The Duran Podcast - Zelensky fears elections, fears US audit

Episode Date: February 5, 2025

Zelensky fears elections, fears US audit

All right, Alexander, let's talk about Project Ukraine. And can I just say that the stuff coming out of Zelensky over the past couple of days is just absolutely bizarre, delusional, bizarre, panicky. I think he senses that the walls are closing in very quickly on him, on all sides, from the Russian side, the military side, the economic aid funding, Trump, the U.S., even Europe, which doesn't have the ability to prop them up.

Correct. I think he realizes this. Anyway, what are your thoughts on on everything going on in Ukraine? I completely agree with you about Zelensky. And I'm going to say that one, the ultimate reason, the underlying reason why this is happening. Well, obviously, there are the military developments on the battlefront. So now everybody sees that the war is lost, that the Russians are going to win. Aristovic, who was Zelensky's former spin doctor, who said everybody could see that the war is lost.

Best friend. Best friend, exactly. I mean, everybody can see this. I mean, you know, why are we still in Ukraine pretending otherwise? So, I mean, but I think there's something even more, and it's in some ways even bigger. Because I think that over the last couple of days, Zelensky's. starting to understand that the United States, the government of the United States, is preparing to close down Project Ukraine. Now, the stop order, this aid stop, I think, has shot them. And it's clear now that it does affect military supplies as well. But the fact is, it looks as if the

Americans aren't even talking to Zelensky anymore. Notice that Kellogg hasn't been to. Kiev. Zelensky wasn't invited to Trump's inauguration. We talked in a recent program about how the Americans haven't been in touch with the Russians, but it looks as if the Americans aren't in touch with the Ukrainians either, or at least not in any big way. And now, the single statement that I think Zelensky perhaps dreaded most of all has come from Kellogg. He said, you know, a as we get a ceasefire, if we can get a ceasefire, what Ukraine really needs now is elections. We need to have elections in Ukraine. We can't continue to have this situation where there are no elections in Ukraine.

Now, Zelensky will undoubtedly see that as a message, as a signal to people in Ukraine, to the political class there, that the Americans don't want Zelensky anymore. when the Americans talk about elections, what they really mean is that it's time for Zelensky to go. So I think this is the other thing that has probably rattled him. The Russians don't want him. Putin's just given more interviews to Babel Zarabin talking all about this, and he says you can't deal with Zelensky. We did a big program in which we explained, you know, Putin's thinking about Zelensky and how he's unconstitutional and how he can't rescind his own decree. And we discuss all of that in detail. But the fact is that the Americans are now going

very close to say the same thing. They're saying, you know, that Zelensky's position is constitutionally and legally a normalist. It doesn't make any sense democratically. And there have to be elections in Ukraine and everybody knows. When they talk in that way, they mean that Zelensky himself must leave. I agree. They're shutting down the operation. Putin said that Zelensky's illegit. We did a video and we talked about his legal arguments. Kellogg comes along and says we need elections. Zelensky gives an interview, so he understands that he may be on the way out. He gives an interview to the Associated Press and he says, you know, the 200 billion that Trump was talking about, that was given to Ukraine. Well, we didn't get $200 billion. We only got $76 billion. I don't know where

the other 100 and let's do some Adelina Berbach math, the other 100 and 24, 360 degrees. I don't know where that went. I have no idea where all of that went. But what happens when, if, let's not say when, what happens if, if there is a proper audit? And the United States comes knocking on Zelensky's government door. And they say, we see that we have a little bit of a discrepancy here. Can you explain? Well, I mean, this could very well happen. I think it's highly likely that it is going to happen. I mean, why wouldn't it? I mean, this is something that from a political point of you, I mean, just looking at this purely in party politics, I would have thought the Trump people would be rather keen to do, actually. I mean, it, it, it,

begs so many questions about the whole way in which Project Ukraine was being run from Washington. Now, about what Zelensky is saying, you know, it's one of the few things that he said, which I think is partly true, not wholly true, but partly true. And I'll tell you something else if you've been following our programs for the last three years, you would probably be very surprised by this news. On the contrary, you would have already... You would have already not just guessed it. We've probably known it in advance.

