RUSSIA IS ABANDONING ITS ALLIES: The Kremlin cannot help itself, nor others

Añadido: 2026-05-06

[00:00:00]Russian dictator Putin loves the word alliance, but he cannot stand the word responsibility. For the Kremlin, the US, and Israeli operation against the regime in Iran became a moment of truth, a moment when all of Putin's speeches about mutual assistance were supposed to translate into concrete action. But that is where things got interesting.

[00:00:20]Remember all that talk about the strategic partnership between Moscow and Thran? It sounded loud, almost convincing. But the moment the situation escalated, the so-called axis of evil suddenly dissolved into a dotted line.

[00:00:35]And where is the legendary Putin support, the promised solidarity? Where is the proof that Russians don't abandon their own? Silence. And this is no accident. This is the system. My name is Yuri Kulinich. This is the project by the Kremlin's law.

[00:01:07]For Putin, any ally is purely a resource, not an obligation, not a value, a tool. And when the tool starts to burn, it doesn't get rescued. It simply gets written off.

[00:01:20]Igor Yakovenko, a Russian journalist and sociologist, believes that events in Iran, as in Syria and Venezuela, put Putin's Russia in what can only be called an awkward position. When everyone is asking the question, has Putin lost what he always considered his calling card, the reputation of a politician who supposedly never abandons his own?

[00:01:44]Right now that particular statement actually looks rather satirical because if you simply consider the examples of Bashar al-Assad, Nicholas Maduro and Ayatollah Ali Kamune, you can see very clearly that being an ally of Putin essentially means being betrayed in the end. It means in practice that absolutely anything at all can be done to you while Putin himself sits and observes from the Kremlin and in the very best case scenario expresses some sort of vague indignation about whatever has just been done to you.

[00:02:21]In any case, he has not in reality helped any of them in any meaningful way. not Assad, not Maduro, and not even his principal military ally, Ayatollah Ali Kami.

[00:02:34]This will most certainly have an effect and indeed has already had a very visible effect on his standing on the international stage.

[00:02:43]And it is reasonably clear that to some considerable degree, all of this will only deepen his international isolation even further. There is a fairly simple way to assess Moscow's support for its Syrian, Iranian, or Venezuelan partners in the so-called axis of evil. How real is that assistance in the context of Russia's war against Ukraine? Clearly, a large-scale confrontation demands colossal resources and the Kremlin's attention. Political analyst Vladimir Faceno argues that it is precisely Putin's involvement in the war against Ukraine that limits his ability to help dictatorial regimes. Simply put, the resources are not there, neither military nor economic because there are no spare weapons, no spare ammunition, and Russia right now is channeling essentially everything it produces into the war against Ukraine.

[00:03:39]But in reality, in the case of Iran, I think the main factor is not only the inability to support Iran because they need the weapons themselves and Russia itself is short of them. The problem also lies in its relations with the United States. And that is where a very strong geopolitical contradiction emerges.

[00:04:01]On the one hand, Russia has traditionally and quite consistently positioned itself as the principal alternative to the influence of the United States across the world. That in essence is the so-called axis of evil that we are now talking about. It is of course a rather old term, but it has come back into active political usage over the past several years right after the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine. And especially because a whole number of countries that have historically positioned themselves as adversaries of the United States, namely North Korea and Iran, began openly and directly helping Russia in this war.

[00:04:42]Since the start of the war against Ukraine, Iran began supplying Russia with its drones, its military UAVs, and the term Shahid has now entered everyday speech. These military drones are no longer called anything but Shahid. Even though there are many different variants and this was precisely because Iran was the supplier of this weaponry to Russia and then North Korea came in.

[00:05:10]So what emerged was this configuration, this triangle, an axis of evil >> which was effectively at war with Ukraine. Russia directly then North Korea joined in >> and uh Iran supplied the weapons but there was also an indirect adversary, the United States.

[00:05:31]>> The situation grew more complicated when Donald Trump moved into the White House.

[00:05:36]He began playing a very peculiar and seemingly rather personal political game with the Russian dictator in which Putin is trying to play along. And that is precisely why the Kremlin furer one way or another does not want to disappoint the American president.

[00:05:52]And a question for our viewers on YouTube. In your opinion, why is Putin actually afraid of Trump? Leave your comments under this video.

[00:06:01]It is precisely this special attitude of Putin's toward Trump and his clear unwillingness to fall out with Trump in any way that is in fact one of the principal factors weakening Russia's partnership relations with those allies that are so deeply and openly anti-American.

[00:06:17]Right now, this is becoming especially visible and pronounced in the case of Iran. Let me give you one very concrete example of what I mean. Already in the very first days after the start of the US and Israeli military operation against Iran, North Korea publicly came out and stated that it was not in fact prepared to supply any weapons to Iran.

