The Duran Podcast - Zelensky trashes Europe in Davos. Carney, rules based order was pretend

Episode Date: January 24, 2026

Zelensky trashes Europe in Davos. Carney, rules based order was pretend

All right, Alexander. So Zelensky was not going to appear in Davos, and he appeared. He appeared in Davos. He was summoned by Trump. It was obvious that Trump called him to come to Davos. So I imagine the Europeans also wanted Zelensky to appear in Davos to keep up the whole Churchillian mystique that surrounds him to keep that going. And he did get a standing ovation as he gave. his speech, which was just a bizarre speech from the so-called president of Ukraine. And he talked about the regime change in Iran. He talked about Russian casualties, delusional numbers that he was throwing out there. He talked about smacking Orban. He completely trashed the Europeans. They give him a standing ovation as he is just completely trashing them. You guys are weak. You guys are worthless.

You guys are useless. We're the biggest army. We're the best army. You need us. We don't need you. Now give me money. And of course, the Europeans is going to give him money. And, of course, he kissed up to Trump.

So where did you make of Zelensky's appearance in Davos? He didn't want to go. He said that he wouldn't go unless he came back with something concrete, what he really wants, and he's been pushing for it ever since Trump became president, is some document from the Americans promising him security guarantees. Now, I would say why he thinks that a document unilaterally signed by the American has any value. I'm not really sure. But anyway, he wanted that or if he wasn't going to get that, at least some other document about, you know, reconstruction, money, $800 billion. And of course,

the point about that is not that he expects to get $800 billion tomorrow, but he can take it back to the various people in Kiev. I mean, when I say the people in Kiev, the people in the political class in Kiev who are becoming increasingly concerned because the money flow from the US has essentially stopped and the money flow from Europe has greatly reduced and the Europeans have not yet sorted out the 90 billion euro loan. Anyway, he was at least hoping to get a document about that because then he can go back to Kiev and say, look, we're not getting that much money at the moment, but don't worry, just hold out a little longer, $800 billion is on the way. I mean, that was basically what was that was all about.

So he was hoping to get either one or the other. And then it became increasingly clear to him that that wasn't coming. So he decided to stay sulking in Kiev. then Trump basically summoned him over the course of Trump's own speech to Avos. He basically said, you know, I'm going to meet Zelensky tomorrow, as if making it clear that he expected Zelensky to come. I've absolutely no doubt at all that the Europeans then told Zelensky to come. So the phone lines between the European capitals and Kiev would have been buzzing,

and they were just said, Zolensky, you must come. That's absolutely essential that you can't. You can't afford to antagonize and infuriate Trump. And perhaps probably maybe you will get this $800 billion, you know, reconstruction thing document signed. So come, come, talk to Trump. Don't annoy him. Don't bring up the subject of Tomahawk missiles.

anything like that because that will annoy Trump even more. Just come along and speak with him and be nice to him. And you might come back with something. So Zelensky very, very unwillingly comes. And again, it's an interesting question. How he managed it because presumably he had to take the train to Warsaw and then fly to Davos. He comes to Davos.

He meets Trump. He meets Trump for less than an hour. Apparently it was a very perfunctory meeting. comes out with absolutely nothing. Not only did Trump not sign anything, but apparently Trump was evasive about security guarantees and evasive about funding this whole reconstruction package. So Zelensky, absolutely furious. He doesn't want to go. He's furious about with the Americans for getting him there. He's furious with the Europeans. for calling him in.

And what we get is an extraordinary tirade, a rerun, as far as I'm concerned, of the Oval Office event. And he just goes after everybody. He goes after the Americans. He goes after the Europeans. He says that the Europeans are weak and useless, and they haven't been able to achieve anything up to now

and that they're unable to do anything useful or at all. He isn't particularly, nice to the Americans either. He goes after Orban. He goes after the Iranians, which is really extraordinary. He suggests to the Europeans that they need to

find their backbone and stand up to the Americans over Greenland. And he derides them for the numbers of troops that they sent to Greenland. It was an astonishing performance. And you can see that Zelensky He's furious.

