if you will but if. you're. not showing. unique footage from the russian defense ministry is first full public test run of a new hypersonic strategic missile called. the times newspaper interviews a. government forces in eastern ukraine he says there are members of islamic state in his ranks while the leader of his battalion admitted to being part of a terrorist group committing atrocities in russia. and with the imminent departure of u.s.

defense secretary james mattis fears grow that notorious blackwater is making a comeback after a full page on his published in its name warning that we are coming. here in moscow and you're watching international live from last year with. welcome to the program a major new strategic weapon called god will enter russian service already next year and altie is the first channel to show unique footage from the defense ministry is first public test run.

maria phenomena to tell us all about why this is a significant moment. well speaking off to the launch of russia's vladimir putin who oversaw a live personally from defense ministries control and command center here in moscow explain to the importance of wednesday event saying it was great success as it was excellent new year's eve to the entire nation adding a tooling sure russia's security for generations to come so as russia's president puts it it's all about protecting the country and its population in the oven door it sounds indeed like a very powerful weapon it goes a very high up into the atmosphere and then can fly or rather glides down at twenty times the speed of sound this is why it's called hypersonic nuclear weapon eight

can circle we hear the earth in just minutes very impressive putin said that it can fly as a fireball or tehran but apart from being very fast it is also very smart unlike fixed trajectory of politically so warheads afghan guards can change its path avoiding anti missile defenses all of the enemies countries say it makes this weapon uncatchable on its it is unable to him to set this weapon is like that putin rita rated today after the launch. so it is just magic and just a few words about what happened exactly today the weapon was launched from the virus key military base in russia than euro montanus and as kremlin reported successfully hate the training target on the peninsula can chart in russia's east

some six thousand kilometers away of course there were different concerns over the use and the launch of on guard guard weapon in the west with critics say it does not comply with the. lobel treaties especially the so-called i am after treaty intimated range nuclear treaty requiring the us and back then the u.s.s.r. of the treaty was signed thirty years ago in ninety eighty seven all nuclear and conventional weapons with the ranges of up to fifty five hundred kilometer is but russia says it does not now violate the treaty in any way and putin said today after the launch that vice versa it restores the global balance the global security balance just to remind you of unguarded was among the new nuclear weapons that putin presented earlier in march saying that russia had to develop its

military industry in response to us is success in this fear and developing their own anti missile defenses so definitely putin sees. lawyer and developments of military industry here in russia as a response to us is moves but definitely not everybody sees it the same way. quite controversial maria financial reporting from the center of moscow thanks maria for the update there we're going to cross live now to friends and political commentator eimear or and i'm here thanks for coming on to the program here now the u.s. says haven't gone may violate the intermediate range nuclear forces treaty which washington is pulling out of sight pulling out of any way citing russia in compliance what do you all full some months.

well the treaty of course specifies particular ranges and if this is an intercontinental ballistic missile we's as you said six thousand kilometer range then he's beyond the scope but this is almost irrelevant they're out to levels here to analyze one ease the purely military value of the missile and the americans have braced themselves for such a weapon even before putin announced it in march as you reported because the hypersonic development program both of for russia and of china is quite the ominous by american standards and obviously this is going to have an

impact on the strategic balance because of the. cat and mouse game between all fence and defense now the soviets the russians have been the pioneers of perfecting the defense against bombers we all remember the essay to which brought down francis gary powers in one thousand nine hundred sixty but then the americans in the so-called star wars program under president reagan have come back with the n.t. missile missiles and as we know putting strongly opposes the ploy mint of such weapons to central european or eastern european countries not too far from the borders of russia former warsaw pact members who are now either in nato or under the protection of nato so be on guard is a. quite

a response to the deployment of antimissile missiles and the signals that russia has. another card. sleeve but this is the purely military value the reason another political diplomatic propaganda level in which russia says look united states you have a military budget ten times or so our size but we can devise ways of countering your superiority and you have to take us into account regionally in europe as well as globally and this is also a signal to other countries around the world that under the right management under the right leadership. plus size power like russia which is not the superpower like the united states can collaboratively find ways to counter

american influence yeah i mean i mean i want to talk about this statement of the balance of power russia say that it's compliant by producing this but you know as you rightly stated the u.s. has been seen as a superpower for an awful long time and russia's it's medium sized power producing such a cutting edge of technology how significant is this. i'm afraid we seem to have lost our connection that was i mean there are rand defense and political commentator talking about this latest weaponry produced by russia apologies for that. it is the times newspaper has printed a highly controversial interview with a chechen fighting against anti-government forces in eastern ukraine the head of the shaikh monsoon battalion had admitted that his find his wage jihad in syria and that he was even part of a terrorist group committing atrocities in russia. has more details. first of all

