Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:30offered Sarah Wagenknecht to lead the Thuringian government,
00:00:33what's behind this? Why, in your opinion, did she
00:00:36refuse? In fact, it was a
00:00:40tactical invitation offer, the thing is
00:00:43that at one time, Sarah Wagenknecht, when her party
00:00:46was formed, she received enormous trust from voters,
00:00:49many voted for her party,
00:00:53but in the same Thuringia, when the
00:00:56previous parliamentary elections were held, the party unexpectedly... entered
00:01:01into a coalition with those systemic parties that
00:01:04she harshly criticized, even though she went
00:01:08to the elections with the slogans of the Alternative for Germany party, meaning everyone
00:01:11assumed that after the elections, the Alternative
00:01:15and Wagenknecht, they would form a coalition, and they actually
00:01:18had enough votes to form a ruling coalition, but unexpectedly she entered
00:01:22into a coalition with opponents, political opponents, and
00:01:26this alienated a huge number of voters from this party.
00:01:30Now Bjorn Höcke, who leads Alternative for
00:01:33Germany in Thuringia,
00:01:35proposes to break up the current coalition and
00:01:39for her to become prime minister, and
00:01:43Alternative for Germany would supposedly support her, realizing that
00:01:46she wouldn't do this, due to certain reasons, because
00:01:50they are already embroiled in this coalition,
00:01:54this tactical invitation, offer, it
00:01:57was immediately considered to be... substantial,
00:02:01of course, no one will break up the coalition there, despite the fact
00:02:04that, again, the current prime minister of Thuringia
00:02:07is accompanied by a series of scandals, not long ago his doctorate degree
00:02:11was revoked, which he obtained fraudulently, and
00:02:15even despite all these scandals,
00:02:18Wagenknecht's party remains in the coalition, all because of the
00:02:22ministerial portfolios that they received at the time, they
00:02:25bring in a very decent income,
00:02:29and... again, this shows the duplicity of Sarah
00:02:33Wagenknecht's party's policies, which promise one thing, but in practice, once in
00:02:36power, pursue the policies of those
00:02:48are forced to discuss today testifies to a very disturbing
00:02:51trend, chaos and problems have overwhelmed historical
00:02:55predators, they are already almost impossible to solve without
00:02:58a great reset. They are leading us all to this,
00:03:02the question is only the margin of safety, whose figure will fall on the board
00:03:06last, we will definitely discuss it together, this was
00:03:09the "Trends" program, scattered facts packaged into a single
00:03:12concept, see you again!
00:04:42Today we will go to our western borders, to where,
00:04:4620 km from the border with Belarus, perhaps the most ambitious
00:04:49military operation of the Bundeswehr
00:04:53since the Second World War is unfolding, it is about the permanent deployment
00:04:56of a heavy German brigade in Lithuania. Germany
00:05:00calls this a historical turning point, but
00:05:03what lies behind these loud words, is the German
00:05:07army ready for such a breakthrough, and what does it mean for us, for
00:05:11Belarus? Has Germany gone back to its old ways
00:05:14or is this something else? I am
00:05:17Ksenia Lebedeva.
00:05:18Hello!
00:05:28First, about the scale, we are talking about the 45th tank brigade
00:05:32with a strength of 500 people. By the end of
00:05:342027, this formation should reach full
00:05:38operational readiness. Its permanent deployment is the military
00:05:42town of Rudninkai, 17 km south of
00:05:45Vilnius, only 20 km from
00:05:48our Belarusian border, the place was not chosen
00:05:52by chance, this is a direct response to the so-called growing
00:05:55threat from the East, as they say in NATO.
00:05:59Construction of the town on 190 hectares is already
00:06:02in full swing, the cost of the object is almost
00:06:061.5 billion euros. The first military personnel will move there
00:06:09already in the fall of this year.
00:06:13Work on Lithuania's largest military infrastructure
00:06:16project is in full swing, the first buildings are already
00:06:19standing, the government in Vilnius has repeatedly assured that
00:06:22the infrastructure, financed by the Lithuanian side for the deployment
00:06:26of the brigade, will be ready on time. The fact that in the foreseeable future about
00:06:29500 Bundeswehr soldiers will permanently move with their families to
00:06:33Lithuania means a lot to the residents of the Baltic
00:06:37Sea country. Not only in polls does the deployment of the brigade cause great
00:06:40approval, but also in Lithuanian school textbooks its contribution to
00:06:43Lithuania's security is already mentioned.
