The Duran Podcast
BRICS Kazan, a world outside the USD w/ Samuel Trapp (Live)
All right, we are live with Alexander, Mayor Curtis and today we have with us Samuel Trapp who has a fantastic YouTube channel also is a radio host and Samuel, it is great to have you on the Duran, the first time on the Duran, what would you like to plug, where is the best place that people can follow your work? Well, in Russian language, you would follow me at Samuel Trapp on my YouTube channel and in English, I am a host on damnradio.com and I have a show every Tuesday and 30, Tuesday and Thursday at 4 p.m. Central time. And so that's an English program. I usually focus on international topics, war in Ukraine, ricks or probably my two favorite issues. All right, I will have those links as a pinned comment when the live stream ends and I already have Samuel's Russian language, YouTube channel in the description box down below, though you do have a couple of videos on that channel in English as well, right Samuel? That's right. It was really a fluke that I started. I just threw something in Russian after listening to the Tucker Carlson interview in Russian and in English. And I thought, I love the guy, but I thought he missed a few opportunities, especially listening to it in Russian. It's like, I felt like Putin opened the door for him to a couple of areas that he could have gone into a little deeper, but because of a translation that didn't quite fit the spot as it were, we missed it. And we didn't miss anything. He did a great job, but I just felt like, no, no, I'd have gone there. That's another question. So anyway, that's how I got started in Russia and there were so many people in Russian that watched it, I just kind of started doing one with him. All right, fantastic. And now you are with us on the Duran. So let's say a quick hello to everyone that is watching us on Odyssey, on Rockfin, Rumbled, the Duran.locals.com, and on YouTube a good day to everyone that is joining us for this live stream. And a big shout out. Hello, and a thank you to our moderators on the chat. Peter, I hope you're doing well. Peter, great to have you with us. Zariel, Zariel is back in the house. I hope everything is going well, Zariel. And I think that is it for the moderators and Alexander Samuel. Let's talk about what is happening in the world, what is happening in Russia, what's going to be happening in a couple of weeks in Kazan with the big BRICS event, Alexander Samuel, the floor is yours. Because there's no one better to discuss all of these things with than Samuel, because Samuel is in the general area. He's not far from Kazan in Russia, and he is familiar with the town itself, the city, I should say, and of course he takes a particular interest in the development of the BRICS. And I should also say that Samuel who speaks Russian has been very familiar with Russian affairs. He's able to discuss with us the situation in Russia and give us a sense of where he's going. I'd like to say a few things quickly about the city of Kazan, because it's a place that people are not familiar with. I suspect quite probably that they will become very familiar with it. Like everybody talks about Bretton Woods, because of what happened there in 1944, where the financial and global architecture world trade was created basically by John Maynard Keynes and Dexter White, an American diplomat and a British official. Anyway, that was in 1944. Kazan might lead to something analogous, but Kazan is a very interesting place by itself. It's a city, it was the capital of the Tata Khanate within Russia. Well, what became Russia? Those who know Eisenstein's film Ivan the Terrible will know that it starts with Ivan marching his army to capture Kazan. Kazan then becomes part of the Russian Empire. Important family based there, the Yuzus became the Yuzupas, who married into the Romanov dynasty, and one of them, by the way, was involved in the assassination of Grigori in a spoutin. This is a major powerful local family converted to orthodoxy. There's at the same time in Kazan, it's still the capital of the Tata people of Russia. It is an economic powerhouse. It is an intellectual powerhouse. It has a tremendous Kremlin of fortress, where there is both a cathedral and a mosque, and I should say that the communities, to my best understanding, work with each other very well. There is a famous university, one of whose Alumni is a man called Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known to the world as Lenin. And not far away from Kazan, there is also a gigantic factory where Russia and before that, the Soviet Union built strategic bombers, and they also built helicopters, and Kazan says an industrial, economic, intellectual powerhouse, and it's distinctive in many respects from other Russian cities. So that's a brief account of Kazan, a place which perhaps given that it is, at least in theory, geographically in Europe. People in Europe should know better about what they don't know very much about. But anyway, Samuel, this is not your first time in Kazan. You've been there before the conflict began. You've been there now. Tell us what your impressions of the place is, and indeed your impressions of Russia at the moment. I mean, is this a place buckling under the weight of the sanctions, or is this something else? Absolutely, not buckling is what I would say. I've been here quite a bit in the last five years, a couple of times a year I come here, and into Kazan is where I lie most of the time. And a little bit of changes you can certainly talk about both sanctions are that money has a little bit more of a problem. You can be pretty easy over here. Could use my Google pay, could use Samsung pay and whatever. Now you can buy a debit partner, get a debit card over here and put money on a debit card so you don't have to carry cash, or just keep cash. So they've made it a little bit harder for Westerners, but there's nothing that's not, well, you can get around use problems. And everything, the people have always been fantastic in the area has always been great. Latitude-wise, it's on the same level as Russia, so the climate is pretty similar. So it's now a good fall. They have two seasons here. And very beautiful. I like touring and seeing the memorials, which there are quite a few of them, and I like to post information like that. I come here once a year and go to a sanatorium, get health care, and that's a shock. They're shocked to see an American that would do something like that. And I'm very much interested in the politics and in what people think and how they think. And I think that 30 years ago, I worked in arms control, and I believe if we had done things differently after the collapse of the Soviet Union, we wouldn't be where we are today, but I think the U.S. in particular, and I met third in the U.S. military. I think the U.S. in particular has made some mistakes over the last 30 years that, you know, I'm not in charge, so obviously, you know, nobody's going to listen to me about that, but I think that our experts either aren't really experts or are just telling people what they want to hear. And so, you can go where you want with that. And I came over specifically to get into the breaks conference or in hopes there are. I've submitted my paperwork. I feel good about it. I can't imagine that I won't be able to get some information from some people that are in the area the morning ago. Tell us a little bit about the economic situation. Before we get on to bricks, I mean, you mentioned that it's difficult to access money, but did you see signs of hardship, economic strain, shops closed to people homeless? Is there anything like that? Because sometimes we do get in the West in certain sections of the British media impressions. Well, you know, things are all right now, but it won't be so for much longer, and they've gone over to a complete militarized economy, and they're only producing shells and shortages of everything else. I mean, I have read articles like this, and articles that are talking this way. Was that your impression? That is not my impression at all. In August, I spent two, three weeks in Atlantic Coast, which in southern Russia, gone by Georgia, and the reconstruction, if you want to call it that, the renovation remodeling, the building of old places. It is going everywhere. Everything is quite modern. The roads are 10 times better than they were years ago. They are spending money in the right places. It's my impression. Last year, I spent six weeks, and I know this in Russia, but in a former Soviet Republic, in their strongly connected, you know, by like John Kyrgyzstan, and I tell you what, one big thing that you get is, and here, too, I did not imagine me telling me about two or three hours from Kazan and families. When you see people having families and lots of younger children, and see that, it's not like they don't have any hope. You know what I mean? It was going to have a family in a place where you're not going to be able to raise them or offer them things, offer them goods, tools, and so I disagree strongly with those people who say that Russia is backwards, that Russia doesn't have, but a lot of that funding I know is extended to the places that used to be part of the Soviet Union too, but all of them are experiencing great development, which is why I wanted to come to break. It's a different way of thinking completely in the way, and I'm an American, born in America, you know, I'm a patriot. I love America and all of those things, but I'm not so sure we're going to be the greatest country in the world, as long as we think we are, especially if we don't start thinking a little differently. You know what I mean? Absolutely. Let's start talking about the bricks. Before we do, what do people in Kazan make of it all? I mean, because the city is now hosting