from one of the thousands of i.e.d. strewn through the landscape of this lawless tribal region in pakistan with only the most basic equipment a fearless bomb disposal unit are determined to counter the horrors of the relentless taliban onslaught. with faith a witness documentary at this time on al-jazeera. i six more years for vladimir putin after a landslide victory in russia's presidential election. the whole robin you're watching al-jazeera live my headquarters here in doha coming

up in the next thirty minutes turkey's flag flies over every have to kurdish fighters lose control of the syrian city plus. he wants to create his own project in the middle east very much like your. saudi arabia's crown prince hits out at iran's supreme leader in his first interview on u.s. television also. i'm mohammad fired by the shores of lake chad coming up i'll tell you why this source of fresh water for millions of people in the region is at the risk of disappearing. welcome to the program russian president vladimir putin has been reelected and will serve another six years in office electoral officials say it's the best performance yet this being his fourth term as president he's won seventy six point six percent of the vote in sunday's presidential election with nearly all of. the ballots

counted the average voter turnout was sixty seven percent two percent higher than the previous vote six years ago now putin was widely expected to win but the kremlin was aiming for a high turnout to boost the legitimacy of his victory is nearest competitor the communist party candidate pawel a group did in who won almost twelve percent soon after the first exit polls putin address supporters and moscow's red square his victory is also seen as a validation of crimea's onix a sion from ukraine four years ago lawrence li wraps up the election. they called his election such as the status of lead in your putin in russia that he was in reality little more than a coronation was when you get the news that there are you me it's very important to maintain this unity to attract those who could have voted for the candidate we have to stand together shoulder to shoulder we have to think about unity not about differences we should think about the future of our people about the future of our

country we are destined for success. it was never a contest got the overwhelming percentage of votes cast and more than six out of ten russians voted for the kremlin it went more or less to plan of course russians knew perfectly well that when the television told them that they had to go out to vote because it was a civic duty what they really meant was you have to go and vote because we have to get putin back in the kremlin that meant this wasn't really a lecture about who was going to win but it was about but how much. several instances of fraud were caught on camera harmless looking old ladies voting twice while stuffing reams of paper since a box is not enough to alter the outcome but for alexina valmy banned from standing in the election evidence of a corrupt vote so thousands of people went to vote and out of curiosity i went on twitter to check on the candidates to see if they are writing about violations they

are behaving as if nothing is happening people who are observing these elections keep writing about things and other violations and they're complaining about it and the people who are remaining silent don't care about this they are candidates it's just that kind of election i guess. barely even took part in the campaign and was entirely absent from the t.v. debates but during the election videos surfaced on the internet like this one which gave a glimpse of how the kremlin wants people to think the film depicts a man who tells his wife he can't be bothered to vote something which putin himself had warned against the man that has a nightmare in which black africans suddenly appear in the armed forces to his horror the homosexual in the kitchen the message is clear is day this is what you'll get if you don't have putin in charge and of course it's coupled with a promise from the president spend more and more on the military. which in would very much like to normalize ties with the west but his personality means he can't show weakness it can be seen to be giving up yet he understands very well that with

international isolation his regime is open to risks and dangers his fourth term begins with a flat out diplomatic crisis with the west's events which are uncertain and fast moving but political change in russia continues to move as fast as the ice on the moscow river largely al-jazeera in most of. well we challenge as our correspondents live for a sense of us to poll the largest city in crimea i mean really despite the result i mean will crimea continue to be a sort of political tug of war in terms of the way it's viewed domestically as part of russia or internationally as an illegally and the next by russia from ukraine. you know certainly the election result itself is viewed here as a positive outcome by most people it's a good day said one woman to me this morning there was a turnout here of about sixty two to sixty five percent and all of that turnout

ninety two percent of the vote here in crimea was for vladimir putin that's the kind of perspective the you get from crimea at least but yeah the problem of crimea is going to continue to fester. this is territory that is considered by the vast majority of countries around the world to be illegally an extraordinary crane illegally occupied by russia of course in russia itself this is karim gnash our crimea never to be let go never to be surrendered but it's kind of an illustration of the difficulty the crimea presents was the the sea although it sent more misses all around russia sort of check up on the vote in this polling stations etc didn't send any monitors here to crimea because of its disputed status so we got some very strange individual showing up here from around europe and

further afield from one of these elections are speaking to a frenchman yesterday who is the representative in france for the donetsk people's republic the separatists who are fighting against the ukrainian government in eastern ukraine and until the crimea gets resolved at some points in the feature it's going to carry on being in. issue sanctions have been levied against the russian federation because of it but the russians. shows no sign whatsoever of being willing to give it up well for me but we'll leave it there of course rory coverage from starts to poll let's bring in our guest now surrogate straw account in most cases you columnist the russian daily newspaper commerce and good to have you with us on the program again i mean what did the russian people vote for wasn't stability more so or was it continuity.

