- 5/20/2025
Political tensions soar as former President Trump openly supports Putin ๐ท๐บ, rejects new sanctions โ๐ฐ, and backs peace talks in Istanbul ๐๏ธ๐น๐ท, sparking outrage among European leaders ๐ก๐. Meanwhile, UK Labour leader Keir Starmer faces major political challenges and steps down ๐ช๐ฌ๐ง. Analyst Alexander Mercouris breaks down the dramatic fallout and what it means for global diplomacy ๐๐.
#Trump #Putin #Sanctions #IstanbulTalks #EuropePolitics #KeirStarmer #AlexanderMercouris #InternationalRelations #GlobalPolitics #PeaceTalks #PoliticalTensions #Diplomacy #Russia #USA #Europe #UKPolitics #BreakingNews #WorldNews #PoliticalAnalysis #Geopolitics
#Trump #Putin #Sanctions #IstanbulTalks #EuropePolitics #KeirStarmer #AlexanderMercouris #InternationalRelations #GlobalPolitics #PeaceTalks #PoliticalTensions #Diplomacy #Russia #USA #Europe #UKPolitics #BreakingNews #WorldNews #PoliticalAnalysis #Geopolitics
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NewsTranscript
00:00good day today is tuesday 20th may 2025 and obviously i am still in st petersburg that
00:08this will be my last night here my last evening here i've had a very very busy day indeed i've
00:15been at the legal forum um i've had some time in the city itself i've gained an awful lot of
00:22impressions about both the mood and the overall condition of uh certainly st petersburg itself
00:32and perhaps of the larger country whilst i have been here i am extremely grateful to my hosts
00:39but i'm going to go straight into this program today the subject of this program because
00:46time is short and i'd like to deal with the substance of recent events i'm going to quickly
00:54make two observations following up on things i said about my trip yesterday the first
01:05is that my view that there has been an overall consolidation of russian society
01:13um has been reinforced by the many wider contacts i have had over the course of today
01:22my second point my second comment is that yesterday i said that um it seems to me
01:29as if there'd been a significant increase in wealth um here in russia to repeat again
01:40i have only visited st petersburg so i am not speaking about the whole of russia but again
01:48that was certainly the impression i got from spending time in st petersburg in itself
01:54i saw no visible signs of any economic distress here on the contrary compared to the situation
02:03that i used to see previously i would say that there are clearly signs of a significant increase
02:12in general material prosperity though perhaps it's worth pointing out that the last time i was in
02:20st petersburg as opposed to russia was in 2016 and that of course was nine years ago so perhaps
02:29the fact that there has been an increase in general prosperity since that time is unsurprising
02:36anyway i will say a lot more in my next program i will probably have a discussion about my
02:43impressions about the situation here in russia um over the course of a program a specific program
02:51i'm likely to do on the duran with my colleague and friend alex christoforo today as i said i
02:59would like to focus on the big news which was the telephone conversation which took place yesterday
03:07between donald trump and vladimir putin now this conversation bears all the hallmarks
03:14of having been arranged in some haste um just 10 days before roughly 10 days before
03:23the conversation took place um all the talk was of the united states of donald trump
03:32joining the europeans in an ultimatum that required russia to declare to agree
03:40to an unconditional ceasefire in the conflict in ukraine on monday 12th may and the assumption
03:50was that it well the noise and the assumption the statements were that if that didn't happen
03:55then massive sanctions would be imposed upon russia and i think it is now well established
04:04that the europeans had coordinated uh work on this ultimatum this joint ultimatum which they
04:13presented as having been agreed with the americans with at least some american officials
04:21probably with general kellogg almost certainly with general kellogg at least that's my own view
04:28and unquestionably with senator lindsey graham who has a major sanctions package um which has
04:36been prepared and is um which has been prepared in congress and which he says has the support
04:42of 72 senators and then what happened on the following day was that um vladimir putin
04:52late at night or to be precise early on sunday morning um rejected the ultimatum rejected the
05:01call for an unconditional ceasefire basically called the europeans bluff and said that what
05:10russia instead proposed to do was to send an official delegation to go to istanbul
05:18on thursday the 15th of may and it provided the ukrainians turned up to engage the ukrainians
05:28in direct talks aimed at finding a peaceful solution to the ongoing conflict between russia
05:36and ukraine and to reiterate again the european leaders four of whom macron stama
05:49amounts and tusk who were in who were at that time in kiev together with zelensky
06:00all initially said that this proposal of trump of putin's was unacceptable that there had to
