so russia is not black. russia is a positive place. mr dmitriev, let me get a word in. this has nothing to do with my feelings or other western people's feelings about russia. this is about what russian people make of their own government. alexei navalny released that video, which showed a vast palace on the black sea worth, it seems, $1 billion, which he says was built with oligarchs�* money for president putin. now, it's not a question of what i make of that — it's a question of what more than 20 million russians who have watched that video online make of it. do you think russians are prepared to live in a system which, to so many of them, looks deeply corrupt? stephen, i already told you, the west needs to learn to really understand russia the way it is and not try to paint it black. i think we all have to recognise the great russian economic recovery from the fall of the soviet union that has taken place. we have to be honest, the majority of the russians strongly and unequivocally support president putin, and that's just a reality. and west needs to learn to li

in russia. it remains striking to me how concerned and maybe even scared the russian government seems to be of one man, mr. navalnt. -- mr. navalny. across the board, at the president has said, we are reviewing all of these actions. whether it is the treatment of mr. navalny, and particularly the apparent use of the chemical weapon in an attempt to assassinate him. we are looking very urgently as well as solar winds and various implications. we are looking at the reports of bounties placed by russia on american forces in afghanistan, and of course, we are looking at these questions of election interference. all of that, as the white house has indicated, is under review. i don't want to get ahead of where we are on those reviews. as i say, we have a deep concern for mr. navalny's safety and security. the larger point is that his voice is the voice of many, many, many russians and it should be heard, not muzzled. not ruling out anything, but we want to get his full review done and then we will tak

it's not only russia that happens. and when this happened in a country where did i draw from all that is due to the sri who has to intervene and these cases can be brought to justice and if there isn't an excessive growth force that his way of putting things in order after friday's events you might want to ask have we really seen much progress in rebuilding trust between the e.u. countries and russia it doesn't look like it the issue of covert vaccines was also raised at the meeting between the 2 top diplomats you're super roddick's 1st hoped russia's support like we could get fast track approval within the block and now i am hoping that you would be in a medical agency will be able to certify the efficiency of the vaccine you know that will be useful szell into being union the state will be a good new because as you know we are facing a shortage of vaccine well in the middle east the interest in the russian vaccine is increasing daily with lebanon becoming the latest country to approve the jab in while iran has receiv

to this you know strategic stability has survived the cold war and just god and you we saw life as russia and the united states renewed the strategic arms reduction treaty barely week before its expiration but the debate on whether the nukes are made rap what the main provider of peace is still less time really as ever to discuss some of them now i'm joined by miles pumper a senior fellow at did mildrid institute of international studies at monterey mr pumper it's great to talk to you thank you very much for your time. my pleasure now * let's start with the now doubly new starts treaty while being considered one of the last remaining bad jokes of arms control was extended essential here over the phone and they called their station between presidents putin and biden is that a sign of how crucial that treaty is or how on the country in consequence will it is. no i think it's a sign of how how important and essential it is it really is the bedrock of strategic stability these are the most dangerous weapons in the world your internet continental ballistic missiles or summary launch ballistic

i am against burning all bridges to russia. also on the day concerns of a new coronavirus variance late germany to ban travel from chick border agents and austria's to roll they w.'s family for sharp reports from the populace ski which there is plenty of gymnastics tourism with holiday homes or even day trippers and when they leave to rule in many cases the virus leaves with them. to our viewers on p.b.s. in the united states and all around the world welcome we begin the day with germany's twin political headaches stuck between russia and the us and joined by a controversy or gas pipeline added to the mix domestic political angsty in the form of kremlin critic alexei navalny who is back in course this time on charges of defaming a world war 2 veteran who appeared in a government video that only has recently been sentenced to several years in jail for allegedly violating his probation while he recovered from a poisoning attack. leaders have called for his release they've also been considering sanctions on russia with the nearly

to russia so then we have to ask the question. who really benefits from it it's a further deterioration a further worsening of relations change brussels and most very clearly not the european union with the exception of the states opponents on a subcommittee pizza that it is america. who benefits because the americans and the british do not want an improvement in relations between the e.u. and russia and georgia marcus is absolutely right that's why these representatives in brussels they talk the language of values because values has almost nothing to do with policy and if you are something about policy and you going to have to start making choices brussels doesn't really want to make any choices right now and i think that there is an echo coming from washington and in london and of course you know when you can stand to national interests i would say that this hurts the national in the block interest for the e.u. but russia has gotten used to this the same funny i mean if you don't if you don't want to dance we don't have to dance

