[000:00:00;00] blue, [000:00:00;00] a in dawn buff, the russian private military group of wagner, things it secured. a key suburb of the strategic city of our chima local to our safely have by the way, it has been sharing their experiences with almost i'm from our tools yesterday. wagner evacuation forces came many thanks to them for pulling south. otherwise we would have died there with hopes are high in sri lanka, all securing

a much anticipated loan from the i. m. f, with billions of india's external affairs minister steps in to help the country deal with its economic crisis. and also with raging protests. continue in the french capital against president mac rollins plans to increase the retirement age in the country with broadcasting from our international. 2 new studios here in moscow, this is our take, great to have your company. i'm human o'neil. we start on the front lines of. busy don't boss the head of rushes. wagner a private military company has said his forces have gained full control over a strategically important suburban archibald culture known as back note. but time of chris shift is less than 10 kilometers from archibald on earlier,

which has been a vital transport hub for the ukranian military. the head of the wagner group said fierce fighting is ongoing in near binary is previously the russian defense ministry confirm that wagner had made a solid contribution in taking the city of solid dar another strategically important location in the region while local in archibald ca, thank the military company for helping them evacuate? yes, good. are there still mosque? i'm from or to mosque. yesterday. wagner evacuation forces came with the many thanks to them for pulling the south. otherwise we would have died there when we left the house and came under fire from the cracking ukrainian nationalist group and we had to drop down to the ground during the sheli. we crawled about 3 to 400 meters during the day. and at night we walked a very long distance and my grandmother couldn't even walk. we carried her on a stretcher. we're very thankful to the wagner group. through oak was removed during the vacation,

were taken out by the wagner and crew. god bless them. the shelling has nazis for a 2nd over the last 4 days. although we showed no signs of being part of the military when you and was your cranium forces that were shelling, fortune to the west at all. it's very difficult in our chill musk right now. just like in mar, you pull. maybe even worse since august we have been living in the basement of our house are not going out anywhere. ukrainians were shooting at us civilians because most likely they have political issues against us. we were evacuated by the wagner group. they came at night, they said we need to leave urgently. we were getting out of the ruins. as soon as we came out of the basement, the ukrainians started shooting nearby. while earlier we spoke with the l as put colon editor in chief of finished news website, m v media. he says, despite the takeover of key cities and don boss being a major development for russia, the western media has done playing it of course. so in the military means bottled has very big importance and it's difficult for, for the, for,

and media to western media to accept the full bottled. oh, bad. but like i said, when we're talking about lobbyist going from one source we are talking about fully duration of dorm was and that is exactly what the western propagandists are afraid of. they try to keep the beacher that rate has steal a bus ability to win the war against russia, each grade being to do but, but that's what exactly exactly what they are doing. trying to convinced that there is the says to said all these billions of dollars and of western military oh, weapons to, to keep key of troops. ok, something else to tell you about the pentagon has insisted that crimea is still a ukrainian territory. while saying, keith can use any means to regain it slams. the statement came in response to a question on whether washington approves attacks on the peninsula using american

weapons, rushes ambassador to the us previously branded a similar assertion by the state department, belligerent rhetoric. commentators nameless humor, russia will not retaliate for texas territory. it should be obvious to everyone that we will destroy any kind of weaponry supplied to the zelinski regime by the americans are native. isn't it clear that pumping ukraine with more weaponry, no matter where it is produced in the u. s. or any other native country will only lead to an increase in the deaths of civilians? the rhetoric of us officials is becoming increasingly belligerent. after hearing such remarks from washington, the criminals and key it will feel complete, impunity, the risks of the conflict escalating will increase once again, a lot of people regarding comment just now just calling it a potentially wiring escalation. we know about the patriot missile systems and theoretically tanks from america, theoretically, they're all being cold full by zelinski and kiya. what's the latest here? right, well the, so both actual supply of tanks from

