we choose to look for common ground in the violation of freedom of speech on the rights of journalists for russia. foreign ministry calls the detention of the chief editor of nicholas devaney, a news agency by far as he can last on, alleged the espionage sanctioned breach charges with iran summons the french ambassador recon cartoons depicting the islamic countries supreme leader. and what is called quote insulting. i didn't see the way the intelligence is flying on russian forces on behalf that's according to lease documents, published by the great news outlets. we hear from the all of the report that was also a higher risk to be the people i know you said racial has been the

very welcome you were of your tuning and from it's just 10 to 9 pm here in moscow. and this is the international with the latest news. good, happy with the editor in chief on the left. the waning and branch of the sputnik news agency has been detained in the latvian capital, riga, mariah cason, who, jose latvian passport is reportedly being accused of espionage and the violation of sanctions against russian. moscow has brown that the journalists arrest a violation of international law. morocco sam says he has been the object of harassment and passing fusion, my number of baltic states for many years. he said that he personally experienced the repressive machine and the actions of the collective west. and now unfortunately, his fears and assumptions have become a reality. the international community should,

and it's even obligated to do everything to make these presumptions. regimes returned to the rule of law, the head office that next parents company has called the journalists arrest, unlawful and absurd dimitria, k silly of or says that the case is politically motivated. i discussed this earlier in a studio with ortiz at senior correspondent, mike garcia. we have filed requests for information. it is unclear when ah, details will emerge will be shared with us nevertheless, as things stand. now merits casem, a citizen of latvia who's been detained by latvian security services, state security services, suspected he is under suspicion of espionage and also, ah, of violating. and he, russian sanctions of the european union. this is, this is an argument violating sanctions that the latvians have used,

and lithuanians and estonians have used for years to try and justify these blanket brands on russia, news sources, russian cultural channels. at this point, he is in jail, detained at the request for bail was denied without any reason, given his lawyer hasn't yet received any information. we don't even know if she's been able to talk with him. we have heard of cas reaction from the head of sputnik me think he should of he is on the european sacks of the, the logic that the europeans have gone by. the baltic states have gone by is that if someone works, even a european citizen works for someone who's under sanctions, no matter how removed, you know, a journalist in a niche organization that they are violating the entire blocks sanctions. this is something that had been laughed at in years bribe by european media groups amongst

others who would urge stony ins, latvians, lithuanians started to relax, their wording, ooh, their views, and how this law should be implemented while the law should be implemented. there's a sense that the baltic states, there's be the concentrated effort to block the population of from anything russian which is year, which is an undertaking given that's a significant percentage of the population. no 3 states, latvia, sonia and the 3 near is russian. how do you think this case fits into the bigger picture of how the both 2nd or the east countries have been treating the media? this goes back way before the special military operation that russia launched in 2022. this. this goes back to 2015 at which is when this, this pressure started to build in 2016. for example, lithuania blocked. sputnik locked the channel,

the network on line that they pulled their domain names after that that the, the pressure just began to build and build. so, employees journalists were, were threatened with prosecution. they were also persecuted, so they were pulled out. they were, they were arrested, taken for talks by our state security agents urged her her follow inside their resignations to stop working for sputnik then you had people arrested. you had journalists arrested for working for russian news networks. this is all in the face of a fact that the european and human rights charter, least the freedom of expression. and the freedom of expression is defined. it is the freedom to hold beliefs, to share opinions and to receive opinions. and this is a journalist who had been doing just that. he was also working in moscow for years now. he travelled back to latvia to, to

a to meet with families of reasons we don't yet know at, despite him being well aware, the day he was being politically persecuted, that the they were out for him is able to finish his lit. it would take me several hours to simply name all the journalists of come under pressure in eastern europe. here is just one of my own stories in brief. so back in 2019, i was detained at villainous airport, searched and questioned for 5 or 6 hours to state security officers performed a role play of good cop bad cop. the bad one shouted at me, you're working for tittles. why did you come here? the other one asked me, you're a latvian citizen, so why are you working for them? you know who they are, they're not really, people rushes, a peculiar country. finally, he said, you're lucky, you're not a russian citizen, or we would be having a very different conversation. and now we'll just kick you out and close the border for you for 5 years. a month it appears that he was right. nevertheless,

