Today we talk to CIA Senior Intelligence Service officer Glenn Corn who is calling in from Ukraine and dive into the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, with on-the-ground insights and analysis. We touch on Ukrainian concerns about being excluded from international peace talks, the mixed reactions to diplomatic efforts at the Munich Security Conference and in Saudi Arabia, and the potential implications of new Russian intelligence tactics.
We also hit on a new Russian intel covert unit, possible involvement of North Korean troops supporting Russia, recent prisoner swaps, and the evolving role of NATO and U.S. allies in the conflict. Additionally, there's a reflection on the human cost of the war, highlighting the emotional toll on Ukrainian families.
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Show Notes:
0:00 Introduction
00:24 On the Ground in Ukraine
01:27 Ukrainian Concerns and International Talks
04:33 Russian Intelligence and Covert Operations
06:40 Territorial Negotiations and Peace Talks
09:21 European and NATO Involvement
12:39 Prisoner Swaps and Diplomatic Moves
15:20 North Korean Involvement in the Conflict
17:09 Final Thoughts and Personal Reflections
20:55 Sponsor Message: NordVPN
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Thank you everybody for joining ustalking all things, Russia, Ukraine,
geopolitical security, military intel.
As usual, you're here with me.
I'm Ryan spent eight years atthe army, eight years at CIA.
As always, we're joined with GlennKorn, three decades in USG, much of
that with CIA, a lot of that coveringRussia, true expert on this topic.
(00:22):
And in fact, is calling in from Ukraine.
So without further ado, Glenn,uh, what are you doing over there?
And what's what's it like right now?
Hey, it's great to see you, Ryan.
And, uh, hello to all your,your, uh, fans and the followers.
Our fans.
Our fans, yeah.
Our fans.
I like it.
Uh, it looks like you'rein a cozy place there.
That's nice.
(00:42):
I am.
I am.
I'm not going to name where I am,but I am, yes, in Ukraine right now.
And, uh, we're here with the visitthat we've been here about two weeks.
We have another, uh, couple ofweeks to go and, um, traveling a
lot, talking to a lot of people.
for various reasons, which I will gointo all of them, but mainly is to
show the Ukrainians that we are stillvery interested, trying to make sure we
(01:04):
understand their perspective on thingsand, uh, relay to them that there are
many, many Americans who are supportive oftheir cause to defend their sovereignty.
All right.
Well, you're on the ground.
Where should we start?
You think like, what, what do you thinkpeople should be hearing about that?
Maybe they're seeing in the news or maybethey're not seeing in the news that you
(01:24):
might see firsthand where you're at now.
Yeah.
Um, well, I mean, the Ukrainians arefollowing very closely developments, uh,
one of the Munich security conference,uh, and of course now talks, um,
Saudi Arabia between the Russia, U.
S., uh, mixed reaction from people.
I think mainly many Ukrainians areconcerned that the U. S. is going to cut
(01:46):
some kind of deal without their approval.
voice or participation.
Uh, and then there's, you know, thereare a lot of different statements
coming out of the new administration.
Uh, some contradictory, some whichare welcome, some not welcome.
I would say that many of the Ukrainianswe speak with, they want peace.
(02:06):
They want this war to end.
They're willing to make compromises.
They want to make sure forced to makecompromises because they know that Putin
will have maximalist demands of them,which, uh, they don't want to have to,
you know, they've given a lot of bloodto protect their country and they don't
want to give up too much territory.
(02:27):
They definitely don't want to giveup their sovereignty or, you know,
some of the things Putin has beensaying is, you know, pretty much he
has to decide who's running Ukraineand they're not going to go for that.
And by the way, I should also saythe president's proposal like to,
you know, agree on mineral rightsor access to some of the natural
resources here in return for aid.
Many Ukrainians support that.
(02:48):
They're not against it.
They actually like the idea.
So I think that was a goodidea that the president had.
And you mentioned the Munichsecurity conference, obviously a
lot of news that came out of thatwith, um, state heads, uh, talking.
So let's see, made the roundschatting with all kinds of folks
trying to get additional support.
And then you mentioned Saudi.
(03:08):
So Whitcoff, who's thepresidential envoy heading there.
Um, I think also national securityadvisor for bilat with the Russians.
You've also got folks fromUkraine who will be there.
It seems like it's the right placefor people to have a discussion.
I think maybe Lavrov mightbe going from Russia.
(03:29):
Um, do you think that that iswhere some of the sausage is
going to be made on this deal?
Well, it's not clear, Ryan, you know,there are conflicting reports on
whether the Ukrainians are going tobe included in this president Zelensky
said yesterday publicly that, thatUkrainians were not sending a delegation.
What is not clear to me is that, youknow, if it's a bilateral between the
(03:50):
U S and Russia, then in my opinion,that's absolutely appropriate.
Ukraine may come up.