as i believe that the russian election doesn't breed any surprise that this is merely a reelection or. believe me this is a landslide. given to putin came as a big surprise because last than twenty four hours ago when the mood of the supporters of a given to putin expected that we've got great such big numbers so all in all the selection is seen as mostly a referendum on the right policies and the big numbers more than seven to six percent can you imagine this never happened in. routine so that shows that a rational public still gun throw its weight behind president. domestic and foreign politics despite whatever turbulence in our relations with the rest and just steal despair or to move into that stricken in a moment i mean it's a basically this is a resounding success for the president yet from the outside one might look at the

scenario in russia and think are we heading back to one man party politics and one party politics. well you see the thing is that our to fall all values russian society where lee is stability most of the world and whether you like it to the north but at the moment as plain stand now stability is associated with the name of putin of course you might call it a one man rule you may say that russia is not a democracy but. but this is the political system which. and this is what we have now is the result of the evolution which started in two thousand in the year two thousand when. any and president yeltsin gold was given to putin his successor and so this is the system which the west has to go pop at least another sixty is that if that is the case then is there any room in russia right

now genuine debate and genuine opposition. well while today all eyes are focused on the idea of putin i won't say that the election campaign was it was just look at by a little girl who came in a distant second he still remains a neat my for russian politics but he's vettori grice to number one number two from politico shows that we can expect the new leaders to emerge. by a good union is one of the crew of the greeks all of the polish self like you know to putin probably he would be able to do again more broadly support and look at. who came for she's another new comer to russian politics she is trying to consolidate liberal electorates here already said that she she is going to the

launch a new. new liberal party so we see probably not not that big change but things are moving in even in russia ok well we'll see what does happen certainly in the coming six years for the new and strong can thanks so much for joining us from moscow. let's head over to the middle east now where kurdish fighters in syria's freeing region have vowed to fight on to the main town was taken by turkish forces and their allies turkey launched the offensive in january to clear the enclave of kurdish y.p. chief forces and re simmons' reports from turkey's southern border with syria. they reached efrem at sunrise columns of free syrian army fighters turkish special forces have been active on the ground ahead of them kurdish y p g fighters have withdrawn in large numbers there was limited resistance on one of the rebel fighters backed and directed by turkey with ground forces and airstrikes prepared

to declare victory here. the one and you know probably after we enter the three move liberated all the center buildings we will declare a victory statement on the terror we are telling the civilians to come back to our friends it's safe now. within hours celebrations in the city center. for the syrians and the turks. people this is a gift from the turkish armed forces to the turkish people and our glorious martyrs on this day a reference there to the victory of turkish forces against the western allied forces one hundred three years ago in deliberately in the first world war the turkish president was at the commemorations and made this announcement.

most of the terrorist have already fled with their tails between their legs our special forces and members of the free syrian army a cleaning the remains in the traps they left behind in the center of affray al flags of trust and stability away vincit of rags of terrorist and so on the fifty eighth day of operation. olive branch took his first objective is realized how he let her help him some civilians had chosen to stay instead of joining tens of thousands of others into syrian regime areas to the south it's reported the kurdish y p g now intends to avoid direct confrontation with turkish forces instead engaging in guerrilla types of action the turkish have proved with force their intention to push back the wipe e.g. away from its border and it doesn't end here they'll be moving further eastwards this is likely to be one battle of several andrew simmons al-jazeera.

