00:00While we await the start of those talks, it gives us plenty of time to discuss our expectations.
00:06Joining me in our rooftop studio in Istanbul is former RT host, Rick Sanchez.
00:10Lovely to see you. Thanks for flying over.
00:13I love the sounds, just as you introduced me.
00:15I'm being introduced by one of the ships in the background.
00:19So, things haven't got started yet. What are your expectations for today?
00:24Well, the best that we can expect is some form of at least minor shuttle diplomacy that will lead to some kind of meeting.
00:32Unfortunately, that's not what I see.
00:34What I see right now, you may or may not know this about me, but aside from being a journalist most of my life,
00:39I took some time off and I got together with some friends and I founded a several billion dollar health care company.
00:46So, my role there was chief marketing officer.
00:49So, I know a little bit about marketing.
00:50And let me tell you what's going on right now.
00:53This is not diplomacy.
00:55This is marketing, pure and simple.
00:58Somebody in Washington and in London got word that Vladimir Putin announced after the Victory Day celebration
01:05that he thought it would be a good idea to come here and try once again to work out a deal.
01:11They don't want that deal.
01:13They literally don't want the deal and certainly not on Mr. Putin's terms.
01:16So, they had to think to themselves, well, what do we do?
01:18We have to win somehow the marketing, the public relations game, right?
01:23So, what they did is they called Zelensky and said, here's what you're going to do.
01:28You're going to make an announcement that you're flying to Turkey and you want to personally handle the negotiation.
01:36So, the next day, Mr. Zelensky calls at a meeting and he says, I am going to Turkey and I am going to meet with Mr. Putin when he's there.
01:46Now, all of a sudden, it deflects everything away and it makes it look like he's the hero, the guy who's coming here to make some kind of a meeting.
01:54Now, you know, you know the Russians and I think maybe people in our audience don't understand the Russians,
01:59but the Russians have a very different character for most Westerners.
02:03They take law seriously.
02:05They take rules seriously.
02:07That's why they're so bothered by the fact that Zelensky is still the president of a country that hasn't elected him.
02:12It bothers them.
02:14It bothers them that Ukraine passed a law saying you cannot negotiate with Russia.
02:19Now, Zelensky shows up here and says, I'm going to negotiate with Russia.
02:23And people say, but I thought you guys had a law that said you can't negotiate with Russia.
02:26He says, there's an exception, me, but you're unelected.
02:30Well, it doesn't matter.
02:31So these things, I think, from a format standpoint, bother the Russian side.
02:37I think I do believe, as best I can tell, that the Russians are earnest about wanting to sit down
02:44and discuss the real issues that go back to 2013, 2014, the things that undercut their reasons
02:52for actually even going in with the special operation in Ukraine.
02:56But unfortunately, Mr. Zelensky, as you know, recently said he's only coming here to negotiate a 30-day truce.
03:04Well, why would the team that's winning, which by all facts on the ground, Russia is winning this war with Ukraine,
03:15why would Russia say, oh yeah, okay, let's stop for 30 days?
03:18Well, Mr. Kellogg yesterday on Fox News said, of course, during those 30 days, the Germans, the French,
03:27the Americans, and the Ukrainians would form peacekeeping forces inside Ukraine so that they can hold the line, sort of speak.
03:38What they're saying is, Nicky, obviously, is in those 30 days, they're going to re-fortify Ukraine.
03:45Now, obviously, you know, Russia's not going to look at that situation and say, oh yeah, perfect.
03:51We'll wait 30 days so you guys can have more money, more satellites, more troops, more missiles, organize your troops,
03:57and we'll sit back and wait for you to do that.
04:01And that's where we are right now.
04:02I think the West, which is really the people who are negotiating this thing, it's not Zelensky.
04:10We just learned a little while ago, I'm sure you've read this already, some of our folks here at RT have been talking about it,
04:17one of the national security officials from the UK just announced just moments ago that he's advising Zelensky,
04:27he's flying here to sit down with Zelensky to tell him what to do.
04:31What does that sound like?
04:33March 2022, Boris Johnson flies in, tells Zelensky what to do.
04:39See, that's troublesome.
04:41That means the puppeteers are in control.
