The Duran Podcast - Zelensky reset, as front collapses

Episode Date: February 7, 2024

Zelensky reset, as front collapses

All right, Alexander, let's talk about the situation in Ukraine in Kiev. The palace intrigue continues. Zelensky is now saying that, well, he'll eventually fire. Zillusioni keeps on saying that he'll eventually fire Zillusioni. But he is also saying that he's going to do a general reset in the military, in the government, a real big shakeup in Kiev. Logically, this is where all of this was going to lead to because you can't get rid of Zalusini,

who had a lot of support in the military and in the administration in Kiev, without getting rid of everybody who supported him. And if you are going to put a person in like Budanov, you are going to have to clear the deck of any Zolluzni loyalists. I mean, this is obvious. So this is Zelensky's latest statement with regards to to what he's planning to do in his administration. If you are investing in Project Ukraine, if you're the United States or the European Union, you know, this obviously is not a good sign of what's going on with your proxy work.

It's Russia. And of course, we also have new. of a collapsing front in Avdefka, both from Russian and Ukrainian media sources. They are saying that the Russian military is within the city limits of Afdefka and the Ukraine military is indeed collapsing and will either have to surrender, face annihilation, or have to pull out of Afdefka. Another bad sign for the Olensky regime with regards to its NATO sponsors. What is the situation in Ukraine?

Well, I think the first thing to say is that President Zelensky's position is looking more precarious by the day. Now, we started last week on Monday with this meeting between Zelensky and Zoluzni, in which Zolensky basically said, I want you to leave and ask for Zoluzzi's resignation, and Zalusini refused to resign, which is astonishing. I mean, again, we should not overlook how we. bizarre it is when the commander-in-chief can't get a subordinate to accept a resignation request, despite the fact that there's clearly no trust between the commander-in-chief and the subordinate in the middle of a war. It's astonishing. It's an act of defiance bordering on

rebellion. But anyway, Zaluzzi said, I'm not going. If you want to sack me, just go ahead and try. So Zelensky has then spent the rest of the week trying to find ways to do it. We told by CNN last week he was going to do it on Friday. Then we were hearing that he might happen on Saturday. Today is Monday and it hasn't as of yet happened. Maybe at some point it will, who knows, but it hasn't yet happened. In the meantime, both men have been going to the media. Zaluzon, he's given a big,

written an op-ed somewhere. I don't remember where. I think it might even have been CNN, actually, in which, you know, he spoke again about, you know, the, he likes to sort of give these philosophical, intellectual discussions about the war, which have no relevance to the real situation on the ground that we will come to. We talked about, you know, we need to upgrade our military operations to an entirely new technological level, all that kind of woolly stuff that people take far too seriously, it might be when it comes to solution. It's simply a way of him saying, I am still here.

And then there's a photograph released of him with one of the top people in right sector, which basically tells you, you know, I've got backing of these people. I think, by the way, that is Dimitro Yaros. but it's difficult for me to be sure looking at the photo. So that's Zalusin. And then of course Zolensky comes and gives his own interview

to the Italian media. And again, as is always the way with Zolensky, he retreats into grandiosity. And with a touch of Magillomania, oh, I'm going to create this huge new reorganisation of everything. I'm going to carry out a massive, refit because we need to restructure completely in order to win the war and I'm the person who knows how to do that. So both of these media contributions are obviously part of the game,

this battle that is now going on between Zillusin and Zelensky. But both of them, to my mind, show their limitations because Zalusianian isn't being frank about the situation on the battlefields, even though he's the overall commander. He retreats into abstractions. And of course, Zolensky

isn't being frank about the political crisis in Kiev and the situation on the battlefields. He retreats into grandiosity. And then, of course, Zelensky tries to follow up by going to the front. He's supposed to,

visited Ukrainian troops in this village of Rabatino that has been fought over so intensely. This time, I gather, even some Ukrainians are skeptical that they think the whole thing might have been staged. I'm not going to waste time trying to debate that. But as you rightly say, the battle between these two men continues. There's no clear endpoint in sight. But ultimately, it is Zelensky, who with every day looks weaker. And in the meantime, even as these two people spend their time debating and arguing with each other and playing their game of political chess with each other, the actual situation on the battlefronts is collapsing. And it absolutely is collapsing because we're getting reports that, as you correctly said, in Avdevka,

