russia has attacked ukraine specifically in the time when ukraine had a non—aligned status. when ukrainian legislation said we're not going to join any political or defence or security alliance with anybody else and they will stay neutral. it did not protrude the russian federation from actually not attacking ukraine even though we had all the basis for our positive relationship, we had the strategic agreement of partnership with russian federation, moreover the russian federation was one of the guarantors of the ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity on the basis of the budapest memorandum when ukraine was the third major nuclear power in the world that gave up its nuclear weapons. who's pushing you to drop your non—aligned status and say come and join us in nato? nato is not asking you to join, you know that's something that's not going to happen for a very long time, if ever. it is the response of our politicians to the ukrainian society, the understanding of the ukrainian society that first and foremost right now we have to concentrate on being capable to defe

because if we will give in to russia in the ukraine altogether, if we sacrifice, for any matter ukraine to the russian federation, then the russian president, in his appetite will grow, and he will attack another country. the point i am making is that the united states say they don't want to be handcuffed to the minsk peace agreement. that is the question i asked you. nobody probably wants to be handcuffed to any agreement. but if this is our only chance right now to sort out peace or see the roadmap, how do we get to finally a real prospect of peace, we should try all the possibilities. and that is what ukraine is doing. that is not what is happening on the ground, though. the united nations says that fatalities are up 52% compared to last year. alexander hug from the 0sce monitoring mission in the ukraine says that both sides are violating the minsk agreement, including indiscriminate shelling. we are happy there is a special monitoring mission of the 0sce, to provide the world with objective information. according to those reports of the 0sce, there are everyday shelling, that is the

documents and we want ukraine to be a country. where we are. i see no artificial afeard stew spare up russians in a phobia we don't want ukraine to forget its history and to write near history instead putting of the same board those who saved the euro from the naysayers and those who collaborated was them we can talk about that at a great length i believe. in our side we want good neighborly relations with the equator and we want our western colleagues who have their own programs and i mean the eastern partnership program we don't want to make our neighbors ukraine in other countries around us to decide whether they want to be with the west all they want to be was russia and it started long ago two thousand and four when there was the first revision of the mind on square and it was karel de gucht in belgium who was the minister and he was speaking about all that when these things were getting nastier he said that ukraine should decide with whom is going to be together on the same side with russia all with year up and the example of the recent c

russia has attacked ukraine specifically in the time when ukraine had a non—aligned status. when ukrainian legislation said we're not going to join any political or defence or security alliance with anybody else and they will stay neutral. it did not protrude the russian federation from actually not attacking ukraine even though we had all the basis for our positive relationship, we had the strategic agreement of partnership with russian federation, moreover the russian federation was one of the guarantors of the ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity on the basis of the budapest memorandum when ukraine was the third major nuclear power in the world that gave up its nuclear weapons. who's pushing you to drop your non—aligned status and say come and join us in nato? nato is not asking you to join, you know that's something that's not going to happen for a very long time, if ever. it is the response of our politicians to the ukrainian society, the understanding of the ukrainian society that first and foremost right now we have to concentrate on being capable to defe

but we did not spend billions causing a revolution in ukraine. we probably gave little help with democracy and civil organizations through .ransparent organizations probably provided a few tens of millions of dollars above the board to groups trying to organize to strengthen their democracy. president putin maybe saw that as the transparent tip of the iceberg and thought we were doing a lot beneath the surface. i don't agree. i don't know of any basis for that concern. to say we spent billions of dollars to cause revolution in syria, i don't think rt is correct when they say that. and yet itll country has become a flashpoint when it comes to nato and expansion. can you explain why? guest: montenegro and serbia are long-standing friends. they share an orthodox religious tradition. russia had influence through previous centuries. world war i had its spark in the balkans. there is still a lot of emotional baggage. this is the only outpost russia has left in europe of places friendly toward it, serbia in particular. montenegro has split off from serb

