calling for the assets of journalists working for russia sputnik to be seized branding the media outlet a kremlin stooge. comes after sputnik publish new leaked documents that suggest the u.k.'s funding a think tank aiming to foster anti russian sentiment across europe we look at the think tanks alleged methods. the outcry over one of germany's most acclaimed journalist exposed for having faked stories for years it's alleged that he stole with this nation's collected on behalf of people featured in his aren't.

getting the facts are joining us this is r.t. internet. the threat of russian propaganda still being trumpeted across the west a scottish m.p.'s now issued a chilling threat speaking to you can use paper the times alex cole hamels and demanded seizure of assets of russians working for the sputnik media outlet calling it a kremlin stooge bullyboy because following the story. an internet based radio station whose u.k. headquarters are up in edinburgh in scotland and this liberal democrat m.s.p. alex quill hamilton has told the sunday times that any russians who live in scotland and engage in what he calls information warfare against britain or to destabilize britain should have their assets seized take a listen to what he had to say to the sunday times organizations such as you can or

to pump propaganda backed by vladimir putin and have been complicit in the cover up of events from human rights breaches to the russian invasion of crimea and other countries have taken a tougher line on the assets of russian nationals than we have in the ukraine the u.k. government must look again at work to be done that is pretty harsh rhetoric but that would have been a hit if the sunday times hadn't printed it along with the photographs of all the people that work in the sputnik up in edinburgh it reads a bit like a wall of shame editorially there doesn't seem any reason for those photographs to be there other than sort of the newspaper outing these people as sort of being involved in anti british activities it almost reads a bit like an incitement to violence in terms of why the spotlight has foreign on the radio station up in edinburgh and sputnik well it appears that some of the

reporting that they've been doing has been rubbing politicians up the wrong way in particular the radio station just like r.t. has reported on the leaked integrity initiative documents and they have been to reveal that the u.k. foreign office happens to be funding and anti russian public influence campaign through a british. think tank and that's been quite a major story both for sputnik and for r t but the times article has already written off these leaks these documents about integrity initiative because they say that they come from russian hackers we spoke to is putting u.k. producer named in the times article and told us such accusations suggests that they may be doing an effective job and initially it was it was a bit of a shock on the other hand this is kind of hardly surprising given the nz russian sentiment that is you know travel and o.-yuki newspapers just say we expose

this integrity initiative which ruffled a few feathers people are not too happy about it and then we saw this times article carpark and make the claim that somehow this explosion of the integrity initiative by an r.t.c. suggests that it was a russian hack of the anonymous integrity initiative documents so it's i mean it's just ridiculous not nice to see your picture up there with your name except and under the headline of being part of a crime when stooge but never hand you know that we've done nothing wrong and i would say that this very much and accuse that we're doing something right here. we have sent requests to numerous international media organizations to get their take on the story and whether the times article meets ethical standards was still waiting for a response the russian embassy to the u.k. says the times is following the example of controversial ukrainian website peace maker in publishing journalist data embassy added that the organization for

security and cooperation in europe should look into the actions by the times peace maker prince personal data of people it calls the country's enemies its so-called black list has been strongly criticized the broad after some of those named were murdered a spur of the limb called to shut down the website when it published details on former german chancellor gerhard schroeder the u.n. says peacemaker violates the right to privacy and the presumption of innocence. a spring in gideon levy is a columnist at the israeli newspaper ha'aretz good evening to you gideon what do you think of this publishing journalist photographs under such headlines of it this puts the journalists at any risk. i'm not sure it's about risk because finally if someone were really to get and usually she can do it with all the social media today nothing is really private and by the way i guess

that most if not all the journalists in sputnik any n r t are not ashamed in working there and have no reason to be ashamed and i guess they all are ready to be exposed we have nothing i mean journalists in general have nothing to hide and nothing to be ashamed about and you know criticism about serving propaganda it's a very fishy thing because in many so-called western liberal countries with western liberal media finally when you analyze what's written and what's broadcast it's about adopting a nation narrative like in my own country is where most of the media is serving a very very clear directive coley propaganda patriotism is folks news propaganda folks use your alyssum those questions are really was very very unclear on this and one should accept almost everything this

