The people in power only care about getting back to 'Business as Usual.' Money. "Just give Putin what he wants. He will stop. The war will be over. Peace ensues, and re-investment of Russia can begin." 🤑 Beyond short-sighted. One other thing to keep in mind. This isn't our war. This is Ukraine's war. All that matters is Ukraine's war aims. And then we should support what they determine to be the best course of action for their own people and country. The West is trying to manage Ukraine like they have done with other smaller States, and Ukraine will have none of it. They want all of their territory back, and we should support that. Otherwise, what is the Rule's Based Order for?

Can I make a minor suggestion? The white text is sometimes a little hard to read against your clothes. Thanks for the video :)

@@VladVexler recently there was a spike in Russian internet searches about withdrawing money that was higher than even the one at the start of the war. Russians apparently also had a big spike in searches for pepper pray. Does that mean anything to you?

@@OttoKreml It means. It means that you have a lot of free time to conduct such research.

@@user-nl6zv6hz6x Reminds me of a joke: A man is flying in a hot air balloon and realizes he is lost. He reduces height and spots a man down below. He lowers the balloon further and shouts: "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised my friend. I would meet him half an hour ago, but I don't know where I am." The man below says, "Yes, you are in a hot air balloon, hovering approximately 30 feet above this field. You are between 40 and 42 degrees North latitude, and between 58 and 60 degrees West longitude." "You must be a programmer," says the balloonist. "I am," replies the man. "How did you know?" "Well," says the balloonist, "everything you have told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I am still lost." The man below says, "You must be a project manager" "I am," replies the balloonist, "but how did you know?" "Well," says the man, "you don't know where you are or where you are going. You have made a promise which you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. The fact is you are in the exact same position you were in before we met, but now it is somehow my fault."

Clapping emoji. I heard a Hungarian security analyst saying "you can't make peace with the mafia, they will use the opportunity to grow more therefore you will pay more blood".

But at some point Ukraine needs to get realistic

Chamberlain made a very astute point to the decorators of appeasement ‘Then how will we get communism out of Central Europe?’ He knew that war would lead to what eventually happened in Central Europe but Chamberlain never gets credit for this.

Appeasers were only useful in delaying the inevitable. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

@@goenzoy712 The most realistic is desintegration of Russian Federation tha last colonial power with imperalistic apetite. Very realistic Rusian Empire colapsed after war in 1917.USSR Empire colapsed after Afganistan war in 1990..The remnants of it, RF in near future.

We know what surrender led to in 1930's thanks during Chamberlain's policy

​@@TenylegMinekez-uc7co Actually it's not, and you're gonna need to make a real argument if you want to convince anyone otherwise.

It is though

​@@topwaifu2104 It's peace for the conquer only.

Oh look, ukrobandera fanboy vladdy deletes comments he no likies. What a shock, who could've seen that comming?

Precisely. This is Ukraine's war. Not ours. As allies, we should support Ukraine's war aims since this is their country being invaded. They need to get ALL of their territory AND people returned, and ALL Russian soldiers are required to return to their country. The West promised Ukraine territorial integrity in the 1990s. The West should live up to their agreements and responsibilities. Otherwise, what is the Rule's Based Order for?

Yes. It's not just Ukraine's sovereignty they're playing fast and loose with. It's Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czechia, Romania, and, oh... Every country that has an expansionist neighbor. The talk about defending international law -- territorial integrity, sovereignty, self-determination, and human rights -- is not just talk. If we give up on Ukraine, we undermine the entire system.