we should wait to, to learn the details and see just how drummed up these charges. ah, now we're seeing the same story in moldova, for example, across the european union arch, he was switched off of a not kicked off online platforms. you, you know, the already parallels being drawn between what the soviet union did, which is jam radio, liberty as signal which is, which is try to build a wall between the soviet people. and then he outside information. and that is what in reverse is happening again, except it appears that it's europe, which has for many years prided itself and vote on freedom of speech and human rights. now trying to restrict information human opinion, even opinion you've from its own people to keep them all contained within this

bubbles that is fed by european news agency. again, fed with americans, news agencies improve western views. let's go live now to glendale and politics and international relations professor at the university of south east and norway. many thanks for joining us on the program. it's great to see you this evening. now, about this case, work to all the journalist, of course, involves carrying out various investigations and now mart, cuz same has been detained on a ledge that's been os charges. what do you make of these accusations that are journalists supposed to be protected by international law is all correspond to the said well yes, obviously. so i think that, well, obviously the details of the case is not quite clear yet. so this accusation of espionage can very easily be completed with any basic work a journalist would do. so it is a dangerous part to go down to the tourist journalist for ask and i would like to

see the details of this. but that being said, i think that this appears to be another step in the decline of the freedom of speech. keep in mind that during the cold war, people here in the west, we knew moscow's positions. we use arguments because we were allowed to know about these days. we don't know, nobody knows the us media has been completely uncertain as shut down. and now of course, with the journal of journalists, the rest of this is quite extreme. but i thought the 1st instance we've had, the blogger is from the u. k to germany was the local or foreign either being deported. busy or stripped a very basic rights in poland. i think now someone arrested because they have had expressed support for russia. i mean it's, it's quite extreme. i'd like to remind your audience that back in the day when

united states invaded the rock, some people were for some or against you have different opinions being aired in the media. but this is all gone. if you we shut down all the russian media. no one dares to represent even even explain what the russian position is, because you could immediately be accused of legitimizing the rational decision. and then you would find yourself in a sea of trouble. so for this reason, you know, we don't know the russian position and our own media, we're not even discussing how this conflict again, no 11 there is to speak about negotiations or peace, negotiation to become a lot worse. so it's very dangerous path. i think we're on terms of freedom of speech, which in my opinion at least has been collapsing. well, the u. s. tried to justify the recent cracked media outlets. they carry alternative views like c and of course, but by claiming that they split this information. does it really look like this is

really all about fighting, so called propaganda is about something else. left argument, why, why are we now ignoring the freedom of speech and protection of journalists? and we say, well, the higher goal has to be defined, rational propaganda. but you know, i remember back in 932, russell bertram, he wrote that the best way to fight propaganda is to get both positions out. have an open debate air both positions and he warned very fiercely against claiming to 5 propaganda, 3 censorship. this on its own is a tool propaganda. you're accusing the opponent of spreading propaganda and under the guise of fighting propaganda. you impose full censorship and narrative control . so this is nothing to do about fighting propaganda. if you want to fight, if you see, if i trust propaganda, ok, let, let russia percentage argument and then you do the counter argument. explain what are the weaknesses in that argument if there are in the but we don't have that now

we have censorship and propaganda is now the excuse to do so. what do you make of the timing of customs arrests can be read into it is all sir. it's hard to say from my impression i also the impression that he was here. he went home but he was sorry, he went to mafia for family reasons. so it did look to coincidental that he would go to the baltics at this point in time. but this is obviously, well, in my opinion, this has been something escalating over time. this crack down on not just russian media about the opposition media with in the west as well. and what do you think the supposedly democratic west has been turning a blind eye to mark has so many claims that he's being subjected to harassment and

