new york times is criticized from all sides mentioned in its anonymous source of based article claiming that russia paid bounties in afghanistan to kill american troops. and you have a story that shaped the week here on r.g.p. national after a delay due to covert 19 moscow finally all just world war 2 victory day parade marking the 75th anniversary of the defeat of nazi germany. or begins voting on constitutional reforms with 2 regions making people cast their ballots and only due to coronavirus concern. for broadcasting live direct from our studios here in moscow this is r.t.

international i'm john thomas glad to have you with us as we recap the week's top stories in our weekly program now the new york times is facing widespread criticism after it published an article saying russia offered bounties in afghanistan to kill u.s. troops also claimed donald trump was briefed on the matter however the director of national intelligence denies that either the president or vice president were ever briefed on this and trump himself labeled the piece fake news as a freak news new york times must release anonymous they can do it this probably does not even exist and the article has been slammed by the russian foreign ministry which called the piece a deliberate decision from asian saturday also saw the taliban denying the new york times article artie's it was done of comments now on the peace in question and asks who might benefit from its publication. it's time to blow off the dust that circled on any smear tactics guide book since the last us election but as democrats are

looking to wash away the humiliation of 2016 by trying to bring down trump this time they are resorting to the same auld narrative that failed them in the 1st place russia gate american intelligence officials have concluded that the russian military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to taliban linked militants for killing coalition forces in afghanistan the peace rests on the familiar pillars of pulitzer winning journalism anonymous sources that believed concluded and desist the claims are said to be based on interrogations of captured outgoing militants at least in part the article says well because less than in part well would be nothing at all really the alleged culprits is the same russian intelligence unit that is accused of this ellsbury poisoning western intelligence official say the unit which has operated for more than a decade has been charged by the kremlin with kerry knows

a complaint to destabilize the west through subversion and the source in the nation . the west in the middle east by bribing the taliban into something they are doing anyway comic book villains have more logic and motivation than russia in this article but as evil and sleazy as russia may be portrayed in this story it's still just collateral damage and not the actual target president trying to get briefed in march that russia is paying bounty money for dead american soldiers right now. and his response to that is nothing his entire presidency has been a gift. but it this is beyond the pale it's betrayal of most sacred duty we bear as a nation to protect and equip our troops and restrain them into harm's way if trump refuses to hold putin accountable for funding terrorism against u.s. troops in afghanistan then congress must again step up i expect the trumpet

ministration to take such allegations seriously and inform congress immediately as to the reliability of these news reports the stories taking jabs at trump amid reports he's about to take another step towards ending the catastrophic 2 decades long invasion russia's foreign ministry has dismissed the allegations as fake pointing out that more school has all along been trying to mediate the conflict and have the united states and the taliban in fact sign a peace deal the simple this information clearly illustrates the low intellectual abilities propagandists among american intelligence who have to come up with such nonsense instead of inventing something more reliable however what else can we expect from intelligence which miserably failed in the 20 year war in afghanistan it's russia collusion 2.0 as if that has ever been worth anything more but a house impeachment that left trump unfazed by hey maybe at least robert mueller

will have a 2nd shot around 2021 we heard from max abrams a fellow at the quincy institute for responsible state craft in the u.s. who says anonymous intelligence data is always questionable. when i 1st read this story in the new york times i pointed out on twitter that it was weakly sourced and a number of people replied and they said yeah but you know it's been corroborated by you know the wall street journal what section on c.n.n. and so the more mainstream media empire will stop on a story like this the more it takes on the impression of being true but again we can't really know that well without knowing more about this in tow how is the intel general who is providing this into home and is it pure or is it largely a partisan trick begin telling each and sees how very largely trouble and so it's

not hard for mainstream media to get in touch with the sort of know it we're not going to tell the person to verify the veracity of these stories even if they're not necessarily true where even if we're hearing you know a partial truth about it it's certainly trying to be spun in the way in a way that implicates trot in the worst manner to push by going across the finish line and. switching gears now after being delayed by the global pandemic moscow finally held its huge military parade on wednesday marking the 75th anniversary of victory over nazi germany the red square echoed to the sound of thousands of marching feet from those tasked with protecting the motherland and hopped on their heels quite literally was a procession of military vehicles and equipment before the whole thing was topped off with a spectacular fly by. p p. p

