to be clear whether or not that's from the attackers themself or if that's from you know police officers responding to this situation indeed and obviously security services are at the scene they are dealing with this is acting we'll try to get some statements to as soon as we can are to send a hawk i'm staying across this for us think you know. now earlier in the day the russian president's annual q. and a session wrapped up at the moscow world trade center spending well over 4 hours this year well tomorrow fielded questions on both domestic and international issues with the latest doping scandal and the impeachment proceedings against donald trump among the topics raised. has more. quite a surprise to hear about potential amendments to the russian constitution that something president putin doesn't talk about quite often well this time he did and he even said that it could be a good idea to make changes to the russian constitution to make sure that it allows

only 2 presidential terms well why is that a big deal this was a long a reason for public debate in russia actually since the year 2012 when vladimir putin was reelected for his 3rd term after a break when the president of russia was dmitri medvedev and here's what mr putin said about that in particular tional movement will be to do it what could be done is to cancel the 2 in a room and meant we have 2 terms in a row ules truly serve 2 terms then resigned and had the constitutional right to return to the presidency because it was not to to lose in a row the amendment confuses some of our political scientists and public figures so we could be counseled. a lot of our putin was even asked who he believes could become his successor and a few years well we didn't get any answer to that although mr putin did hint that he believes that

a woman could become the president of russia at some point most of the reporters in that massive hall war from russia's regions which explains why a lot of questions were on domestic issues from pension reform in russia to issues with medicine and so on and so forth but let me move on to something that's probably more interesting for an international audience that is the impeachment proceedings in the u.s. well of lattimer pope did say that he believes attempts to knock down donald trump won't succeed and also went on to say that he believes that the reasons for all these impeachment proceedings. is work actually invented when it's just a continuation of political infighting one party that lost the elections the democratic party is working for results through other methods accusing trump of collusion with russia then it's discovered that there was no inclusion that could be the basis for impeachment now they've come up with pressure on ukraine i don't

know what's there your representatives have a better idea what the russian president did get a question from the b.b.c. and it was well you saw about russia's alleged attempts to interfere in elections and politics altogether in other countries well here's what mr putin said regarding interference or not interference many times officials and their representatives from various countries including the u.k. made assessments about what's happening in russia mr putin believes that this doesn't count as interference and said that russia reserves the right to do the same in the opposite direction and other part of the very same question from the british media was prime minister boris johnson personally whole was sad some very harsh words to say about mr putin well this was the russian president's response

this type of search that was. as for statements from certain people various political figures about russia about me as the head of the country i have been used to treating this accordingly but i know what the interests of my country own and that it doesn't matter at all what anyone else says there is absolutely no value in comparing what they say with the fundamentalists which russia is interested in solving congratulations to boris johnson nevertheless he turned out to be the winner he understood the mood of the british people better than his political opponents but if you can move it on to the latest tensions between berlin and moscow that have to do with the. murder of a georgia national and germany with a terrorist background while germany believes that russia is somehow involved in it even led to 2 russian diplomats being expelled from berlin while of lot of my putin did night any involvement and also went on to remind the audience again of the

terrorist background and all the brutal things that this man was previously involved in though not just going to. get upset in the can he was a criminal and a killer in one attack alone in the caucuses he killed 98 people in other countries they hold mourning ceremonies where there are less victims and this is far from the full list of his evil actions and we raised this question that multiple times in syria we see what is going on in the coming jail as well i still fighters being killed people from central asia and russia and 2nd place but there are also many people from western europe from from from germany we see that these people terrorists move freely into european capitals we also heard questions about pressure on the russian media and european countries in particular in a stone age where there are some real issues where the russian sputnik news agency

