A View from Afar – In this podcast, political scientist Paul Buchanan and Selwyn Manning will analyse the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Specifically, we will examine how the invading forces of Russia are struggling against a determined and well-equipped Ukraine defence.

What can we expect next from Russia?

How can western nations sustain the sanctions regime, and is there an intensifying risk of sanctions evasion taking place?

How stable is the wider region, and how serious is the fomenting unrest among the Balkan states?

How advanced is the Eurozone in facing the reality that Russia has the advantage of cutting gas supplies as winter advances in the next few months?

How sustainable is Russia’s alliance-making effort with the Stan states, the PRC, and what the west regards as rogue states like Iran, Venezuela, DPRK, Cuba, Nicaragua?

And finally, how can Russian Federation president, Vladimir Putin survive a military stalemate?

Join Paul and Selwyn for this LIVE recording of this podcast while they consider these big issues, and remember any comments you make while live can be included in this programme.

You can comment on this debate by clicking on one of these social media channels and interacting in the social media’s comment area. Here are the links:

• Facebook.com/selwyn.manning
• Youtube
• Twitter.com/Selwyn_Manning

If you miss the LIVE Episode, you can see it as video-on-demand, and earlier episodes too, by checking out EveningReport.nz or, subscribe to the Evening Report podcast here.

The MIL Network’s podcast A View from Afar was Nominated as a Top  Defence Security Podcast by Threat.Technology – a London-based cyber security news publication.

Threat.Technology placed A View from Afar at 9th in its 20 Best Defence Security Podcasts of 2021 category. You can follow A View from Afar via our affiliate syndicators.

We in New Zealand hear so little about the tragedy unfolding in Eastern Europe, including the Baltic and Caucasian States. These countries have very cold winters, increased inequality, poverty, and popular nationalism (aka ‘populism’). But they are low on the queue for media coverage (and we don’t tend to regard anti East European sentiment as ‘racist’), and probably just as low on the queue for vaccines.

Maybe the Balkan countries not in the European Union will suffer the most? But then, as we saw after the Global Financial Crisis, the European Union is not good at looking after its own – it conveniently devolves pandemic management to its constituent countries while continuing to expect German-style fiscal discipline from them.

Should we care about the Balkans? Yes. After all, New Zealand went to war in 1914, after a Balkan conflict escalated. Nobody wants a repeat of World War 1.