News X World interview this morning on the Abu Dhabi talks and on continuing Russian oil production in Venezuela

I can enthusiastically recommend the twelve minutes of this podcast starting at minute 6.00 which above all gave me the opportunity to share with the News X global live broadcast audience what I learned on Sunday evening from the dean of Russian state television news, Dmitry Kiselyov – namely some very interesting facts about the content of the tripartite Russia-US-Ukraine talks in Abu Dhabi. If you look at Western Mainstream, all you would know is the empty statements to the press by presidential adviser Ushakov that the talks were ‘very constructive.’ But in what way you would reasonably ask and find no answer.

Per Kiselyov, the talks in Abu Dhabi proceeded in two parallel tracks. One was between top military intelligence officers from both Ukrainian and Russian sides discussing the conditions under which Ukrainian forces will withdraw from the part of the Donbas region that they still hold. This has been a Russian precondition for concluding a peace treaty. This track also would be discussing the creation of a buffer zone on both sides of the new Russian-Ukrainian frontier.

My interlocutor from News X World took at face value the assertion of President Zalensky following the talks that Ukraine is not giving up any territory. This I called an outright lie since the Russians would not have come for talks and would not have agreed to their resuming talks next weekend if their condition of withdrawal were not met.

In parallel in Abu Dhabi, the second track was U.S-Russian discussions of the steps towards normalization of state-to-state relations as the peace negotiations proceed to successful conclusion. In this track the new Trump emissary Gruenbaum was present to review the proposal of President Putin to accept Donald Trump’s invitation to join the Board of Peace now in formation and to pay Moscow’s 1 billion dollar contribution for designation as a permanent member by offering this sum from the frozen Russian state assets in the USA.

In the second segment of the interview, News X asked about the likelihood that Russian oil production under contract with the Venezuelan government will continue without interruption as the Russian ambassador in Caracas presently maintains. At this I noted that it is not only Ukrainians who know how to lie, that the Russians also are not necessarily truthful in matters of state: indeed, I do not see the Russian production in Venezuela as having much chance of continuing. Trump has succeeded in shutting down Russian oil production in Iraq and other Middle Eastern locations, so why would he tolerate its continuation in his own backyard in the Western hemisphere?

The News X presenter then asked what are the prospects for Russia’s special defense relationship with Venezuela. This was still easier to answer: nil prospects, over which Moscow surely will have few regrets. The reality is that the Russian relations with Venezuela, with Cuba and with other friendly socialist minded Latin American countries are a legacy from the past when military technology was different from today’s and when these outposts had strategic value of deterrence for Russia. Today, with its hypersonic missiles on submarines, frigates and even mounted in containers on commercial ships, Russia has the means to destroy Washington or New York or Los Angeles within a very few minutes using its own ocean-going vessels. Bases are an unnecessary luxury today to maintain deterrence.

To this I can add here what time limitations did not allow me to go into on this interview, material which I gleaned from Sunday evening’s Vladimir Solovyov talk show. As several expert panelists noted, with the acquisition of control over Venezuelan oil, Trump is approaching a 35% control of global oil trading, making the USA a serious competitor to OPEC. Moreover, with US control of oil, Russia’s earnings from hydrocarbons will surely decline. Accordingly, these experts stress that Moscow must continue its policy of reindustrialization and diversification of the economy. I mention this as a response coming from highly responsible and authoritative Russian state actors and academics to the notion that is so widespread among Alternative Media cheerleaders for Russia that the USA cannot do anything to harm the Russian economy.

©Gilbert Doctoros, 2026

Very important “News of the Week” on Rossiya 1 that you have not yet read in Western media

Gilbert Doctorow

Jan 25, 2026

∙ Reposted from Substack – Armageddon Newsletter

Host Dmitry Kiselyov was in excellent spirits this evening as he presented the astonishing collection of major developments of vital interest to Russia that occurred over the past week. I will be brief here in my description of what was shown on the first 45 minutes of his program, almost none of which has yet to be written or spoken about on Western mainstream media. I have in mind what took place during the visit of Trump’s envoys Kushner, Witkoff and Gruenbaum to the Kremlin on 22 January, Putin’s talks with President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian State on the same day, and then the talks of Russians, Ukrainians and the Americans in Abu Dhabi on 23 and 24 January.

Mainstream repeats what Russia’s presidential adviser Ushakov told reporters – namely that both the talks in Moscow and then the follow-on talks in Abu Dhabi were substantial and made great progress, without giving any hint of the content. Kiselyov could and did give us a better inkling of what is going on, including the fact that there were two lines of negotiation in Abu Dhabi. One line, between military experts from the Russian and Ukrainian sides, was over security issues, meaning in fact over conditions of the Ukrainian withdrawal from Donbas and the creation of a buffer zone between Russians and Ukrainians along the new borders. This line of discussion will resume next weekend in Abu Dhabi. The other line of discussion was between the Americans and the Russians over steps to normalize state-to-state relations as the war winds down and peace comes to Ukraine. These talks will resume early in the coming week and proceed at their own pace.