You know, the West appeased another country and ignored their expansionist wars, too. A little country called Russia, specifically in the form of the USSR when they invaded Ukraine and Poland and the Baltics and a few other countries in the late 1910s and early 1920s. The West doesn't even bother remembering this ever happened, that's how little they apparently cared. A handful of anti-communist volunteers from the West went over and fought, but no government came to the aid of the Ukrainians then. I feel like we should be remembering that and talking about that as well, not just repeating the same old tired lines about Germany that everyone in the West has heard over and over and over from the time they were in diapers. Uh, nappies, whatever you call them where you live. Oh and another interesting thing about the Soviet invasion of Ukraine in 1918 was that the short-lived state that formed after the collapse of the Russian Empire and expansion of the USSR to include it, the Ukrainian People's Republic, not only included Crimea, but it was actually even larger than modern Ukraine from 1991 to 2014.

@karldubhe8619 Suggest you read beyond williamyoung's third sentence.

@@filipsrozners5208 The Czechs weren’t prepared to fight for their land so why should other countries sacrifice their wealth and young men for such a thankless task?

And in 6-60 years, the same thing will happen to the next country.

There are companies investing in Ukraine now.

​@@hansericsson7058I do have some knowledge about weapons manufacturing being one of the points of investment, but have no idea about other avenues. Could you please point me to them if its possible? I would like to read up on more about this, I am just interested in the ways companies want to manouvre inside such an environment as Ukraine is right now or in the near future.

Putin is far away from a Tiger. He is more like a street cat.

That's a movie quote, 'Darkest Hour' IIRC. The phrase is a generic proverb, probably Asian in origin.

Oh, they do because they live in a different kind of reality where their own neglect can be easily and comfortably neglected in order to be able to get rid of painful dissonance between reality and wishful thinking.

The analogy about being too close to the wall was very apt

What is russia suffering other than what the propaganda machine tells them? The are not the victims of anything other than decades of regime?

@@renemagritte8237 the idea that Ukraine can end this conflict with a military defeat of Russia is wishful thinking. The idea that Ukraine will be destroyed beyond repair if this is a long conflict is reality. If Ukraine negotiate and Russia attacks again then they've lost nothing because they were already at war anyway. If Ukraine negotiate, stop their small demographic of young men being conscripted and killed and repair whatever they keep after the negotiations then it's better that an endless fight to take back land that has been Russified for 10 years.

@@Writeous0ne I understand your point of view. However, I do not understand why you reduce the matter to two options, both of which are military in nature? In my opinion, the most important question is what is actually at stake in this conflict? First of all: being defeated is not the worst option for Ukrainians, to cease to exist as a nation is for many of them worse. You can rebuild a destroyed country, but you can't rebuild self-respect. Ukraine 2014 and 2024 are two different countries. The war changed everything, but above all it changed the way Ukrainians see themselves. And also the way the world looks at them.

Russian assets in the United States going full in before the presidential elections.

I don't feel we are winning the argument. I feel the response letter was too weak and factual to be effective, while my video is too interpretative to be effective.

​@@VladVexlermaybe boil it down to a YT short? I know that'll be hard but give it a shot! Might get better purchase for people with short attn spans?

