Year End with Stanislav Krapivnik and Tim Kirby on the SMO and Westerners Emigrating to Russia

ESW's Editor-in-Chief and Publisher James Smith hosted a year end webcast on Monday afternoon December 23, 2024 with our regular guests former U.S. Army officer Stanislav Krapivnik (@Smkrapiv on X) and AmericanVillages.ru founder Tim Kirby (@TimKirbyRussia on X) to discuss emigration to Russia and the state of the Special Military Operation headed into 2025 with the Trump Administration 2.0 promising a negotiated peace in Ukraine.

Both of our guests, who are Russian and American citizens living in Russia, expressed pessimism that any lasting ceasefire deal can be struck between Moscow and the NATO controlled Zelensky wartime dictatorship in Kiev. They expect the war to grind on until Kiev exhausts its military manpower and capitulates—a grim prospect for Russians and Ukrainians alike. You can watch Stas' military analysis of the likely course of the conflict for 2025-26 in the extended interview Tim recorded with Stas (which we'll excerpt on our ESW Rumble channel) right after our conversation on Monday, linked here.