Episode
Devolution Power Hour Ep. 489: G20 Signals, Russia's Return, Ukraine Endgame
- Podcast
- Badlands Media
- Published
- Sep 3, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 7796
- Processing state
not_requested
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Summary
Jon Herold and Burning Bright open with some personal banter (mystery health scares, homeschooling law rabbit holes) before landing on the real meat of the episode: Russia getting invited back to the G20 for the first time since the Ukraine war started. The guys walk through why that timing lines up suspiciously well with CIA Director Ratcliffe's recent trip to Moscow, and what it might signal about where the Ukraine conflict is actually headed. There's a deep dive into the mixed messaging coming out of the administration, sanctions talk that doesn't quite match the rhetoric, and speculation about Trump, Zelensky, and Putin edging toward some kind of resolution despite public posturing suggesting otherwise. An older Zelensky extortion allegation also gets revisited for context. As always, it's a mix of geopolitical connect the dots and the hosts talking each other in and out of theories in real time.