The Current State of Russia I Anthony Scaramucci and Stephanie Baker

economically it is facing a very uncertain future long term it's politically imprisoned by a result of autocratic leadership which has gone on forever but particularly since 1917 Mr Trump has told many of us that the way to end the war with Ukraine is just give up the Ukrainian territory to the Russians it's complicated you and I both know this because the ukrainians gave up their nukes in exchange for peace and security guarantees from the west and so uh it's just an interesting thing and and and I tell my friends okay so let me get this straight Finland and Sweden they're bordering Russia 74 years they didn't join NATO on the 75th year they joined what does that tell you there's more people in those areas are worried about Vladimir Putin encroaching upon their land and besmer merching their sovereignty this is this is a guy that wants to stay in power and project Warfare it's an orwellian idea because it keeps him in power and it keeps the people through nationalism supporting him what am I missing am I wrong no I think you're right and I think that the the interesting thing about a possible Trump uh second term is how is he going to deal with Putin a second time around give him what he wants give him what he wants he's going to give him what he wants yep and give him what he wants it's I've looked at at the various people that are around Trump who are talking about a possible Ukraine solution i' actually be curious what you think because from my reporting there are people like Mike Pompeo who have come out very strongly in support of Ukraine and the defense of Ukraine but from what I understand Trump is not listening to people like Mike Pompeo no no no no Trump trump likes autocracy Trum Trump Praises authoritarianism we have 5.7 billion people living under authoritarianism and uh people don't want to believe me that's fine but I I know he he wants to be part of that access of autocracy so he would like to be a North American dictator he thinks it's a cleaner way of running things of course he knows better and his minions know better there's a gentleman by the name of Curtis yarvin y a RV I N I would suggest that you look him up he is a a philosopher political philosopher that believes that our democracy is messy and Obsolete and there should be a group of oligarchs and a monarchial figure running the country and so JD Vance is an acolyte of this man Peter teal and these are the guys that are now surrounding Donald Trump writing things like agenda 47 writing things like project 2025 uh and it's about being white Stephanie if you really want me to tell you we're white this is their messaging uh you mean black and brown people there going to be more of those people than the white people yes okay so that that means that black and brown people could actually run the country uh because of the way the demographics work yes okay well we don't want that we want white people to run the country so let's change the rules we no longer want the Democracy that's the message okay and and by the way because there's a Cassandra effect on this you tell people the truth and the truth is so startling they don't want to believe the truth okay but I would rather tell the truth because I've got five children and I love my country country has been very good to me I made a mistake supporting him because I didn't see all of this malevolence in the beginning I have to own that for the rest of my life but that's who he is and that's what he wants and that's why your book is so fascinating by the way because uh he's not a great reader but if he read your book he would steal items out of your book that Putin has done he would try to use them in the United States absolutely and I think it's dangerous that if he does what he says he wants to do which is and the war in 24 hours which is a ridiculous notion it's something he has not spelled out undoubtedly as part of that to induce Putin to agree to some sort of ceasefire would be lifting of the sanctions because Putin needs some breathing room right now he needs some space to re no give it to him because he's also a money man he figures you know he'll get a bribe ex get some money from Putin there'll be a Trump Tower in Moscow someday something like that or they'll they'll send money to a to buy bank account that he can benefit from and uh you know it's astonishing that we have a group of people that are responsible Americans that don't see it clearly okay so we're at the point in the podcast where uh me and my producer we come up with five words based on your book and so I'm going to read out the words and then I want you to think of what comes to mind when I say the word are you ready okay okay I say the word Russia you say what I say r culturally and uh with huge natural resources uh a a rich history um economically it is facing a very uncertain future long term it's politically imprisoned by a result of autocratic leadership which is gone on forever but particularly since 19170 I say the word economy what does it make you think of um which economy Russia or let's say the Russian economy let's say the Russian economy uh I think it's a facade I think yeah I think long term it's facing huge challenges H because it's isolated from Western technology okay and the world is moving away from hydrocarbons okay which is the lynchpin of the Russian economy okay yep the Middle East they're concerned about that as well I say the word War you say what I think that they're different types of War uh I think that we've seen sort of kinetic War play out in Ukraine uh with huge costs human costs uh I think you see economic war that is played out which is being tested in New Spears MH yeah uh and I think inevitable with war there are costs um and there's a price to pay all right let's go to sanctions I said the word sanctions makes you think what uh a limited tool but a powerful one if deployed uh correctly uh I think it's a uh the new I think it is the new form of warfare it is akin to cyber warfare now I think we're we're we're developing this as a sophisticated tool to attack other economies in ways that we never have imagined just a few years because have to reading your book I I I hear the word sanctions I think of uh crippling I think uh it is a weapon that the United States has that it can wield that no other country can wield uh and it's a and it's and it's something that Donald Trump by the way would redeploy okay he would he would he would redeploy it and he would turn it on the United States and the west and so anyway all right my last one seen you've seen Europe deploy sanctions in a way that we haven't seen before since 2022 using the euro in a similar way obviously with a lot more infighting and consensus hard it's harder and there's more of a black market it's you it's hard it's hard you go to you got to have access to the US dollar if you really want to trade in size I'm going to say the last word and give you the last word Putin I say the word Putin you say what um dictator murderer paranoid uh and obsessed with his legacy I think there there's this misguided belief that he's got some Swiss bank account is going to retire at some point and that's misunderstanding the way he runs Russia he runs Russia because he owns the country he doesn't need a Swiss bank account he has others holding assets on his behalf and the way he rules Russia is he can just tap anyone he wants for this or that that yacht this Palace whatever and that's why he's not going to go down quietly amen and that's why he kills his uh adversary