75 comments

  1. “The world is in more peril from those who tolerate evil or encourage evil than from those who actually commit it.” -Dr. Albert Einstein, 1954

    1. @Jack Martinelli “I will splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it into the wind.” –JFK

  2. But you are also saying that Russia is collapsing!! That means Western and Ukrainian strategy is working. It should be a walkover for Ukraine and the West. Yet you are lamenting the ineffectiveness of Western strategy. You can’t have it both ways!!!

    1. @Kamreng Mamai “rest 80% doesn’t support western view on Ukraine” I don’t know where you get that idea. I don’t recall they actually voted to support Russian’s invasion. If population is what that matters, India and China should lead the world, and they aren’t. Unless you have everyone in the world actually voted, don’t speak on behave of those people.

    2. HELP my pea sized brain cannot understand that many things can be happening simultaneously, only thing I can comprehend is who is “winning”

    3. Europe pays Russia BILLIONS to this day for oil and natural gas. Ruble at a near all time high value. 30% of Ukraine’s regions and territories are now Russian held. Ukraine is admitting it’s losing multiple towns, villages and cities in both the South and East daily. Their commanders are outright saying they are out-manned 5 to 1 in most areas in regards to infantry. And for every piece of armor they have, Russia has ten. And they are stating that every ONE shell they fire from an artillery piece, Russia fires ten from multiple pieces. And lets not even mention the air situation, where Russia has complete and total superiority. Less than 100 Ukrainian air assets left operational and Russian jets and helicopters perform strikes with near impunity from other aircraft. Kiev could only intercept 1 out of 5 cruise missiles fired from Russian jets some weeks ago. Ukrainian ground to air defense systems cannot handle Russia’s firepower, simply put. Now lets look to the waters, where the sea is filled with hundreds of Russian vessels. Once again, these boats can fire rounds straight into Kiev whenever they are told to do so, among many other locations. Ukraine is destined to lose. They may have infinite western supply, but they have finite manpower. Limited amounts of men. There is no UN/NATO/US infantry backup coming to save them, and they are suffering hundreds of casualties per day. In due time there will not be any Ukrainian military forces left to pick up and use any of these fancy imported weapons. Unfortunately for Zelenskky when he said ” We will fight to the last Ukrainian ” he didn’t understand Putin is willing to oblige him.

    1. @Garfields Place Democracy been on the line since 2016 and become worse in 2020 – let us not forget J6 when ppl where directly trying to take it out.

      Again, America needs to stay out of Ukraine – let them continue to fight their own war. We seen how it ends… aka Afghan and Pakistan. The terrorist still ruled at the end.. Waste of resources and our previous military lives.

    2. Europe pays Russia BILLIONS to this day for oil and natural gas. Ruble at a near all time high value. 30% of Ukraine’s regions and territories are now Russian held. Ukraine is admitting it’s losing multiple towns, villages and cities in both the South and East daily. Their commanders are outright saying they are out-manned 5 to 1 in most areas in regards to infantry. And for every piece of armor they have, Russia has ten. And they are stating that every ONE shell they fire from an artillery piece, Russia fires ten from multiple pieces. And lets not even mention the air situation, where Russia has complete and total superiority. Less than 100 Ukrainian air assets left operational and Russian jets and helicopters perform strikes with near impunity from other aircraft. Kiev could only intercept 1 out of 5 cruise missiles fired from Russian jets some weeks ago. Ukrainian ground to air defense systems cannot handle Russia’s firepower, simply put. Now lets look to the waters, where the sea is filled with hundreds of Russian vessels. Once again, these boats can fire rounds straight into Kiev whenever they are told to do so, among many other locations. Ukraine is destined to lose. They may have infinite western supply, but they have finite manpower. Limited amounts of men. There is no UN/NATO/US infantry backup coming to save them, and they are suffering hundreds of casualties per day. In due time there will not be any Ukrainian military forces left to pick up and use any of these fancy imported weapons. Unfortunately for Zelenskky when he said ” We will fight to the last Ukrainian ” he didn’t understand Putin is willing to oblige him.

  3. Nothing in this video telling us or teaching us what we dont know already. May be Fareed has some ideas of what to do instead of echoing what does not work

    1. Perhaps since you know it all and assume we do too, you might want to take a look at that. Just saying

    2. if you listened, what he said was that sanctions aren’t working so they should be dialed back and put more support on the military side where Putin is faltering.

