but platforms like davis are very. important and when i was governor of st petersburg i used to go to davis davis all the time then when i started working in moscow or when i came more rarely and i haven't been in the place for quite some time but this is a very important and beneficial platform and the goal of platforms like that is to have discussions open and free discussion and it unites people. within you regardless of any political restrictions that exist between them if somebody imposes restrictions and within such a platform they are actually undermining the very idea of the platform. for our participation and. commune with the average person has a right average businessman or company of them has a right to be. represented there but our people are free and it is up to them

whether they want to come there or not thank you. it's bestia. some of some of those on the table because there were elections held in donbass republics and the authorities said that these so went against the main circuit agreements. and there haven't been contacts between you and the ukrainian president for a long time why is this happening is russia waiting for a change of powers in ukraine there are going to be elections there soon well as for the condemnation of these elections and donbass republics. first of all let's say that let's acknowledge that nobody is condemning the killings the murders that are going on politically motivated murders. and.

what were the people organizing the people behind this crime thinking. of course elections were inevitable must come from within the secondly the meetings in the normandy format. just prior to the ukrainian elections is has makes really no sense and as we have seen the current give authorities are not at all interested in implementing the minsk agreement because for example the special status of donbass this decision was not. agreed on by the key of parliament and this was a key decision. they don't want to follow through with it. i think they are still awaiting. for us to do something about the means could dream and we are actually

implementing the minsk agreements and they're not seeing that they're not doing their part. now finally is russia able to do anything to achieve a peaceful resolution there i don't think that we can until something changes in here we are not able to do anything. in these territories still we believe there's no other way forward we'll have to. agree on that somehow. and i hope that people that will lead the country in the future and whoever comes to power in ukraine will respect the choice of the ukrainian nation will work well with whomever. comes to power in kiev but we still believe that there is no other way forward other than peaceful way. right now. in moscow because people do call in the press which is that in the

president's administration there are. actually good people getting. the exchange all. he would look at that issue of prisoners of war have there been any decisions well they wanted to exchange all the prisoners on one side and all the prisons from other side but unfortunately the ukrainian authorities are saying that some of the people still held in ukrainian prisons. without any trial they are announced as. criminals. they are prosecuted. and they are basically driven outside the. framework of prisoner of war exchange. and the representatives of donbass do not agree with that because

they can do the same and also make some of the people. change their status and so they're no longer prisoners of war so to speak and they are no longer exchangeable . so we see that key of has no desire to exchange these prisoners and we can see the same. and the fact that. ukraine is arresting people in the. sea for example they they just arrested the sea man there. they can these sailors can fish wherever they want but their rest of the. this was against the law they arrested them and kept them for a whole year this is completely illegal unlawful. and when our border patrol arrested. you korean vessel.

and there was no desire from the ukrainian authorities to even talk about that now you can see how they treat their own citizens. off the people. there is a lot of talk about digitization and what we can see that moscow is even more high tech in several respects than singapore were you impressed by something in singapore in terms of high tech well i wouldn't say that we are doing it as we are the best in this respect. singapore is a great example of a high tech shooter smart city a lot of issues are being resolved here a lot of societal problems. related to how seeing and so on and so forth we need to use the same ideas and implant them in russian with them but as for digitization digital management and so on and so forth of course. moscow

was one of the leading capitals in the world of interfax mr president you said you had the smoke of the station with mr michael spence what were the results of this conversation so what about the meeting possible meeting with mr trump another. question is about the second wave of sanctions with regard to this case could this somehow affect the preparations for your upcoming summit with mr trump and burned as they are. well any hostile steps affects in some way the future of our meetings but we were ready to meet in paris but. as as was said we didn't want to interfere with the schedule of this very grand event organized by the french authorities by the french president this was a really important huge meeting. attended by over

a hundred leaders of state it was very difficult to organize of course scale work there and that is why we agreed to meet in. when osiris and. because the vice president for. us is also preparing for this meeting for the upcoming meeting we have a lot to discuss with mr trump. they are working lunch in paris we discussed on the very general issues but very intensive. we were able to participate. in this discussion together with mr to mr trump we talked about security about. problem economy about regional problems. we talked about the same thing with mr pence one of the key issues is of course the issue of such objects the ability troops to get security we need to understand what's happening with the i.n.f.

