Welcome everyone to another edition of the RH podcast.

Gare cohost here, Ryan Fut, former CIA, officer and Army veteran.

I'm joined by a good friend, Glenn Korn, who many of you know now multi-time chief of Station, 34 years in the US government with most of that time at CIA.

And we are here to deconstruct all things international security.

And today, of course, is Trump Zelensky.

Meetings in DC following this very interesting past weekend of the meetings with Putin in Alaska.

So, Glenn, welcome.

Where are you?

Uh, where are you calling in from?

Great to see you again, Ryan, and to see all the subscribers and viewers, even though I can't see them, but I'm imagining them.

I'm calling in from the Institute of World Politics where I teach and, uh, just taught a course and I'm in one of the classrooms, so.

Uh, based in dc, Washington, DC can we ask what is the course that people are getting from former COS extraordinaire that they probably don't appreciate enough?

I'm teaching a course on home cooking.

How to Make an Egg.

I couldn't do that.

I'm teaching a course on, uh, this semester on Turkish National Security.

Okay.

Let's get to the, let's get to the business.

Is it okay Brian?

Yeah.

Bri Brian FUT here.

What are you drinking in that white cup?

I don't wanna, uh, I have a, uh, he of vison from Munich.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Wow.

Yeah.

What a nice uber rushing.

Yeah.

Alright, so Trump zelensky today, um, a little bit of reporting that's come out, which is, um, ceasefire still is not necessary.

There's some US guarantees for Ukraine's security.

Need to forego NATO membership, but they could get NATO style or NATO like support or security guarantees.

Right.

What else has happened that we should share with people?

And, and then we'll jump into the analysis here.

Okay.

Uh, yeah, thanks.

I mean, let's start with this.

I just, I find this very interesting.

Uh, NPR ran an article, I think over the weekend that somebody at the meetings in Alaska left a.

Schedule, and I'm sure you were involved when you were overseas and organizing like these VIP visits and they put out the schedule, which you're not supposed to like, share with people.

And so somebody made a mistake and left it in a hotel room and it was found and some journalists got their hands on it and they, they had the schedule, the original schedule for the meetings in Alaska.

And what I find interesting is what didn't happen in Alaska.

And so I wanna unpack that a little bit if I can, if I may.

Yeah, let's do it on the schedule.

First of all, it was originally there was supposed to be a tete meeting between Trump and Putin.

That didn't happen.

The, the meeting included, uh, Marco Rubio and Steve Woff and Sergey Avro and uh, Soff.

Right.

So that was interesting.

And by the way, I think that was a smart move by the President not to.

Do a one-on-one.

I think it was good to have his advisors in there with them.

Glen, did they not have time together in the motorcade?

Just the two of them.

They did, they did In the beast, like in the, in the, but I mean, whatcha gonna talk about there, you know, who picked the, who picked the, uh, mix tape?

Who decided on Barry Manalow for the ride from the, from the plane to the meeting spot?

Like, I don't think that's very significant And I some, some of the hoopla and the media I think is a little silly about that.

Like what could they really discuss?

Uh, but the actual meeting, so what, what didn't happen was there was supposed to be a lunch.

And at the lunch, uh, the Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary of Treasury were scheduled to be at that lunch.

And my understanding is they were in Alaska, but the lunch was canceled.

And I find that interesting because, you know, if, if you think about it, Trump is probably sending the message that if you are ready to make a deal and agree to a ceasefire.

We can talk about like rolling back sanctions and uh, maybe doing some business.

So you have the Secretary of Treasury there, right?

Person, secretary of Commerce.

But Putin didn't do that.

And so there was no lunch, there was no engagement from what I can tell between the Secretary of Commerce and his Russian counterpart or whoever Putin had from his side.

Maybe it was, uh, Demetrius.

Um, um, and then.

You know, there was supposed to be another meeting.

I think the total number of, uh, like hours for meetings was six hours.

That it was under three hours.

Uh, Putin left without the, the, the state lunch, like the, uh, presidential hosted lunch.

