russian military conducts a public test drawing of a new sort of strategic missile. exclusive footage. for the british newspaper the times interviews a chechen fighting against anti-government forces in eastern ukraine he says the members of islamic states in his ranks. the standoff develops in northern syria government forces are. fears of a turkish offensive against local kurds.

thanks for joining us live on r.t. international i'm daniel wilkins wherever you are today you're very welcome on the rundown with us this hour. now a major new missile delivery system called god will enter russian service next year was the first to obtain the unique footage from the defense ministries first public test run of the new missile which is capable of firing nuclear warheads. it's picking off to the launch of russia's oven guard ludmer putin who oversaw a live personally from defense ministries control and command center here in moscow explained the importance of wednesday

a vent 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. you use the more. vulnerable to any current or prospective missile defense system of a potential enemy this is a big victory for a country. russia claims it is a unique equipment and it is better than anything that any country in the world at face moment has let's take a look at some of the best features of of on guard. as russia's president puts it it's all about protecting the country and its population

in the vanguard sounds indeed like a very powerful weapon if you words about what happened exactly today the weapon was launched from the virus key military base in russia than. as kremlin reporters successfully heat the training target on the silicon chuckin russia's some six thousand kilometers away of course there were different concerns over the use and the launch of an gart guard weapon in the west with critics say it does not comply with the global treaties especially the so called after treaty intermediate range nuclear treaty to require in 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 kilometers

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 a money thing you nuclear weapons that putin presented earlier in march say in the dry she had to develop its military industry in response to us says success in this fear and developing their missile and anti missile defenses so definitely putin sees. floor inch and developments of military industry here in russia as a response to us is moves but definitely not everybody sees it the same way we discuss the situation with the phones. believes that the current political

climate could spark a new always worse. well i think the u.s. is also working on these types of things in the first one to launch one doesn't always get to win the contest as the as we saw in the age and also in the space race so but certainly. the u.s. existing u.s. is defenses can't deal with them but existing u.s. defenses aren't that good against regular missiles so it is start this. doing away with the a.b.m. treaty is start a new arms race but i think you know we're just building more and more nuclear weapons when we should be trying to limit them and the new start treaty is coming which is the arms limitation for the longer range missiles is coming up in twenty twenty one so you know that would be a good time to cool you know cool off the arms race and you know lock in some limits on these types of weapons as well. which is times newspaper has printed

a highly controversial interview with a chechen fighting against anti-government forces in eastern ukraine now the head of his battalion admitted that his fighters wage jihad in syria and that the leader was even part of a terror group committing atrocities in russia in a patrol car has more. so a big piece in the times on chechens on east ukraine front lines from a few dozens to more than one hundred there shoulder to shoulder with kiev's army but technically aren't part of it they're absolutely frank and open about their background saying we've been to syria in iraq we've been taught to kill by jihad it's there here's an extract from the times some of the potential ians gunman admit to having home the combat skills and islamic state training camps in iraq and syria this horrific background does get a mention what the times journalists don't mention is other elements of the

commander's biography like being part of an underground movement behind the past terrorist attacks in russia which took hundreds of lives earlier another british newspaper reported that the very same commander was against murdering civilians however he said those bloodbaths were understandable and were the only way to make moscow hear something as to why he and his fighters are in donbass now here's what it says in the times report be it a church and have a simple explanation for fighting for ukraine against kremlin backed separatists putin is our enemy he said he brings in the evil we did hear about ethnic chechen groups fighting on both sides of the front line a long time ago so why would the times bring it up now the peace follows plenty of articles on ukraine versus russia that came out lately here are some of the headlines moscow's always been described as an aggressor think the kurds straight

naval clashes first of all yet when it comes to this report on chechen militias ukraine's deputy minister of information policy is thinking putin's propaganda on purpose or maybe not literal people who home the ukrainian media space and play along to. putin's propaganda recruitment agents some of just useful idiots what i asked russian diplomats about ice a linked fighters siding with kiev's forces i was told after years of various external attempts to radicalize ukraine there isn't really much of a surprise comfy prolonged military conflicts especially supported by arms and money from outside have always attracted people of different views the same happened in syria we've people who support religious fundamentalism are coming from far away and who wows will they find in ukraine these jihadi fighters help ukraine realise its agenda of suppressing dissent all parts of quite

