i'm. washington expresses concern over russia's new hypersonic weapon saying there are no objective countermeasures the atom god missiles has been successfully carried out on wednesday. a wave of protests across after the death of a journalist who set fire to himself protesting the difficulties of being a reporter of the country's economic problems. first told travel pays a surprise visit to iraq to meet with the country's leadership but ends up holding the meeting by.

it's five o'clock and you're watching r t international line from our moscow studio with media today welcome to the program russia has successfully tested a new hypersonic strategic missile named avalon god president vladimir putin called it a big event for the armed forces and the country as a whole but earlier in the program my colleague spoke to our correspondent don off to find out more tell us about the media reaction to this. launch did certainly become a top news story all over the world those analytical pieces that have had a chance to come out there were more along the lines of why the united states should feel this missile and i should say it kind of does carry the same message that we've been a world that we've been seeing for months really because god missile was one out of

five vans to weapons unveiled by vladimir putin back this march and that's when the world just everybody went bonkers and. everybody should feel scared even though it has been since the message of the russian government that it is purely defensive that these weapons they are meant to defend russia not to attack any other country obviously a very important launch certainly for the security of russia or and as i said by the russian president vladimir putin he was talking about this system back in march the first of this year but what exactly is wrong well first i would like to stop as to why exactly this new inch is important it is important because it is the final test before this missile goes into service and now let's just have a look let's enjoy how it unveiled.

as for what exactly happened god is well it's just one of the most advanced weapons and missiles in the world here's a quick preview of what it's capable of really. so it's incredibly it's incredibly precise and also it is classified as sort of a glide a missile what it means is that it doesn't go beyond the earth's atmosphere it travels through it and this is what allows it to go really low like a pro sort of thing and to maneuver very unpredictably that's why everybody is so concerned that's why even the united states is saying that it apparently doesn't

have any means of intercepting it because of its unpredictability and maneuverability but as putin has been saying since day one with the other god system this is to act as. the terror and this is a defensive system was what's he in volved in any way with the outs will final test while he is the commander in chief so he watched this final launch and also it was a bladder putin who announced that this mess the russian military will get the first units of this missile as soon as next year that's why russia kind of made an emphasis this year to world roll out as many new and advanced weapons as possible keeping the country safe you know you've got to talk to me about the balance of power here how does this new guard missile system affect global security well sure it's a missile so by definition it is designed to destroy things to obliterate them to do damage but so does pose a threat but there are two different sorts of how you can pose a threat one thing is saying look we have this new found seem so we're just going

to attack you all now and destroy your countries and another thing is saying look we have this new advanced weapon so we are ready to defend ourselves but only if we're faced with any aggression and this has really been the case with this message and as put by the russian president vladimir putin have a listen to shows the u.s. is now leaving the iron of treaty what's going to happen it's hard to imagine what is the rockets are located in europe what should we do which is of course we will have to ensure our security with some concrete steps not say later that we are trying to get an advantage we're not trying to get some advantage but merely to seek your balance to ensure our security and this really applies not just to this particular message or as a matter of fact to any other for weapons unveiled by the russian president in march this is about the russian military as a whole because the country has been pushing forward its military capability all year it has been sort of the flavor of the twenty teens so to speak but it hasn't

been in the offensive sort of way russia has been maintaining that it is a measure of deterrence and not of aggression. we discussed the new weapons implications for global security with a number of experts. but i think the u.s. is also working on these types of thanks and 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 but certainly. a dui existing u.s. defenses can't deal with them by existing us and defenses aren't that good against regular missiles so it is so far 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 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 or to you know cool off the arms race and you know lock in some limits on these types of weapons as well i think that is a motive i think it's in the interests of the russian people the american people in the whole world to not see an increase in a new arms race the danger here is that the u.s. military establishment is going to react to this by saying well we need to poorer ever more money into developing our own hypersonic missile systems and we have a new new escalated arms race of course right now the united states is spending seven hundred billion dollars a year on its military which is more than the next nine countries combined so we know who's leading the way in the in the military arms race but i think russia i would assume they're hoping that this can be

a reality check and bring and promote more negotiations and less military development. in violent clashes have great tunas here after the death of a reporter who set himself on fire. protesting growing economic problems and the difficulties of earning a living as a journalist the incident has joined comparisons to the events that led to the revolution in twenty eleven which also started with a man but in himself and eventually led to the arab spring.

