but from the headlines today is the eighteen month jail sentence of maria failing to register as a foreign agent as an acceptable coming up we speak direct to her lawyer. not of. his extremities of the us were illegal. in and of themselves but she got caught up in this. hysteria. french media companies joined forces to condemn the country's intelligence service for questioning journalists about the leaked documents and sales to saudi arabia. for the district attorney in one us state in texas stops prosecuting the theft of what's essential goods that cost less than seven hundred fifty dollars.

not prosecuted. but the. issue is that there is a person. operating in this country and once that happens people are stuck in a circumference of. the morning this is international with me kevin i would hope you stay with me for next thirty minutes for a headline round up this weekend starting with this one big story russian national has been sentenced to eighteen months in prison in the united states after she pleaded guilty to conspiring to a registered foreign agent she's already served nine months in jail the thirty year old was found guilty of trying to influence the national rifle association and conservative groups in the u.s. several u.s. politicians was suspected to be involved in the case to moscow's cold

a detention though unacceptable. maria putin who was sentenced just because she's a russian citizen she's a victim of confrontation between various u.s. political forces and an active anti russian mccarthy a style campaign this is a shame for the u.s. judicial system which carried out political orders. a correspondent reports from new york those who were in the courtroom heard maria buton give quite an emotional speech prior to her sentence being handed down she talked about how she came to the united states not as an agent or an operative but with purely good intentions and what a nightmare her family has been through this is some of what maria buton a said to the court my parents discovered my arrest on the morning news they watched in the room innocent. i love them dearly but at home the morally and financially they're suffering from all of that i destroyed my own life i came to the united states not under any orders but with who and now nothing remains but

penitence now the prosecutors in the d.c. courtroom argued that somehow maria buton his activities with the national rifle association had some hela harmed the political process of the united states significantly they argued that by being an unregistered lobbyist and working behalf on behalf of the russian government inside the national rifle association that she was in severe violation of u.s. law and had somehow harmed due to us political system and done a great deal of damage now the judge did then hand down a sentence of eighteen months in federal prison now nine months of that will be time served that will be the time that she's been held since she was initially arrested so only nine months remaining in federal prison and then after that time she will be deported from the united states back to russia now what's interesting is that maria bhutto was swept up in the aftermath of the twenty sixteen u.s.

presidential elections in which talk of russian agents and russian meddling and russian subversion seemed to be quite widespread there was quite an atmosphere of fear and in that atmosphere she was swept up and it appears that now after months of being detained after quite a bit of time in which it was it was reported that she was. held in solitary confinement in rather harsh conditions that she now has nine more months to serve in u.s. federal custody before she will be allowed to return home to her family so people are saying this is kind of a conclusion to the case as at this point her lawyers are saying they will not appeal this verdict we spoke to maria buton his lawyer about the case and the president he believes it's now set. i think it's impossible to separate from from the politics i think that there is a an underlying crime that she pled guilty to which you can make out under u.s.

law but i think the notion that this would have been investigated or an arrest would have been made for a typical foreign national who wasn't russian and wasn't in the car environment where in the u.s. i think it's almost impossible to to believe that southern politics has a lot to do with the atmosphere of the case and it's one of those things where if the elements of the crime are there they were selectively enforced in this instance i think it's hard to argue. the charges unregistered agent it's not foreign it's not secret agent it's not an intelligence agent it literally is just doing something for someone else as being their agent none of maria maria's activities in the u.s. were illegal in and of themselves so there's no classified information there's no political sensitive kind of information given she was not paid by by the russian federation her she was supported by americans while she was here financially but

she got caught up in this and she rushes hysteria. i would fear that other countries will start applying the same standards and saying that any american who went abroad to another country and it was involved in civil society organizations and social and met people and networks that's really all we're talking about doing are anything more serious than that and reported back on those activities some in the u.s. so i think it's very dangerous because i think if other countries adopted the same as you're going to get a tit for tat situation with countries grabbing civilians of other countries as leverage or for other reasons and i think it's a bad idea. dozens of french media companies about three journalists have been summoned by french intelligence officials of what's been described as a breach of national defense secrecy it comes after leaks document was published on the use of french weapons in the full year long civil war that's been tearing yemen