but we did not spend billions causing a revolution in ukraine. we gave very limited help with democracy promotion and civil society organization through boardarent, above the organizations like the international republican institute and national democratic institute. probably provided a few tens of millions of dollars. again, about the board, to groups that were trying to strengthen their democracy. president putin saw that as transparent tip of the iceberg and thought we were doing a lot of things beneath the surface. i don't agree. i don't know of any basis for that concern. to say we spent billions of dollars to cause revolution in ukraine, i don't think rt is correct when they say that. >> i want to ask you about nato and montenegro. this is a country of just over 600,000 people, a very small country on the adriatic sea, yet it has become a flashpoint, a sore spot, when it comes to nato and expansion. can you explain why? guest: montenegro and serbia are long-standing russian friends. they share an orthodox religious tradition. russia often h

the viability of ukraine and for western ukraine for eastern ukraine and creating opportunities economic opportunities social opportunities there's growth as those are. the the country is going to be unstable and so you do need to think of this prototype framework and of course you're going for thinking about a visitor for a day or so it's impossible to address all those issues it depends on. very very detail your. very precise interactions on a much lower level the presidential secretaries of state one thing i noticed is that the language the ukrainians deployed with trump and his people isn't very much different from the one they used with president obama the same talk about values and principles your crane belonging to the european family ukraine standing in the way of russia rebuilding its evil empire it said there are do you think that kind of argumentation will work for trying. well i don't think i would want to associate myself with the evil empire rhetoric i mean i think in. many ways the kind of critical discussion on this issue was way back in in one thousand eighty nine. off t

players in this proxy conflict aren't happy about this and some surprising expected developments in ukraine. cross talking some stories in the media i'm joined by my guest here in moscow exhibit a morone he is the founder of the center of political strategic analysis strout poll we also have dmitri bobbitt he's a political analyst with sputnik international and in london we crossed to adam garri he is a writer for the duran dot com cross talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want i always appreciate adam let me go to you first here. trumps decision to end cia operations in syria was expected actually there was a safe space station of operations over a month ago there's been a lot of reactions i think it's quite curious you know the first thing is that the the neo-con crowd says well of course trump is caved to putin but they don't reflect upon almost six years of utter failure description at a huge price in so many different ways we saw this coming i suppose we should have expected the reaction as well go ahead out of london well absolutely and the russian presidential

or do you think that russia and ukraine will continue to drift apart? and if you look at the of the representative who has been nominated, what do you think of that? the interest of russia and ukraine, the russian and ukrainian people's, i'm absolutely convinced of that, converge, coincide. our interests fully coincide. perhaps today's leadership of withne doesn't converge ours, but if you look at the situation objectively, russia and ukraine are interested in cooperation, interested in making sure their competitive edge is combined to develop the economy. because there is a huge legacy from soviet times, i mean, cooperation, unified infrastructure, energy system, transport system. unfortunately, our present ukrainian policy refers aside from that. there is one trade, one commodity really successful at the moment. they are trading in dividing russia from ukraine, dragging the one from the other. some people seem to like that in the west. some consider that we should be converging russia and ukraine should never happen, so i would just say there is a ver

for looking bbc news of difficult ukraine. an insight into the situation in ukraine initial time ago i spoke with steven peiffer. formerly served as us ambassador to ukraine joins me from washington. it's a conflict which has been going on for years is there any end in sight. unfortunately it's hard to see it right now because i don't talk about what's going on in eastern ukraine as a frozen conflict a simmering conflict. because as you just saw the fighting continues perhaps at a low level. and the problem is in the. last three years and in the two plus years since the agreement was reached in minsk in favor of twenty fifteen to try to settle this. you haven't really seen. an effort on the part of moscow and the separatist forces into the control. to end the fighting. you talk about moscow and the separatist foresees but what if the international community is three years since mh seventeen was shot down. wasn't bad enough to galvanize the international community to do more. well i i think the shoot down the tragic shoot down