06:06be a ceasefire first before negotiations they were supported in this view by general kellogg
06:15who said the same thing in a message he posted on x and then everything was thrown into confusion
06:23when a short time later donald trump issued two messages on truth social saying that putin's
06:34comments appear to be a breakthrough and that the ukrainians absolutely needed to attend in
06:44istanbul and to meet with the russians there and to engage with them in negotiations and then we
06:51had a very complicated and extraordinary week of diplomatic activity i'm not sure diplomatic
06:58activity is quite the word that i would use i have described at length and we have discussed
07:05on the duran the extraordinary gyrations that vladimir zelensky went through
07:12as he first said that he wanted to speak to putin personally in istanbul but would only do so if
07:18there was a ceasefire and then he walked that back and said he wanted to speak with vladimir putin
07:24but he wouldn't speak with anyone else that no one was authorized on behalf of ukraine to speak
07:31with the russians but then eventually he went to it not to istanbul at all but to ankara even as
07:37the russian delegation arrived in istanbul he kept the russians waiting for 24 hours
07:44he had a three-hour telephone meeting with president erdogan of turkey and with a great
07:51show of reluctance he authorized a ukrainian delegation to go to istanbul where they did
07:57did meet with the russians where the russians essentially restated all of their fundamental
08:07positions now after that donald trump again weighed in he said that the conflict needed
08:15to be solved through direct talks between himself and vladimir putin and it was this which led to
08:24the conversation that took place yesterday now in advance of those talks just a few hours before i
08:34took they took place i said in the video that i made yesterday that i anticipated that eventually
08:46there would be a summit meeting an actual summit meeting between putin and trump that the russians
08:53perhaps would would not in the normal circumstances have particularly wanted a summit meeting
09:00at this time but that the need to explain the situation to trump made it probably imperative
09:10from a russian point of view that a actual physical meeting take place between putin and trump
09:20in which putin could explain to trump firstly that russia would not be intimidated by sanctions by
09:27further sanctions that if such sanctions were imposed they would not end the war they would
09:34prolong it and they would destroy the relationship between russia and the united states secondly
09:41that the russian position the one set out which he set out in istanbul
09:47on sorry the one that he set out in his speech to the foreign ministry on the 14th of june 2024
09:55which i have described as istanbul plus is for real and that the russian delegations
10:05restatement of those conditions those terms which took place when the russians did meet with the
10:12ukrainians in istanbul that that is for real also so i said that that was what i thought would
10:20happen that putin would actually probably agree to a meeting with donald trump now in the hours
10:30since then we have heard no information that a meeting was in fact agreed between donald trump
10:38and putin over the course of this call however all of the information we have had from this
10:44call both from vladimir putin himself unusually the russians have not provided a readout of the
10:52call instead what we got was putin coming out of his residence in sochi on the black sea where he
11:01was when the call took place and putin meeting with the media and giving his own account of
11:08the telephone call an account which has been elaborated on by putin's aid uh ushakov anyway
11:22what we have learned about the call makes me think that a meeting with trump between putin and trump
11:31is indeed going to take place over the course of the next few weeks but that the russians
11:40probably to their relief found trump much more attentive and interested in what they had to say
11:51than they perhaps anticipated so putin came out of the meeting he said that they'd had this
11:59discussion that putin had explained the position clearly he said that russia is now involved in a
12:10negotiation process with ukraine hopefully that will lead to a satisfactory end to the conflict
12:21that maybe just maybe out of these talks which are taking place if the talks go well or if
12:31progress is made over the course of the talks then absolutely it might be that provided as
12:40i said this actual progress and that the conditions for a ceasefire are satisfied
12:49and that that ceasefire is conducive to further progress then temporary ceasefires might indeed
12:57be agreed as part of this process the russians will not agree to a ceasefire before the negotiation
13:06process properly gets underway but the russians have said that they are by no means averse
13:15in principle to a ceasefire and putin reminded trump that in fact at the meeting in istanbul
13:24the russians and the ukrainians each agreed that they would each present to the other their own
13:30ideas for how a ceasefire might be agreed and how it might take place so these are the things that