I personally do not think that we shouldmake a decision on the future of Ukraine
without the Ukrainians at the tablehaving a lot, you know, direct input and
direct say, I don't, you know, I thinkwhat I read is that General Kellogg and I
(04:11):
believe Marco Rubio both said that thesediscussions are not going to include.
Any final agreement on what happensin Ukraine, but they are going to be
a test on seeing how serious Putin isreally about Trying to find a peaceful
solution and his willingness to makecompromises To achieve that peace.
(04:33):
How about there's some news that'scome out recently about this new
intel organization within therussian security services the ssd
The directorate for special tasks.
Not sure if you've heard of this.
So kind of like the FSB has emergedsome of its capabilities with.
GRU specifically, I think it's unit29155, which many people have assessed
(04:56):
was behind some of the poisoningsthat happened a few years ago.
I'm bringing them together for bothtactical covert efforts and then
more direct work in Western Europe.
Has that come up at all withwhat you've seen, Glenn, or is
this a surprise to you at all?
This is a Wall Street Journalreport from this week.
(05:17):
uh, using political assassuh, you know, covert act
They, they, they believe it's alegitimate, uh, way of waging war.
And, uh, I'm not surprised.
I think people in the West are beginningto wake up to this, just like it took
(05:38):
them a long time in the U S and inEurope to wake up to the cohort influence
operations that the Russians run.
Um, and so not surprised at all.
Um, in Ukrainians have alsodemonstrated, they have it very, uh,
capable intelligence community thatis doing some, uh, counter operations,
(05:59):
which have been very successful.
Um, and of course, everybody here is,you know, they, they just arrested.
Uh, the, the internal securityservice here, the SBU just arrested
a senior officer who was in charge ofcounterintelligence, who was working for
the FSB, so he was a penetration of theSBU, and of course, that's a reminder
that, uh, you always have to, you know,be on your P's and Q's, um, and I think
(06:23):
the Ukrainians are pretty professional,but they're also dealing with a very
difficult situation, given the kind ofcommon history and the way the Russians
have, you know, Tradition for influenceand infiltrate the society for many mere,
I mean, hundreds of years, actually.
So, yeah.
Then I think probably need to justdiscuss what's going on with talks with
(06:45):
the new administration, NATO allies,and kind of, uh, the peace deal coming
up, but just from, uh, from where yousit now, Glenn, if, if they were to kind
of go forward with peace talks with,with Russia, with Ukraine, and you,
you had suggested this when we talkedmonths ago, but can you get an idea of.
What territory would be seated or not?
(07:08):
Both directions at this point intime with Russia and Ukraine, right?
So you have like the Donbass, you have,uh, areas that are, that are occupied
by the Russians, parts of Zaia, uh, hir.
Um, of course the, the, theUkrainians have parts of s lest
so the poor, poor province.
And I think there have beensome suggestions that the
(07:29):
Ukrainians are willing to trade.
Russian territory forsome Ukrainian territory.
Uh, you know, of course theRussians have occupied Crimea.
So, you know, my understanding ispart of the negotiations will be okay.
What is Putin going to give up, be made togive up and liberate for the Ukrainians?
(07:51):
Uh, you know, what are the Ukrainiansgoing to be willing to accept in
terms of, of lost temporarily?
I don't think the Ukrainians are evergoing to accept, for example, that
they were, they're giving up Crimea.
Legally, it is part ofthe Ukrainian state.
And, um, you know, my view personallyis we should look at this as, uh,
maybe we did like the Germanysafter the Second World War.
(08:12):
We never accepted, or the Baltics,by the way, that they were not
independent countries, and eventuallythey got their independence back.
Uh, but the Ukrainians arewilling to make some compromises.
They just need to see that theRussians are also going to make
acceptable compromises for Kiev.
Do you think there's a chance inthree months that this war is done?
(08:32):
I think there's a chance.
I think that, uh, you know, whateveryone's waiting to see now is how
we're going to put pressure on Putin tomake sure that there is a just peace.
How the Europeans are gonna participate.
You know, the, there's, I thinkthe administration is asking the
Europeans to put troops on the groundhere because after any, any peaceful
(08:53):
settlement or ceasefire, the Ukrainiansare well aware that the Russians are
going to try again in the future torein, invade to re instigate a war.
And, uh, that's, that's the history.
Just ask the chechensgoing back to the nineties.
And so the, so the Ukrainiansare looking for some guarantees
for their, their piece.
And for their security and theEuropeans are being asked to
(09:16):
consider put people on the ground.
I think the British came out yesterdayand said they would troops on the ground.
Um, and I, my understanding is, isthat, you know, Munich, the vice
president made a very controversialspeech at the security conference.
I think I encourage all yourlisteners to read the entire speech.
