help us, but will not be an obstacle on our way. i also wanted to ask you about putin's latest statements, his latest trips to north korea and vietnam. well, in particular, one of the last such high-profile statements, he declared that there will be no withdrawal of troops from ukraine. we have seen certain documents signed between russia and north korea, russia and vietnam. so how do you comment on all these actions of the occupying power, all these actions of the self-proclaimed de facto president putin during this week, is this a rate hike or is this his real position? well, this is his real position as of today, on the other hand, it can also be considered a rate hike, but i don't see much opportunity for putin to raise rates, because they are already high enough...

so it was not news, first, during the hot phase of the war, which is happening today, to say that he is ready to withdraw troops means to agree to some framework of negotiations that may take place, but today, as of today, i personally and probably few people see the real opportunities for putin to agree to whether... such negotiations, what will happen later, we will see, it will depend on the main negotiator, namely the armed forces of ukraine, and then it will be seen whether, in the end, what it will be, what shape this future peace process will have or there are peace agreements, which one day should still be, that is, this is his real position today, it, by the way, to some extent gives us certain trump cards for... our work with

those states that, let's say, take a position, waver , on the one hand, they are allegedly very actively not opposing ukraine, but they gravitate to the position, to the position of russia, they talk about, well, let's stop the war, let's stop shooting and so on, but when we explain to them that putin is not in any way... not going to return to the status quo that existed, well, at least on february 22, february 24, 2022, this has an impact on these states, they understand that this is a violation of international law, about annexation, about violation of borders, the charter of the united nations organization, in which, which they value these states, in principle, that's why this is russia's position today. it

seems to me to strengthen our position in our conversations in the consolidation of this political support that we want to achieve in the world. and tell me, if we talk about euro-atlantic integration, to what extent do you see any real changes that can take place at the washington nato summit, because they continue to say that yes, there will be some certain decisions, certain ones. changes in approaches, to what extent can it be considered in principle that we are really waiting for such changes? well, what we, er, wait for, us, in such hope for us give reasons for the decisions that have already been reached and, starting from the bucharest summit, and confirmed by vilnius. i do not see any breakthrough solutions that will be able to strengthen our, so to speak, belief in the fact that we are once

a member of the european union, but today, as far as we know, there is a discussion around one word, namely the irreversibility of ukraine's accession to nato, irreversible , that is , as far as observers who are close to this negotiation process say, that this is where the discussion is taking place, and if we americans, yes, yes, liberations, yes, yes. well, here too, if you imagine it like that, if there is any step, then it will be a step with the addition of the word irreversibility, because in 2008 it was agreed that ukraine would be a member of nato, last year it was confirmed in vilnius, that ukraine will still be a member, they removed the pdc requirement from us, by the way, in my opinion, this was done not... visibly,

and now this political statement will be confirmed once again with the addition of some other such word that would say which would said that these are irreversible. process and yes, ukraine will be a member of nato, yes, on the other hand, we see certain such ambiguous, perhaps opinions, words of the leaders of the united states of america, before this we remember the statement of president joe biden, here, for example, this week was mr. kirby's statement, well, here it is less ambiguous, he said that in order to join nato, ukraine must... win a war, but the question arises: if this war lasts for a long time, let's say for years, then it is clear that ukraine at this moment will not become a member of nato, and even we can't expect any intermediate option, right? well, look, uh, well, first of all, really,

so to speak, the thesis that ukraine will become a member of nato only after the end of the war, well , kirby said, how will ukraine defeat russia, if i’m not mistaken, this thesis has been around for a long time , our political leadership has already said more than once that during, so to speak, the hot phase of a conflict there or a war, it is time to talk about membership in the alliance, but so to speak, these are obvious things that can be and how long will it take us we also do not know if we can talk about the terms of joining the european union, so to speak, the situation here is much more complicated, so between these periods, today and when we become members of nato, the same, let's say, its temporary option is these

agreements that ukraine is signing today with nato members, well, with seven other countries, not only nato members, but... it is believed that this can be a temporary way out of this situation, until ukraine becomes a member of the organization in the alliance, its security will be, her security will be provided through these agreements, i want to avoid the word guarantees here, because if we accept, god forbid, that these are guarantees, in fact they are not those guarantees, then why do we have other guarantees, so there is no need to talk about guarantees, these are security... arrangements that will strengthen our ability to deter aggression while we are outside, outside of nato. but here the question arises, already at the end