    3. @Larry Steinke He is drawing the wrong conclusion there and also the wrong solution.
      Sanctions take time to ultimately work and countries have been stocking up on oil and gas for the coming winter. In the mean time alternatives are being worked on in high speed. Next year will show a vastly reduced import and mainly to those countries that have “better” ties with Russia, like Hungary. It’s unlikely that Russia will punish them. Russia might have earned more from gas and oil this year, but if they can’t spend it, it’s just a mountain of money.
      Russian consumers are buying less and less. Shopping malls are nearly empty and stores that are still open have no customers. They are keeping up a facade, but that can only last so long until they lack the funds. People are switching back to “Soviet” mode, wich means that corruption will rise even more than it is already.
      How much we would like the war to be over at the end of the year, I don’t think that’s going to happen, even with more support on the military side. There’s too much at stake for Putin, that hasn’t been covered in the media.

  4. I play thought experiments like this on a daily basis. I’m thinking it’s a good thing neither Fareed nor I have to make any decisions.

    1. Thats a lie …the storage capacity across Europe is NOW at 55% and one NEW line from Adzerbaidjan and one new gas field in Romania is OPENED already . In one month they will pump gas into Europe. Europe’s storage needs to be at 85% at the start of the winter to make it

    2. This is such A TIMELY pushed article RIGHT IN FRONT of an ongoing ready to be SOLVED problem… IT scares me so much cynisism coming from the ones that should be IMPARTIAL

  5. Fighting for capitalism or communism should be a thing of the past and the war is senseless. People want prosperity and both ideologies have reached their peak. Communism breeds economic stagnation while capitalism breeds riches amongst poverty. China and Russia realised that and changed, US and it’s allies should also change. Economics will tell with time.

    1. Thats a lie …the storage capacity across Europe is NOW at 55% and one NEW line from Adzerbaidjan and one new gas field in Romania is OPENED already . In one month they will pump gas into Europe. Europe’s storage needs to be at 85% at the start of the winter to make it

    2. @peter Silas The average GDP may be higher, but the median is not. A huge portion of the wealth and income goes to a very very few. Talk to any old Russian about the best time, economically, that they lived in. The will all tell you the early 70s through the early 80s, when international inflation was raging. This was a great time, and a time of economic power for Russia/USSR, as they are primarily a resource extraction economy. In fact, the collapse of inflation from the mid 1980s onward is the real reason Russia lost the power to control and administer the USSR. This is why it broke apart.

      Also, you fundamentally do not understand how corruption is different in the current Authoritarian regime vs either a Western democratic regime, or even the prior communist regime.

      In the current Russian regime, corruption is actually a means to apply power. Russia is primarily a natural resources extraction economy, as noted. They are too dysfunctional to be a mfg or service power. Basically Russia digs stuff up out of the ground, and sells it. Much like other dysfunctional Authoritarian nations.

      In Russia, Putin has absolute control over the state apparatus. That means he can control WHO gets to extract and sell resources. THIS is where Putin’s power really comes from. It is basically a criminal enterprise. In exchange for support and allegiance, Putin grants economic power via resource extraction licensing. Licensees then have to share a substantial portion of those cash flows with Putin. Finally, this corrupt arrangement gives Putin power over those he works with, because at any time he can simply expose the corruption, send them to jail and rescind their licenses.

      So this entire system of corruption is actually a means to apply and maintain power. This is why 20-25% of the Russian economy is lost to corruption (vs fractions of a percentage in the West). Unlike the West, or even the former Communist system, corruption is not an unwanted “side effect”, it is actually a necessary characteristic which is needed to apply state power. You literally can not get rid of corruption in an Authoritarian resource extraction dominated nation. It is an inherent feature.

    3. This is such A TIMELY pushed article RIGHT IN FRONT of an ongoing ready to be SOLVED problem… IT scares me so much cynisism coming from the ones that should be IMPARTIAL

    4. @Eileen MC Connell true that is why stick of butter is kept in plastic ant theft locker for Gillete razors and cost around 12 bucks

  6. Then it sounds like it’s time for electric cars and RF electricity. Ya know technology that was demonstrated at the worlds fair in Chicago at the beginning of the 20th century.
    But no we cant have that. Because the oligarchy cant figure out how to put a meter on that.
    But once they do figure that out. Yeah pretty much it will happen over night.
    I am a drag racing fan. While I was at the track one day. These collage kids demonstrated a solar powered go cart.
    That solar powered go cart crossed the 1/4 mile finish line at 112 mph. With no noise.
    Faster than a lot of the gas powered performance built cars were crossing that line.
    That was 15 years ago. Cars that could run on that technology. Aren’t difficult to build. We have the technology available and it can be refined to work evan better.
    But again no way to put a meter on the sun. Cant have it. The oligarchy cant be in our wallet’s two times a week if that happens.
    The Mars rovers have been roaming around checking out the surface of Mars for several years now. It’s technology works on electricity. Now you would think the batteries would have gone dead by now. But the engineers were prepared for that. They employed hydrogen conversion technology.
    When you convert water into hydrogen you make electricity. When you convert hydrogen into water you make electricity
    So you create a closed loop cycle
    Doing both you make a continuous supply of low voltage electricity. That can be used to maintain a good charge in a battery.
    Can’t have it.
    Can anybody guess why? 🤑

