Ukraine has invaded Russia. Is it a turning point in the war?

0:00 Speaker 1 What is this morning, Sunday morning, is Mario Konomo. They give us a briefing and what the heck is going on in the UK and European community. He was a banker in Zurich, New York and London and well, Mario Konoma, there’s so many moving pieces going on. Let’s start in the UK where the UK is doing some unusual things lately.

0:26 Speaker 2 Yes, good morning, mister Katsimy TV’s indeed, they are the police commissioner, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner there announced during the recent rioting that was going on between far right groups and various immigrant groups and migrant groups as a result of a stabbing of several young girls in a school.

0:46 There have been a lot of arrests in the UK with respect to this ongoing rioting, and the police commissioner there has said that he’s not only going to settle for going after people in the UK, but he’s also want to settle for people that he’s going to arrange to have people extradited from other countries and specifically the US,

1:07 who are posting things on social media that are actually making these riots in the UK substantially more violent. The problem with that is I’m not sure how he can enforce that. Freedom of speech in the UK does not exist in the same way it does in the US.

1:26 So if you have a US citizen who’s posting things online which are not violating any laws in the US, but according to the Police commissioner in the UK, they’re violating laws in the UK, can he in fact actually enforce that And can he actually have people extradited?

1:44 Speaker 1 Well, can he prove that they sent that text or email? I guess from the UK. I guess you could tell from the internetline. Yeah.

1:56 Speaker 2 Well, the short answer is, I don’t know how you can enforce these things. Someone lives in another country and he’s actually posting things which are not a violation of the law in that country. Can you actually have them charged in your country and arrange for their extradition in your country? And if in fact you can, does that

2:13 mean that the United States will then hand over US citizens to the United Kingdom so that they can be prosecuted on their UK law for violations in the UK which are not violations in the US. And the short answer is I don’t know. But it’s just very interesting.

2:29 I think that this is actually a measure which is being considered, and it actually has a very chilling effect on freedom of speech in my opinion. Everywhere.

2:41 Speaker 1 It is mind bubbling, It is mind buddling. What else is going on? I mean, I think this is a stupid thing the United Kingdom is doing, and I don’t think it’s possible. But it’s their country, and if you’re standing in if you’re standing in their country, they’re subject to their laws.

3:03 Speaker 2 That’s correct. But the problem is if you’re not standing in their country and you’re in the US and you’re a US citizen, AREU subject to their laws? In any event, I’m sure there will be a lot of legal opinions that will be drawn up with respect to this. I thought maybe we could actually switch gears for a second

3:17 and go over to Iran and some figures which were released basically in four years from twenty to now twenty twenty four, Iran has essentially tripled its oil revenues from roughly nine billion to over twenty eight billion dollars, and that’s a pretty substantial increase. The good news about that is, given this large increase in their oil revenues as a

3:47 result of trade that they’re engaging in, I suspect Iran will be very reluctant to do anything militarily against Israel or anyone else, because it’s not in any hurry to want to jeopardize this revenue and this income stream, which in fact does help the country out tremendously. I don’t know how it’s going to play out. I don’t know

4:05 what’s going to happen, but I do know that money talks, and I suspect the revenue situation will make Iran be very careful with respect to how it does or how it goes about engaging any country in any type of war.

4:20 The downside, of course, to this is that there are countries now that are trading with Iran for oil, two new ones, apparently Bangladesh and Oman, and this means that they’re no longer concerned about US sanctions because they’re actually settling the trades bilaterally, meaning between their two countries in their two currencies. So once again we see the US sanctions.

4:45 Although we’ve discussed in the past the strength of blocking transactions on the swift transfer system, a lot of countries are not terribly concerned, and they’re able to go ahead and bypass US that and engage in trade directly. We also do have another development which is very interesting, and that is specifically one between the Emirates, the United Arab

5:09 Emirates and India where they’re now actually trading in something called the XRP ledger, and this is a system that uses blockchain and cryptocurrency or digital currency, which completely bypasses the US dollar. The Emirates, it seems, were the first to actually introduce this, and they’ve essentially beat China and Russia to the punch with respect to settling trade and

5:34 something completely separate of the US dollar that uses blockchain and cryptocurrency. So it’s something else that everybody is going to need to keep an eye on. It’s good for the young people because for them it’ll be easy to learn another currency. It’s going to be a little tricky for us older folks because we now have to learn

5:53 another currency if in fact this does take hold, and that’s a task that’s easier said than done, of course at are age. But it’ll be interesting to see how this evolves.

6:04 Speaker 1 Understood. What else would you like to talk about this Sunday night.

6:10 Speaker 2 I think we should close with the latest with respect to the Ukrainian what’s happening there it’s a little difficult to report on this move that the Ukrainians made into Russia, this incursion that’s been going on now they are roughly twenty miles inside of inside of Russia. First time any country, any army has invaded since World War II Russian the

6:35 country of Russia they are currently according to the Ukrainians, they currently occupy roughly eleven hundred square kilometers and mister Zelenski has said he’s now prepared to sit down and discuss with the Russians the exchange of territories. However, the reality is he’s currently if what he’s saying is true, holding eleven hundred square kilometers, the Russians currently control the

6:58 Dombas is fifty three thousand square kilometers, So I’m not sure President Putin is going to be in any mood to discuss any type of trade arrangement whereby everybody goes back to their borders. The Russians are also, the Russians are in the process of movement.

7:18 Speaker 1 I’m sorry, I think you’ll correct on that.

7:22 Speaker 2 Yes, and the Russians also have now moved out one hundred and twenty one thousand people out of that area in the course region and they’re continuing to move people out. And the reason they’re moving people out is not because they’re concerned that these Ukrainians will stay. But I suspect what the Russians are going to do is they’re going

7:40 to move their people out. Then they’re going to cut off the supply lines behind the Ukrainians, which will make logistical resupply of the Ukrainian troops, which roughly number about twelve thousand, impossible, and then the Russians will go in and decimate all of them. It’s tragic, but that’s what’s going to happen.

8:00 Speaker 1 Let’s see what happens. Mario Knomu, thank you for the update for all the American people, and we’ll catch up with you again real soon.

8:07 Speaker 2 Thank you and enjoy your day