he's considered one of the best neurosurgeons in brazil. that's happened. already so. nothing's going to do the population because it's going to people. in this story the week with islamic states on the verge of total collapse in syria russia and its regional allies plans for establishing a lasting peace in the country. unsettling times for germany chancellor merkel as coalition talks break down leaving question marks over her future leader . gain access to russia's most notorious prison and bring you

a look at the grueling regimes. in. moscow with the main stories from the past seven days welcome to the weekly on r.t.e. international i'm going to go with the islamic state all but wiped out in syria the prospect of a lasting peace in the country is finally on the horizon russia is attempting to help secure a political solution to the almost seven year long conflict on this week talks with other key regional players. breakstone how things currently stand. it looks like saudi is shaping out as the new platform for dialogue on syria the resort has become the venue for the first major round of talks on the syrian crisis the syrian

president bashar assad was here on monday. at this stage especially after victories against terrorism we are of course interested in advancing the political process then mr putin had a long phone conversation with donald trump. putin gave donald trump a full update on the talks with syrian president bashar assad mr putin also told mr trump about the upcoming summit with the presidents of iran and turkey. it was these three countries that were behind the so-called astronaut talks in the first place and with the terrorists now almost gone this format could prove to be more crucial than ever. you launch scale military action against terrorist groups

in syria are coming to an end i'd like to note that thanks to the efforts of russia iran and turkey we have managed to prevent it is the dissolution of syria stop it from being captured by international terrorists and avoid the humanitarian catastrophe we heard the leaders confirm their assessment the syrian conflict has entered a new stage the era of active fighting is over and time has come for a new settlement opportunities the trilateral meeting today has not missed importance is the final stage in putting an end to the bloodshed in syria we have achieved success thanks to the union of grand turkey and russia after roughly one and a half hours of talks we finally heard about the number one decision for the new stage the creation of the syrian national dialogue congress it will be an unprecedented platform for inclusive of all syria talks and all kinds of political

ethnic religious groups are expected to be involved in the leaders say that it should pave the way for a new constitution in syria and new elections it's this kind of communication somehow involving different sides like washington moscow damascus and tehran that is giving us a reason to say that things may be looking promising here. politics professor saeed mohammad marandi told us the talks were a positive development but difficulties still lie ahead. dathan a fox as well as the current talks from sochi have. pushed the power of the process a great deal forward of course things have shifted and changed enormously on the ground and hopefully these talks will help pave the way for. the conflict to come to an end but i think that it looks good on paper but it i'm sure

it's going to be very complicated in the weeks and months ahead there's a lot to do and it's not clear what the americans and their allies are going to help this process move forward or whether they are going to improve competed. for over twenty years there's been a moratorium on the death penalty in russia the country's most dangerous criminals are sentenced to full life terms in prison instead this week because the of was given unique access to the high security facility known as the black dolphin arguably russia's toughest you. in the provincial town the edge of siberia is a prison but it's no ordinary prison site the statue is broken the most solace butchers the black doll thing russia's highest security prison it is here that some of the country's worst maniacs serial killers

terrorists and even cannibals i held in this cell a man who raped forty four miners and killed five children aged seven to eleven some of the people in this prison will never be allowed out so we dread for the things that they've done and then the man in a drunken killing frenzy killed six of his friends in this cell a murderer killed eleven people. seven hundred inmates sentenced to life between them they've killed almost four thousand people everything is procedural everything intended to minimize risk from sleeping schedules to how inmates are a school that bend to the waist and blindfolded so they can't memorize the prisons layout. it may seem excessive humiliating even

but do not forget what these people did to be here to that end every cell door has a description of the inmates crimes any sympathy that guards might feel disappears immediately. who's missing is just meant to be you ask me if i do it again i thought about it and it would have been better for died with them i probably wouldn't have done it but it's better to die than sacrifice others eagle was just over twenty when he and his father took on a rival gang and after killing their enemies they attempted to get rid of witnesses . ordinary civilians in a restaurant seven dead eight injured he and his father and castrated here do see each other sometimes when he fell ill they transferred me to help him for a while the most important thing is to avoid becoming an bitted it is so easy to turn into an animal here some say