13:40putin said to trump and he said to trump also and this appears to have been perhaps the thing
13:48that pleased trump most that the russians not only are serious about wanting a negotiation
13:57and a successful negotiation but that they want this process to proceed as quickly as possible
14:02they're not going to be rushed but they don't want this thing to take too much time they're
14:09prepared to agree some kind of framework agreement with the ukrainians and perhaps with the americans
14:15though i'm not sure about the second some kind of framework agreement about how the talks will be
14:21conducted what sort of talk topics will be agreed and some kind of timeline perhaps will be discussed
14:31and perhaps even agreed between the russians and the ukrainians though it is not absolutely clear
14:39what how tight that timeline is supposed to be or by the way how inflexible it is supposed to be
14:50well trump appears to have been very pleased with what he heard he said that the way to
15:00the way to move forward and this is what he basically said on his message in truth social
15:06the the way to move forward is to allow the ukrainians and the russians to move forward
15:13with the negotiations not to interfere or meddle with the negotiations not to apply
15:20unnecessary pressure just to give this negotiating process which has now started
15:28time and space in order to play out and so that the united states can see where it's going now
15:37some people have interpreted this to mean that the united states is going to pull out completely
15:43from involving itself in the negotiations i don't really see that that was what donald trump said
15:50at all at least not in his truth social message perhaps that is what trump should do but as i
15:56said i'm not convinced that that is what his message on truth social actually conveyed and
16:05well others have perhaps put too much weight on put on trump's words that the ukrainians and the
16:14russians have agreed to talk to each other immediately he appears to some appear to assume
16:21that again trump was expecting that the russians russians and the ukrainians would resume their
16:28talks the following day or something like that again i think this is the kind of loose language
16:34that donald trump sometimes engages in i think the only point that was being made here again
16:42is that these are negotiations the negotiations are already underway there will be a follow-up
16:49meeting very soon in effect the negotiations are happening now anyway that that was my impression
16:58and um usher said it was a friendly call putin said it was a frank and honest one and donald
17:08trump said it was a good call and it went on for two hours so they clearly discussed it all very
17:16thoroughly um in apparently a very friendly way which suggests as i said to me that putin felt
17:24that he was given time and space to put forward all of his explanations and that trump was attentive
17:32and was listening and proactive and no doubt asked his questions too they didn't just talk about
17:41the negotiations they talked about other things they talked about developing future trade between
17:49their countries something that trump apparently is very excited about so overall it was a good call
17:57better i think as i said than what the russians expected or feared that it would be i say feared
18:04to repeat again if trump had insisted that russia announced an unconditional ceasefire
18:13immediately the russians would have rejected it and if trump had announced that he was going to
18:20support lindsey graham's bone-crunching sanctions the russians would still have been defiant
18:29confident that they would be able to write out those sanctions but the russians were not looking
18:36to provoke further sanctions upon themselves that would have made no sense they prefer to
18:45have a dialogue with the united states they want that dialogue to be long term they fear
18:54that the previous situation with the one which existed with joe biden when there were no contacts
19:03of substance between the united states and russia the world's two most uh the two the world's two
19:11biggest nuclear powers was an inherently dangerous one and the russians for their own security
19:20and for the stability of the international system which of course
19:27has an effect on their own security and stability in other places like the middle east
19:35europe and elsewhere they would prefer definitely to have a dialogue with the united states
19:41and they would prefer definitely to be able to come to some kind of consensus with the united
19:47states on many many issues but eventually perhaps also over the issue of ukraine they're not going
19:58to run my sense is that the russians the mood in russia is that though they're not going to run
20:05away from confrontation with the americans if they are given no choice they are not looking
20:14for unnecessary confrontation if they can come to an understanding so much the better why not
20:23provided russian national interests are not sacrificed and over the course of the call
20:30putin again said that the objective was to agree a peace agreement which would address the root
