an arms race is offensive, very dramatic development. only personally and getting to resist. i don't see how that strategy will be successfully, very critical of time. time to sit down and talk a crack dog on senior clergy. president zalinski wage is a crusade against russian orthodox religious institutions with moscow. peruse declares a state of emergency after 2 testers dying in clashes with the cards demand immediate elections in the nation on washington, they said to host african leaders for a wide ranging summit. despite reluctance to the u. s. agenda of kind of bring

running thing russian partnerships with nations on the call to them with 6 am and about 8 pm in tokyo and 2 in the afternoon right here in moscow. this tuesday, december, the 13th. welcome to the news our on our taker. we begin and don't boss where local officials say 5 civilians have been killed on 5 wounded following ukrainian artillery attacks on the city of done yet st. authority say key air force is conducted dozens of similar attacks, right? the republic in the past 24 hours, including targeting residential areas, homes and stores were left badly damaged on the clinic and the regional capital took a direct hit. but it comes, he of continues to cracked on,

on religious figures deemed to be connected with russia. authorities have ordered punitive measures against several senior clergymen, as dozens of orthodox christian sites are rated throughout the country. ortiz eager shut down of how's the story? russia the ultimate red rag for ukraine. since the start of the war, key of authorities have been spinning the witch hunt against anything russian. they arrested politicians. they detained oligarchs. no one was immune and nothing is sacred. now. president zalinski has imposed sanctions against 7 clergymen of the ukrainian orthodox church. but what sin did all these people of faith commit against ukraine will after the fall of the soviet union, the church remained under the authority of the moscow patriarchy, but come to war, the euro seeds announced and divorced russia. the church scrubbed,

all mention of moscow from its statute in hope of atoning. but for key of that was not enough to grant absolution when you call it any global net. those of all, we will never allow anyone to build an empire inside the ukranian soul. all body is responsible for ensuring national security must intensify measures to identify and counter the subversive activities of rush and special services in the religious environment of ukraine and apply personal sanctions. the surnames will be made public soon, for the 7 clerks in question sanctions means they will have their assets frozen. they are banned from land ownership and essentially restricted from traveling outside the country. and this is just the tip of the persecution, iceberg. hundreds of religious buildings, including some of the most sacred ones, have been rated by ukraine security services. and more than 800 people have been investigated. agents even crashed the funeral over ukrainian soldier,

leaving the devastated mother to beg to leave them in peace. your pursuing gave them a message where it was been let us go on their way. a such an approach by the authorities has inspired vigilante groups to hope on this bandwagon to hear a group of ukrainian nationalists stormed a church in an attempt to have believers swapped prayers and sermons for singing. the national anthem, a you with a

fear that the zalinski government is essentially paving the way towards the total ban of the ukrainian orthodox church, have prompted moscow to condemn this as intimidation. the ukrainian government has been at war with the russian orthodox church for a long time. i would say that this should be considered as another link in the chain of these military actions against the russian orthodoxy. and so far this is the only official voice of condemnation in this anti church choir. which leaves key of with a very clear understanding that it has a total carte blanche over this. a makers done of reporting from the don't boss r t less eager underline their western countries have failed to condemn the persecution, including in italy where media have also been accused of continuing a policy long favored by the west. miss labeling ukrainian attacks in don boss has been committed by russia's military. we heard from an italian journalist who's been

working in done yet. he had harsh criticism for the work of some of his compatriots dogma. there is a problem that the tele media uses videos from ukraine out of context. ordinary people can not understand what the image is shown to them relate to for example, a few days ago, a program when a state news channel featured a video clearly show in the dropping off ukrainian bombs on the central market and donnette. but the journalist was talking about russian strikes on ukrainian territory. at that moment, the general public believed that they were watching footage of the bombing, a few quail and nuggets harry to have done asked. personally, i don't know exactly where are we telling media take such videos from because they, i mean western and he telling reporters they don't ask for information from us. they don't ask for the videos we have. and at the same time, no one says that ukraine is forming the central marketing done ask, you will not find a single mention of decent formation. it seems like the activities of all these

