some $800.00 i saw the skate from a detention camp in syria as kurdish forces withdraw in the face of turkish military advances also to come. there's been more than a week of violent protest in ecuador with the president refusing to cancel cutbacks on fuel subsidies. and lot of money put in gives an interview to journalists from arabic t.v. channels including our sister station r.t. arabic how does his state visit to saudi arabia and the united arab emirates.

welcome to the weekly here on r t international where we bring you the latest headline news on the top stories from the past week. hundreds of iceland militants have reportedly fled from numerous detention camps in northern syria previously guarded by the kurdish forces the kurds retreated from some of their positions after turkey started its ground invasion which it calls an anti terror operation on wednesday. turkey wants to create a buffer zone in syria free of kurdish fighters and plans to then set up millions of syrian refugees there who are currently in turkey the u.n. says over 130000 civilians have fled the turkish advance warning that the figure could rise to some 400000 those escaping have urged the international community to step in. america and other countries should protect us they're committing sin here our children women is there really no mercy but rather clearly

this is an occupation we are a peaceful people we are talking about this placement and effectively genocide of innocents kurdish civilians innocent communities within that region the kurds have always been on the defensive but now they may they must the friend themselves and their families which means that unfortunately they may not be able to police the camps that hold isis and the isis prisoners it is now going to cause a big vacuum and a significant problem in terms of security. the offensive has sparked rallies around the world people in the us france germany and other countries have joined pro kurdish protests operation has also been condemned by the international community germany france and others have gone so far as to halt arms exports to turkey but president everyone has threatened to send refugees who are currently in turkey to the e.u. if it continues to condense in for its actions. we have

3600000 syrian refugees in our country waiting to go back home page european union come to your senses i'll say it again at the moment of our operation you cannot define it as an invasion our job is easy we can open the doors and 3600000 refugees we will send them back to you. the offensive follows donald trump decision to withdraw u.s. troops from northern syria an ounce last sunday defense secretary mark asked for has now confirmed washington will evacuate around $8000.00 american troops and a deliberate withdrawal citing the risk of american troops being caught between 2 opposing armies as for also warn that the kurds were looking to strike a deal with the syrian government and russia in the hope of a counterattack against the turkish army he added u.s. troops still in syria have the right to self-defense and will fire back if attacked . now trumps withdrawal announcement was condemned both abroad and in the u.s.

with republicans and democrats saying the president is betraying the currents. of looks back now at u.s. relations with the kurds over the decades. it seemed impossible sounded like crazy talk and yet it happened a moment of unity between republicans and democrats as they both condemned america's disloyalty to its kurdish allies the person who united states is in danger of losing the mandate of heaven this is that crazy. which allies in syria or elsewhere in the middle east will fully trust the word of president trump in the future the thing all of these politicians pundits and channels seem to forget though is that the kurds i used to waking up to a groundhog day of american betrayal the only difference is that it's been going on for more than half a century and hasn't been funny at all. in

the fifty's and early sixty's the cia pushed the kurds to revolt against baghdad as part of their efforts to overthrow their leader a bill karim kassim eventually he was toppled by a coupe but the new ruler wasn't a big fan of ideal of kurdish independence so he bombed them into submission bombed with napalm kindly provided by the united states. the kurds seem to either have a short memory or a forgiving heart because in the 70s the us was back on their good side iraq and iran were involved in a border dispute and washington was correctly supplying the minority with weapons once again pitching them against baghdad but then iraq and iran kissed and made up and all of a sudden the kurds were on their own being blown to pieces as they are supposed

transatlantic guardian angel was watching idly even the americans at the time admitted that keeping their involvement under. this was simply no excuse this policy was not imparted to our clients who were encouraged to continue fighting even in the context of covert action ours was a cynical enterprise hoovered action should not be confused with missionary work. fast forward to the eighty's and for the us it was the golden decade of big metallic umma dawna and m.t.v. for the kurds it was well just another decade of more u.s. betrayal in the late eighty's saddam hussein unleashed his chemical arsenal against them an atrocity looking bound to drop the wrath of the world's policeman but it was still a long time before saddam was to turn from friend to full so american wrath

didn't go further than statements like these we want to maintain good political and economic relations with iraq but the issue of chemical weapons gets in the way of that. in 2003 it looked like the u.s. was finally ready to make amends for its decades of forsaking the kurds helping them was among the pretexts for the invasion of iraq but then even in washington many took such goals with a pinch of salt the kurds have every reason to believe or think that they will be betrayed again by the united states as so often in the person contracts the spectacle of are inviting turks in to this war earlier trying to bribe them into it could not have been reassuring to the kurds even under the turks before trial against betraying the kurds that is your point yeah surely your point isn't that because it betrayed them in the past we should betray them this time not that we should just we will not will not yes they did in 2007 the us let turkey have its