20:38causes of the conflict in other words the package that putin outlined at his speech
20:46to the foreign ministry on the 14th of june 2024 remains in effect he wants all of those
20:53various things that he set out there no nato membership for ukraine demilitarization of ukraine
21:00denuclearization of ukraine what the russians call denazification of ukraine and above all
21:08a ukraine outside nato and non-aligned and categorically neutral and obviously now the
21:18territorial issue the four regions settled on russian terms with russia recognizing these four
21:25regions as sorry ukraine recognizing these four regions as russian well putin still wants to
21:33achieve all of those things and he hopes that with the help of the americans he will achieve
21:40them but if the americans get in the way and oppose them well as i said he's not going to run
21:47away and capitulate on any of that so anyway a good productive call we have another reason
21:55for knowing that it was a good productive call because in the hours after the conversation took
22:02place donald trump called a series of leaders in europe and he also called president zelensky
22:12of ukraine and he briefed all of them on the call and none of them were happy
22:23we've had comments about this from the financial times two people briefed on the call with the
22:29european leaders and one would love to know who these two people were were the europeans or where
22:36they were the americans two people break briefed on the call with the european leaders said trump
22:42was clear he would pull the us back from engaging with the conflict and leave ukraine and russia
22:51to directly negotiate a ceasefire again there's so much misrepresentation here because the
22:58negotiations are not about a ceasefire they're about a final settlement of the conflict the
23:04british media in particular always takes us back to the topic of a ceasefire as if that was the only
23:13topic that was being discussed whereas in fact as the russians have made clear
23:20the objective is not a ceasefire it is a final settlement of the conflict but then we go on to
23:29read trump also made no promise for future u.s sanctions against russia should putin refuse
23:37any peace attempts when he talked about peace attempts again notice the shall we say
23:45manipulative language previously they talk about a ceasefire when the negotiations as i say are in
23:54fact not about a ceasefire at all but about getting a peace a final settlement of the conflict at
24:01least that is the russian position but then the next sentence directly says that putin
24:08that there'll be no sanctions from the u.s if putin should refuse any peace attempts
24:13so we see here that there is this this attempt to try to conflate a ceasefire with peace
24:24and not talk about a final settlement which i would say logically is the only possible pathway
24:33to a sustainable peace but then we go on to read one person familiar with the conversation
24:40said the leaders were stunned by the u.s president's description of what was agreed
24:48they added it was clear trump was not ready to put greater pressure on putin to come to
24:55the negotiating table in earnest so putin suggests negotiations in istanbul
25:04zelensky attempts to avoid those negotiations he won't negotiate with anybody but putin
25:13he won't let anybody speak to the russians apart from himself and he's not going to speak with the
25:21russians if putin isn't there he insists on a ceasefire first before the negotiations he storms
25:28off in a huff when he's told that he has to send a negotiating team and does so reluctantly
25:38but it is putin supposedly who is reluctant to engage in earnest in negotiations
25:47not zelensky now again as i said the writers of the financial times obviously have a right to
25:56their point of view but i find again their point of view as expressed here in light of the events
26:05of the last week a strange one just say anyway let's let's move on so the european leaders
26:15were told was stunned by the call and someone else made pretty clear how he feels about the call
26:23and that was zelensky because directly after trump spoke to him zelensky set out his own
26:28opinions in a statement ukraine has a right to join nato it must join nato ukraine has to have
26:36all its territory back including crimea ukraine will never accept anything less than the return
26:43of all of its territory including crimea and effectively zelensky ruled out any concessions
26:53any compromises with the russians whatsoever even though he again insisted that a ceasefire
27:01must be agreed if this attitude by the way is maintained then i don't really see how these
27:07negotiations can succeed but if that does also happen then as far as i can see it will be
27:15impossible to deny the fact to the americans that it is zelensky in effect who is the prime obstacle
27:23to negotiations to achieve a peace settlement since the demands that he is making virtually
27:30everyone else the americans and the europeans acknowledge are unrealistic and therefore
27:41unreasonable but anyway let's not move too far ahead the europeans are stunned zelensky obviously