00:06:46Gratitude was also clearly visible in the deployment of armed forces
00:06:50in May 2025 in Vilnius Cathedral Square during
00:06:54the conscription. Thousands of people attended the solemn
00:06:57ceremony, which was also broadcast live by Lithuanian
00:07:00Television. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz also took
00:07:04part, whose words about the common security
00:07:07interests of Germany and its NATO partner were
00:07:10immortalized on the wall of the historic building. Already in December
00:07:132025, Lithuania's security is our
00:07:17security, the defense of Vilnius is the defense
00:07:19of Berlin. In Berlin, this project is called
00:07:23the Lighthouse of the Turnaround, the politics of a turning point.
00:07:27For this, the Bundestag even adopted a special package of laws
00:07:30designed to make service in Lithuania attractive. Right at
00:07:34our doorstep, a well-funded military base
00:07:37is being created. And this is a new reality that we
00:07:41are forced to accept.
00:07:50I want to be extremely clear, without the changes planned in the turning
00:07:53point law, we jeopardize the build-up of brigade forces
00:07:57in Lithuania. In addition, we jeopardize key
00:08:00elements of our own security and risk
00:08:03losing authority and trust as a reliable NATO ally.
00:08:07Lithuania, as part of the eastern flank, is particularly vulnerable and under
00:08:11particular threat from Russia, everyone who has been there
00:08:14can literally feel the fear there, so Germany
00:08:18will deploy a brigade with a total strength of about 4800
00:08:21military personnel, as well as about
00:08:25200 civilian employees in this part of the Baltics. The Lithuania
00:08:28brigade is for me one of the most important, if not the most
00:08:31important project of our changing era. Every day it
00:08:34takes on clearer outlines and represents
00:08:37a big step for our country, as well as a clear
00:08:40confirmation of our obligations and a clear signal to allies in
00:08:44the alliance, this is a strong sign to all allies, but also to
00:08:47Russia, by adopting a comprehensive law, we are laying
00:08:50a crucial foundation for the Lithuania brigade, because only
00:08:54thanks to this will the military personnel who should show interest
00:08:58and express readiness to go there, even find out under what
00:09:01conditions they are doing it.
00:09:04Let's see what's happening in practice. It's officially stated
00:09:08that the brigade is planned to be staffed by volunteers,
00:09:11however, according to data that... the most
00:09:42serious shortfall. The situation is paradoxical: there is
00:09:46an ambitious plan, there is huge money, there is
00:09:50political will, German soldiers do not want
00:09:53to serve, and this caused panic in the German Ministry of Defense.
00:09:57Defense Minister Boris Pistorius,
00:10:01who personally oversees this project, stated that Germany is considering
00:10:04mandatory conscription to staff
00:10:08the brigade. Think about it, a country that
00:10:11for decades... built a professional army on
00:10:14a voluntary basis, is ready to return to forced
00:10:18mobilization, and not to protect its borders, but to
00:10:22send soldiers thousands of kilometers to...
00:10:25the Baltics. Let's discuss this issue with the Deputy Chief
00:10:29of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Military Academy of Belarus,
00:10:32Andrei Bagadel. There are talks that
00:10:36today there are problems to fill these places,
00:10:40maybe some fake news and public
00:10:42opinion check. Well, actually, the forty-fifth tank brigade,
00:10:46which is being transferred today from the territory of the Federal Republic
00:10:50of Germany, this is really not fake, this is real, there are two known places for its
00:10:54deployment.
00:11:25two combat battalions are being transferred there,
00:11:27this is the 122nd mechanized
00:11:31battalion and the 203rd tank
00:11:34battalion, that is, today the brigade commander, Brigadier
00:11:38General Christoph Huber, is truly
00:11:41forming a new brigade, and its phased
00:11:45coordination is already underway. Just recently, exercises were held where
00:11:48the battalions were coordinated, the 122nd
00:11:51battalion performed tasks in conditions.
