the two russians accused of poisoning surrogate script pal and his daughter speak exclusivity to artie's editor in chief the interview sounds much of the media and to many british politicians into overdrive saying the men's claims are a joke. terrorists film scenes of a force like chemical attack to send to the u.n.

outpost on line with the hope of discrediting the syrian government according to the russian military. and donald trump signs a new executive order aiming to defend all future u.s. elections from foreign meddling like means less than two months prior to the country's midterm vote. a very warm welcome you are watching the weekly here on r.t. international all the latest headlines around the stories that shaped the week. now on thursday the two men accused of carrying out the poisoning of former russian spy surrogate square pal and his daughter on british soil gave a global xclusive to r.t. claiming they had nothing to do with the assassination attempts their interview to

artie's editor in chief margarita simonyan prompted such headlines in the british press as murderous and having a holiday from hell while others said their claims only make the u.k.'s case stronger. we. need them in them i've been to one you called me on my cell phone and told me that you are a slimeball shooter from the looks on the floor or something it'll slow motion. we it really look like the pictures shown to us by the u.k. doesn't mean that if. and. when the someone why you. we are those who are shown to you in the pictures. and i would say under path through the russians there are those your real names national yes they are real names now does he just called them even now when you were talking about it to tell you the truth you look very nervous on them. what would you look like when your life is turned upside down in

a moment and just one day and changed our lives. what do you work for the g.r.u. at work and you meet and you and i don't either but no one accuses me of working for the g.r.u. was that what you are being accused of that your colleagues accuse us of that by your colleagues you mean journalists who are being accused by u.k. authorities and yes that's the scariest thing where do you work you are adults you need to make a living process if we tell you about our business people we work with will be affected tell me anything so that we believe you everyone has questions what do you do to cut a long story short if you were in the fitness industry artie's editor in chief says she chose not to give her personal opinion leaving it up to the viewers to decide whether to believe the man or not here's what she had to say following the. i knew they were nervous and sweating a lot but had to turn up the air conditioning a lot higher than usual and still there were sweating and wiping their foreheads

which obviously happens when people are nervous there could be a lot of reasons for it i understand this was the first interview in their lives but they could have been nervous for other reasons as well that's also possible they refused to show their i.d.'s on camera because they didn't want to be pursued and identified further but they showed them to me that i did not run the polygraph on them as a journalist i believe what they see i saw those were the people i saw their i.d.'s and that they feed the photos and videos what was going through their minds and whether they were speaking the truth it's hard to see. well it wasn't only the media quick to react to the interview some british politicians and most notably form of foreign secretary boris johnson didn't mince words either you know you see the you see what's happening now with these q two characters produced in this satirical way by putin on russian t.v. . these ludicrous questions make

a mockery of the whole thing and it really makes my blood boil typically boris response really you hear him using vivid language about his blood boiling and he said that alexander traffic share and on murderers and that they're welcome to see him in court if they want to challenge that fact and he also spoke of his work as foreign secretary saying that he holds the kremlin in absolute contempt and that he made what he called the classic mistake of trying to engage with lost go i made the classic classic mistake of thinking it was possible to have a reset with russia and. then it just became clearer and clearer to me that was. so when he was foreign secretary as to. diplomat it was his job to represent the country to travel and he called himself a committed rasa file back in twenty seventeen it was his job to meet up with his

russian counterpart sergey lavrov now however when he happens to be speaking in washington he says he regrets it all very much and it was a food errand and to quote something he once said about his own views in europe his view on russia appears to have veered like a supermarket trolley as well so quite an extreme reaction from the former foreign secretary why does the view of a former cabinet minister even matter well he is widely tipped by the bookmakers to be intentionally the next conservative leader so clearly his views are getting a lot of air time also the current leader to resume a prime minister her spokespersons rubbish the interview that alexander trough and did with r t saying that the account provided by the two

