http://www.urmedium.net/c/presstv/135837
This is a focused 2 minute discussion of the impact of Ukraine’s cutting delivery of Russian oil to Slovakia and Hungary via the Druzhba pipeline. A work-around is being put together with Croatia, so that the consequences may be less consequential than Kiev may have hoped.
My apologies for the poor sound quality on this podcast.
This early morning interview starting on minute 4.30 focuses on British and American approaches to the Ukraine negotiations, the split in the Ukrainian negotiating delegation over conceding the Donbas to Russia, the British and American positions on Iran, the meaning of joint Russian and Iranian naval exercises going on in the Arabian Gulf and Indian Ocean, and the relative weighting of Russian and Chinese assistance to Tehran.
This afternoon interview begins at minute 3.30 and deals with an evaluation of the results of trilateral Russian-Ukrainian-US negotiations yesterday and today in Geneva, the likelihood of a power struggle now going on in Kiev over abandonment of the Donbas, the ongoing meeting of Cuban Foreign Minister in Moscow and the prospects for Russian assistance to Cuba.
The widely read Russian news outlet Аргументы и факты (Arguments and Facts) which had a vast audience in print form during Soviet rule in Russia and continues in the present era to enjoy a mass readership as an online purveyor of news and opinion today has put out a leading article on Russia’s delegation to the next session of the trilateral US-Russian-Ukrainian peace talks scheduled to be held tomorrow and Wednesday in Geneva. They inform us that the Russian team will once again be headed by Vladimir Medinsky, former Minister of Culture, adviser on international policy to President Vladimir Putin and until the last two rounds of negotiations, former head of Team Russia at the talks.
As we know, in the last two rounds of talks held in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, the Russian negotiating team was headed by the chief of Russian Military Intelligence (GRU) General Kostyukov. Those talks were said to center on security issues, which as I have said in recent essays, were about the modalities of Ukrainian withdrawal from all of Donbas in keeping with Russian preconditions for a cease-fire. I interpret the re-appointment of Medinsky as a tip-off that the talks will now resume at a higher level of discussion, meaning the overall contours of the peace settlement where the historical perspective that Medinsky brings to the task is critical.
In another article a day or two earlier, Argumenty i Fakty explained to its audience the significance of the selection of Geneva after Zelensky’s refusal to go back to Abu Dhabi considering the UAE’s treachery, from his standpoint, in handing over the accused would-be-assassin of Russian general Alekseyev to Russian authorities for interrogation and trial in Moscow. AiF tell us that Geneva was selected because of Switzerland’s centuries old neutral status in the heart of Europe. They also, very correctly, hint that this neutrality has been compromised in recent years. Indeed, allow me to hazard a guess that the Swiss authorities were keen to be hosts to the talks to demonstrate a return to neutrality after some recent missteps in the course of the Russia-Ukraine war when they have pandered to the pro-Kiev authorities in Brussels.
I take pleasure in ending this brief note with a hats-off to Argumenty i Fakty for reporting on my more substantive podcasts and in particular for reporting on my latest conversation with Professor Glenn Diesen. Their respective article was entitled Зеленского предупредили о потере Одессы и Харькова (Zelensky has been warned about the loss of Odessa and Kharkov). The opening paragraph of this article tells us: Aмериканский специалист в области международных отношений Гилберт Доктороу высказал предположение, что до завершения боевых действий Украина рискует лишиться контроля над двумя ключевыми городами — Харьковом и Одессой. Translation: “An American specialist in the field of international relations Gilbert Doctorow has suggested that before the military actions end Ukraine risks the loss of control over two key cities – Kharkov and Odessa.”
If I were Zelensky or some member of his regime, I might rightly ask, paraphrasing Stalin with respect to the Pope: and how many divisions does Doctorow command?
©Gilbert Doctorow, 2026
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Yes, indeed, NATO Secretary General speaking in the context of the ongoing Munich Security Conference has gleefully declared that Russia is experiencing “crazy losses” of 65,000 soldiers killed or wounded in the past two months and that the Russian economy is reeling from a one-third loss of oil export revenues. These words are meant to prod Conference attendees to believe in a possible Ukrainian victory in the war and to maintain solid materiel and financial support to Kiev.
If only words could win wars, Zelensky and Co. would be carried aloft by proud patriots down the streets of Kiev.
Reality tells any neutral observer that Rutte’s figures are ‘crazy’ in the sense that they are totally fabricated in the febrile word shops of Kiev and have no substance to them.
Promotional offer for new one-year paid subscriptions to my alternative web platform gilbertdoctorow.substack.com where I post analytical articles not shown on Word Press You will be eligible to receive a free of charge paperback copy of the historical novel on the Russian emigration of the 1970s, ‘Nadine’s Story’ by Larisa Zalesova. Subscribers must identify themselves by email to gsdoctorow@gmail.com to avail themselves of this offer. Information about the book is available on the various country websites of Amazon.
NewsX World (India) morning interview : a potpourri of issues relating to the Russia-Ukraine war
This six-minute interview which begins at minute 4 on the podcast covers a number of different issues, some of which have arisen from discussions ongoing in the Munich Security Conference. We discuss British Prime Minister Starmer’s views on how Europe should bulk up its defensive capabilities while remaining in close association with the United States. We discuss the time frame needed for Europe to rearm and how the Russians may react to such a threatening development. We discuss Emmanuel Macron’s supposed agreement with German Chancellor Merz on a shared nuclear umbrella, which might just be in violation of the treaty on non-proliferation of nuclear weapons to which both are signatories.