and it became sort of a proxy battle between ukraine and russia, a battle which is happening in ukraine itself. >> dan merica, you've been getting statements from her now over what she thinks of the situation. >> she somewhat backed away from what she told politico back in january. she says at the time she actually posted on facebook, she disagreed with the article, disagreed with the frame. she told cnn and told me a couple days ago she completely denies working at all with the ukrainian government on any opposition research as the statement that alisyn read clearly states. it's important to note the dnc is on the record denied any collusion. the clinton campaign, multiple officials have denied any collusion. but she does -- there are sources that have told us that there was some crossover between her work at the dnc which was basically working as an ethnic coordinator with ukrainian americans at the dnc and her interest, her activist in that area. at one point she did go to the embassy, sources tell us. she did go to the embassy and was asked by somewhat at the dnc if the president of

though there are all security risks definitely bar to if we speak about ukraine for baltic states and for poland this is one more reason to speak about a possible russian aggression not syria but ukraine many in russia believe that tactically president bush m.k. may need a low level conflict simply as the as a tool that would distract attention from the lack of reforms from the very slow progress on all those promises that he made to the people of ukraine after my done is there any seeing is there anything in your view that moscow can do or you are for that matter can do to change that calculus if that is indeed the way he seems you know i personally believe that until we are still stick to him is because green months will not move forward post absolutely clear that. president poroshenko is one who really doesn't like me into the music agreement. when the claim. that he is not fulfilling misc agreement will forget the fact of president bush and the fact that he has to explain in key if why. did he agreed with them still this is this is a problem and when we're speaking about this to c

i've been living in ukraine. go almost a lock for two years of my adult life i studied there together with a single by the way but by the way we came to print. almost at the same time personal came from moldova and i came from georgia solo he ease as well and the. basically and. will be here kind of late comer to cry and. and then we came it puts them at the same time so but that those. change the situation went basically i was invited by do i was participando both ukrainian my dance. and. very active part of ukraine landscape for all these years even when i was president of georgia so i'm not the newcomer to ukrainian political scene i've been there for awhile. and deanna ambition to three then. do you have ambitions to me than i thought you cry. no but i've have ambition rh regard to russia in order to better equipped to put the russia ukraine needs to get three the thrush estelle political elite. which is exactly similar to russia structure corrupt. under my new ukrainian state. as the you know so little plund

and syria are a tactical win and a strategic defeat in the case of ukraine russia. found itself isolated. russia has faced sanctions that are actually increasing not decreasing in the case of syria yes russia has increased its geo political influence in a limited way because it now has a strong ally in the assad but in the wider world when russia is backing a country that uses chemical weapons against its own people when russian and syrian aircraft are bombing hospitals is this a win for russia in the court of world opinion i don't think so but. i don't want to get into the issues but then i could turn the table in here and say is it a win for the united states to continue sponsor jihadi groups as it's been doing throughout the middle east and there's the matter of fact is that you cannot accuse me of making a fake news because you know that the united states in even under the obama administration was supporting groups. it doesn't feel like maybe that support was limited nonetheless that's jihadi groups are you referring to and number of them for example in syria th

lee russia and ukraine are interested in cooperation -- if you look at the situation, , russia and ukraine are interested in cooperation. from's a huge legacy soviet times. unifiedion, a infrastructure come energy system, transport system. unfortunately, our present look ton colleagues step aside from that. there's one commodity that is really successful at the moment -- russiaphobia. they are treating in dividing russia from ukraine. think that like to convergingsider that of russia and ukraine should never happen. there is an active and unsuccessful trade in the quantity of russiaphobia at the moment. we have to concentrate on making sure the situations come to a halt as soon as possible as far as participation of the u.s. we did talk about that with president trump. he talked about the measures in hand and the nomination of this special representative who will be working on a continued basis comeukraine and everybody all of us who have an interest in putting an end to it. >> i have a question on the middle east. which is in turmoil at the moment, whether we are talking about syria or so

