it's been handled by the british government understandably of course and perhaps set given the fact their nerve agent was used in a british security to remind ourselves russia has said all along to do this you're accusing us of something and you know actually showing it on your accusing us of using get us involved in the conversation britain saying yeah i think this is this is the latest nothing's changed britain saying no. i mean there have passed it on to the organization for the prohibition of chemical and i don't talk in russian did not talk to you not only that the tone with which to use them i think has handled it reasonably statesman lightweight but the foreign minister by his johnson and even more defense secretary. has actually said what i think about gosh are time for it to shut up and go away which i think doesn't go down well anywhere and clearly there's a sense that. yes i've been here supporting the leader in the tough times we've seen this diplomat twenty three only three out is it going to come down after this or now where one has to say that the action of response was

a bit tougher than i anticipated not only it was a breeze over the twenty three diplomats but also closing down the british council i think that's a disaster and i think it's very sad and also the actions of a few clothes in a consulate in st petersburg of course which used to be the embassy when before they go to lucian so that's a very sad move but of course in a sense you're supercold i'm closing down the you russian consulate in san francisco you know it's united states not good but nevertheless it's going to come down no i think that we can see there's no reason for it to stop in the way that both. in london is being escalated and in you know just. north korea in the korean north korean american they get down to talk next week these things and sometimes. they certainly don't have any but given the momentum behind this case given the fact that we've had eighteen months of so-called gusher gate in the meddling in there i don't think so. so it's actually

a nato summit coming up all these meetings so all of this is going to be. high and high so this isn't going to go away so yeah it's a no steaming ahead in the polls over seventy percent. say security for him now or how is that we're going to react to his six more years. to fix first thing of course is to try to deal with some cells already some of the main western newspapers have said this is a sham poll and so on. a lot on the independent nothing's come back particularly the independent. educators that have been have not reported anything major but one of the center where i mean there have been some instances of ballot stuffing back in march on the far east and usually in the caucuses but talking to action observers in moscow it hasn't been anything significant because no need to pay so there is an issue i think that there exclusion. as a candidate was one of the reasons to say question the poll and in fact explain to

our viewers he's not able to stand because of a little conviction at the moment which you dispute but anyway according to the way it works but he couldn't stand this time even if you know if i only had stood of course he wouldn't have got a vast amount what are you surprised about the result. he's got less than two percent no i guess to rally the young people the people who felt not included the people didn't like the way russia was run that was exactly my point is that we did have a look at all can do that and it did quite an active one intelligent quite a well known figure. and she didn't get more than two percent. of course not only in the moscow mayor elections in september twenty first got twenty seven percent so that was very specific and by the way some of the polls as the most voters elected could imagine that voting so putin's. it would go down

a bit it tends to do in moscow and st petersburg in the big cities in the far east and other parts i try to imagine so i sort of just to think it will work. so yeah that something that gives president putin considering all the flak in his ministration of me getting around the world and from some of his critics in russia i give him a good mandate to go forward for the next six years because there's nothing worse than being told by me are not not getting enough of them and they certainly are my belief from what i heard was anything above seventy percent and it was very good news here and yes i'm not much in the end up at about seventy percent the turnout is a bit lower so we're talking about mid sixty's by the end i'd imagine so they were hoping for seventy seventy seventy percent you know nancy but still it's not bad at all but one has to say that campaign has been the relatively lackluster so when you say for the next six years yes he has a powerful mandate but it's not entirely clear what he's planning to do if we look

at the present system equivalents twenty twelve by this by that time he put out a whole series of elect a manifesto some interviews and so on this time we had the state of the nation speech on the first of march which was a fascinating document two thirds of it was dedicated to social policy and dedicated to a digital economy and in the bowl. last was talking about those trying to do clear weapons which would avoid list existence and so on so that set the tone but we don't quite know what is going to happen and what the plan is for the next six years if you remember last time we it was quite clear putting was talking about your creation integration because we then established tradition economic union a whole stack of other things i will say it just one very important thing that state of the nation speech was a hugely important speech because that first two thirds on domestic social policy economic policy echoed many of. concerns of the liberal your foremost we're talking

about alexei could be in the form of minister of finance it's me who left in twenty eleven and he was our great focus seriously this sort of thing he didn't get what he wanted but it certainly did your flecked a genuine you know modernization agenda he didn't use the word would never use the word good work but it's a modernization it is not a mobilization agenda and so while he talked very tough reserving the western part knows he was with me actually i think there was a plan i don't plan quite clearly for a modernization agenda and that's quite important pressure to deliver the region so it came from the university can professor of russian and european studies thanks ever so much i'm going to thank you very much i said you know about. my fan of the presidential candidates have been in this game that long but then here's one everyone was out to run the end of the ninety nine way back then.