you for instance from politico russia mass arrests in russia of protesters demanding navarro nice release people people did go on the streets in russia they did protests those protesting also criticism also outside of the country was that. well i think that in the worse it was a fairly clear conclusion has been drawn russian state was responsible for his poisoning so that has caused a century of indignation. among western leaders. they haven't they must be done very much about it so far beyond beyond talk so thick you know russia russia the international image has suffered at least certainly in those parts of world which are already inclined to look negatively upon it i would doubt it's the same impact in parts of the world which did not have such a bad relations with russia so countries like china india brazil places like that probably are. the impact is not insane. and we spoke to some people who were protesting when a family was charged when he was arrested and our shop is one of them and he talks about the protests being more than about an avanti have a listen to him and he acts as i

a message here is that russia wants peace not war but it will get ready for it's if the if russia is backed into a corner economically we'll have to respond sergey lavrov for instance talked about how russia is independent militarily doesn't rely on anybody it's an exporter of arms and he said that russia should strive to achieve that in economics or that again if russia is backed into a corner then well it will have the means to respond to call it blue or well let's get a european look at it to remarry and he's no me piano former french minister he's on the line from brussels fabulous well so how are you judging the temperature in the room there containing the you based where you are and russia are you surprised by the heat of the comments today or not. no i'm not surprised because you know 2 days ago i was used as you said there was a debate inside the european parliament about to join the us russia and honestly even me i was surprised by the accusation about the measure ricky of the members of the european parliament against leverett's many of them ask should resign of this functi

corrupt officials in russia he costs more money to the country. and i would continue on what george just said if no one had real support he would ask for air. legal demonstration you would be given permission at some big square in a more school at some big stadium he was offered that you know he's just you know what i'm for that but you know he would have a 1000000 people that would make an impression the problem is he doesn't have a 1000000 people so he's people when they were offered legal squares in russia in moscow they refused they said pushkin square well if you're so pushkin square it's basically a tiny space on both sides of the main street almost there sky at where dissidents ages 7 just used to have small protest actions like 6 or 7 people right arrested by police so it's famous historically but it's not feat for a big demonstration so they didn't brickley want at the kalash with police you know they deliberately wanted some people to get the rest up and and yes to make these publicity in the west yes it will be bad for action in positio

there are there products to russia and russia on the other hand it well it's building its own industry is building its own culture it's not depending on the on foreign countries anywhere anymore so the west is losing can the u.s. convince can buy this new administration convinced europe to impose new sanctions this could be the question because at the end of the day the europeans are going to be sanctioned not the russians just to sum up until they vent their last few weekends we've seen large scale protests in russia over novell least attention many cities now he's been jailed for more than 2 years how do you think this is going to play out we have about 20 seconds michael. i think that for me i think the u.s. is going to use be using these images they're going to try to protect the russia as a as a state which does not respect democracy there's a lot of hypocrisy behind all of this i think definitely we're going to find some sort of or other image for russia. from the russian state in any case they have to get to this cameras are no value this is going to be a big issue for russia in

russia slams the u.s. for undermining free trade and fact competition off the washington post about european companies pulling out of the nordstrom to pipeline project in the face of u.s. sanctions. u.s. democrats demand cable and satellite providers justified hosting right wing media outlets have moved republican say is an attack on the freedom of speech. its rays face being banned from public places and even jobs unless they've been fascinated again for coke at 19 by the so-called green pastures all raising concerns over human rights always a choice has a consequence and it shouldn't be that everybody in israel suffers because some people make a bad choice.

needs essentially you know paraphrasing here in between the lines that you know russia has to learn oh oh bester new ways for it to be a genuine legitimate partner of the west in this case particularly the european union your take. they're all i know again liberalism consistent some very good ideas about the central role of the individual which share homes obviously the service of a role in society the point i was making was that the really international system contra would be couples from power politics and in a sense that a liberal international system in europe effectively meant that we would keep some of this block all it takes and also making russia responsible for its own exclusion by not living up to the west ideal and also it was a mix in 3 reshaping the relations so again the e.u. nato they tend to conceptualize some softness you know socializing agents they are the teacher some liberalism in russia student so under this format you have you know it's for for a sovereign equality and indeed we don't under this format we don't really discuss russian policy since to discuss th