    1. Where I live, in the Netherlands, we were at 1 in 12 cars on electricity. Last year the amount of electric cars rose by 38%, so since we’re half way in the year it would be more like 1 in 9 or 8. And in the next couple of years electric cars will be in the far majority. In 2029 you can only buy electric cars. Things are going fast here. And who knows what the high gas prices will do to speed things up even more.
      It’s the same with solar panels. The electricity grid can’t cope anymore, because when you have a surplus on energy you can sell it to the electricity company. Some people even make a profit out of it.
      This is only going to increase in the coming years.
      I think you need to talk with your representative and hold him to account. That’s my guess.

    2. @alu > Ohhh excellent information.
      I wasn’t aware of that. I crave more.
      If I were pressed on that subject I would be discovered as totally ignorant of it. But eager.
      🤓

    1. The US just finished losing a 20 years war in Afghanistan to the Taliban in sandals with Russian made AK47s, and they are ready to take on the Russians in Ukraine lol.

    1. US arms dealer and Arms dealer backed politicians are happy with the $$$$ from the misery of Ukraine (^_^)

    2. @Sarah Brown I would not go as far as saying western leaders do not care for their cities being destroyed. But they do not care that much for the general public. The driving force for NATO expansion was the cynical greed of US arms firms like Lockheed, who lobbied with US politicians to make it a policy in 1997. The US made it NATO expansion their policy and expanded 5 times eastward against the advice of Russian experts in the west and against Russia’s protests. Finally, they tried to induct Ukraine, and came up with a Russia that punched them in the face. The west is not in a position to fight a military war against Russia. However, they felt they could launch economic warfare because they controlled financial institutions. They did not factor that Russia could retaliate with economic warfare that affects the ordinary citizens of Europe. Now that has happened, the western leaders do not have the possibility to climb down from their declared objective to defeat Russia. They are caught in a dilemma : if the western leaders climb down, their public would say they are weak and say they got defeated; but if they continue fighting with Russia, the western public will face job losses and rising prices.

  7. Germany’s energy policy has been truly shameful and backward. They had knee jerk reaction to Fukishima by instantly deciding to phase out nuclear (without even a review) but then did not even attempt to upscale renewables significantly but instead just fell back on the old burning more fossil fuel reliance. Which unfortunately meant critical reliance on Russia. All this from a country that (in some respects correctly) prides itself on its technological and engineering prowess. Come on Germany – use that know how and your economic might to engineer yourself out of this situation – rapidly !

    1. @bbbf09 Germany is waking up to the situation in high tempo. Now that it’s likely that Nord Stream 1 will be put on hold by the Russians, things are changing rapidly. They’ve filled up their reserves as much as possible for the coming winter and are installing LNG terminals. They also have a contingency plan in place to tackle the situation might it get worse. Maybe a couple of large factories wil have to shut down for a periode if things become difficult. And if push comes to shove the Netherlands will probably help them out. We have already secured our basic supplies and are in negotiations for a bit extra to be sure.
      It’s a bit of a shock therapy year, but I think it will turn our right and in the end Europe will benefit from the rapid changes that are needed as well as the environment. It had to happen anyway, this will only speed things up.

    2. Actually, electricity generation in Germany is ~50% renewables already. That’s why there is no electricity shortage, but a gas shortage. Nuclears don’t help in gas shortages, as they don’t generate gas.

    3. @Traumflug for home heating you can switch to electric and then nuclear would warm your house indirectly.

    4. bbbf09 what sort of renewables would they able to use in Europe,here at home we have solar cause it’s hot over here and wind farms,solar would be useless in Europe cause of the cold winters but i suppose wind farms on the ocean i suppose,they’re dam loud though

  8. Great analysis on a complicated situation…the Russian people are use to hardship and hard times…the West on the other hand is devastated when there’s no internet connection, high gas , long wait times at the airport and the local Walmart is out of stock….😪😪😪

    1. Yes. That would be me. I’m a fragile flower. I’m devastated when the line is forming at Starbucks in the morning. 😒

  9. Wow – this is a first. I keep hearing Ukraine is winning and Russia is losing. Then I hear how we are crushing Russias economy. When I look at the front line it moves slowly 10 to 20 miles west each week. I also keep seeing the US, UK, Canada, Australia and the EU posting dismal economic metrics. Crazy but I see this acknowledgement my Farred being a first.

