The Duran Podcast - Zaluzhny blames Zelensky. German Media Nord Stream report claims CIA and Zaluzhny knew

Episode Date: February 21, 2026

Zaluzhny blames Zelensky. German Media Nord Stream report claims CIA and Zaluzhny knew

All right, Alexander, let's do an update on the diplomacy that appears to be taken place with Project Ukraine. And we can also talk about an update on Nord Stream, or at least a German Spiegel, an investigative report on Nordstream, which claims that the Ukrainian team, this team of divers, consulted the CIA in early 2022. And the CIA said, yeah, go for it. It looks good. We like it. They said, and then the CIA changed their mind. And they tried to talk the Ukrainian divers out of it. And they weren't going to provide money anyway.

A whole story about Nordstrom, we'll get into it as a video goes along. Let's start things off with post-Geneva talks, Medinsky's tough position with Ukraine, the two-hour meeting that, that's, that developed after the talks concluded. Mittinsky went back, and I believe now we know that he had a closed-door meeting with Umerov and Arrahamia. Arachamia, yeah, and no Americans at this meeting. So anyway, let's start off there and we'll work our way towards North Stream.

Right. Well, I think the first thing to say is that there was a lot of speculation about what would happen at the Geneva meeting. Many people said that Medinsky had been sent there basically to capitulate to the Americans and to agree to all the American demands and all of that, and that there would be a deal done, which would be favorable to the U.S. and to Ukraine. There was lots of speculation about this big deal that Demetriov was negotiating with Witkoff. The economists published this story that the Russians were offering a $12 trillion dollar. economic trade package to the Americans. Well, we said Medinsky is a well-known hardliner. The Ukrainians can't stand him.

It looks far more likely that he's been sent to Geneva to basically put the hammer down, bring the hammer down until the Ukrainians look, it's Istanbul Plus, and you need to hurry up and agree to that. because we're not making any concessions on any point around it. And I'm going to say it because, you know, if we don't say it, who is going to say it, we got it absolutely right. That is exactly what happened. We hear that the talks were very tense, that Medinsky didn't give an inch.

He had Galuzin with him, who was the deputy foreign minister, who said that previously floated the idea of putting Ukraine under foreign trusteeship, which presumably means Russian trusteeship, apparently that whole proposal was again floated over the course of this meeting. And the meeting went absolutely nowhere. We got reports about how everything stalled, and the blame was all put by the Ukrainians and the Arn Medinsky. But anyway, Anybody who had been following our programs and listening to our analysis would not have expected any different outcome. And as for the story in The Economist about the Russians offering a $12 trillion trade package

to the Americans in return for sanctions being lifted, Dimitriy F has now said that's Absolute fake news, nothing like that was agreed at all or offered or proposed at all. So it looks like all of those reports, the ones in Bloomberg, the ones in the economists about this trade package, are untrue. I suspect that they have an American provenance, by the way. But anyway, there it is. So that is what happened. Now, we do have this intrigue about this meeting that took place between Medinsky and the Ukrainians after the Americans left. And by the way, the way in which the Americans manage the negotiations, if you can even call them negotiations, they weren't negotiations. They were a face off. Let's be quite clear about that. The way the

Americans handled it was appalling Whitgolf Kushner going for one meeting with the Russians and the Ukrainians, to another meeting with Iraqi, meeting with all the national security advisors from across Europe, Huma Zelensky called in at the last moment. So you have people like Paul, Jonathan Powell, Stahmast, National Security Advisor, floating around the intercontinental hotel with all of the other Europeans, trying to speak to the Americans, trying to barge into the meeting. Apparently, they wanted to join the discussions on the second deck. The Americans' management of this whole process has been awful. But anyway, let's turn to this second meeting, this secret meeting, if you like, between

Meditsky and the Ukrainians. Now, the people who were at this meeting, the three people, were Meditsky himself, Umarov, who is now officially the chief Ukrainian negotiating. and Arachamia, who was Ukraine's chief negotiator in the spring of 2022, and who negotiated with Nidinsky, the original Istanbul agreement. I am going to make a guess. I've been thinking about this meeting along. I'm going to make a guess that it was actually the Ukrainians who asked for this meeting. And I think they were taken aback. by how tough Medinsky's position was during the talks. And I think that probably there was some instruction, maybe from Kiev, maybe from some of the Europeans, maybe from who knows whom, to try to see whether in private Medinsky might be a bit more accommodating, might be more willing to soften the Russian position than he was in public.