way with the kurdish rebels in iraq as ankara launched a lethal bombing raid against them this is of course nowhere near. here you full list by 2019 america had left the kurds for dead a few more times both in iraq and syria. american traditions go beyond partisan lines america loves having turkey on thanksgiving going to the pumpkin patch for halloween and launching fireworks on the 4th of july screwing the kurds over is nothing but a decades long political tradition for america and there you will abide by it be the democrat or republican. ecuador is in the grip of anti austerity protests despite president lenin mariner's military backed curfew that was imposed on saturday earlier that day people attacked a government buildings and a t.v. channels office more than a week has passed since people 1st flooded the streets to oppose the government

cuts on fuel subsidies are to spanish correspondent nicholas o'donovan reports from kiddo. this is what bad to me look these are real goods you know bullets against people their companies to protect themselves and confidence takes to drop the explosives point out and it is people who sleep in constant contact during sleep that's what the current dogs. have.

had. the most recent data on that right now in an absolute chaos there is thousands and thousands of persons let's try and get some sense of it from the law and just the just a few things and why it's the presidential palace it's heaven they call good part military and police since these protests influence again. there's 2 minutes ago while i was there in the large shot in our spanish version we don't hit by. orbiting the earth from bright friday night and that's what we've been seeing all right the protesters are using the local court ferals stones bricks just like the. and police firing back with tear gas with sound bombs it's

a situation of extreme tension in the streets. just to give you an idea of. a place suspended any activity in the city center they say it's not safe for doctors and for ambulances instead we've got crews all volunteers that are just taking the dozens and dozens of going to people. bus stops and treating them there so it's actually pretty shocking and to flutey measures that were implemented by the government included scrapping the subsidies for diesel. gasoline. and that has triggered these protests the monday we had the students then on tuesday we had been bijan as communities today they will move together they've joined together in this massive tens of thousands of people who are taking over the streets of quito president clinton moreno he's going to see what he's going to say it is a message. absolutely repulsed so his government those ministers

and say these measures that deal with the i.m.f. $4200000000.00. struggling with that not the people who say that the government is going to banks big business instead of the people and that's one of these people here protesting this is a national strike and. take absolute smoke it's practically on bearable a tragic day in x. we're told history had a state visit to saudi arabia on tuesday a lot of reporting gave an interview to several arab networks including our sister channel our to arabic artists and fall. dave u.s. welcome to this unique interview with russian president vladimir putin which we're recording in sochi. with me here today are mr mohan and reporter at sky news arabia

and so i'm soffit a reporter r.t. arabic thank you very much for this unique opportunity and considering your upcoming visit to saudi arabia. a lot of. but you know so i mean. it is my pleasure i think it's a good tradition to meet with the country's media before visiting it as with the visit to saudi arabia we attach great importance to it it is in a sense a return visit after the visit by king of saudi arabia custodian of the 2 holy mosques to russia it was the 1st historic visit we consider it historic and it really is if there is one more thing that i believe is important to note in soviet times relations between saudi arabia and the soviet union were rather low level in recent years the quality of our relations has changed dramatically we consider saudi arabia a friendly nation i have very good relations with both the king and the crown prince we have been making good headway practically in all failed i will start with

the economy there is still a lot to be done but we have set a good pace last year it was up 15 percent in the 1st 6 months of 29000 growth was as high as 38 percent we're considering some good joint projects on direct investment fund and the public investment fund of saudi arabia have joined established a $10000000000.00 platform with $2000000000.00 have already been invested work is underway on other projects and some promising and interesting projects have already been implemented and let me go as i consider it possible to operate on the territory of saudi arabia one of our companies exploring the possibility of building a petro chemical facility with investments of more than $1000000000.00 it is cebu holdings russia's largest company in this sector we a 4 string a partnership in the trust based sensitive area of military and defense cooperation we have been negotiating for a long time equally important are our joint efforts to resolve the regional crises in this regard i would like to emphasize the positive role saudi arabia has played

and resolving the syrian crisis we are working especially closely with turkey and iran as you well know but i believe that without saudi arabia's contribution towards the syrian. settlement it would have been impossible to achieve a positive trend therefore i would like to express our gratitude to both the king and the crown prince for this constructive approach i'm confident that my visit will help to build up the momentum both in developing bilateral relations and in hunston cooperation in international organization of. so that. mr president thank you very much once again for giving us the opportunity to record this interview your visit to the middle east will possibly have an impact on the united arab emirates as well or do you think about strategic cooperation between russia and the use and how would this corporation evolve can this corporation play a certain role in strengthening collective security considering the russian initiative to establish

