➡ Ed DeMarche from Trends Journal discusses the ongoing Ukraine crisis, highlighting the West’s role in escalating the situation. He also talks about the strained relationship between the US and Europe, suggesting that Russia might be benefiting from this discord. DeMarche praises Donald Trump’s honesty, despite his controversial decisions, and questions whether Russian President Vladimir Putin is influencing Trump to further divide the US and Europe. He concludes by emphasizing that both the US and Russia, as major powers, are naturally trying to influence each other.
➡ The text discusses the dynamics between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, suggesting that both are trying to influence each other. It criticizes Trump’s lack of political experience and his ego-driven approach, while acknowledging Putin’s intellectual prowess and strategic understanding. The text also questions Trump’s actions and appointments, suggesting they contradict his stated intentions. It concludes by suggesting that Trump’s disruptive approach is damaging traditional political and media structures, and that this could signal the final phase of the American empire.
➡ The article discusses the geopolitical conflicts involving Russia, Ukraine, and Venezuela. It highlights Russia’s focus on resolving the war in Ukraine, despite facing economic challenges and sanctions from over 60 countries. The article also mentions the lack of defense in Venezuela when Maduro was taken, suggesting a lack of preparedness or willingness to fight. Lastly, it emphasizes the changing nature of warfare, with Russia having a large number of drone operators, and the importance of might in the current global political landscape.
➡ The article discusses the global political landscape, highlighting the power dynamics between the United States, Europe, Russia, and China. It suggests that countries are forced to align with one of these major powers, with the U.S. using its economic and military strength to exert influence. The article also emphasizes Russia’s skepticism towards the U.S., particularly regarding trust in agreements made by President Trump. Lastly, it criticizes the idea of forcing countries like Russia and China into submission through sanctions, calling it unrealistic and ineffective.
➡ J. Bose joined the Trends Journal for a discussion, expressing gratitude for the opportunity.

Hi everyone, Ed demarche here. Please take two seconds to hit like, follow share down below. It helps us beat the YouTube algorithm, which is very important. And also please check out trends journal.com that’s trends journal.com 40 years of providing subscribers the world’s best trend forecasts. We are 100% independent, we take no orders from anyone and we answer only to our subscribers. It is a must read for everyone who wants to stay ahead of the game. That’s trendsjournal.com thank you as always for watching and for your support. Our position on the Ukraine, to put it in a nutshell, is that there is a need to eliminate the primary causes of that crisis, the primary root causes that the west has been creating for many years in order to turn Ukraine into a security threat against our country, trying to create a stronghold against Russia right at our border.

Well, any time there is a diplomatic issue, to put it diplomatically between us, the transatlantic partners, I’m sure that the Kremlin is enjoying it. I mean, and they will use it as they best can. As we saw, you know, I mean, Foreign Minister of Russia Lavrov puts out a tweet and saying that for, for, for the U.S. greenland is what Crimea is for Russia. And obviously, you know, that’s an insult and we all understand that. So we always have to be careful with the Russians because they will use any moment and any possibility for good old information warfare and propaganda.

Hello, my name is Evan DeMarsch with the trends Journal. I’m happy to be here today with Che Bose, the journalist based in Russia. You could find Che on X. Che, thank you for joining the Trends Journal. Great to be here. Is Russia sitting back, enjoying seeing Trump almost dissolve some of the, at least publicly dissolve what looks like the relationship between the US and Europe for the first time in a while, I mean, first time ever, you, it seems as though Europe and the US were actually considering potential military action or at least an invasion of some sort in Greenland.

Is this something that Putin sitting back watching and enjoying Che, in your opinion? Well, I don’t think anybody’s enjoying it, but there is a German word called schadenfreude which you may or may not be familiar with, which, you know, it does what it says in the tin. I mean I, I, the Chinese, the Russians, the Iranians, the Venezuelans, anybody who’s been under the microscope of this international rules based order, which isn’t an international rules based order. Now we hear from Mr. Carney, the Canadian leader, you know, anybody who’s been A subject of that or the hypocrisy, gross hypocrisy of it is obviously looking now at these so called partners nibbling away at each other in the tank and kind of sort of being amused by it.