activists say syrian government forces have arrested hundreds of people as they fled eastern over the past few days they say mostly men between the ages of twenty five and forty were targeted tens of thousands of civilians have fled the rebel held enclave in recent days the government stepped up its attacks on eastern ghouta last month and now controls nearly eighty percent of the territory. and the syrian government has also released video of president bashar al assad visiting army positions in eastern guta. soldiers who've been part of the offensive to retake the area from the opposition the main rebel group there. is in negotiations with the un about a ceasefire there is also asking for aid to be allowed in for the hundreds of thousands of people still trapped in the enclave early diversify your welcome to the people of damascus appreciate all of you for protecting the city and will

remember this returns of years even generations this battle has been bigger than syria today you are fighting this battle on behalf of the whole world. you shot to kill the terrorists you change the balance of the world. well so this is our correspondent following events from neighboring beirut in lebanon zain i mean we are hearing that many still remain in the eastern despite some evacuations but the fate of those who left and went to government territory and those still trapped really is still in question. yes there are a lot of concerns like you mentioned thousands of thousands have crossed into government controlled territory because of the ongoing military campaign people had no choice but to flee others found themselves in government controlled territory as the front lines were changing now activists on the ground expressing concern for the fate of hundreds of men who they say have been arrested by the authorities it's very hard for us to independently confirm this but i can tell you international organizations like human rights watch the united nations the i.c.r.c.

they are expressing a lot of concern. and they are demanding that the united nations send monitors in order to make sure that these people are not detained we have to know you know living under opposition control for the government is a crime and it's not just those who have left the thousands who have left their thousands who still remain trapped inside and rebel controlled territories and these people are so afraid that they have been sending open letters to the united nations demanding safe passage telling the united nations please we need to monetary and war doors internationally monitored borders and we would like to go to other rebel controlled areas in the north of the country we do not want to cross into government controlled territory now those people are media activists there are civil defense volunteers there are doctors people who the government considers terrorists and i can give you one example the reporter of syria or television he is now missing two days ago he surrendered himself to the authorities of course belonging to an opposition television station and now his phone lines are closed and his facebook is off it doesn't exist anymore. i mean the. negotiations between

those rebel factions and individuals within the united nations as you say to try to get more civilians to safer locations i mean how difficult is that scenario going to be despite these open letters that have been written to the u.n. because it still requires negotiations on the ground. yes what we understand eastern water the majority of eastern good has now in the government's hands but now there are three pockets they split the enclave into three pockets and each of these pockets the north the west in the south is controlled by a different rebel faction and each rebel faction is now in negotiations with the russian military in the town of duma for example in the north what we understand is a ceasefire has been in place for a week now we understand how the are a sham group they're close to reaching a deal with the government and they're accepting to surrender and leave to live which is of course the rebel controlled territory in the north we have little information on the negotiations with

a man in the south but these negotiations are continuing the rebels saying we are negotiating for a cease fire but what is very clear is that the pro-government alliance and the russians are demanding a surrender and they will not accept anything less. they will leave it out of come back to you as that situation develops at a sort of a forest in bay ridge. still ahead here a strong print news has a time called the special council investigating russian election battling why republicans are warning him to leave property alone. and are there for some of us across europe it is bitterly cold at the moment there's also a fair amount of snow around the reason for it is an area of high pressure the sitting across the northern belt and that's ensuring that it's cold here and it's also mostly dry the west the weather is in the south you can see all the cloud

working its way around the area of high pressure and then sneaking up through the eastern parts of europe where this wet weather hits that cold air that's where we're seeing the snow a few bits and pieces in the way of snow are going to be seen again on monday but we'll see smoke significant downpours on choose day to heaviest snow making its way through parts remain yes. and up into ukraine towards the west well the cold is actually being cut off here so the temperatures are recovering eight degrees will be the maximum in london by choose day and force in paris will be up at around seven for the other side of the mediterranean here it looks like we're going to see things ten increasingly wet as we head through the next day or so so for so monday there's actually a good deal of dry weather around the temperatures aren't too bad either we're looking at around sixteen in algeria's but then there's more wet weather that's pushing its way so far morocco algeria and into two news yeah there's going to be more cloud more rain and it won't be feeling that will be that i'm not some temperature this time it now does of just

a thirty degrees. for you.

