ah, a russian foreign minister breaks down the reasons for the global food crisis as he stops by ethiopia during his tour of african countries. rather due to the absolutely medical reaction of the risk. which of those sanctions undermining the really beautiful doing good work with the orchestra wagner. well, just as the musician there, you know, the name itself is read, the people didn't television. suppose it is 5 minutes is a general way. could night, party gets an exclusive look into the inner workings of

a high profile russian private military agency during its classified operations against ukrainian forces in dunbar. plus if urges brothels to ban russia from support moscow's military operation, and you and ukraine from entering the you with just passed a pm here in the russian capital. and you're watching our 2 international. i'm donald's quarter. welcome to the program. now, europe has suffocated itself by creating constant challenges to the supply of russian gas. that's according to russia's top diplomat, sergei lab rav speaking in ethiopia, and the last leg of his tor, across africa, europe sustained me could have during the last, almost 10 years was creating barriers on the way of

bringing to european countries cheap and accessible. russia, english. they have suffocated the all themselves with their own films, the buy proofs for biplane, the, was from russia. now they're looking for alternatives. is he o p a is the 4th african country, the russian foreign minister visa that in the last 5 days. and this is where he finishes he's to, we're on the continent. here in ad is harbor mr. oliver of met the countries leader and he's ethiopian counterpart. and just like everywhere during his african to are mr. law here was greeted and accepted as a highly respected guess. there was a special coffee ceremony as we were explained with fresh green grass on the floor, symbolize and prosperous dynamic vibrant relations between the 2 sides, loss of traditional incense and also the gas symbolically shared traditional f e r p. and brad, there was whole, so another ceremony here on the territory of the russian embassy here in ad is ab

ever miss oliver of and he's, if your be and counterpart wanted to endemic trees, here is one of them. a to support the ethiopian government is green legacy initiative. and here in the russian embassy is where miss lover of address the ambassadors all the african union. it is a very influential continental buddy united, $55.00 countries. moscow has always been saying that it will do its best to strengthen africa's position in more than multi polar world. and this is what lobby visit here on the continent stands for. and this more than world is something mr. law of talk to lot about in his speech in front of the ambassadors, the war old in which despite eights, old verse, multiple larry t, the west is still trying to impose its position and punish all those who disagree. the policy that mr. law of called a colonial policy in human, a moral and very dangerous,

something that here in africa they understand very well. here are some of the most interesting points of missile arbor of speech. and yes, the in situation and ukraine did effect additionally negatively affect the o food food markets, but not because of, of the russian special operation. rather due to the absolutely in there that with the reaction of the risk which announced sanctions, ah, undermining the availability of food on the markets. it's a period of history where we will have to choose either to go thou and the current which the west, thrice to to move are saying that the world must bear are not by international law, but by the rules. they coined an expression,

a rules based world order. and if you analyze the behavior for western cortex in the international arena, you would understand that this rules differ from case to case. there is no single criteria. there is no single principle except one. if i want something, you have derby, if you don't obey, you would be punished. the earlier survey lab roles made stops in egypt, uganda and the congo received a warm welcome that every location despite the u. s. earlier claiming that russia had been successfully isolated by western sanctions. a former nigerian presidential hopeful told us that the western concept of uno plenty is now crumbling and especially not in this love of clearly indicated to worship activity in africa. i'm calling to see how warm you want to see and you can see or so if the,

if you couldn't do it just would do rise of the most. i pull out all the we have seen very clearly, but this time to give us a level playing field so that we can also be in war to new global community and global appears with him. he's on my own capacities are members of local wages as opposed to being played with or what did you need of one rabbi. what do you do to do. ringback oh, here's one we must our quick as you can, you know the clearly from the level you've been very clear, but do what up as what have look at it by the way. you don't have to be in line with what you want. so why i believe you guys are bit moves that you will be pushing them then with an out to the latest news from ukraine. russia's defense ministry says it's high. precision weapons have kills 200 ukrainian

soldiers in the southern city. of nikolai of russian missiles are said to have targeted a concrete factory where keith's troops had set up a base. moscow also says it strikes have destroyed for ukrainian military command posts in the past 24 hours. and in the napa, petrov screven and arm stockpile was targeted and more than 100 rockets for western supplied, high mars launchers are said to have been destroyed as well with 120 ukranian troops. also, having been killed, meanwhile, and done boss, the multiple explosions have shaken the city of done yet the local authorities say ukrainian forces targeted residential areas there using nato supplied. heavy artillery. re civilians are said to have been killed and at least 3 others wounded. the cities infrastructure, also sustaining heavy damage that says russian lead forces continue to advance on