And I think that's very interesting.

Like it tells me that the president decided there's no point in having this lunch and having that wider engagement because you're not ready to make the deal that I want.

Right.

So now, so it was a bit of a stick in in that case?

Yeah, I mean, I think like he, I've said this before, there has to be a carrot in a stick.

And I think that, you know, he was probably offering the carrot, Putin didn't take it.

And so, you know, I wouldn't call it like a, a bad, like, uh, how do I say, like a, a super rough stick.

But I think there was a message there and there's definitely like, we're not gonna, we're not gonna reward you for not agreeing to a ceasefire.

By giving you like a meeting with the Secretary of Treasury and the Secretary of Commerce.

Two very, very important people in a country, which is the economic powerhouse United States, and to a country that needs economic help.

Russia, right.

Given the state of their economy, which is not good.

So that's one, two, um, you know, I, my understanding is after the meetings, it was announced that the Russians for the first time agreed to some form of, uh, security guarantee for Ukraine as part of a settlement.

And, uh, if I'm not mistaken, that the United States would, could be part of that agreement, which is what the president and the European leaders and Zelensky were talking about today.

What would that look like?

That to me is very significant.

Now we have to be careful, you know, I personally don't trust Putin, you know, he's definitely been manipulative before, said things before, and then, you know, gone back on his word, deceived people, no doubt about it.

But that is a, a positive step because it's something that the Ukrainians have said for a long time now.

Like for any kind of agreement, we have to have some kind of security guarantee.

Uh, and now we go to the third point.

Let's remember, 'cause you know, the president's taking some heat for not announcing secondary sanctions immediately after, uh, the meeting in Alaska.

But let's be realistic, he met with, um, Putin on Friday.

Was it Friday or Thursday?

Friday.

Friday.

Friday.

Sorry, my dates are all mixed up.

Uh, and then he met with Zelensky in the White House on Monday with our European partners, and I also think that's very, very important.

There's a lot of talk about, you know, the Europeans were here to, to provide support to Zelensky, but people seem to act as if the White House, the US government did not have to agree to have those.

The Europeans here, they were the guests of the White House.

From what I saw, there was a very good meeting.

Uh, one, the rapport between Zelensky and Trump was very good.

You know, a lot of people were worried we were gonna have another February disaster.

It was not that, it was very good.

There was a, a lot of rapport, uh, positive rapport.

And then there was a meeting with our European partners, the leaders of some of the most important European countries, again, and, and multilateral organizations.

And again, uh.

The, the, the mood was very good.

The, the interaction seemed to be very good.

I think the one point of contention or maybe disagreement is on the ceasefire.

I think the German chancellor, you know, raised the issue of we need a ceasefire.

You know, let's push, let's put pressure on Moscow to agree to a ceasefire.

I think the president was not committed or committ, non-committal to that, and he, you know, he said, we've done other, uh, peace agreements without having a ceasefire.

Um, and I think that's probably still gonna have to be worked out.

But coming out of this, I just read in the media that now he, president Trump called Putin, and there will be a meeting now between Zelensky and Putin.

And then after that meeting, a meeting with, uh, Zelensky Putin and President Trump.

So, I'm sorry for talking so much.

That was great.

Why no ceasefire.

Like what?

That's I think Russia's position.

Why do they not want to have a ceasefire at this point?

I think because the Russians won, it's like a negotiating tactic for them.

They know that it's something which is very problematic for the Ukrainians and for the West.

So this is something they can use to apply pressure.

Two, they're, we've said this before in the last uh, uh, discussion we had.

They wanna take as much territory as they can and inflict as much damage as they can on the Ukrainians.

Of course, the Ukrainians are inflicting damage on the Russians as well.

So the Ukrainians have n you know, they're giving, I'd say as much, well, they're giving quite a bit back.

What they're not doing is they're not attacking civilian targets like the Russians are, which is heinous, right.

Um, but the Russians, you know, I think they see this as something that they're gonna hold out there.

Like, we're not gonna give you a seats for until we get something we really want.

