and d.h.l. is making it happen. this is day eight of the news coming to live from berlin protests on the streets of kiev after a dramatic escape police arrest georgian leader mikhail saakashvili but of course

to rehang by ngor his supporters now he's demanding that the president of ukraine step down we'll hear more from the man himself coming up in an exclusive interview plus u.s. friends and donald trump tells palestinian leader mahmoud abbas he will move the u.s. embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem it's a move arab nations say could trigger on rest to bring you a reaction from jerusalem. and that move comes as donald trump's time is to russia face fresh scrutiny u.s. investigator robert muller is demanding droit your bank release data on accounts held live president truong as part of his role into russian ally sion meddling. also on the show the shape of europe to come german foreign ministers ignore gabrial urges the continent to be less dependent on the united states he says it's

time for europe to be more assertive in the world. and the international olympic committee is set to announce whether it will ban russia from the winter games carry their decision lawyer plus analysis. thanks for joining me my name is sarah harmon welcome to the program. chaotic scenes on the streets of kiev today that's after police tried to arrest make sales saakashvili he's the former georgian leader who has become an anti corruption campaigner in ukraine and in a sign of president petro poroshenko police detained saakashvili but were forced to free him again when his supporters surrounded the van where they were holding him our correspondent nick conley was there we'll have an update from him in a moment plus an exclusive interview with saakashvili but first here's what nick's

on today. early morning hide and seek and the rooms above kiev's my town square except the man being detained by a unmarked special forces is a former president and one of ukrainian president petro poroshenko is most vocal opponents. as news of the rate spread on facebook within minutes a crowd had gathered on the streets below but still there was no word from the police as to why he was being detained. his arms tied behind his back second really had one last chance to address his supporters calling for president pershing co to face impeachment the but it was one second really was bundled into a car that the confrontation between police and his supporters really got going. street on a month's rubbish bins even park police cars were all fake game as the crowd tried to prevent second species forcible departure. in the meantime ukraine's prosecutor

general finally got round to answering the question on everyone's lips why no such a big operation and why now the second sweeney he said they colluded with exiled ukrainian oligarchs was preparing to subvert the country's government. by cross now to d.w. correspondent nick conaway the same linking net with former georgian president and ukrainian opposition leader mikhail saakashvili and it was a tense day for saakashvili he was arrested and freed by his supporters tell us what was it like meeting him well exactly sarah this pretty extraordinary day that began with michael exposing a man in need by ruth who turned out to be michelle successfully evading arrest there from the ukraine special forces and ended with us in his tent camp at the walls of the ukrainian parliament where we caught up with him for that interview want to one and i began by asking him why he thought he'd been arrested today. what a real reason is that for the last several months i've been heading the movement

for change in terms of corruption in terms of getting rid of a corrupt practice of the president that he's immediate surroundings that brought ukraine to be a good situation of being the poorest country in terms of g.d.p. if europe and. they've been menacing me for some time they've they told me that they would arrest me it's what they've been sending me people they told me that they will if they don't find something on me they will invent something on me that was depression cause right that meant mr grant was cute that told. me your thoughts today publish more times which apparently show you do want to stick witching you know i don't know i don't know i don't know who these guys well i don't know them i don't know how he looks i don't know how he sounds and why would i i mean this is this is absolutely fake the feeling is that these people they told me that if they cannot find anything on me they will create it we've been marching peacefully quietly but but in bigger numbers more and more and that's what they were scared of

republicans willing to to elect which is someone who was born in the country look up i'm not running for office right now i'm running i'm just trying to rescue this nation from absolute oblivion of corruption. well really well right now i'm deleting the paper progress whatever i whatever it is no future prepares for me to see but but michael course i'm going to run for president a footprint for sure thank you. i saying he sees his role was delivering the country from the oblivion of corruption waters chances of success. well i mean is given he said he's not going to run for parliament for the presidency rather it's difficult see how he's going to put this together i think the big danger for the current government here is that's what analysts here say is that people not necessarily in favor of second chile but who are generally frustrated with the situation here years of war in the east of the country very

