HARLEY SCHLANGER: Hello and welcome to our weekly dialogue with Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the founder of the Schiller Institute and a moving force behind the global campaign for a new security and development architecture. Today is June 10, 2026 and we’re in the midst of an incredibly frenzied strategic situation with dangerous actions from those trying to hold together a collapsing imperial system with war and threats, competing with an organizing drive from the BRICS and nations of the Global South for a new paradigm. If you have questions or comments for Helga, email them to us at questions at schillerinstitute.org or post them on the chat page.
Now Helga, let’s begin with moves by the Global Majority with President Putin at the forefront. The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum brought together more than 20,000 delegates from 120 countries, maybe even more countries than that. Before it opened, Ukraine targeted an oil refinery there in St. Petersburg and its presidential usurper, Zelenskyy, issued a threat, a direct threat against Putin. There’s going on what some are calling escalatory retaliation from Ukraine and the E3 stooges met at Starmer’s temporary dwelling in London to discuss their infinite commitment to Ukraine remaining at war with Russia. Where do things stand now with this war continuing in Ukraine?
HELGA ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, as you say correctly, this letter, the so-called open letter by Zelenskyy to Putin was an open threat to his life. I read the translation of the letter and it is very, very different from what the Western media say. The Western media portrayed this letter as once again the Zelenskyy offer to negotiate was rejected by Putin, and that demonstrates very clearly Zelenskyy wants peace, but Putin is the one who doesn’t want to negotiate. If you read the letter, the opposite is true. The letter is from letter one to the last one, basically an insult, one insult after the other. It’s full of lies.
For example, it says Putin would only be interested in his own security only if his residence in Valdai and the military parade in Moscow are targeted, then he would be concerned. I mean, this is just, it’s just so twisted. Putin is quite understandably completely rejecting this letter because he says, yes, it has no content. And the issue is not to have a couple of weeks of ceasefire, but the issue is to get a permanent solution to this crisis. And concerning that, there is absolutely nothing in the Zelenskyy letter whatsoever. And, I think the whole thing is extremely troubling because as this war drags on, the willingness of the Coalition of the Willing to keep pushing this war, despite the fact, if you listen, I mean, I’m trying to get an objective picture. So I’m reading what some German generals are saying, like former General Kujat, former General Vad, the advisor of Mrs. Merkel. And, you know, what John Mearsheimer, who for sure cannot be accused of being a Putin sympathizer or lefty. I mean, Mearsheimer is a realist. So I’m listening to all of these different people, and I’m trying to read up on the situation itself.
And there is no question that, you know, there is an incredible carnage going on. The longer this war drags on, the more Ukraine gets destroyed. And the question is, will it be a viable country when this whole thing is finished? And therefore, you know, the Western or the Coalition of the Willing intention to keep the war going is just completely reckless. I mean, here are these economies collapsing. These so-called leaders have popularity ratios of 10% to maximum 20%. So the vast majority of the countries which they supposedly are to govern are against them. And nevertheless, they barge on with a policy of escalation, which in the worst case, can lead to a general nuclear war.
And, you know, given the fact that the Ukrainians, what they are doing in respect to reaching into basic infrastructure in Russia, in part deep into the territory of the Russian territory, they could not do without Western intelligence. And Western intelligence means British, and I hate to say it, also American intelligence, because these other Europeans do not have these capabilities. So the whole thing has so many falsehoods in the way it’s being reported. We had this whole discussion. Originally a couple of years ago, it was just Sergey Karaganov, but in the meantime, Putin, Lavrov, and Peskov, and Zakharova, and other much more middle-of-the-road politicians in Russia have said similar things, that if the West continues to push these red lines, Russia will do something to tell them that their belief that there are no red lines is false. And I think that that is being provoked by the action of Western forces, this is being done, it does have the potential of escalating.
So I can only say, this war hysteria which is being pushed in the West, in the German mass media, by the EU Commission, by the three Coalition of the Willing leaders, is very, very destructive. And it could very quickly become a self-fulfilling prophecy, leading to a big war between NATO and Russia, in which case Germany would be completely eliminated. And I have to say, while I normally appreciate what Scott Ritter is saying and doing, I think he was completely over the top when he was in Moscow right now, calling for Europe to be bombed. I think he should remember that there are people like me, and you, and many other reasonable people in Europe who don’t deserve to be bombed. But we should put our heads together and try to think what can be done to reverse this. So I had to say this, because when reasonable and good people are over the top, I think they need to be told that as well.
