Podcasts about russian ministry

Through one of our contacts in Russia, we have managed to acquire a packet of Russian Ministry of Defence documents smuggled out of Moscow. The packet pertains to a new weapons system that is about to be deployed to the battlefield, one that will catapult Russia forward in its artillery capabilities. To understand what this system is capable of and how much of a game-changer it is likely to be for the Russian forces, we brought on two key experts to dissect the documents and blueprints. On the panel this week: - Mark Galeotti (RUSI) - Eric Gomez (Missile and Nuclear Weapons Expert) Released April 1st, 2025. Follow the show on https://x.com/TheRedLinePod Follow Michael on https://x.com/MikeHilliardAus Support the show at: https://www.patreon.com/c/theredlinepodcast Submit Questions and Join the Red Line Discord Server at: https://www.theredlinepodcast.com/discord For more info, please visit: https://www.theredlinepodcast.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Financial Regulatory Authority has suspended issuing new licenses for companies seeking to operate in consumer finance or microfinance for one year. Egypt is looking to boost its natural gas production by 30% to 6 bn cubic feet of gas per day by the end of 2025.Kuwait is reportedly mulling converting its deposits in the CBE - USD4 billion - into direct investments. Egypt stands to save between USD300-400 million thanks to the IMF reducing surcharges, a government source said.The Transport Ministry and Saudi Arabia's Transport General Authority inked an MoU to bolster cooperation in maritime connectivity.Planning and International Cooperation Minister and EU Ambassador to Cairo signed a EUR7 million comprehensive technical support package to support Egypt's green transition.The Ministry of Supply has set USD240 as the maximum import price for a ton of wheat, following the announcement by the Russian Ministry of Agriculture of raising duties on wheat exports by about 41% to reach the equivalent of USD19.57 per ton.Bell International Company plans to pump new investments into Egypt worth USD150 million over the next two years to add new production lines.MFPC sent a release with reference to news of the company competing for the development of Delta Fertilizers Company with investments of USD450 million. MFPC declared that it has received an invitation to contribute in the partnership, and the matter is still under review. Egypt Gas announced that the latest deal signed by its 41%-owned subsidiary, Town Gas, for natural gas connection and installations to households in Romania will not affect the company's revenues during the current year.GB Capital for Financial Investments, the financial arm of GBCO, has obtained the Promoting and Underwriting license to expand its service offering into debt capital markets and related activities.According to local media, an official from GBCO denied the news mentioned yesterday about the company's intention of becoming an investment bank. HRHO has completed its fourth issue of securitization bonds worth EGP1.4 billion for Bedaya. Also, ValU is preparing to issue securitization bonds worth EGP1.5 billion as part of its current program worth EGP16 billion.Weekly Commodities Update |   | Last Price | WoW Change, % | Brent, USD/bbl | 79.0 | 1.3% | Diesel-HSFO Spread, USD/ton | 225 | -6.5% | Egypt Urea, USD/ton | 406 | 5.5% | Polyethylene, USD/ton | 980 | 0.0% | Polypropylene, USD/ton | 945 | 0.0% | Iron Ore 65%, USD/ton | 123 | -3.6% | Steel/Iron Ore Spreads, USD/ton | 421 | 3.0% | LME Copper Cash Price, USD/ton | 9,651 | -1.5% | LME Aluminum Cash Price, USD/ton | 2,614 | -1.1% | Egyptia Retail Cement, EGP/ton | 2,762 | 0.8% | Steam Coal FOB Newcastle Australia, USD/ton | 147 | -1.0% | SMP, USD/MT | 2,795 | 0.0% | Last price may vary week over week in some indices due to time difference

October 1st 2024 Yuriy underscores the critical role the Ukrainian army plays in defending not just Ukraine but the broader Western world against Russian aggression. He highlights Russia's inhumane military practices and warns of their intentions to use subjugated Ukrainians to wage war against NATO, emphasizing the importance of supporting Ukraine in its fight for freedom. You can email Yuriy, ask him questions or simply send him a message of support: fightingtherussianbeast@gmail.com    You can help Yuriy and his family by donating to his GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-yuriys-family   Yuriy's Podbean Patron sign-up to give once or regularly: https://patron.podbean.com/yuriy   Buy Yuriy a coffee here: https://bmc.link/yuriymat  Subscribe to his substack: https://yuriymatsarsky.substack.com/  ----more---- TRANSCRIPT: (Apple Podcasts & Podbean app users can enjoy accurate closed captions)       I think some of my listeners abroad believe that I'm exaggerating a bit when I say that the Ukrainians are now defending them too, that I'm deliberately overstating the importance of the Ukrainian army, but that's not the case. In the description of this episode, I will leave a link to the military plans of so-called Russian Ministry of Defense. You will be able to read them using an online translator, or you might not need to read them- I will tell you a bit about them and provide some explanations.  Let's start with the fact that they still call the war in Ukraine a, liberation one. They came to "liberate" Russians according to very bizarre calculations. Just recently, 96.7% of people in Ukraine were Russians. Where this number came from, don't ask. I don't know. It's some special Putin science- counting Russians where they don't exist. So, next, the Russian military rights that were insidious West imposed some wrong values on these Russians and turn them into enemies of Russia. And that's precisely why putin started this war to turn this, 96.7% of Ukrainians into Russians.   And do you know why Putin needs these people- and we are talking about millions of people? Can you guess? Well, okay. I will tell you to be at the forefront of the armies that will march under Putin's command   to destroy the West, which on the official website of the Russian Ministry of Defense is called 'Satanic'. The ultimate goal is to bring all of Eastern Europe back under Moscow's control. In other words, the Russians openly say, they want to fight NATO, but with the hands of subjugated Ukrainians.  Is it possible to send Ukrainians to fight against their Western neighbors? Well look at two. Today's Russian army, it is more than half made up of conquered peoples from the Caucuses,  Siberia, and other regions. It has thousands of Chechens, including wars, who just recently -20 years ago- fought against Moscow for independence, but now they're fighting for the very people who turned Chechnya into a damn feudal khanate with portraits of Putin who killed tens of thousands of Chechens on every corner.  And there are also many Ukrainians in the Russian army from the occupied territories. They did not join because they suddenly wanted to fight for the invaders. No, they were simply grabbed of the streets, taken to the military base and made cannon fodder. That's right, cannon fodder. The Russian army does not know how to fight any other way.  And the fact that you haven't experienced it yourself yet, the fact that this father isn't storming your cities, the fact that your loved ones haven't been forcibly sent to be part of this Russian cannon fodder, all this is thanks to Ukraine. By the way, today is October 1st, the day of Defenders of Ukraine. So don't forget to congratulate your Ukrainian friends. They deserve it.   

2024-09-01 | We are enabling a lottery of death to take place in Ukraine, daily, and it's both stupid and immoral. Our timidity must stop, otherwise Russian aggression will only escalate. ---------- Ukraine has conducted the largest drone assault on Russian infrastructure of the war so far. Fires are reported at two power plants and oil refinery in Moscow region, with 158 Ukrainian drones targeting multiple regions, including Moscow, Tver, Voronezh, Tula, Kaluga, Bryansk, Belgorod, Lipetsk, and Kursk, according to officials and residents. The attacks follow Russia's concerted attempts to degrade and destroy energy infrastructure in Ukraine, to make cities unliveable and create misery for its citizens. The scale of the strike suggests a significant advancement in Ukraine's drone capabilities. 158 was the number of drones reported by the Russian Ministry of Defence, so the true number of drones may be even higher. It is an enduring frustration when multiple media outlets begin their stories with quotes from Russian officials, who invariably lie. ---------- Sources and recommended reading: https://kyivindependent.com/russia-claims-dozens-of-ukrainian-drones-targeted-moscow-other-regions/ https://kyivindependent.com/russian-forces-wiping-off-kursk-oblasts-sudzha-ukrainian-commander-says/ https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/09/01/russian-energy-sites-targeted-in-mass-overnight-drone-attack-a86217 https://www.kyivpost.com/post/38278 https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2024/09/01/kyiv-targets-15-regions-in-massive-overnight-drone-strikes-on-russian-energy-infrastructure-en-news https://kyivindependent.com/russia-attacks-kharkiv-injuring-at-least-28-including-medic/ ---------- SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ---------- TRUSTED CHARITIES ON THE GROUND: Save Ukraine https://www.saveukraineua.org/ Superhumans - Hospital for war traumas https://superhumans.com/en/ UNBROKEN - Treatment. Prosthesis. Rehabilitation for Ukrainians in Ukraine https://unbroken.org.ua/ Come Back Alive https://savelife.in.ua/en/ Chefs For Ukraine - World Central Kitchen https://wck.org/relief/activation-chefs-for-ukraine UNITED24 - An initiative of President Zelenskyy https://u24.gov.ua/ Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation https://prytulafoundation.org NGO “Herojam Slava” https://heroiamslava.org/ kharpp - Reconstruction project supporting communities in Kharkiv and Przemyśl https://kharpp.com/ NOR DOG Animal Rescue https://www.nor-dog.org/home/ ---------- PLATFORMS: Twitter: https://twitter.com/CurtainSilicon Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/siliconcurtain/ Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4thRZj6NO7y93zG11JMtqm Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finkjonathan/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ---------- Welcome to the Silicon Curtain podcast. Please like and subscribe if you like the content we produce. It will really help to increase the popularity of our content in YouTube's algorithm. Our material is now being made available on popular podcasting platforms as well, such as Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

The Russian Ministry of Defense will not transfer troops from the front line in the Donbass to the Kursk region, where the offensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces has been going on for the third week. This was reported by Bloomberg, citing a source close to the Kremlin. - Министерство обороны России не будет перебрасывать войска с линии фронта на Донбассе в Курскую область, где уже третью неделю продолжается наступление Вооруженных сил Украины. Об этом сообщило агентство Bloomberg со ссылкой на близкий к Кремлю источник.

Vajon miért indított Ukrajna a héten olyan jellegű támadást orosz területek ellen, amilyet Oroszország a második világháború óta nem látott? A témáról Huszák Dánielt, a Portfolio Globál rovatának vezető elemzőjét kérdeztük. Az adás második részében az OTP Bank első féléves teljesítményét értékeltük Bukta Gáborral, a Concorde elemzési üzletágvezetőjével annak apropóján, hogy a pénzintézet péntek hajnalban tette közzé második negyedéves jelentését.  Főbb részek: Intro - (00:00) Szabadságra megyünk - (00:07) Intro folytatása - (01:00) Mit keres Ukrajna Oroszországban? - (02:06) Jelentett az OTP Bank - (14:58) Borító: Az orosz hadsereg ukrán erőket támad Kurszk térségében. Forrása: Russian Ministry of Defense / Handout/Anadolu via Getty ImagesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Maria sat down with Russian independent journalist and author Mikhail Zygar, and University of Oxford professor Christopher Davis, to discuss the recent string of anti-corruption charges at the Russian Ministry of Defense, and the replacement of Sergei Shoigu with Andrei Belousov at the ministry's head. What does all this mean for the current composition of the Russian elite, and what impact will these changes have on the Russian war effort in Ukraine?

TNT Radio host Patrick Henningsen speaks with independent French researcher and journalist Freddie Ponton, about the coincidental timing between Israel's capture of the Rafah crossing and the completion of the Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore (JLOTS) floating piers, soon to be plugged with jetties on the Gaza shores. Freddie also talks about why the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently summoned the French Ambassador to Russia Pierre Levy. All this and more More from Freddie: X/Twitter  TUNE-IN LIVE to TNT RADIO for the Patrick Henningsen Show every MON-FRI at 4PM-6PM (NEW YORK) | 9PM-11PM (LONDON) https://tntradio.live

