russia selling the defense system to destabilise nato allies saying that mr pence sarette are empty threats and the reason is that. no member of nato including the united states will seriously consider the possibility of excluding turkey from nato turkey is a key member of the alliance it is a very important critical strategic position in the middle east even if we can imagine that the united states. could consider to raise this issue european members will certainly disagree with that so i think that when mr pence was doing this threat he wanted just to convey to ancora that washington is extremely displeased with the duke is intention to buy the c. four hundred russian anti aircraft systems but i don't think that anyone

in the nato and outside nato can seriously consider such a scenario and i am absolutely sure that mr erdogan knows as well as anybody else in nato that turkey will not be excluded from the alliance it just cannot happen even if washington is very irritated by on corrupt behavior those are empty threats. the united states can adopt some sanctions against turkey this is quite possible especially it can stop to send to turkey some types of armaments but they will never go as far as even to raise the issue of. exclusion from nato other a lot of empty threats coming from washington because of course donald trump has been clear that he does not want johnson or merkel to go ahead with the. nord

stream to energy gas project saying why is germany having a deal with russia at all the u.s. administration is very unpleasant with a number of developments in the world and that's not only the turkey or the indian or the chinese desire to acquire the russian c. four hundred it has also to do with the decision of germany to go on with the construction of the north stream to pipeline and we have heard for the last half a year that the united states may adopt sanctions against the german companies that are taking part in the the construction of this pipeline such sanctions can be adopted and i saying that there are some people who want in washington who would like to teach germany and the other europeans

a lesson in this respect but first my feeling is that the united states will punish . themselves even more than they will punish the europeans because when a military and political ally adopts sanctions against his european allies it means that the other means of influence like diplomacy political influence and so on they don't work it means that the united states are short of instruments to change the european position and so it will be those sanctions will be a defeat by itself it will just show that washington is lacking the necessary influence and the necessary weight to make really in changes position so i suppose also that the united states will think twice about doing that they can have a major quarrel with german. but it does not guarantee the united states that the

austrian two will be stopped because eventually an austrian two will be or may be constructed just by russia even without the participation of the european companies and so it will enter into force in two thousand and twenty i think that the chances are extremely high so my feeling is that having exhausted all the options of trying to influence politically germany on this issue the trump administration now is lost. in choosing a certain way for a new way of responding to the construction of this pipeline because they said that it does not correspond to american interests ok and now what do they do to stop it what sings they have been doing until today did not bring the necessary result so how far will they go and will they go in that direction at all because as i say it

will bring more harm to american interests in europe then positive sides so i think that it's a tricky game for the united states and once again i see that washington is making a lot of threats that he is not capable of following up in practical terms then it seems to be the style of the trumpet ministration. in the middle east in the far east was north korea with europe with russia i think it shows that the united states wants to obtain more that it can obtain in today's. international situation and for me it's a sign of a certain weakness of the united states they are making very high bets and then they have to go away with very modest results but as of this month seventieth anniversary of the nato alliance do you think that compliance with nato no longer means then compliance with washington. the united states is

a key member of nato and i don't see that need again function without an active participation of the united states i have to remind you that seventy five percent of the rockets and bombs and missiles that. fell on libya into sales and eleven were of american production. nato is. more than on two servers depending on the united states financially so the united states carry the most important financial burden of keeping nato alive and functioning so i think that there are some discords between the european capitals and washington i think they are mostly personal i mean european leaders tended to be irritated by mr trump extremely. appalling style i would say they disliked mr pence speech at the last munich conference where

mr benz said what the europeans should do on different directions of their foreign policy i think that this style is long into the past and europeans they let it know that they don't like the style of the trumpet ministration but it doesn't mean they don't like nato i think they consider. nato a necessary instrument of their security and american presence in nato a necessary element of their security so i think that although there are some differences today mostly on the style of politics between european capitals in washington i don't think it will spoil the seventy's and ever syria of nato i think that mostly it's an alliance which understands that they have to be more or less united on key international issues. yes with some expensive exceptions maybe but