the ground and done boss with lugens authority saying the allied army has taken control of the key gorski power station in ask grounds, commercial se ukrainian forces mind the area before retreating and now will clean up operation is underway at the facility, which is in fact europe's largest thermal power plant. among the russian troops involved in the operation, our members of the wagner group, a private military company, and our cheese more. i gas d. f reports from that area where he got an exclusive look into the groups operations. ah, there were no sea fruit leading to where we were doing that again, the people we were visiting, specialize in forging parts where there are none. the factors who took this village, good enough where they go, there are many different names. they're known as the regular group. they're known as the orchestra wagner. just as the musician, very little is known about that,

but the name itself is one that keeps western politicians presidents, prime ministers, a general or a good night. we turn out something called the wagner. the e u has announced sanctions on the russian private military company van as the church of the wagner group, as we know at 1st to have popped up in ukraine to prudish defense ministry says more than a 1000 fighters from russian private military contractor. the wagner group are being deployed to the country. russian muscles donna is recruiting, and is making it known, and not just them give to his love to fear the world's most talked about. and enigmatic private military company.

with the whistling sound you heard was not an audio artifact. that was the sound of you pay the and plus come on rockets disgorging hundreds of band p. f. had one mines which characteristically flutter down to the ground. banned by the ottawa anti puzzled outline. could be, which is crane his party 2 weeks now. they have attempted to stall, or at least slow the orchestra's advance spike carpet form in the countryside with band butterfly mines and other things besides his supplies left behind by ukrainian troops. nationalists as they retreated from clean of oil. you may see this very thing. wire, careful, careful, back and over there,

something that shouldn't even be here, a man, 50 anti personnel non. what you can signed a convention policy. it would never use that. it would destroy what the ensemble sappers can remove, safely. they do what they can't, what they deem could be a trap. they blew who thomas said for a 150 seconds is going to be quite the by were food stamps. i these was a rare opportunity. could you please do not hugely take kindly to outsiders. they work alone, where they operate. cameras are almost always absent. keep the conditions that they work in, or a permanent health hazard. artillery and mortar jewels here are definitely and endless. had minutes to not pass without an impact nearby

or they go 120 kilometers more. that team florida ukrainian pacific thought to be thought, well before enemy counted battery 5 kicks in. g as has thrown everything it could spare at the ensemble gradient special force units. the nationalist battalion i've got at the elite 10 mounted assault brigade or a raid against them here, thousands of mines and avalon troops, shells and rockets. nothing's helps. the orchestra marches on, solid, secretive, and relentless to simply that whom he, they could hear what gasdio, haughty,

compl montoya, that he, it's people's republic and other news russians applying for e u visas should face a mandatory questionnaire on whether they support the military operation in ukraine . that's the proposal from keith's special envoy on sanctions who also says most russians share the responsibility for what's happening we insisted those russians who support this genocidal war and different polls show that over 80 percent of russians still support the war, they should not get access to the free world ukrainian authorities say filtering you visas for russians would encourage people to speak out against moscow's policies. the proposed questionnaire touches upon the support for military action, the feeling of responsibility for it, as well as the involvement of family members in the conflict. earlier ukraine unilaterally suspended it's visa, free agreement with russia, with key f saying it will fully scrap the deal by next year. russia says it has not

taken any tit for tat measures. so far. meanwhile, ukraine has published a blacklist of foreigners who support russia's position in the military conflict. this roster includes dozens of politicians, journalists, scientists, and service men from different states who have been labeled as pro russian propagandists, ukrainian state agency website that published the list also includes detailed information about every person they decided to signal out. but to get more on this now we're going to cross live to a panel of expert guests. we've got american journalist columnist and political commentator, bradley blankenship and the director of the trans national foundation for peace and research and future research. rather young oberg gentlemen. thanks a lot for joining us on the program here. i know you're both on this ukrainian blacklist, so i want to get basically your reaction to after being put on this list. let's start with you young. yes. when i,

i'm sorry that there are people in that relatively limited intellectual capacity was put me there though, at least looking quite bizarre to me out to people who you could not accuse of being pro, show or to to. so something like that. what i think we're living in a time in which most people cannot handle a full phone table, but think that everything is a 2 phone table. a good one is on the one side or bad ones. the other side, i happen as a researcher with some experience too. never having seen such a conflict. so i'm working with phone tables. there might be some good and bad sites on both sides and that makes a fall phone table. so i think it's in vain. it's part of the 2 wars that always fort, besides the land war, they would always be an information war. but i would wish to see it more intelligent than this. and bradley, what was your reaction, waking up one morning,