the Russians have now broken into the metropolitan area. They've seized large part of the south of Avdhaqa. They've now penetrated from the north. The Ukrainian defences in Avdeka are looking increasingly disorganized. It's clear that they're being attacked from multiple directions at once. They don't really know what to do. There's another crisis apparently for Ukraine further north in the area of the Lehman area,

where the Russians have made major advances, and Ukraine has taken heavy losses over the last week or so. And there's a report now in Forbes that the Russians are preparing some massive advance in the Kupians-Kharkhaf area, that they've concentrated 40,000 troops, 500 tanks, 600 infantry fighting vehicles, and that that,

the Ukrainians are heavily outnumbered and not just outnumbered in terms of men, but that they have no artillery, no shells, which puts them in no real position to withstand this enormous Russian advance when it comes. So that's the real crisis, but of course the leadership in Kiev spending all their time debating and arguing with each other without any clear resolution and without any clear sign of where this conflict is going. And as you rightly say, not good news for those who've invested in project Ukraine, but despite that, moves both in Brussels and Washington to invest even more in a bankrupt exercise. So the European Union, is now going to give, also it says, Ukraine 55 billion euros over four years.

The Senate is going to vote on Biden's $61 billion request, aid request for Ukraine. And there's more talk now about another cunning plan to seize the Russian asset. So all of this coming together, even as the realities on the battle front, are showing an imminent collapse. Yeah, this is looking more like a money grab at this point of time. I mean, even these individuals must realize in Brussels and in D.C., they must realize that whatever money they give to Ukraine is lost money. So whatever money they're giving to Ukraine obviously has the purpose of somehow being funneled back into various MIC contracts or projects or think tanks, NGOs, whatever. I mean, There's no question that Ukraine has lost this conflict. There's no question that this money is going to make its way back into the hands and pockets of Brussels and D.C. So, I mean, what we're seeing here, what is this theater then that we're seeing going on in Kiev? I mean, is this just all about somehow trying to keep this train on the tracks a little bit longer?

I mean, is this what this is really all about with regards to to the regime in Kiev? Well, yes. Because the money is not going to make any difference. No. I mean, if it ever really comes. I mean, I should say the 50 billion, 55 billion euros, which is as I said, over four years, is supposed to be for the support of the Ukrainian economy, you know, to pay wages, and sort of base salaries and to pay pensions and that kind of thing.

That's the theory of this. The $61 billion request is partly for that. So it's partly to supply more weapons, but weapons now in desperately short supply. And Johnson, the Speaker of the House, he's saying that this plan is dead on arrival if it gets to the House. house. Well, we see if that's true. And the seizure of the Russian assets, the latest scheme is it's not Ukraine who's going to borrow money using these assets as collateral. It's the United States

and the other G7 states. And that I've already discussed why using someone else's property is collateral without their permission. It actually puts you in an even worse legal position in my opinion than simply going straightforwardly in seizing the assets. But anyway, that's the latest scheme and it's coming from Brussels and it is a straightforward steel. I mean, that that is all it would be. And I suspect that at some level, they know that the $61 billion isn't going to get there. It's probably not going to make the difference.

And that's why they're now going after the assets. Again, because as you rightly say, they need the money, and they need the money to be circulating around in order to do all the necessary payoffs to all the necessary people. And coming back to Zelenskyy and Zoluzni, again, one shouldn't discount the possibility, in fact, the very strong probability, that ultimately that is what this is all about.

Again, it's all about who gets their hands. on the funding. Zolluzni himself, as has become increasingly clear over the last couple of weeks, is closely aligned with the former president, Pedro Boroshenko. And Boroshenko himself is an oligarch. He is part of the corrupt business elite of Ukraine. He must be well aware of the fact that Ukraine is going down. I mean, he clearly is. And of course, he needs funds if Ukraine goes down and where's he going to get them from? Well, if not from the Americans, at least to some extent, from the Europeans. And of course, there's hundreds of billion dollars of Russian assets that, you know, you want to get your hands on. You can.

cocked a scheme. Remember, if Ukraine is completely overrun by the Russians, you get all of these people, they set up a government in exile in, say, London. And of course, the West can continue to fund them by giving them a share of these Russian assets. Yeah, the money won't end. The money won't end. A government in exile, whether it's in London, or let's say they the outcome is, is Lviv, I don't know, let's just say something like that happens. It doesn't matter. Whatever government is in place when when Ukraine does collapse, wherever that government may be, there's going to be constant money being poured into those people that are part of this exiled government, whether it's from governments of the

collective West, whether it's from think tanks or NGOs or speaking engagements, whatever. It's going to be a profitable business for many, many years going forward, for many decades going forward. So, yeah, I imagine they all want to position themselves to be part of this government in exile. Correct. When is going to happen. Correct. So, you know, Zaluzzi will be the chief general.

