Danny: 0:17

The US wanted to tie up a, a, a gas deal with the eu you know, taking it further away. The whole thing is to do, I mean, the, with Ukraine is to do with gas.

Sir Gene: 0:30

Joining me, today is Danny Armstrong. Danny, how are you?

Danny: 0:35

I'm alright mate. How are you?

Sir Gene: 0:36

Pretty good, pretty good. We got a little bit of a time difference between us. I'm in Texas. And where are you at?

Danny: 0:43

I'm in a little place called Manchester in the north of England.

Sir Gene: 0:48

North of England. About five hours difference between the two of us. So hopefully it's not too late for you, but

Danny: 0:54

Mm. Yeah, it was 20 past nine, but I get, I get up pretty early, so it's a bit past my bedtime.

Sir Gene: 0:59

I guess let's just jump right into it then. the first place I saw you was on the RT on reports, and that's what led me to reach out to you and connect up and set up this interview. so we'll definitely wanna chat about your experience at rt, but I'd like to start a little further back. It's always fun to understand people's backgrounds, where they came from, how they grew up, that sort of thing. So, did you grow up around Manchester?

Danny: 1:25

Yeah. I was born and raised in Manchester. Um, when I was born, we lived in a place called Stratford. Which is around the area where Manchester United played football. So the football around, around there. And then we moved to a place called Sulfur, and then back over the water to, to Manchester right about 10 years later. So I've been here. Yeah, well, I spent the last decade really in my, in, in Moscow. So from 22 till till 31

Sir Gene: 1:58

Mm-hmm.

Danny: 2:00

I was in Moscow. But before that I went to Sheffield for uni. But apart from that, on the time before has been,

Sir Gene: 2:08

Manchester.

Danny: 2:09

has been Manchester. Yeah. Um, born here, raised there. All my family's there. Um, my, I was born. In this area. My parents were born in this area. Their parents were born in this area. I'm pretty sure their parents were born in this area, apart from maybe, maybe one, but yeah, not a drop, not a drop of foreign blood in me, which I always found pretty boring.

Sir Gene: 2:32

Well, that's one way to look at it, but I think that also makes you a little more rare these days.

Danny: 2:37

More, more of a thoroughbred I'd like to. Yeah. But, um, the Armstrong name is, um, carries a bit of weight or carried a bit of weight rather, about five centuries ago in Scotland. Apparently we could raise 600 men on a single whistle in any given night.

Sir Gene: 2:55

Nice. So that's where the ancestry's from is from Scotland, eh?

Danny: 2:59

Yeah. We've got our own, um, our own tartan. We've got our own family,

Sir Gene: 3:04

Yeah

Danny: 3:05

motto, allegedly.

Sir Gene: 3:06

I think there's a lot of those in Scotland because every person I've met that has a Scottish last name seems to tell me about their castle

Danny: 3:15

Mm.

Sir Gene: 3:16

I think it's gotta be something that's either there's not a whole lot of clans or there's a lot of castles.

Danny: 3:22

yeah, well, the Armstrong Clan was a massive, massive clan

Sir Gene: 3:25

Mm-hmm.

Danny: 3:26

apparently. Um, but I didn't realize it until I went to Edinburgh a couple a few years ago.

Sir Gene: 3:32

Mm.

Danny: 3:32

And in one of the, you know, the, the, the tourist shops they were selling a selling like books to find out where your name comes from and all Scottish names, and Armstrong was one of them. And so we've got a blue and green and red sat and pattern design, and the Armstrong name goes back many, many centuries and was, was, apparently it was a big deal back in the day.

Sir Gene: 4:02

Oh, well, I, I think it's still a big deal to a lot of people with Scottish ancestry.

Danny: 4:06

It's alright. It's a nice name in it. I'm stronger. Mean you can't really get much better than

Sir Gene: 4:09

Well, it's probably a description of one of your past relatives

Danny: 4:12

Yeah,

Sir Gene: 4:13

strong in the arm,

Danny: 4:14

Possibly, possibly.

Sir Gene: 4:15

Well, certainly that's the way they used to do it back in the Viking days, you know, your, your name tended to, Really your nickname. So what, what did you go to uni for?

Danny: 4:26

um, what did I go for?

Sir Gene: 4:27

Yeah. Journalism or

Danny: 4:30

I studied journalism in Russian

Sir Gene: 4:33

okay.

Danny: 4:34

at university and it's not a great deal you can do to validate that other than be a, a journalist in Russia.

Sir Gene: 4:39

that's, that's an appropriate career choice. I think a lot of people get degrees in, you know, like, Japanese history and then end up working at Starbucks.

Danny: 4:48

Well, there you go. Yeah. And I was determined not to, to end up like that really. So, um, I ended up moving there. Well, I, I, I already moved there. Like, I mean, a lot of the time people think I just moved there, you know, on, on, kind of on a whim, but I knew what I was getting into. I, um, the, the main reason why I chose Russian and, and the main reason I chose Russian at uni was because you had a year abroad.

Sir Gene: 5:16

Hmm

Danny: 5:17

Um, now I think at the time it didn't really, it didn't really matter to me what year abroad I had. I think, I think I applied somewhere along the line for like, American studies, like Hispanic studies or somewhere, something, because they gave you really cool kind of years abroad. Um, but I think my top choices were was, was English and Russian and journalism and Russian and English and Russian. I got a place at Manchester Uni, but because I went to school around about where the uni is, um, I was kind of sick of the area. I was kind of sick of just Manchester in general. So I, I decided to go to, to Sheffield and do journalism. Journalism as well was like the number one place to do journalism in the uk, in, in, in Sheffield. So I chose there, but the Russian thing was, yeah, it was just cause I wanted to, I wanted to live there. When I went there, it was just, it was just amazing. So I think after, after uni I just, just wanted to move back and I had the idea of being a journalist in Russia sounded pretty cool and covering the World Cup sounded even cooler. So that was, um, that was my main goal and I ended up doing it. So, yeah.

Sir Gene: 6:31

So you started off by doing your last year of uni in Russia.

Danny: 6:36

It was the third year.

Sir Gene: 6:37

Oh, third year. Okay.

Danny: 6:38

So it was a four year course.

Sir Gene: 6:40

finished off, and then went to Russia.

Danny: 6:42

Yeah. Yeah, so I went to funny fingers, actually. I went to like, I never did any traveling. Like it is not really the done thing for, you know, for kids where I'm from. Like, I mean, where I went to school, of course, I mean, I, I went to quite a good school because I was a smart kid. Um, you know, that's, that's not me boasting. I was, I was a really smart kid. I went to one of the best schools in the country, certainly the best school in Manchester, um, when I was like 11 years old, was like loads of kid loads of schools. Um, Kind of writing into me and my parents saying, look, we'd love to have him as a student here. But I ended up being really, I really, really postured to be honest. I think it was like, you know, when you, you have that kind of rebellion sort of thing, you know, you, you're told you were a smart kid in this and you told you're gonna do this and that, and then you, you start kind of working against it. But, um, the, the traveling thing was never really a big thing for me. So the year abroad was, you know, the be all and end all. And I was like so geared up to it and I ended up having such a great time. Did an internship at St. Petersburg Times. And then from that I went on, I went to Switzerland. I got a job in Switzerland, but it only lasted three months. And then I came back, um, kind of resigned and then, and then came back and then finished uni and then, went out to Moscow in on the 1st of January, 2016.

Sir Gene: 8:09

Okay. And then what was your plan in Moscow? Had you set up a job already or did you decide once you get there, you're gonna figure things?

Danny: 8:16

The, I think there was, there was a, at the time there was, there was a few people that I went to uni with, um, that, that were going out to Moscow and that had like teaching jobs, um, which I also did by, I did that just basically just to get the visa, cuz of course you need visa to be in Russia. You need a, um, you know, means to support yourself if you're gonna be there for any great length of time. Um, and then straight straightaway set about getting, um, getting experience. The, the, the main, the plan was to, was to get as much experience as possible and to, and to. Learned the language. I said to me, dad, I said to me, dad at the time, I said, look, I was 24 when I finished uni cuz obviously it was a four year course and I ended up dicking about a bit between school. Well, no, I worked and then I think first year of uni I was still, um, planning on being a a, a boxer. So I do boxing a lot.

Sir Gene: 9:25

Oh, okay. As a profession. Got it.

Danny: 9:27

Yeah, yeah. Kind of. Well, trying to go pro and I dedicate more time to that than my studies. So I ended up suffering from that, but ended up graduating at 24, moving over at 25 to, to Russia. And I, the, the way I reasoned it at the time was, look, I says there's gonna be the Russia 2018 World Cup. I want to go out there and I wanna do that. Like, I want to cover it as a journalist. nobody's gonna give a kid two years outta uni accreditation for the World Cup. If I stay here, if I stay in England, like, no, there's no chance, then no one's gonna do that. No one's not gonna take a chance. Um, you know, some inexperienced kids, I said, I've gotta go over there, get as much experience as possible, learn the language, come acquainted with, you know, the ways and and means of the sports industry over there, and football and whatnot. And by the time it comes around, I'll be 27, I'll be young enough. If it doesn't come off, it's still gonna be a buzz. It's still gonna be, you know, a good time. And by that time I thought I would be able to put myself in a shot window enough to other outlets, um, and then move back,

Sir Gene: 10:44

Mm-hmm.

Danny: 10:45

you know, go and get my experience and whatnot, achieve a few things, and then, and then come back.

Sir Gene: 10:51

So were you, were you thinking of eventually like being a BBC reporter with a Russia bead or something? Or, or not?