Promotional offer for new one-year paid subscriptions to gilbertdoctorow.substack.com, the web platform where I publish analytical essays which are not posted on Word Press You will be eligible to receive a free of charge paperback copy of th historical novel on the Russian emigration of the 1970s, ‘Nadine’s Story’ by Larisa Zalesova. Subscribers must identify themselves by email to gsdoctorow@gmail.com to avail themselves of this offer. Information about the book is available on the various country websites of Amazon.
https://www.urmedium.net/c/presstv/135802
In this interview, I insist that Merz is the most dangerous German leader since Adolf Hitler and that his plans for making Germany the strongest military force in Europe is an incarnation of Hitler’s vision. On top of this Merz is in talks with Emmanuel Macron over making the French nuclear force de frappe mutualized, meaning that Germany would receive nuclear bombs from the French, something which will meet with violent opposition of the Russians as it violates the terms of the Non-proliferation treaty on nuclear arms.
The interview was framed by Merz’s speech to the Munich Security Conference today which reconfirms that he is taking Germany in the wrong direction by preparing it for an eventual open war with Russia in 2030. He has learned nothing from J.D. Vance’s rebuke at the Conference one year ago that suppression of free speech and of other liberties in Europe is a greater threat to European security than China or Russia. Instead, Merz insisted that Europe must act against disinformation, meaning in practice, censorship and trampling on free speech. The only progress of democracy from a year ago under American pressure was the admission this year to the Conference proceedings of the Alternativ fuer Deutschland representatives.
Breaking news indeed! This interview opens with the presenter saying that the Russian-Ukrainian-US talks on peace will recommence on 17 February where they were last held, meaning Abu Dhabi. Then half way through our conversation we learn that the talks will in fact be held in Geneva.
No matter! The essential fact remains that the two sides are very far apart insofar as Zelensky refuses to make any territorial concessions, refuses to face the reality that Ukraine has lost the war because he is being encouraged by Europe to keep on fighting and to rely on their arms and cash deliveries to Kiev.
Under the circumstances, the greatest likelihood is that the sides will not have an agreed text of a peace treaty ready for Trump’s deadline of 15 May and Mr. Trump will walk away from these negotiations lest his continued participation have an adverse effect on the Republicans’ campaigning for November mid-term elections. In that case the interesting question is whether Trump will stop all U.S. arms shipments to Europe for Ukraine, will he stop the U.S. intelligence sharing with Ukraine. If this happens, then the war will wind down in a matter of weeks whatever the Europeans may wish or say.
In a remarkable speech yesterday to the European Industry Summit 2026 held in Antwerp, Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever proved once again his role as intellectual leader for the EU waiting in the wings to replace the ideologically driven authoritarians today in power in the European Institutions who continue to implement the Green Agenda talking points at the expense of industry and of the broad economy on the Continent.
Follow this link to his speech in English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHlObAAYeuE
Although De Wever indirectly took swipes at Donald Trump and MAGA for its ‘winner take all’ approach to global trade and global governance wherein there are only winners and losers versus the ‘win-win’ approaches of the EU, the commonality in thinking between Bart De Wever and Donald Trump is undeniable and rests on one word and concept: pragmatism.
Pragmatism was long ago the hidden strength of America in contrast to the very different, over-intellectualized operating principles on the Continent and among American elites. Whereas the American of yore asked about a new concept ‘does it work in practice?’ the average Frenchmen, by folklore, asked about a new invention ‘does it work in theory?’
However, over past decades pragmatism fell victim to various iterations of political correctness and was forgotten entirely among American elites. It took the brash and seemingly inarticulate Donald J. Trump to reject unhesitatingly and in clearest terms the illogic driving the Green Agenda that had taken hold of legislators and brought over-regulation and redirection of national wealth towards unworkable and/or vastly overpriced solutions to the needs of energy and industry.
When he joked during the 2016 electoral campaign saying “Marge, please tell me if the wind is blowing this morning. I’d like to watch some television’ Donald Trump encapsulated the return of common sense. Deregulation and application of the rule of pragmatism to the task of reindustrialization have been the calling cards of Trump’s domestic policies since he took office one year ago. These same principles were what Bart De Wever invoked in his speech last night in Antwerp.
To be sure, with typical Old World gallantry, De Wever tossed bouquets to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who sat on the dais, calling out her ‘incessant work’ and special efforts to conclude new and promising free trade agreements opening up new markets to European industry. But without question his words about the need for urgent action to implement the industrial recommendations of Draghi and other consultants to the Commission which have been realized at less than 10% in the past year spoke volumes about the wrong-headed priorities of the Commission.
To be sure, De Wever is willfully ignoring the need for pragmatism in foreign and defense policy if there is to be real progress in restoring the pillars of the European economy that he mentioned at the outset of his speech. Nota bene that his list of issues weighing negatively on the European chemical industry that lost 10% of its capacity in the last year began with high energy costs. And we all know the ‘why’ of those energy costs, namely the cut-off of cheap Russian oil and gas that had heavily supported the competitiveness of the EU domestically and on global markets for decades going back to the 1980s. The logic of De Wever’s words is to revisit the sanctions on Russia, to revisit the entire von der Leyen policy of erasing Russia from the European map and to practice instead self-serving common sense.
©Gilbert Doctorow, 2026
Gilbert Doctorow 