a collective security architecture in the gulf region especially in the area of the strait of hormuz. and that if. you just mentioned the strategic nature of our cooperation indeed we signed a strategic partnership memorandum last year and we see the united arab emirates is one of our very close some promising partners the signing of this document was not a coincidence she demonstrated the quality and nature of relations between the united arab emirates and the russian federation and i have to say that as is the case with saudi arabia our partnership is vigorously developing in all areas of all the gulf countries we have the highest level of trade $1700000000.00 but of course this is not enough we are well aware of that so currently we are working with 2000000000 dollars have already been invested work is underway on other projects and of course it is safe to say that the united arab emirates greatly contribute to resolving regional crises and play is stabilizing role in the region it is no great

secret that we maintain regular contacts with the leadership of the united arab emirates there is even an established tradition and practice to compare notes regarding different topics in my opinion we are doing it for the benefit of both parties and the region as a whole will lead to. mr president and the more than 10 years of your presidency some harsh dramatic developments have taken place in the middle east and the statehood of several countries has been undermined namely iran . in libya we see that this could be the fate of other states as well when we see what happened in the syrian arab republic what catastrophic events took place there now many members of the arab public think that russia can really bolster its role in the region you surely know that are never a guarantee arabic covers russia's foreign policy as well many our viewers have been asking straightforwardly as russia taken such a harsh stance in the case of syria but the position regarding libyan rug was perhaps not as hard to replace what it is that we can look at. first of all during

the crises in iraq and libya i was not in office but this is not the main reason the thing is that sound as is commonly known in the case of iraq the united states circumvented the united nations security council the u.s. has no mandate to use force against iraq and actually i was present at that moment so anyway russia did not support the invasion russia france and germany did not support u.s. plans regarding iraq what is more we warned about the potential adverse implications and that's exactly what happened the initial euphoria of military victory soon gave way to despondency and pessimism about the consequences of the victory because all iraqi government institutions were destroyed but no new institutions were established at least in the beginning when you put on the country the radical forces got a boost and terrorist groups became stronger many former offices of saddam hussein's army and security service agents resurface and join the ranks of what later evolved into why is this so those who lead is supported this campaign had not

considered the ramifications we do expect that there will be some positive developments in iraq and despite some in town all problems the country will continue to move forward although there are still a lot of problems to deal with that were perfectly aware of that as for libya the chaos wrought by the military operations still prevails but in this case our western partners played a trick on us voted for the corresponding security council resolution after all what does this resolution say if you read it carefully the resolution prohibited get afy to use aviation against the red. but there was nothing about allowing any air strikes on libyan territory so that was actually what happened so basically what happened there was done circumventing the un security council and we are all aware of what happened next will there still chaos and confusion a flow of migrants went through libya to europe get off it always warned about that he said that he stopped african migrants from going to europe as soon as this wall was gone they started pouring into europe and now they have what they warned about

but that is probably not even the main issue most importantly it is destabilizing the entire middle east region as for syria we came to syria to support the legitimate government and i would like to emphasize the word legitimate it does not mean that they do not have internal problems i'm ready to talk about it in detail later it does not mean that the current leadership is not responsible for what is going on then they are but it does not mean that we were to allow terrorist organizations to capture syria and to establish a terrorist suit a state there that we could not allow militants to move to former soviet republics we do not have hard borders or a visa regime with them we could not allow militants to infiltrate russia from there we already had such an experience and we know what this might lead to we still remember what happened in russia's north caucasus region not that long ago this is why we made a decision to support a legitimate government we've not just provided assistance to the legitimate government we proceed from the premise that internal political contradictions must

be and can be resolved by political methods only that is why we were so adamant i am glad to see it happening now as part of the political process as a result of the establishment of the so-called constitutional committee this idea was conceived right here in sochi at the syrian national dialogue congress that brought together various political forces including the opposition and the government and his syrians agreed among themselves to set up a constitutional committee that would work on changing the syrian constitution or drafting a new one we've tried an a ha. arduous and long path to form this committee now it's finally been formed on behalf of the government on behalf of president asset and on behalf of the opposition i expect that in the coming days it will take its 1st steps in geneva under the auspices of the un so the had the thought. mr president you spoke earlier about the relations between saudi arabia and russia as you know it is a strategic partner of the russian federation in terms of energy security you must

be aware of the 2 missile and bomb strikes on the oil refinery and over the most recent developments there has been talking saudi arabia about iran playing a destabilizing role in the region you said the evidence had to be found to prove that iran was really behind what is the official position of the russian federation regarding this incident. at the koa our official position is as follows we condemn any such actions end of story this is the official position we said this at the very beginning and i have recently reiterated it at the russian energy week forum in moscow there should be no room for doubt here as such actions never yield any results for anyone including those who plot and execute them why if someone may have wanted to deal a blow to the oil market they failed they were indeed some fluctuations in prices but i do not think it was anything too serious even though the initial response was quite strong and the prices that went back to normal in the very 1st week because