Danny: 10:59

Yeah. Well, I, I, I think the thing is for, for a lot of young journalists, the, the BBC is the Holy Grail. And, and, and, and you feel like, you know, there's, there's a great deal of weight that comes with the name of the bbc and, um, you, you know, you feel as though it's all almost a, a validation of your journalistic status, I guess. But sort of as time goes on, you, you realize it's the exact opposite. And, you know, working for the bbc, I can't, I couldn't imagine a worse place to work. But the b BBC actually before I moved to Russia, they offered me my local BBC station, like I live, so we live in Sort of the, it's called the Stratford, it's kind of like, what, what you, what you'd have in the states, like, like a tri-state area but on a, on a huge, on a much more on, on, on a minuscule scale in comparison. Like, like a tri region sort of area. So we, we live in like the Stratford ston sulfur area, like, and in sulfur, sort of in sulfur keys near where the football ground is. And as I mentioned, that's like kind of where I, I was born and kind of grew up. Um, we have the b BBC headquarters. So I, I did a placement there and it was at my local BBC station and they offered me shifts shift work, um, and said, look, we, we think you'd be great. You know, you can come in and we, we, we'd love to have you on the, on, on a desk and that. So I said, yeah, great. Um, But I think by that time I was, I was, I had my heart set on Moscow, to be honest. And then when the, the World Cup came around, I was actually offered a job with BBC Sport as a fixer, which I, you know, I'd be traveling around with a commentary team and helping'em out and using my Russian skills and my knowledge and all that, you know, experience that I, that I'd gathered over those two years. But I ended up turning it down, um, and working for, I was working for RT at the time, but RT were gonna give me accreditation. And the accreditation for me was the, the one thing that I wanted, it was, it was the one thing that I, I set out to get. So, I mean, the bbc I did actually, I did actually turn him down twice, um, with offers of work. So it can't have been that much of a, a dream if I, if I, if I had turn it down. But like I say, it used to be, The dream to work at the bbc, but I think as time goes on, you, you realize it's now it'd be a, it'd be a nightmare.

Sir Gene: 13:39

Now, why do you think it'd be a.

Danny: 13:41

It's, um, I dunno how much you know about part of bbc. Um, it's been a, like a bit of a scandal at the moment with one of the presenters who was asked to step back from the BBC's flagship football coverage show, which is kind of a little, it's a bit of a British institution called Match Day. Now we tweeted that the Tory party's language in their immigration bill cuz we also have another, not scandal, but a, a huge issue going on with, with migrants reaching

Sir Gene: 14:17

Mm.

Danny: 14:17

Britain illegally. And of course we, I mean we're, we're an island of, well as as Great Britain of what, 70 million. That's. Half the population of Russia. But if you look at it in terms of land mass, we're, we're, we're, it's a fraction of what Russia is. So we're overcrowded, which is why there was a big problem about how we regulate people coming into the country and, and whether they're here legally or not. But anyway, the, the sitting government at the moment produced an immigration bill, and this presenter is called Gary Linnea, said the language that was used in that immigration bill. Um, similar to that in 1930s, Germany, of course, as everybody knows, I mean, that's a kind of a, a thinly veiled EU euphemism for, for, for nazim. Um, and there was a big fallout from that cause it was asked to step back. And then the bbb, they said the BBC was censoring him, which I kind of do agree with. Then they reneged on it. And then the. Kind of capitulated and, and said, oh, well we, we said that he, he shouldn't tweet this stuff, but he could have his job back. And why not? They're a little bit of a, they, they embarrass themselves with the, with the whole kind of carry on. They show that they don't really have one standpoint one way or the other. And if they do, they don't really, they lack the backbone to actually back it up. And I think that it, it's, it's an institution that's kind of falling behind the curve of a lot of, a lot of things. And it tries to overcompensate by employing, um, well, making sure it fills in representation, quotas, for instance.

Sir Gene: 15:57

Gotten woke,

Danny: 15:59

yeah, they've, well, they've gone woke, mate. Yeah. They've hugely, I mean,

Sir Gene: 16:02

call it what it is.

Danny: 16:04

yeah, it's hugely woke. Um, the same with Sky Sports. I mean, pe when you say, oh, it's gone woke, can you say, oh, there's, there's more. You know, people from ethnic minority backgrounds on tv. Now, what it is, is actually nothing really to do with skin color, because the only way it is to do with skin color is because representation is the biggest box that they've gotta tick.

Sir Gene: 16:28

Right.

Danny: 16:29

So that means that what you see is what they've got the, you know, they've gotta fill a certain quota of, of, of people that you see on the screen, um, that look a certain way. Um, however, it isn't too much to do with skin color because even though the people that are white that work there, so there's a guy called Paul me and who's a, who's an ex professional footballer, but he, he, he ticks the mental health box. Cause he, he's that struggle with addiction. He's that struggle with mental health. So you will get, um, presenters and, and, and people on TV that aren't really actually up to the job. But they have, they will, they will tick a box for that corporation. It's not just the bbc Sky Sports do it, um, talk sport, do it as well. Um, it's basically, it's appealing to kind of the TikTok generation as well. I think that's got an awful lot to do with it. But the BBC, in terms of being woke is, is just, you know, the BBC needs defunding, not because they censor people, not cause of the Gary Linnea situation. It's because they fucking woke me. That's, that's the main reason, is because it, this woke ideology is so pernicious and, and permeates every single part of our lives. That, I mean, even, even the Gary Linus though, that Gary Lin is one of the most woke people on the face of the planet, certainly the most woke celebrity that we've got, certainly in the media industry, but I'd say in the UK the guy's got 9 million followers and you know, I think 90% of them would be probably be there because he's, he's woke.

Sir Gene: 18:05

Yeah.

Danny: 18:06

And, but BBC are, they're trying to shut him up and he's just all the fucking mess. And it kind of sums up the media industry in, in, in our country.

Sir Gene: 18:16

Well there, I I recently finished watching Jeremy Clarkson's farm

Danny: 18:20

Oh, really? Yeah.

Sir Gene: 18:22

And I, in fact, I think I even tweeted something about it because I, I couldn't imagine living in a place with so many regulations and so many other people. That can tell you what you can and you can't do on your own land.

Danny: 18:38

You mean in England?

Sir Gene: 18:39

Well, yeah. In England. Exactly. I mean, it's the, the whole season too is basically him trying to fart fight the local you know, the local little town that he's next to in, in, in expanding the activities on his farm and them constantly blocking him.

Danny: 18:56

Yeah, that's, it's, I hate the British public. I, I, I, I, one of the things I didn't miss when I was, I was away for the best part of a decade, and one of the things I didn't miss was just dealing with his everyday bullshit

Sir Gene: 19:13

Mm-hmm.

Danny: 19:14

and some of the shit that went on during lockdown, like, I mean, in Russia, okay. I mean, like everything's, people have real problems. Do you know what I mean? And they tend not to focus on tiny little things that you know, make making mountains out of, out of tiny little mos. Whereas in England, MOS this, or, yeah, the molds tend to be, what is in the headlines is Gary Linus stuff's gone on for fucking ages because of one tweet. And then before that we had Harry and Megan and, and all that bullshit. And then,

Sir Gene: 19:46

yeah.

Danny: 19:47

And then before that, and then they says you Jeremy Clarks and he's been in the news as well and

Sir Gene: 19:51

Yeah. More recently too. Yeah.

Danny: 19:52

Yeah. About the right, you know, it's all, they're all words and, and you know, they don't hurt people. You what I mean? But like, um, people are up in arms about it and just, you find that with the British public, like the everyday, you know, middle-aged British woman, he's just mess and melting part of just histrionic,

Sir Gene: 20:18

Yeah.

Danny: 20:18

ramblings, And, and just that's one of the things I didn't miss about, about this country.

Sir Gene: 20:25

Being in the uk. Well, let's talk about your, your move abroad then. So you, you arrived in Moscow, you got a job with rt Now, was that something you, you, yeah. How long until you got that RT job, I guess?

Danny: 20:39

Um, it was, The, the middle of July. So from January to July, so right about six months. Um,

Sir Gene: 20:48

It's not, not long at all.

Danny: 20:50

yeah, so what I was doing, I was, I moved and I did, um, like this teaching gig, it's really poorly paid teaching gig, but I didn't give, I didn't give a shit. Like, um, I do this teaching and then I, I do, um, football reporting because I, I, I got involved with a football site that did Russian football news. It's called Russian Football News.

Sir Gene: 21:15

Mm-hmm.

Danny: 21:16

And they, one of the greatest things about that is because they didn't pay you, but they gave you accreditation to. Any match that you wanted in Russia? So living in Moscow, a fizz, I think at the time there was five teams in the top division, so you could go, there was always a match on, so you could just apply through this site and then you get a ticket. Um, so I then up, I did that at the weekends and during the week as well. I did my teaching thing. Um, I had a little side job copy in, and I also had an internship at the Moscow Times,

Sir Gene: 21:57

Mm-hmm.

Danny: 21:57

which was really good. I mean, it wasn't my bag, it wasn't my thing. Um, very, very left wing and very, very like hypercritical of everything Russia does. Um, to the point where I, I, I think they find or, or try and find, making missions to try and find you know, Negatives in, in, in even some things that, in the same way that, that, I mean, I think that's kind of prevalent in the West in general, but the same way in the, in the UK where people find, you know, try and nitpick and then try and find a fence in everything. I think that's one of the main things that Moscow Times does and their journalists as well. And they try and make Russia a caricature of itself, which I don't like, because I think a lot of the time they poke fun at some of the people that make their stories. Um, some of the people they meet along the way and they're always poor and they're always, you know, they haven't got two acs to rub together, as we say. And they, you know, they're always poor and dirty and they're no hope for the future. And everything's always bleak and, you know, we, we are the white knights and the white saviors that, that have to go in there and, you know, show these people the way

Sir Gene: 23:02

Mm.

Danny: 23:02

so we are so advanced in the West. Um, I got a job there. Yeah, I pain as well. I think it was my pain job. Yeah. My first painting gig in Russia. Um, well that brought my translation skills up really well and I learned a lot there. But I, they let me go after a few months and then my CV was, was, was picked up by a guy called Dennis And I don't get on with Dennis anymore, but I will always be thankful to him for giving me that gig. So it was art sport that I got that I ended up working for beginning RS Sport. And it was just me and him that worked at, like, we kind of built it up from the ground and, um,

Sir Gene: 23:46

so you were Russia based, so you were covering sports in Russia for R'S International market.