u. k and potential supply of tanks that we could see from other countries in the last really does present a serious possibility for an escalation and the current conflict, according to reports of france, is already getting ready to send tanks to key of and like i said, just now the u. k. has said it's sending tanks officially to ukraine and has actually been pressuring germany to do the same. now at the same time this, not everyone in the west has been, has expressed as such willingness to take this conflict to the next level because we saw berlin say that they'll only send their tanks to ukraine if washington agrees to do so. and washington is saying, we're not going to do that right now. we just don't think we're there yet. the abrams tank is a very complicated piece of equipment. it's expensive. it's hard to train on. it has a jet engine. i think it's about 3 gallons to the mile with jet fuel. it's not the easiest system to maintain. naturally this sir stands that washington has taken has actually upset quite

a few germans who basically think that the u. s. is trying to sacrifice other people at the altar of its own foreign policy agenda, one german m p. a basically voice that opinion and also suggested that this is really risking bringing us closer to a nuclear confrontation. western tanks could ultimately provoke the use of nuclear weapons primarily against germany. that seems to be the deeper reason why washington is so reserved on the subject of supplying tanks. but as forcing its ally to make those sacrifices like a vassal, one of the main questions we have to ask is why, why is the west allowing for such an escalation right now? and actually the german chancellor explain pretty well the west position on the, on this. and it's quite simple. basically, they see the west as good and they see russia as bad in order for the war to end rush, us aggression must fail. that is why we are continuously supplying you green with large quantities of arms in close consultation with our partners. it is extremely important that president putin doesn't win this war. partly because it will be

a tragedy for ukrainians, but it will in video dangerous for us. because then the message to alter italian, it is not only to putin but also all the authors. only this is that when the use group or force when they're violating national law the it, she won't, they won't. and that'll be a very bad and dangerous lessons. it'll make the world more dangerous, and also more vulnerable. if we want to negotiate the peaceful solution to the war . ukraine, we need to provide military support your crime. that's the only way weapons they are, the way to peace. so the nato chief against oldenburg, right? they don't know basically saying that more weapons and more deaf other way to peace . and just before him, donald, the old have shoals german chancellor. the man looking surprisingly optimistic. didn't his job, didn't his defense minister just quit? yeah, that's right. and you know, this, this kind of rhetoric combined with these recent developments with the potential

massive future supplies of western tanks to the ukrainian military. all that combined really makes it scary to wonder. how far will the west go just to fight russia? at the end of august, my colleagues were a sushi and donald quarter there does mention, the pentagon commented on the possibility of sending us thanks to you. crane thing maintenance issues would make it on viable spider aging european countries to send their heavy military missionary press tv corresponded johnny miller believes nato members are. ringback slits over the issue of weapons supplies, nato says, and it says it over and over again the view. anyway, it's a great piece in ukraine to send more weapons and say, oh, well, in the great piece we need more, more know, there is another way for peace and that is peaceful negotiations with the russian government has been a bit of a split in nature between united states and britain on one side of the pole in the

some of the baltic states. i'm germany and france. and that's, i think we're, we're seeing some hesitation from the german government now about whether to send these times. i think we're all going to see inevitably, those fits continued to increase as particularly the german and french establishment. and i'm not talking about left when journalists are left an activist, but in the german conservative establishment in a french conservative establishment. the behind the scenes, as many people are asking the questions about whether this is in europe and interest to continue to support support this war rather than to pursue peace negotiations. he if last stop atrocities against hungarians, that's the coal from budapest over recent actions taken against ethnic hungarians living in western ukraine. we don't understand exactly how anti hungarian decisions and measures help ukraine in the war against russia. we call on the local leaders to immediately and the atrocities against the hungarians. if ukraine wants

to be a member of the european union, the continuous and systematic harassment and deprivation of rights of a national community is unacceptable. of the cold comes after reports, a local hungarian school director was sacked in the city of the couch of a in western ukraine. it's the latest in a spot between budapest and key of which erupt it in 2070 when ukraine's new education law restricted the teaching of minority languages, no catch of our house, a significant hungarian minority living there. major reports also suggests, and gary and flags were removed from settlements. let's not being claimed as well that hungary has blocked 500000000 euro worth of e u military funding to you. crane. well, let's delve into all that's and speak to dr. george zamarelli. george, a senior research fellow on the global policy institute thinktank on is most