a life sentence is worse than the death penalty. but i've been here for seventeen years and i've never heard anyone say they don't regret it but they'd kill more i'm sorry but that's nonsense. i regret it and everything is lost in the years go by your health worsens everything passes by i think there are a few people left in here who think they did the right thing they are show you that you were wrong totally wrong you can't do that. to me treat saluted his family his father his mother and his brother he was twenty now he's forty five why didn't we watch t.v. we see people who've committed two or three murders get sentenced to seventeen or nineteen years that isn't so terrible yes we are guilty before the law yes we are guilty before the public but if they're left out after twenty years why are there fraid of letting us out who in their fifties could be bothered to do anything all

they would want is a normal life. the difference is that life sentences are mostly reserved for crimes of such brutality that they escape reason for individuals deemed a permanent danger to society one inmate released early from the black dolphin committed the murder on the very train that was taking hold loops will never she release control is total god's check on everyone every fifteen minutes in cell cameras i'm one of the twenty four seven and there's three doors to every cell this is a cell for those sentenced to life it's locked with a full metal door a cage door and another one for complete security we essentially have a cell within a cell it's easy to see why no one has ever escaped from the black dolphin and for most of the uni sure way out is in

a coffin for i guess the odyssey from seoul in let's russia. ok to another big story of the week uncertainty hangs over germany's political future after talks to form a three party coalition government collapsed on monday peter all over examines what caused the negotiations to fail and what options remain for chancellor merkel. the day after the bundestag election in september angela merkel said that she was confident that by christmas she would have a ruling coalition government in place or fast forward through weeks of torture a sit times negotiations with the green party and the pro-business free democrats while the wheels of that coalition health fell off well and truly with christie and of the free democrats delivering the killer blow we have the other one is that we will not abandon our voters for a policy with which we are not convinced it is better not to govern than to govern

badly ingrained differences between the parties on key issues such as climate change refugees and the budget saw the so-called jamaica coalition break down. just hours after coalition talks with the free democrats and the greens collapsed under merkel was turned down by another coalition suitor this time the social democrats martin schultz saying they would be no return to a grand coalition if you want answers on september the twenty fourth the grand

coalition lost fourteen percent so it's clear we were shown the red card in view of the election results we are not available to join a grand coalition without off the table one other option available to angela merkel would be to rule over a minority government most likely with the green party. but a minority government. would be unstable at best and would certainly require horse trading on gargantuan proportions with the other four parties in parliament if the government was to well pass anything more than just time in the chamber it's also worth noting that this would be a first in modern german history and wouldn't exactly fit the profile of the german voters who do love stabilises so where does this leave us the other option would be we go back to the polls for fresh elections.

that could well prove to be a storm she doesn't whether it's keep that's really fun for somebody has got to be responsible for that the federal chancellor created this situation she's been in power for what feels like one hundred years and now she should be asking ourselves maybe i have something to do with this situation. mrs merkel has failed it's time for her now to take a step back that night at the end of the merkel era began europe's biggest economy is heading into uncharted territory with current polling suggesting that a new ballot wouldn't return any results too different from what we had in september it does seem that there is no immediate solution to the current instability germany is facing and of course the implications that has for the why do european union peter all of a r.t. berlin offer it was announced the talks had failed the german president called on all parties to work towards producing

a stable government this is the moment when all those involved should pause and reconsider their stance in all the parties voted in the parliament are committed to the common good they are serving our land expect from everyone a willingness to talk in order to facilitate the formation of a government in the near future at it. i'm glad merkel has already indicated her readiness to renew the so-called graham coalition with the social democrats the system that's governed germany for the past four years the chancellor say's the alliance has proved very effective on the social democrats with martin schulz of the helm seem to have softened their position well they had previously refused to deal with merkel again we are some members of germany's political parties about the recent twists and turns in the. i would be surprised if we had fresh elections but marcos apparently stated that we are going to have them both fall she have always clung to power and i thought she would have sought another negotiated

solution for everybody it's just a f.t.p. but in the end to make a coalition agree the f.t.p. the c.s.u. the c.d.o. was a very very unlikely construct a very strange construct that of course cannot work and we can see that the country is in some turmoil here and that this indeed to the unprecedented situation is going to be new elections i'm pretty certain the f.t.p. and probably also the i.f.b. the opposition party that will gain because this. is quite the silence a significant part of the population that's once a change in the immigration policies you're with r.t. international after the break some live reaction to a support group that's been established in the u.k. to help the families of extreme to stay with us for that.