SCHLANGER: Well, we’ll come back to Europe in a few minutes, because there’s a lot more going on there. But let’s look at the other hotspot now, the crisis in Southwest Asia, which is moving along a similar path of escalation. Over the weekend Israel continued to violate the ceasefire with Lebanon, in spite of President Trump’s orders to Netanyahu, so Iran launched strikes in northern Israel to retaliate for the strikes into Lebanon, and also against the Gulf states. And now we see Trump then initiated a strike against Iran, even as he’s saying that we’ll have peace there soon. And then again, this afternoon, there were reports that Iran attacked sites in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Jordan, which were locations of U.S. bases. This is becoming extremely dangerous. And I wonder where Trump comes off saying that he’s got peace coming down the pipeline.
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: I think Trump probably would very much want this war to end because it’s dawning on him that despite his acolytes around him who obviously misinform him—and the fact that Tulsi Gabbard is out does not help the cause—he probably realizes that this war is a disaster for him, for the Republicans, for the upcoming midterm election on the ground. So he probably, deep in his heart, wants to end this war.
But obviously, he’s not prepared to do the only thing which would actually end the war, and that is to stop all support for Israel in conducting its attacks. Everybody knows that without the United States, Israel could not last for a minute. So it is the U.S. support for Israel. Now, why is Trump not doing that? Obviously, it would mean that he would have to declare independence, not from the British, that’s another matter, but from the moneybags, the people who supported his campaign. Obviously, he’s not prepared to do that. So that is why this conflict is dragging on. The suffering of the people in Lebanon approximates almost that of the people in Gaza. The population is fleeing; they don’t have any place to go. They have no shelters. It’s unbelievable what is happening in Lebanon right now.
I can only say that the longer this war drags on, the more severe the effects on the world economy, the supply of all kinds of things, not just oil and energy in general, but fertilizer and many rare earths and many other aspects of the supply chain. And if this economic crisis continues, plunging the world economy into a full-fledged depression, which we are very close to, it could blow out the financial system, which is totally fragile as well. And what that would lead to in terms of strategic escalation, one only can guess.
SCHLANGER: Now, Iran’s Foreign Minister Araghchi said that Iran is open to diplomacy, but will not back down from defending its sovereignty. And I heard the same thing last night from Dr. Marandi. So I think you’re right; this is heading for a bigger clash, and Trump seems to have no way out.
Now, there are other developments that are really significant, and you have some real insights into this. For example, the trip of Pope Leo XIV to Spain, and his continuing intervention against the insanity of war and geopolitics. How important is his voice?
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, I think it’s right now the most important voice on the planet. And that does not diminish the importance of the economic power of China as a material factor. But I listened to the speech, actually speeches he made in Spain, and it was so powerful. And at every point, he blasted and attacked the warmongering of people who are willing to sacrifice lives just to make a profit in the war industry. He completely condemned the idea of thinking to solve any conflict by means of war. He upheld the value of human life. He said the most important question is, what is human identity? What is a human being? Because that determines everything you do.
And that’s exactly what my late husband Lyndon LaRouche always used to say, because the image of man is, you know, if you have a positive image of man, that man in the religious terms is imago viva Dei, the living image of God, or that each life is sacred and each human being is an unbelievable contribution to the development of the universe. It is the creativity of the individual, where the continuous expansion and development of the universe is spearheaded, because the human mind is the most developed aspect of the universe. So therefore, when the Pope puts this image of man up front, I think it’s an absolute call to everybody. I mean, there are 1.4 billion Catholics, but the Pope is a respected religious leader far beyond Catholicism. It’s all Christians and all monotheistic religions. And I would say every force which has a moral demand, is respecting the Pope as one of the absolutely most important voices in the present situation. So I would hope that especially those parties who have a Christian in their name, like the CDU or CSU in Germany, would listen to the Pope.