He's angry. He's probably angry that the Americans are meeting with the Russians the following day. There's now going to be this working group, the security working group. But he will have noticed that the Americans are going to be participating, and he must be nervous that the Americans are talking to the Russians. Anyway, whatever. He's very, very angry. And as you said, at the end of this tirade, a tirade in which he says

all of these awful and insulting things about the Europeans they stand up and get they all stand up give him a standing ovation which conspicuously they did not do to Donald Trump and they will give him money and they will find the way to give him money

exactly exactly exactly what do you make of him going after Arbonne so aggressively unsurprising I mean he he he clearly loves Orban and he's trying to stop energy flows to Hungary. Of course, he's done that at the instigation request of the European Union,

but you've never got the impression that he's been reluctant to do that. I suspect he's also very angry that Orban appears to have more influence with Trump than he does, just to say. So there's probably an element of jealousy there as well. But it's unsurprising that he went after Orban. But as you rightly said, he did so incredibly aggressively. And of course, he's doing so in advance of the elections in Hungary, where the European Union is pulling out all the stops to find a way to defeat Orban.

So I think, by the way, that Zelensky's attack on Orban probably has helped Orban, just to say. Yeah, the Europeans are doing everything to try and regime change Orban. That's what it is. It's electric meddling. But anyway, obviously, sir. I doubt that people in Hungary, I suspect that to the extent that people in Hungary pay much attention to what Zelensky says,

and I suspect someday this is probably going to harden support for Orban, the extraordinary way in which you went about speaking in this way. The extraordinary, bizarre part of this is what you should. said the Europeans, Zelensky said to them, you're weak and useless. So what did they do? They just go ahead and prove how weak and useless they actually are by standing up and applauding

him. I mean, if you ever had any doubts that this is a completely abusive situation, one where the Europeans are going out of their way to constantly appease this. endlessly spoiled child that throws tantrums all the time. They give the child in the middle of these tantrums, whatever the child asks for. Well, there you have another example of it. I mean, the leaders of Europe, in terms of their image, Davos has been a complete disaster.

I mean, the Americans have walked all over them with respect to Greenland. We did a program about this. Now, they have lost any ability to have any influence with the Russians, and their relations with the Russians, a short of thesis. And we have the leader of Ukraine, a country that is bankrupt, broken, where there's no power and energy in the cities. He comes along, he talks about them in the way that he does, even as they've bankrupted their own economy, is to support him. and what did they do? They give him a standing innovation. Yeah, who's not even part of the EU.

Absolutely. Yeah, but they're trying to fast-track him. And he was, I mean, he did trash the United States. You're correct there. But he was also a lot softer at the United States. You can tell that he's still fierce. He did complement the strength of Trump in the United States as well. So you can definitely see the difference in his approach.

Even Zelensky. who's not the sharpest knife in the drawer, even he understands that, yeah, maybe I can jab a bit at the United States because I'm upset because Trump won't give me more money. That's what's all about that he doesn't give me more money. So I'll jab at him, but it doesn't go as hard on the United States as he does against Europe. I mean, Europe, he just completely trashed Europe. It was astonishing to listen to Zelensky talk about Europe and the Europeans in such a way. you could still see that with the United States and Trump, he doesn't go all the way. You know, he's upset.

You could see he's upset, but he still talks about how Trump is strong and the United States is strong and peace through strength and all of that. Well, he's obviously frightened of Trump. I mean, he's obviously scared at some level, many levels of the Americans. But I think there was a proximate cause to his anger over Europe because I think it was the Europeans who talked. him into coming to Davos. He didn't want to go. And they probably told him all sorts of things and he thought something good would come of it.

At least he was led to believe that something good would come of it. And he was absolutely furious to be brought all that way to Davos and to find that he'd come away empty-handed. So I think as happens with Zelensky, his anger boiled over. And you saw this happen play out in the way that he did.

in the conference hall. Again, it's the behavior of the Europeans that is astonishing. I mean, they've been consistently blind to the reality of who and what Zelensky is. I mean, they've built him up into this combination of Churchill and Francis of his Sisi. I mean, I can't, I mean, it's extraordinary, the way in which the Zelensky's presented to the European public, which is completely at variance with the real personality of the man. And, you know, bear in mind, there's also been corruption scandals in Kiev at the moment, but notice nobody ever talks about that in Europe anymore.

So, you know, he comes along, he talks to them in the way that he does, but they just cannot let him go. just won't turn on him. They won't come along and say that was an absolutely disgraceful speech. You remember when he went to Washington in, I think it was 2023 after the failure of the Ukrainian offensive in the summer, and he made similar comments insulting the Americans then, saying the Americans weren't doing enough. People in Congress were furious. The U.S. Congress were furious. and they said, how dare you talk to the United States in that way, after all the help we've been giving you? He had to row back, and he had to meet Trump as well.

