💥BEN HODGES: Putin PARANOID about ASSASSINATION — closest aides PURGED!

Added: 2026-05-18

[00:00:00]According to the new reporting by CNN, Kremlin has dramatically increased personal security around Vladimir Putin, installing surveillance systems in the homes of close aids as part of new measures prompted by a wave of assassinations of Russia's top military command and fears of coup, according to report from European intelligence agency obtained by CNN. Putin also fears a coup from his inner circle and focus is on Sergey Shoygu, former Russia's defense minister. What is your take on this another paranoia from the Kremlin?

[00:00:41]Also, they fear a possible assassination by cheap low-cost drone.

[00:00:50]Well, this is always how it is with dictators and uh uh yeah, with with dictators, they fear their own people more than they do any enemy.

[00:01:01]Um So, um I I imagine that Putin and his closest advisers recognize that people are unhappy with what with what's going on. That is he has ruined Russia.

[00:01:18]Um and it doesn't look like it's ever going to get any better. So, and and of course, there is no traditional retirement plan for a a dictator. He can't just go live in Valdai or uh somewhere else on the Black Sea coast, uh you know, Sochi for the rest of his days and and enjoy his retirement. That's That's not going to happen. He's going to be for the rest of his life looking over his shoulder. And so, um I I I can imagine that they are concerned.

[00:01:54]Um but it's interesting to me also that the intelligence agencies would choose to release this information publicly.

[00:02:01]So, um there's a reason for that. I don't know what it is.

[00:02:06]Um but I think it it does exploit the paranoia that uh I think Putin has. He's he's always had. And and I think this this will exacerbate that.

[00:02:21]Let's also go back to US. Has US already lost all leverage over Ukraine and with this negotiators incompetent as you just mentioned, do you still consider US an ally of Ukraine?

[00:02:38]Well, millions of Americans are supporters of Ukraine for sure. Uh but unfortunately, I don't I don't see the current US administration doing anything to help Ukraine. They they seem to take the uh the side of the Kremlin constantly.

[00:02:58]Uh they echo Kremlin talking points still, which is unbelievable to me. I mean, it was just a couple of weeks ago when uh our vice president bragged that their proudest accomplishment was stopping the aid to Ukraine. I mean, but it's unbelievable that an American vice president would say that. Um so I but unfortunately, that's where we are. Uh the Secretary of Defense, Mr. Hexif, doesn't go to the normal meetings anymore. Uh that where they talk about aid for Ukraine. So, uh it's hard to consider this administration as an ally of Ukraine. But I but I would say most of the Congress supports Ukraine.

[00:03:42]Um most Americans support Ukraine. I still see and hear it all the you know, I'm I'm looking forward to our own midterm elections in November where hopefully there will be democratic control of at least part of the Congress.

[00:04:01]That will have that will change things somewhat, I believe.

[00:04:06]Let's also cover US-Israel war against Iran and outcome of this campaign. What is your personal take on this and your position on results of this war, main successes and main weaknesses revealed by this campaign?

[00:04:27]So, first, this is very uncomfortable for me to to be critical of my own government in a war.

[00:04:39]But almost nobody believes anything that the administration says, the secretary says, the president on how they describe things.

[00:04:48]Um the I think the president really desperately wants to get out of this mess as quickly as he can. There's enormous pressure building in the in in the US because of the impact of the war on gas prices, on inflation.

[00:05:09]And of course >> [clears throat] >> millions of Americans voted for him because he said no more wars, going to fix inflation, we're going to end the war in Ukraine in 20 All these things and obviously none of these things has happened. And so there's a huge amount of pressure building on the president and he would like to get out of this mess that he has created. But part of the problem is that they they can't even acknowledge the actual situation. The president keeps talking about, you know, Iran has no navy, they have no air force, we've destroyed it, we destroyed it, but yet Iran still controls who goes through the Strait. Iran still has enriched uranium.

[00:05:53]The regime did not change. You have different people, but it's still the same regime and maybe even more hardline. And Iran still has the ability to hit targets in UAE, for example. So, I don't I don't see a positive outcome soon.

[00:06:11]Now, it could be that the what the US Navy has been tasked to do, their blockade of Iranian ports, that will that puts a lot of pressure on Iran. There's no doubt about that. If they're not able to export oil anywhere, and if they're not able to collect tolls from ships passing through the Strait, then the domestic situation inside Iran will get much worse.

[00:06:39]So, that there there's pressure on the other side, too. So, the president could be right here. So, I guess it comes down to which side blinks first. Is the pressure on the US side greater than what's on the Iranian side? What role will China play? You know, the president goes to China in about a week or a few days.

[00:07:02]And I think that the the Chinese, of course, depend on oil coming out of the Gulf.

[00:07:10]They they could have a role to play here in in changing things.

[00:07:16]Otherwise, I I think we're going to be stuck in this situation for a while.

[00:07:23]And the US Air Force, US Navy, special operators, you know, they'll continue to be ready to launch more strikes if tasked to do so. But this is expensive, and you've got people out there just waiting.

[00:07:40]Um I don't I don't know what how it's going to which way it's going to go. Uh the enemy always has a vote. You know, the the president declared a what I think is a fake ceasefire and the Iranians don't go along with it. So, we're going to have to see.

[00:08:00]He just mentions that this becomes so-called war of attrition for both sides and it would outcome would be defined by which side is ready to to hand hand on more more time. But, don't you think that Iran is ready to sacrifice much more rather than US with midterms elections looming in the upcoming months and President Trump being uh pushed by his Republican allies to do something with to solve these problems before this getting even worse right right before midterms? Yeah, that's that's the key.

[00:08:43]That's what I mean when I say which side blinks first.