the fundamental fact is that the market depends on it will never allow the prices to either skyrocket or take a nosedive secondly we and i personally maintain close contacts with the leadership of saudi arabia including crown prince we discussed the incident and i told him that i thought it necessary to collect evidence to find the perpetrators behind that incident mohammad bin solomon agreed with me in principle and asked me a question could russia take part in the investigation i said yes we are ready to share anything that might be knesset. harry everything we have for a thorough investigation opposition remains unchanged it is counterproductive to put the blame on someone before finding out exactly who was behind the incident. but. mr president can russia give any issuances that if it is revealed that iran masterminded the attack that russia will join other countries in condemning it. i

have just said it and i will repeat regardless of who stood behind the incident we can damn any such actions this is exactly what i said before and i really meant it there is no other way to interpret this. you know world of big partisan movies a lot and conspiracy it's time to wake up to dig deeper to hit the stories that mainstream media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smarter we need to stop slamming the door on the bats 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.

we get the. birthing room the liberal to sell us money it's just. the digits of 6 percent. that this past saturday. let. alone the fisherman says it's one of the. smaller.

the world is driven by. one person. dares thinks. we dare to ask. so. let us know put these attacks on the oil facilities aside i think you are well aware of the tension that has mounted in the region and you must have been analyzing the situation yourself there is concern about iran's role in not only these recent attacks but also in what is happening in other countries in lebanon yemen iraq syria and some others do you think russia has the same concerns about

iran's activities which we think are having a destabilizing effect can russia do anything to change iran's behavior. can tell you how this work with us cost on us so as i said we have an unprecedented level of partnership i would even say friendly relations with saudi arabia and the united arab emirates russia will never be friends with one country against another if we build bilateral relations that rely on positive trends generated by our contacts we do not build alliances against anyone this is my 1st point as you know the 2nd day you and your audience understand i believe that russia and iran and neighbors this is a factor we always bear in mind thirdly iran is a major regional power and ancient country with a rich cultural legacy if we want to build good relations with the country and i believe every country in the region would want to have good relations with each other no one seeks the staff. all perish the thought of any conflict no one does i

know that there is no one looking for a showdown and that says true for both saudi arabia and the u.a.e. if we want to set a positive agenda we need to acknowledge that our partners have their own legitimate interests i'm not weighing in on what is legitimate and what is not i just want to underscore that it is only natural that a big country like iran which has existed on its territory for thousands of years and has its own interests persians and iranians have lived here for centuries and we should respect those interests and. of course it is debatable what is legitimate and what is not which interests illegitimates and which cross the line however you need to have dialogue to understand each other to puzzle out all the nuances intricacies and issues so without dialogue you cannot solve any problem that is why i think i can share the concerns of the u.a.e. and saudi arabia but in the case of bilateral issues it is up to them to resolve the nationals up honest and yes for russia we will do everything in our power to

create the right conditions for positive change russia has called your relations with iran and is on very good terms with our arab friends back in the soviet times we did not have any particular deep relations with saudi arabia but we would surely close with almost all the arab countries or the soviet union was on a very good terms with the entire arab world today we're back to the same level of partnership in which therefore if we put to good use the code your relations that we have with iran the arab world saudi arabia and the u.a.e. i think we can come up with something but it would be of interest to everyone just previously i mention the positive role that we play in syria it's true that we turkey iran and russia were caught shoulder to shoulder to achieve positive results however it would have been impossible without support from saudi arabia and we understand that yes and of course without assistance from the u.a.e. as well it means that despite acute. actions there's still something that brings us

together towards a common goal you just need to find such as gold and then apply concerted efforts to reach it that can create the right setting for the normalization of relations between the countries in the region if the saudis or the. staying with iran some say that the p 5 plus one talks should be resumed moreover the common opinion is that the agreement should also cover the ballistic missile program what is russia's position here regarding the call to revive that framework and possibly modify the agreement extending it to some of the issues and the 3 to feel how if you do a little. smarter chip. there is the j.c. penny away or the iran nuclear deal which specify certain limits and commitments for a rom and iran has accepted that as be frank here otherwise the conversation will be too dull the countries of the region do have some contradictions and you have just mentioned that there is disagreement between iran and israel iran and the us i