difficult economic situation that those discontented people come out not necessarily just in support of seconds really but against the present government and that could really see lots of people in the streets here the test of his promises will be on the weekend he's called a protest for sunday which he wants to push for present pushing his impeachment so the numbers out on the square behind me on sunday will really be the test of that ok help us understand what is a former president of georgia doing in ukraine next step in ukrainian politics right now well this is definitely one more surreal episodes of poso history so because if a second really left office in late twenty thirteen in georgia that was the time that the protests on the square behind the last minute on revolution got underway and he was invited by the president present president poroshenko to bring his style his particular style of western economic reforms libertarian reforms bring those to ukraine and at first they go to on second visit was made the governor of

a region of a desa region and things seem to be going well then they fell out secondly now accuses portion go of protecting the old system and he's now come out onto the streets and is trying to bring down the person who brought him to ukraine in the first place ok that's quite the story nick conley reporting for us on a very interesting day thank you very much. u.s. president donald trump has told egypt jordan and the palestinian leadership he will move the u.s. embassy in israel to jerusalem it's a move that would be tantamount to recognizing the disputed city as israel's capital something trump and promised during his presidential campaign repeating statements made earlier in the week palestinian president mahmoud abbas warned trump that moving the embassy one in danger of middle east peace process and provoke unrest in the region. i'm joined now from jerusalem by my colleague tanya kramer tanya how are palestinian authorities reacting to this phone call from

trump. well as you said you understand that mr tom had these phone conversations with the person president mahmoud abbas but also with the jordanian king and both issued a statement afterwards saying that they were informed that mr trump intends about his intention to move the u.s. embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem now the statement didn't give any more details we don't know when this will happen with a speech that is immediate or will this take some more time is if you just intention now the statement by president abbas also a medic like you is concerned again and once about the impact saying that deposed yunus would still not give up you know on jerusalem as the capital of the if you just state and he echoed the concern of many of the leaders what we've been hearing here over the past couple of days that this is a dangerous move by the u.s. president and that it has to potentially to do step a list of region ok well we know as you mentioned that trump also called jordan's

king abdullah abdullah said in the past that this sort of move would endanger the stability of jordan why is he so worried. well jordan has also a huge stake in that it is traditionally because jordan of the holy sites interests and that is bound by international agreements that is compound everything that concerns address and also concerns jordan and also there's a lot of patina refugees also living in jordan and i think as many other leaders here in the arab world he also expressed again his concern about the danger of doing such a move without the brains of negotiations and i think the concern you know most leaders in the region and also people i've talked to here in the past couple of days is that this sets a new set of power meters i mean to assume so symbolic for many people and it's known that it's one of the most contentious issues of the israeli person conflict it leaves a lot of uncertainty here in the region right uncertainty there in jerusalem that's

tenure kramer thanks for your reporting you're watching news live from berlin still to come on the show the german foreign minister says it's time for europe to take the lead in world affairs that's as relations of washington take a nosedive. and many people say u.s. president donald trump is the reason is telling is to russia are facing fresh scrutiny today javier thank you very much sorry indeed and it's weapon over here to europe to germany specifically because germany's biggest bank deutsche bank is being investigated over russian meddling in the us presidential election last year a number of media outlets are reporting that special counsel robert mueller was leading the inquiry has asked to release state on accounts held by president trump and his family information was demanded by subpoena after deutscher rejected requests from u.s. house democrats to share the data in june citing privacy laws the bank lent the

trump organization millions of dollars for real estate ventures in the past. now with the investigation ongoing we asked our financial correspondent conor bulls in frankfurt what we do know about the background to the story what we do know is that the bank has had very close business relations with russia for a long time with companies with all the guards and we also know that deutsche bank has failed to prevent money laundering it had to pay high fives for that here in europe but also in america what we also know is that trump has had relations with russia or at least his family people like jared and it via iran and don jr with the russians also with russian oligarchs like the building tycoon. now the third thing we know is that trump and deutsche bank have had business relations for

decades the bank has given you know of several hundred u.s. south seven hundred million u.s. dollars to trump and the question now of course what people here are wondering about is whether all this is connected with that there is some chronic to fifty of the loans to the russian investigation or to potential wrongdoing of trump and his family. there was a contribution in frankfurt and we stay here in europe because enough is enough europe's finance ministers are finally taking action against tax havens like the ones exposed by the panel of papers and the paradise papers the e.u. is naming and shaming seventeen countries on a new blacklist but to the dismay of transparency campaigners e.u. members like luxembourg or ireland are not among them and british overseas territories are also being spared. a tropical tax haven in the middle of grey brussels today the e.u. finance ministers singled out seventeen tax havens on a blacklist countries like barbados namibia and tunisia everybody used to help the