of our conversation, to what extent, in principle, the father's support can be stable against the background of all these disturbances that are taking place in the west, during the last meeting of the group of seven you saw, everyone said that in... prime minister sonak is leaving, president biden is fighting for the presidency, president macron has problems in connection with the parliamentary elections, federal chancellor scholz has problems in in connection with the european elections, the prime minister of canada has a trudeau rating, the prime minister of japan kisseda has a low rating, this is what i calculated, there is only the prime minister of italy, melanie, and more or less, this is a really serious question, i personally, well , i'm on it myself... reasoning on this matter, especially when, even today , in connection with the elections in great britain, the appearance of this nigel farage, a well-known eurosceptic, far-right figure, again on the political scene, well, once again they predict victory in the parliamentary elections in france

for the far-right, who, you know, gravitate towards the position of the russian federation on some issues, in particular, regarding ukraine and the war. so, really the political landscape of europe, if you add to that the situation in america, it can really change. here, the only thing we can hope for is that, you know, durability or constancy of foreign policy, and it is very rare in western democracies, despite the fact that whoever wins one or another election there, in general, the course of foreign policy, he remains unable. and this, i think, will take place both in europe and in the united states of america, if other political forces come to power than those that occupy their offices there today. thank you, and volodymyr

khandogiy, the president of the ukrainian foreign policy association, the ambassador of great britain in 110 years in 2015 was on the live broadcast of the saturday political club. we continue, and in ihor semivolos, the director of the middle eastern studies center, should be in touch with us now. so now we will see mr. igor, but we will talk with him about, we already confess, mr. igor, congratulations, congratulations, well, let 's start with these visits, i would say, sensational, it's true, putin's visits to north korea and etnam and by the way, we have to say right away that maybe someone looks at these visas, at this visit of putin to pyongyang, as a commonplace, but we have to say that for the entire time of the existence of the democratic people's republic of korea. no the soviet leader never visited it, no one, neither stalin, nor khrushchev, nor brezhnev, nor

andropovychnenko visited anything, nor gorbachev, nobody went, putin himself, yeltsin did not visit, putin himself visited once in 2000, 20, 4 years ago, this was the only visit, this is the second visit to bhymyan, and suddenly there is such friendship, mr. igor, such love, such kisses, that there is just no way. yes, of course, this, this visit is attracting a lot of attention, and i think that this is such a, this is a persistent request, actually korean, korean leader to visit pyongyang, and why, it seems to me that this is to some extent the reason of putin himself. he has, by and large, no other chance than to come if he... wants to continue to receive weapons and receive exactly the kind of support from

north korea that he is receiving now. and as far as i'm concerned, this was a condition that was actually formulated, and despite all, so to speak, the solemnity of this visit and in the spirit of such marxism-leninism, in better times, and by and large. on account of putin very seriously impersonating himself with this visit, but the reaction is actually not delayed, south korea's reaction, and putin even had to threaten south korea in hanoi in this situation, so i don't really see this visit as such a huge success, it's more of a reason and another demonstration that you can't do business with putin , because putin on... in fact , all those resolutions that at one time, for which moscow at one time voted in relation to north

korea. mr. igor, what kind of real reaction, well , at least backstage, should there be, is china ready for such visits, and we should understand that there was a visit to both north korea and vietnam. and here, many analysts say that this is not quite the case. moose of china, and this essentially violates this balance that was between russia and china itself. what is your position here? you know, i'll say it right away, i'm not an easterner, i'm not a far easterner, and the nuances are hidden for me, so i can only say based on my experience, and it seems to me that at least putin agreed with sydzenpine. visit and reactions if anyone thinks that thanks to

this visit it is possible to drag china to its side in the spirit of kissenger, then he is wrong, i do not think that this will in any way affect the position of beijing, well, you say that putin can coordinate something with sidzimpin, well , he clearly could not coordinate a visit to vietnam with sidzimpin, there the chinese obviously cannot be satisfied with such a trip, because he still wants weapons for vietnam about... well, i think that the history of 79 has already, as they say, sunk into the past, and it is clear that vietnam in to a certain extent , the united states of america is such an economic economic partner, and a large one the number of enterprises that used to work in china are moving to vietnam, moving to india, and the turnover of 100. billions between the united states of america and vietnam and everything else, that is, he has money,