alleged attackers is an insult to the public's intelligence and outright lies so downing street wasn't having any of it foreign ministry spokesperson maria's the horror of was unimpressed with downing street's response questioning why london immediately dismissed petrol for account forty minutes after that interview was for us to add dimitri pez scoff the spokesperson for the russian president vladimir putin he said that russia would consider any request to interview the men from the u.k. in accordance with russian law but moscow is yet to receive such a request from london. russia's foreign minister commented on the issue saying each time moscow has reached out to london the only response it's received is your guilty all we need from you is to explain whether it was an order or an accident so a larger of that it was pointless to maintain discussions on such

a level stressing russia is still ready for serious dialogue based on the rule of international law rather than the highly likely principle journalist and writer neo clarke believes the quest for truth is has to take a back seat to politics in this case only about two or three days ago the government lie and this was echoed in the mainstream media it was that these two men would be dead by now it was. going to be i think that the. critic who said that the russians would have these men killed they want to talk that was the official narrative here three days ago and then what happens these men. contact are seen on our interview and then of course it's often got that we were told that there was a story that changes too of course what they're talking is a pack of lies so i think it's quite interesting really that whatever they had said . because we're talking here really about geopolitics of propaganda coming before anything else really. the russian military claims extremists in syria as

a province have staged and filmed a false flag chemical attack to frame president assad's government moscow says the militants will send the lect to the u.n. and circulate the rest online and all with the help of the controversial rescue group the white helmets. following the filming on the evening of the same day at a joint meeting between representatives of the white helmets and terrorists. out of the nine videos from the two were proved to be sent to the u.s. and b. or b. c w the rest of the material was suggested for social media because of low quality . according to the russian reconciliation center preparations for the suppose attack were made at near the syrian town of qana shaykh to where an alleged chemical assault took place on the fourth of april last year is claimed filming took place in a nearby village where there is also a chemical stockpile well washington has rejected the warnings from russia that the

white helmets are directly involved in staging the attack saying there is no evidence to support that claim and as the battle for it late province looms the u.s. is pouring troops into syria saying that if there is a chemical attack there will be a much stronger response than ever before contrary to earlier pledges to leave the war wary country jaclyn very looks into how washington's approach in syria has over the years the deeper the u.s. gets sucked into the syrian conflict the more the continuity of time seems to change when it comes to decision making in washington back in two thousand and thirteen when allegations of chemical attacks arose barack obama was still in the hot seat and time still seemed linear we intend to investigate thoroughly exactly what happened. obviously in syria right now you've got a war zone we have to make sure that we know exactly what happened what was the

nature of the incident what can we document what can we prove. our commonsense review the evidence and attack if justified later the idea that investigations require time those were the good old days but two thousand and seventeen came and times changed syrian dictator bashar. launched a horrible chemical weapons attack. on innocent civilians less than seventy two hours later the u.s. fired fifty nine cruise missiles at the airbase they suspected chemical weapons were launched from before any investigation took place. only months later did a un report come out placing the blame at the feet of the syrian government something they still deny the when the controversial white how much group released a video claiming to be proof of a chemical attack in april this year trump was able to pinpoint the culprit in hours many dead including women and children in mindless chemical attack in syria

area atrocities in lockdown and encircled by syrian army making it completely inaccessible to outside world president putin russia and iran are responsible for backing animal assad big price. so the area's inaccessible and yet those responsible have been found out already no ifs ands or buts how does the guy do it the u.k. and france also joined the ranks of the striking government sites in syria after an investigation you ask well three months later the o.p.c. w did put out a report saying chlorine may have been found but on nerve agents and the case is still open so all proof of the last attack hasn't been found the us is again using its crystal ball to determine what no one else can and is ready to act at least according to wall street journal sources brazil and bush are on the sons of syria has approved the use of chlorine gas in an offensive against the country's last

major rebel stronghold u.s. officials said so if and when a chemical attack takes place during ellipse liberation the guilty party is already known if there are chemical weapons that are used we know exactly who's going to use them that russia is warning of stage attacks is irrelevant that it would lead to exactly what the terrorists want also irrelevant but why look at every scenario when you have everyone else and time on your side. the u.n. estimates there are around ten thousand al qaeda terrorists sons their affiliates in in syria former u.s. congressman ron paul believes washington is willing to use these terror groups as long as the tactics benefits u.s. policy in the country evidence is out we're playing too many games with their card or the because we've used al qaida as the excuse for being there and yet i don't believe that is the case i think we were there for the reasons. it is it's a haven there and we're on their side. the pragmatic reason for this is that.