Danny: 23:54

kind of, yeah, I mean, that sound, that's like overselling it a little bit. We, we were, it was not in the beginning as, as time went on, we held a little bit more, um, was a little bit more weight behind the site and, you know, held a bit more sway, like what we were doing, especially, especially around the, the World Cup and with M mma, MMA is, you know, huge in Russia and there's, you know, dozens of just thousands of kind of Pakistani and, you know, Siberian sort of MMA fighters. But when we first joined, or when I first joined, it was just two of us. And we'd write, we'd just rewrite articles, basically. We'd write reports on like certain things like, you know, boxing matches and whatnot. But we'd mainly just look for stories and then like post one story an hour and, and that, and you know, that that would just be it in, in the beginning. But as kind of time went on, We took on, you know, a few more people and we would write kind of really tabloidy stories, but some of the journalism that we did was actually really, really good with, in terms of, um, sort of, um, organic stories with sports stars, um, and some opinion pieces as well. So, I mean, like the, the, the level of journalism kind of picked, eventually picked up, but for a while it was, it was just monotonous, you know, looking for. This story, that story, um, rewriting it and then, you know, the, the viewing figures would be really, really poor. But as things picked up and we kind of found a style and we went for that kind of punchy head, tabloidy kind of crisp between like, kind of New York Post and ESPN basically, you know, it's perfect match between that. Things got better, especially when we went on onto YouTube as well. We've got loads and loads of subscribers and Instagram

Sir Gene: 25:54

Mm-hmm.

Danny: 25:55

shit, loads of subscribers there, and then did the World Cup and that. So that was it, basically. I mean, we ended up doing really well with, with R Sport because we'd, we'd cover everything that was in Moscow and St. Petersburg as well.

Sir Gene: 26:11

Did you get to travel around Russia during that?

Danny: 26:13

yeah, yeah. Went to, went all over, you know,

Sir Gene: 26:18

Mm-hmm.

Danny: 26:19

St. Petersburg which is in Stan

Sir Gene: 26:22

probably.

Danny: 26:23

USA

Sir Gene: 26:24

Sochi,

Danny: 26:26

Sochi. Yeah, Sochi. Sochi. I don't, um, you mind me asking though? I don't think you spoke about your background. I'm guessing you.

Sir Gene: 26:33

Oh yeah. I'm Russian.

Danny: 26:34

Ah, right. Okay. Right. Yeah. So you used to fully learn, speak Russian and that Yeah.

Sir Gene: 26:40

However, as much as I just said, yeah, we can speak Russian. And Russian. My, my listeners

Danny: 26:45

yeah. Yeah.

Sir Gene: 26:45

95% Americans, so it's, it's very much an English. But I grew, I grew up in the US so I I was born in Russia, but I grew up in the us.

Danny: 26:55

Mm-hmm. Okay. Interesting. Yeah. So, yeah, SOK and um,

Sir Gene: 27:01

Mm-hmm.

Danny: 27:03

um, or Queensburg or however it's pronounced. You know what? Whatever it used to be,

Sir Gene: 27:07

Yeah. Yeah. It used to be Germans when it used to

Danny: 27:10

yeah, you know, you can go, you can argue forever, can't you? The funny thing about sorry, I mean, like, it's, it's a really beautiful city, but then it's these, like these cancerous little, you know, corners that just are the imprint of the Soviet Union, kind of, you know, the and stuff like that. And it's like the worst parts of Russia has just seem to have invested this beautiful little place. Um, yeah, it's sad Um, apart from that, it's, it's just like, it's like a perfect, it doesn't even look like a kind of German city. Looks like a

Sir Gene: 27:45

Yeah. Well, it's, Russia's been there a long time.

Danny: 27:48

Yeah. Long, long,

Sir Gene: 27:49

and it's really, I mean, it's the port. It's not so much about the city, it's about the port.

Danny: 27:53

It's like, it's like somewhere where you find in Switzerland or somewhere like that. But yeah, I went about Russia. Like, I won't say I traveled kind of extensively. There's a lot of, I didn't see in Russia, but I mean, in terms of, Moscow, St. Petersburg. I lived there for quite a while. And then yeah, it's got a few places. Kaza.

Sir Gene: 28:12

Nice. Yeah. I, I, I'm originally from St. Petersburg,

Danny: 28:17

Oh, cool. Cool.

Sir Gene: 28:18

Beautiful city.

Danny: 28:20

Amazing. Amazing. I actually chose it because we had another choice to do our a year abroad, either in St. Petersburg or Moscow. And I chose St. Petersburg because

Sir Gene: 28:30

Yeah. It was the right

Danny: 28:31

a few. Yeah, yeah. I saw a few similarities with Manchester kind of being the Northern Capital and the second city and whatnot. Um, and saw that was a reason. But he, he's a beautiful city. You can, I knew it like the back of my end. By the time I'd left it, I mean, I spent eight months there, but it's so small, but everything's, you know, in, it's within walking distance, you know what I mean? What about the, the center? Um,

Sir Gene: 28:56

Yeah. Well, it kind of had to be back in, back in the day cuz there was not a whole lot of cars

Danny: 29:02

Yeah, exactly. There you go.

Sir Gene: 29:03

It was just, I remember the the Metro was very, very cool back when I was a kid.

Danny: 29:08

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. The Metro people don't realize like just how advanced Russia is with some things. Like you got like the tube. Have you ever, you've ever must have been a London

Sir Gene: 29:21

actually I never have, no,

Danny: 29:23

never been a London. Right? The Tube is a fucking hell hall mate. It's, you got the Moscow Metro and like every single station is beautiful. Okay. There might be some like new ones that they built now that are a bit crap and a bit metallic and a bit, you know, Seay.

Sir Gene: 29:38

Yeah.

Danny: 29:39

But every, I mean, you got to, um, make Gok or you go to and it's just absolutely beautiful. It's like it transports you back about 200 years. I mean, the, the point of it or the point of it being so beautiful was to, was to educate the solitary was to, was to, was to bring them kind of, you know, up to speed in terms of the, the, the cultural education and, and you know, feeding in classical music cuz they're going down these, you know, huge, I dunno

Sir Gene: 30:10

Yeah. They're very deep, unlike a lot of places

Danny: 30:12

And you kind of, you kind of feel that now. But like the tube is just like, it's just, it's dirty, it's unreliable,

Sir Gene: 30:20

Mm-hmm.

Danny: 30:20

it's cheap, it's never on time. It's just, honestly it's the worst. And it feels like he's full of pollution as well. I'm not saying, you know, like, obviously it's public transport, but the tube's just horrible.

Sir Gene: 30:33

Yeah. Yeah. I've been to subways in a number of different countries, and I don't remember any that looked as nice as Russia. I mean, some of'em were definitely faster or quieter or whatever, but in terms of just visually they certainly did a very good job in Russia and

Danny: 30:51

Yeah, it's beautiful.

Sir Gene: 30:53

Yeah, creating a certain style and certain mood in the subway.

Danny: 30:57

Do you have a, do you have a favorite metro station,

Sir Gene: 31:00

No, I, I really don't. I mean, it's, this was, this was a long time ago, and I when I've been back, I've tended not to use public transportation.

Danny: 31:09

No. Any reason?

Sir Gene: 31:11

Um, just, I don't know, usually just have a.

Danny: 31:14

Fair enough.

Sir Gene: 31:15

Yeah, it makes it a lot easier when there's somebody that just drive you around.

Danny: 31:20

Well, do you know, I mean, you must love still the charm of. Transporting Russia, you know, The little buses that take you roundabout for like what? 50 rubles? 60

Sir Gene: 31:33

Yeah. Um, there's, I mean, it's not exclusive to Russia. I think in general, when I was like young, I really enjoyed the the public transport. Um, it was fun, but as I got older, I just started valuing time, a lot more

Danny: 31:51

Mm.

Sir Gene: 31:52

And so it, like, those things don't really matter all that much to me. I just want to get in, get out, not not not really care about how it happens as long as it happens quickly.

Danny: 32:03

Do you not think, you know, whe when you're in Moscow, wherever you are, it doesn't matter where you're going. It always takes an hour to get there.

Sir Gene: 32:09

Well, that's, that's a very good point. Yes. There, and again, not the only city by any stretch that that is their case. But yeah, it the, the sad truth is where I am right now in Austin, Texas, which is a tiny little city in comparison, it still takes about an hour. I

Danny: 32:26

Yeah.

Sir Gene: 32:27

think it's just more of a, a function of, um, of the build out that's happened. And certainly it happened in Russian cities and, and it's happened in plenty of American cities where, um, there was just a big growth spurt that happened because of technology or because of companies moving there. Or something happened where, like in Russia, obviously the fall of communism really. Allowed free enterprise to move in and, and put in massive amounts of money for construction. Um, and you just see buildings that used to look like they were tall, like 10 story buildings all of a sudden be overshadowed by much, much larger buildings on both sides. So the construction is in full swing, that's for sure.

Danny: 33:12

And that's another great thing about St. Petersburg as well, cuz you can't build over a certain height.

Sir Gene: 33:17

Right?

Danny: 33:18

Yeah. So it's not to, to ruin the skyline.

Sir Gene: 33:21

Yeah. And it, and it is a I mean, there are, there are other cities with restrictions like that as well. If you, you go to Rome, you have to get out of the city quite a ways before you can, you know, lift some of the restrictions they have. Um, you, you don't want to be ruining a 2000 year old skyline, that's for sure.

Danny: 33:38

No.

Sir Gene: 33:38

But in general, I, I think that. I've always recommended that Americans go see St. Petersburg if they choose, if they have a choice, go there instead of Moscow on the trips. That's one of the sad things now with this whole Ukraine situation, that people are no longer going as tourists to see st at least not from the west to see St. Petersburg or Russia in general. Um, but let's, let's jump back to your career there. So you were there for 10 years total, you said?

Danny: 34:07

I was there for, well, yeah, well, from the age of 22 till 31, so yeah, it's the best part of, a best part of a decade. But there was a, a year in between when I came back, so I came back to, you know, finish uni and then, and then got back out there. Were a bit old, a little, a little bit over a year. I, I think maybe about just short of 18 months

Sir Gene: 34:30

did. Did you get married?

Danny: 34:33

over there.

Sir Gene: 34:33

Yeah.

Danny: 34:35

No, I got engaged.