. p p p p. fifi. our correspondent sounds good taylor was down at red square and summed up the emotions of the day. to me actually the most moving part of the day is all to the present spoken and they say and you just sit it out without rot and that's because

i hear history in that sound there are echoes of those people 75 years ago on red square victory was celebrated but more importantly so with the people who have fought tooth and nail to bring it up out my grandmother for chat she threw it in the a 1000000 thoughts independent women's battalion and it was an all female unit that was part of the 1st post shaunie and that was part of the save you fool says not cheat they fought out a pottle in london which is that of russia and they actually managed to break through to jump into france says take back and hold the talk to strategic area of the bridge that proved to be crucial and not the battle later on i could go up to any single person on the street also what did you write that it's to join the war each would keep me 80 tell family story someone who fought and died at starting price so many survived the blockade of leningrad so many fought with the partisans on so much who on the 24th of june 1945 looked into that very scrap right behind me

traditionally the event is held on may 9th but the coronavirus prevented it this year so wednesday was chosen for the jubilee instead and it was not just a random date back in 1905 the 1st ever victory parade was held on june 24th when many soviet soldiers had made it back from the front lines and could share the celebrations with the entire country. in commemoration of victory over germany and the great patrick wall for june 24th 1905 i'm scheduling a parade of the active army the navy and moscow garrison the victory parade in moscow's red square.

it was a long anticipated and unthink gettable day people strongly believed it would come . we were looking at the pile of wet cloths and thinking that the long expected

victory had come and we the war is that how people to free the motherland bring back peace is my contribution. going to go round and greeting the troops i could see rain trickling from their camps but they spirits were too high to even notice it was a gloomy sunday red squares cobblestones were wet the bunches of flowers that we got after the parade were away but years on my heart doesn't believe in those memories the 24th of june 1945 has become a part of my life it was the most cheerful and sunny day.

as time marches on from visa world a changing events it seems history is not always being remembered the same way in may the white house paid a tribute to the u.s. and u.k. for delivering victory in the 2nd world war completely ignoring the soviet effort and it's not the only example of airbrushing the past are down hawkins reports now from victory park in moscow on this day 945 american great britain had victory over the nazis the us president came under fire for ignoring the part played by other allied nations in defeating fascism not least the soviet union which suffered over 25000000 casualties but recent events go beyond just one tweet . on the 23rd of august $939.00 the soviet union and nazi germany signed a treaty of nonaggression known as the molotov ribbentrop pact and its secret protocols dividing europe and the territories of independent states between the 2 totalitarian regimes and grouping them into spheres of interest which paved the way

for the outbreak of the 2nd world war history is a set of lies agreed upon according to the podium but when for liberators are officially relabeled this occupants victims as aggressors just with a few strokes of a pen then both truth and agreement become allusive rewriting history revisionism altering the past to fit with present political paradigms multiple states at the center of those tragic events have been mired in controversy but when it comes to russia controversy turned to something and forgivable all but equating the soviet union's role in world war 2 with that of nazi germany do your president put in his her and stalin colluded to start world war 2 that is a fact part of was a victim of this horrible conflict from the munich pact and partition of czechoslovakia to western business interests in nazi germany many countries at the center of the wars outbreak have skeletons in the closet the key aim is to learn

lessons what can be done today to maintain violet of peace the russian president has his own thoughts the historical revisionism where witnessing in the west particularly with regard to the subject of the 2nd world war and its outcome is dangerous because it grossly cynically distorts the understanding of the principles of peaceful development laid down in 1945 by the conferences in yalta and san francisco. the main historic achievement to fuel and other decisions of the time was the agreement to establish a mechanism that would allow the major powers to stay within a diplomatic framework when resolving their differences the response to russia's position such as passing its own historical laws is telling rather than a debate accusations of deliberate full sophistication and deceit to divide and conquer in pursuit of nefarious motives historians and politicians may argue for

years about blame and responsibility but as the memory of conflict fades so does the fear of such tragedy repeating itself they say history is the sum of all things that could have been avoided a vast early warning system and the response to the president's peace may have missed the main point the way we understand history shapes the way we understand the present and shapes how we're going to act in the future if we have a distorted or corrupt titian of history then we're not going to be able to 1st of all know that a different future is possible but we see history being deployed for nationalistic for propagandists think for mythological for militaristic purposes all over the world and i mean russia is certainly guilty of that to to some extent i'm not saying that russia is outside of that but on the issues of world war 2 russia is much closer to the truth and to have