a familiar story with a couple of new twists. we have requested comment from the ukrainian government and military times reports about working with tara licked fighters we'll let you know of any response we do. fear is a growing of an armed confrontation in northern syria around the kurdish held city of man bridge the government has reportedly sent troops there off the threats of a turkish offensive against the local kurds i mean he's correspondent paula slater has the details this has been confirmed by r.t. sources that syrian troops have arrived in the province of man bridge which is in northern syria and it is an area that is controlled by the u.s. backed kurdish fighters they've arrived with some forty pickup trucks two tanks alawi's and armored personnel carriers it follows a request that was given last week by the kurds to the syrian soldiers to come and assist them and we are hearing. that they are planning an offensive so certainly

the situation on the ground is intensifying not only between the troops but also between those who support them in other words the united states versus turkey now this comes hot on the heels of the surprise announcement by the american president that the united states will be withdrawing american troops from syria. we do not support and we would oppose efforts to move south and engage in activities against the syrian democratic forces kurdish commanders have made commitments that they will turn over areas to local population as they have been so tremendously exist successful in liberating those areas from dash.

we noticed more movement from. the euphrates shield along the front line as turkey before its military operation on a free and threatened that manned beach would be the next target as i said before our relationship is a critical juncture either we must put it back on track or it will further deteriorate but in the man the issue is one that as i said is going to be given priority in our joint work you are there for him this is one of his vision for measuring a good one of the issues fresh to work together with. we are a part of syria and we don't support separatism but you want an agreement to be reached and saw from this tradition as part of a free syria at the same time tensions are also increasing between israel on the one hand and syria and lebanon on the other the lebanese are drafting and urgent complained to the united nations security council over what they say is israeli

military jets infringement of lebanese airspace it follows his waiting strikes overnight tuesday in which israel hit a number of targets in the damascus area this is what the lebanese transport minister has to say a humanitarian disaster which could have affected passengers of two civilian aircraft in lebanon's airspace during the israeli air cross invasion force strikes on the south of damascus was narrowly avoided now at the same time the russian defense ministry has issued a statement in which it says that when those israeli strikes were happening there were two civilian planes that were coming into land in beirut and in lebanon and that the israeli operations endangered or could have potentially endangered civilian lives he is radio operations happened and act and saw the syrians having to activate their ground to air missile defense systems at the same time we saw him soldiers were injured and an arms depot was badly damaged. joshua landis the rector

of the center for middle east studies at oklahoma universe they told us the man beach area has become a focal point for several conflicting interests in the country well membership is right at the corner where all these forces meet the u.s. forces and s t f the kurdish forces as well as the arab militias that are supported by turkey and turkey has demanded the handover of this town mended for months now the united states and they and turkey had in a sense divided up north syria the u.s. was going to get everything to the east of the afraid east turkey to the west and now the u.s. is pulling out turkey is determined to take that town but the syrian government is equally determined to get in there and stop turkey from moving eastward right through where the american troops were so it could be

a standoff. i mean while turkey is warning france against backing kurdish militias in syria as well to france pledged to keep troops in the country following the u.s. pullout. if francis trying to contribute to syria's future great but if you're doing this to protect the militia this will bring no benefit to anyone mcraney doesn't want to leave right after trump because if he leaves right after trump left he's going to look like he's going to look like he's playing follow the leader he's going to look like an american puppet he's going look like he's on the bad side of a ventriloquist act with president trump and he doesn't want to look like that he wants to look strong when we look at french the french role in syria it's basically been non-existent they've played second fiddle to the united states if they think they can fill in the shoes of the united states and continue the coalition fight against isis without the u.s. france has neither the money to finance finance this operation they don't have the boots on the ground to support the operation so it's basically

a lose lose situation with france right now the u.s. president has made a surprise trip to iraq we'll have more that story and others after this short break. well i think it certainly makes sense for for moscow to think. in its context with the united states i just feel. you in this city is that it is a nearly impossible until the united states kind of saddle the domestic divide of the environment in these seas you know i hate to see this. as work toxic but that's exactly what it is and i think it's you know we you know you're damned if you do

and you. join me every first week on the alex simon shore and i'll be speaking to us from the world of politics or business i'm show business i'll see you then. the program president trump and wife melania have made an unannounced christmas trip to iraq to meet u.s. forces in the country it was the president's first trip to iraq since taking office more than five thousand american troops are still there seven years after the official end of the iraq war. u.s.