bloc crack down on tax dodgers but they stopped short of imposing national sanctions on them for that but i still thankfully this will help to increase the transparency of the global tax environment. and i want to emphasize that this is not a punitive measure but our wishes that those countries will cooperate more in the future. or stood but according to the european commission the measures against tax havens don't go far enough. from the commission point of view we could go. see in a stronger defense so or counter measures but we hope that this work will continue on the cultural side the ngo oxfam also criticizes the blacklist as being too short they count thirty five countries that should be blacklisted among them for countries within the european union ireland the

netherlands luxembourg and malta but there's not a single e.u. member state on the list critics say europe should put its own house in order first . and the news just coming in right now the u.s. trade deficit has risen to its highest level in nine months that means the country spent a whopping forty eight billion dollars more on imports and it managed to shift exports it works out at an increase of over eight percent within the space of a month potentially dragging down g.d.p. for the full year rising oil prices pushed the import bill higher imports from china also hit a record high the news won't go unnoticed by the us president donald trump has long blank the country straight deficit for the loss of manufacturing jobs and moderate economic growth. and i'll be back with more business use later on now inspector sarah hughes thank

you so much javier. well while we wait for the camera do you have planned this weekend that well actually i will having my birthday party which is not that happy birthday i'm not going to ask how old you are already looking forward to but i'm going to guess twenty nine always a good birthday well turning back to the news now german foreign ministers like mark gabrial has urged his country and europe to become more assertive internationally and less dependent on the united states' ties between berlin and washington have soured since u.s. president i will trump took office and at a foreign policy forum in berlin gabrial warns that the u.s. is traditional role as the world's policeman is being called into question he said berlin and brussels stepped up to fill it. no less than germany's and europe's future role in the world is what german foreign minister. trying to define in his address at this foreign policy conference in berlin. said that asked

the global dominance of the united states slowly wanes europe should not leave it to others to fill the vacuum. well. this is we must now recognize that even as an economically thriving country there is no longer a comfortable place at the sidelines of international politics neither forest germans nor for us europeans. we have to understand that we either shape our future by ourselves or we let it be shaped by others. since donald trump became us president traditional times within the west have changed dramatically trump has thrown multilateral politics as a whole into question for instance the role of nato the nuclear deal with iran and the paris climate accord germans no longer see the u.s. as their country's most important ally only nine percent feel that the u.s.

should have priority among germany's allies an overwhelming eighty eight percent see germany's future on the side of the european allies. that there is no doubt we will need and cultivate this partnership in the future but it alone will not be enough to protect our strategic interests. russia's newfound dominance in syria for example is what i had in mind when he urged to europe to become more involved and active this also means more german soldiers would be deployed on international military missions something that is very difficult to sell to the german public as more than fifty percent say there should not be an increase in german involvement in international crises only forty three percent support a more active german role even so it has made it clear that he wants germany to take the lead in europe. with me in the studio is sir julian king he is the european commissioner for the security union sir julian thanks for being with us

today i see you we just heard gabriele there calling for a loosening of foreign policy ties with the united states not just for germany but also for the you what's your reaction to that. you were at the forum where he made this announcement of the speech and traditional european security has been quite closely aligned with washington in fact and change what he spoke quite powerfully about the role that the e.u. can play in the world and it's true the is growing faster than the u.s. or japan or latin america at the moment do you mean population wise not in the economy and he spoke about the role there for the e.u. could play as a poll for the stability and we see that at the moment people are coming knocking on the door in brussels for the trade deals. people are coming to talk to brussels about climate change in the lead that we've been giving on climate change including of course representatives of various states and cities across across the us but he also underlined the need for europe to be willing to step up and play

a security role in the future and therefore i think it's very welcome that we've taken some decisions to build the capabilities that would be needed for europe to play that role on security and on defense what do you mean for civically what could well we've we've just taken some decisions the twenty three of the of the member states that and helping the member states to build those capabilities both research and procurement in something called the european defense fund which is starting small force is going to mobilize some serious money after twenty twenty and those are the practical steps that i think he was pointing to. at the same time terror attacks are a very real threat in many parts of the world including in europe and it's been just a year since the christmas market truck attack in berlin can european commission security union really do anything to reduce the threat of terror attacks reduce the threat yes completely eliminate the threat to live a zero risk no i think that's a misleading objective to put out there but what we've done in brussels and the