Make sure to follow this week's guest Mark Sleboda on X at @MarkSleboda1 Find me and the show on social media @DrWilmerLeon on X (Twitter), Instagram, and YouTube Facebook page is www.facebook.com/Drwilmerleonctd   Announcer (00:06): Connecting the dots with Dr. Wilmer Leon, where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge. Dr Leon (00:14): Welcome to the Connecting the Dots podcast with Dr. Wilmer Leon. I am Wilmer Leon. Here's the point. We have a tendency to view current events as though they occur in a vacuum, failing to see the broader historical context in which events take place. During each episode of this program, my guests and I have probing, provocative, and in-depth discussions that connect the dots between current events and the broader historic context in which they occur. This enables you to better understand and analyze the events that impact the global village in which we live on today's episode. The issue before us is the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and why does the United States keep throwing good taxpayer dollars after bad. To discuss this, we are joined by my guest Mark Sloboda. He's a Moscow based international relations and security analyst. Mark, as always, welcome back Mark Sleboda (01:18): Dr. Leon. Thanks for having me. It's always an honor and a pleasure to be on connecting the dots. Dr Leon (01:23): So it's been reported that an attack on a convoy of Ukrainian military equipment in the esque people's Republic was carried out with the use of short range ballistic missiles. And it also seems as though with all of this hand wringing in the US Congress about funding for Ukraine, all the US and NATO is doing, or seems to be doing, is sending more targets for Russia to destroy your thoughts, mark. Mark Sleboda (01:52): Yeah, there's some rather dramatic developments really under-reported in the Western press that have very large implications going forward for the conflict in Ukraine. The current situation on the ground, I think the Western mainstream media has finally their propaganda narrative bubble has finally burst. Look, in a span of how short a period of time we have gone from Ukraine is winning to (02:34) Stalemate, it's a stalemate on the battlefield to, oh my God, we're losing to Nigeria with snow. I mean, that's the rather dramatic change in the propaganda narrative, and I think we can see it reflected in the political elite as well with the panic and desperation that is starting to sit in and become rather obvious among European leaders who really have the most to lose from this conflict, rather other than the Kiev regime in Ukraine itself. And this all occurs, these latest incidents in the final weeks of and the aftermath of the Russian breakthrough of the Kiev regime's most heavily fortified fortress city, these extensive defenses and fortifications trenches, concrete bunkers, pill boxes, networks of tunnels, layers of minefields, you name it, Inca, which is really quite close to Dan City, and a western journalist a couple of years ago already referred to it rather poetically if quite awfully as a knife pointed at the heart of Dansk. (04:10) They meant that in a good way. Another way, of course, looking at it was a Jack boot pressed to the neck of the people of Donbass because it is from aca and the settlements shielded behind it that the Ki regime forces brutally shelled the people of Dansk for the last decade pretty much regularly. They didn't shell military facilities, they shelled civilian areas with artillery, with cluster munitions, with pedal mines. And this was to punish the people of done bus for choosing wrong, for not accepting the overthrow of the government by the Westback Maan butch back in 2014, and with the intention with driving Russian ethnic people who did not accept the new Ukraine into Russia. That was the intention and one of the primary reasons for the Russian intervention in the Ukrainian civil conflict, not the only one. There were security concerns as well, but this was loudly voiced as well. (05:22) And when the Russians broke through it aga, they did it rather dramatically towards the end. It ended up much shorter than say the siege of Bach Mu, despite the defenses in a DKA being considerably stronger, and this is because of a sea change on the battlefield. The KI regime's initial a integrated Soviet legacy air defense network, the backbone of which was the formidable S 300 systems had been largely deteriorated at this point already a few months ago. And on top of what hadn't been destroyed, they were absolutely out of interceptor missiles for it, and there were none left in countries that are now part of the west former Eastern Bloc countries. Their supplies were all exhausted. So there was an attempt to put together a hodgepodge piece meal air defense system not properly integrated with using Western systems, but that has also been attributed away over the last few months. (06:35) Russia launched an extensive campaign over the winter, and that was a primary target of their missile and drone campaign. So in afca, Russia fully unleashed the fab guided glide bombs on these defenses. And these are old dumb munitions with smart glide kits that turn them into precision weapons being able to fire from air at a distance of tens of kilometers. And because these are bombs, not artillery shells, they have a considerably bigger payload. They come in 500, 1000 and 1500 kilogram capacities and they just annihilate. I mean, if the Ki regime turns, say what they did pretty much to every building in the city, turning it into a mini fortress that has to be individually stormed one fab bomb, and it's gone. And particularly at the larger end, the 1500, they have an incredibly demoralizing effect on anyone within the radius of experiencing the explosion, the concussion and the like. (07:57) And in the closing days of a dka, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense, they dropped over 500 of these, oh my God, on the fortresses in just the last few days, right? So that's why they collapsed so quickly and dramatically at the end and why there was such a route. And they're able to do this now because they can fly with a considerable degree of impunity over the battlefield because first, the Soviet legacy and now the Western Air Defense system sent us a replacement, have largely been destroyed. And immediately in the aftermath of Dfca, the Russian forces far from being exhausted, as many Western military analysts drinking their own propaganda Kool-Aid tried to claim claiming high casualties as they always do without evidence to back it up other than the say so of the regime in Kiev. Russian forces were not exhausted because they had not suffered any considerable attrition because they had been standing off and dropping an extremely large bombs from Sue, 30 fours from fighter bombers on ev dca, which is what did at least at the end the majority of their work for them once they were already ensconced in the outskirts of the city. (09:24) So they continued on fallback positions in the next line of villages that Kiev regime forces had retreated to and were hastily trying to dig themselves in because they had not built proper defenses. And for instance, Laska and Severna lasted two or three days, and as Russia moved on the second line of villages even further, and we faced a real breakthrough in the Kiev regime defensive lines at this point, the Kiev regime became desperate to try to at least slow down. We're not even talking stop, but to slow down the Russian advance to give themselves more time to hastily dig as the Western headlines have now been talking about what the Kiv regime needs to do to dig new trenches, to dig new fortifications. So they moved a large number of what air defense systems they had left elsewhere in the country into an area far too close to the battlefield. (10:32) And Russia at this point, not only of course, enjoys air superiority over the contact line, but they also enjoy drone superiority. And Russia has put a rather larger number of military satellites into the orbit in the last year, last few months that have started to come online. So they were able to track these air defense systems fairly well, and it's more than just three patriot launchers that have been destroyed. Also, one of the remaining older S 300 air defense systems, several NASS air defense systems supplied by the US and Norway, and also a number of books and smaller systems. By my count at least 11 air defense systems have been destroyed in the last two weeks over the area immediately to the west of F dca. And this is adding to the butcher's bill. Previously, the Kev regime has adopted a new tactic in several areas. (11:50) We saw it over the sea of, we saw it also in Belgo where that Ill 76 transport plane shut down the KI regime shut down its own plane full of prisoners of war A couple of months ago, if you remember forced to admit it, they've been sending in an attempt to try to stop the Russian dominance of the skies. They've tried to use essentially not mobile air defense systems in a mobile capacity to set up ambushes for Russian planes to instill a degree of caution and restraint. But that has proven very costly for them because they've also lost air defense systems in that way as well, because of course, Russia was actively hunting them down and despite their claims to have shut down large numbers of Russian aircraft, there is zero evidence providing this zero. I mean, and there have been plenty of evidence, for instance, of the Kev regime's own aircraft, remaining aircraft being shot down when they're shot down. (13:06) There is video footage, there is air wreckage and the like. So really questionable claims they may have sacrificed other than this, of course, the POW plane, which everyone noticed, but that was an undefended transport plane flying in what it assumed a mission of peace bringing POWs for an exchange. So they've lost a huge degree of whatever hodgepodge air defense they had left. Now, Forbes speaking just of the events in F dca, not of the rest of it, says that just in those engagements that the Kev regime lost 13% of its air defense capacity speaking specifically of the Patriot systems provided to it. And that's on paper because they're not acknowledging earlier patriot systems that have been shot down. So I would suggest that they have at this point lost far more. They probably have a number of patriot launchers in the single digits left in Kiev, for instance, possibly in Odessa. (14:22) But the implications of this going forward is that Russian use of air superiority and even now close air support over the contact line is going to dramatically increase because there is no air defense left to deal with them, which means the pace of Russian advances are going to increase. And this is when even Western analysts and Ukrainians are talking about rather large concentrations of Russian forces behind the lines that have been built up but not committed yet. And there is the suspicion that they're going to launch a large scale big arrow offensive sometime later this year. In fact, the Kiev regime has just in the past week evacuated the entirety of Harko region. Some 85 settlements ordered the civilian evacuation because they fear a big offensive in the harko direction in the coming probably months, perhaps weeks. Dr Leon (15:36): President Biden told us during his State of the Union address that Ukraine can stop Putin, Ukraine can stop Putin if we stand with Ukraine and provide the weapons that it needs to defend itself. That's all he says. In fact, there are no American soldiers at war in Ukraine. My question is, who's operating these US supplied Patriot air defense systems and are there US special forces trainers that are on the ground training these forces? Mark Sleboda (16:14): Okay, so first to the last point, Joe Biden is lying genocide. Joe is flat up lying and we know it because the Western mainstream media has told us already in the summer of 2022 in the New York Times and the Washington Post talking about unusually large numbers of US intelligence and US and European commandos on the ground in Ukraine. Then later we heard there were hundreds of uniformed US troops on the ground, again from the western mainstream media that were doing tracking of Western supplied weapons. Now, if that's really what they were doing, then they weren't doing a very good job because it was only weeks after that we heard that the West couldn't track these weapons at all. So I mean either they were completely incompetent or they are doing something else on the ground Dr Leon (17:15): On top of them. Wait a minute, are these also, aren't these the same stories that a lot of these weapons are showing up in other battles in other countries? Mark Sleboda (17:24): Yes. Yes. With the idea that a tithe essentially of Western weapons is being sold through corruption in the Ukrainian military and the distribution networks off because of the prevalent corruption in the country to pad their own pockets. And then I don't think there's anything question about that. The Western mainstream media has long reported about that. In fact, early on, CBS noted that some 70% of the weapons supplied by the west were not reading the front lines. This was early on in the conflict. So on top of those commandos, we now the Russian government has long complained that these high-tech systems supplied by the west from the US in particular the high Mars and multiple launch rocket systems in the Patriot air defense systems, as well as some French air defense systems, Polish crab artillery systems, British storm shadows, cruise missiles, that these are all being operated by western military specialists who are being sent there under the guise of mercenaries or humanitarian and aid workers and the like, because it is impossible to train the Kiev regime forces in such a short period of time to operate these advanced western systems. (19:09) The Russian government's been saying this for a considerable amount of time, but this was confirmed by no less a person than the German chancellor Olaf Schultz, who in an apparent spat back and forth with the French leader, Emmanuel Macron, and to the British as well, when the British were pressuring Germany to deliver the Taurus missiles, the context of Ola Schultz is we can't do what the British, the French, and the Americans are doing and have people obliquely. He admitted that the West had their military forces on the ground operating their systems and that Germany could not be seen as doing that. And this was reinforced in these leaked military calls from the German Air Force planning, a series of cruise missile attacks inside Russia with the expected to be delivered towards cruise missile system, at least expected by them. The political elites in Germany aren't saying that, but they also revealed that the German cruise missiles could perhaps be operated on the ground by the rather large number of Americans of people on the ground wearing civilian clothes with American accents, which of course is a roundabout way of saying US military personnel not in uniform on the ground in Ukraine. (20:58) So I mean, they just have to Dr Leon (20:59): Be curious from Kansas that are wandering the fields and the step of Germany and Russia and Ukraine. Mark Sleboda (21:07): Yeah, they're not wearing boots. They're wearing ballet slippers or figure skates or something, I guess. So that's a lie. Second of all, the Kim regime can defeat. Well, Ukraine can beat Putin, right? The childish way that western leaders and media try to demonize any opponent down to just one leader and so forth. But if that was true, if Western military aid in Ukrainian regime hands was enough to beat Russia, then what happened over their failed summer counter offensive that was armed trained, financed intelligence planned and war gamed out by nato, primarily US by the Pentagon, that's who did it. They failed. They failed badly. They were mauled. They never even got past the first of Russia's five echelon defensive lines and suffered horrible casualties in the process. No one denies that. So there is no indication that however additional tens of billions of dollars of aid are sent that the West will ever again able to build an offensive force like they did for Ukraine in the summer offensive because they simply don't have the weapons in inventory to replace everything like that. (22:50) They do have some things, they got plenty of Bradleys if they want. Obviously they're very reticent to allow the rather small number of Abrams that they've sent to be used in combat. Four of them have been destroyed after just appearing on the battlefield in the last week. But the rest of the Western militaries that supplied weapons, they're tapped out. France, Germany, Denmark, the United Kingdom, they've all said, we can't supply anymore because we've already dug past our stockpiles into our own military supplies and we can't replace these systems fast enough. For instance, one French Caesar self-propelled Howitzer, a total of 36 of these between France and Denmark were supplied to the Kiev regime for the course of that offensive. And they're practically through all of them, they have very few of them left because Russia's been hunting them down. And also they are subjected to considerable wear and tear, and they're not actually built for high intensity combat like this, much like the US' M triple sevens and the Paladins and the like. But it takes the French 18 months, the French military industrial complex, 18 months. 18 months Dr Leon (24:20): To Mark Sleboda (24:21): Build one Dr Leon (24:22): That's a year and a half Mark Sleboda (24:23): One Caesar. But we heard that they have shortened that time to 15 months. Oh Dr Leon (24:30): Wow. That makes me feel a whole lot better. You just mentioned the leaked recordings from the German Air Force, and is it a coincidence that after these conversations were leaked where the Germans were talking about taking out bridges in Russia with cruise missiles that Victoria Newland resigns because there are some who say that her name was mentioned in on these tapes and that the German Air Force officers were really talking about conversations either they had with her or ideas that she was presenting about these attacks inside Russia? Mark Sleboda (25:16): Yeah, there's a possibility there, and if that is the situation, then it appears that she was probably forced out by the Biden administration. But are I think there are other considerations in play. Victoria Newland, the Queen NeoCon of the us, she's married to Robert Kagan who is the arch NeoCon of the United States. Robert Kagan, his books, check them out if you're unfamiliar with his sinister work. I would say she has long dominated through several presidencies US policy towards Ukraine. She was instrumental in the actual Westpac, my Don pooch, if not the key architect of it. She was caught on recordings with then US Ambassador Jeffrey Piat, talking about how they needed to midwife this thing, bring then Obama's Vice President Joe Biden into midwife it picking the new Prime Minister of Ukraine, Arsen Ya from the leaders, the figurehead leaders of the Maidan, and then famously saying F, the when the idea that the Europeans might want someone else for Ukraine's next prime minister was presented. So I mean she's been instrumental and she briefly left office during the Trump administration and then came right back. She has been serving as under Secretary for political affairs, which despite the rather kafkaesque bureaucratic name is actually the third highest official within the US Department of War. I'm sorry, not the US Department of War, US Department of State. My bad. Dr Leon (27:23): I can understand the confusion. Mark Sleboda (27:24): I said the difference. Yeah, she a third highest official and she was actually operating as the second highest official just below the Secretary of State for about a half of year when Wendy Sherman, the previous Deputy Secretary of State stepped down. So she was doing the number two and number three job and it was widely expected that she would be permanently assigned to that position, a permanently elevated to Deputy Secretary of State. But we found out that just a month ago she was passed over for this position by Kirk Campbell. The Biden approved someone else, and Kirk Campbell is an Asia specialist. He's a specialist on China, which to my mind tells me that the Biden administration is tiring of this conflict in Ukraine and they're already looking past it despite the bad situation. Their proxy regime is in to China, which may indicate a planned change of policy or at least prioritization or at the very least an unwillingness to escalate further, I say may. Dr Leon (28:48): So does that mean then that the Biden administration is now following along the previous Obama administration's tilt towards Asia? Mark Sleboda (29:02): Yeah, that's entirely possible. I believe that's what the Biden administration always wanted to do. They wanted the Middle East to remain quiet and it was not a priority for them. That didn't go out down so well. Just a week before the October 7th, seventh launching of the all Axel flood operation by Hamas on Israel, Jake Sullivan was in an essay talking about how nice and quiet the Middle East was, which allowed the US to concentrate on other areas. Well, that didn't go so well then since then. But they wanted the Middle East to be quiet. They expected to finish off Russia quickly. They expected their sanctions to destroy the Russian economy, Putin to be overthrown, and because of the economic commiseration of the country Dr Leon (29:58): They wrong Mark Sleboda (30:00): And that they would now, their biggest concern would be dividing up Russia into smaller pieces and how to go about that. That appears to have been their plan. Okay, so not so good on the plan thing, but then they hoped they thought that would be finished quickly and then to pivot hard to China. I think that was always their plan to finish Russia off quickly, ignore the Middle East and pivot hard to China. And none of that, of course has gone according to plan. So with A and B having failed, they're trying to go to C anyway in very likely the months at this point that they have remaining to them. And I think that the passing over of Victoria Newland for that is a sign that the Biden administration is already lost interest, possibly due to inability to achieve their desired goals and is shifting to the next goals that they can't probably accomplish even more so I would say if they think that they're going to defeat China in some type of conflict off of their own coast in the Taiwan Straits and South China Sea. But anyway, I expect that Victoria Newland was extremely unhappy about being passed over. She was probably, she can see the bureaucratic writing on the wall that the prioritization is changing away from her reason for existence, which is fighting Russia. And I think that that probably at least as much if not more so played a role in her deciding to quit or being forced out. We don't know the real truth of that yet, although I imagine that she won't be able to keep her mouth shut forever on that score Dr Leon (31:51): Or her husband. So political reports that France finds Baltic allies in its spat with Germany over Ukraine troop deployment, that France is building up an alliance of countries to open potentially that are open to potentially sending Western troops to Ukraine. That Mark sounds to me like there's a lot of tension within nato. And going again back to President Biden State of the Union, he told us America is a founding member of nato, the Military Alliance of Democratic Nations, and that to prevent war, we've made NATO even stronger, which is the point that I was trying to get to about this element of his speech that we've made NATO even stronger, and now he also assigns or attributes Finland joining NATO as evidence of NATO's strength. It doesn't sound like, it doesn't sound like it's all good in Mark Sleboda (32:59): Yeah, I mean definitely. I mean, Hungary and Slovakia of course are the most egregious examples of this because they are completely against the proxy war now being fought on Russia in Ukraine completely. They won't have anything to do with it. But yeah, there are definitely, I think tensions and cracks emerging and a bit of a panicked blame game going on right now with different European countries all trying to blame each other saying You haven't done enough. And with Macron coming out now in the aftermath of the taking of a DKA coming out and openly talking about putting NATO troops on the ground, I think this is not something that is a secret, something that has not been discussed for, and something that contingency plans are not already in place to do in the future. They just aren't in a political situation to have it said out loud. Now, I think that's the real problem that Germany and other countries have. It's causing them, no one is ready to do it now, and the fact that it has been brought up now, they see as politically detrimental to them in their own countries Dr Leon (34:29): As in the farmers' protests in Germany, Mark Sleboda (34:32): Yeah, in Poland, yes, Poland. I mean there are protests across Europe, but also, yes, the fragile coalition government in Germany, the rise of the A FD, the alternative for Germany, the alternative for Deutsche Man, yeah, party in Germany. These are all blowback from the European involvement in the conflict in Ukraine, and they just did not need this. Now, I think Macron has pointed out two things. One is that levels of escalation in this conflict, red lines that we will not cross in terms of escalation have been passed again and again and again. I remember back in February and March of 2022 when Joe Biden saying that US tanks and jets us would never supply tanks and jets to Ukraine because that would mean World War iii, right? But US tanks are now burning in the urban agglomerations of the Donez region, and US F sixteens are supposedly on their way within the next couple of months to the Kiev regime. (35:55) So again and again, these lines have been crossed, and I believe this line will be crossed eventually, but not yet. The second point, and Macron pointed this out, what we once thought was unacceptable has become normal operations repeatedly during this conflict as they've crawled further up or down the escalation ladder, however you choose to look at it. And he also then made a point that when French troops might be sent into Ukraine, when Russian forces move on Kiev or Odessa, which is most likely some time away, probably more than a year, maybe longer than that. So yeah, I mean, right now fighting Russia has a lot of advantages on the battlefield, but big advances can still be measured in a handful of kilometers, a tree line, a small village. (37:04) The writing is on the wall in terms of the logistics of a war of attrition and everything, but I think there's still a lot of hard ground slogging into the future. Macron sees that as well, so they're panicking now. I think he's right that when Russia moves towards Kia or Odessa, there will be probably greater support for his suggestions, but we've already seen support from the Baltics. The Baltic leaders have come out and said, yes, we're ready to send the handful of troops that we have now, because if there's anything the Baltics country need is to come out on the losing end of this conflict, having sent their own troops to war with Russia and having a NATO either fall apart or turned into a toothless tiger as a result of this really, really bad geopolitical move to my mind. I mean, because they're of course the most vulnerable. (38:05) They've got large populations of Russian ethnic populations that they have been rather seriously politically and linguistically culturally repressing, particularly over the last two years, even trying to expel as many Russian ethnic people from their countries as they can, practically inviting some type of Russian backed efforts against those governments in the Baltics, really not a smart move, but also Poland has made the Polish foreign minister Sikorsky back again, by the way, has also seemed to suggest contrary to statements by the Polish president, that at some point down the line, Polish troops could be sent into Ukraine and also Canada. Trudeau has also volunteered Canadian troops as well in non-combat roles of course, because that's what you do with your military troops. You send them into a conflict zone Dr Leon (39:16): Very as non-combatants Mark Sleboda (39:19): Like trainers. First you have trainers and advisors, then you have non-combatants. We know the way this goes, so obviously there is already, and check the Czech president has also suggested he is a former NATO official himself, a very big hawk on Russia, and he has also hedged his words and seemed to suggest that Czech might be able to consider it. So these are countries who are already coming out and we're just past aca, which is really only about 12 kilometers away from Donis city, right? I mean, there's a lot more to come and the panic and desperation will increase, and I think Macron will definitely find more countries down the road when it becomes completely impossible to deny as it will become in the future, the writing on the wall that the regime cannot hold militarily. The New York Times has already talked about the possibility, and I think it's a very strong possibility of later this year cascading collapses along the Kiev regime's, defensive lines, not me, but the New York Times has raised that as is talking to anonymous western military intelligence analysts about the probable course of the Ukrainian battlefield over the next half a year. Dr Leon (40:51): We mentioned Sweden joining NATO and Finland has joined nato, and we know about the very strong and robust social programs that those countries have because they, up until this point, have had a position of neutrality in conflict, which means they haven't had to send the public resources over to a defense budget. Now that that seems to be changing, are we looking at Finland and Sweden as having to shift those resources? We now see more NeoCon policy as well as what we'll call austerity measures. Can we expect austerity measures to creep their way into social policy in Finland and in Sweden? Mark Sleboda (41:49): Yeah, inevitably, I think we've already seen it to a certain degree. They've already, of course, suffered heavy economic consequences from their own sanctions on Russia, probably more significant than have been experienced by the Russian economy. Finland in particular did a very good cross border business. I was on the Finnish Russian border just a year ago at kind of a wilderness vacation place on the border there, well, actually a couple of years ago before the conflict, but very nice, and it was normal to cross the border from Russia and Finland to go to the store, for instance. Someone had this better, someone had that better, and there was a great deal of cross border business that has immensely suffered as a result already hurting the finish economy. The Swedes have suffered the same thing, perhaps to a lesser degree without sharing an open border, but experienced it as well, and now, I mean they've exhausted a great deal. (42:58) Finland and Sweden have both provided outsized military resources to the Kiev regime already, and those resources like so much else, are largely gone. They're either up in smoke or filtered away in the Kiev regime's corruption, so on top of the Kiev regime, of course, loudly demanding more, more, they also have to replenish their own military stocks, and now they have to militarize their own borders, which were UNM militarized, particularly in the case of Finland, which has a very large border. It was demilitarized, it was not a militarized border. There was police presence, but it was not a militarized border that is now changing and of course, facing the prospect of Finland joining NATO and US forces on finished soil, Russia has reordered, completely changed military districting on the border there and provided tens of thousands of new troops to be placed on the border as having to potentially deal with US troops being stationed in Finland as defensive contingencies, Finland is going to bear an increased burden with military. I do not see how this makes them more secure than they were before. I mean, they weren't targeted with nuclear missiles, and now they will be. (44:36) I guess that is the price of joining the cool Western Kids Club in nato, which it seems that the Finnish political elite wanted more than not creating economic and military problems with their much larger southern neighbor. Dr Leon (44:57): I read a story recently that elite units of Ukrainian armed forces are discussing overthrowing zelensky. Is that a rumor? Any traction of that story there in Moscow and any insight into commanders and soldiers in elite units of the Ukrainian armed forces? They're dissatisfied with the reshuffling of the leadership and they're talking about ousting VMI Zelensky. Mark Sleboda (45:30): Yeah. When Zelensky got rid of zany, and let's be clear, this didn't happen because of his military failures on the battlefield. It was done for political reasons because he saw zany as a threat as possibly running for president himself for staging a military coup and the possibility there were plenty of signs that the US was actually for a time considering switching horses, which is why he forbade elections in Ukraine, citing the martial law emergency powers, and so that he didn't have to face zny in an election, which the polls say he would've lost because zany has more support in the country than he does now. He didn't only get rid of ny, he got rid of whole streams of top down to low level commanders who were seen as loyal to ny. There was a huge reshuffling or replacement of Ukrainian of the Kev regime's military leaders. As a result of this, there's a lot of embittered military people because of this. We don't need to look in secret telegram chat rooms to hear this discussion because Dr Leon (46:56): Regime, which is where this story was originally attributable, yeah, the Mark Sleboda (47:00): Story is sourced from here, but there have already been open public statements by Kiev regime, military commanders on the battlefield saying to the Ukrainian journalists, this is wrong. There was a list signed by hundreds of Ukrainian military commanders serving on the battlefield, a petition asking Zelensky to get rid of Ky, whom he chose to replace Zelensky, whom is known as the Dr Leon (47:38): Butcher, the butcher Mark Sleboda (47:40): By his own forces, not because of the opponents that he kills, but because of his careless attitude towards the lives of his own people. So they made an Dr Leon (47:54): That's not a good moniker. As a commander, you don't want your own forces seeing you in the light of butchering them. Mark Sleboda (48:04): Yeah, I mean, my military experience tells me that that would not be the type of military commander that I wanted. Certainly, and I seriously doubt that they do as well. Plus Sirki is actually ethnic Russian. He was born in Russia in the Soviet Union. His family still lives in Russia, and they're actually quite Russian patriotic, so it's a rather bizarre situation, and in many ways there's a lot of Dr Leon (48:30): Parallels. It makes for a tough Christmas dinner. Mark Sleboda (48:32): I don't think it makes for a Christmas dinner at all. I'm pretty sure, and there are definitely parallels with the US Civil War to be drawn there and with so many other families across Russia and Ukraine. But yeah, they've made demands of Zelensky public demands that they replace, that they bring back zany and get rid of ky, and of course that was ignored and large numbers of those commanders were replaced. But if they're discussing it openly and he's already taking this vengeful action against them, there's no great surprise that they are talking about it in what they believe to be secret chat rooms about taking it into their own hands. It's rather interesting, of course, that the Russian intelligence chose to make this public because if they have penetrated this chat room, you can be totally sure that the key regime's military intelligence, let's say Ka bov loyal to Zelinsky, has penetrated this as well, and by going public with it, Russia might be forcing Zelinsky hand to take action against these coup plotting, even if it's in the very nascent, we hate this guy, why can't we get rid of him? Stage of, shall we say, trash talk. It might be forcing Zelinsky hand to take action now, probably because Russia sees Zelensky and KY in charge of the key regime, political and military as far better for them than ny, whom was not a brilliant military commander, but perhaps not an entirely incompetent one either. Dr Leon (50:36): Switching gears, the cradle is reporting US proxies fear, Afghan style withdrawal from Syria. The Syrian democratic force is the SDF. They're fearing that their US patrons will abandon them in favor of closer ties with Turk, what's happening here with the US military, their Kurdish proxies occupying northeast Syria and fearing a Afghan like pullout. Is that a serious cause for concern? Mark Sleboda (51:13): I mean, that has been a serious cause for concern since 2016, right? The Kurds have been thrown different Kurds, but Kurds have been thrown under the bus by the US government after having been turned into proxies again and again by the United States in Iraq multiple times in Syria, previously against Turkey. Turkey Dr Leon (51:38): Going all the way back to HW Bush, Mark Sleboda (51:40): Yes, Dr Leon (51:42): Throwing the Kurds under the bus. Yes, Mark Sleboda (51:44): It's primary routine, which really amazes me that Kurds keep willing to be US proxies when they see the long history, not just of the US abandoning proxies like say in Afghanistan, but the US specifically abandoning Kurdish proxies before and abandoning these same Kurdish proxies. When Turkey advanced into northern Syria, they still, of course controlled northern Syria while the US illegally military occupies East Syria. They with just withdrew their forces and said, we're not going to defend you. Sorry. You should probably pull back or the Turks will wipe you up. I mean, that has already happened. The Turks regard the SDF as the YPG, the Syrian branch of the PKK, which is opposed to the Turkish government and fighting for the cause of a Kurdish ethnic nation state that would have to be carved out of parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and perhaps Iran. They are the biggest ethnic people in the world that do not have a nation state. (52:55) And it was inevitable that at some point, if the US failed to overthrow the government in Damascus with their jihadi regime change, that they would at some point leave East Syria and they haven't done so yet. And despite the rumors to the contrary, I don't expect them to do so in the near future, but it is inevitable at some point is you can't maintain an open-ended occupation of a very large amount of territory forever, despite sitting on the Syrias valuable oil and wheat fields preventing the economic stabilization of the country seemingly out of spite geopolitical spite. If nothing else, you can't maintain this forever, especially with the increase in the number of attacks on US bases in Syria and Iraq from local resistance groups like Katai, Hezbollah who don't want the US occupying their countries, right, meaning Syria and Iraq. There's certainly a cost that has to be paid there, but the cost is still not extremely high, and Biden already being seen as responsible for the disastrous Vietnam style withdrawal from Afghanistan leading the Taliban to completely retake the country in rather embarrassing fashion. (54:40) He does not want to be seen the same role in Syria, I think certainly not in the next year. Perhaps if he wins reelection against all odds, then there might be a possibility in his next administration. But a word of warning, if we do see Biden moving troops out of Syria and Iraq, the reason would probably be that they intend to strike Iran and they're moving their forces out of the range of Iranian ballistic missiles that would target them if that happened. There's a history of us withdrawals preceding attacks elsewhere when the US pulled out of Afghanistan. We found out later from the US Secretary of State that withdrawing from Afghanistan allowed the US to provide the resources to the Kiev regime in Ukraine that they would not have been able to do otherwise. So it seems that they already had intentions towards that regard, so watch it. If Biden does pull out of Syria, it may not actually be good for the Syrians or for anyone else in the region. It might actually be a signal that the US intends to escalate towards Iran. Dr Leon (56:08): Is there a possibility in terms of signaling here that we look at, of course, Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah is now talking about escalating in terms of coming through Lebanon. If this thing were to grow even more full, great even more bringing Iran in, you've got Ansar Allah in the game, does Syria get in the game as well? And so could the United States move out of Syria, be in preparation for a larger conflagration of that nature? Mark Sleboda (56:52): Yeah, I don't see that. First of all, I think the US and Iran are still doing everything possible to avoid direct conflict with each other, hence the stand down by Katai Hezbollah saying they wouldn't attack US military bases any further. And it is actually Israel who is talking about escalating against Hezbollah in Lebanon. I think the US and Iran are both doing everything they can to maintain their state's dignity and still dance around each other, avoiding direct conflict in the Middle East. That said, Israel is doing everything possible to incite conflict between the US and Iran, which makes that a non guarantee. But the Syrian government is in a very weak position economically. The US is still illegally occupying the entirety of the east of the country, including the country's oil and wheat resources. The country is, the government is unstable, it's economic, very hard times, and Turkey is still occupying the entirety of the north of the country, and they still have a hundred thousand jihadi under arms occupying those territories in northern Syria. And of course the US military occupation forces alongside the Kurdish YPG in East Syria. The Syrian government is in no geopolitical or military shape to contribute to a fight. I do not see this blowing up because no one wants to go to war with the US over Gaza. No one except for our sala. Dr Leon (58:45): Final question for you. The United States relative to Syria developing stronger ties with Toa, how can the US make Reproachment in this manner when Erdowan is so erratic and undependable? Mark Sleboda (59:05): Yeah, I don't think they can. Does Dr Leon (59:06): That make sense? Mark Sleboda (59:08): Yeah. I think Erdowan has become a perennial thorn in their side that they constantly need to keep appeased to prevent him from, shall we say, flipping into the bricks Eurasian camp, and Erdogan routinely plays the US and Russia off of each other to what he sees as his country's advantage. The US support of the Kurds in East Syria, of course, has infuriated him, as has the US withdrawal of the F 35 program from Turkey when Erdogan bought the S 400 Air defense system Dr Leon (59:50): From Russia, Mark Sleboda (59:51): Yes, from Russia, he also regards the US as at least being, if not complicit, then at least having knowledge of the coup attempt against him several years ago. Very bad relations there. The US cannot rely on Turkey and Turkey. Well, it sees itself as being betrayed by the United States. I don't see any ability to improve relations between the two until there is regime change perhaps in the United States, but more than likely it will require Erdogan passing on one way or another for a substantial change in Turkish US relations. Dr Leon (01:00:37): I know I said that was my last question, but this is my last question. Since you mentioned the coup in Turk a few years ago, Golan is still, I believe, somewhere in Pennsylvania at a property in Pennsylvania. Are you surprised that he has not been turned over to Turk as a way of appeasing erdowan, and do you think that Golan can be fairly confident that he's not going to be turned over as a fig leaf for better relations? Mark Sleboda (01:01:16): Yeah, I think the US constantly sees him as a bit of leverage. The US likes to keep shadow governments in place for just about every country in the world. Somewhere in the United States, leaders forces Dr Leon (01:01:30): The Shah's Sun is still roaming around Northern Mark Sleboda (01:01:32): Virginia. The Shah's son, Joe Biden just declared Yulia Navalny and then Yolanda, whoever she is, to be the new leader of the Russian opposition. You've got Juan Gau still out there. This is actually absolutely normal. There are entire communities outside Langley that are just exist of us backed shadow governments ready, waiting to be installed in foreign countries. But I have to say that I don't actually think the Golan movement had anything to do with the coup against Erdogan that occurred several years ago. This was almost entirely, once again, a military attempt to restore a kaist state in Turkey against Erdogan's Islamism. It was just sprung early by the Turkish government under what it believed to be controlled conditions, and then rather than admitting a secular Islamist divide in the country, they simply blamed it on a convenience scapegoat, which was the ING gong. I don't think that he actually had anything to do with that QI think that's just a rather vocal if unconvincing bit of Turkish propaganda that everyone has just played along with. So as not to anger Erdogan. In fact, the Russian president when asked about it a couple of years ago, when asked about their responsibility for the coup, his comments were pretty much to the point of if Erdogan says that's what happened, who am I to say otherwise? Dr Leon (01:03:26): Mark Sloboda, man, thank you so much. I always appreciate you carving out the time for me and for the show that you do. Mark Shada, really appreciate you joining me today. Mark Sleboda (01:03:38): Thanks for having me. Dr Leon (01:03:40): And folks, thank you all so much for listening to the Connecting the Dots podcast with me, Dr. Wiler Leon. Stay tuned for new episodes every week. Also, please, please follow and subscribe, leave a review, share the show. We're growing tremendously, but we can only grow as you allow us to follow us on social media. You can find all the links below in the show description. And remember, folks, that this is where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge because talk without analysis is just chatter, and we do not chatter on connecting the dots. See you again next time. Until then, I'm Dr. Wier Leon. Have a great one. Peace. We're out Announcer (01:04:31):  

