and it remains an open question whether they will vote on it or not, eh, no one really knows, if we talk about the consideration of the merits and the amendments, which they are dancing around now, in particular in the senate, i did not understand you, but to paraphrase: we understand that what happened in the senate is essentially a vote to put on the agenda, so we're going to start talking about it. on the other hand, the consideration of the merits should begin, it will actually be a struggle for the important points for the congress, which should be taken into account during this vote, which points are now most important to different groups, including republicans and democrats? well, among the democrats and for a certain part of the republicans, they actually really support ukraine, they understand that this is not a matter of... goodwill, that this is

a strategically, geopolitically important issue and that america, as a country that still takes a leading place in the international arena, to support ukraine, because supporting ukraine is tantamount to supporting democracy, a certain balance on the world stage, and so on, they understand this, and they are ready in this way and not so ready at all, but they want to support ukraine, the problem with those representatives, with those congressmen in the house of representatives, they are largely from the south and the west, the midwest, so for them ukraine, russia are everything is far, for their voters it is even further, many of them have never been abroad, so they are not very oriented to such international affairs, it has always been like that and now it continues to be like that, the second problem is that there is trump, you see , he will give... he clearly said what he thinks

is not favorable to ukraine, well, there are certain hesitations, but mainly this is his message, they are all representatives, to a certain extent also senators, and mostly representatives, they are afraid of him, they are afraid that he will become the president, they are afraid that if they do not vote like this, as he weighs, then he can pay back in one way or another, and this is very possible , so there is also this factor, and... finally, we must remember that in the house of representatives, they are elected for a term of two years, this it means that a person has barely become a representative and is already thinking about the next elections, this leads to the fact that the representatives are generally republican, in particular, they are inclined to populism, which means that they are ready to do everything that will give them a win, a victory in the next elections, and since their voters, well, those people in the west and in the south, not so much...

if ukraine or russia is important, they usually offer populist policies that seem to support america, mainly harming american interests, not to mention ukrainian ones. well, in principle, there is another question that may be unclear, i think in ukraine. for six months, they discussed the issue of this compromise, migration legislation in exchange for aid to ukraine, israel. you have reached an impasse with the migration law. although in reality they reached significant compromises, they refused to vote on this draft law, ostensibly so as not to resolve the issue of aid to ukraine, now they do not want to vote on migration legislation, but are ready to discuss aid to ukraine, this is all happening in one senate, how can this be? well that's a good question, but you see biden thought that if the issue of migration was connected with the issue of ukraine, then he would agree.

must be a kind of, well, cheats , so to speak, but will force the republicans to vote for ukraine, because they will want some solution to the migration issue, they used it, however, as a kind of blackmail against him, so we are not ready to support ukraine, if you not ready to make radical concessions on this issue, and then the situation remained such a stalemate, now the white house finally thought, well, why should we do ... both in the same package, we will offer support for ukraine and israel, and then we will discuss it separately, this is another issue. in principle, this is logical, in principle, the republicans should agree to something like this, but again, it is in their interest to create a kind of chaos, in the political system, and it is also in the interest of trump himself, he does not want any ... connections painful issues,

because it will then benefit biden, and not trump, trump and the radical, and the radical republicans, so it is not clear what will happen now, in principle, they. should not agree, but they have such a logic, which not entirely clear, and it's not entirely out of the question that they'll vote against support and then against this border relief package because they'd like to then, they're then given the opportunity to put all the blame on biden and thus win in november if possible at the elections. yes, but now they are trying to lay straws allegedly in the white house, at least this is reported by the new york times, with reference to representatives of the administration of the president of the united states, they say that they are trying to consider alternative options there, that is, how can

to support ukraine, if, respectively, the senate and the congress do not reach agreement on this package for ukraine, israel and taiwan. we have already discussed one of the options... the prospects of confiscating russian assets in our favor, actually handing them over to us, on the other hand, it is allegedly the purchase with the money of the european union of those weapons that will be manufactured in the neighboring states and then transferred to ukraine. with that in mind, how do you see german chancellor olaf scholz's visit to the united states and the main highlights his meetings with joseph biden, well... you understand, taking into account what you said, the visit of scholz, well, this is a shocking moment in the foreign policy of the federal republic of germany. imagine that the german chancellor came to america, and in america offered further

support for ukraine, further arming of germany, europe, america with cooperation against russia, then what, well, it would be impossible to imagine where. 15-20 years ago, here the german chancellor turns out to be the defender of ukraine. he came, of course, to under, to confirm i don't know if this will affect it, but it is not excluded, because after all, not only scholz, other state leaders have already spoken out in favor of helping ukraine, the rope is with the help of the white house , the pentagon, the state department, well, a large part of intellectuals and analysts, so the more the house of representatives becomes isolated, and it is possible that scholz and his visas will help in this, in this direction,