brought people who have no means of subsystems ice dance revolution shouted i'm going to set myself on fire eight years after the arab spring and tunisia is still in turmoil with protests over the economic situation and the high unemployment rate in january of two thousand and eleven the old school dictator ben ali was forced to step down the democratic transition gave way to a new constitution and for free elections that paved the way for pro western secular forces to dominate the new government back then u.s. president barack obama hailed the progress toward democracy and called it an amazing transformation was the first country to undergo the transformation we know is the arab spring and given it is now the first to have elections we thought it was appropriate that tunisia would be the first to visit the white house that's what progress it's been very good to be just crisper but it should be inclusive and

. there were very high hopes as well but the recent round of protests sparked by the journalist suicide show that many feel that things haven't really improved and that stability is fragile. the reasons for what they see. young men suicide pull that see isolation and the difficult circumstances join in this be seen tonight and been a fan as this tragedy sums up the status of journalists in tunisia he was driven to do that because again possible living costs journalists work with no contracts and poverty wages laying on the facts and large number of journalists in a fragile situation both financially and legally human and i see that with a large number of journalists and chinese yeah in the sense the arab spring to nisha has followed the path of liberal reforms advocated by western leaders and poverty is still widespread the overall living situation has been improving teachers among other public employees have been pretty badly affected there have

been calls for mass protests and when it comes to the european union back then the e.u. demonstrated its support for the transition to democracy by implementing the three m's money mobility and markets however the high hopes have been widely disappointed and now it seems that the clout of the european union has declined in the countries that had revolutions many people have lost hope. probably some. high expectations. of uprisings in two thousand and eleven but their government has not been able to deliver. the high hopes on the economic situation has deteriorated. and unemployment is really. sky and in some areas that have been some improvements for elections and.

more freedoms enjoyed by the population whole freedom of expression freedom but i support terrorists but at the same time social and economic problems the basic infrastructure of problems that exist. are still there but whether we will see similar. results this time i think it's truly. there are many similarities but also many differences. we see as tunisia streets once again fill up with protesters in response to another public suicide it seems that western style free markets and free elections haven't solved the country's woes the amazing transformation seems to have left many on satisfied. r.t. new york times judges have called off a two decade long probe into the deadly attack on the former rwandan president's

plane which ultimately led to the genocide in one nine hundred ninety four investigation was a stumbling block between the two countries it was looking into several rwandan officials close to the current president in connection with the death of the country's former leader the decision comes off the report in france also rejected a bid by human rights groups to reopen a separate probe into whether the french military shed any of the blame for the deaths of hundreds of people they had promised her rescue. today we're being asked to leave with the people who killed our families where it's

all there sorry they will do it again some people believe that i'm not one of them . but the fighting was triggered by the downing of a plane carrying the french backed president in one thousand nine hundred ninety four hutu extremists blamed the rebels and the rebels denied involvement for the past twenty years paris has pursued those responsible for the assassination but not anymore the inquiry has reportedly been dropped over insufficient evidence. we have to interpret this decision by friend judges as a form of resignation faced with a political context which prosecutors did not know how to fight over the years france suggested the tutsi rebels headed by the current president paul kagame who were behind the attack they even charged seven people close to the leader for paul could you the physical elimination of rwanda's then president was seen as the only means to achieve his political ends

a total victory and this at the price of the massacre of the. so-called interior the rwandan government flatly denied the allegations and cut diplomatic ties with france fast forward and rolonda has some nice words for the french i think the president. has. put it in a. different. i think. how times have changed the world bank considers rwanda to be more business friendly than much of the developed world and france seems to have an interest macron even back to rwanda's pick for the head of francophonie group of french speaking countries. if there were to be an african candidate and had different from me that would make a lot of sense i think that the rwandan foreign minister has all the expertise for