And that's why the two chief Ukrainian negotiators were there. The meeting lasted for two hours. It's obvious to me that Medinsky gave absolutely no ground whatsoever. I think quite plausibly he passed on a message to the Ukrainians for Zelensky, maybe from Putin himself, say it's Istanbul plus or nothing. don't expect us to give any ground on any of these things. And then a few hours later, you start getting comments from Zelensky. Zelensky is clearly having a meltdown.

He is unbelievably insulted. He's using four-letter words all over the place. I mean, it's one of the most astonishing performances, even by Zelensky's standards. And the obvious answer is that he was already unhappy about this meeting in Geneva after the meeting took place. He's absolutely furious about it. And he feels that both the Americans and the Europeans have let him down. So that is my take of what happened in Geneva. The Russians didn't give an inch.

They never have. The only big question about these negotiations and the talks. is why the Russians are still persisting with them at all. It's a question that you ask in program after program, you're absolutely right to ask it. But the key thing to say is that contrary to all the rumors, all the speculations, all the endless debates that take place about Putin being prepared to give in, Dmitri, have prepared to cut these enormous deals with the Americans. In practice, when they're at the table, the Russians

Don't give an inch. Yeah, Zelensky had a meltdown, big time meltdown. He discovered the word shit. He discovered that word. All of a sudden, so he goes to Axios and he talks about history, history and shit. He doesn't like history. Obviously, Zelensky doesn't like history, and he discovered the word shit. And then he goes to Pierce Morgan so that he can be comforted by Pierce Morgan, who absolutely despises Russia and Putin.

So he gets a friendly journalist there as well. And the Europeans are also having a meltdown and they believe that if they use the trick of affirmations, the secret, you know, the book, the secret, if they say it enough times, then it's going to come true. If they say that Russia is losing enough times that it's going to manifest into reality. So now you have all of the Europeans giving interviews all across European media, all across British media saying that Russia is losing. Actually, Russia is losing. Russia is only getting 1% of territory. gained.01% of territory, or they have 10 million losses or 50 million losses. A stoop is getting interview after interview saying this. So you have a complete meltdown taking

place throughout the entire collective West. You know, the United States is also keeping this war going. The Europeans, in a way, get what they want in that they get the war, they keep the war going, which is what the Europeans believe is in their interest. They believe if they can drag this war out for two or three years, then Russia will be weak. to a point where they can then strike. I think that's my belief. That is the thinking that is taking place in Brussels with the exception of a bonnet feat. So who know what's really going on? I think a lot of the delusional people in the halls of Brussels and in the capitals of Europe believe that two, three years, Russia will be significantly weakened for them to then make their move. It's crazy. It's delusional.

But I don't know, you can give your opinion if you think that's a correct assessment of things. But the United States, for their part, they're keeping the war going as evidenced in Trump's extension of the sanctions. Once again, if Trump was the peace president, if Trump really wanted to make a deal, business deal or geopolitical deal with Russia, then he would not have extended these sanctions. Yeah, no, Congress would not let him or Congress would do this and that, but he's the president. He's, he's the tough guy. He's the man. He's, he's the peacemaker. He's the negotiator-in-chief.

Call him whatever you want. He could have said, you know what, I'm not going to renew the sanctions. I'm not going to extend the sanctions. He didn't. He extended the sanctions again for another year. Exactly. That is exactly correct. I think you've summarized it perfectly, actually.

The Europeans, as you say, policy by affirmation, Russia is losing. That's all they have. They can't say anymore. They probably come to believe in it themselves. I mean, they're telling this thing to each other all the time. And as for, you know, the idea, you know, we weaken Russia, we wait until 2029 or 2030, and then we swoop and they'll be so weakened that they're defenseless. It's, of course, it's a, it's a probably the best way to describe that is as a rationalization

rather than an actual, you know, analyzed, thought through. position. But it's one that they've come to believe too. I think this is the kind of mindset we now have. They are in total denial about the realities on the front lines. I read bizarre articles about how Ukraine has achieved the greatest counter-offensive since 2003 in Saffaroz. I mean, it is so completely, you know, out of relation with reality anymore. Not even Uppske, Julian Urobke. He even bought that. No. I mean, he was even saying this is fiction.