Is the ALPHV gang pulling up a twenty two million dollar rug? Meta platforms are experiencing outages.  Ukraine claims a cyberattack on the Russian Ministry of Defense. Malicious phishers hope to hook hashes. TeamCity users are warned of critical vulnerabilities. The Discord leaker pleads guilty. AmEx suffers a third-party data breach. Amazon is flooded with fake copycat publications. Our guest is Deputy Assistant Director Cynthia Kaiser from the FBI Cyber Division to discuss Volt Typhoon. And, Dude, she is just not that into you. Remember to leave us a 5-star rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Miss an episode? Sign-up for our daily intelligence roundup, Daily Briefing, and you'll never miss a beat. And be sure to follow CyberWire Daily on LinkedIn. CyberWire Guest Guest Deputy Assistant Director Cynthia Kaiser from the FBI Cyber Division joins us to discuss Volt Typhoon. Selected Reading Hackers Behind the Change Healthcare Ransomware Attack Just Received a $22 Million Payment  (WIRED) Ukraine claims it hacked Russian Ministry of Defense servers (Bleeping Computer) Hundreds of orgs targeted with emails aimed at stealing NTLM authentication hashes (Help Net Security) TeamCity Users Urged to Patch Critical Vulnerabilities (Infosecurity Magazine) Pentagon leak defendant Jack Teixeira pleads guilty, faces years in prison (Reuters) American Express credit cards exposed in third-party data breach (Bleeping Computer) Tech writer Kara Swisher has a new book. Enter the AI-generated scams. (Bleeping Computer) Retired Army officer charged with sharing classified information about Ukraine on foreign dating site (CBS News)  Share your feedback. We want to ensure that you are getting the most out of the podcast. Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us by completing our brief listener survey as we continually work to improve the show.  Want to hear your company in the show? You too can reach the most influential leaders and operators in the industry. Here's our media kit. Contact us at cyberwire@n2k.com to request more info. The CyberWire is a production of N2K Networks, your source for strategic workforce intelligence. © 2023 N2K Networks, Inc.

rWotD Episode 2439: Russian Mission School in New York Welcome to random Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of a random Wikipedia page every day.The random article for Sunday, 7 January 2024 is Russian Mission School in New York.The Russian Mission School in New York (Russian: Общеобразовательная школа приПостоянном представительстве России при ООН в Нью-Йорке) is a Russian overseas school located on the grounds of the Russian Mission Residency in the Riverdale community of Bronx borough of New York City, New York. It is affiliated with the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations, and is operated by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.As of 1986 students from this school had meetings with local high school students.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:10 UTC on Sunday, 7 January 2024.For the full current version of the article, see Russian Mission School in New York on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm Kevin Neural.

In today's podcast we cover four crucial cyber and technology topics, including: 1.        Fidelity National attack delays home closings 2.        Qilin Ransomware impact shutdowns North American Auto Maker 3.        Police arrest Ukraine based ransomware gang; raid 30 locations 4.        Ukrainian Ministry says they hacked Russian Ministry of Transport    I'd love feedback, feel free to send your comments and feedback to  | cyberandtechwithmike@gmail.com

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ THE RUSSIAN WOMAN by Alex Lukeman.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ THE RUSSIAN WOMAN by Alex Lukeman.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ THE RUSSIAN WOMAN by Alex Lukeman.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ THE RUSSIAN WOMAN by Alex Lukeman.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ THE RUSSIAN WOMAN by Alex Lukeman.

Gorky, Russia; First man in: Memoirs from being the first American allowed inside Russia's closed exile city by Donn G. Ziebell, Ph.D.​Russians needed internal visas to travel outside their place of residence. It was rare for foreigners to get such travel permission. After 30 years of corporate employment the author made an improbable career change. His new boss and two VP's were black-listed by the KGB and could not enter Russia. The author was asked to write a business seminar proposal for Russia to see if he could open a door and get in. One of the three Russians who received the proposal got approval nine months later by Moscow's Ministry of Education and the KGB . Surprisingly the seminars were designated to be held in Gorky, an exile city for political prisoners and closed to foreigners.The Russian Embassy in Washington D.C. and the officials in Moscow would not issue a travel visa to Gorky. So the author took the chance to be driven 250 miles to Gorky without a visa. The Russians in the city had never seen an American before. The seminar was attended by 60 top industrial personnel, including some suspected to be KGB. The author describes seminar incidents which reveal the thinking and unexpected responses by the Russians. He was taken to meet with many different people and visited many sites during his stay. The memoir is filled with events, pictures and entertaining cross-cultural experiences. From his time inside Russia, readers follow the many twists, turns and surprises the author encountered which entertain and hold reader's attention. Gorky was not opened to foreigners until the year after all these events took place.About the Author: Donn Ziebell's pursuit in doctoral studies with The Union Institute University, Cincinnati, Ohio, intersected simultaneously with his receiving of the approvals from Moscow's Russian Ministry of Education and the KGB to present business seminars in Russia. Delivering his first in a series of lectures in August 1990, the seminar program proceeded with his sending a number of US instructors with specific disciplines into Russia to lecture on their business areas of expertise. Their trip reports provided original research for writing a cross-cultural experiential doctoral dissertation to receive his Ph.D. degree. Previously, his B.S in Metallurgical Engineering from the U. of Missouri, Rolla, and a MBA degree With Distinction from the U. of New Haven, West Haven, Connecticut, expedited his earlier career in manufacturing and consulting roles within Fortune 500 Corporations for thirty years, including five years in his own manufacturing consulting firm, Ziebell Associates, Inc. https://www.amazon.com/Gorky-Russia-First-man-American/dp/0989474534/ref=sr_1_1?crid=YUXMOGPHW0MD&keywords=Gorky%2C+Russia%3B+First+Man+in%3A+Memoirs+from+Being+the+First+American+Allowed+Inside+Russia%E2%80%99s+Closed+Exile+City&qid=1692650972&sprefix=%2Chttp://www.bluefunkbroadcasting.com/root/twia/82423dzec.mp3   

We meet Nadya Tolokonnikova of PUSSY RIOT, the legendary Russian feminist protest art collective. We discuss Nadya's journey in art thus far and her monumental current exhibition in Sante Fe at CONTAINER space."While working with artifacts, bottling ashes, and manufacturing the faux furry frames for the bottles, I used skills that I learned in the sweatshops of my penal colony. I was forced to sew police and army uniforms in a Russian jail. I turned what I learned in my labor camp against those who locked me up. Putin is a danger to the whole world, and he has to be stopped immediately." Nadya Tolokonnikova.CONTAINER Turner Carroll is bringing Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs "wanted list" Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova to Santa Fe. The exhibition Putin's Ashes will transform CONTAINER into a kind of war zone. Pussy Riot's Putin's Ashes was initiated in August 2022, when Pussy Riot burned a 10 x 10 foot portrait of the Russian president, performed rituals, and cast spells aimed to chase Putin away. Twelve women participated in the performance. In order to join, women were required to experience acute hatred and resentment toward the Russian president. Most of the participants were either Ukrainian, Belarusian, or Russian. Nadya Tolokonnikova bottled the ashes of the burnt portrait and incorporated them into her objects that are being presented alongside her short art film Putin's Ashes, directed, edited, and scored by Tolokonnikova and co-produced John Caldwell.Follow Nadya and Pussy Riot on Instagram: @NadyaRiot and @PussyRiotView the exhibition (click here)Follow @Container_TurnerCarrollRead Nadya's book: Read and Riot: A Pussy Riot Guide To ActivismVisit the official websites: https://pussyriot.love/ https://unicorndao.com/https://zona.media/ - Pussy Riot-founded, independent news outlet. Focused on (mainly) Russian investigative reporting, courtroom live-blogging, digital censorship coverageWe stand in solidarity with Pussy Riot!!! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the 23rd of June, following months of increasing tension between the Wagner Group and the Russian Ministry of Defence, Yevgeny Prigozhin launched his rebellion. Prigozhin's forces quickly took control of the head quarter's of Russia's Southern Military District in the city of Rostov-on-Don, after which an armoured column of Wagner troops advanced towards Moscow. In today's episode of Interregnum I asked Richard Seymour about Prighozin's background in crime and his early business ventures, the founding of the Wagner Group, the scope of its operations and its reputation for appalling violence. And we also talked about why Richard thinks Prighozin can accurately be described as a fascist. Finally, Richard addressed the claim, made by some analysts that the abortive rebellion actually leaves Putin in a stronger position.

This week on Countdown 2 Eternity pastors James Kaddis and Dale Quimby will discuss the recent attacks on the Russian Ministry of Defense by the Wagner Group. What happened? Who are the people in the story? Does this have any biblical implications, and if it does, what are they? We'll set out to answer these questions and more on this exciting and informative episode. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1479/29

On Friday morning, Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group, released a 30-minute video challenging Russian President Vladimir Putin's motives for invading Ukraine and accusing the Russian Ministry of Defense of ordering airstrikes on Wagner fighters. Less than 24 hours later, Wagner forces had taken Rostov-on-Don and were pushing north toward Moscow in an armed rebellion. What seemed like the beginning of the end for the Kremlin was short-lived; by Saturday evening, Prigozhin announced that his forces were turning around. Early Sunday morning, Giselle, Dalibor, and Iulia gathered to discuss the 36-hour mutiny, including its impact on the balance of power in Russia and the opportunities it may provide for Ukraine's counteroffensive.Show notes: Sign up for The Eastern Front's biweekly newsletter here. Follow us on Twitter here.

Tonight, we bring you a special report on the Wagner Group, a private military company that has been making headlines for its footprints and influence around the world. In an astonishing turn of events, the group's leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, declared an all-out war on the Russian state, throwing Vladimir Putin's government and Ukraine war effort into crisis mode. But the Wagner Group's activities extend far beyond Ukraine and Russia. According to the Soufan Center, the Wagner Group has been militarily or politically active in numerous countries, with a particular focus on Africa. They function like a Swiss army knife, providing not only military training and combat operations but also advising government leadership on political issues and conducting information campaigns. However, their actions pose a catch-22 situation, where they stabilize fragile states but also invite further instability, creating more demand for their services. Wagner's involvement goes beyond security services. They are reportedly involved in illicit activities such as supporting sanctions evasion and trafficking and destruction of cultural property. In Africa, Wagner has become an extension of Moscow's foreign policy and influence, displacing Western presence and discrediting counterterrorism partners and peacekeeping missions. Their brutality and support for predatory governments could exacerbate conditions exploited by violent extremist groups. The future of the Wagner Group remains uncertain after the mutiny and negotiations mediated by Belarus. Their legacy, however, has already entrenched the use of private military companies by Russia, proving successful in various ways. With their ability to raise funds, deploy effectively, and evade sanctions, Russia is likely to continue expanding the use of such companies. But how did this mutiny unfold, and what does it mean for Russia and the international community? Let's dive into the details. On June 23, 2023, Yevgeny Prigozhin led a convoy of mercenaries on a march toward Moscow, declaring a war against the Russian state. The mutiny, which caught the Russian military off guard, escalated rapidly and ended abruptly, leaving confusion in its wake. After storming through towns in southern Russia, Wagner troops returned to their field camps following negotiations mediated by Belarus. The mutiny had been building over months due to grievances related to the war in Ukraine. Prigozhin blamed the Russian military for corruption and greed, alleging that the war was a racket to enrich the Russian elite. The mutiny was further fueled by an order that would compel Wagner fighters to sign a formal contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense. Putin labeled the mutiny treasonous and vowed punishment for those involved. While Wagner has gained prominence with its involvement in conflicts worldwide, including Ukraine, Syria, and Africa, its effectiveness should not be overstated. It has suffered defeats and faced international scrutiny for alleged human rights abuses. However, its presence as a quasi-state force operating in complex conflict zones poses challenges for international peace and security efforts. The lack of clarity in how to treat Wagner and its connection to the Russian state further escalates tensions between Russia and the West. In this special report, we explore the Wagner Group's history, its organizational structure, its operations globally, and its implications for peace and security efforts. We also discuss policy recommendations for containing and countering Wagner's activities. That concludes our introductory segment on the Wagner Group. Stay tuned for the next part of this special report, where we delve deeper into the group's origins and its relationship with the Russian state. Visit us at https://renaldocmckenzie.com for the transcripts. Renaldo is Author of Neoliberalism, Adjunct Professor at Jamaica Theological Seminary and a Doctoral Student at Georgetown University. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theneoliberal/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theneoliberal/support

