[000:00:00;00] the leading lawyers of the aktum bar association will answer the latest changes in ukrainian legislation, how legislative norms change our lives, what to prepare for, these and other questions that concern ukrainians. watch every tuesday at 7:55 in the legal expertise program on the espresso tv channel. free fields. club, we are back live after a short break and we are ready to discuss the following topics, we have a guest, there is no guest, there is, i think, volodymyr khandogi, the president of the foreign policy association, the ambassador of great britain will be in touch with us now, let's talk with him, well, by the way, we need to talk about this famous date, which is already literally in 10 days, the negotiations on ukraine's accession to the european union actually begin, which is

a record, by the way. the short term for the start of negotiations, when we received the invitation? well at the end, at the end of last year, so six months, six months, yes, so it's certainly not a fast-track entry, because there could be more serious problems in the way of the negotiations themselves, during the negotiations, well it is necessary to understand that even technically this part, it is the most difficult and the longest, so to speak, if you say so, among all these issues, two years. three years, maybe, well, maybe it will be faster, we will see, well , we will ask about it, there is already mr. volodymyr, mr. volodymyr, good evening, good evening, good evening, congratulations, well, please tell me what you think, how long will it take for these negotiations, about the european union, i really don't like to put a time frame, but from the words that we hear, in particular from

the european union, the real date is... in the 30th year, there were statistics, who passed how much, which means, how long this preparatory period took place, the record holders are the famous countries there, sweden, finland, austria, by the way, some have been there for years, ten years each, turkey we we know, there is 19 years in the queue for the european union, so it is realistic today to talk about... a figure of 20-30, well, how far it will come true, i don't know, but we should be satisfied with it, because we have passed very quickly in that the preparatory period from the granting of candidate status to the beginning of negotiations, it was very, very brief, this is probably a world record that we set, well, of course there are objective reasons for this, and the european union understands the force majeure

situation that exists in... ukraine today. so we'll see, but 20:30 i think is a realistic date. and can there be any accelerated procedure? well, in principle, we saw that over the past year we went through all the procedural points quite quickly, or after all, we have to go through step by step all those bureaucratic things that we need for accession to the european union. can a certain political decision be made so that we, let's assume there. entered a little earlier, well, look, i think it will be a big mistake if we play with these terms now, let's go first, on the 25th, the so-called, well, these negotiations, are opening, actually, a delegation has been formed, there there is a lot, a lot of different work, and therefore, at least, let's start moving, we will see the scale of the issues that will be in front of us, how we

will them... today, for example, if i am not mistaken, it seems that the czech minister of foreign affairs hinted that the czech republic will oppose such, you know, force majeure in terms of acceleration, that is, to the detriment of the criteria that must be met upon joining the european union, so there is no need annoy other states today, which, well, in this case it will not be quite. the czech republic, but other states that agreed to the accelerated period that we have already passed, counting that during the substantive negotiations that open on monday, we will step by step overcome the distance that is in front of us, so i think, again, i don't think it will be productive, you know, at this stage to talk about, let's hurry up, and tell me, what we

will go together with... with the republic of moldova in this process, which means that we both have to join the european union, so what will be the competition, who will be the first? no, i think it will be a package, i think we got it. hey everyone, you know, georgia was forged from us, as we know, because it was georgia, ukraine, and moldova, and even between us, the three states created such a mini-coalition in order to convince the european union, well , due to one reason or another, georgia has since broken away from this coalition, and therefore to us, that means moldova, well, no let's forget that there are also the western balkans, which are also standing in line and intend to join somewhere closer. at times, therefore, i think that it will be a package solution, running b, as they said, but by the way, regarding the package solution, ukraine and the republic of moldova are also countries with unresolved territorial problems, can you imagine the integration of such countries to solve these

problems with the territories that should be, imagine, i say this, maybe not, you know, such a standard procedure, and, but i imagine it. well, you can look for some precedents that were, we can also talk about cyprus, in which territorial problems with turkey have not been resolved, in fact, but this does not prevent cyprus from being in the european union, and turkey a candidate for the european union, that is, i think that it will not help us, but it will not be an obstacle on our way. i also wanted to ask you about putin's last statements, his last trips to north korea, to vietnam, well, in particular one of the last such high-profile statements, he declared that

there will be no withdrawal of troops from ukraine, we saw certain documents signed between russia and north korea , russia and vietnam, how do you comment on all these actions of the occupying power, everyone? the actions of self-proclaimed de facto president putin this week, is it a rate hike or is it his real position? well, this is his real position as of today, on the other hand, this can also be considered a rate hike, but i don't see much opportunity for putin to raise rates, because they are already high enough, so it was not news, first of all, during the hot phase. of the war that is taking place today, to say that he is ready to withdraw troops means to agree to some framework of negotiations that may take place, but today, for