it's new year's eve one thousand nine hundred ninety nine president boris yeltsin unexpectedly resigned yeah. but also. then prime minister vladimir putin takes over as interim president of the russian federation the countries are suffering in two thousand with a new face at the helm. during his first months in the kremlin putin offers journalists a regular imps of his working space and even a sneak peek into his family life there. was nothing was the thought in march the fall.

seven year old putin at that time relatively unschooled in politics compared with other candidates when his first presidential election looking at his lineup of rivals you can see familiar faces some of them will also be running in two thousand and eighteen like gregorio linsky who came third in the two thousand race throughout the early two thousand he's active as a state duma deputy and the leader of the liberal yabloko party linsky was among the negotiators who tried to broker a deal with chechen terrorists would seize moscow's dabrowski theater during a crowded musical performance in october two thousand and two. was that. the attackers specifically named linsky as a preferred negotiator because he was a critic of russia's military operation in chechnya but in order for the hoarders national go or some deity. the way it did when you two were pushing toward a change in the coming years you have a political career dwindles his party loses seats in the duma and forces him to sit

out the two thousand and four election another figure on russia's political scene that image or enough ski he was for nearly every presidential election campaign also skips this vote bolstering his image is the eccentric firebrand of russian politics he allows his former bodyguard to run for the presidency instead that's the most surprising thing politician he did back then. he saw. taking part in a quiz show. a survival show. and even a tabloid talk show. actually back then tabloid t.v. was the domain of another two thousand and eighteen candidate and your subject at that time subject was far from politics still the scandal of the switching stations as a russian tourists hilton. was seized can you say was the flux casual the two thousand and eighteen presidential run at least known to the public in the

early two thousand is pavel drew dean in a future communist candidate he's in a different camp at the time during the two thousand election campaign campaign for putin and later he became a member of the ruling united russia party. so ten fifty pm moscow time this is where we stand at the moment i think stay with us by the way this is our international live a special program kevin nicky with you of course all the rest of the team as well forty percent of the vote counted in first place blood the most polluted with gone up to seventy four point two percent these have not confirmed the course. of the way that more of those votes counted but to give you an idea of where it is tonight probably going to be the next as predicted would be for the congress party coming in second right about fourteen point one again that's pretty much as predicted would be the place mode to measure and also the question marks over the veteran liberal democrat leader will this be his last he's been in every

presidential election since they started having a beer the russian federation of six point five percent tonight. now let's talk about one of the main headline to me to you ted now he does these in the election find so we know that and it looks like having he's had it looks like he's the curious president the tonight our correspondent he goes done nothing that his headquarters that it all what's the mood at the putin h.q. like at the moment i think he'd take a guess really everybody's celebrating you can use it is loud because it certainly looks like. there is so there isn't such a force that can now stop polluting from you know grabbing the presidential post now we've talked to some of the coordinators of his campaign and they've told us off camera unfortunately but they've told us that their goal was the intrigue was whether or not flatter me pooty will be able to get more than seventy percent of the vote this was sort of their aim and from the looks of it from the preliminary

results it looks like they've achieved that goal obviously looking at the victory from the outside now in terms of voter turnout of this election nuclear many people are considering a success as well this is not the largest turnout it's hovering at around sixty percent in the history of russian elections but it's certainly closer to the top mark so to speak and people have been voting not just across the eleven time zones in russia but also huge would seem huge lines of russians abroad in italy in milan and in the czech republic and in other countries all over the world even the u.s.'s even cosmonauts at the isis had a chance to cast their vote and they did so obviously it looks like latimer putin will secure the next the next sixty secure the next six years in power.

here seems so just over our shoulder here down there managing our squares a big council underway at the moment but she later we go let you go just saying here there rousing chorus going on we will cross about there later on going to what's going on there's a big party to celebrate this course today as well also being the fourth verse three of the reunification of crimea but with russia we're going to be party about that we're going to correspond it will take a dip and for now we're going to talk to sterling as kalu good m.e.p. and election observer thank you for the server coming to our studio tonight and coming. russia to check out what's been happening here the second observer we've spoken to from the from europe tonight first obvious question then is as far as you see it how was this vote did you say anything untoward was it all going to go on as it should oh yes yes we do i was in most pushover thinner with the case the reports were there been some votes stop and some were but it's usually best to get it but i