And some of the comments, the critical comments about Zelensky were even made by, you know, people in Congress who'd been supportive of Ukraine until that time. In Europe, you get no pushback at all. He can say whatever he wants, you can be as. insulting as he wants to be, you just go on appeasing this spoiled child, giving him whatever he wants, and you give him a standing ovation as you do it. Well, it's a cost-benefit analysis. I mean, for the Europeans, I believe that they understand that that Zelensky keeps the washing machine spinning.

So I'm sure they're telling each other, it's okay. Let the child vent. Let the child scream. Let him trash us. It's fine. For the moment, we still need him because he keeps everything, everything moving when it comes to the money flows. That's my take on it. And I'm pretty confident that this is exactly how many of at least the top,

level, European globalist elite, see it. You all you want. Be angry at me all you want. Fine, I'll suck it up. I'll even give you a standing ovation because at the end of the day, I know that you're the person in Kiev that keeps the money moving. You are, of course, absolutely correct. That is exactly what it is.

And of course, Project Ukraine is the overriding priority. Everything must be sacrificed to keep Project Ukraine go. as we discussed in another program, giving bits of Greenland to the United States, going over Denmark's head to do it, if you're prepared to make that kind of concession in order to keep the washing machine operating. Well, you can obviously accept a tantrum from someone like Zelensky. All I would say, though, is that self-respecting leaders, of real countries, people who take their responsibilities as leaders, would never accept a thing like this.

If you want to understand why Europe has degraded itself, has collapsed to this appalling level in which it is in today, well, I mean, what we saw with this speech in Davos makes the reason for it absolutely clear and obvious to anybody whose eyes to see. you spoke about a cost-benefit analysis. Do anybody with any sense of self-respect, any sense of responsibility, to the world outside Europe, to people in China, India, wherever the Arab states, it's all cost and no benefit, at least as far as Europe as a continent, as a group of nations, as a people, the peoples of Europe are concerned. A few individuals may be making a lots of money out of this and keeping, as you said, the washing machine going.

But everyone else pays. Okay, so before we get to Carney's speech to wrap up the video, Carney basically, probably one of the most talked about speeches in Davos, Carney basically admitted that the whole international rules-based order thing was all pretend. That's pretty much what he said. It's all been pretend. And because now this pretend is not in our benefit, let's make up something new. That was pretty much the essence of Carney's speech. A lot of people are talking about his speech.

Trump is very upset with Carney and he's kicking him out of the Board of Peace or he's, he's rescinding the invite. You're not invited anymore to be part of the Board of Peace. I think it's a blessing. Canada gets to save a billion dollars, but be careful because Zelensky is going to probably come knocking on the doors of Canada to take that billion dollars. So anyway, before you get to that, just a quick comment on Zelensky and the statements that he made about the Russian economy, which he said is tired. And the KIAs in the conflict, Zelensky put the number at 35K for Russia per month, up from 14K. that was the number last year, along with, he said, 43,000 is the Russian soldiers that are that are volunteering every month. The new recruits is 43,000 with a 10 to 15% desertion rate.

Of course, these numbers are delusional and fictitious, and you know that because the statement from Zelensky is, I'm going to tell you guys, The real numbers now, I promise you. These are the real numbers. So when you start a statement off like that, that's what you know, that he's lying. And anyway, the numbers, he threw them out there. We know why he threw them out there. Your comments there and then talk about Carney and we'll wrap up the video.

Well, I mean, he's, this is, these are comments and statements made from the leader of the country who's where there is no power in many of his cities, where 600,000 people have the, left his capital. And he comes along and he wants to still tell people in Europe that just hold on a little longer. All will be well. We will win. It may look bad now. But believe me, I promise you, if we just keep going a little longer, the Russian economy is under stress. the Russian economy is tired.

They can't keep up the production. Their casualty rate is off the scale. I know the real numbers. These are the real numbers. Just go on giving me whatever I want. Give me the more money. Give me whatever. And I promise you it will all turn right.