But I can only say this Pope is especially important at this moment, and I can only advise all of you who are watching this right now, take the time and read some of the speeches he made in Spain, and take it to heart and get it around to political leaders. Because he is so much more reasonable than all of these so-called self-anointed political leaders that I can only say they need to hear his voice.
SCHLANGER: Well, you’re listening to Helga Zepp-LaRouche. This is our weekly dialogue with her. Helga, there’s a statement that you released on the repudiation of Germany in its effort to be voted into a temporary two-year term, the rotating term on the UN Security Council. What happened and what’s the significance of this?
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, it is in my view a very important message to Germany to correct its foreign policy. I mean, not only was Annalena Baerbock, the president of the UN General Assembly for not quite a year yet, I think it will run out in September, but she was there for several months. And obviously, many of her policies before as Foreign Minister, which were repeated by Wadephul, the present Foreign Minister, were a complete detriment to German interest, like the Green policy towards the Global South. More generally, the practically unconditional German support for what Israel is doing in Gaza, the West Bank, and now Lebanon has cost Germany not only sympathies, but after all, there is an arrest warrant out against Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Gallant by the International Criminal Court for a reason. And when Germany then is completely putting itself on the side of Israel, that has been registered very, very badly by the Global South. And I have said in many different contexts since a long time, that if you look at the strategic situation as we have discussed before, between the United States and NATO and Russia and China, the situation is pretty ruined. There’s not much initiative, it seems not much room for free energy and new initiatives.
And I have said for many years that the only factor in world politics which could make a difference and would be something new, would be if the Global South unites; because if they do that, then they represent the Global Majority, which is 85% of the human species. And if they would say loudly that they have a right to be a major strategic voice in all decisions, it would make a difference.
This was already the argument made by President Sukarno and, I think, Prime Minister Nehru at the Bandung Conference in 1955, where they said that if it ever comes to nuclear war, the countries of the Global South will be probably affected only a few weeks later, but they will be affected anyhow. And therefore, they should now speak up, because the issue of war and peace is an issue of the Global South, as much as that of Europe or the United States.
So, I think what came out in that vote, you know, where Portugal got 134 votes, and that is 30 votes more than Germany. Well, I think that factor, given the fact that the pressure in the UN is still working, I mean, we know that from insiders that the countries are pressured with denial of credit and other means of coercion, that they nevertheless voted Germany out, is a clear signal that the Global South is starting to get their act together.
So, I cannot say that I am a world citizen first and I’m a patriot second, but this does, I think it was good that Germany got voted out for the reasons I just said. So, I hope that they will review this and draw some lessons out of it. So far, I don’t see any big signs of that, because Wadephul immediately said, “Oh, this was Putin, Putin did it.” So, this becomes sort of ridiculous, and reflects the fact that they are not willing to adjust their policies.
SCHLANGER: Now, more on the E3 stooges of the Coalition of the Willing. By the way, Merz’s government, or Merz himself now, is four points behind in the latest polls from the Alternative for Deutschland, and the Christian Democrats keep falling. But as he’s circling the drain, there’s a new issue between France and Germany. They were planning to build this new generation of what are called FCAS, or the Future Combat Air Systems, and that deal just fell apart. It does appear as though some of this unity is very fragile. What do you think?
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, it’s obviously the impulse of the French that they don’t want to share their technology with the Germans, which again, under the present conditions, I’m not so unhappy about, because I think anything which goes in the direction of building this war machine is definitely going in the wrong direction. So I think it reflects the fact that national self-interest and competition are obviously regarded as more important than the so-called European joint defense project, which is actually not a defense, but in danger of becoming an offense. So I think it’s not a bad thing that this fell apart.
SCHLANGER: We have something that came in from the listeners who said “It’s actually the central bankers who are waging war against Russia. They want to balkanize it. That’s why the three stooges are doing what they’re doing. They take their orders from the bankers.”
Let’s get to another question here. It’s interesting; it looks as though Bulgaria just announced they’re going to stop shipping weapons to Ukraine. We’ve seen this back and forth in some of the southern eastern countries in Europe opposing the Ukraine war. Do you think there’s a bigger split that’s occurring within the European Union and NATO?