Sir Gene: 34:37

Yeah.

Danny: 34:38

got engaged. Um, I got engaged last year actually.

Sir Gene: 34:42

Oh, okay. All right. Do you have a British girl or a

Danny: 34:45

No, no, she's rushing.

Sir Gene: 34:47

Okay. It's I say that with a smile on my face, cuz once you've been around Russian women, it's hard to, you'll date somebody else.

Danny: 34:56

Yeah. It where Yeah.

Sir Gene: 34:59

It's a good, it's a good combination. It's a good package.

Danny: 35:01

it worked. Yeah. It kind of is, but I mean, there's a, there's a fair few stereotypes around that that I don't particularly like because there's a great, there's a sub subculture. The sex pack subculture isn't there.

Sir Gene: 35:16

Mm-hmm.

Danny: 35:17

the people that aren't really anything over here, you know, that kind of failed males that go over to Russia to tap into.

Sir Gene: 35:26

Yeah. Well, and I think I'm Ukraine was even more so, in that regard. Um,

Danny: 35:31

it's, it is utter nonsense because you can't go over there and just say, Hey, I'm English, and then expect, you know, like, girls to fuck around you. You have to have something about you. You have to have some sort of y you know, you have to have some sort of, um, kind of story or you, or some sort of goal or something. I think, like, I'm gonna be honest with you, like I was like quite popular with girls over there, but it was more to do, more so to do with the fact that I learned the language and that I had a goal and that I'd gone over there not just to, you know, just piss about, um, I'd gone over there with, with, with, with a plan and, you know, I, I was putting that plan into action all the whole time, but about rushing women. Yeah, like there's definitely a, there, there's a difference in temperament and different in, in difference. I don't wanna say that word mentality, but there's a difference in, um, definitely the way.

Sir Gene: 36:27

Yeah.

Danny: 36:28

The way people, the way the way think over there. Well, but

Sir Gene: 36:31

is a difference in mentality. I, I totally would say that.

Danny: 36:34

the main thing is like, girls are more, they say, you know, like Russian women or Eastern European women are, you know, they put a spell on, on men and it's nonsense because the only thing they do is they, they just, they accentuate femininity

Sir Gene: 36:50

Exactly

Danny: 36:52

and that's it. And

Sir Gene: 36:52

called femininity

Danny: 36:54

yeah. And that's it. That's all men want. Like if you strip us down, that is what attracts us. Just, um, it's deep down in like you're talking about like why we were made like

Sir Gene: 37:06

Yep.

Danny: 37:07

billions of years of evolution and it's like that is the main thing that could do like with sex in, in, in, in animals and insects is purely chemical. It is purely, um, just based on, on, on pure feeling. Like, and if you ignite that kind of. You know, feeling and, and, and you excite that, that, that whatever that is, that chemical thing, then you will be able to attract that person as that's what we, that's what girls in, in, in Russia do. They just accentuate femininity. The girl might not be the best looking, but it's like, you know, she, she, she draws well or something, you know, she like draws beautiful paintings or she's got a nice smile and she uses that like, or the way she like does her hair or the way she like, has her posture or anything, just like her confidence that femininity and that features just always accentuated it. And that's why they have this kind of superpower. Cause people in the western girls in the West are told that that's not the way to be. And that's why a lot of them can't find men.

Sir Gene: 38:10

Yeah. And that's, I, I, I think that's gonna be a, a major problem that I don't know that there's a good solution for in the West is that it's gotten so, at least I can speak about the United States. It's gotten to a point where a lot of men are just not willing to. Get married and get into a serious relationship, a at all in lieu of doing it with somebody that is as feminist and politically correct as most of the women are here in the us. I mean, it, it's, it's literally like they've managed to surpass that line of attraction where men are willing to just put up with anything. Well, there is a line, there is a point at which men are not willing to put up with anymore. And I think a lot of women in the US have managed to cross over that line.

Danny: 38:59

yeah, yeah. But. Sorry. Yeah, I I also to make the point that it worked both ways as well, because there's certain things that you are expected to do as a man over there. You're expected to traditionally be a man. And if you don't do those certain masculine things or you know, those tasks, they will pull you up on it. Girls will pull you up on it in Russia, like, um, certain things around the house you won't get away with being as lazy as you might be with a, with a girl over here.

Sir Gene: 39:27

Mm-hmm.

Danny: 39:27

Do you know what I mean? Or just, that is a rough example. Um, you will be pulled up on these things if you're not a bloke, and it doesn't mean that like, you know, you're, you're just there as like to use as a cash machine and a, and a dildo or whatever. Do you know what I mean? But like, you will be pulled up on it if you aren't providing, and it doesn't mean, it doesn't mean, you know, taking a shopping every weekend

Sir Gene: 39:57

Yeah. It's not, it's not necessarily about the money, but things like bringing flowers not only on

Danny: 40:03

Oh yeah, mate. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I told, yeah, I told a couple girls the other day, um, in the gym. I said, they were talking about International Women's Day. I said, you know, international, right? I says, international Women's Day in Russia. I said, it's just gone March 8th. I says, it's like their biggest, so it's like Valentine's Day and a girl's birthday and Christmas and everything rolled in. I want, I said, they get a day off. Um, if it's on a Friday, then they get the Thursday off as well. Or if it's on a Monday, they get the Tuesday off as well. Or if it's on a weekend, they get the day off either side and they said, oh my God, I can't believe it. I can't believe it. I says, They get the days off, and then the lads in the office where they work or whatever, they'll bring in flowers, they'll bring in champagne, they'll bring in fruit and chocolate and everything for the girls in the office. And then they'll stand around. They'll do that awkward thing where they stand around and then they'll, like, they, you know, congratulate each other, And then they, they kind of clap and they say, oh, thank you. We didn't expect anything. Um, but they were in it in awe. But that is the, it is probably the perfect example that I can, you know, give to you that highlights both. Um, though, you know, that that masculine sort of, um, that man's job of providing these things for a woman, you know, providing pla it can be, you know, shelter, it can be flowers on, on a special day. And it's also highlights, you know, that kind of. Ness in women, because even some of the most, even the, the, the biggest feminists, and these two girls that I was talking to, they, they're quite, you know, feminist kind of leaning. They melted at the idea that that happened. So that, that shows you again, that they're just like women. They've fucking love this. Like they wanna be girls and they wanna be pampered and they wanna be treated by men, but they, they're not allowing themselves to do that in the west because, I don't know, fucking some bra burning Antifa member tells'em to, so,

Sir Gene: 42:01

E Exactly. I think it's, it's really a sort of a brainwashing in the exact same sense that was happening in Soviet Union during the Soviet days, where you're being told something that is just contradictory to nature, but you're just told to believe it. And that's, I think, what's happening in the West right now. I've seen, you know, I was I'm, I'm, I'm old, so I, I was in Soviet Russia, I was in the U S S R and now I'm watching America getting closer and closer to the, the way the U S S R operated, which is not to say it's exactly the same thing, obviously it's not a command economy, there's plenty of differences, but the sort of attitudes and the sort of complete disregard for natural law and for. Really tradition and fairness that's happening here is amazing and amazing in a bad way. I mean, I'm, I'm amazed that a country that was seen as the epitome of liberty and freedom is now getting closer and closer to the U S S R. And it's

Danny: 43:09

Really.

Sir Gene: 43:09

it's, it's horrible watching it happening in real time because I think that the younger generations here, the the Zoomers, especially if it was left up to them, they would sooner elect a socialist president than just a liberal president for that matter.

Danny: 43:26

Mm. that's interesting you should say.

Sir Gene: 43:29

it's going in the crazy, crazy direction. But anyway. So, um, let's get to the end of your time in Russia. So you were there a decade I did see you doing some non-sports reporting as well on rt. So,

Danny: 43:42

Did you really?

Sir Gene: 43:43

Yeah. So how much of that were you doing? How much did you do that wasn't sports related?

Danny: 43:47

Not an awful lot actually. I think I've been a little bit typecast, um, especially since the outbreak of the war. I mean,

Sir Gene: 43:55

Mm-hmm.

Danny: 43:56

I think the main thing you wanna talk about is, is the time that I spent being a, a news correspondent for rt.

Sir Gene: 44:02

Yeah.

Danny: 44:03

Um, I was there from only really the back end of 2021, I think maybe around about September

Sir Gene: 44:12

Okay.

Danny: 44:13

to the, the outbreak of the war. So I'd kind of come to the end of my time on the sports desk because we had the World Cup. And then after that couple of months later, Habib, he became a huge star in the ufc Beat K McGregor and kind of it, it gave us just so much content. Um, on the sports desk that we were just, it kept us in a job for a couple more years and so everything with me kept getting better and better with sport. Um, and I became like kind of the, the m m A game and we were doing videos and whatnot and we go going down Stan. And, um, it was really good and I got a lot of, a lot of like, freelance work off the back of it as well with, with like ESPN and, um, there's other things that we, we covered. Um, but after the Euro 2020 tournament, which held and one of them was St. Petersburg, so we, we were based in St. Petersburg. Um, for that time, of course it, 2020 was when the pandemic was and it ended up happening in 2021 instead cause it was canceled in 20. Um, after that I just realized there was nothing really else to do as regards sport. And I think that, you know, I needed to get out

Sir Gene: 45:34

Mm-hmm.

Danny: 45:35

and kind of do something else and, um, you know, I was. Kind of just, just, just Bos And I didn't really want to be, we, we were going back to like, kind of rewriting articles and I thought, you know, I'm too long in a tooth for that. Like, there can't be wasting me time on that. And kind of needed to move forward. But there was no real place to do that, you know, I'll tell you other than, you know, on camera, and I'd done videos and stuff for sports. So I thought, you know, it'd be kind of the same doing it for the new, the news desk. The news channel. And so I went over and said, look. I said, Hey. So they knew me as a sports guy. I said, would it be possible just at that time there was like a sh kind of a reshuffle at the top of the English site because the, the RT is, and I don't know how, like, I, I really don't give a shit about these, you know, non-disclosure agreements and what you're allowed to talk about and whatnot, blah, blah, blah, blah. But it's, they're broken into, like you have. Channels, different channels. The Arabic channels, Spanish channel. We had French and German at one point. The main ones were Arabic, English, and Spanish. And there was never a Russian channel. There was only a Russian website. Um, cause obviously, I mean the, the point of our was to, to spread the message of, of the state to, you know, the English speaking world, and of course the Arabic and Spanish speaking world, but to the west, basically, well apart, apart from course Arabic speaking nations. Um, so yeah, so I mean, it would kind of defeat the object. Not, not, not, not defeat the object, but it, there was kind of no point in, in making a Russian channel, speaking

Sir Gene: 47:19

Yeah, there, there's plenty of other channels doing that already.