but it is the fact that, yes, by and large europeans should convince the americans that they... should help ukraine, let's remember the year 2022, and well, yes, well, it's just such an irony of history, it's one of the positives of this and that crisis, which is present now in the house of representatives, that it's forcing europeans to finally take their own security very seriously, and the first one, as trump as president, he basically taught them that you can't completely rely on the americans, and this discussion i think... i hope has convinced them that even in the best the case when the president and pro-europe, and pro-ukraine, we still need to take up our own self-defense, this is good, it is good for europe, it is good for america, and in the end also for ukraine, well, unfortunately, it is

positive in the long-term sense, ukraine needs weapons tomorrow, and not in 10 or 15 years, but at least something is happening... positive momentum . ugh. and tell me, mr. oleksandr, how did the united states get interested in this interview that tucker carlson took with putin, because for russians and ukrainians this is such a topic number one. everyone in russia is discussing it, in ukraine it is being discussed, but this is an interview that was not on any leading tv channels, well, they watch it on twitter, a large number of people on the former twitter, well, again, we do not know if they watch it just watching, that's it too, we know what social networks are, it's not a tv screen. watched it turned it on, turned it off and forgot how important it is in general from a political point of view, well, in principle, it showed again that putin has not changed at all, has not changed his songwriting, so to speak, he he says and sings the same thing, which he has been saying

, by the way, for 25 years, but at least in the last two years, this is one thing, and secondly, it appeared that takar karoson is basically a jerk who was not prepared for this interview. and at the same time, putin proved that he is a boring man who cannot answer a very simple question, unless it takes 30 minutes, well, he laughed like that too, did you see that? he somehow couldn't hold back he tezhmikhovy like that, but you understand, for an ordinary american an interview with putin, in which he talks about the founding of novgorod in 862 or something to that effect, and they talk about it for two hours, two hours, at that moment not a single person was in manhattan, although it is hard to believe, yes, well, i'm sure that none of the americans would listen and look, well there for five... minutes, then i heard about the polish-lithuanian principality and excluded it, because

it's just idiocy, the only ones who listened were people like me or you, commentators, analysts, others, it's ours, it's our professional , a psychotherapist, putinsky listened, i don’t know if putinsky, but it seems to me that for the community, well, this kind of professionals should to be interesting, well tell me, mr. oleksandr, okay, we omit the rurik, but americans who hear the facts... from the mouth of the russian president, the justification of the nazi leader hitler, who was forced to attack poland, because she did not want to give up some of her territories voluntarily , played around, i assume that the average american may not quite understand the historical intricacies of our continent there, well, but the obvious things, where evil must be called evil, and good must be good, and they also resonate, or is it somehow played? well, to a certain extent i , well, as you know, the poles reacted, but i read several

blogs there, several discussions on the internet, where people pay attention to this very thing, so it fell on everyone's lips, i, by the way , even today he wrote an article and the first two paragraphs are devoted to this topic, and of course not only that he justifies hitler, he actually identifies himself with hitler, because in fact the logic, the logic that he adapts to... this is the the very logic to which he adapts to ukraine, so what it turns out that putin really is a putler, he , by the way, admitted it himself, i think that experts, analysts and so on, they saw it, understood it, they laughed at the same time, because he just made such nonsense that he better, worse, and it's hard to imagine, but as they said , for ordinary americans, you know what danzik, gdansk is like, well, it could be... already about mars chinus, they still understood better, and do you think that this is an interview at all it was necessary

for putin to really send some signals to donald trump, if only publicly, about how russian-american negotiations might look if trump becomes the head of america, as a result, no such signals have occurred, this old song about history is happening, about ukraine attacking russia, about the west insulting russia, he generally became a thread of some kind, he was not like that, yes, well, so to speak. well, you see, trump knows very well that putin has a positive attitude towards him, and this is just such an interview, which, by the way, i am absolutely sure that trump himself did not review, so possibly two or three minutes some of the most important moments there, and that's all, so whether it was necessary for putin to send some signals to trump, well, i doubt something, it just means part of his pr campaign, he had an opportunity. repeating what he's already said 100 times won't convince anyone, but there's a chance, well maybe