news outlets are coordinated in the same way. the public in italy does not see a clear position of the russian federation in beast war the only see the interests of ukraine in italy as in other european countries. we have a lack of alternative media. the only sources of information, especially if we talk about what's presented to the general public. these are western sources. these are nature media. since all russian channels for one reason or another are unavailable. what does the italian and in general, all the western media say over and over again in the event of strikes and positions in the territories where the peaceful population of dom boss leaps, they claim that only the russians attack these phrase is repeated constantly. at the same time, if someone accidentally mentioned similar episodes of ukraine in attacks, every one admittedly accepts the position of ukraine, entrust to justify themselves by stating that only russians attack those cities specifically to attract attention, which obviously is completely absurd. while for an all,

ryan view on the latest developments in the ukraine conflict and issues wider feel too. i am delighted to be joined by former austrian foreign minister. karen, can i sell in the suit car? it's a pleasure to have you here. hope you're well, thank you. thank you very much for the invitation. good to talk to you. can i start with something that i think is interesting? quite a lot of people this past week development. during a recent and few former german chancellor, anglo merkel said that the minsk ceasefire agreements brokered by berlin and paris was an attempt to give key of time to strengthen the military. it's a stunning admission that if, if true, isn't it? yes, definitely. because ah, it's fern, it's the southern destruction of diplomacy. yeah, there was a lot of trust put into this procedure, mens goes all about the procedure. and so we treated the minsk agreement in our talk. so whenever we, we,

we discussed the situation in eastern ukraine. it was like a hit twice in our like in a religious service, sir your he repeats up phrases instead of fairly checking on the crowd. what is really happening? yes, of course. there was the always see monitoring mission. but there was, i would say to little questioning to little checking and, and, and not enough firm. i'm following the procedures. so if chancellor marker has now to certain extent we wield well, it was all about giving time, ukraine. this is a big blow to diploma fear such, well this is the point that moscow has been making for some years that why aren't the min screw agreements? why aren't it being adhered to and followed through because it took some time 201420152 hammer the might. so was russia right? all along in that it was being it was being stopped or halted. why is it difficult

to put church here any action? because um, again i would say minsk was about a pre major. it was about implementation and this implementation has not really been are followed up. so this, this, this was the fundamental problem. and i remember very clearly in our talks with the always c, e, it was a really, that's such a kind of, of only repetitive are pointing out to where this and that has to be done, but are very little questioning of it. exactly. and there should have been a more serious approach, not just outsourcing it to are some monitoring officials, but really are taking it to the heart and, and think we have to understand our dell and the problems that moscow sees in the implementation that not enough is happening that there was no reporting whatsoever on what was the situation on the ground in houston, ukraine earth saw it. it seemed like a far away conflict in

a distant country and on everybody was busy with was other issues very little reporting as well. by the way, on what chancellor former chancellor merkel at said this week in the west is not really getting any traction among media outlets. cut european elites, be afraid to take responsibility for, for what followed meant a yes. and also we have to bear in mind and those officials where in office, back in 2014, when mince got was one, was negotiated and put into action. what they're gone. i mean, it was in front of us president or launch in, in the u. k. it was cameron in germany, it was char, it was and it was market. so i people, we, we have seen a huge rotation in people in office and was dam cabinets going high officials coming and going. and there is no continuity. there was not enough continuity in

really understanding what bins should be and is this, this is that failure. thought you are questions about responsibility. the people who started it are not anymore in office. i think what's also very at good to highlight here is that you mentioned france and germany, the guarantor is in minsk the point of men's cost to bring around a permanent ceasefire and hopefully peace after that. but now you've got france and germany sending weapons the are among the country, sending weapons to ukraine. that's where a lot of the frustration i think lies with russia as well. because this is coming out. what could have been peace is now led to more and more weapons in the ukraine conflict by the same countries. exactly, and it, sir, i mean, this whole weapon delivery on, we dead there is there a whole region which is in the heart of europe are turning into