. staff members of that news agency said that they were being pressured into leaving this particular outlet if they want to continue working in that country which a lot of our programming and response referred to as a real disgrace. going to shoot and what you do a lot all sorts of attempts to still pure activity can go unnoticed i'm very surprised because russia is always accused of all evils including pressure on independent media and they do the same that they accuse us of this is cynical us government measures such as restrictions can't work because you will hold. those who want to do school between our countries we can't allow it you must try to work in those countries that are scared of your information another grand vladimir putin press conference is done and dusted for more of what he had to say you can also check out our website and social media pages. we now go back to our breaking news

this hour a shooting in central moscow which reports suggest has left 3 people dead at this point art is down there hawkins is in the studio with us following all the latest now this is of course to early on were mostly basing this on reports we don't have much concrete information but what can you tell us at this point well at this point the situation is what security services would describe as an active shooter situation that means they can't confirm or deny this what the status of the attacker is has been captured or killed or is you still at large we do understand from reports coming in there are at least 3 casualties at least one person has been killed although we don't know yet how many of those casualties are security officers terrorists or attackers rather i should say and how many of those are fatal or just injuries we do know that this incident took place at the f.s.b. headquarters in central moscow the f.s.b. is the russian federal security service there an important security security

organization the equivalent to the american f.b.i. this building is a very much central part of moscow in fact it was about. 7 to 8 minutes walk from the square about 1012 minutes walk from revolution square leading up to the kremlin so it's a very central area it's rush hour now safe to say in moscow this attack happened about 2535 minutes ago 630 people leaving work leaving their offices making their way to one of the tube stations very much nearby we saw some videos coming in earlier this is one of the videos from the scene you can see people running along the street in panic moving away from the sounds of gunfire. the attacker or attackers there was at least 2 attack as we understand began firing at the entrance to the f.s.b. building or just inside the lobby now from the sounds it sounds like there was automatic gunfire that has been confirmed by reports from the scene that the

attacker or attackers were armed with automatic fire some reports saying it's a kalashnikov assault rifle other reports saying it's a sidebar that's a modified version for for civilian use we just don't know at this stage here from the video sounds of. gunfire but if we can hear that on the video right now. yes certainly sounds sounds at least in the previous bit of their automatic gunfire whether that is an attack or whether that is the security services on the scene we don't know we know that roads in the area have been sealed off traffic has been who directed news coming in right now that mobile phone signal in that area has also been blocked so this is a very much serious situation it could mean anything it could mean an added security measure it could mean the police are worried that there may be some sort of explosive devices around it what going off it could mean anything now the timing is another important factor here today mr putin the russian president held his

annual press conference it's a big event a high number of journalists in moscow high number of people this year was a record number of journalist there was almost 1900 journalists who attended this 4 hour long session not too far from this location absolutely when i stand the president then left the press conference and headed to the kremlin where he is right now and tomorrow is. a day dedicated to security services personnel that is being celebrated more of what the president is at a concert at a dinner dedicated to them right now whether that has anything to do with the timing we just can't say at this stage but more molly it's safe to say when there are such attacks in public such. weapon. if it's one person it may be limited to someone with mental health problems with a possible grudge with some sort of grievance from news reports where there was more than one attacker between one and 3 meaning that given the timing the area the number of attackers the weapons used this could have been something that was

planned and time specifically to today and now this sort of incident is rare certainly in most parts of russia areas of russia of course in the south and the caucuses which do have a history of separatism of terrorism or violence where there are frequently police operations and you know police officers criminals are often injured or even killed in the line of duty in moscow in western russian cities is very deeds of our time here for years i can't remember anything similar to what we're seeing today in fact so it's very much out of the ordinary very much something that would have caught people off guard by surprise and very much still an active scene as we say with the special police units what units at the scene to try to establish what's going on obviously keep the public safety 1st approach they have exactly as you mentioned it's an ongoing situation we do have reports that they're tackling or attackers have actually barricaded themselves somewhere nearby that they started

that. incident inside the. building or right in front of it continue shooting on the street and then possibly barricaded themselves nearby and as you mentioned a lot of your foot in the present was not an event tonight but it's safe to say that he's likely been pulled out of that because as you were saying this is a very unusual for russia for moscow itself absolutely waiting for some sort of official statement but the city of course is on alert and on lockdown all f.s.b. buildings have been put under the fortress plan as it's called meaning that the buildings are in total lockdown no one in no one out and. this can be sorted out more europe's what you know it's as we said on scene as well as the empty chairs that is the russian ministry of emergency services they usually arrive to deal with natural disasters flooding for. some terror attacks as well but this is eyewitness reports and of course this. news this is speculation coming in not even from the

