this is the interview news live from berlin the final unfinished article of a murdered journalist alleges mafia links at the highest levels of the slovak is government the killing of an investigative reporter young to siac has led to protests and top level resignations we'll talk about those explosive claims and how they are now shaking up this nation also coming up. u.s. president donald trump loses one of his longest serving and most trusted aides hope hicks is resigning from her job as white house communications director.

and germany's foreign and defense ministries are hit with a cyber attack reportedly launched by russian hackers the same group is false who have previously attacked the german parliament and the us democratic party. and babs no more the international olympic committee lifts is stoping ban on russia so does this mean the world is ready to trust russian powerful leads in competition again. i'm brian thomas a very warm welcome to the show we start out this program in slovakia where the murder of a young investigative journalist has sparked protests in the capital brought a small about a thousand people turned out for a march organized by the conservative opposition party to on. reporter. and protest

against political corruption a twenty seven year old was shot dead outside his home last week alongside his fiance. while the news website he worked for has published his last unfinished article hours after it hit the web its explosive claims triggered fallout at the very highest level of government we'll go live to prague after this report. journalist ian could see x. final story was the most explosive in his short career it may also have cost him his life if the story details alleged links between the italian mafia and officials working in the prime minister's office. it was published by his colleagues days after the bodies of and his fiance martina kristen over were found in their bratislava home. ninety nine percent convinced that the murder is connected with his writings about a link between italian mafia and slovakian politics. could see

a story name two officials who have now resigned pending an investigation one of them maria told a score over a chief advisor to the prime minister another really uncertain chair of the state security department both have denied any link to the killings prime minister robert fitz so seen here with us culver has cautioned against judging the pair without evidence he's offered a reward of one million euros for information about the murders slovakia's culture minister also resigned ashamed that something like this could happen in his country for the. culture minister i can't deal with the fact that the journalist was killed during my term in office. in brussels european parliamentarians held a minute of silence to honor the journalists. the truth with determination and didn't answer to anyone. the police to clear that he was almost surely killed to

stop his investigation. incased could see ex grieving supporters want his work to be continued they marched in bratislava demanding safety for journalists and an end to corruption could see acts reporting may now have more impact on slovakia than he could have ever imagined. is that too optimistic or will his reporting continue on slovakia's political corruption joining us now from soccer's capital rosalba is a bottle of a she's the editor in chief of the country's biggest daily newspapers marathon so much for being with us this morning at this time in our country's history we've now seen resignations from the prime minister's office what is in yon could c.x. article published after his death that's shaking up this country. he uncovered a network off company said i eat bill who will have to drag these

companies over the past the have been i just want to say to you i got to if i could jump in the dragon to being the italian mafia ok if you could continue a place. and they have been accessing e.u. funding worth millions of euros so these people now have worth really like millions of euros and they were close to beatle who really work at the governmental office as your report masha and mr yes and he's had the ing the sec you really can't see off of this country and he's accessing like top secret information and it opens up the question how is it possible that he got security clearing and it really makes us journalists ask like r.v. a safe country for security pleadings are even to people who have these close ties to you to mafia he also pointed that yes continue please continue he asked

yeah he also pointed that at the fact that that these these are not completely new information and even prime minister fits a confirm that that the first story for example of my my daily put out at the don't bring anything what he shocked him completely but it means that these questions have been put on that they bill for a for a while and he hasn't given clear answers and since monday the are waiting for his answers and and we haven't been given these answers crockery flying like what they're all of these people are how how is it possible that they have been hired for the job they are doing with these these background ok is that pressure going to continue from your newspaper on the prime minister's office on robert feed so that top politicians have possibly been working with the drug eight or the

italian mafia. yes we will continue asking questions and that was our man for young that even accompanied not only the story but all the stories and all the information he looked into like reveal really continue and trying to do finish his work today at the doors of the chiefs in chiefs of the most critical media are meeting we have a meaning and we'll discuss how to continue and how to make sure that the finish his recording and not let you know to be silenced work here really started out so we will continue asking questions and i don't think that the resignation of these two people from the government of this solves the problem it's only like the first step it's a symbolic us that and the prime minister cannot saw the issue simply by the fact that that they step down and i think that also up yes sorry yeah go ahead barbara