(09:36):
Because only snippets are being put outin the media, and I think that's dangerous
because people have their own agendas,uh, there's a lot in that speech that I
personally agree with, but I think oneof the things this administration is
saying is the Europeans need to step upand do more for, for collective defense,
uh, increase their defense budgets.
And that the U. S. has, you know,a lot of priorities to deal with.
(09:58):
And one thing I would tell yourlisteners, too, is, I think I've said
this in the past, we've been ignoringthe Western Hemisphere for years, and
the administration is now putting a lotof emphasis on the Western Hemisphere
because of, we've lost a lot of influencein Central America and South America.
The Chinese have gaineda lot of influence.
The Iranians gained influence.
(10:19):
The Russians have gained influence.
And that shouldn't be acceptableto us because that is our backyard.
And so we need help from theEuropeans managing all this.
Uh, I think the administration islooking for that and the administration
is willing to be kind of blunt in away that maybe other administrations
have not been willing to be.
That's shocking.
A lot of people in Europe, but hopefullyit will also energize them to understand.
(10:43):
Uh, you know, we, we want to havea transatlantic partnership and
it's got to be a partnership.
We heard that in the firstTrump administration too, right?
I mean, the push for additionaldefense spending up to 4 percent
of GDP, something like that,but it didn't seem to take hold.
And they really are coming outstronger earlier now, it seems.
(11:03):
Yeah.
I mean, that's a great point.
And after, you know, after Trump leftoffice, some of the European leaders,
I remember the Albanian prime ministerpublicly stating that Trump was right.
And it was good that he waspushing the Europeans to do more.
I heard recently in, in a meetingat Washington, this is maybe three
weeks ago that Europeans at the nextNATO summit will be ready to hit
(11:24):
3%, which would be an improvement.
Yeah.
It's probably not, butpresident Trump wants.
But it's a forward movementand maybe they'll do more.
But some of our NATO allies are not,they're not carrying their weight.
Now they do a lot of other thingsthat were important to mention, and
they can be very good allies, but someare just not carrying their weight.
And the American people are, are not goingto carry the weight for them forever.
(11:46):
And I think that's kind of themessage from this administration.
Um, we want to be partners, butit's got to be equal partnership.
And then from the European perspective,I think that this administration
will have to accept that we don'tget the final say on everything.
If everybody's carrying theirweight, sometimes the Europeans
get to make the call, you know,the Turks get to make the call.
I always use Turkey as an example,because the Turks are doing a lot of
(12:07):
stuff, just look at Syria, you know,where they kind of engineered the
removal of Bashar al Assad, or tookadvantage of the opportunity to do
that, and they should, they should getthe, in my opinion, thumbs up for that.
Right?
They didn't have to do that, they did.
So some people don't like that inWashington, but I think we have to
come around to understanding that if weneed, we want to be partners, sometimes
(12:29):
other partners get the final say.
We'll link out to, um, Vance's speechhere in the description so people can
read the full, full notes to your point.
Um, can we talk prisonerswaps real quick, Glenn?
So we saw, uh, Fogle, the American,get traded, uh, looks like for
Alexander Vinnick, who's kind ofa Bitcoin cyber type character.
(12:55):
Um, they got traded a week or two ago.
There was, I think Rubio cameout and said that had nothing
to do with the war necessarily.
But how do you view that type of exchange?
How do you think listenersshould be thinking about?
Well, we had a number of exchangeduring the Biden administration.
Uh, it's good that Mr. Fogle is home.
God bless him and his family.
(13:15):
He was in custody for too long.
Uh, like other trades, they'revery controversial because, you
know, people will argue that,you know, we got a teacher back.
The Russians got a criminalcyber criminal who stole a lot
of money from a lot of people.
That was some of the criticismsof some of the Biden era trades.
Um, you know, you could look at itdifferent ways, but I think it was a sign
(13:39):
from the Russians that they're, you know,I think they want to have a dialogue.
Of course, they're going to want tocontrol the narrative of the dialogue, and
I, I hope this administration does not letthem do that because we should remind the
Russians we are in a position of strength.
Uh, the trade at the end of the dayI think is probably a good thing
'cause there's another American home.
(14:00):
But we also have to be concerned thatthis encourages the Russians to grab other
people or other countries to grab peopleto try and achieve political objectives.
So again, that goes back to the,the Biden er trades as well.
I just have to be very careful about that.
To that point, I think, uh, Putin invited,uh, Trump over for their mayday parade.
(14:22):
Later this year, if you werein the administration, how
would you advise on that?
I would personally suggest against it,uh, because I don't think Putin has earned
The right to have the American presidentcome to Russia to attend that celebration.
Uh, you know, I don't think thatit's something that is really
(14:44):
good for the United States orthe international community.
And I also don't think that the U. S.president should go to Russia first.
If there was any kind of meeting, I wouldmake the Russian president come to us.
Uh, but of course, you know,the administration and President
Trump may have their own views.
