[000:00:00;00] the news russia will be securing its borders the same way as the us, that the pledge of vladimir putin made in almost an hour long conversation with us president joe biden, belgium suddenly backtracks on its covert measures and reopened theatres and cinemas. that's after its highest court said the restrictions were too excessive. elsewhere, joe biden, distances himself from previous promises to shut down the virus now says it's up to individual states, not the white house to sorted out. and we discussed this response to the panoramic so far. plus a special, we get a rare glimpse inside one of russia's most notorious prisms,

home in its day to some of the countries most dangerous criminals in the wake of the soviet collapse of the 1990. walking into sound like this were all these hard attitude criminals. can you look being rejected by fellow prisoners in the common a pariah or something they feared most the broadcast from the director of our studios in moscow. this is art international. i'm john thomas. certainly glad to have you with us. right now. russian leaders i put in, says moscow will act as the u. s. does in securing its borders. that's a pledge made in an almost hour long phone call with joe biden, during which the u. s. president also promised not to deploy offensive strike weapons in ukraine. on this, we can cross live to our area but shrink. oh ilia, you've been across this. tell us more about the conversation between the 2 leaders

. shawn, hey there. well, the fact is that the, the heads of state, so the u. s. in russia are, are in touch with each other more and more often. and finally, now we're getting the details of other latest phone conversation just ahead of new year's eve. now of like you've mentioned joe biden, the u. s. present said that washington has no intention of deploying offensive strike missiles and ukraine. that is something very important for russia that is something that the kremlin had previously called a red wine. now, on the other hand, mister vladimir putin told joe biden that russia will defend its interests and will react to the threats just like washington would in similar cases up then. and the threat of sanctions came from the u. s. leader. that's something

we've heard many times before from us presidents. not only are joe biden to that of latimer, potent replied by saying that. and if new sanctions are in place, and in this case, this could lead to ties being cut completely between the 2 countries. now when it comes to the very important security talks the replant in january, perhaps starting on the 10th the, the 2 leaders won't take part, but they will be the supervising them up personally. and i know i can tell you that we heard from a, the russian foreign ministry, the spokeswoman, what russia a really wants to achieve. after all these talks begin, would it be lowered or was in the view at certain hearing the talk tool asked the u . s. to ensure firm legal guarantees of security for i shall see that nato will not

be able to move on the east and that weapon systems that threaten russia will not be deployed near our border world. there is no agreed position. but when all the western partners within the e. u and nato video, european security is not a new topic washer. since 1990 we have been proposing not to allow the security of some countries at the expense of the security of others for jell. what was so interesting about our proposals, which are currently being discussed is the, was pretending that this is the 1st time they have heard about it in we already have written fundamental principles in our joint documentary. and they were supposed to have been already implemented at e to like so what's very important here is the context. this phone conversation is happening after accusations against moscow that it's massing its troops near the border with ukraine. now moscow has been blaming nato for excessive activity. on russia's doorstep, now,

we also understand that the 2 leaders are talking hot on the heels of proposals being made by the kremlin, for security guarantees. russia doesn't want nato to expand for the further 8th. russia doesn't want ukraine to be part of nato, whether moscow will get these legal guarantees or not. perhaps we might find out after these crunches security talks in geneva happen in january. right? are you familiar? but you go there. we know as this story develops and more information becomes available, you'll see across the board for me on this we can cross live to journalist rick sterling, rick, or someone who i wanted to bring in on this because i your opinion and your expertise in this area is, is known, so put and says russia will secure its borders the same way as us does now. what exactly does that mean,

and how will that actually affect bilateral relations between russia and the us? well, i think, i think we can put the issue on the other foot. what would the us say if there was a hostile military force establishing itself in atlanta, georgia because kept in the ukraine is closer, is 460 miles from moscow. and atlanta, georgia, is, is, you know, about the same distance. so, it's pretty clear if we, if we go back into the sixty's, we can look at the reaction of the did states when missiles were placed in, in cuba. and the, and the u. s. reacted very strongly against that and threatened to an agreement with finally worked out. but you know, i think it's reasonable to say that moscow has very legitimate, legitimate concerns. now, joe biden made