finisher's office. i think also public pressure will continue there will be an other rally on friday i myself will speak and other journalists will speak out and they will really stress the importance of critical reporting critical journalistic voice for maintaining democratic institutions in the country go over energy for the country's biggest newspaper sonera thank you so very much and and good luck to you with your investigation thank you. it's to the us now and i will miss having her by my side those are the words of american president donald trump paying tribute to his outgoing communications director opec's hicks was the fourth person to head trump's communication team and hers is the latest in a string of high profile departures from the white house excess a resignation has nothing to do with testimony she gave to gresham battle probing

russian meddling in the twenty sixteen presidential election on tuesday. let's go now to washington and did a view correspondent carolyn and carolyn what was behind hope picks unexpected departure. well i hope a resignation communications director can really all of us have in here in washington but this is still just an announcement from the white house here except departure is going to be said sometime in the next few weeks but of course this comes in a time where he was making a lot of headlines here because she deny to speak to the press about her role in russia investigation and then of course concede then to leave the an ounce ment of her resignation happens after she testified for nine hours in the house committee of intelligence so one could assume that these two incidents the testimony and the

resignation are in no way linked to each other but this is only an assumption the official statement of president says that it took this decision because she is pursuing other opportunities also the white house is sure that this was not related to her testimony but also to put this in context this may also might be true because according to the latest reports that i have from here from from washington this was not a big surprise to her colleagues in the white house she's a person who always wanted to stay behind the scenes and here in washington d.c. this was impossible so apparently she hated the city and she never really made her home ok well she didn't stay behind the scenes when she told the house intelligence panel that she told quote white lawyers present trump because those statements have personal implications for. well one of the consequences of

having said that is precisely a president apparently got angry at hicks after learning as she had made it on to say to the house committee that she. also if she defined this only as a white lies and this is important because it's not any comment he we're talking about the house committee of intelligence which is investigating russia's meddling into the thousand and sixteen election the company panel is investigating contacts between trump's campaign and russia but there are no further details yet about the role. could have played in the russian meddling. ok now he was somewhat unconventional press secretary if you come to play so it's a prominent role in the president's inner circle. well yes the interesting thing about hicks is that she she was not a celebrity which is quite unusual considering that she was one of the close

advisors and longest serving eight she also wasn't related at all to politics she got this job by way of. before that she had worked for a p.r. agency making war. fashion line and before that she was a model so this is indeed quite unusual early more for us in washington this morning thanks very much gary. now for some of the other stories making news this hour students have been returning to the florida high school that was the side of a mass shooting this comes two weeks after a former pupil used an assault style rifle to kill seventeen people there that incident has the tense of america's the bait over gun control with a new push for measures to limit access to weapons. ceremonies in south korea have been commemorating the start of the korean movement for independence from japanese colonial rule. president spoke at an event in seoul and urged them to

confront and apologize for wartime wrongdoing such as forcing women into sexual slave. tempers flaring during a televised russian presidential debate among president vladimir putin's seven challengers opposition candidate. kenzie subject dowsing arrival was water after insulting her putin who set too easily when a fourth term did not take part in that debate. here in germany government computers have been hit in a cyber attack berlin says a hacking group infiltrated both the foreign and defense ministries and sources are saying a hacking group with alleged links to the russian government called a.p. t twenty eight broke into the government network officials are trying to determine the exact extent of the breach the attacks were apparently discovered in december but are only made public now. what is germany's strategy when dealing with

difficult partners like russia lots of confidential information on that topic flows through the foreign ministry in berlin. now the government has confirmed that hackers breached the foreign ministry's data network though it's not clear which data they targeted or whether it was sensitive. it is clear that this problem of cyber attacks on critical infrastructure by unfriendly states and powers is a really serious security problem we have to improve significantly in the syria. in twenty fifteen hackers infiltrated the network of the german parliament at the time it was thought to be the work of russian hackers who siphoned off data from the offices of german lawmakers back then germany's federal office for security said that the m.p.'s network wasn't linked to that of the parliament and was therefore not as well protected as the ministries but hackers have now found holes in the