Kiselyov explained the presence of Trump’s newly appointed assistant for organizing the finances of the Board of Peace, Josh Gruenbaum, with regard to discussion of the terms under which President Putin has proposed to proceed: namely that Russia’s contribution of the 1 billion dollars entrance fee for permanent participation in the Board is to come from Russia’s frozen state assets held in the USA. Almost certainly, Russia’s decision to take part in the Board and to contribute its billion was the main subject of the talks that Putin had with President Abbas. Moreover, as Kiselyov discretely slipped into his remarks, it is likely that the remaining $4 billion in frozen Russian assets in the USA will now be earmarked for aid in the reconstruction of Gaza.

These points about the disposition of Russian frozen assets in the USA are highly relevant to the bigger issue of resolving the war in Ukraine. The release of the assets for the sake of reconstruction in Gaza sets the precedent for something I have advocated for more than a year: the $300 billion in frozen Russian state assets held in Belgium and other European States could constitute part of the $800 billion in reconstruction funds that Trump is said to be offering Kiev as the price for their withdrawal from Donbas and recognizing the territory as Russian in order to conclude a peace treaty.

It is clear from the reportage this evening on Vesti Nedeli that Vladimir Putin believes in the ultimate benefit of his standing by Donald Trump notwithstanding all of the shifting to and fro in Trump’s public statements over the months.

Finally, I mention that Kiselyov’s presentation of the Davos events showed Russia’s enormous satisfaction that Trump has shattered European arrogance and unity. Twice Kiselyov put up Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever’s statement in Davos that the Europeans have been utterly humiliated, his admission that they have been happy vassals and now face the ignominy of being unhappy slaves.

©Gilbert Doctorow, 2026

Two segments of interviews yesterday on News X World worth close attention

On this podcast there are two separate segments to recommend. One begins at minute 3.40 in which I respond to the presenter’s request for an explanation of Trump’s humiliating Europe during his speech at Davos. The second, more valuable segment begins at minute 7.30 when I share with Professor Andrew Latham of Macalaster College in Minneapolis a discussion of the overarching view of global governance that drives Donald Trump’s ongoing efforts to break up NATO and the EU. I had been in a ‘debate’ with Latham on News X within the past week but this time, to our mutual surprise, we were substantially in agreement over what Trump’s mission to remake global relations appears to be – namely that it draws on the thinking of Henry Kissinger.

Let’s do our arithmetic on the sums being proposed by Witkoff and Kushner to resolve the Ukraine war and the stand-off over Greenland

I have just been in an exchange with former Assistant Treasury Secretary and professional economist Craig Roberts about a money issue: can we call what Witkoff and Kushner are penciling in as the sums of money that could end the Ukraine war or could end the stand-off over Greenland ‘cheap bribes’?

When you do the arithmetic, you have to scratch your head at the notion that Trump’s boys are barking up the wrong tree, as we say in colloquial English. Of course, I could be off by a digit given that my hand-held pre-Modern Age calculator barely functions in the realm of billions. I welcome push-back from readers.

*****

On the question of ‘bribes,’ meaning the proposed payments to Denmark and to Ukraine: I make the argument in an essay I published this morning that real estate developers can be better emissaries for peace negotiations than professional diplomats with law degrees who are by definition traders in abstractions, in the decades-long tradition of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. They are people who try to solve POLITICAL problems as if they were strictly legal issues like sovereignty or aggression. They are not looking for a resolution which comes from breaking eggs to make an omelet.

I think that the Danish people will be very stupid to refuse Trump’s 800 billion for Greenland – if their authoritarian Prime Minister gives them the facts and let’s them express themselves in a referendum. At present and in the foreseeable future, meaning the next 30 plus years, Greenland is a budgetary charge not a budgetary contributor. The 800 billion divided by the 6 million population of Denmark comes to 133,000 for every man, woman and child in Denmark or about 6,000 per annum per capita if invested with a return of 5% in perpetuity. This income whether annualized or taken as lump sum would make the Danes one of the most financially secure nations in Europe. How can people call this a bribe? Or if you do so, it is a helluva bribe. Let’s call it what it is: a purchase price for peace.

For the Ukrainians, a similar global sum in exchange for the Donbas territory may be less attractive on a per capita basis, but the net worth of Ukrainians today is a lot lower than the net worth of your average Dane today. The money could finally give compensation to widows and orphans. The money could rebuild most of the infrastructure and residential properties that have been destroyed in the war. It would not compensate the Ukrainians for all that they have lost, but it was their own stupidity and/or lack of courage not to overthrow the Zelensky regime long ago which makes them net losers even if they are offered and accept 700 or 800 billion.