this event, our presumably preparations are on the way to receive everybody. Is there excitement? Are people talking about it? Is this something that the local newspaper and television is talking about, or is everybody just going about their normal lives as usual, even as great events happen around them? Just asking. My impression, and again, I only get to see the people that I meet on the street and in cars, but I always talk to everybody. I'm a talker, and so I try to get their impressions, and they know about it, but they're curious as well, and they are patriots too, and they're excited about these things. It seems to me that they think very positively of it. They like to see it coming together, and I spoke with a guy giving me a ride in a Yandex. They're Uber, basically, and the driver was telling me about the strong growth in factories. He says, "I work in a factory, and that factory, I can make a good wage," and on the way home from work, he drives 45 minutes back and forth. He used his car to be a Yandex driver, and I happened to catch him on his way home from work. The same is us in America. They're big things that are happening, and they're paying attention, but they may not be obsessed with them like some of us aren't, me and Bigular, but I like talking about those things, but generally very positive, and they know quite a bit very well and important. Tell us about the bricks, because, of course, if you read the media here in Britain, and I'm obviously based in Britain, but I think the same is true that the United States, but one of the most interesting facts about the bricks is that nobody ever talks about it. You find the odd article in the Financial Times in London, but elsewhere, there's hardly ever any discussion of the bricks, any recognition that it even exists. So what is it exactly? Just, well, not exactly, but in general terms, tell us what it is. Well, it started with the five countries, Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and basically it was in 2014 that they started, and we're looking, Russia was under an enormous amount of sanctions in the US. I don't want to say they didn't exist, but they were extremely rare before Bush too, and then Clinton had a few, you know, nobody's, Obama had a few, but they really started to grow under Trump, and they've exploded under Biden, Paris, and in part, because Russia's alleged invasion, if you want to call it that, of Ukraine, I don't, but some people would like to. And for years, and this is kind of my point with we live in a different world now, people have ignored what they call the global South. They've ignored that there is a huge portion of the planet that doesn't like this, the Unid rule, one ruler, and that ruler happens to be an old daughter in the White House. People haven't liked it even when it wasn't an old daughter in the White House, and it's just been getting worse since the collapse of the Soviet Union. And with our American, I mean, I'm an American-based, our colonialist attitudes worldwide, connected to nothing. Handouts given in Africa, to the right leader, if we appoint a leader, we give him money, but he doesn't really give that money to the people or spread it out to do anything. All you have to do is join the SWIFT system, and all you have to do is claim that your democracy and, you know, life is grand, and the US will keep pumping money into your coppers, and you can do to the people what you'd like. And the rest of the world has seen that as exactly what it is, something that hasn't worked very well. The third world is still the third world, although it's really not. But in America, we claim, you know, all those are third world countries. But if you travel to them, you're going, wait a second. They have the same things we have. They're just as fancy as we are. You know, I've been around a bit. I've been to 51 countries, and I like to travel and go to places that are different, and I like to see what they have. And the US had ever, we spent all of our money abroad, and the US didn't know why. You know, we don't know why we're wondering why we're pumping all this money in the Ukraine, and what does Ukraine give up? The rest of the world is wondering why we're forcing US standards, if you want to call them that, or demands upon them. And bricks have come about when people in the sanctions, namely in places like Russia, where we're tired of it. But you can't get around them because of the oil dollar and the swift banking system. And so if you can get around the oil dollar in the swift banking system, and the US making money off of those for as many years as they have, and pocketing it, or financing their own internal politics and games in the United States, if you can get around that, maybe there's a chance to change it. I don't know if I pronounce his name right whenever I say it, but one of the strongest proponents of this is a little bit of a surprise, because he's very positive. He's pro-western too, and his name is Jai Shankar, the foreign minister from India. I don't know if I said his name right I never do, but I don't mean to if I'm incorrect. But I love listening to him. I think he says that he hits it right on the head every time. Our ability to take care of our country of India by making a deal with Russia for oil, nothing to do with the United States. We should get, by the way, his words, you know, and people are frankly tired of it. That's dictating to people what they do. He gets his oil for for by all reports, 5 to 10% less than he would get it if he had to do it through the US banking swift oil-dollar system, which is collapsing. If you pay any attention to bricks at all, and if you, those five countries, they've added another five or six that are actual members of another 10 to 12 that are actual application that has been filed, and they have another 40 to 80 that want in. And the issues that they're discussing are whether they're going to allow them in, just because they want to be in, or whether there's going to be some kind of a standards in this past week. The big news was that Vladimir Putin put out something regarding standards. I'm not sure if you're familiar with it, but he said, anyone, you know, we are expanding and going to accept more people, but anyone that wants in is going to have to commit to we don't sanction people. And if you have sanctions against other people, you must remove them. And I, you know, I don't want to say well said, you know, and people said, but truly, it's a different way of thinking. And if the US and the Western block doesn't come around this year, they've fallen to number two in the US and the West is now trading less globally than the brick bricks countries between themselves. The brick countries between themselves are past the US and others in the Western world. They surpassed the dollar, China surpassed the dollar individually with the yen, more transactions of close with the yuan than they have with the dollar after the second quarter of this year. And so whether we like it or not in the West, these things are changing. And I came here specifically in an effort to find out more about that because the United States also wasn't talking about it to your point that in Britain, they don't speak about it. You don't hear about it. Whether they're afraid of it or not, I had somebody say to me, oh, you know, bricks is just a buzzword. I was like, oh, really? Well, that buzzword is about to destroy the United Nations and create a different, if complained about United Nations and the Security Council and whether five people could be able to control the planet or five countries. And I'll give you a chance to respond to all those things I've said. I think your point that World Trade, the greatest part of World Trade now happens outside the Western system. That is the key point. It is a revolutionary change. The West, the Atlantic trade has dominated global economic activity since the 16th century. I mean, that was when we, you know, the Atlantic became the focus of global trade. European merchants established their connections right across the globe. The empires, the colonial empires, followed the United States and merged out of them and merged out of the British Empire. But it meant that the West until very recently was at the center of the global trading and ultimately economic system because where trade happens, that's where economic activity is centered. And for the first time since then, since the 16th century, we have the shift away. We have a shift back towards the Pacific, towards China, towards the Eurasian states. And this is something that ultimately is going to dictate everything else. It's going to affect and change everything. This is my own view. And what we're seeing, what we're going to see in Kazan, what the BRICS is all about, to my way of thinking, is how to organize this change, which has come about organically, and basically to set out the broad rules for how it is conducted. Because trade does need rules, you need to know how to transfer funds. You need to also be confident that when you do transfer funds, they will get to the other side to where you're moving your money to. You want to ensure that your contracts are adhered to and abided by. So you need to work through all of that system. And that I think is what BRICS is ultimately about. It's about setting up the trade and architecture of this changed world, which is no longer centered so much on the West. Now, just before I could deal you, I would first ask you whether you agree with that perspective. The second is, can you give us some idea? Because you said that we have the core states, but lots of others are coming. And maybe you could tell us a little bit about who is coming, which some of the Arab states or the oil producers are understanding coming. But also now all kinds of other countries