The Russia-Ukraine War Report provides comprehensive, fact-based news coverage about the war in Ukraine. Our team of journalists, researchers, and analysts are from Georgia, Israel, Canada, Finland, Poland, Ukraine, the U.S., and the U.K. We go beyond content aggregation and provide analysis and assessments on how today's stories shape the war's future. Today's episode is hosted by our Chief Content Officer, David Obelcz. Today's podcast covers, The Russian Ministry of Defense has declared the Ukrainian summer offensive over and a failure, while the General Staff of Ukraine says things are going to plan. Who's right? Russian forces have started using Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Devices in multiple operational areas. What are they, and why are they using them? The Russian-Ukraine War Map is a great resource to use while listening to the podcast to see the geography covered in today's podcast. If you start at Belgorod and you can follow the theater of war as we cover events across Ukraine. As independent journalists, most of our costs are covered by subscribers. Not one? For $5 a month, you can support Malcontent News and get access to our Daily Situation Reports and Flash Reports, which provide updates during the day. The Situation Report includes information not included in the podcast, including weather forecasts, soil moisture and tractability, and an analysis of Russian and Ukrainian heavy equipment losses using information from the Oryx Database. Become a Patreon today! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mainstream Media is now the biggest source of misinformation. We have witnessed three years of controlled cooperation by the worlds media to convince and coerce us into accepting a Covid narrative that all seems to of been a lie.  Patrick Henningsen joins Hearts of Oak to share his nearly two decades of experience as a journalist to lift the lid on this media machine of manipulation.  Why has this level of deceit been accepted and tolerated and for what purpose?  How is the BBC now the governments gatekeeper of truth for the UK?  And why are the media determined to escalate the Ukraine conflict into what is dangerously approaching a full on European War?  Join us this episode as Patrick unpacks all of these questions and shows us why the alternative media is needed now more than ever before. Patrick Henningsen has helped to inform and educate audiences internationally on some of the most important geopolitical and cultural issues facing the world today. As an effective independent voice and outspoken media critic, he has consistently challenged the mainstream line on western military adventurism and deep state geopolitics, as well as being an vocal advocate for freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Patrick has done extensive on-the-ground reporting and research in the US, Europe and the Middle East including work in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Iran. As an independent analyst he's known for his candid commentary and timely predictions on breaking trends and events in global affairs, and as a public speaker he's been recognized for his dynamic but down-to-earth presentation style and media workshops. He is also the founder and managing editor of the successful independent news and media analysis website 21st Century Wire.com and host of popular weekly SUNDAY WIRE radio show which broadcasts live weekly on the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR), and host of the Patrick Henningsen Show on TNT Radio International, as well as co-host of the UK Column News. Back in November 2016, he also a weekly show 'Patrick Henningsen LIVE' on terrestrial AM radio with Independent Talk 1100 KFNX broadcasting to one of America's top talk radio markets in Greater Phoenix. He has also appeared in a number of international publications including Consortium News, Ron Paul Institute, The Guardian, Global Research, New Dawn Magazine (Australia), and on a number of major global news networks including RT News International, Al Jazeera, ITN (UK), CGTN (China), Indus News (PK), Edge Media (SKY 200 UK) and US syndicated radio show Coast to Coast AM. Connect with Patrick.... WEBSITES:    https://www.patrickhenningsen.com/                        https://21stcenturywire.com/                        https://www.ukcolumn.org/                        https://tntradio.live/ TWITTER:      https://twitter.com/21WIRE?s=20                        https://twitter.com/21stCenturyWire FACEBOOK:   https://www.facebook.com/pages/21st-Century-Wire/182032255155419 YOUTUBE:     https://www.youtube.com/21stCenturyWireTV Interview recorded 25.5.23 *Special thanks to Bosch Fawstin for recording our intro/outro on this podcast. Check out his art https://theboschfawstinstore.blogspot.com/ and follow him on GETTR https://gettr.com/user/BoschFawstin and Twitter https://twitter.com/TheBoschFawstin?s=20  To sign up for our weekly email, find our social media, podcasts, video, livestreaming platforms and more...  https://heartsofoak.org/connect/ Please subscribe, like and share! Transcript (Hearts of Oak) Hello, Hearts of Oak, and welcome to another interview. Come up in a moment with Patrick Henningsen, 21st Century Wire, TNT Radio, UK column. For nearly 20 years, Patrick has brought his journalistic insider analysis into a range of issues. And he joins us to talk about his starting 21st Century Wire back in 2009, and how we are seeing a change in censorship and media. And has that been over the last three years? Have we seen off the edge a cliff edge or has it been over a period of time? So we discussed that. Then we go on to the BBC. The BBC, the arbitrators of truth, they tell us what to think and they've just launched the Verify team. 60 journalists who will tell us what is right and what is not. The BBC obviously being an arm of the state, bringing us state news. Should we be concerned about this and what that means? And then we move on to what's happening in Ukraine and Russia, the war there and the media desiring more and more conflict, more and more aggression, completely different from 2003, the big demonstrations against the war in Iraq where the media were opposed to war. Now they seem to be marching step by step into more war and aggression. Then we end up talking about politics. Robert Kennedy Jr. standing for the presidential candidacy of the Democratic Party in America, very vocal against the war. What does that mean for the whole debate and will that change the narrative? Lots to discuss. I know you love listening and watching and hearing from Patrick from UK Column and more recently on TNT Radio and I know you'll love our conversation. And hello Hearts of Oak. Today is wonderful to have a writer, a credited journalist, Global Affairs Analyst and Co-Founder and Executive Editor of 21st Century Wire, and that is Patrick Henningsen. Patrick, thank you for your time today. (Patrick Henningsen) Great to be with you, Peter. My pleasure. Good to have you. And of course, you can catch Patrick. It's at 21wire, there is his Twitter handle, 21stCenturyWire.com is the website. You can catch him on the Sunday Wire every Sunday, five to eight UK time, which is probably around midday eastern time, and TNT radio every weekday from five o'clock to seven o'clock. And if you want to see him you can see him on UK column where he is regularly. So I think those are the main places to find you, are they Patrick? That's right. I've also started a new Twitter space forum series every Wednesday. We usually do big picture geopolitical debates with special invitees for panel speakers. It would be great to have you on that space at some point as well, Peter. Yeah, definitely. I haven't got into Twitter spaces yet, but that's a whole new area. A lot to discuss and possibly, I know Patrick, you launched 21st Century Wire back 2009. Maybe just want to start with that. What led you to starting that organization? Well, it was really out of necessity, Peter. So like I sort of took the vow of poverty in 2005 and decided I was going to make myself into a useful member of society by becoming a journalist and learning how to write. So I was hustling and doing three or four jobs and then blogging. But I was always blogging on other platforms and that's blogging was sort of coming into its own around 2004, 2005, 2006. So I was kind of jumping on that wave on some other big websites and then submitting articles. I was very lucky to be, you know, invited to a couple of conferences. One on It's the Climate Sceptics Conference in 2007 in New York. Where I met a lot of the top sceptics. I was very interested in that climate change issue and finding out what the real truth was at that time. Plus the anti-war activism, which I was very involved in in 2003, four, five, and six. That was also informing my writing. And I just got tired of having to submit pieces to different editors, and I thought, at some point, I gotta start my own blog. So I just launched a WordPress site, and I had some help with that, obviously, at the time. Because I'm a good tech person, but there's some things I just have a blind spot with. One of them is HTML coding, which now I understand all these years later, and now you don't need it anymore. So there you go. So then when the Copenhagen Climate Summit was coming, I knew this was going to be a major event in Copenhagen, COP 21. And so I booked my ticket. I hired a cameraman to come with me, and then was able to sell some of my reporting to some big alternative media outlets at the time, like InfoWars was one of them, and then be able to actually be there on the ground doing journalism at a big event. And it turned out to be amazing because the whole thing collapsed at the end, because it was exposed to be a complete fraud, and the developing world countries realized they were getting taken to the cleaners by the G7 lords of the galaxy. And then that's when I launched 21st Century Wire. It was for that event. I wanted to make sure I had an outlet to publish in real time because I wouldn't be able to depend on another outlet. So it all kind of converged in late 2009. And I still wrote for other sites and published in other really good websites. I even got published in the Guardian back when they were still allowing some journalism. Amazing actually because they had turned around and did a hit piece on me a couple years ago for our exposing the truth about what was happening in Syria. But they were upset obviously by that as are most of the mainstream media anytime anybody in the alternative media exposes anything or exposes the truth and it undermines the official state narrative. There's this reflexive reaction that they have to go and attack you. And this is what the Huffington Post, UK does routinely. The Times are pretty guilty of this. Local papers do it as well. Owned by Reach, you know, all these sort of conglomerates that own the entire of the local press in the UK. And also NPR, BBC, I don't know, pretty much everybody's had a crack at us and the colleagues that I work with. But the main thing, Peter, is that I just decided that I wanted to own my own website and have my own media and not depend on somebody else. And we've developed it into a good independent media platform, I think, and we've done some great journalism. Our journalists have been recognized with awards and nominations for major awards for the work they've done on our site. We've had stuff republished. We've been linked in mainstream media. Some of our journalists also featured in mainstream media, serious programs as well, a few of them overseas in Europe, in the US. So I think overall, we've done a good job with very little in terms of resources, just a lot of sweat and a lot of hard work and a lot of late nights and reinvesting back into 21st century wire. It's tough with the ad-pocalypse, with being delisted for organic searches on Google, which happened in 2017 after Trump was elected. Us and a few hundred other major alternative websites got basically bumped from Google in terms of organic searches. We were dominating before that. That drove our ad revenue, which was the main business model. That was really tough. It took many years to get back to breaking even after that. And then also kicked off of YouTube periodically, not allowed to monetize anything there. Kicked off of Twitter, let back recently because of the Elon, the merciful, the new monarch in charge in San Francisco. And thank you to Elon Musk, of course, eternal thanks for letting me and others back this past December, but much to the chagrin of the mainstream hatchet people. But that's that. Yeah. And I've been on the ground covering wars in Syria. I've been covering the defeat of ISIS in Iraq in 2017 and also throughout the Middle East as well, doing journalism there for a number of years and working for a number of outlets, just providing live commentary. I did quite a lot of live segments for RT International from the Libyan conflict. I did that remotely. I wasn't on the ground in Libya, but I did commentary and analysis to 200 or 300 live segments for RT, and I wasn't paid for those television segments. So, and I did that because I didn't want to be accused of being a Russian agent, but they accused me anyway, so I should have just done whatever the other journalists did and like, you know, get paid for that. I would have been able to buy a Range Rover if I did, but I didn't, I was too, too, too much of a, um. Trying to retain my independence, even though it wasn't necessary, just because of the anti-Russian rhetoric and all the sort of drive-by attacks in the media that were going on, and politically as well. And it's a serious thing in America, that since Trump got elected, that the whole Russian narrative, Russia-gate, Russian collusion, Russian disinformation, Russian stooge, Russian propaganda, it's just endless in America. It's like the ultimate scapegoat that keeps giving in America. They can blame everything on Russia or some foreign actor rather than the corruption that's actually happening inside the US and Washington. And I dare say probably the same thing is happening in the UK as well and in EU. Now we'll certainly get on to the war side, the Russia side, but actually as someone who's new to media, we find ourselves doing this just as lockdown hit. And I've seen a big change in the last three years, an increase in censorship, accepted new-speak, collaboration between media, big tech and governments, but, For you, as someone who's been a journalist for a decade prior to the chaos of the last three years, has that change been a cliff edge or has it been more gradual and hidden? Oh, it's been an absolute cliff edge, but the conditions that led to that cliff edge and this total collapse in any sort of morals, ethics, anything that was remaining in the mainstream media, or any independence that the media had away from government, that completely was eviscerated with COVID and lockdown. But it's important to understand, this is a good question you've raised, Peter, because the framework for that, for the absolute Orwellian onslaught of COVID, lockdown, and attacking anti-vaxxers and all this stuff. The framework for that was built on the back of the Russian disinformation hoax. Okay, and all of the collusion with big tech and government on both sides of the Atlantic and in Brussels was really built on the back of that idea that Russia interfered in the 2016 elections. Ergo, you know, our social media platforms were then deemed to be a critical infrastructure, critical election infrastructure by the US agencies like the Department of Homeland Security and all these sub departments that they erected on the back of the Mueller report and all these sort of failed investigations the funding was just still flowing and then you had this backdoor into Twitter Google YouTube LinkedIn Facebook where government agencies have direct control can even read your DMs and Twitter Okay, that was exposed in the Twitter files as well as many other incredible violations of the First Amendment. Same thing happening in Britain, probably, although we don't have all the details for it. It would be great if there was a major inquiry or something like that on this, so certainly the public would, I think, benefit from that. In a democracy, in Brussels too. So there's this direct, complete fusion of government, big tech to censor and to de-platform. And then also the mainstream media plays an important role in this as well because they act as the attack dog to offer additional intimidation to the big tech firms. In other words, there's a designated person at every mainstream media outlet that would call the heads of big tech and say, how can you allow this, this far right or rhetoric or these, these accounts, these anti-vaxxer accounts on your platform? Aren't you realizing the harm that's being done here? And are you going, what are you going to do about it? We're going to run a story on Monday. Can we get a comment? Are, you going to allow those, those accounts on your platform? And of course, what does big tech do every time they cave in and they'll go and, you know, delete these accounts, shadow ban them, delete the tweets, delete the posts. And so this was all, again, exposed in the Twitter files. And so the mainstream media is rolling this as a sort of side-line agitator to make sure this process of censorship is efficient. So they act as a kind of incendiary element in this collusion here. So this is completely Orwellian. And again, the framework of this was exposed during the whole, the Russia scare, the initial, the integrity initiative leaks in the UK are a good example of that. You could see the lists of journalists that were being briefed by government agencies in the UK and Europe, and then creating fake stories, and then planting stories, and all of this sort of thing. It's really about narrative control, and it's definitely a top-down system. There's invisible components to this that the public can't see. In the UK, you have D notices as well. These are off limits topics the mainstream media won't touch. Plus you have Ofcom as a sort of speech regulator. They say their media regulator their press regulator, but really they're becoming or they want to become a full speech regulator of the Internet, so I mean this is really historic in that sense people need to kind of really realize the gravity of this, did the digital world with all of its benefits to us the public to get more information to get the truth is also being used by the state and its corporate, adjuncts for systematic censorship, so it's a it's a two-sided coin and which way this this equation leans is gonna really be up to us and I always tell people, you know if you have free speech and you have a voice use it, use it because the minute you start, controlling your own thoughts and things like that. That's when you know, we become a self-policing, non free speech society at that point. Before we get on to BBC, and you mentioned some of those restrictions, and of course we've had the online safety bill coming in in the UK, we've got the EU proposing a very similar one, we've seen what's happened in Ireland with their new restrictions on saying anything which is outside the government narrative. To me, that's the most concerning development of the clampdown, and it's, I guess, progression from YouTube making its own rules now to the government agreeing to those rules. Yeah, so what they've done is they've introduced various new concepts. One of them is harms. Harmful. Offensive. So, no longer what is criminal in terms of, you know, a violation of the law. Elon Musk made this point really well. He said, you know, any speech on Twitter that is in violation of the law or in terms of a court order can be shown to be actually putting someone in danger. We're talking about death threats. Uh, we're talking about, uh, doxing, sensitive, uh, personal material for somebody who's at risk, et cetera. Child grooming and all these sort sort of legal activities going on, that obviously should be prohibited and policed and would be in the terms and conditions of any of these companies, reasonable terms and conditions. What the government wants to do is extend the terms and conditions in order to make the companies liable. And if the government believes that there's harmful speech online, they will fine that company and into oblivion with millions of into percentage of turnover not just like profit but percentage of turnover like ridiculous fines and the reason they're doing that is they want to, they want these social media companies to come back in line with this self-policing like Twitter used to be but maybe even without the government interference but getting them to build up these huge moderation boiler rooms and using AI to regulate speech so it's all based on this online harm. So much of this insidious legislation will use the issue of harm to children. And no one's downplaying the fact that's a serious issue. However, there's many, many laws in the books. Police have whole departments. They have a great investigative pedigree to look into such cases and then enforce the law in all countries. Most developed countries have those legal facilities. And so, you know, it's already there. The checks and balances are already there. What they want to do, obviously, with the vague arbitrary terms like harms and offensive and potentially dangerous, they want to extend this kind of definition to where it's completely flexible where you can just use a word and it can have multiple interpretations, a bit like the way anti-Semitism has been weaponized in the British political system, where they've used it to remove the Labour leader, the former Labour leader, plus former Labour MPs like Jeremy Corbyn, Chris Williamson, and removing Conservative MPs as well as they did with Andrew Bridgen. So then it becomes a meaningless term at that point and it's just bandied about to, you know, as a kind of political weapon and if it's not that word it'll be another word. It'll be, you know, the term far-right. In America they're using white supremacy very loosely. The press and the political machine, the Democrat political machine, the Biden White House using that term, it doesn't mean anything. It's like I was born and raised in America. I've never really met a white supremacist my whole life and I've moved all around the country. And so, yeah, they just want to demonize anything that's basically right of Karl Marx. That's basically where we're heading. And I think it's the, what, Candice Owens and the Hodge twins, they're probably white supremacy now as well, according to their definitions. Oh, you can be black and be a white supremacist now. I mean, Larry Elder, who ran for governor in California, he got called a white supremacist. He's obviously an African-American. So, Candace Owens has been called a white supremacist. So, you got all these African American pundits that are white supremacists. So, it just shows how ridiculous it is, but just because it's ridiculous doesn't mean they're going to give up. This machine is really relentless. You know, they'll retool and they reconfigure. The propaganda that we are marinated in right now, is just so thick and vast, like never before. And people will say things that do not adhere to the truth. The biggest source of quote, disinformation, 110%, and actually throughout history, is two sources, mainstream media and government. The lies, mistruths, propaganda, all these things that the BBC use. They don't use, the BBC doesn't like to use the word propaganda, if you notice. They like disinformation, they like misinformation. The new one's mistruths. This is a new word invented by the BBC. They don't use the word propaganda very much, obviously, because as soon as they start saying that, then the camera gets pointed on them at that point. So it's interesting how these new words are very convenient. They've been invented and introduced in order to, and for the moment, they're fashionable, but they'll eventually become redundant and people will laugh at them. Many already are laughing at these words like misinformation, mal-information. It's either true or it's false. It's either a lie. It's either propaganda or it's accurate. And if you don't like accurate facts and you're calling those Russian propaganda, I got called a Russian... I said, I was talking about the issue in Ukraine, maybe we'll talk about that later, but... And I would say, someone said to me on a panel discussion from another country, I forgot what country he's from, he said, oh, that's the Russian narrative. I'm like, no, it's not. I'm reading off of the UN charter and I'm reading international law and that's not the Russian narrative. But that's the environment we're in right now. It's hyper-politicized on so many different domestic and international levels. And the mainstream media are the worst, the worst, by far the worst offender. And when they get it wrong, wars start. When they get it wrong, accidental fighting breaks out between countries. So what they put out, when they get it wrong, it has actual real-world consequences on all of us. When they don't report on the Nord Stream pipeline being blown up and ask the question of who actually did it and meanwhile our gas and electric bills are skyrocketing. People in Europe are being forced into fuel poverty and the mainstream media have no questions at all. They black out the story. The biggest attack on a European infrastructure since World War II and they're silent, they're shtum on this. So they have, I mean. They have so much to answer for and they're not doing, they're not even remotely trying to fill the role of a fourth estate. In fact they piled on Julian Assange who is a award-winning journalist who's in supermax prison, languishing away award-winning journalist and not a word of protest from the BBC or you know, just recently you'll probably find a few pieces on the Guardian, only recently saying oh maybe this is unfair you know they let him waste away in Belmarsh prison for two or three years before they even raised that issue. Well I want to bring on the BBC because you just had a poll and the BBC is the perfect mix I guess of media and government and it was this poll survey do you consider the BBC to be unbiased objective and a credible media outlet. And there were 5.8% of people said yes, 94% said no, it had over 16,000 votes. It's interesting because we are moving away from that trust in our institutions, across many areas of society, where there's now a growing and growing concern and suspicion and anger, I guess. I think this survey shows us that. There's 16,000 votes on that, Peter, by the way. So some of the people that voted yes actually messaged me afterwards saying they accidentally hit the wrong button, It might be slightly lower. No. Look I didn't ask anyone to retweet that I asked if you, I did ask a few people to retweet it, but. In in general, I think it's an interesting barometer. The BBC obviously have launched their new Verify service. This is only in the last few days those abroad may not know. We've had fact checking for a long time, but it's a verified team consists of 60 journalists, seems to be pulling together their disinformation units, world service monitoring, their reality check team. And these are going to basically tell us the BBC can be trusted and anything which UK column may put out or others, will be there to critique that. I mean it's, they call it transparency in action. It's interesting the BBC need to have a service to fact-check. I mean it just is really confusing but this is, I guess, the government and the BBC putting their stamp of authority on the mainstream media the public can't trust. BBC Verify, I think this is this new program. Marianna Spring is their disinformation expert. She's very young. I'm not sure if she has a lot of experience in the field doing actual journalism. This is the other point, Peter, there's people who are fact checkers who are basically rating people's work online on these sort of internet guides, like completely fraudulent websites like NewsGuard is one of them. Headed by the former head of the CIA. I mean it's kind of ridiculous if you think about it, but they hire these young people and they've created a new tier of journalism because the mainstream media no longer does actual investigative journalism. They still have to sort of employ people and then somehow validate the top-line propaganda and the top-line propaganda which is directly from government, literally copied and pasted, they're then verified and protected by this new lair called the fact checker or the disinformation expert and these are not real journalists. These are people who if they had a substack blog nobody would read it. Okay, let's be honest. So they have no aspirations other than being on staff as a bureaucrat at the Ministry of Truth because isn't that what this is? This is like chapter and verse out of Orwell's 1984. And so they're saying, oh, we're tracking conspiracy theories online, and they have like these fancy heat maps, and we're tracking disinformation. And look at these accounts that retweet this. We have a cluster of potentially far-right-linked or foreign-linked accounts who are amplifying this disinformation. What they're doing is completely bogus. They raise money, and they tell each other this. This is how the funding gets approved. They have academic departments and universities that study the spread of disinformation, how to counter online hate and all this stuff. What they're doing is tracking online dissenting opinion. That's what they're doing. They're tracking any counter narratives that potentially threaten or undermine what the state and the corporate media narrative is. That's all they're doing. Then they're using that to demonize independent journalists, bloggers, to get them censored, de-platformed, demonetized, all of that, to basically create a sort of pariah, a group of pariahs in society. And they don't care the damage which they do. And I've been libelled by these people multiple times. I can't afford to hire an expensive city solicitor firm to defend myself. I'm not someone like Piers Morgan or these people can attack and smear and do whatever they want. They can also afford the best lawyers in the world, but the people that the mainstream media are attacking and smearing, they can't afford to take everybody to court. So it's not a level playing field. And when the state broadcaster mobilizes its resources to attack bloggers, Twitter users, members of the public, they feel that threatened. This is absolute 100% pure fascism. There's no other way to describe it. I mean, honestly, they have billions in their budget. They could easily be outperforming all of the alternative media in terms of content. They could take all of the audience if their content was actually engaging, interesting, non-biased, objective, and fact-based. But it's not. They're a propaganda arm of the government, of the establishment, of the security services. This is what they become, and they don't do real investigative journalism. The best investigative journalism on the BBC is probably Tony Robinson and Time Team, or these programs, and they're breaking news. Four hundred years ago, we just discovered Watt-Tyler's rebellion or whatever. They're good at those sort of investigations, breaking news 400 years later, but in terms of what's happening today and doing it in an unbiased way, no, they're there to protect the state and whatever the agenda is of NATO, uh, whatever the agenda is of the Anglo-American establishment in Syria, for instance, I mean, look at they, the BBC, I mean, they've never come clean on the fact that they reported building seven on nine 11. They said it was, it was building seven collapsed. They did it live on TV while it was still standing behind them on the screen. I mean, so just on that, that's a, that should be a brand killer at that point. Then the cover-up of Jimmy Savile, I mean that's never been fully explained or no one's ever really come clean on that. And then they did a propaganda piece right before the parliamentary vote in August of 2013. You remember? There was a vote to go to war with Syria. David Cameron was prime minister and Ed Miliband, by the grace of God, but somehow, the vote failed by the slightest of margins. And Cameron put his head down in defeat and walked off. And there were temper tantrums on the floor of Commons. I remember very well watching that. The BBC did a propaganda piece called Saving Syria's Children, which was released on that day and clearly was meant to influence the vote in the public. And it was the worst piece of staged propaganda. It's been thoroughly exposed by multiple independent journalists, media outlets, and it is one of the worst things ever. A fake chemical weapon scene at a stage scenes at this hospital, and it was all done in the edit. Some of it was staged live. We find out that their drivers were Al-Qaeda affiliates. Literally they're working alongside terrorists. They've never come clean on that. I mean, that's just one example, two, three, four examples. I mean, how much do people need? When they come clean on their egregious violations and fake news and weapons of mass destruction and all the lies they've told, saying Jeremy Corbyn was a Russian agent and an al-Qaeda sympathizer, they did all that. And by the way, I'm not a labour supporter. It's not a partisan defence of Corbyn. I'll defend anybody who's being unjustly attacked by this egregious state propaganda arm, you know, in the defamation machine, which they run regularly against any potential threats to the establishment order, okay? Whether it's labour, Lib Dem, conservative, whatever. So you know, they need to come clean on this stuff. And the Corbyn anti-Semitism, the Bridgen anti-Semitism, I mean, these are damaging to politics. This is causing people to lose trust in the democratic system because there's all of this sort of, you know, these malicious politicized attacks were being facilitated by the mainstream media. So, they have no credibility. And this war in Ukraine, they have been reporting absolute lies from the beginning. They've been telling us the exact opposite of what's actually happening and there needs to be some kind of an inquiry over the mainstream media's coverage of this and it's provided the backing for the politicians to carry on with this proxy war, which is really dangerous in the sense that, you know, we're poking against another UN Security Council, a nuclear armed country in a proxy war, Ukraine is getting devastated as a result. And it will never come back to its normal shape. They'll be, the longer that they push this, the less, the smaller Ukraine will be in a year's time and more people will be dead. Well, can I jump in because part of your journey started with questioning wars back in that March 2003 and it kind of seemed as though the media were united in concern about what was happening, there was not a rush to marching to war, it did seem to be holding the government to account, a lot of suspicion about the dossier that came out and a lot of questioning. Fast forward 20 years and it seems as though the media are desperate for this war to continue, they're desperate for it to escalate. I mean is that how you're seeing it as well? Oh, I honestly, I don't think, I think there's a level of delusionality that has set in. Right right through the establishment I think the problem with people in the mainstream media and government is and in Britain It's even worse because they banned Russian media outlets here. Literally the RT.com URL is banned so if you're, imagine this you're on a committee here on its National Security Committee, you're an MP, you can't even read the statements of Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister. How can you possibly know how to act diplomatically or geo-strategically if you don't even know what the Russian position is? And you're not reading the data from the Russian Ministry of Defence to compare it against your battlefield reports to actually gauge how the actual combat situation is actually going. So our Our people in the West are marinated in just their own mainstream media propaganda. They cannot make informed policy decisions based on potentially skewed propaganda where by, you know, nobody in the defence industry is going to tell the truth to any politician. There might be a few that know the truth, but the rank and file MPs know, mainstream media is not there to do that. They're there to sell the war to us. They're there to sell the war to the public. So the public are still behind this kind of, you know, let's liberate Ukraine from the evil dictator Vladimir Putin, who woke up one day and decided to rekindle the glory of the Soviet Union on February 26th, 2022. Obviously that's a ridiculous narrative because there's a whole chain of events which happened prior to that, which led to Russia's military intervention in Donbass. But even saying that, Peter, in Germany, as we mentioned before the show, I think someone was arrested recently for defending Russian aggression. Yes, I mean, but that is those three years for supporting or publicly supporting or defending Russian aggression. But actually it says, so the Hamburg court indictment revealed that the defendant had used social media to justify Russia's aggressive action against Ukraine, referring to Ukraine as a terrorist state. I didn't know that was wrong. And moreover, the defendant employed the the Russian symbol of military propaganda known as the Z, which is prohibited under German law. And that just blew me away, because Z is now banned in Germany. It's unbelievable. You know, so if you state the facts, if you state the facts, they'll say, well, Russia has violated the territory integrity of Ukraine. That's an egregious violation of the UN Charter, Article 51. Ukraine can invoke the right to self-defence, OK? So that's the basic narrative. So all of a sudden, the Europeans, Britain, and America are interested in international law when it comes to military interventions, which they've completely ignored for the last 50 years. So now they're interested in it. So if I'd say that no, actually no, according to UN Charter Article 1, the other side to this coin in this argument is the right to self-determination. The republics of Donetsk and Lugansk in eastern Ukraine were basically victims of their own government raising the military, a NATO-backed armed military, against their own people in the east. So they defended their borders, raised a militia. They weren't given representation either in Kiev, in the Rada. So the illustration was the policy of Kiev, backed by Washington, backed by EU, saying don't recognize these people, they get no voice. They cut off utilities, they cut off, They're not paying the civil servant salaries, whatever. At that point, Kiev relinquishes its governance over Eastern Ukraine. So according to the UN Charter of Self-Determination, if you're attacked by your own government on the basis of being discriminated against, for instance, on your language or your ethnicity, or after a coup, and the oblasts in the east of Ukraine don't recognize the US-backed coup putsch, Beer Hall Putsch government, and then they're being attacked by the Ukrainian military, who's being armed and trained by NATO, foreign powers, funded as well, okay, they defend their borders, they raise a militia, they're taking civilian casualties in the Donbass, indiscriminate shelling from the Ukrainian army against civilians, Ukrainian civilians, because you have to remember, the West recognizes Donbass as Ukraine, so that means any civilians being hit by the Ukrainian military indiscriminately, they're killing their own people by definition. So you can't have it both ways, but they want to have it both ways. So they have a right under UN charter article one. Of self-determination, and then you have to declare autonomy, which they did. Then you have to be recognized by one of your neighbours in standing, which they did. And then they were then absorbed, had a referendum, and became part of the Russian Federation. So by international law, I could walk into court as an international lawyer and make a stronger case for the Donbass republics under international law for their independence than can be made for for Kosovo in Yugoslavia, you see. And this is up for argument, and this is what international lawyers do. And I've interviewed many of them, I've taken statements from them, I'm investigating, for instance, the International Criminal Court indictment in The Hague against Vladimir Putin and another Russian official for mass kidnapping Russian children. That's The Hague. And that's partly a British effort to issue that arrest warrant. The first white person ever indicted by the ICC, by the way, normally you just go after African leaders that the U.S. doesn't like. So it turns out this charge of mass kidnapping Ukrainian children and whisk them off to Russia, to camps or whatever, it's a total fraud, total lie. Investigative journalists have exposed this already. We'll probably, I'm going to interview one of them later this week. It's, they took families wanted their kids out of the war zone so they had special facilities almost like summer camps for the children of families who were in sensitive areas of the Donbass I mean, how is that a war crime? But that's how desperate they are so if I argue this in Germany, if I'm a German citizen, I could I could be a prosecuted for what, defending Russian aggression So defending aggression, so not even genocide anymore. It's not war crime. It's not, I don't want to say the H word, but you can't even use genocide. So now it's just aggression. So aggression is like a new, another arbitrary, phony international term for the establishment. You know, so they don't, what they're doing is, and this is what the BBC and everyone do, they frame your reference of any issue or situation, they narrow the framing of it, very, very narrow, and within that they can dominate. As soon as you have an intellectual logical, rational conversation with historical context, and taking cause and effect into account, which the mainstream media do not like doing, then you have a different debate. Then, if things are really open for argument and you can see that actually their case is not very black and white, it's not open and shut. They're using the brute force of media and government to make it an open and shut case, but it's not. And I think the international community in the West are realizing that most of the world's population don't buy it and that's where we're heading into an interesting point in history right now. Can I just end up looking at the political side and as much as I would like to see President Trump back in the Oval Office, I'm intrigued by Robert Kennedy Jr. And he seems to be one of the few, maybe the only presidential candidate who are against this war and want peace. And I guess it's all part to do with the military system. I think the US has spent over 100 billion. No wonder they're hitting their debt ceiling. But it's Robert Kennedy seems to be a voice of reason in this. And I'm kind of wondering what your thoughts are and whether that will actually get out to the people at large. Yes, and look, I wouldn't generally vote Democrat, but I would consider voting for RFK in this election. I would because he is competent and has a grasp of the big issues. And that's really important. And we're at a very critical time in American history and in world history as well. What's happening in Ukraine and what NATO is attempting to do, which is to drop a new Iron Curtain right along the Polish border, right down to Romania, to the Black Sea, and then militarizing that Iron Curtain in a way that we haven't seen since the post-World War II period. This is serious. So any president who doesn't have a grip on this, so RFK is incredibly adept, intelligent, and I like what he's saying. Donald Trump cuts right through everything and basically says, I'm going to end the war in 24 hours, typical Trump style. And do I doubt him? Absolutely not. Can he do that? You bet he can. Donald Trump can do it. Any political leader that has got the balls and doesn't care what the press are going to say or the foreign policy blob. And all the intelligence Machiavellian agents that are working to extend the war, to extend the profits for all these military contractors, and extend the killing, okay? All of these people, Donald Trump will, he's one of the only people as a populist who could achieve that. And I would say, therefore, and I think you brought up a good point, Peter, you know, a left-wing populist or a right-wing populist, you know, when it comes to those big existential issues, you know, I'm willing to sacrifice on some domestic issues for the greater of humanity, knowing that the leader that we have is going to make sure that this does not happen. There's not going to be a nuclear war or a thermonuclear exchange, and that we are not going to be permanently at war with a major UN Security Council member. Like, that means something to me, enough that I would back Robert F. Kennedy or Donald Trump. So, like, I don't see that from any other candidate, not that definitive clarity. This brings us to the other important question, Peter. Is Donald Trump working in the interests of the people of the United States, the national interest, the national security interest, or is he working for the globalists or the other sort of international transnational establishment? Clearly he's acting and speaking in the interests of the people, the national interest. Okay, what about Vladimir Putin? Is he acting in his national interest? Or is he acting in the interest of some amorphous Russian elite? It looks like an existential threat to the Russian Federation. So whatever, you might not like how things are playing out, but he's absolutely acting in his national interest. And Donald Trump would probably do the same if there was a Chinese expeditionary force in Baja, Mexico, that were persecuting and shelling American English speaking citizens in Northern Mexico. And then threatening to position nuclear missiles along the Texas border. The US would act and it would be done. It would be done in 24 hours. They'd bomb Mexico City. I'm telling you, the thing would be over. So Russia is taking it very slowly. Donald Trump recognized this. He knows that he could probably stop it. Jeremy Corbyn or Robert F. Kennedy, they would probably make the same pledge, although they don't have the strength. RFK would have the strength and the fortitude. Corbyn, maybe not. Um, but, uh, but so, so that's, that's my position on that. Yeah. And, uh, what about the British prime minister? I don't know. I don't even know who's in charge. Uh, who does? We do change quite a bit of this musical roundabouts or pass the parcel. Um, but of course, uh, you saw the, the big hug that Rishi Sunak gave to, uh, to Zelensky whenever he landed, best buddies, beautiful bro-mance. So I think it's just more and more money for Zelensky from there. Yeah, I feel bad. He's the bigger they are, the harder they fall and they've built this guy up to be this international saint stroke war hero stroke. And I'm afraid, is it going to be a martyr as well to the cause? I don't know, but it's, um, yeah, uh, clearly a propaganda construct, the whole, the outfit, the green t-shirt showing up at the Arab league, wearing the green outfit, I mean, disrespectful to the leaders there. Uh, that didn't go well again to the G7, again, the green outfit is like constantly at war. It's like Manuel Noriega all over again. You know, it's just, it's, it's, it's ridiculous at this point. And anybody who thinks that Vladimir Zelensky is in charge of anything in Ukraine, there's nobody in Ukraine that's in charge of anything. On the global sovereignty index, they're at the very bottom. We're paying, the United States is subsidizing in Europe, the civil service salaries, they're paying soldiers salaries, they're paying their utilities, they're paying for their army, they're subsidizing their economy, what's left of it. They handpicked their government, the United States did, that's proven. So, they're dictating to them what their foreign policy is going to be, et cetera. Whether they can or can't negotiate a peace settlement, they have zero sovereignty. So whoever's at the moment who's in charge in Kiev, they have no real decision making. The US could end it in a minute. Just one phone call saying, it's over, Monday, get ready for peace negotiations. And it's over. We're not giving you any more weapons, so you're on your own. And if they say they're on their own, they're like, well, this isn't going to work out with Russia. So we better call for, sue for peace at this point. That's not happening. That's very disturbing. And what's more disturbing is the craven attitude of European politicians that believe this is a cost-effective arms length war, that somehow it's economical. We're going to wear the Russians down and you know, we're going to, we're going to break the Russian economy. I think the European economy has suffered more arguably than the Russian economy has as a result of this historic embargo of a major global power. It's backfired badly. And it's leading to all sorts of, it's cascading in all sorts of bad outcomes for the US dollar as a world reserve currency, the energy markets as well, all sorts of negative outcomes. And the worst would be a military exchange between NATO and Russia. I mean, we don't know where that's going to end. But we do know in history, you know, it's, when you look back, you know, when we we studied World War I and World War II, especially World War I, the lesson at the end was always with the teacher, I remember saying, this was just madness and we've never seen anything like this and hopefully we'll never see it again. We've hopefully learned our lessons and warfare isn't done like this anymore, et cetera. And we're all scratching our heads thinking as students, how could the people, leaders of Europe have been that stupid to allow this carnage. That could have been totally avoidable. But there was this idea that it was inevitable, that war was inevitable. And you're hearing this from politicians on both sides of the Atlantic that war is inevitable and war with China as well is inevitable. Okay, so from that I realized now I finally, after all these years, I figured it out that yes, we are stupid enough to do it again. Our leaders are dumb enough and naïve and short-sighted and corrupt. Yes, history can repeat itself, even in the modern technological age. And that's the big realization that we need to start taking home and stop taking for granted that these things can't happen. Yes, they can happen, and they will happen, and they are happening as well. And so people, I think, need to get a lot more engaged in Europe, especially, and in the UK as well, and in America. They really need to get more engaged on this issue because we don't know how, everything, Bilderberg's a good example. At the Bilderberg, the whole agenda predicated on crisis. So one crisis to the next and which companies and which transnational powers intelligence agencies, how they're going to marshal the crisis in order to implement new policies and more control and a new agenda. So if that's the underlying motivation, what could be a bigger crisis than, you know, an escalation of a major war in Europe? So what does that mean? What does the post-war society in order look like? More surveillance, less freedoms, less civil liberties, less travel, closed borders. A lot of the things that we saw during COVID, Peter, and lockdown, that was the war without the war. And we got a taste of it. That's nothing. In some ways, that's nothing compared to what a post-war order will look like in the West. Not in the East, but in the West. So people need to think long and hard about some of these issues. Patrick, I appreciate you coming on and sharing your two decades of journalism and experience and analysing some of those. So thank you so much for your time today. Thank you, Peter. I appreciate it. And just remind people where they can find you on TNT Radio. Oh yeah, yeah. So you can see our work at 21stcenturywire.com, as you mentioned. TNT Radio, five till seven UK time, Monday to Friday, UK column, and we're usually on Fridays, 1pm, ukcolumn.org, amazing media outlet, great news program, of course. And also Twitter, on Twitter live, Twitter spaces Wednesday evenings usually we do a major roundtable discussion, we just did one last night a recent on the on the Bilderberg, G7 and the WEF, like where is the power lie with these globalist institutions, we had a great panel assembled for that including Tony Gosling is a great independent journalist out of Bristol who covers Bilderberg as well so we're getting some of these great guests on to handle these big topics and then we invite, is free to join and you just jump into the room on Twitter and we do audience Q&A's, so that's the other, the new live show that we've added to the mix. Okay, well that's all available for all our viewers and listeners, but thank you Patrick and thank you to our viewers for listening or if you're downloaded on any of the podcasting apps on Podbean or elsewhere, thank you for joining us and thank you for, we just had 200,000 downloads, so thank you for helping us hit that and on to the next milestone, but I wish our viewers and listeners a wonderful rest of your day. I will be back with you very soon. So thank you and goodbye.