today, i personally and probably few people see real possibilities for for putin to agree to any negotiations, what will happen later, we will see, it will depend on chief negotiator namely, the armed forces of ukraine, and then it will be seen whether, in the end, what it will be, what shape this future peace process will have, or whether there will be peace agreements, which should one day still be, that is, this is his real position today, she, by the way, to a certain extent, it gives us certain trump cards for our work with those states that, let's say, take a position. waver, on the one hand , they allegedly do not take a very active stand against ukraine, but gravitate to the position, to the position of russia, they talk about more, well, let's stop war, let's stop shooting and

all that, but when we explain to them that putin is in no way going to go back to the status quo that existed, well at least for 20... february 2, february 24, '22, it has an impact on these states, they understand that here we are talking about a violation of international law, about annexation, about violation of borders, the charter of the united nations organization, in which, as they value these states, in principle, that is why this is the position of russia today, it i think it strengthens our position in ours conversations in the console. tion of the political support that we want to achieve in the world. and tell me, if we talk about euro-atlantic integration, to what extent do you see any real changes that can take place at the washington nato summit, because

they continue to say that there will be certain decisions, certain changes in approaches, as far as possible in principle believe that we will really wait. such changes, well, what we are waiting for, we, such hope gives us grounds for decisions that have already been reached, and starting... from the bucharest summit and confirmed by vilnius. i do not see any breakthrough solutions that will be able to strengthen our belief, so to speak, that we will one day become a member of the european union. today, as far as we know, there is a discussion around one word, namely the irreversibility of ukraine's accession to nato, irreversible, that is , as far as the spectators who are close to this negotiation process are saying. that it is precisely here that the discussion is taking place and if between

the british and the americans yes well yes yes yes well and here if you imagine so if there will be any a step, it will be a step with the addition of the word irreversibility, because in 2008, so to speak, it was agreed that ukraine would be a member of... last year in vilnius, it was confirmed that ukraine would indeed be a member, they removed the traffic regulations requirement from us, by the way , in my opinion, it was done imprudently, and now this political statement will be confirmed once again with the addition of some other word that would say that this is an irreversible process, and ukraine will be a member of nato, yes and yes , on the other... side we see

certain such ambiguous, perhaps opinions, words of the leaders of the united states of america, before that we remember the statement of president joe biden, here, for example, this week was the statement of mr. kirby, well, here it is less ambiguous, he said that in order to join nato ukraine must win the war, but the question arises, if this war lasts for a long time, let's say for... years, then it is clear that ukraine will not become a member of nato at this moment and we should not even expect any intermediate option, right? well, look, well, first of all, really, so to speak, the thesis about what ukraine will become a member of nato only after the end of the war, well, cyrus would say, after ukraine defeats russia, if i'm not mistaken, it sounds a long time ago, this thesis is ours. the political leadership has already

spoken more than once about the fact that during the so -called hot phase of the conflict or war there is no time to talk about membership in the alliance, but so to speak, these are obvious things, what can happen and how long it will take , we also don't know, if we can talk more or less somewhere, well, that's how we talk about the terms of joining the european union, then here the situation is much more complicated. so, between these periods, today, when we will become members of nato, the same, well, let's say, er, temporary option is these agreements that today ukraine signs with nato members, well, seven, there are other countries, not only members nato, it is believed that this can be a temporary way out of this situation, until... it acquires membership of the organization in the alliance, its

security will be, its security will be ensured through these agreements, i want to avoid the word guarantees here, because if we admit, god forbid, that these are guarantees, in fact, they are not these guarantees, so why do we have other guarantees, so there is no need to talk about guarantees, these are security arrangements that will strengthen our deterrence capabilities. while we are outside nato. but here the question arises already at the end of our conversation, to what extent, in principle, the father's support can be stable against the background of all these disturbances that are happening in the west? during the last meeting of the group of seven, you saw, everyone said, the prime minister is going, president biden is fighting for the presidency, the president macron has problems in connection with... parliamentary elections, federal chancellor scholz has problems in connection with