ministries network suggesting that the attack was likely highly professional the german interior ministry has called for calm saying that it was an isolated attack but there's been criticism over the government's cyber security policy. i think that cyber security is neglected in the coalition agreement and i think it will be a key topic for us in the coming years. there's a blind spot that we have to fill urgently where we have to step up our game and where all our attention must go. the interior ministry says the incident will be treated as high priority and designed significant resources. well will those resources cover up that blind spot our security correspondent bob involved mark is with us now actually very serious situation interior ministry confirming the bridge saying the situation is under control what exactly are

authorities doing well first of all they have to contain this fire is now this they have to see the full extent how deep actually these hackers went into the data networks of the government we always have to bear in mind that what we're talking about is basically the heart of the i.t. infrastructure of germany this is the network that is used to communicate between the different ministries in germany so this is a very different very important network and yeah of course authorities do everything as the ministry said they put this as high priority high prio priority and pull all the resources in there ok so communications between the defense and foreign ministries was potentially compromised you know and that over a period of one year you have to ask yourself how is that possible. yes of course this is it could have happened or it could have started already a year ago when you talked to authorities in the cyber defense they also often talk

about the potential of time bombs so that sometimes hackers place where in the system but that doesn't start functioning right away it might be in the system without actually extracting for example data that might happen a lot later so this could be one example explanation but still it was discovered in december and. why was the public informed only now three months after it was discovered ok reheard there are security experts admitting that germany has a blind spot you know considering the apparent level of sophistication that russian hackers have it is germany prepared to confront that type of professionalism. the simple answers obviously not otherwise this couldn't have happened but then you have to ask yourself these attacks happened in very highly

capable countries in europe also in the united states so who is really prepared to deal with these highly sophisticated attacks from russia russia puts a lot of effort in these groups a lot of know how but also a lot of resources in terms of time and money so these are very sophisticated compare come pains but then also i mean there is criticism that germany is not doing enough particularly since the attack on the bundestag there was a lot of effort put in germany on cyber security on the security and cyber defense but this to do more not enough was done maybe and there's also the human factor all of these attacks mostly also go go along with behavior of people that are not prepared and this is on top of the problems in the systems thanks so much for that of daters security correspondent fabienne funded mark. well the relations

between germany and russia may be strained but commercial links have actually become stronger and that ironically despite years of sanctions against russia christophe you're looking into that that's right bryan and there is the pressure growing to relax these sanctions that will certainly be a topic at the conference of the german russian chamber of commerce which is taking place in berlin today with high level political and business representatives in attendance trade between russia and germany is increasing again and sharply last year germany exported goods worth a total of nine to nineteen point seven billion euros to russia some twenty five percent on twenty sixteen russia was able to boost its exports to germany by twenty percent to twenty one billion euros now germany remains a vital partner to the russian economy it is the second largest trade partner of the country and that's despite the sanctions imposed against russia almost four years ago after its an exemption of the crimean peninsula now the sale of weapons

to russia is banned as is the export of dual use technologies which are civilian by nature but can also be used for military purposes exports of energy related technologies and equipment to russia are subject to license and on top of that e.u. lenders are not allowed to give loans to russia's five largest state owned banks now for more on the german russian relations i'm joined now by folk of triad he is the deputy managing director of the association of german chambers of industry and commerce good morning to you welcome to the problem program now the sanctions that are have been imposed are there to hit the russian economy yet the business community wants to boost trade why would the interest of the business community be above the political priority. know it is like this that still. the policy makers and politics have the premises and they have

implemented sanctions businesses are respecting the sanctions but at the same time there is room for normalcy there is room for normal business and german business is strong in russia we have more than five thousand companies operating in russia and after implementing the sanctions there was really slump in the russian. growth there was a decrease and there was a slump in our business relations and finally last year starting from a lower level what we have experienced before the trade is on the rise and and also investments yet the pressure to scale back sanctions is growing they have been numerous people speaking in favor of that and the question arises if you yourself point out businesses have adapted have adjusted to this new political reality why