a vision of the world based upon collaboration between the united states russia britain the french resistance forces china back to allow us to begin to reinvent a more of them which we can begin to work together again. a week of voting is underway in russia on amendments to the country's constitution we'll have details on that after a short break this is the week we are to international. that's kaiser's financial survivor they say money the bellatrix close to this is the central bank support diet coming from the club and might say stop.

the welcome back you are watching the weekly right here on our team international now the voting process to reform the russian constitution began on thursday polls are open nationwide until the 1st of july the vote had been originally planned for april 22nd but was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic and to alleviate concerns about crowds of polling stations are open for a whole week instead of a single day there are about 200 proposed amendments to the constitution one of the changes would allow vladimir putin to run for president for another 2 terms critics have argued over the all or nothing approach to the vote where people have to say yes or no to the whole package and can't just pick and choose which amendments they want to put in supported the changes in a speech in the state duma back in early march. it was january when president putin stunned russia by proposing changes to the country's foundational law the

constitution within hours the entire government had resigned the current constitution dates back to $993.00 to western backed president boris yeltsin built from the debut of the communist soviet era since constitution created what would be criticized as a hyper presidential system the president called all the shots. and it was forged in bloodshed as a hostile communist control parliament tried to impeach yeltsin he resorted to the military to keep in power. 187 people were killed that autumn. one of the most important proposals today is to end that hyper presidential system while keeping the fundamentals of the constitution intact so what powers does the president currently have only he alone can nominate the prime minister and other cabinet members parliament just gives a formal green light to the candidates the proposal would flip that giving parliament the final say on who serves in government and the president would not be

able to reject the m.p.'s choices powers would be redistributed between various branches of government intended to lock in more checks and balances into russia's government system another big change would limit the president's tenure to only 2 terms in total as opposed to no more than 2 terms in a row as it is now that means future leaders won't be able to serve for as long as putin has. but it's not a member which has got western media excited putin's perceived trick to stay in power forever the existing rules say putin must stand aside in 4 years time after his 2nd consecutive term albeit his 4th mandate in total m.p.'s are pushing a proposal to 0 out his term count a reset button for an updated constitution i propose to add to the new constitution that the current president like any other citizen would have the right to be elected to the post of head of the state that would mean putin could run again in 2024 and in 2030 if he wants to rewind back to january and why putin said he wanted

to change the constitution he says it's to develop a welfare state. the reason for these amendments is to ensure the further development of russia as a state governed by the rule of law to increase the efficiency of institutions in our country with that in mind the room more than one $140.00 amendments one guarantees that the minimum wage will not be lower than the cost of living another secures an annual adjustment to improve the real value of pensions and allowances that would also be tougher requirements for civil servants such as banning key officials from having foreign citizenship all foreign bank accounts the would also be a ban on giving away any russian territory and priority to domestic law over international there are some controversial proposals to marriage would be classified solely as a union between a man and a woman and god gets mentioned all the constitution will still say russia is officially a secular state it's an all or nothing vote russians won't be able to pick and

choose which of the amendments they want to say it's simply a yes or no to the whole package and the changes will only be enacted if the russian people give it an unequivocal mandate. if people do not vote for the amendment that they will not be added to the constitution online voting is being held for the 1st time in russia to regions are holding their votes electronically if another measure to. help quell covert fears the online platform being used promises data encryption and privacy guarantees and registration for online voting closed the last week now while some of the proposed reforms are proving controversial analysts have argued that overall change is needed for russian society i think it's very important to note that the present constitution came out of violence came out of the time of deep uncertainty a time of very small just events after the collapse of the soviet system here we are 2027 years later and this document is