everybody i'm stephen ball. hollywood guy expects. that american first of all i'm just george bush and our deal to say this is my buddy max famous financial guru just a little bit different. with all the drama happening in our country i'm shooting the good have fun meet every day americans. hopefully start to bridge the gap this is the great american people which. i says was it to by americans. why it is. unfortunate the why financial support of some. is.

for making come and see. your back with r t international planes carrying vital supplies of food and medicine started arriving in the yemeni capital sanaa on saturday it comes after the saudi led coalition ease its blockade of the country where twenty million people are reportedly in desperate need of humanitarian assistance before riyadh took the decision to allow help through thousands of people had been rallying in the yemeni port city of who they were accusing saudi arabia and its allies of genocide we had been involved in yemen civil war since twenty fifteen supporting the president against the rebels it has frequently been accused of war crimes and exacerbating the country's humanitarian crisis the coalition increased the pressure further when it closed all sea routes in early november after

a missile was fired toward saudi territory but facing harsh criticism from rights organizations one week later it agreed to ease the restrictions allowed though some aid is now getting through the u.n. still say more needs to be done to avert a humanitarian disaster. well the red cross is now warning that a million people are at risk of a new caller i'd break in three yemeni cities the blockade means the clean water cannot be pumped to the people there.

actually i'm here since already one year and i can tell you i could see the situation deteriorates every day more and more the public health system is almost collapsing the water and sewage system is to having the same thing people are not getting the most basic things like having bread or having cooking gas to make something to eat and to put on the table. the two years and a half almost of this conflict is really putting a lot on yemenis and the civilian population on the day to day. the brother of a british jehudi fighter has set up a support group for the families of extremists he say is there are stigmatized and face isolation in the u.k. by name of michael evans and i know the pain of losing a loved one to a stream of a i lost my brother throughout about in twenty fifteen when he was killed in kenya

and i know from experience that those north pour out their families and i want to make sure that changes. well more than eight hundred british citizens have gone to iraq and syria to fight alongside terrorist groups it is estimated that around half of them have returned to the u.k. that's the largest number in europe joining me live to discuss this is jonathan arnot an m.e.p. for the u.k. independence party until hussain a journalist at five pillars you cajuns when you're both very welcome to the program john the thing can we start with you this initiative that's been set up what's your thoughts on it should it be widely supported. well it seems to me that we live in a free and democratic society and of course anybody who under the law wishes to set up whatever organization they wish to set top has absolutely the right to do so

so perfectly free to such a group or however my question would be that when you're talking about what should be widely supported i think frankly we should be thinking an awful lot more about the victims of isis other than of the of the families of those who have committed those atrocities so i suppose my view on this is that it is fine for them to do it but to suggest that one this is science should play a massive role in supporting that i think would be the wrong. delhi what is your thoughts on that particular aspect of resources going to this there will be those of course you say family members would have no in their relatives left to fight for what's essentially a death cult some of them anyway why should they be held by a charity. i think it's important to understand that family members of also victims to some degree unless they were holding some kind of sensitive information that will further in danger the people of this country i

think they have gone through a lot of emotional psychological and social trauma and isolation and they have every right to set up such groups to support one another to through this process of grieving and hardship however why do disagree with is for such groups to be politicized by government agencies for interfere if groups that claim to work towards interfaith dialogue but in fact all they do is they actually peddle the narrative to try to politicize such groups forward which it whatever means they want to achieve so by all means family members can then have the right to do so to set up such groups one totally against these groups being politicized to further government policy in the point here is that if this helps stop an atrocity in the future is that not a good thing the support group it wants to prevent radicalization as well i don't really stages is it not vital for them to communicate with those families who've

already been through that. i suppose the question here is what exactly are we referring to because if we're talking about a support group being set up by families who have absolutely no knowledge or or support for anything that is related to the late had to the to the ideology of isis and they're supporting each other well there is no counter radicalization that's going to take place if we're saying those people aren't medicalized in the first place on the other hand if we are talking about people that are legitimate suspicions in in whatever percentage of cases the walls prior knowledge and where perhaps there is concern that all those within within that family might have been heading along the same similar path then perhaps there is.