of ukraine, you now have 2 million refugees from ukraine. over 10,000 dead, including 3000 civilians, and tens of thousands wounded. was aing armed was what provocative weakness and encouraged him to think he could simply grab it. does poland not have a right to defend itself? : disappear from the -- poland disappeared from the map because of russia. after world war ii, poland became a captive nation. they were under russia's th umb. they have a right to be read about further russian aggression right to arm themselves to defend their sovereignty. on the question of crimea, i note the law used to annex crimea passed in 2001, long before got a code which can to kovich came to power. russia was thinking about that long before the current of peoples in the capital of kiev . host: stewart for mechanical, virginia. good morning -- mechanicsburg, virginia. you are on with herman pirchner. caller: it must be a full moon. you have a lot of crazy people calling in this morning. look at this realistically. all presidents have met privately with foreign

ukraine is very much at war with russian-backed separatists in ukraine. that has claimed more than a hundred ukrainian soldiers killed in that conflict in the first six months of this year alone. so as trump and putin were speaking together in germany, there were still dozens of cease-fire violations reported by international osce monitors in that conflict zone in eastern ukraine. ukrainian concern, of course, is that if relations thaw and warm between moscow and washington, ukraine could get left out in the cold and that is presumably one of the reasons why secretary of state tillerson is in kiev today. it's to try to reassure the ukrainians. he has also brought along with him a newly appointed u.s. envoy to deal with the ukrainian conflict a man who is an ambassador to the nato military alliance. >> what is the reaction in moscow to the g-20 summit and from president putin about his meeting with president trump? >> reporter: i think the russians are delighted. you had a lot of top lawmakers coming here with positive statements calling this a breakthroug

still to come, ukraine says it will begin discussions tojoin nato. we will try and find out how russia would feel about that and whether nato is on board with the timetable. we will talk about the new silk road. we have spoke a lot about globalisation in recent weeks but what about the new globalisation, a report on the trillion dollar real project between china and europe. that's all still to come here on 100 days plus on bbc news. it has been a day of mixed fortunes today. some sunshine in the south—east and beeson spelt further north. glorious pictures sent in from the highlands. also some sharp thundery downpours. those showers are drifting into the north sea was some still remaining in northern england and scotland. we end the day in southern england with decent sunshine. highs of 27 celsius. things will start to change through tonight as cloud and rain gathers in from the west and particularly in wales and south—west england. not as humid as previous nights. we start off with some rain across england and wales and more significant wet weath

the ukraine government for so long because he bought it himself. that plan worked for a while until it didn't. because ultimately ukrainians rose up and overthrew their corrupt, pro-putin government in a revolution that freaked vladamir putin out like you cannot believe. and ukraine's proputin dictator had to flee the country and hide in moscow where he remains. for a while there before the people rose up, the russian plan did seem to be working. and while it was working a lot of people made a lot of money out of that scheme and not just the oligarchs and dictators. "the new york times" had this report over the weekend about donald trump for president campaign chair paul manafort and him finally retroactively registering as a foreign agent this year for the work he did years ago for pro-putin political parties and politicians in ukraine. when he finally retroactively registered as a foreign agent he reported over two years, 2012, 2013, the pro putin political party that he worked for paid him nearly $17 million. the reason that's weird is because o

hang on, they annexed crimea and started a war in ukraine. trump's language, if i was 110w ukraine. trump's language, if i was now in tf, i would not be hugely encouraged by that. -- tf. how much more candid with they had been when the cameras were switched off?|j think very candid. i think putin would have been very straight with donald trump, and as i said, he's very good at telling people what they want to hear. he would have been briefed extremely well, not just about trump's. .. you been briefed extremely well, not just about trump's... you know, what trump had said, and what his advisers would have said, but he would have studied the psychological profile of trump. someone with that amount of vanity and who is so in love with himself, he would have played him very, very well. he would not have done what he's done with 0bama. when putin first met 0bama, he spent 45 minutes lecturing 0bama about what america did wrong. putin and trump agree on the democracy or interest rather than values. putin would have taken courage from the fa ct would have taken courage from the fact that t