a huge weapon market also, where we don't know where the weapons going day in the final run. and um, what is sir? what is more stir? regrettable is the overall atmosphere. you know, that people who still 2 years ago would have rejected any kind of a patch at for, for, for the army. are now very fond of war monitoring. and it's the true pandemic hits, i see, is the, to pandemic of stupidity the pandemic of ignorance. and especially in the germans speaking world, austria, germany are certain parts of switzerland. we have o n, and it's use yes and for war, which is the frightening because whoever knows, war hates war. and where i'm coming to living, for instance, in lebanon, people have been going through war for decades. and they are just wondering,

but what makes the germans, what makes the europeans act? i mean, are they really pushing towards of war or are they really interested in, or that their own economic i problems there and a, so dis, this war monitoring this entire mentality, that unfortunately is right now this is, is most work article just before we go on to other issues, can i pick up something you mentioned there, the weapons being sent to ukraine. some of them are ending up, or there's an allegation there ending up in the hands of, of terrorist gangs as far away as, as africa. and in europe to how much concern do you have for that? because of the sheer amount of weapons being sent, you were talking about billions of dollars worth. how concerned are you for the security of your it's a big issue and it's on the one hand, it's this weapon market which i know the from the middle east a little bit i could see in 9090 when the war and 11 on officially stopped at the

weapon market moved to us levia, which will sense that existing. i mean, it was really like, why are the mediterranean things shipped and the new focus was then the breakdown of yugoslavia. but it's not only the weapons such, it's the mindset. it's the mercenaries. it's the the foreign fighters. because we also saw from various conflicts, whether it was the breakdown of was navea, whether it was a separate was in the middle east, the return of those fighters. and we, we see, and this is absolutely a mind blowing. what is happening, the government officials, i remember vanish. prime minister, even encouraging danesh citizens to go for ukraine and to fight there. now, people who are in such situations of, of war experience maybe even were things like torturing other combatants. i mean, this is nothing new. we have always seen that when they come back,

they can cause problems also back home. this has been the, the problem with viet, with us veterans coming back from vietnam into seventy's in terms of violence. so i think it's the weapon, read one thing and all the, all those foreign fighters with your passport, skilled foreign fighters who want to share their expertise at another aspect to if i may touch upon the e use foreign policy chief announced that the 9th sanctions of sanctions package against russia is not ready yet. the media reporting the hungry is the one actually blocking approval of that one has to ask after so many runs or the sanctions actually ended up hurting europe more than rush it. because if it was the opposite, you think that i'm stop by now because it's affecting russia so much, it doesn't appear to be why when you take sanctions in general, a sanctions have never really in history. in the recent history succeeded. i mean,

the only air force, south africa finances, depart apartheid regime in south africa, decades and decades. and then in the and it was never less that very political situation that changed. but sanctions, as such, i've always been very, very doubtful about sanctioning. and also we have to bear in mind the sanctions i always kept saying are decided by civil service and pull it politicians of course. but the civil servants prepare it both received our 12th monthly salaries a year that they are not employers. they dont have to make accompany work and it's the economy. it's the medium small sized companies that have to implement that have to live with them. and now in the case of the current sanction regime, the worst that has ever existed, worse than what has been going on against iran or north korea or with a huge country that a switch and commodities. of course, the impact is, is worse than, than, than in all the previous situations. and yes,

i'm in bear. then there are consequences that everybody is feeling whether it's the uncertainty and in on, on the price levels for commodities. but above all, i would see it's the uncertainty as such because or who is now ready to in west toys, ready to recruit employees for, for projects whatsoever. everybody is sir, waiting a reluctant to, to, to go for something because sir, there, that is the situation simply is, is impossible to be touched. the predicted mr. nervousness really, the new sanctions package is reportedly going to tear game at, at russian media abroad, including r d as well. considering the e. u. states that freedom of speech is, is so vital when it comes to, to media and a not spreading negative propaganda. one has to ask,

