motive -- everyone is free to express. we do not put anybody in prison for anything. nobody puts anybody labor they are continuing to do their professional duty but it's only natural that they find the opposition and the other people who propose them, are intellectual are not used to that and some of those believe what they say and that is the absolute truth and when they hear an objection, they become very emotional. and for the situation in the last couple of months in the situation in crimea, yes, i ard that some tickets --

intellectuals defeat for the wrong country and that's part of our tradition. during world war i also called for the defeat of their own government and led to the evolution. i agree with you. e shouldn't use some extreme forms of discussion or fights. we shouldn't fear people for opposition and i will try to do my best to avoid that. >> we've been on air for over an hour. let's take some of the phone calls. >> we've got really heated phone

calls coming from ukraine, crimea and border regions and the regions bordering ukraine but we are now going to take a from the russia village, roman. you have the word. i would like to ask you if mr. putin supports the idea of introducing russian troops to the southeast of ukraine to support and protect russians in ukraine. >> to your point about what's happening and it's based on reality. what the reality is, the epic makeup of crimea is different from the southeast russia. i just mentioned that. those were given to ukraine in

1920's and then until 1954 when crimea also was given to ukraine for some reason, the ethic competition makeup was 50. oximately 15 return decision to after i hadnly made seen the south of the referendum. we couldn't have made any other choice. here, the southeast of ukraine situation is not that clear but i want to assure that we need to do our best to help these people protect their rights and independently define their destiny. this is what we're going to fight for. federation council of russian

federation gave the president the rights to use the armed forces in ukraine but i do hope that i will not have to use this right. so politics and diplomacy will be able to resolve all these issues that we have today in ukraine. >> it's not only the southeast of ukraine that's suffering, but there's the new government on the other side. so i've got a text message. what is russia's chance on the currency chances? the parliament asked russia to ecognize its independence. >> they have a population about half a million people if i have

tried and people are really -- there are a lot of russian citizens there. they have their own idea about how they should be building their future. and yesterday, it's nothing else but the russians of democracy. if allowed for these people to do what they want. of course, we need to find out and ukraine -- we need to intensify the negotiations according to it.

i think we need to immediately remove the blockade from ukraine. this border between ukraine already have armed units and of course, that situation should be stopped as soon as possible. and finally, people should begin the right to decide their own destiny and that's what we're going to work on on the basis of the people who live there. >> tatiana, you have the floor again. >> mr. putin, another nteresting question. russia actually made an annexation of crimea. so does this mean there is any guarantee of sovereignty in the

world? >> russia didn't acquire ukraine by force. russia created the conditions of the conditions for forces and armed forces but we created the conditions for the free expression of will of people living in crimea but the decision about joining russia was made by crimea itself. russia responded to that call and accepted crimea into our family. it's only natural. it couldn't have happened differently. force, or the factor of it is a good thing and it will be there always. that's not the point. it isint is understanding significant international affairs.

let's recall what happened to iraq and afghanistan and libya and in other regions of the world. , for somebody to ukraine polarat a ne, -- uyi polar one, you have he balance of force.

> we have a question from ana. >> we've got lots of video questions on this situation with ukraine. how russia's going to builds relations further on. so let's watch a video link-up question from ser give. -- sergei. who benefits from the midst of the russian armed forces are allegedly going to take ukraine? who is actually trying to alienate from our brothers and partners? and can we invite everyone who wants to visit the border regions with ukraine? can we do that openly? >> it has been a matter of

international politics for centuries. leaders n recall the after the revolution, you will see that by the contradictions, they really never even thought about a division between russia and ukraine. always fought between wintertory and one nation. now, it just happens that we live in different states and unfortunately, the weakening and separating to compose for one people. ut it is continuing.

if you look at what happened to answer your question about who is doing that. [applause] >> there are millions of russians in ukraine. judging by what the chief they ent is doing and even called on killing these guys, russians in ukraine and shooting them with firearms so there have been lots of statements like that. and there are a lot of questions about the future of the russians

living in ukraine. sergei is now welcome to ask his uestion. called ukraine damned and after he talked to the ukraine colleagues, he said he's not going to public his books at ukraine anymore and he would like his books to be translated into russia. so what is your question? mr. putin, for 23 years, ukraine has been opposing russia. that's what actually sort of the strategy. they even had a slogan that says ukraine is not russia. and the most horrible thing is intowe have seen this come bloom because the country is

turning actual nationalists to even nazi with all sorts of military raids in the southeast, probably coming up. and the problem is that russia is not making its voice heard in the west. and it's also being blocked in ukraine as well. so my question is how can we get our point across? can we do at all? can we persuade the west to listen to us and to understand us? because i kept out as to whether we can do that. >> certainly. i will disagree with you here. i know that you are one of the most interesting modern writers and a lot of your books are published. at i disagree that ukraine is

damned land. ease do not use this kind of phrase. ukraine has suffered a lot and it's a dom accumulated community. it has suffered a lot. they are in the west of ukraine and you know about the historic past partially, they were in -- checkseckered flag lovenia. probably they have something

nside. to today's e.u. countries, they have give some special -- they were the second rate people in those historic states. it is forgotten but some people still remember that and that's where the nationalism come from, i think. central, east and, southeast of russia, which is deeply rooted in the russian states. there, people have some difficulty. now, they're part of ukraine put together part by part and of

course, it's not easy for people to set up reservations to understand each other. we need to help them do that as uch as possible. what would be our goal in this situation, the role of a great neighbor of a close relative. we are partners beyond the ocean or in europe, i hope so. but at the same time, and i just about russia and they wanted to pull us apart to .ake us smaller i hope they're guided by that

but i think that they should here because they look at the trends for the nearest future and for the way this entire orld and europe from -- should unite to be competitive and viable in this fast growing developing world. that's a critical importance. i hope that our partners will hear us and understand us. >> mr. putin, the question about -- questions about the weighs in ukraine are predominant in our website. so i looked through some of them . >> i'm sorry. do not ban your books from publishing anywhere, including ukraine. >> it's not about the money.

you are one of the best russian writers and you are part of russian culture. let's promote russian culture there and not pull it out of that country. ok? >> ok. we'll fix that. [applause] so, i found another question that is really popular and it comes from alexandria, moscow province. we are refuse to community -- communicate with the kiev government because we think they're illegitimate and we doubt the legitimacy of the election used on may 25. but ukraine will take russia's neighbor anyway so we will have to talk with the ukrainian authorities lightweight or not. -- legislate or not. why don't -- lightweight or not.