believe that attempts must be made to settle those disagreements and seek a way out of the complicated situations that we observe today however if we agree that there are contradictions between regional powers and iran then who can take up the role of an arbitrator and decide whether iran complies with the j.c.t. way or not is a good 1st and foremost an arbitrator should be impartial right 2nd an arbitrator should be professional should be someone respected by the international community we have such an arbitrator with the i.a.e.a. the international atomic energy agency and the i.a.e.a. has publicly without any hesitation said that iran fully complies with all its obligations what we're saying is not quite productive not to mention that it is just unfair to blame iran for failing to deliver on some commitments it is counterproductive because when a person or a country is treated so unfairly they start acting in a way different manner not the way existing agreement. require when one party does

not abide by its obligations why would the other still all of them nevertheless i believe that iran should follow both the letter and spirit of the agreement but this is a different question as for the missile program i suppose the issue can and should be part of the discussion too in russia there is a saying i think muslims would understand the meaning as well you should know the difference between god's gift and fried eggs but these are 2 different matter the missile program is one thing and the nuclear program is something different it does not imply that the missile program should not be part of the conversation especially since it raises concerns there is a place for discussion but let us not mix apples and oranges here otherwise all the progress that's been made could be totally lost and therefore i think that such a discussion can take place but it should not cancel out all the achievements on the principle track that is putting a cap on iran's nuclear activities is my own fee and if so i would like to ask you a question on the matter namely security in the gulf region and it is surely seen a lot of developments recently there have been dramatic incidents of tension of

tankers a missile in bomb attack on the syrian eremenko refinery before the aggression that continues around yemen the recent attacks on saudi and goes all facilities strongly affected sentiment in the region as we can see in your view what will be the impact of all these high profile incidents on cooperation under opec agreement so far regional power has not made any specific statements regarding russia's proposal for a collective security strategy in the region how do you plan to promote their collective security initiative do you think it will ever see the light of day. to your question seem to be linked but still deal with separate issues our cooperation with opec plus is one think of all regional security instability and our proposals is a different one 1st if anyone thinks that seizing tankers and attacking oil infrastructure can in any way affect cooperation between russia and iran friends saudi arabia and the u.a.e. that they can undermine or break down our cooperation with. then they are profoundly

wrong on the contrary we will forge ever closer ties because our main goal is to stabilize global energy markets technically we need to cut the global reserves to some sensible level so that these reserves do not affect prices we've made some good strides and whatever we have managed to achieve has not only oil producers but also consume mystery meat that produces no consumers want high prices rather we all want stability in the global market and he being straight with you with all that's been done under the leadership of crown prince mohammed bin solomon to be over all those were his initiatives and we just backed up now we see that we did the right thing we need to respond to any attempt to destabilize the market russia will certainly continue working with saudi arabia and other partners and friends in the arab world to counter any attempts to wreak havoc in the market now let us turn to russia's initiative to stabilize the situation in the gulf region we put that initiative forward some time ago we proposed to establish some sort of organization that would bring together the countries of the region as well as several other stakeholders in the u.s. and the e.u.

to name just a few this organization would serve as a platform to discuss crises and all kinds of pressing problems some of already voiced their support others say it's too early to launch such an initiative and the reason for that by the way is the serious contradictions between regional powers from my point of view these deep contradictions call for such a platform so that countries could at least sit at the negotiating table as you may be aware sometimes it's not the negotiations that matter but a handshake a handshake can mean a lot. which has fallen our friend can tout a follow up question if i may can rely on russia's efforts as a mediator between the islamic republic and saudi arabia or on a larger scale in order to help relieve the tension in the gulf region. and we will go to the role of mediator is not a rewarding one i believe that our partners in iran and saudi arabia do not need any mediation says we maintain very friendly relations with all the countries in the region including iran and the arab states such as saudi arabia and the u.a.e.

we could certainly help relays some messages between the parties so they could hit each other's position but since i personally know the leaders of these countries i'm perfectly sure that they have no need for any advice or mediation but what you can do is maintain a friendly conversation with them and present some ideas from a friends perspective trying to convince that as highly intelligent people they listen and analyze everything they hear from this point of view yes we could play a positive role in the process and to some extent. mr president if you allow me i would like to ask the straightforward question you have just said that or allegations against iran in regard to these strikes are premature you recently met with president rouhani did he reassure you in any way that iran had nothing to do whatsoever with these strikes and was not involved in this in any way. yes that is exactly what he said he said that iran had nothing to do with this we

met on the sidelines of an international summit it was the summit of the eurasian economic union or an organization we created with a number of ex obvious states a few months ago the eurasian economic union and iran signed an interim agreement on a free trade area and we have a free trade area green with singapore and vietnam and we are also working on one with israel and egypt but the year asian economic union has enjoyed a successful cooperation with many states across the globe iran is about to join this process and we discussed these prospects just recently on the sidelines of the summit in yerevan in armenia. and with one more question if i may mr president russia asserting plays a role in the gulf region and your intelligence agencies have a huge capacity it is hard to believe that russia does not know what really happened to those oil facilities is it possible. because of this opinion believe it or not we do not know i asked the heads of the foreign intelligence service and the

ministry of defense the very next day we do not know i will refrain from any further comments as to who should know in order not to hurt anyone's feelings but i can say that we do not have any definitive information regarding the incident so that is that. can we move to syria now mr president you recently announced a suspension of large scale combat operations in syria and everyone is now hopeful that political settlement will work you spoke about it at the valdai forum here in russia you said that syria could become a good example of how such conflicts must be approached and settled do you think that we can talk about a political settlement while other countries forces are still deployed in syria i mean the united states russia turkey and iran is there hope to achieve stability in syria amid these destabilizing factors.

