Transcription
This morning, Putin woke up to one of the worst phone calls of his entire life. One of his best friends is dead, the Ayatollah. This just weeks after a phone call that Maduro has been captured by the United States. This just a year after another one of his best friends asked for an airlift because his country was being captured. Putin is probably going to stop answering his phone at some point in the future.
But really, this is an absolute massive turning point to Russia. It looks horrendous for Russia because it poses a question. What does a friendship with Russia actually look like? If you're drowning, if you need help, if you need ammo, nothing arrives. And the ammo doesn't arrive because Russia doesn't have it. Russia doesn't have spare stock piles because they're using what they have here in Ukraine every single night. And their supply chains are absolutely destroyed. They're destroyed through corruption, through sanctions, and through a lack of labor. So, they can't make the weapons that they want to send to their friends. And they can barely renew the weapons that they're using in this country. And this puts Russia in an incredibly precarious position on the world stage.
And again, Russia basically positions itself as a great protection power, a big umbrella. If you come under my umbrella, all these different countries, then you'll get some sort of guarantees. You'll be safe. You'll be protected forever. And all of these countries are watching every single one of Russia's friends fall apart right in front of them. But again, don't take my word for this. Turn on Russian state TV. Use a VPN if you have to and you will see Russian anchors losing their mind using words like apocalypse, using words like humanitarian crisis, and using words like illegal aggression, which is probably the most ironic thing that has ever happened on this earth.
But again, the world is watching very closely what's happening right now. They're watching the fact that Russia tried to take this country, this capital, in 3 days, and they're still fighting in the trenches 3 years later. And at the exact same time, they're watching the United States swoop in overnight and take Maduro. Swoop in overnight and kill the Ayatollah while Russia couldn't do a [ __ ] thing to Zalinski. But again, the whole mantra that Russia puts out that our friends are safe with us is basically out the window. It's gone at this point.
But now, let's talk about what happens if Iran actually falls because it's actually pretty likely. The first thing that's going to happen is Russia is going to lose about $4.8 billion dollars a year worth of trade with Iran. That is more than Turkey and Turkey is one of the biggest buyers of Russian gas. So this could be a significant financial hit for the Kremlin. The second is military and intelligence sharing. Shahed drones that have plagued the skies of this country are called Shahed drones because they are made and designed in Iranian. Well, now they're made in Russia, but they were made in Iran. And that's just one of many, many weapons that Russia and Iran shared together. They shared air defense systems. They shared ammo. They shared a whole lot of stuff. They also shared intelligence. And finally, it gives Russia loss of direct access to the Gulf. This would be significant. Russia through Iran still pushes power through the strait. And this is one of the most significant shipping routes in the world. Russia still has some influence over it. Again, through the Iranian government. They would lose that overnight. So again, it's going to be trade, it's going to be military, intelligence, and physical geographical access. This is devastating for Russia. And then they lose influence in the Middle East. They lost Syria. That was access to the last warm sea port in the Mediterranean, Tartis. If they lose this, it's basically game over for using the Middle East as a chessboard. So yeah, if they lose Iran, this is going to be catastrophic for Russia.
But I want to talk about it what it means for this country, for Ukraine. And I've been asking Ukrainians constantly in the last few days how they feel about this entire situation. And the only word that has been repeated over and over again is cathartic. People here feel like Iran has been just as much at war with this country as Russia. And in some ways it has. And watching the leader be decapitated overnight is a good thing for Ukrainians. People love to see it on TV. And they don't care who did it. They don't care about Trump's intentions. They don't care about Netanyahu's intentions. They don't care who did it. They just care that he's gone because to Ukrainians, he's basically just another Putin. So yeah, again, here in Ukraine, it's cathartic. The mood is actually pretty great. I'm going to pan around this camera a bit later. People are taking selfies. People are in love. That's usually how Ukrainians are, but it feels just a little bit extra special this evening. And I think it's because of what's happened in Iran.
But yeah, I've talked a lot about what happens if Iran actually falls, but I want to talk about the likelihood of if that actually happens. And really, Iran made a grave mistake, and that was to strike the Gulf States and Saudi Arabia. And I've got a friend in the Middle East who actually I was sitting with a couple of weeks ago who decided to fill me in and tell me all the details about Middle Eastern internal disputes. And it's absolutely fascinating. It seems like the UAE and Saudi Arabia weren't really getting on a lot recently. They were arguing because of who was funding who and which rebel group. But because Iran stried both, they both basically come together in their hatred for one enemy, and that is Iran. So Iran's gone from having two direct strike enemies to four, now the Gulf and Saudi Arabia. And again, they did it in the most dramatic way possible, directly hitting the trunk of the Palm JRA, the Burj Khalifa. I literally couldn't believe my eyes. I had to watch the footage five or six times. This is a place I've been like 10 times through layovers. And I never thought in my entire life I would see a city like Dubai, that's, you know, the New York of the Middle East, get directly hit in such a brazen way. The airport has just been hit now as well. And to be so brazen and so dramatic and do the same thing in Doha and Bahrain in the way they did it has basically probably united that entire region in their hatred of Iran and what's left of the government has got a lot more enemies in the last 24 hours. So yeah, I think Iran is definitely going to fall in the next few days and only good things can come from that. And speaking of that, it means freedom for the Iranian people. And that's actually what all of this should be about.
I've been speaking to Iranian human rights activists over the phone in Iran, quite worried to be on camera, but they've been telling me they've been living under brutal dictatorship, and they have been waiting for this moment for their entire lives. There are videos of Iranians dancing in the streets with flames behind them, celebrating the death of the Ayatollah. And now they're just waiting for the end of that government and the end of that regime so they can finally live out their lives in freedom. And I know exactly what that would look like because days after Assad, fled to Damascus. I landed in Damascus. I went across a burntout checkpoint and just got a tuk tuk and and and went straight in and was there all the way till New Year's Eve. And I watched young people spray fireworks into the sky and scream and shout and just celebrate life and freedom for the first time in their lives. And it was absolutely incredible. And I asked some of the free Syrians what they thought of Ukraine and they said that Ukraine deserved exactly the same future. Freedom. Freedom from a horrid neighbor. And of course Syrian had a horrid neighbor too that was funding and fueling that war. So again, this should really be about the Iranian people and their future and their freedom. And hopefully that is what they're going to get soon.
So, thank you so much for watching this video. I've just arrived back here in beautiful Ukraine. So glad to be home. I was away for about a week to recoup after a very intense trip to Hersan. went to an incredibly dangerous area and saw some pretty heavy stuff which I will be putting together in a very dramatic documentary in the next couple of days. So, if you want to see that film, it's going to be a hard watch, but it's important to see what everyday people in her son have to live through, then I would suggest hitting subscribe to this channel so you can definitely see it. Maybe clicking the bell. Again, if you want more people to see this video or see this video, then comment, hit subscribe, and it really helps the algorithm. It really helps grow my channel, and it just helps everything generally spread the love. So, again, thank you so much for watching this, and again, it's great to be back in beautiful, beautiful Ukraine, and I will see you next time. Thanks again.