we think al qaeda will help our position the united states position to get rid of assad this is a bipartisan republican and democratic position and it's only individuals like ourselves in the institute for peace and prosperity that are arguing this is totally unnecessary this isn't the first time that the evidence is very clear that we have aligned ourselves with al qaida when we think it's temporarily a benefit to our foreign policy. signed off on tackling alleged foreign interference in u.s. elections which he described as a national emergency on wednesday the president has issued an executive order which focuses on any attempts by individuals all countries to influence the also vote results now the crucial midterm elections in november seen as the primary reason for the audit coming in now in the event that meddling is proven stanchions would

be imposed targeting sectors of strategic significance like finance or defense he goes to enough takes a close of that. trump has declared war on election meddling rules of engagement weapons free. to the assessment show identifier to the maximum extent ascertainable the nature of any foreign interference in any methods employed to executed the persons involved and the foreign government or governments that authorized directed sponsored or supported it don't be thrown off by the formal word government the us president understands that in a very abstract sense everyone and anything can be a government of sorts an actual authority a political party and even an individual all are designated targets are you when it comes to new ones on a scale between a sniper rifle and carpet bombing trump is closer to a firm

a nuclear blast his understanding of interference is so broad it seems the president thinks the us election can be swayed by accident disclosing information threatening to disclose information undermining public confidence in a candidate by these rules everyone retreating we can leaks outside of america would be interfering in the election. do so is the twenty sixteen election meddling case now closed after all the u.s. intelligence all agree long ago that russia meddled in that vote but of course trump wrong be shooting himself in the foot the term united states elections means any election for federal office held on or after the date of this order that's right the executive order covers the upcoming midterms and on wards in case of any meddling the investigation will have to review all evidence within forty five days but chances are you won't see any of that. you the framework which may

be classified in whole or in part should focus on ensuring the. agencies for fill their responsibilities pursuant to this order in a manner that maintains methodological consistency the shroud of secrecy around the forensics might as well conceal the lack of it the executive order allows an appeal in the century a gut feeling assigning blame although there has been no evidence of a foreign power altering the outcome or vote tabulation in any united states election foreign powers have historically sought to exploit america's free and open political system trump didn't sign an executive order he created a magic bullet for himself marketed to the public as something that will protect them and which allows the white house to target who it wants. illegal and media analysts leinil believes the executive order is vague

particularly in contrast to previous documents of its kind. whenever we look at any statute any statute law or regulation executive order p.t.d. you name it anything that is written one of the candidates that we always look to is are the behaviors are the prohibited actions are those intended activities spelled out accurately enough and with specificity enough so that you were able to read that particular executive order read the statute and comport accordingly meaning may i read this and say oh i know what to do i don't even understand how you would even apply this because normally when you publicly funding from utopian taxpayers money bulgaria is also down there at the wrong end of the table when it comes to corruption and conflicts of interest transparency international puts them bottom of the list when it comes to e.u.