And the other significant thing today is President Zelinsky said, we're ready to discuss like a land swap, some kind of.

Negotiation of territory, which is also very significant.

So obviously the devil's in the details on all of these issues.

There have to be more discussions, there has to be more engagement.

Uh, I saw the meetings today as, I mean, a lot of people were very worried going into the meetings today, and when I, I'm almost giddy that they were, they were, seemed so positive.

So I'm gonna take a win for a win, right?

I'm, I'm gonna be happy for today.

I was very worried I was gonna be very depressed.

And that's because of the potential repeat from earlier this year that it could have been an outcome like that, it could have been an outcome like that, or, you know, I think now the ball's in Putin's court, the, the pressure's on Putin because President Trump called him and said, okay, time for a meeting.

And if Putin had said no.

He did before.

Remember in May he refused to go to Istanbul to meet with, uh, Zelensky and Erdogan and President Trump who offered to come.

He was in the Middle East in the Gulf, and he said, I'll come.

And, uh, Putin said, no.

Now Putin's apparently saying yes.

That tells me that he's under pressure.

He knows like there's some, there's some leverage over him that can be applied and cause him paint.

Given what we've heard now coming out of Friday and now Monday.

Do you feel the outcome of this is gonna change slightly?

Like maybe there's no ceasefire but.

Probably still some type of land swap.

I know one of the contingent, or one of the negotiating positions I think from Putin on Friday was in addition to land they've taken in parts of Ukraine, they wanted additional land in those particular provinces.

Right.

Um, as well that had not been taken by them, which is obviously another maximalist negotiating tactic.

Makes sense.

But any, anything from your end on now going forward with what we know might change the outcome?

Well, I, I do see the Russians are backing off some of the, like the red lines that they had or the, you know, the Maximus positions they've had.

Uh, so there's room, I think, for a negotiation and for an agreement that they're not gonna get.

And if I were the, my personal opinion, if I were the Ukrainians, I would say like, I've said this before, and Zpa, no, we're not gonna give you Zia.

You have to evacuate, zap, right?

If you want this war to stop, 'cause this war is just as painful for you, for you as it is for us.

We're not the only people suffering.

You know, like in Ong, and you know, I've said this before too, I think that the Ukrainians, uh, they're, they're indicating, they're ready to talk about like how they can make a deal with the Russians to end this thing.

And that may require them to, uh, have to seed some territory.

But I think that that should be, in my own opinion, temporary, the, like, they should never agree that that territory belongs to the Russian Federation because it was part of Ukraine.

It should be considered part of Ukraine.

And hopefully the United Nations will recognize that.

And, uh, you know, in the international courts and in other, uh, multilateral venues, the Ukrainians can continue to argue that that is their territory.

Okay.

Another, another big, a big, big issue was discussed today was, you know, like getting back the Ukrainian children that have been kidnapped by the Russians.

And that has to be, um, I think it was the, uh, the commissioner from the EU who said that.

Like, you know, she said, I'm a mother and a grandmother, and the idea that like children could be kidnapped, we need to like get those kids back to their families.

Right.

What, what about this stipulation that came from the Russian side that they want the Russian Orthodox Church to be, I don't know if it was the dominant religion or present in these territories that they could potentially be seated.

Yeah, this is a super complicated, and it's a, it's a piece of propaganda the Russians have used, in my opinion for a long time Now, you know, they have used the Russian Orthodox Church as a weapon, uh, in, in Ukraine, by the way.

They've done it in other places.

They use it to run, to support their intelligence operations.

They use it to promote propaganda, and so it, they, and in the United States and in Europe, they've been promoting the idea that the Ukrainians were anti.

Church.

Church because they raided some of the Orthodox churches and they put restrictions on the Orthodox church.

And you probably remember the, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church separated from the Russian Orthodox Church from the patriarch.

And the Russians obviously don't like that.

The, the patriarch in Russia, who is a former KGB agent, um, didn't like, is that right?