We've always been saying that most of this money isn't reaching the places that we're being told it's meant to reach. And as to where it's all gone, well, it's very simple. It's been shuffled around. Some of most of it's gone back to the United States, where it's made all kinds of people rich. Of course, it's made many people rich in Ukraine as well. It's made all sorts of people in the government, in the various agencies there that exist. If you really want to do a proper audit and all of this is going to be exposed, you're going to have a scandal on your hands, the like of which we have never seen

in American foreign policy or domestic policy for a very, very long time. And that's, of course, the United States, which can absorb a scandal like that. Ukraine can't. If there's a proper audit, it is the end of Ukraine. It's as simple as this. What does Europe think of all of this? What do you think the EU is saying right about now, Ursula, Kayakalis? And what's wrong with the UK? What is wrong with Stommer? Does he not see everything that's happening? Because as all of these moves are being made to shut down project Ukraine from the U.S. side of things, Stommer is doubling and tripling and quadrupling down. on his support for Zelensky.

Is this some sort of a distraction technique, or does he actually believe in Zelensky and Ukraine's potential to come out of this with a victory? I mean, you'd have to be pretty dumb to believe this. And what is going on with the UK? Yeah. Well, first of all, let's talk about Europe. I mean, we have a situation where Germany isn't,

heading into a deeper political crisis. We have a situation where there is a political crisis in France. Usula's position in Brussels is starting to look a little bit more wobbly than it has done. And we're getting all these very astonishing statements from people like Kayakales and all of the rest, who, as happens when people are under pressure, is becoming even more shrill and strident than she has been. The fact is that if there is a, if there's this kind of audit in Washington, it is inevitably going to affect them too, because all of the money gets entangled and mixed up with itself. We start having all kinds of questions about what's happened to frozen assets. Remember what you said?

You know, the pro point you made on one of our programs, that the amount of money that's being given to Ukraine on the back of the interest, which is supposed to be repaid from the interests of the frozen assets. It mathematically doesn't make sense because the assets aren't generating the interest to cover those, you know, the principle of what is being given. So all kinds of things are going to come out if audits like that are done. And inevitably, it's going to affect all kinds of European governments. It's eventually going to affect the European Union, especially as the European Union.

Unlike the United States, by the way, has been giving guarantee to agencies like the World Bank and the IMF to cover those agencies for the loans that they've been giving to Ukraine, which are, of course, themselves laundered loans that are ultimately. originate from the European Union and the United States. So we are looking at a huge crisis potentially in Europe for the various individuals involved. In fact, and I'm not predicting this, by the way, I think it's unlikely that it will happen. But if there is an aggressive audit done in the United States, it's bound to spread to Europe. And in theory, and I want to stress in theory, because I don't expect it.

There could even be prosecutions. All sorts of people could find themselves in severe trouble. Now, about Britain, just to get a sense of how detached from reality, we are here. You remember, Starla went, signed a 100-year treaty or agreement, whatever it was, with Zelensky. Zolensky has now blurted out that there's all sorts of things. secret clauses, which is really rather concerning, and one would love to know what those secret clauses are. The text of what we know is already alarming enough. And in the middle of a major budgetary crisis in Britain, with the economy moving into recession, the agreement commits Britain to supplying,

to pay to Ukraine, $6 billion, sterling, I believe over the next year, and a further two to three billion pounds a year indefinitely for the entire 100 years

of this agreement's existence after that. I mean, this is fantastic stuff. Now, there is a view, a point of view, which I've come across, which is held

by people mostly outside. side Britain, that Stama signed this agreement because he realizes that Ukraine is going down and he wanted to make some kind of big gesture, but he didn't really mean what he was doing. And it was all really theater. It's all to be taken seriously. I've been following Stama very carefully for many years. I don't think that this is a gesture.

I think this is very, very seriously intended. I think the British deep state, which most definitely does exist, the British political class, continue to be obsessed with Project Ukraine because it plays into their overriding obsession, which is Russia, which they've been obsessed about for the better part of 150 years. And I think this is what is driving them. And even as everything changes and shift around them, They can't let it go. And if you want me to say who I think will be Zelensky's last supporter, it is going to be the British.

