i. as foreign minister sergey lavrov is currently meeting us secretary of state in washington who will bring that news conference after the talk to the soon as that gets under way. right after his 1st one on one with ukraine's president vladimir putin comes out with harsh statement warning of another. takes back control of eastern ukraine without amnesty. i. am refusing to back down protesters in france continue to make a stand against the government's plans to overhaul the pension system at the key speech by the prime minister on the issue. tightening the noose on the democrats go

all in on impingement the us president claims the russian collusion case was also an attempt to overthrow. thanks for joining us here on the internet. russia's foreign minister sergey lavrov is in washington for a working visit the country's top diplomats meeting secretary of state. and president all trump following developments in the u.s. capitol. quote sergey lavrov himself he doesn't expect anything in fact he says that russia just comes here to washington to deliver its position to make known to make the united states to make sure that the united states is aware as to what russia thinks they have plenty to discuss that's for sure and arguably topping the agenda is the situation about the i and their deal or rather about its nonexistence

anymore the i.n.f. treaty of course i'm talking about was seen as the key document preventing a cold war style arms race between russia and the u.s. but the 2 countries both countries accused each other over violating the terms of the agreement and eventually the united states decided to pull out of the deal and russia followed suit but the respect the responsibility of finding common ground because it does look like both countries seem eager to go back on the oh not allowing the arms race to happen here's how donald trump put it russia wants to make you feel very much your arms and you will so certainly really. you know. we may be related very very very well as if to corroborate those words russia has in turn put forward some of its some of its proposals as well the russian president vladimir putin for instance he suggested that maybe a star deal

a deal called start it's an abbreviation that was signed back in 2010 could be expanded could be could be expanded to serve the purpose of the new i.m.f. . russia is ready to prolong the new start treaty as soon as possible before the end of the year without any preconditions on the international stage there's plenty to discuss as well now with the key focus it seems should be on the protests in iran because this is where the points of view of most school and washed. staggeringly different for instance the united states they have been siding with the protesters all along and accusing the tehran government of mishandling the protests while most school has been pointing out that all the disenchantment all the unrest that was caused by the economic instability by the economic hardship of tehran was in turn caused by the by the policy of sanctions pushed by the united

states onto that nation. she problem which iran is undergoing some very serious problems largely teach us sanctions the rule absolutely illegally the americans withdrew from iran you could see you expect the sides to implement it. well that was again he's right behind those walls so he could deliver that message to my pump aoe directly now but iran is far from the only country in the whole of latin america with countries like venezuela or a bolivia where moscow and washington again don't see eye to eye one washington is supporting the uprisings and moscow is saying that it is a grab of power take it to the middle east to the situation in syria to you chris the situation in ukraine to the hiking to the most recent hacking scandal that russia is being accused of being behind and of course the rest of the diplomatic properties here in washington russia's diplomatic property all of that and not even

mentioning the impeachment proceedings here in the united states so it does look that this day is going to be packed with events and at least with statements and something is bound to come out of it with sergey lavrov meeting both with my pump aoe and donald trump. but you know putin has expressed fears of a massacre takes back control over the rest of don't bust territory in the east of ukraine without guaranteeing safety to citizens living there. the amnesty law has been put in place yet we decided on that in 2015 some decisions have been made but it hasn't been put into force the ukrainian side is always saying let us close the border with our force i can imagine what happens then srebrenica nothing more or a strong word as well given it was all handsets and smiles yesterday at the summit press conference a lot of progress made the key sticking point there of course remain is that hand

over all full control of the ukrainian russian border to ukrainian forces why is this a problem while putin is concerned that president saleh lacks the ability lacks the power to take control and accountability for right wing paramilitary forces stationed in the region he of course came to power on a platform of unity of healing these political and civil divides in ukraine and resolving the conflict through negotiation with moscow and that point is something that nationalists really object to see this as a capitulation or surrender to moscow they regularly express their disdain and anger over any sort of compromise or negotiation process regularly holding protests across the country in fact one rally was held there just a couple of days back on the eve of this paris one thousands took to the streets to protest against these negotiations with moscow so this according to putin remains a sticking point. we've seen zelinsky holding talks with nationalists it's unclear

who is stronger and what happens there and who will be leading those nationalists when they enter that territory without any guarantees for people this is one of the problems which surely is of the political nature. that will put in use quite quite stark language for every sort of course being one of the darkest incidents of the yugoslav wars 9095 when thousands of men and teenage bosnia quarries were killed by the forces why the comparison then well for years now. right these paramilitary whooshes have gained a foothold in ukrainian politics they fought on the front lines long side ukrainian forces but they very much been under their own command structure had their own agenda lacked any sort of accountability you want to anyone and these groupings such as the hours off they have been accused times of human rights violations even of war crimes so letting these armed men with such beliefs unchecked into an area

