oh welcome to sofia and co i'm sophia shevardnadze a legend a good in has won the russian vote is about to embark on a second consecutive term as russia's president what lies ahead for russia and the world now i ask his official spokesperson dmitri preschool thanks a lot for being on our program it's been a while actually so i guess put it has to win more often for us to talk to you but we've got a lot to talk about let's start with the elections lectures on over present couldn't got much more than anyone expected he got more than twenty twelve historical records in the country here but you know everyone thought he was going to win even the people who didn't like him were like of course is going to win i

mean there's like no doubt about it but the bets were like sixty sixty five percent but this time did you expect this result and himself he said that it was quite unexpected for him. quite unexpected and. well of course as a president of a country when you have this level of support you feel the level of responsibility because every leader. carries a burden of responsibility of support. i was in america recently in europe. what they're saying is that because there's so much pressure from the west towards russia that kind of helps consolidate russia's public opinion and health putin gain this much but would you agree that well partly yes of course we can hardly ignore this effect of international pressure pressure coming from outside because this is russia its own standing country this country. historical traditions

and historical mood of people you know they face any pressure coming from outside the unite they unite and be united this strong leader. this happened numerous times during our history and of course partly it is happening no because when you when you see unprecedented pressure when you see even craziness coming from some countries and you understand what i mean. well people people cannot tolerate it they resist and resisting they unite iran strongly and. the russian constitution limits the president to two consecutive terms now when put in was asked about what he's going to do he said i'm not going to change the constitution yet yet being the keyword well actually he never said that he never said them well of course you have to be very precise when you quote. what was

examined otherwise you will say that you are myself. do you take it seriously i mean seriously he said no no he said the question was. have you ever thought are you planning constitutional reform in this country. because international i was young and he said not yet but it's not about changing constitution or constitutional reform is more complicated thing but he said not yet and you have to be precise in voting so you never did it before you never did it in the year of two thousand and eight and he was enjoying again overwhelming support of the people of this country and. presumably should you want that in the year of two thousand and eight he would have easily done that to change the constitution and just the constitution in accordance with

his own political perspectives he never did that and we don't have any slater's reason not to believe him not to trust him not to think that he is not going to just constitution in accordance with his personal political will the only thing that he's pursuing the only go is go over ensuring a prosperity arising prosperity of the people of this country stability of this country and. well economical breakthrough of this conflict so just to precise when he meant no constitutional reform yet he meant that maybe they will become traditional reform but it wouldn't be tied to his personal staying or not staying in power is that what you're saying well of course ok of course all right i know that after elections i get president this term is going to be focusing on internal affairs are going to focusing on anything that's going on economy what would that

mean for the foreign policy would that isolate russia either further from the rest of the world you know to the contrary to the contrary. russia and president putin is looking for. repairing a relationship where it is possible. and looking for developing and furthering relationship with. various countries especially. europe. the united states and. proceeding in those in these developed as far. as i read it. the foreign policy is far as i can interpret it. in putting is understanding the main purpose of foreign policy and international relations is to ensure a comfortable environment for implementing of domestic tasks. so he's

quiet he's quiet. understandable in his domestic tasks he's got quite a clear plan of development and understanding of. the retards and so on and so forth so what he needs he needs a support from diplomacy to ensure a comfortable environment we got a lot of questions about whether there is a room for maneuver ring between west and russia and there is place for creative diplomacy but first i want to ask you about us and what we do and the consequence is that what we do entails in the west for instance when the president was addressing the nation he unveiled new weapons to the world and said no one has this kind of weapons they're the best the fastest and he said now the world will listen . do we need to show weapons in order for the world to listen to us i mean do we

not have other means to get our message across. well he's been trying to. send his message across since the year of two thousand and two with an industry i don't remember exactly right now but one united states about. and in the treaty of anti-missile defense. there was a very very serious threat. for. mucho nuclear deterrence. and this is a basic basic element of international stability and security. and since then. russia founded. as a state being under siege. of attempts. of neutralizing its nuclear potential nuclear capabilities

thus in danger in the existence of nuclear deterrence. the only way and despite sending. sending signals of an acceptance of this process. proposing various compromises proposing corporation in ensuring international stability unfortunately our country failed to me teresa prosody. and as a result as a result the only way was to show that in any case in any case despite all the efforts of our contact and counterparts in this story despite their continuous efforts to build the entire. entire shilled. russia will be capable of ensuring. mutual deterrence system to feel like this is

working. showing that we have the best defense in the world's yes definitely yes can you elaborate. you know well if you analyze the reaction coming from. responsible members of international society. you will see that the reason a certain understanding understanding of necessity or urgent negotiations or international security and. even design them well trump just complained recently after a phone call to moscow that this arms race is getting out of hand out of whose hands. well we know that we know that. nuclear weapons i mean not to be used. they are made to

