that's. in the stories that shaped the way here on our cold war frenzy grips the mainstream media after president putin unveils russia's new strategic arsenal in the annual state of the nation address. the white house and the country learning of that new threat from russian president warning that first reason and in the west that particular mess with russia and he says he's not bluffing. italy has wrapped up voting in its general election with projected results showing gains for the center right but no clear winner. civilians continue to come under heavy shelling in syria's eastern good one week after a humanitarian corridor was set up to allow noncombatants a chance to leave so far only two children have managed to escape.

broadcasting live direct from our studios in moscow recapping week's top stories with our weekly program this is our chief international now president putin outlined his vision of russia's future on thursday delivering the annual state of the nation address to parliament he also revealed details about the country's new nuclear arsenal which he said includes missiles that are too advanced to be intercepted by any existing air defense systems i've seen your correspondent but i guess you have explains more about the hardware that is getting western news outlets so worked up. if you aren't russian in the first hour putin's speech would have been boring taxes and corruption and science and industry that sort of thing after that though it got real hot real fast and i mean russia

is a major nuclear power basically nobody wanted to talk to us nobody listened to us listen to us now rockets lasers nukes in a rush hooted unveiled in us and all of new weapons bigger faster stronger and deadlier than any that came before the law. the some super heavy i.c.b.m. two hundred ton missile capable of penetrating any existing defense in service at the end of the year next an enigmatic new development seemingly nuclear powered cruise missile it flies extremely low to avoid detection and can hit almost anywhere in the world says putin up next it's just fantastic an underwater

drone submarine also nuclear powered with a nuclear payload it can reportedly underwater for months and months silent and media undetectable next to the oven god the hypersonic missile extremely fost rockets that can actively dog and the vaid anti missile defenses that it is heading for the target like a meteorite to top all of that off laser weapons systems though putin didn't go into detail saying only that it still classified the russian president says one of these isn't to intimidate or scare anyone or invade anyone these a serious way. designed for one thing restore and guarantee russia's strategic power in an age where an ever expanding nato is trying to nullify it.

we have no plans and have never had plans to use this potential to achieve offensive or aggressive in russia's in hands military power is simply a guarantee for peace on our planet for it preserves restore parity in the world sure that there's no point in gauging in a senseless arms race after all mutually assured destruction has kept the world safe for the best part of a century or president putin's speech caused alarm across much of the western media and he addressed it him self with n.b.c. news after many outlets accused russia of risking another cold war the white house and the country learning of that new threat from russian president warning adverse reason and in the west in particular not to mess with russia computer graphics of missiles flying over mountains and heading over oceans and he says he's not bluffing several analysts in the west have said this is the declaration of

a new cold war are we in a new arms race right now my point of view is the individuals who have said that a new cold war has started are not really analysts they do propaganda if you were to speak about arms race then an arms race began at exactly the time and moment when the u.s. opted out of the anti-ballistic missile treaty. vladimir putin also said that the new weapons serve to counteract washington's deployment of missile defense systems in alaska and california nato is also expanding further into eastern europe with two scientists set up in romania and poland new locations are soon to be established in japan and south korea as well. and we spoke to several political commentators they told us president putin speech it was really just about emphasizing that russia has an effective and up to date nuclear deterrent thing. these are not designed for war fighting these are designed to send

a very clear message that president putin said quite clearly which is that these these systems are basically if you mess with us we will nuke you and we will not hold back now that is a strategic statement it's not a statement about escalating to deescalating which is what the russians are often accused of and were accused of officially by the american government. to decades after the cold war the usa really ruled the world in that balance of power is now shifting with russia coming in with many other major players from what putin is saying and i hope he's absolutely right that this is a deterrent against the american led defense system and that's a very important effective. i don't see an intensification of hostile talk or scheming and planning in the cards so it's very reasonable to expect that in the short term there will be.

calling upon moscow to reenter into overall scape arms to go shushan talks that is certainly the greatest likelihood and certainly what for dinner putin. is looking for. the u.s. state department spokeswoman said she believes the visuals shown during volodymyr putin speech illustrating the missiles capabilities actually depicted a nuclear attack on the u.s. state of florida however now even a russian reporter tried to challenge her on that subject and this is not the first time she's made caustic responses to journalists working for russian media. if they're small to take in the united states it. sends a different direction so i had to say that they are going to tell you everything from their shit yeah ok ok an upside down i'll move on.