Say that everybody’s amused by it. Most commentators are amused by it. And so I don’t think anybody’s enjoying it or anything. Nobody wants the instability, least of all the Russians. I don’t think they do at all. I mean, they want this war over. They didn’t want it to begin, but they weren’t really given much option, in my view, as to haven’t intervene in Ukraine after the determined efforts of the west to light this fire, this civil war which led to this terrible conflict. Now that’s in its fourth year. So I don’t think anyone’s enjoying, I think that’s, this is just typical for Mr.

Stub. He’s the Finnish leader who, you know, you know, I don’t know, can you take him seriously or not? I mean, everything is going to be Russia’s fault. Your daughter slips on her wedding day, your wife has an affair with the boss. It’s all Vladimir Putin. So, I mean, I don’t take anything they say seriously because they’re not serious people themselves. I mean, they, if they were, they, they wouldn’t have allowed themselves to come into this position of vassal demi states of the United States of America. They would have had some sovereignty. And it never would have been the case where an American president of any ilk or, you know, background, Democrat or Republican, would ever have even considered putting people under the pressure that they’re being put under at the moment.

Because remember, Europe has nothing to, to fire back really at America with. They’ve allowed themselves to become vassal states economically to the United States militarily. I mean, there’s over 70, 000 US troops tonight in Europe, hundreds and hundreds of warplanes, helicopters, missiles. I mean, Europe is essentially a, a junior partner in a very abusive relationship with post war America. And we understand that because they’ve basically followed them into numerous cataclysmic wars and they don’t have any receipts. They don’t really. And Mr. Trump is doing now, as I’ve said recently actually that Donald Trump is doing now what the American empire has done for, for decades in the post war period.

But he’s just doing it overtly. He doesn’t have the finesse to lie as well as other presidents have done. Obama, the man who received a peace prize, who droned more weddings than a bad Wedding singer Dan Clinton, an exceptionally dishonest man, and his wife who’ve been involved in the perpetuation of some of the most horrendous wars. Bush, Iraq, you know, Afghanistan, you know, the list goes on. But they’ve done it under this fake banner of, you know, democracy, freedom, the rules based order. Whereas Mr. Trump is just honest. He says, look, it’s the Don Row doctrine.

We don’t believe, we don’t really care what you think. We think we need Greenland for our security or for its resources or so that I can get a chapter in the, in the history books of the guy who double the size of the United States of America. Whatever his reasoning is, I actually like Donald Trump for that. For that what? The honesty is his honesty, for the naivety and for his honesty. I like it because, you know, he’s not trying to pretend anymore and America is just being America. It’s being, you know, America is just being America.

I just think there’s an honesty to Donald Trump and I think there’s also some sincerity to him. Although I get awful pressure in Russia when I say, oh, they’re sincere because they supply so many weapons that they, they supply so much money and weaponry to the United, to the Ukrainians and to the enemies of Russia. But I still think there’s a sincerity to Donald Trump. Remember, he doesn’t really need to do any of this. He’s a very wealthy man and I think, you know, you have to give some credit to him for what’s happened in Gaza, at least ostensibly, a lot of the killing is stopped.

It’s, it’s, again, it’s not a very well thought out at peace, but I think, I think he is putting effort into peace. It’s up to people to pick up the pieces that he smashes through like he charges through a wall. I don’t even think he has got the right people around him right now to advise him on what’s actually happening. He said today or yesterday that his NATO partners in the UK hid in the front lines when they were in Afghanistan. Dedicated opponent of the war in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Korea, Vietnam. I mean, they’re all wars of profit and manipulation.

