is much more than twenty percent last year in spite of the sanctions in spite of counter sanctions so there is an independent interdependence and we have to be able to to find ways and means to cope with the each other's eyes spoke about this question as i spoke about this confidence building measures i think it's very important to go back to ninety seventy five let's look at very carefully what we decided to do in helsinki not the seventy five i believe that many of these ideas would be and could be extremely relevant in today's world and we committed to to stay behind of these principles so stances were different world was different but those principles are in my opinion they are quite relevant today i'm sure they are and i'm not debating that but in today's russia the way russia sees it there are two fundamental problems first is the sanctions and anti russian sanctions and leaders in larchmont let's talk about the interaction sanctions i know that your

president has actually said that. the sanctions are hurting russia and here up do you think there could be damaging enough for them to reverse them actually told to trade has increased in spite of the sanctions so imagine how much it would have a national service that is the point so we can do much more if there are no that kind of political problems but but i said you need confidence building measures and it's not one sided effort it's two sided effort that i think we have you have to go back to why sanctions are cured and you have to be able to solve those problems behind that but. that is something that is almost unsolvable because then i could tell that for the we are in the point that he appointed you think the sanctions that work in the in the in the present world you cannot say there are problems that are insolvable that have to be solutions we had solutions even during

the cold war period why not to have solutions in today's world so you and nato have been. have established a joint center in finland to fight fight huybrechts threats aiming to destabilize europe and. made us assistant secretary general actually said that russia will be the one object being watched very closely finland is partially financing that do you believe that russia represents a threat to finland but i think we have to be prepared for new threats and world is not what do you believe russia does if you want to i think it's not relevant to look at where these threats are coming from i think it's relevant that that even small countries have to be able to prepare for that type of new type of security risks i understand that every country in the world almost every country in the world does it well what would those security risks be i mean if it's not russia that what there are many kind of risks criminality criminal affords us as

a success well traditional security risks are there for sure when then tension is there the risk risks are higher and small country has to prepare for that and finland is doing that because of our national interests and we are doing that at the end of the day we are doing that even on our own i think finland has been able to actually carve out a perfect balance between good relations with russia and the west somehow you just managed to juggle your error than other countries do you feel like a finland could be mediator between russia and other european countries should others take example of how you guys do it it's difficult to say to others that please follow our model but. i think i'm quite so surprised how finland has been able to succeed even in these square difficult circumstances and the dialogue between finland and russia on the highest level as well and that's a good thing i don't mean that there are not problems between finland and russia

tied to time as well but we have been able to solve those problems because of the fact that you start goes on and we accept the fact that circumstances are a bit different than they have been and hopefully we can also solve these problems with their with their let's say external environment but russia and finland off in london russia can do that oh. thank you very much for the center of all the best and have a nice rest thank you so much. with the islamic state and its many confederates defeated or facing defeat in syria what is next for this war torn country what justification exists for the us to maintain

military forces that does washington want syria partition. and why. fight against terrorism is no longer at the heart of america's defense policy u.s. defense secretary has outlined a new strategy in which countering russia and china takes priority. a scandal worse than watergate that sound some republican lawmakers have described a top secret memo that allegedly exposes political bias against strong at the highest level of law enforcement now they are demanding it be made public.

how long it was that someone i knew more screwed up and the teenagers attacked a school in eastern siberia injuring six people including a teacher it's the third such incident in less than a week. good evening to you thanks for joining us this hour you're watching r.t. international. if you decide to challenge america's experiment in democracy it's going to be your worst day those are the words of the u.s. defense secretary as the unveiled america's new defense strategy which will now primarily focus on deterring russia and china. but we will continue to prosecute the campaign against terror that we're engaged in today but great power competition not terrorism is now the primary focus of your security first and foremost this

america's defense strategy so to speak is so much on the offensive side of the tracks it almost makes you think that someone copy and pasted the old name into the you know into the headline space so it's the first time since the cold war american military is focusing on this great competition of powers so this can really be seen as sort of a that sort of mentality making a comeback what it also means is the infamous war on terror is taking the backseat it is being put on the back burner so to speak instead washington is focusing on russia china iran and north korea but really the pentagon is singling out moscow and beijing have a listen we face growing threat from revisionist powers as different as china and russia or from each other nations that do seek to create a world consistent with their authoritarian models for sure in veto authority over and over nation and economic diplomatic security decision doctrine calls for

modernization what what would you expect to see well another word used by the u.s. defense secretary was fundamental this is how he characterized this modernization that he's been talking about and mostly the pentagon is going to be focusing on space on cyber security and on its nuclear program so in terms of cyber security they're going to be overhauling the whole thing really we don't know the details yet but obviously big big big changes are coming up especially with all of the russia and china craze in terms of the nuclear program they're seeing it as a reaction you know as sort of a reaction to what russia has been doing in this sphere and if you're talking about outer space and defense position that this is not going to be cheap what's the money being talked. well the secretary of defense used this opportunity to ask for more money or at least well make a step in that direction saying that budget cuts arguably delivered the worst blows