bear resemblance you think to the information that been published on the ukrainian pacemaker website. i know too little about it what was published there. well this is effectively not web site isn't a standard a name and in enemies of the state i just wondered if you draw any similarities to this when affectively got the naming and shaming of russian employees of a company as if that somehow a threat to the country. look controversial journalists in my own country i know very well the it's i am exposed i was exposed as i will be exposed to all go for accusations and if you are if you believe in what you do you do if you look at the mirror you are proud of what

you are doing let others accuse your own kind of thing if you believe in your own to go with it and ignore those accusations i mean you can always sue people you know if it's really is which ain't it you know you can only sue anyone who excuse you in lies but by the end of the day journalists should be strong enough to face all kind of accusations as long as we believe in what we do we should just ignore them and continue with what we are doing. so name calling is something that's been used the words like kremlin stage are useful idiots another one that crops up when talking about anyone associated to russian media organizations year ago integrity nation if think tank slam darty host alex salmond former scottish m.p.'s being a useful idiot what's the what do you think the intent is here is it to embarrass people make them too embarrassed to work for these organizations trying to get rid

of them. yeah. very clear and. you know in many times you see that anything which has to do is russia is. is analyzed is accepted in different tools then when it is american or western. we know very aware that russia is being treated in different areas than other countries history because of history because of the community's years and because of many other reasons by the end of the day without getting into a resolution of this media medium or this media finally many many genre least i accuse in their own countries is straight as self hating jew. is as people who cross the line as people who serve their propaganda is as

agents we should really by the end of the day the only question which. is do we follow professional creative area professionally terry of journalism are very clear if we feel that we are following ghost pretty eerie are lit all the others bark and we continue with the ever we do appreciate your time get in get in living my guest columnist that israeli newspaper ha'aretz. now has many bashing sputnik. in that times article the other side spend nimmo defense fellow with the atlantic council but the name is not a new one in the integrity initiative scandal already appearing in released documents showing his alleged links to the group spreading anti russia sentiment and he's not alone that the paper suggests that the u.k. verney charity has been using journalists across europe to stir up anti russia feeling i guess the explains. if she were an organization it

would be integrity initiative low and behold an army of propagandists disguised as anti propagandists whose job is to malign the slander it states ideas people even british politicians our investigation has found wiring evidence the shadowy programs official twitter account has been used to attack or been the labor party and their fresh us one three quoted newspaper article calling corbin a useful idiot that goes on to state he's open visceral anti-press tinnies and how the kremlin course as surely as if he had been secretly peddling weapons to tattle for money you can imagine the shock mr coburn must have felt when he learned through these leaks that integrity knishes eve had no operational to defame him well funded by the british government no less but slandering german corben

opposition politicians isn't their only job the integrity initiative which is working to counter disinter mission overseas by bringing together groups of experts to analyze and discuss the problem posed by russian this information the government is funding this initiative with barely two million pounds this financial year but funding covers its activity outside the u.k. and it has not found any activity within the u.k. the hacktivist group anonymous has leaked details on the operation integrity initiative functions by setting up independent clusters candidates seem to be hand-picked big plus a few influential charismatic but the chief requirement seems to be you've got to really hate russia the integrity initiative was set up to bring to the attention of

politicians policy may. opinion leaders and other interested parties the threat posed by russia to democratic institutions in the united kingdom across europe and north america now here is what's been bugging me personally if these white knights and self professed fighters for the truth of what they say they are why are they hiding why are they trying to stay in the shadows anonymity of the team remains paramount as our activity increases we will no doubt attract unwanted attention irregardless here is how their class the system works see you have an article in the french le monde a harsh attack on alleged russian propaganda in france the author the french professor happens to be part of integrity initiative french cluster and at least according to the leaked lists and gets paid to trash talk russia they even

boosted their grand plans when visited by a coup found the institute of statecraft which birth integrity initiative in italy and the atlantic council published a big study and with help from an editor of less stump a very influential italian newspaper surprise more bashing russia it became increasingly evident in twenty sixteen that russian strategic narratives sometimes including dissent from asian and conspiracy theories were systematically spread in italy by the vast network of pro and five s websites and social media accounts not so much of a surprise it's called winnie is also listed as a member of the italian cluster and also gets paid for his work unfortunately according to an internal integrity initiative memo their peers to be a shortage of russian propaganda in italy. in a two it appears that the promotion of

