aim del walters in new york, and "inside story" is next. and a reminder, we continue to watch developments coming out of london. when secretary of state, john kerry, wraps up his meeting with sergei lavrov, we'll bring you that comment live. it is the inside story. ♪ . >> hello, i'm ray swarez, the man who used to be jorge mario is cardinal arch bishop has shown he is a master of flipping the script. it started from the moment the votes that made him the head of the worldwide catholic church were counted an enormous crowd gathering in st. peters square, the cheering throng was waiting for the new pope

to pray for them. in his first request was that they pray for him. the first pope from the global south has brought an abrupt departure in style from his predecessor, said striking and surprising things blown like a strong breeze of his tiny state. and maybe hasn't changed all that much. yet. an old church, a new pope, the what we don't know yet what could be an era of change in the word's largest group on this edition of inside story. we will start this look forward with a look back at a momentous year. who am i to just, five small worlds and a seemingly simple answer to a tough question, but this phrase among many others catapulted the new pope to media stardom, and has catholics asking if francis is a pontiff u.s. line many of his predecessors. it was july, the new pope

had only been installed four earl year, and with a flight back when he was asked about gays in the church, pope fran since said if a person is gay, and seeks god and has goodwill, who am i to judge. in doing so the pope supported his priests in a way no pope ever had. he didn't scold, he embraced. the moment landed him on the cover as the most influential person of the year in the american gay rights magazine, the advocate. saying the brevity of that statement, and the outsized attention it got immediately are evidence of the pope's sway. editors applauded him, saying therd whos resonate beyond the u.s. to the 1.2 billion catholics around the word. >> wonderful, i like this year with the pope. you have to pay attention, because i think he is going to make history. >> a year after his core nation, pope frances has been received in unprecedented popularity,

as the first pope from south america, the 77-year-old appears unfettered by the trappings of life. born jorge the arch bishop was known for his humility, and modernizing the church, which was among the most 70 in latin america. from an order that focused on a dune to earth style, with an emphasis on social justice. the hope chose his name -- the friars gave up his wealth to serve the poor in today's, the servant of the servants of god is seen living the worlds just days after his election, he washed the feet of 12 young inmates. two of the 12 were young

women, one a muslim prisoner. previous popes had performed the ritual in st. peters with priests representing the 12 disciples, in his first pastoral visit pope francis dismissed protocol and politics and traveled to the italian island the tiny island is the point of entry for refugees trying to reach mainland europe, the pope gave on what he saw as the global indifference to the refugee crisis. in november, pope francis bless add man suffering from a disfiguring disease, the man gently buried his head as many facial tumors were visible. the pope spontaneously embraced this man, surrounded by 50,000 people, that photo went viral on social media.

>> translator: -- to invite all of the regions to take part and

to secure their equal -- the equality of the negotiation table. we have our proposals, which we could go to our western partners, but later [ inaudible ] how we see the national support, but the main thing is that we don't need any international structure so that you can see the russian-ukrainian relations. these relations had deteriorated yes, after what happened in kiev when the president was very much in power, we had some complications, but president putin worked to solve the problems with the minister of the economy and relevant partners. there were still contacts

concerning the foreign affairs, and that's why all of the issues the ukrainian colleagues want to set in front of us should be directly put. i want to mention [ inaudible ] now it's ukrainian's chairman and the government of independence states they suggested the meeting these days in kiev. we said pursuant to the rules to organize deputy minister of foreign affairs to conduct it in means, unfortunately ukrainian colleagues refused to do it, so we don't evade the dialogue. the role of the international community is to encourage all of the ukrainians to start a dialogue on the constitutional reform with the understanding, of course that the long inaction

and long encouragement of these -- of the leaders in ukraine in the direction they were moving to can -- it resulted in the decision of the supreme council of crimea on the referendum, and we respect the results of this referendum. you are listening to sergey lavrov in london. it appears the sticking point between the two sides represents who is the legitimate leadership of ukraine, and also whether or not on the united states side the referendum which is now just 48 hours away is legitimate. we continue to listen to the foreign minister, sergey lavrov.

>> reporter: [ inaudible ]? >> translator: what happened in [ inaudible ] came the subject of comments as the text is president -- you have a -- you familiarize yourself with the texts. what happened outrageous armed militants arrived and starting interfering with the peaceful demonstrations. any plans of -- doesn't have any plans to invade this region. we assume the right of the russians, the hungariry ans, and the ukrainians as well. and should be protected as -- there are no serious violations in crimea. it's because additional measures were taken to the people's

militia, they were ready to stop -- not to allow what happened in midan where the situation remained the same where there, tents in the city. i want to assure you that we don't have any plans not -- not to ensure transparency what we're doing just one example, a few days ago a ukrainian party within the agreement open sky -- asked for an emergency procedure, and to -- and to fly around russian territories where the military exercise was conducted, and it was given permission to fly over russian territory under military exercise. >> reporter: [ inaudible ]?