In this episode, Alex starts by discussing the insanity at CPAC and why the conference should really be called TPAC (for Trump). He also notes that the straw polls that gave Trump over 60% of support, should not be taken completely seriously at an event that is pretty much a Trump brownnosing event. Next, Alex discusses the brutal and “hell-like” situation that is unfolding in the city of Bakhmut, Ukraine. Russian forces, aided by the Wagner Group, have surrounded the city in multiple directions and a majority of the city has been decimated. There are reports of a coming Ukrainian withdrawl; however, Russian forces have experienced an arms shortage and have started using the shovels that they dug the trenches with as weapons. In general, the situation has turned into a violent and tragic form of trench warfare. Finally, Alex goes into Yevgeny Prigozhin. He is a shadowy criminal and oligarch that founded the Wagner Group and the Internet Research Agency. As his mercenary forces have fought in Ukraine, he has continued to critisize and blame the Russian Ministry of Defense for some of the failures in Ukraine. Alex discusses some reports that argue how Prigozhin could try and become the next leader of Russia as the Russian elites have constantly critisized Putin due to what they deem as inaction in Ukraine. 

The Malcontent News Russia-Ukraine War Report is a truth-based, fact-checked update on events happening on and off the battlefield in Ukraine. Our team reviews hundreds of sources of information a day to help you stay informed. Today's report is hosted by David Obelcz, who counts down the ten biggest Russian Ministry of Defense failures during the first year of the expanded war against Ukraine.Support the show

Rick joins us as a US Army trained Russian-Eurasian expert to discuss the Russian invasion of Ukraine, one year after. Rick is a former Army Colonel and served at US Embassy Moscow from 2000-2007 leading counterterror, counter-proliferation, and threat reduction cooperation efforts with Russian Ministries, including the Ministry of Defense. He was a Harvard University National Security Fellow in 2003, and served in Germany 1996-1999 assigned as an Arms Control Inspector. He led on-site and international inspection teams throughout Eastern and Central Europe and the Former Soviet Union, monitoring treaties and agreements like the Dayton Accords in the Former Republic of Yugoslavia, Conventional Forces in Europe, Intermediate Nuclear Forces, and Biological and Chemical Weapons Conventions. Rick, a senior paratrooper and jumpmaster, was assigned in his basic branch, Military Police, to Fort Bragg (Airborne), NC, Fort Drum (Light Infantry), NY and Fort Hood (Armor), Tx before his overseas assignments. He spent six months in 1994, in Georgia, monitoring and reporting progress and ceasefire violations for the United Nations during Georgian-Abkhaz-Russian civil war. In 1998, just prior to the NATO air campaign to expel Serbian forces from Kosovo, Rick was assigned to the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) as part of the multinational Kosovo Diplomatic Observers' Mission (KDOM). He has work, travel and living experience in over 50 countries including 6yrs in Germany, 6 in Russia and ~3 in Iraq. Rick is a fluent Russian-speaker with varying degrees of aptitude in Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Czech, Arabic, German, Spanish and Serbian. Active Duty hostile fire zones include Grenada, Georgia, Former Yugoslavia, Kosovo, and Iraq and Afghanistan after he retired. He has supported DoD missions and initiatives for over 40 years.