a strategy to spread disinformation and to influence the italian political opinions has been limited and came much more from national populist boxes rather than from russia whatsoever foreign country strange isn't it how they choose to keep that part secret we can go on and on about other clusters but you get the point at edwards initiative even targets us here at c according to the leaked documents they have people presumably who they paid to report r.t. to off gone the british media regulator ofcom actually publishes complaints statistics only if there are over ten complaints didn't make that list it seems like integrity nishi of not audience members convinced of calm to go off to sea we've all noticed our anti russian sentiment in the media has soared over the last

years and saw as still we now know one of the reasons but above all these leaks and in my view the mosque soft the baal that fights russian propaganda as they claim and what's underneath is ugly. and american pro-democrat group turns out to have been behind so-called russian bot activity on facebook our correspondent will bring us more after the break. when lawmakers manufacture consent to public wealth. when the ruling class does protect themselves. in the final.

one percent. we can all middle of the room sick. i certainly don't expect that very many people will choose to be biologically i'll . move your body isn't working for a while it also means your mind isn't working so well i believe that we will have pretty much no biologically old people even though course we will have a much greater number of callers if we old people.

are leading social media research a faking russian activity is among five accounts suspended by facebook to take john took the move for coordinated in authentic behavior during last year special election in the state of alabama to a correspondent stateside. what more do we know this stage. well viewers will recall back in twenty seventeen there was a special election in the u.s. state of alabama and the republican candidate roy moore was basically accused of having lots of russian bots and trolls on the internet supporting his campaign now he tried to defend himself but this is what the mainstream american media had to say what is so surprising trump is supporting more they both have a deep love of country the countries russia but still run through to push united

jews forward you know it's pretty alarming when a guy's lips in a fluent russian or speak fluent russian that is russian it everywhere year later it's moving closer to the oval office. so now we have a report from the new york times that has revealed that some of these alleged russian bots and trolls were actually coming from an experiment conducted in the united states what people are referring to as alabama project was conducted paid for by billionaire reid hoffman he's one of the creators of linked in and he's a top contributor to the democratic party now and he apparently paid one hundred thousand dollars to essentially set up this operation in which they had individuals in the united states carrying out activities designed to imitate what alleged russian box and trolls did on the internet now at this point of the democrats have said that one hundred thousand dollars is simply not enough to really have an

impact on a u.s. election however when it was alleged that one hundred thousand dollars had been spent by russia it was considered to be impactful now at this point people will recall the race how the democrat ended up winning the special election by by a very small margin now at this point now that the report has come out we've got jonathan morgan who was involved with the alabama project in which americans were essentially pretending to be russian bots on the internet imitating the activities he says that this was not intended to in any way to sway the election it was simply an experiment designed to imitate and explore the possible activities of russian tronson bowls on the internet he's calling for. an investigation in order to show that there was not any impact on the election itself and it's also important to note that jonathan morgan was that was involved in the recent report in two

thousand and sixteen that was released detailing the activities of alleged russian bots and trolls and the impact of russia on the twenty sixteen elections so as americans look on continued reports in the united states of alleged russian meddling they're going to have to ask themselves is this really russian meddling or is this another operation in which we see americans imitating the activities of alleged russian medlars and things of course with killer both in reporting live from new york. a u.s. aircraft carrier has entered the persian gulf for the first time since two thousand and one a company by a fleet of warships and what washington is calling a show of force against iran. the army and navy shown as are committed to regional stability of the world particularly in the gulf region you know it's very economically important area for the entire world and so we're going to continue to go wherever we can internationally national waters and we're going to you know your

presence with around is now threatening to block the strait of hormuz the only exit from the gulf a third of all oil trade passes through the strait iran's elite revolutionary guards military force being conducting drills near the strait for more than a week now it's been reported raining ships have launched a drone the missiles close to the carrier however to around has denied those claims . comes amid rising tensions between iran and the united states after washington with drew from the twenty fifty nuclear agreement and reinstated on to tehran sanctions that dubbed the deal the worst ever revolutionary guards commander mohammed ali just said the u.s. sending warships to the gulf is designed to create the illusion of establishing security for allies in the region. well spring of hamas. has a professor of political science at the university of tehran a good evening to you why is the us do you think sending an aircraft carrier to the