a question of where then government does need to step in but neither of those really are going to see counseling to collide zation being helped by the setting up of such a group albeit that they have the legal right to say still if they wish to do so dearly to the other point that we're speaking about that that's the testing more than eight hundred british citizens who have gone to iraq and syria to fight alongside terrorist groups more than half of them have now returned to you k. the biggest number percentage wise in europe what it by fees fighters or indeed eisel sympathizers who return to your country should they be reunited with their families. well if they're eyesore sympathizers and they've been to syria then i don't think this improvised in the gone beyond the remit of sympathy going out to syria and they've come back with my personal view my personal view is this and my respected guests may disagree or may not is that people who are going out to syria where are they going out there to do aid work or are they going to

join isis or any other syrian rebel faction. to revolt this is a ship and to arrest them upon arrival is counterproductive i prefer the more the danish model is not ideal and the danish model is a you allow them to come back and we integrate back to society and provide a psychological support because legally speaking they have not actually committed a crime on the in this land besides being a part of a prescribed group which is a crime in of itself if we take it back to this support group this support group if it is there for psychological and emotional support for trauma and emotional issues which families have experienced i support that and i can understand that why do not support on what i do not agree with is such initiatives being used by government agencies and which of them be champion and presented as counter radicalization of counter extremism fronts with us essentially not what it is jonathan on the issue

of fighters returning home your thought. well i think my fellow guest said very clearly that i haven't committed a crime although than and then saying being members of a proscribed organization not just being members of a proscribed organization but have actually gone out and fought for that proscribed organization and committed the most appalling of acts and if we are to give a free pass to people who have done that returning then what we also do is we send out completely the wrong message to all those who might be tempted by such things in the future so i think you know whether crime has been committed then the law needs to be enforced properly and people who people who come back to the u.k. should be very much if they have been committing those crimes they should be prosecuted to the full force of law you prosecute those crimes first and then you think about the ways in which you can do awful lot more in terms of kinds of

article is a should and stopping these from things from happening in the future but you have to have the rule of law first and just looking further down the line daily is it actually possible to rehabilitate someone brainwashed to this extent by terrorist propaganda and the things that they have done the things that they have seen kidnapping women selling them as sex slaves throwing gay men off buildings we're not listless and not we're not we're not we're not we're not dealing robots for not dealing with the t. one hundred terminator we are ultimately dealing with human beings the same kind of human beings like british jews who go over to israel and commit heinous crimes against palestinians the same kind of kurdish individuals from the u.k. who go on fight with terrorist organizations like the p.k. k. or list a terrorist organization it's a start isis has been a prescribed group and therefore they have been it's illegal to be a member or to fight with them so we deal with human beings because they are human beings they're not two headed monster they're not terminators they're not robots they have brains they're have

a conscious and many of the individuals that want to come back from syria they are ultimately. disenfranchised and they realize the reality of of isis and and they want to come back and realize that it wasn't exactly what they thought they were going to join once they're out there this is an absolutely especially these kind of resort and individuals this is a death cult and you're talking about people going to acting very nobly you're going to have a lot of opposition are you not jonathan there's going to be a lot of modernization in order to be important or not and i said earlier and looking about the death and destruction jonathan well it just seems to be that that ideology is one which is a murderous ideology which is one which kills people left right and center everywhere it goes and it is something which must be resisted in all its forms and and for me when somebody comes back to the u.k. it may well be possible that in some cases rehabilitation could occur and could make a difference and that those people could be integrated into society but here's the

question what happens for the percentage of people for whom that is not possible and you know we can talk about the possibility of trying to help some people but actually those people who have gone and committed murderous acts really should be held to account for those acts delhi you have the last thirty seconds of this. i'm all for accountability i'm all for rule of law but the point of the point here is that we should be consistent when it comes to death and crime so in the same way that we treat isis fighters coming back to the u.k. we should extend that same level of accountability to british jews who go and join the israeli army and then commit crimes but that's ok because i recognize on the other side of the it's about the only people with a pure truth are not you and your legal organization so i would know it doesn't matter they still commit they still come a human they still commit human rights abuses genocide in gaza and they have done so it's on record so let's be consistent and we're going to have accountable to

rule of law let's be consistent because one may be a death cult which is proscribed another one is an official army but they still are difficult that's going to let it be consistent when doing accountable to the two sides to the israel palestine question is will the pathetic argument ok jonathan arnot m.e.p. for the u.k. independence party in dili hussein journalist at five pillars u.k. thank you very much for taking the time to discuss this issue this hour. that is it for this hour for me i'll be back in half an hour's time with more global news from the week that was and right up to the minute developments as well as they were are going to. be everybody i'm stephen baldwin should test.