welcome to the program, a hungarian officials or calling for ukraine to once more change its policy, its thinking towards ethnic minorities and alter its actions will key. i've listened this time. no, of course not because li geren is really between a rock and the place they wanted every which way on the one hand on gary is on board with the use sanctions policy. it's on board with nato. it's on board with condemnations of russia. it's on board with presenting ukraine as the innocent victim that's been set up on by big bad russia. and yet the same time, it has to see the reality that you have a extremely nationalistic zen oppo. big array gene that came to power in

kiev in 2014 and is persecuting all of the minorities in ukraine, primarily the russian which are very substantial minority, but also the hungarian minority. and so they can't really have his own way. they got bored with the landscape as the hungarian president recently of the whole odo, more memory. and at the same time lead was the landscape not to persecute hunger in minority? well, that's what was the lengthy regime is and they have to make up their mind, which i think the hunger and world what, what they want to go with. because of the moment they looked rather silly. the hungarian for administering officials said the violations referred to the city of new couch of a rather than wider you crane. but as you've just been going through it's, it's not just a local operation, is that this is country wide in terms of the policy. it's country wide and it's

been a long standing. this isn't just something that cropped up the other day. the authorities in here have banned the instruction in schools by minorities in their minority languages. so band, secondary education to be taught in hungarian, just like a ban secondary education to be taught in russian and, and romanian and polish. i mean that it, all of them are, it is, have been, you know, repressed by the regime in here. however, you know, both romania, hungary, they want to insist the, oh, this is wonderful. people in ukraine who are being set upon by these bad russians and i think it's just not the sustainable position. and frankly,

they look rather silly. i mean, the other day, the math of, of budapest was then here again quoting with the lens when they click go with the marrow and denouncing, denouncing a prime minister or band for being insufficiently zealous in his support of kids. so, you know, the books are all over the place on the just a brief note if you will. on the other aspect, i mentioned george hungry reportedly blocked a tranche of european funds aimed financing weapons for ukraine. is this linked with the minority issue? do you think and as an aside to that will be you press budapest to change it stubs? no, that isn't specifically to do with a minority issue. that's the longstanding policy announced by victor or by the prime minister, which is that hungry will not transfer any alms to ukraine and hungry will not

allow itself to be used as a transit way to or ukraine. so willy e, you take this up? well, the e u is already withholding funds from hungry, but not on the ukraine issue and it's on other issues. the rule of law issues, corruption issue. you know, the l g b plus education in schools issue. so already, so many issues that the brussels has with hungary that it's in a little point in adding another one, because in any case, i'm not sending any money to hunger. it thanks for taking us through all thought, always appreciate george zamarelli, senior research fellows. the global policy institute thing tech india has reportedly stepped in to help sri lanka restructure its debt. the island nation is seeking

a 2900000000 dollar loan from the international monetary fund to help find its way out of the big economic crisis. it's in taking us through the rtp when june sharma, she long cars hoping to get nearly 3000000000 dollar bill, our package from the i m f and to secure that it has to renegotiate loans with its foreign lender, mainly japan, china, and india. and india is 3 lancaster, 2nd largest bilateral lender, and which is via this with it or when del foreign minnesota. ajay shankar becomes extremely important. in fact, he landed in sri lanka, today's we'd be on local time. he's expected to meet with his counterpart or the tomorrow. he's expected to meet with the president to free lunch, ron and from the saying and all that, to talk on that restructuring. that really is going to be the key focus of this

particular was it not in does also confirm that it has written to the mass as far as the stalks around that restructuring are concerned. so india has given its approval to the i, m f a to give free long call that a bailout package. the see them got really desperate be is looking at also treat always india about $1000000000.00 only last year. india had given free lunch around $700000000.00 on credit line. and this was when the crisis was added speak in july last year, july 2022. things had gotten really, really bad for so long. we all remember those, we're all of the he was outside special station that makes for kilometer 1000 kilometers but also the government offices were run. 6 the presidential palace was ransacked, the faith broadcaster was hijacked, and the prime minister's office was set to believe the economic crisis now had

really turned into a political and of humanitarian. one thing on the ground for too long had become extremely extreme. the difficult, of course, that also led to the fall off the long standing roger puck shot government. but for sri long called the priority now is to read, negotiate a loan with it's for lenders. and that's what india is trying to help. 3 long calls for these debt restructuring talks between india and free long become extremely important because they do provide a glimmer of hope to the island nation of 22000000 people are turning attention to europe, where protests are raging on the streets of porous thousands of people are demonstrating against the president's pension reforms, which would see the retirement age raised in front.