I think one problem with a lot of public intellectuals is that they assume being detached and dispassionate will lead them to draw superior, more clear-minded conclusions than people that really allow themselves to feel empathy for the people involved. I just thought about this as I was watching a gut-wrenching clip of a doomed Russian man making a recording by himself, saying he is the last man left alive from his platoon, that there are bloat flies everywhere from corpses and the stench is overpowering, but that it will all be ok because he will make it and go home and see his grandson, and it just cut right down into my heart and made me so angry at Putin and his cronies for bringing about this hellish situation for no good reason. And then I thought about men like John Mearsheimer and his sort of understated but still distinctly pro-Putin statements, legitimizing Putin's actions as just seeing to Russia's security interests and reacting to Western aggression and manipulation. I suppose he thinks someone that is full of rage against Putin is blinded by their feelings, but I think in many cases feelings are the very essence of what is rational, in fact they are supra-rational, sort of preceding and providing the foundation for the rational. Obviously sometimes we can have irrational feelings, like paranoia or grandiosity, but a feeling of sorrow for what is happening in Ukraine and in Gaza and even on the streets of our own cities where homelessness and opioid addiction and overdose is rampant, and a righteous indignation against the men and women who have contributed to these circumstances, is a perfectly valid human reaction, or perhaps the only truly valid human reaction. To just think about this conflict in terms of abstractions and supposed promises made to the Kremlin about NATO eastward expansion and the political intrigue of Ukraine in 2014 is to miss the point, at least as far as I see it. One needs to fully realize the horrors Putin has unleashed upon the Earth in order to appraise the situation sensibly, and part of that is gazing into the abyss of terroristic violence and the meat grinder of war and allowing that wave of despair to wash over you. The thing that seems to unite the vatniks of the West is that they all haven't bothered to really think about what it is like for the people on the ground, instead taking a very detached approach. It is simultaneously "Not my problem" and "And besides, Ukraine started it. They killed 40,000 civilians in the Donbas region." These sorts of people usually will have the same kind of take on Gaza: not my problem, and Palestine started it anyways, although there are some that seem to take the pro-Palestine stance less because they are upset by all of the death and more because it is fashionable in the more "alternative media" type spaces.

​@@titanomachy2217it doesn't matter what you believe because the facts vindicate Mearsheimer. No amount of emotional pleas and Russophobia changes the facts that Russia's actions was a predicted response to NATO expansion.

Ukraine´s security guarantee should be NATO and EU, plus its own stockpile of tactile nuclear weapons with a strong conventional army to back it up.

As Lavrov said about two years ago. If this war really upsets you, just imagine that Russia is America. Ukraine is a middle eastern country. And go to sleep.

@@markbryant4641 Yeah that is Lawrow spewing up garbage, as usual! America is NOT ANNEXING territory as its own somewhere in Middle East! Actually, the USA lost Iraq and Afghanistan, because they let the leaders of those countries administrate themselves! SOmething that Putin does NOT want to do, he wants to make Ukraine (and not only Ukraine!) russian! Btw, even if the USA Analogy WOULD hold, just because one country does something bad, does not mean YOU can do it, too! You should not emulate bad things, but do good things instead! With the same Logic Lawrow also could say: "I saw someone rape and murder a child, so i did it, too, because someone else did it. And now go to sleep." NO! Lol. Absolutely NO!

@@Itsjustme-Justme So keep fighting and losing even more ground ?

@@bilic8094 If Ukraine surrenders today, it will seize to exists in the future. Moreover, it's unlikely that Russia can advance further in Ukraine, the current gains on the field have had no strategic value but have come at great cost. Therefore, it is realistic for Ukraine to keep the lines fixed indefinitely. Having this on the table means that no Ukrainian leader will be leaving for the negotiating table any time soon. As the video pointed out, this war is not about winning, it's about the survival of Ukraine as a nation.

@@bilic8094 I'm afraid you misunderstand the situation. The choice for Ukraine is either keep fighting and loose more ground or stop fighting and cease to exist entirely. The first option contains a sandkorn of hope. The second most certainly not.

​@bilic8094 Russia already signed a treaty long ago to filly respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine in exchange for its nuclear arsenal and look where we are now. Any treaty is worthless if those who sign it only use it to buy time until they are ready to take even more for themselves.

@@bilic8094 Search for 'Russia is an evil empire that never respects agreements', interview with Dzhokhar Dudayev from 1995 to understand why negotiation is not a viable option here.

unless its the Taliban of course.

@@tma2001 Taliban frequently visits Putin in Moscow.

@@anzelmasmatutis2500 aye enemy of my enemy and all that - kinda ironic given his own islamist problems in the far east.

@@tma2001 Not just the Far East; think Dagestan.

@@anzelmasmatutis2500they’re now the official state of Afghanistan. They’ve visited many heads of state. There’s so many legitimate criticisms of Putin but that isn’t one of them

I hope you know that when Vlad talks about the West, he primarily talks about the United States' leadership. There are at least a dozen countries in Europe and beyond that do not have to be explained what you just have. They understand. -From Finland

The United States appeasers eyeing another Western Betrayal 2.0. We’ll have to do without them.

