this is e w news live from berlin a contract killing here in the german capital carried out on orders of the russian government prosecutors say the kremlin ordered last year's murder of a drawer gin man in a berlin park moscow threatens to retaliate if germany moves to punish russia for the murder also coming up explosive allegations from one of donald trump's former top aides a new book by former national security advisor john bolton claims the u.s. president asked china to help him when the real action in november.

is good to have you with us german federal prosecutors have filed murder charges against a russian man suspected of gunning down a former chechen rebel fighter here in berlin last year they say that moscow ordered the killing the alleged hit job strained relations between berlin in moscow last year funking germany to expel 2 russian diplomats russia's ambassador to germany says today's murder charges are groundless and that the kremlin will retaliate if berlin takes new actions against russia over the killing. it's an assassination that has shaken russian german relations to the core last year and late august a former chechen rebel salim khan congress feely was gunned down in the heart of

berlin shot twice in the head in broad daylight the suspect fled on a bicycle but was caught soon afterwards a russian according to his passport soon after the murder suspicions arose that the russian intelligence services were involved congress feeley was a commander in the 2nd chechen war against russian troops until 2005 in the eyes of moscow that made him a terrorist. this man is on our wanted list putin said he's a fighter a cruel and bloodthirsty person and just one of the attacks he killed 98 people in . moscow has always denied any involvement in the killing what relation does this incident have to the russian authorities these are absolutely groundless assumptions. at least 2 attempts have been made and congress released life before he moved to germany and 2016 hiding from the russian secret

service his family followed believing they were safe here from a custom we were warned something could happen at some point but i never thought such a brutal attack could take place so easily here in germany where the security services the police and the law are among the strongest in the world. cornish. the contract killer is known as fountain k. arrived in germany shortly before the attack using a fake identity now germany's federal prosecutor has gathered enough evidence to charge him with murder but the accused man they say was acting under orders from the russian government. for this now i'm joined by roman going to go from the russian service from it's good to see you let's talk about the language here the german government says it's considering further steps against mosque what could those steps look law. well germany has been very reluctant to impose tough

sanctions against russia in on different occasions so only ukraine has been the case where such think sanctions were imposed but as part of european response so if you if you look at this case so far the german response has been very moderate only to russian diplomats were expelled in the summer but. at that time said that this was not actually the reaction for the killing because the investigation was still in going but it was a very action for russian russia not cooperating good enough on this case so i guess we might still see more of that maybe more russian diplomats being expelled we might see some sanctions like reason restrictions imposed on some officers of russian secret service but i don't think we will see tough economic sanctions like we know the united kingdom or united states imposed against russia be to crane or the case of the poisoning of the double agent screwball in the united kingdom i do

not think germany will go that far and that despite the fact that russia has a history of misbehaving in germany we've got russian hackers who attacked the german parliament the german chancellor angela merkel she was the subject of what she herself called outrageous spying me this is happened before do you think though that russia is at all interested in what germany or what the west think it's. well this is a new situation for the german government because we are we are we're watching a growing frustration i would say in the german government with russia because as you've mentioned there has been an attack on the german parliament in the stock 5 years ago which. behind it is russia at least this is what the german prosecutors believe now we have this killing a year ago and russia is not cooperating on the investigation so that might push

the german government to do something which hasn't been done before but back to your question i think that russia does care for what germany does or what the west does or think because russia still wants to do business with the west and especially to do business with germany but on the one on the other hand i think russia doesn't really care and the reason is that russia actually discovered that being a bad guy and breaking the rules pays off from the russian point of view because the main or one of the main reasons for such actions i think is intimidation and it's working it's working and russian president vladimir putin says he can keep doing it and he gets away with it well when guns i think oh from the russians services always moment thank you germany's chancellor angela merkel is urging the european union to agree to a pandemic recovery package before the end of july. made the call as she laid out for the boldest aga her vision for germany's european union council presidency now

that begins july 1st she said that europe's recovery plan will be limited in time and will involve borrowing on international money markets michael added the economic fallout from the pandemic lockdown is the biggest challenge that the e.u. has faced in its history. he meets in this ng with one omission for them to kids if a t.v. you wouldn't like it the medical and economic consequences of the crisis have deepened any qualities within the european community the pandemic has shown us is vulnerable and that's why i am saying and i really believe unity and summits are senior is now more important than ever. i was a german chancellor there on the americal well here are some of the other stories now that are making headlines around the world every state in the media has been ignagni rated as burundi's new president is taking office 2 months earlier than

