Mark Sleboda on Critical Hour with Garland Nixon

Some highlights:

On Scholz saying it may be time they talk to Putin: this isn't anything new, he said the same in June but Russia isn't interested in talking to him. He also said that Russia would have to make serious concessions for there to be peace talks even as the US and Europe come to grips with the fact that Ukraine is losing. And while he's saying all this, Germany just increased their military aid to Ukraine from €4 billion to €8 billion.

(about 11:00) On former NATO Sec-General Rasmussen proposing that Ukraine join NATO without the Russian-occupied territory: This is more substantial than just the information war, this is the end game. Rasmussen is now a personal advisor to Zelensky and he's not the only one talking about this.

This weekend retired US admiral Stavridis who was formerly NATO's top commander in Europe said the same thing, that the parts of Ukraine that aren't controlled by Russia be brought into NATO and that Article 5 be applied to that territory, i.e., any further military action by Russia would be an attack on NATO. From their comments, they seem to believe that Russia wouldn't continue the SMO if they did this despite that being one of the primary reasons for the SMO.

This is dangerously delusional but as the Kiev regime continues losing in a way the MSM and commentariat can't ignore you'll see the neocons pushing for direct NATO intervention and this is the way they intend to go about it.

(about 17:40) On fractures between political (Zelensky) and military (Zaluzhny) leadership in Kiev: in the last 24 hours it's been reported that 3 more military officials close to Zaluzhny were fired.

(Related, about 25:50), On claim about the former military officer said to have led the group of rando Ukrainians who purportedly sabotaged Nord Stream: the Washington Post piece said his ultimate commander was Zaluzhny so it may be an attempt to tar Zaluzhny, but Ukrainian Telegram channels are saying this guy is "an old loyalist to Poroshenko", who was the president before Zelensky. There's bad blood betweent these two, Zelensky tried to have Poroshenko arrested as a traitor to the country.

[and I think it was Larry Johnson who reported a split between MI6 and the CIA, with the former supporting Zaluzhny - ergo the flattering writeup about him in the Economist, a British publication - while the CIA is continuing to back Zelensky so it ought to get interesting.]

(about 20:10) On Kazakhstan, discussion of attempted coup before the SMO, question whether this was a color revolution or just something internal?: probably both. A Kazakhstan oligarch living in the West tried to put together a private thug force "hidden" within the protesters with the aim of seizing the country but this doesn't mean he didn't have the backing of the CIA, I don't think he would have attempted it without some backing from the US. Russia did send troops but they didn't participate, just provided backup guarding of military installations, etc. to free of Kazakhstan's police and military forces to deal with the rioting and protests.

Sleboda talked about the various ways that the relationship between Russia and Kazakhstan is complicated, something that's probably difficult for reductionist thinkers to comprehend.