Gillian Tett: Ukraine knows how to get what it wants from the West

Gillian Tett: Ukraine Know How To Get What It Wants From the West | Global Stage | GZERO Media
The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, is not known for big outbursts of human emotion. But this year, the Ukrainian delegation got a standing ovation from the usual crowd of global business leaders. Gillian Tett, US editor-at-large and chair of the Financial Times board, met with the Ukrainians and shares her perspective with Ian Bremmer in a Global Stage interview. Beyond all the emotion, Tett also believes that when the fighting is over, there will eventually be business opportunities for many people present. She also commented on chatter about using sanctions against Russia to confiscate assets and use them to compensate Ukraine, which she sees as a slippery slope because there are many doubts about due process.

Ian Bremmer: Gillian Tett, last night, you were with the entire Ukrainian delegation, an emotional time for you. Tell me what you took away from that meeting.

Gillian Tett: Well, the first thing I took away was the fact that the Ukrainians are being exceptionally clever in terms of trying to rally support in the West by coming here. And it's quite remarkable that we had the mayors of a number of Ukrainian cities, a lot of the government figures. Many people in civil society coming all the way to Davos, to basically try and persuade the west that they need to rally support around them. And not just support them in terms of ending the war through sanctions and other measures and trying to get military support, but also very actively now, thinking about rebuilding and about the Marshall Plan.

Ian Bremmer: And I mean, Davos is not a place typically that you would expect to see a Ukrainian delegation rallying for support. They've gotten away with it because of the sheer brutality of the Russians, but also because of the trauma that is so evidently and abundantly being experienced by everyone in the delegation.

Gillian Tett: What I think was very clear is listening to the stories about the horrific events happening on the ground in Ukraine. Even as we speak, is injecting a level of emotion and shock into what's frankly normally often very dry and boring and wordy debates. And there's a huge amount of goodwill here. There's a huge recognition that what they're fighting for are values that Davos itself has often tried to reclaim or say that it espouses. There's also recognition that eventually there will be some kind of business opportunity in Ukraine for many people here, and they're looking about that as well. But in the short to medium term, the other issue of course, are questions of food security, the questions around sanctions, and how they're going to impact the global economy. And people are saying, "Yes, we absolutely support you, but there are also concerns we have."

Ian Bremmer: Now, on the sanctions piece, something the Financial Times is surely very interested in. I mean, we have an awful lot of assets that are being confiscated, and there's a lot of talk about taking those assets and helping to pay off the Ukrainians who have just been invaded by Russia. I've heard a lot of people criticizing that on the sidelines of this global group. What's your take?

Gillian Tett: I've heard lots of concern about that as well, not just from American financiers and lawyers who say, what about the due process element of all this? We want to have some kind of framework and due process. But also from the non-Western investors who have been investing in America or Europe in recent years are saying, "Well, hang on a sec, if due process is being overturned, what will it mean for us looking at America as an investment destination?" Now, the Ukrainians are aware of this and they've come up with a number of documents, which are trying to create some kind of framework and due process around this, which they've been passing around to people in recent days.

Gillian Tett: And it's going to be very interesting because there are a number of techniques and tools you can use that already exist under US law and in jurisdictions like France and Netherlands, which actually would allow you to do quite a lot of action right now. The question though is whether they're solid enough and whether the people in Davos will rally around any of the Ukrainian proposals around a due process.

Ian Bremmer: So, maybe, but what you're saying is we're not there yet?

Gillian Tett: Not there yet, and it's going to be very tough.

More from GZERO Media

A drone view shows the scene where U.S. right-wing activist, commentator, Charlie Kirk, an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, was fatally shot during an event at Utah Valley University, in Orem, Utah, U.S. September 11, 2025.
REUTERS/Cheney Orr

The assassination of 31-year old conservative activist Charlie Kirk at a college event in Utah yesterday threatened to plunge a deeply divided America further into a cycle of rising political violence.

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro stands next to members of the armed forces, on the day he says that his country would deploy military, police and civilian defenses at 284 "battlefront" locations across the country, amid heightened tensions with the U.S., in La Guaira, Venezuela, September 11, 2025.
Miraflores Palace/Handout via REUTERS

284: Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro has deployed military assets to 284 “battlefront” locations across the country, amid rising tensions with the US.

A member of Nepal army stands guard as people gather to observe rituals during the final day of Indra Jatra festival to worship Indra, Kumari and other deities and to mark the end of monsoon season.
REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar

Nepal’s “Gen-Z” protest movement has looked to a different generation entirely with their pick for an interim leader. Protest leaders say they want the country’s retired chief justice, Sushila Karki, 73, to head a transitional government.

Trump's silhouette as a wrecking ball banging into the Federal Reserve.
Gemini

President Trump has made no secret of his longstanding desire for lower interest rates to juice the economy and reduce the cost of servicing the $30 trillion federal debt.

The Nepalese government’s decision last week to ban several social platforms has touched off an ongoing wave of deadly unrest in the South Asian country of 30 million.

The Nepalese government’s decision last week to ban several social platforms has touched off an ongoing wave of deadly unrest in the South Asian country of 30 million.

General Wieslaw Kukula, chief of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces, takes part in an extraordinary government cabinet meeting at the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, following violations of Polish airspace during a Russian attack on Ukraine in Warsaw, Poland, on September 10, 2025.
(Photo by Aleksander Kalka/NurPhoto

NATO jets last night shot down Russian drones that had entered Polish airspace. Poland said the unmanned aircraft had crossed the border en route to a strike on Ukraine.