media but simply from the witness accounts the result was some sort of fire at the scene as well and that's one of the much services the ministry services to see where that fire came from or if that even is that accurate we just don't feel as we waited at all that's something that we'll be following a long time to see exactly what that came from or if it's just a separate incident altogether as we're saying at this hour earlier today in the city was the q. and a session with. the president and so he was in the area actually all day with plenty of extra people in the area and of course it's getting closer to the holidays so we can see from the pictures from the scene you see all the christmas lights up and whatnot and this is the time when markets are being open outside that i want more people are on the streets trying to enjoy that sort of atmosphere we are getting some news coming in that the suspect in this shooting in this attack. has

actually been killed as many flaws that it's a source coming from the f.s.b. the federal security service itself they have they are confirming at this stage that the attack did begin in the reception to the f.s.b. building on the attack because at least one we can't say how many there were at this stage exactly between one and 3 initial reports have been neutralized but they have left some sort of device some sort of suitcase some sort of package this is information coming from a source in the saudi if people again confirmed they are examining that package and looking for a rather waiting for the bomb squad to come in and examine that is the latest. well exactly and that's going to have to be examined extremely carefully and as you mentioned earlier the cell service in the area has been shut down so that's likely in connection to that those sort of reports because that's going to have to be followed extremely closely to see exactly what that is if it's nothing if it's just

their items that they had with them or if it's something more sinister than that we saw the london bridge attack take place very recently actually where the attacker was wearing a fake suicide vest a fake so that. this could be something along those lines is what i thought would explain the reason why off the phone signal about potential explosion of a device or the 2nd device is that's why they're taking those measures but we'll bring you obviously more updates as the command over the next few minutes are too soon hawkins thank you for staying across the latest for us. and other news u.s. house democrats have stuck to their guns adamantly going ahead and impeaching donald trump he is accused of abuse of power and obstructing congress but the whole impeachment saga could backfire on the democrats as it appears to have rallied republican support something the u.s. president has been quick to note. they are 230 the nasal 197 present is one. article

one is adopting. this lawless heart assume is a political suicide march for the democratic party have you seen my pose of the last 4 weeks. and trump might have a point according to the latest polls he's getting more support from the public since october just after the democrats started their impeachment inquiry against him his approval ratings have grown by 6 percent and the same time the number of people who think he should be impeached is declining from just over half in october to 46 percent at this point it's up to the republican dominated senate now to decide whether or not to remove trump from office a member mitch mcconnell who leads the majority of their about a likely he anticipates a partisan outcome just like in the house which voted almost entirely along party lines after 8 hours of heated debates with only 3 democrats saying no to impeachment. this process has been partition vindictive dishonest the president's

action seriously jeopardize not only america's national security but security of our closest allies this investigation was unfair the articles of impeachment are not based on facts but instead are entirely politically motivated president trump abuse the power of his office for his own personal and political gain history books will tell of this day. it will tell of a purely partisan effort to remove the president of the united states that shows that this juncture and will between the american liberal establishment and the general society. the fact is that. trans approval ratings remain strong there is a clear breach between the middle of their careers hostage to be a more personable people and the elites and that is a sign off for. democratic ticket and a lack of accountability of establishment of the society and trump is going to use

this break between the. he supporters and the liberal establishment to try and win the election again thank you and i think as a right wing populist use able to turn this whole impeachment saga into victim who are rich narrative you know are saying that basically eason do nothing democrats as he keeps taunting them have failed the people i'm creating the jobs bill economy i'm not trying to revive the country and the economic are great my success so they're looking for you know underhanded means to remove me from power saw i think it just shows the you know the break between the establishment and the people and it shows our of populism you know people said the good stuff passing a blip but it doesn't look like we could very well be a leave that is going to sustain itself for some time amid fears that the senate will not vote to remove term from office democrats have a plan b.

