This is Geopolitics and Empire.

Returning to the podcast,

has been a few years, is Gilbert Doctoro,

who is an independent political analyst based in Brussels.

He is a magna cum laude, graduate of Harvard

and holds a doctorate in Russian history from Colombia.

Welcome back, Gilbert.

Well, we're going to speak to you.

You know, I follow your updates, which I think many people should.

Your links are in the description, your substack, your website. And I had Paul Greg Roberts on the podcast

late last year. And we discussed you and your work as well because you have an independent mind

and you clash with your peers at times,

which I think is good. But maybe to start, I wanted to just get your thoughts, your sort of

assessment of the status of the Russia-Ukraine war, as you see it and as you read it,

because of course you read both in the English language and Russian language material.

Well, the war is progressing very slowly, remarkably slowly, although some of my colleagues

with peers have been predicting the collapse of the Ukrainian side week by week for the last three

years.

I don't, I don't disagree with their early expectations for a year, for two years.

I went along with that because I'm not a military expert.

And those who were projecting these wonderful expectations were military experts,

or they were CIA people who presumably had contacts with military experts

...