guess in most wherever if you know what the case yet seems to be minor i suppose i mean obviously none of it should happen at all but when you consider the scale of this q.j. vote on the scale of the size of this country and you can know we saw some of the footage earlier on a party there was one ballot box that had some papers name but the electronic cameras that have been installed medical and result not null and void now. giving us shit except that they find it's a tiny mind there is no. no there was no support i said about this expected to preserve and put it would be reelected well i think you should go to hughes has to go through two legs he likes the wooing more than seventy percent but we have to wait for the final results because now they are for their promises and also the participation was but i think no mr aborting the miners you know to modernize the big cities of roads to destabilize the country after

a. tremendous period though i think it's time for improve the life of the people and don't show democratization though for us here. we heard earlier on said you saw checa call she was there the opposition here hoping to engage the young the disaffected the people had a problem with the way that russia was being run people safely can live a lot you'd a thought because you often hear a fair bit of moaning specially from abroad but you know everyone's got a right to their own opinion you to feel that maybe she recalled more than that it seems less than two. centenary she's a young woman well known on television well connected she didn't seem to click with the voters he surprised at the. b.s. but that we have to wait to see because i think your electoral base is maybe course of three didn't so so this is a book and also in moscow so i think. she will but i was expecting a better result so i know mr subsects for the years of her story he says he was

a very nice person and. his daughter is going to do with well what we're talking about the various candidates have a good dinner for the communist party was due to come in second although it's way back from mr putin he seems to come in or about the forty percent mark you're going to hear the first time resign when you call your earpiece in he spoke earlier on he's not very happy like the tonight about the way the vote when he says the election was unfair let's listen to him we'll come straight back here is this is this is probably dating from a communist party. yes it's obvious that the vote counts and the whole election procedure was not fair when all the votes will be counted we'll make a decision so one thing is clear despite all that that's been thrown about we passed this election with dignity i want to thank all the people who voted for our program i hope that the person who when will make the relevant conclusions we need to change the economic and political situation in our country and turn to the less

diluting. the return or you can make about the kind of cryptic didn't really say anything said it was unfair and didn't say why you thought it was unfair to let your mind reader i don't know what your answer is to that one why mighty potentially think that his result was unfair considering he was predicted to come in the communist party in a second and a run of one of the. not the by the result but the you know everybody to be sure because the right to complain if you lose your selections you know. does the point here i can. oh for treatment because the. party. will probably nobody would be permitted to participate or that it was this legal. and the congress party i don't think because. i could not. understand. you maybe you'll get a small details about the stars who got to leave it most of us couldn't go to

repeal the first thank you ever so much for coming in and look at those elections and glad what you saw went ok in line with our earlier. came in here as well so it's similar thing for the u.k. believe me it's come up to eleven o'clock here in moscow getting on with our program thank you sir. ok so we're with our suspension election commission says its web site was attacked by hackers from fifteen countries on sunday perhaps no one actually goes about some meddling or hacking that needs any so the military has the inside. take that story. goodness there's this russia story keep going you go by what they say on t.v. we russia has now meddled in to fit within the corrupted practically every single letter of the us constitution and they expect more the threats not going to go away the russians have been at this a long time and i fully expect they'll continue to be out do you have concerns that

they might try and interfere in the u.s. midterms which are coming of course good thing the cia is on and watch putin now expect to taste his own medicine a little of uncle sam's meddling warrick been happening for years you'd never believe how obvious they are about it the u.s. government's own broadcasting board of governors its cold war offspring voice of america. we've broken into that let's go straight president clinton is speaking i believe let's cross over now and get him in moscow and i was supporters throughout our huge country thank you very much for the result. that was the largest yes exactly the way national will pick you are

a team on a member of your team. and all those people who voted today in our great national team but he said that in this case to me what this means is that people appreciate what we have done two hundred very difficult circumstances years see this as a sign of trust and hope people hope that we can work as hard and as a responsibility as we did and achieve even better results thank you that please have such a great team millions of people that we will always be successful right the was that you think it's very important to preserve this unity. it's very important to we you know are those who voted for other candidates and we need this unity to move on. to move on we need to feel close with

a united needed together we will work together but that you can you can we will not be guided by short term interests we will think about the future of our great country the future of our children. but each unit we will certainly work in this way in a way a destined to be successful right that's even thank you thank you very much so by you through you let's work together we have a lot of work to do for russia the i.c.u. thank you god the god . i see you were are sure rush sure.

