All right, Alexander, let's talk about what is going on in Ukraine.

And actually, let's start with Putin's second interview in about a week's time with his favorite

journalist, Zarubin. An interesting short interview where Putin said many, many interesting things, but many things

that he's been repeating for the past couple of months, and many things that he said last

week, he just kind of repeated them again during this short interview.

Anyway, what is your take on what Putin said? He talked

about Zelensky's legitimacy and he talked about negotiations. And he also put a legal spin

onto it, which I thought was interesting. Your thoughts? Well, of course, this is Vladimir Putin,

the lawyer. He's reminded us all recently of a point that we make many times on the Duran

that he is actually a trained lawyer. In fact, as I've said many times now, I believe that he's

not just a trained lawyer. I think he's the lawyer who's actually practiced lawyer, law, at some point.

I think at some stage in his career, in ways that have never been explained or disclosed,

he's actually done actual formal legal work because he thinks like a lawyer and talks like a lawyer

all the time in ways that you just don't do if you've merely studied it.

Now, briefly, my big take on these interviews that Putin has given with Zarabin is that, yes, he is prepared to talk. He's certainly prepared to talk with the American. But one

person that he's not keen to talk to at all is Vladimir Zelensky. And in fact, if you go through

the very carefully constructed legal arguments that he's come up with, he basically

says that you can't talk to Zelensky anyway, because there is no actual legal sense

in doing that. He says that Zelensky signed this decree on the 2nd of October 2022, which prohibits

Zelensky or anyone else from conducting negotiations with Russia, whilst President

Putin himself remains leader of Russia. Putin, of course, himself is not going anywhere.

Putin says that in order for talks to begin, that decree has to be rescinded.

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