there is always hope do not ever give it up i can e. agree with you that all the forces deployed illegitimately inside any sovereign state in this case syria must leave this is true for everyone if syria's new illegitimate government chooses to say that they have no more need for russia's military presence to use this way just as true for russia right now we are discussing this openly with all our partners including iran and turkey we spoke about it with our american partners many times and i will be open with you as i have been with my counterparts syria must be free from other states military presence and the territorial integrity of the syrian arab republic must be completely restored he's going. to have a vision for serious political future and what role does russia play in it. it is a difficult question and it is a question that only syrians can answer i hope that they do so not by taking up arms and fighting

a war against their own people but through negotiations in this case as i said in geneva the very 1st step along this path is to work on the country's constitution of whether by amending the existing constitution or drafting a new one in either case it must protect the interests of all the ethnic and religious groups if people need to know that they live in that own country and that it protects them by law it must be equally true for cities and shia a white some christians because syria has always been a state with many religions and it could pride itself on this only insane people could have started into ranged poaching campaign killing other people as these terrorists did in syria again it will not be easy it will be a difficult process but i believe it can work do you know why i feel positive about it people are returning home we're talking thousands of people returning from abroad and from other syrian provinces they are coming home this is a sure sign of the trust they have the situation we have today they trust the government and its guarantees and they. thus the guarantors states i'm happy to say

the syrians welcome and trust russian troops and russia's military police the military police units deployed the s a doing a good job of doing mostly muslims from the north caucuses and the local residents trust them and feel free to ask them for help and protection says i have reports of such cases i'm happy to say all this but in order to have long term peace people need to find a way to settle things between themselves that was peace is always better than the best it was. when lawmakers manufacture consent instead of public wealth. when the room in closest to protect themselves. when the primary

go around lifts only the one percent. who ignore middle of the room signals. going to the real news is. the world. thinking of getting a new phone the ones we got in here shows no problem was it so they know it's still trapped in this tiny little wired we don't need a crate with the wall. reaching out into the wall when it's freedom anywhere near it thousands of breeding dogs are caged in the in human conditions on puppy farm i mean 67 years you know they've been locked up in a cage outside you see no protection from the weather the heat you know the courtier the rain the snow the funder nothing they have no protection. to you. to get through kid. across the u.s.

cruel puppy mills are supported by dog shows and pet stores most of the puppies are coming from these large scale factory farming kind of operations are being sold and at stores even joined a good businesses are involved like agoa mom santa there has been a shocking amount of organized opposition to efforts to increase the standards of care for dogs bred in commercial breeding facilities most of that opposition is coming from huge agricultural groups and industries that have nothing to do with jobs don't buy dog on o.t. . join me every thoughts. on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics or business i'm show business i'll see you then. let us leave the middle east in the gulf region for now you always say that russia american relations need to improve because otherwise if there is

a fault in these relations this may change the situation for the worse globally today as you look at the trumpet ministration as you read donald trump's tweets what do you see any hope for any steps to improve relations between the 2 countries you surely follow the u.s. president's statements don't you. i must say that i do not have any twitter account or anything so i do not follow anyone that of course i get reports from my staff from time to time the opinion of the president of the united states always matters it is always very important for many parties and for the whole world but i do not follow him personally as a. let us assume president trump is reelected next year do you think he could be more promising president that he might have more courage to escalate tension between washington and moscow and will russia be willing to resume dialogue a. little bit of that you work for russia today don't you while it is because of people like you that russia were accused of meddling in the election because you

just said now that trump could be reelected they will say gotcha this is russia interfering with the election campaign jokes aside we all know what president trump says about russian american relations and how he talks about them we know that during his previous campaign he called for relations to get back to normal but unfortunately nothing has been done but we do not hold it against anyone because we can all see what is going on in the american domestic political scene these days the domestic political agenda prevents the incumbent president from embarking on a drastic improvement in relations between our countries in any case we will work with any administration to the extent it is willing to work with us however we cannot help but feel concerned over overall global security and strategic balance this is obvious in 2002 and present trump has nothing to do with it the united states withdrew from the a.b.m. treaty which i would like to reiterate was the cornerstone of the entire global strategic security system because it imposes limits on the missile defense systems of our countries do you see the point of point was to make it clear that neither