>> translator: of course we discussed this topic. they respond, western partner, that each case is a separate case. that's all. but i am convinced that crimea is not a special case is kosovo is a special case. two more questions, possibly, two -- two more questions. >> reporter: [ inaudible ]? and what is your view on the prospect of sanctions -- trade sanctions against russia? >> translator: state secretary didn't make any threats towards russia, what concerns the prospects of sanction, we read in information space, we read, he hear what is being discussed

in washington and east europe, and want to assure you that our partner also understand the sanctions. it is counterproductive tool and if such a decision is taken in the western capitols it will be their decision, but it won't cop tribute to the business as a whole. it's a fact it won't contribute to our cooperation. you know, in politics -- it's -- it's pointless to guess. there are no subjective moves. it is pointless to -- to guess. >> reporter: [ inaudible ] after sunday's referendum do you expect crimea to become part of the russian federation? and if so [ inaudible ] aren't

you concerned at the deep deterioration between russia and the west [ inaudible ]? >> translator: what concerns the referendum which will take place in crimea on sunday, we already through putin said that we will respect the election of the crimea peoples. because there are a few peoples, nationalities, and our -- we'll -- when the results -- we'll express our attitude, crimean parliament has a right to take the declaration and express the hopes that the crimeans will confirm the referendum. it is pointless to speculate further. one has to await the results what concerns the western partners, ince

incept -- [ inaudible ] and the right to self determination has been canceled, and the case where the people define themselves [ inaudible ] many, and latest history. one -- one example, people talk about kosovo, there is once stated the kamora islands, and there was dense from france, and one of the islands was again selected, and for this reason france resisted to recount the votes so to be taken into account the majority voted on that island, and the island -- that of miota remained

within france as a colonial territory in the beginning, and then it was included into the french republic. was it an action or self determination? i don't know. africa didn't accept this decision, but the european union lives with it as well. and what concerns the reaction for western partners i want to say again, it was their decision, russian president in -- has constant contact with obama, also mrs. merkel, cameron, hollande, other leaders, he is in constant touch with them, and also chinese leader, turkish leader, and i in my daily telephone calls with public meetings.

we don't have opposition. we discuss it. we don't evade the questions asked, but important to discuss it honestly, the most -- what to discuss honestly. >> reporter: -- chance for a definitive and [ inaudible ] solution to this crisis [ inaudible ] next few days there will be a referendum on sunday and on monday eu foreign ministers need to consider what they consider serious measures against russia [ inaudible ]? >> translator: i can't answer this question. we never evade from cooperation in diplomatic formats and if the partners don't want it, we can't force them of course, but i hope, and at least, we feel in personal private talks the understanding, i hope that they

are aware -- they realize that -- that it is really a case, which cannot be considered in isolation from history, and if there are any precedence international law or not -- the precedence everybody understands and responsibly -- stated responsibility for crimea, what it means for russia, what it means much more to kamora to france or great britain. thank you. you have been listening to sergey lavrov addressing reporters in london. the two sides, the united states, the european union, and russia seem to be recalcitrance in their position. you hear him saying he

recognizes the vote that will take place this weekend as being the will of the people in crimea. dana, your take on what the russian prime minister just said. >> reporter: well, i think -- you know, this conflict has been interpreted and torqued in so many different ways, but clearly i think if you are american or ukrainian or russian you couldn't hear this news conference and think there was any good news that came out of these talks. sergei lavrov was behind me here for just about five hours meeting with u.s. secretary of state kerry and he comes out with saying we do not have a common vision of the problem. so there was not a meeting of the minds. he did say it was technically useful, because i think maybe

secretary of state kerry brought some proposals to the table such as protecting ethnic russians, and that has been president putin's position all along that that is why he got involved in the crimea to begin with. these talks take place on the eve of the ren -- referendum on sunday, and lavrov said we will respect the will of the citizens of crimea as stipulated by our president. so they are going to support that vote of the separation of crimea away from ukraine and the joining of crimea to russia. they also rejected this whole idea of getting russia to speak directly to this new government in ukraine. and russia seemed in lavrov's news conference to regent that notion. they are not going to talk to this government which they feel

is illegitimate. and he was asked about the threat hanging over russia, freezing of foreign accounts, also the ability of russians close to putin to travel, travel bans, and he said it is a counterproductive tool, it is a bad decision, and will not contribute to the situation. so you don't have much progress here. russia sticking to its guns that it will recognize that vote, and joining in russia, and we can tell you that europe is already starting to come out with some of the details about the freeze on -- on foreign funds, foreign bank accounts and also travel restrictions they are going to target about 120 to 130 russians who were involved in the decision making. igor suchin who heads one of the

largest oil companies in the world, he is very, very close to putin. he was the former deputy prime minister, and also the head of the gas company that carries gas to europe from ukraine. >> all right. we go from london to jennifer glasse in the crimean section of ukraine. you were listening to the news conference as well. it now appears that the vote in crimea is going to take place and will take place with russian support. >> that's right, del, i don't think there was any real doubt of that here on the ground. i don't think anyone here in crimea, certainly the russian officials, cared what was going on in london. they have been very clear that this was going to go ahead. the pro-russian prime minister appointed just a couple of weeks

ago held a press conference just before the lavrov press conference, talking about what will happen after the referendum is over. a lot of the concerns here are worries that ukraine might turn off some of the utilities that come in here from crimea proper, and he says they have a plan for that. interestingly he said on monday after this referendum, all of the military bases here that are under ukrainian control will become crimean, and all of the sailors there will have to obviously trade their allegiances or -- or leave crimea. a real indication that they think this is already a done deal here del. the preparations are underway. i just heard a convoy of cars honking their horns, flying the russian flag. people were giving out the

russian flag here earlier as well. and people are lining up at banks, because obviously changing a country isn't a simple thing. what will happen to people who won't want to stay here? a lot of questions ahead of this vote on sunday. >> jennifer glasse in crimea. she has been there on the ground since day one since this entire crisis began in november when there was a decision by then russian president viktor yanukovych to go with a deal with moscow as opposed to one with the european union, and that sent people into the streets and into the crisis that continues today.

welcome to al jazeera america. i'm del walters. these are the stories we are following for you. secretary of state john kerry meeting in london with his russian counterpart, but both sides appear to be dug in. there is new information on the course of that missing mrashian flight. and new findings involving the gm recall. a second finding could be involved in more than 300 deaths. ♪ a t