when it comes to undermining the president they're ready to resort to some old tricks like the lower part next plans. difficult to understand the purpose of last night's impeachment vote why should the upper house of the u.s. congress pass judgment on donald trump when democrats already have a plan b. the house judiciary committee says it will continue to investigate donald trump regardless of the outcome so what else is left to investigate well the house judiciary committee is saying that they will resurrect the dead i.e. the moeller report this will give them a chance to get back to their roots and bring up that old russian collusion agenda and they can get the impeachment hearings going all over again the public version of the miller report contains numerous rejections these rules 6 redactions withhold information about president trump's knowledge of his campaign's contacts with russian officials and wiki leaks and therefore bear on whether the president committed impeachable offenses yes same old same old even though bob muller found

no evidence of trump russia collusion it's all about belief these days the democrats should look into some very solid facts like the recent ruling from the foreign intelligence surveillance court regarding the surveillance against carter page now that's the very carter page who is transforming the foreign policy adviser just the very next day michael horowitz inspector general of the u.s. department of justice were due to the f.b.i. for failures during the early stages of the russian probe he revealed 17 different omissions and inaccuracy is in the carter page warrant applications and furthermore they included doctored documents and concealed information there were so many errors. we couldn't reach a conclusion or to make a determination on what motivated those failures although we did not find documentary or testimonial evidence of intentional mixed misconduct we also did not

receive satisfactory explanations for the errors or the missing information and the failures that occurred. now james coleman was the f.b.i. director at the time of the investigation it limited that his bureau was sloppy and how they investigated donald trump and his team furthermore the infamous cia which started the entire russia probe was not as important as it was made out to be it was one of a bunch of different facts to resemble to a part of the court it was the one that convinced the lawyers that they had enough now with that added to the pile to go forward guess the question is it seems that you were minimizing the role of the of this field if i was sorry that i did that now call me also said that he does not care how credible steele's allegations were you conclude the reporting from steele was bunk they concluded there were significant questions about the reliability of some of the sub source reporting that should have been included in the renewals when i reached the president i briefed him on a small part of it that i told him i didn't know whether it was true or not i

didn't care and in fact he didn't care about the investigation at all in general i didn't know what they learned from the some source i didn't know the particulars of the investigation this isn't some investigations or this is an investigation of the campaign of the man who is the president of the united states while the narrative that donald trump colluded with russia in order to win the 2016 elections hasn't really panned out however the narrative that donald trump has been in appropriately . by people who have an agenda of trying to bring down his presidency is getting stronger by the day now some people might look at this case and say to the democrats stop beating a dead horse just let this russia stuff go already but it could be more dangerous to trump the rivals than they realize it could be a case of stop beating this dead horse before it comes back to life turns around and sinks its teeth into you. r.t. new york. we now go back to our breaking news this hour at the central moscow

shooting which has reportedly left 3 people dead and i still not been confirmed whether those killed were the perpetrators or victims. martinis and the hawkins is in the studio with us we just saw that video from the scene you can hear the sounds of gunfire it sounds like what else do we know at this point what we know the situation is no longer an active shooter situation the f.s.b. that's the federal security service of russia which who's building was targeted in this attack have confirmed they have killed they have neutralized the attack on what house cause a lot of confusion about casualty numbers about who exactly was injured what reports from the scene i would disagree out that the attacker or attackers may have been wearing uniforms belonging to security service these are initial reports people could have misread the situation in their own through panic but that is the

case and that would explain why we don't have any casualty exact figures as of yet the attacker has been neutralized the police they were looking for i. know there are of course live pictures right now from the area and you can see there is a large police presence you can see one officer at least ending on the corner there looks like things have been quieted down as there's no longer the active shooter but of course that whole area is going to be on lockdown this is so unusual to see . this time of such a day so quiet because this of course is the bank of the area around. government to try to get a. view there perhaps of what's going on inside the building of course reports earlier circulated the attack a barricaded himself inside the building of the building had to be stored to get them out but obviously no one around not a soul just those journalists press at the scene there and this is a rush hour all of those that you know people. because this is only 10 minutes walk