scale back. if we ask business so then they are not confident with the sanctions that that's for sure for them sanctions are at the end of the day expenditures or no room for business so business volume has shrunk but never the less now and we are glad for that for the experience is. back on the rise it's relaxing we are coming back but on the on the field where there's sanctions on not effective because the sanctions only are to hit a part of the business relations and if we lost the business then they say ok expenditures we don't want sanctions that self-evident ok and now you're organizing this conference today regarding german and russian trade relations how do you think the news of the hacking of german government institutions will impact this

conference. this is a bad news there is no no. it wouldn't be responsible to be naive that there is. a really delicate political situation and maybe a situation where we have had her from from russia but it's better to have at least . another world where we have business relations and this could maybe prevent. some players in the game not only between russia and germany from doing really even burst things so it's better to have relations in order to give the other side a signal that we are depending on each other for a fire of the association of german chambers of industry and commerce thank you for your time this morning you're welcome. the world congress in barcelona draws to a close today this year's buzzword at the world's largest fair for mobile

communication was five g. the network that's set to enable ultra fast transmission of large quantities of data and it is this development that's not only drawing the usual big names in tech to barcelona but industrial old timers as well. but click on the app from those not long to wait before the electric car comes rolling along. just to be on the safe side b.m.w.'s driver sits in the front passenger seat. the driver's seat remains empty the whole time. passengers in the back seats can use a display to do things like sound the horn or even stop the off season like the germinal to make a once its first driverless model on the road by twenty twenty one. but almost entirely autonomous vehicle. and is an emotional kinda demo showcase which we've

put on at the mobile world congress to see also navigate using a digital map we've made of the exhibition grounds to talk. in practice it takes the latest five g. mobile technology to enable autonomous driving at the recent south korea winter olympics korea telecom set up the world's first public five g. network in barcelona it's launched a five g. virtual reality game. for technology transfers gigantic data volumes from the player's vests where the response time from only ten milliseconds. we the five g. is are more much faster than fourteen twenty times twenty times and more we can reduce the lights and see on a result case just that ok to step on that as you called to be at work for you don't have to wear dark heavy equipment and i say it's a totally wild less mobile data networks are the hot topic in barcelona this year

the number of networked gadgets is expected to grow rapidly from twenty twenty on along with the attendant risks i think five g. represents an opportunity it's going to signal the entrance of mochi all devices that are literally going to revolutionize the way that we live the way that we work every component of our lives is going to be impacted but i think what that also represents is potential risk as well because you know things like driverless cars i mean everybody health care and so forth security and privacy are going to be literally be number one question that we'll be it's more than just a game it's a serious matter of evaluating and minimizing the potentially disastrous risks of a new technology that will be rolled out within the next two years. that's our business for now thank you brian we have plenty ahead on this program first off could this man's terrorist attack and then prevent it with a knee and a german law made. there's

a look at security failures in the run up to the twenty sixteen christmas market attack and how to fix them. and moldova is one of europe's poorest countries and it's debating whether to align itself with brussels for those moscow for a better future our reporter finds out which way moldovans wants to go. for it because you can always get to the news on the go download on our from google play or from the apple store that gives you access to all the latest news from around the world as most push notifications for breaking news you can also use that app to send us photos and video games. are back after a short. months

long cheering on city. sixteen.

every journey begins with the first step and every living creature the first word alleged illegal niko he's in germany to learn sherman. was his first why not move him. it's simple online on your role model and training. to soft. d.w. zyklon in course cause freak sure made easy. birth. home to moves of species. a home worth saving and. those are big changes and most start with small steps global ideas tell stories of creative people and innovative projects around the world. ideas the protect the climate boost green energy solutions and reforestation. results of people you cannot predict the force to

create interactive content teaching the next generation about environmental protection by. using all channels available to inspire people to take action and we're determined to build something here for the next generation. of global ideas the multimedia environment series on d.w. . call them back this is the interview news wire from the lead in our top stories this hour germany's private interment extent of a cyber attack on its foreign and defense ministries a russian hacker group is believed to have broken into the german government network has been accused of previous attacks on american and german political parties. and president trump loses one of his longest serving and most trusted aides opec's is resigning from her job as. white house communications director.