This is fiction. I was reading how, you know, in the economist, that the Russian economy is about to implode, they are willfully now misrepresenting what Nabilina said. I mean, I've read what Nabilin actually said, the Central Bank, Russian Central Bank, which is pretty positive. That's the state of the economy, but they managed to invert it. and make it say, oh, but what she really means is, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So, I mean, this is, this is their thinking.

And they're never going to change. And they're never going to learn. And sometimes one gets the sense that, you know, the dark watches of the night, Maloney and Macron, so do themselves. My God, is this really playing out in that kind of way? But even they, when morning comes, come back and start repeating the same time. affirmations because they don't want to be expelled from the club. So this is where we are in Europe. The Americans, you're absolutely correct as well. The Americans, whatever the reasons,

whatever the explanations, whether Trump really wants a deal with the Russians, whether he's too weak to implement it, whether on the contrary, he's still trying to weaken Russia because he wants to tie down Russia and Ukraine so he can finish his work in the military. Middle East or something of that. Who knows? It really doesn't matter what is inside Trump's head. The fact of the matter is the Americans are also keeping the war going. They're continuing to impose sanctions on the Russians. They're continuing to provide Ukraine with intelligence. Without the intelligence assistance that Ukraine is getting from the United States, the war cannot continue. The war would be lost. They continue through the Europeans to

supply weapons to Ukraine, even though doing that continues to deplete America's own arsenals on the brink of what could be a long war in the Middle East. So the Americans are keeping the war going. The Europeans are keeping the war going. And coming back to the Russians for reasons that we will endlessly debate and can never ultimately come to a fully reasoned or satisfactory explanation for. The Russians persist in the charade of negotiations, even though they never in the end come down and make the concessions, any kind of concessions at all. In some ways, what Dimitia has said, that the whole Bloomberg economist story is fake news is even more revealing than what actually happened with Medinsky in Geneva.

Yeah. Well, at least we've solved Nord Stream, or at least Spiegel has gotten closer to solving Nord Stream. So what's the story there? The CIA is, okay, so they want us to believe, and they also say that Zillusioni is the mastermind in all of this. So you may want to talk about what's going on with Zilluzni and Zelensky as well, because that's started up again, this Zillusioni Zolensky fight. But they want us to believe, Spiegel, that Ukraine approached the CIA and sought the CIA's assistance, monetary assistance and logistics assistance, as well as advice about the Nord Stream

sabotage and the CIA at first liked the idea, but then they thought about it and they tried to urge the Ukrainian team not to do it. They decided not to fund it. But the Ukrainian team found money elsewhere, and they decided to go ahead with it against the wishes of the CIA. In a nutshell, that's the story that Spiegel wants us to believe. They also throw in Poland as well as helping out. So, Luzni and Poland are all part of this effort to blow up Nord Stream. So they're kind of throwing Poland under the bus as well. But anyway, your thoughts.

Well, I get to say straight away. I mean, to me, it looks like BS, just to say this. I mean, straight away, I mean, it's interesting in that Schiegel, which is, of course, a German magazine and very much a mainstream German magazine. It's basically very closely aligned with the Guardian in Britain. I mean, the two work together. They know each other. They are very, very pro-Ukrainian, in other words, very, very anti-Russian. But it seems to me as if there's sort of tipping towards finally some admission that the Americans had some involvement. in Nord Stream. So the Ukrainians supposedly come along, discussed this all with the CIA.