commission is come for with the serious proposals to help the member states who are in the front line in dealing with these threats whether it's terrorism or indeed cyber threats so we've we've worked for the member states to squeeze the space the terrorists have and deny them the means that they use we strengthen controls on firearms we've strengthened controls on explosives we've come forward some proposals for strengthening public spaces where people gather the targets of some of these attacks and we're working with the big online platforms to try and spot and take down the kind of radicalizing propaganda that in particular so-called islamic state of been using to try and radicalize vulnerable young people across our countries what about intelligence sharing because that's something that's been criticized in the past on a european level that individual countries aren't sharing the necessary intelligence with each other well information sharing so police forces sharing information law enforcement information is going is going well we build a big e.u. wide database called the shannon information system and more and more is being shed

on that the tween police forces nor enforcement agencies the amount of information shared last year went up forty percent it was consulted four billion times last year and it's not actually the case that there's no intelligence cooperation between our intelligence agencies if they go to headquarters outside of the hague where intelligence agencies from across europe or european countries sit together every day of work to help and support each other. let's talk about the bumpy road of brac so here for a second assuming that a deal between the u.k. and the european union is done in the u.k. leaves in march of twenty one thousand one of the implications going to be there for security well i don't speak on brakes if i have a colleague michele bachmann who does that ok but on security both the british government and the representatives of the other governments in the you have said whatever else happens in the brics it negotiations they think that on these issues countering terrorism countries serious an organized crime and tackling cyber

threats we should find a way of continuing to cooperate unconditionally we need to see what that means in practice but i take it to mean that that everybody recognizes that on these challenges we have better working together and that's true today it's true the next eighteen months to be true after twenty nineteen as well right time will tell sir julian king is the european commissioner for the security union thanks for being with us on doing that you and our correspondent teri schultz was at nato headquarters in brussels where a meeting of the foreign ministers is underway now nato secretary general again shelton foreign policy chief frederica mo greeny have just held a joint press conference so from what you've heard terry just how close are nato and the e.u. on foreign policy at the moment. well that very much depends on the issue and to some extent on which side of town you're standing on out here at nato

headquarters to listen to people here the u.s. european relationship is going great allies agree that russia is a threat they've all agreed to step up reinforcements on the eastern border the u.s. has sent more forces in spending more money paying more attention to europe's threat perception now on the same stage with the end stoltenberg as you mentioned we had federica mo greeny and she had a long list of issues where the two sides are very far apart she said she appreciated secretary of state tillerson spending time here with the e.u. but then she went into a list of of things that the two sides disagree on those include of course climate iran and today an issue very much in the head in the headlines on the status of jerusalem as the israeli capital with mo greeny warning in no uncertain terms including with the secretary of state standing next to her that the e.u. would not support u.s. plans to move the capital of israel to jerusalem ok did stoltenberg address european concerns that the u.s. is perhaps pulling back from its global responsibilities

absolutely and here at nato stoltenberg says the u.s. is not pulling back from responsibilities he points out that the u.s. has sent more forces into europe has reversed the decline that we saw in recent years including under president trump more forces are coming here especially along the border and along nato is border with russia there are many more troops here than there than there were before so nato says the u.s. is not pulling back all right that's terry shell sending outside the nato headquarters there in brussels terry thank you. well the winter olympics start in just over two months time and today we could see a decision on whether russia gets to take part one on the international olympic committee has already handed down lifetime bans to dozens of russian athletes for links to massive state sponsored doping scandals now the i.o.c. has executive orders meeting to decide whether to throw the entire team in the twenty eight hundred winter games altogether. the twenty fourteen winter olympics

in sochi were a chance for russia and its president vladimir putin to burnish their reputation to host with the game's most successful nation winning thirty three medals in all but since then a dark shadow has been cast over their success by none other than gregory put a chunk of the former chief of russia's anti doping to portray he claimed the russian athletes were systematically doped samples which would have tested positive for clean ones with the help of the russian secret service because of his admissions which uncover his post and fled to the united states. the i.o.c. reacted thus far. it was he will react with tolerance in order to protect the cleanout fleets whoever is involved in this within the reach of the i.o.c. will be sanctioned the world anti-doping agency has been tougher wada commissioner