[00:06:36]This was most likely simply a PR move, a kind of geopolitical positioning by the North Korean regime, which in this way demonstrated that against the United States, it was prepared to back up its other anti-American partner, especially since certain ties between them had already existed for some time before this. But North Korea cannot in practice deliver any weapons to Iran directly.

[00:06:59]They can either try to do it by sea, but the Americans simply will not allow that. they will block the routes or alternatively they can try to do it through the territory of Russia and I'm quite certain that the Putin regime will not officially and openly allow this to happen precisely so as not to fall out with Trump. Yes, there may well be some covert deliveries of certain individual types of weapons of certain components of certain kinds of ammunition. But if any of this comes to light publicly then it already becomes a real risk of direct conflict between the Kremlin and the White House. What is more, the United States would then have a perfectly direct pretext to, for example, begin striking Iranian ports on the Caspian Sea if any kind of military or economic assistance is being delivered there from Russia or from North Korea by way of Russia? So, this is all in all a very deeply contradictory situation.

[00:07:51]And here a simple question arises.

[00:07:53]Doesn't Moscow see Washington's actions toward Iran as well, a kind of betrayal?

[00:07:59]For decades, the Kremlin built its foreign policy on the principle that allies come and go, but interests remain. But now, Russia itself finds itself in the club of the abandoned.

[00:08:11]Meanwhile, Lavough, Zaharava, and the rest of the talking heads grumble, saying, "Look, we had such good meetings." In Anchorage, Trump met with Putin. In Geneva, the special envoys met. And then the Pentagon turns around and bombs their strategic partner.

[00:08:29]Igor Alexandrovich. Does the Russian side view the Americans actions as a stab in the back?

[00:08:36]>> Yes. Regarding the so-called spirit of Anchorage and how it is somehow gradually fading away into nothing, that trend is certainly there. No question about it. As for the role of Trump himself in all of this here, there is in fact a certain amount of disagreement. I don't want to say that the idea you're describing is entirely absent from the Russian public conversation. Indeed, Lavrov himself talks about it. But you know, the chief propagandist of all ruse, Vladimir Salovio, recently came out with the opposite position. He said that Trump has nothing to do with this at all, that this is an original American idea, that Trump has nothing to do with it, that it is the Americans, >> even though it is perfectly wellnown that the situation in reality is exactly the opposite, that American society is extremely critical of this war, that Trump was unable to convince ordinary Americans, was unable even to convince his own Congress that this war was somehow necessary, that this military strike on Iran was somehow necessary.

[00:09:37]But Soliv in a certain way is speaking from a position of essentially justifying Trump, saying that Trump has nothing to do with it, that it was all America without him personally, so to speak. You get the impression.

[00:09:52]In reality, when you look closely, there is no single coordinated Kremlin position on Trump.

[00:10:01]America is Russia's main enemy. before that the Soviet unions and now Russia's.

[00:10:06]Now this is being confirmed again and it collides with Putin's official position a very serious dissonance has emerged.

[00:10:16]Not just cognitive but political. This of course on top of breaking those propaganda frames that had been formed last year around Trump and that have been playing out in Russian propaganda it also deepens the Kremlin's distrust of Washington. What should now be expected from Trump and God forbid? What if he takes some action against Putin himself?

[00:10:40]Everyone understands this is unlikely.

[00:10:43]Trump is not going to take actions like those against Maduro or Kam. He will not act that way toward the leaders of China or Russia because that is the risk of nuclear war.

[00:10:54]And with the leaders of those countries, Trump is far more likely to negotiate and to look for a deal. But nonetheless, the old paranoia about the Americans has flared up all over again. And now it extends as well to Trump himself personally. That is the new and in many ways unexpected development.

[00:11:16]Today, Russian geopolitics, to put it mildly, is shrinking. Not long ago, the Kremlin liked to talk about some global influence. friends across the global south, strategic partners from Latin America to the Caucasuses. But lately, that map has narrowed noticeably. And now I would like to put a question to you, our viewers. Which countries in your opinion are still under the influence of Putin's Russia? Leave your likes and comments under this video.

[00:11:45]Igor Alexandrovich. If the trend continues, what lies ahead for the Kremlin is not the multipolar world Putin so loves to talk about, but a world in which the Kremlin's influence may geographically shrink to the size of Lucenko's Bellarus.

[00:12:02]>> You know, we cannot really speak about this as some kind of absolute totalizing phenomenon. As for the postsviet space specifically, here it is an irreversible and by this point pretty much final trajectory because there's simply nothing left here that could realistically be changed anymore. Let's just sit down and count it out. The three Baltic states, a final, definitive, and irrevocable minus.