well today german lawmakers are looking at why authorities failed to prevent the deadly twenty sixteen christmas market attack here in berlin the total of twelve people were killed in that attack when a failed asylum seeker drove a truck into a crowded holiday market in the capital's center italian police shot and killed the tunisian perpetrator four days later in a shoot out in the long after he alluded german police a special parliamentary committee will be investigating a series of police and security failures that allowed the suspect to stage a terrorist attack in the capital and the state the scene on december nineteenth twenty sixteen terrorist and nice and money steered a hijacked truck into a busy christmas market on berlin's bright child plots twelve people died and many are still suffering today from serious injuries it was the first serious jihadist attack in germany but could it have been prevented

a committee of inquiry is set to investigate this question in retrospect it is clear that security authorities knew a great deal about an ace amery they had already identified him as a threat one year before the attack they were aware of his drug trafficking his phones were intercepted and his internet connections were being monitored. in the state of north rhine-westphalia several officers were on his case am ray's asylum application was rejected although he should have left germany he remained when he was once briefly detained he could have been deported instead he was released and he changed his identity multiple times at the start of two thousand and sixteen the state criminal police office in berlin was informed that emery was on his way to the capital security officials knew that he was in contact with a terrorist cell of a radical islamist. they also knew that he sympathized with the islamic state and

wanted to get a kalashnikov and we often visited the foo select mosque a meeting place for violence oriented salafist it was being observed but only from monday to friday. despite the fact that amery counted as a leading potential threat he was only placed under surveillance by the state police in the summer with bloody consequences how did security officials loose sight of a terrorist an answer to this question is not only important for germany but especially for the victims' loved ones. there are so many open questions on this case out there to talk about that we're joined now by simon young from the political desk good morning simon could this investigation by this parliamentary committee finally lead eventually to some consequences for the complete breakdown in the police and security services well i think it could do because it's going to be a pretty wide ranging inquiry it will be potentially able to look at all the problems

both before and after the attack and there have been claims of failures of course by the authorities to work together properly to identify the threat posed by an exam really to apprehend him either before the attack or immediately off the woods and also failures in the investigation allegations of cover up in some cases so one interesting question will be whether the inquiry is able to access or intelligence information there's been some regional inquiries that the wrong going to beta quite have the same powers as this national poll and free inquiry and they may even be able to look into foreign intelligence to some extent because some people have said this is a key point what information was provided by foreign intelligence services about an exam re and he's contacts and how did the german services react to that another key point will be how this commission deals with the concerns of relatives because

people who are going to be serving on the commission of said you know they wouldn't treat it properly in the off the moth of this attack and they've got a right to have the failure is addressed and. lessons learned there's so many parts to this investigation actually could be a series of separate investigations and when you look at how it started started with. a failed asylum seeker who is not the ported has that process changed our asylum seekers being vetted more thoroughly now well they certainly are they've been quite a few changes to the way asylum claims are handled since they said tack. for instance the authorities have started routinely fingerprinting people who place asylum claims they were doing that before there's now a central register for that to happen the government has also made it easier to deport people quickly when their asylum claims are rejected although that has sparked

a real need to bite for instance about whether it's ok to send people back to war torn countries like afghanistan it's also easier to carry out surveillance on people who are suspected of being radicalized or potential terror threats and there are there are some bureaucratic fixes as well in terms of how police or thor it is to get germany's a federalized system with sixteen states you know how these different authours is worked together so there have been a range of responses like that ok briefly if you could what about the observation of islam is networks he was linked to a solid as the mosque here in berlin that was under limited police observation yeah i mean it's quite clear that was posed a known threat he had contacts with known. he was discussed many times by the central the center for dealing with terror threats here in germany different police services assessed the threat differently some say he was imminently going to carry