They're going to do whatever they can to help Zelensky over the next couple of months. The Americans, I'm convinced, are now coming after him. I mean, that is what the demand for elections was all about. you're going to see the British coming back, trying to argue with the Americans that, you know, Zelensky really is Winston Churchill, really should be left in place. And that the collective West really does need to go on supporting Ukraine. And the British, even though they have no army to speak of, are still going around Europe, trying to get everybody to agree to send a peacekeeping force to Ukraine. I think the British just are unable to let this go. I completely agree with you.

I say this. Yeah. I cannot, as a Britain, I cannot express in word how concerned and unhappy I am about that. But that is the reality. I think people, as I say, who think that Stama is playing some kind of 3D chess is simply wrong. With Stama, what you see is what you get. There is nothing more to him than that. Yeah, and that was completely represented in the debate between Pierce Morgan and Tucker Carlson,

where you could see that Tucker was taking the position that Zelensky is a dictator. This is all bad. We've got to drop this thing. We're leaving this failed catastrophic project Ukraine. And Pierce Morgan was convinced Zelensky needs our support. Yes, he's a dictator, but I still support him. and we're going to go down with him. I mean, there you could see it, the United States and the UK,

and the difference was just right out there. The U.S. was saying, this is failed. We're out of here, and it was represented by Tucker, and Pierce Morgan was saying, we're going to go down with Ukraine. We are going down with Ukraine. Not because they love Ukraine. You can see it. It's not that they love Ukraine.

It's not that Pierce loves Ukraine. It's this disdain, this obsession with Russia. and taking down Russia. Absolutely. And they need to let... I don't know what to say anymore. They need to let this go. They really need to let this go.

Well, of course, they need to let it go. Every so often, you get a leader in Britain who understands that. Churchill, by the way, in the 50s, understood this. He tried to reach out to the Russians in the 50s. Harold Wilson tried to let it go in the 60s. He reached out to the Russians. He had Alex E. Kosigin, the Soviet Prime Minister, visit. Margaret Thatcher made the single biggest, most sustained attempt to let this go.

But always we revert back to this default position. We hate the Russians. We can't stand them. We see them as the force of evil in the world today. We poison the international atmosphere around us with this obsession, and we can't let you go. I mean, it's a psychological thing at the end of the day. until it changes, by the way, Britain itself won't change. Britain's other problems will continue to accumulate around it.

Yeah. The U.S., we've been saying this for a while now on the Duran. The U.S. can walk away from this and the damage will be minimal. Yes. It may not even need to talk to Putin, actually to negotiate on Ukraine. I think a really good approach for the Trump administration. would be to talk about Ukraine as part of a bigger discussion. And from an optics perspective, you minimize the relevance of Ukraine

and you focus more on the nuclear stuff and these kinds of things. So you make it part of just a bigger package of negotiations and discussions, which need to take place with Russia. And I think that's a good, sensible approach for the Trump administration to take when they're going to talk to Russia and to Putin. which I still believe will happen. But the U.S. can walk away from this. Damage will be minimal.

The damage to the European Union will be huge. The damage to the UK will be huge. How do you see NATO taking all of this, given that NATO is 70%, 80% run by the United States? I mean, NATO is also the European side of NATO, the Margaruta. They're pushing hard to keep the U.S. invested and bogged down. in Ukraine, but, you know, Routé and the Europeans, they're just a small part of NATO.

The U.S. is effectively running the show in NATO. So if the U.S. says we're out, what does this mean for NATO? Well, I think it demonstrates, again, the incredible folly of the NATO bureaucracy in so obsessively pushing NATO expansion into Ukraine against the opposition of the Russians. I've never forgotten, and it's been, I've been thinking an awful lot about it over the last couple of days, by the way, what you said years ago, before the conflict in Ukraine, even properly got underway, that it was an incredible hill to die on that NATO had chosen, this hill, which is called Ukraine. I mean, of all the places that they should actually sacrifice themselves, I think NATO is living dangerous. I think if the Americans and the Russians are able to put this problem Ukraine to one side. And by the way, I think in a weird sort of way, the Trump administration is drifting into the right approach on this in the sense that they're not really talking to anybody. They're just letting events play their course.