I did not know this.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, you know, for your listeners, one of the only cases that I am aware of, of a ethnic Russian American committing espionage for the Soviet Union was a Army lieutenant colonel who was retired, who was recruited by his orthodox priest in Germany.

Okay.

So the Russians use the church for political purposes, unfortunately.

And that's, I'm not saying that all, you know, Orthodox, you know, Russian Orthodox, uh, church followers or believers are Russian agents.

No, I'm not saying that and we should never say that, but the Russians unfortunately have kind of weaponized the church and the Ukrainians have taken steps to defend themselves from the church.

And it's kind of negative influence for Ukraine.

And the, I think the Russians are just trying to promote this idea.

It's like they're saying like, you have to, uh, Russia has to be an official language in Ukraine.

You know, then I guess the Ukrainians can say, okay, Ukrainian has to be an official language in Russia.

Right?

I mean, it's kind of crazy to me, but this is, again, I think this is just what the Russians are doing.

They're trying to throw roadblocks in the way, and you know, stumbling blocks make it that much harder to come to a deal so they can continue to buy time, grab territory, and stave off the sanctions or more sanctions.

You had mentioned earlier, Zaia and Caron Ong.

How so why those two places?

Like why does that come to mind for you as potential red lines for them?

For the Ukrainian, they've been occupied.

Yeah.

Because the Russians don't have an occupied all of that territory.

Right.

And so they're saying that you have just have to give it up to us.

I see you're saying we're not gonna do, we're like, we're fighting for our territory and you know, I don't like, we won't go into all the historic back and forth, but.

Um, you know, there are probably some territories that are al almost fully occupied by the Russians, and then there are some that are not.

And why would the Ukrainians agree to just hand over a bunch of territory that they've been, they've defended.

They've protected, yeah.

Okay.

And it's being occupied by the Russians.

The Russians should leave those territories, in my opinion, for a deal.

My, my prediction here is NATO membership will, is like the.

Incredibly hard red line for the Russians.

Do you, do you see that changing, like Ukraine being allowed to do that?

Uh, I, I, well, maybe eventually.

It's gonna take a, a long time.

I don't think as long as Putin's in power, like he's gonna agree to that, he'll continue to cause mischief.

Um, but in the, in the, you know, the immediate future, I think what the Ukrainians really need is a guar like realistic guarantee, not, not a guarantee from Moscow.

'cause we know what that's worth.

Right.

Yeah.

They need a guarantee from like the Europeans and a big role, what that role will be for the US is not clear, but the US has to be behind that and they have to feel confident that it's not gonna be another, you know, Budapest, uh, accord where, you know, it says, okay, well.

We had an agreement, but we're just gonna turn the other way.

No, they, it's gotta be the Russians.

Understand.

If you try and encroach again on Ukrainian territory, after an agreement is made, you'll pay a very serious price and you're gonna have to fight not just the Ukrainians, but uh, the Europeans and the US other hot take.

Do you see them?

The Ukrainians losing Crimea at the end of this, I, I should say, I feel like that is gonna be lost ground, sadly.

But I'm curious your take on it.

Uh, yeah, I would just say again, I am hopeful that over time they can take Crimea temporary.

Yeah, okay.

I like that.

Right.

And, uh, you know, I'm, I'm hopeful if that's what they want back then they should continue to argue for.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Anything we missed on what's happened so far with Russia and Ukraine in these re recent meetings?

No, I think the question now is where is the meeting between Zelensky and Putin gonna take place?

The bilateral, and then where would the trilateral take place?

And that will be interesting too.

Well, it can go back to like some of the third country options that we talked about before.

You know Turkey, by the way, what's interesting today is like, you know, where was President Erdogan?

He wasn't at the White House.

Even though he's been promoting like a peace deal, he's been one of the only presidents that's been speaking with, you know, NATO leaders who's been speaking with, uh, Putin, um, since 2022.

And he's always argued that you have to maintain a dialogue, like a channel of communication.

Um.

Uh, so I'm, I, I, that was a question I had today.

Like, okay, that's interesting.

Um, you know, UAE my understanding is they want it to be, or they're, they've offered to be the, the place for negotiations.