treaty to go you know what. was going to happen with the new. start treaty how we're going to move forward with this in this area as well so had other issues to discuss related to our economic relations yes. we did because. we don't have a lot of trade between our two countries but some of the areas are very promising and both russia and the usa interested in that issue and finally the hot spots in the whole of. the world. the hot issues sure the speaker of the urania nuclear program program the north korean nuclear. issue. all of these issues. are something that both russia and the u.s. are involved in and we need to have dialogues on the expert level to resolve this issue and we are ready to restore. full format talks on these issues which are.

let's have a couple of more questions left even of arguments and facts of batteries used spoke to mr macro on coming here and. and one of the issues you discussed was the restore ation of syria rebuilding of syria. how is russia is russia. is russia ready to you to invest money into this rebuilding it's not just about investing money we are ready to launch full scale work in these sectors of the syrian economy that would be profitable both to us and to the syrian state and the syrian people as part of our joint work. in europe which will be able to create new jobs in syria to restore infrastructure in syria there are a lot of things to do in syria trust me. and you can and should be should it's not

just about direct investments. as for the humanitarian component we as you know we are constantly providing humanitarian aid to syria but you and i believe that our european partners are very understanding just in that respect they are ready as well to cooperate with us in these along these committer and lines we've talked about that even in you because in your permission some ball earlier. but. when i talked about the provision of. various. medical aids. and mr crone and others for very understanding and i hope that this work will continue some of the operations have also already been concluded together with france we

delivered humanitarian aid to syria using our and french aircraft and i hope that. this work will continue to aided by all the countries interested in restoring syria because only by restoring the country will we be able to which you go provides people with an opportunity to return to their homes to provide refugees with the future. and. of course. a refugee refugee is only can only return to their homes if they want to nobody's going to force them to move out of jordan out of lebanon to go back to their homes but if we create the basic conditions basic infrastructure it tricity. and so on and so forth if we restore all that there will return by themselves the

plan which is all we need to do is get rid of all these for. be as we have and to get rid of the political problems political challenges we face and just help the people of the church mr president you just said is that it makes no sense right now to needs in the normandy used in the format so what you're saying is that so long as mr poroshenko is in power the nominee for will not meet and will not do anything right while the current president of ukraine is not interested as we can see in implementing the minsk agreements that are holding a round of ukraine. has agreed. to. to make the. region to change its status box of mr poroshenko did not sign the law. maybe the showers in ukraine change. maybe the new comers will change the situation i don't know it's going to happen we're

going to have to wait. for the final question most. of the during a short conversation with the. possibility of a meeting in the coming future no we haven't learned anything so far but we have discussed the the tragedy that happened i'm talking about the downing of four russian plane. of course we know the position of israel they believe that they have nothing to do with the tragedy and we also discussed a number of other issues related to our bilateral cooperation in the region on and in syria on the whole. as for any specific schedules for our upcoming meeting biliteral meeting this wasn't something we discuss no. longer works for fox mr president.

believe that taking into account the volatility of the current chemical. market is the and the reason to cooperate with saudi arabia and limit the production of oil now i'm going i'm not going to say anything about limiting the production of oil because every word here is as a very. high weight. and the fact that we need to cooperate with saudi arabia is self evident we are going to cooperate with. them we opec has been. very. positive we have a lot of positive results with opec and according to russian experts. the changes the volatility we see today is temporary the price is very unstable but it. actually split into starts rising again as you know we

have discussed this thing as well with mr trump in paris over the last six eighteen months america has also increased the production of oil and gas and it means that they are. importing less and less oil and gas and this changes the global hydrocarbon market as well as well. a lot depends on the price right now the prize has decreased a little. and that is why. there are changes in the markets all of it is related to one need to have an optimal price both for producers and for consumers. petrochemicals and oil products and gas. in the us the previous briers so. was something believed was quite good right now our budget