They're telling everybody, you know, you should come together, you should talk, you should negotiate. This doesn't make any sense for you. but just just give you. If you don't want to listen, it's really up to you. They're telling Zelensky, well, it's time for you to go, but, you know, they're not going to force him out. Then without American help, it's difficult to see how he can stay. Anyway, I think the Trump administration, without maybe perhaps thinking it out, are ending

up with the right approach to Ukraine. But if the Russians and the Americans get together talk about the security situation, situation in Europe, about the security situation in Western Eurasia, then frankly, the Americans are going to start to say to themselves, what do we even need NATO for anymore? It's involved us in this ludicrous war with the Russians, which has brought us nothing but trouble. It's reinforced the neocons in the United States who are now becoming increasingly discredited. You know, maybe we're not going to actually go out of our way to close it down, but we are really going to deprioritize it, and we're going to pull our troops out of Europe,

at which point, as a whole thing, basically becomes a shadow. Here's an idea. Why not, if you're the Trump administration, why not move NATO headquarters to the United States? I mean, does it doesn't does NATO need to be in Brussels? Because it seems that NATO in Brussels, right across the street from the European Union, seems like a lot of the problems could be there. The fact that they're so close to each other and the fact that you're so far away and you don't really have the type of oversight that maybe you need to have given that, you know, you fund 70% of this thing. I mean, wouldn't it be smarter to have NATO in Washington? I mean, it's not really about the North Atlantic anyway anymore.

I mean, it's just a name only. So if you're looking at efficiency and you're looking at control, and if you're looking to save on expenses, and you're looking to stop some of the gossiping and the whispering and the crazy ideas and all of these things that seem to be originating from Brussels, and I imagine a lot of it is because they're having lunch together, the Routtes and the Ursulas, and they're getting these wilds. thoughts in their head about conquering Russia and doing what so many other people tried but could

it. I mean, all of these things that are going on, wouldn't it be better to say, you know, we need to break up this EU-NATO bromance and kind of move NATO closer to us? I mean, what do you think of something like that? And you don't shut it down because from what I understand, Congress passed under Biden various laws or provision saying that Trump cannot shut NATO down or pull us out of NATO. So you say, you know what? Let's just move the headquarters. Yes.

Well, I mean, from an American point of view, that might make absolutely perfect sense. And I'm not even saying it's not going to happen because, of course, if the Americans insist on it, then it must happen. But for the Europeans, that is the worst possible nightmare short of closing NATO down entirely. Because if NATO's headquarters are transferred to Europe, first of all, it then becomes absolutely clear that NATO is a purely owned American enterprise. Transferred to the United States. Then it becomes a completely fully owned American enterprise. It becomes just another agency in effect of the Washington system.

And the pretense that the Europeans have a role in NATO just evaporates. It goes away. So the Europeans will be horrified by that. But they'll be also horrified by something else, because, of course, if the headquarters is transferred to the United States, then that defeats the whole object of NATO in the first place. We go back to what the first NATO Secretary General, Lord Ismi, said, that NATO's whole purpose is to keep the Russians out, the Germans down, and the Americans in. In order to keep the Americans in Europe, you need to have the headquarters in Europe as well, because that's where you need to keep

the American officials, the American generals. The American general. all of those people, all that huge command staff, it needs to be in Europe. Because if it's all relocated to America, then it becomes less an alliance keeping the US in Europe. It becomes something completely different. It becomes, as again, part of the American global system, pure and simple. And its role confronting the Russians and keeping the Germans. Germans down simply goes away. The Europeans would be horrified by this idea, and they would

resist it to senile. Of course, if the Americans decide that it's what needs to be done, if it's something that, you know, people like Musk and Trump going through all the numbers decide is the only thing that really make sense, is they really do want to split the Brussels bureaucracies, the EU and the NATO bureaucracies from each other, then it will happen because there's no other way. I mean, Putin has said it. I mean, at the end of the day, the Europeans could scream as much as they like, but Trump will bring them into line. He's right.