Maybe Switzerland, maybe some other locations, you know, maybe, let's think out of the box.

Maybe somewhere in Asia, maybe in, um, Latin America, who knows.

Interesting.

Okay.

Anything was these days, right?

Right.

And then yes, if Putin and Zelensky meet, how's that gonna go?

And did I fact check me on this, Glenn?

Mm-hmm.

I thought I read today that, uh, president Trump had mentioned in a discussion he had with the Chinese leader, she, that he had promised President Trump in the past, or at least stated that he would not invade Taiwan on Trump's watch.

I read that in the, in the news today too, somewhere.

That he made that promise.

Thoughts on that?

From a life in USG looking at threats around the world, uh, to quote the great Ronald Reagan Trust but verify.

So, you know, I'm, I yeah, I I I wouldn't take that at face value.

I mean, maybe I, I don't think the Chinese wanna invade Taiwan.

Really?

They wanna take it without having to go to war.

Right.

That's their per without having to use military action.

So they'll try and like, get it that way.

And I should say too, 'cause I'm not like a, I'm not a great China expert at all on Russia.

We should remember, we may be now at the spot where we were in 2019, 2018, where Russia was occupying parts of Ukraine, including Crimea.

The Donbass, they, they were promoting a civil war with their surrogate forces, their little green men, right?

The Wagner troops.

They were conducting sabotage.

They were acts, they, they were, you know, doing massive propaganda, disinformation against the Ukrainians and they were doing cyber attacks.

So you can go down the list of what the Russians call active measures.

A lot of people in the US say like gray zone operations.

We were probably going back to that space.

You know, Zelensky was meeting with Putin before he was talking with Putin and Zelinsky.

When he came to power, by the way, he was the president that ran on a ticket of peace.

Like we need to have like a dialogue with Russia.

So, um, he, we may be back in that space very soon.

It does not mean that the struggle's over.

And I would suggest that the war is not over.

And I hate to say that 'cause nobody wants to be at war, but it'll just be war back into that gray zone and we need to be aware of that and the Ukrainians are not aware of it.

So, question on that.

When you say gray zone and active measures, I suppose I think of it more as.

Some sabotage here or there, uh, information operations, but maybe not counterinsurgency or gorilla type warfare.

Is that what you think?

Like I would assume if you're Ukraine and you lose this ground and it's occupied by Russia, you are actively fighting from within there.

I would suggest that the Russians will do things like try to encourage groups inside of Ukraine, like regionally to try and separate some of the regions from Kiev to encourage separatism to look at different ethnic groups in Ukraine and try and get them spun up all from an information perspective.

Glenn, or you think there is From information, from funding, from maybe arming them.

Manipulating them.

Uh, political action.

I think anything is gonna be on the table.

And, and we have to be well aware of that.

You know, one of the things the Russians are gonna try and do, and they've been doing this since 2000, well they've been doing it since 1991.

That's definitely since thousand 14.

Trying to discourage like western companies from doing business in Ukraine, promoting the narrative of corruption.

Um, they, they are, you know, they don't want Ukraine to recover and they don't want Ukraine to prosper.

And that's very unfortunate.

As long as Vladimir Putin is the president of Russia, I think that's gonna be the policy.

Which hurts Russia, but Totally.

Yeah.

Zero sum game mentality.

What, what about Zelensky or Ukraine going the other direction?

Should they not be doing the same in in occupied territory?

Well, that's a great question.

You know, one of the things, I think the difference between 2014 or let's say pre 2022 and today, as the Ukrainians have showed, they have a very good capability to strike back, and the Russians should be well aware of that.

The Ukrainians are conducting operations inside of Russia.

Very effectively.

And so if the Russians wanna continue, like the, the gray, gray zone operations, I think the Ukrainians have shown they're very capable of doing the same.

So maybe that will be a deterrent again, like for the Russians, maybe that will convince them.

Maybe we should just e you know, slow down.

Ease, ease up, try a different way.