existing member states and ukraine itself. russia, despite its long—held objections to ukrainejoining nato, despite its long—held objections to ukraine joining nato, with despite its long—held objections to ukrainejoining nato, with not have a veto in that decision. most people except it is in the medium to long distance future, if it ever happens, that ukraine might become a member of nato. a lot of things have to happen and change. there is still a conflict in the east of this country. this has to be resolved before nato when its members welcome ukraine. this is charlie gard, a terminally ill baby suffering from a rare genetic condition. the hospital where he is being treated as decided to end his life support and as pa rents to end his life support and as parents and made several u nsuccessful parents and made several unsuccessful challenges. earlier they were in the high court to present new evidence of an experimental treatment in america which they say could help him. our correspondent has the story. for core, pass

minsk agreement and this is a big mistake in my view now the events in ukraine created. a seemingly permanent tax on both russian and european industries and by that i mean both sanctions and can't counter sanctions i heard you say. they are unlikely to survive beyond the summer of two thousand and seventeen but here we are they have just been extended how long do you think they will stay in place. you know i said this several times that i believe that like an upcoming launch sanctions a little bit when believe to know this will not happen and i really believe that. it will not happen in. i cannot say i gotta say the. i think that avoid a kind of vicious circle and we're not able to get out of it we still know baltic states poland we already lost russian market this is a problem for us and i believe that this is not a problem for usha mr tom let me ask you a difficult question that i mentioned before the. police from the most this perspective part of the reason ukraine is not hurrying to fulfill demands agreements is because it does not have an incentive at least an econ

russia andhink that the ukraine will continue to drift apart? ofyou look at the background the special representative who's been nominated, what do you think of that? the interest of russia and ukrainian peoples, i'm absolutely convinced of that. our interests fully coincide. perhaps today's leadership of ukraine doesn't converge with hours, and certain ruling circles. if you look at the sewage that and ukraineussia are interested in cooperation. economy.p the if only because there is a huge legacy from soviet times. cooperation, unified infrastructure, energy system, transport system. unfortunately our present ukrainian colleagues look to step aside from that. there's one commodity that is really successful at the moment that is -- moment. that is russiaphobia. they are trading in dividing russia from the ukraine. some people seem to like that in the west. converginger that russia and the ukraine should never happen. isould just say that it active and unsuccessful trade in the commodity oppressive phobia at the moment -- russia phobia at the mo

and certain political forces in ukraine. but if we look at the situation objectively we'll see that both russia and ukraine are interested in corporation and we are both interested in combining are a couple of advantages and we are both interested in developing our economies i'm just simply because we inherited a lot from you so you have to pass by i mean copper aeration economic integration. we share the same infrastructure the same transport system i mean basically everything unfortunately our ukrainian colleagues neglect this today and they have only one asset the left which they offer on the market today and this is there are so far and one more thing and you've got to well they also i strayed in the policy of dividing russia and ukraine separating these two nations separating these two peoples which some people in the west are like this is a some people think that they should do their best to separate ukraine from russia that's why even today you see ukrainian elaters should actively offers this asset on the market. and

i've never been in ukraine a serious conflict so i really i cannot speak from my own point of view but as far as i know from my colleagues there is a certain disappointment. due to fact that there is still huge corruption. it is very difficult to deal with and europe is kind of getting tired can i ask you one final question of which i think. expresses the one thing in common between the ukrainian experience and perhaps these thorny experience it seems that most of the former soviet republics that sought to integrate themselves into into the west have stumbled across the issue of after the nationalism. there is so much it seems there so much afraid of russian subversion that they seem to create the conditions for its own hands by ostracizing or sometimes discriminating against their own russian minorities is there really no better way of. dealing with the issue because that i could make i could easily make a case that dive plays directly into the kremlin's hands if indeed crumlin wanted to subvert domestic politics be the new crane or in the stone ian you know there are two things for m