gulf is linked do you think to the pentagon's withdrawal from syria. i think it's part of a larger strategy of the trumpet ministration trying to pressure iran i mean this administration since taking into office nearly two years ago has been trying to pressure iran via sanction via threats and now bringing an aircraft carrier very near to us in waters is very provocative. and i think it is somewhat related perhaps to the withdrawal from syria in the sense that the americans are trying to send a message to iran that even though they are leaving syria however this does not mean that they are going to lift any of the pressure on you want nevertheless at the same time i think we should not overestimate this event in the sense that i don't think the u.s. is trying to plan

a invasion of iran by any means so do you think reactor of care does actually serve any practical military purpose. while i mean there is this question within iran of whether the u.s. under the trumpet ministration is ever going to attack iran and i don't think that is going to happen this is because the u.s. is essentially in no position to take any new major wars because the u.s. right now has a public death of around twenty two trillion dollars also public opinion in the united states is very much against starting a new war so i don't think we're going to see a military confrontation nevertheless i think bringing an aircraft nuclear armed aircraft carrier to eat near irena. waters' is trying to up provoke iran and also threaten iran so i think the significance is. right now at least more of

a threat rather than an actual military confrontation. relations between the countries have been difficult to say the least for a long time what kind of effect does this move have upon iran u.s. relations. while since the trumpet ministration decided to leave the nuclear accord seven months ago iran has been showing a lot of restraint i mean iran did not leave the nuclear accord and it has been actually fully obliging by its side of the deal at the same time we're seeing iran being sanctioned iran being threatened and now these kinds of military maneuvers by the americans and i don't think the uranian skin sure restraint forever we have to remember that the government of president has any is under intense criticism at home for perhaps being too soft on the americans in showing too much restraint so i think if the way the trump administration is continuing we would be seeing an

escalation of the confrontation between iran and the united states in the near future and i think some i guess hamad mousavi a professor of political science at the university of tehran. crisis around one of germany star journalists exposed last week as having faked stories for years is deepening class who was fired from the spiegel magazine allegedly appropriated readers donations for people featured in his articles including wife and syrian children do basically explains not just being accused now of being a purveyor of fake and fictitious news he's actually now being accused of embezzling money as a result of his stories the story particularly that this relates to is one from two thousand and sixteen he told a heart wrenching tale about two syrian all phones a brother and a sister they were living hundreds of miles apart in different cities into after

escaping syria and they were dreaming of a life together a life together in germany and he urged his readers to donate money to try and help these two siblings his brother and his sister make their dreams come true and to get them to germany where the money was funneled into his private account and while it's not known how much actually went in there this spiegel is now investigating the claims that he actually embezzled that money because it turns out according to a turkish photographer who was working with him on this story that one of the children didn't even exist and the second one the brother who did exist was actually living with his mother in turkey and was and often so now dispy go as far as a criminal complaint looking into that embezzle mint possibly of money. as a reaction to that story now to speak also used its front page this week to say its

sorry to its readers for the fake news that it's been publishing for many many years this house is shattered the worst thing that can happen to a print media outlet has happened to us for years we allowed for reporters to go to print. for us it's particularly horrifying that managed to deceive us for so long without being uncovered well in the fallout of this scandal dispy girl is now facing other accusations notably one from the u.s. ambassador to germany who's accused the magazine of having anti american lawyers these for you stories largely for us policies and certain segments of the american people it's clear that we were targeted by institutional bias the anti american bias that the magazine has exploded since the election of prison trump so worked out to speak for a number of years and he was considered to be such an excellent journalist that the magazine decided to make him stuff in two thousand and seventeen he's won many

accolades both in germany and internationally for his work including just this december he was given the route german reporters association prize and back in two thousand and fourteen he even was named by c.n.n. as being journalist of the year we just spiegel is admitting that at least fourteen of his articles were fictitious they were fake it's now looking deeper into his other articles and it could be that the scale of to his deceit is far far deeper and we already know. have updates on our top stories for you in half an hour see that. join me every thursday on the alex simon show and i'll be speaking to us from the world of politics or business i'm show business i'll see you then.

rushes minister of economic development mike seem thank you very much and welcome back to r.t. my first question might sound a bit unusual but how does it feel to be someone who always finds himself in a position where he has to defend the ruble surely what in the deal or to france the ruble is the. market economic incentives that were. created in russia in the past several years. we are collecting them every day it's the inflation targeting is the new fiscal rule continue mechanism which is only it's rational from the blitz you need to.