a promise not to deploy offensive strike weapons in ukraine. how is that compatible with the pledge to help give? well, it says 20 is just the q and 2014. the us says shift approximately 2 and a half $1000000000.00 worth of military hardware to, to the ukraine. just this, just this concluding year, this but hundreds of millions of dollars and, and there's the, there's the talk of more, some people in congress have just come back from, from a trip to ukraine. i don't know if it was sponsored by some of the military industrial corporations or not, but they're proposing even more military hardware. it looks like the u. s. after finally leaving afghanistan is, is, and after 20 years of occupation and 40 years of intervention. if we go

back to the time that the u. s. was supplying the so called insurgence or g harness in, in afghanistan, 40 years. so the us has left there. it looks like the u. s. in the military. industrial complex is looking to to increase the conflict in ukraine and have ukranian blood and russian blood you know, as they don't care about that, it seems so put in recently stated that the west and nato have lied to russia many times and that he is now demanding legal security guarantees that's very important to him. do you think there will be forthcoming with those guarantees, or is it going to be business as usual? well it's, it's really hard to say it would be very much in the interest of the american people as well. as people all over the world to come to some kind of agreement. but

we don't know right now there's so many factors that work. there's domestic politics in the united states. you've got the media, which seems to be going the, the military, you've got people in, in congress, in the end, the senate who, who seemed to relish the idea of increasing conflict with russia. so this is very much against the interests of the, of the u. s. people what that, that 2 and a half $1000000000.00 worth of military hardware that i mentioned. you know, i don't any good. so, briefly the u. s. has threatened moscow with sanctions. that seems the way that they like to go about things. do you think that that is the right path for america to go down? well, the u. s. is they call up the united states of sanctions? you know, there was an article with that title. the u. s. is increasingly been doing it in

it's in it's cutting off its own foot. there's some 40 countries around the world that the u. s. as various types of sanctions against. and it's, it's definitely increasing the tension. it's increasing impoverishment it's, it's hurting a civilians around the world. and to, to their already, of course, many sanctions against russia by the united states. so, escalating that is, is only going to make things worse. we need to hint the other direction. a sanctions actually, sanctions at the united nations are called unilateral courts of measures. and they are considered illegal and against international law by 70 percent of the world nations. and they are very strongly spoken out against that. sanctions are only permitted according to the united nations charter when they have been approved by

the united nations security council. so this is the completely the wrong path. the head down, i noticed that secretary blanca and secretary of state blanket, few days ago, issued his, his sum up of the year. and he talks about we're in a stronger position to counter to deal with countries like china and russia, and they seek to undermine the international system. well, what the international system is this, this is the international system is supposed to be the united nations charter, not us. did tatt. rick, if you break it all down, strip it all away, take it down to the absolute, bare essentials. what needs to be done to get over this deterioration in russian us relations? the 2 countries are too big to have this kind of an argument. yeah, absolutely. and i think it will take some, i hope there's the, there's some courage and common sense in washington to resist the warmongers.

and that's actually inaccurate term. it's not, not hyper, personally, the military industrial complex and, and the problem again this resist that and, and, and reverse the trend is completely completely understandable and that, that russia would want guarantees. natal is already expanded into many countries. there are numerous countries on the, on a, on the border that, that were part of the soviet union and then, or no part of nato. so, given the proximity of ukraine to, to russia, given the proximity to moscow. as i was mentioning, only 460 miles of the russian demands, the red lines are completely understandable. all right, investigative journalist rick sterling, thanks for being with us and helping us unravel this very 10 situation. appreciate

