00:00And I find this really interesting because I spoke to somebody a little bit earlier on my show and I
00:05asked him that question.
00:06Volodymyr Zelensky feels that he's had this huge amount of pressure from the U.S. on Ukraine to capitulate, to
00:14give up more.
00:15Moscow hasn't had a similar pressure, similar heat from the U.S.
00:21But what this was explained to me is Russia is feeling the heat.
00:25They're feeling the heat from sanctions. They're feeling the heat from Europe.
00:28They've been iced out of these talks for four years until the U.S. brought them back to the negotiating
00:35table.
00:35So it's difficult to say who's really facing the wrath here.
00:40Definitely on one thing, I agree on the fact that in major crisis, somebody needs to keep the connection going
00:48in order to open doors for potential negotiations.
00:51And in Europe, nobody was doing that for their own valid reasons, in a sense.
00:57But Trump did that and was able to do that while Biden had completely closed doors in that sense.
01:03This is valid, yes. But is Russia under enough pressure?
01:07I still don't think that Russia is feeling enough international pressure.
01:10I don't believe the European sanctions and the European pressure is enough to actually bring Putin to the table.
01:18I think only a serious U.S. pressure and U.S. sanctions can bring Putin to the table.
01:25Even internal dynamics and internal suffering that we hear about or we see in news here and there about the
01:33number of soldiers having to bring prisoners out into the military battlefield,
01:38having to bring North Koreans, having to bring people from overseas to work in the industry.
01:43That has been all shifted towards the war industry.
01:46All of this, I think Russia can sustain all of this, even for a year to come or more.
01:52A very serious U.S. pressure is the only way to bring Putin to the table.
01:57And this is what's not happening.
01:58That's why we see Zelensky continuously asked for more, giving in things more and more, while Putin is not.
02:06And the negotiations today seem, as we saw in the news, that it is about land control and what's going
02:12to happen with that.
02:13While I think the actual key point is what Michael mentioned, is the security guarantees.
02:18This is the key term that will make or break that deal.
02:22What are these security guarantees?
02:23Who can give them?
02:25Who is willing to actually go into military action if these guarantees are broken?
02:30This is where all the discussion is happening, with Putin clearly saying no foreign troops in Ukraine and no joining
02:38of NATO.
02:39And that has been almost accepted by the U.S.
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