[00:12:27]Ukraine, a final, definitive, and irrevocable minus.

[00:12:32]uh >> the states of the south caucuses here you can really only speak of some remaining residual influence in the case of Georgia because Azerbaijan frankly is already a severed branch. Economic relations are of course still in place and a certain outward cordiality is still preserved something resembling an imitation of cordiality but it is perfectly obvious that Azerbaijan has by now definitively slipped out from under Russian influence. It currently lies under the influence of an entirely different empire and in some respects has effectively become a part of it. And here I mean Turkey of course. As for Armenia, its steady, undeniable, almost methodical drift away from Russia is by now also a simple fact. Georgia is still somehow holding on. But even this in all likelihood is also a temporary phenomenon.

[00:13:30]As for the entire rest of the world, I would not make such categorical claims here because in the countries of Africa for instance, the influence is still very much there.

[00:13:42]And in a number of cases, that influence is even reinforced by the continued existence of that very same Vagner PMC.

[00:13:53]But it is still there in the Central African Republic and in a whole range of other states besides somewhere it is Putin's money that is doing the work and somewhere there are still loyal governments in place.

[00:14:10]>> They do exist, the loyal ones, but can we really say the Kremlin actually supports them? When Putin speaks about allies, it sounds like an advertisement for eternal friendship. For years, Moscow kept insisting Syria is a strategic partner. Venezuela is a brotherly regime, and Russia, of course, never abandons its own. In Syria itself, Russian backing was long presented as an example of some kind of geopolitical loyalty. But the moment Assad was overthrown, the inflated strategic partnership was zeroed out in an instant, and the only thing the Kremlin could do for its Syrian friend was to give him a roof in Moscow. That's it. At this point, the bloody Syrian tyrant has lost all his former influence and wealth. With Venezuela, the story is even more touching. Moscow handed out generous loans, promised protection from the West, and told tales of a multipolar world. But when Maduro was hauled off to the United States in handcuffs, Russia's support came exclusively in the form of press releases. Putin's foreign policy increasingly resembles some strange insurance policy. You pay the premiums for years, but when the crisis hits, it turns out that unfortunately your case isn't covered. And now I want to turn to our viewers on YouTube with this question. Why, in your opinion, does Putin constantly lie to his allies?

[00:15:32]Leave your likes and comments under this video.

[00:15:36]Vladimir Vetlavich, how would you personally now answer the question of how much the worn out phrase that Russians don't abandon their own actually matches reality?

[00:15:48]Putin is precisely the one who actually abandons his own. We saw that in the case of Maduro, in the case of Assad.

[00:15:55]Well, in the most extreme case, he may agree to let them live out their period of exile somewhere on Russian territory.

[00:16:02]There have been examples of that as well. We already saw it once with Yanukovich. And now with Assad, they are simply given refuge in Moscow. That is essentially the best case of them not abandoning their own and yet not helping them either. But Madura was effectively abandoned.

[00:16:19]In the case of Kame again absolutely nothing was done in order to help Iran in order to defend Iran in any way. So in the entire foreign policy of Russia this whole principle that Russians don't abandon their own is being disproved in the fullest possible measure. But I would also draw your attention to the fact that Putin abandons his own inside Russia as well inside his own political regime. And here too there are frankly a great many examples. The most telling and instructive of them is of course Poggojan and what eventually happened to Wagner. Pgojan dared in his open conflict with Russia's military leadership with the then defense minister Shyigu and the chief of the general staff Garzov to issue what amounted to nothing less than a military challenge to actually march on Moscow.

[00:17:08]Uh that was a shock for Putin. What happened to Pgoan? We know Pogosian was eliminated and this too is a very telling example when he was needed for the war in Syria in the various operations in Africa. They freely used him. They used him in the war against Ukraine as well. And then when he became unneeded, they simply got rid of him.

[00:17:27]And we are now seeing fresh purges underway, more at the regional level perhaps, but a clear new wave of purges.

[00:17:34]Maybe these are not Stalin's repressions of 1937.

[00:17:38]They are not being shot or physically exterminated. But very many people have already ended up behind bars in prison.

[00:17:44]And no amount of personal loyalty saves anyone. So this whole propaganda cliche that Russia doesn't abandon its own, that Russians don't abandon their own is being refuted in actual practice both in Russia's foreign policy and in its domestic affairs as well.

[00:18:03]>> Can foreign policy failures affect domestic loyalty to the head of the Kremlin? If we are talking about the so-called Petersburg elites, then publicly, of course, everything between them and Putin is just splendid. In the Russian political system, it cannot be otherwise. There you are expected to love the leader loudly, unanimously, and preferably with a lump in your throat.