Danny: 47:22

Yeah. And he's, he's carrying the same messaging rate and plus the people who watch it are just, it's like preaching to the choir. Do you know what I mean? It's kind of pointless. So, um, So, yeah, so they're broken down into the, I'll get to the point of what I'm trying to say, but the, they're broken down into, they have the English site and then the English channel, and they're two separate entities. Um, they're two different offices. They're run by separate people. Um, but also they have someone at the top who runs the English side and sort of who will have a say in what goes on on the site and also what goes on, um, on the tv, but to a lesser extent on the TV now. Just at that time then I always weren't, you know, trying to cross over. There was a kind of a reshuffle at the top of the site. Um, and I kind of saw that as an opportunity to just say, look, I'd like, I would also like to do something different. Um, So I went in and yeah, they, they knew me as the sports guy. They thought initially that I wanted to just do sports on air. I says, no, I wanted to, I wanna do politics. I wanna do something different. Um, and so they said, well, look, so we can't promise anything, but you can go and try out and set me. They sent me a few tasks and writing scripts and then tell, saying them in front of camera. And yeah, after that they said, yeah, we'd, we'd be kind of, we'd be happy to work with you. Cause I was, I was quite, I was all right in front of camera. I was, I was quite good because I had experience from doing it in sport. Um, so yeah, they took me on and then I ended up being a a correspondent, which was, which was a great little job. Um,

Sir Gene: 49:04

rt? You were correspondent in Russia in English?

Danny: 49:09

Yes, yes. So for the English channel, I mean, my Russians fluent is good. I mean, we can have a little talk later off. Uh, But it's not to the extent where I could be doing like say live Yeah, live breaking news and stuff like that. I mean, I've done, I, I have done this stuff like that for sports channels and stuff. Um, and yeah, it is all right.

Sir Gene: 49:31

Well, I, I, I remember cuz I, I interviewed Faren a couple of weeks ago and I, I remember there was a clip where she was doing something for RT American and she brought you in as the remote in Moscow.

Danny: 49:44

yeah, yeah,

Sir Gene: 49:44

And and I, I think I've seen you in other things as well, but I, that was the most recent one that I remember seeing both of you guys

Danny: 49:51

yeah.

Sir Gene: 49:51

in the same clip.

Danny: 49:53

Yeah. She, um, the, I got told actually by an American reporter, I dunno whether you know him,

Sir Gene: 50:02

Who,

Danny: 50:03

Donald Quarter.

Sir Gene: 50:04

Oh, I do not. No,

Danny: 50:06

You do.

Sir Gene: 50:06

no.

Danny: 50:08

Oh, okay. Well, he, he was a, well, he still is a, a correspondent Forti. Um, he said that the bar for quality at R America is a lot lower than what we used to when I did my first R America thing, because I did it. And then like, it was all right, but like it, were just thinking, oh, thank you so much. That's so, that's amazing. Thank you so much. Um, so yeah, but I remember that I was, that was my last live at the day when Schultz flew into to Moscow,

Sir Gene: 50:43

Mm-hmm.

Danny: 50:44

and we did, I think we did about 10 lives, like one every hour. So it was like 10 hours over there. Yeah. I mean, like for me it was, it was a good job and. It was ticking a lot of boxes in terms of doing something new, doing something with Russia. Cause you'd be speaking people in Russian all the time and you'd be, they'd send you sources in Russian and stuff and, you know, you'd have to translate. And, and also being kind of, you know, on screen and, and getting the blood pumping and the adrenaline going. And the newsroom was full of fantastic people, 90% of them young girls.

Sir Gene: 51:25

Yeah. I, I knew where you were going with

Danny: 51:26

you mate. Oh, come on. You know, like, I don't wanna, I don't wanna be crude, but I mean, you know, you walk in like with your suit and you know, with your air, with your makeup done and your hair all hairspray and, you know, you flash a bit of the old rushing and a wink and whatnot and it's just, it's decently.

Sir Gene: 51:43

Mm-hmm.

Danny: 51:44

I miss that job every day. I miss it every day of the week. But I was in a relationship at the time with my girl. Well, actually when I started as a correspondent, me and my girlfriend had had split up,

Sir Gene: 51:56

Mm-hmm.

Danny: 51:57

kind of split up. Like, you know, we'd, we'd split up and, and, and get back together, you know, more times than fucking Led Zeppelin, do you know what I mean? Like, so yeah, it was, it was one of those things like, so just in that kind of little window, that kind of two weeks where I was a single man, it was nice. I mean, not the idea of it, you know what I mean? Like, with being, you know,

Sir Gene: 52:20

Mm-hmm.

Danny: 52:20

I don't wanna sound like one of them fucking sex pats like I mentioned before, but, you know, was, that was all right. But it was, it was a good job, man. It was a good job. And I, I liked it and I liked being, um,

Sir Gene: 52:32

So what, what wrapped it up for you?

Danny: 52:36

just the war, the war kicking off. Um, I was on air. When it, when it happened. So I was called in and we did an overnight shift and I was talking about sanctions cuz just before, I think it's two days before Russia had declared the two to Dunas Republics or the, the Han

Sir Gene: 53:06

Mm-hmm.

Danny: 53:07

People's Republics as they recognized them as, as, as republics. And of course that that meant that they could send troops into area. And then after that came sort of a wave of, of sanctions and my job was to report on those sanctions. I think Margarita, who of course is the chief of RT, had been sanctioned, um, Roman Abramovich,

Sir Gene: 53:32

Yep.

Danny: 53:33

you know, billionaire that used to own Chelsea.

Sir Gene: 53:35

Mm.

Danny: 53:36

Yeah, he'd been sanctioned as well. So I, that was my job to report on that. I think I did like three lives in the studio on that. And then by like an hour after my, my third one, around about like five, six o'clock in the morning, there was kind of a bit of a commotion around one of the computers in the office. And, you know, people were gathering around and, and we finally realized that Putin was coming out and that he would give an address and he gave, you know, the, the famous address, famous speech on the layout, the pretext for war for, for the invasion of the special military operation. All it. And, um, funny, funny fact, actually, I was the first person to. Translate into, or to read out that speech in English because I was the only English speaker that was, was on shift at the time. And somebody gave me a piece of paper downstairs, well, could you go downstairs and, and do a voiceover for us? Which was kind of customary at the time. You know, they get English speakers, native speakers to voice things, you know, translations and whatnot. So I did it. I didn't really realize at the time that it was that, and I went down and, and, and read it cuz I was in a little bit of shock really. And it turned out to be saying, you know, he was launching this invasion with the objects of Demilitarizing and Dify in Ukraine. And that was picked up, that was the first English soundbite that existed. Um, and that was picked up by the sun, the Sydney Morning Herald in Australia of all things, because of course they were up early, earlier than, than the rest of us. And then when the UK media world woke up, the first sound bite that they found was in the Sydney Morning Herald. The first, you know, reports about it was, was there. And then when they used that, and that sound bite went okay across a lot of, of other English speaking outlets. So if you kind of, if you Google 24th of February Putin speech and, or, or whatever chances are it will come up with, with, um, with that, I think if you

Sir Gene: 55:58

With somebody with a Manchester accent accent speaking

Danny: 56:00

that's it. I mean, like any, any English speaking media outlet that has a report of that day, if you find it, you'd find that Vladimir Putin has a mank twang to his voice.

Sir Gene: 56:10

Mm.

Danny: 56:11

Um, so yeah.

Sir Gene: 56:14

So they, they didn't put out an official translation in English from from Putin's office.

Danny: 56:20

Um, I'm not too sure, you know, um, thinking back on it, I know that we got his speech, the, the New Year's speech. I know we got that

Sir Gene: 56:30

Mm-hmm.

Danny: 56:32

few hours before New Year, so I, I'm not su I'm not sure if if what I was handed was, was what they put out or not.

Sir Gene: 56:42

wanted something immediately out. Yeah.

Danny: 56:44

So, I mean, it was, it was kind of just on, like, on a whim. But yeah, I mean, like after that, like I, I realized it was my girlfriend at the time the girlfriend that, you know, I was kind of on and off with. And,

Sir Gene: 56:55

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Danny: 56:57

um, she was actually, she's actually born in, in Hans She's rushing. And I remember she'd slept in, she, she used to wake up around about seven, eight o'clock every morning without fail. But she slept in that day. And, and I remember, um, being just texting and just saying, look, I'm so sorry. I'm, I'm so, so sorry. I'm sorry. Like just over and over again. And she didn't wake up until around about half 10. But as it went on and on, I was getting more and more anxious, more and more nervous and wondering what had happened. And finished my shift at around about 10 and, and going to taxi. I was going to mine before her mom rang me. And it was sort of like I was, I was half asleep in the backseat of this taxi and the kind of ringing of the, of my phone. Sort of jolted me awake. And it was her, it was, and she asked me how I was. And you know, kind of when somebody's trying to hide something, but their voice is giving it away, like they, they know something or some, some bad news or something. And, and I told her, I said, I know. And then as soon as I said that kind of a voice, her voice cracked. And sh she began kind of wailing and shouting and said, they're bombing him, the bombing him. And you know, what is it all about? And there's this war and you know what's gonna happen. And her husband, my girlfriend's dad would, we were kind of feared that he might be conscripted. He was below 55 and he's, he's Russian, but he's, he is also, he was born in ki Kiev. So, I put a phone down to my, my girlfriend's mom, and then my girlfriend rang me around. It must have been about a minute after, and she read the messages, but I hadn't actually said what was going on. And she said, what's going on? And I said before, like, I've been speaking the language for, for a good few years now, and took quite a high level of proficiency. And I was kind of, I was speechless. I didn't really, didn't really know what to say. And I just said right now, of course, his war now. That I was the only word that, that come, that came, came to mind. The only thing that I can, I could really, could really must her at the time because she'd got quite hysterical. She, she, she was shouting and, and, and saying, why can't anybody tell me what's going on? Um, so yeah, so that was that. And that was that morning. And, and I realized then I, I got the taxi back to her flat where we decided to get engaged and sort of get married. Um, and I drafted, we, we went down to the, the protest protest in Moscow that night.