a. we express our full solidarity with our colleagues who have done only that job to bring to the attention of citizens information of public interest on the consequences of the sale of french arms says these revelations the government has remained silent on the facts they appear to have exposed a government line but now three journalists all the ones being investigated they've been summoned to appear before the french general directorate of internal security or the d.g.a. s.l.i. after appealing a confidential note from the country's intelligence services it showed the french government knew weapons that sold to saudi arabia and the united arab emirates were being used in the conflict in yemen a fact the government has repeatedly denied a war that's left thousands dead and pushed millions to war to the brink of

starvation it's been described by the u.n. the world's worst humanitarian disaster. at the center of all that this storm is a classified by france's military agency the d r i'm real to these journalists it shows forty eight french sees a teller a guns were being used along the sound the game and food that tanks and fighters sold to the u.a.e. are in action and its missile guiding technology may have been deployed as well

in the end of seize a truck mounted how was this had been deployed the year. in the border on the saudi side as of the twenty fifth of september twenty eighth seen about forty u.a.e. leclerc tanks are observed in a fixed defensive position and advance positions in the west the french government has continued to repeat the line that weapons that so to sound the engineer only being used for defensive purposes to our knowledge the french weapons available to the members of the coalition are mostly in a defensive position outside yemeni territory or on call this in rights of way but not on the front line and we are not aware of any civilian casualties resulting from their use and the yemeni theater france is not among the leading arms suppliers of countries in gauged in yemen the concern now is that this investigation by french authorities is about putting pressure on these journalists

to break their professions and most saleh. to reveal their sources show that even ski ulti paris. mention french authorities in turn of closely insisted this weapon is being used for defensive purposes only while the saudi led coalition is sultanas any deliberate targeting of civilians in yemen political journalist and elizabeth military gives her thoughts on the leak and why it seems to cause such concern for the french government. i don't think there's any kind of secret that french weapons are being used in yemen and you could very well argue the government has been saying this and preaching about this that since the the civil war in yemen was started by rebels against illegally installed government with the support of a foreign power iran this is indeed in defense of the state it's a member of the us it's the position of a number of people from your america britain saudi arabia etc i think what's different in this specific instance is the detailed nature of the report which is

fascinating reading but it also ate meat makes it easier to place possible french agents on the ground so the french government feels that this is hard for it's not helping and it's their position that's what they're that's how they're defending themselves the question is you know is this a crime revealing a state secrets on the one hand of the other is their prerogative is it the brother to the journalist to reveal something in the public interest. of those who speak growing in china's massive global trade infrastructure network known as the belton road initiative it is a huge one point three trillion dollar project that spans asia europe and africa and a forum which is currently underway in beijing the u.k. and germany with the latest to sing his praises he goes down of sin the chinese capital for us. the final day of the bolton road forum here in beijing at the atmosphere is visibly more relaxed and more chill the agenda is not as bad as it

was on day one when it comes to rushing china relations a most statements have been revolving around the new business ventures and the part will cautious optimism i should say has been voiced when it comes to the potential expansion of those ventures this is somewhat in contrast to day one no wood was a very busy friday here in beijing and a lot of optimism about the bolton road initiative which this forum is just a small part of it is a vision spearheaded by beijing and it is four years for the past five years or so it has been revolving around the development of two major trade routes two major global trade routes and well when it comes when it comes to those of the russian president vladimir putin praised the initiative highly saying that this is exactly what the new world what the world nowadays needs in terms of international

relations and it wasn't just russia of course all participants who came here who chose to spend their time on visiting this forum they of course support the initiative also we have some cautious support for coming in from the european union and pretty much the only and the key opponent to this initiative is the united states because they see it as a threat to their global dominance when it comes to relations again between russia and china they announced the two countries announced a joint military drills to come up in the near future and also they announced the establishment of a new investment fund it is said to have the net capital isn't it is said to accumulate in that capital worth of around one billion dollars and here's the catch it. will do all operations in yuans in the chinese national currency all of that to

streamline the process of investment into the belt and road initiatives into the belt and road projects projects done within the framework of this initiative as for the russian president vladimir putin his official part here is to wrap up with a media conference we're still expecting it to come and i will be bringing you all the latest yes five zero is out of moscow over there but for the afternoon president putin's there is guest of honor we're keeping an eye on it it's not quite happening yet but we think we've just been watching that meeting all fill up again saddam's will take you to it live here on out international. so meantime away for that let's look at our other stories we're covering this morning for you in a bid to battle the effects of poverty one district attorney in dallas county in texas will no longer prosecute the theft of essential items that's the key that cost less than seven hundred fifty dollars so long as the crime was not for economic gain criminalizing poverty is counterproductive for our communities health