And, you know, I just hope thatPutin is not seen as being rewarded
for everything that he did.
(15:05):
He's cost a lot of death and damage ina country that that didn't deserve it.
There was no excuse for whatthe Russians have done here.
None.
And just to your point on like a positionof strength, and it would seem that that
wouldn't be the best approach there.
Um, how about North Koreans?
So we saw maybe two months backthat North Korea was sending
(15:28):
10 to 11, 000 troops over.
We saw them.
reported in, in some of the frontlineengagements not doing so well, then
they kind of went away to some degree.
Like there wasn't a lot said about them.
And then they've resurfaced withsome reports of them back on
the front lines, wearing Russianuniforms, carrying Russian IDs.
(15:49):
There's been discussion of Russian,um, injured Russian soldiers
being treated back in North Korea.
Uh, Russian orphans being in North Korea.
What do you make of that at this point,Glenn, with the North Korean answer?
Yeah.
So I don't think they're making a big,the big difference that maybe the Russians
were hoping they were going to make.
I, my understanding is that they are nottreated well by the Russian commanders.
(16:13):
They are not integratingwell into the Russian units.
The Russians seem to be desperate.
Uh, if I were Russian, I'd beembarrassed to have to turn to
North Korea for this kind of help.
The Ukrainians, my understandingis that the Russian advances are
slowing and that the Ukrainiansare still making some advances.
And of course, uh, the Ukrainians areadapting well, you know, they have their
(16:37):
challenges, especially manpower wise.
And of course it would be great if theSouth Koreans would do more to help.
Ukraine right now.
Uh, but again, if I were Russian,I'd really ask, like, why are we
having to turn to a country likeNorth Korea to fight a war for us?
That tells you something.
I think they've reported, at leastthe press has been reporting, they've,
(16:59):
they've lost at least a thousand,killed the North Koreans and maybe two
to three thousand more wounded out often to eleven thousand that are there.
Right.
Um, anything else RussiaUkraine related before?
Question on the agency itself.
No, I would just say, you know.
I keep telling people there's a lot oflike churn about statements that are
(17:23):
coming out from different people in theadministration and what I always tell
people is judge, judge the administrationby its actions, not by its words.
The words are portrayed in the media.
You need to be very careful aboutlistening to people's analysis
instead of what's being said.
And I'm telling that to the Ukrainiansbecause I'm still very, very hopeful
that this administration is going tostand by them and is going to be very
(17:46):
clear to Vladimir Putin that what Putinis doing is not acceptable and we're
not going to stand by and let it happen.
Uh, you know, I, I don't want a war withRussia, but I also don't think that we
should allow the Russians to bully theirneighbors or us or our European allies.
Could you see any chance Russia wouldactually go against a NATO ally?
(18:07):
It like, As you might be suggesting, sure.
I mean, there's always a danger thatRussia will attack a NATO country.
I think the Baltic states are themost vulnerable, most concerned,
maybe Poland, because they havelong histories with the Russians.
And some people say that if we backdown in Ukraine, that that will fuel
(18:28):
Putin's willingness to go further.
Uh, you could debate that point, but I,I don't even think we should test that.
Like, you know, we as Americansshould make sure that the Ukrainians
have what they need to defend theircountry, uh, because I do believe
that it is helping us in the long run.
The United States, for many reasons,I'll say this week, we had a meeting
(18:52):
with, uh, the mayor of, uh, Kiev,who was a world champion boxer.
And he was talking, youknow, he has a brother.
And when we left that meeting, Itold the, the, uh, the American
and the Australian I was blessed.
Uh, friends of mine that were withme, I said, okay, can you imagine
having to go to war with these guys?
God help us, right?
He's a giant, isn't he?
Yeah, you're a soldier, and I'mlike, if that guy was in the
(19:14):
other trench with his brother, Iwould not be And here's the thing.
Like, we don't want thoseguys going back East.
Right.
We need them on our side.
And I hope that the presidenthas teamed all that, like, they
are very, very capable people.
Um, and people areresponding positively to it.
They want more American involvement here.
Well, and thanks for the time.
I know you're running upagainst another meeting.
(19:35):
That's probably far moreimportant than this one.
I hope you stay safe.
Hope you stay safe.
Um, and can't wait to see youon, on the other side here.
Hey, can I just say one thing whileI'm talking to you, please put in
the Put it in the background here.
This is a picture of a wall I tookin one of the Ukrainian cities.
And, uh, you can see there's asoldier and his wife or his girlfriend
and it's written in Ukrainian.
(19:57):
I will wait for you.
I will wait for you, uh, forever.
Uh, I am here for you.
I will never forget you.
And I'm waiting for your return.
And for listeners, they shouldknow that there are about a
million Ukrainians on the front.
And a million, that means a millionfamilies or, you know, estimate
who are without their loved onesday in and day out and facing the
(20:19):
risk that they'll never come home.