at least vietnam. what else can putin offer to vietnam besides weapons? nothing, well, taking into account the fact that vietnam is actually armed with soviet weapons, so this segment of weapons, it can really offer it, but this story, well, at least it will have a long time, so... that is, it is not known whether in the end this the deal will work or not because vietnam also looks closely at the quality of russian weapons and their actual use on the battlefield. by the way, this applies to north korean weapons, they definitely cannot boast of quality, we saw it when kim chinim already supplied absolutely correctly, absolutely correctly, and it is very interesting when, for example , putin talks about the fact that they do not supply korea does not supply weapons, well, in the context of the discussion with seoul, but these are already such

obvious things that there is no point in talking about them, it seems to me that the russian propagandists talk about it. that it's just yes and it's just that the russians at the front describe this story with these korean, with north korean shells about how ineffective they are, well, it becomes quite clear that putin's visit and in general these contacts between putin and kimchin-in, their more precisely the main purpose is still weapons, at least for putin, or could there be an option that, for example, russia would place some ... certain production facilities on the territory of north korea in order to, let's say, produce weapons there, to use relatively cheap labor force, north korean, yes, and some, by the way, for that matter, russian propagandists there dreamed that north korea would already take and send part of the troops to ukraine to fight for russia,

well that i'm not going to ask, because it's such a pretty, pretty ridiculous assumption, but hey... still, in terms of weapons, in terms of possible production capacities, is this possible? well, they supply weapons and maybe they create some joint ventures, it is possible, but i personally i do not believe very much in the effectiveness of such cooperation and the maximum that korea can give is north korea, it is what it produces in large quantities, and therefore there... any joint venture, any production, new production , it takes a lot of time, even the transfer of technology, well , north korea has quite a large, large enough line of weapons, starting there from firearms to missiles and nuclear weapons in the end, well, there is no point in at least

starting such a cycle, but well... within the framework of these arrangements, of course, there may be and similar proposals, i am more than certain that they sounded, and it is quite important that they want to bring koreans, vietnamese to their factories again, as was the case at the end of the soviet union, i remember the vietnamese who worked at the mill, so they put stools in order to get to the machine, but tell me, mr. igor, putin may still have a very limited range of opportunities when we talk about his trips, because... he went to pyongyang, to hahaha, but how many months have we been hearing that he has to go to ankara, five, and something he doesn't go and doesn't go, well and more tehran, and more tehran, i think that they are, they have been talking about a comprehensive agreement, about cooperation and essentially a military

alliance with tehran for two years, well, obviously, after the election of a new president, things will move, from where they are, and obviously there in august we can to see his visit to tehran, but that is if there is no major war in the middle east. well, here in the context of this, in fact we have already come to the elections in iran, it is clear that they admitted a small number of candidates, if i am not mistaken, six, yes, eight, eight, eight, thank you for clarifying to what extent... this policy of iran towards russia can at least be adjusted, at least according to those statements, perhaps, or some actions, uh, of the current candidates and the potential president, as far as i understand, the speaker, yes, the parliament of iran , in relation to russia, can there be any

adjustment, or will we continue to observe this rather broad cooperation, eh? well, i think that after all, most likely the train will move forward, that is , most likely the iranian leadership, alikhmenei is favorable to the signing such an agreement, and a lot will depend on him, if we are talking about the future president, then we remember that this is the executive power and remember that the level of his... let's say, independence of decision-making is quite small, if talk about the speaker of parliament, who is seen as the most likely, and he is a former mayor. tehran, as a likely contender for this position, he is a moderate conservative, that is , he has at least some more rivets in his head,

that is, he may well take a more cautious position, and this story is more about actual war in the middle east, possible direct participation of iran in this war. but, if we are talking about russia, then i think that they are eager to sign. such an agreement, and it is unlikely that anything will change here. well, in principle, you think that iran is now interested in such an alliance with russia, similar to the alliance signed by north korea. well, in the end , these uh, the articles of the agreement between the russian federation and the dprk that we see, they duplicate the old soviet-north korean treaty that was signed, it seems to me that after of the korean war and never really acted and the parties to it refused. it seems to me that in 2006, when it had already expired, and they just renewed this article, iran's alliance with russia has never been like this in its life, no, it wasn't, it wasn't, but it's

interesting, it's just interesting, because many people are talking about russia playing a new big game, yes in the near east, this is of course an exaggeration, because the british big game, it is unlikely that russia will pull such a game, but iran is ... always has been, has been a place of attraction for russia, well, in the end, no one changed their desire to build a port in the indian ocean, so they want it, and the iranians want it, although i agree that the iranians have quite a few politicians who are very negative about russia, about the russian politicians, remembering the history of the 19th, 20th, especially, attempts by the russians to tear off whole pieces of iranian territory and the like.