ukraine and obviously the name little russia. is the name that the russian empire used to give to the cause of you crying that it controlled so it's clearly something that is designed. to provoke and infuriates and ukrainians also interestingly though with the leader of the author and self proclaimed separatist statements that controls a little bit in eastern ukraine so that he had heard about this plan and he was on board. with its toll even though alexander a constant on who put forward the it's i'm. a lot of people have been reacting by just ridiculing it and saying that these people have no power at all but as you sai. and they also said that you know this guy's a puppet and that what he does is directed by his kremlin puppet must this. and that would suggest that we ought to be looking here are some kind of intentions of the kremlin behind and this idea is moscow. but getting the separatists to put forward this plan trying to destabilize the peace process trying to send a message to the west that is not on board with the pea

what you want which was for me everybody is tiring of ukraine but to underline that there is a milestone in one year is a parliamentary election that completely changes things because. of course nationalists with flaws. strategic. positions and. which is a real never known as this is a president of the parliament it will be completely. changed because. not in the front will fade so. parliament and so it could be or maybe this time and that surely is a rest so. so we mention this on this here we have the new address system out of here i was looking at the national interest which i think sometimes has some very interesting articles. that suggest readers take a look at it but you know this sudden dawning that all my goodness these right wing militias could be a threat to the government in kiev we've been saying that for five years on this program ok now we've already got everybody's waking up to it and then we don't you know it's holding their nose is that we shouldn't be we should keep our distance from it now they actually were part of creating this mess in ukraine and now they don't have

the cost of doing business my own opinion is that russia has gotten off lightly for its invasion of ukraine and for meddling in the u.s. election the sanctions that are imposed against russia are legitimate and necessary and if russia chooses to retaliate then so be it will both russia and the u.s. see this as being on a level footing as they know as you say have an equal number of personnel i suppose there's an aside to this why was there such an imbalance with the number of diplomats there. well i think that i can't speak to the actual personnel levels that the two sides have have maintained that it was the guise of helping her and the russian foreign ministry but i do think that what we've seen here is a situation in which the trumpet ministration had initially said it was going to try to improve relations with russia and the russians bought some time to see whether that would happen now that we seem to be moving toward new legislation that there's a host of new sanctions which there were failed conversations here a couple of weeks ago about the restoration of russia's two. homes here tw

it was the west that wanted to change and to improve the government in ukraine, headed by and ukraine, headed bya and to improve the government in ukraine, headed by a legally elected president. there was changes in government in syria, russia only reacted. so it straight for to hear trump asking russia not to destabilise. the united states of the stabilised a lot more. thanks for joining the stabilised a lot more. thanks forjoining us. the view there from sputnik international, or as close as you can get to the gremlin probably. president trump's first stop in europe, was warsaw — not london, paris or berlin. an endorsement — implicit or otherwise — of polands' right—wing populist government. the ruling law and justice party takes a similar stance to president trump on many an issue, including immigration and global warming. the president won't get many better receptions on this trip. in warsaw the crowds were chanting his name. in his speech he said the poles had set the world an example in their long fight for freedom. from warsaw we're joined by agaton kozinski — the int

will want to argue for an end to sanctions on ukraine. he'll deny he interfered in the elections the american elections and i think president putin will want to see if the united states can work with him in syria. where the russians are trying with the iranians and the syrian government turke? in essence to create safe havens an exclusive zone security zones and serious self. i don't know how much of that president trump can provide. and i hope the president trump will take a tougher line on ukraine and the hacking. scandal but i'm not sure that he will particularly on russian interference elections cadd. president trump is morale chick on this issue he seems to see it. as an issue that delegitimize is his election he sees it as an affront to himself the the implication. that the russians intervene to help hillary to help with donald trump defeat hillary clinton so i'm sorry to say. i don't think we'll see a tough president trump tomorrow and that'll be a major mistake you know separate him from republicans in congress. who want a much to