But Donald Trump gets it so gloriously wrong sometimes. It’s a mixture of shock, awe and, you know, entertainment value is remarkable. Just go. We have traditional people who are establishment writers in the US And I’m sure you read them. Peggy Noonan, you mentioned before, if your wife cheated on you, you’d blame Vladimir Putin. If you’re in the United States. So Peggy Noonan in today’s column, it was the top of Drudge Report, she wrote she wondered if Putin whispers the kind of antagonized Trump with the Europeans during their phone calls and says Donald, you can’t trust your so called friends.

So if Peggy Noonan’s writing that in the Wall Street Journal, that’s generally, I feel like establishment, true establishment speak. Do you think that Putin is influencing Trump in any kind of way behind the scenes to try to alienate, you know, separate the US from Europe at all? Well again, real politic, I mean I’m interested in that school of political thought. Again, Donald Trump is only being influenced and influencing the, remember the Russia, the, the Russian state, the Russian Federation as it is now and it’s, it’s forward. The, the Soviet Union and the United States of America have two of the biggest intelligence and national security organizations on earth.

They literally have hundreds of thousands of people working for their national security operations. You know, the American system is far more aggressive and well funded globally than the Russian one is the Russian svr, the Foreign Service, the Internal Security Service, the fsb. So to suggest that either of these giant nuclear powers, Russia, the biggest landmass, biggest nuclear arsenal on earth, America, the biggest economy, you know, probably the biggest military, Russia close second. That they’re not trying to influence each other is exceptionally naive. Of course they’re trying to influence each other. Are you as a CEO of a big company, is he trying to influence, is, is, you know, Tim Cook trying to influence the head of Nvidia is most, it’s the same dynamic, I think.

So to suggest that they’re not trying to influence each other would be naive. I think they are trying to influence each other. I think Donald Trump hasn’t has an ego which is susceptible to not just political influence but to the idea that he wants to be. He’s so desperate to be the greatest, he’s neglecting the mechanisms by which to achieve any greatness. And in, in my view that’s the problem again. But I say that in a sincere way. I’m not trying to diminish him or be high handed about Donald Trump because he’s not a politician or career politician, doesn’t have a history in statesmanship, etc.

I, I’m not trying to be high handed or you know, aloof about this in some sort of, you know, intellectual way. That’s not what I’m saying. But I think he’s not an intellectual match for somebody like Vladimir Putin, a man who served in the kgb. He was A major, speaks a couple of languages, a very well educated man, as we know, he’s a very well educated man, reads a lot of history, understands the mechanisms of geostrategic crafts with statesmanship. Vladimir Putin, whatever you think of Vladimir Putin is almost irrelevant if you look at his track record in the post Soviet period when Russia was a crippled, bleeding out society.

Vladimir Putler is widely incorrectly credited with resuscitating Russia into a global power again, modernizing its military, getting the oligarchs under control. Donald Trump as well has got a lot of stuff done as well. I’m not trying to compare the two, an apple and an orange. They both have their qualities and downsides, I’m sure. But is Vladimir Putin trying to influence Trump? I don’t think Donald Trump is influenceable because I don’t think he’s a man that’s prone to taking too much advice because his position and statements on things like Russia suggesting that, you know, the United States won the Second World War.

That’s one of the most bizarre statements any president could make talking about Davos, when he said, you’d be speaking German right now. And I mean, look, The Russians lost 27 million people during the Second World War. It’s an exceptionally live, pertinent thing even today. I mean, it’s, there’s not a family alive in Russia that doesn’t have somebody. It’s a very connected, real living history. Vladimir Putin lost his own brother during the siege of Leningrad, which has been celebrated, the relief of the siege has been celebrated at the moment in St. Petersburg. And in that city, Leningrad lost more people than the combined war dead, military and civilian of the United States and the United Kingdom put together in one Russian city.