with millions of civilians after years of violent conflict is bound to raise some concern. now there was progress made yesterday of course in terms of the prisoner exchange the potential ceasefire disengagement etc but this point of who is going to control the border that means the whole for control over entry next into the zones does remain a bone of contention moscow wants this done as a final point in the minsk agreement says something that takes place when everything else has been put in place key of wants this done sooner and this is something that moscow cannot accept right now so the question of who is going to

have control over these paramilitary groups is going to provide guarantees of safety and security and human rights for the civilians in those areas and will zelinsky have the power to contain and bring on his control these sort of nationalist undercurrents still prevalent in ukrainian politics that is something that's going to have to be discussed and compromised on if negotiations are to keep moving ahead. ok let's get back to our top story this hour russia's foreign minister sergey lavrov is in washington for a working visit. the diplomats meeting with sexy statement pomp and president trump the expecting that press conference just to get underway just a few minutes on so let's just have a chance about what we're likely to hear rumpole from u.s. congressman joins me on the line welcome what do you anticipate what to expect when the from that is i q well i'm a little bit skeptical i don't think magic going to happen but i think it's great

that they're talking but unfortunately they seem to have some disagreements and i struggle with it because i think they are could be avoided because i don't think we should be so much involved over there and then there would be this conflict whether in syria or ukraine but no but the fact that they're talking i think is very good stead there will be some some differences and and they will have the meeting with trump and i think that's very good as well so many topics to discuss let's pick one out there on f. treaty and the problems with it i think they will be able to find common ground. well that's hope so because i think it was so foolish for our position on that and getting out of it but no i'm not unless the european union speaks and demands something i don't think that trump's going to back down because he gets pressure from some other countries saudi arabia has an interest and israel has an interest and and yet. even though i don't look favorably to

a lot of treaties and agreements and international bodies i thought that getting out of that one particular agreement wasn't good because it was moving in the wrong direction but i don't know maybe hopefully i'm wrong but i wouldn't expect any magic solution with that disagreement today. would you expect this to be an important meeting full run currently of course and heavy pressure from the white house and unless something changes it will remain that way. you know i think i think that's pretty good and you know there's there's different factions in our country there's you know there's there's a president trump who has a position which we as libertarians encourage and when he wants to back away from some of the interventions that were established for many many years. at the same time there are others if if he does move in that direction there are some people

here on the neo conservatives get hysterical over it and they don't think we should give an inch so it's a it's a battle but he trump is. you know at least said things favorably toward the libertarian position but some days he'll say like i'm getting out of syria which is what our position would be but then at the same time but we have to stay and take care of our oil so that's a confusing position so it is unpredictable too but i would like to see him stick to his guns and say it's time to leave syria and for us to just leave and this this is difficult because of all the power mongers and the people who who like to sell weapons and they have to have an enemy in all the nonsense and they think oh we can do this and just make a lot of money but sometimes the stuff gets out of control and sometimes there are accidents and sometimes there are false flags so our position as libertarians is stay out of it there is nothing to be gained and and nobody from that part of the

world's about to you know bomb and united states or come and attack us so we don't see any benefit for us to stay there so hopefully trump's instincts which we believe are good will move in the direction of more conciliation and getting along and getting away from some of that conflict and and that of course has been a statement and and yet there's too many forces that try to slow trump up do you think from simply chintz inquiry could perhaps. and tyson to back off on his foreign policy maybe even changes foreign policy in focus instead on fighting fires at home. well we wish so far you know if you look and we look carefully at his his campaign speeches and we've been there too long and we have to leave and he talked about you

know getting out of afghanistan and yet. so often the talk doesn't match which actions and the actions of the most important but we're still we're still building up our forces over there we haven't really left the middle east but i think it's the incentive and the pressure that comes from saudi arabia and the anti iranian sent sentiment that can keep them doing this any and any facts often he tends with israel because he wants to remain friends with israel but i don't think it's in our best interest to be so involved in that area our positions libertarius as be friends with people trade with people and yes there are some imperfections in the world but we can't be the policemen the world we can't put on sanctions on everybody or threaten them with physical violence if they don't do what we want trump is better than some of those others but i tell you what he's not consistent and when he says he wants to come ome what we do here is we encourage him to do so