out an attack in berlin others said oh well he may be planning to do something abroad so you know that is another question why were there such different assessments of the threat posed by this man ok looking forward to hearing more from you about the investigation as it moves forward simon young thanks very much. well staying in germany the country is right now in the grip of a flu epidemic authorities have registered more than one hundred twenty thousand cases and more than two hundred people have died so far this winter doctors here in berlin are saying they're dealing with three times the number of patients and that it is usual to start your day w. reports from the front line. it's crowded in dr frank fresh plus practice these days many turn up suspecting the flu he has to take a swap to confirm that but regular says he's learned to recognize flu patients by sight. i. think there are a lot sicker than the others he comes on suddenly on from one day to the next you

conquered space suddenly for him and a fever flares up all these people's temperature shoots up as high as forty degrees in patients of headaches and joint pain amounts of close little doubt now there is about what the diagnosis really bridget's height fast cleanness clock this year the flu has been hitting people in the prime of their life aged thirty five to sixty and there are nearly three times as many people visiting the doctor as in a normal winter scientists say germany is facing a flu epidemic they have been running the numbers on how many people are suffering from the flu and how many are dying from it two hundred sixteen have perished so far this year. if you have a chronic illness if you're older pregnant or haven't had your flu shot because you need to be concerned you should still think about getting vaccinated to monitor it will take two weeks to build up immunity but it's worth it this flu season won't

end in the next two weeks. alone. there's been more than one hundred twenty thousand flu cases in germany this winter and experts say the epidemic might continue through to april. well russian president vladimir putin is due to make his annual address to parliament in moscow coming up in just a few hours now it is a highly anticipated speeches the russian president since then of course for reelection in march this speech is expected to shed some light on how it was fourth term president to look at it long with your column in social reforms a lot of it was also expected to address the foreign policy issues. but with russia holding its presidential election coming up in a couple weeks on march eighteenth this is an important speech sarah pagan from a think tank german council on foreign relations joins us now good morning sir thanks for any or. first off what would as

a russia list what are you looking for invited respect putin's speech today so it will basically be his a big electoral campaign speech because he so far has refused to really compare in the presidential election so what we're looking for is basically a fainter issues regarding the social and economy policy because that will be the big issue of the upcoming years we had economies like mating or even shrinking in the last years especially since two thousand so it's a last financial crisis so we have serious. impact off this on the state budget on state spending but also on the living standards of the population in russia so he will be announcing reforms in this case to liberalize economy and to put further social reforms ok now in spite of these economic difficulties president putin enjoys incredible popularity his ratings are steadily over the eighty percent

mark what's behind that support that he enjoys he was able to achieve by is his popularity on foreign policy so what we have seen until two thousand and twelve or two thousand and fourteen was that the popularity of success of the presidents was bound to economic. say so basically to the living standards of people there but what we have now is that he's bound to his strongman foreign policies so on a success being a great power on global politics accounting success in the crane if you will like that so that's basically was his popularity is based now on so he will definitely also target these issues as it's asked in his presidency ok we as you've noticed as a course russia expert you were getting these reports coming in that it's parent russian hackers that have been infiltrating germany's foreign and defense ministry databases what do you think their objective might have been i think they're

basically three objectives the first is just gaining classical intelligence information on foreign and security policy so for example on military planning on what germany or european states are planning and they stood in our neighborhood second gaining information on individuals so they can be blackmailed and third also gaining information they can use to distort german public we've waited for that during the last election campaign last year it doesn't happen it didn't happen but that of course does mean that won't happen in future sarah paygo from the german council on foreign relations thanks very much for being with us. well one of europe's longest running a frozen conflicts is and moldova russian troops have been stationed in a breakaway region within that country for decades that has been a worry for neighboring ukraine and for brussels but not for moldova's president

hugo dog he says he wants to deepen moldova's historic ties with russia and says he is opposed to you ma'am or ship. was dead on heads to berlin for talks today are correspond your shadow sent us this report from moldova's impoverished north to find out whether people there feel the country should be more oriented towards brussels or towards russia. those who want to leave the hustle and bustle of the big city behind are in the right place into teaching. some two hundred people live here between ukraine and e.u. member romania almost all the people here are older or are taking care of them like evander bank. his family has lived here for generations just like almost everyone in the village i want to find out if the people into teaching me a feel closer to russia or europe because this is the question currently dividing the politicians in moldova. would be everyone should decide for