And statements like Vladimir Putin saying, oh, you know, we won the war, the Russians helped us. And, and this type of stuff, it’s, it’s, it’s just, I think, I think it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s, I don’t think it’s aggressively deployed because I don’t think he’s informed well. I think his advisors on Ukraine are very poor. He appointed Keith Kellogg, this very elderly, almost delusional character, very pro Ukrainian. So why would he do that? Why would Trump, if he’s so interested in making relations with the US And Russia better, and he was sincere about that, why keep Kellogg anywhere near his position right now as a special envoy to Ukraine? Why have Marco Rubio, a Russia hawk, as your Secretary of State? Why have Ratcliffe, another hawk for Russia, as your CIA director? Trump, this is One of the things that’s confusing about Trump is that he really, he says one thing and then his actions seem to suggest that he’s interested in doing another thing.

Yeah, yeah. Well, again, it also speaks to the lunacy of this. Putin is a, or Trump is a, is an asset of Russia. This is an insanity. Okay? If, I mean, there’s so many things that Donald Trump could do differently if he was an asset of the Russians or if he was working to, you know, I think again, it comes down to naivety and I think it comes down to relationships. I think Donald Trump is a man who’s very interested in relationships with people rather than the sort of intrinsic value and capabilities of people estates. But remember, Marco Rubio called Donald Trump a couple of years ago a bad used card salesman, a fraud.

It’s several times, you know, they’re not traditional allies with Rubio. So there’s wheels within wheels. And I don’t understand, you know, as you say, the mechanism by which a lot of this is deployed, because remember, in the United States of America, and you know this better and your viewers as Americans will understand that the machine of the media is an integral part of the political machine and the political machine is an integral part of the media. And likewise, they are the same microcosm, the White House, who gets what. But Donald Trump has disrupted that to a great extent as well.

So he’s a disruptor. So he’s damaged a lot of those nodes that would have been guaranteed in a, in a more stable political environment, let’s say. And he’s kind of using a sledgehammer to smash nuts like he, so he, he’s made a lot of enemies for himself within the intrinsic political machine. Within, within the United States, definitely in the media and the, in the, on the, on what is now considered a left wing media, cnn. I never would have considered CNN and mainstream American media as left wing, but they’re now called left wing, which is remarkable to me.

You know, he’s fallen out with these guys. So it’s, it’s a remarkable place to be. And like you, like we said before we began our discussion, we’re living in this remarkable post. Truth, reality. Remember, it seems that the President of the United States can say anything he wants on a Monday, completely counteract that on a Tuesday, on a Wednesday, then I said it at all on a Thursday, say it all again, and on a Friday, say none of it ever happened. And that’s where we live. That’s the world we live in. And it just goes to show the Power of the United States of America.

And I’ve said this recently, I was talking to George Galloway about this, that what all of this is doing, in my view, is showing that the American empire is moving into its final phase. Because I don’t think anybody in the United States, in the political machinery, in the business machinery, or in the media machinery of the United States can allow an Emperor Trump to happen again. I think they’re going to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Even if his successor takes power, somebody like Vance, they’re going to have to be controlled and cooled and messaged better because Trump is a man of his age.

He’s a man of great privilege. You know, a man who started a. Work very hard all his life, started a, his first business with a small loan from his father of a million dollars. You know, I grew up in a very. Yeah, I heard different things. I heard different things about how much he got from his father. I thought it was. I heard that he got like $500 million from his father. Oh, there you go. Yeah. So I don’t think, I don’t know if he, I don’t think he’s a Horatio Alger story. But, but anyway, but, but Che, here’s, here’s a question.

I read this, and I don’t have the quote in front of me, but it was in the Economist, and it talked about how Trump and Putin both position themselves as strongmen. And. Well, at least that’s what the article contended. And it said that Trump’s essentially eating Putin’s lunch because he kidnapped Maduro. Maduro was an ally with Putin to a degree. He’s seizing Russian flag tankers with that have ties to Venezuela oil. There’s even reports that the US CIA was behind the drone attack on Putin’s home. I think it might have been late last year or earlier.