it. you know right now, despite europe struggling with the new omicron strain, belgium has suddenly you turned on some of its toughest coven restrictions. this comes after the countries highest court, ruled that the measures were too excessive by its judgment. the council of state suspends the measure of closure of the cultural sector facilities. it rule that this measure was not proportionate and cannot make it possible to understand why the attendance of theaters and cultural venues was particularly dangerous for the health of the population. essentially what you have is belgians highest administrative court saying that the government rules make no sense and as a result, government will have to backtrack. this follows a legal challenge that was filed by a local theatre producer. and it followed a number of restrictions that the government had only imposed a short time ago, amongst these new restrictions where that all theaters cinemas, and cultural venues had to close christmas parties would have to close early,

and sports venues would have no audiences. and this is in addition to already the mandatory wearing of moss and people having to work from home. but now we have a situation where everything's reversed. so the cinema's, the theaters and the cultural venues are to re open. and of course, it raises questions as to just what kind of consistency there is to these government rules and regulations. jagow, there are still months and months of the covered crisis ahead of us if the public is not in our side because of a lack of sense in the measures, we will have lost the battle against the virus. now you do have a part of the public that has been very, very vocal in particularly demonstrating and criticizing these government restrictions in recent weeks,

they've taken to the streets to voice their concerns. ah. now in general, the current situation a cross belgium has been relatively calm. they figures point to over 500 cases per day, per 1000000 people. but the situation is quite different just across the border. if we look at fonts, for example, phones has registered an all time high of more than $200000.00 new cases per day. and that is a high for europe as well. as a result, the government has had to re impose restrictions. you have a situation where the french police are saying that everybody from 11 years and older. now when they are doors, have to wear them off. except if they're involved in cycling, if they're doing any kind of sports or if they're inside the vehicle. so you have within the, you block itself,

different european countries dealing with these high covert figures in a very different way. in the meantime, the u. s. still tops the global table when it comes to the number of co deaths, but president biden is now distancing himself from his promise to shut down the virus. he says, the solution has to come from individual states rather than the white house. there is no federal solution. this gets found state level and then ultimately gets down to where the rubber meets the road. and that's where the patient is in need of help or preventing the need for help. all right, just over a year ago, abandon slammed the trump administration's co testing efforts as a travesty. and said americans, vaccine rule out was well behind other developed nations. he then promised to change the course of the disease in the 1st 100 days in office. although that did not happen. over $400000.00 americans have died from covered under biden's watch, with new cases hovering around half

a 1000000 per day. new york has been the worst hit with case numbers, they're reaching and all time high since the arrival of the constrain, or the softer taylor discussed with guests washington's response to the crisis. thus far vitamin said what, for what that is? no central solution. i don't think that is something that one wants to hand from the president. there never was a federal solution to a virus that spreads more easily than chicken box and with each to varian as becomes more and more bureau and the idea that there's some policy or some politician going to stop it. we should have been acknowledging that this is not a pandemic, and that this is endemic, at least a couple of waves ago. politicians that's a 1st duty is not only did g d p and inflation and everything, but basically saved the health of their, of their countrymen. and this needs to be done. this was not done. joe biden got elected because of donald trump's of failed handling cove. it in the minds of voters in coming up on the year that he was inaugurated and we have covered as bad

as it's been certainly case wise. we can now add up all the rough weeks for biden to rough year for bite. 62 percent of americans and now a couple jobs. they said that when we get to a certain threshold, everything's going to be great. that's how immunity we're going to be able to live more normally. in your opinion, is 62 percent in good enough. the terrible, i mean 62 percent is close to 50 percent and that goes to 100 percent. the reason where we are not vaccinated is because people are misinformed. there was not accurate information, but is vaccines and a fake news that are allowed on social media? basically lead to the fact that patients and people at the end of the day will doubt necessity of having a vaccine. there's definitely a lack of trust in the government as well as a lack of trust in big pharmaceutical companies, especially now that an increasing number of so called lead vaccinated americans are being told. now if you haven't had a booster shot, you're not back need anymore. you as bad as all those people that didn't get back to vaccine mandate for domestic ad chapel. do you think that's the direction of