@@henriikkak2091 ...and from Poland.

My heart bleeds for the sad truth you speak. It's brutally unfair that only Ukrainians sacrifice their lives in defense against geopolitical insanity while the rest of the world debates about affordability 😭

​@@henriikkak2091 Although true for a lot of European countries, I notice that the right in my country are swallowing or mimicking the American right *isolationist* talking points. Given a rightward trend in European elections this state of affairs might change for many western nations.

It’s not like NATO is a thing and we don’t have the DMZ in Korea, but what do those idiots with degrees know? clearly the average person who probably couldn’t name Ukraine on a map before this conflict knows more.

@@Elliot.L87563 Are you implying president Zelenskyy doesn't know where his country is?

@@renstein8210Our weapons to Ukraine is the message…Orcs are too stupid to understand signs 🪧

Because people are still dying? That not a good reason enough for you to negotiate anything?

People with arguments like yours... MegaLOL.

@@TenylegMinekez-uc7co So you think it's funny that countries get away with not performing the very most basic diplomatic functions followed by atrocities?

TRUTH, ArchOfficial!

Really in 2040 we are still fighting for a 1991 political situation

@@goenzoy712 Yes, it will last for years if not decades this war. But there is no solution than restore 1991 borders.

@@goenzoy712 You not. You have already surrendered. As one who was borned and have lived under Soviet occupation as my parrents and grandparents that cost the life of one grand parent all properties and possesions taken turned into slaves and survived as slaved strped from dignity not allowed to speak and think what is not ordered. Not allowed to upbring your kids .Yes we will fight untill 2400 but not allow this happen again ,we rather die fighting.

Soviet era is finished for a long time now

​@@goenzoy712we will fight out of principle, and because we are next anyway.

Only by the politicians, unfortunately.

but Russia and Finland have had good relations post ww2? I can't see how using Finland as a point against negotiation, it worked. Finland concede when their defensive line was breached and they lost too many soldiers from their population. They made a decision do we lose 10% now or everything later.

​@@Writeous0nefinlands foreign politics Was to ask in moscow first before doing anything. That is what an Vasall does . And that endet only with the end of the UdSSR.

@@Writeous0ne That relation was also based upon Finland turning the entire country in a massive fortress in case the Soviets come back. Talk softly and carry a big stick.

@@erichbreckoff3405 But since 1992 for 30 years Russia and Finland existed peacefully. This Ukraine issue began in 2007 after Putin called out the US for doing whatever they want in Iraq and Afghanistan etc. Then Bush went on TV and said "we want Ukraine"... The americans intentionally tried to get Georgia and Ukraine into NATO... to push them to NATO when they were previously not bothered about joining NATO. Finland behaved differently, the Finns have always had good leaders who knew how to act on the world stage, this wasn't the case for Ukraine after being taken over by an ex comedian who didn't even run a public campaign.

Basically ignoring everyone who has done this song and dance with Russia before.

Indeed. It's shameful to see how, we, here in the Nato countries are advocating to negotiate with Hitler spinoff and think that will bring us peace in the long run

@@andreitosa4984weak western leaders still think it’s the good ol’ 90’s and 00’s

It makes me so angry to see yet more evidence of western institutions having been infiltrated by corrupt Kremlin influences. Shame on the FT for allowing this - they could make up for it by publishing your rejoinder in the next edition.

the rich have always been morally bankrupt

Or even "how much of it would we be willing to give up now in order to have a temporary pause before losing the rest"

@@teebodk3917 This is even better, because it's a direct rhetoric of the right wingers. They endlessly parrot these ceasefire and peace negotiations one liners as if we're a bunch of idiots that cannot see past the obvious historical unwillingness of Russia to respect pacts over its own fascist interests. What makes me feel like puking a little is hearing them talk about "strong men" while at the same time bending the knee to the slightest aggression.