This year. This year, yeah. So, so tell me, is, is Trump having his way right now? Is, is he eating Putin’s lunch? And why would Putin keep, keep letting Trump have these wins? Okay. Yeah, it’s an interesting question. You know, I’ll begin with a quote by a very famous Frenchman, Napoleon Bonapart, who very famously say, never interrupt your enemy when he’s making a mistake. Okay, and what do I mean by that? Well, it means the European Atlantic alliance is collapsing in real time. And much like the Soviets used to say, we don’t really need to destroy capital.

Capitalism, Capitalism will destroy itself. We don’t need to invade Europe. There was never a plan for the Soviet Union to invade Europe. So the Russians are basically sitting back and watching the European Union cripple itself as an economic power, as a geostrategic power. There is no power in Europe. They’re middle and small powers now. You know, essentially vassals to the United States were very turbulent and unpredictable United States at that. Why to the second part of your question. Why is he allowing Maduro to be captured? I believe that the capture of Maduro was an arranged thing.

I think the whole Venezuelan security architecture was hollowed out by the CIA. I wrote about that. A couple of people I spoke to who may know suggest that to be not in Russia. And the fact that with a very advanced anti aircraft system that the Venezuelans didn’t shoot down a single helicopter or fire one of their 5000-man-portable rockets at these helicopters which flew into Caracas with great impunity. And the also the other fact that only Cubans died defending Maduro. It tells you an awful lot about what’s actually happening in it was almost abduction by appointment, you know.

Plus you got to understand the scale of the war in Ukraine is almost incomprehensible to Western commentators who’ve never been to Russia who don’t understand the scale of it. This, the number of men at the moment tonight as we speak there are a million men engaged in combat on the front line. At least a million, probably 400,000 on the Ukrainian side and probably 600,000 on the Russian side. A million men, a thousand kilometer long front line. Nothing has been seen like this even in the Second World War. The scale of this conflict would have been incomprehensible.

And Russia has tried to maintain a stable civic society through this. There’s been no forced conscription. There’s been no real clampdown in the economy. There’s been no erosion of civil power through this. Russia isn’t fighting in a war economy. Even at the moment the Russian economy is suffering. Of course it is. No country benefits from a long war. But it’s, it’s. It. This, the scale of this is very important. And what, what the Russians need to do and, and want to do is finish the war in Ukraine. They don’t have the resources either fiscal or military to save the Syrian regime if it so decides that its own military abandons its post and runs away.

They don’t have the energy or sort of determination to stop America intervening in its hemisphere to remove Mr. Maduro and the dogs in the street knew that the Americans were coming to do this. If there was a serious plan to defend Venezuela from, for Venezuela to Defend itself. Forget about Russian intervention. Venezuela has one of the biggest paramilitary forces in the world, like over a million men under arms. Where were they on the night these helicopters, which had been sitting offshore for many, many weeks, if not months, decided to land these 80 special forces into the city and leave with Mr.

Maduro. So I don’t think, I don’t think the task was for Russia to stop it happening. And, and something that is very important for your viewers to understand is that while Ukraine is very important, while Venezuela is important, while what’s happening in Iran is very important for the Russians, the key issue here is to try and develop, in my view, stability on its own borders, which is going to do in Ukraine. It’s either going to end it on the, on the battlefield, excuse me, or it’s going to do it by negotiation, but only when the Ukrainians have been pushed out or left the Donbass region.

That’s the only way this is going to end. It’s never going to end until there is no one left to, to oppose the, the root cause of this conflict, as Sergey Lavrov has said, have to be addressed because the Russians aren’t going to end this war to allow their kids to fight another one. It’s just not going to happen. So, so in the context of the scale of the conflict, the scale of the war, the, the, the socioeconomic war on Russia from over 60 countries, remember the sanctions, 10, you know, thousands and thousands of sanctions. Russia, the most sanctioned country on earth, Russia has its hands full.