And for those of us who were in positionslike that before, we know how taxing
that can be and how important it is tohave people at home that love you and
that you have something to live up toor live, you know, strive to survive.
Yeah.
And I hope the American people,your listeners, are sympathetic to
that because, uh, it's just terriblethat people have to be like this.
(20:42):
It'd be much better if theycould just be with their loved
ones and live their lives.
And, and the Ukrainian peopledid not start this war.
Well said.
Thanks, Glenn.
You stay safe.
We'll see you on this side.
Okay.
Ciao.
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The link is in the podcastepisode description box.
Thank you everybody for joining ustalking all things, Russia, Ukraine,
geopolitical security, military intel.
As usual, you're here with me.
I'm Ryan spent eight years atthe army, eight years at CIA.
As always, we're joined with GlennKorn, three decades in USG, much of
that with CIA, a lot of that coveringRussia, true expert on this topic.
(00:22):
And in fact, is calling in from Ukraine.
So without further ado, Glenn,uh, what are you doing over there?
And what's what's it like right now?
Hey, it's great to see you, Ryan.
And, uh, hello to all your,your, uh, fans and the followers.
Our fans.
Our fans, yeah.
Our fans.
I like it.
Uh, it looks like you'rein a cozy place there.
That's nice.
(00:42):
I am.
I am.
I'm not going to name where I am,but I am, yes, in Ukraine right now.
And, uh, we're here with the visitthat we've been here about two weeks.
We have another, uh, couple ofweeks to go and, um, traveling a
lot, talking to a lot of people.
for various reasons, which I will gointo all of them, but mainly is to
show the Ukrainians that we are stillvery interested, trying to make sure we
(01:04):
understand their perspective on thingsand, uh, relay to them that there are
many, many Americans who are supportive oftheir cause to defend their sovereignty.
All right.
Well, you're on the ground.
Where should we start?
You think like, what, what do you thinkpeople should be hearing about that?
Maybe they're seeing in the news or maybethey're not seeing in the news that you
(01:24):
might see firsthand where you're at now.
Yeah.
Um, well, I mean, the Ukrainians arefollowing very closely developments, uh,
one of the Munich security conference,uh, and of course now talks, um,
Saudi Arabia between the Russia, U.
S., uh, mixed reaction from people.
I think mainly many Ukrainians areconcerned that the U. S. is going to cut
(01:46):
some kind of deal without their approval.
voice or participation.
Uh, and then there's, you know, thereare a lot of different statements
coming out of the new administration.
Uh, some contradictory, some whichare welcome, some not welcome.
I would say that many of the Ukrainianswe speak with, they want peace.
(02:06):
They want this war to end.
They're willing to make compromises.
They want to make sure forced to makecompromises because they know that Putin
will have maximalist demands of them,which, uh, they don't want to have to,
you know, they've given a lot of bloodto protect their country and they don't
want to give up too much territory.
(02:27):
They definitely don't want to giveup their sovereignty or, you know,
some of the things Putin has beensaying is, you know, pretty much he
has to decide who's running Ukraineand they're not going to go for that.
And by the way, I should also saythe president's proposal like to,
you know, agree on mineral rightsor access to some of the natural
resources here in return for aid.
Many Ukrainians support that.
(02:48):
They're not against it.
They actually like the idea.
So I think that was a goodidea that the president had.
And you mentioned the Munichsecurity conference, obviously a
lot of news that came out of thatwith, um, state heads, uh, talking.
So let's see, made the roundschatting with all kinds of folks
trying to get additional support.
And then you mentioned Saudi.
(03:08):
So Whitcoff, who's thepresidential envoy heading there.
Um, I think also national securityadvisor for bilat with the Russians.
You've also got folks fromUkraine who will be there.
It seems like it's the right placefor people to have a discussion.
I think maybe Lavrov mightbe going from Russia.
(03:29):
Um, do you think that that iswhere some of the sausage is
going to be made on this deal?
Well, it's not clear, Ryan, you know,there are conflicting reports on
whether the Ukrainians are going tobe included in this president Zelensky
said yesterday publicly that, thatUkrainians were not sending a delegation.
What is not clear to me is that, youknow, if it's a bilateral between the
(03:50):
U S and Russia, then in my opinion,that's absolutely appropriate.
Ukraine may come up.
I personally do not think that we shouldmake a decision on the future of Ukraine
without the Ukrainians at the tablehaving a lot, you know, direct input and
direct say, I don't, you know, I thinkwhat I read is that General Kellogg and I
(04:11):
believe Marco Rubio both said that thesediscussions are not going to include.
Any final agreement on what happensin Ukraine, but they are going to be
a test on seeing how serious Putin isreally about Trying to find a peaceful
solution and his willingness to makecompromises To achieve that peace.
(04:33):
How about there's some news that'scome out recently about this new
intel organization within therussian security services the ssd
The directorate for special tasks.