party can ever win a nuclear war should it happen this was the whole point withdrew from the treaty in order to secure some serious strategic advantage for themselves thinking that they my shield themselves from a threat some like russia it would leave russia in a very vulnerable position while the us would be protected by an a.b.m. system back then i told our u.s. counterparts that there is no way of knowing how well such a system would work and so we will not waste tens of billions on the strategic balance must be maintained which means that we will develop offensive weapons so that we defeat any a.b.m. system and we have divel. and everyone knows that by now the a.b.m. systems are designed to instead ballistic missiles i.e. missiles that follow ballistic trajectory whereas what we did was we enhanced improved ballistic missiles significantly and developed a new weapon that has no rivals in the world we have hypersonic missiles that follow a low trajectory rather than a ballistic one no one has hypersonic missiles today except us of course the

world's leading powers will one day develop them sooner or later but sweet will be able to come up with something new by that time i know what projects are scientists research is design is an engine is working on right now i foresee this is lead to an arms race of sorts but that is what has happened it is a fact sadly this is true now recently the us also withdrew from the intermediate range nuclear forces i.n.f. treaty which i think it was a mistake to and the they could have gone a different path i do understand the us concerns while other countries are free to enhance their defenses which russia and the us have tied that own hands with this treaty i still believe it is not worth ruining the deal i believe there were other ways out of the situation with the new start treaty is actually the any treaty that we have to prevent us from falling back into a full scale arms race it serves to further reduce and limit strategic offensive arms that is to limit entire range of strategic weapons the entire strategic triad of land sea and air base to combat intercontinental ballistic missile launches this

treaty expires in 2021 to make sure it's extended we need to be working on it right now we've already submitted our proposals they are on the table of the us administration official it has been no answer sorry for our understanding is that they have not made up their minds yet as to whether they need to extend the treaty or not but if this treaty is not extended the world will have no means of limiting the number of offensive weapons and this is bad news situation will change globally it will become more precarious and the world will be less safe and a much less predictable place than today. let us get to disarmament mr president do you think that a new arms race could plunge us back into another cold war. i wish it does not happen and any case russia will be the least effective party because as i said we already have the next generation of weapons and these are unprecedented with unmatched capabilities and that sense we've done our homework we do not need to

rush now and can calmly think of what could be done next military spending also plays a role here it may or may not come as a surprise to you but russia ranks 7th in terms of defense spending saudi arabia is 3rd u.s. military spending totals $716000000000.00 if i'm not mistaken in next year they asked for $750000000000.00 next comes china with around 177000000000 followed by saudi arabia 59000000000 right training behind the u.k. france japan with 48100000000 based on the data i have and russia is only 7th with 48000000000 however we have unmatched military capabilities what is made it possible it comes as a result of focus research on priority areas and the credit goes to our specialists their ability to identify those areas to mobilize resources has been made possible thanks to research institutions production know how fundamental knowledge and competence is therefore an arms race is a bad thing and it will not be good for the whole world however we will not be

dragged into exorbitant budget spending gages. despite this nato continues to press forward do you feel that the alliances march towards russia's borders is a threat how will you respond to it. we do feel it certainly we've always felt it and voice our concerns we were told don't be afraid you're not the target and there is nothing to fear nato is changing it is no longer a military block it does not have belligerent intentions and stuff like that in the meantime the north atlantic treaty remains in place in particular article 5 if i'm not wrong. that guarantees military support to other members etc it is a military blog and its infrastructure is moving close to our borders are we not happy about it there is another trick i think it's clear to everyone that nato is just the us foreign policy tool europe is aware of it take the french president i do not need to make anything up another trick is that once countries join nato they have no say over the arms that are installed on their territory this was the case

in romania with missile defense poland will soon get it through it will be ready close to our border it is certainly a threat to us we see it as an attempt to neutralize our strategic nuclear capabilities however it is clear their efforts doomed to failure i believe experts now see this as well now that we have the cutting edge systems that i mentioned earlier these moves are no longer a threat to us i do not want to say what we really think about it still there is nothing positive about it at all so yes we do see this is destructive activities that escalate tension but there is nothing good about it. mr president another issue that used to be in the limelight i'm referring to the palestinian israeli settlement like the soviet union russia has played an important role in resolving the issue take the madrid conference for instance however in recent years russia has not been very active on that track while the us is trumpeting a so-called deal of the century in the meantime the israeli government is going

