Transcript of News X interview, 6 June

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NewsX: 0:00
Now we move on to Russia. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov warned that the US Golden Dome anti-missile system will militarize outer space and heightened global tensions. He called for international agreements to prevent an arms race in space, highlighting Russia’s push for a UN ban on space weapons deployment. Ukraine claims it struck two Russian airfields and fuel sites overnight in a major retaliatory operation. President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the strikes followed a massive Russian assault involving over 400 drones and 40 missiles.

Zelensky also called on Western allies to act decisively and ramp up pressure on Moscow. He warned that failing to respond promptly would encourage further escalation. Zelensky said Russia must feel the cost of terror. “We need more air defense, long-range capabilities and firm decisions from partners.” He stressed that delayed action only strengthens the enemy and urged the West to speed up weapons deliveries and sanctions.

1:06
Russia claims it intercepted several Ukrainian drones. Moscow also says ties with Washington are in ruins, diminishing hopes to renew the New START nuclear treaty. Meanwhile, the EU is weighing whether to add Russia to its money-laundering gray list, a move that would increase financial pressure on Moscow. Meanwhile, the EU says a new trade deal with Ukraine could be struck by summer, which sugar quotas set to rise sharply under the proposed agreement. Pre-war trade rules will resume from Friday as temporary exemptions expire, but talks are underway to reach a balanced long-term agreement.

NewsX: 1:49
Now we have guest Gilbert Doctorow. He’s a Russian affairs expert joining us live from Brussels, Belgium. Thank you for joining us today. Is there a risk that outer space could become the next frontier of the arms race between superpowers?

Gilbert Doctorow, PhD:
I don’t think that risk is going to be very great. The Russian complaint over US plans for using space, these complaints are supported by many other countries. And the whole project, it’s a very expensive, “Golden Dome” project, is unlikely to be realized. It is a talking point for Mr. Trump, and I don’t think much more.

NewsX: 2:35
And according to how does Russia view the EU’s plans to deepen trade ties with Ukraine in the midst of this war?

Doctorow:
Well, whether they deepen them or don’t deepen them, I don’t think makes much difference to Moscow. Moscow was interested in the military and financial aid from the European Union and from NATO to Kiev. And that, despite all the fine words coming out of Western Europe, is unlikely to happen, simply because the money isn’t there and the war materiel isn’t there to give to Kiev. Moreover, all European leaders have their eyes on Washington, where they expect Mr. Trump to leave the field to them and to withdraw American assistance.

NewsX:
And following up on that, how does Russia respond to Western concerns that Moscow itself is testing space-based military technology?

Doctorow:
Well, the Russians will not really comment on that. So there is not, there is not much material for me to use to answer your question. They, of course the Russians are prepared to enter that sphere if necessary. It is not a matter of immediate concern. This project will take years to realize, and there’ll be many changes in relationships between the United States, Russia, and other major powers while these tentative developments are occurring. So it’s not an urgent issue that bears on the present very strained relationships in global affairs.

NewsX: 4:19
And is there any room left for de-escalation, when both sides are striking deep into each other’s territory?

Doctorow:
Well, both sides striking deep — the Ukrainian side striking deep is striking locally. That’s to say they’re not striking from Ukraine. And that is hard to repeat. This project that was so stunning last weekend, their Operation Spiderweb, took 18 months from conception through final implementation. I doubt that there are many reserves of Ukrainian drones on Russian territory to deploy to use in the near future. So I think this is a one-way street. The Russians have every capability of striking deep with missiles, with drones, and so forth. The Ukrainians don’t.

5:13
Nonetheless, the situation that was created by the strike on Russian air bases last weekend is of major international concern, because of one other item in the news that you mentioned in passing, that the Russians are saying it’s unlikely they will be a renewal of the New START arms limitation treaty. The reason for that is precisely what happened last weekend. The United States, no doubt, was a party to the planning of the strike that eventually took place last weekend, going back into the middle of Joe Biden’s term in office. And this was, this meant that the United States was in direct violation, egregious violation of its basic obligations under that treaty. The treaty, as you know, obliged the Russians to leave their aircraft, their strike, their nuclear triad strike aircraft exposed on the tarmac so that they could be watched from space and counted to see that the terms of the agreement were being honored.

6:21
That was used by the Ukrainians, of course with the help and connivance of the British and the Americans, to strike, to try to destroy those very bombers. That cannot pass as a basis for any further talks. And therefore, we’ve heard from Moscow remarks that you commented upon and you delivered to the audience a few minutes ago.

NewsX:
And with that in mind, on US-Russia relations and nuclear tensions, Moscow says ties with Washington are in ruins. Who is responsible for this collapse in dialogue, according to you?

Doctorow:
The United States, because the Russians never cut their relations. I mean, the Russians never cut their relations. They were on the receiving end of America’s attempts under Joe Biden to isolate Russia and to make it a pariah state. Therefore, any Russian acts curbing diplomatic presence, making it difficult for citizens to get visas to Russia, these were all a Russian reaction. And indeed, it has to be said that the Russians went out of their way to maintain relations, people-to-people relations, even as the United States did everything possible to cut every variety of ties.

7:44
What I mean is that seeing that diplomatic core of each of these powers in the other country was curtailed to an extent where visa issuance became problematic, the Russians reopened the channel of electronic visa issuance on the internet, making it possible for Americans to travel, one could say freely, to Russia. So for the Russian side, they have to a limited extent tried to maintain ties, while the United States did everything possible to cut ties.

NewsX:
And that explanation raises a critical follow-up. Is there any hope for reviewing the New START Treaty, or is arms control now dead between Russia and the U.S.?

Doctorow:
Well, this is a major point that I’ve been trying to make and introduce with various broadcasters and I find myself regrettably pretty much alone in making this point.

Everyone has called attention to the dramatic damage done to various Russian bombers. Yes, that was of course striking, but the biggest damage was precisely to the whole concept of arms limitation. The United States, as the other power, the other partner in such treaties violates them in the most cynical way as it did clearly by facilitating the launch of Operation Spiderweb 18 months ago, then there’s no sense whatsoever for the Russians to enter into arms limitation talks with the Americans. They are not an honest partner whose word is worth anything. That is very sad, because arms limitation talks are much more than reducing the numbers of warheads or putting caps on the numbers of arms that each country has.

9:42
They are a process. That is, not the negotiation, but the final treaties, are a process of dialogue between the countries that maintain something resembling trust. And if there are no agreements in place, then there is zero trust between the parties, and we are very close to possibly terrible consequences of mistakes, of erroneous identification of coming, of in-bound strikes, nuclear weapon strikes, where each party follows the rule of “fire at once upon suspected incoming missiles” because you use them or you lose them. That is a very dangerous situation today, all the more so considering that the time from pushing a button to launch to its reaching its target has descended from the traditional 1960s 1970s Cold War scenario of 30 minutes to something like five minutes. So the lack of trust is a fatal risk to all of us.

NewsX: 10:52
Yes indeed, and thank you very much for sharing that insight and joining us, Gilbert Doctorow. He’s a Russian affairs expert. He joined us from Brussels, Belgium. Now we move on to our next story.