some money fast to help Zelensky. He went to New York.

He asked Trump for weapons. He didn't get weapons. He asked Trump for Patriot missile systems. He didn't get Patriot missile systems. not because Trump doesn't want to give them. Trump would be delighted to give them. He doesn't have them to give at the moment. He probably is getting money from the Americans.

And when the new Congress comes in in January, he will get more money from the Americans because Congress, if it gets Democrat majorities, is going to start making appropriations to fund Ukraine again. That is a certainty. say he's going to start getting money from the Americans and he's probably getting some money now but basically he needs most of the money to come from Europe

he needs it now so this train to try and seize these Russian assets illegal though it is it's now again pulling up to the station we will see what happens over the next few weeks the Belgians as I understand it

remain adam and opposed, Euroclear, which faces annihilation if this happens, remains adamantly opposed. They are apparently threatening to bring legal action themselves against the European Commission, if the European Commission goes down this route. But realistically, since they're not prepared to make any serious moves to end fraud, to close down project Ukraine and to come to some kind of genuine understanding with the Russians, such as Lovrov and Putin might take seriously. What alternative do they have?

They have to find the money. They have to find the money somehow. And there it is. That money is there. The desire, the need to seize it is unbearably strong. They've been wanting to get their hands on that money for so many years. Well, of course, this is the other. They've been wanting that money so bad.

And, you know, we've said two years ago that when they go after that money and they take that money, that is the end of the conflict in Project Ukraine. Probably going to be the beginning of the end of the European Union as well. But, anyway, so that's a whole other video. But we said that when they take that money, that's the end. Absolutely. They've taken everything. Exactly. Can I just say something else?

And it goes back to what you've been saying. They've already actually taken part of it. I mean, everyone knows it. You did the sums and you're absolutely right. And I've had other people tell me the same thing. Did Belgium say no, though? I mean, Belgium has said no, but they've said it in a very devious way, a clever way. They say Belgium's position, from what I understand it, is that, look, fine, the money goes to Ukraine.

But when the lawsuits come and when the fall. out comes from this, we're the ones that are going to get slammed. So we want everyone in Europe, all the EU member states to guarantee the money, take responsibility for it, help us in the legal fallout. We don't want to be the only ones getting hit with this. I think that's like Belgium's. That is their position. And up to now, none of the others.

No one was yet. To take on those guarantees. Because they will know it's illegal. I mean, that's the other thing to say about this. But, you know, now, as I said, the pressure is much greater than it was a year ago. Because Zelensky's, as I say, Zelensky's financial hole, I mean, there's a situation on the battlefronts, which is bad. There's the situation in the air, which is worse. But the thing that I suspect is keeping them all awake at night at the moment is not the situation on the battlefront.

It's not even the situation in the sky or the blockade. of the ports. It is the fact that money is running out. And the reality, and I think this is again a point to make, Zelensky, let's assume this isn't going to happen, but let's assume that the money from Europe stops. It's not that he is not going to continue the war or try to. It's that he's going to have to print the money in order to fund it. And given that he's printing money, when there is nothing behind the money that he's printing, that will inevitably, I think, where that situation to arise, that would lead to hyperinflation in Ukraine. It's impossible to see, at least I find it impossible to see, how it could not.

At the moment, the backstop that is preventing hyperinflation from taking hold in Ukraine is the fact that the European Union is continuing to give Zelensky money. So that does give the impression that behind the money that Zelensky is printing, the good evening is that he's printing inside Ukraine, there is something behind it that has an actual real value. The euros that are pouring into Kiev every day. If that flow stops, it's not just, you know, that all the Zelensky's various friends and the firepoint company won't be able to afford their golden toilets anymore. It is, as I said, that the whole financial system in Ukraine will crash.

And that, of course, for all of these people in Europe, is a nightmare. It's not just a nightmare because it would inevitably lead to a military collapse, which would be a geopolitical disaster with all that follows from that. But a financial collapse in Ukraine has a direct bearing on the European economies as well because they have put so much money into it. I mean, there are banks, there are financial institutions that would have to be basically bailed out if that kind of collapse in Ukraine were to happen. We're not talking about a bailout on the scale of 2008, but it would nonetheless be something that people would notice at a time of increasing budgetary problems throughout the European Union and indeed the West.

Yeah. Well, the Bandarites will be really upset if the money stops flowing. Oh, absolutely. I mean, I think Zelensky would feel that as well. Oh, absolutely, yes. But of course, this would accelerate the collapse even more. I mean, if we have a crisis of that kind on top of all the other crises, an internal crisis, then I said, I mean, you know, the whole thing is just,

so they have to find the money. I mean, that's what they're all telling each other at the moment. Never mind about, you know, what's going on in Slaviansk, never mind about the data centers being destroyed in Ukraine. What we have to do, what they're talking about, all the time, incessantly now, is where do we get this money to help Zelensky, to bail out Zelensky? Because bailing out Zelensky means we're bailing ourselves out to. And there's the Russian money and the temptation to seize it must now be starting to become irresistible. And of course,

on top of that, we have to try and get the Russians to stop. Because if they don't stop, Then as night follows day, we all know that in a year's time, we will be back in exactly the same situation that we are in, except we won't have any Russian assets at that point to cease. And our own credit around the world will have gone. They're not bailing themselves out. The Europeans are burying themselves. Well, absolutely. Yeah. When they take that money.

Absolutely. Absolutely. But, you know, it's like you said, it's, it's, it's. too irresistible for them. Anyway, we'll end the video there. We are on substack. We are on on X and we are on locals at durand.locals.com and also go to durand shop, pick up submerch. The link is in the description box down below. Take care.