Sir Gene: 1:00:10

mm.

Danny: 1:00:11

we lived in a place called Ishk, which is kind of to the north of, of, of Moscow, just on the outskirts. We had to walk past the, the shopping center. So we said, look, I said, I'd always dreamed of proposing where our first kiss was, which is on the, um, just near by Goki Park, like just near like one the bridges, like by the, by the, by the water. But I thought, fuck that. I thought we could be dead in fucking 10 minutes. I thought, I'm going. So when we went past the shopping center, I, I just dived in. I said, look, I said, pick something you want. As soon as she picked it. And then as we were walking out, I said, look, will you marry me? She goes, yes, but it was outside some like, kibab shop. So it wasn't exactly, it wasn't exactly, you know, the most romantic person.

Sir Gene: 1:00:56

Yeah.

Danny: 1:00:58

Um, so yeah. And then I went down to, we went down, we went on the train to the center of Moscow. And whilst this girl was, was. Protesting. Um, I had to look after a mom and at the time I had my face covered because I thought that, you know, somebody there might want to, might wanna do me in a little bit because I worked for auntie. And so I covered my face and took, um, my girlfriend's mom sort of under my arm and she began crying when I told her why I had my face covered. Because at the time everything was so, highly strung and, and it was so sad that, you know, people were, the sadness was, was the fact that two nations that were so close to each other, you know, not just geographically, um, that one could, could, could kind of bring so much harm upon the other. And the fact that, you know, somebody might wanna harm me as well. Just anybody off the street had now in this atmosphere and in that this climate would wanna get me harm was, was, was something that really upset her. So we went down to the protests and whilst I was looking after my girlfriend's mom appended my resignation letter I said, look, I said I can't come in tonight. When they asked me, I says, I wanted to hand this resignation letter in by hand, but, um, I ended up just sending it by email and yeah, that's, that's when it all came to an end. That's when a lot, that's when a lot of things came to an end.

Sir Gene: 1:02:44

Mm-hmm.

Danny: 1:02:45

my career at it came to an end that night.

Sir Gene: 1:02:47

So you, you had no anticipation of the special military operations starting.

Danny: 1:02:53

Um, no.

Sir Gene: 1:02:55

Hm.

Danny: 1:02:57

I mean, I don't know whether that's a loaded question or not

Sir Gene: 1:02:59

Well, no, I mean I just, I guess it being in the political circles, I think all of us knew that was about to happen.

Danny: 1:03:06

Oh really?

Sir Gene: 1:03:07

Yeah.

Danny: 1:03:08

You knew?

Sir Gene: 1:03:09

Oh yeah. I mean, I couldn't tell you the exact date and hour though, but it was gonna be within a two week period.

Danny: 1:03:16

No,

Sir Gene: 1:03:18

Hmm. So, and then once you did the

Danny: 1:03:22

let's just, let's just come back to that question. Yeah. Because I mean, I mean, the way I see it is like, I don't know whether it's with you being in the west, or, sorry, sorry. In America. I mean, there was a lot of, at the time what we were calling anti-Russian, you know, Western hysteria about the invasion, and I was convinced at one point, That there was gonna be an invasion, but I remember then not thinking there was gonna be an invasion.

Sir Gene: 1:03:55

Now, wait, when you say invasion, you mean Russia going into Ukraine, or are you talking about West? Going into Russia.

Danny: 1:04:02

no, no. I was talking about Russia going into Ukraine.

Sir Gene: 1:04:05

Okay. Yeah.

Danny: 1:04:06

I don't think anybody ever anticipated or will anticipate that the west going into

Sir Gene: 1:04:10

Oh, I, well, that was part of the reason for the timing of the uh, special military operation. Was the joint NATO operations that were happening right before that in preparation for the invasion of Russia through LA Gangs?

Danny: 1:04:25

Oh, really? So you think that NATO was about to attack?

Sir Gene: 1:04:29

Well, there were, if you look at the, the let's see, you're not gonna see it in, in probably uh, Russian or American news articles, but if you look at the local news articles, there was a very definite buildup of NATO operations happening in Germany, Poland, and in, um, joint operations with Ukrainians that were in NATO at the time. There was also a satellite imagery that was showing the the preparation of logistics for a what appeared to be, and again, here I'm just, you know, I'm, I'm repeating what others said. It's not like I've seen,

Danny: 1:05:06

No, but this, this is very interesting, like, um, certainly like your point of view.

Sir Gene: 1:05:11

Yeah. Well, it, it's interesting that, um, I guess because you guys were doing news for the West that you weren't really talking about this because it wouldn't be advantageous to Russia to be showing its hand in what they know to the West, so you wouldn't have found out through work about it, that's for sure.

Danny: 1:05:37

Yeah. Um, I kind of see, I mean, I, I answered not entirely honestly. And, and so I, I didn't think there was gonna be an invasion. Um, now what I, what I recount to you, whatever counted just so far as, you know, the day in the invasion and when it all came to an end,

Sir Gene: 1:06:00

right.

Danny: 1:06:01

it came, it brings up, you know, a lot of emotions that, that were very, I, I wanna use like Russian words as well to describe it, but, um, There's some, there's, they won't kind of ever really kind of leave. Um, but I think I'm kind of surprised as I, as, as I retell it because it, it's something that I don't feel now certainly knowing some of the things that we do now and then sort of, kind of how the dust is settled. And I think the world is kind of wisen up to the, the bullshit of the US and

Sir Gene: 1:06:45

Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean if anything, I would apologize on behalf of the United States for causing you a stress during that night, cuz this is 100%.

Danny: 1:06:53

well, yeah, I would, I would've to agree in large part with that statement. Um, I mean, there's, there's a number of things that you can pinpoint, you know, knowledge stream and, and. The US wanted to tie up a, a, a gas deal with the eu you know, taking it further away. The whole thing is to do, I mean, the, with Ukraine is to do with gas. I mean it like, the Madan Revolution as well was, was, was down in huge parts in, in getting from under that Russian influence, they call it, when half the country wants to put, is praying to be hoovered up by Russia because the potential, the earning potential there is three times what you can earn in the Ukraine. In Ukraine rather, because the government put fucking huge tack on fucking grain. He's one of the corrupt countries in the world.

Sir Gene: 1:07:50

It that, like, you can repeat that about 10 more times because it's been that way, way before the Soviet Union fell apart. Like the, historically the region of Ukraine which was never a country before, it was created a thin air. That whole region had a reputation and it's, I'm sure there's similar things in the UK and there are in the US where certain regions, they gain a, a negative reputation and something people make fun of, right?

Danny: 1:08:17

Yeah.

Sir Gene: 1:08:17

So in Ukraine there was very much a reputation that, you know, if you wanna go to the Middle East, go to Ukraine first to get trained on how people are gonna pick pocket and steal from you. You know, it's, it's the attitude that yes, it's, it's, you know, yes, they speak Russian. Yes, it's all part of the same country. It's, it's that part of the country that is right next to the border. And so a lot of bad habits have crossed over into Ukraine. It now there's also, historically, and again, I'm quite a bit older than you, there's historically a, a Russian memory of the German invasion of Russia and the relative ease with which they went through Ukraine because Ukraine very much supported.

Danny: 1:09:02

Elaborated with. Yeah, because I mean, those in the west didn't really have any ties or affiliation with the Soviet Union, and they saw them as kind of occupying Ukraine and, and, and,

Sir Gene: 1:09:14

well, the Bun Banderas was you know, he, in a lot of ways he out German, the Germans, like, he didn't just dislike Jews. He disliked everybody who wasn't identical to him. He disliked Russians. He disliked blonde blue-eyed people. He disliked everybody. The national hero of Ukraine today. And, and, you know, Who,

Danny: 1:09:36

this sl the.

Sir Gene: 1:09:39

right, right. Which in itself, a lot of nations would say, you know, glory to whatever the name of the country is. That's all it means in English, but, but it is also recalling a certain slogan that was used during World War II for stealing land, for killing people, and for helping the Nazis get to the, to Moscow ultimately faster.

Danny: 1:10:04

true. And before this war started, this wasn't a secret before the, this war started. It wasn't, um, something that was a bad thing to say. Ukraine was nothing good, was tied with Ukraine,

Sir Gene: 1:10:20

the grain. The grain was always the thing that, like everybody Oh, I remember always talked about like, you know, only we had soil. Like they have.

Danny: 1:10:30

right?

Sir Gene: 1:10:31

That was historically always a big positive for Ukraine. And I will have to say, having dated number of Ukrainian women, they're very beautiful You know, there there are, there are a lot of beautiful girls in Ukraine, or they were, now they're spread all over Europe.

Danny: 1:10:45

yeah, yeah. Um, yeah, I don't really wanna talk too much about Ukraine, about the girls and being,

Sir Gene: 1:10:53

Well, yeah, yeah, fair enough. Fair enough. You're engaged, you're engaged on top of that, so I probably don't want to go down that road. Um, but in general, the, the idea that the, the maan coup that was completely orchestrated by the US State Department with funding with imported rebel rousers with military that were not officially in US uniforms, but were absolutely. US military that were in there. There's tons of documentation of that in video. And in fact, I think the BBC has managed to kill off a few shows that were previously on the BBC that discussed that the, the fact that the revolution was really a Western sponsored coup. And there are a number of political and legal reasons why the way that the government was taken over, um, was not, um, what's the best way to phrase it? It was not according to international law, which I know is a silly thing to talk about, like war in international law or revolution in international law. But nonetheless, it's sort of like if you come in and then you shoot all your opponents and you're the only one left standing, and then you're magically elected the leader. That's not the same thing as winning a legitimate election and having supported the people.