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Definitely. I mean, the Coalition of the Willing would not be called the coalition of the willing if the other ones would be willing. If the coalition of the unwilling would form themselves in a more outspoken way, it again would be clear that they are the majority of countries in Europe. I mean, you have Portugal, Spain, Italy, Serbia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania, even Hungary with the new head of state is not, on the Ukraine issue, he’s not different than Orbán was before. Czechia, Austria. So if you look at all of these countries, they are definitely for a more balanced view.
And I’m just in the process of writing another open, not an open letter, but a press release, demanding that. Putin made the offer to reopen the one pipeline of Nord Stream, which is still intact. Now, are these leaders not crazy to not pick up on that proposal? Today or so yesterday, I don’t know, there was a meeting between the German government and the employers and the trade unions discussing what to do, what needs to be done to stop this freefall of the German economy. Well, one first thing is to accept Putin’s offer and again get cheap energy and you can start rebuilding everything. Not to do that is a crime against the German people, and I plan to write this statement and I will make sure we are circulating it widely. I think that’s a much better proposal than what Alice Weidel is saying, who demands that Ukraine should compensate Germany, money wise, for having blown up or having complicity in the blowing up of the Nord Stream pipelines.
I don’t think that’s realistic. I think Ukraine is so thoroughly bankrupt that without Western support, they would have collapsed a long time ago. I think the constructive idea is to say, let’s start rebuilding and let’s have normalization of relations with Russia and take up the offer of getting cheap energy again and in that way you can start, you know, overcoming the terrible economic crisis.
In Germany right now, we are experiencing—they are cutting everything, everything from pensions, money for education, no money for the commute. I mean, there is a vicious austerity going on and the whole social state which was built after the Second World War is being dismantled; and that has to be stopped or we will be losing everything.
SCHLANGER: To go back now to Southwest Asia, and actually this is related to the United States, the National Defense Authorization Act for 2027 has a very controversial section in it, Section 224, which is basically tying the U.S. and Israel into a complete partnership when it comes to tech, artificial intelligence, and so on. There’s been a call from your associates for a mobilization to remove it from the bill. Can you say something about that?
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Yeah, I think this obviously is extremely important, because if this amendment or this bill would go through, it would be the formalization of something which has already been very far-reaching, namely the input of the Mossad in American policy. But it would be a complete sharing of any technology, any science, any AI application, and it’s a nightmare. So, I think it’s extremely important to mobilize the Congress, outgoing Congressman Massie and Ro Khanna, who is not outgoing. They’re mobilizing on it and I think it’s extremely important that Diane Sare, who is an independent Presidential candidate, takes leadership in this situation, as well as Congressional candidate Jose Vega and the Alliance of Independent Candidates they are putting together, because America is in an existential crisis. There are many commentators saying this is the last phase of a dying empire, but I hope not. I hope we can revive America, which used to be a beacon of hope and a temple of liberty 250 years ago.
So, we intend not to let the British eradicate that history of the American Revolution, which is what Prince Charles had attempted to do in his speech to the two houses of Congress when he was in the United States a couple of weeks ago. We have to revive the American Revolution spirit as a republic, and I think that that is what’s at stake here, because if you put this bill through, you would have no difference between the British Empire, Israel, and the United States.
SCHLANGER: Well, just two other points on that. Netanyahu is saying this is a good thing, because now Israel won’t have to come and ask for money, and that will help America. No, it’s because they would then own a part of the $1.5 trillion defense budget. So, of course, they wouldn’t need to ask for money. Also, it is the Epstein class that pulled this together. It was part of Epstein’s work to bring, as with the Maxwell footsteps, to bring together British intelligence, as you just said, with the U.S. and Israeli military. So, this is an important fight that we have to wage.
Now, I had a very interesting interview with Dr. Marandi from Iran, and he brought up something that was quite important at the end of the interview, about freeing the Jewish religion from the grip of the cult of Zionism, and the importance then of an ecumenical alliance. And I was thinking of this when you were talking about Pope Leo XIV’s intervention. As your husband always said, these kinds of ecumenical relations would be natural, but that you really need something that would hold it together. And his idea, the Oasis Plan, is partly the mission of what the ecumenical alliance would be. Would you say something about that?