member states but also down there at the wrong end of the table a countries like rumania greece italy and croatia m.-e. peace reserved a real tongue lashing for the all bonds government when it came to the rights for minorities the council of europe's commissioner for human rights indicated that he was concerned about the deterioration of the situation as regards racism and intolerance in hungary when it comes to discrimination against vulnerable groups let's say for example here muslim migrants from north africa it's a far worse picture in the netherlands where almost half say they've been the victim of discrimination italy and france unfair well here either another area where hungry has crossed the line for paul and terry it is arguably the biggest issue many had with viktor orban is the collision course the garion prime minister has been on with brussels over my goodness we need more europe you know. i

would like to. raise the voice of the people over in europe that the off work for you we need more union in our refugee problem is not a european problem you need a fair and just distribution the problem is a german problem it is not a problem you create a new legal situation at the borders for you to be even more strict than it was but now we're hearing similar messages coming out of italy. it's all over we welcome goals serve to be welcomed we see of lives we save women men and children but italy will no longer be the european refugee camp hungry ticked too many of the boxes too many times when it came to breaches of the e.u. called values and that is why any piece of voted to start article seven but what it may also use a reminder and a wakeup call to some of those nations who also find themselves not exactly whiter than white that they could well be next peter all of our. own gary in government

denounced the vote as a fraud and called it the revenge of probe migrant politicians prime minister or ben i did or did see a decision will be made on monday or what legal action to take against press this ruling or scottish m.e.p. david coburn warns the e.u. has become quote stalinist and such behavior will spark the breakup of the entire block. i think it's disgraceful the way that. was treated in the european parliament there's no way to treat head of government. quite frankly it was like a star on the show trial it's not just slapping the the the hunger prime minister in the face slapping the people in the face how do you know something if you keep on making enemies i think you will be long before the hunger games maybe joining the british. and other countries as well had tremendous trouble with the european union and the hungary and the pro people they're not going to put up with this sort

of behavior from the european union they don't want mass migration into their country and they have the right to decide who lives in hungary and that wasn't part of the deal when the join the european union of their country was going to be filled with that with migrants from all over the world european union's and one nine hundred fifty s. idea which is past its sell by date i think this is the beginning of the end of the european union. thanks for joining us for the weekly on r.t. international my colleague andrew fowler will be with you at the top of the hour. with this manufactured sentenced to the public will. when the ruling classes protect themselves. with the famous merry go round be the one percent.

we can all middle of the room six. billion. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy. let it be an arms race. spirit. dramatic development only to be in danger resist i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical. to sit down and talk.

hello and welcome to worlds of part of the christian history is full of kids in the senate it looks like it may be another one coming let's be hundred million strong global orthodox community may soon be forced to take sides as the patriarchy just constantin on pole and moscow wrangle over the fate of baseball in your brain because it already has the point of no return to discuss that i'm now in joined by metropolitan hilarion how to foreign relations at the russian orthodox church your eminence it's good to talk to you thank you very much for a time just a few days ago constantino. in pretty stark terms its decision to eventually ground the sufferer to the ukrainian church whatever it might be real discuss it

now and i say to the ukrainian church keeping in mind that this pilot primarily a political process but because of the politicians the stayed up for that what do you make of this very tight association between state and religious affairs first of all i think they should explain what it means because not everyone would understand. now to sinfully course of the tradition means independence the orthodox church unlike the roman catholic church consists of fully independent local churches they are not subordinate to one and there is no single here do of this churches except for jesus christ himself and yet from what i understand the constantine ople pay church gay does claim divide of determining which church is supposed to be independent and which is not yes exactly as a pitcher of constantinople it's as if he were the pope for the course of the

church but it has not been the tradition of the horse of the church to have such ball and we do not recognize the rights of the preacher of consent in opal to. unilaterally carry bring you back to my initial question about constantinople granting this ride of autocephaly to ukraine not the ukrainian church but actually to ukraine as a state because this is what we actually discussing at this point of time ukraine does not have. a united religious organization that can claim that document for itself it's more a political necessity for the current elites what do you make of it and the reason i'm asking is because in most democratic liberal societies. the separation between church and state is unquestionable and yet it's not the case for ukraine in the ukraine there is one canonical ukrainian church it is the ukrainian orthodox church

. which is recognised by all or so the church is canonical it's twelve thousand parishes more than two hundred monasteries and millions of. and there are also two non-canonical groups which were called schismatic groups which are not trickled.