finding your name on the list? ukrainian list of russian propagandists. you know, it's funny then i didn't even know i was on the list until somebody on twitter added me and said, hey, this guys on the wednesdays specialists, i had no idea. and so i look at it and i have to say that i'm actually quite honored to be on this list. i mean, most of these people on here, i admired quite a lot, i mean, jeffrey sachs that we are the un developmental program. we have john merch hymer, who is the leading international relations scholar in the world. so i think it's quite a great list to be on and not really much to stay beside that. that was bradley. let's stick with you for now. why do you think the ukranian authorities made this list in the 1st place? what kind of message are they trying to send? do you think? well, of 1st i think that they're, they're kind of taking a book out of the playbook and a lot of what american liberals do,

do just accuse everyone they disagree with being a russian propaganda. of course, we see this all over democratic party, propaganda and liberal media in the united states. but i think another thing of course is what they're trying to do is, is, is to, you know, i like as far as the consequences for people like me. what is that? i mean, i can't go to ukraine. ok. big deal. but of course they're trying to give credence to ways to smear us outside around border. so of course, you know, if somebody wants to senior, my journalism or the statement that i make, they can just look at bill and he's listen, say, yeah, this guy's the russian propaganda dismiss everything that i have to stay out of hand. of course, while you're on this next question, i want to go to you. obviously, we know that the ukranian authorities have been cracking down on political opposition, opposition? news channels, but this is actually been going on even before the special military operation began . what do you think this says about key of attitude towards concepts like freedom of speech and democracy? well, it's, it's a complex issue because i don't know

a country anywhere in the world that does not try even in peacetime to prevent or redo his or resume it critical attitudes, analysis or journalism. particularly if you are attached to the mainstream media. i see it in sweden, i've seen it for years in denmark, i've seen in the united states and all these kinds of things get worse when you are in a war. what i, what strikes me is more that you have this careless and not truthful argument in the western world that you crying is a perfect democracy with all the criteria. i'm a demo democracy including free speech and free opposition parties. and all of

that is of you in the western world where people must know that that is not the perfect democracy with the freedoms that officially the western world are emphasizing and advocating and have been advocating over the world with bad results . and now becoming more and more authoritarian themselves. and so i regret that this is used as one of the arguments for supporting you crying. whereas i would argue, let support you crying. and of course, implicitly russia by working for a peaceful solution. that's what everybody in this conflict would benefit from. whereas what is going on now will be make everybody including the west loses it's very short sighted and the more you believe in your own propaganda, the more you were make was decisions. and that's where we are. and my view initial, which is very tragic and could have been avoided as no reason that the war today in

your crime. except the idea that your crime has only one way to go and that nato membership with a little bit of creativity, we could come up with lots of good things, models for the future, you crime, which would not have implied the terrible thing that we are seeing now, i'm very sorry to say that there's a lack of creativity and goodwill. while bradley this question, the next one goes to you, i want to ask a bit about the visas questionnaire proposal. why do you think both the e u and the ukraine are putting all the blame and responsibility on russian citizens? not, for example, politicians for what's happening in ukraine. i mean, is that how they want to handle issues like this in western countries? you know, i, i think that it's the case and a lot of the member states, particularly those that are former warsaw pact, members like to check public where i live or poland like you. and there's this sort

of historical enmity against russia in russian know. and it's that goes far beyond politics, and i think there's this kind of nationalistic racialist element to that. and i think this is the conflict. and ukraine is just a way for people to vent those frustrations that they're keeping in those deep sort of, you know, national a sentiments which are also, you know, we can see very active in places like ukraine. well, the ukrainians, who propose this special visa quiz, they say that the questionnaire will encourage russians to pressure the government to stop the conflict. how do you think that that will do so if at all, well, a won't. i mean, it's just really going to put people into a position where they know that their only option to get to be that they want to go to europe is to speak out against the government. whether not they support it or not. i think it's,

it's just hopelessly immoral to have this standard of collective responsibility on russian people. but for example, not americans. for example, the, i know the acquaintance of mine, the girl who's saying for the check or public this year at euro vision damica high school, is an american citizen. she was born in the united states. and before she got up there and thing her song, why didn't they after her opinion about the war in iraq, for example, the russians weren't allowed to perform and sure vision this year, of course, because of the conflicting grain. and it's just, it's just deeply immoral, hypocritical, double standard. and if we're going to, you know, ask russians to answer for the crimes, their government, whatever they might be. we need to have that for americans. of course, the, you know, the regime that's committed the most crimes of any government in the history of the human rights while yon, what do you think is the, you're going to adopt this policy of interrogating russians on their political views at the border. what do you think?