It doesn’t need to be propping anybody up really in real time. And I think if you were thinking that Donald Trump was a mastermind of international geostrategy, you might say, well, while Russia’s got its hands full in Ukraine, maybe I’ll do a bit of housekeeping in Iran and Venezuela, maybe that’s the case. But it also means that when this conflict ends in Ukraine, as it will end, it has to end and it has to end sooner than later. Russia will then be turning its eyes to countries like in my view, Azerbaijan to Armenia to other places and saying, well, look, now we’ve got one of the biggest armies on the earth, the biggest combat army on Earth, definitely the most combat capable military on planet Earth is a Russian army.

Remember, the most seasoned after the war, they had the most experience out of the battle. There are millions of combat veterans now. Russia by the end of this year will have more drone operators than there are men in the United States Marine Corps. Currently there are 80,000 dedicated combat veteran drone Operators. And this is the future of warfare. By the end of the year, there’ll be 160,000, and by the end of the next year be 300,000 men in that, in that core of the army at all. It’s a remarkable scale. And again, it’s important to understand scale because every one of these soldiers needs to be paid, everyone needs to be fed, cared for, and this is a massive undertaking for any state.

And Russia is advancing. Whatever they say about the economy and this, that the Ukrainians are desperate for men, they’ve lost well in excess of a million people dead. 400,000 people have deserted from their military. That’s just not happening in Russia. And all this projection about these numbers, it’s just laughable because, you know, living in Russia, you very quickly realize this is just insane to even suggest. Like, I think at Davos, it was suggested that, you know, 30,000, 35, 000 men were killed in a week or it’s just laughed at here. Nobody believes this stuff. You don’t see it.

You would know. You would see that scale as you do see in Ukraine, these vast cemeteries, groundwater destroyed, the red Cross with 400, 000 inquiries about missing people in Ukraine from the Ukrainian side. 400, 000. I mean, it’s quite a remarkable scale. It’s almost World War I scale. So this idea that it’s Russia’s responsibility to. To ensure at all costs that there’s no regime change in, in Venezuela, much like in Syria. Russia’s still got its bases in Syria. Even though Mr. Jelani is there, it still has its, its bases there. The Russian Foreign Ministry has met with the Mr.

Al Jalani or the new Syrian leadership. It’s about pragmatism and moving forward. The key issue for Russia is to get the Ukraine war solved. And that means ending and removing the root cause of the war as the Russians see them. Doesn’t matter if you disagree or not. It’s like having this discussion, oh, we can’t do a deal on territory. Because, I mean, look, deals are done on territory every day. There’s a deal being done on Greenland right now, which is essentially a deal on territory where the Americans will basically control Greenland economically and militarily, much like it now does in Venezuela.

So this is the real politic of what’s going to happen. Great powers don’t tolerate threats on their borders. And that’s a direct quote from a man I’m a great fan of, Professor John Mearsheimer. He’s absolutely correct. And whether you like it or not might is right now, in 2026, might is right. I mean I, I composed a very interesting little meme where Kim, Kim Jong Un is walking away from one of his vast ballistic missiles with his arm around his daughter. It’s a famous photograph. And I wrote on the bottom, now you see why daddy built a nuclear weapon.

You know, and it’s, it’s true. That’s North Korea is fine, North Korea’s fine. That’s the reality right now is that Pakistan, India, Israel, of course, which possesses a nuclear weapon, but we’re not meant to know that. You know, it, it confers a huge amount of risk on somebody like Donald Trump wanting to park their tanks on your lawn. You’re just not going to do it. You’re going to move on to a more, let’s say flexible option. So this is the reality in 2026 and it’s becoming apparent. And all the shock and awe from these, dare I say it, liberal delusionists in Europe who’ve been sort of believing in this vacuous rule based order which allows them to look the other way in place like Iraq, where a million people died for a lie, where it allows them to say, oh, we’re defending freedom in Afghanistan by killing 50,000 civilians.