richard mclaren to investigate the claims in his report the canadian lawyer accused the russians of widespread state sponsored doping won and demanded they be sanctioned. the proof mclaren presented in his report was not enough above and the i.o.c. . they set up two commissions of their own to re-examine the allegations the i.o.c. panel led by dennis also out of switzerland has banned twenty five russian athletes over the last few weeks including a limb pick gold winning cross country skier alexander leg. he and others plan to appeal the decision at the international court of arbitration for sport. what will tuesday's meeting bring more individual bans that would allow russia to take part as a team and. some of suggested the russia can compete without their national anthem in flack how with the russians react to that plenty of questions for the i.o.c. to answer as soon as possible. we will carry that announcement live just as soon as

it happens matt herman for sports will be here how you feel and i'm feeling quite excited to find out what's going to happen here i think it's going to be some kind of a compromise much like last time maybe a little tougher on russia as you can bet the russian athletes are on the edge of their states we're going to take a short break when we come back we'll carry the i.o.c. is one of announcement of the future of these russian athletes at the winter olympics. mexico april twenty ten. paramilitaries gunned down your. finnish activist murdered for supporting the rights of the indigenous people. his mother embarks on

a campaign for justice determined to bring the killers to court and still trying to this day a mexican murder story in forty five minutes on d w. can we preserve biodiversity. he said the part of both one and two listed in an interest in the us in a five month so they are happy and google i.d.s. presents on science from all over the world to. traditional knowledge this is a tree if you will if you use it to make it see it'll help ease pain. projects i live on the coast i feel it's my duty to protect the area and that's why i bring my students here so that they meant to love nature as an angel visions of our strategy is based on the traditional lifestyle of the people as a way of preserving the environment for future generations a lot of beautiful. global ideas on. facebook twitter d w.

w true diversity. where the world of science is at home in many languages there is a thing on for thought we're going to be going there it will be. there with our innovations magazine for an. hour from now for a week and look into the future. science and research for. i'm back here watching d.w. news live from berlin our top stories police in kiev of bungled the arrest of an anti corruption campaigner mikhail saakashvili after retaining him police were then forced to let him go by angry supporters. don't trump has told the palestinian

leadership as well as jordan he will move the u.s. embassy in israel from tel aviv to jerusalem not just spite warnings from arab nations that the de facto recognition of jerusalem as israel's capital could well spark own rest in the region. and germany's foreign minister igor gabriele has urged europe to chart a new foreign policy course he wants the e.u. to be assertive and less reliant on the u.s. . we are just minutes away from an international olympic committee meeting in switzerland to decide whether to ban russia from the twenty eighteen winter olympics in ousmane is due at any moment will carry the press conference for you live with just ten weeks before the games begin oh south korea i.o.c. president thomas bach and the executive board or such decide whether russia will be banned from taking part of the games and a decision on russia's a live experience is expected in a few minutes time while we wait. for that announcement i'm joined here in the

studio by our sports correspondent matt hermann we've also got emily sherman she's in moscow she'll be following reaction is there from us matt why is this such a big deal well it's a big deal because russia is such a big player in the winter olympics i mean very successful litigation one of the most successful olympic nations especially in the winter olympics and really the genesis of a lot of these doping allegations the systematic state sponsored doping allegations actually stem from their behavior at the last winter olympics the ones that they hosted in solti and you know this announcement is also interesting because it might show us where the i.o.c. has moved in about a year's time or a year and a half time we saw in the run up to the twenty sixteen games in rio a similar situation where a great pile of evidence against the russian team was being presented to the i.o.c. at that time they felt they needed to take

a closer look at some of this evidence they decided to sort of allow the various sporting federations to you know decide to ban russian athletes or not they sort of pass the buck to not salute and the i double a if the athletics federation felt that there was enough evidence to ban russia they allowed certain russian athletes to you know participate in those games ones who'd you know trained outside of russia who had worked outside of the russian doping anti doping system and the rest of the russian team was left out of the i think many of other sports federations were comfortable letting russians participate and if they decide to do something different this time that might signal a real sea change in the way i was caught and you see you know going with their you know anti-doping efforts a lot at stake for russia let's go over to anyway sure we're going to try and moscow and really we are expanding and i don't see that from the i.o.c. how do nervous our people in moscow that their athletes are going to be banned from the winter olympics has not said this is their bag.