04:44And if the puppeteers are in control, it's really not serious.
04:49It's a circus.
04:50It's a show.
04:50It feels like Russia can never win at this Western PR game, though,
04:54even though Vladimir Putin suggested the talks, the delegation are very serious.
04:58In the mainstream media, they're saying this is a junior delegation.
05:02Putin suggested the talks, but he's not coming to the talks, making out that it's the Russian side that's not serious.
05:08But this delegation...
05:09By the way, you've got to give him credit.
05:12That's a pretty cool marketing technique, isn't it?
05:14They just turned the whole thing around on Putin.
05:16Oh, the problem is Putin.
05:17Look, he's not showing up.
05:18He never said he was going to show up.
05:20He is sending his team of negotiators, which are supposedly, I don't know them all, but from what I've read,
05:29they're some of the most sophisticated, experienced negotiators, which Russia has been using for decades.
05:35So this is their job.
05:37They come in.
05:38They create the groundwork.
05:39They create essentially the plan, and then maybe Mr. Putin, Mr. Trump, or, you know, Mr. Rubio, or maybe even Mr. Zelensky
05:48can then come in and shake hands and come to the deal.
05:52But you just don't throw people out there and say, OK, start talking.
05:55It just doesn't make any sense.
05:57But they're trying to make it look, right, like that's the way it is.
05:59I'm sorry I interrupted you, but you made me think of that.
06:02And it just seems preposterous, even just to hear it out of your lips, you know?
06:07This meeting that Zelensky is having with Erdogan in Ankara, he said only after those talks will he decide if he's coming to Istanbul.
06:14But we already know what the answer is going to be, right?
06:17He's not going to come.
06:18Why is he playing this guessing game?
06:20Why is he flip-flopping constantly just for the headlines?
06:23What's the message?
06:25Why, why, why?
06:26Here's the real why.
06:28Why is Zelensky even here?
06:29Why is Zelensky negotiating something that has really very little to do with him?
06:36Zelensky is a proxy, OK, with all due respect to Mr. Zelensky.
06:41I know he'd like to think that he is the guy who is in charge of all this, but he's not.
06:47Zelensky has been, by all accounts, taking orders from the West from the very beginning.
06:53Originally during the Biden administration and to a certain extent during the Obama administration and beyond.
06:58From Washington and now taking it mostly from the EU and from the UK and from Macron and those types.
07:08So, all along, Mr. Zelensky does what Mr. Zelensky is told to do, because, again, Russia is fighting its own war, but Ukraine is not fighting its own war.
07:21Ukraine is simply providing warm bodies so that the West can have a war with Russia because the West wants to weaken Russia.
07:31That's exactly what's going on right now.
07:34And for our viewers around the world, it's important to understand, from the very beginning, Russia only said, we have no problem with Ukraine being a sovereign state.
07:46And we'll stay the hell out of Ukraine.
07:48We want nothing to do with Ukraine other than the fact that we want to be on friendly terms with them.
07:52And as soon as the West saw that Ukraine had a government that was friendly to Russia, they said, no, we cannot have a government in Ukraine that's friendly to Russia.
08:03We have to go in there and do everything possible to undermine that.
08:07And that's why what they did.
08:09And that's why Russia went into Ukraine.
08:11It wasn't like one day somebody in Russia just woke up and said, oh, let's just attack for the hell of attacking some other country.
08:17And again, in case you didn't understand that, let me make it even simpler.
08:20It would be like the United States having friendly relationships with Canada, which they do, right?
08:26They do, right?
08:27Every once in a while they have border problems and water problems and immigration problems, but generally they get along.
08:32But let's say tomorrow Russia or China went to Canada, changed the government, and made sure the person who runs the government of Canada hates the United States.
08:41And they started putting missiles in Canada, pointing them at Washington.
08:45What would be America's response?
08:48Now ask yourself, what was Russia's response?
08:51Because that's exactly what we did in Ukraine, that scenario that I just drew out in Canada.
08:55Rick, I love having you here with me in Istanbul in our beautiful rooftop studio.
09:00Thank you so much for flying over.
09:01It's a pleasure.
09:02Former RT host Rick Sanchez.
09:03Hopefully you speak a little bit more later on.
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