To be fair, these people would be willing to give up a tremendous amount...as long as their own status is not at risk.

Would be not so certain Borders and territorial integrity play a different role I know many African what would be totally happy with no border remaining in Africa drawn up from European in 19th century

The people in power only care about getting back to 'Business as Usual'. Money. "Just give Putin what he wants. He will stop invading. The war will be over. Peace ensues and re-investment of Russia can begin. 🤑 Beyond short-sighted. One other thing to keep in mind. This isn't our war. This is Ukraine's war. All that matters is Ukraine's war aims. And then we should support what they determine to be the best course of action for their own people and country. The West is trying to manage Ukraine like they have other countries and Ukraine will have none of it. Nor should they. They want all of their territory AND people back and we should all support that. Otherwise, what is the Rules Based Order for?

@@maxua-gg Political power flows from the barrel of a gun.

Putin saw that there was a successful democracy emerging on his border and with Ukraine of all countries. Democracy is the enemy of Autocracy. He no longer had the political control over the country as he had before. And if that happened, the Russian people would suffer and they would find out how amazing it was going to be in Ukraine with all of the economic investment in this new Democracy. Then they would rise up and protest and they might depose him, which is what he fears most. So to distract the people from how bad it was in Russia, he ordered Ukraine invaded.

It is about land in the sense of Russia wanting to eventually take all of it. History shows they won't stop at Crimea+Donbass.

@@WangMingGe I think the present shows that.

no they only care about money. wars are expensive . they would want all sanctions removed so russia can sell oil and gas again to drop the price.

Share!

And validated in the population of the aggressor.

@@stephenhill545 Exactly!

Indeed, history showed us multiple times that they can not be trusted

If western politicians had the will then ukrainian T-64s would have been driving threw crimean citys getting showered by flowers and kisses last year. Sadly establishment politicians over here are so opposed to radicalism action that they don't even support radicalism for their own ideology any more. Imagine if after the enlightenment the advocates for liberal democracy in France during the revolution, or in germany in 1918 or in the US during the revolutionary war went "Going to war? To win? That doesn't seem like a very bypartisan solution to this complex problem, we should negotiate and hope that we can achive our goals threw more civil means." And the actual political radicals of our day are even worse! The radical right is pro Russia because Zelensky is jewish and because Russia is fascist and they are too so they like each other. Meanwhile the radical left has abandoned anti fascism as a foreign policy goal since the molotov ribbentrop pact and since left wing politicians are not sponsored by corporations the only successfull ones are the ones who get their money from russia and china instead.

How do we "stop Russia" without risking escalation? Some kind of a negotiated settlement will be needed for the war to end

@@alexgray2482 Go back to not killing people outside your own country and there wont be a third world war sounds like a good settlement

​@alexgray2482 you don't stop Russia by giving in to their demands, the weaker we seem the more Putin will escalate

Which agreement did Russia not honor?

@@dwl3006 December 5th 1994 . Inform yourself please .

❤

Yes. It's not just Russia Ukraine and its neighbors need to worry about. It's Western countries as well. In a way, Putin has already managed to drag us back to WWII times, seeing as the West is even entertaining ideas about selling Eastern Europe down the river again.

It helps a bunch of journalists and glorified socialites to feel more important, if they treat other people's countries like chess pieces. There is also a great deal of Russophilia among certain circles in England.

​@@WangMingGe It's Kissinger/Mearsheimer levels of "realist" geopolitical worldviewing.

