The Duran Podcast - Woodward 'WAR,' Biden stared down Putin nuke threat

Episode Date: October 14, 2024

Woodward 'WAR,' Biden stared down Putin nuke threat

All right, Alexander, let's talk about this, this Bob Woodward book called War, which is getting a lot of attention. And perhaps the parts of the book that are getting a lot of attention are actually the parts of the book that really don't warrant any attention. Like coupé tests to Putin and stuff like that. Who cares? I mean, really, who cares? Or Trump calling up Putin once again, who cares? But there are a couple of parts of the book, which are interesting, very interesting. And one part, in specific, talks about the Biden White House speaking with the Kremlin, Austin, with Shoygo, Sullivan with the Kremlin as well, with regards to a possible nuclear strike into Kiev, when the Biden White House into Ukraine, when the Biden White House at the time,

This was in 2020, right before the great spring summer counteroffensive that flopped. This is when the Biden White House thought that they had Russia on the ropes and that Putin was in a panic and he was about to use nukes. And the Biden White House was going to retaliate with nuclear weapons back. At least that's the impression that we get from the excerpts that have been revealed from Woodward's book. Anyway, let's talk about what Woodward is reported. if you believe his reporting in this book. The fundamental problem I have with Woodward's book is that it's entirely based on what the Americans are saying, and to be more precise, what the administration is saying, that he's obviously not accessing Russian sources to any degree.

Now, the Russians have denied this story outright. Putin has said that he never considered using nuclear weapons in the autumn of 2022. And let's go and look at the events of what actually took place in 2022. Because if we do that, if we go through a timeline, a brief timeline, it really doesn't make a huge amount of sense. Firstly, we had in June, July, a series of Russian victories. They captured Mariupol, they captured Severodon, it's Lizi Chansk, in early August they captured the important village of Pesk. near Donetsk. Around this time, Putin was going around. He made a very famous speech. He said, yes, the Ukrainians are going to start an offensive very soon. Let's see how far it will go. But us for ourselves, we haven't started yet. That was what Putin said. That was in the summer.

Then the Ukrainians began their offensive at the end of August, beginning of September 22. And again, the story of this offensive is not particularly well discussed in the West because it gives the impression that there were huge battles in which the Russians were defeated. And that wasn't really what happened. The Ukrainians launched an offensive in Kharkov region at the end of August, beginning of September 22. The Russians retreated. The Russians retreated in good order. order. There was no collapse. The Ukrainians didn't capture large numbers of Russian prisoners. The Russians established very quickly strong fortified lines. And by the end of the end of October, the Ukrainian offensive there had come to an end. The Ukrainians also launched an offensive in Harrison region. That didn't go at all well. The Ukrainians suffered enormously heavy losses.

The Russians, however, eventually, after a lot of debate amongst themselves, decided to pull their forces back across the NEPA because there were concerns about supplies. So there is a narrative created about a huge military crisis that the Russians were experiencing at that time. And it isn't really factually true. meanwhile Putin had other reasons to think that things were going well for him. Firstly, the sanctions by the summer of 2022, when he's supposed to have been desperate, it was becoming increasingly clear that the sanctions weren't working and that in fact there was even a possibility that Russia would limit its economic contraction to around 1% of GDP, which is basically what happened.

So by this very same period of time, when we're told that Putin was desperate, on the economic front, which is probably the one that concerned him the most, on the contrary, he was getting clear proof of a significant stabilization.

In September, he had a meeting in Samakand with the various leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation organisation. Xi Jinping was there, Modi was there, Erdogan was there, meeting went off

extremely well. Putin looked like he looked confident. He had these meetings. We see the pictures of him. Samakhan produced all sorts of good decisions. He came back to Moscow.

He announced this call up of reservists. And the reservists, as we now know, were mostly people who just served in the Russian army, but who had ended their contracts just a few weeks before. And they were called back to the army, to the situation by the end of September, early October, was stabilising. So there really isn't a reason. There wasn't a reason for Putin. to think about using nuclear weapons. But some other things were happening. And I wonder whether these were the source of this whole story.

