Comments by "Emir" (@irongron) on "Pyotr Kurzin | Geopolitics"
channel.
-
25
-
17
-
Great conversation as always Pyotr, I love your show mate, but I have to push back on something Mr. Foreman said and your reaction to it. Mr. Foreman stated that a breakup of Russia would make the breakup of Yugoslavia "look like a children's picnic", you had a chuckle at that. Before I go on, Mr. Foreman is not the only one saying that Colonel Phillip Ingram says something similar - "It would look like a Sunday school picnic". I get what they are trying to convey, but it really irks me. I'll explain why. My ancestry is the former Yugoslavia, father Bosnian, mother Serbian. What happened there was horrific as Mr. Foreman stated. My father's side of the family were ethnically cleansed from a town called Bosanski Novi, it's now in Republika Srpska and is renamed "Novi Grad". They can never go back and are all over the world as refugee's in Australia, Canada and the USA (I grew up in Australia). MY mother's Serbian side is living their lives as normal in Beograd (Belgrade). What happened there was not funny and it was not a 'school picnic". Arkan's paramilitaries (the Tigers) used to go into Bosnian villages and cut the hearts of out peoples chests. The Serbs (who are Russian lapdogs) were just as barbaric as their Russian masters. Lastly, my mother's Serbian side of the family disowned me when I moved to Ukraine, says all you need to know about Serbs. 😥 Anyway no hard feelings mate, but next time someone says that don't laugh, I beg of you. In Ukraine we all want to see Russia as it exists fall apart, it's a tall ask and highly unlikely, but we live in hope. As long as Russia exists in its current form it will be a threat to us here. Cheers!
9
-
8
-
7
-
This guy pisses me pff for a number of reasons, he's ostensibly on our side, but came back hard at you Pyotr, when you mentioned, lets deal the hammer blow to ruzzia via Ukraine. Frankly, China is not an immediate threat, Xi will not endeavour to take Taiwan after the lessons of Ukraine, unlike the "Prophets of Doom" (such as Mr. Alperovitch) trumpet loudly from the rooftops about. Then he makes some absurd comment about "What is victory for us here" ?. That's the wrong question. We just want ruzzia out of Ukraine, and yes he maybe correct, they will continue to lob missiles at us over the international border. But eventually Putin will die and this will end. He makes a big deal about the Houthis and overplays them, well almost everyone's going around the cape now. Problem solved, forget the Suez canal, it's done. But here's the last and biggest gaff this guy made, back when the Karkhovka dam was blown, he stated (paraphrasing) - "I don't think the russians blew the dam, Putin would not be that crazy" - Well Putin WAS that crazy. Intelligence had revealed (because everyone blabbed about it, unlike Kursk) that the main push for the failed offensive last year would come through that territory to split the land bridge, so the russians blew the dam and f'ed the plan up. Mr. Alperovitch has never apologised for being so wrong about this. 🤡
7
-
5
-
4
-
4
-
4
-
4
-
At the 22:24 min mark, Mr. Cappy states something that is every problematic with tons of pundits, not only him, with poorly explaining this issue of sending is military aid here, he says "....people they talk about how we shouldn't be funding war in Ukraine, we shouldn't be wasting dollars over there when we have so much trouble in America...". This highlights two things based on ignorance, firstly, people literally think that we are sent bags of money here in Ukraine, which is complete and utter nonsense, it's the VALUE OF OLD PENTAGON HARDWARE THAT IS RETIRED, it's not new money! As Frederick Kagan on Bill Kristol's show on YT, put it - ""Ukraine is being sent....40 billion or whatever, worth of stuff....they are not being sent cash....". Secondly, since when does the Pantagon reallocate money to pay for schools, hospitals etc. ? Never. Why are Americans so ignorant of how the Pentagon works! Anyway, my main point is Chris did not explain this properly, Frederick Kagan, & Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, are the only ones I have heard who explain this properly. You really need to get Frederick Kagan on the show Ptoyr, if you can awing it and chat about that.
4
-
3
-
3
-
@davidwright5094 Yes fair enough, you've lost me with all that technical talk about semantics, grammar and what not. You sound like my wife! It's all gibberish to me. On that thing about Ruzzia breakup, they were not "all" wrong (about the invasion in 2022), I over played that statement, BUT...very few got it right, some of the biggest names in the "Russia experts" realm got it wrong, Mark Galleoti comes to mind. But you do get the main gist of what I say, that, maybe the breakup of Ruzzia, as highly unlikely as that is, will not be as bad as the "prophets of doom" make out - while using that rather poor taste Yugoslavia "picnic" analogy IMHO, but as you explained with the technical English lesson, it is to convey a point, I get that point. My emotional stake in the thing may mot matter in that case. I am a nobody anyway. Cheers.