want to join Turkey, Syria, Cuba, I believe it's just made an application. Algeria, Ecuador, I think, was it? I am not Columbia, I think it was. Anyway, first of all, do you agree with my overall perspective? And secondly, as I said, who exactly is coming to BRICS? And who's going to be representing them there? I mean, you mentioned Josh. I absolutely agree with what you have said about its long overdue. It's kind of an organic change that I used to say, oh, six, 10 years ago, you know, that everybody knows that China is going to surpass the United States, it's just a question of when. And they have a plan, you know, they're actually planned something in America. Our plan changes every 40 years, you know, it's a different plan. But you can't really make any forward progress when somebody turns around every four years and goes the other direction. And China is not like that. You can disagree with how they run the play. The thing with Russia, you can disagree with how they run the play, but they have a longer memory. So this BRICS has been going on for at least 10 years, maybe a little more. And the founding countries were Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa came along. They added them. They're the last one that got added to the, you know, the short, the acronym that got added to the acronym. Since then, and last year, they allowed in Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates. It had applications from here are the ones who have applied, but haven't been admitted yet. And as were by John Bangladesh, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Turkey, a big surprise, and Syria. And there was talk several months ago of another 24 to 40 that wanted to come in. And then the US, well, Western media, you've been to beat up and say they've frozen admission to BRICS. They're falling apart. That's not true. They froze it because they truly want a system going forward. And this meeting in Russia is going to be a foundation to come up with rules. Like the rule I quoted about sanctions, you know, we don't sanction people. That's, you know, you have to commit to that if you're going to be a member of BRICS. I expect them to say something about whether you can be an open member of any other organization that does force you to sanction people. I think that might be an issue. Although clearly so far, people are allowed to be members of different economic clubs as well. You mentioned the Eurasian sphere. There's the, uh, Turkey is a member of the EC and whether they have to leave in order to be a BRICS member, you know, remains to be seen. I kind of doubt it from my own point of view and my own perspective on that there's one. Well, if we as Americans don't do something about it, we're going to end up missing the boat and being at the bottom of the barrel will be the third world country because the rest of the world will be members of BRICS and we won't have any part of it. There will be just us in England, in our own little economic form and, you know, we win, you know, but whether that's victory or not, I don't know. Meanwhile, he has Trump talking about the dollar as they shouldn't and his efforts to combat it, which is what I will sanction those countries who de-dollar rise. Okay, that's quite the threat, but really? So what? We've seen what de-dollarization and sanctions has done in Russia and in my view, not whole law, you know, Russia is better than it was five years ago and certainly better than it was when I was here multiple occasions in the 90s. It's no longer run by bandits, you know, you're thought about what you think of Russian political system, you know, and be your own, but they rule the place on behalf of the people, whether they're bandits or not, you know what I mean? Yes, you can disagree with the political theory. You can disagree with whether democracy is, you know, the best or whether a king is better, you know, I lived in Qatar for two years and there was a prince, I believe he was, but the place was right in my clockwork. Yeah, there's no problem there. That place is great. So, I don't know that I'm so stuck on democracy and this world that is stuck on democracy is going to lose out if they don't start paying attention to the way that other people run their countries more along the lines of acceptance diplomacy instead of orthing whatever your view is of Western democracy down other people's throats. It hasn't worked for a couple hundred years and it's probably not going to work going forward, especially now. I think it's going to go faster and faster. I didn't expect breaks countries to surpass the West for several years. I believe it's common and it's common extremely quickly and this conference is one of the most you mentioned Bretton Woods, one of the most important meanings basically of the 20th century and the 21st century, guess what? It's meeting, I think, and what they do to organize a global structure because the UN isn't working. If you pay attention to those security council meetings, which I know you do, they are strongly against everyone is there were at least 10 to 15 foreign ministers that came and spoke against this hegemony and in favor of multi-polarism and honor other cultures, quit trying to shove the will of five down the throats of the rest of the world. Tell us about this discussion that's going on about payment systems because I noticed that in Russia, Blue Putin had a meeting just a couple of days ago, he's central bank chair, an abueling it, led it, which was all about setting up international payment systems and you mentioned you talked about Swift quite a lot. What does Putin, what are the Russians, what perhaps does bricks because it's clearly connected to the summit meeting? What's all that about? Well, if you go to the BRICS website, it's BRICS Russia 2024, I did this on my radio show a couple of weeks ago. I tried to point out all of the international focuses that they are making right now. One of them being an international system of payments, there's international legal transactions and how we're going to do it. Everything that the UN does in New York with all these side meetings and committees on finance, on how we pay in and on banking rules and rules of exchange and how you determine the rate and sporting activities and travel. There's a COVID group, you know, people are meeting to just got COVID World Health. They are literally creating an international, a global society to compete with the United Nations because they've talked about for 10 years when Sergey Lavrov gave his speech in the UN and I always listen to him with great interest because he's so well-spoken. And he said, "We are meeting an anniversary here where we said that in 10 years we would address this, changing the structure for the benefit of the rest of the world with a new committee and, you know, the G7, and nobody's done anything." He said, "I am embarrassed to be sitting here knowing we haven't done anything." And, you know, I don't believe, this is me and who am I, you know, but I don't believe if the UN and the people don't listen to the other 45% of the population of the world, which currently are members of BRICS, all the people that are wanting to apply to BRICS that will increase that number to 65 to 70% of the world are going to make a decision without them, you know, and the UN will become the second class citizen because they haven't paid attention to the new world order that hopefully is built upon equality of nations regardless of their size and regardless of their financial data. Gresson Woods created various institutions which, in theory, we're supposed to mediate world trade, there was the IMF, which most people don't know, but it was basically, the IMF was basically set up by at the instigation of John Maynard Keynes to regulate the exchange rate system, the system of controlling currencies, regulating how currencies were to operate, and to transfer funds to make sure that, you know, currency relationships remain stable, it evolved into something quite different than there was the World Bank as well, does any word from BRICS, that they get to start creating institutions like that, you know, banks, courts, maybe, because we're going to set up rules, we need enforcement mechanisms, we need courts, any talk of that kind? Throughout the month of October in Russia and many different cities, there are different subcommittees of BRICS that are meeting, a lot of them in Moscow, quite a few of them in Moscow in fact, one of those has to do with creating a new exchange system, Russia created its own exchange system about eight and years ago, China created its own exchange system back in 2019, I want to say, and so five years ago, and they want to, both of those systems allow other countries to trade in the ruble or in the yuan, and they want to create, whether they're going to create a go-back BRICS currency, a BRICS dollar, you know, whatever you want to call it, whether they're going to create a specific currency remains to be seen, but I believe that if they don't announce a complete banking system this summit, that they will in the very near future, whether whoever hosts it next year, and I apologize for not knowing, but I really paid attention to anything but this one, whoever hosts it next year is going to have a lot of additional work, they're, like I said, at least 40 more countries that want to join and Russia is the chair for this year, who knows, so it'll be next year, probably one of the big five still, but you know, I hope to do this, this kind of a hobby for me, I wish to do this and really be in the know, and I expect a lot of things, and I encourage everyone to go and look at the BRICS 2024 website and look at all the subcommittees at the work that they are doing, this is not a foolish pipe dream, this is a realistic group of people trying to