welcome back you're watching al-jazeera i'm so whole robin a reminder of our top news stories large amir putin cruised to victory on sunday for another six year presidential term with nearly all of the ballots counted russians overwhelmingly voted for putin but independent monitors have reported dozens of irregularities in polling booths across the country. and activists say syrian government forces have arrested hundreds of people as they fled eastern puter over the past few days they say men between the ages of twenty five and forty were targeted the rebel held area suffered heavy bombing by the government forcing tens of thousands to leave in recent days. some republican politicians in the u.s. have joined democrats in warning president donald trump not to fire special counsel robert mueller they say he must be allowed to investigate alleged russian meddling in the twenty sixteen presidential election in a series of tweets over the weekend trump accuse the f.b.i.

leadership of lies corruption and leaking information political hay reports live from washington d.c. . if twitter is any indication u.s. president donald trump is growing increasingly worried about the investigation into ties between his campaign and russia sending off a series of angry tweets including this one where he did something you normally doesn't do he mentions robert mueller by name tweeting why does the miller team have thirteen hardened democrats some big cricket hillary supporters and zero republicans another demaris unli added does anyone think this is fair and yet there is no collusion there are a couple of problems with this tweet first of all muller is a republican so is the man in charge of him rod rosenstein who trump appointed and the f.b.i. director christopher ray also a republican trump also tweeted there was no crying but three people who were part of his campaign to rather high up have pled guilty to committing crimes more than

twenty people and companies have been indicted so far on saturday trump's personal lawyer john dowd called for a shutdown of miller's investigation at first saying he was speaking for the president but later backtracking leading to criticism from democrats and republicans this would undoubtedly result in a constitutional crisis and i think democrats republicans need to speak out about this right now given the time the resources the independence to do its job and when you are n.s.a. if the allegations collusion with the russians and there is no evidence of that and you're n.-s. scent of that act like it trump can't actually fire moamar but he could try to fire the people in charge of him asking their replacements to kill the probe that would likely lead to huge protests and pressure on congress to name a special prosecutor giving him vastly more power that couldn't be stopped no matter what the president wants political hane al-jazeera washington while staying

in the u.s. two people have been injured in an explosion in the u.s. state of texas it's believed the package detonated when it was a. in a residential neighborhood in austin police are trying to find out if it's connected to three possible bombings in the city earlier this month which killed two people and injured several others that are investigating those incidents as possible hate crimes. saudi arabia's crown prince has hit out as iran accusing it of wanting to expand its power in the middle east but haven't been so long was speaking to a u.s. t.v. news program ahead of his trip to washington d.c. this week roslyn jordan has more for thirty minutes on sunday the u.s. news program sixty minutes profiled the saudi crown prince mohamed in solemn on his meeting this week with president donald trump and with climate actual officials in new york for americans who don't pay much attention to foreign affairs the impression of the thirty two year old man slated to be king one day may well be

a positive one he's trying to turn saudi arabia's oil based economy into one that's more diversified he favors religious and social reforms and he wants women to have more rights but if you had a man we have extremists who for been mixing between the two sexes in are unable to differentiate between a man and a woman alone together and their being together in a work place many of those ideas contradict the way of life during the time of the prophet and the caliphs the presenter asked m.b.'s about saudi arabia's poor human rights record and about his country's air war against hope these in yemen a war that has caused a humanitarian crisis but india was most forthcoming about the existential threat. from a rhodes ayatollah ali comment he wants to create his own project in the middle east very much like hitler who wanted to expand at the time many countries around the world and in europe did not realize how dangerous hitler was until what happened happened and how i don't want to see the same events happening in the middle east.

not mentioned during the segment the saudi led economic and political blockade against now in its tenth month the possibility of diplomatic relations with israel or the war in syria analysts say the interview was revealing in one significant way i think that his instinct to blame everything on iran from domestic problems in saudi arabia to the region was quite striking and to rewrite history that somehow the problems in saudi arabia only started in one nine hundred seventy nine erases the fact that his relative king faisal was assassinated in one nine hundred seventy five for bringing television to the kingdom and allowing girls to school go to school this is not a problem that started with iran this is a problem inside saudi arabia inside the ruling family in saudi arabia that mohamed bin some israeli trying to erase and it comes out pretty clear in this interview the chrome prince wants saudi arabia to be the most powerful country in the middle