I doubt it, but I, I feel like Ukraine has to be ready to go hard into that space.

I, I doubt it too, but like I, sometimes I wanna be positive and you know, you're drinking a he Ice, sir.

And you know, who could've, who would ever thought that the President of France and Ger and the chance of Germany would be sitting in the White House with the US President to like try and bring peace to an another part of Europe?

Uh, you know, in 1939, in 1943, in 19 even probably 50, nobody would really think that way.

So maybe.

This may be, you know, some, they say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.

You know those lyrics, that was John, not Vladimir Lennon.

Lennon never sang that song.

Imagined.

Uh, but, but, uh, you know, maybe over time and, but the Russians need to say, I used to argue this to the Russians all the time.

Look at Europe, like the, like Europe, integrated Europe, the countries that were warring, you know, the Germans and the French forever.

Now they're doing business together.

And as one German told me once, like it makes no sense for us to go to war with France anymore 'cause we'd be blowing up our own factories.

Right?

Which you and I talked about last time.

Why would Russia go in and even start this war?

And it's so harmful to growth for them and prosperity and opportunity and it's Putin wanting to do it.

Well, we probably have to ask ourselves too.

We gonna be controversial, but.

Like, why, why didn't they see that?

Like the, the benefit of kind of integrating economically trade?

Some Russians would say, because we were like shunned or we were kept out of the, the mix.

I don't know if that's true, but again, like I talk about the carrot, if the Russians start doing things, this is one, this is a criticism I have of the US policy over the last, let's say 10 years, maybe more.

We, we, we haven't really explained what the carrot is.

We, we, we either, we talk in kind of mushy terms or we talk about sanctions and punishment, but what is the reward?

If Russia does something positive, what if they, what if they pull their troops out of, you know, z uh, Lu, what are we gonna do?

Lift sanctions and secondary sanctions, I would think.

Okay.

Okay.

Then we lift sanctions and then, which is a carrot.

I think, I mean, but you're gonna get a lot of opposition for people to do that, right?

So, like, politically, in the United States and in Europe, you're gonna hear a lot.

And of course the Ukrainians are gonna say, you can't do that because like, they have to be punished for what they did.

So it's just gonna be very complicated.

Mm-hmm.

It's not gonna be easy.

The, the, the, the work on this is not gonna be done, let's say, you know, in three months if a peace agreement is signed, there's gonna be a lot more, a lot more work to be done, which is fine.

That's the way the world is.

Some great comments on our last videos.

One was this is too good for something that's free to listen to.

Fantastic discussion, very important coverage on what has been going on, what will be going on, and what will become of it.

Thank you both.

Thanks for having Glenn on again, Brian.

So you are the, uh, the focal point there.

Great.

If you could have him back on as a regular monthly guest, which is awesome, but I'm gonna find a very funny comment that someone left for us.

'cause I need to get your take on it.

One person said former CIA guys, might you recruit me here and I'll go get you high value secrets.

I, I saw that one.

Little late guy.

Sorry.

You're too late.

All right, here it is.

We could easily find a solution to all of this if we simply looked back at the great and historic Cold War documentary spies like Us and use the negotiation strategy that Emmett Fitz Hu so strategically employed, uh, that is from Valor Arc Designs.

That was the best comment I've seen in a long time.

So my question, Glen, you have obviously seen spies like us.

Yes.

I mean, just like, what are your thoughts on that movie?

Great movie great.

I mean, like, you can't even take it apart.

Like there's so many great, my favorite scene is when the KGB guys ca capture heavy chase in, uh, in like in the TA border.

And he's like, for every minute you don't answer the question, like, cut off a finger.

Yours are mine, right?

And he slaps at me.

He goes, whatcha hitting me for that?

Hurts.

And he says, why are you here?

Who said you're here?

Why are you here?

He says, why am I here?

Why are you here?

I think it was Jean Paul Sarra that said, uh, but let me refer to another movie, which I think goes a little bit like back more in history.

But every American should watch and it's called The Russians are Coming.

The Russians are coming.

It's a grant.

