All right, Alexander. Let's talk about the isolation of Russian president Vladimir Putin, his trip to the UAE, his trip to Saudi Arabia, Iranian president in Moscow. And to cap it all off, we have the VTB Bank conference. I forgot the name of the event. I think the common good conference or something like that, where Putin talked about a Russian economy that is in absolute tatters. Let's talk about all of this.

Well, indeed, let's let us indeed, because, I mean, let's start with the trip to the Middle East, well, to the Arab Peninsula, first of all.

And the first thing to say is that the Arab states, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, which he visited, in a few weeks' time, are going to be formally joining the Bricks.

So this is, he's going to two Bricks, what will soon be, two Bricks member states.

And he went there, escorted by his Suhoi 35 fighter jets, with an incredibly strong delegation.

So Lavrov, of course, the foreign minister was there.

His chief economic advisor Oreshkin was there.

His chief foreign policy advisor, Uschukov, was there also.

But also, along with those,

Kadyerov, the head of the Chechen government, was there.

And it was interesting because you don't usually see Kadirov joining Putin on foreign trips.

And that does make me wonder

whether Kadyrov has not had a very substantial diplomatic role.

It was clear to me that MBS and Kadirov know each other.

You saw the meeting and you could see that they were, the chemistry between the two.

And the fact that they were each pleased to see the other suggests to me that Kadirov has quietly been filling a diplomatic role for the Russians in the Middle East for a long time as well.

Anyway, he was there. So were all kinds of, you know, the industry ministers, the head of the investment fund, and central bank chair Nubulina was there as well.

Now, we'll come to her in a moment because I think that is really the clue to what this was

principally about. But the other thing to say is that these two Arab states, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, just pulled out the stops.

And they were working together clearly.

And one could get the sense that this whole trip was incredibly carefully choreographed.

So Putin arrives in the UAE in Abu Dhabi.

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