[00:08:48]The Iranians, at least it looks to me, they act as if they have time on their side.

[00:08:58]What I don't know, I I don't have a feel for the pressure inside Iran.

[00:09:04]Um it looks like they are firmly in control.

[00:09:10]But, I don't I don't know.

[00:09:13]Um So, at least the on the from the outside, it looks like the Iranians are doing things as if they have as as much time as they need.

[00:09:26]Also, Professor Robert Pape says this US-Israel war against Iran is is this is biggest failure for US since the Vietnam war. Do you share this assessment?

[00:09:41]Well, certainly um all of the strategic objectives that the president laid out over the in the weeks before and since um that were more like justifications uh almost none of them have been accomplished.

[00:09:59]At enormous cost uh we now have a situation that we did not have 2 months ago before the war.

[00:10:06]Um you know, oil was moving through the strait.

[00:10:10]That Iran was not stopping anybody.

[00:10:13]Now they Now they control the strait.

[00:10:16]And they still have the uranium. Uh you have a regime still in place. Iranian people still uh under control of the uh of the uh regime.

[00:10:28]So, I don't I don't know how um you can how the administration can claim anything other like that somehow that they're winning.

[00:10:40]The fact that they have destroyed so much Iranian capability is not relevant to the fact of who controls the strait who's in charge, who has nuclear material.

[00:10:52]That's also called an interesting article by The Economist with title how China hopes to win from this war in Iran. And this is interesting uh wording here, quote, "Never interrupt your enemy when he's making a mistake."

[00:11:10]What is your reaction to this and US-Israeli war against Iran? And how does this affect China's position around the globe?

[00:11:18]So, the Chinese, of course, are watching closely because they have an interest in in getting the oil that comes out of the gulf. I mean, they they are, I think, the biggest uh customer of oil that comes out of the Persian Gulf.

[00:11:34]Um so they obviously will be looking for other sources um whether it's from Russia or or elsewhere to meet their requirements.

[00:11:45]But they have an interest in in how this plays out. Um I can imagine that uh countries are working directly with Iran to find ways to bypass you know, to pay and get the oil that they need. I can imagine some of that's happening, but I I don't know that.

[00:12:03]Um the this meeting between President Trump and President Xi coming up in a in a few days, I think will be very important.

[00:12:10]And and and this will be part of the the conversation those two leaders will have.

[00:12:16]Uh because China will want to see an end to this conflict. Uh but at the at the same time they are helping Iran with some intelligence, with some components. Not much, but um I believe like Russia China is actually helping is actually helping uh Iran.

[00:12:37]And then of course the Chinese are watching closely what our navy, what our air force are able to do, what kind of capabilities we have.

[00:12:45]And I suspect they also are paying close attention to how much of our ammunition we are expending. What how many Tomahawks, how many Patriot, how many uh other [clears throat] weapons have been expended. You know, that's that's them. We would be doing the same thing by the way. You know, building the intelligence picture of your potential adversary.

[00:13:07]And final topic for today, US withdrawal from Germany and conflict between President Trump and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

[00:13:17]So US Department of Defense plans to withdraw 5,000 troops from Germany amid uh conflict between President Trump and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz over the war with Iran. How could this influence NATO US relations with European allies and do we still have NATO alliance?

[00:13:40]We do still have NATO.

[00:13:42]The alliance has been through a lot worse times throughout its history. So I I have confidence that the alliance will still be standing after after the Trump administration is gone.

[00:13:54]But certainly some countries have not done what they're supposed to do and and that leaves them vulnerable to these criticisms by the United States.

[00:14:02]Germany is not one of those countries.

[00:14:05]Germany did not restrict anything that we were trying to do. That was Spain and Italy.

[00:14:12]But the president of course has always been critical of Germany and he uh was offended by the German Bundeskanzler saying that US was being humiliated by Iran and that we clearly did not have a strategy.

[00:14:31]And now some people even Germans have criticized Merz for being so blunt.

[00:14:36]Um which is kind of the German way but uh Mr. Trump is so thin-skinned that um he he has I believe that the timing of this decision was tied directly to his desire to seem to punish Merz uh for saying that. I think the decision had already been made at some point or they've been working on this as a force posture review for some time.

[00:15:06]Um but I think that uh they deliberately timed it to look like punishment. Uh this is going to hurt us the United States much more than it will hurt Germany. Um The know, troops are not in Germany to protect Germans. They're part of the US contribution to NATO, but they also are part of our ability to project power into Africa and to the Middle East.

[00:15:32]Um, and it's it's important for our readiness because we always are going to be fighting alongside allies. And so you have to train and and work with them.

[00:15:42]And um, it's just a very short-sighted decision by the administration that's going to hurt us more than it will hurt the Germans.

[00:15:51]Um, it's interesting, you know, people talk about 5,000, but what what we're talking about is not just, you know, 5,000 out of 35,000. It's the only combat brigade that we have permanently in Germany.

[00:16:08]It's the Stryker regiment, which is a very, very good combat unit, very mobile, lots of firepower, lots of infantry, able to move very quickly.

[00:16:20]Um, and that's the brigade that they're going to move out of Germany.

[00:16:23]So, um, that's that's a big reduction in capability.

[00:16:29]Now, it looks to me that this is not tied to any particular strategy that improves America's defensive posture, for example. I don't I don't know how this helps us.

[00:16:40]Um, if they move this regiment to uh Poland or Romania, at least keep it in Europe, then uh the the damage is not as significant, although it will be a long time before they would have bases and training areas in Romania or Poland that are ready that are equal to what the unit already has in Bavaria.

[00:17:05]Uh, if they send it back to the states or inactivate it, that would be a dramatic reduction in deterrent capability and a huge mistake.