we have to make it clear who these people are in these volunteer battalions fighting alongside the ukrainian army and the eastern regions of the country they are too ethnic chechens from a few dozens to possibly more than a hundred who are absolutely frank and open about their backgrounds they've been to syria and iraq they've been taught how to kill by jihad is there and this is what the times writes about it some of the battalion is gunman admit to having home the combat skills and islamic state training camps in iraq and syria this horrible background does get a mention however what the times journalists don't bring up is some other elements of the biography of the group's commander for example being a part of the underground movement behind several terrorist attacks in russia that

killed hundreds of people earlier another british newspaper reported dads the very same commander disagreed with murdering civilians however he called these acts of terrorism understandable and according to the man the only way to make the russians listen to these chechen groups as to why these chechen malicious with a terrorist backgrounds are in the ukraine they say they are there to be a part of the war against the people they call separatists in the dawn and skin lugansk self-proclaimed republics those who have been interviewed by the times newspaper refer to these people asked puppets of the chechen president ramzan kadyrov and the russian leader vladimir putin the be the chechen had a simple explanation for fighting for ukraine against kremlin backed separatists who tim is our enemy he said he brings only evil we heard about ethnic chechen

groups fighting on both sides of the conflict in east ukraine. a long time ago however if we look at the coverage of the british news out loads of the russia ukraine confrontation recently we can see particularly with the times that they've been emphasizing russia's role there as an aggressor as they call it one particular example is the coverage of the naval incident in the current strait just a short while ago i had a quick conversation with the russian foreign ministry spokeswoman marie as aqaba and she told me that moscow sees the appearance of ethnic chechen fighters with possible links to islamic state on the east ukraine fighters as part of a wider trend that they've been seeing for years in ukraine now complete prolonged military conflicts especially supported by arms and money from outside have always attracted people different views the same happened in syria we've people who

support religious fundamentalism coming from far away and who ows will do fine in ukraine these jihadi fighters help ukraine realize its agenda of suppressing dissent. and defense ministry says that israeli air strikes on syria that into three on choose day night also in danger to passenger jets policy clear has the details. the russian defense ministry criticized the israeli operations in syria overnight israel launched a number of rockets against targets in the damascus area it injured three syrian soldiers and it also destroyed or extensively damaged an arms depot now the russian defense ministry pointing out that the israeli operations came as two passenger flights were coming into land in both beirut and damascus and that the civilian lives were potentially endangered we've heard from the syrian side that they were forced to activate their ground to air defense missile systems after the rockets

were fired from israel and we're hearing from israel that they were forced to activate their air defense missile systems after rockets were fired from syria now all of this comes as the situation particularly in northern syria is school age the latest reports suggest that as many as forty pickup trucks two tanks alawi's an armored personnel vehicles belonging to the syrian army have entered the northern syrian province of man bridge now this is an area that is controlled by the kurds r.t. sources on the ground have confirmed that what we're hearing from syrian sources are reinforcements have in fact entered the province this follows a request last week by the kurds to the syrian army to come and assist them just the day before the turkish backed syrian for syrian forces sent their own fighters and their own armored vehicles to the front lines in one village so we witnessing a potential showdown between the turkish back fighters and the kurds and the syrian forces in fact hearing from ankara that it is planning

a major offensive this comes in the wake of the american withdrawal from syria man bridge has long been a point of contention between the united states and turkey. we do not support and we would oppose efforts. to move south and engage in activities against the syrian democratic forces the kurdish commanders have made commitments that they will turn over areas to local population as they have been so tremendously successful in liberating those areas from that we expect them to live up to those commitments. are for moms each and we are fighting against the turkish threat was god's will we're going to fight together with them our accounts and the coalition against the turkish army until their withdrawal from

one bridge and the surrounding villages this is syrian territory. we noticed more movement from the euphrates shield along the front line as turkey before its military operation on a friend threatened that manned beach would be the next target. as i said before our relationship is at critical juncture either we must put it back on track or it will further deteriorate we have agreed essentially to normalize our relationship again question of man dish is one that as i said is going to be given priority in our joint work you are there for in this is one of the four measure it did one of the issues of work together.

we are a part of syria and two we don't support separatism but you want an agreement to be reached and saw from this tradition as part of a free syria. strange ad by blackwater raises fears of a return for the tory green more details on that story after this break. well i think it certainly makes sense for for moscow to think. in its contacts with

the united states i just feel. that it is nearly impossible until the united states kind of settle the domestic divide environment and. you know i hate to see this. as work toxic but that's exactly what it is and i think it's and we. welcome back to the program the u.s. defense secretary spent his christmas working at the pentagon even after donald trump's abrupt decision to remove him from office two months earlier than he'd

planned to resign james mattis road this holiday letter to american soldiers. in this world awash in change you hold the line storm clouds lose because of you your fellow citizens live at home. james mattis resigned last week after the u.s. president allows his decision to withdraw troops from syria he also advised on trying to keep troops in afghanistan opposing the idea of using private contractors in war though now it seems that's precisely what could happen next. explains. imagine you're sitting there on your porch reading about guns and huntin and all things good and then you see this ad we are coming blackwater judging by the logo the infamous private security group who is trigger happy antics further disgrace the very name mercenary but i never cared that.