avoid the World Bank, trying to avoid the IMF, which is how the US and the West have controlled the rest of the planet for at least 50 years, probably before that too, but it's gotten worse, when after the collapse to the Soviet Union, I did a, I was still in the military, and we did a humanitarian aid trip for the IMF on behalf of the State Department, and I was one of the interpreters sent over there, to Moldova, and part of the, it's through the IMF, through the World Bank, and this is how we control new countries, we put a string out there with, you know, a billion dollars on it and say, hey, you know, join in with our form of democracy, join in with the leaders that we want, join in, join our banking system, ignore those big bad wolves to the east of you, and you're in, you know, you can be part of our little group, but as soon as you don't, it's, but if you need the money, you take the money, whether you really want to be a part of the group or not, you know, the money's a big deal, so that's what gets you in, but if you really deep down, have a completely different culture, it can only work for so long, and we're bumping up against cultures that don't think like we do, you know, the Slavic people do not think like me, and I'm in awe by it, I honor it, I think it's great, but they don't think the way we do, and they have very long memories, they remember, and people have lost everyone over here, and lost family members less than a generation ago, you know, everyone still talks about the great patriotic war, and they have memorials everywhere, in the United States, yes, we have some, but most of them are in Washington, D.C., most of them you bring out once a year, seems to me that these people, they think differently than we do because of what they have gone through, and the 90s in the East was like our depression in the West, and they remember it, and so, you know, belt tightening, they're used to it, and I believe it's common to a place near you in the West, if you don't, at least start paying attention to bricks, and a sideline, I'm trying to find a way to invest in bricks futures, if at all possible, because no matter what happens, I think they're going to go up, you know, and they don't exist yet, but if they do, I'd like to be an on the ground floor. Can I just, my last question, who exactly is coming to Kazan? I mean, which individuals are coming, I mean, is it going to be prime ministers, is it going to be presidents, will Xi Jinping be there, will Lula from Brazil be there, who is going, I mean, other one, is he coming, I mean, people of that kind, is it going to be on that level, because that can make a difference, if it's- Well, they haven't announced the exact attendees yet, but it'll be foreign minister and above, you know, for everyone, these are big deals, Putin is expected to be there, which means a lot of other heads of state will be here, and I think, at least for the opening ceremonies, I mean, you know how that goes, they'll have an initial meeting and then split up, and when you're actually approved to attend, you get an attendee packet and all of those things. I'm received mine yet, still very hopeful, and we will see, if I do, you know, I'll certainly let you know, but even if I don't, I'm going to hover around here and see what I can do, see if I can get in, but the countries that are coming coming, all the five, all the other sticks, and all of the 24 to 40, there's a word that upwards of 97, finding a place to stay nearly impossible. It is going to be packed, and because on airport, I've been into and out of many times, and it's a good side of airport, I mean, because on it's about 800,000 people, you know, it's a good size, and it's sizable, but you know, more of a large regional airport, but in the West, you know, but it's, you know, well suited to handle them all, so a real airport, and they're real hotels and great places to stay, excellent food, and it's going to be packed with foreigners and with foreign press and with foreign leaders, and lots of information, and people should really pay attention, and it's like you said, the West is, if we ignore it, maybe it'll go away, but it's not going away. Absolutely. Samuel Trapp, thank you very much. If you could just stay there a little while, I'm sure we've got lots of questions. I'll pass you over to Alex now. Thank you for your clear answers to all my questions. Thanks for having me. Samuel, you have 10, 15 minutes to go through some questions from viewers. Yeah, fantastic. Matthew asks, given this is all linked to the move to multi-polarity, do you see this ultimately ending in global conflict? Will the USA ultimately accept its reduction in power? My initial response would be I'm not sure that they have any choice, but then the subcategory of that is I've felt for years that our country is run by maybe not the America, I mean maybe not the wise of people, and we keep getting pushed toward global conflict instead of away from it. But I'm not necessarily, do I intend to vote for Donald Trump? Yes, I do, but I don't necessarily believe that he's a whole lot better than the alternative. It's just he's not one of them. You know what I mean? And if he is smart, he won't keep saying things like I'm going to sanction the rest of the world, I'll tell them what to do. Being a global player isn't necessarily being the strongest, and I'm not so sure that we're really the strongest anymore either. If our weapons in Ukraine are any example, there's a lot of argument to be made that our weapons won't really stand up through a fruitet. The rest of the world isn't necessarily Iraq 15 to 20 years ago, and so there's a lot of development that has gone on, and we may have missed the boat. And so I unfortunately, my subcategory, I think we'd be foolish to get into a global, more global conflicts than we're already involved in, but part of me feels like some of them are unavoidable as well. I hope not. I hope stainer heads prevailed, but I'm not so positive about that on my end from what I see. Commando Crossfire says bricks should not expand at this point, in my opinion. What do you believe? Well, I think again, whether or not it expands isn't based on my opinion or anyone else's. The need for it to expand, at least in the eyes of those who are planning to expand it, is because, like Josh Enkar, he's been ignored for 10 years, like any other developing economy has been ignored at the global level for all intents and purposes. They are told what to do instead of being brought along. It's a different topic completely, but if you contrast what we do on the western level, hold out the carrot, beat them with a stick, or some indecension, and give them charity instead of help them develop. China gives the roads and bridges. They build infrastructure in these places with loans and build infrastructure without necessarily or without at all, telling them how they must run their government, whether they have to put austerity measures in and not give benefits to certain people if they get the money. No, we give you the money. We want it to go toward these projects and we want you to build this infrastructure, but it's not. We're not going to sanction you if you don't. This is what it's for and we want to help you develop. They're seen as more of a partner. They say they want to be your partner. We don't do that. We tell them how they must do it and we force them to do it through the World Bank, whatever rules we decide to put them. My opinion on that makes no difference to the only ones that matter or those that are in bricks. I believe they get to expand. It's just a question of how they do it and if we had done something differently in the West, perhaps they wouldn't, but they feel they have no choice and have to. And commando crossfire has a follow-up to that question. He says bricks needs to mandate union pay and mere card as a condition of membership, as well as a swift alternative and not expand until it's done in all current members. Well, that's yet another opinion and the union pay system is a competitor to mere over here and the payment systems that they use here. It's been very difficult. If you come over here only with your master card and your visa, you're not going to be paying for it. You better find an alternative way to pay and sometimes it's not that easy. I believe they do have to expand that. I was trying to find the Chinese pay system. Union pay is one of them that works here as well, but it's hit and miss whether that works in the West and and over here. You might be able to pull currency out on a union pay card if you have a system that doesn't, but you can't freely transfer money. So I believe that will be one thing will be one thing addressed in this conference. If they don't, I don't say I'll be disappointed, but I'll be wondering what they're up to and why it's taking so long because it's somewhat overdue. They do have these other payment systems, but they're not quite international. China has theirs, Russia has theirs, and they may or may not be acceptable in other parts of the world. Can you make payments with a union pay card now in various parts of Russia? Have you been to any places where you can actually pay with a union pay instead of a mirror? No, I don't have a union pay. I was looking into one to get one in the United States and try it over here, but I wasn't able to get that done. But my research on it says that you can pull cash out on a union pay card here in certain places, but they're limited to the large cities, Moscow, St. Petersburg, a couple of other places is what I understand. Don't take that as gospel because that's only thing. I'm trying it myself, but on the mirror system now, which I do have a tagged card to it, a mirror card that's accepted virtually everywhere. Yeah, if you go to Russia, you need the mirror. You