there are 10% discounts on lactial in psarynyk, vam and oskad pharmacies. the premium sponsor of the national team represents. united by football, stronger together. we continue the politclub program on the espresso tv channel and we will move on to a conversation with the russian oppositionist, former deputy of the state duma of the russian federation ilya ponomerev, congratulations, mr. ilya, good evening. well, the main event of this week , and not only of a russian scale, is the funeral of oleksii novalny. i still got the impression that the government was more afraid of society than it really should have been fearing some kind of destabilization is not in vain. no, of course, i 100% agree

, they tried to do everything possible, but i believe that they had a certain agreement there with fbk, well, that is, when they gave alexy's body, at the same time fbk, called to come to election precincts, in order to make a mourning rally, as they said, the main mourning rally. this campaign for the elections on march 17, well, i think , of course, it's actually help for the putin regime, because the only thing they need in these elections is a turnout, and actually i think that it's like a certain agreement, but on the other hand , purely geographically, they chose the church as

it is located in the marijan district, well, it's very far from the center of the capital, and the cemetery is located in brateevo, it's south of marijan, that is, in the opposite direction direction from the city center, that is, the authorities made all such safeguards. well, in principle , what do you think, there are enough people from the point of view of the level of repression and fear that currently reigns in russian society, or could there have been more, taking into account the size of moscow, well, look, there is such a project , which is called in russian, and he counts the people who come to any actions there, they counted. on friday, 165 people, but

it was about the same on saturday, because not everyone was able to get to the cemetery on friday, well, compared to the protests on belosny in 2011-12, it is certainly less if you compare it with rallies. of late, which were after the start of the large-scale invasion, it's so much more, well, i mean, i think it's such a draw, but in the end, well, there's no point in participating in any such demonstrations, they do not lead to anything, they only create danger for those people who join them, because the cameras there

record everyone and after that they are all the chairs of the special services, but i believe that when there will be a moment when in moscow there will be armed people, on the side of the revolutionary movement, then i believe that there will be many more people, well , it seems to me that people did not really prefer any kind of protest, when they gathered for the funeral, they just gathered. at the funeral it was evident in the whole mood, just come and pay your respects and move on. no, of course well, but this is still perceived as such a protest event, because everyone feels that because of the danger, and there were many warnings, that they will install special cameras there to recognize and record all faces there. and how do you explain that none of them are known there?

some public figures who are still in moscow, with the possible exception of nadezhda, yes, i didn't come to this funeral at all, well, purely, i would say, symbolically, we saw it. by the chairman of the council of ministers of the soviet union, mykola ryshkov, in the cathedral of christ the savior, and i saw comments on social media the networks that justified avlinskyi said , well, what do you want, he went to an acquaintance and not to an acquaintance, i was incredibly surprised by all this, well, yevlynskyi simply demonstrated that he is a scumbag. and this person must be completely written off, but there were certain people who did not go on friday, there, for example, venediktov, he did not go on friday, he went on saturday, i believe that from the point of view of relations there with oleksii, they divined, and well, his

presence on friday could be perceived ambiguously, but he came. after, well, on friday, roizman was there, but people are so scared, and those people who were capable of something there, no, not in russia, even yulia, his wife could not get to this funeral, well , i think that no one would i would not advise her to go there, you understand, it was a matter of personal safety, well... there were no violations of any criminal case against her, and from a formal point of view she could come to russia, but i think that it is likely that she was detained there one way or another, well, it

was a huge danger, but tell me why suddenly yulia navalna is being talked about as the leader of the opposition, as if her husband really was the leader of some united opposition in russia, from where? this idea came about at all, because i hear it from many foreign journalists there, when i talk to some experts, they also ask the question all the time: will yulia navalny be able to replace oleksiy navalny, and she spoke before the european parliament, but i have question, but where, well, you know, they compare it with svitlana tykhanovskaya, but svitlana tykhanovskaya was a participant in real presidential race, and probably actually won these elections, well, look, there is a certain one. inheritance from alexey, and of course , it will belong to someone, and yulia was already of the opinion in the 18th year that she would go to the presidential

