WTH: Russia is Weaker Than Most Believe. George Barros Explains
What the Hell Is Going On
AEI Podcasts
4.4 • 633 Ratings
🗓️ 16 January 2025
⏱️ 55 minutes
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Summary
Many who follow Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have come to the same conclusion: Russia can defeat Ukraine with its “incredible” strength. However, Russia is much weaker than even many in the American media let on. The Russian military is bleeding troops for minor gains on the battlefield, running out of men to fight, and has so little equipment it’s turning to movie studios to recoup donated Soviet military equipment from the 1950s. How long can Putin continue his illegal war on Ukraine? How can Trump leverage Russia’s weakness to bring Putin to the negotiating table?
George Barros is the Russia Team & Geospatial Intelligence Team Lead on the Russia and Ukraine portfolio at the Institute for the Study of War. George’s work focuses on open-source research and geospatial analysis of Russia’s war in Ukraine, Russian information operations, and Ukrainian politics. Prior to joining ISW, he worked in the U.S. House of Representatives as an advisor on Ukraine and Russia for a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This podcast is brought to you by the American Enterprise Institute. |
| 0:03.0 | If you like what you hear, please subscribe, rate, review, and share. Thanks for listening. Here's our show. What the hell's going on? What the hell is going on? What the hell is going on? I don't know what the hell he's talking about. You don't have to know what the hell is on it. What hell's the matter with these guys? We don't know what's going on. What hell's going on? |
| 0:01.1 | Who in God's name |
| 0:21.7 | knows what it's all about. Hi, I'm Daniel Pletka. And I'm Mark Tieson. Welcome to our podcast. What the |
| 0:34.1 | hell is going on? Mark, what the hell is going on now? Well, we are days away from the Trump |
| 0:39.3 | administration taking office, and Donald Trump is one of his first things that he's going to focus on |
| 0:44.5 | after he signs a bunch of executive orders on the border and repealing Biden's drilling bans, |
| 0:51.2 | and all the rest of it is he's going to swing into action to try and negotiate an end to the |
| 0:56.7 | war in Ukraine. I wanted to do this podcast and bring George Barros from the Institute for the |
| 1:01.3 | Study of War on because George had a really interesting briefing that we both attended recently, |
| 1:05.6 | where he laid out the fact that Putin's in a lot of trouble in Ukraine. There's this perception |
| 1:09.8 | out there that Putin is strong, |
| 1:12.1 | Ukraine is weak, Putin is gaining, Ukraine is in trouble. Putin can do this forever. This is the |
| 1:17.8 | country that defeated Napoleon and defeated Hitler, and that they have the long-term advantage. |
| 1:23.6 | And what I think it's important for Trump to know is that he actually has a lot of leverage with Vladimir Putin. |
| 1:29.8 | Vladimir Putin is actually in a pretty weak situation. He's been trying to make gains on the ground in Ukraine and hasn't been able to do. |
| 1:36.2 | He's made marginal gains, tactical gains, taking, he hasn't taken any major cities. He's been able to take some small villages and small areas, |
| 1:44.3 | but at an enormous cost in casualties. And there was a story in the Wall Street Journal |
| 1:49.6 | the other day. And I just want to read the beginning of it because I think it's really fascinating. |
| 1:55.0 | It's Russia Taps, Soviet-era stockpiles, as armored vehicle supplies dwindle. And this is the lead. |
| 2:01.6 | When the director of Russia's largest film studio met President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin last month, |
| 2:06.6 | he made sure to highlight how he had supported the war effort by handing over dozens of tanks and armored vehicles dating back to the 1950s. |
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