The CIA says, what a great idea. Let's go ahead and do it. Then the Ukrainians do it after the CIA had said no. Then the Americans and others across Europe spread stories for several weeks, months, in fact, there was actually the Russians. So the CIA already knows that it was the Ukrainians, but they engage in a big disinformation exercise that lasts for several months, saying there was the Russians who blew up Nord Stream, but nobody ever gives any remotely plausible explanation why. I have to say to me, this all looks absurd. The idea that Ukraine, that Zillusinie would press forward with an operation of this kind, which the Americans opposed, I simply cannot believe it. I think that at best, what might have happened, assuming that any part of this story

is true, and I'm not sure that any of the details are true either, by the way, but perhaps the Americans said, you know, go ahead and do it, but we're going to distance ourselves from it. We're not going to be physically there, perhaps. Or it could be that the whole story is nonsense that the, was it, six guys, her girl and a boat did it all together by themselves is every bit as absurd as we've always thought. But de Spiegel does seem to be finally telling people in Germany and in Europe maybe the amazing. maybe the Americans were involved in some way after all. And that then begs the question why. And maybe, maybe it's because of these tensions now between the US and Germany,

which is starting to become increasingly obvious. I mean, I get the sense that Trump and mouths don't like each other very much The stresses of over-economics and Mouts and Co. were not happy because some parts of the American administration seem to be fairly close to the IFD. It could be something to do with that. But it might also be connected to Zillusioni and Zolucci's own political ambitions. Because as you're absolutely right, Zillusioni is put there right at the center of this story. He of all people, is supposed to scheme, plotted to do all of this, even though he's working very closely with the Americans and then goes ahead and does it without the Americans. Anybody who knows anything about Zillusini would note that that is inconceivable. Zillusioni would never act on anything against the Americans.

He, more than almost any other figure in Ukraine, apart from Budanath, who basically works for the Americans, Zalusini would never go against what the Americans want. But anyway, Zalusni has now just given a very interesting interview to the London Times, which said that there was a major power struggle between him and Zelensky and Yermak in the early weeks of 2024. We talked about it extensively at the time. You remember one of Zalusni's...

lieutenants, senior lieutenants, was actually killed at that time when he was given a perfume, what he thought was a perfume bottle, which looked like a grenade and tried to open it, and it blew up on him. It did look as if there was all sorts of stresses. Anyway, Zelluznih has now come closer than he has ever done to saying that at that time, it looked like there was going to be an outright clash, military clash, that Zelensky, and Yermak sent the SBU to raid Zolutioni's own military headquarters, and that Zaluzni threatened to bring the army into Kiev to protect his headquarters, which might suggest that there might even have been a actual plan of some kind for some kind of military coup, because we

mustn't assume, by the way, that what Zillusioni is telling us is the truth. So it looks as if Zalusely really was admitting that he had plans to bring troops from the front lines into Kiev and that there was some kind of major showdown between him, Zelensky and Yarmak, at that time. So I wonder whether this Nord Stream story might be connected to these revelations in some way, that the Europeans who continue to back Zelensky are spreading stories because, They worry that the Americans are now trying to find some means to get rid of Zelensky, that they are tilting, maybe they're looking maybe again at getting Zillusioning back. So they're spreading stories about Nord Stream, saying that the Americans were involved in Nord Stream,

working with Zollosioning, and that Zelensky himself, this perfect individual, who is never involved in dirty war activities. for Zelensky knew nothing about it and it was really always Zillusioni's fault and

as I said trying to build up Zelensky again against Zalusian the Americans I wonder whether this is what this is all about but the key thing is

a German media magazine whatever the motives has finally acknowledged that the Americans had some role in the Nord Stream Bownings. True. Yeah. Some role. Never mind Biden's statement with Ola Schultz standing next to him. Absolutely. I mean, the account that's given still just doesn't make any kind of sense to me.

Yeah. It's difficult to figure out who blew up an upstream, Alexander. It's much easier to find out the Ecuadorian dart frog poison. Of course. Of course. All they have to do now, the only thing that's missing is the blowpipe. Yes, they'll find that. That's the only thing that's, that's the only piece of the puzzle. It's somewhere in Putin's office, I imagine they'll get someone to smuggle it out, just like they found someone to smuggle out the samples of the dark frog poison anyway. Absolutely.

And it'll have Putin's fingerprints all over it. Absolutely. The pipe. All right. We'll leave it there. The durand.com. We're on X. Ron Rumble. We are on telegram.

Go to Durant shop, pick up some merch. and also go to substack where you will see our substack as well and $70 order and more on the Durand shop and you get free shipping. I butchered the entire ending segment, the entire outro. But anyway, you guys get the picture.

All right. See you tomorrow. Bye.