that role sure france and rwanda have had their differences and twenty five years since the genocide to justice has never been fully served but for the present it looks like that doesn't have to stand in the way of a little moneymaking donald quarter. united arab emirates has announced that it is reopening its embassy in damascus and you can see live pictures from right now in damascus it closed in twenty twelve recalling the. civil war and for more information on this we're going to cross live to pull a clear there how much of a breakthrough paula for the syrian government is this. it certainly is a breakthrough for the syrian government as you mentioned the united arab emirates is opening its embassy in damascus now this is a diplomatic boost for the syrian president bashar al assad not least of all

because the u.a.e. was one of those countries that supported opposition slash rebel fighters against his syrian soldiers over the past few years of conflict now it was back in two thousand and twelve that the u.a.e. closed its office in damascus and at that time all gulf countries closed their missions as well with the exception of oman in protest against the violence what is also hugely significant is that the u.a.e. is a member of the arab league now so he was kicked. out of the arab league back in two thousand and eleven at the start of the arab spring so certainly the fact that the u.a.e. is now opening and embassy does suggest that this is an opportunity for improved relations between syria and the arab league and many are suggesting that really this is the first step that we'll see syria being really involved and we united as part of the arab league community take a look. now

all of this comes hot on the heels of the american surprise announcement that they are withdrawing troops from syria so certainly it is playing into that ok thanks for the update there paula slayer putting from the tell of the life. the iraqi m.p. surprised with gratitude for his unannounced visit to the country we'll bring you those details after this break.

well i think it certainly makes sense for for moscow to think pull strong in its contacts with the united states i just fear that the dominant view in this city is that it is merely impossible until the united states kind of settle this domestic divide of the environment and he sees you know i hate to see these laws work toxic but that's exactly what it is and then i think it's in a way you know you're damned if you do when you're damned if you don't. join me everything on the alex i'm i'm sure and i'll be speaking to get out of the

world of politics sports business i'm show business i'll see you then. welcome back to the program the co-founder of social media giant linked in has apologized for bankrolling a pro democratic party operation which created over a thousand fake russian language twitter accounts designed to look like they backed republican rival last year but other then candidate roy moore ended up narrowly losing the alabama state election live now to death for more details. well that was embarrassing to say the least and here i thought that you could get away with blaming russia for anything nowadays apparently not but it does set a new low for democrats making think russian bortz to win elections is the

irony. i find the tactics that have been recently reported highly disturbing for that reason i'm embarrassed by my fear to track the organization i did support more diligently as it made its own decisions to perhaps fund projects that i would reject to recap reid hoffman the co-founder of linked in contributed we tingly or unwittingly money one hundred thousand dollars to a pro democrat cyber security company called new knowledge which seemed to specialized in fraud fake news blogs and this information the company created think thinks book pages to confuse republican voters they created fake russian boortz who retreated and followed roy moore the republican candidate in alabama's two thousand and seventeen special election they then publicly declared

that that was proof he had ties to russia because fake russian boughts were retreating him dirty very very dirty. so surprise the chopper support him or they both have a deep love of country the country's russia but still roughly take a good question is for you it's pretty alarming when a guy's lips in a fluent russian or speak fluent russian russian is everywhere year later it's moving closer to the oval office. interestingly enough the democrats lofton mocked roy moore when he accused them of setting him up last year but food for thought the media pounced on roy moore back then on mere hearsay the very allegation of being tied to russia is that damaging it was more luck than

not that we found out about this called the c. of n.y.t. but how many more incidents like this could there have been that we don't know when never will know anything about food for thought. trump and his wife have paid a surprise visit to u.s. troops in iraq commentators called it a rock star entrance as trump signed autographs and soldiers took selfies with the president.