from the bolshoi theater 1015 minutes we know from revolution square from the kremlin from the shopping center this would have been absolutely bustling at this time of. evening shops cafes restaurants in that area as well now as you can see traffic police there moving even the reporters away as far as they can from that security line now but just by actually clarify what you know what exactly happened at least one but as many as 3 unconfirmed reports. the f.s.b. building that began shooting inside the f.s.b. lobby with an automatic weapon initial reports say it could have been a kalashnikov rifle that is a russian military rifle other reports saying it could have been go rifle that is a modified version of the weapon for civilian use we just know at least one of the attackers barricades softly to himself inside the building and he was subsequently killed by security forces arriving on scene the area was put a lot of people running to hide inside nearby bars shops and cafes as we heard

earlier quite scenes of panic in moscow this of course is a very unusual incident for moscow it's had its share of course of crime of terrorist attacks in the past but namely and attack on a security building with an automatic weapon that is very rare indeed and unexplained some of the panic and confusion of course at the scene where special police units are at the scene where understand the bomb squad is on its way as well because the attacker or attackers may have left some sort of device in the building whether that is active a device or some sort of fake we don't know we do know in these cases that attackers. of course this is confirmed as some sort of terrorist attack either where suicide vest fake suicide vests all the fake devices at the seem to cause chaos and confusion this will be the priority now for security forces for the bomb disposal squad to see to track down that device and see if it does pose any danger or talk to the public they are also trying to establish the identity of this

attacker or indeed of the attackers but from the initial reports we are getting given that there is more than one attacker given the targets the f.s.b. by. the weapons used this does look likely to be something that is coordinated and very much targeted at you but the timing of course jack is well you can just press conference just exactly that comes out once a year and that went on for 4 hours today in central moscow with the president answering questions from a large number of journalist there is actually a record number of journalists in attendance these here some almost 1500 journalists and so there was even more of a presence in the center than usual more than likely and that also means that there was probably more security forces in the area which might explain how they got into the scene so quickly as you can see there's the sites from the video from the area there's the christmas decorations up everywhere in sharp contrast to what we know what happens now and that's why another reason why so many people would have been

out on the streets at this point in the show if you will sort of injected the shuttle of the russian president vladimir putin is it is obviously quite closely guarded it's kept pretty much a secret by the. federal security guard the presidential guard if you like they normally keep a very close eye on things running a very tight ship but we do know that the russian president he's in the kremlin and he's there for a special event and that event is marking a day in russia dedicated to serving members of the security personnel that takes place on the 28th of december tomorrow of course in russia but this comes at the celebration. is taking place in the kremlin today that is where was the putin is whether that has any impact on the timing of this attack is obviously too early to speculate but it's something that we have to take into account but security will also be taking into account when they study the motives and the pattern of how

exactly this happened because this is one of the closest goddess buildings in moscow i mean we know moscow has quite tight security anyway. there's security guards in most public areas in a lot. shopping centers in airports and train stations even in pharmacies you know there are security guards so normally it is a very safe city much more safe in fact in many other major cities this sort of event is quite rare in moscow where an individual or group of individuals has attacked a public building with automatic weapons this is very rare and would have caught the people there in the area of course very much show by surprise but it does seem that the security forces have reacted quite quickly public transport was rerouted from the area the whole area was shut down and as you mentioned cell service was also blocked in that immediate area the fs building f.s.b. building itself has gone into the fortress plan as they call it that's been activated meaning that the building is on total lockdown no one can go in or out because as you mentioned earlier there how difficult. the attacker or attackers may

actually have been dressed as f.s.b. officers so that's going to lead to even more confusion if that does turn out to be the case exactly a lot of traffic building up around that central area in moscow. live pictures any more this came all these. traffic we saw earlier there was something going on a little earlier we're now of course for its traffic especially in the rush hour given that whole area has been cleared traffic has been diverted i expect a lot of people wondering how they going to get home or if we're going to get home at all for the next couple of hours given the scale of the situation. something you mentioned earlier as well jack you the f.s.b. headquarters are on lockdown you're only a few building there all of the buildings in the in there also on lockdown as security services tabish exactly what's going on and what that device is aren't instead of staying across all of the way to us for us on that thank you.