persecution by a number of baltic states? well again, i think this new goal of fighting russia and you know, militarily, economically and in the information is fer, it effectively has downgraded the protection freedom of speech. unfortunately, this is something that all societies undergo when they're at war or in conflict. there's more demand or conformity. so, and if you will be punished, much harder is why democracy tends to suffer greatly under conflict on the war. so it's, it simply is not a high priority anymore. as the western governments believe that fighting russia has to be the top priority. and i, i do also think that there's a lot of nervousness these days because we've seen a lot of protests from, especially from france to germany. a lot of people have been expressing

a lot of dissent, unhappiness with the not necessarily supporting russia side, but thing, listen, we have done a lot to contribute to this conflict, as well as merely for more and more weapon into this is it has, this is really have anything to do with freedom or democracy are really helping ukraine with any of this, or is merely exploiting or using using the ukrainians and approximate or so there's a huge, a lot of protest this, this and there's a lot of defense. so so i guess the, the push for conformity only increases in such an environment. plan, decent politics and international relations professor at the university of south eastern norway. many thanks for your time. really appreciate your inside your thoughts on the matter. thank you. my pleasure. the iran is outraged by recent cartoon depictions of the country supreme leader in french

magazine, surely had paris has remained silent on the motto. while the romans foreign minister slammed the pictures as highly offensive and as summoned. it's french and boy. the insulting and indecent act of a french publication, publishing, cartoons, opposing religious and political authority will not be left without a decisive and effective response. we will not allow the french government to cross the line. it is definitely chosen the wrong path. so it is a contest launched by infamous frank satirical magazine, shaheer do that is sparked a diplomatic incident now between france and iran. the french ambassador to iran has been summoned and iran has announced that its ending the activities of the french institute for research in iran, quote, as a 1st step. this is a french cultural, historical, and archaeological institute that's based in tehran, that's part of the cultural wing of the french embassy. now the magazine itself has already been sanctioned by iran on december 12th, as part of

a list of entities accused of founding the protest. flames in iran were talking about the anti, he's our protest that has been ongoing. the position of the french president, emanuel mac hall and his government towards shortly ado, cartoons in general, has always been to defend them as free speech. michael was particularly vocal about that in october 2020. when school teacher samuel patty was murdered in the wake of having shown the shock viejo cartoons that sparked the 2015 headquarters shootings to his class as part of a lesson. and on thursday, french foreign minister, kathleen could. busy now, double down on that position saying quote, let's remember that in france, press freedom exists. sure, unless you count all of the sweeping and unqualified censorship, imposed on russian media outlets. amid the ukraine conflict by the e. u. across all 27 member countries, including france, in that case,

the french government has nothing at all to say in defense of press freedom. last month, shaheen doke called for submissions of caricatures of iran, supreme leader, writing on the magazines website that quote, cartoonists and caricature wrists must support iranians who are fighting for their freedom and quote, make sure that ali come in ne, is the last supreme leader, the iranians have to suffer. the statement is an obvious reference to the unrest in the country related to the ongoing anti kesha protests. now, the submissions to the magazine, it's contest, hashtags. mullahs get out. have just hit french new stands and it comes the very same week of the anniversary of the attacks on the magazines, paris headquarters on january 7th, 2015, during which the publications employees were targeted in a shooting by 2 gunman who self identified as members of al qaeda and whose motive

was found to have been the publications of cartoons of the prophet mohammed. now, that incident resulted in 12 deaths, murders, and 11 other people being injured. so all this has escalated now rather quickly with this new incident between iran in france the british office for national statistics has refilled more than 700000 people across england and wales lack central. he saying, well advocating for anti russian sanctions. the u. k. now faces the possible deaths of thousands of citizens this winter due to the cold. according to figures, over 360000 households may be quite literally left in the cold with those age, 65 and above with chronic health conditions, making up 10 percent of those without central heating. national charities won't have an increase in the already $10000.00 preventable deaths related to cold homes each year. back in march, the u. k announced the country is going to phase out russian oil and liquefied