    1. @JT Chancellor Scholz will go nowhere, much less this week. His government works reasonably well and is perfectly stable.

    2. @Donetsk People’s Republic I guess you mean Russian General’s then. Russian General Kadyrov claimed Severodonetsk fell June 2 but it didn’t fall until June 24-26. Try again comrade, you aren’t good at this propaganda thing. Also, maybe don’t talk trash like this about Russian generals, you know, for your own safety.

    3. Try to also check the interview with Prof. Jeffrey Sachs. He is a professor at Columbian Univ., an American who was advisor to M. Gorbachev & B. Yeltsin.

  10. Best thing for West is to back down for the moment, it’s their conflict to resolve. I didn’t see West jumping to aid young Christian Democracy like Armenia being butchered by Islamic republic of Azerbaijan aided by Turkey.

  11. Its amazing how far removed from reality “respected” western analysts like Fareed Zakaria are. They make remarks, models and hypothesis that have no basis in reality and yet they still have jobs.

  12. I’ve said this a few times in various comments sections that it seems the West’s attention span is waning for the Ukrainian war. When the war first broke out there were umpteen military analysts giving us coverage of the war, where is the analysis now? I get it, the world condition sucks and we all are weary but we need to see these guys through. There are many grave implications for world wide democracies if Ukraine loses this war. Fareed is keeping his eyeballs on the situation and for that I am very grateful.

    1. 30% of Ukraine’s regions and territories are now Russian held. Ukraine is admitting it’s losing multiple towns, villages and cities in both the South and East daily. Their commanders are outright saying they are out-manned 5 to 1 in most areas in regards to infantry. And for every piece of armor they have, Russia has ten. And they are stating that every ONE shell they fire from an artillery piece, Russia fires ten from multiple pieces. And lets not even mention the air situation, where Russia has complete and total superiority. Less than 100 Ukrainian air assets left operational and Russian jets and helicopters perform strikes with near impunity from other aircraft. Kiev could only intercept 1 out of 5 cruise missiles fired from Russian jets some weeks ago. Ukrainian ground to air defense systems cannot handle Russia’s firepower, simply put. Now lets look to the waters, where the sea is filled with hundreds of Russian vessels. Once again, these boats can fire rounds straight into Kiev whenever they are told to do so, among many other locations. Ukraine is destined to lose. They may have infinite western supply, but they have finite manpower. Limited amounts of men. There is no UN/NATO/US infantry backup coming to save them, and they are suffering hundreds of casualties per day. In due time there will not be any Ukrainian military forces left to pick up and use any of these fancy imported weapons. Unfortunately for Zelenskky when he said ” We will fight to the last Ukrainian ” he didn’t understand Putin is willing to oblige him.

    1. The most comprehensive “We are failing but we are winning” analysis. Talks through both ends of his mouth.

  13. Thank Fareed’s analysis! you are absolutely rught! I totally agree with you. Even if I am an ordinary person, I can see this dire situation. But as to the leaders of Western Countries, they are so intelligent! Why couldn’t they realize this forthcoming failure of current policies?

    1. Because they’re incompetent and ideologically possessed. Most independent analysts saw this coming from the very get-go.

  14. Holy crap how have I not learned this from you already CNN? Thanks Fareed for talking about something other than Covid or January 6th, You just picked up a new viewer.

  15. Talking from Germany here, this take points out a number of good observations.

    However, it’s also missing a few. One point is, there is no electricity shortage here, it’s a gas shortage. Gas is used some 70% for industry processes and home heating. Nuclear plants can’t replace this, they can generate only electricity.

    Close to this, continueing with these three nuclear power plants is no option technically. These plants ran for the last few years with the firm assumption they’ll be switched off 12/31/2022. Uranium fuel is exhausted, safety checks were skipped, employees expect retirement already. Turning them back on couldn’t be done before 2024, cost billions, and that’s optimistic.

    The other thing is, getting Russian gas is simply no longer an option. How should this work? Lowering sanctions a bit? Kneeling in front of him, begging for gas? Putin would just laugh. Actually, Putin reduced deliveries arbitrarily already and there’s no lever to do something against it. Drilling for new gas sources would take far too long, five years at least. Gas prices are Putins weapon, he intentionally uses it, and he knows how to use it.

    Not everything is doomed, though. The way out of this crisis is to build more renewables. Every wind turbine, every solar panel, every heat pump for house heating reduces dependency on fossil fuels. Before too long we’ll replace or remove the need for what’s missing. 14% reduction in gas consumption achieved since February already. Another 15% and we’re independent from Russia. Then Putins energy price weapon will melt like butter in the sun and never come back. Never.

    Needless to say, going renewable is needed for the climate as well. We’d have to do it anyways, so better do it now.

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