Firstly, we know, because none other than Kirilo Budanov has confirmed it, that Russian reports that the Ukrainians were making various attempts to recapture the Zaporozia nuclear power plant in September and October. 2022 were true. The Ukrainians made various attempts to capture the Zaporosian nuclear power plant. There was a first attempt on the 1st of September 2022. There were more attempts over the course of September 2022. There was a very big attempt on the 19th of October 22 by the Ukrainians to capture the Zaporosian nuclear power plant. They sent men in boats across the reservoir, trying to reach the power plant. It was an absolute disaster. I didn't believe it was possible. I thought the Russians

were making it all up because it sounded crazy. Subsequently, the New York Times and then Kiri Lobudanov himself, the intelligence chief, all confirmed that it was true. around the same time the Ukrainians were shelling, started shelling the Zaporosia nuclear power plant. The Russians were then warning everybody. And on the 23rd of October, Shoygu, who was the Russian defense minister, contacted and spoke to various NATO defense ministers, including Lloyd Austin, and said that the Russians had obtained intelligence, that the Ukrainians were preparing some kind of a dirty bomb, and that this was then going to be used by the Ukrainians

as a kind of force flag operation, and that this would then lead to the attack, that the Western powers would then justify that to launch some kind of an attack on the Russians. And I wonder whether this whole narrative about Putin, thinking about using nuclear weapons, really isn't, its origins, wasn't that call from Shoygu. Because if you look at everything else, it really doesn't make sense. Anyway, Shoygu calls Austin and the other NATO ministers. Remember, this is just a few days after the Ukrainian attempt to capture the Zaporosje nuclear power plant. There's then apparently some kind of a panic in Washington.

they send Bill Burns to talk to Naryshkin in Ankara. The meeting takes place on the 13th of November. That's just a couple of weeks later. We're told, the Americans have told us, that it was in no way about negotiating an end of the war. It was all about trying to warn the Russians about not using nuclear weapons. But as I said, by this point,

point, the front lines had fully stabilized. The Ukrainian offensive had ended. The Russians were hardly in any need at that point to start anything. They started calling up their reservists. Everything was being brought under control. And in fact, we're told by Bill Burns that you found Naryshkin in an absolutely defiant mood. And I can't help but think that the real thing that happened in Ankara was not that they were discussing these nuclear weapons threats, which clearly didn't exist. Naryshkin did undoubtedly also bring up this warning from Shoygu about the Ukrainian dirty bomb thing, but I think that the Americans were looking to see whether after the Russian offensive, the Ukrainian offensives of the autumn.

The Russians were prepared to cave and they found that the Russians weren't prepared to cave and that's when the decision was made. When Burns reported back, the decision came to start arming Ukraine to launch the offensive in the summer which this time it was hoped

would win the war. So I think that this story that the Russians were thinking about using nuclear weapons almost certainly isn't true. I think much more likely something was going on with the Ukrainians at that time. You know, they were making attacks on the Zaporosia nuclear power plant. Maybe the Russians were wrong in thinking that the Ukrainians were planning a dirty bomb. But anyway, that narrative gained traction. The Americans have then used all of that to imply that it was the Russians who were thinking of using nuclear weapons,

but the real purpose of that meeting in Ankara was not to discuss Russian nuclear weapon threats, of which there is no substance, but to try to force the Russians to capitulate. And when that didn't happen, the Russians came back, the Americans then started preparing for the offensive in 2023, which ended in disaster. That's how it looks to me, looking back and actually going through the events of the summer and autumn of 2020. Yeah, you've got to look at the timing of this book dropping as well, which is a couple of weeks before the elections. And I mean, I haven't read the book. I don't even think it's out yet, is it? No. But from the excerpts that I'm reading, it does make it look like once again the Russians are panicky,

they're jumpy, they're, they're a bit incompetent, a bit in chaos. And the Biden White House was taken a hard line, but it does make Biden kind of look decisive, I guess. Definitely makes the Pentagon in Austin look tough. It makes Shoygu and the Russian Defense Ministry look kind of weak, and it makes the American defense ministry, the Pentagon, look very, very tough and very resolute telling Shoygo, Don't you dare fire nuclear weapons? We're the most powerful military in the world. And Shoygu, at least from the excerpts, appears to back down.