forces have conducted several major operations against the islamic state in iraq and the bottle of mosul just last year we can bring in richard for more on this thanks for joining us good to have on the program in a speech to those troops in iraq trump said. to withdraw from the country last week you that claim of course that islamic state has been defeated from syria. do you see any contradiction here between the policy on the two neighboring countries. well yeah and i think that if we go back and look at how the last mixtape gained strength it was because of. western entia and their weapon its allies in syria in the syrian civil war that opened the way for them to see territory in syria and expand that and seen huge amount of territory inside iraq and so i think nation actually trump the troops there and is going to fall because this is of course

another trauma stunt where he wanted to change the subject the need to change the subject because of how bad he has been looking in the last few days so now he took the opportunity somewhere around in photo and video smiling soldiers. one summer all microsoft an outfit this visit was obviously a surprise for security reasons but they've labeled it say quote blatant violation of iraq's sovereignty and you also said shouldn't be allowed to arrive as if iraq is a state of the u.s. why do you think the object is so strongly to to this visit. well it certainly is an insult. to any country but the head of the state of another country to show why not meet with leaders is a matter of fact that was was that he was supposed to meet with prime minister. and

he had a permit and then left and you know we should recall that one month ago trying to service a truck was demanding. that it turn over it's all well paid for the u.s. invasion and occupation of the country i mean you can't get very much more insulting to another country and i think that it's been undermined by what happened in the nature of the day. just going back to trump's announcement on the syria withdrawal of people are going to look at two fold on this i mean partly the fact that the u.s. troops on the invitation of the syrian government are there illegally to all intents and purposes all the other how critics have said this could leave a vacuum for islamic state for other terror groups to regain the territory they've lost what do you make of those allegations points of view well we in the end. would drop on us syria.

and bring them home. and so i think that we can see that they would draw you notice of course is i said of syria the betrayal. they should know and everyone should know that it's been a long history and be true of going back one hundred years and. going back to the end of war and all going nowhere no and us if you were here is worse is whether it was in a rare in iraq or syria and then it was no longer convenient or. richard becker antiwar activist thanks for your take today on the president's presidential visit to iraq. on trump's trip comes amid critical changes in his middle east policy including as we mentioned earlier pulling troops out of syria as well as talks of slashing the military presence in afghanistan as well those policy

shifts come right off to u.s. defense secretary james mattis resigned just last week he also advised the whole trying to keep troops in afghanistan not opposing the idea of using private contractors in the war other now it seems that's precisely what could happen next morag as the if looks into the story. 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 and dicks further disgrace the very name. but i never heard that.

they were dead bodies everywhere and this is the argument with t.v. from inside among the dead bodies lying on the street that some which was in the middle of the 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 iffy for the mercenary group which was then rebranded renamed and resold into obscurity but it's presumably

back now nice states are spent 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 contracted 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 their mission credibility on the line privatizing it is probably not a wise idea every prince has 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 other matters to 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 gotta start will no longer be entirely their responsibility if blackwater who have al smetters up at the bill in 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 an entire war. as the headlines

for this hour join us again in thirty minutes for the latest updates they rolled off a documentary channel in costa writing us will see it often out. in a world of big partisan lot and conspiracy it's time to wake up to dig deeper to hit the stories that made stream media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smarter we need to stop slamming the door on the bad and shouting past each other it's time for critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the truth the time is now for watching closely watching the hawks.

where does that come to russia no one has ever known one has ever had a country never even heard about most. i was in los angeles it was march of one thousand nine hundred. i go over and i

look out the window here and there they are. i was arrested that day father and i wanted her to bargain. i understand she area is not going to pay somebody and i could probably afford and she got me but just to save are all a scam not as that's not my daughter so she wouldn't do this. and as a result they were under. i could not plead guilty to everything that they accuse me of is now i pled not guilty and out mccoy i was convicted for conspiracy and i received twenty four year sentence there's a way in which you have to see the conspiracy law is a very important tool of law enforcement if the crime is selling drugs and some man in miami sells twenty kilos of cocaine to an undercover agent.

do you want to ask who is the seller work and where does the money go if the money goes back to a drug lord in colombia who's going to keep the proceeds he's in the conspiracy even though he actually wasn't there when this sale took place he's a conspirator and so part of the goal of the conspiracy law is to make sure that the most senior level all of those in the criminal organization are justly punished the problem is when you flip it around and the lowest level people in the criminal organization get punished just like they are the key. and that's the big problem in the way in which the conspiracy laws are being applied. i know end up in federal prison in dublin california i realized that i would need to spend

a lot of time in the law library and i needed to film from a wise man sound my case and everything that had gone wrong if you furthered the conspiracy one step you're guilty for everything in the conspiracy no matter when you entered the conspiracy it could have been on the last day. because i had collected some money on i technically was guilty of conspiracy was held responsible for everything that everybody else had done and my sentence my twenty four years was established based on the sum total of all the ecstasy that sandy had manufactured that's where my ears came from my ears did. things that came from three point seven million tablets of ecstasy that he had manufactured puts me on the chart at this lab just twenty four years.