ahead with its arbitrary or for a tarion policy what is russia's role in resolving the issues that's a so fundamental to the middle east. for this us. so this does not depend on us or our actions it is up to all the stakeholders whether they want to see someone in this process or not incidentally we have very good relations with israel as well almost 1500000 israelis come from the former soviet union of israel is almost a russian speaking country the russian language is often heard in shops everywhere we do care about what is happening in israel however we have a principled position on the israeli palestinian settlement we fully committed to all the un decisions and believe that they must be executed now on the deal of the century we will support any deal that will bring about peace but we need to know what it is about us has been pretty vague about the details of the deal washington has kept in the dark the global and domestic public the middle east and palestine

we believe is important to ensure a 2 state solution and establish the state of palestine we suggested hosting direct talks in moscow between the israeli prime minister and the head of the palestinian authority but the meeting never took place unfortunately we have been doing what we can we have held several meetings between different palestinian groups restoring palestinian unity would be a major contribution to the process speaking with different voices undermines the united palestinian stance but we are working on it so it does not mean that we have to quit the process altogether and no longer interest. and in it we're deeply committed primarily because we believe that the israeli palestinian conflict is key to resolving many other regional issues unless it is resolved it will continue to feed radicalism and terrorism among other things when people feel they have no legal ways to uphold their rights they take up arms in this sense i feel the israelis are also interested in a long term ultimate solution not just the palestinians mr president we are running

out of time we do not want to steal time from our colleagues you have made fairly positive comments about saudi crown prince mohammed bin some on you seem to have close and good ties with him do you count on the positive role that he complained fostering the russian saudi relationship and in the middle east agenda in general to. that is exactly his role today and he's been quite successful we have very good personal ties he's been behind many of our initiatives and these projects have been put into practice as i said he came up with plus indorsed the joint platforms of our investment funds 2000000000 worth of investment has been made by now he raised the need for broader defense cooperation and we have a good plan of joint activities in that area this is already happening hopefully our collaboration will continue to expand going forward as for saudi arabia's role in the region it's definitely one of the key countries that it does have an impact based on its capabilities and its position in the energy market saudi arabia can be

safely called a global player since it has an impact on the world energy market on world energy in general and this is why cooperation with saudi arabia its king and crown prince bin soundman is very important and we will develop our relations going forward. before we came here we did a poll on r.t. arabic swep site we ask a simple question if you had a chance to meet the russian president what would you ask him or generate a lot of interest and we picked the most popular questions will not list all of them but one of the biggest concerns. on our arab audience is the future of russian arabs when you will no longer be the president of russia what will be the stance of your successor on the issue deal or funny it is not about the name of the russian president it is about our national interests it is in the interests of russia and other nations of the russian federation to nurture relations with the arab world has always appealed to russia with a cynic might culture opportunities and potential i have no doubt that russia is

set to boost the pace of its interaction with the arab world in the years to come. i will try to be brief the arab world is following the recent developments in both russia and the arab world as part of the so-called arab spring the situation is rapidly changing in sudan and algeria tunisia just had an election do you see any positive signals do you think the region is entering a new phase that will culminate in a stable middle east. clearly the region is not in a state of stability we all understand it we can see it with our own eyes but all things pass i hope it will be over one day it will not get better quickly on its own if you just leave things as they are without attempts to improve the situation russia will do all it can to make sure things get back to normal as soon as possible we do not think that you can and should handle the situation from above as

i said we have many friends in the arab world it is time to get syria back into the our family to reinstate it in the arab league we work hard to bring it back to normal and to help our friends however the pace the improvements will ultimately depend on the people who are responsible for the situation in their country i'm convinced stabilisation is inevitable and i wish it happens as soon as possible. the swarms of them samoyed. good news over local war before. much of those who heard the preview are a few other movies who see him with the north we will. move. move. move show us look

beautiful live look i mean it's a good look or a good. muslim also his girls will give you a good groove. for your dish also look look you're the same you belong here to show the story to go. to starts to feel good to me to fill it with the good of the most they say look it is a. chance to schneider's test this new it's the mashed old truck stop the president on please control this project until it's. over your producers to produce for to snuff to come up when you look at it as the girls are with you sir your supporters to your sure station shouldn't for you should cook door for one who's devoted to the work goes to.

the war in syria seems to be winding down with some syrians returning to their homeland but going back to a normal life now seems like a pipe dream after almost a decade of proxy war this syrian l. dooms 2 years of proxy peace.

some $800.00 i still feel it's a skate from a detention camp in syria as kurdish forces withdraw in the face of a turkish military advance also to come. more than a week of violent protest and accord or it with the president refusing to cancel cutbacks on fuel subsidies. and environmental action group extinction rebellion has been rolling in cities across the world in the u.k. alone more than a 1000 people were arrested. while this generation seems to be saying is you've messed things.