and safety for that reason this office will not prosecute theft of personal items less than seven hundred fifty dollars and less evidence shows that the alleged theft was for economic gain these essential items are laid out as goods like food like nappies and baby formula but of course how to define whether the theft is quote for economic gain or not a quote remains very unclear gray area meantime also most low level marijuana offenses are not going to be prosecuted the more well many of the state is stunned by the decision and they're calling for the district attorney to step down over it those county district attorney's storks crime by refusing to prosecute fifty of personal items worth less than seven hundred fifty dollars if someone is hungry they can just steal some food if cold steal a coat we're does it end its wealth redistribution by fifty. we discussed it with political activist anthony roach is right and conservative blogger anthony bryan logan. well honestly i just tried to have some reform and justice is still going to

go a little between far i mean talking about not prosecuting saft i mean clearly anything below like what i found in dollars seven hundred dollars it's a little bit too far because odd you do want to point is making try and some areas of dallas texas which have a lot of crime problems making the crime worse because you can imagine how to say say if you steal a lesson it's in a certain items it's good you won't go to jail that that how you go about fixing the justice issue back totally ignoring obvious crimes i definitely understand those concerns if there was me my so i certainly wouldn't put them in prison or jail maybe community service but the over arching issue is that there is a process of operating in this country and once that happens people are stuck in a circumference of penury so even after you serve your time can't get a job after you get out what are those people supposed to do we have a president right now who continues to cut programs to help these people so that he

can paper is one point five trillion dollars deficit induced tax cuts for wealthy people there are so many programs that are out there and need low income areas especially in these big cities nakor people are going to i cannot recall god live news have a president put his thinking i'm begging of the belt and rode initiative. it's all in the. sights but seeing it in the road and i suppose one thing is so. for decades ahead. he's moved out of the little an excellent we're not talking about billions of dollars and we're talking about the trillion dollars so is this a chinese project for china or is it will be beneficial for other participants as well is it beneficial for russia china is a great country and like i said you can look it up in the way of open source is going to be honest for example in the. it's the number one economy in the world by p.p.p. today which is not. always that of course per capita it's less

than the us but the ball huma's bigger than that of the u.s. so naturally china has its. tremendous plan which when china does something it is very pragmatic about the goals that it sets for itself china is our strategic partner in this is very obvious so we should look at any indicator of. us. treaties that. are biggest trade partner is china our goal was to reach the goal of one hundred billion dollars in trade we actually went further at one hundred eight billion dollars and prospects were clearly good so when the chinese leadership and chairman she sets goals and development goals of course they're always very pragmatic and we are the same way

we do in any other countries the same way they also pursue their national interest so it's only natural for them to do so at the same time that china does this pretty civilized wage in a soft way in such a way that. the solutions they offer for the whole world which we need the needs and serve the interest of most countries not all countries china is not actually offering anything new and many of my colleagues have been saying this on the margins of the everybody says that china is just trying to. put on paper the principles that are already reflected the in the w t o the. i.m.f. and other organizations china just wants stability. that is why the

chinese economy is huge. the internal market is growing of course but still. what china can produce to do you think is mostly intended for international markets and gradually of course little by little internal consumption will also grew as people become more wealthy in china but today china wants to sell its products on the international markets and it's only natural that many other countries do the same for example the swedish economy is export oriented old the german economy it's also export oriented. and china is just bigger and it has more products so what does china have to do. with when china faces certain the restrictions and attempts by certain countries to slow down its development what does china have to do in this situation china has to strengthen

the fundamentals of international economic relations international trade and create conditions for promoting these goods how should china do this it should develop a transport infrastructure poor it's a. railroad through the trucks roads and this is what china does the choice that's how it all started and then it became obvious to the chinese leadership and to us as well that this is not enough that we need to strengthen the fundamentals of the international treaty international economic cooperation which is russia interested in the off course we are with your growing trade of course we are interested and we want to use our transit potentials more we have the trends siberian line we have the baikal more reliant on. you're going to invest a lot of money down with it so we plan to build new roads and we plan to allocate

huge amounts of money trillions of rubles to develop our infrastructure why do we do that. that's because we want to use our potential in food that we can trade and china does this in a very civilized manner. for many years who have been raising the question of increasing the share. machinery in our trade in now we see this happening this is happening in part because of the position of the chinese leadership and i'm very grateful to. chairman she and the chinese prime minister because they've been working consistently to improve the structure of our trade trade between russia and china and this. totally serves our interest. so i think this prospect this initiative.