cutting and the vaccines are for your personal protection? we have seen less of evidence that the vaccine limits trans miss ability. if you don't have that part of the puzzle from a political message, ink, and lawmaking perspective, then you don't have the pretends to set up the mandates. put up other restrictions of occupancy restrictions or telling people that they need to wear a mass from when they walk into the building until they sit down, then they can take it back off. none of this stuff is going to stop this virus. we should be deciding for ourselves the best way out of this, the sooner we're going to be able to find the best equilibrium that we're going to have in this new reality though. yeah. the mayor of chicago is under fire for wishing people happy. kwanza the holiday that celebrates african american culture, with many infuriated that she didn't instead address the cities crime rate after 3 people were shot and killed and 23 injured over the christmas break. jury is kwansa chicago. i mean, i wish to extend

a very beautiful and prosperous ones to all of you celebrating as you light the candles and gather in unity. we hope your holidays filled with rejoicing and happiness. how many people were shot this weekend? happy cleanser to the 4442 people shot in chicago in 2021. thank you for keeping chicago safe and crime free. floating blue works. chicago is experiencing its worst a year for murders in a quarter of a century with more than $780.00 people killed. there is also been a significant increase in sexual assaults and thefts. our guests agreed that the mayor and other politicians should be focusing their efforts at solving the crime wave in the city. i don't think they're upset about the call for unity. i think they're upset that she chose to give that message as opposed to specifically address the crime,

the happening or city over the over the last year. the fact that she's ignoring the fact that she again doesn't address the fact that over 90 percent of the victims are lacking, brown and over 90 percent of the perpetrators are like it. so i don't think it's the message that people have a problem with. i think it's the are wanting disregard for the victims she wants to focus on the holidays doesn't really ignore. doesn't really address the fact that a lot of people are not spending the holidays with their loved ones because they've succumb to well being murdered and being killed. the way a lot of politicians think is that if they ignore bad news, the bad news goes away. whereas if they address it, it keeps it in the headlines and it perpetuates the new cycle rather than ignoring it, hopefully it falls out of the news cycle. busy and reporters in the media and the general public moves on to other topics for a lot of things that are happening in american society. i think that the public in

general is getting tired of politicians getting latitudes and basically not doing anything to solve problems. ah, president putin sacked russia's prison chief last week as reforms get underway in the wake of a damning video that showed widespread abuse in the countries jails. now up next, we visit a notorious former prison in saint petersburg. that's now been replaced with a more modern facility. the old jail was infamous in its day back in the 1990 s when it was home to some of russia's most dangerous criminals. amid the chaos that followed the claps of the soviet union, or cheese constantine arose. coff has been granted rare access to that place. just to warn you. his special report contains graphic descriptions of violence. me were in saint petersburg and in front of what used to be rushes most infamous prison for more than a century. this was the largest incarceration facility in the whole of europe,

where the country's most notorious and violent criminals were being kept. now we're going to check out the jails, darkest parts that have been hidden from the general public. for decades. this looks like a perfect sat for a horror movie. even after 4 years since the prison was shut down, its empty cells and court are still sent chills down your spine. this is one of the solitary confinement cells that were widely used during stalin's role in the 19 thirty's and forty's. i mean, you can see how small it is. it is, i think 3 times smaller than a regular. so you can, i mean, you can even fully stretch out your arms while inside. you have to spend days and weeks in a cell like this where it can effectively only stand or sit on the edge of a small metal bed. lying down during the daytime is forbidden. well then it becomes