there were dead bodies everywhere and this is the argument going to. be among the dead bodies lying on the street that's which of course is the middle of next seven years old. just last week a former blackwater contractor was charged with first degree murder for his part in

that slow thought it was then that things went easy for the mercenary group which was then rebranded renamed and resold into obscurity but it's presumably back now and i stay to spend dearly in blood and treasure in time in afghanistan every prince co-founder of the original blackwater now that everyone's fearful over trumps of ghana's down withdrawal erik prince sees an opportunity the option i was pushing the options that were considered by some of the. white house an irregular warfare option that would use cia capability special forces capability some contract a capability to strengthen to give a skeletal support structure to the afghan security forces prince is selling a new kind of war private war war waged not by governments but by corporations the plan is simple six thousand mercenaries backed up by the few

thousand u.s. special forces guys give them a small air force private their force and the glue cost to about five billion dollars a year a year for reference the afghan war has cost on average five billion a month for seventeen years but the pentagon is reluctant you just can't trust national security priest these reputation to merck's to guys willing to kill for money when the american put to put their mission credibility on the line privatizing it is probably not a why it's idea every prince's been absent for years he's been selling this plan since he found out that the president wanted to get out of afghanistan the president was right to campaign against endless wars and he resented her message to hand he's going to all the maddest for this to happen if we leave decisions on

warfare soley to the pentagon we will be at war for well mr prince had been new year to you james mattis u.s. secretary of defense will leave his post on the first of january and john bolton trumps security advisor is much more pliable there are always a lot of discussions i find helpful i'm always open to new ideas but the issue here is different it's more about principles about morals we know how blackwater behaved in iraq we know what they did when. they had immunity they ran wild they shot and killed with abandon would you trust the same people to run an entire war every prince's selling point may not be that he's cheaper it's that trump and the pentagon will become less accountable ghana stock will no longer be in their

responsibility if blackwater who have al smetters up at the building their heads and it will be written off to plausible deniability and corporate bureaucracy so what do you think worth a try letting mercenaries run and then tie a war. trying to have this i'll be back in around thirty minutes time but stay tuned now for going underground which is next here on r.t. international. join me every first week on the alex i'm unsure when i'll be speaking to guests of the world the olympics sports business i'm show business i'll see you then.

more people feed the economy because they buy scratch tickets scratch off lottery tickets they you know when i was living in the ghetto in new york you know the red apple grocery store uptown had the highest prices in town right and a liquor stores are open any buy you know more expensive in the ghetto and that's how you build an economy it's always built on the backs of the poor america was built on the slave market america was built on prison labor to give i mean look they the good times of america the ne'er do wells it's all very swishy and swell that's over we got to go back to basics. where is that country call russia no one has ever known one has ever had a vote like and never even have heard about most.

well so you will be end of. last year's does. not boil what i mean. i think.

through. some other. theory. so give me some you can see has been the theme. of course you're in the form of the view. few more. than the mumbles most and people many people for them it's been my will. i will talk to. i had a great education a good job and a family that loved me. i never had to worry about how i would eat and where i would sleep. i'm facing christmas alone out on the streets of london. well you.

know the story like you only. you know the sunlight it would still give us food for the harvest. that you don't really feel like a human being in it. and then. the guy just came over to me saw me and gave me this book. time after time so you know what you're going underground while we're away for christmas we're screening some of your favorite episodes of this season coming up

in this who is to raise a major talk about human rights in the case of jamal khashoggi a lifelong friend of a saudi dissident and fight for the liberation of palestine as i'm telling me on crimes against humanity and up to juries amazement surveillance was found in eagle by your of what now bugging of your phone we go to san antonio in texas to talk to award winning x. convict better brown hounded by the f.b.i. for rejecting a brave new world that's all coming up in the show but first today's seventy is since the leader of africa's richest defacto nation was killed with u.k. backing here was the reaction of the woman who could right now be president of the usa we came we saw he died. clinton nato nation media and to resume support of the end of libya's government even as they profess to love this towering african hero no god doth. cost. so what. they hit there is no

reason whatsoever. why anyone has. called it that the human rights as being demanded in suffolk but if the tories and liberals helped kill mandela's comrade in arms seven years ago today that all appears forgotten in today's house of commons aside from bracks it though one m.p. did feel that you can be armed israeli oppression this week should be condemned by terrorism a and pm cues well the prime minister make it clear to the prime minister of israel this is to treat these. to refute g.'s protected people whose forcible rape removal would be as the united nations has stated constitute a water right carmichael didn't mention u.k. backing injuries or majorly said nothing about this week's garza dead referring to question one particular.