ah, demonstrators block roads, while some plus with holy says we can see their bottles and smoke balls being phone to more than 20 people were arrested. the president has said, retirement reform quote must be carried out. the proposed legislation would mean people having to work 2 more years until they're 64 to qualify for a full state pension. moved strongly opposed by unions. emmanuel micron urged protesters to demonstrate peacefully and avoid any violence. a local reporter sent us this from the crime lab and you just assumed the movement of the protest is who being widely monitored was blocked. shortly after the start, especially after clashes with people dressed in black and with masks on their faces . nevertheless, every one joined this protest, action people and protesting against the extremely unpopular pension reform in france. according to a recent poll, 66 percent of french people do not support reform. 75 percent of people age 35 to

64, oppose it, which has not been the case for a long time. all french trade unions, including large ones, such as the general confederation of labor and the french democratic confederation of labor called for protest in the country. if the security service was afraid that radical people might be present among the protested which has happened though caused along the route of the protest column, were removed in order to avoid serious incidents. given the number of demonstrate this, the authorities were forced to pro 10000 placement angel dobs throughout france and 3500 employees in the capital alone. the world's biggest crypto currency exchange by nuns cells being implicated in a scandal involving a smaller firmed in bits. lotto the latter's russian born funder, anatoly lakewood demuth, was arrested in the u. s. on wednesday, the accused of criminal activity and laundering some said $100000000.00. media reports claimed by nancy was working as

a country party for bits lotto the crypto exchange company was created in 2016. it's registered in hong kong, the us treasury department. so he's been lot who has become a, quote, safe haven for criminals in connection with russian. alyssa finance. if i'm guilty, the founder of the exchange faces up to 5 years in prison. earlier i discussed the topic with rti contributor chris m say is the best lotto case for some parallel to the much reported on f t x investigation saga. but with some key differences, i spent a day sort of reading this message release that we got from the, the department of justice. and yesterday, last night, really on this. and it just reads like a tabloid piece, right? it's got out of these, these all day. she claims it, it that you know that it's got all the, all the, all the qualities that you'd want. if you eat a good tabloid piece in a newspaper, drugs and russia, they even caught him a cook. that's what they say at the top. the platform was designed full crooked. so it's very interesting, it's kind of sort of like, you know, that got to find another food guy for the full guy that they,

that they had in some back, been free to nasty act which they all bought. so who go for you? go for the largest institution in the crypto, well, which is finance, the actual currency exchange itself, fad bits late. so what, what gives a sense of its scale? how important globally it is. yeah. it's relatively small. in fact, until today, you know, i'd not even heard of it and i've been around this industry for quite a long time. figure 700000000 signs like a lot. but when you contrast it to others such as finance, exact minutes you, i mean for the finance, i think that would be that that be not even half they trading volume on the, on a weekly basis, right. is how much is going through that? so it's quite interesting that the u. s. government, i'm making such a big noise about something that no one's ever heard of and how that's gonna impact the industries that release is very difficult to say. i think the interesting thing is that they have tried to claim that finance was a com support to this trade. finance is the crypt behemoth. now the f t x doesn't exist. finance really is the big boy in the industry. so putting their name in a document for such a very, very small that's

a trivial exchange in the industry is very, very significant. and how at regulates that governments are going to now react to by not because they've been named say, will be very interesting to watch. just coming back to f t x that in criminal investigation. it was the headline stories for months. drilling. people might remember that the curly haired gentleman who the funder of it and he was released on $250000000.00 balden to run a month ago. now, do you see differences? do you see parallels what, what's happening there? and indeed, inter it being released on bail like the f t x founder was. do you think that's going to happen now to in this occasion? yes, it's fair to see that start with that point he's, there's no way he can be long bail for one reason. because he is not a us citizen. the other interesting thing is that they've made all of this noise on what's called in the u. s. a criminal complaint. and that means that the authority suspects him. but he hasn't actually been indicted or charged by the offense in the u. s. to be charged. it has to go in front of something called a grand jury,