east and he wants to make sure the u.s. is in his country's corner all the more reason then to make an appeal to the court of u.s. public opinion rosalyn jordan al-jazeera washington well just before c.b.s. this interview with the saudi crown prince around foreign ministry spokesman commented on tyrone's relations with reality and he said in the persian gulf region we have good relationships with a moderate even kuwait and qatar but iran is facing a serious problem in the region and that is saudi arabia we've made extensive efforts for normalizing relations and creating a suitable climate for talks with saudi arabia but unfortunately continuation of saudi arabia's illusions in the wake of the joint iran nuclear deal showed up the country lacks an adequate preparedness for talks with iran to reach an understanding. now the world of water for him opens later today

in brazil where a growing fears for water security around the world will be discussed the lake chad provides water to around thirty million people in four neighboring countries but it's lost ninety percent of its surface area in the last hundred years as mohammed valve reports in the second part of our thirst series environmentalist are warning of impending disaster if nothing is done to stop the disappearance of the lake. for the people of getting village and the lake is life but these fishermen say things are changing. for another when water was abundant in the lake we could fill our boats with fish on one trip now the water is scarce and we need ten trips to catch half the previous amount. lake chad was one of the largest freshwater bodies in the world it straddles the borders between chad cameroon and nigeria in the mostly dry ice ahead climate the lake remains an exception of nursery for thousands of fish

animals and plants species supporting the livelihoods of forty million people living along that. drought and the harsh dusty winds over the last sixty years have turned much of the area into a desert. hundreds of islands began to appear in the middle as the water levels dropped and vine mental organizations and regional governments have long sounded the alarm bells. villages that were on the shores of the lake years ago are now fifty kilometers away. the spanish or the disappearance of the lake is an extremely sad situation within the last twenty five years it's water receded by two thousand five hundred square kilometers and the right of it's shrinking is getting faster now causing a huge disruption in the natural habitat was. the climate issues have been compounded by insecurity in recent times the group boko haram used and its new islands as a hiding place and base from which it could launch attacks. on the majority of

villages around the lake are now deserted especially on the nigerian side those who fled are living in refugee camps and lack of funds has also complicated regional and international efforts to launch meaningful programs to save the lake. and there's a growing concern that further deterioration of the lakes environment will encourage thousands of disability young people to join armed groups as the only available source of income. and lake chad. in part three of our series on tuesday we look at how drought ravaging northern kenya is leading to deadly conflicts arising from water and pass just scarcity. you're watching al-jazeera i'm still robin these are all top news stories a lot of putin cruised to victory on sunday for another six year presidential term with nearly all of the ballots counted russians overwhelmingly voted for putin but

independent monitors have reported dozens of irregularities in polling booths across the country. activists say syrian government forces have arrested hundreds of people as they fled east and over the past few days they say men between the ages of twenty five and forty were targeted the rebel held area has suffered heavy bombing by the government forcing tens of thousands to leave in recent days. also the syrian government has released video of president bashar al assad visiting army positions in eastern guta that soldiers have been part of the offensive to retake the area from the opposition the main rebel groups there for lack of a man says it is in the goshi ations with the u.n. about a ceasefire it's also asking for aid to be allowed in for hundreds of thousands of people still trapped in the enclave early diversify your little girl and the people of damascus appreciate all of you for protecting the city and will remember this for tens of years or even generations but this battle has been bigger than syria

today you are fighting this battle on behalf of the whole world you shot to kill the terrorists you change the balance of the world like republican senators are warning u.s. president donald trump not to fire special counsel robert mueller they say must be allowed to investigate alleged russian meddling in the twenty sixteen presidential election in a series of tweets over the weekend trump accuse the f.b.i. leadership of lies corruption and leaking information to people have been injured in an explosion in the u.s. state of texas it's believed a package detonated when it was opened in a residential neighborhood in austin police are trying to find out if it's connected to three passable bombings in the city earlier this month which killed two people and injured several others. thousands of protesters have rallied together in brazil to denounce the killing of a politician who was an outspoken critic of police violence demonstrators gathered up the slum in rio de janeiro where city council franco grew up she was shot dead along with her driver on wednesday those were the headlines about with more news in

thirty minutes here on al-jazeera thanks to its inside story to stay with us. for the benefit of saddam people so bad they see the importance of. witness documentaries that open your eyes at this time on al-jazeera. has dominated russian politics for a teeny is now he's certain to be elected president for another six at a time when relations with the u.s. are compared to the cold war and moscow is accused of poisoning a spy in britain what do russian voters expect from this is inside story.