that this unity is a condition of nato efficiency so i don't seeing their differences between the trump administration and the european governments will lead to a major crisis of nato but then again stoltenberg it is clear that russia is seen as the major threat to you and your fellow parliamentarians is there a consensus that they understand that the purpose of nato is to fight russia well nato was created in one thousand forty nine to oppose the soviet union and later the warsaw pact that was created by the way six years later after the creation of nato so nato is a key the european political and military space and to try to exercise a decisive influence on russian foreign policy positions. as a means of also of certain sarette and warnings and joint statements and so on

so i think that. nato had was in crisis in the ninety's when the soviet union fell apart because nato was losing its sense of being but then some. steps were taken. nato started a war in afghanistan and it goes on for the field of activity in the so-called north atlantic region and it went to war in libya then. participated in the u.s. military operation and occupation of iraq so nato has found itself a purpose outside of the european continent and when relations with russia deteriorated nato easily switched back to the position of confrontation with russia and i have to. stress that it is not russia it is coming to nato borders it is need . that is coming to russia borders by adopting new members and sending troops to

those new members like. a lot really to enter establishing new bases and headquarters in poland. sending. military ships to the black sea. and threatening even to go to as far as the hours of sea so i think that nato today has got back to its initial function to oppose moscow and to exercise to try to exercise a military and political influence on russia in order to change its foreign policy behavior so in some way nato has gone back to its roots says i thank you i'll stop you there we'll have more from senator alexei pushkov after the break. join me every thursday on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to guest of

the world of politics sports business i'm showbusiness i'll see you then. young elephants have come to us. especially brutal budging incidents because the baby elephants often do see their mothers. killed but also because. i do elephants smile i see it simply someone's all the next person changes. in the world of political matchmaking the european union has long put values before wealth as. it's most desirable and tribute. to the time it takes for the e.u.

to make a policy decision china can set up a whole new industry. structure to potential. crime scenes to do crack when i was a little kid my dad he was like. so you know like what i needed when i was a baby but i had a bad child. there's always single mothers in african american community service and same. i think it's more of these teenagers having kids. you can expect a fourteen or fifteen year old first daughter now order for hand if you're far there any child. lost their place and. my car and breaking down i was unable to get to work on time so they let me go

with my paycheck that i bring home i have nearly enough to pay my car insurance. welcome back we're still with the chairman of russia's commission on information the media senator alexei pushkov well according to nature a nation media you mention those different political flashpoints what we hear about here is that your president or do they have an attack here in seoul is really that russia invaded crimea or it must return crimea to ukraine that the american population believe that the reports which found no collusion with trump is not true because there is good. today has been swept especially the political class of the

united states but also partially in europe it has been swept away wave of virtual. reasoning a wave of no matter what russia is guilty look at the moolah report miller has been head of the f.b.i. for a long time he is an independent person he was named in the named as an independent prosecutor to investigate into possible connections between trump and the russian government he found nothing because he couldn't find anything you cannot find and that was exactly what miller was trying to find and i'm not surprised he didn't find anything and the fact that the american fifty percent of the american population sink that the miller report is not true it just shows the impact american media have on the minds of american citizens it doesn't mean that they are

right because this is sheer and complete nonsense it means that they're being told from the morning to the night that there was a collusion between trump and putin it has become a religion an element of face it has nothing to do with irrationality it has nothing to do with facts it's a major think news and this fake news has gone into the minds of americans well i pity them for this because they have a wrong picture of what is going us but equally particularly non-intelligent and completely untrue the fact that there are very strong international positions in europe also shows that the information machine of western countries and the propaganda machine is working very actively but we have seen you know such examples not only was russia i remember in two thousand and three the whole western media. tried to make the american and the. european and the british population believe