a centralized power dramatically putin feels it needs to be changed opinion polls suggest a majority russians feel it should be changed as well one of the western media is focusing on the putin term limits thing which by the way doesn't mean he has to go mention it one day anyway putin says he will respect that vote you mean technically by the way he didn't have to have this national vote at all i mean he was passed by every russian region all 85 federal something passed in the state parliament the duma passed it the national parliament he didn't have to have this vote he's chosen to do it because he wants the public democratic legitimacy and fairness i think if that had been that many ballot papers it would've been a hell of a lot more confusing than a single ballot paper saying yes or no. after months of lockdown people around the world have been enjoying their 1st a taste of freedom in recent weeks following the ease of many coronavirus restrictions but for those thinking the fight against the virus has been won the

world health organization is warning it has only just begun globally the time that you still absolutely. it took more than 3 months for the 1st $1000000.00 cases to be reported. the last 1000000 cases were reported in just a. well among those who have already felt the 2nd wave is china a recent outbreak was traced to a local wholesale food market which supplies more than 80 percent of agricultural products into the capital beijing the government acted quickly shutting it down and firing up its testing program it was planted to test an entire area in just 3 days that's more than $60000.00 people we asked locals how the process went. i thought it would be fast to take such a test but in fact i spent 3 hours queuing up for the test but when i saw the doctors my heart sank because they had protective googles well all folks and their

sweat was running down their faces meanwhile in germany new cases of the coronavirus have continued popping up in various regions leading local authorities to impose counter measures which have differed from city to city after outbreaks at meat processing plants the german food and agricultural minister has called for price increases to help create a safer working environment artie's peter oliver reports. dealing with coronavirus here in germany has moved away from sweeping national issues with restrictions being lifted or imposed based on regional fact is. here in authorities have lifted restrictions that had limited get to get this to a maximum of 5 people from 2 different households the same move it being made in the states of brandenburg. it's a very different picture in north rhine-westphalia an outbreak centered around

a meat packing plant in the city of. the scene over $1500.00 people test positive and a strict lockdown until the end of the month has been imposed on the area. undoes we will order a lockdown for the whole district of killer slow the purpose is to calm the situation to expand testing to establish whether or not the virus has spread beyond the employees of tony's we will get a better picture of the situation or intensive testing and can then see more clearly within 7 days what the situation is we want to bring about this lockdown which will stay in place until june 30th and bring us more clarity of dollars longears have formed as tests of being made available to everyone in the affected regions the military being drafted in to help with the large scale testing operation health professionals suggest that a large number of symptomless covert carriers a behind the spike the largest localized outbreak in germany. that is already the

idea of these tests because we know that there are symptoms people who don't have a high fever who carry the virus and then unfortunately spread it today we've counted around 400 to 600 people waiting and we would also be setting up a hotline in the next few days to help with the registration. locals queuing to test science at all happy with the slaughterhouse at the center of this spike all the state authorities they say should have done more. akin 45 i don't want to be careful and take the test i don't have symptoms and what should i say i'm a bit angry with the slaughterhouse that they didn't react sooner and now our region is headed into another log down we have to go through it. often find definitely the politicians in their thirty's should have reacted to it and then completely convinced that the 1st kind of those infected were faked and then not taking any responsibility. away from north rhine-westphalia there's also

a localized lockdown in the city of my. workers and is being seen bringing water and supplies to some of the 800 also families who are being taught. to quarantine. around 700 people remain in an apartment complex and get again a forced quarantine which turned violent last weekend. and remember i said restrictions were being lifted in berlin well not for old berlin as in the friedrich china area of the german capital almost 40 households of being put on lockdown those living nearby a concerned about the risk posed and not too happy with those who faulted social distancing the policy in the some a son asked if i have a feeling the fear can you explain why because i belong to the risk group and i have medical conditions. we're doing this for weeks and months we don't do visits anymore mostly we sit on the balcony apart from grocery shopping or

a walk pharmacy or the doctor that's it. if we don't understand why some have clauses in the box and in the compounds we don't understand this. off the back of those regional covert 19 spikes authorities here in berlin have said that they will be enforcing fines against those law wearing face coverings on public transport or in shops as we try and get back to his normal a life as possible while still remembering that corona virus is infectious today as it was a few months ago picture all over all see the it why there's a for me this i'll be back in about let's say 1230 minutes and 30 seconds you're watching her to international the way to stay with us.

you can be both with the yeah you like. be a bust tail of those people as you can see beyond the 1st place in us unique. rules genius days ago i was a potential solution of wishing to go through.