incremental punishment of russia has not worked. putin moved ahead with the no military expansion propaganda. we are hearing more about incrementalism. what would be a more forceful response and why is the u.s. and nato afraid to do it? david? david: i think sanctions have not really been ramped up in a serious way. we need to test that theory more seriously and by major sanctions against russian individuals. it is going to reach a point at some point this year with the elections, which will be pretty extreme in russia, to sanction putin himself. sanctioning people around him has not been enough, but i think if we started discussions about sanctioning mr. putin, that might be a u.s. only sanction. it is hard for me to envision league member states supporting a decision. negotiations from the past of not worked, visits to moscow have not worked, and it needs to be part of the larger strategy to push back against cyber attacks and hacking's to show them what we are capable of. nobody wants a confrontation with moscow but mr. can is sh

it's not only russia that happens. and when this happened in a country where did i draw from all that is due to visionary who has to intervene and these cases can be brought to justice and if there isn't an excessive force british way of putting things in order after friday's events you might want to ask have we really seen much progress in rebuilding trust between the e.u. countries and russia it doesn't look like it will be a hot button issue of covert 1000 vaccines was also raised the meeting between the 2 top diplomats the e.u.'s foreign policy chief expressed his hope for the fast track or theorize ation of russia sputnik within the block and now i am hoping that you have been medical agency will be able to certify the efficiency of the vaccine you know that could be useful szell into the pm union state who will be good new because as you know we are facing a shortage of vaccine well around received its 1st part jobs but doing pretty well with the vaccines arriving in tehran earlier on friday the shipment comes as

russia. germany poland. still fighting for justice the british teenager killed in a road accident involving a. working for american intelligence services a revelation. came to. some. hopeful. head in the program. and his 1st foreign policy speech but he didn't. run the clock across the world this is r.t. international from the team and myself you know me hello and welcome to the program . russia has ordered 3 european diplomats to leave the country for taking part in protests in moscow the rallies were in support of the jailed opposition figure alexina. russia's foreign minister the e.u.'s foreign policy chief met today in the russian capital. can tell us more. new fresh cracks in russia on the day when for the 1st time in 3 years the head of european diplomacy arrived in moscow for talks the decision to expel european diplomats from russia has nothing to do with the arrival of joseph is foreign policy chief but it does coincide with his visit so diplomats from poland sweden and germany have been ordered to

russia. european diplomats to leave the country for taking part in protests in moscow the rallies were in support of the jailed opposition figure out. the announcement comes as russia's foreign minister the foreign policy chief met today in the russian capital tell us more. new fresh cracks in russia on the day when for the 1st time in 3 years the head of european diplomacy arrived in moscow for talks the decision to expel european diplomats from russia has nothing to do with the arrival of joseph is foreign policy chief but it does coincide with his visit so diplomats from poland sweden and germany have been ordered to leave russia for taking part in unsanctioned rallies in support of kremlin critic alexina volley during 2 weekends at the end of january the russian foreign ministry has called such behavior by the diplomats unlawful and unacceptable and the swedish embassy was the 1st to deny any violations of russian or international law by a member of their staff the swedish foreign ministr

but that's a very good question i mean i think they should be because in part of russia's concern at that time was particularly at the conventional level of the u.s. and all these long range conventional weapons systems that russia did not happen that not developed but as we saw for instance in the syria conflict the russians able to send missiles several 1000 miles these conventional missiles so in that sense russia doesn't need to rely so much on the nuclear weapons as it felt that maybe it felt they had to a decade ago so there is that there's also a whole number of new russian nuclear weapons systems that people have probably seen that is very kind of exotic weapons nuclear powered weapons and so on that need to be taken into account in any you know new treaty by the way i know that if you get it back you were quite skeptical about the russian claims of having developed this nuclear powered nuclear aren't low flying cruise missile. i think it's known as very best league in russian as high fall in english as it is that we have some very fabulous reports of its existence including

with russia, i think the problem is different because russia is not ascending. i would argue part of the challenge we have with russia is that putin and the people around him get at some level that russia is not ascending, nobody wants to move there, they don't people there want to move out -- the young people here want to move out -- nobody wants to move there, the young people there want to move out. the united states and europe have more to lose than russia does and russia is exploiting that to try to bring everyone else down, interfering in internal affairs, all of that. you need a russia strategy, which is not a nuclear strategy. how do you deal with a russian leadership that does not play by rules often and feels like it winds when others lose? -- wins when others lose? if you retreat, it emboldens people like that, because they go after weakness. i would make a metaphor. it emboldens them. if you fight back like they are fighting, it is stupid because you have more to lose. so you have to find this kind of medium ground, which i think begins, as you allud