well absolutely it's an emotional topic here in russia and i'm on to you in fineness square in the middle of moscow and i thought i'd pass that question on to some russians that i met here i'm with now tosh who i met just now here on the square not sure i see you i'm going to ask her what what her reaction would be if they were banned the athletes. that are not shut the key. to most of them would you be cured you've said well no she will not with a promise to god. but for me and i got through it all not. enough of partying those nights talks to me to him again your solution because you just to bring you the support in the libya is the reward you know that they see the brutal what united can i. so she said that it would be a real shame if the athletes were excluded because the country and the athletes

have been preparing for such a long time and it would be a real shame if they couldn't take part as you can see it's an emotional topic here for russians who feel very proud of their athletes ok a big emotional issue there in moscow not let me ask you what are you expecting to happen do you have a hunch about which way this is going to go well it's always difficult to know what's going on behind closed doors at the i.o.c. many people were surprised for example at the decision prior to the summer olympics in two thousand and sixteen that they didn't take a harder line against russia the evidence against them which which suggested that there was a systematic state sponsored doping program in place was pretty overwhelming the mclaren report which was you know basically put together by the world. anti-doping association made it clear that they believed that such a program existed and the fact that the i.o.c. was not willing to go along with water one of their main partners and take

a somewhat softer line against russia did surprise some people so i think this time . out they might want to send a somewhat clear message and say russians can compete but only under the olympic flag not the russian flag that i'm going to interrupt you because we're just getting some breaking news reports in just this second that the i.o.c. is saying russian athletes can compete as neutrals at these winter games competing as neutrals that means that they will not be representing russia yeah and that's more or less what i had just suggested i thought that's what they would do in that . the i.o.c. took a lot of heat for their decision sort of passing the buck taking the can down the road prior to the summer olympics and the evidence has you know if anything only gotten worse against russia they said they wanted to take a little bit more look at some of these samples from the sochi games they have done so and something like twenty five russian athletes have been stripped of their medals after those samples were retested so it does seem that the allegations made

in the mclaren report and by their former anti-doping heggie rajan calls are being borne out so for that reason i think that this is a decision they had to make ok this is a session they had to make if you're just joining us this is coming in as breaking news russian athletes can compete as neutrals at the pm chang winter olympics that's according to the i.o.c. let's go over now to emily sure win in moscow for reaction emily russians can compete as neutrals how is that going down i know you're standing outside have you spoken to anyone about what this means to them. well the of course there's been no official reaction but i saw there was some polls being conducted on social media and eighty percent said that people should boycott boycott these games if russia were only allowed to compete under a neutral flag and of course earlier this month putin said that that option would

be a humiliation for the country as well. so i don't think it's going to go down very well and. the kremlin spokesman has also said that they're willing to protect their athletes and i think it looks like russia's going to go to court to try to defend themselves as they see it from this decision ok as we get this is the. russians are going to be allowed to compete as neutrals at this olympics and we put this in context for us how big of a deal is the winter olympics to russians there in moscow. well of course some of the most. popular sports here are winter sports but i think you know the winter olympics and the summer olympics are important to russians and i think this is this is more of a you know a pride issue. the flag is important and of course in in a kind of in the current russian climate there's an increase in nationalistic

feeling and increasingly an increasing pride for the country under putin so i think this will be this will be a big a big deal for it and ensuring russians here on the streets of moscow there on the streets of moscow reporting on the reaction as we learn russian athletes will be allowed to compete as neutrals at the pyongyang olympics met last question do you. so no real punishment right i mean some russians are going to get to compete is the olympics being weak on doping i think they are i think that you know if the crime here is not just individual doping if the crime really is a state sponsored systematic doping conspiracy if you if you will that is a collective crime and a collective punishment would fit that crime i do however see you know the logic with a sort of sense of fairness that comes in to allowing individual athletes who have never failed a doping test who don't have them selves personally tainted by these doping

scandals to participate and if there is a compromise to be made that this is the right one to make to allow the individuals to you know show how well they can compete in their chosen sport but to not give any glory to the country which has in many ways tarnished their reputation through the last couple of years that's met herman from our sports desk reacting to this breaking news that some russians will be allowed to compete as neutrals and we share one was in moscow for us thank you very much to both of you for your analysis i've just heard that the press conference in last sun with the i.o.c. is beginning now let's listen in to what they're saying. good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to this press conference the be the executive board of the i.o.c. has finished its deliberations for the day we've been looking into the findings and recommendations of the commission i have with me as you can see the president of