Last Wednesday, Vladimir Putin announced that Russian civilians would be drafted to bolster forces in his unpopular war in Ukraine. Almost immediately, the Kremlin faced widespread opposition, including demonstrations. On Friday, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that “citizens with higher education” would be exempt from the draft, especially those in telecommunications, information technology, banking and “systematically important” media companies.When I heard this news I flashed back to 1968. Tens of thousands of us then graduating from college were subject to being drafted and very possibly going to Vietnam. College students were deferred but local draft boards decided whether to continue deferments for graduate school. Many of us were not only afraid of being killed, but also thought the war insane and unjust. We demonstrated against it. Some burnt our draft cards. We did not want to be complicit in the immoral war. But what to do? Draft resistance meant going to prison or to Canada. The handful of us who had been awarded Rhodes Scholarships for study at Oxford negotiated with our draft boards. Bill Clinton got his extended deferment by signing a letter of intent to join the Reserve Officers Training Corps after Oxford. On December 3 of our second year there — after Bill drew a sufficiently high draft-lottery number to ensure he wouldn't be drafted — he wrote a letter to Colonel Eugene Holmes, the head of ROTC at the University of Arkansas, essentially withdrawing from the program. Because Bill's decision and letter would become controversial twenty-three years later when he ran for President, I'm reproducing the relevant portion here. (I can't help but wonder whether it expresses the sentiments of young Russians now facing Putin's draft.)Dear Colonel Holmes, First, I want to thank you, not just for saving me from the draft, but for being so kind and decent to me …. For years I have worked to prepare myself for a political life characterized by both practical political ability and concern for rapid social progress. It is a life I still feel compelled to try to lead. I do not think our system of government is by definition corrupt, however dangerous and inadequate it has been in recent years (the society may be corrupt, but that is not the same thing, and if that is true we are all finished anyway).When the draft came, despite political convictions, I was having a hard time facing the prospect of fighting a war I had been fighting against, and that is why I contacted you. ROTC was the one way left in which I could possibly, but not positively, avoid both Vietnam and resistance. … After I signed the ROTC letter of intent I began to wonder whether the compromise I had made with myself was not more objectionable than the draft would have been, because I had no interest in the ROTC program in itself and all I seemed to have done was to protect myself from physical harm. Also, I began to think I had deceived you, not by lies - there were none - but by failing to tell you all the things I'm writing now. I doubt that I had the mental coherence to articulate them then. At that time, after we had made our agreement and you had sent my 1-D deferment to my draft board, the anguish and loss of self-regard and self-confidence really set in. I hardly slept for weeks and kept going by eating compulsively and reading until exhaustion brought sleep. Finally on September 12th, I stayed up all night writing a letter to the chairman of my draft board … stating that I couldn't do the ROTC after all and would he please draft me as soon as possible.I never mailed the letter, but I did carry it on me every day until I got on the plane to return to England. I didn't mail the letter because I didn't see, in the end, how my going in the Army and maybe going to Vietnam would achieve anything except a feeling that I had punished myself and gotten what I deserved. So I came back to England to try to make something of this second year of my Rhodes scholarship.And that is where I am now, writing to you because you have been good to me and have a right to know what I think and feel. I am writing too in the hope that my telling this one story will help you to understand more clearly how so many fine people have come to find themselves still loving their country but loathing the military, to which you and other good men have devoted years, lifetimes, of the best service you could give. To many of us, it is no longer clear what is service and what is disservice, or if it is clear, the conclusion is likely to be illegal. Forgive the length of this letter. There was much to say. There is still a lot to be said, but it can wait. Please say hello to Colonel Jones for me. Merry Christmas.Sincerely, Bill Clinton ***As for me, I had read the Selective Service's physical requirements for being drafted, which clearly set the minimum height at five feet. So, at 4 foot 11 inches, I assumed I wouldn't make the grade. Just before setting sail for England, I decided to get the matter officially out of the way. I was working in Berkeley, California at the time, and went over to the Oakland Induction Center (which had been the scene of some violent anti-war protests) to receive my 4-F classification — “unfit for military service.” The Center was almost empty when I arrived. An examining sergeant sitting at a desk at the end of the corridor caught sight of me. “Hey!” he shouted, beckoning me. “Just what we've been waiting for!”“Sorry, sir?” I asked as I reached his desk, hoping I'd misheard. My heart raced. Was he joking?“You're perfect!” he said, smiling and standing up as if to give me a bear hug. “A tunnel rat!”“A … what?” “We need shorties like you to go into tunnels under the rice paddies! Smoke out the ‘Cong with grenades!” I saw my life pass in front of me. “Let's just measure you.” He asked me to strip down to my underwear and socks, and then ushered me to the measuring stand about ten feet away. He turned me so I was looking outward, away from the vertical measure. “Just stand up v-e-r-y straight,” he said in a somber tone as he slid the horizontal metal strip down to the top of my head. I couldn't see the measurement but I could hear my heart pounding. In his enthusiasm for tunnel rats, would he declare I was five feet regardless of my one inch deficiency? A long pause that seemed to last for eternity. His large hand came down on my shoulder as he ushered me off the platform. “I'm sorry, son,” he said solemnly. Sorry? Was he sorry I was heading under the rice paddies with hand grenades, or sorry I wasn't? OMG. Could it be that I was just over 4 feet 11 inches by enough of a fraction that he could claim I was 5 feet? I suddenly remembered that the Army height regulation allowed examining sergeants to round up or down:(1) If the height fraction is less than half an inch, round down to the nearest whole number in inches. (2) If the height fraction is half an inch or greater, round up to the next highest whole number in inches.If this sergeant rounded up, I'd be down under the rice paddies with grenades. Forget Oxford. Hell, forget life. “So,” I said, trying to hide the tremor in my voice, “Wha … what's the measure show?”He frowned. “You're just too short.”I was tempted to let out a yell but stopped myself for fear he'd take offense and draft me out of spite. So I simply nodded and said “okay,” trying my best to act disappointed. “But, son…” S**t. Was I too disappointed? Was he going to round up out of sympathy? “… Don't give up hope,” he smiled. “Maybe you'll grow!” I grinned. A second later he let out a loud guffaw, probably relieved I wasn't upset by his lame attempt at humor. Then I felt my own relief overwhelm me — the unmitigated joy of having my life back — and I laughed too. We both laughed and laughed and laughed, out of a sense of relief that both of us felt, for different reasons. That's the image I'm left with now, fifty-four years later: the two of us, the examining sergeant and me, doubled up there in the Oakland Induction Center, while tens of thousands of young Americans — most of them without college degrees — and hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese, were being slaughtered for no good reason. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit robertreich.substack.com/subscribe

From August 26, 2022, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs temporarily suspended the acceptance of applications for the issuance of biometric passports. - С 26 августа 2022 года МИД России временно приостановил прием заявлений на выдачу биометрических паспортов.

Ukraine accused Russia of shelling a colony in the village of Olenovka near Donetsk, where Ukrainian prisoners of war were kept. The authorities of the DPR and representatives of the Russian Ministry of Defense blame the Ukrainian military for the strike. - Генштаб ВСУ обвинил Россию в артиллерийском обстреле колонии в селе Еленовка под Донецком, где находились украинские военнопленные. Власти ДНР и представители Минобороны РФ обвиняют в ударе украинских военных.

As the Russian Ministry of Defence issues statement, saying operational pause ended on 16 July, ThePrint Editor-In-Chief Shekhar Gupta in episode 1037 of Cut The Clutter explains where the Ukraine-Russia war is headed , role of Artillery and how the winter will play out.

The Russian Ministry of Defence says at least forty-two African mercenaries have been killed in Ukraine, but what do we know so far? Also, why is Burkina Faso's army conducting an eight-hour military exercise in the capital, Ouagadougou? How often does this happen and are residents aware of what's going on? That and much more in the podcast.

Wednesday, May 18, 2022 Today on our show today, Kerby will talk with Dr. Charlie Dyer. They'll discuss Charlies's new book, “What Does the Bible Say about the Future?” Then Kerby will be happy to spend time talking with Sergey Rakhuba about Mission Eurasia (formerly Russian Ministries) and what they're doing to help in the Ukraine and in […]

In today's episode:Donald Trump's winning streak ends as Charles Herbster fails to win the GOP gubernatorial primary in Nebraska after character attacks by RINO Governor Pete RickettsRINO Ricketts travels to Georgia to support Brian Kemp and is joined by fellow Romnies Doug Ducey and Chris Christie on behalf of the GOPe machineJoe Scarborough argues that nothing can be done about inflation, inflation is getting better, inflation is getting worse in the energy sector, and that all of it is Putin's faultRINOs/Romnies join with Democrats to make it easier to send American money and supplies to Ukraine while committing to sending another $40 billionUkraine cuts off Russia gas and oil imports to Europe, but why, and who's behind the decision?The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs releases more information on the US' activities in Ukrainian biolabs.To support directly: ko-fi.com/imyourmoderatorbtc via coinbase: 3MEh9J5sRvMfkWd4EWczrFr1iP3DBMcKk5Merch site: www.cancelcouture.com or shop.spreadshirt.com/cancel-coutureWriting at: imyourmoderator.substack.comFollow the podcast info stream: t.me/imyourmoderatorOther social platforms: Truth Social, Gab, Rumble, Bitchute, Odysee, DLive or Gettr - @imyourmoderatorVisit mypillow.com and use promo code REASONABLE to support me, Mike Lindell, and his great American company!Listen at: https://shows.acast.com/bereasonable/ or on your favorite podcast app (except Spotify, I'm banned)RSS: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/623c9d211c3aa5001204d6ed See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/be-reasonable-with-your-moderator-chris-paul.

In today's episode:Donald Trump's winning streak ends as Charles Herbster fails to win the GOP gubernatorial primary in Nebraska after character attacks by RINO Governor Pete RickettsRINO Ricketts travels to Georgia to support Brian Kemp and is joined by fellow Romnies Doug Ducey and Chris Christie on behalf of the GOPe machineJoe Scarborough argues that nothing can be done about inflation, inflation is getting better, inflation is getting worse in the energy sector, and that all of it is Putin's faultRINOs/Romnies join with Democrats to make it easier to send American money and supplies to Ukraine while committing to sending another $40 billionUkraine cuts off Russia gas and oil imports to Europe, but why, and who's behind the decision?The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs releases more information on the US' activities in Ukrainian biolabs.To support directly: ko-fi.com/imyourmoderatorbtc via coinbase: 3MEh9J5sRvMfkWd4EWczrFr1iP3DBMcKk5Merch site: www.cancelcouture.com or shop.spreadshirt.com/cancel-coutureWriting at: imyourmoderator.substack.comFollow the podcast info stream: t.me/imyourmoderatorOther social platforms: Truth Social, Gab, Rumble, Bitchute, Odysee, DLive or Gettr - @imyourmoderatorVisit mypillow.com and use promo code REASONABLE to support me, Mike Lindell, and his great American company!Listen at: https://shows.acast.com/bereasonable/ or on your favorite podcast app (except Spotify, I'm banned)RSS: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/623c9d211c3aa5001204d6ed See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/be-reasonable-with-your-moderator-chris-paul.

On this episode, Lera and Sergio speak with Douglas Selvage at the Humboldt University of Berlin about his research on the disinformation cooperation between KGB and STASI during the Cold War and specifically the work of Operation "Denver" in the 1980s. Dr. Selvage talks of how these same Cold War propaganda tactics are nearly verbatim recycled today in Putin's war of aggression in Ukraine. For his recent article, as mentioned in this episode, visit: https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/moscow-bioweapons-and-ukraine-cold-war-active-measures-putins-war-propaganda. ABOUT THE GUEST Dr. Douglas Selvage is a Research Associate (wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter) at the Institute for History of the Humboldt University in Berlin. He prevously served as acting director for the historical research project, “The GDR, the Ministry for State Security, and the CSCE Process, 1973-1989,” in the Education and Research Division of the Office of the Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records in Berlin. He has published widely on the CSCE process, Polish-German relations under communism, and the history of the Soviet bloc. Previously, he also directed a grant project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities to translate Warsaw Pact documents into English for the Parallel History Project (PHP) on Collective Security. From 2001-2006, he worked at the Historian's Office of the U.S. Department of State, where his publications included Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969-1976: European Security, 1969-76, and a co-edited joint publication with the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Soviet-American Relations: The Détente Years, 1969-1972. PRODUCER'S NOTE: This episode was recorded on October 10th, 2021 and April 28th, 2022 via Zoom. If you have questions, comments, or would like to be a guest on the show, please email slavxradio@utexas.edu and we will be in touch! CREDITS Associate Producer/Host: Lera Toropin (@earlportion) Assistant Producer/Host: Sergio Glajar Assistant Producer: Misha Simanovskyy (@MSimanovskyy) Associate Producer: Cullan Bendig (@cullanwithana) Assistant Producer: Zach Johnson Assistant Producer: Taylor Ham Executive Assistant: Katherine Birch Recording, Editing, and Sound Design: Michelle Daniel Music Producer: Charlie Harper (Connect: facebook.com/charlie.harper.1485 Instagram: @charlieharpermusic) www.charlieharpermusic.com (Main Theme by Charlie Harper and additional background music by Holizna, Tea K Pea, Uncan, TAG) Executive Producer & Creator: Michelle Daniel (Connect: facebook.com/mdanielgeraci Instagram: @michelledaniel86) DISCLAIMER: Texas Podcast Network is brought to you by The University of Texas at Austin. Podcasts are produced by faculty members and staffers at UT Austin who work with University Communications to craft content that adheres to journalistic best practices. The University of Texas at Austin offers these podcasts at no charge. Podcasts appearing on the network and this webpage represent the views of the hosts, not of The University of Texas at Austin. https://files.fireside.fm/file/fireside-uploads/images/9/9a59b135-7876-4254-b600-3839b3aa3ab1/P1EKcswq.png Special Guest: Douglas Selvage.

The thirty-fifth episode of the Ukraine Daily Brief from the Deep State Radio Network. Stories cited in the podcast:Moskva sinking: What really happened to the pride of Russia's fleet?U.S. cannot 'take lightly' threat Russia could use nuclear weapons - CIA chiefRussia Accuses Ukraine of Helicopter Strike on Border TownRussia strikes outskirts of Kyiv with cruise missiles, Russian Ministry of Defense saysBiden ready to go to UkraineMoldova accuses Russian army of trying to recruit its citizensChina Defends Stance on Russia After U.S. CriticismPutin tells Europe: You still need Russian gas but we're turning eastEU closes loophole allowing multimillion-euro arms sales to RussiaThe U.N. warns that the war has disrupted the flow of food, fuel and money around the world.UK seals deal with Rwanda to offshore asylum seekersStrains in German coalition as junior partners turn on Scholz over Ukraine See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Karim Khan visited the Ukrainian towns of Bucha and Borodyanka this week, where mass graves and murdered civilians were discovered in early April following the Russian withdrawal from northern Ukraine. “Ukraine is a crime scene. We're here because we have reasonable grounds to believe that crimes within the jurisdiction of the ICC are being committed. We have to pierce the fog of war to get to the truth,” Khan said after visiting Bucha. Also, the Russian warship Moskva has sunk, Russian state news agency TASS reported, citing a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense. There have been conflicting accounts emerging about an incident involving the warship in the Black Sea on Wednesday. Retired Brigadier General Peter Zwack, a former U.S. defense attaché to Russia and retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling talk about what this means for Russia. To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy

Chris and Greg go into new evidence provided by the Russian Ministry of Defense, including "toxic mosquito" aerial release systems (i.e., drones).  These drones would have the capability to release weaponized mosquitoes containing biological warfare to attack enemy soldiers without the need to invade/expend resources.   They also explore a resent discovery that HIV medications can help treat the Big C little v.  They look into why HIV treatments could possibly help treat the virus or other conditions.   They close the show discussing a recent interview with Brett Baier where Zelenksyy admits the existence and integration of the Azov Nazi Battalion into the Ukrainian military.  CNN also had a recent article that describes this integration as well.  This ostensibly lends credence to Putin's claims of de-Nazifying Ukraine.   Pardon My American podcast (PMA) is an opinion-based podcast that explores local and global politics, entertainment, paranormal, and culture all while having a good laugh. They keep things lighthearted as they dive into subjects that inspire you to think and ask questions.   Support Our Sponsors ► Aura ► GhostBed   Support Our Show ► Website ► Buy Merch ► Patreon   Follow Our Show ► YouTube ► Rokfin ► Instagram ► Telegram ► Rumble

 Shortly after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met in China last Wednesday, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a video of Lavrov claiming the two countries are looking to create a “just, democratic world order.” As Russia and China's relationship continues to grow in this dangerous direction, President Biden has stressed the importance of America stepping up and uniting with U.S. allies if we are to take a stand against Russia and China. Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott joins to discuss why Americans must prioritize doing domestic business if we are to strengthen our country, his thoughts on China threatening to invade Taiwan, and the creation of his ‘11 Point Plan' that has sparked controversy among both Republicans and Democrats.    This week, Maine's Susan Collins was the first GOP senator to announce her decision to vote for the confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. Other Republican senators have not been as vocal with their support, citing their concerns with Jackson's sentencing in child pornography cases, as well as her public defender work for Guantanamo Bay terror suspects. George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley joins the Rundown to discuss the opposition to Judge Jackson's  nomination, questions about her judicial philosophy, and the recent controversy surrounding Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife.   Plus, commentary by Executive Director of Fightforschools.com, Ian Prior. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, Benjy and Producer Arian talked about Bruce Willis, Putin's tension with his army, the possibility of suing social media companies, The Slap, Travis Scott, Alec Baldwin, the billionaire tax bill, the marijuana legalization bill, some stories surrounding the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Stories we mentioned today:U.S. official: Putin and Russian Ministry of Defense have 'persistent tension'CA law will allow parents to sue social media companiesWill Smith slaps Chris Rock on stage at OscarsTravis Scott Delivers First Performance Since Astroworld Fest Tragedy at Private Pre-Oscars PartyAlec Baldwin Seeks to Avoid Liability in Fatal ‘Rust' ShootingPresident Joe Biden to propose new 20% minimum billionaire tax House poised to pass bill legalizing marijuanaSeven tips for spotting disinformation related to the Russia-Ukraine conflictConnect With LawFlipWatch the PodcastFor the GramTweet With UsTikTokCheck out:LawFlip the Lawyer Referral PlatformMotion LASupport the show (http://lawflip.com)Support the show (http://lawflip.com)

Victor Akhterov, director for Russian Ministries at FEBC, shares stories of how the Gospel is still being broadcasted during the war in Ukraine and the need for the Holy Spirit's power to keep going. Eric Ortlund, author of "Suffering Wisely and Well," talks about what we may misunderstand about Job's story of struggles and God's never-ending promise of restoration.

Ukrainian audio journalists have come together to feature what is really happening in Ukraine by sharing only verified information and real stories of people. Russian Ministry of Defense has admitted casualties in the war with Ukraine for the first time. At the same time, Russian troops keep attacking civilians. The airstrike alarms went off more than 60 times in Kyiv only and sounded for more than 36 hours in total. In today's episode, you hear the diary of Anastasiia from the Kyiv region, Evelina, a mother from Lysychansk, and Israel Kabamba, a Kongo citizen, who has been living in Ukraine for 9 years.

The conflict between Russia And Ukraine has led to speculation about who the “good guys” are.  The continuous push of pro-Ukrainian propaganda from legacy media has ostensibly invited various narratives from alternative media sources.  One such narrative is that Russia is “cleansing” Ukraine of the deep state.  The truth is, even if we had all of the information at hand, the war between facts and fiction would be just another opportunity to further divide our country.   For instance, information is now coming out regarding evidence discovered by the Russian military.   Russia apparently discovered NATO equipment at the headquarters of a Ukrainian nazi group “the right sector”. And the Russian Ministry of Defense claims to have evidence of U.S.-funded bio weapons research laboratories.  But, is it real - or not?    Pardon My American podcast (PMA) is an opinion-based podcast that explores local and global politics, entertainment, paranormal, and culture all while having a good laugh. They keep things lighthearted as they dive into touchy subjects that inspire you to think and ask questions.   Support Our Sponsors (Use Promo Code PARDON) ► Aura   Support Our Show ► Website ► Buy Merch ► Patreon   Follow Our Show ► YouTube ► Instagram ► Telegram ► Rumble

This week, we're joined by Jeremiah Peschka from Stack Overflow to learn why building communities for developers is so important, and how code is reshaping our world in 2022.In Watchtower Weekly this episode, we also discuss how hacking communities have responded to the conflict in Ukraine and how graphics-chip giant, Nvidia, may have got revenge on its hackers. Plus, if Wordle wasn't addictive enough, we also take a look at the lesser-known version: PassWORDLE!

In 2014, John Mearsheimer authored a Foreign Affairs article in which he blamed that year's Ukraine crisis on the U.S., NATO, and the EU. The next year he gave a talk on the subject which the University of Chicago uploaded to YouTube. (That video has received, as of today, close to 18 million views.)Last week the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs used excerpts from Mearsheimer's article and talk as part of its efforts to propagandize in favor of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Isaac Chotiner subsequently interviewed Mearsheimer for the New Yorker.For some reason, Patrick and Dan thought it would be a good thing to record an impromptu podcast on the controversy – and to down more whisky than usual during the process. We've managed to cut the discussion down to two hours, but it's not, shall we say, the most organized episode we've done. Topics include specific aspects of Mearsheimer's argument, the importance of skepticism about what government officials tell you, and how academics should present their arguments when engaging in public-facing scholarship. Caveat emptor.