they were at a pretty high state of readiness because of ukraine and syria. but the discipline to put that context in place for all of you, all of a sudden we saw this new minister of defense and these new smaller exercises, and then we had the larger exercise. there were about 70,000 committee 100,000 troops involved unofficially. we have the contrast that with the fact that that's in your, the largest nato exercise at the time had about 6000 forces, and was called steadfast jazz. it was not a very strong and determined name. at the time, we do not understand that russia regarded , that thi adversary was a serious matter. of course, in the department of defense, the military intelligence community, we were looking very closely at all of these exercises and becoming increasingly alarmed. the first thing you learn in the defense business is the threat is the combination of intent and capability. you're seeing capability changing and increasing in terms of quality an quantity. the intent was a big question mark. our political leadership at the time, not just th

how do you assess his work in ukraine well first of all he did not work as a lobbyist he worked as a political consultant for one of the democratic political parties in ukraine we we recognize the election of president you kind of it and then after viktor pinchuk paid the clinton foundation ten million dollars. the state department turned their head while you kind of it was driven from power at the point of a gun not an impeachment not little action but through mob violence in fact i believe it was mr metaphor who ordered the who advised the. ukrainian president to join the european union a position that would be adverse to the russian position some members of congress like maxine waters a need to get a map ukraine is not russia ukraine is next to russia they are not the same nation now mr sun and perhaps my final question to you bill reddy expressed your hope that the relationship between. our two countries may improve i think that it would be extremely difficult to do without solving the crisis in ukraine and who knows maybe mr pena for his advice would be helpful there but on it m

tried to destabilize ukraine. it goes much further than that. this is the russian regime illegally invaded ukraine and is illegally occupying the country for three and half years. that will come up. i don't know what concessions will look like because the putin regime does not seem willing to give an inch on that. we are on opposite side of the syrian civil war as you mentioned and then there's also nato expansion, something that russia is doing everything in its power to take down. those will be the focus of the meeting. i doubt collusion will even come up, to be honest. i can't imagine president trump will bring it up. >> melissa: thing is going to bring up the idea of the meddling, i think he will will say it for sure. i wouldn't be surprised if it's almost, we know you did this type thing and in passing so it's out there, but you know exactly what putin's response will be. he's always denying and deflecting at every turn, when you look at some of the things he said about north korea. saying there's no confirma

stillget also that russia is waging modern war against the ukraine. it perhaps gives the best example, and the formation that russia has not changed since the break up of the soviet union. time forget, the first this soviet union had these exercises already was in 1973. it was the biggest military exercise ever organized by the ussr. it was a show of force against nato and poland, which had an internal crisis of a time. but what is different from times of 81 and 84, the only element i see what has changed since then is the location of front line. instead, denmark and danish trading, we have the baltic states and poland as front linked nations. going back to the 80's, i found an interesting paper written by who is now the rear admiral in the u.s. navy. in 1983, he was a student at the monterey school researching security aspects of the baltic sea. that time he stressed that since the end of world war ii had a clear strategic advantage. this created a situation where they are waiting nuclear war. the soviet union could win a strategic victory by attacki

that goes also with the ukraine. >> i mentioned already that i will be watching ukraine. the speaker ukraine's parliament made some kmens expressing his alarm. of course, they are on high alert. we should, nato, speak with the ukrainian's and make sure we are as vigilant as we can be. i would say at least in this arena, my government has been very good in as much as secretary tillerson sunday was in ukraine and gave a very strong statement of support for ukrainian sovereignty, so as much as we have questions about our policy via russia, i'm encouraged the united states made that statement lately and we can do more in the coming months. >> the second row. >> my name is i did dme tri, you talked about transparency and accidents. i'm curious what the state of dialogue is between russian leaders and european and nato leaders? how do you communicate between the two of you? thank you. >> i think that might be a great one -- >> sure. thank you. yes, i would like to see more dialogue between russian leaders and european leaders. however in lieu of the sanctions we're seeing right