race instead of alexey, and alexey then approved this idea, and was against it, well, i think precisely because not to create. competition itself, but now a lot of money has been invested in fbk by the same united states and by europeans, it is necessary to preserve these investments and somehow continue the work of this fund there, and yulia is here such a consolidating figure, and that is , i believe that for the vast majority of oleksiy's supporters there, she... will actually be a leader, but how many are there, well, probably 30% of the citizens who are generally opposed to it, will she be able to consolidate the other part of the opposition there? it 100% depends on her, well, even there i

know her very well, but i, for example, can't say what her political views are, alexy's political views and values, i knew very well. and i don't know anything about yulia, what kind of leader she will be in general, what her plan is, whether he exists at all or not, well, we don't know anything about that either, and now, well, the ball is in her court, if she offers something, well, we will negotiate, and i will be very happy if in the state of opposition a new powerful figure will appear there, but it's just too early to talk about it, but tell me, please, in principle, to what extent russian society believes that the fight against corruption is such a main element of opposition to the authorities , not at all, well that is, it is such a common evil, and i believe

that most russians are it, if there are any there will be jealous of corrupt officials. and the other part wants to join it, it's like a part of being in power and... and it's a minority of society, like if it actually wants to fight it, that is, it's a very loud thing, but i think that in order to to change the system, this is the wrong way, there is a request for protests against these so-called oligarchs, but i believe that this protest is much more radical, people just want to... burn their houses there and destroy them physically, this is such a request, well 100 %

exists there, but the fight against corruption, well, people believe that people there simply want to take their place, but tell me, how do you generally evaluate this message of vladimir putin to the federal assembly, did you see some new accents in it, no new ones, but i saw that he continues to intimidate for... . but he, he wants to hold on to the victory of donald trump, and from the point of view of this race and the continuation of his power, he needs to talk about social events, and after all, the main thing there was social topics, well, someone already calculated that he made promises there more... than on trilon rub, and it's no coincidence

that for people, war is something they can't influence, it's just their daily life, that's what worries them, there is some rational thought in this nuclear intimidation, which is already coming from putin , or is this just an attempt to respond as sharply as possible to the recent statements of the president of the french republic, macron, about the possibility of the presence of nato troops on the territory of ukraine, well, the country, nato troops, let's be precise. i'm not sure that was the answer. i believe that it is all the same, this part would be present in this message. he is trying to do the same as he did inside russian society, just don't join the fight. this is my business, and i

will decide here, and if you try to join it there, there will be very negative consequences for you, and this is intimidation, it is just that the french are there, the germans are there and everyone else, just to stand somewhere far away from the ongoing struggle. in ukraine, if you assess putin's intentions in principle, you saw there a desire to continue the war, i would say, in a completely undefined in a time segment. well, i am sure that from the point of view of ukraine, he would like to come to an agreement, well , come to an agreement on his own terms, and he wants to. to keep the territories that he has already captured, and he wants the west to pressure ukraine

to agree to it, well, it is very unlikely now, but i think that he is counting on the fact that when there is trump, he will he will do so, and that is why i believe that he will try to bite off the entire 24th year. there was something in the so-called dpr, well, more dpr, of course, to expand the territory as much as possible dpr to the borders of the donetsk region, and he will just wait like that, but the question here is that in the west there is now a very correct opinion that if there is a cease-fire in... ukraine, then the baltic countries

or poland will be next, and they because of this they are worried, their military and civilian politicians are starting to talk about it more and more, it is right, and that is why such statements of macron appear, i believe that he also thinks that if there is trump, then there america from.. .comes from the fight and someone has to intercept this one the flag of military leadership, and it will be some european country, well, not germany, but france, well... on the other hand, yes, but you see what macron's statements have shown that a huge number of western leaders, they are horrified by the very idea , not even the military presence of servicemen to perform some technical tasks on ukrainian territory? well, of course, and even french society is very negative about it, there was a sociological survey

that showed that 69, i believe , percent of french people are against this idea. but here already geopolitical is such a competition, and macron for him is the last term in office, he is trying to do something to pull this blanket over france. in your opinion, in principle, this competition in the west regarding ukraine, will it bring positive or negative results for the future assistance? i believe that this year everything will be fine, and the role of europe, the european countries, will actually grow here, and this is very good, or you have to stand on both feet, and not rely solely on the united states, but i believe that the united states