how does that fit in with brussels moves? is the freedom of speech ah, which share? if we go back a little bit in history and 19th century order revolutions from 1848, to all day, middle class uprisings that we have seen while the wanted laws about certain freedoms. and that's where obtains through a, through uprisings. and a lot of that is right now being lost and it's censorship, it self censorship. am i still allowed to say something critical or what is the reaction in my immediate environment? big family be it's at the office and earn the saw. i am currently writing a book from which the mercantile is required for europe to come to europe. i grew up and the europe i have always been grateful for, has ceased to exist. the freedom of speech are there that,

that the rule of fly in the sense that lists to replace loss and that you have a and a decline in, in this, sir. um, what freedom of the individual that, that you, that, you know, you can see anything and, and nothing will happen to you as long as your, your, your, your, your, your main, it, the rows of, of, of, of, of the law. but something fundamentally has changed, and so therefore, and i had, i keep saying, also then al serra countries in the middle east though, whether we have more freedom of speech, whether it's in turkey, turkey, or whether it's an lebanon, whether it's in, in, in other, middle eastern countries i can, i can have access to any kind of tv channel. i can watch r t. i can watch any or your e, your channel. and i can't say at the university. anything. why was things that have become more problematic or in certain you environments where you will be blacklist?

3rd, where you're not anymore allowed to teach and universities where you're not any more in white it though you are even kicked out off of charity organizations because you do happen to be on the wrong side of history. so sir, it's quite a cumbersome and it's a saddening situation. that's a fascinating explanation. freedom of speech, as long as it's her freedom of speech, it seems that b as long as you agree with what we're saying. and another aspect, if i may, car in the international energy agency announced that the you could face a gas shortfall and we're talking about billions of a cubic meters and 2023. if russia was to cut the small at share of gas, that is right. no delivering to europe, exit has lessened. of course, how do you or how fast you think they could make a transition to to new providers were in the middle of winter, but people already worrying about next winter, 2023 watts ahead. will russia suffer economically from the you are attempting to

look for other and suppliers? what so to replace russian gas as such? it will had been stated by many our analysts companies. beginning of this year it takes around 5 years. ah, european governments dispatched to their officials, inter alia to katara, which is the number one when it comes to ellen. she cut her already in the 19 ninety's invested the latin ellen she cut has the biggest fleet. now when you take the specially example of cut off county hosting out there, the world cup, and there's a lot of accusation going on against cut i, instead of being fair and, and at let's the families of sport all the rule in, into relations. there are plus now we have for this resent developments with sir ah, the allegations that the money from some golf state, some claim it's katara went in, saw european now parliament and so forth for private. so the relation was kept,

i is becoming a tightrope, walk and a capital was kind of lender of last resort in terms of oh, offering may be alan she and not only alan she, it's not only about where you can buy your gas williams. it also has to be taken into account how we did transport your gas volumes, because you need special rifles and these ships are not around the corner. they are built in certain shipyards and is shipyards fine. south korea, they are in china more and more. they are all in the middle east, but you know, it's not only about buying that volume. it's also about, are transporting it out to your destination. and her so replacing pipeline delivered gas which incoming much larger williams at a lower price in a different quality of competition. or is, is if it's quite a tough story and or a thought replacing death gas wire. it's katara or a some some,

some other places becomes difficult because kata is a chest described as her best as there a blurred atmosphere to say the least ellen she produces in north america have said over the last half year, we cannot replace russian gas to the extent to europeans need it, and the other alternatives are fine since would have been libya, if of france and the u. k, had not a bombed to libya into ruins. back in 2011. it would be a very easy and, and, and, and close by contact that i cheerier also to the southern mediterranean that i'd sure you even saw it, signed a huge contract. italy has already stated, sorry, but we can only deliver. i think about 15 percent of what we had initially thought for whatever technical problems the french were too late to conclude, the contract with cell with idea. so the choice is not that huge, and it's fascinating to see how global politics is moving. you've got america going