planned after the sudden death of former president pierre. rooney's constitutional court announced last friday that the new president would take charge immediately the european court of justice has ruled that a law in hungary requiring n.g.o.s to disclose their foreign donors is illegal the court said the law breaches that you use fundamental rights critics say the legislation aims to silence any opposition to the government france has criticised a u.s. decision to quit international talks on how to tax big digital company the finance minister of france called washington's move a provocation and indicated that france would impose a version of the levy this year the new tax will primarily affect u.s. companies such as google amazon and facebook. well a book by donald trump's former national security advisor is rattling washington

and the white house among several explosive claims made by john bolton is that president asked china to help him win reelection in november the troubled ministration has been trying to prevent publication of this book and that alone has already made it a bestseller and excerpts of its have already appeared in today's u.s. newspapers. these pages contain claims which could rock u.s. foreign relations and significantly affect the u.s. presidential election in november they were written by john bolton who said he saw donald trump engage in fundamentally unacceptable behavior that eroded the very legitimacy of the presidency. top of the books list of bombshell claims that trump asked chinese president xi jinping to insure his win the election suggesting china find more american crops which would benefit us photos trump also encourage she and his mass detention of mostly muslim week of people in camps the book says may bolt

and such trump seem to give personal favors to dictators he likes while being ignorant of basic foreign policy facts such as finland being a country and having nuclear weapons and an exclusive interview with a.b.c. news martha raddatz bolton said this hearings when you're dealing with somebody like putin who has made his life understanding russia's strategic position in the world against donald trump who doesn't enjoy reading about these issues or learning about them. it's a very difficult position for america to be in trump not only set the book was full of lies he also phoned fox news channel's hannity show to say this terrible terrible thing that he did but he broke the law the very simple i mean as much as it's going to be broke at this is highly classified that's why is they just highly

classified information that he did not have approval but come out now very loud and very strong so no waiting to see if this book might prompt further investigation into the president it's also likely to be a factor in this november's presidential election. and for more now i'm joined here by my colleague. so let's talk about this book i mean these are damning accounts but let's consider who's wrong here john bolton he's not exactly the most popular person in washington he's a controversial figure and so. what are his loaded senior it's a great question you know. bolton accepted this position well into trump's presidency so you kind of have this is like he must have know what he got himself into that he and trump did not see eye to eye on policy you know bolton is a hawks hawk he's a man whose kind of record developed this reputation after decades in washington of you know as

a great appetite for blowing up stuff he's supported the war in iraq he's been trying to push trump to you know attack iran a direction that from clearly did not want to go. and so that raise a lot of questions like why do you take it this job in the 1st place but he's also someone who very much believes in you know the greatness of america the unrivaled greatness. and i think that is something that he clearly did not see trump and body we heard the accounts there of you know cozying up to autocrats to curry political favor and really as he as bolton has said you know he trump he saw him as someone who put his own political interests and getting reelected ahead of country and i think that is something that really you could imagine really irking rubbing both in the wrong way of course you could argue to the bolton but gallant in before the country by waiting to come up with big melons to testify

during the impeachment hearings what's been the reaction in washington no that's exactly been one of the reactions democrats i mean you would think that they would welcome a book ask explosive at this one this close to the election but really what they've done instead is come out and accuse him of putting profit over country bolton had the chance to speak out of the impeachment trial back in february beginning of the year and then he refused back then he even threatened to sue if they. if they asked him to to testify or if they issued subpoenas. and really that really wrote adam schiff who was the delete prosecutor the wrong way this is what he said bolton staff were asked to testify before the house or trance of uses and did they had a lot to lose some show real courage when bolton was asked he refused and said he'd sue if subpoenaed instead he saved it for a book bolton may be an author but he's no patriot. republicans not surprisingly

also not very happy with the timing of this book. danse convener is the deputy communications director tweeted there's nothing worse than a disgruntled arrogant egotistical and all around mr bill warmonger who gets fired from their job and goes to write a book with classified information while being paid millions of dollars for it someone change or 2 to once was fired. the problem with that line is though on the one hand why no white house is accusing bolton of lying at the same time they've been going out of their way to stop this book from being published there is no such thing as a classified lie and so you know suggesting that there might be more to bolton's accusations that the what you see as an end despite what you think of and there may be more to i mean it's obvious to you that bolton is not afraid of any legal action that could be coming from the president because he's going full steam with this book it's being released next tuesday as i mean it's going to schedule.

and we're going to talk about that in the next. you have it all right thank you very much there were unfortunate we're out of time peter's always thank you. are you watching the w.'s off the back of the top of the hour with more world news they so watch. combating the corona pandemic. where does research stand. what are scientists learning. background information and news. hour corona update. covert 19 special next on the.