but it's not. what is funny if it turns out they're not. a fish because of the price of government the same question about rush hour late ok. did by the russian government the fact that you were here as a representative of the russian government so-called news organizations russian news if you were. misspent in the green. zone i don't see so many. you know what i don't know if you are working for today or what but i remember my mom met him at the beach. because we got to go with her i i will talk to you after the know your body part that's. stable for the rockies for for. the

preliminary results of the general elections in italy pointed to a possible hung parliament with voters favoring anti-establishment and center right party say center right coalition that includes silvio berlusconi's forza italia and matteo. nord is expected to be the anti-establishment five star movement in both of the chamber of deputies and the senate as well it is projected the coalition will get about thirty seven percent support and the five star movement thirty percent that would make it the single largest party but without the numbers needed to govern alone artie's on associates. working on reports now from rome. well it's been quite an election here in italy from the very curious and untested new election laws that was used for the first time in the selection some of the curiosities about the candidates to of course media frenzy with journalists both italian and international trying to make sense of it all now we're at the headquarters of the five star movement this is

a movement that was founded back in two thousand and nine by indeed a comedian and from being an online political movement to really became a force to be reckoned with here in italy becoming the largest single party to make its quite far in this election we also of course have on the center right silvio berlusconi of course who cannot himself run for political office given his previous conviction convictions for time previous prime minister eighty one year old was the face of the force a tally a movement which is in coalition with lead which is more right leaning group that is very so tough in terms of its anti immigration stance and we saw the democratic party of former prime minister matilda and see trying to kind of pick up the political force here in italy yet again after he had staked his whole career on a referendum which he had failed but so far it hasn't worked quite well for the democratic party now taking all of these issues into account one of the bigger ones

has been immigrations with passions flying high on all sides of the spectrum including protests taking place. around was. just having talked about immigration also the economy has been a huge issue here of course with italy having a huge public debt of one hundred. thirty five percent of its g.d.p. unemployment being super high especially for youth a stagnant economy really some people some critics have been saying that this election should have been taken a little bit more seriously in terms of this untested election system that many have found to be quite confusing including italians we've spoken to. i'm a bit disillusioned the programs are always the same and after the first three

months in power the political parties never keep the promises they made for them it was pretty complicated it was a bit unclear and there will be consequences. while you are trying to gain the trust of voters creating a mess like this amounts to a real shot while some of the media headlines we've seen have just this election chaotic unpredictable disappointing even a farce and certainly expecting it to have been more organized i mean even throughout the night here we've seen some international journalists be quite taken aback with some of the organization that has been taking place with no good internet connections inside press centers with journalists having to go outside for some live broadcasts to be able to do their work so this was something that's been quite symbolic in terms of how this whole election has been unraveling in terms of even touching journalists who have arrived here to be able to to try to be able to do their job and to be quite surprised with the way things have been panning out so

we do expect final results to be announced sometime on monday afternoon and certainly we'll be bringing you those as they come in. we can now cross live to antonio who is a political analyst of for us here on our two international thanks for being with us here. so. kind of an interesting night to watch this all play out according to the exit polls that we have the center right coalition including berlusconi's party has received the most votes although he can't actually serve as of yet with the center left facing defeat what are your thoughts on the results so far. first of all thanks for having me i think at the two main. all of these. elections that the where at the. tour now and the five are. sexists about

to now it was an expat day every lol because they're all. meant to vote and bowl but instead the turnout was why close to the last elect shown in that twenty to dean more than. seventy percent that's about the sexy sit all five started a movement that. explained by the why the gap between the establishment in that he and the people know about the center right coalition of that we were to be the biggest that in. the political system and silvio

berlusconi e-mail average to ally. who are for the anti establishment the. movement. now one thing that we thought was particularly interesting was that there was the right wing the parties that were so popular ahead of the election despite the fact that we saw almost daily anti-fascist protests across the country those two ideas seem to be opposite each other. two main. fact or explain this all. to movement the first that is the high unemployment in italy and the sakal and that is the immigration this is why i hate the fat right