a small one, but there's a chance that half-sober people who were half-sympathetic to trump will hear at least certain parts and think, well, you must be crazy, to support putin and you have to be just as crazy, to support trump, so it could even backfire, it's possible , but i'm not sure, and a few... mr. alexander, finally, with your permission, on the subject of elon musk, who is actually the owner of the x network, the former twitter, where tucker carlson has 11 million followers, and where, in fact, a lot of people expected this interview with putin, there are very alarming signals from our military that starlinks have become available to the russians, and obviously we find ourselves in a situation here on equal footing and... in the united states it is ours

the ukrainian mind is now a picture where, well, in fact, despite the opinion of the pentagon, but the representative of large private business is now, well, a little polar to the official position of the states, the states support ukraine, but personally elon musk obviously thinks otherwise and helps in russia too, yes, well, don't forget, he is probably the most. a person in america, so this, this means that he has a certain influence, also affects the economic development of the country, so he is naturally treated with a certain. with respect, whether we like it or not , it would be here, it will be interesting here, because or not he's violating sanctions, is he violating certain agreements america has with its allies, i uh, well, of course, like you, i'm concerned that he's aiding and abetting russia, but i don't rule out the possibility that

he'll be pressured by some politicians or at least ... the federal bureau of investigation, it's not out of the question yet, but we'll see if something happens, probably in a week or two, i mean, you think in a week or two it could be decided what will happen to donald trump's chances to run for the position of president of the united states, and well, well, well, he will probably be the candidate of the republican party for president, so everyone is almost convinced that it will be so, the possibility that this is some haile is not excluded. that she will still be able to win in the end, well, but, but this is only on the condition that there will be some crazy scandal with trump, which will convince his voters that he is irresponsible, that he is an irresponsible candidate, yes that if there is no such thing, then he will almost certainly be the republican candidate, and the most

disturbing thing is that a large part, rather the greater part, let's say... yes , the liberal democrats are convinced that he will and that he will defeat biden, this is very disturbing, of course, thank you, sir, mr. alexander, alexander motil, historian, political scientist, professor at the rathore university of the united states, we had on the call, now we will have the former ambassador of ukraine in croatia and bosnia and herzegovina oleksandr levchenko on the line, we will talk about... the balkans, congratulations, mr. oleksandr, sincere congratulations, studio. so, let's start with this upcoming ukraine-southeastern europe summit. well, after essentially, a meeting with the leaders of the balkan countries. this is a completely new form. what can you expect from such a meeting, mr. alexander? well, it is obvious that this is a continuation of the theme of ukraine's participation in the european

union, western balkans plus ukraine summit. remember, in october of last year , all this happened in greece, in thessaloniki, on the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the historic decision of the european union that the western balkans will become part of the european union, well, considering that ukraine is also on the way to becoming a member of the eu and together with the countries of the western balkans, will to achieve this and has already officially received it. this candidate status, it is obvious that this summit will also have a good momentum, first of all in the context of further european integration of the region and ukraine. the second issue is , of course, ukraine's bilateral relations with the countries of the western balkans. the region is difficult,

but strategically important for the european continent. and the third. delivering signals about what is happening in ukraine, how russian aggression is being repelled, how to prevent the unleashing of warriors and in other corners of europe, because it is not excluded that russia will try to start a war in the western balkans in order to spread the attention of the european union, nato to a few. military conflicts on the continent. studio. ugh. and please tell me, mr. oleksandr, that the president of ukraine, volodymyr zelenskyi, can become a co-organizer of the summit, that is, ukraine as a state obviously plans to be the initiator of this important meeting. what should he tell us? well, i

singled out these three points that are of interest to the country, official kyiv, yes, the western balkans, can say something in the context of who is their leader in the context of european integration, and we can talk about the fact that, strictly speaking, from a historical point of view, it is unlikely that we still use it politically, i must say that the slavs to the balkans and we very rarely use it, i often said this as the ambassador of croatia to bosnia, the slavs came to the territory of the balkans, from the territory of ukraine, and we use this factor very little, that is, ukraine for them, for the slavic countries is ancestral home but also because of the strengthening of political ties ukraine with these countries would be logical, from a historical point of view, expedient, politically

important, economically, and very important geopolitical geostrategic study. and what do you think, in general, will this process of integration of the western balkan countries develop in the near future, given that we see that there are differences in views on the region. between serbia and kosovo, and this is, i would say, the sore point of the region, they are not decreasing, but increasing, or so it seems, well, these, so to speak, opposites that exist between serbs and kosovo, they will not go anywhere, that is , the process of european integration, it is going, it is one track , and what is happening in serbian-kosovo relations is a track next to it, but... but that it will hamper european integration to some extent , but also the idea is for the western balkans to become members of the european union as soon as possible,

so that exactly such conflicts and not misunderstandings can be resolved more easily, because if both kosovo and serbia conditionally become part of the european union, then this internal problem will be relegated to the second or even the third plan. what the leaders of european integration now in the western balkans, in the western balkans only croatia has become a member of the european union, there are probably montenegro and north macedonia, but in addition, we can probably single out the fact that albania has a serious achievement, and so on. serbia would probably go ahead and the smallest achievements would be in bosnia and herzegovina. well, when we plan, we also have a lot of discussions about that, all theoretical