Not sure if you've heard of this.
So kind of like the FSB has emergedsome of its capabilities with.
GRU specifically, I think it's unit29155, which many people have assessed
(04:56):
was behind some of the poisoningsthat happened a few years ago.
I'm bringing them together for bothtactical covert efforts and then
more direct work in Western Europe.
Has that come up at all withwhat you've seen, Glenn, or is
this a surprise to you at all?
This is a Wall Street Journalreport from this week.
(05:17):
uh, using political assassuh, you know, covert act
They, they, they believe it's alegitimate, uh, way of waging war.
And, uh, I'm not surprised.
I think people in the West are beginningto wake up to this, just like it took
(05:38):
them a long time in the U S and inEurope to wake up to the cohort influence
operations that the Russians run.
Um, and so not surprised at all.
Um, in Ukrainians have alsodemonstrated, they have it very, uh,
capable intelligence community thatis doing some, uh, counter operations,
(05:59):
which have been very successful.
Um, and of course, everybody here is,you know, they, they just arrested.
Uh, the, the internal securityservice here, the SBU just arrested
a senior officer who was in charge ofcounterintelligence, who was working for
the FSB, so he was a penetration of theSBU, and of course, that's a reminder
that, uh, you always have to, you know,be on your P's and Q's, um, and I think
(06:23):
the Ukrainians are pretty professional,but they're also dealing with a very
difficult situation, given the kind ofcommon history and the way the Russians
have, you know, Tradition for influenceand infiltrate the society for many mere,
I mean, hundreds of years, actually.
So, yeah.
Then I think probably need to justdiscuss what's going on with talks with
(06:45):
the new administration, NATO allies,and kind of, uh, the peace deal coming
up, but just from, uh, from where yousit now, Glenn, if, if they were to kind
of go forward with peace talks with,with Russia, with Ukraine, and you,
you had suggested this when we talkedmonths ago, but can you get an idea of.
What territory would be seated or not?
(07:08):
Both directions at this point intime with Russia and Ukraine, right?
So you have like the Donbass, you have,uh, areas that are, that are occupied
by the Russians, parts of Zaia, uh, hir.
Um, of course the, the, theUkrainians have parts of s lest
so the poor, poor province.
And I think there have beensome suggestions that the
(07:29):
Ukrainians are willing to trade.
Russian territory forsome Ukrainian territory.
Uh, you know, of course theRussians have occupied Crimea.
So, you know, my understanding ispart of the negotiations will be okay.
What is Putin going to give up, be made togive up and liberate for the Ukrainians?
(07:51):
Uh, you know, what are the Ukrainiansgoing to be willing to accept in
terms of, of lost temporarily?
I don't think the Ukrainians are evergoing to accept, for example, that
they were, they're giving up Crimea.
Legally, it is part ofthe Ukrainian state.
And, um, you know, my view personallyis we should look at this as, uh,
maybe we did like the Germanysafter the Second World War.
(08:12):
We never accepted, or the Baltics,by the way, that they were not
independent countries, and eventuallythey got their independence back.
Uh, but the Ukrainians arewilling to make some compromises.
They just need to see that theRussians are also going to make
acceptable compromises for Kiev.
Do you think there's a chance inthree months that this war is done?
(08:32):
I think there's a chance.
I think that, uh, you know, whateveryone's waiting to see now is how
we're going to put pressure on Putin tomake sure that there is a just peace.
How the Europeans are gonna participate.
You know, the, there's, I thinkthe administration is asking the
Europeans to put troops on the groundhere because after any, any peaceful
(08:53):
settlement or ceasefire, the Ukrainiansare well aware that the Russians are
going to try again in the future torein, invade to re instigate a war.
And, uh, that's, that's the history.
Just ask the chechensgoing back to the nineties.
And so the, so the Ukrainiansare looking for some guarantees
for their, their piece.
And for their security and theEuropeans are being asked to
(09:16):
consider put people on the ground.
I think the British came out yesterdayand said they would troops on the ground.
Um, and I, my understanding is, isthat, you know, Munich, the vice
president made a very controversialspeech at the security conference.
I think I encourage all yourlisteners to read the entire speech.
(09:36):
Because only snippets are being put outin the media, and I think that's dangerous
because people have their own agendas,uh, there's a lot in that speech that I
personally agree with, but I think oneof the things this administration is
saying is the Europeans need to step upand do more for, for collective defense,
uh, increase their defense budgets.
And that the U. S. has, you know,a lot of priorities to deal with.
(09:58):
And one thing I would tell yourlisteners, too, is, I think I've said
this in the past, we've been ignoringthe Western Hemisphere for years, and
the administration is now putting a lotof emphasis on the Western Hemisphere
because of, we've lost a lot of influencein Central America and South America.
The Chinese have gaineda lot of influence.