These are not trivial issues.

©Gilbert Doctorow, 2026

FirstPost America: US, Ukraine, Russian Officials to Meet in Abu Dhabi, Discuss Ukraine Peace Deal

FirstPost America: US, Ukraine, Russian Officials to Meet in Abu Dhabi, Discuss Ukraine Peace Deal

This discussion with a moderator from the Indian global broadcaster Firstpost updates the state of the US-Russian-Ukrainian talks going on in Abu Dhabi today and tomorrow. As I say here (from minute 5), the territorial issue separating the Russian and Ukrainian sides may well be resolved by the latest proposal coming from Team Trump for, essentially, the whole Donbas to be purchased and turned over to Russia in exchange for $800 billion investment funds raised and distributed by the USA. The person said to be nominated by Trump to be in charge of this operation is Larry Fink, who happens to be both the CEO of Blackrock and the acting co-Chairman of the World Economic Forum (Davos).

The sticking point at the moment lies elsewhere – in the ‘boots on the ground’ that Kiev wants to ensure its security after the peace is concluded. Clearly Zelensky wants NATO Member State forces; equally clearly, the Russians exclude that possibility entirely.

Firstpost, by the way, shows 9.2 million subscribers. It is a communications giant in India with numerous subsidiaries and broadcasting in many different languages.

This morning’s interview with News X world in two segments

NewsX World: United States Signals withdrawal from World Health Organization

This segment of my interview starts at minute 4 and deals with the tripartite US-Ukrainian-Russian talks going on today in Abu Dhabi. I say here that the talks are at a strictly technical level and are led for the Russians by an admiral who runs the administration of their Joint Chiefs of Staff, to talk about security issues.

However, this afternoon’s update from the Russian news agency Vedomosti indicates that much more important issues are now under discussion in Abu Dhabi centered on a proposal to provide 800 billion dollars in aid to Ukraine in exchange for Kiev’s dropping all claims to the Donbas and to getting a peace keeping force from abroad to provide security after the peace. This is all very sketchy but is absolutely fascinating. It is not far from my proposal a year ago that the Russian frozen assets worth 300 billion be offered to Ukraine in exchange for their ceding territory to Russia. We all await further details on news of Zelensky’s reaction to the proposal. We also await Russia’s reaction to the notion of any foreign peace keepers being allowed into Ukraine.

NewsX World: French Navy Intercepts Tanker

This segment deals with news of the French capture of a Russian shadow fleet tanker in the Mediterranean, which might be called piracy and is normally a casus belli, should Russia wish to open a declaration of war on France.

Trump Board Of Peace Divides World | Bid To Counter UN Failing?

“Today’s Big Debate” on News X Live, 22 January“The Big Debate” was aired live at prime time in India (9pm) yesterday. However, there was a wide time differential with the cities where each of the three panelists from abroad weas based: 4.30 pm in Brussels, 11.30 pm in Hong Kong and 10.30 am in Washington, D.C. We have Zoom to thank for the way we were brought together seamlessly with the studios in India and with the Indian panelist.

I have identified the first of my fellow panelists, whose contribution was likely the most consequential: Raymond Vickery, former United States Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Trade Development who is a senior associate with the Chair in US-India Policy Studies at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, Washington, DC. Accordingly, Vickery is a person well-known to Indian elites. He has a law degree from Harvard. And he is an upstanding member of the Cold Warrior contingent in the U.S. foreign policy establishment, as becomes crystal clear from his remarks here. It was entirely in character for him to deplore Trump’s Board of Peace initiative for being “top down”, as if any of the global steering committees like the G-7 or the G-20 are “bottom up” – which would be against the laws of nature. It was also in character that he deplored the invitation onto the Board of non-democratic, authoritarian states like Russia.

The second panelist, based in Hong Kong, was singing from the same choral hymn book. This was Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen, a prominent Hong Kong politician and businessman who from 2016 until his retirement in 2025 was the President of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong.

The fourth panelist, Sumit Peer in India, was more welcoming to the Trump initiative and saw the refusal of China to join as giving the Indians a strong reason to sign up and take active part. His LinkedIn entry tells us that he is a renowned Geo-Political Commentator, visionary Columnist, Business Advisor, and a concerned citizen with a mission of contributing towards nation building.

I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to explain why no one knows what the dynamics inside the Board of Peace and its subordinate Executive Board will be, so it is gratuitous and senseless to condemn or approve the Board at this point. I also expect Moscow to sign on because to refuse to join now would be an insult to Trump, with whom they wish to stay in good relations.

