Maarten van Rossem on dividing Ukraine, US elections, fragile BRICS and short-sighted voters

In this episode, Paul Buitink talks to Maarten van Rossem, historian and America expert, about the current geopolitical situation. Maarten does not expect that Ukraine will succeed in liberating the entire territory occupied by the Russians. He therefore thinks it would be wise for Ukraine to show its willingness to talk about giving up territory. When the BRICS are mentioned, Maarten states that these countries are ramshackle quarrelsome.

He downplays the importance we should attach to the BRICS by identifying all the countries of the BRICS one by one. When Paul asks Maarten about the upcoming elections in America, Maarten states that Biden is not a dream candidate, but that all objections to him are dwarfed if you compare him to Trump, whom he calls a lunatic several times.

The men also talk about the EU and the fact that the Netherlands has to pay more than 3 billion euros extra, for which there will be little support during election time. Finally, Paul and Maarten discuss the elections in the Netherlands.Maarten indicates that he expects Timmermans and Omtzigt to emerge as winners and that they will go for a coalition. He simply sees Omtzigt as the new CDA.