The Iranians gained influence.
(10:19):
The Russians have gained influence.
And that shouldn't be acceptableto us because that is our backyard.
And so we need help from theEuropeans managing all this.
Uh, I think the administration islooking for that and the administration
is willing to be kind of blunt in away that maybe other administrations
have not been willing to be.
That's shocking.
A lot of people in Europe, but hopefullyit will also energize them to understand.
(10:43):
Uh, you know, we, we want to havea transatlantic partnership and
it's got to be a partnership.
We heard that in the firstTrump administration too, right?
I mean, the push for additionaldefense spending up to 4 percent
of GDP, something like that,but it didn't seem to take hold.
And they really are coming outstronger earlier now, it seems.
(11:03):
Yeah.
I mean, that's a great point.
And after, you know, after Trump leftoffice, some of the European leaders,
I remember the Albanian prime ministerpublicly stating that Trump was right.
And it was good that he waspushing the Europeans to do more.
I heard recently in, in a meetingat Washington, this is maybe three
weeks ago that Europeans at the nextNATO summit will be ready to hit
(11:24):
3%, which would be an improvement.
Yeah.
It's probably not, butpresident Trump wants.
But it's a forward movementand maybe they'll do more.
But some of our NATO allies are not,they're not carrying their weight.
Now they do a lot of other thingsthat were important to mention, and
they can be very good allies, but someare just not carrying their weight.
And the American people are, are not goingto carry the weight for them forever.
(11:46):
And I think that's kind of themessage from this administration.
Um, we want to be partners, butit's got to be equal partnership.
And then from the European perspective,I think that this administration
will have to accept that we don'tget the final say on everything.
If everybody's carrying theirweight, sometimes the Europeans
get to make the call, you know,the Turks get to make the call.
I always use Turkey as an example,because the Turks are doing a lot of
(12:07):
stuff, just look at Syria, you know,where they kind of engineered the
removal of Bashar al Assad, or tookadvantage of the opportunity to do
that, and they should, they should getthe, in my opinion, thumbs up for that.
Right?
They didn't have to do that, they did.
So some people don't like that inWashington, but I think we have to
come around to understanding that if weneed, we want to be partners, sometimes
(12:29):
other partners get the final say.
We'll link out to, um, Vance's speechhere in the description so people can
read the full, full notes to your point.
Um, can we talk prisonerswaps real quick, Glenn?
So we saw, uh, Fogle, the American,get traded, uh, looks like for
Alexander Vinnick, who's kind ofa Bitcoin cyber type character.
(12:55):
Um, they got traded a week or two ago.
There was, I think Rubio cameout and said that had nothing
to do with the war necessarily.
But how do you view that type of exchange?
How do you think listenersshould be thinking about?
Well, we had a number of exchangeduring the Biden administration.
Uh, it's good that Mr. Fogle is home.
God bless him and his family.
(13:15):
He was in custody for too long.
Uh, like other trades, they'revery controversial because, you
know, people will argue that,you know, we got a teacher back.
The Russians got a criminalcyber criminal who stole a lot
of money from a lot of people.
That was some of the criticismsof some of the Biden era trades.
Um, you know, you could look at itdifferent ways, but I think it was a sign
(13:39):
from the Russians that they're, you know,I think they want to have a dialogue.
Of course, they're going to want tocontrol the narrative of the dialogue, and
I, I hope this administration does not letthem do that because we should remind the
Russians we are in a position of strength.
Uh, the trade at the end of the dayI think is probably a good thing
'cause there's another American home.
(14:00):
But we also have to be concerned thatthis encourages the Russians to grab other
people or other countries to grab peopleto try and achieve political objectives.
So again, that goes back to the,the Biden er trades as well.
I just have to be very careful about that.
To that point, I think, uh, Putin invited,uh, Trump over for their mayday parade.
(14:22):
Later this year, if you werein the administration, how
would you advise on that?
I would personally suggest against it,uh, because I don't think Putin has earned
The right to have the American presidentcome to Russia to attend that celebration.
Uh, you know, I don't think thatit's something that is really
(14:44):
good for the United States orthe international community.
And I also don't think that the U. S.president should go to Russia first.
If there was any kind of meeting, I wouldmake the Russian president come to us.
Uh, but of course, you know,the administration and President
Trump may have their own views.
And, you know, I just hope thatPutin is not seen as being rewarded
for everything that he did.
(15:05):
He's cost a lot of death and damage ina country that that didn't deserve it.
There was no excuse for whatthe Russians have done here.
None.
And just to your point on like a positionof strength, and it would seem that that
wouldn't be the best approach there.
Um, how about North Koreans?
So we saw maybe two months backthat North Korea was sending
(15:28):
10 to 11, 000 troops over.
We saw them.
reported in, in some of the frontlineengagements not doing so well, then
they kind of went away to some degree.