it has a very good outlook. very good future but i repeat this is because almost all the countries are interested in this nobody wants to see any restrictions nobody wants to see trade wars except possibly for the countries that he nish aid such processes but that would in any case much in the vast majority almost one hundred percent believe that all those restrictions all those wars only hurt the global economy only heard his development stick. china actually protects the values that the global economy needs today so i think this initiative will develop and we should also remember another things we should remember about the chinese the loss of the china the proceeds with caution. and

we went in there practical look to in their practical policies the always take their partners interest into account and countries respond very positively to that next question and it's something else of life and life that's built so that what you had in number of bilateral meetings on the sidelines of which one was more important that we did it and well it's hard to single out something in particular. issue i'll just mention some general principles what's important it's important that we have very good relations businesslike relations with many of our partners systems and pushes them as a mass majority of. nations everybody everybody and that everybody wants to work with us. so what did we did and we talked about our bilateral relations first and foremost well with each particular country he there are certain

things which matter more on the bilateral level i mean the structure of our trade is different with different countries. but the prospects look good with all those countries of course there are certain issues. global scope i mean security and regional security issues for example when i met with the president of egypt. we also talked about our bland's to build the power plant and we also discussed the situation in their region in syria and libya and many other issues as well as me so i'm looking for it for example i had a lot of meetings earlier today i talked to many of my european colleagues and of course i told them about this in the regarding the situation in ukraine and how we plan to proceed with implementing the minsk accords and i told many of my

counterparts. about my meetings with the north korean leaders so we cover to wide range of the issues of mutual interest next question. bloomberg. you also had a bilateral meeting with chinese partners like this for instance did you talk to chairman she about prospects reducing iranian oil exports didn't bring it down to zero since china is a major partner did you talk about these did you talk to china. offering financial loss or any other kind of support to iran given the us sanctions and is russia willing to replace sereny in oil that for china increasing russian oil exports to china and increase or oil production in russia she said this was one

question. ok. well we did not talk. with the chairman she about those are a couple ration with iran well basically we didn't touch. on then we didn't talk about oil. now. you mentioned you asked whether russia. is really to meet the needs of china or russia is ready to meet the needs of china and many other partners around the world we are the biggest. oil producer in the world the us produces more oil right now but we produce. eleven billion barrels a day and we can produce more oil if we want to. it's something different a time sometimes so we're number one sometimes saudi arabia is first sometimes the us first but it's more or less the same the same volume between our countries but potential is huge in russia but it's not

a matter of potential and the thing is we have an agreement we have an agreement with opec we have agreed to keep production at a certain level and the. this agreement will remain in force until july. and it. was the decision made by the united states. to impose sanctions on iran those decisions will go into effect i think in early may just not mistaken so. i don't know how the global energy market is going to respond to this situation we have an agreement with opec and we abide by this agreement as far as we know all our partners within opec including saudi arabia spend by their commitments you lose under the opec plus deal.

so what is going to happen to the global energy market i don't know. we didn't raise this issue when i talked to my chinese friends. interfax. mr president it was but experts keep talking like that about your decrease it is telling it on an expedited. citizenship for the people often done and it's going lugansk. experts one during calm much or russia will have to spend on this some say it's going to cost one hundred. billion rubles. does russia's you know budget have this much money. is it going to cause some financial difficulties he is it possible that people living in those territories will receive the. pensions from russia and from ukraine which simultaneously well

we discuss sions on this subject. which. people just like to use this is a boogie men talk the talk about. the whole lives. it's going to burn in the russian budget i think it's just the political forces that you don't want to rush it to support people living in the dawn deaths that do that that's number one number two. we're not only talking about the people living in the lugansk or it's done it's republics is that this expedited procedure and we'll we're actually thinking about offering this. procedure to people of ukraine in general people. the entire ukraine now. regarding our social commitments to our people in russia that there.