need it. Yeah. Yeah. Jungkul Jin asks Samuel, could you comment on the US backed who in Bangladesh, their man in Dhaka, Muhammad Yunus, and the possible impact on India, China and Bricks, Bangladesh, who and the impact on India, China and Bricks, who meaning the World Health Organization I presume is a coup, the coup, the coup on Bangladesh and the impact on India, China and Bricks. Yeah, there's certainly some conflict there. From what I understand is between Bricks Country, this is one of the rulemaking, the plenary sessions that are going to be part of it as far as rule, is how they interact with each other. They don't necessarily have to be allies as it were, even now. But from a global economic perspective, they will be expected under Bricks to keep those things separate, which the Western system does not. And so I don't know what's going to be the result of that. It's too early to tell. But certainly how conflicts are resolved and the world legal structure through the Bricks, it's also one of the sessions that they're going to be discussing as well. So I'm eager to find out how that process works too. Elza says Jayaschankar about Bricks quote, "The G7 will not let anybody else into that club." So we go inform our own club. The Arrogate West did not see that coming. Yes, I'll agree with that. I liked that particular interview. And he is always so well-spoken when you listen to him. And he makes a lot of sense. And from the American perspective, a bunch of know-it-alls on the world stage, it's long past time for people to really understand that just because you're not from America doesn't mean you're not intelligent or that your opinion doesn't count. And I know that's extremely basic and somewhat condescending, but sometimes from the non-Western perspective, that is how people see us from America. We should ask more questions instead of dictating response to our own questions. You know what I mean? And so that exchange between Jayaschankar and his interviewer, whose name I don't remember, was like an hour-long interview and extremely well done. And he listed out exactly the multi-polar structure that they think is so important. The fact that India in particular, since colonial times Britain, they've only been their own country for, I don't remember the exact number of years, but it was like 30, 35 years. It's not very long. They've been their own. And they are the largest country population-wise on the planet. They need to be listened to whether you agree with them or not. And he has said, Lavrov has said, and so many people have said, from foreign countries, at the G7, at the group of five, all of those, it's not like these are new comments. It's just now they're being more vocal about it and going, "Hey, we've been saying this for 10 years. We need something different. When are you going to do something about it?" Nobody's done anything about it. So they've made their own club. And that's not exactly what's happening, and it's going to get worse if they continue to be ignored. Worse or better, depending on how you look at it, if you accept the fact that we've been dictating what other people do for years and accept them as a partner instead of a competitor, perhaps things will change. That could be a little, I don't know what optimistic, I suppose. But then again, why not? What do you have to lose? Maybe a few more wars, maybe a few more million people killed for useless purposes, really? You have time for one more. Okay, from Nikos, this is a two-part question. Let's go with the first question. Recently, Wikipedia declared that Russia and China are dictatorships. Russia and Belarus are both prosperous. So why is the West better than them? I've never believed better than them, and I'm a person who grew up with the Cold War as the background. I was in the military starting with the Cold War as a background, and my speaking Russian and being part of the arms control effort of the INF Treaty and the Nuclear Threshold Test Ban Treaty, and underground nuclear testing, I was part of the inspection team on the U.S. test site for the last underground nuclear test that was conducted in the U.S. '91, '92, and way back then, when they were stopping it, and those were valuable efforts. Even if you go from the point of view, whether or not you believe that Russia is the dictatorship or China is the dictatorship, who are we to dictate what another country should use as their form of government? What made us the ones who get to say that you can't have a kingdom or you can't have communism? If you claim that U.S. democracy is any better than the rest of the world's systems of government, that's a lecture for another three or four hours that I can conduct and would happily do so, but our government is just the weapon of the people that use it just as much as any dictatorship, and so that would be point number one, the question number one, whether or not they are dictatorships, Vladimir Putin had at least an 80% approved ability factor in his own country. You can believe that or not believe it, I believe it because I've spoken to so many people over here, and not all of them are afraid to say in the privacy of a coffee room chat with Samuel Trapp. Can't tell you what I really think. No, they tell you what they think. There's vocal as I am, and the bulk of the people are very supportive of what he's doing. Remember why? He turned around at this country, believe it, don't believe it, you don't have to trust me on that, but the people believe it because they have the 90s. The country was run by bandits. It was stealing everything. This is something we can feel free to talk about now. I was here during plenty of that, and it's a different country now than it was when he accepted or not. So dictatorship or not dictatorship, different form of government, but if you can back your people on the world stage, nationalist or not, I think Putin has done a good job of doing that. He's not my president. I don't have to back him. I don't back him. He's not my president, but a lot of times I don't back my own government. I'm very vocal about that and about some of the negative things that they have done, but I don't necessarily see that as a dictatorship or not. I don't believe that. I don't believe there's enough evidence to say that it is the dictatorship, and I could put plenty of arguments on the side of that, but the bigger point is, what does it matter as far as the world stage goes? I don't believe it does. That was part one. Part two is, we've seen Putin and his accomplishments in Russia and Brix as well as his own society. However, I think he has ignored the young people in Russia. I'm not so sure I agree with that one either. I'm somewhat of a follower of current events in Russia, of course. With the Brix this year, they had a young person's conference, and they invited young people from all over the world. If he doesn't care about young people, I don't see it. In fact, there are stories of him reading very small children, kindergarten-aged children, conversing with them, giving them time. It's always been said, if he likes dogs and small children, he's generally a good guy, maybe head slowly in the U.S., but those who hate dogs and hate children that are men, you've got to worry about him a little bit. As far as the youth goes, I believe that he goes out of his way to make sure that he gives opinions on some of that. I'm very curious where the country of Russia goes post-Putin, and I'm not sure that there's enough information about where that's going to be. It's been put off now until 2030-ish, whether he goes again. I can't imagine that he would. So sometime over the next six years, there's got to be some form of development of a next generation of political leader that takes care of the country in the way that most Russians feel that we can have. Whether we agree with that or not in the West makes no difference. They're going to do what they believe is right for their country and their people, and if you can respect Vladimir Putin for anything, it's for that. What the West does doesn't matter to him. He's going to do what he thinks is best for his country. If that makes me a Putin apologist, well, so be it, but I take a man at his words, and that guy has been saying the same things for 25-30 years. I've been listening to him the whole time. Our politicians, they change their opinions like most people changed their underwear. That doesn't seem to be the case with Vladimir Putin. Agree with him or not. Samuel Trapp, it's been a pleasure having you on the Duran. Once again, I have the link to your YouTube channel in the description box down below, and I will also add it as a pinned comment. Can you once again plug your radio show as well for everyone that is watching? Absolutely. My radio show is at damradiodamradio.com. That's because the big tourist attraction and reason for the town of Lake Ozark, Missouri is because it was built. A dam was built there 80 years ago, and it created an extremely large lake called Lake Ozark, and so it's a very big tourist place, and it's where I lived for nearly 20 years and had my radio program, and still have that radio program at damradiodamradio.com. Definitely follow Samuel on a dam radio, and also check out his YouTube channel as well. I will have everything linked as a pinned comment. Samuel, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you both for having me. Thank you very much, Samuel, thank you, and we look forward to you coming back and joining us again. Anytime, you let me know. Take care, Samuel, thank you. All right, Alexander, are you with me? Absolutely. All right, let's answer the remaining questions. From from George, welcome to the drag community. Thank you, George, for joining us. OG wall says good day. Good day to you, OG wall, and Andrew Bird is a new member to the drag