you know it was back to russia so we know we have to sort of a cold war a duck's russia is this. huge threat so it's always a matter of trying to justify the existence of this entity for which there's absolutely no justification. and somehow talking up some non existence threat and they they're doing this. with in asia and they're really nobody is because they're you you have here you have to start from scratch with with nato the united states was lucky because it was already there in existence you could just sort of keep it going through the danger of inertia but in asia they would have to started from scratch and nobody's going to want to do it and then nobody in the united states wanted to precisely because we don't want to get involved in a war between india and china between philippines and china so. if there are few takers for an asian they know where george already mentioned it but i think it's really important here in a live look at how mainstream media the main broadsheets how they describe one bowls the under ball and ministrations you know over the last few decades tha

and russia. this means the united states must move away from speaking first-strike capabilities and plans to destroy russia's and china's nuclear deterrents. the desire to gain such advantage is understandable, but russia and now china will do what they must to prevent it from happening. arms racing and crisis instability result. the ensuing costs and risks are disproportionate to the stakes involved in the regional conflicts that are most likely to did i sert war and they use resources for other capabilities. there should be a upgrade placed on command and control and communications systems and ensuring some nuclear deterrent norse would be immune from cyber attack. to further reduce risk of inadvertent or mistaken or disproportionately eskola try use of nuclear weapons, the u.s. should do away with plans to launch u.s. nuclear weapons under attack as we explore in chapter 3. we also describe an alternative approach of dev siding under attack which, again, we can elaborate during the discussion.

to be pulled against russia and like to be used against russia and to get some political gain on the diplomatic arena however say this is an internal issue so why is it that western nations have come out and it been so quick to condemn the verdict of 4 sovereign country well it was quite expected because for them alexina vollies a hero the they are hailing him as the opposition leader if you are a supporter then of course you will view it as unjust yeah you will you will hear his arguments and you will disagree with the court but the court sided with the prosecution completely and here's an important detail the court didn't really give a new sentence or just reverse the previous ones the federal prison service in russia the release their own statistics showcasing their collection of ali it's not he's not getting special treatment here of course he stands out of the crowd of other thousands of people who have their suspended sentences reversed because he strives to be a politician he. he is an outspoken critic of the kremlin so there's also that there's always that but at the same tim

there has been a huge advantage in russia about closing the channels -- outrage in russia about closing the channels. the thing is that security service has been following this case for at least half a year. the fact that she was financing this channels from the companies registered in those territories. we don't know what they will be responding to. there should be something showing in the way of how upset they are about that. it could potentially be something else. but we are expecting that this could've attachable go up. generally speaking we clearly see things are getting more tense. it is not going anywhere for some time. i am personally in touch with a few members of this counter group and they clearly say that russia is basically doing whatever they can in order to sabotage the process. there is not much happening there because generally there is a lack of intent of actually fixing or finding a solution. obviously they can reach some agreement if this agreement is purely on russian terms. but if that is the case, then i guess the situation got stopped. russians know very well tha

hello and welcome to crossfire where all things are considered i'm peter lavelle russia e.u. relations got a reality check last week russia's foreign minister said a gay lover of read the riot act to the blog also washington never ceases to lecture the world about democracy and the rule of law how are both doing in the u.s. . to discuss these issues and more i'm joined by my guest marcus papadopoulos in london is a historian analyst and author of the new book a rise let us see how to make sure of russia to world politics in budapest we have george samueli he's a podcast or at the gavel which can be found on you tube rumble are a channeling frost up rules in effect that means you can jump any time you want and i was appreciative of it is going to budapest 1st george we saw something quite remarkable at the end of last week we had the high commissioner from the european union with the foreign policy portfolio basically got his blank handed to him here in moscow the tone of this relationship despite my lot of relationship has changed remarkably what accounts for it george well i

but calls for tougher sanctions against russia are getting louder. after the reported poisoning of opposition politician alex enough ali many demanded a halt to the construction of the north stream to local authorities refused to believe that construction might be stopped. being finalized can you really link the case of an avanti to a project like north stream 2 above what would it be better to look at these 2 events separately especially when the facts at least according to my assessment are not yet clear enough to place the blame on russian government. the mayor is voicing the opinion of the citizens of lukeman a seaside resort on the baltic sea because of the coronavirus there aren't enough tourists but there are also very few locals on the beach their opinion is almost unanimous. people think everything the russians do is bad that's not right the volley is unimportant north stream is important to. us can we afford to waste millions billions compromises have to be made i think it must be completed in the model dismissed because it's only one perso