because when we sell want to be over there like we've been in afghanistan you know yeah trump is still in afghanistan but he didn't put us there so we want we want to get out of afghanistan and bring our troops home so we work as hard as we can those of us who believe in nonintervention in minding our own business to do exactly that but my concern is we can't afford it any longer there's going to be a bad accident and it was going to be some problems but financially it could same thing could happen to us as happened to the soviet system they run out of money and they can't afford. to police the world and that's what's going to happen to us and i and i and i don't think that the pretense that we're going to spread our goodness this just this recent report on afghanistan showed that nobody believed we were doing any good at all and yet everything was kept secret after 18 years everything was successful it reminds me of the foolishness that we had in vietnam we'd like to

change that policy is what we are interested in doing wrong pleasure as always to get your thoughts on this story much appreciated my guest dr ron paul former u.s. congressman thank you. and other news french people have again taken to the streets against president among micron's plans to overhaul the pension system so to say more than a dozen arrests have been made recent days the country say violent protests in several cities all from paris is that of a trunk and. well as you can see we are in the thick of it the country is trying to deliver their message to the government just one day before it now says their final plans for the pension reform in france although we did hear from the country's prime minister that for them for now there is no intention to change their plans if we don't make serious profound and progressive reforms date someone else will make much more brutal reform tomorrow i hope that we can convince the majority of french

people that our reform is fair it is universal it makes the special pension plans gradually disappear and is financially balanced not just for a moment let me give you a clearer picture of who these people are for and we've already been used to the yellow vests but as you can see these are more of what it. is that sense c.f. this is the french railway company which is by the way one of the driving. so for interrupting not but we are going to live now to washington d.c. of us this forum is to say good luck for all of us. he said just now that toast let's listen in to that press conference. is taking actions against multiple human rights violators it's only appropriate i mention them on international human rights day which we celebrate today these actions extend the trump administration's commitment to hold individuals accountable for gross human rights abuses all around the world i'll speak more about that tomorrow now turning

to our meeting. last may had president trump's request i made a trip to russia to meet with president putin and foreign minister lavrov the reason was pretty straightforward we should have a better relationship with the united states and russia than we've had in the last few years and we've been working on that since that moment. our our bilateral ties are of course complicated we cooperate in some areas and other places we compete. over the course of my visit for mr lavrov lavrov and i agreed to continue the hard work the diplomats and gauge and we're agreed to keep our lines of communication open and keep our conversations candid as well. our talks today continued that we touched on counterterrorism counternarcotics our intelligence law enforcement professionals cooperate in these areas on a daily basis and will keep doing so and way to make that cooperation even more refined and better. we are committed to working through u.n.

security council resolution 2254 to find a political solution to the crisis there in syria i think we agree that there is no military solution and we both want to assure the syrian never again becomes a safe haven for isis and other terrorist groups that same thing goes for afghanistan as well and we work talked about the cooperation that our 2 countries have had on f. the issue that faces us in afghanistan. today 2 we agreed on the final fully verified north korea as our joint objective i raised the importance of sanctions and enforcement with foreign minister lavrov today these are all good positive areas where our 2 countries have cooperated and will continue to do so there are other places where there are greater challenges and one of them the longer the nicolas maduro hangs on to power the deeper the misery of the venezuelan people. we've asked the russian government. to support the aspiration for democracy

and legitimate and the legitimacy of interim president won by though and the call that we have made for free and fair presidential elections we also spent a fair amount of time talking about ukraine and i was a major part of our conversations for mr lavrov just returned from paris where president putin and president had substantive conversations i'm proud of what this administration has done in the defense of that country's sovereignty and security. i reiterated to foreign minister lavrov that crimea belongs to ukraine and that the resolution of the conflict in eastern ukraine begins with that here and commitments made under the minsk agreements the president trying to is eager to pursue arms control with russia and with china we talked about that at great length today has to be. verifiable and forceful include all the partners who have the ability to

impact strategic security around the world and then too i had the chance to raise the issue of u.s. citizens like paul whalen who have been detained in russia bringing home our citizens abroad as soon as possible as one of president trump's highest priorities we had a success this past weekend and then on the question of interference in our domestic affairs i was clear it's unacceptable and i made our expectations of russia clear. work to protect the integrity of our election period. take steps to. take action in response if i want the russian people to know that. entities are no way targeted the russian people we have no quarrel with law abiding citizens and we'll keep working on the diplomatic level to get this relationship right i want to thank you. washington i look forward continue in conversations in

the future thank you sir. that it is useful to talk to each other. and. each other is always better than each other.

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