to the pentagon and to the u.s. national and national defense but at the same time you have to remember that it's not only about how much money the pentagon gets but also how it chooses to spend it for example hundreds of billions of dollars have been splashed out on the new thirty five fighter jet and that development hasn't been even past the most basic stages. well jennifer breeden an attorney specializing in foreign policy says that washington's making a big mistake relegating the war of terror and its list of priorities the shows again a lack of understanding of just the foreign structure that many people in the u.s. government have including general mattis and a lack of what's going on the threats of the world i mean keep in mind this statement came where he's saying basically that the war on terrorism or terrorism itself is no longer a great concern of the united states this comes just hours after a prisoner and a french prison just stabbed several person officers yelling allahu akbar and so

this is certainly still a concern not only should it be a concern for the united states but for most of our allies and other countries around the world so put that on a back burner by saying that you want to you know reestablish your standing in the world and reestablish this kind of power struggle of this power between powers like russia and china and the u.s. will focus on that by then not even addressing terrorism global terrorism which is a genocidal movement targeting millions of people is really it takes really a backseat to kind of anything else you want to do because the u.s. has to be a leader in targeting terrorism especially genocidal acts of terrorism and by just ignoring it you're never going to be able to claim that standing. the teenager has the time to school livingston sort of be injuring six people including a teacher. who managed to the costs and inflicted injury sustained free school children and

a teacher who the next a child received a blow to the face another one was struck on the back and another girl something. else is in the school who is the one to to calm mufon like this could have been expected from that action and no money could have anticipated just would have. got the numbers pretty soon. and that's all amid a string of similar attacks throughout russia this week the details these artes jacqueline berger. the past five days have seen a frightening trend creeping up in russia with three different attacks occurring at schools.

and all those cases the young perpetrators used basic weapons not an axis as that was likely all that they had at their disposal and a disturbing online trend may also link these incidents our sources believe that violent online groups that center around tragedies like the columbine high school massacre may also be a common factor now just to remind you the columbine tragedy took place in the u.s. back in one thousand nine hundred ninety two students armed to the teeth killed twelve of their classmates and a teacher and that horrific massacre is apparently inspiring violence and children who weren't even born when it happened it's so popular that the followers of such groups even have a name for themselves columbine years now russia's version of facebook called v.k. has dozens of these pages open to all we did a simple quick search and found scores of them with post that promote violent behavior things like describing the power someone feels when they have a gun in their hands one of the alleged perpetrators of monday's incident has been confirmed to be a follower of such pages and today's and wednesday's instance are being looked into

see if the same is true for them as of today russian officials have announced that they will begin shutting down pages with extremist content the communications watchdog groups and social media which call for violence in schools it will be undertaken under the criteria of terrorism extremism and then. to commit suicide but the question remains if closing pages will really be enough in the long run especially given that a number of students have already taken the next stop and used violence against their classmates. to his defense ministers announced his country's laws the military operation the series could have controlled freedom region starting with cross borders shyly. pulis lee has more on how events unfolded we're hearing from the turkish defense minister that a de facto turkish military operation has begun across its border now this is been corroborated by the syrian kurds the white jeep who say that since those day night some seventy shells have been fired by the turkish military on to their villages

now it's one of the only a statement by the turkish president and the one in which he said that the united states has admitted to establishing a terrorist army on the turkish syrian border any chord on the united states to deal with that terror at its infrastructure and these comments by the turkish president so infuriated could see living in the afan region that earlier they took to the streets also they were protesting against what we see happening slowly on the ground which is turkish tanks needing to little buddha this is what citizens of africa have to say. right now our freedom will be the ones graveyard today hundreds of thousands are protesting to tell him that the people of our friend will never leave their land. the international community should send a message to turkey telling them to stop. the y.p. g.m. and stand so we can depend on what sells. well this comes after the statement that

the coalition forces were working closely with the syrian democratic forces to establish and train a new syrian border security force but what we've seen happening is the american administration backpedaling now on plans to establish such a border force essentially after it created such a huge and furious backlash from america's close ally turkey the u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson has said that the entire issue has been mis portrayed and misdescribed the u.s. state department has this to say is he saying that when the pentagon says we're going to try to commit forces because the people that took that long or as you just just being i wouldn't. i would have to refer you to the department of defense on that i think they were clear in the statement that they put out so let me just refer you to them on that. but i'm asking about closing comments yesterday we said there's no border security force that's that's not what it is to look i have to refer you to the turkish government about what they became so concerned about and

the fact that somebody misspoke and i'm not going to name any names and neither is the secretary but somebody clearly just misstated their policy it's as simple as that the situation is extremely tense on the ground.