/*! elementor - v3.19.0 - 05-02-2024 */ .elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px}Crisis in Ukraine: Panel Discussion /*! elementor - v3.19.0 - 05-02-2024 */ .elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#69727d;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#69727d;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:left;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block} CrossLead panel discussion, about the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, sponsored by Red Cell Partners. Dave Silverman facilitates a conversation with former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, Roger Ferguson, and former member of the Central Intelligence Agency, John Sipher. Resources Webinar recordingJohn SipherRoger FergusonWant to discuss some of these topics directly with Dave? Join the CrossLead LinkedIn Group. /*! elementor - v3.19.0 - 05-02-2024 */ .elementor-accordion{text-align:left}.elementor-accordion .elementor-accordion-item{border:1px solid #d5d8dc}.elementor-accordion .elementor-accordion-item+.elementor-accordion-item{border-top:none}.elementor-accordion .elementor-tab-title{margin:0;padding:15px 20px;font-weight:700;line-height:1;cursor:pointer;outline:none}.elementor-accordion .elementor-tab-title .elementor-accordion-icon{display:inline-block;width:1.5em}.elementor-accordion .elementor-tab-title .elementor-accordion-icon svg{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-accordion .elementor-tab-title .elementor-accordion-icon.elementor-accordion-icon-right{float:right;text-align:right}.elementor-accordion .elementor-tab-title .elementor-accordion-icon.elementor-accordion-icon-left{float:left;text-align:left}.elementor-accordion .elementor-tab-title .elementor-accordion-icon .elementor-accordion-icon-closed{display:block}.elementor-accordion .elementor-tab-title .elementor-accordion-icon .elementor-accordion-icon-opened,.elementor-accordion .elementor-tab-title.elementor-active .elementor-accordion-icon-closed{display:none}.elementor-accordion .elementor-tab-title.elementor-active .elementor-accordion-icon-opened{display:block}.elementor-accordion .elementor-tab-content{display:none;padding:15px 20px;border-top:1px solid #d5d8dc}@media (max-width:767px){.elementor-accordion .elementor-tab-title{padding:12px 15px}.elementor-accordion .elementor-tab-title .elementor-accordion-icon{width:1.2em}.elementor-accordion .elementor-tab-content{padding:7px 15px}}.e-con-inner>.elementor-widget-accordion,.e-con>.elementor-widget-accordion{width:var(--container-widget-width);--flex-grow:var(--container-widget-flex-grow)} Episode Transcript DaveFor today’s episode, I have the pleasure of hosting a panel discussion on the developing crisis in Ukraine with two exceptional leaders and patriots. Our sponsor for this episode is Red Cell Partners. Red Cell Partners is a design and incubation studio that brings ideas, capital, resources and talent together to build technology led companies that address the nation’s most pressing challenges in finance, health care in the national security space.My first guest is John Cipher. John is a foreign policy and intelligence expert who previously served 28 years in the Central Intelligence Agencies National Clandestine Service. At the time of his retirement. He was a member of the CIA’s Senior Intelligence Service, the leadership team that guides the CIA’s activities globally. John’s has served in multiple overseas tours as both chief of station and deputy chief of Station across Europe, Asia and several other high threat environments to include Russia.He’s a regular contributor to various news outlets and publications and very active, active as a social influencer. My second guest is Roger Ferguson. Roger is a former vice chairman of the Board of Governors of the US Fed. Reserve. We served from 1999 to 2006. He represented the Fed on several international policy groups and served on key Federal Reserve committees, including payment systems oversight Reserve Bank Operations and supervision regulation as the only governor in DC on nine 11.He led the Fed’s initial response to the terrorist attacks, taking actions that kept the U.S. financial system functioning while reassuring the global financial community that the U.S. economy would not be paralyzed. He is a Steven A. Tananbaum Distinguished Fellow for International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations and the immediate past president and CEO of TIAA, the leading provider of retirement services and the Academic Research Medical and cultural fields, and also a Fortune 100 financial services organization.He attended Harvard for his undergrad, his law degree, and his Ph.D. in Economics In today’s discussion, we talk about Putin strategies. It relates to Ukraine, the current military, geopolitical and economic situation. How this crisis might evolve and the global implications both economically and politically. And I’d like to start with John, and I hope that you could provide some context on Russia and Ukraine and sort of how we got to where we are now.JohnYeah. Well, it’s interesting. Let me start a little bit to talk about Putin and what makes him tick, because, you know, at the end of the day, a week ago, you know, many people would have assumed he wasn’t going to invade Ukraine. And, you know, essentially nobody could answer, was it?Whether he was or wasn’t, wasn’t going to. And as much intelligence as the U.S. and Western officials have they still didn’t know because it was all in the head of one person. You know, when you’re a dictator and you’ve created a system around yourself where, you know, people have to come to you and you don’t know. You know, I have no idea.I was on his head. So a little bit about him. And then and I’ll talk a little about what he cares about, where we are now. So, you know, one thing that is most important to me about Leader Putin is he’s a career Chekist, but that means he’s a career intelligence officer. He’s a kid. It was a career KGB officer.And that term, Chekist, really relates to the original Bolshevik intelligence service called the Cheka. And any Russian intelligence officer calls themselves a proud Chekist because the check out when the Bolsheviks took over in 1918, the first thing that new government did was create an intelligence service to sort of, you know, kill off any potential domestic opponents as well as to keep their enemies at bay.And they did that right from the beginning, doing a lot of the things that we’ve seen since the 2016 election, for example. They use subversion, deception, they use disinformation assassinations around the world, all these kind of things. And they continue to do that throughout the Cold War. So that’s really important to understand. Vladimir Putin, because he grew up in a, in a system where they were using information warfare, creating false stories and disinformation and killing their opponents from the beginning.The other thing to understand about him is, you know, he was in the KGB when the Soviet Union fell. You know, and I think it’s probably hard for us here to understand how that must have affected somebody psychologically. They thought they were in the world’s second greatest superpower. Liberator was the greatest superpower. He worked for the KGB, which is a sword and shield of that of the regime.You know, the most important. Arguably part of the regime in protecting it. And his whole country fell apart. And he tells a story it even in his own biography about what that meant to him. And he talked about when he was a KGB officer in Dresden, in East Germany, when the wall was starting to fall. And there was protesters coming around his consulate where he was working.You know, he contacted the military attaché in Berlin and said, you know, we need Soviet troops here. And the military attache in Berlin called him back shortly thereafter and said, you know, we’ve been trying to contact Moscow, but Moscow is silent. And Putin talks about this and use it in his own book to suggest that when the country needed to use its monopoly on brutality, when it needed to be tough, it was silent.And his point is, whenever he would have a chance to change that, when he would ever have a chance to make sure that the regime was powerful and it used its brutality, his strength when it needed to, he would do it His view is, you know, the weaker beaten in the end. The most important thing about any government is to maintain a monopoly of power and a monopoly of brutality.And so, you know, another thing to understand about him is, you know, we often talk about how does he negotiate? What is he doing? And I think a lot of us are now seeing that he’s gone into the Ukraine. You know, he’s a sort of a serial liar and someone who sort of is always playing others. And so it was Garry Kasparov the famous chess champion that sort of talked about he says, listen, Putin doesn’t play the situation on the chess board.He plays the opponent. And so he has this sort of gift for sniffing out weakness and trying to then take advantage of that weakness to amplify it or to exploit it. So how do we get here? Like what are the things that he really cares about? So I’ll mention a few that he sort of claims and that led to this crisis.But then there’s sort of one that it’s really important that when you talk about dictator sort of the first thing to realize is this whole thing is completely manufactured. There was no threat to Russia. NATO was not expanding. There hasn’t been talks for years about including Ukraine. There is no threat from Ukraine to Russia. It’s a much smaller and weaker country.All of the things that he brought up, you know, that led to this were things that were for like the 1990s. You know, this is stuff that easily could have been discussed, negotiated, dealt with. But it has to do with that sort of mentality of the man. You know, he’s always had this sort of sense of grievance of emotional anger against the West in the United States.His narrative is that when the powerful Soviet Union fell, it was because the West in the in the United States were trying to destroy Russia. They wanted to humiliate Russia and keep it down. And of course, you know, that’s another manufactured thing. I worked in Moscow in the embassy in the 1990s for the very organization that would try to destroy Russia if that’s what we were doing.And the United States government was trying everything they do to bring Russia into the family of nations to support them economically, help them. And if there’s an argument to be had from that period of time, perhaps that we didn’t do enough, not that we were trying to destroy Russia or weaken it. And so there’s there’s a couple of things that he said consistently that he wants the death of NATO’s.He wants NATO’s to go away. He wants he doesn’t want all of these Western security services on his anywhere near his borders. You know, in fact, when he took office, it was the NATO general secretary, I think Rasmussen, who met him and said, you know, Mr. President Putin, my goal is to increase cooperation with Russia. And Putin reportedly responded with the question of his own.He said, Do you know my mission, Mr. Rasmussen? Is to make sure that your organization no longer exists. And so he’s had that view ever since. He wants the U.S. out of Europe and he wants NATO’s dead. And the other thing he wants is he wants countries on his borders to be weak and vassals of the Kremlin. It’s democratic expansion that threatens him really more than veto expansion.He doesn’t want success for democratic countries nearby, which can be a sort of a sign to his own people. What’s what’s certain possible. In fact, you know, bear with me for a second on a quote George Kennan said years ago, too long ago, he said, quote, The jealous, the jealous and intolerant eye of the Kremlin can distinguish in the end only vassals and enemies and the neighbors of Russia, if they do not wish to be one, must reconcile themselves to being the other.So with that said, those are the things he’s claimed sort of led to this problem. But the big one, and then I’ll stop for a while is he’s a dictator. It’s about survival. Dictators, you know, have to worry every day about staying in power, making sure there’s not people out there who maybe want to sort of take power from the north where they want to maintain control.And so when there’s a country, when you create a country where there’s no means for a peaceful transition of power, everything is about staying alive, staying in total control. And so Putin, in his 20 years of being in power, has witnessed a number of really strongmen fall everywhere, from Egypt to Ukraine to Georgia and around the world. And, you know, he probably has visions of Gadhafi being filmed in a sewer, being sodomized in the lead pipe.And that is what he is trying to do. It’s all about maintaining power and staying in power. And then as we go on, I don’t want to feel like I’m talking too much here. We can go on about sort of, you know, how we ended up where we are and where and what and what where we might go from here.DaveRight. John, that was amazing. Given that context and background, can you give the audience here a sense of the current situation, as you understand it, from your vast network of spies and assets that you still probably actively engage with? And, you know, one of the questions just came in is like, what was that? What was the catalyst for Putin’s making the decision to act now?JohnThat’s what’s crazy about this. There really wasn’t a catalyst. You know, he’s created these false narratives that, you know, NATO’s expanding. It’s a threat. And Will NATO’s wasn’t expanding hasn’t expanded since what, 2012 or whatever. And really, like I said, it’s about democratic expansion rather than NATO’s expansion. He worries about a successful and democratic Ukraine on his border that looks like a success to his own people.So they can say, hey, what why? If Ukraine can be successful in Western and Democratic, why can’t we be. And the answer is Vladimir Putin. And so those are the sort of things that. And so where we are now you know I think you know when you’re a dictator for 20 years it’s sort of like sort of the classic thing.There’s so much power around you. I think as time goes on, people are afraid to bring you bad news. No one wants to walk up to Vladimir Putin and say, sir, you’re very wrong about this. This is how we should change it. And so I think you know, having been in power for so long and we see it from those pictures where he’s like 50 feet away from his advisers that are at a table that sort of suggests this kind of thing.I think he’s getting to a point where, you know, he believes his own sort of bull and and thought that he had to do this. You know, he went into, if you remember, in 2014, he went into Crimea and he took the eastern part of Ukraine. I think he believed that, you know, that’s a largely Russian speaking areas.I think he believed that the Russian speakers there would rise up and be thrilled to be part of Russia and get away from Ukraine. Well, it didn’t work. And so he eventually had to send his soldiers in there to try to like, you know, fight their way in. And that still hasn’t worked. They haven’t even taken over the whole area they tried to do.And so this is sort of the third step is, you know, they’re going to go in and sort of crush Ukraine. And so I think he expected this one to go quickly. I think he’s seen, you know, Western armies and U.S. Army go in and use sort of pinpoint attacks. And very quickly, we’d be able to sort of the regime would fall.And then he would come in and put in his own sort of his own, you know, fake regime that would support Russia. And as we’ve seen, it hasn’t really worked out that way. You know, that the communication between their troops, all these kind of things have sort of gone into a mess. And they actually created a different problem for him as the whole world is now paying attention.The whole world is now you know, a lot of us have been following for Russia forever have been saying, hey, we need to crack down on him. He’s exactly the kind of person if you don’t push back, he’s going to take that as weakness. And continue to move along. And multiple administrations have failed to push back on Putin so that when this crisis arose, we had very little to deter him.He had gotten his way so many times. We had assumed every time if we gave him an off ramp, he would maybe come around and change and join the family of nations. And it never happened. He hates us. He wants us to go away. He wants to overthrow the rules based order. And so I think we now realize the rest of the world now realizes, you know, he is someone who has to be fought and deterred, is not someone we can negotiate with.So one quick thing. You know, where are we and where does it go? And so what’s hard here is it really depends on how he responds to what the world is doing to him. You know, everybody everybody from Sweden and Finland and in Switzerland, or even, you know, pushing back Switzerland was was was neutral against the Nazis. But now they’re actually pushing back against Vladimir Putin.So. So it’s a tough thing for the the world is watching. But his traditional way of doing things, as we saw him in in Syria and in Chechnya and other places, is to essentially destroy everything, to sort of carpet bomb and destroy the entire cities. And so I worry that, you know, if he sort of sees that it’s not going well rather than try to use his, you know, precision weapons, which we’re finding out aren’t so precision, they’re going to go back to the old traditional Russian way of war with massive artillery and bombing and sort of killing and murdering.DaveAnd I think we’re already seeing some of that vigorous yet. John, thank you so much, Roger. As one of the preeminent economist it’s really the last several, several decades, certainly. I’d love to get a sense from you on where we are economically. I mean, the one thing that we have noticed is that there’s been a rapid coalition of, I would say, support and focus from the E.U. and from the U.S..And to John’s point earlier, Switzerland has picked aside for the first time since the Vatican. So they’ve seen this be a sort of unimaginable even a week ago, are now sort of happening. I’d love to get a sense of where you see that current situation and how you see that playing out.RogerWell, first, thank you. And secondly, to John’s first point, you know, when I was in government, we treated this not I personally, but the government in the US. It created this notion of the G7 G8 inviting Russia and inviting them into the G20. And so, you know, they they were early on in giving this olive branch to come in and be part of the part of the international financial order.And where are we today where all of that has collapsed? We’re seeing an unprecedented coalition including, as you’ve heard, Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, aligned against one country that is a large country, is that it’s not the largest it’s like the 17th largest economy in the world to be in that sort. So this is not a small country we’re dealing with.And not only is there total alignment, but we’re using in the financial world a tool that has never been used against a country the size, which is basically precision exclusion of people from swift SWIFT is the international telecommunications system. It brings in 11,000 patients from 200 countries and you cannot possibly move money around the world accurately without using SWIFT.And so what you saw is when you and the US decided to exclude an unnamed number of patients and now we know it’s just a handful of the ones immediately that led to a run of the banks, quite literally. And in Russia, individuals, you know, grabbing their rubles. We saw the ruble decline quite dramatically and they had to close the stock market and in Moscow on Monday.And so, you know, this decision to start to exclude Russian banks from the international communications system of SWIFT has had dramatic effects in that country. In terms of undermining the trust and confidence in the banking system. The second thing that was also unprecedented for a country, the size was an effort to make sure they couldn’t use lawsuits, $630 billion in reserves and their central bank, again, unprecedented.What that actually means is that they’re reserves and so reserve currencies and dollars and and euros and pounds, etc. that may be held in these countries in the West are not usable. So effectively that’s reduced their usable reserves to about, we think, a third a bit more primarily gold and also reserves like they have in the past. So their ability to support their economy, the central bank to support the economy has been dramatically weakened.And then the final thing and all of these are playing together is obviously various sanctions against individuals and also against trade. Right now, energy is theoretically exported. But we’ve seen a number of Western companies that are critical to moving Russian energy oil around the world have been unwilling to to participate in that supply chain. So even though, you know, Russian oil has not yet been officially moved into the sanction list, effectively, it has because of the lack of payment ability for us to identify and then Western companies not wanting to be involved in transporting Soviet or Russian oil.So unprecedented coalition of the willing to speak and beyond with Sweden, Switzerland, etc.. Unprecedented use of financial tools against a country that had been and still technically is, you know, in the closet with the G20. An unprecedented impact in a very large economy in terms of having the run on the banks, quite literally, that we’ve seen in driving a currency to being almost worthless.So we are living in some normal times in the standpoint of the financial architecture of the world.DaveNow, I’m going to Roger, a follow up question Where do you see this playing out? I mean, we’ve they’ve all these unprecedented actions have now taken place. Let’s assume that this is going to be a protracted fight for Russia and Ukraine. I don’t I don’t see this thing, you know, sort of getting resolved in the next you know, certainly next week or two.How do you how do you think this plays out in the affects? Do you think that’s going to have on the global economy?RogerSo with three different ways, it’s already starting to play out. One obviously is increasing the price of oil well over, I think $110 today. And, you know, a very, very important impact globally that’s increasing the discussion around some stagflation, the possibility that inflation picks up. And we still have slowing growth. The last time we had an oil shock of this magnitude back in 1973 and 1979, in fact that was one of the causes of the stagflation that we had to deal with.This time things are slightly different. To be fair. And so we have a different well in the 73 and 79, oil prices first tripled. They stayed at a high plateau and then in 79 they doubled again. So while energy prices, oil prices have clearly gone up, we’re not talking about a doubling or tripling of oil prices right now.The second thing that’s different from then is the United States has developed its own oil capabilities where energy independence and in fact we are the ability and not as much as we’re going to need, but we have an ability to export our liquefied natural gas, and others are as well to support to support the Europeans that need that as it gets.Not now, but back in the 18 season, So one thing is risk of stagflation going up. But I think it’s not probable what we saw in 69 and 79. So when the talk is certainly higher and for sure this is doing the second thing which is creating some uncertainty for all the central banks that we’re on a process of normalizing interest rates.Chairman Powell had this testimony today he opened by talking about uncertainty when he went on to continue the discussion around managing inflation. Probably not as as aggressively as some of his colleagues had been empty, but nevertheless creating some uncertainty there. The answer that he gave looks to me as other markets liked it, because there’s a lot of green now in the major indices here in the U.S. At least that’s the second issue.You have a central bank to deal with this. And then there’s a third longer term issue, which is excluding using the swift tool, excluding a major country from SWIFT at this stage of the unpredictable spillover effects on how others think about their reserves how they think about linking to the communications system. I don’t know yet how that’s going to play out, but there will certainly be talk about in some capitals, not a major one, but some smaller ones.You know, how do we think about reserves, how we think about Swift, etc. Those are questions that have really not been on the table since the fall of the Berlin Wall. So some uncertainty, some certainty. And then there’s longer term multiplier effects. Hard to gauge how that how things are up there.DaveBut you’re happy you’re not your old job. Sounds like a lot.RogerNo, just the opposite. It’s great to be in the Fed when these moments are occurring. They’ll handle it well.DaveAwesome. So I want to I want to talk now about what we think happens next. So maybe starting with you, John, you’re from that from a geopolitical standpoint, where do you how do you see this playing out over the next month or two? And I’m very curious, not just tying that to the relationship with with with with Europe, but also with how it can affect China, because my sense is Russia sort of back to Soviet days as far as isolation and isolationism from from the Western sort of markets and opportunity sets and, you know, their biggest probably partner, you know, what’s available to them, at least today is China will be interested to see how that morphs and changes and evolves over as inevitably Russia’s military efforts sort of pick up momentum and speed.JohnI’ll start by saying, I think, you know, the administration has done a pretty good job once they sort of started focusing on how to deal with Putin and deal with this crisis. But they came in with a pretty weak hand. The administration first started their policy towards Russia. It was to create a stable and predictable relationship with Russia.Now, anybody, any Russia followers who have been seeing what Putin’s been doing for the last at least eight to ten years, he’s been at war with us. He’s had a political war. That’s why he’s trying to use disinformation and cyber attacks and all these other kind of things, you know, fomenting violent groups around Europe and all these type of things.We are never going to have a stable and predictable, predictable relationship with him. He wants to overthrow essentially the rules based order. He wants us out of Europe. He wants U.S. and Europe divided and weak. And so he has tried to build a relationship with China. And just prior to the Olympics, he went out to China and met with Xi.And they put together you know, it was quite an amazing statement. I listened to former Australian Prime Minister Paul Rudd, who is a China expert and was the ambassador in China, among other things. Talk about it. And he said it was really unique for China. Because it really tie those two countries together more than ever before and suggested that China was much more on the Russian following the Russian thing, saying negative things about NATO’s negative things about the West, which was surprising because they’ve always tried to be careful about, you know, never supporting something that would break across borders and maintain their markets.And so, you know, what we’ve seen since the invasion happened is, you know, I think China had a real opportunity on the world stage for sort of really the first time to make a foreign policy statement to put themselves out there is, you know, a bigger player. And I think they really fumbled the ball here. You can argue that China is essentially winning the 21st century.Their growth is incredible. They want and need a stable rules based order because they’re winning their rules based order to becoming rich on that rules based order. Whereas Vladimir Putin is a loser of the 21st century. They are. They’re losing big time. They want to overthrow that rules based order. They want. They want to create problems inside of it.And so