receive this aid package, well, there is just a certain time for it. needed, the question is what we will do if there is actually a change of power in the united states, and here , of course, trump will from the very beginning try to put putin and zelensky at the same table of change and put pressure on both, and here the question is what will be the diplomatic position of ukraine, if he says something like... well, okay, let putin return to those agreements that were echoed at the istanbul meeting, putin cannot do that, because he has already announced that the dpr, the lpr, there kherson and zaporizhzhia regions are his, that is, he simply

cannot return to this, and then, i believe that even trump, he will be on our side. thank you sir. russian oppositionist, former deputy of the state duma of the russian federation, we were in touch, we will now move from russia and its problems to the middle east, we will talk with igor samovalos, director of the center for middle eastern studies, congratulations mr. igor, congratulations, mr. congratulations, well here we are talking on the eve of a possible truce between israel hamas, but again, when 5 hours ago we could say that the truce is here. can be achieved, now i'm looking and i can't say anything about it with certainty, i don't know, like you, what is happening in the middle east in general, is there even a possibility of at least a pause in the war? eh, yes, really, a few days ago it was possible to say that the parties came as close as possible to a truce, but now it looks

like hamas wants to get more and... clearly it is not satisfied with the temporary cessation of war, well, he perfectly understands that after ramadan, the actual war continues with an attack on other positions of hamas and kirivas, and since ramadan in any case rather marks the suspension of the war, this is automatically practical. will happen, if , of course, the israelis do not want to get serious problems in the west bank and in the arab world, then it is clear that the hamasites can bluff, or they can bargain, that is, they want to get better conditions. to what extent can it be considered that

the situation is connected with the middle east war now. is being signaled in american politics because we see that president biden has a big problem with his supporters among the democrats, precisely because the united states cannot stop this war. from the very beginning, when the americans made a political decision to support israel exactly as they supported it and statements were made, even then serious differences arose among the representatives of the democratic forces, the left, the left part. the recent case of a military man setting himself on fire in front of embassies himself. or against the gas war, yes, and this situation, this protest is shared by many, including the military in america,

so dissatisfaction with biden's policy is growing, he understands and tries to maneuver, and for example, the latest decisions that were taken by the american administration, the humanitarian landing that was carried out in the gas sector, when american planes were ashamed of their prodigality, the gas sector is... also a part, relatively speaking, of the changes that we are seeing, and besides all that, of course, one cannot fail to remember the statements of american leaders regarding settlements, regarding the sanctions that will be implemented against those who commit violence against the palestinians in the west bank and the like, that is, the administration's policy is changing, but there are, they, they are to some extent hostage to those decisions that were made last time. tell me, mr. igor, do you understand why the president of ukraine flew to saudi arabia before this balkan summit? well, i can only guess, as you understand, there is

an official point, an official, an official position, an official view, that the key issue is there was a question of the summit of forms on the peace formula, and the position of saudi arabia is very important, taking into account the weight of saudi arabia in general. the world , well, obviously, not only, obviously, i think it was also about weapons that are in the warehouses of saudi arabia, and other gulf countries, we know that these countries are such powerful transfer hubs of soviet weapons to african countries, perhaps we are talking about some money, that is, about loans to provide for ukraine. this is my so my motivation, because it is obvious that then conversations in albania took place not only between albanian-ukrainian spouses. tell me, if

we talk about the caucasus, do you think that now armenia is really trying to make some sort of reversal from russia, or are these maneuvers for now? yeah, it's, it's, it's a tough question actually, because on the one hand we see that it's already bigger than me. and there are too many drastic steps, too many things that indicate that after all, armenia is starting a turnaround, an important element of this turnaround, of course, is the strategic alliance with france, which is strengthening and deepens, and most likely in the near future we can see, if not the physical presence of france in the unified caucasus, then at least a serious, serious strengthening of france in this region, this is preschool. and azerbaijan is teaching turkey as well, and it is clear that france will only do this , if only for the sake of it. well, but, well, after