the i.o.c. thomas back and the former president of the swiss confederation. samuel smit i'd first like to ask sam wish me to say a few words about his findings and recommendations he will speak in german and then i will ask the president and then after that we will go to questions and answers so if i could now ask her to smit to make a few opening remarks present schmidt. but if you don't turn a dominant. lawson's we didn't make cleveland p.c.p. not comment on. told ya. but is it done to find a dominant. lawson's who may. make lewd and he's simply not comment. told. to empty it in their insults thong. and. he starts almost big

lightened. up to. talk. to ya. he called me sure not to long and there could also mean you shouldn't info to match your known. document to get to the center of. the whole. so you can go to. herd on. them for fodder and licked and fish all known to give it more than. the than. being completed that is one of the differences compared with the situation immediately prior to the olympic games in rio two thousand and sixteen. they are there is difference is that the

issue was that of the many of the anti doping system prior to and during the games in sochi and due to the severity and the seriousness of this situation. consequences the disciplinary commission decided that its recommendations would only be based on material evidence of an impartial and objective nature and i'd like to stress here. that the result of this procedure. is not based only on the statements and declarations of mr. but is based on. documents and proof that our compassion triptych to nature these are for example. scientific.

testament. correspondence xchange of correspondence and are the indications and in. our recommendation we have only included testament witnesses that are corroborated by other types of proof and evidence having analyzed all of this information and proof the discipline or a commission. first of all took note of the facts and on the basis of these facts drew the appropriate conclusions now with regard to the fact the disciplinary commission on concluded that there was a systemic manipulation of russia on the anti doping rules and of the anti doping system that all. the money play tional of the anti

doping grows and regulations and open systems. also prevalent prevalent during the olympic games winter games in sochi in two thousand and fourteen from the legal point of view the disciplinary commission concluded that as far as this is to make many people asian was concerned there were different levels of administrative and contractual responsibility. as a consequence we draw the following conclusion on the operational antidoping on. the roads and implementation of the rules was under the authority of the russian sports ministry. this arises from the structure of the rational sports system. that is why are they then

sports minister has a responsibility for the failure of this system. even though the russian did not bear the operational responsibility. had any responsibility during the olympic winter games for the implementation practice limitation of the. the last of the legal and contractor was sponsibility. this also arising from the provisions of the olympic charter and the host city contract for the olympic winter games. consequently the discipline rate commission. submitted the following recommendation to the executive board of the i c appropriate measures should be adopted on the one hand to

underpin that there was an existence of manipulation of the antidoping and organization and on the other hand the those who had the responsibility needed to be sanctioned. such sanctions could include the uniform the flag and. at the same time the rights of the individual russian clean athletes need to be protected. in addition to this the costs incurred. by the procedure is. should be integrated into these sanctions this is just a summary of the report that i presented. today and the conclusions we do for you to get a full picture of our work i can only recommend to you. to

read the full report as well as all the annexes and i would like to refer you here to the record the forensic and biological and. in conclusion let me just say. that. we have never seen any such many. and cheating. and this has unprecedented damage to them and thank you for your attention thank you very much president schmidt i said should remind you that presence makes report is on the i.c. website as is the time you see decision and i'd like to toss it back to say he was first of all thank you very much i could even think please allow me first of all

thank mr schmidt all the team for the great work and have a great dedication to. commission. together with the commission members produced a comprehensive. excellent report addressing because this is the money of the anti-doping system in russia. the i.o.c. executive board test based its decision today on this report. the report clearly lays out an unprecedented attack on the integrity of the olympic games and sports. very bold includes in particular the money pull asian of the end i don't bring laboratory at the olympic winter games sochi two thousand and fourteen. zero is the executive board after following get you process

as an issue with your proportion of sanctions for these a systemic money pull asian while protecting clean athletes. due process and to which every individual and every organisation is entitled to and which was not ever a liberal to the i.o.c. prior to the olympic games a real two thousand and sixteen. as an athlete myself. i'm feeling very sorry for all the clean athletes from all in overseas who are suffering from these money palatial we have agreed with the i.o.c. our fleet's commission that for the real a location of medals we will do our best to organize ceremonies for athletes during the olympic winter games two thousand and eighteen