that saddam hussein had weapons of mass destructions it was the main reason for the aggression against iraq and then for the occupation of iraq and then in the time span of one year it was find out that there was no weapons of mass destructions in iraq nobody said it was an illegal war i mean among the leaders of the west and then when the gold is obtained it does not matter whether they complained was right or not that's exactly what's happening in the united states mr trump enemies wants to want to impeach him that's why they put up this story of his collusion with moscow and now they cannot accept that this story has turned out to be false they are also building a huge case about the reunification between russia and crimea although everybody knows that crimea used to be a russian territory that it was part of ukraine for a very short time due to some historical accident i would say that ninety percent of the population of crimea has during the referendum spoken for joining russia and

that just crimea did not accept the could attack which happened in give in february two thousand and fourteen but it seems that nobody wants to listen to that in certain western capitals they want to stick to their position that russia should give crimea back to. crane but nobody almost almost nobody in crimea wants to go back to a crane what about the two point five million people there they have the right to decide where they will where they want to belong when the course of a said that they don't want to be part of serbia what does the west say they said we have to support the national independence of kosovo because they have the right to be independent well crimea has the right to be over in russia because i saying that there are no doubts that the absolute majority of the population of crimea is for being part of russian decisions are not being taken anymore in washington and london the world has changed ok you've identified some double standards there as perceived by you of course as the golan heights and a creation. well that's going on britain would support the russian position but you

didn't mention the script files mike pence vice president clearly said the orders of your government were to use chemical weapons here in britain i can only confirm the russian position and that we don't have any proofs that it was. poisoning that came from russia. the position of the british government is extremely murky on all this we got no answers to our questions. where they were poisoned how they were poisoned actually why they survived the poisoning by a deadly chemical agent which just doesn't happen then this very strange story of two more people that were contaminated by. allegedly four months of the screwball spores ending where are these cripples why they are not allowed to talk to the press so i think that until we get questions to all all these questions

russia will stay on this present position that british government should clarify sayings not only russia is. on this position the president of the czech republic mr zevon said that he didn't want just statements he wants proofs and he mentioned the agent was fabricated not only not only on the beach in the post of its space that there were quite a few foreign countries western countries also that worked with this type of nerve political political agents there and so you know this this type of agent could have come from from anywhere that's one british national of course died in that incident so what is the reaction in say the duma when you hear defense secretary theresa may defense secretary gavin williamson telling your country to go away and shut up and of course after warning russia and china over the. of the new queen elizabeth's

second aircraft carrier what was your reaction to the chinese government's response of just canceling the british foreign secretary visit to beijing i will not speak for the sake of the chinese government on this question cheney's officials but. are largely speaking i saying that mr williamson is trying to jump over his weight mr wilson is making threats and i've heard those threats because i was present at the speech at the munich conference and i think he's making spreads as if britain would like to declare war on russia which as far as i know is not the case and i think mr williamson has to check his language because he produces an impression of an idiosyncratic person and not someone who is measuring his statements to his capacities of course that kind of language arguably is not only coming from london the united states is told russia to get out of venezuela why is the russian military in venezuela and what do you think about the fact that john bolton the

national security adviser is cautioning the russian federation for its policy in venezuela well i wonder whether the united states still seeing that south america is their backyard and is there unconditional sphere of influence my feeling is that this is the reading in washington what right has trump to say where russia should go or where it should not go why it should not be in venezuela has legal relations with the internationally recognized government of venezuela which is represented in the united nations and in other international institutions and we have signed certain deals on military and technical cooperation why should russia get out of business or that just because somebody in washington wants that i think that this is an approach which is at least sixty. sixty years old dated i remember that in the beginning of the sixty's the u.s. government suggested to the soviet union to go. out of cuba and you remember it led

to a very dangerous cuban missile crisis and i think that at that point there were people in washington who understood that this kind of language this kind of statements this kind of policy belong to the past that countries of latin america have the right to deal with whom they want and to sign agreements with whom they want and if they want to have agreements with russia with china is their full rate and the president of the united states cannot negate this to them as long as the reason government in venezuela which controls the country which keeps the agreements with us we will be doing what we're seeing is a necessary for our bilateral relations and if they want russian specialist on cyber security for instance to work on the defense of say venezuelan. cyber networks against attacks from abroad then i sing that.