we have seen and heard macron, with all his recent speeches, which clearly indicate that france wants to seize the strategic initiative in the west. such behavior is common in the south caucasus seems clear and logical. considering the fact that in france there is a rather powerful spur vermen community, and considering the interest that the french express and would like to be present there, well, in general, considering the strategic interests opposed to russia. there were reports that the president of ukraine should visit yerevan and baku, then information appeared that such a visit would not take place, precisely because... he did not receive support from the azerbaijani side, what could be the problem and whether it was at all like reality? well, you know, i even commented

on the possibility of zelenskiy for the azerbaijani press, and we were just discussing that this visit in itself could not pose a problem for ukraine and ukraine-azerbaijan, and i assumed that such a possibility, well, a possible visit was discussed at the mishali meeting. they also met, but it turns out that they did not , it turns out that this visit was not agreed upon at that time, well, obviously, since the peace agreement between iran and azerbaijan has not yet been signed, i.e. the formal state are in a state of war, then it is clear that azerbaijan refused, refused such a format, and you allow it, or at least , yes, it was on... easily, as he said, and you allow that, in principle, azerbaijan did not want to go to armenia on its own as such in any case? and this, this

was quite a conversation from the very beginning. well, this one is more obvious, because from the very beginning they said that if the visit will take place, that is, the probability of such a visit will happen, then this visit must be believed, that is, this format was considered from the very beginning, here in general the question or to what extent it is possible to solve the problems of the caucasus without the participation of russia, the russians say all the time, and this was recently demonstrated during the russian-chinese meeting once again, that the war in... cannot be solved without russian participation, well, in any case there are russian troops on ukrainian territory, this is, in principle , an absolutely logical construction, because how do you solve a war in russia with russia without russia, if russia is not going to end it, but the situation in azerbaijan is also different, there is no such obvious presence of russia , formally, russia is present there in azerbaijan and in yerevan, and in... burma, and because

russian fsb troops are on the border, there is a russian base in armenia, and russian troops are also in karabash, that is, in essence, russia is present there as well, and the only one who can push russia out of there is a country that can throw it, this you, and this one... on france, because turkey, as we can see, is not incapable of this, it maneuvers, it prefers to negotiate with by the russians, not to create problems, and the french can go for it, that's why that at least they do not have those complex and past interests, and they do not have such ties to moscow's interests, which, say , ankara has, so the only one who can do this

is france, and... but azerbaijan is not in a big delighted with the french role, you see that the french role always causes irritation on the side, from the very beginning he was not delighted, that is, in general, this is not a matter of this day, it is a matter of at least five or six years , and any attempt by the french to somehow demonstrate theirs interest, she was exposed to dimash from the side of turkey, yes, well, in this case... azerbaijan, that is, all this is approximately, that is, it is an ancient story, and if before it was not about armenia, but about greece, but also or there about cyprus, then armenia was added, and relations between france and turkey really remain quite complicated. but what does recep tayyip erdogan want to achieve now, when he talks again about peace talks, about the fact that turkey can become a platform for these talks, he discusses it

with... vladimir putin, lest we forget about him, well, elections are ahead , local elections are ahead, erdogan must remain a genius of diplomacy and an important figure of the turkish people, that is, it is necessary for him to be talked about, the press wrote about him, and he remained on the front pages of world and turkish newspapers, then this the same story as... it was before, when they actively exploited the agreement and the istanbul negotiations. well, so you think that there is nothing real behind it , there are no real international opportunities? well, obviously not, i don't think that there is anything more than just an attempt the turks once again raise their subject. but will turkey protect azerbaijan if russia suddenly wants to destabilize the situation in this country? at some point?

it won't happen, it won't happen, but they will include it diplomatically, that is, they won't use force , but they will try diplomatically, that is , are these hopes in baku that if they face moscow, they will come to their aid from turkey, are they useless? well, it's not 1918 100%. and tell me, in principle, it was believed that turkey and russia could come to an understanding regarding syria, and they hoped for normalization situation, at least there. now we can talk about the fact that turkey can restore its relations with damascus and that at least there will be a certain stabilization of the regional situation, that then the refugees will be able to return to syria from turkey, how realistic is this? well, so far it seems unrealistic, there is already a key issue in the fact that bashar assad wants to restore sovereignty in this territory, turkey is categorically against it, and because she, well, first of all, does not believe beshar assad and these...

it is fair and willing.