3
-
3
-
2
-
Putins poke face is great but his chess game is :face-fuchsia-poop-shape:. Quote of the century. Holy Mother of God, you are not wrong about the Victoria Nuland thing vatniks bring up Pyyotr. Great conversation as usual, been waiting for this part 2! Mark is a heavyweight in Ruzzian affairs who got the invasion wrong, just saying. I beg to differ on Mark's take on Donbas, slightly, I was there in 2014, but that's neither here nor there. Lost a home in Makiivka. But I still find him very interesting. Look, on Ruzzia joining NATO, would that not have been akin to letting the Fox into the metaphorical Henhouse ? Knowing Ruzzia's imperial mindset and historical modus operandi. Was this not a worry ? Mark even mentioned the degeneration to Stalinism with the large families and fecundity of women etc. On the "Ruzzian" multi-ethnic state that Pyotr, identified as bogus, (and racist re: the airport) - It is no co-incidence that the largest article on neo-fascism in Encyclopaedia Britannica is the Russia article.
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
Mr Taylor summed up something succinctly, that relates to a comment I made on a previous show about how his colleague Chris poorly articulated the "aid" we get here (paraphrasing), "why should we send them billions of dollars when we have so many problems sin America". Well Mr. Taylor hit the nail on the head, the Bradleys we get are old models that they are going to get rid of anyway and cost money to store. Sending them here saves the US taxpayer money! Imagine that. It's just the value of the old stuff! It's not cash or new money. But very rarely is this articulated correctly (Frederick Kagan, Jake Broe, General Hodges the rare few). Lastly, you touched on a very important point Pyotr, why give them so little if it makes no difference, let's use the 31 Abrams as the example, that you brought up. General Zaluzhnyi asked for 500 Abrams tanks, he got 31. I always used to say - "WTF are we going to do with 31 ABrams tanks ? You can't even defend my small home town of Pokrovsk, with 31 tanks, let alone a 1,000 km front!". Because of that folly, it's too late now for my home town of Pokrovsk and that lack of equipment has cost us victory. :(
2
-
2
-
1
-
1
-
Always appreciate your show even if I don't agree with some things. You're going to get burned in the comments for this one Pyotr, they'll just read the title and go from there. Anyway, my take. I live in Ukraine, moved here a decade ago (Ukrainian wife). We have been displaced twice. 2014 from Makiivka in the so called DNR and 2022 from Pokrovsk. Trump wants to give our homes away to Putin to end this war. Putin claims all of Donetsk Oblast where Pokrovsk is, will Trump just give it all away to Putin for free ? At least with VP Harris we will get more of the same or maybe better regarding our situation in Ukraine. But, I do not think all is lost if Trump wins, he very malleable and it's easy to play to his ego and get him to change his "peace in one day" folly - e.g. "Mister President, you are the most powerful man in the world, if you let Putin take some of Ukraine, that would make America and therefore you, look like a weak loser, we need to arm the Ukrainians up and let them finish this and win, and make you a winner in the process"!
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
So the BRICS summit was really the "RICS summit". I think we can lure the North Koreans to defect to us by droning them tons of Choco Pies with a note in Korean to surrender to Ukraine if they want more. I am not being flippant, it might actually work. Google this headline below....
North Korean soldier who defected has been granted Choco Pies for life — a snack Kim Jong Un hates
With the West v Eastern Ukraine thing, I've lived here for a decade, my wife and I have been displaced twice & lost 2 homes in Donetsk Oblast (Makiivka in 2014 and Pokrovsk). For starters, there were a lot of people with bad attitudes to Ukraine even back in 2014 when I was in the DNR in Makiivka, re-integrating these people will not be a walk in the park. Some are just ambivalent, even one of my wife's own cousins & friends still stuck there. I'd like my Pokrovsk home back TBH. But I am not Ukrainian , only a permanent resident. A lot of the soldiers are just tired and want the war to stop, other's think the fight must go on. Rotation is a huge problem. Look, everyone, all the pundits on our side say the same thing (even Jake) - "A pause will let Russia re-arm and try again". - but maybe it's time to see it the other way around, maybe our tired soldiers who are sick of fighting need a pause and Ukraine can re-arm and be ready. It really should be up to the heroes and defenders here doing the fighting not those of us sitting at home. Anyway that's my 2c worth based on being here a decade mostly near the war zone.