community. Let's see here. Life is the fun. Thank you for that super sticker. Commander Crossfire says member of hostile military alliance can't join bricks. Well, indeed, absolutely. Well, this is going to be an interesting question because, of course, Erdogan says that he should be able to join despite the fact that he's going to remain negative. If he wants to, Turkey to remain in native, can I just make a few observations about some of the points that Commander Crossfire actually made? Firstly, I should say, and this is a general point, that economic change, big, huge economic change, the change that we're talking about, Bretton Woods and all that. When it happens, it can be very, very sudden. So things move and change gradually and build up to a certain point, and then suddenly boom, everything changes. The last big year when there was massive economic change in the world economic system was 1931, when basically sterling, the British pound sterling, lost its value and ceased to be the linchpin of the global economic system. When the British had to take it off, the gold standard defaults on their debt to the United States, and that created a shattering blow, and it was the single biggest factor, by the way, the trigger, the depression, more so than the Wall Street crash that had taken place two years before, Wall Street crash was a sort of quake that led us towards that bigger crash that happened two years later. So that's the first thing to say, but on another point of Commander Crossfire made, about making Union pay and mere obligatory. I think to this say, these are these are national systems, and I think that what the BRICS countries will want is not to extend national systems, but to bring together other systems and to create an international system that connects all of them. And Swift and things like that are starting to look like rather old technology now. Their creation is basically of the 1990s, and if you go to Russia, which haven't been to for a while, or you go to China, one of the things you immediately struck by is how much more advanced they are in these kind of flexible technologies and the use of them than we are. So I'm going to make a guess, I think we're going to get an international payment system, and it is going to be very, very different, and that Swift is going to look very, very old-fashioned very soon, and then it will not be based on mere and Union pay, just say. Commander Crossfire says BRICS needs its own credit rating agency, cut the West once. It already has them, they've already set them up. And Commander Crossfire says BRICS needs to establish a joint fund to immediately pay off World Bank IMF debt owed by members, make a condition on joining no IMF or World Bank debt with free economies. Well, that is moving forward. But I mean, why are you in systems like that? I mean, you can have rival systems, and people will prefer one to the other inevitably, there will go where the good money is. That's always been my experience. And just to finish off the questions from Commander Crossfire, or this line of comments, he says, please, please joint BRICS space station program tomorrow. I'm going to tell you where I think the tension may be in the sense that Commander Crossfire, you're making BRICS sound a little bit like a block, which is precisely what the BRICS states say they do not want to become. They want to become a global spanning economic financial and trade system, and they don't want to be restricted by the problems of trying to create a block. And the reason that they don't want to avoid doing those things is because, of course, within BRICS, tensions do exist. There are tensions between China and India over the border, they're negotiating on those, but they're still. There's tensions between Ethiopia and South Africa, about African matters, which have held up many issues, for example, about Security Council, UN Security Council reform. There's tensions between Brazil and some of the other Latin American countries that want to join BRICS. So creating a block would be both incredibly difficult and very time consuming, whereas what they want to do is move forward with these economic things that they want to do, so that they can get trading flows going. That, I think, is the primary urgency, and that's why, at the moment, they're focusing on international payment systems and credit systems and things of that kind and joint sets of rules for how movements of goods takes place, rather than saying, well, if you join us, you can't be a member of that, or if you take money from us, you can't take money from someone else. I think that they want to avoid that simply so that they can get this thing up and running and moving forward, and moving forward as fast as it can go. Nick, thank you for that, SuperSticker. Michael G says two questions. What is the likelihood of Russia taking Harkov and Odessa? Also, what are your thoughts on continuing to invest in gold long term? Let's stop. No investment advice. No investment advice. Absolutely. Let's start with Harkov. Let's start with Harkov and Odessa. Again, I've said this many, many times, and I want to say this once again, I cannot imagine any situation in which this conflict in Ukraine ends without the Russians making some kind of arrangements concerning both Harkov and especially Odessa. I mean, there's an enormous emotional connection to both places, especially Odessa. Both cities are part of the – have been historically a key part of the Russian economic landscape, and in the case of Odessa, there is also the ultimate issue of control of the Black Sea, in the sense that if Odessa remains part of a pronator Ukraine, then the position of the Black Sea is insecure for the Russians, and I think that's now become very clear and is a major priority for them. How that will happen – I don't know. It could go all the way from outright annexation, which, by the way, I suspect a lot of the people in these two cities would want, they would want to be back in Russia again, or there might conceivably be other arrangements, but that will depend on the bigger question of how this war ends, and that's partly a decision for the Russians, but it's partly a decision for the Ukrainians as well. I mean, if they negotiate now and try to come to terms with the Russians, they could say something. If they go on fighting as they seem inclined to do, then of course they might end up with nothing, in which case annexation of Odessa and Harkov becomes a real possibility. But one way or the other, the Russians will want to have some say on what happens to those two cities, and absolutely they will be very concerned about the welfare of the people there. Now, about goals, I suggest the person to go to his leadership and people like this, because as Alex correctly says, we are not investment advisors. Yeah, the Black Cat, thank you for that super sticker. From Nikos, he says, "Good economy and order are not enough for the young people in Russia, who are against Putin at only 20% support. As a Greek, I cannot understand this." Where do you get that figure? 20%. Yeah, I haven't seen that anywhere at all. On the contrary, and I'm taking this increasingly from the media here in the West, I gather that not only does Putin have support amongst young people, but that that support is rising and is getting stronger. And in fact, that amongst Russian teenagers, one of the effects of the war has been that they've taken a very, very strong patriotic turn. Now, can I just say, my wife used to go to Russian universities. This is obviously before COVID and before the war and all of that. But I mean, she used to lecture places like Bauman, the Bauman Institute in Moscow, she had connections with many universities, and she also went to universities and the ruturals. This is as part of a project, by the way, to encourage study in English literature. And it was a British government-backed project. And I accompanied her on some of these visits. And as a result, I met a lot of Russian university students. And I didn't find that this characterization of them as anti-Putin liberals had any connection to reality whatsoever. It was absolutely not my impression at all. They seem to be deeply patriotic. If they were critical of Putin, as some of them were, at that time, they tended to lean more towards the Communist Party. That was my impression, not that they were pro-liberal, pro-Western. I think this is all based on myths and beliefs that people in the West have, and perhaps some of the activities that Navalny got up to in Moscow. But I absolutely do not myself see any evidence of this. And I don't really see where these opinion polls have come from that you're quoting. And if they do exist, I suspect that those opinion polls are profoundly wrong, and they don't match up in any way with the opinion poll data that I see. Just saying. Nikos says, Greece became, as of 2023, the most stressed and depressed nation in Europe. Our cities have ruined houses, and our streets are filled with garbage. Too many Russian my Russian brothers appreciate what you have. I think I would agree with your sentiments about Greece. I haven't been there actually for a while, at least not very much. And when I go for all kinds of reasons, I tend to end up in Athens. But my brother tells me much the same as you. Nikos says, Putin has governed Russia since I was born. Question, Duran, who is going to succeed him? My choice would be Maria Zakharova, because she is the baddest. Yeah, she's not going to. Yeah, she's not going to be is not going to be the one. I am not an expert on Kremlinology. So can I just say that? I mean, on the one occasion, when I venture to guess, which was back in 2011, I thought that Medvedev was going to run again, and I was wrong. So there you go. So I am not going to try and venture further