Like there wasn't a lot said about them.
And then they've resurfaced withsome reports of them back on
the front lines, wearing Russianuniforms, carrying Russian IDs.
(15:49):
There's been discussion of Russian,um, injured Russian soldiers
being treated back in North Korea.
Uh, Russian orphans being in North Korea.
What do you make of that at this point,Glenn, with the North Korean answer?
Yeah.
So I don't think they're making a big,the big difference that maybe the Russians
were hoping they were going to make.
I, my understanding is that they are nottreated well by the Russian commanders.
(16:13):
They are not integratingwell into the Russian units.
The Russians seem to be desperate.
Uh, if I were Russian, I'd beembarrassed to have to turn to
North Korea for this kind of help.
The Ukrainians, my understandingis that the Russian advances are
slowing and that the Ukrainiansare still making some advances.
And of course, uh, the Ukrainians areadapting well, you know, they have their
(16:37):
challenges, especially manpower wise.
And of course it would be great if theSouth Koreans would do more to help.
Ukraine right now.
Uh, but again, if I were Russian,I'd really ask, like, why are we
having to turn to a country likeNorth Korea to fight a war for us?
That tells you something.
I think they've reported, at leastthe press has been reporting, they've,
(16:59):
they've lost at least a thousand,killed the North Koreans and maybe two
to three thousand more wounded out often to eleven thousand that are there.
Right.
Um, anything else RussiaUkraine related before?
Question on the agency itself.
No, I would just say, you know.
I keep telling people there's a lot oflike churn about statements that are
(17:23):
coming out from different people in theadministration and what I always tell
people is judge, judge the administrationby its actions, not by its words.
The words are portrayed in the media.
You need to be very careful aboutlistening to people's analysis
instead of what's being said.
And I'm telling that to the Ukrainiansbecause I'm still very, very hopeful
that this administration is going tostand by them and is going to be very
(17:46):
clear to Vladimir Putin that what Putinis doing is not acceptable and we're
not going to stand by and let it happen.
Uh, you know, I, I don't want a war withRussia, but I also don't think that we
should allow the Russians to bully theirneighbors or us or our European allies.
Could you see any chance Russia wouldactually go against a NATO ally?
(18:07):
It like, As you might be suggesting, sure.
I mean, there's always a danger thatRussia will attack a NATO country.
I think the Baltic states are themost vulnerable, most concerned,
maybe Poland, because they havelong histories with the Russians.
And some people say that if we backdown in Ukraine, that that will fuel
(18:28):
Putin's willingness to go further.
Uh, you could debate that point, but I,I don't even think we should test that.
Like, you know, we as Americansshould make sure that the Ukrainians
have what they need to defend theircountry, uh, because I do believe
that it is helping us in the long run.
The United States, for many reasons,I'll say this week, we had a meeting
(18:52):
with, uh, the mayor of, uh, Kiev,who was a world champion boxer.
And he was talking, youknow, he has a brother.
And when we left that meeting, Itold the, the, uh, the American
and the Australian I was blessed.
Uh, friends of mine that were withme, I said, okay, can you imagine
having to go to war with these guys?
God help us, right?
He's a giant, isn't he?
Yeah, you're a soldier, and I'mlike, if that guy was in the
(19:14):
other trench with his brother, Iwould not be And here's the thing.
Like, we don't want thoseguys going back East.
Right.
We need them on our side.
And I hope that the presidenthas teamed all that, like, they
are very, very capable people.
Um, and people areresponding positively to it.
They want more American involvement here.
Well, and thanks for the time.
I know you're running upagainst another meeting.
(19:35):
That's probably far moreimportant than this one.
I hope you stay safe.
Hope you stay safe.
Um, and can't wait to see youon, on the other side here.
Hey, can I just say one thing whileI'm talking to you, please put in
the Put it in the background here.
This is a picture of a wall I tookin one of the Ukrainian cities.
And, uh, you can see there's asoldier and his wife or his girlfriend
and it's written in Ukrainian.
(19:57):
I will wait for you.
I will wait for you, uh, forever.
Uh, I am here for you.
I will never forget you.
And I'm waiting for your return.
And for listeners, they shouldknow that there are about a
million Ukrainians on the front.
And a million, that means a millionfamilies or, you know, estimate
who are without their loved onesday in and day out and facing the
(20:19):
risk that they'll never come home.
And for those of us who were in positionslike that before, we know how taxing
that can be and how important it is tohave people at home that love you and
that you have something to live up toor live, you know, strive to survive.
Yeah.
And I hope the American people,your listeners, are sympathetic to
that because, uh, it's just terriblethat people have to be like this.
(20:42):
It'd be much better if theycould just be with their loved
ones and live their lives.
And, and the Ukrainian peopledid not start this war.
Well said.
Thanks, Glenn.
You stay safe.
We'll see you on this side.
Okay.
Ciao.
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