was were to look to cripple russia's economy through sanctions and world to cripple russia of that this is what putin is saying here then the russia would have to look into the possibility of cutting ties with the with the e.u. all together and there are plenty of examples other than sanctions as to how this how this plays out how europe is world just ridiculing all russia's will successes like we look at this but it could be a vaccine it was written ridiculed from the get go we didn't get any benefit of the doubt at all that the beginning i think completely critics completely brushed aside all the stories or the positive experiences of those who pioneered and got the job even before the phase tree of phase 3 excuse me of trials was completed and they kept ridiculing the vet with the russians putting 3 vaccine up until the very last moment when it just became undeniable that sputnik up there among the top 3 of the most effective vaccines in the world. goes down a bit earlier meantime russia has criticized the reaction to the visit of brussels foreign policy chief to moscow last week the

this is the deed of news the live from berlin russia expels diplomats from germany sweden and poland as tensions rise over the jailing of kremlin critic alexina valving visiting moscow as mr millet no volleys put on trial again the european union's foreign affairs chief says relations with russia are at a low point also coming up a court in turkey again refuses an appeal to release prominent philanthropists. or get the latest from our correspondent in istanbul. i'm told me a lot of both thank you for joining us germany has summoned the russian ambassador over the kremlin's expulsion of swedish polish and german diplomats russia chooses them of participating in illegal protests against the jailing of opposition figure alexina volley the kremlin made the announcement while the european union's top diplomat just of coral was in moscow he described the blocks ties with russia as being under severe strain. it was supposed to be a day to mend strained ties between the european union and russia but when 3 diplomats from sweden poland and germany were expelled from russia friday evening the

diplomatic when it came to russia. 6 o'clock here in moscow international our top story this hour russia is expanding its expanding 3 european diplomats over their alleged participation in an authorized protest in moscow on january the 23rd the actions of the swedish german polish diplomats was described as unacceptable not corresponding to that professional status bosco also expressed hope too that the diplomatic missions and their personnel will follow the norms of international law the announcement does come this russia's foreign minister and the u.s. foreign policy chief met today in the russian capital we'll have more on that a bit like in the program. now there has been a major twist in the case of the british teenager hari done he was killed in a road accident involving the u.s. woman back in 2019 and is fled britain claiming diplomatic immunity but a humorous court has heard that she was working for a most american intelligence the time of the incident meaning that she might not have been immune from prosecution to edward stache the takes up the story where it's been a year and a

and russia and ukraine. the senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee holds a confirmation hearing for someone to serve as. white house budget director. . president biden speaks with reporters prior to his meeting with business leaders concerning the pandemic economic rescue plan. now that the relations between russia and ukraine. >> good morning and good afternoon. good evening. i run the eurasian center. we have a wonderful convert -- conversation with you today with our panelists. can president biden get mr. putin out of ukraine? it is seven years since moscow seized its aggression with ukraine. mr. biden's phone call with mr. putin said he is not going to put american interests first without pushback. the question is what does this mean for moscow? our panelists include david kramer, senior fellow for human rights and democracy. director of the security studies program of the foreign policy council. ambassador alexander the former u.s. ambassador to moscow. former defense minister of uk

russia if you are on a suspended sentence and you don't show up. you know and bite you go to jail you hope that's what happens in all the countries your on probation i mean i mean let me go to george you're i mean i'm assuming considering that his background and his behavior is that he wanted to he came back to be arrested so protests could start so western media can talk about their guy and in russia i mean it's so patently obvious i mean also it's like one white dove it sounds like this is the kind of scenario here that's being played out go ahead george yes that's that's exactly right 3 dean was given an excellent summation of the funniest korea that. he's role is to provoke trouble. 1 in the in russia i mean that's that's what his goal handlers in the west in visit for him they don't really and visit him as organizing any political movement because they know that he doesn't really enjoy any kind of support within russia and it's a lot 1 of very tedious hard work to build a serious political organization that can compete in the elections so his

russia. you know they would say it's just one condemnation of for another week is pretty much labeling russia as and then we have the united states that it is determined to destroy the power and influence of the united states and its allies and when it comes to china 1. it's a much more much softer approach you know china is a competitor. and what yes it does talk about on car on the ins on the best i don't place china as just a competitor of the at the moment and you don't think it's really interesting here is that it seems to me and you and i have known about this many times and has russia this is this is russia gate absolutely leading into boerum policy because he's and this is a domestic issue in the united states mint and then with china will you have the n.b.a. and you have disney and it's so much more complicated because his comments about china where i mean not just buzzy it was muddled i mean i really didn't know what kind you. want to make me go back to market but this is an adminis