So maybe this does present the Biden White House in a bit more of a positive light. At least that's what I saw from the excerpts of this book. But you're right. There's no Russian perspective on this at all. And the Kremlin has come out and they've pretty much said that a lot of the reporting here is just BS. A better book to read before the elections would be Dr. Steve Turley's book, Fight. That's a better book to read before the elections. And that's a book that I have read.

And that is a book that I can highly recommend for everybody to read Dr. Steve Turley. Fight. But anyway, your thoughts on what I just said about how they're painting Biden, how Woodward is painting Biden in this book. Is Woodward, by the way, do you know Woodward's political leanings? I mean, he's, from what I understand, he's a type of. editor for the Washington Post, a non-active editor for the Washington Post? No, I mean, he's clearly, I mean, he clearly wants the Democrats to win the elections in November. I mean, I don't think this is controversial at all, by the way. I mean,

he's written critical books about Trump and he's written a supportive book about Biden. What this is an attempt to do is it's taking what looks to me like a cover story from the autumn of 2022, which was an attempt to try to try to. to argue away the fact that the Americans and the Russians were meeting in Ankara to discuss an end to the war. The Americans were giving the Russians an ultimatum. Remember at that time, and still the Americans were saying we don't negotiate with the Russians without the Ukrainians, but the Ukrainians weren't there in Ankara. So, you know, they had to provide some kind of cover story. So they used, also it seems to me, all of these incidents with nuclear,

events, the warnings of the Russians, the business with the Zaporosia nuclear power plant to spin a tale that there'd been this threat from the Russians. So I think they're taking this 2022 cover story and they're repackaging it now. And it's it's 1962 all over again, the Cuban Missile Crisis. JFK are supposedly facing down Crucese. I mean, you know, because that's the story, which by the way, is also untrue, but it's the story that people have always been told

about the Cuban Missile Crisis. And now we have it been told about the Biden administration as well. That, you know, in the autumn of 2022, heroic president and his tough team face down Putin, they told him, don't you even think of doing this if you do this, we will come down on you hard and it tells you, it shows you what it's strong and resolute leader the United States had at that time. And why, even if you can't vote for him now, you should vote for his anointed successor

because this is the administration that is able to face down the Russians. So as I said, that's how it seems to me. But as I said, the story itself makes absolutely no sense. And there is one factor, which a number of people pointed out, which basically confirms that it doesn't make sense. Because supposedly, in the autumn of 2022, Putin was so rattled and thinking that he was about to be defeated that he was on the brink of using nuclear weapons. So what does Biden then do in the knowledge that Putin had been on the brink of using nuclear weapons?

He escalates in Ukraine. He gives Ukraine far more weapons than they'd had before and basically eggs them on to launch their great offensive in the summer of 2023, which was supposed to break through to the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea and to surround Crimea and to do all of those things. What an administration that really sought in the autumn of 2022 that we'd come that close to a nuclear, to nuclear weapons use? Would they really have done that? I don't believe so. Yeah, well, you know, got to pump up Biden's legacy, right? The legacy of Biden.

He's JFK too. He's back, you know, you know, it's always... Stairn down Putin. I mean, the reality is, if you compare the administration, the JFK was running and JFK himself, and the administration that we have at the moment, I mean, it's, well, let's be kind and say that, you know, it's the adults versus the children. We could use stronger words. I mean, comparing JFK and his team with Biden, Lincoln, Austin, and, and, uh, and, uh, and, uh, Sullivan. I mean, it just makes you, it makes you wait. That's all I can say.

It's laughable. It's laughable and disgraceful, actually. And it is. It is. It is disgraceful. It is discreesome. Yeah. Yeah. The way Biden has handled foreign policy is is not the way that JFK handled foreign policy. That's for sure. Absolutely. But Biden does have a fascination with JFK. This is also true. So that's what makes me believe that your explanation. You're explanation is actually pretty spot on that this is this is kind of a way to to package a cuban missile crisis part two because biden is absolutely obsessed with uh with with comparing his legacy to jfk's absolutely that's exactly that's exactly how it looks to me anyway i don't believe this i mean suffice to say i don't believe this story and i think if bodwood budwood runs to write books like this

he ought to speak to the russians as well and at least take into a count what they're saying. Yeah, which he never will do. We know that. We know that. All right. We will end the video there. The durand.

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