that that relationship doesn’t seem like a natural one to me. And I don’t understand why China would want to tie themselves to a violent and loser kind of guy like Putin with a really tiny economy the size of, you know, Portugal or Italy and you know, who might then invade countries in Europe, which then China is going to have to be stuck, whether they support that or not support that.And we can see in recent days that China is sort of again fumbling to try to say, well, you know, yes, we said we are with Russia, but we’re not really allies. But we really we don’t want war, but we want to support what we like. So they’re having a tough time dealing with these kind of issues and actually, the China Russia thing, you know, in the long term is not really natural for Russia either.You know, there’s Russia’s going to become a pariah here. Its economy is going to depend on that. Relationship with Russia and is taking a tough man as Putin is. He’s going to find himself being a little brother to China. And at some point, China is not going to care about the little brother. And, you know, Putin in Beijing is just all he wants, but he’s not.If that’s the relationship, if he’s reliant on China, he’s really sort of in a weak position even with his own people.DaveRoger, one of the questions that came in was maybe going a layer deeper on the oil piece for for Russia. You mentioned it is far as effective and isolated, but you know, I think I think the core maybe if you can go a little deeper when the question that come is given that oil prices are at a seven year high and that.Long or not, VICE has taken that next step. Do you think that’s even an option that that that Europe would consider doing, just given, you know, how much this has escalated in the last the last couple of days?RogerWell, I think the answer is given the unprecedented nature of what they’ve already done. It wouldn’t surprise me to see the next step, partially for the reasons you pointed out, which is effective Russian oil is basically a commodity that much of the West doesn’t want to touch in terms of moving it around. So already, regardless of what has been officially decided, there is clearly some motion that is making it more and more difficult to get hold of oil.And think about it. How do you know how much you’re going to pay for it? You know, it’s not all the media. Its banks are excluded from the international payment system. You know, recognize something else that happened. The Germans decided to not certify the Nord Stream two gas pipeline that would have increased the amount of gas coming from Russia into Germany and to Germany to the rest of Europe estimated 50%.So it’s pretty clear that, you know, energy as a stick is not nearly as potent as it had been before. Now, what is going on? I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen with the appointment. John made this sudden easy. Very interesting.Alliance. That’s what it is between Russia and China that has very important energy overlays to it. Right There was an agreement, I believe, between Russia and China a few years ago to trade with each other in their currencies and not in the U.S. dollar. And to the point that was made earlier, natural gas and oil would be very, very beneficial to the rapidly growing economy of China.So I can imagine the Chinese playing a bit of a game in which Russian oil comes out through, you know, perhaps some Chinese companies there are a large number of Chinese oil companies. We don’t really know how much their reserves are. We see them around the world, you know, drilling for oil or price. And so this may end up being a very helpful answer in terms of getting that useful commodity, not having to use any hard currency and avoiding some geopolitical concerns of really some very, very unsavory countries.So I can imagine that being an outcome. Let me pick up on a point that Germany I’ve observed the same thing, which is, you know, and he’s more aware of these issues than I am. But, you know, the Chinese wanting to play a constructive role, I think they submit around the Ukraine. And he’s also right that the Chinese have benefited greatly from the existing trading system and they want to stay in that system.So one of the things that might limits them is the fear of secondary sanctions against their company. So it’s a complicated story with China. We’re trying to play a leading role, trying to position themselves as the alternative to the West trying to position themselves even in the payment system world as an alternative to swift. Those things might start to arise.And this linkage on energy will find some rest more likely coming out of China. But at the end of the day, you know, I really think China is not going to get to the point where an earlier play, you know, overly supportive of Russia for obvious reasons. And therefore, I think even even with oil going up in the price, it’s not going to be sustaining the Russian economy as much as it might imagine.DaveYeah, that’s super helpful. I heard a an old colleague of mine back from that from the military days was talking about the calculus that went into Russia making this decision. John. Roger, to invade. And obviously, you know, Putin’s on record as you as you said, one, that he believes that the worst geopolitical failure of the 20 20th century was a collapse of the Soviet Union.And it’s sort of his stated objective as a sort of reconstitute that and he’s probably looking for the right time to do that if you look at the last five years, you could argue that you know traditional relationships had been sort of deprioritized or hard even frayed potentially under under you know some of the actions that you know, us and other allies have taken.And so maybe he saw as a moment of weakness. But what I heard, which was interesting, was that sort of the events of Afghanistan specifically that, you know, sort of the botched pull out of Afghanistan at the beginning of this year or so, sorry, saw that the fall of last year sort of set a clear message that says, well, look, you know, this wasn’t really handled well and wanted to it’s sort of a clear sign of like how they sort of think about your allies and partners.And that was sort of I heard like one of the major final straws I said or I can go in is probably not what these guys are going to do about. In fact, I heard about a meeting that the Russian foreign minister had with senior officials in the U.S. where he stated, hey, we may we may not go into Ukraine, but there’s nothing that America is going to be able to do about it to start the process.Right. Just so sort of like the flip it sort of arrogance. And then separately, I know there’s a lot of discussion, you know, maybe to Roger’s points that this could also be seen as an opportunity for for China to continue or saber-rattling potentially take the next step in Taiwan, which obviously had significant significant geopolitical implications. And my assumption is, given the swift response economically and how interlinked China is the global economy, that my guess is that’s pretty massive deterrent.But I’d be clear to see you guys talk about that for a second. Maybe start with you, John.JohnYeah, I do think like I said, I think multiple administrations have misplayed Putin. I think he’s essentially been at war with us sort of in their intelligence doctrine, political warfare, information warfare, whatever you want to call it, to try to weaken us from the inside for a minimum of at least ten years since 2008 when he went into Georgia and he stated it, you know, directly at the Munich conference there.JohnThat was his goal. And I think since that time, multiple administrations have tried to deal with him. And every time he’s done something where we really should have and could have pushed back, we didn’t do so because I would think we thought, hey, well, if we accommodate him, if we give him an off ramp, you know, maybe he’ll come around You know, presidents have big egos and they think that, you know, if there’s a problem, they can solve it with their wonderful personalities.And I think we realize that, you know, so we came into this in a pretty sort of weakened space. And Afghanistan was a huge problem. I mean, we we looked we we didn’t work with our allies. It was, you know, essentially surrendering to the Taliban. It was a complete mess. And it was certainly seen by the Chinese and Russians as weakness.But a bigger thing, I think, is our own tribal nature, political nature here in the United States. And he’s been trying to foment and exploit that and and use all sorts of disinformation, deception to mess with us inside. But, you know, you look what happened on January six and all these other kind of things, you know, a good portion of the Republican Party is less supportive of Putin and doesn’t care about what he does around the world.And and Americans are sort of see they we see our political opponents as the enemy. We don’t see Russia anymore as the enemy or foreign people. I think we’ve been so used to essentially years and years of success and peace and economic growth that we sort of forget there’s a price to pay for that, to try to deter people who want to change that rules based order.And of course, now we’re faced with it. And so even Biden in his speech last night said, you know, we know that we’ve learned a lesson that if you if you don’t push back against dictators, they will continue to create chaos. Well, that’s absolutely true. And we didn’t push back for quite a long time and sort of we ended up sort of stuck here.And so, yeah, Vladimir Putin, the person with grievances against the West, created sort of a false narrative about, you know, the West being a threat to him and having that nose for weakness, I think put all those things together and perhaps having been a dictator so long of not getting real information any more thought that this he could go in and the West would not be able to push back.I mean, Europe really has been weak over the last couple of decades. They have not invested in defense. They have been really inward focusing. And so, you know, he didn’t necessarily misread that, but he forgot that the size of our economies and our long history together and the fact that we have allies and they don’t allow us to sort of quickly come around and push back.And so I think hopefully he’s very surprised about how quickly Europe, the United States and Western leaning countries around the world have come together on this.RogerYeah, let me let me jump in and say, from the economic standpoint, there was an economic equivalent of not pushing back, which was when he went into Crimea. There was discussion, rumored talk of using the swift tool, moving some Russian banks out of access to Swift. He explicitly said they would be perceived as an act of war. And we didn’t do it.There was a moment when I met that they should have, but to John’s point in the finance world, clearly a point of weakness. Similarly, you know, the using the oil and more natural gas to act on the economics, perhaps decoupling Germany, Western Europe from the U.S. around that. And there have been quite a bit of friction around this question of Western Europe becoming more and more linked to Russia in the energy sphere.So perhaps you read that that’s not the sort of economic story that feeds very much into the John story. Sort of, you know, perhaps Germany won’t stand up. And one of the things that I think is really quite amazing spilling over a little bit into what John talks about. But the focus that the Germans now have on spending much more of their budget on defense from the standpoint of an economic policy, that is a pretty dramatic move to finally get up to two and a half percent of their GDP on defense.All of that triggered by this. And at that point, you think about finance using economics. Most of the early signals were, you know, maybe Europe is not going to jump behind us around these things that perhaps they’re going to go their own way. So I can imagine. I know nothing about the psychology of what I’ve just heard from John but if he were looking for points of weakness in the Western alliance on this economic topic, there could have been two or three straws in the wind that might have reinforced what he saw around Afghanistan and other things.So, you know, all of a peace and I think all of us rescued and as well are surprised at the strength of the unified voice in the economic space as well. The geopolitical space on this one it’s not clear, even if it’s one would have predicted that ten days to two weeks ago. The other thing to note economically is no other than energy, Western interaction, financial interaction, business interaction with Russia is relatively limited There are very few banks that have really like turned to Russia.They’re not normally thought of on this energy as being sort of credit worthy. And so, you know, they’re the collapse of their economy. Other than this question of energy is unlikely to have a negative spillover effect back to US banks, for example, or even most European banks. So. And then we saw today the stock market turned around. So know there are no seem to be no replications in Western economy other than how this oil thing plays out from the the turmoil and chaos that has emerged in Russia because they have over many, many years tried to decouple from the West.And the result of that is we look like we can penalize them more than they do as us in the world of finance and economics.JohnRight. Because one quick answer, one and one quick thing is in a sense, when you look at Vladimir Putin, you got to look at someone who is essentially like, you know, a bully or an organized crime boss. And he has that mentality. And so, you know, when you talk about we didn’t push back over all those years, he also has that real skill.You know, again, he’s a dictator. He doesn’t have any threats internally, have to worry about about intimidating and threatening and pushing back. So every time. You know, we even hinted that we might do these kind of sanctions. When I push back, he sort of went nuclear and pushed back and made it clear he separated us from our allies by everybody saying, hey, it’s not worth going that far because he might do something crazy.And we’re seeing that now. He’s threatening, you know, nuclear war. And you guys have said mean comments to me. Therefore, I’m putting my nuclear by your nuclear weapons on alert. I mean, it’s the same kind of thing. He’s he uses those threats to scare us and push us back and then have some, you know, allies it’s a hard thing to keep, you know, to throw allies together and things.Some people are going to be like, oh, my God, let’s back off. We need to offer them, you know, face saving measures. We need to listen to what he wants And so, I mean, he’s very, very good at that game of sort of, you know, a bully tactics of, you know, threatening and making people back off.DaveYeah. No, I totally agree. That there’s two question just came out. I want to ask you that when I guess I think they’re related. The first is, is the Russian military performing as poorly as is suggested in the press? If yes, what are the implications longer term? That’s question one. Maybe, John, you could try that. And then my question, too, is acknowledging that Putin is a dictator and that weakness is an existential threat probably to his his is his hold on power.How does this resolve in a way that allows Putin a way out that doesn’t guarantee his downfall? What does that path look like and in what timeframe specifically is they’re acceptable course of action to Putin that would lead to the end of sanctions? Maybe take that, Roger. Maybe, John, start with the Russian military performance to date, as you said, relative to our assessment of them going into it.And then and then and then what is a way out of this process? Is there a way to save.JohnA quick comment on the on the way out? Off-Ramp thing is, you know, there’s a lot of that now now that he’s made these nuclear threats. There’s a lot of that we have to have he has to have a means to save face he has to have an off ramp. He has a way and a way to stay in power here.And sort of one quick thing is, you know, he manufactured this entire thing, thing out of whole cloth. There was no threat to him. There was no pushing needle. There was nothing here is his grievances and anger are based on things from like you know, the 1990s and such. He may he he made this up and my take is like, listen he if he needs a way off to face save, he can make he can kill a bunch of people and claim victory and back off and he can, he can make up his own face.Saving things is not on us to have to somehow give him a way out of this. But on the on the military thing, it’s, you know, I’m not a military expert. It’s hard to follow these things. It’s certainly hard to follow them through the media. There’s sort of this world of, you know, military Twitter, people who are finding things in the world of Open-Source Intelligence has gotten so big, you know, the Bellingcat of the world.I don’t know if you guys follow that group, among others, that have been able to use big data sets to pull together, you know, incredible amount. You know, if there’s a bomb that goes off somewhere now, there’s so much social media and pictures taken around there, they can be sucked in and pulled together and, you know, tic Tacs and everything.So on one hand is making it hard for Putin because Ukrainians or others are sort of putting pushing out to the world the stuff they’re doing. And so, yes, it looks like they they really screwed this up. I think, again, he’s a dictator. I’m sure they’ve told him that, you know, the military is strong and ready to go.But at the same time, the people around him, you know, it’s like they’re massive criminals. They’ve been stealing money it all places. So whoever the Shoigu, who’s a minister of defense, has been saying, yes, sir, yes, sir. We got this covered. I’m sure at the same time, you know, he’s got another another crony of Putin who says, well, I want my company to do X, Y and Z.And even if that company is, that is the worst choice. That’s the way that guys skims money. And so over time, I think they’ve created this Potemkin village where they think their military is more powerful and put together. It is, but it’s often a kludge together by these corrupt cronies who are all making money off of this thing.And we’re seeing it in action now. So a lot of the things that our professional military says about communication and, you know, and surprise and all these type of things, you know, they’re not showing themselves to be terribly effective. There’s you know, they’re running out of gas. They’re running out of food. You got Russian soldiers turn around and walking home the Ukrainians are using the sort of social media against them.So it doesn’t mean that Putin can’t now go to the old school thing and just raze whole cities and stuff that certainly possible. But, you know, he does have the whole world watching now. So in terms of real details about how the military is doing, you know, doesn’t look good.DaveYet. Doesn’t, Roger, what’s the path out economically? Well.RogerI think it’s very narrow, frankly, once we’ve gone to the place we’re willing to exclude some of their banks from on the international communication networks. I indicated once we got to the place, unprecedented, where we said to a central bank we’re going to limit your ability to use or you reserve you know, it’s you you know, the only way to come back from that is to say we are going to be good financial citizens.And, you know, it doesn’t seem like that’s in the Putin playbook. The other thing it’s fascinating is that we all know when you see a run on banks as occurred during the Great Depression, there was a I’m speaking to you from from the U.K. There is a line around a bank here at 28, 2009 governments tend to change, i.e., citizens think that is unacceptable.When I am not sure that I trust the banks, the government really should be held accountable in some way for that. I don’t see how that works in Russia. You have been said so. I don’t know where a couple of questions came in. Yes, I do think west western banks that have been, you know, putting Russia in more and more off limits are going to continue to do that.You know, we have in the West all these rules about sort of know your customer and anti-money laundering, etc.. Well, the money in Russia X the you know, that’s the oil and energy is in the hands of these oligarchs. They don’t tend to bank in the West for obvious reasons. So I think what the way out is, you know, Russia becoming more and more isolated, you know, more of a small economy, more limited and their trading partners probably a broader type relationship with China and a few others.And so I think from the standpoint of economics, this is really backfiring and has pushed to the further away from any ability to actually, you know, drive and claim these kind of great economies. And we didn’t have one before. He has even less of one now. And the working around of is one big resource, which is energy and others I think is is going to continue and we’ll find other ways to get to get along without the raw materials that are, you know, the major exports from Russia.So we’ll be very, very interesting. And I don’t see around other than, you know, trying to be really good citizens and separating the average Russian from government. And I honestly have no idea how that unfolds in a dictatorship.DaveSo, John, do you think then that literally Putin’s got to do in order to fix this for Russia, the Putin has to basically go away like I mean, like like lose power be overthrown? I mean, that’s that’s sort of the doomsday scenario here because because he holds a nuclear arsenal and it’s a real threat that’s obviously creating a lot of anxiety collectively and yeah. Anyways, let me ask you that.JohnWell, the problem is he’s created a system. He’s changed the Constitution. He stayed in power. They don’t really have a means of sort of of a changing of power in a nonviolent way. And so we’re sort of stuck. And so I see a few possibilities. You know, the one is sort of this becomes an ongoing sort of quagmire.There’s a number of these. So, you know, since 2014 they’ve been stuck in in eastern Ukraine and Crimea and in Georgia and in in Moldova of these sort of frozen conflicts that aren’t completely solved. And there’s Russian soldiers in these places and you know essentially what in the quagmire possibility he bombs the hell out of the place you know kills off the leadership there you know tries to put in his own people.There’s this sort of low level insurgency against him and it sort of goes on forever like it has in eastern Ukraine for the last eight years. There’s the other one is, you know, there’s an old iron curtain comes back down over Europe. You know, the brutality cracks down. He has to crack down really at home because he worries about being overthrown.And so there’s more people thrown in jail. He types up and civic type tightens up domestically. Europeans and NATO has to rearm and sort of push up. So we have an Iron Curtain. There is a possibility of of sort of a larger war here with NATO. Right. A lot of people talk about the no fly zone. No fly zone means we’re shooting down Russian planes because this is a this is a whole different thing here.If you’re bringing in more with NATO and with the West, you know, or over time and one of these sort of frozen conflicts, we’re sort of rearming from NATO countries and the Baltic people are sending things across the border. I can imagine problems. You know, wars don’t follow a script. You never know how these things are going to go once they get going.You know, if you see if you look at the map, there’s a little small part of Russia that’s separated from the rest of Russia. In Kaliningrad, it was old German, Königsberg you know, I can imagine now that he has sort of Belarus and Ukraine, you might want to make a connection to Kaliningrad, the other part of Russia. And that goes through natal countries in the Baltics who he despises and thinks are weak.Then you’re at war with NATO or they’re there’s some sort of dirty compromise that sort of has this will go away. And then the one you mentioned, it’s the Putin in the gutter scenario that, you know, that the former foreign minister, Andrei Kozyrev, put out a tweet yesterday the Russian foreign minister saying, telling people in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs that they should all quit.Like this is really something inside a country like Russia. So, you know, when there’s no legal way for this to happen, some sort of civil war, some sort of you know, violent overthrow is certainly a possibility.DaveAnd press at times. So we’re getting we’re getting to the top of the hour. We’ve got to cut this off. I’d like to hear any closing comments. Roger that. You might have before before we end the session.RogerWell, you do it unprecedented a few times. And, you know, that’s the main thing from the standpoint of finance, a country that’s not huge. What has the or not irrelevant is now clearly being made up. Ryan and I suspect from a financial standpoint is going to be a remaking of the international economic order with a rethinking of energy.And in particular and I don’t know where it’s going to where it’s going about Russia’s certainly is an important source of many commodities that we need in the West. But it’s hard for me to see quite how we pull back from all these sanctions. And so very, very messy opaque future as far as I can see here.DaveGreat. John, in closing comments for you.JohnYeah, quick and I apologize. I don’t mean this to be domestic political comment, but there is one way that Putin actually wins this thing. It’s hard to see how this comes out really well for him. But there is one way he truly can win. And in fact, if he affects our domestic politics so much that the Trump is reelected and Putin actually does win.Right. The United States pulls out of NATO that we sort of weaken our relationship with Western allies. He allows Putin to do what he wants in Eastern Europe. And so you know, there is an effect here that if if, you know, it affects our domestic politics to the point where Donald Trump or a Donald Trump like candidate wins again, that really is sort of a lifeline to Vladimir Putin.And the other one is to think about it. Right. You know, now, obviously, the Ukrainian people have incredible bravery in there is really something. And besides the Ukrainians who are suffering here, the other people to think about who are really, you know, being thrown under the bus here are the Russian people later are Putin essentially in the great tradition of the Russian czars and the Communist Party bosses, they don’t give a shit about their own people.And so they’re they they’re making their country an economic pariah. There’s no economic future for people in Russia. They’re going to be beholden to a massive China. They’re sending their men off to war to become back in body bags. This is not a good this is not a good place for Russian citizens to be either. So Russians and Ukrainians, the people are the ones that are really suffering here. And that’s.DaveYeah, well said. Thank you both so much for taking time out of your incredibly busy schedules to to talk about this. This is really this critical topic. I can’t thank you enough. And with that we’ll we’ll go ahead and end the session. Thank you, guys.JohnThanks.RogerThank you.JohnA pleasure, Roger.RogerThank you.DaveIf you want to watch the video recording of this episode, or read the full transcript, you can head over to crosslead.training to create a free account and get access to many other resources. Thanks for tuning in. I hope you enjoy the conversation I’ve have with my friends, John and Roger.

The hacker collective Anonymous declared cyberwar on Russia, as reported by The Guardian. The group claimed credit for hacking the Russian Ministry of Defence database, and is believed to have hacked multiple state TV channels to show pro-Ukraine content. In this episode, host Shannon McKinnon is joined by Cyberwarfare Correspondent Chris Kubecka to discuss the DDoS attacks launched by Anonymous, how they're affecting the people of Ukraine, and more. • For more on cybersecurity, visit us at https://cybersecurityventures.com/