E71: Russia/Ukraine deep dive: escalation, risk factors, financial fallout, exit ramps and more

**Jason Calacanis** (0:00)
Dude, Sacks, I love that look. Look at that shirt.

**David Sacks** (0:02)
Look at that, man.

**David Friedberg** (0:03)
Is it too noisy for a podcast?

**Jason Calacanis** (0:04)
No, you look very relatable. You're like an American man, just like at home doing stuff.

**David Sacks** (0:09)
Is he trying to go full Tucker on us?

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (0:12)
It is a really, really horrendous shirt that you're wearing.

**David Sacks** (0:14)
That is a horrible... I mean, that was the same shirt Tucker was wearing last week.

**Jason Calacanis** (0:18)
Oh my God, Sacks is going to be so appealing to Middle America right now. He's like...

**David Sacks** (0:21)
Absolutely. Look, he's going for the everyman.

**Jason Calacanis** (0:23)
Yeah, he's an everyman. He doesn't have a blazer on.

**David Sacks** (0:24)
He's trying to get the purple pills. Are you going to go chop wood with Tucker?

**David Friedberg** (0:29)
I may not be a man of the people, but I do try to be a man for the people.

**David Sacks** (0:50)
Hey, everybody. Welcome to another episode of the All-In Podcast. It's obviously been an intense week, and there is a topic, there's really only one topic to talk about this week, and that's the Russian invasion of the Ukraine. With me to break all this down, I'm going to take it from a couple of different angles.
The rain man, David Sacks, with his power flannel on today, he's going to go chop some wood after this, trying to appeal to the everyman.

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (1:18)
Power flannel.

**David Sacks** (1:20)
It's a power flannel. I think that was gifted by Tucker.
And the sultan of science hot off the-

**David Friedberg** (1:25)
How do you know it's a flannel instead of a cashmere? How do you know it didn't come from one of Chamath's little baby elephants?

**David Sacks** (1:33)
If you sent that shirt to Chamath, he'd burn it. That would go right in his pizza oven.

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (1:37)
I wouldn't burn it, but I would wipe my butt with it.

**David Sacks** (1:42)
Here we go, folks. And hot off the launch of the Kana Beverage printer replicator, the sultan of science himself, David Friedberg. And back from a little holiday, the dictator himself, Chamath Palihapitiya, with a Jedi robe. Tell us about the Jedi robe that you elected for this week, Darth Palpatine.

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (2:06)
Well, this is...

**David Sacks** (2:07)
Darth Palpatine-Hapitiya.

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (2:10)
Well, I mean, this is, look, this is, yes, it is Kashmir. We're running out of time. I have to wear through the rest of my few garments, my new garments, before it's springtime. And then I have to go to the, you know, the linen and the cotton.

**David Sacks** (2:24)
Got it. So you're enjoying the final days of Kashmir.

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (2:27)
Well, I do, I did find some baby Kashmir, light, thin, you know, you can wear them probably until April, maybe even May. So we have that going for us.

**David Sacks** (2:39)
Well, there you go. And is there a specific date that you shift over from to the linens?

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (2:45)
And to be honest with you, I have a team I consult with.

**David Sacks** (2:48)
Got it. The team's working on that.

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (2:51)
They're working on a recommendation.

**David Sacks** (2:52)
All right. So we can still laugh. It's kind of hard to talk about other topics when a war has broken out. I don't know if I have to go too deep into recapping what's happening because it is a static situation.
But there's been massive fallout from the war, both economically, lives lost, and it's escalated pretty dramatically. We had a pretty crazy moment last night. We're taping this on Friday, March 4th, last night, a nuclear facility, the largest one in Europe, was involved in a firefight. It seems to have been secured and the Russians have taken control of it, but there were people bombing it.
Where to begin here? I think maybe Sacks, you can start us off with a little bit of your assessment of the situation as it stands in week two.

**David Friedberg** (3:39)
Yeah, I mean, when we broke up last week, this war was just breaking out and we were still talking about ways that we might defuse it. Obviously, that was too late. And I think everybody, probably Putin first and foremost, thought this would be a cakewalk and it has turned out not to be. The resistance by the Ukrainians has been fierce and it's been sort of galvanized by their leader, Zelensky. You know, at the very beginning of the hostilities, he made the decision to stay and fight. He had that video that came out with his cabinet standing behind him. That galvanized all the people of Ukraine to stand behind them. And then the West now wants to stand behind the whole country of Ukraine. So it's really been amazing leadership by Zelensky. And it's too bad in a way we didn't have that kind of leadership among our allies in, say, Afghanistan. We had this guy Ghani who got in the first helicopter out of there when the trouble started.