I'm John Batchel. I welcome mytime good colleague and associate at the Foundation for the

Defense of Democracy, Ivana Stradner, who helps me understand parts of the world that are very

difficult to reach into, and even then you need a lot of history. That's the Western Balkans.

We're going to start, however, in Moscow, because Ivana has posted a piece in London in the

Telegraph asking a very good question.

One of those questions you don't think you've missed because it's not happening. Why is Moscow so

subdued knowing that there's an air fleet gathered around Iran? There's a naval fleet gathered around the seas around Iran,

and that the President of the United States has made it very clear that Iran must concede.

Very clear.

There is lots of activity.

There are plans of evacuation in the event that Iran loses its arsenal.

There is talk of decap at the same time inside Iran.

There are tens of thousands said to be murdered.

We don't know because there's no transparency.

The Internet's down.

The phones are down.

Even Starlink is being blocked by somebody's military-powered buffer.

But what we do know is that the protests were not subdued unless extreme violence was used

and that the people of Iran are saying that is the end, no more.

But what about Moscow?

Ivana, a very good evening to you. You ask a very good question. There's no one answer, but my

understanding is Moscow had come to depend upon Iran for manufacturing drones for other high-end

...