two were try to drive to make up for the moments they have missed on the finish line or on the podium. the i.o.c. . has proposed and has undertaken measures for a more robust anti-doping care system under the leadership of vida so that something like this can hopefully not happen again. you have already received the decision of the i.o.c. executive board and you have received a full report of the commission presided by mr schmidt and this is exactly the report which the i.o.c. executive board. had this afternoon when taking

decisions. so please allow me to summarize these decisions. the russian olympic committee is suspended with immediate effect. individual clean russian else leads will be able to participate under strict conditions at the olympic winter games here in china two thousand and eighteen. these invited astley will participate beating individual or team competitions under the name olympic elf lead from russia with the acronym they are. they will compete with the uniform bearing this name and under the olympic flag. the olympic anthem will be played in any ceremony. no official of the russian ministry of sport will be

a great it is for the olympic winter games young china two thousand and eighteen. the then minister of sport mr b. tiley would go and then deputy minister yuri nightgown it will be excluded from any parties or from any participation in all future olympic games dimitri journey schenkel former c.e.o. of the organizing committee sochi two thousand and fourteen will be withdrawn from the called a nation commission beijing two thousand and twenty two. the president of the russian olympic committee mr alexander shook off is suspended as an i.o.c. member given that his membership is linked to his position as president of the russian olympic committee. the i.o.c. reserves the right to take measures against and sanction other individuals

implicated in the system. the russian olympic committee will reimburse the costs incurred by the i.o.c. on the investigations and contribute to the establishment of the independent testing of sorority ita in the total sum of fifteen million us dollars to build the capacity and integrity of the global being system. the i.o.c. may partially or fully lift the suspension of the russian olympic committee from the commencement of the closing ceremony of the olympic winter games beyond trunk two thousand and eighteen provided these decisions are fully respected and implemented by the russian olympic committee and by the invited elsley

and officials this decision should draw a line under this a damaging episode and serve as a catalyst for a more effective and more robust and i talking system led by wide. thank you very much. ready to take any questions you might have ok thank you very much usual rules if you could indicate which one is ation represent the month let's start with that who that on the front in that moment. ok that was thomas speaking from los suns switzerland about the i.o.c. his decision and that it sounds like they're going to allow russians to compete under a neutral flag the entire russian team will not be allowed to compete as a unit though this is kind of what you were expecting right yeah i think that they

were they wanted to be very careful that the people they punished was in many ways the russian sports apparatus and you saw in towards the end of thomas bos remarks that they were not only stripping russia of all sort of national regalia whether it be flags or uniforms or what have you but they were also taking pains to say that certain high ranking sports ministry and russian olympic committee. administrators were going to be suspended indefinitely that really the people who they want to punish are those people as well as the russian team as an entity but the individual athletes who you know have put so much into training for these games be it clean or you know as yet we as best we know yet clean still get their chance to participate i don't know if this is a decision that's going to satisfy many russians but it seems to be that the one they found there in fact we're hearing that russian state t.v. is not going to carry the winter olympics if the russians are allowed to compete as

a team let's go to anyway sure when in moscow emily just hearing that russian t.v. won't air these winter olympics how is that going down there in moscow. yeah so russian t.v. had announced before that that they would do that if the russian team were banned and it seems they have now widened to the neutral flag situation that we now have as well and of course ahead of this decision various officials had said that that the russian athletes competing under a neutral fly wouldn't really be an option or at least it's one that they condemned for example if you tell you who was sort of mentioned in the report just now he said that that would not be an option even though he said that it would be up to each individual athlete to decide whether they want to compete under a neutral flag the question of course is if they do go whether that will be seen as

a very unpatriotic move you know even putin said that it would be a humiliation to compete under a neutral flag so of course the signals from up high say that they probably shouldn't go and there is the option that perhaps there would be an overall boycott and that no one no russian officials and no athletes would go sounds like and still unclear exactly what this i.o.c. decision is going to mean for russian athletes in terms of whether they will actually go and we sure and thank you so much for your reporting from moscow on that we've just got about a minute left in the program but i want to get your feeling how strong of a signal is this own doping from the olympics. medium high as you put it in and settings terms i would say that it's sending the signal that we've taken a closer look at this evidence is damning we needed to take a step this is the strongest we believe we could take without making it unfair for

some of the competitors who have put a lot of this right that's news this hour that the i.o.c. will ban the russian team but individual athletes will be allowed to compete at the winter games under a neutral flag you're watching data coming to you live from berlin our coverage continues at the top of the hour.

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