I don't know if you've ever seen it, Ryan.

It's a great, I I've not, no.

From the 1960s, Alan Arkin, who by the way, was a fluent Russian speaker, uh, grew up speaking Russian.

Alan Arkin, great actor.

Um, um, oh God, what's his name?

Jonathan Winters, who my mother knew.

And I'll tell you that story offline sometime.

Like my mother was an actress and a singer, so she knew Jonathan Winters, said he was one of the funniest human beings in the ever, and he was.

The cast.

But one of the things in this movie, it, you know, it was made in the sixties at the, kinda like right af, like the height of the Cold War, let's say.

And the idea of the movie was, um, like Russians and Americans like, are so scared of each other that they can get crazy and hysterical.

But at the end of the day, they're human beings, right.

There's a famous scene where this Russian submarine gets stuck off like some island, like Nantucket or somewhere in the, the New England, and the captain of the submarine sends a team to the island to steal a boat so they can try and tug, pull 'em off the, the, uh, the sandbar.

Alan Arkin leads this team.

They go into the town and they're like this escapade like stupidity.

The town goes on alert, they figure out, they think they're being invaded by Russia.

The militia, like the commander of the militia, is like a World War I vet.

He has a broken sword.

It's like very like there's a famous scene where at the end, the submarine comes into the harbor.

The, the captain of the submarine has like the, the, uh, deck gun trained on this village, like all the people in the village, and they all have their shotguns and their, you know, I don't know, blunder, busts, whatever, that they're ready to shoot the submarine.

And the captain, it's like a standoff.

And the, the sheriff, I forget the name of the actor, but great actor, the sheriff's, like, he stands, like, he goes toe to toe with this captain, and the captain threatens to shoot him, and the sheriff says, you're under arrest.

He starts to write him a citation.

For parking, a submarine, illegal or something.

And he, like Adam says, if you don't like do this, like I'm gonna fire on you.

And, uh, the sheriff of the town basically says You, if you don't think I'm scared, I'm scared, but I'm not gonna back down.

Right.

And then.

Like the, the Russians kind of back down.

Then there's, then the, alright, I'm not go through the whole story.

I won't waste your, your audience's time.

About our audience's time, but it's a great movie.

I recommend everybody like watch it.

And that one scene in particular, like I, I, I did something on LinkedIn where I posted that and I said like every US official that deals with Russia should watch that one scene.

Really?

Yeah.

Just ' cause of the deescalation.

The guy stood up, the sheriff, you know, that's like America to me.

He said, listen, I, I'm not gonna lie to you.

I'm scared like you may blow me up, but I'm not gonna back down like I'm doing the right thing.

I'm gonna stay in my ground.

And the United States needs to stand ground with Ukraine, in my opinion on this.

Let the Russians deescalate, let the Russians make some serious compromises, and then maybe we can have a better relationship with Russia in the future.

Where the Russians could benefit.

'cause I say this all the time, the Russians are the ones that are suffering as a result of this war.

Not as much as the Ukrainians unfortunately, but they are suffering.

And the shame your leadership is doing too, my opinion.

All right.

All right, Glen, thanks so much.

We appreciate it.

I know it's late where you are and, uh, I don't know where we'll see you next time, what classroom you'll be in, or maybe you're somewhere else overseas.

But, uh, looking forward to it.

Well, we'll find another issue.

I'm sure the world will bring us something to talk about and, uh, we'll find some people.

Interesting.

I find interesting people all the time to talk to, I was in the Home Depot yesterday and I, I don't know how this happened, but some, I was, there was a guy from the Middle East with his sons.

I was buying a shelf from my house and he starts talking to me and then he says, oh, have you seen me on tv?

I'm a big expert on like the Middle East, Saudi Arabia.

I'm a commentator.

I was a political scientist and a only, only in Northern Virginia could that happen at Home Depot.

Yeah.

And he is like a, he is like a Middle East expert and he is ask, asking me if I want him to come to my house and help put in a shelf.

That's great.

Yes.

Okay.

All right, Glen, thank you so much.