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, I think the Pope, when he was in Spain, made a repeated, very strong reference to Alfonso the Wise. And that is the idea of ecumenicism. The Pope has repeatedly referred to figures like Nicolaus of Cusa, now Alfonso the Wise, and also at other occasions, emphasizing those elements in the Church which had the ecumenical outlook, in total contradiction to the Crusaders. The Crusaders are in each religion, the fundamentalists, like the worst form of Zionism, the worst form of the Christian Crusaders, the worst forms of the Christian Zionists in the United States. These are people who wrapped themselves in religion as a pretext for oligarchical wars of aggression. And religion is just the PR side of it. And actually, you cannot talk to these fundamentalists, because they are completely lacking any rationality whatsoever.
And the ecumenical approach on the other side is that you basically say, you know, as Nicolaus of Cusa famously said in his dialogue De Pace Fidei, there is a difference in the prophets, in the message of the prophets, and the difference in the traditions, but the truth is only one, and God is only one.
And I think that if you want to have unity and not have the world blow up in religious warfare of the worst kinds as we have seen it in the worst crusade periods, you have to go to the idea of Nicolaus of Cusa about the unity of religion, about the unity in diversity, about the idea of the Coincidence of Opposites. I mean, this is a method of thinking where you put humanity first, and whatever separates us is sort of secondary, it’s an ephemeral; it’s not the essence of matters. The essence of it is that there is only one human race, not a black race and a white race, but only one human race. Maybe the only people who do not belong are the Epstein class people, one has to consider that.
SCHLANGER: Well, in closing, let me get back to the historic conference of the Schiller Institute in Berlin, May 30th and 31st. We’ve just put together two videos with the highlights of some of the speeches, and this will now be available. People can check the Schiller Institute website for the whole many hours of the conference. But my question for you is, what’s the plan for the follow-up to this?
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, we will now try to implement what was discussed. Two topics, the strategic crisis and the need to have a new security and development architecture, were essentially the topics of the first day. This is echoed by a lot of things coming from China in terms of the Global Governance Initiative. It was also very much a topic at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, but you know, our point has been for several years now, that we absolutely need to have a new architecture which takes into account the interests of every country on the planet, given the fact that the old architecture no longer exists. The post-Second World War and post-Cold War order clearly has disintegrated. You now have multi-polarity, but that is still in chaos. You have a rift in the trans-Atlantic alliance, you have a rift in the EU, you have a clash between the Global North and the Global South.
So that’s why we are pushing this idea to have a new paradigm, and that is something we will try to bring into discussion in as many institutions and organizations as possible. Then, naturally, the second topic, the end of 500 years of colonialism, also needs to be brought into the pores of society. I mean, right now the EU is actually sharpening their efforts to keep the migrants out of Europe by strengthening the outer borders of the EU with pretty brutal methods, and that does not work.
You know, in Africa alone, there will be one billion more people in the next 25 years. So our approach is to try to convince the European countries we have to ally with the BRICS and make joint ventures in the development of Africa and in the reconstruction of Southwest Asia, and then all problems could be solved. Now, we had very powerful speakers on both topics.
Please watch the short videos to get an idea, and then pick those speeches you want to hear in full. There were some absolutely top-level, unbelievably good speakers, and you have to absolutely go to this treasure and make use of it. So we are planning to broaden that, and, you know, not very far away we will have another conference.
SCHLANGER: We have a message from a viewer in the United Kingdom who says, “As with the United Kingdom, America needs to break from the controlled uni-party, the one-party system. Diane Sare would be such a candidate who would have a good go at achieving this.”
Speaking of the follow-up, we have the International Peace Coalition weekly meeting. This has gone on now every Friday for over three years, and it’s a Zoom call that people can join. What’s the plan for this Friday? It’s at 11 a.m. Eastern time.
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: I think we will, for sure, have top speakers from Southwest Asia. We will review the situation in the United States. I have heard rumors that Ray McGovern will be on the program this week, and some others of which I’m not yet aware. So please come. It’s important to keep building the International Peace Coalition, to unify the peace movement, to get top updates every week, and participate in the alternative to World War III.
SCHLANGER: Well Helga, thanks for joining us again, and we’ll see you Friday and then again next week.
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: I hope so.