is created taking into account that i'm sure coach oil price will be forty dollars per barrel. but we are going to have it in the coming year this year we're going to have a budget surplus i think. we. last year believed we had one hundred twenty billion dollars surplus. with a very low debt. which is a great basis for continuing our work in a very stable and consistent manner security. and that she. results in terms of g.d.p. growth and structural changes in the economy. that is all things. and there we go live from singapore the wrapping up last day of the us and some of

the other russian president vladimir putin speaking to members of the press just to give you a few of highlights on some of the comments being made by the russian president of course of donald trump was not at the summit this year the thirty third annual summit but hootin did have a chance to have a quick chat with the u.s. vice president mike pence on the sidelines they talked about some general issues they taught economics or regional problems in parts of the middle east saying the beg your pardon putin saying that he wants to meet soon he wants to talk about what's going on with the new start treaty the i.n.f. treaty as well that america is pulling out of the iran nuclear issue north korea and its nuclear eyes ation as well the issue of syria was all to also brought up between the press the russian president putin saying that russia is prepared to be largely involved in rebuilding syria infrastructure jobs there's so much to do the russian president was saying constantly providing aid to syria and that recent talks in istanbul with out of the one that merkel and all seem to be very

understanding put in quickly saying that only by restoring syria will russia and other countries be able to help refugees to return home where they need the basic necessities infrastructure electricity and clean running water you can find more details on the russian president's comment on our website dot com for the meantime let's get back into our regularly scheduled program. the u.k. secretary has resigned saying he can't agree to the deal proposed by to resubmit that's after the prime minister suggested britain could leave the e.u. with a no deal or not leave at all unless the terms would be accepted the choice before us is clear. we'll all leave with no deal all we all know breaks it. on wednesday to resume a managed to secure the backing of cabinet for a drive to divorce a deal after more than five hours of talks which will now have to face another hurdle in her bid to see brick two through getting

a plan adopted by parliament and that's where on wednesday she was grilled from both sides of the house. from what we know the governments to you it's a failure in its own until now when we're making progress and close to it daily is complaining about does the prime minister's still intend to put a false choice to parliament between her a botched jail or no jail and the labor party have only one intention that is to frustrate directed and betrayed. you or not delivering the break see people voted for and today you will lose the support of many conservative m.p. . millions of voters across the country the prime minister has been reduced to playing political games rather than playing the game the prime minister honestly believes that she commands the will of the people while she putts have breaks it deal to the people either through a general election own writing that it's

a new referendum the prime minister's offer a good choice between the worst of all worlds and a catastrophic series of consequences the collective decision of cap and it was that the government should agree the draft withdrawal agreement and the outline initial declaration these decisions were not taken lightly but i believe it is a decision that is firmly in the national interest to reason may spend several hours meeting with her cabinet in order to thrash out an agreement a collective agreement about this draft brags that text and it would appear that she had mixed results because reports coming out state that a number of her cabinet colleagues including sajid javid under lead liam fox and estimate vijay expressed opposition to that draft text on a number of them including estimates vary in particular

a very vociferous in it and mcveigh was sets of calls for all the members of the cabinet to be able to vote on the position side. it became official who took what position on this draft text but that idea put forward was struck down on the report saying that the mood within that meeting was worse than the one that followed the checkers plan and we know of course from that meeting that to david davis and boris johnson both stood down as ministers in the wake of that also the d u p on who to resign may's government relies so heavily for support they've also said that if this still has the potential to see the new united kingdom break up with and they too will have to withdraw that support however perhaps more positively for the prime minister she received a positive welcome to this draft text from you know drugs kind of the prime minister and also michel barnier the chief negotiator who said that he considered