and if you do that is where the governments of government want to do that i think this is what will be done as you may know the. military personnel that was sent to venezuela mostly. specialist in cyber security in the united states are also irritated by the fact that. other lesson american countries do not want any american military involvement in the domestic affairs of venezuela even the countries which are critical of mr maduro and support mr who i don't know do not want to see the american marines on the land of venezuela and this is well known in washington and i think it limits the room for maneuver of the united states and so they don't know how to. achieve their goal to oust mr madura and it adds to the irritation and. those are very heated statement they made about russian

moves in minnesota not all latin american governments i'm sure president bolton are of brazil might beg to differ about that you just name checked the cuban missile crisis and nine hundred sixty two well the might compare secretary of state said the cia is helping u.s. policy in venezuela what happens if russians come into contact with those cia personnel on the ground in in venezuela the united states wants just mr moderate to be ousted by any means i even heard on the u.s. television calls for physical extermination of missed them adore and i think that this is not the european approach and i would probably not go as far as to judge and to try to calculate what will be taken sequences if there is some kind of clash between americans and russians in venezuela there is no official american presence in venezuela i have to tell you do you think these countries have learned their lessons from syria or do you believe that the u.k. and u.s.

will continue some kind of guerrilla warfare to destabilize syria since the obvious loss of. say british attempts to overthrow the syrian government i think syria is a lost case for for the united states of america of course there may be some attempts to help the military opposition to help the. in other jihadi forces that are active in syria there may be some attempts to destabilize the present government i think the united states will go on. keeping a limited military force in the northeastern part of syria but i think that by and large the fight for series over and i seeing that was when mr trump said in one of the most intelligent statements and it was a completely right decision that he has made during his presidential term the united states. i sing counted the days of missed since two thousand and twelve

when former president obama says that the missed us the days are numbered and mr obama is not in the white house and mr us is still in damascus so i think that in syria we saw the limits of american power. and i think also that syria has shown that even with the mess of supporters of anti-government forces into days world it is not easy to obtain the fall of this government especially if it is supported by other fora foreign powers like russia for instance so i think that the syrian lesson has shown that there is no freedom of friend for some countries which used to be which used to work to act as they want for instance like in iraq and i think it's a good sign because what happened in iraq was

a disaster as are alexei pushkov thank you that's it for the show we'll be back on monday with the legendary screenwriter director behind the carlos acosta story a film about socialism sanctions and ballet until then people just by social media . breaks it count down. u.s. veterans who come back from war often tell the same stories. were going after the people who were killing civilians they were not interested in the wellbeing of their own soldiers either there are already several generations of them so i just got this memo from the circuit events. it says we're going to attack and destroy

the government and seven countries in five years americans pay for the wars with them money those with their lives if we were willing to go into harm's way and willing to risk being killed for a war then surely we can risk some discomfort for uneasiness for. some. they have a superman. they start training very young. they months of intensive school. rats. and they save lives. in a world of big partisan lot and conspiracy it's time to wake up to

dig deeper to hit the stories that made history media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smart we need to stop slamming the door on the bath 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. wiki leaks obtains what it says is a press strategy agreed by door and the u.k. to be used to me about wiki leaks founder julian assange extradited to the u.s. further fueling rumors the whistleblower is about to be expelled from his embassy refuge in london. more than twenty people are arrested in paris as protesters gather for the twenty first consecutive weekend of anti-government rallies. plus the u.n. security council calls on libya's rival factions to avoid bloodshed as

a commander from the east of the country advances his troops towards the capital. and really sort of how do you feel about.