guesses. The rumor in Russia, the person people are talking about, is Alex Edumen, who is the former governor of Tula Region, who's had a background in Russian special forces, and is considered to be an extremely capable administrator, and managed the military and industrial industries in Tula very well, and who's widely liked, and who's just been promoted to a position in the Russian Security Council. So he might be the rising man. But don't take it from me. I don't know. From Ralph Steiner, how can the USA pay off a $36 trillion national debt and $220 trillion of unfunded liabilities without imperial, pillage, and plunder? One must be realistic. Well, you absolutely can't, but you can't pay them off anyway. I mean, if it engages in absolute plunder, there's not enough value in the world to pay off a debt on that scale. I mean, that's the reality over. Part film co-op says is the official story of World War II worth revising. In many respects, yes. So I think the over, I would basically stick with the overall concerts. There's a lot of details that are still mysterious, and there's a lot of things that are said, which are, I personally have great doubts about. I gave it one very minor example. The official line in Britain is that the Germans were unable to run spies in Britain, that the British detected all of them. I have good reason to believe that that is not true, actually, and that there were spies, and that some of those spies got access to pretty high level information in London. But anyway, I mean, that's a detail. I think that there's an awful lot more that we can find out, but as I said, I think the overall concerts of what happened in the Second World War, probably we've got that about right. Samuel Modone says, "It's crazy to think that once Russia even wanted to join NATO, I think it will be remembered as the, as maybe the greatest lost opportunity of the 21st century." You know, it happened twice. The Soviet Union applied to join NATO in 1954. The proposal of the Soviet Foreign Minister at that time was Viāchislav Molotov, who had once been Stalin's number two. So they applied then. And then after the end of the Cold War, of course, they wanted to do it all over again. And what happened was, obviously, in the 1950s, it was not even there. There was no possibility about it. But in the 1990s and 2000s, the Americans didn't want to, and many European countries didn't want to, because, of course, if there's very big, potentially very powerful country joined NATO, then the United States had a potential rival to its leadership with NATO. They knew that Russia couldn't be controlled, so that's why they said no. Studio Reiner says, "What the hell is Israel even doing anymore?" Well, I think I asked myself many times the same question, because the policy is getting more and more out of control, and they're doing things which I think are going to end up being disastrous for themselves. Jeffrey Mowford, thank you for that. Super sticker of Studio Reiner says, World War II was Stalin's war. The US didn't want to admit they were compromised. No, I think that's altogether far too simple, actually. I did think Stalin started the Second World War. I don't think that was how the Second World War began. The key decisions, the key decisions were made in Berlin. I think on that, I absolutely go with the consensus, which I think is exceptionally well documented. And Commander Crossfire says, "Russian jet shut down? Russia done? Was it hacked or what?" Are you referring to the incident of the S-70 drone? Now, this is a sort of super advanced stealth drone, which was flying over Torres, skin Ukraine. And it malfunctioned in some way, and so it was shot down by Russian fighter jet, the Sukhoi 57 stealth fighter jet. And there are huge amounts of speculations as to what happened, whether it was just because it was a new piece of equipment and something went wrong, and that's why it happened, you know, crashed to earth in that way, or whether in the alternative the Americans managed to hack it, and it was being guided to some Ukrainian base in order to prevent it falling into American control of the Russians destroyed it. I don't know. I mean, nobody tells me about these things. The Russian general staff presumably knows the Russian air force knows, Putin presumably knows, but they don't share that kind of information with me. Alan Shepard says, "Just a bit of insight about Hezbollah. He is hated by half of the Lebanese people. They are the one where they are the one who were opposing to elect new president, and they are the ones who stop investigation into corruption. Most of Lebanese and Syrian Muslims, Sunnis are celebrating in secret what Israel is doing to Hezbollah as they have been involved in the civil war in Syria." There is lots of problems and divisions in Syria, and there are lots of opponents of Hezbollah in Syria. There are also a lot of supporters of Hezbollah in Syria getting a huge amount of information from people in Lebanon, and I have had lots of contacts with Lebanese people in London. Some of them, by the way, do not like Hezbollah, and a Lebanese friend in Switzerland, just to say. The general consensus, the general sense I get from all of these people is that Hezbollah has gone through ebbs and flows of its popularity, but at the moment, its popularity is rising. So that's the consensus of information that I get in. Zariel says, "Great October start. Hello, Jensen. Have a good one." Thank you. Thank you, Zariel. Thank you. Ralph Steiner says, "Did the Americans give up when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?" The Germans bombed Pearl Harbor, hell no, and they aren't giving up now because when the going gets tough, the question mark. Okay, I'm a little bit confused. I was Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, but the Russians, if it's the Russians that you're referring to, they're not going to give up. If it's the Israelis, you're referring to, well, at the moment, they're all in, as far as I can see, and if you're talking about Iran and Hezbollah, it seems to me that they're determined to resist. So there we go. I mean, that's, I think, the summary of the situation at the present time. Studio Rainer says, "Seriously, what the hell is Israel doing? Do the Arab states not realize without USAID that they'd be conquered by Persia?" Well, whether the Persians, Iran has the ability to conquer the Arab states, I very, very strongly doubt, if I have to say, and I think that they started that kind of operation, the global community would oppose it anyway. And I don't get the sense that that's really what the Iranians are in for at the moment. Iran, it's widely overlooked, but 2023, up to October 7th, had been for Iran a miracle year. They got admitted into bricks. They'd signed major economic deals with the Chinese and the Russians. They'd achieved a rapprochement with the Saudis. Very important rapprochement for them. With the Saudis, their economy finally was starting to boom. Living standards were beginning to rise. And every indication I have had, everyone suggests to me that the Iranians wanted to keep it that way. They wanted at least five years of peace and quiet, so that they could develop all of these things and put their economy on a strong footing, consolidate the political situation in Iran itself, work out who the successor to Khamenei is going to be. Remember, he's 85 and not particularly in good health and build up their armed forces. They were not looking for a conflict at this particular time, and they certainly didn't have any plans to conquer the whole of the Middle East, which is far beyond their resources to do as they very well know. 437 THX-113H says the US military industrial complex is not going to give up that cash flow. How far will they go? I'm worried about it. Well, that is the big question that lies in the background in all our programs. How far will they go? What will the United States do? Will rational voices prevail? Will people in the United States understand that trying to maintain this kind of hegemonic system is bad for the United States and ultimately very dangerous, and will certainly fail in one form or another? Or will the United States take a turn, start to prioritize its own problems? In which case, if it starts to do that, I'm confident that you can again prosper. This is the big unanswered question, and so much depends on how things develop in the United States and the elections that are coming. Of course, they're going to be an important message and also a pivot point, but I can't answer that question. Again, it's one of those huge questions that is very difficult to give a simple answer to. Alan Shepard says, "Alex, why are you still single? Time to find a lady and get married." This is addressed to me, Alex. Obviously. Well, I got there in the end, but perhaps certainly a lot later in life. Alex is... 2025, Alan 2025, I will make it happen. Thank you, Alan. For that, Nigel Greed says another interesting stream lads, and finally, Studio Reiner says, "Oh, right, about World War II, prior to Hitler, the Allies were all united against Stalin, but Stalin had spies everywhere." It's why France fell so easily. It was already weakened. Well, I mean, Stalin didn't have spies in many places. He certainly had lots of spies in London, and as he turned out, he had lots of spies in Berlin as well, by the way. He wasn't always listening to the information he spies were giving him, as we now know. I think the collapse of France in 1940 is, again, one of those huge events which changed the shape of history, and they had many, many different causes, most of which connected with a deep-seated crisis within French society, which I'm not going to talk about in a programme now, because this is a whole huge historical subject that we could talk about endlessly. But