Danny: 1:12:21

Yeah.

Sir Gene: 1:12:21

So the events in Odessa with the, the burning of hundreds of people alive in a building that were counter professing mean, there's a lot of negative aspects Way before the special military operations started in Ukraine, um, the con constant shelling of lu gonski and dank, and the fact there were 18 and a half thousand people that were killed there without a, any declared war, without any kind of, it was just, you know, military action. They were, they were just constantly bombarding areas. I think out of those 18,000, I think four and a half thousand were children. And, and there, you know, there are children that had Ukrainian passports. They might have been Russian speakers, but they had Ukrainian passports. So there's a lot that I think the West Gary's responsibility.

Danny: 1:13:08

Yeah. I, I, I would agree.

Sir Gene: 1:13:11

It's very unfortunate that so many Ukrainians had to die as a result of the West actions. That's the way I kind of

Danny: 1:13:18

Yeah, I think, I mean, I think the whole, I think Ukraine as a country and as a people has been sold down the river. I think, um, I think, you know, Zelensky, he, he needs this war. He's, he's time man of the year. He is, you know, all over the world. And before this war, he was, he was, he was a joke. He was an actor. He was,

Sir Gene: 1:13:42

don't forget, Hitler was also Times Man of the year

Danny: 1:13:46

yeah. That's, that's true.

Sir Gene: 1:13:47

1937, I believe.

Danny: 1:13:49

That's true. Me personally, I'm not gonna go as far as to make a comparison, but I fully believe that,

Sir Gene: 1:13:56

No, I'm, I'm just saying in the sense what. what? American Publications Bestow is not worth the paper it's printed on.

Danny: 1:14:04

Yeah. Um, yeah, I mean, Zelensky was huge. He was, was not trusted by his people. He was seen as carrying on some of the same corruption in the country that he

Sir Gene: 1:14:19

Yeah.

Danny: 1:14:20

out to, to kind of banish. He banned a lot of media. I think the two biggest, like English language in publications are ki of Independent and Kiev Post. Now both of them were huge, huge critics as Zelensky

Sir Gene: 1:14:38

Mm-hmm.

Danny: 1:14:39

and Zelensky moved to Silence. I can't remember who owns and, and, and which publication is, I think it's the Kia Post. Um, the owner sacked the entire news desk because they had complaints from. government, I mean, this is Zelensky, it's administration. Um, cuz they weren't happy with some of the things they were writing on whatever topic it was. Um, Zelensky is control of the media is, is, I mean, it makes RT and whatever people accuse RT of it just makes it look like complete child's play. It just makes it look like, in comparison, what Zelensky did with, with state meeting and what he's, what he's continuing to do is, is what people think happens at rt. Do you understand what I'm saying? Like what? Like the worst thing that the, that the west can think about me. Media manipulation and about, um, state propaganda as it were. What they think is happening in Russia is happening in Ukraine. Do you understand what I'm saying? It's like it's Ukraine is where that's at.

Sir Gene: 1:15:57

Oh yeah. Well, and they've moved on to churches now. They've banned first the Russian Orthodox Church. Now they've banned all orthodox churches.

Danny: 1:16:05

Yeah, that's true.

Sir Gene: 1:16:06

that's, that's another distinction. I, I don't know. I, I think that what a lot of people in the West don't understand and it is the. The caution with which Russia has been, um, using military force in Ukraine. And they, they take that for weakness. They think, oh, look at, look at how this little country called Ukraine could just hold off Russia for a whole year. But they don't understand here is that it's literally Russians fighting Russians. It, it is a civil war as much as anything else. And so you try to minimize damage and casualties and deaths, certainly when you're fighting your own people. If this was a war between Russia and Germany there would be no holding back. There would be no restraint whatsoever. It would be a complete oblation and it would be, it would start at the capitol and move on to the other major cities. and then clean up the countryside. And that is literally the opposite of what's happening in Ukraine because it was never about fighting an enemy. It was about really taking back control that was you served by the west and taking people that are blood relatives. And in a lot of cases, ev you know, people, people aren't just Russians living in Ukraine. It's like everyone has a relative who's Ukrainian. And every Ukrainian has a relative who's Russian. It really is the same people. And, and the west managed to split those two geographic regions apart, um, by putting out a lot of promises. And now again, all of those videos have shown up and we've got videos from 2014. Including with Biden and with a lot of current politicians in the US and the promises they were making groups in Ukraine before Myan. I mean, it, it is, it is a 100% US directed overthrow of a government. You can, are, you can certainly say the government wasn't very good that got overthrown. I'd agree with that. Sure, there's tons of corruption, but there always has been for literally hundreds of years in that region.

Danny: 1:18:38

Mm-hmm.

Sir Gene: 1:18:39

And 2014 did not fix the corruption. All it did was create a foothold for the west to start a leveraging against Russia. And from a country that's literally the border between the Ukrainian border and, and Moscow is close enough for even medium range missiles.

Danny: 1:19:00

Yeah.

Sir Gene: 1:19:01

this was never gonna happen and everybody that had a brain cell would've seen this ahead of time. Um, but for some reason there's still this American belief that America can't do any wrong. There is nothing that America can do that will be perceived as wrong. Yeah. And this is where we are. I mean, y I, I think to some of these people that want to continue sending money to Ukraine and, and funding this war, um, even further, they don't care about Ukrainians. They don't care about how many Ukrainians die. They're the same people that left Afghanistan with billions of dollars of a mili American military equipment left on the ground. And, you know what I mean? It's like, is there any better way to supply terrorist groups and different separatist groups with arms than just to leave a huge stash of them in a territory that's controlled by Taliban? It's, it's insane. And then there was a recent map that was great recently that was showing the Middle East before the US came in to Iraq and the Middle East after us left. And the only difference is we now have isis. That's the great achievement for the Middle East is we've, we've now created isis, but o other than that, all the borders are there. All the people are there. A lot of people died, a lot of money was spent and for what, you know, so I, I don't know, man, it, it, like, again, it's, it's very it's very sad seeing the actual people on the ground in Ukraine and what's happening in destruction there and, and

Danny: 1:20:47

Yeah, I, I think on a human level, I think that's, that's

Sir Gene: 1:20:51

yeah, a human level. Of course all conflict, all war is horrible and it's sad, but, but you start looking at why it happened, the fingers just keep pointing right back at the US

Danny: 1:21:06

Yeah, I would, I would have to agree. I would've to agree. And I also think that this war is gonna go on for as long as it takes the US to tie up a deal with, with EU on gas. And then after that, I think they, they probably stop sending,

Sir Gene: 1:21:24

Yeah. Then they'll forget about Ukraine. Exactly.

Danny: 1:21:27

they'll stop sending arms. They'll stop sending the millions of dollars that they send over an eight.

Sir Gene: 1:21:34

and I'm, I'm shocked that Germany has still not responded to the pretty damn obvious American sabotage of the pipeline that has effectively crippled their country.

Danny: 1:21:45

And what did they say? Oh, yeah, but I mean, again, what did they say about who is it supposed to be now? Who did they point the finger at? Norwegian Divers.

Sir Gene: 1:21:55

yeah, it keeps changing. So it was like Ukrainian associated, you know, people rented a Polish boat and then went to,

Danny: 1:22:06

yes.

Sir Gene: 1:22:06

and there's, there's, um, a multitude of these ideas floating. But Seymour Hirsch did the story, I guess, about a month ago now that made the most sense, which I actually read. I don't think most people bothered reading. I, I, most people just read headlines. They don't actually read stories anymore. Um, but, you know, he, he described in there from his sources, like why it wasn't the US Special Service why it was done through a just a, an US nav. Operation, and a lot of it had to do with requirements that the US Congress has for bringing them in on clandestine operations. Like, you can't run a clandestine opera. You can't go and kill some president of some country without us Congress first being notified and then presumably having an opportunity to say, no, that's not gonna happen. Like, we're not gonna allow that to happen. But by doing it through the normal naval, I think it was a, a, a, um, a division out in Florida, that's not the seals, but it was just a division that works on underwater construction and stuff like that. So they funneled it all through that, and they did it apparently three weeks before the actual explosion happened. So there was time there for, I guess, They, they, they had time to determine whether they were needing to blow it up or not, or if they could leave it alone depending on what Germany was doing. I mean, it's, it's just, I, if you haven't read the story by Hirsch, I recommend checking it out cuz it's, it's quite, it, it paints a very vivid picture.

Danny: 1:23:50

Yeah. I have read, um,

Sir Gene: 1:23:53

So,

Danny: 1:23:54

thesis. I mean, and the other thing that was, was quite telling by was the reaction of, of pro or rather anti Kremlin figures such as GE

Sir Gene: 1:24:10

mm-hmm.

Danny: 1:24:11

basically Navani's D girl, glorified personal assistant. Who it was, it wasn't until Posner complimented Hirsch,

Sir Gene: 1:24:22

Mm.

Danny: 1:24:22

been pretty silent on the, on the war, like one way or the other. He's

Sir Gene: 1:24:26

He is getting old.

Danny: 1:24:28

Yeah, he's bloody old, isn't he? He's getting in 90. Um, but um, he complimented Hirsch and says, if you know, we need to really respect this guy's work and we need to take into account what he's saying about Lord Stream. Now this chu, I think that's how you pronounce the second name. She was quick to completely dismiss Hirsch, not just his work on the, the Nord Stream story, but just his entire body of work. I mean, this is a guy you uncover the Mayline massacre and then the the Watergate scandal. This guy's, this, this guy's a top dog. This guy's still going strong at 80 odd. This guy's a Puli surprise winner. Now what that echoed to me was the same shutting down of free media, free speech, and anything that opposes the official narrative that, you know,

Sir Gene: 1:25:32

Yeah.

Danny: 1:25:33

west Good

Sir Gene: 1:25:35

Well, and I don't know how much you've been following the Twitter files, but

Danny: 1:25:38

leader of Free World Russia, but

Sir Gene: 1:25:42

Yeah. Russia bad. That's about it. That's literally like the, the only thing you need to know from US media, is Russia bad?