@@theporkiestpie8416 Yes. I live in Ukraine but went to university in Canada. It's amazing how much the people I met in poli-sci electives, talking like they are tired and cynical (as if makes them smarter, in a situation that demands emotion; a sense of right and wrong), telling me how, on what is essentially an argument based on math, Ukraine should surrender. It's as if we are all pieces on a chess board - no, a checkers board, because the pieces in chess are unique. Maybe it makes them feel powerful, like they are the wise elites playing a game. But, really, it's total ignorance about reality. They feel smart because they don't actually know anything about eastern Europe - for example, how Russia treats people who become subject to its rule. Kissinger lost his biggest war (Vietnam), despite his side having a massive firepower and resource advantage. As for Mearsheimer, I've watched his full-length presentations. He's smart, but I'm almost certain he's paid by Russia, because of the way he even overlooks his own words. For example, he's argued for many years, nationalism is the most powerful force in the world today. He cites Vietnam, Afghanistan especially (at least, in his 2010s talks in KZfaq). NATIONALISM! he explains in his nasal voice, with a grin, mocking everyone who didn't understand that America is no match for even a tiny country's nationalism. Yet, when he turns to Ukraine, somehow he forgets that we are people too. We also feel nationalism, when someone invades us. Somehow he completely overlooks the relevance of nationalism when it's Russia that's the clumsy invading power (he loves to see America fail though), because, of course, if he applied his own theories to Russia's invasion, he'd have to admit that there can be no peace from Russia taking over territory that is full of very nationalistic Ukrainians.

@@theporkiestpie8416 I agree completely. The so called 'realist' view of geopolitics is not actually realistic at all, because it fails to consider agency of populations, which is a very complex factor and a vital source of moral legitimacy (obviously, agency is not the only factor because the world is not perfect).

To mass men and weapons for taking more territory, as Russia did the last time they took over Ukraine (a bit in 1917-18, a bit more in the Polish-Soviet War of 1920, and, finally, the rest in September 1939.

Peace for all of us! And a little piece of Ukraine, a little piece of the Baltics, a little piece of Poland for our Nobel Peace prize winner V. Putin.

Yes, the only bet Putin can make here from now on is to conquer the whole Ukraine, which is going to be... a nightmare.

Beyond that, we can already see the exactly wrong reaction decided by the NATO summit: Stationing long range missiles along the European border. Instead of decisively acting against nuclear blackmail, the west buys into the same insanity again, which will become one of Putin's greatest propaganda victories.

❤

follow the money

Truth!

Exactly. The people in power only care about getting back to 'Business as Usual.' Money. "Just give Putin what he wants. He will stop. The war will be over. Peace ensues, and re-investment of Russia can begin." 🤑 Beyond short-sighted. One other thing to keep in mind. This isn't our war. This is Ukraine's war. All that matters is Ukraine's war aims. And then we should support what they determine to be the best course of action for their own people and country. The West is trying to manage Ukraine like they have done with other smaller States, and Ukraine will have none of it. They want all of their territory back, and we should support that. Otherwise, what is the Rule's Based Order for?

Quotes may be removed.

Thank you Neil!

He doesn't know what he's talking about european borders were already changed by force when nato took so called kosovo off a sovereign country in the 90's

Check the size of Moldova's armed forces, and keep in mind they are not in NATO or the EU. I figure Moldova is the next piece of the pie for Russia. Baltics will be after Moldova, or, maybe, after Georgia.

Freedom of press? In the UK? LOL

Neither here in Denmark, and there is not a single objection in the Danish parliament or the media about if we should be sending $ billions worth of F-16 and other weaponry to Ukraine, but then Denmark have also seen an increasing government budget surplus the past several years in a row, so there is really not much to discuss, because there are plenty of surplus $ billions to spend on the military, Ukraine and on the Danes.

And I am grateful to you!

Yes, like Chambetlain thought that deep-down Hitler was a politician too.

Libertarianism and Objectivism in particular may be half-baked and sophomoric ideologies but Ayn Rand knew Russia better than any foreigner, that's for sure.

Yes, that's always it, isn't it? How quickly did people forget what Bucha and other liberated territories looked like.