“I don't quite understand: does he [Donald Trump] really want to be a loser president afterwards? Let's imagine that Trump is the president and, for example, he decides to end the war at the expense of Ukraine. And somehow, in the dialogue, he gets confirmation from Putin on the Russian side that this is a stop, that's it. The Ukrainians will not put up with this, but he can then say: 'That's it, I'm not giving you any support, there are no weapons, there is no funding'. Maybe he will reach an agreement with some of his partners, and they will also stop [supporting Ukraine]. Of course, Ukraine cannot fight a multimillion-strong army without weapons. Let's just imagine it. And let's imagine for a second... I think it's 100% likely that this will happen, but let's imagine that it's 10% likely that Putin will not stop after that. What will this new president of the United States look like for the whole world, then? He will then be very weak, and this is not about his personality but about the institutional capacity of the United States. They will become very weak, they will not be leaders of the world. And then Putin will move on, realising that the United States is no longer such a [strong] player. And then other leaders of other countries, mostly authoritarian, will enter the arena. That's the end of the ceasefire, the beginning of what everyone is so afraid to talk about, a real World War III.”
01 Jun 2024
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