“We have US citizens who are boarding a flight to go to Russia [and] maybe they are one of the only few chances that the US has to maintain a type of contact and have peace with Russia,” said former Ukrainian diplomat Andrii Telizhenko of figures like Ritter, who has vocally opposed US support for Ukraine in its conflict with Moscow. “These guys are being pulled off the plane and [having] their passports taken away without any reason.”

“I experienced it myself almost a couple of years ago,” said Telizhenko in response to the apparent act of political persecution, which resulted in Ritter’s passport being confiscated. “I had a 24-hour notice before boarding the plane. I got an email from the US embassy in Kiev stating that my visa got pulled and that I'm under investigation and sanctions without any other information.”

“People wanted Zelensky to bring peace and he promised that,” said the whistleblower, who claimed Zelensky was “bought off” by Western interests who favored military conflict with Russia. Observers have also noted Ukraine’s “neo-Nazi problem,” suggesting Zelensky may feel pressured against pursuing talks with Russia by extremist paramilitaries who forced former President Viktor Yanukovych out of power.

“It's one thing to say that the West should listen to Presidents Xi and Putin, but I would suggest to you that the West has long lost the ability to do so,” said Dr. Desai. “If you basically take the position that you do not wish to convert your economy into an open playground for our corporations, and if you don't do so, then we will consider you an autocrat, a dictator, a violator of our rules-based international order.”

“[US] hegemony has already ended,” said Desai. “My argument has always been in various books that I have argued, including my book Geopolitical Economy, it's never existed. What you've seen since the end of the Second World War, and even earlier in the 20th century, is a series of attempts on the part of the United States to impose its weight on the rest of the world.”

“But none of these attempts have ever succeeded,” she claimed. “We portray the Bretton Woods system as a US-created entity. When we do that, we forget that the United States actually wanted a far more free market world than what it got in 1945. By free market, I mean a world open to US corporations. It failed to get this… And the United States military has actually not won a single war.”

“Putin will not bluff on this, because this is what's going to be expected of the Russian people from their leader, to defend the country by any means, as we are pushing more and more,” said Oualaalou, noting that Moscow views the conflict as a matter of existential importance.

“The strategic alliance between Russia and China ain't going to be about taking over countries, ain't going to be about missile-producing or whatever. It's going to be about ensuring justice and fairness on the global stage… [With] these two countries – Russia and China – joined by others, NATO would stand no chance. The US would stand no chance,” he claimed.