to and the teacher really leave it all their core the fourth then in the sense of right they flourish and the more still hold the wallaces so successful we're going to be in the market all of italy because the immigration is. broken have particularly important important for people in this and nor could it not italy now we saw headlines warning that the e.u. would not be happy by any of the results of the election no matter which party came to power do you agree with us. i agree. is that. we view back to and seeing that the. government. can met how that. may be

in net heparin let. it we'll follow the guidelines to all european union. i think at that course three of you will be appealing to you on that will be a slap thought. antonio so interesting to hear your thoughts going to be interesting to see how this plays out as well thanks for being with us here on our to international. thank you. all right russia's military says only two children have managed to escape the besieged syrian district of eastern go to five days after russia set up a humanitarian corridor to help civilians leave.

well here are images of the moment syrian soldiers saved these two children they were clearly in shock and were come and provided aid after reaching government positions the russian ministry of defense has stressed that militants in the enclave are preventing others from escaping by opening fire on them and the minister also says insurgents there are using people as human shields now the un security council earlier adopted a resolution demanding a thirty day ceasefire across syria without delay and russia sees the opening of its humanitarian corridor and its attempts to establish ceasefire windows as a step towards implementing that call damascus has also attempted to evacuate the wounded and tried sending forty six aid trucks to the area but they were able to get through as militants opened fire along the humanitarian route aid workers stationed at a government checkpoint close to eastern good i told us about the plight of civilians there. i'm here with the syrian army and i'm ready to help leaving

eastern ghouta we have ambulances here with the words of the list of the here around the clock to provide first aid to people from the east and a medical labs also work twenty four hours have provided vehicles equipped with all modern facilities medical workers also ready. if there were some people who wanted to leave eastern goods but all of a sudden we only saw a gunman opening fire using mortars to intimidate civilians. is located just outside of the syrian capital. damascus has been occupied by various rebel and islamist groups for years and under siege since two thousand and thirteen and in the north of good as a refugee camp it is hoped fleeing civilians can be relocated to everett's to provide safe passage for those desperate to escape are being coordinated with the syrian red crescent buses and ambulances on standby as well hoping the militants

will cease fire long enough for civilians to get out now people inside the insurgent held on klav are being notified about the location of the court or through leaflets text alerts and loudspeakers first aid point have also been set up near the exit to the court or the situation in the district meanwhile has provoked heated debate at the un security council. the fighting has not stopped the opposition groups operating in eastern good to have made clear their commitment to the ceasefire on the very first day the militants use the declared pulls to stop an onslaught on the second day the same mortar shelling has continued including of the humanitarian corridor not a single person has left the danger zone. there were reports that the assad regime once again used chlorine gas as

a weapon i'm tired of asking this but do you understand how pointless it would be for damascus to use chemical weapons both from a military and political standpoint whereas for the militants it would make perfect sense i think you understand this perfectly well but you persistently look for a pretext for an armed intervention. russia does not get you know laterally rewrite the terms of the resolution if russia is able to deliver a five pools let it deliver a twenty four hour one you wouldn't need to me because you're our western partners are patrolling the situation as if the. solution applies only to damascus and to russia as if it all depends almost exclusively on the will of our country may i ask you what you have done to implement the resolution if any of you lifted a finger to use your influence on those who you consider the moderate opposition have you persuaded them to lay down their weapons and release hostages. who was playing with fire the one who was doing that was file is all it was providing

weapons who is providing the scenario with fighting men think them who is providing media cover for them and trying to show that that what is happening is. a big must let go of innocent people what they care about is those whom they had supplied whom they had finances whom they had been breathing in the last few years and now they have lost the war but they don't have the same quotes to admit that they lost that water was do they just keep on bargaining and making all those claims the white house meanwhile has released a statement condemning the operation against militants in go to and also blaming russia and iran for supporting the syrian government. on this let's now cross live it to rick stirling an investigative journalist and member of the syria solidarity movement rick as always thanks for being with us here on our team international. so