and Vodano will continue to run the intelligence operations and the covert operations. We'll be getting lots of stories about successful insurgences and things like that in Ukraine, much of which could very well, by the way, be largely made up. It often is, as you said, you'll get the NGOs, you get the speaking engagements, you get the backhanders, some of that money will find its way back into Washington,

where it will go to various lobbying enterprises, it's going to be a very profitable operation for many people for a very, very long time at the expense, ultimately, of the Western taxpayers, because $300 billion, if that's the actual size of the frozen Russian assets, may sound like a lot. But given how many people we're talking about and given the needs of these people or their appetites, if you prefer,

they'll probably run through it very fast. Oh, yeah, the money's going to disappear very quickly. Absolutely. What's Russia's position in all of this? Would they care? Here's an interesting. Would Russia care if that is the actual end gain to all of this? No.

A whole ton of money, government and exile, all this stuff. I mean, you know, you would have guys like Budanov who are wanted by the Kremlin for various terrorist activity. So, well, what's Russia's position in all of this? Well, they will contest it. They're preparing to bring legal case presumably to the ICJ. I mean, you know, so they will contest it. And by the way, just to say in parentheses, the Russians have won a string of victories against the Ukrainians and the ICJ over the last couple of days. the Ukrainians tried to bring claims about Russia supporting the two Dombas republics before the war began,

about MH17, about Crimea and the Crimean Tartas, about all those kinds of things. And basically, the ICJ knocked them all on the head. It has accepted a case under the genocide convention, as I understand it, but it didn't order any interim measures, which suggests that they don't really think that a genocide is happening, because if there was a genocide happening, you would logically order interim measures, or so I would have thought. But anyway, so the Russians will bring a case about the seized reserves to the ICJ.

That will go on for years. In the meantime, the money will be. in the West's hands. The Russians, they've already made that money. Again, they've disconnected themselves from the West. They've been disconnected from the West and they're busy constructing their own financial and trade architecture with the BRIC states. And they'll be able to come along to all the BRICS leaders and say, look, look what they've done to us. They can just as easily do the same to you. can do the same to you, Prime Minister Modi over Kashmir. They can do the same to you, President Xi Jinping over Taiwan or Xinjiang or wherever you want. They can do the same to you,

Saudi Arabia, if they don't like you, over any number of things. So let's all get together and press forward and agree this new trade and financial architecture. And apparently, there was a very, very successful meeting. I believe in Kazan in Russia, where all the advanced parties of the new of the BRIC states came together, chaired by Russia now, and they moved forward with this plan

to create this new financial and trade architecture. So actually it helps the Russians. They know they'll never get their money back, even if the ICJ in 10 or 15 years makes a decision in their favor. They know perfectly well. They're not going to see their money.

So in the meantime, the most important thing for them is to get this new architecture of trade and financing together and these moves the West are taking will assist them with that and as for you know governments in exile and insurgences in Ukraine I think at the moment the Russians think they can deal with it And the financial trust in the institutions in the United States and in Europe is completely destroyed. Well, as even someone like Christine Lagarde apparently understands. I mean, she's been going around telling everybody, for heaven's sake, don't do this thing. The Bundesbank, I am sure, in Germany, is telling the German government the same thing.

Don't do this thing. that the European Central Bank opposes it because the Financial Times has told us as much. But that's not going to prevent it happening. Because they're going to go ahead, because money, the movement around money is now the key to this whole enterprise. There is no, there is nothing else left. What a disaster. What a disaster.

You know, they always, just a final thought, they always come out with the standard line in the U.S., the neocons, they always like to say that this is the best investment that they could ever make fighting Russia, supporting Ukraine. For just 3% of our military annual budget, we have another army fighting Russia and we're dismantling the Russian military and the Russian economy. The best investment we could ever make, they say, this has been, this will be the costliest, most catastrophic investment the United States and the European Union has ever made. Absolutely.

This is a historic catastrophe. Absolutely. In every respect, but not for some of the people involved. There will be an awful lot of people who will come out of this. They're already very rich. They'll come out even richer. That's the way it always goes. Anyway, all right.

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