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
This is a test, my reply got shadow banned, so let's see if it sticks a comment. It's very interesting you did a Brazil run down this time. You brought up Ukraine and Lula's comeback in your great mini-doco, so I won't repeat what you already stated but do a value add for your listeners. Before 2022 interrupted everything, Brazil had a very decent relationship with Ukraine in many aspects of friendship and trade. For instance, pretty much well all the imported players for my football team Shakhtar Donetsk were Brazilian. But to your question of can Brazil become a big player, imho, it could have done that a decade ago and still may have the opportunity in the future. One little known fact is that Ukraine was co-operating with Brazil on its space programme up until 2015. in Fact when Lula was President during his first tenure back in the first decade of the 2000's, he presided over a programme to buy and launch the Ukrainian made "Tsyklon" (Cyclone) launch vehicle, a medium lift rocket that could put 5 tonnes to LEO. Unfortunately due to shenanigans on both sides this project fell through. I can't paste the link (comment gets zapped) but just google the SpaceNews article title - Brazil Pulling Out of Ukrainian Launcher Project -
"RIO DE JANEIRO – The Brazilian government is ending a decade-long project to operate Ukraine’s Cyclone-4 rocket from Brazilian territory following a government review that found too many open questions about its cost and future market success, the deputy chief of the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB) said. It remains unclear whether the decision will force Brazil to pay Ukraine any financial penalties for a unilateral cancellation of a bilateral agreement. Over the years, the work to build a launch facility for Ukraine’s Cyclone at Brazil’s Alcantara spaceport has suffered multiple stops and starts as one side or the other fell short on its financial obligations to the effort."
1
-
@davidwright5094 English was my second language dude, first was what was called "Serbo-Croatian". I understood all that, but it still irks me that A: two Brits now peddle the same analogy, it seems like unoriginal and insensitive thinking. How do they know the breakup of Russia will be so bad ? They were all wrong about the re-invasion of us here in Ukraine almost three years ago. The USSR had 40,000 nukes when it broke up, Russia has a piddling 7,000. What are they worried about ? No nukes are located in Southern Russia, so Ramzan Kadyrov has NO chance to get his hands on any. and B. Easy for you to lecture me like that when you have never lost anything in your life. First Yugoslavia now Ukraine, what have you ever lost in your life ? Gone to McDonalds and ordered 12 McNuggets and only gotten 11 ? Thanks for language grammatical lesson, I speak four languages now since moving to Ukraine ( addition of Rusky and Ukrainian). You seemed to partly understand where I was coming from, but not fully, then proceeded to lecture me with grammar or whatnot, fine. Keep in mind my wife is an associate professor of languages, and when she tells her English students about "past present" or "past perfect" etc etc, or whatever, I jovially tell her after the lessons, I don't even know hat that means, it's irrelevant, I just speak the language. She of course begs to differ and thinks it is relevant.
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
@martinoneill5804 The plans to take back Crimea have been around since Yetlsin's time. Yeltsin prevented the nationalists in Russia to do so because, If Crimea can leave Ukraine then it would have set a precedent to allow Chechniya to leave Russia. I saw an interview almost ten years ago, where a bunch of journalists kept asking Putin, was it the American meddling in Syria that made him decide to take Crimea. and he got angry with them all and told them, to shut up and he said (paraphrasing) - "don't you all know anything ? I wasn't Syria, it was Yugoslavia, that's when I made the decision to take back Crimea", that means he made the decision in 1999 and waited for the right time. That was well before Sochi, so the joining NATO issue had nothing whatsoever to do with Crimea in 2014. That's just BS. I have heard Matlock in interviews and he says a lot of things that are really problematic. Like most people who only spent time in Moscow, he has a pro-Russian bias. Kissinger was wrong about Ukraine and changed his mind, he was wrong about the idiotic notion of a "chat". Chatting to Putin does not achieve anything. ok ? DI all the endless chatting by Merkel or Macron have with Putin achieve anything ? No. Matlock and Kissinger obviously never saw that interview in 2015 that I saw or they wouldn't have been talking such nonsense about a chat. Putin was never serious about the NATO thing, he wanted to jump the queue and be admitted ahead of what he thought was insignificant countries, without due process as was mentioned in the interview. I have lived in Ukraine for a decade, how many years did Matlock and Kissinger spend here ? Zero.
1
-
1
-
1
-
What Mr McNair stated at the 7:35 min mark jumped out at me, regarding Africa - "...when we talk to China we get an airport, when the talk to the US e get a lecture..". I am not endorsing Xi's China, f**k his CCP China, but it illustrates a very important point. So... for two years here in Ukraine we've been getting lectures from the US administration about what we can and can't do, due to their "escalation management" BS, that has cost us a victory early on (by not giving us everything we have gotten now, back then). The longer this incrementalism went on the less chance we have had for a clear cut victory. That is obvious. That's the military side of things, but when it comes to economics and the re-build side of things,, oh boy are we on for a lot of lectures. They still won't just hand over the 300 billion odd of ruzzian money, that is clearly required as reparations for what they have done to us here. I am about to lose my home in Pokrovsk and all we are getting us more lectures on long range strikes, and whatever other gaslighting they can throw at us, due to their fear of a ruzzian defeat and the consequences that may ensue. What are they afraid of ? When the Soviet Union broke up, there we're 40,000 nuclear devices here (yes 40,000 it's not a typo, google it) and the wold community dealt with that ok. Why are they worried about a piddling 7,000 ruzzian nukes ? The world community will deal with that too. Don't give us a lecture, just give us what we. need to win. We love our American friends, we don't want ruzzia or China, we just want freedom, like our American friends enjoy.
1
-
1
-
1
-
1