This rules based order, it doesn’t, it never existed. And people like us, like me, I’ve been pointing that out that this is a, an a la carte, a bible of a la carte morality that you can sort of deploy as it suits you. You know, if we deem you to be bad, we’re going to either, you know, activate a CIA, you know, playbook regime operation as the Americans have done for, for decades in some sitting in Iran right now they’re doing the same, same as we’ve seen in Iran for now. It’s, it’s, it’s been contained it seems.

So this is just this, this, this a la carte morality. And what’s most interesting is to see the Europeans really looking at each other palely saying, oh my God. So the Americans could do this to us too. Like if you breed a tiger and you feed that tiger to the point that, you know, you make him so hungry looking at you through the bars of the cage, one day he breaks out. It’s much like what happened in, in Palestine. You know, you keep people in an open air prison for, for decades, you radicalize them, you allow that to happen and then they break out on October 7th, as did, and horrifically terrible things happen to civilians, which I condemn all violence against civilians.

When that happens when you build a zoo and you fill it with young tigers and they break out. They’re not going to come and make sandwiches for you, so don’t expect them to. Same thing happens with, with, in, in some extent to the United States. The United States has built itself up as this utterly impervious country. Who threatened to bomb the International Criminal Court? Who over Netanyahu, Right. Who also, you know, says, you know you’ll do as you’re told or will economically destroy you, which they’ve done to many countries. You. Or you’ll allow us to transit your territory, you’ll sell us your goods.

The United States owns the global currency, so they can cripple you through economics or they can destroy you with their vast military and then they can use this rules based order to say, yes, here’s the sort of victim card. You know, Palestinians die, Israelis are killed, you know, Russians attack, we secure. That’s how it works. So anybody who ever believed this thing is either lying now when the Americans say, well, we’re going to have Greenland and we might have Calendar next, anyone who pretends they’re surprised by that is either a fool or a liar. Last question, Cha Bowes.

Check, check the link down below to follow him on X. My last question, does Russia, Trump, or does Russia believe that it can trust Trump? When back during the elections Medvedev came out and he called Trump. This is back in 2024, Medvedev said Trump is an establishment insider. At the end of the day, that’s what he posted on X. And Trump, we see he’s still providing intelligence to the Ukrainians. He’s still hitting Russia with sanctions. Is Trump someone that Putin and Russia believe that they can trust? Well, look, first, I don’t speak for the Russian. I’m not a Russian.

Russia, I work in Russia. I, I may have some, some views. Oh, no, I mean from your opinion. I’m sorry, I didn’t work that well. Yeah, I mean, look, here, here’s what I think, right? The Russians are exceptionally careful people. I mean, when you come to live in Russia, okay, as an Irish guy, right, you know, Irish, Americans, I mean, I mean we’re the same people in many ways. Italian, Italians, Irish, you know, we’re kind of this glue pot, right? But the Russians are kind of different. They’re different in this way. The default position of Russians in everything, and this is my own personal experience, is skepticism.

They’re skeptical of everything. They’re skeptical of their own government, they’re skeptical of what they’ve been told. About history and the future and the past. They’re very skeptical people. They tend to base their opinions of individuals and events on experience, which is not like us in the West. We tend to be very sort of forgiving in many ways. But the Russians are very unforgiving because if there’s any country on earth that knows war, conflict, suffering, privation, famine, it’s the Soviet people. And the Russians, they have been through the most horrendous conflicts, from the invasions of the, you know, the Mongol hordes, which set back Russia by maybe two or 300 years, to the Second World War, which was a, a generation shattering conflict in Russia, 27 million people.

It’s almost incomprehensible the scale and in my view, that has kind of hardwired the Russian psyche to be exceptionally skeptical and demand, you know, facts and base. And that’s what the Russians have been like this all the way since February 22, when Vladimir Putin announced he was going to go into Ukraine. Nothing has changed about the Russian position from what he said he was going to do. Denazify, demilitarize, and, you know, essentially prevent this war happening again. Nothing has changed. I’m dismayed as how people kind of have this idea or the Russians don’t want this. It’s like you go into a shop, you ask for strawberry ice cream.