And Trump wants the NATO headquarters in Washington. That's where it will go. Does Zelensky make it through 2025? No, I don't think so. I said this on my program. I think this is going to be his last year. Obviously, that's not a prediction. That's a guess.

But when the Americans are calling for elections, when you see the situation on the front lines, when you see the growing crisis in Kiev itself, and when you see the increasingly crazy things, that even Zelensky, even for Zelensky, they're becoming increasingly bizarre and bonkered, you have to ask yourself, is it really likely that this person can continue for very much longer?

And I would say no. I think that by the end of this year, he'll be gone. Does the Trump White House tell the Russians, let's end this war? We'll have elections. Whoever is elected will be someone that you guys can deal with and let's end this. Yes. I'm sure that is exactly what they're going to say. I think that what will probably happen, and this is my own guess, is that the war will go on for several more months.

The Russians will gain full control of the four regions. They'll reach the NEPA. At that point, the Russians might even agree to a ceasefire because they will be in control of the four regions, a temporary ceasefire for one purpose to hold elections. And then that election will result in a government being formed in Kiev, which the Russians can then sign a treaty. And it will be a treaty which not only enshrines Ukraine as a neutral country, but which ultimately pulls it back into the Russian sphere.

How do you deal with the West in that situation, the Bandarite West? Do you create a Ukraine? Does the new government come in place and then maybe you have some sort of amendments to the Constitution where you create a type of federal, federal Ukraine? I mean, how do you deal with the West? Because I've always thought that the problem with Ukraine was never the East. It was always the West. Who knows?

Who knows? Which exercised so much power. Absolutely. I mean, bear in mind that, I mean, obviously there's the Banderites. The Russians want to see them eliminated from Ukrainian political life. It's a very, very tall order for Ukraine, a Ukrainian government of any kind to achieve that by itself, given how heavily armed they are. The Ukrainian army would be perhaps stripped down. I personally, And this is my own view, would not be surprised if it was part of such a treaty. We start getting the Russians saying, look, we've got to have our own people in Ukraine as well. We've got to start establishing our own bases in places like Adidas, Nikolayev and wherever. And we need to work with you in Ukraine to round up the banderite and to basically bring them to heal. And that that might be how it's done.

West and Ukraine, Galithia and all of that. Well, Gugescu in Romania is talking about partition and it might be that that's the solution as well. The point is the Americans can say, Trump can say, that none of this concerns the United States. It's not America's business who runs Woff. It's as simple as that. He's right. He's right. It's not the U.S. is business. business, yeah, all right. Polans might be interested. Poland just go hinted at that. Absolutely. And you'll be hinted at Romania's interests. Absolutely. The Romania's interests, Hungary's, all of those places. As I said, whether it's really they're sensible for them to get involved in this mess is another matter. But I mean,

I'm not, one shouldn't try and, you know, work out the details of a treaty when it comes. but Zelensky cannot sign that treaty, quite apart from the constitutional issues. I mean, Putin just doesn't take it seriously and doesn't trust him. Nobody does now by now. So, you know, you've got to get him out of the way. The war will probably end this year. This is my guess. We probably will see some kind of maybe not a ceasefire, but a cessation of hostilities.

There will be elections. A new government, maybe it will be headed by someone like Medvedchuk, just saying, Zelensky is talking a lot about him. The treaty will be signed. Ukraine, most of it, will quietly fall back into the Russian orbit. And the Russians will have to deal with the band of rights on Ukrainian territory, and maybe the Russians will just let the West go. Putin has hinted at that many times. And we see the people like your guests.

who, by the way, I think he's increasingly likely to be the next president of Romania, just saying all of the attempts to stop him is looking increasingly to me as if he will stand in the election and he will win the election. That does indeed happen. Then, as I said, all kinds of things suddenly become possible. All right, we will end the video there. The durand.com. We are on Rumble Odyssey, Bitshut, Telegram, Rockfin, and X.

and go to the Duran Shop, pick up some merch like what we are wearing in this video. Update, the link is in the description box down below. Take care.