[00:18:26]But all of them, just like Putin himself, watch very closely the fates of other seemingly eternal dictators.

[00:18:33]and events around Iran only heighten the nervousness in Kremlin offices.

[00:18:38]Such stories always serve as an unwelcome reminder. In world politics, there are no eternal regimes. Igor Alexandrovich. I understand that no one will actually say this to Putin out loud. But somewhere at the level of private reflection, the question must still arise. What if one day he too ends up on the list of those spoken about only in the past tense?

[00:19:03]Yes, absolutely. This entire line of reasoning by analogy is very much there.

[00:19:08]It does indeed push Putin personally and quite directly. People who at one time were close to Putin themselves have testified to the fact that he was enormously profoundly struck by those final 40 minutes of Gaddafi's life.

[00:19:22]>> Terrifying minutes to put it quite plainly. and the fact that it made an enormous impression on Putin that he tried it on for himself in his own mind is by now absolutely obvious. There's also no doubt at all that Putin has very much tried the eventual fate of Ayatollah Ali Kamini on for himself as well. And that too is fairly obvious.

[00:19:43]And by the way, this is also a genuinely important story line in its own right because in modern history in the entire 21st century, this was in fact the very first case of such an ending to the life of, so to speak, a sitting head of state who was at the same time a member of the United Nations.

[00:20:01]And incidentally, this also shifts the so-called Overton window a little bit in the direction of what I personally see as an entirely correct and necessary idea, namely the necessity of eliminating another, so to speak, leader, another, I would even say terrorist number one on the entire planet Earth, meaning Putin himself.

[00:20:21]Because this idea is, in my view, absolutely correct. Now the other question is that at this moment there is no political will. But political will appears when it becomes evident that eliminating Putin is the right step and probably the simplest and cheapest way to end this war.

[00:20:38]>> Defeat in the war against Ukraine is the end of both Putin himself and his regime into the furnace of the so-called special military operation. The dictator threw everything, money, resources, foreign policy, and the allies, the ones the Kremlin was boasting about with such grand pos just recently, let them sort themselves out somehow. Putin cannot help them with anything and doesn't particularly want to. He is too deeply bogged down in the war against Ukraine, and the situation for Russia is dire.

[00:21:09]Let influence collapse, let partners disappear. But from Ukraine, Putin will not retreat, even if the price becomes ruinous. But if the Kremlin furer has staked everything on a single war, then what based on this could be the ending of his regime?

[00:21:26]>> The very framing of your question already contains within it an assertion about the irrationality of Putin's actions.

[00:21:33]And that is in fact entirely the case.

[00:21:37]As a rule, when international observers and politicians try to analyze Russia, to analyze Putin's actions, they very often tend to overrationalize him. That is, they try to predict his actions and to build their relations with Russia on the assumption that there is a high level of rationality in Russia, of what is advantageous, of what is disadvantageous.

[00:22:00]And in doing so, they entirely ignore precisely that very irrationality which is in fact deeply embedded in the very structure of Putin's personality itself.

[00:22:11]Boris Yafimovic Nemsoff in his own time once said certain words about Putin which I'm not in any way going to repeat here on the air of your channel because they are frankly unprintable. But I think everyone without exception remembers perfectly well exactly what it was that Nemsoff at that moment said about Putin.

[00:22:31]>> And it is the simple truth. He really and truly does have this fixation specifically on Ukraine. For him, this has become such an overvalued, almost obsessive idea that Ukraine itself must not exist at all. And he acts entirely irrationally as a result. In fact, this enormous war that he himself unleashed in the very heart of Europe is itself the clearest evidence of his irrational behavior. Because the point is not just that this war is profoundly criminal.

[00:22:57]It is also a profound mistake.

[00:23:00]To attempt to wage war against a major European state with the kind of forces he currently has at his disposal is frankly sheer madness.

[00:23:10]In reality, what Putin has done is set in motion the countdown to the self-destruction of the entire Russian Empire.

[00:23:21]>> The US and Israeli operation in Iran has once again cast a spotlight on Putin's twisted understanding of the word partnership.

[00:23:30]On the one hand, the Russian dictator can quietly paddle away from his old drowning allies so as not to suddenly upset Trump. On the other, he can toss Tyrron some intelligence data, satellite imagery, and a couple of friendly tips on where best to aim the drones. In short, geopolitics Putin style, promise everyone, answer for nothing, and act very surprised when the friends suddenly run out. And obviously, when the Iranian regime falls, the most Moscow will do is give KA Jr. a place to stay. According to a number of media reports, he has reportedly already fled to Russia for medical treatment. And there you have it again, in all its glory, the lavish maximum of Russian style strategic partnership. This is the project by the Kremlin's law. My name is Yuri Kulinich.