natural gas. 3 months lisa imports of energy supplies from russia, dried up for the 1st time in his modern history and 12 months prior to imposing sanctions on moscow, britain spent nearly 500000000 pounds on russian field in port. let's go live now to alexander k political analyst on that. it's a red star radio many thanks for joining us on the program this evening. it's nice to see you now, alex on there. it's no secret. the government has struggled to provide heating to its citizens. why then make such a bold move which has its own people more than any effect from the sanctions on russia? well, because nickie this is about a the overall priority for the british government. and the overall priority is to try and leverage the situation that is going on at the moment in ukraine and try and turn it into a regime change possibility directed against the government in moscow. and asked

that priority of their over writing, piracy, the welfare of the regular people, the everyday people have written doesn't even come 2nd behind that. and it was the case long before the current stage of the war in ukraine and the current round of sanctions that the welfare of the bulk of the population was not really important to the british government. the one that is made up of the tory party or the conservative party. their priority is the defense of the tiny wealthy minority at the top of the country and the pursuit of the aims of the british government and its aggressive overseas policy. so defending the markets that it has dominated for many years overseas and preventing any rivals to the american british alliance reemerging. and that includes russia and as the prime minister richie soon act has outlined recently that includes china as well. so these people at the top,

they really do not care in the slightest what the fate of the average britain is for all their talk about britain and pride in the nation. and st. brolly round the flag moments and things like that. the actual people of britain on simply not their priority at all. and i would argue they never really happened to get a sense of it, in which ways the sanctions effect has affected the already diet situation in the u . k. well, we've seen, of course sir. energy prices go through the roof over the last 12 months, and we've seen more more people fall into what's defined as fuel related poverty here, like the, the inability to pay their bills. and the sanctions regime that the british government, under both parish, johnson danbury, she soon ack in, and in the brief reign of least less trust as enthusiastically supported measures against russian energy which have only added to the rise in the price of energy for domestic consumers. in this country,

so they have actively made life worse for particularly though is that the, the lower end of the income scale in britain and the sanctions regime, which they continue to support, will only cause more instability. and more price rises on the, in the international energy market as time goes on. and of course, even when prices do go down again on the international market, that cost saving is not passed on to the ordinary consumer in britain. so every way you can look at this problem, this situation, the british government has pursued a. busy policy with regard to the sanctions on russia that is actively made life worse for its own citizens. and for all the denials that richie sumac and kissed armor would engage in that this policy hasn't hurt people in britain, it manifestly has, it has made an unstable situation. even worse, and how people feel a how about but as citizens are they ready to pay the ultimate price to support the

you train agenda. no, they are. i don't think that most people, most ordinary people, if you went out in manchester where i am or any of the major urban areas, nasa regular people in britain, are you prepared to pay higher energy bills in perpetuity to support ukraine? they would say no. and the only people who would say, yes, wealthy people who don't notice when the energy bills go up. and that is a trend which you notice both in britain in the united states. the more wealthy somebody is, who's responding to a poll on this question, the more likely they are to enthusiastically to support the war and ukraine on regime change in russia. the less money they have, the more likely they are to want the whole thing to come to an end and not likely support it. so this is a very much a class division going on here. and i would further add to that nikki, the we in britain have a situation where 30 percent of all children in britain today already are

classified by the government's own statistical measurements as living in poverty. 22 percent of the whole entire population lives in poverty. even people who have a better amounts of money, a better income, laboring under over trillion pounds, with a personal debt, most of which is in the form of mortgages. so we're a nation that is supposedly very rich. but in actuality, over a 5th of the population, living in poverty, a 3rd of all children living in poverty and the rest of the population of them, the riches laboring under huge amounts of debt. so britain is a land where a small amount of people absorb a gigantic amounts of wealth and everybody else is indebted or increasingly poor. and that is the reality of life in britain today. of course, we are in the middle of one of the biggest straight waves, you know, for 40 years. so i'd say the mood of the british population is pretty antagonistic towards the government headed by re sooner. statistics also show that you has