themselves where they want to live. definitely want to stay here i'm not drawn to russia or a mania my parents live here. in the afternoon apples and potatoes are sold from. i ask the villagers how they're all doing well. this man says bad they're a bad. rule he says that no one knows which partner would be better to improve their lot he thinks that both europe and ukraine are doing badly. the only grocery store in the magazine is not doing well shop owner daveed but banco complains that with average wages of three hundred euros a month people prefer to grow their own food everyone just wants to save as much as possible. we need

a stronger politician who will finally lead us out of the crisis in fact but one we can be proud of them so that the young people don't move away so that there's work for everybody here again. i work together with russians during my lifetime and with romanians let me put it this way we have to get along with everyone. for almost ten years pro european parties have been in power in moldova but despite millions of euros in financial aid from the west the economic situation has hardly improved many people in moldova are disappointed that the proximity with the you didn't bring prosperity all of us argue that the restoring subject in our ties with russia we all knew or since the situation in the country. at the end of the day even the bank does show us a bit of europe here after all in his house where he lives with his parents.

it's on t.v. . and mall during his reporting for us you're caught up with all those presidents you guard dog spoke to him about the political tensions in moldova over its position between the e.u. and russia. and. mr president is in the midst of a political crisis and the parliament are at loggerheads and many say your pro russian stance is of the major stumbling block a duck. but you will. see one fortunately our political elite of in divided since moldova's independence into pro russian and pro european at the book this is bad because i am sure the moldova will only survive if it maintains good relations with both east and the west.

then let's talk about of that relationship what do you hope to achieve by improving relations with russia. but. also there are a number of issues that affect our existence as a state and that are directly related to the strategic partnership with russia. more than six hundred thousand moldovans live and work in russia she. has told population is three million this is a huge number. of the border of. more than one billion dollars home each year russia is our main market for agricultural exports as far as your green integration goes we share a common border with europe it's the e.u. is our neighbor we have a border with romania and our citizens have visa freedom that is very important we have an association agreement was the e.u.

i do have a lot to criticize about history when you look at this. you are still skeptical about your relationship with the e.u. why. i believe that moldova will not become a member of the e.u. . brussels normal already for we can only survive if we have both russia and the us friends it's all a third of moldova's citizens speak russian they are not necessarily all russians but russian speaking ukrainian. that the. russian news programs were banned in moldova a move you criticised why. no one should restrict people's right to see what they want to see why have my political opponents done so anyway although they know that change anything because the people in our country have had satellite dishes for a long time and are seeing what they wanted and came anyway to do what washington

and brussels a favor the and the russian mood is currently very much involved in so it was decided to take a further geopolitical step to get more support from the west there is chaos in the country poverty is growing corruption is flourishing for europe. so you're saying it was all a distraction an attempt to shift blame to russian propaganda. for nine years the culmination of this brazenness towards their own people was when a billion dollars was stolen from the national bank. nothing like that has happened in any other country in the world. but they said to the west you should forgive us up and continue supporting us. but otherwise the russians will call president putin's long arm. political opponents the so-called pro european

partners that was the basis of their survival for more than nine years. in moldova over one hundred thirty villages signed a symbolic decree calling for the unification of with romania at the same time one hundred fifty villages two hundred twenty signed a decree declaring. you said pulled over could soon see a civil war do you still believe that. and. i believe that if the moldova parliament at some time decides to unite moldova with romania and give up state sovereignty that would mean civil war. in which it is we had all that at the beginning of the ninety's already. and today in our neighbors rumania our brothers have their own independent state we respect it and make no claims to their country when you pick. but we hear from them that there is a piece of land that should be joined with romania. national.

security surrounded by propaganda from all sides. to have an independent voice. at the moment i think we cannot really talk about autonomy also in most questions the european union and washington are calling the shots for peace i'm not against agreements as such but they should be based on our national interests then you can find compromises not to use the more than eighty companies and russia is going to the almost two weeks and all signs are pointing to the. good news. i believe the vladimir putin has done a lot for russia. his victory means for us hopefully for that we will continue to work well together to support you can the president of moldova think you are somewhat thank you very much.