i have come to the conclusion that nothing is going to surprise me in the future. lots or what has already happened. has taken me by surprise. i would have said years ago. these can all be done by the western world or the you and it has, i agree with every things and particularly they were immoral. that was just said, i would like to add that i think the, the idea of you know, limited contact between people is the most stupid thing you can do. it applies also to, to the west's idea that we're not supposed to, to watch the media. we're sitting all at this moment, i mean with the right interpretation. and you can go to the, i think, 963 treaty on social and political rights. and according to that, it, every human being has

a right to freely seek information and form his or her own opinion about things that censorship of russia media is and it's a censorship. anyway, it's not just, this is a violation of human rights. secondly, you know, collective punishment which the west has done now. in response to the russian invasion in you, crime is a violation of international law. it is prohibited to do collective punishment of a whole paper by means of sanctions, or exclusion or cancelling or whatever it is this by raj. your no response is we cancelling brush from europe for years, but decades ahead with this what he said up in penny, you know, need your reaction. nobody has made any unless use of the consequences on short,

medium, a long term. we're just now seeing that this is backfiring on the west, but the basic thing is, this is not something you can punish a whole paper for what it's leadership dollars and particularly becomes besides, if the west that the same time has your opinion that russia is not a democracy you might say in a democracy that people are responsible because they voted for these. if you have any opinion that director is not a democracy, then it becomes even more bizarre to funny people who obviously do not have the democratic rights according to the same people who are punishing them. so i don't know where we going this, but we are eroding international law and principles of morals as was just said. and i regret that very much because that takes us further away from a peaceful solution. if there are no principle left in this world will end up with a nuclear war. alright, american journalist columnist and political commentator, bradley blankenship and the director of the trans national foundation for peace and

future research. yon oberg gentleman, thanks a lot for joining us on the program to discuss that. thank you. and now we go to some breaking news. what you're looking at right now on your screen, our live pictures from the iraqi capital of baghdad. now what we can see here are anti government protests that have store. the protesters have storms that heavily guarded green zone in the city center of baghdad and broken into the building of the iraqi parliament. the now according to media reports clashes between protesters and security forces are ongoing. the prime minister mustafah because amy has already called on the

protesters to withdraw from the green zone. immediately classes are organized by supporters of the opposition cleric move tato solder, and it is not yet known. if there are any casualties, we will keep you updated on this situation. as new information becomes available, and now to libya, where more than a dozen people have reportedly been killed and wounded in firefights between local militant groups in wild britain's envoy to the un has called on the warring sides in libya to restore oil production and exports. we urged libby an actors to refrain from the politicization of state institutions, including the national oil corporation. libyan people need to see the full resumption of oil production and the equitable distribution of the states oil wealth. now that statement you just heard was voiced at an international

meeting on the libyan crisis. the united nations itself is warning of a dangerous situation in the north african country. as civilians there are becoming increasingly caught in the crossfire. the overall situation in libya means highly volatile. with an increased number of clashes in and around tripoli, they can amik situation remains dire. in addition, the human rights situation in the country still remains of serious concern. clashes between rival militias have spilled over in recent weeks with reports a more than a dozen civilian deaths. this comes amid attempts by the united nations to push for an official national election. once again, as the country is still gripped in an economic crisis. the renewed fighting pits, those who support the government installed by the west, against those who support the libyan war. lord colleen, a half tar does my plans for elections back in december that never took place.

talks were held in geneva last month. however, the instability has continued leading to warn over resurgence of terrorism activity . that stands to have an impact beyond would be as borders. and the frustration is over more than just who will be the country as a nation's economy continues to face a massive energy crisis that has led some cities to enact power cuts for as long as 18 hours a day. that in turn has led to protest from desperate civilians. ah ah, sadly this is nothing new, violent clashes and libya has been ongoing since nato supported the legal overthrow of margaret dorothy and 2011. in addition to the thousands of people who have lost

their lives, in the aftermath, the un said in 2020, that the overall losses in the country were impossible to calculate with over 900000 people. still in need of humanitarian assistance. it's certainly a far cry from the freedom and democracy. former president obama claimed he was bringing to libya. all those years ago, were under no illusions libya will travel a long and winding road to full democracy. there will be difficult days ahead. but the united states, together with the international community, is committed to the libyan people. so if not for the benefit of the people who live there, then who has benefited from nato intervention in libya. so if not for the benefit of the people who live there then who has benefit from nato intervention new libya . well, it's no secret that the nation has the largest proven oil reserves in africa.