They can offer you every other flavor. Unless they give you the strawberry ice cream, you’re not getting what you want. And the Russians won’t accept apple, banana. They want the strawberry ice cream. So give it to us. And they’re going to remain silent until someone produces this strawberry ice cream. So in my view, do they trust Donald Trump? I would suggest they trust the mechanisms of the United States legal system and political system whereby agreements that are signed by Mr. Trump will be viable and valid for the next president, as many laws are passed on from president to president.

I don’t think it’s about an issue of Trump. I think it’s about do you trust this machine which has predicated most much of its power on its ability to exert influence economically and militarily? Do you? Do you trust them or do you trust you have what you hold? I think the Russians have learned, as many countries are learning now, the Europeans are learning now, that as I said earlier, might is right. It’s what you have, you hold, it’s what ability you have to defend yourself that matters. And we’re going into almost a medieval reality with a tripolar world.

United States, China and Russia as the big powers. And everybody’s gonna have to kind of pick a team. To some respect, the Europeans are trapped in that. They’re so aligned to America. They’re so, it’s like a tree and a railing that have grown in together in the post war period. They took a lot of money from the Americans to rebuild Europe, and it was Europeans that destroyed themselves. Remember, it wasn’t the Americans that tried to keep out of the second war as they tried to keep out of the first world war. So some of what Mr.

Trump is saying is true. So here’s the reality. Everyone’s going to have to pick a side. The Russians and the Chinese are aligning themselves with the Iranians and with some Middle east countries who are playing in the middle. But the Europeans have only one place to go. They can’t come to Russia because they’ve, they’ve, they’ve professed they die in pools of their own blood before they’d ever even talk to Mr. Putin again or the Russian leadership. So they’re stuck with the big dawn. And it’s, it’s almost comedic to see them trying to convince themselves that they’re going to be able to do a deal with them.

Because what, in reality, what the big don wants, the big don is going to get. And it’s either we’re going to buy it from you, we’re going to take it from you, or we’re going to make life so, so uncomfortable for you that you’re going to give it to us anyway. That’s basically the law of the jungle right now. And I don’t see the Chinese or the Russians stepping in anytime soon to sort of stop the party. Why would they? I mean, these are the protagonists in concerted efforts to antagonize Taiwan against China, to antagonize Ukraine against Russia.

So I don’t think anyone’s sitting back and saying, oh, this is great on this side of the world, but they’re sitting back and saying, you know, you, you make your bed, you lie in it. You know, nobody’s, nobody’s going to come to your aid now. But maybe you should turn back on Nordstream, which your friends blew up for you, maybe because America is now selling very expensive liquefied national gas to the, to the, to the Europeans at twice the price that they were getting very clean and stable energy supplies, too. So they’re masters of their own destiny in many ways, in Europe in particular.

But will, will much change? All the good stuff will be kept when the new president comes in. If there’s a democrat, the good stuff will be kept I don’t see them. If, if, if, if Greenland became part of the United States territory it would be very much a case that the new Democrat president said well it’s impossible for us to hand it back. Yeah yeah okay so the good bits will be kept you know and the bad bits will be cast aside. That’s, that’s my view but regarding Russia and China, you remember China is the biggest manufacturing economy America, most of America’s goods are made in China.

The idea that you can sanction China into submission is absolutely ludicrous just like the idea that you could bend Russia to your will Excuse me but these sanctions was ludicrous it was a self sort of self belief and propaganda which hasn’t even educated people like Lindsey Graham they still want to bomb everybody into friendship you know it doesn’t work out too well you know. J. Bose, thanks for joining the Trends Journal I appreciate it. Thanks to you for having me.
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