this to be significant decisive progress now that the prime minister needs to drum up support and to get rid of any attempts. to try to perhaps hand in letters of no confidence in her if she is going to get the support to get this deal through parliament historian alan scared believes that amid all the breaks in negotiations to resume a has failed to secure any real concessions from the e.u. it is a view also shared by journalist john gaunt. seventeen point four million people the majority voted to get out and we should have been out ages ago it's taken two years of this nonsense this is what people showed a lot of people's votes in a second referendum look we had a people's vote and the people spoke the politicians should just go on with it and make clearly haven't because let's face it treason may is a remain at your head cool but why give the food to the people if you think going

to ignore it and i believe should reach them a yes definitely now to traders she sure mediated discreate nation in the way that she's given into the eat you do moments she could see to do everything she said she would fight for we've ended up with despite her red lines we've ended up probably in the single market in the customs union she's given a separate status in all the law and she's betrayed the scottish fishermen as far as i can see it's almost incredible that he's even more incredible of politics upset so i expect there may still be resignations i hope for the owner of the conservative party that all. and i hope that the g. the d.p. and everyone else beaters this poll with thanks for joining us here on r.t. international for this hours those state programs i was getting busy pretty quickly here at r.t. are back in about twenty five percent. with

the truth of the space for. my love for sunday this is. broken is a word of business with the most authority of the. business folk . a lot of fellows on the bus now i'll show you i am. on. the

case in that book i'm going back to the bios to look at the model your body is diplo it's most potent from the show such as the fluid souls of. the moon when you must. move. with the whole make this manufacture consent instant of public wealth. when the ruling classes protect themselves. when the final merry go round lifts only the one percent. in the whole middle of the room signal. room. you know world of big partisan movies lot and conspiracy it's time to wake up to

dig deeper to hit the stories that mainstream media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smarter we need to stop slamming the door on the bats and shouting past each other it's time for critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the troops the time is now for watching closely watching the hawks. there. are. a lot of welcome to worlds apart it took a quarter of

a century since the collapse of the soviet union for the issue of inequality to resurface at the center of political and economic debate this time in the west some would even argue that it has already sparked a populist revolution culminating for now with the bracks it was the election of donald trump well the western quest against inequality being more successful than the soviet one well to discuss that i'm now joined by jason hicks anthropologist at the university of london and author of the divide a brief guide to global inequality and its solutions dr he called it's good to talk to you thank you very much for your time thanks for having me now you know i come from a country reach for seventy years had to run a massive experiment in their advocating inequality and many people here in russia believe that this fixation on inequality ultimately made the soviet system. incompatible with reality to what extent the opposite is true if you abandon any regulation and leave it all to the market forces can you have

a harmonious well functioning society and i think it's quite clear that. you know extreme inequality has become a very serious problem around the world both within countries as well as between them and what's evidence is that it's creating not only economic crisis but also political ones in the sense of richer people are able to control political outcomes what usually. poor people feel deeply disenfranchised disaffected with with the government system so i think that it's quite important that we use it to address this problem as urgently. possible well i'm not trying to draw any direct comparisons between the soviet focus on inequality and the western one but i wonder if you see any historical continuity between the collapse of the soviet union and the triumph of neoliberal economics back in the early ninety's and such a sharp rise of inequality a quarter of a century later yes i think it's quite clear that with the collapse of the soviet

union in the late and the late it is. the there was a kind of ideological consensus around near liberal globalisation and that was carried on through the night tonight is and is still with us today and the consequence of of of that sort of the imposition of free market globalization has been a dramatic increase in inequality. since the ninety's which is really rich kind of catastrophic historically unprecedented levels and so when we call for a reduction in inequality in western societies for example it doesn't need to be the kind of dramatic aggressive attempts to equalize that we might imagine the soviet union attempted rather was calling for the kind of reduction in equality that was accomplished in fact in western societies like the us and britain during the post-war years during the forty's and fifty's and sixty's before the onset of neoliberal globalization i think you would agree that inequality is often presented as a kind of a leftist preoccupation and the typical response to these kind of criticism is that inequality is natural.