, of course, but when ukraine becomes a member of the european union, will it be accepted alone, most likely, we will some group of countries to join the european union, then conditionally, if we are talking about the 28-29th year, then this... could be conditionally from montenegro and north macedonia, if we are talking about the 30th, which brussels mostly tells us as a real date, it is probably with albania, whether bosnia-herzegovina will make it as well, it is difficult to say, well, we have not forgotten a little about moldova, it is also included in the process, so there are countries that are leaders of european integration. we mentioned to you, north macedonia and montenegro, there are countries that are a little behind for obvious political reasons, bosnia and herzegovina is a constant action

republika srpska, which actually destabilize internal security in ukraine, and this is to some extent reflected in the process of how they fulfill their european integration obligations, the studio. if we talk about... serbia, yes , elections were held there literally on december 17, the european parliament recently passed a resolution regarding the fact that these, this election process was not conducted in fair conditions, it is called for an independent investigation of violations, serbia itself remains a country , which also has european integration aspirations, nevertheless, receives the following comments from the european parliament. mr. oleksandr, tell us in a little more detail what is happening there? in general, how legitimate will the serbian parliament and the serbian government continue to act, well

, let me remind you a few words that the serbian opposition believes that there were abuses during the electoral process of the elections, especially in belgrade, and they believed that in connection with this should be... look at the total of votes first of all in the capital of the country, meanwhile, we know that the central election commission on this did not go, re-elections were scheduled for only a few precincts, and actually speaking, the majority in the parliament was won by the ruling party, which is actually headed by president vučić, that is, the elections. they were premature, the opposition demanded them, and it turns out that the result confirmed that the ruling party, well, it... in the coalition

won the most votes again, the opposition believes that serious violations of a serious nature were committed, and they could affect counting of votes, however, you know that even the osce observation mission in the early days somehow did not react very actively to it. but when the observer deputies of the german and austrian parliaments became active, then the european deputies also became active, now you have asked the decision of the european parliament, you understand that, it is of a recommendatory nature, whether it will be carried out by the parliament will not be a very big question mark, but of course , that all this constitution

of that parliament from... but the opposition considers all this not quite legitimate, so the process of the opposition not accepting this result as final is still ongoing, and actually speaking, the internal political struggle continues, continues, i would just clarify, i think that many... have already understood in this regard that the opposition does not mean the path to the european union, and these are exclusively pro-european forces, while the president and his party are exclusively pro-russian, i must to say that there are a lot of pro-russian forces in the opposition, and in this connection i see the

united states of america personally and very cautiously. to all this, because in fact russia has entered these times of political life, it controls the media, many, if not the majority, er, if not directly, then indirectly , it has, even its political projects, which have entered now, a parliament of a small number of deputies, but it is clear that this is no no no... where did this political project fall from, it seems to be oppositional, but it can be seen from his rhetoric that he is pro-kremlin, well, actually speaking, this also affects the position of the usa, which is rather cautious about how the opposition works and the struggle with oleksandr vučić's party and what is happening there. studio. do you

think at all? mr. alexander, what ukraine needs to somehow think about what to do with public opinion in serbia, if anything can be done with it at all? ukraine is not a big player in serbia, but in order to influence public opinion, the big player there is russia, for example, i work in the balkan direction, every other day on... publishes its materials in croatia, bosnia and herzegovina, in montenegro, and not a single positional edition of serbia takes my materials, refuses, well, that's just for general understanding. studio, and why? well, they think they are anti-russian character. and they have readers who support the opposition, precisely the opposition media, i emphasize, who themselves... are called

the yellow press, they say that, well, then part of our readers will not read us if you publish your materials, here so, mr. oleksandr, if, if we were not sure of your anti-russian in a healthy sense from the ukrainian position, positions we would hardly talk to you at all now in this studio, it is absolutely natural, i think it is not natural now, that they are silent , so, what do you think, by the way, about this opinion, mr. oleksandr, the russians who came to serbia are anti-putin, and the ukrainians who are in serbia are exactly pro-putin, he said so, well , they already discovered medvedchuk opened his public organization in belgrade, by the way, our

embassy appealed to the ministry of foreign affairs. because it is called so differently in...