however, now, if you look at their strategic culture, they want allies close to their borders, and russia is just a desirable ally for them as of now. but if we are talking about the upcoming meeting between putin and erdogan, as far as i understand... such a meeting should take place in astana in a few weeks, ukraine will be discussed there, of course, but certain financial and economic issues will also be discussed there, there is a household here in this hub, allegedly on the territory of turkey, as far as these negotiations in general can be invested in the promotion of putin 's current agenda, well... in particular, in the context of recent visits and recent statements. well, i think that in pyongyang and in hanoi, putin said quite a lot that, in principle

, should have been perceived negatively in turkey. and turkey signed the declaration, well, the final final declaration to the peace summit, and turkey declares. the integrity of ukraine, based on what putin said, well, these are hardly topics around which, especially when it concerns ukraine, the parties will meet somewhere in the middle, and although of course there will be many words, there will be many speeches, it will be from turkey calls for an end to the war, returning to the negotiating table and the like, this is what we have heard many times. from erdogan, as far as economic aspects are concerned, well, there really are nuances here, because

, as we know, turkey is seriously dependent on russian money, on russian gas and russian investments, including those big projects implemented by erdogan, the same nuclear power plant, and... in addition to this , there are a lot of problems in turkey, and this may become the subject of actual negotiations in the angra side. but here the question is what it is i get the impression that putin has recently become openly offended by erdogan, we heard all his remarks at the st. petersburg international economic forum, he has never spoken in such, i would say, insulted tones about turkey, erdogan, well, he has recently... i think that - he has lost his sense of caution, i would say so, that is , he begins to say quite a lot... well, such

things that would not have occurred to him a few years ago, and this indicates, in fact, a possible understanding of that , or signals that he is telling his allies that you stick with me because i'm not going to back down, i 'm going to push and bend my line, and that's the key, it seems, the key or the key message that he's sending. everything else is an insult and everything else, we have heard from him more than once, that is, we can state that putin went to abank to a certain extent, even with even, conditionally speaking, at the expense of certain interests with the traditional partners of the russian federation, because really we see that his statements have become significantly radicalized, and they may not be liked not only, relatively speaking,

we have chivi there'. the so-called world, yes, and his closest partners may not like them either, well, in particular, we talked here about turkey, but in fact we can talk here about other middle eastern countries as well, yes, this is not a good life, everything is happening for putin, and i it seems that the visit to north korea is the watershed, because he has already crossed a certain line, well, relatively speaking, of political decency, and there is no place for him to retreat any further, he is simply moving now in this direction, but obviously that there is nothing good ahead he doesn't like it, well, the reaction of south korea proves it, well, it's a direction of self-isolation, because again, when he came to north korea 24 years ago, he was already there as a representative of the,

i would say, civilized world. you can't agree with the fkinian, but i will agree on what you want from him, remember, from kimchynin's father, kimchynin demanded, in principle, to agree to the conditions that the united states put forward at that time, and even talked about it, it just didn't work out for him, until things, i have to say that he failed then in pyongyang in the same way that trump failed in his meetings with kim jong un, they both for some reason believed that they could convince these people, this family of something, but that was it. ..putin 24-year-old, i would say, i will pour it, i will pour it, it is still such a young wine, and it is now some, you know, some kind of barmatuga, a barmatuga came, i would say vinegar, probably vinegar, vinegar, no need for barmatuga, no need about wine, there is no more wine, there is this, well, because kimchenin looks like a more serious politician than putin in this couple, you see, well, in principle, he achieved what kimchinin wanted, unlike putin, putin

came to bow to him, not... the other way around. thank you, mr. igor. so, ihor simevolos, director of the middle eastern studies center, was on the live broadcast of saturday's political club on the espresso channel. well, in a few minutes we will move on to communication with vitaly portnikov, we will also talk about these topics, necessarily about others. about everything that happened this week, about all strategic issues for our country. all this will definitely happen. now no... a long pause, a few minutes, and we 'll be back, wait, watch the news at 21, the results of the week: russia destroyed 9 g of energy generation in ukraine. how to replace the lost capacities? on may 18 , a new law on mobilization, how to choose one's path in the army, entered into force. ukrainian women are increasingly employed in men's

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