european elections, canadian prime minister trudeau has a low rating, japanese prime minister kisseda has a low rating, i counted 6 , only the prime minister of italy, melanie, remains, and more or less, this is a really serious question, i personally, well , i thought about it myself, especially when they are still being heard today in connection with the elections in great britain. the appearance again on the political scene of this e nigel farage, a well-known eurosceptic, far-right figure, is again predicted to win the parliamentary elections. in france , the ultra-right, who, you know, gravitate towards the position of the russian federation on some issues, in particular, regarding ukraine and the war. so, indeed, the political landscape of europe, if you add to it the situation in america, it can really change. here, the only thing we

can hope for is still such, you know, durability or constancy of foreign policy, and it is very rare in western democracies, despite the fact that whoever wins there in one or another election, in general the strategic course is foreign policy, it remains unchanged, and this, i think, will take place both in europe and in the united states of america, if other political forces come to power than those that exist today they have their offices there, thank you, and volodymyr khandogiy. the president of the ukrainian foreign policy association, the ambassador of great britain in 2010-2015 was a live broadcast of the saturday political club, we continue, and we should now be in touch with ihor semivolos, the director of the center

of middle eastern studies, so now we will see mr. igor, but we will talk with him about... well, let's start with these visits, i would say, sensational, it's true, putin's visits to north korea and vietnam. well, by the way, we have to say right away that someone may look at these visas, at this visit of putin to dobhenyan as an everyday thing, but we have to say that during the entire existence of the democratic people's republic of korea, no soviet leader has ever visited it, no one , neither stalin, nor khrushchev, nor brezhnik. no andropovich chernenko did not visit anything, nor gorbachev, no one went, putin himself, yeltsin did not visit, putin himself visited once in 2000, 20 4 years ago, this was the only visit, this is the second visit to pyongyang, and here suddenly friendship, mr. igor, such love,

such kisses, that just where is there, yes, yes, of course, this, this visit attracts a lot of attention, and it seems to me that... and this is such, this is a persistent request, actually korean, korean leader to visit pyongyang, and why? to me, it seems to me that it is to a certain extent the reason is from putin himself, by and large he has no other chance than how to come if he wants to continue receiving weapons and receive that support from the north. korea, which he receives now. and, in my opinion, this was a condition that was actually formulated, and despite all, so to speak, the solemnity of this visit and, in the spirit of such,

marxism-leninism, better times, and, by and large, putin takes himself very seriously with this visited, and the reaction actually did not take long. the reaction of south korea and putin in this situation, i even had to threaten south korea, in hanoi, so i do not really consider this visit as such a huge success, it is rather a reason and another demonstration that you cannot do business with putin, since putin actually violated all those resolutions , which at one time moscow voted for in relation to north korea. mr. igor, what is the real reaction, well , at least it should be behind the scenes, whether china has such visits, and we must understand that there was a visit to both north korea and vietnam, and here many analysts say

that china did not like it at all, and this essentially breaks this balance that was between russia. and china itself, what is your position here? you know, i'll say it right away, i'm not an easterner or a far easterner, and the nuances are hidden for me, so i can only say based on my experience, and it seems to me that at least putin coordinated sydzenpin's visit, and the reactions, if anyone thinks that. .. thanks to this visit, you can drag china to your side in the spirit of a kisser, then he is wrong. i do not i think that this will somehow affect the position of beijing. that putin can coordinate something with xi jinping, well, he clearly could not coordinate a visit to vietnam with xi jinping, the chinese there obviously cannot be satisfied with such

a trip, because he still wants to sell his weapons to vietnam? well, i think that the history of 79 has already, as they say, sunk into the past, and it is clear that vietnam is to some extent such an economic economy. partner the united states of america, and a large number of enterprises that previously worked in china, move to vietnam, move to india, and trade turnover of 100 billion between the united states of america and vietnam and everything else, that is , he has money, at least vietnam. what else can putin offer to vietnam besides weapons? nothing, well, given that vietnam is actually armed with soviet weapons, so it can really offer it this... weapons, but this story, well, at

least it will have a long time, that is, it is not known whether in the end this agreement will work or no, as vietnam looks just as closely at the quality of russian weapons and their actual use on the battlefield. well, by the way, this applies to north korean weapons, they definitely cannot boast of quality, we have seen it when they do so. absolutely true, absolutely true, and it is very interesting when , for example, there putin talks about the fact that they do not supply korea, they do not supply weapons, well, in the context of the discussion with seoul, but these are already such obvious things that what actually there is no point in talking, it seems to me that the russian propagandists themselves are talking about this, that it is just yes and and and just the russians at the front describe this story with these koreans. well, it becomes quite clear that