27:49is furious i mean the fact that he's spoken up in this strong way he's issued this kind of very
27:56strong statement tells us how unhappy he clearly was with the substance of the telephone call
28:03between putin and trump and since then the financial times has provided a follow-up report
28:11it said that in the hours following the briefing of the european leaders by donald trump
28:19all of the european leaders were busy phoning each other talking about what to do they were
28:26also phoning busy phoning zelensky there was apparently a whole day of discussion and i
28:32suspect recrimination and argument about the way forward we're told by the financial times that
28:39they are desperate to keep the americans still engaged which is code for saying that they're
28:46still desperate to try to find ways to recommit the united states to open-ended support of ukraine
28:56but they're starting to despair of how to do it in the meantime they have of course gone ahead
29:05and announced their next sanctions package in the case of the european union it is the 17th
29:12in the series the british of course have also joined in all sorts of individuals and companies
29:18are now being sanctioned and there are attempts also to sanction russia's so-called shadow fleet
29:25i'm not going to discuss these sanctions in this program the sanctions are going to be completely
29:31ineffectual india has just confirmed by the way that it still intends to go on buying russian
29:39oil so these sanctions are not going to interfere with that we could unfortunately
29:44see more incidents in the baltic there have been two rather concerning incidents over the last
29:52couple of days one in which a russian fighter jet had to intervene when estonian coast guards
30:02tried to impound a russian vessel and apparently there's been another incident about which i know
30:08a lot less but one in which the russians have apparently seized an estonian ship i am not going
30:14to discuss these incidents worrying though they are until i know more about them obviously
30:24at the moment i'm not able to follow the news with the level of detail that i would need to do
30:32in order to discuss these um these events properly so lots of calls more sanctions
30:42the sanctions unless there is some major escalation in the baltic which the americans
30:49don't seem to be keen on at all these sanctions are going to be completely ineffective i've had
30:57some discussions with some people on the topic of sanctions here in st petersburg again i will
31:04discuss these some of the things i've learned in future programs i should say that there is no
31:12visible sign here in st petersburg of the sanctions taking effect in the way that some people in the
31:20west would like them to do i'm not saying they've been completely ineffectual i'm just saying that
31:27there's no great sign that they've had any of the effects that people would like them to
31:32anyway that's to move on um so europeans announcing more sanctions the british of course
31:42joining in but importantly as the financial times says no indication from trump that he's in any
31:52mood to impose further sanctions at all this is not what donald trump wants to do it's not his
32:01intention or his objective the europeans are dismayed by this and as everybody knows putting
32:09aside whether sanctions can ever be effective in the way that people in the west believe
32:16without the americans the sanctions are certain to fail now i say without the americans there's
32:26been talk that with the americans in opposing sanctions countries like hungary and slovakia
32:35might start to start might start taking steps to veto further sanctions baggages which go beyond
32:45the current 17th one the hungarians though however have approved this latest package just
32:51saying it could be that at some point if the americans start turning against sanctions that
32:58the hungarians and the slovaks and the others will start to veto renewal of sanctions about a week ago
33:09there was yet another article in the financial times which spoke of the incredible plans that
33:16the european union is putting together to try to preserve the sanctions by getting individual
33:23states to impose them and all kinds of rules and restrictions and contracts to try and
33:29make the sanctions proof against hungarian and slovak vetoes i ought to say that strictly
33:40in terms of european law my own personal view is that all of these ideas are wrong
33:46and make no legal sense and should fail but of course we now know that european law
33:56is now applied in very interesting and curious ways and i can't pretend that i am confident
34:05that these strange devices and schemes and plans will in fact fail anyway there we are that is
34:13that is now the position so the important thing to say is no sanctions at the moment
34:19no alternating from the moment putin and trump coming to a good understanding with each other
34:28a trump putin summit now likely and the reason it is likely is that putin will want to press home
34:36the advantage that he has probably feels he has gained as a result of this telephone call with
