Well, Sarah, I want to know more about

the Russian Chinese relationship. This

is the one thing I wanted to deep dive

with you because

>> my expertise finally.

>> There you go. But right now, you know,

Russia has it bad. It has a triple

header of issues. It has sticky

inflation. Growth is stagnant. Uh, and

the economic or the trade policy,

specifically oil prices. We mentioned

them in passing, but right now they're

selling at about what $346

a barrel. And that's without taking into

consideration concessions for the

Chinese or the Indians

>> and high Russian production costes cost

because they can't modernize their

facilities.

>> Yeah. Because of the sanctions. So how

much is Russia relying on China at this

point without the

>> I don't know what the data is. That must

be highly secret. Uh Russia has well the

Soviet Union lost its not all of its

empire but an awful lot of it. And then

China popped the belt road initiative

right there which is a Chinese bid to

take over that empire. And then China,

this is the the real positive about

China. They have no interest in a pro

economy, right? Because they don't have

enough. And so they are going to be the

big movers and shakers in the green

revolution. And that will be positive

for all of us since um the United States

is apparently not interested in these

things anymore and China has a mass

market for uh creating green energy

sources that it needs itself and it will

and it's been rapidly developing these

things. So that is very positive but it

suggests that while oil oil is going to

remain important because you need to use

it for certain things it's not going to

be uh the only energy that this it has

lost its centrality as the energy source

uh forever the way coal uh lost its

centrality when you get the oil

revolution and now we're going to go to

the next phase which will be

tremendously important. So Russia's

problem is it's blown its opportunity

to take

uh this period of high oil prices to

really make enduring

uh investments if leaders were all

operationally focused me staying in

power that's what Vladimir Putin's done

very successfully

instead of how can I make Russia itself

more prosperous and also the guy isn't

well educated, so he knows all his KGB

stuff and knows how to send Vagner

groups in to cap other people. That

would be And also disinformation. Boy,

the Russians are good at that. Uh

they've been excellent at it ever since

the Bolevixs. Understanding how to use

printed word podcasting now. Everyone's

social media accounts to stir things up.

They're all good at that stuff. But

fundamentally, it's not making Russia

more prosperous. And then with the

Ukraine war, a whole bunch of people

your age left,

>> right?

>> And they were some of the most promising

people Russia had.

>> And uh now when you're throwing out your

business partners from six floor

windows,

it's going to make people even more. How

can you be innovative in a country like

that? You can't be. So Russia's toast. I

can't imagine.

Well, Vladimir Putin is going to keep

doing just doubling down till he dies.

Obviously, he'll die like as we all

will. Who knows whether it'll be like

Stalin where the guy goes thud in the

next room and no one opens the door

until they go he must be dead by now. We

can now open the door. Literally, that's

and who knows if the story is really

true or whether something someone put

something interesting in his kasha that

morning. Unknown.

>> No, but I I I think that's true. It was

>> and then and then there's going to be a

leadership struggle, right? A real uh a

fight, no holes barred fight for who

becomes the next one. And the next one

will take a a good deal of time to

consolidate their power. And this is the

problem with dictatorships. They're

incredibly inefficient. They blow

through wealth. They uh suppress growth

because no one can be assured that their

work that they'll actually benefit from

it, right?

Uh there is no rule of law law. It's

just the desperates law. Whoever they

want to kill, that's it.

Um also unlike China, Russia doesn't

have this vibrant commercial tradition.

China always has had one. Since the Silk

Road, China's been producing

manufacturers, state-of-the-art

manufacturers that everyone has coveted.

It used to be silks and porcelain

manufacturers of th those days. And now

it's just all manner of of uh appliances

and things. I'm sure you've got some in

your in your flat and they're very good.

Right. So, Russ Russia's toast. They're

they're back to the Mongol yoke. Um and

their only way out of it would be to

settle to uh pull themselves out of

Ukraine, pay some reparations, and get

back into Europe. That's never going to

happen.