the white house statement blames russia and the syrian government for violating the cease fire agreement now is this even a reasonable charge. well the cease fire agreement explicitly excludes the terror groups that basically dominate the region so in areas that are there just a billion that's where the ceasefire applies in the areas that were the terrorists are launching mortars into damascus and our group that was explicitly excluded in point number two of the resolution so the statement also says russia is killing civilians under the false auspices of counterterrorism operations if you think that the white house seriously believes that russia wants to deliberately kill civilians even from a purely military point of view what would actually be the gain of this. well i think that i think the statement coming out on a sunday it's

a little bit unusual press release on a sunday but it's an escalation of the information war they make a reference to chemical weapons in there and interestingly enough this statement also includes a reference to aleppo which is actually a very good comparison because the very same claims were being made or two months ago in the summer of two thousand and sixteen and when. the armed opposition groups were finally expelled from aleppo oh it was learned that the civilians were really joyful at finally being liberated and aleppo today the civilians are returning they're rebuilding used to aleppo other people walking home stand west aleppo without fear so it's a bizarre and well it's a good comparison because the same claims were being made a boat used aleppo fourteen months ago that are now being made a boat used and it's basically

a lot of false information accusations without evidence in and just let's call it what it is propaganda. you mentioned the comparison to a aleppo there in all cases they seem to be very harsh accusations now earlier syrian president assad pointed out that the west chose concern for innocent life only when the syrian army is advancing why do you think that is. well it's the whole point of us very one sided of course the major funder of that group to actually salute and the action in east ghouta is so to your arabia which is of course a very distinct area and a reactionary country and and so they're they're funding the war and unfortunately so do europeans very closely allied with the united states there. very biased on this and it made no bones about it they've been calling for regime

change since since the summer of two thousand and eleven so. basically what we have going on here is a both violation of international law it's it's illegal internationally to fund a proxy army to try to overthrow a government you don't like and that is coupled with an information war where they make a lot of accusations which are untrue now the capital itself damascus remains under periodic shelling by militants in eastern good and. is it even possible to bring this under control definitely in fact in fact the syrians have been. ground forces of the syrian army that your forces are working there so the bombing obese go to is really been a hole in it in comparison for example to what the u.s. or coalition did to rocka syria what the syrian and the russian air forces are doing you need is a is it is

a small fraction of the. bombs that were dropped in rocca what the syrian army is doing is that it's advancing more on the ground i believe and i recaptured twenty percent i'm not sure if that number is is how accurate it is but i think they will be advancing on the ground and we're probably looking at weeks or months before the liberation if you go and sadly what's going on now is the west is trying to prolong the war and for the syrian government run really great regaining control of that region i mean i think i've mentioned before that on trips i've made to damascus i've seen it with my own eyes that the effects of these mortars that are launched from east into damascus people were killed on our doorstep. right sterling unfortunately that i mean you have that firsthand experience but it's that first hand experience that we need to help us sort through all of this thanks for

giving us your thoughts on this now many media outlets have been quick to compare the situation in eastern goodell with what was seen in the previously besieged syrian city of aleppo as you heard us mention there but as our teams you go down of comments they often overlook a number of inconvenient truth in their reports president arafat and his russian recused of unleashing all out war against the people of good russia and the syrian government are launching an offensive actually its army is watching hundreds of missiles and mortars on civilian homes hospitals hospitals are targets in syria and the regime has been bombing them ruthlessly among all things eased goatees one of the last jihadi bastions just like aleppo it's been a long time den of the nusra front and the likes and since then nuestra and its allies have only been getting cozy of their militias any good to have a record of forcing civilians to sit tight i mean the fighting and the worse it is

for them the better the evidence indicates that non-state groups in eastern guta and in particular josh islam are also responsible for inflating the price of food and other basic necessities there arbitrarily restricting the movement of civilians wishing to leave and abducting and arbitrarily detaining people. human shields is a tactic favored by all terrorists including those who were in aleppo. and just like any still oppose there are no western reporters in rebel held go to reporters shoes are filled by young prodigies that. this was just a shame that a country seat of the mosque under suspicion. for serving is

a goal of this regime. the white helmets a group marketing itself as a civil defense initiative there are volunteers work. diligently and cvs as they have at the scenes of jihad is for executives. from. wherever jihadi factions first they bring their white helmets in tow. like aleppo is no exception over doesn't for me will be back with more weakly in about twenty nine minutes.