34:42trump he will want to meet trump he will want to establish a relationship with trump it is a myth
34:48by the way that these two leaders have a strong relationship with each other they have had several
34:54meetings when trump was president before but they've never been very long the longest was at
35:01that very unhappy summit in helsinki that took place i think it was in 2018 putin will want to
35:12go much further and beyond that he will want to consolidate what he achieved through his telephone
35:21call yesterday by building up his relationship with trump and trump for his part who clearly
35:30has long-term ambitions for a productive trade relationship with russia and a relationship with
35:39russia that will relieve the united states of some of the excessive burden it is carrying
35:47through defending europe and which might also assist the united states in trump's efforts
35:56to stabilize the wider middle east through perhaps some kind of deal with iran anyway trump probably
36:04is looking forward to that call to that meeting with that end as well now i ought to say that
36:14though i do believe that putin gained quite a lot from this call i think trump in some ways
36:20gained at least as much and possibly even more trump clearly understands at some level at least
36:29that imposing further sanctions on russia would be an absolutely disastrous idea
36:37that it would destroy any prospect of a rapprochement with russia it would harden
36:44further still the enmity that now exists between russia and the united states which would work
36:52to china's advantage and that it would probably create massive disruption and trouble
37:00in the economic in the global economy and could lead to much higher energy energy costs in europe
37:09and in the united states leading there to higher inflation which would be politically bad for him
37:1610 days ago it looked as if the hardliners of the united states together with the europeans
37:27had maneuvered trump into a position where he was left with little option but to impose those
37:39sanctions which he clearly didn't want to do well through very deft maneuvering by putin and by trump
37:54trump has escaped at least for the moment having to do that thing which as i said i think
38:03he knows would be bad for himself for the united states and for the stability
38:12of the global economy and for international security altogether now let me stress
38:20what was achieved yesterday is one step in the right direction it is not a giant leap
38:29the conflict is not ended all sorts of things could go wrong some things undoubtedly
38:38will go wrong the europeans are completely unreconciled to these forward movements which
38:46we have seen and the enemies of those forward movement that forward movement in the united
38:53states they too have not gone away they remain in positions of great power and they are prepared
39:03and willing to start to push again for a return to the policy of confrontation we've been witnessing
39:12for the last three and a half years but it seems to me that it would be churlish
39:18not to accept also that a step forward was made yesterday however tentative however prone it may
39:25be to reversal something nonetheless at least for the moment was achieved instead of a further
39:33escalation we are seeing at the moment some revival of hope maybe not of peace
39:43but of some kind of rapprochement between the american and russian superpowers now all of this
39:51continues to play out whilst the conflict in ukraine continues to be fought the fighting
40:00in ukraine continues and though i do not have details again i have been far too busy to get
40:10details of the fighting whilst i have been here my impression is that we are now indeed looking
40:18at a collapse an actual collapse of ukrainian defenses around the town of konstantinovka
40:25in the slaviansk kramatorsk konstantinovka conurbation and around pakrovsk but that
40:37and much else i'm going to have to discuss in my next program so this is where i'm going to
40:43finish today's program let me remind you again you can find all our programs on our various platforms
40:49locals rumble and x and also um you can also find you can also support our work by patreon
40:58and subscribe star and by going to our shop and also please remember um please remember to
41:07tick the like button and to check your video if you've liked this video there's one incidentally
41:13before i completely finish one very last thing i do want to say a lot of people have spotted the
41:18fact in proud the former british diplomat has written about it that when donald trump did call
41:26the european leaders one leader he did not call was keir starmer the prime minister of britain
41:38the british are putting a very brave face on this today and well we can speculate as to why
41:48but undoubtedly the british must feel very shocked by the fact that they have been left out
41:55of the discussion with the americans up to now i will certainly be turning to that in my next
42:03program and i expect that i will be discussing it in a specific program on the duran as well
42:10well that's me for today you said more from me soon have a very good day
42:35you