the visit didn't all go to plan though also on the agenda was a meeting with the iraqi leadership however the two sides couldn't agree on the format of the meeting which then ended up being replaced by a phone conversation the head of one of two main blocs in iraq's parliament was not told amused by trump's surprise visit to the country branding it a blatant violation of sovereignty. and it appears trump agrees that u.s. leaders should stop interfering in other countries the fact is america shouldn't be doing the fighting. for every nation on earth not being reimbursed in many cases at all. if they want others to do the fighting they also have to pay a price and sometimes that's also a monetary price. the pentagon has active military personnel in thirty eight countries the biggest contingent is an german base ramstein where more than one

thousand people are reported to be stationed live now to security and political analyst bunbury to discuss chris welcome to the program now what do you make of trump saying america won't fight in other countries for free anymore. why i take it with a pinch of salt given the extent of their of his military presence overseas but i think what he is seeing is is that he is in favor of pulling out of from the middle east and from that region we've had to put from syria we've had to pull out from afghanistan and there is much talk now of american pows from iraq and i think he's basically come to the conclusion that american intervention in the middle east in the way the region has been a bit of a catastrophe is not going to pay off is not that central to his concerns which are more in the far east more lewisham shipped to china and the developing through war and only for essential american military who don't like this are under the military's but they have to recognise that their priorities in europe were

incidentally i think the americans will see militarily because really it is one hundred forty five you'd be very keen to have a military presence in europe in order to secure the domination of the region and keep our eyes in one. chris he said the chance realize that it's been a catastrophe in syria having said that he's also insisted that the u.s. military will stay in iraq surely that was a catastrophe as well doesn't that somewhat contradict his pledge to stop fighting other countries wars. i think it does there is a contradiction and it's difficult to see the connections between the war in iraq and the war in syria against islamic state of very deep there's also the question of the kurds so it's quite a difficult to underscore ambuhl in some ways the two conflicts particularly if the american pullout from syria with the confrontation between the kurds and the turks which must seem likely the spillover effect into. nominally part of iraq still

is going to lead to this difficult to see how this is going to play out and of course the new iraqi government is no particular friend of the united states as we're seeing the tensions there my suspicion is is that the pressure has been say that will grow all for a pullout from iraq for the reasons i've tried to say and i think it's worth remembering that often it's talked about the oil the oil in the middle east is very important but not so for the americans particularly know that fracking much more important for the europeans so maybe what trump saying to macron and others have complained about quote well just stop doing the talking you can put the boots on the ground you could do the fighting you could do the policing here we're getting out we've got other fish to fry ok we'll leave it there security and political analyst chris bambery things like announce the program as unease and this i'll be back in iran thirty minutes time to first wealth apart.

kind of welcome to worlds apart chumps announcement of the impending pullout of syria has been that in moscow with a change of excitement and a bucket of disbelief both of later gave way to the anxious guessing game on how it may shift the regional balance is that yet another reminder of having to be careful what it wishes for well to discuss that i'm now joined by michael associate professor at the most state institute of international relations and the editor of all monitors russian media coverage max it's good to finally see here in our studio thanks for coming over thanks for having me it's a pleasure now back in september you wrote that the americans are unlikely to

withdraw from syria until the end of trump's term. despite all the recent developments do you think you can still be proven right well you know i think i think i was coming from from from the belief that. the u.s. military presence was a factor that enabled the united states to convert its military presence into political leverage over some of the you know syria russia and iran in particular and to a certain degree i think i was accurate and back then it was a reflection of and i think it still is the reflection of this perspective and washington you know the announcements of to pull all forces came came as a surprise to many in washington and this kind. intention can still be realised. been communicated dot is that democrats would actually leave.

part of syria that day they will not be let's say substituted by let's say the british forces or that they won't increase special forces capacity on the ground to compensate for the military well i think in a way we still are uncertain about the very most delegates of the military pull out but i believe the two thousand two hundred troops the the pentagon claims that there are there will be pull out sometime within the next one hundred days at the same time you know there are forces that are not on the official record but the special forces operatives military trainers i believe that these. personnel will stay and you know we're not sure yet because we're getting some conflicting reports on whether the united states will be applying air force so that's a big factor.