And it was the incredible thing is that there are people who I think sincerely believe him. I mean, Kellogg, you remember him? He actually came out and said, you know, Ukraine can get through the winter. After the winter, everything will turn out better for Ukraine. Things will swing decisively in its favor because Russia is obviously so running down. And you get plenty of commentators in the media who generally believe this. I mean, they believe all this, just as they believe that the Ukrainians are still fighting in Pakkrovsk, Just to say, I mean, you know, they believe all of these things. We don't have to. I mean, we can see the realities. And the reality is that inflation in Russia, which, by the way, I notice people that are talking about inflation so much in Russia. The inflation in Russia turned out last year at about 5.5% overall across the whole year. So clearly inflation has fallen very fast. There was overall increase in manufacturing. There are,

problems in the economy, mostly caused by the very high interest rates that the central bank continues to enforce as it prioritizes reducing inflation. But everybody can see that the interest rates will start to fall, probably from the spring. There's going to be an upward bump because of the VAT increase in inflation. So the central bank is concerned not to lower interest rates prematurely until that bump has been passed. But from the spring, we're going to start to see interest rates fall and the economy is going to start growing again. Because the major constraint in the economy over the last year and a half has been the

interest rates. And the interest rates were necessary as far as Nebula was concerned in order to bring back, to prevent the overheating in the economy, which we were starting to see, which was starting to take hold in 2024. And the overheating in the economy was obviously connected to the war, but it was also connected to many other factors, which was basically the major expansion in, well, the major increase in living standards, caused partly by the war, caused also partly by the surgeon manufacturing output, caused mostly, however, overwhelmingly by the investment boom, which, as I said, did lead to overheating, did lead to problems of capacity

because it takes a while for investments to start producing higher output. and as I said, the central bank wanted to cool the economy, and that they've largely successfully done. By the way, just to say, even if you put aside the, if you write off the $300 billion of assets that the Russian Central Bank had, which is frozen, Russian reserves, foreign currency and gold reserves, in value turns are now pretty much back to where they were before the start of the special military operation.

And the ruble is very strong, which is also a problem. And in fact, it's strengthened over the last couple of weeks. So I don't see any sign of exhaustion. I don't see any sign of exhaustion in the military either. The Russians still on the advance. All of this is fantasy. and it's incredible that people fall for it. But of course, many people don't fall for it.

They choose to repeat these things because we go back to what you said about keeping the washing machine going in order to keep the washing machine going. You need a narrative to justify keeping it going. And that's where all that comes from. Yeah. Speaking about pretending make-believe narratives, Carney's speech?

Well, indeed. Well, that is, I mean, it's a very interesting speech. I'm going to say something. I do think Carney expected the speech to get as much attention as it did. I think that he said things without fully understanding that they were going to go viral. And I think if he could, he would go back and tone it down. What happened was that Carney went to China. He's trying to restabilise relations between Canada and China.

China and Canada had a pretty good economic and trade relationship. Canada has been going through some hard times. Kani understands, which most European leaders, him unable to understand, that he has to try and find means to stabilize the Canadian economy again, which hasn't been doing particularly well. And so he went back to China, basically on a fence-mending trip with the Chinese. He needed to defend that. He needed to come back to Davos and provide some kind of explanation of why he went to China.

He avoided talking about China, but instead he said, well, you know, we've been working ourselves I'm talking about this rules-based international order for all this time. We all really know. We've always known deep down that this is never real, that it was all a narrative that we were spinning. I have to do what is important and necessary for my country. We're coming under all kinds of pressure from the Americans, so I need to speak to China. And that's what I'm about. That's why I did that. That is why, in the end, I have. went to China. And what he actually did, and I said, I don't think he quite understood what he was doing, was that he gave it away. He gave the whole mythology of the rules-based international

order away. He said, you know, not only does it no longer exist now, but it was never, it never really existed in the first place. It was all the myth. We were all peddling this story about a rules-based international order. but in reality it was all about us, the collective West, joining together, following in the wake of the American Hegemon and benefiting from it, I mean, you know, collecting the spoils, if you like, of what the American Hegemon was able to collect. So he said, I think, much more.

than he gave away much more than he intended to do. And the Americans are furious with him. Trump is furious with him because he saw the speech as an attack on him, on Trump and on the United States, which by the way it was. And I think that some people in Europe are not going to be happy because he gave away the truth about the rules-based international order, that it was always an exercise in narrative rather than anything other than basically a cover for what was always a predatory operation.

And, well, there it is. That's what putting somebody in charge who is not a politician, but a central banker is likely to do, just a second. All right. We will end the video there at the durand.com. We are on X rumble and telegram. are also on substacks, so check us out there. And go to the Duran Shop, 26% of all merch. There's a link to the Duran Shop and description box down below. Take care.