protect. and the main purpose of existence of nuclear weapons is not to be used. so they protect and they ensure stability and they sure this balance. but we're not only two countries to bring nuclear weapons nuclear potential other countries. countries that are about to become nuclear powers or countries who are endangering the world to become nuclear powers countries that might have been already might have become already nuclear powers. we all know that and all these can lead to a change of balance and that is extremely dangerous and it needs cooperation between leading nuclear powers to ensure a process of nonproliferation to cooperate in well in the in strategic stability but i think when he manned the arms race is getting out of hand he really meant

russia and the united states and you know i was asked this question when i was in america and i thought it was kind of funny because there is such a discrepancy in russia's military budget and america's military budget i mean there were like seven hundred billion dollar budget with like eighty billion just bonus this year and all of our budget is going to be reduced yet so how. anyone will talk about you are very seriously. wrong of course we cannot compare all military spending hours. so we were in five. in five years we're going to spend less than three percent of g.d.p. for military for military defense purposes and for arms. production purposes it cannot be compared to the spend eight years of the united states. but but i would like to remind you of the latest statements of president. russia is not going

to be. to be driven into the arms race it does not correspond with president putin's. merrily go of domestic economic development and domestic breakthrough in economy so we are all and president we all do not need. and it was confirmed and declared by president putin and this is the main declination that we have to take into account primus best go again take a short break right now when we come back we're going to continue talking to me to be scoffed russian president's press secretary talking about everest think at rest is between russia united states and europe we're talking about the media wars and much more stay with us.

the far right to in britain isn't just on the march it's taking violent mother's action i don't like the pick leaning against an argument i see those organizations which are usually split into which we feel different names how do you view that look. a mess of a complex web of british fashion. when lawmakers manufacture consent instead of public wealth. when the ruling classes protect themselves. with the famous merry go

round the sun in the one percent. going all middle of the room signals. the real news is really low. and we're back with jimmy to the score for president's press secretary mr b. school foreign embassies meghan kelley asked him about whether wearing a new cold war were not present and dismissed it as propaganda he said you know

anyone who's saying that america rush hour at the new cold war that's part of propaganda but when you really look at the facts right i mean. there are troops on russia's border and they're getting closer and closer russia is creating new weapons a huge media war going on between the countries accusations flying back and forth especially towards russia with the poisoning and the meddling in the elections what is it then it's not the cold war what is it that what's happening between american version right now saying we're witnessing lots of elements of cold war and unfortunately we're seeing more and more of called war in orange and we're facing it in international relations. with face. well. let me say it's. not all the countries are comfortable with the

rising russia. well the rising russia russia with the leadership of president put a human baby has did by now it's been eighteen years now well the more russia is rising the more uncomfortable they feel and the more tough. they start to behave in international relations and then this type of behavior there really. is international law the basics of international relations for. free trade and commerce regime there are really two two and they're ready to forget about. both fair fair trade they're there ready to forget about w t o. they're really to forget about every rules when they want to suppress russian why and this is why the famous words of craziness we're going to to to make them pay czar pay the price you know it's like maniacs rochelle why russia i mean there is

china i mean it's rising much faster and much more it's in comparable there's no comparison to russia how fast you know china is rising i mean india much less but still there are so many other countries that are rising whether we talk about human rights what they accuse us off i mean that comparable what happened in russia in those countries rate in comparable but is the russia that stehman eyes in terms of even rising they're rising much faster than russia why is it that the russia is always the infernal enemy. bro i don't think i can explain it in words it's a very complicated. complex. that needs much more deeper analysis i think it's comes from history if you see through history russia was was treated. as a rival theirs and then a me for what's of interest. so you just listen there are some

signs and it's a similar only hearing i am some remaining in ninety two good western countries towards russia coming from from that time but it does mean that all the countries in the west that they share this for the last. lots of countries in europe then the stand that russia is and take a good part of europe and you cannot think about prosperous europe and developing europe if you if you don't see russia being involved in all the european processions. that russia is one of these. has to be taken into account and so on and so forth so it's. we cannot say that this angry attitude is an overwhelming one it is very serious unfortunately but but there are some voices that see sober voices coming from from various regions of the world i think i thing this angry voice is overwhelming if we talk about are united

states i mean i have and i lived in a country for ten years i love the country but i have never ever encountered and seen anything like that this is a russian mysterio you know the perfect mix of the brain washing system i want to talk to you about that because i feel like the main difference between the cold war now in the putting doesn't like this as a term to describe what's going on now and the cold war then the actual cold war is the media war because now we have the media on both sides and to be fair like i think we should take you know fair share of the blame here because what you have is that everything is out in the open back then there are rules of it of the game you know like some boundaries that either side rarely crossed right now with the media putting it out everything there is what president think or say what journalist think or say what a citizen ever average citizen things or says that really mean. takes it and takes that the animosity to