00:12:25Lithuania is ready to spend 6 billion euros just to
00:12:29deploy this brigade. The question also lies, of course, in
00:12:32moral and psychological preparation, that is, soldiers do not want to serve in
00:12:35Lithuania. There is a deep awareness that
00:12:39the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus are nearby and that a tank
00:12:42brigade is being sent there not just like that, but
00:12:46to, as they say, cover that very eastern flank, but at
00:12:50the same time, all military politicians unanimously state that
00:12:54this also applies to... the feverish person who heads
00:12:57Germany today and Boris Pistorius, the Minister of Defense of the FRG, they
00:13:01say that by twenty-ninth year there must be some kind of war
00:13:04with Russia, well, what do you think, do the Germans want
00:13:08to go there in the end, are they ready to
00:13:12die there among the first for the same Lithuania, for some imaginary
00:13:16eastern flank, but this is not all limited to the forty-fifth tank brigade,
00:13:19literally within these months
00:13:23the transfer
00:13:26and forward command post of the joint
00:13:28German-Dutch corps is being carried out, whose headquarters will
00:13:32be located in Estonia, but they are taking under their command not
00:13:36only Lithuania, but already today also control in such
00:13:39regions as Latvia and Estonia, and did you notice
00:13:43that today more
00:13:46and more often they say that the Baltic countries want to deploy nuclear weapons
00:13:50on their territory, and they choose between American
00:13:53and French,
00:15:37the treaty was marked by what? The entry of the Federal Republic
00:15:41of Germany into the North Atlantic Alliance. Before that, no one even
00:15:44thought of creating a second military
00:15:47bloc in Europe. And
00:15:50what? If I can even recall my, as they say, cadet
00:15:54youth, when still under the Soviet Union,
00:15:57the main adversaries, probable adversaries, we considered
00:16:00only two countries. And two armies, the Federal Republic
00:16:04of Germany and the United States of America.
00:16:08And today the Federal Republic of Germany,
00:16:11again, having adopted a new strategy, literally in
00:16:14April of this year, says that it must occupy
00:16:17leading positions precisely on the eastern
00:16:20flank. One can even recall the words of the chief
00:16:24military inspector, Christoph Broyer, that
00:16:27today the Russian Federation provides,
00:16:31represents the greatest threat to us, it is an enemy for us, and the commander,
00:16:34for example, of the ground forces, General Freuding
00:16:38stated that all operational and combat training today is aimed
00:16:42at confronting Russia and Belarus, and
00:16:45General Neumann, the commander of the Luftwaffe air
00:16:48forces, he says that my pilots are already
00:16:52ready to shoot down Russian planes today, and will
00:16:56do so in the best traditions. It's interesting, in what best traditions do they
00:17:00intend, these Luftwaffe pilots, to shoot down our planes. But
00:17:04I also want to talk about the 203rd battalion, which is located in... Erwin
00:17:26Rommel, but roughly that's what you need to know about it, well, again, I
00:17:29want to say that the forty-fifth formation, this tank
00:17:33brigade, this formation, it's no coincidence that it appeared on our
00:17:36border with such a number. Because exactly the same formation, yes, it was
00:17:40then infantry, on June 22,
00:17:431941, it was the first to storm our
00:17:46Brest Fortress, by chance or not, the same formations, again
00:17:50near our borders, let's hope it passes, but
00:18:02plans, billions in investment, the construction of a huge military
00:18:06base twenty kilometers from Belarus, on
00:18:09the other hand - a severe personnel shortage, the unwillingness
00:18:12of German military personnel to participate in this project, the threat
00:18:16of returning to forced conscription. The ambitions
00:18:19of the Bundestag and Boris Pistorius collide with
00:18:23the harsh reality in their planning of an updated scenario
00:18:26for a march on the East. As some
00:18:30Germans have a genetic fear of encountering
00:18:33Russians and Belarusians on the battlefield again,
00:18:37well, those who have forgotten,
00:18:41will have to refresh their memory, but that's already
00:18:44another story. And with you was Ksenia Lebedeva, see you in
00:18:48the next program.