-- legitimate or not. relate our ministers to the ukrainian colleagues. they are also in touch. and as for the presidential candidates, you know, how this presidential race is going. it's absolutely unacceptable. if it continues developing like that, of course, we won't be able to recognize what happens after may 25. what kind of elections are those if the candidates in the east

meet witht allowed to the them? what kind of elections is that? not to mention particularly speaking according to the ukrainian institution, they -- if we ions about don't change the institution, -- new elections with cannot be heard. according to the current institution, you cannot elect a new president if a legitimate president is alive. if they want the elections to be legitimate, perhaps they need to change the institution first and then maybe talk about it. that's a common sense. we can continue working beyond the common sense --

>> during this month, spann is pleased to present our winning enters in this year's studentcam documentary competition. studentcam is spann's annual competition that encourages middle and high school students to think critically about issues. students were asked to base their videos on the questions what's the most important issue the u.s. congress should consider in 2014? second prize winning sophomores ax foley-keane, ana driscoll and paul bass are from montgomerie bass high school in silver spring, maryland. they believe congress should make filibuster reforms their most important issue. >> many of us recognize the iconic image of the talking filibuster. one senator talking about what he or she believes in for as long as they can. >> i will speak until i can no

longer speak. >> as a matter of fact, i'm not going to leave this party. >> many don't know there have been hundreds and hundreds of fill busts for the the past years alone. there is an individual one that brought the country in a hat. this is the time of filibuster. >> 60 votes to get him confirmed . >> 60 votes. match 014, congress must serious filibuster reform. before talking about the filibuster today, we have to look into the senate's past. the filibuster was born in 1806. aaronburg gave a speech in front of the senate. >> it appeared because of a rule

change. >> during the course of the speech he told the senators they should remove the previous questions from the senate. the previous question motion would quite simply if passed by a majority then debate and begin votes on a bill. after having removed the previous motion question, senators realize there noise way to end debate. if they kept talking, they should stop all business in the senate. thus, the talking filibuster was born. the filibuster was not in the institution and the founders would have been opposed to the idea. many of our nation's founder hated the idea of a super majority requirement in congress which is what the filibuster has equired. >> that would be scandalized about the way business prevails to succeed. they really lost a sense of bipartisan and cooperation to

get them to the board. wilson, the fter senate adopted a cloture rule. it took 67 votes to end debate on an issue. this means that if 67 senators wanted a filibuster to end, they would pass cloture. n 1975, the votes needed for cloture was lowered. however, for a long period of u.s. history, the filibuster was a rarely used procedure. between 1840 and 1900, there were only 16 filibusters. the filibuster remained a rarely used procedure. during its time as leader, johnson saw one filibuster. arry reid faced more than 400.

>> the silent filibuster was used when 4 or more senators threat on use filibuster. this is different than the talking filibuster in which one person takes turn talking as long as he or she can without eating, drinking or going to the bathroom. if you've been watching the news lately, you might have noticed that all bills are described as needing 60 votes to passed. this is because cloture was passed to prevent a filibuster. 60 or more senators must vote. by taking time to vote on cloture, senators are taking time to working on our bills and will deeply affect our future. the use of a silent filibuster has become worse under president obama. they have used this process more than any other senate. since barack obama has been president, cloture has been filed more than 447 times.

to make matters worse, at the usage of the filibuster increased, the number of bills passed in congress has decreased. important legislation dealing with the pressing concerns of the nation has been stopped because of the filibuster. ithout the filibuster, the bills would have been passed through the senate. whether or not you support these proposal, they should all should have a chance to be voted and passed by the people of the representative not obstructed by he minority. so, what can be done to reform the filibuster and make the senate a more democratic institution? there are many proposals on the table. the senator of oregon is a leading senator advocate for reform. >> i'm proposing that we do a couple of things. we get rid of the filibuster on motions to proceed a bill.

that's debating one of the debates. so you're wasting a ton of time to know that. we get rid of conference committees. if the house has passed a pill and the senate passed a different version, the two sides should get together immediately and resolve those issues. and we should change the current 60 votes to extend debates so people have to vote affirmatively. and if they voigt, at least one of 4 has to be addressed from the fill. this -- bill. this creates a talking filibuster and that means the american people can see something other than a quorum call when they turn on spann. and then they can decide whether the folks who are doing that are heroes or bhums and they can swaying -- weigh in. >> from are many reasons people oppose filibuster reform. some believe strongly and others

see it as a necessary check on the majority but some believe hat it has gone too far. >> they understand that there are are careers and they're using it to stop the obama administration. >> will are afraid because they are worried they will lose the power once they become the minority. filibuster could affect the senate for years to come. congress must end the filibuster on the notion proceed and require the minority to be present in a debate. it is the most important issue for you address in the 2014 session. >> to watch all the winning videos and to learn more about our competition, go to c-span.org and click on studentcam and tell us what you think about the issues. post your comments.