a whole new level attention to the people's level which was never there before i mean soviet union and america there were ideological enemies but the people never hated each other they hated each other assistance right some which longed for all things western and vice versa right now what we have is this hatred on peoples level which and i think the media is to blame for that do you feel like this media war this unfiltered media war is really adding to this animosity between extremely well people people or. need to gainst this media wars they are victims they fail victims of this media wars and. they cannot create their own point of view they cannot be known or of their own attitude. so they are being. motivated but they are being driven into

a certain wave of emotions without even understanding them and they know they simply cannot have any objective approach towards these or that event towards these or that country. is a huge machine walk. what happened during the last. three or four decades. and media they started to rule the world economically commercial media and also political media i mean media from the united states great britain. their most powerful their most influential and they have. the widest possible reach in the world globally and of course this feeling of monopoly. so if it brings it brings it will to manipulate this monopoly so you can you can use this monopoly is

a tool of delivering your point of view whether it is right or wrong it doesn't matter you can adjust it in accordance with situation. to simply to manipulate the brains of people throw the world. and this is why a strongly a poor oppose. appearance of any rivals even small rivals like r t in comparison would you say we're both our say was that pretty well for the past they hired i sincerely believe that size doesn't matter here. it can be small but you can do much much much more influential things that that is what you are doing and that is what makes the very nervous it was just me and it's only a minority that ending to be irreverent for them and this rivalry can ruin the system of brainwash but this is the reality do you feel like this media or should

you know be put down a notch a little bit maybe maybe even if of course maybe someone should say from the top you guys take it easy getting out of iraq might i would like to to remind you that russian side through diplomatic channels through various channels have. proposed contacts with different partners in the world in western europe and the united states to. cooperate in cyber terror. against cyber terror to cooperate in joint competent. informational fakes and so on and so forth no answer. silence announcer so no no one would would cooperate that is here and then as a result as a result will see all of a sudden willingness of anglo-saxon media

to enjoy the details of disaster. the disaster happening in. happening in aleppo. and pay no attention to disaster happening in iraq or for example so when it comes to actions of correlation. and planes and coalition bombing hundreds tens of thousands of dead people and dead bodies lying there on bird they don't pay any attention you wouldn't find any trace of information on their target innocent yes in anglo-saxon media why because it's the purpose is different the purpose is not to be objective. whatever happened to the

culture of the spirit because i run old reagan he hated so the e.u. never made it a secret that he wanted to break it up but he went to the trouble to learn all the soviet jokes so we control this so it accordingly. now what you get like this rhetoric back and forth just so desolating i mean the latest coming from the british defense minister just go away and shut up what happened britain britain is a different story and it's still in general what happened to this culture of dispute. getting lower and lower unfortunately. what we see is a country of byron and shakespeare a country of condo a country that used to be a brilliant empire. with the with. emancipate traditions traditions of diplomacy and so on and so forth. it turned into a country where where where. politicians are are meeting

well let me just say irresponsible statements. this is a problem it's a reflection of for a very hostile. policy unpredictable policy and this is the reality that we have to face and this is the reality that we have to face we have to minimize the can sequence is over this unfortunate reality for our country and we have to ensure using all possible diplomatic and political methods we have to minimize the consequences for or own country and to ensure that conditions for our domestic purposes is suitable and comfortable. about that and much more in the second half of our program we'll talk about whether u.s. russia relations can get better and if put in jokes and the things that he says are lost in translation when it comes to western media.

join me every first week on the alec simon chill and i'll be speaking to us from the world of politics. i'm showbusiness i'll see if. their brains for a single purpose. they have a superman. they start training very young. eight months of intensive schooling. their rats. and they save lives.

show seemed wrong but all roles just don't hold. any goals yet to shape out this day comes to educate and in gains from it because betrayal. when so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. jollibee by the mailbag of the charge by the medieval my dad is. going to be my mommy i know god you were walking they go they. met in the temple in the jail and you attack him you make believe you just have

images to see so if you want. to get a little bit of a natural again i don't see it to be a large city because the. page you see it is in a world scene and i think good for you to check it is allowed.

breaking news at least two people have been killed in a hostage incident at a supermarket in the southwest of france they got another reportedly pledged allegiance to islamic state and demanded the release of two thousand and fifteen paris the times suspects salas this along. president truong picks john bolton as his latest national security advisor the white house veterans now. and for his hawkish stance on iran and north korea and was in favor of military action against both countries. other saugor surrounding data harvesting from facebook takes another twist as it's revealed that the british defense ministry paid cambridge to analytical parent company for psychological profiling of target audiences.