the international olympic committee says russia's olympic bad has been lifted with quote immediate effect to russian athletes did fail doping tests at the winter games but the remaining tests came back negative russia was banned after revelations of state sponsored doping at the sochi games and twenty four team. competed is neutral chan which is on tuesday president vladimir putin on of the miss russian patriots. the country's a limp a green statement means the next time any of these athletes win a limb pick goals the podium hearing that only one of them once more putin keen to move on from the dating scandal in total russia's ban lasted less than three months the i.o.c. has moved on surprisingly welcomed by russians and then picked committee for the. last ten years to show. that issue today's decision of the i.o.c.

is one of the most important for us because the russian olympic committee is once again completely reinstated in its rights and is now a completely full fledged member of the olympic family. excuse me. it was revelations from this man gregory wrote chen calls that it helped lead to the ban the former moscow lab director of the whistle on a state backed plot to cheat doping tests at the twenty fourteen sochi games as a result green athletes from russia were only allowed to take part in chiang under the olympic flag the red white and blue kept firmly out of sight. and today two of them including alexander crucial mid ski failed drug tests while in south korea the i.o.c. agreed on sunday to lift a ban if no of the athletes tested positive they didn't and russia's reinstatement was complete it. ok for more of this i'm joined now by ed mccambridge from our sports good morning it was this is

a surprise decision well i don't think so i think i think the writing was on the wall for this decision the moment they permitted one hundred sixty athletes to take part in these winter games despite a state sponsored doping program there was even rumors of the russian flag being reintroduced the closing ceremony now that was stopped because of the two athletes that tested positive jury in the games but before that the i.o.c. had been impressed by the participation of russia and people were expecting this decision to be knight ok so that was why the i.o.c. lifted the ban that the test came back clean basically for these two sites yeah exactly the r.c. were always in a bit of a dilemma because on the one hand they wanted to punish russia obviously for this state sponsored program but on the other they didn't want to prevent you know genuine honest clean athletes from taking part in a winter olympic games you know the less we forget gregory of the director of the law in moscow he lifted the lid on on a program which one thousand athletes of course thirty sports implicated in this program and at the time the i.o.c.

said that it undermined the integrity of the olympic games yet three months later they reinstated the i.o.c. so there are some question marks about this is ok considering those question marks would have been some of the reaction so far to the lifting of the bat well the i.o.c. simply want to draw a line under this entire saga and it's almost as if it never happened but obviously russia of welcome news came back from china and were welcomed as russians not as you know athletes that competed under a neutral flag but a lot of people will be very disappointed with this decision and you have to ask was that enough of a deterrent is that going to put other nations off from doing things like this in future i'm not sure it will. thanks very much bring us up to date on this. from the d.w. sports desk. this is the interview news live from berlin we have more coming up at the top the hour and don't forget you can always get the latest news and information around the clock as well as that by going to our website dot com we'll see you again just.

committed. to. the big. get. the for.

us. thank. you feel. comfy seat. much cheering up sixty. six to. thirteen.

g.w. true diversity. where the world of science is at home in many languages. on top of programming go under. that with us our innovations magazine for any. of us from every week and always looking to the future fund the w dot com of science and research for. the star stars he made us think are still. a milk represented. architect of east germany's punished. explained if i had my way. east germany would still be. master of fear. but if you know about it. starting march thirteenth d.w. . the family feels. the scars.

of the pain still tangible. the suffering for god. for city edged by where. they have survived but do they also have a future. i really understand people who say they don't want to stay here. but they also admire people who want to stay here and who decided to create something. new beginning in peace time who are the people making it possible what needs to happen if tolerance and reconciliation are to stand a chance. out of darkness cities after war. starting march tenth on d w.

this is deja vu news live from berlin investigators try to determine the extent of a cyber attack on germany's foreign and defense ministries this after russian hackers reportedly broke into government networks housing sensitive data the same group as they also have launched previous attacks on the german parliament and the us democratic party also coming up. u.s. president donald trump loses one of his longest serving most trusted aides hope x. is resigning from her job as white house a communique.