putin's visit and, in general, these contacts between putin and kimchin-in, their main purpose, more precisely, is a weapon, at least for putin. could there be such an option that, for example, russia will place certain production facilities on the territory of north korea in order to, let's say, produce weapons there. use relatively cheap labor, north korean, yes, and some, by the way, for that matter, russian propagandists there they dreamed that north korea would already take and send part of the troops there to ukraine to fight for russia, well, i will not ask that, because it is quite, quite such a ridiculous assumption, but still, regarding weapons, regarding possible production capacities, such an option is possible, well... then they supply weapons and maybe they create some joint enterprises, it is possible, but

well, i personally do not believe very much in the effectiveness of such cooperation, and the maximum that korea can give is north korea - that , which it produces in large quantities, and therefore any joint venture there, any production, new production, it takes a... a lot of time, even the transfer of technology, well, north korea has quite a large, quite large range of weapons, ranging from firearms to missiles and nuclear weapons in the end, well, it makes no sense to at least start such a cycle, but well, within the framework of these agreements, there may be, of course, similar proposals, i... than it is certain that they sounded, and it is quite important that they want bring koreans and vietnamese to their factories again, as was the case at the end

of the soviet union, i remember the vietnamese who worked at the mill, so they put stools in order to get them to the machine, but tell me, mr. igor, putin may still have a very limited range of possibilities when we talk about his trips, because he himself went to pyongyang, to khakhanoy, but for how many months we have been hearing that he has to... go to ankara for five or something, he does not go and does not go, well, and tehran, and tehran , i think that here they are, they have been talking for two years about a comprehensive agreement, about cooperation and essentially a military alliance by tehran, well, obviously, after the election of a new president, things will move from place to place, and obviously, in august, we can see his visit to tehran, but this... if there is not a big war in the middle east, well, here in the context of this, in fact,

we already approached the elections in iran, understand. that they admitted a small number of candidates, if i'm not mistaken, six, yes, eight, eight, eight, thank you for clarifying to what extent this policy of iran towards russia can be adjusted, at least according to those statements, maybe, or some actions, the current candidates and the potential president, as far as i understand, the speaker, yes the parliament. iran in relation to russia, can there be any adjustment, or will we continue to observe this rather broad cooperation, well, i think that after all, most likely, the train will move forward, that is, most likely, the iranian leadership of alikhmenei is favorable to signing such

an agreement, and much will depend on it. if we talk about the future president, then we remember that this is the executive power, and we remember that the level of his, let's say, decision-making independence is quite small, if we talk about the speaker of the parliament, who is considered as the most likely, and he is the former mayor of tehran, as a likely candidate for this position, then he is a moderate conservative. that is, he has at least some more rivets in his head, that is, he may well take a more cautious position, and this story is more related to the actual war in the middle east, perhaps the direct participation of iran in this war, but if we are talking about russia, then i think that they long for to sign such an agreement, and it is unlikely that anything

will change here, well, in principle... do you think that iran is now interested in such and such an alliance with russia, rather than the alliance that north korea signed, well, after all, those articles of the agreement between the russian by the dprk federation that we see, they are duplicating the old soviet -north korean treaty that was signed, it seems to me that after the korean war it never really worked and the parties abandoned it, it seems to me in 2006, when it had already expired , well, they just restored this one the statue this has never happened to russia in my life, no, it never happened, it never happened, but it is interesting, it is just interesting, because this, many people talk about the fact that russia is playing a new big game, and in the middle east, of course, this is an exaggeration , because the british big game, it is unlikely that russia will pull such a game, but iran,

it has always been, was a place of attraction for russia, well, in the end, no one. didn't change their desire to build a port in the indian ocean, so that's what they want, and that's what the iranians want, although i agree that in there are quite a lot of iranian politicians who have a very negative attitude towards russia and russian politics, remembering the history of the 19th, 20th, and especially the middle of the 20th century, the attempts of the russians. to tear off whole pieces of iranian territory and the like, however, now if you look at their strategic culture, they want allies near their borders, and russia is just a desirable ally for them, as of now. but if we are talking about the future meeting between putin and erdogan, as far as i understand,

such a meeting should take place in astana in a few weeks. will be discussed there. and of course ukraine, but certain financial and economic issues will also be discussed there , the construction of this hub there, supposedly on the territory of turkey, how far these negotiations can contribute to putin's promotion of his current agenda, and in particular in the context of recent visits and recent statements, well, i think that in... and in hanoi, putin said quite a lot that, in principle, should have been received negatively in turkey, and turkey signed the declaration, well, the final, the final declaration of the peace summit, and turkey declares the territorial integrity of ukraine