Danny: 1:25:49

they're all actors and they've all been set up. They've all been set up that Zelensky, Navalny,

Sir Gene: 1:25:55

yep.

Danny: 1:25:56

every single one of them. And the, the reason why this lie, these myths of these people are sold and, and, and kept alive for so long, is that there's a complete war on anybody who thinks outside of. Fucking idiots of the Economist and at the Moscow Times who paints these huge caricatures, these caricatures of bad guys in Russia and the good guys in the West. And it's just, I've got, you know, knowledge of experience of, of being over here in the media and being over there in the media. And I've only been here nine months now, and I'm getting fucking sick and tired of the bullshit that the West propagates. And really, I don't think, I think the w I think the West is probably, probably not, probably, I think the West is a lot worse in terms of the tactics that they use and the way that they manipulate. Public opinion glory favor. I think it's a whole lot worse than, than what they see. And if they, if there was a mirror held up to them, I think they, I, I can't wait for the day that that happens when they see themselves for what they are.

Sir Gene: 1:27:15

Well, whether they see themselves or not I, I don't know. But it's definitely the case. And this is a statement I never thought I would hear myself say, because I'm a very staunch anti-communist that you can imagine having, you know, started my life in, in the Soviet Union.

Danny: 1:27:31

Yeah.

Sir Gene: 1:27:32

Um, but I I, lately I've been thinking maybe Carl Marx is right in the sense that every country needs to go through communism in order to come out on the other side, which is the part he doesn't talk about. But in order to come out on the other side, having seen just how evil, truly evil communism is, and then proceed with creating a, a form of government that that has capitalism. As its basis, but not the sort of, um, you know, crony capitalism that we have both in the United States and in the UK right now. Oh, and really in, I mean, Europe, you, I don't even wanna talk about anymore cuz they, they're not gonna have much for manufacturing or business in general. The Mercedes makes more cars in the United States now than they do in Germany because they, they're shutting down factories. So Europe is gonna be basically a tourist destination that maybe grows a little bit of specialty products like cheese and wine. It's, it's, I mean, I'm exaggerating obviously, but you, you get the idea. That's the, the general idea that I'm starting to see. It's like the West is fast moving towards totalitarianism and socialism and Russia came out on the other side. I think China is probably going to come out. I don't have a timeline for when that's gonna happen, but at some point, China's gonna stop saying that they're actually communists. They're just gonna say that they're Chinese. And then, and that's a another topic that I've spent way too much time talking about is the, the West's misunderstanding of Chinese history and culture. Because much like people in the West don't really learn about Russian history and culture, they definitely don't learn about Chinese history and culture.

Danny: 1:29:17

No, it's very true.

Sir Gene: 1:29:19

And when you don't know who you think your enemy is very well, then you're basically fighting yourself, not them.

Danny: 1:29:27

That's very, very well put. Very, very well put.

Sir Gene: 1:29:31

Well, and on that note, I think we're getting up to our time cut off here. So I definitely appreciate your time and um, you willing to jump on, I know we had some technical issues when we were starting.

Danny: 1:29:43

Yeah, I mean,

Sir Gene: 1:29:43

third software to get this done.

Danny: 1:29:46

and to be honest, um, I, I did actually kind of, I didn't, I didn't forget about it, but I, I didn't think it was gonna happen. So I, I I mean this is this, it's 11 o'clock now, so it's Megan, maybe late for me. I've been up to this house three this morning because I like getting up to it early and getting ahead of people. I dunno why. It's just always been a quirk of mine, but I

Sir Gene: 1:30:06

habit. I wouldn't say anything bad about that habit. Is there anything that I didn't ask you about that you think would be interesting or useful for listeners?

Danny: 1:30:14

Oh, oh, I'm, yeah. The more I think about it, the more I'm tempted to go back to art.

Sir Gene: 1:30:24

Okay. That's, that's definitely interesting. But,

Danny: 1:30:28

world exclusive

Sir Gene: 1:30:30

yeah, there you go. You heard it here, folks.

Danny: 1:30:33

Yeah, because it's just a fucking big lie that people are being told, um, about Ukraine, about the whole reason why they're in this situation. You said about, you know, like from a human point of view, it's very sad what's happening to the country as a, you know, as a physical country, as, as it's being quite literally ripped apart and people are being Ritz part and it's, it's terrible. It had to happen. But I think, I think the US and I think certainly the, the Ukraine. Ukrainian government, Zelensky administration has sold him down the river. I think,

Sir Gene: 1:31:17

Yep.

Danny: 1:31:18

I think, I don't think they could care less. Certainly not zelensky

Sir Gene: 1:31:23

No, he, he's got a, he's got a multimillion dollar house in Florida. He knows exactly where he's gonna end up when this whole thing is over.

Danny: 1:31:30

Yeah. It's, um, it's sad and it really is. It's worrying to the, see the extent that people have, have swallowed it all and the way they bought it. And one thing, I mean, doesn't it not seem, I think people not cutting in on how the reason why is, was premeditated though. Number one example you could give about it being premeditated is the fact that Zelensky, he might go on that he doesn't have this in his arsenal and he needs that and he needs these weapons. And one thing that he does have in his arsenal, in his locker, Is a fucking good PR team,

Sir Gene: 1:32:13

Oh, the best.

Danny: 1:32:14

the best in the world, and they're all American.

Sir Gene: 1:32:17

I, if Germans had the team that he has we might have had a different outcome in the world, Wari.

Danny: 1:32:22

Yeah, you may, you may be speaking fucking German right now, mate.

Sir Gene: 1:32:26

Yeah, they have all,

Danny: 1:32:28

But the, the point I was trying to make was the, the people do people not, they not allow suspicion a little bit just how fast this PR was coming out. Just how fast these videos that were perfectly cut were coming outta Kiev and they were perfectly still. There was no shaking. You know, like, did he not arouse suspicion

Sir Gene: 1:32:50

It's all professionally produced and it

Danny: 1:32:53

These professionally produced videos and these teams of PR people, these cameramen, these crews, these green room experts,

Sir Gene: 1:33:05

and it, and

Danny: 1:33:06

Green screening experts

Sir Gene: 1:33:07

Green, green screen. Yeah. And it's the same. You know what shocked me is that we just went through C O V I D, which again, you know, my position on it from day one has been because I actually read scientific, and, and was that masks don't work. The, the, um, the new method they're developing these vaccines with are at least 10 years away from safety testing. And that the most likely scenario on using Occam's Razor is that if the first cases were next to a lab level three lab, that's probably where it came from. And I ended up being absolutely right on all three of those counts. But seeing people that took two years to realize that, oh boy, maybe the government wasn't telling us the truth about covid immediately with Ukraine, we're right back on board with the government's right about Ukraine.

Danny: 1:34:03

Yes,

Sir Gene: 1:34:04

They literally just lied to you about Covid and now you don't think they're lying to you about Ukraine. Really?

Danny: 1:34:10

yes, yes, yes. But the, it comes back to the old adage, Abraham Lincoln, it's easier to fool someone than to convince them that they've been fooled. And people don't like it when you point out that they've been fooled. So they would rather clinging onto the lie that they've been sold. And I've found that a lot of the time, like when you tell people I'm not at my jobs. I have not had, I didn't get the Sputnik, I didn't get that Pfizer or any other shit that was on the market. I didn't get anything. Number one reason is because I didn't have it I never got it. Even when I thought that I was, that, that I was ill,

Sir Gene: 1:34:45

Mm-hmm. Yep.

Danny: 1:34:47

all them tests came back negative and they were at different clinics. So they can't be a false negative. And I keep myself healthy, so I don't need a jab to, to make me healthy. Do you know what I mean? And again, something that's not gonna cause me any threat or anything. So yeah, I, I kind of rejected all that. I forgot, I forgot what, what I was talking about, about Ukraine just before that, but yeah. Um,

Sir Gene: 1:35:12

Yeah. Propaganda works. Marketing

Danny: 1:35:14

That was it. So the lie that they were told and the lie that they were given, like, I haven't been fooled. I didn't need to be nobody, there's nobody there convincing, trying to convince me that I've been fooled and I'm not clinging onto a lie. But when I have told people about Covid and that they were lied to it, it elicits a reaction. It's just really strange. And then you say, oh, well, no, no, no. Oh, well it's better to be safe than sorry. No, no. Well, well no. Well, and there's always like some excuse, even when you give them the evidence right in front of them, it's so hard to convince them that they've been fooled So, yeah.

Sir Gene: 1:35:51

It, it's It is surprising very often to me at the, the amount of effort people will put into denying facts and just wanting to believe a, a truth that somebody else told them. That turns out not to be the case. I mean, it's, it's uh, it's like, sunk cost fallacy is like they, they already made up their mind once. Now it's too much trouble for them to change their mind. So they're gonna defend their position even if they're completely at odds with the facts.

Danny: 1:36:23

Yes, very much so. And I think we're gonna have the same trouble when the cobwebs are removed and this whole thing is over and the US ties up their deal for natural gas with the EU and finally stops giving a to Ukraine. Um

Sir Gene: 1:36:45

it, it's, it's bound to happen at some point. Obviously the rhetoric right now is, you know, us is gonna keep giving money until the Ukrainians win the war. But I don't know if the US is gonna be around that long.

Danny: 1:36:56

oh really?

Sir Gene: 1:36:58

Well, I'm, I'm making a joke, but I mean, it's like, it may take him a thousand years for Ukraine to actually win against Russia. So given, given that America is only 250 years old, you know,

Danny: 1:37:08

Yeah.

Sir Gene: 1:37:08

a bold statement to say we're gonna be there as long as it takes and we haven't even gotten into China. So we'll save that for the next time you and I talk, I

Danny: 1:37:15

Yeah mate, listen, um, it's been, it's been fun talking to you like, hey, like I say, it's, it's a little bit past my bedtime mate cause I'm also old as well in, in comparison to a lot of people. But, um, I, I'd love to chat all the video sometime as well, so if you've got any time,

Sir Gene: 1:37:31

We'll have you back on for.

Danny: 1:37:33

yeah, I'd be well up for it, mate.

Sir Gene: 1:37:35

All right. I appreciate it.