how on earth in the prison was billed at the end of the 19th century as the most advanced facility of its kind in russia. firstly, because of its iconic architecture. we cross shape of the 2 main buildings. not only gave the jailer unofficial name, but also made it easy for guards to monitor and access every corner of the prison. at a time when ccc cameras were mostly with history, the prison served as a pre detention facility. yet in the soviet times, there was also we did a good win for those found guilty of the most violent crimes like multiple murders and rapes, which is probably the dark part of the prison death row behind the field gate. there was a small basement where though sentenced to death were executed. he came to nationwide notoriety in the 9090s,

when the severe economic crises of follow, the collapse of the soviet union and crime rates through the roof. russian streets became an arena of bloody wars between newly formed criminal gangs. what are you looking at? what are you doing here anyway? who do you think that that you're going to cover that cache you? i mean, it was you that, that would, that was kind of talk was column back then. there were dictionaries of criminals. lang was out of radical, him and he's love mosquito used to run among russian criminal circles in the 9th 1992. he spent 8 months in this prison on record tearing charges of the business and someone told me money. so i went off to deal with the guy. i didn't go to raise the meeting, go gun. almost everyone had gone to that time. arrived at the meeting place in the police to meet with the crime rate was so high in the ninety's,

europe's largest prison quickly became too small to fit in all the mob stories and violent criminals. up i grew up with the door opens and i 40 ugly mugs staring at me. their faces of hardened criminals, yet not roll. i sat down on the edge of the bed, it was a place to sit down and he's going to look in the light that a lit cigarette and all of these gangs is a smoke. they took almost a whole pack for me, so he smoked together and talked, so i realized is going to be okay. my next warden who served in this prison at the time, recalls some of the night mary scenes he witnessed every day at work. well, it took me up and i caught up to 14 people used to shed this tiny cell. is it true that some in and slept on the floor under the bed? otherwise it was impossible to fit. everyone in people slept into shifts. a lack of funding had left the prison without the most basic things like toilet seat inmates ended up rolling their blankets to have at least minimum comfort growing up in russia,

in the ninety's seeing videos of this presence over crowded south. i vividly remember how terrified i was when i imagine what it would be like, walking into a cell like this. were all these hard tattooed criminals give you this look as the door slammed behind you. and some of the former inmates recalled that being rejected by his fellow prisoners and becoming a pariah with something they feared most, some times more than solitary confinement or punishment from the guard. it was not, i mean, this is a terrible place that ruined the loss of people's lives. like your modem, but still everyone came out to the door. they were mentally damage to my kids. well, yeah, i mean, so how young guys will rate what old mother does a couple of times. they raped young guys simply because they wanted sex. the country's future president vladimir putin visited the crosses in 1992. he was

particularly shocked that prison dentist pulled out my teeth without painkillers. the decision was made to shut down the notorious jail altogether and build a new one from scratch. in the next episode, we're inside the new prison that has replaced the old one is the city. the most important to be is that we have a rest from the inside. we have any prisoner, travis feel a night from you. what happened? i couldn't tell you the language and i killed them. i strangled in little fish. what really want to be back with you? he's wait for me. and that does a for me, this are i'll be back in about $31.00 and a half. it's with another phone fresh look to new say with us are to international . ah

a ah sh. well kind of said alec family show me hope you've all had a wonderful christmas. but we're here for special new year addition where we're joined by the wonderful louis mcclain. i'm kara robins, welcome to the show. it did have a good christmas. oh yes, fantastic, beautiful. wonderful. well, there's women and men of many voices. the sure going to do what we will tell them. let the highlights of the showbiz year,

though. strictly come dancing solar. number one. i'll be one of your i guess your minimum. i tell you what alex a chevy palace. i think you would be fantastic. you've got the composer, you've got the, you've got the top new trousers. i think you've got the dangly legs up. won't be perfect. i would love you to do it. i think you would please fantastic. i mean, did you say, are they running out of gas? so that's interesting, everyone's been on, i mean down walk or the baby see need on. no i well i, it's fascinating program because everybody wants to do it, you know. and then there was a booking a and thought, well well, welcome to that. just a lovely . yeah. i'm not sure when they good verbiage on it, you know, real,