rush. by saying thank you. i. will ecstatic vladimir putin of course standing this time as an independent candidate. we just really heard that over our shoulder here tourists see when the course russia study crowd he's extremely happy tonight. it looks like a point seven percent at the moment because there's still a lot of counting to be done not even halfway through it not that much but the speech he gave you just saw live in front of the crowds at the celebration the celebration has some meaning to it to a huge million doesn't it the four years is that we had a case in crimea back with russia which happened back in some ways that's gone so quickly and in some ways. a long time ago now the thought stop and so much

controversy in all sides about it but not here it's seen as a huge huge thing to party and indeed is what they are doing across the president putin. hoping he would they weren't sure he would but he came when he said hi to the guys that got them even more fired up for and harmony tonight calling for unity as well and then leading that chant. the complicated path ahead for its next over the next six years which of course will start in may right now watching all of the party i can hear the didn't from excess literally a quarter of a mile away. here is what was it like when you finally came on stage that crowds raul didn't seem to. be. i get that huge reaction to him coming out of the word i told them we're told that he might be hard showing up but he did show up several months truly excited

about that as you mentioned you called for unity and the country and talked about how there's a lot of work going forward to be done with the culture of going to come together even with other russians who voted for the other candidate all the same mistakes that have come across the state and all the fame and seeing her as an artist nobody got quite the reaction that day and i feel like a lot of people really did come out tonight especially to get to see him i mentioned earlier in the evening when it was already announced that he was over seventy percent of the birds there was a huge reaction from the crowds are going to extremely happy and excited and want to also thank god for coming out despite the bitter cold or whatever of the seats behind me a great time despite that they keep it warm i actually need a long time to get living and to get the hot tea that's me hostile that stands around big hearted around the whole square and this court is packed i don't have the pixel count but just looking behind me i can see dollars and i can't even see

the extent of the whole area so it's a big celebration and people are extremely excited and as you mentioned the reason for this concert in the not not today march eighteenth has to be a significant reason is of course to name just one of them with the presidential election but it's also more years he said the treaty was signed. under the umbrella of the russian federation. yeah jack it is quite a funny thing when it first cut to you there's a guy performing on the stage and giving a russian. rising saw it was so good it would cut so you could put it in you i thought she's got even more hidden skills i never thought it was all that it was already talking thank you very much let's take a look at how things stand now with forty five percent of the votes now counted at best place of course not it was seventy four. seventy percent side of second place is going to have a great evening from the longest time i think and that thanks to you know points

that i'm sorry even thirteen point seven the fact that they say that doesn't measure enough even the liberal democrats make money these are things like that so you can say that pretty much as predicted by the feds and like at the moment it sees all but the most votes and with that amount of votes counted but still a way to go yet the. polling stations only closed six minutes ago and you know judging by the serious scale of this country much a logistics of getting not altogether eight candidates move on to get into the kremlin. face is old news bit like us and you know which ones which go down. on the old macos you know i'm sure my daughter so who was saying it to when the. movie would you guess is going to. be easy and it's easy to do.

yes i will be seeing your check top because i still cannot it's. really made before but it doesn't seem like. much but with the feeling you want to go to the end of what you did after you did it but. i'm sure. which. we got on the chin that. you should just look at your. stupid look at each. edition to put up with him to please of the significance of the. so you. would be. all of the presidential candidate

bad ballots today and here are some off the highlights from that thing. to say. hello and. thank you thank you. oh. so the votes are in on the count is all not a good night for. the russian opposition candidate who is looking to really shake

things up a bit it doesn't look like that stopped him from her tonight in fact she gave a really good gloomy reaction the camera earlier on she said a vote for her this was her campaigning strategy vote against everyone else but it doesn't look good repeat going to play golf today when i was going to speak to really approach trying to use that election based they're taking a poll you know what's the reaction the way you want to the exit polls all the preliminary results. they could have been hello again well i can tell you that same use of shock has made a quick appearance here at the h q and of course the journalist wanted to know her reaction to the first preliminary results and here's what she told me just as she was entering the room when she appeared the first. but i. was more to.

tell them that in the past. well this is of course not the worst numbers we have the number of candidates who have scored less and still early days because as far as i understand from the words samia has been telling journalists here the cities and the results from the cities they are counting on are cities with a population of more than one million people and the capital of moscow force russia's second biggest city st petersburg for now the candidate is not here she can not talk to us but instead we have you gave a muslim who was the head of the same you subtract campaign and hopefully we can get some insight about the results right now hello sir thank you so much for agreeing to talk to was everybody so we are hearing that forty.