‘Judging Freedom’ edition of 21 January 2026: Trump through Russian eyes

The Russian views that Judge Napolitano solicited were firstly those of Putin, his direct spokesman Peskov and his Minister of Foreign Affairs Lavrov with respect to Trump’s ambition to take over Greenland and with respect to the evident CIA attempt to assassinate Putin by means of the drone attack on his countryside residence.

My response on the first issue was that Putin and his direct assistants are being very cautious: they note that Trump is not respecting international law and this displeases them but otherwise they do not criticize Trump directly. Meanwhile, the chattering classes, the Russian elites, meaning Duma members, top commentators on international affairs who appear on the most authoritative talk shows like Evening with Vladimir Solovyov, show no such restraint: they are approving Trump’s using the Greenland acquisition to destroy NATO from within. They are enjoying Trump’s personal attacks on Keir Starmer for his ‘stupid’ hand-over of Diego Garcia to Mauritius in exchange for a lease agreement, his attacks on Emmanuel Macron’s decision not to join Trump’s Peace Board on Gaza, saying, no matter, Macron will be out of office in a few months.

As regards the drone attack, Putin and his circle clearly do not believe that Trump was in any way involved, saying instead that it was the CIA acting on its own, just as the CIA had murdered John F. Kennedy on its own. They understand that Trump cannot control fully his government and they wish him well in his war on the Deep State while cautiously hedging their bets and pursuing the war in Ukraine at their own pace, confident in full victory.

I state openly here that while one of Judge Napolitano’s guests yesterday said Trump should be taken away in a straight jacket, I hold an entirely different view. Trump seeks normal relations with Russia within a broader context of his Realist concept of the future world order, in which three Great Powers, Russia, China and the USA have each their own sphere of influence based on regional hegemony. This concept entailing ‘balance of power’ he received from his mentor at the start of his first term in office, Henry Kissinger.

I used the interview to explain what relevance the cession of Diego Garcia to Mauritius by Britain has to the pending issue of who owns Greenland. The conversion of this powerful base to a lease may be compared to the proposal that the USA lease Greenland rather than take possession of it as owner. From his background in real estate, Trump is acutely aware of the weak sides of leasing. If he thought for a moment he could point out that Russia had taken a 40-year lease from Ukraine on its strategically important base in Sevastopol, but following the coup d’etat of February 2014, it was widely expected that the lease would be revoked. One could add another example of weakness of leases: in Seychelles, the USA had a major observation base atop the hill overlooking the Seychelles capital of Victoria. The local government decided to raise the annual rent multiple times and finally Washington was obliged to give up this base. The property is now owned by the United Arab Emirates who have built a palace there they use for discreet diplomatic negotiations with…the Russians among others.

‘Spotlight’ on Press TV (Iran): panel discussion of Trump’s takeover of Greenland

https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2026/01/20/762645/Trump-fighting-allies-on-Greenland

Yesterday evening’s discussion opened with a brief report from Press TV’s Brussels correspondent Jerome Hughes on the overall reaction in the European Institutions to Trump’s threat to impose new tariffs on those countries that have resisted his plans for Greenland. My fellow panelist was Paolo Raffone, founder and director of the Italian Center for International Perspectives (CIPI), a research and consultancy nonprofit corporation on European and global economic and strategic scenarios based in Brussels. As usual the Spotlight show was moderated by Marzieh Hashemi.

I am pleased that I was given every opportunity to set out my argument that the principal if not only reason for Trump’s pursuit of Greenland is to use the annexation as a tool to wreck NATO from within and, still , to break up the European Union or at least see 25 of the 27 prime ministers of the European Member States sent off to early retirement. Trump’s open declaration of a Might Makes Right foreign policy leaves the Europeans flabbergasted and humiliated, which is precisely what Trump intends.

I note with interest how the Russian chattering classes as represented on Vladimir Solovyov’s evening talk show appear to appreciate Trump’s moves on Greenland as I do. To any EU censors reading these lines, please do pay attention: the Kremlin appears to be picking up my line of interpretation, not vice versa.

Interviews with NewsX World (India) today

In my last item posted here, I mentioned the delay that sometimes comes in my receiving links to my interviews with News X World. Happily, I have just received and can now share the links to my appearances this morning and again this afternoon.

The first two links below are from the morning. Regrettably there appears to have been some technical problem and there are cuts in what I say at several points, though I think the videos are worthwhile nonetheless.

The third link is from this afternoon’s discussion of the Trump’s Greenland adventure, and this one is perfectly intelligible.

Trump Criticises UK Over Diego Garcia

Ukraine Foreign Minister Urges Support at Davos

Greenland/Danish FinMin /News X World