a far greater excess winter mortality and comparison so much colder european countries. what do you think bath is? oh, partly it's because of course people can afford to pay the aging bill, so don't heat the homes properly in the winter. some of that is down to what you mentioned earlier, which is that a lot of houses in the, in britain are simply not connected to the national grid. they don't have central eating. and those, those, the major causes it's poverty and lack of access to actual fuel that is causing this. and the poverty rates in britain just to return to that for a moment. it's not only is it, it has it got worse in recent years. it's back now to where it was nearly $990.00 just after the period of margaret faxes premier ship. so there are increasingly now increasing numbers of poor and poorer people in this country. which years and years of government saying that they are committed to helping the poorest in society.

while the sophistic show just isn't true. and it's not only the elderly and the sick who are falling into this trap of fuel based poverty. it's people of working age people with families, people who have jobs, who are supposed to be able to pay the bills and for things by working well their wages just don't cover anymore. and that is again, that is a damning indictment of all the major political parties in britain who have been in power over the last 30 years. who failed to do anything about any of these major problems and whose policies only made them was i thought mackay political analyst and red star radio. many thanks for joining us on the program this evening. really appreciate your time. thank you. thank you. so being president, alexander charles law started e u leaders over there, relentless pressure to join in on t washing sanctions. he added that he's not the type of leader who could be tame. they say that i have to impose sanctions on russia. well,

thank you very much. for meddling in our affairs, and when they talk about taming rudeness, i've never seen a wolf in a circus. sophia has repeatedly refused to add to anti russian sanctions. it is saying that it has no intention of supporting such measures as long as vital and existential interests are not threatened. this attitude prevents increasing suggestions from a you states that serbia membership it should be suspended until it complies with the blocks foreign policies. according to independent journalist do shon, for rock of h history shows that sanctions back political toll and only make common citizens serbia refuses to impose sanctions on russia for 2 reasons. the 1st, these political serbia, has excellent, excellent relations with russia. the 2nd reason is a b, i was under sanctions for 8 years during the 1990. and we know that

sanctions, her daughter, united people, the most sanctions are not an instrument that can lead to do a political solution. process of european integration is also a process of the soviet, any nation, more states that are members of the, you want to join the you no longer southern states or less so on. and then before they are classic a resisting this for now. chairman of the russian state, dana vi cheslax there followed in has harshly condense a german government statement that is considering sending frozen russian assets to ukraine. this will mark the beginning of a process where all states will ignore international law at their discretion and take what they see fit the german leadership according to its own histories, should bear in mind how attempts to encroach on to others ended for them. as soon

as such a decision takes place, we have the right to take similar actions with respect to the assets of germany and other states. earlier, the german government suggested sending rushes, frozen assets to aid in restoring ukraine. if its allies do the same. berlin is also considering an option of seizing assets of russians who have been linked to having participated in the conflict. at the end of november, the european commission had also called for the confiscation of russian resorts in order to aid ukraine. or ralph t 9, my chairman of the german council for constitution and sovereignty said the german government has lost an illegal crackdown against russians. well, i must say, this is really a breaking of our law of constitutional law. and you can't deprive someone of his own. i should easily, you should at least have a court decision. this is just a political move and a very symbolic one. again,

the shots government is indulging in symbolic acts. they are arresting people for, for opposing to government. they arresting people. ready for signing with russia, which some people may do or not, but now they're confiscating private property which is protected by the constitution and about basic law and in germany. so here we see another symbolic act of the sholtes government. thanks for joining us. hey, or nancy international, we're back the top. they are with the very latest sienna ah, with so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have. it's crazy. even foundation, let it be an arms race, movies on.