to saudi making overtures that venezuela looking for energy it's, it's fascinating how previous enemies, if i can use that word, are now becoming friendly, almost or, or at least they're, they're putting the cap in hand to try and get help. you mentioned could tar saudi arabia as well. they've become prominent clears on the world stage, particularly of late recently, they've also made it clear that they're not going to follow the western agenda. they're going to look after their priorities. first. is this a significant step towards a truly multi polar world, either it deaf that is a significant step. i've attended dozens of opec meetings in vienna over the last 25 years. and usually there were phone calls coming from washington to one of their friends via opic members, such as saudi arabia. please. we would like to have does that happen when it comes to the quota? and usually the complied by default course that was non la leche. i mean,

it was not the secret and the things are changing definitely. ah, if i may use them a tougher off the phone when washington is calling out and nobody picks up the phone in saudi arabia. ah, for certain requests are so things are changing and the reason was it of president she, she being is also very much revealing because ah, what we see is a change i would say in a, in a larger notion i, i also wrote it twice in an article for r t. s, you know that you and terminology for the middle east is west asia and it's part of duration continent. it's west asia. we usually could speak of middle east in english because from a london perspective. one 3rd, there was the british empire. it was middle east from a continental europe perspective. it was near east because boshoway are, i did it. it seemed closer. but now it's changing. and there's a new, a self assertiveness, sir. as like not picking up the form that knocks aunt and looking for other

partners and also um u haul rice and in in many, in many ways it, sir. oh and it has been accelerated. the most fascinating you mention there, i would submit is possibly china and saudi arabia, not all was the best relations in the past, but no, that's escalating. we've had cheating. paying speaking to the saudi prince deals being don and everything from security to oil. how could this alliance, how could that effect? yes, so the u. s. middle east relations and also just to throw into that, what would russia be affected to hawaii? oh, there is. so it took just of all at $11.00 a remark on, on china, and saw the reba for the audience. these 2 countries didn't have any diplomatic rise until the early ninety's. why? because you have to communist people's republic of china on to one. and after this,

and you have to see across c o a highly islamic countryside uribe on the other side . so the all the established ties about 30 years ago and was in this 30 years, the trade volume has increased dramatically. a failure reader and many other countries are heavily depend on weaponry, weapon imports from the united states, or we'll see how that might change, but in the arab world, by and large. and now, cuz speaking of russia, there are several reasons. his developments that are not forgotten, one is the way the united states dropped. president mubarak of egypt back in 2011 during de the arab rewards. stan mubarak was the number one ally of the united states and he was just dropped like a hot potato. and that came as a shock to the sold as it came, although shocked with the israelis. because said that that was like a kind of sign it can happen to anybody of us. and all the way it comes now toward

tool. it's all the price ceiling oil price cap today. it's russia, the more it can be, another country so. so there's a kind of a moron. well aligned together. and this means that there's a certain understanding from both arab countries for russia. there's also, i would say, when it comes to all middle eastern politics foreign large, she has been observing over the last 10 years already at turning towards russia, take presidency still take the current, it took to an establishment of egypt. they are turning towards russia when we take her to key at turkey, a very important country into middle easter. it so it resists all the pressure from the european union ants and the u as not to do business with, with the, with russia. so these countries are working on their own agendas, which is a m,

which is legitimate in a kind of just turn the conversation to a human level carn. if i may, the, the conflict in ukraine it's, it has spurred among other things and a wave of hate vitriol against russians abroad at russian culture as well. there, there's been almost a, a conviction to cancel russian culture as if that could possibly be be dawn and, you know, is this a period it's been pushed on by the media as well? i would submit. is this a period that the media and others are going to look back on shamefully? or is it the? is this the new reality? is this what it's going to be like going forward, or is this a stitch in time? that's going to change very difficult to say for some from a rational perspective who remember in early years of 20th century, it's kind of dish of who it's happened already. once in a because or from a historical perspective. you can also say.