basically, France had... was still working through the major changes that had happened during the French Revolution in the 1920s and '30s. There was still a lot of people in France with monarchist sentiments who resisted the Revolution, the ideas of the Revolution. There was a huge rise in communism, support for communism, major labour and working class unrest, all the same problems that afflicted other countries because of the Depression, and there was an ossification within the political system and within the military as well. And all of this cumulatively created a crisis in France, which meant that when the country found itself up against a dynamic adversary, which is what Germany at that time was, with enormous interest in technology, it simply wasn't ready to withstand what happened. But as I said, it wasn't just a question of spies, a few spies here and there. It was problems, deep structural problems within French society. And of course, the Germans had a part of play. Ralph asks, does Israel have any spies in Washington, DC? I'm sure it does. Well, no, I'm sure. I know what you all know it does. The big question is not whether they have spies in Washington, DC. As by the way, one would expect them to do. I mean, given how important the relationship with the US is, I mean, the Israelis would be negligent. They were taking steps to find out what's going on in Washington, even if it's not, it not necessarily has to be done through spying, but they will have their own people in Washington, keeping them informed and briefed about what's going on. And that's understandable. The big question for me is, does Washington have spies in Israel? Because I think it is, it should do. I think it needs to be much better informed about policy making and decision making in Israel than it is. And I get the sense that Washington, not just the administration, but Washington generally has very, very little idea and understanding of what is going on there. And from Samuel Moroni, was the USSR collapse inevitable? Could it be, could it have been avoided? I don't think anything is ever inevitable in history. And I can imagine that things might have been done, which could have had different outcomes. But I get to say something, the Soviet Union of 1984, before Gorbachev came, that was unsustainable, as everybody, everybody, including the Soviets, including, you know, members of the Communist Party who opposed Gorbachev, all understood. The question was not whether there should be change. It was what direction that change should take. Gorbachev took it in one direction. There were a lot of others who wanted to take it in a completely different direction. Maybe if they'd been, if they'd won out in the power struggles in the Kremlin, they'd have that worked out better. But again, also, you always have to remember that the Russian people also had their say. I mean, they were not just passive onlookers to what happens. They had agency too. And again, they were wanted changes, and they wanted changes of a particular kind. I doubt that in 1984, they would have wanted the Union to break up. But, well, who knows? All right, on that note, we will end the livestream. Your final thoughts, Alexander, as I do a final check. We're in a pivotal time. I mean, this is a moment in history which people are going to look back on. And they're going to look at and say, you know, all of these things were going on. And people in the West were oblivious to them. And just as Bretton Woods was, you know, this small meeting of people in this small town in the United States. And if you'd been following the news in 1944, if you've been reading all the newspapers in Germany, in Britain, in the United States, you might not know anything about Bretton Woods. You'd be interested in what's going on with the Eastern Front and the Western Front, in the fight against Japan and all of that. And in fact, Bretton Woods was a colossal event. I think it's going to be exactly the same with Kazan. We are rightly, heavily focused on, you know, the wars in Ukraine, in the Middle East. But what is going to happen in Kazan is at least as important. And the fact that all of these wars are going on, even as this meeting, as this new restructuring of the economic system are taking place, these are connected events. They're all signs of the great transition that we're going through at the present time. And Commander Crossfire says Putin said the USSR collapse could have been avoided. Yeah, no, absolutely. And that's, you know, quite plausibly he's right. I should say that the proposals for economic reform in the Soviet Union went back to before Stalin's time. We know quite a lot about what Stalin was up to in the last years of his life. And we know that he was planning a very extensive economic reform himself. He wanted to reintroduce market aspects into the economy. He wanted to move towards a gold-backed convertible rule, though it's not exactly clear what that would have involved, but he wanted to introduce it by 1958. He already was saying that the need to be changed is even that far back. The problem was that his successors lacked his authority and weren't able to conduct reforms and never had a clear idea of what those reforms should be. And the final two questions, Alexander, final two Super Chat studio Reiner, says first time in history, one year live genocide. It's like the Hunger Games is from Studio Reiner. And from Ralph Steiner, no one saw World War 3 coming, right? Nobody said, but nobody saw World War 1 coming. Lots of people saw World War 2 coming. Well, just to say, so, you know, people can see, can see what was coming. Yeah. And from Tabernac getting high on our own supply law of attraction is in a military or political strategy, believe conceive, achieve is for yoga, not world affairs. I completely agree. I totally agree. By the way, on the question of seeing walls coming, I just would point out that we were saying back in August that there was going to be a big smash in the Middle East. We said it. Just go back and watch our programs. And Studio Reiner says, "Yurdi Bezimov, the Cold War, never ended. We are Soviets now." Well, in certain fields like that, with all the things that are going on in the United States, the information that attempts to control information flows, the hysteria, the denunciations, the trials, which aren't really trials, the core cases, which aren't really core cases. Those of us who studied Soviet history do indeed get a very profound sense of deja vu. And Aisha says, "I'm a young Russian. I sort of support our foreign policy, but concerned about the censorship here. They banned all Western social media here. Thoughts?" Yeah. I also think it was a mistake, actually. It was a reaction as well. There was a reaction as well, which is, we did a program a short time ago with Ian Proud, former British diplomat. He said that the Russians are very symmetrical in their thinking. He said, "The West does something. They tend to counter by doing the same thing back to the West." And sometimes that is not actually a good idea. I think they would have been much better advised, leading things, basically as they were. Just saying. Certainly with YouTube, just to say. Well, yeah. If there was no banning in the collective West, there would not have been any Russia either. But still, I think that the banning was not the right move, even though it's symmetrical. I don't think it was the right move. They could have done something else. They should have left the platforms open. Yeah. Jamila says, "Great work, gentlemen." And quick question, why Russia is not going a little bit faster? I asked this question all the time. I think that the Russians have developed their own idea about how to conduct the war. And I think that they feel that it's working well for them. It limits casualties. It prevents excessive political strains back home. It's also acceptable to their international backers, China, India, Brazil. They can work with the Russians whilst it is conducted in this way. And last but not least, and I think this is something that I hadn't myself thought about until fairly recently, but last but not least, I think that by going slow now, it ensures that when the Russians achieve their victory in Ukraine, it will be a total one. That resistance there will have been ground down to the point where further resistance beyond the war becomes basically unthinkable. And Ralph Diner says, "Did you just fall out of a coconut tree?" I think we're in Kamala Harris. All right. Well, yeah. We'll leave it there on Ralph's super chat. Yeah, we will leave it there. All right. Thank you to Samuel Trapp for joining us on this live stream. Thank you to everyone that watched us on Odyssey, Rockfin, Rumble, YouTube, and the doran.locals.com. Please join us on the doran.locals.com. That is where you can find all of our work, just in case something happens. You can find everything on our locals page. And what else, Alexander, I think that's it. That's it. That's it. Anything else? No, I've got nothing else. Absolutely. Well, of course, absolutely. We've got moderators. Fascinating program. Fascinating program about, as I said, an event that people are going to be writing about in 100 years' time. And just as, you know, canes and decks to white in all of those. Decks to white, by the way, was in contact with the Soviet intelligence, just to say. Anyway, just as those people shaped the world, we've always, we've known. Kazan, the people who meet Jaishankar and Putin, Seishin people, of course, also be there. And a view winner will will remember their names in decades from now. And people will be writing books about what happened. Kazan, that's mine. Yeah. Firm view. Yep. Hit the like button on your way out. Absolutely. Hit that like button. All right. Take care, everybody. [ Silence ]