which is a load of people that, that are on a jury where they read, read the evidence that the, the prosecutor has, and then make a decision whether they're about to be charged. they haven't done this since case they've just made all this noise. we don't even know if this guy will be charged yet, or indicted as they'd say that was in the s b f case. we waited for the indictment . he was allowed to pretty much wander around the bahamas. he was even doing press interviews to bloomberg and all these big financial programs at, you know, he was giving interviews, he's basically half his larry run wondering on when there was clear evidence that he committed these, these really highness, financial crimes. and whereas in this case, this guy is basically known to no one who's now been sort of put up, put on this poster, is big russian super criminal mastermind villain. which is which is bizarre, really can lot of interest in this next story. a russian ice hockey player in the u . s. has made headlines after refusing to are a gay pride themed pre game jersey philadelphia flyer start even prov,

decided not to take part in the warm up for the nfl. much citing is a religious belief. her best choices my choices to stay true myself, my religion. but all i'm going to say like, really are from on. we've got a hockey player from philadelphia who says he doesn't want to participate in events that his team is involved with that glorify the l g b t, community and homosexuality, et cetera. he says that his religion just doesn't, you know, doesn't think that's a good idea that's not consistent with his religious beliefs. he's going to stay true to himself. we're in a situation where we're seeing an increased politicization of sports. there were similar issues regarding the l g. b t concerns that were raised regarding the world comp, guitar, et cetera. and now we have some leading voices, just piling condemnation on to ham, man. and you know, a basically, you know, having a meltdown over the fact that he is staying true to his religious principles. and just doesn't want to participate in certain activity. the national hockey league

today needs to find that organization a $1000000.00 a re evaluate how the support gay rights. cuz cuz that isn't salter, nothing scares me more than any human being who says i'm not doing this because of my religious beliefs. because when you look at people's lives, you normally say that publicly throw what? but what you saw ivan prover off can get on a plane any day. he wants him to go back to the place where he feels more comfortable. i understand there's a conflict going on. maybe get involved. we have a situation here where because this hockey player of russian heritage wants to stay true to his religious beliefs. he's being told to woke, go back where he came from august white, making it language v t, v personality tucker carlson, recently commented on how bizarre it is that we have someone of russian origin sticking up for what supposed to be an american value. freedom of religion, but it seems like increasing spaces that are not political in united states basis, like sports and education of children and other places are becoming highly

politicized. and if you're not on the politically correct side of these things, if you're not willing to take the, died promoted by the democratic party and the low cetera, you become the target of widespread born and condemnation. it seems like in many ways this is yet another sign of the dates and the winds in general are not living up to the ideals of freedom and for reality and diversity they once it's out the know if finally in the christian orthodox calendar, the epiphany, holiday dedicated to the baptism of christ was celebrated by followers this week all over the world, including and if you'll p as northern to gray region, let's take a look, thousandths of worshippers gathered for the event. no one locally. tim can't. it's widely celebrated by if you being christians of that period of religious revival and an occasion to give things for personal prosperity.

and in moscow epiphany celebrations were conducted on a large scale crime of russian orthodox followers gambler. to take the traditional dip in freezing cold waters on the eve of the holiday after a church service or lucky correspondence this year was steep. sweeney who brave the elements to take the plunge himself was predicted, the temperature has dropped slightly. i can feel rain floating down to my body, but i am making my way now to the ice poland. i'm going to get myself into the freezing cold water. there are men and women of all ages. they're here to day and many a row already made the plunge into the icy water and the skews of people. now, as you can see, i'm prepared it's, it's very, very cold. and this is, as i've said, this is about the celebration of epiphany, which is an commemorating the baptism of jesus christ. there are many health

benefits that come with diving into the waters home told i'm, i'm about to go in. so i'll let you know what it's like when i come out and, and, and how i feel i, with i feel a little bit invigorated. it's quite refreshing getting into the water and i'm plunging my head on the 3 times. i can see the benefits of it and i can see why many people come here and do this every year. i'm not promising the i will come back and do it again. you can see many, many people here still waiting to, to get into the po, see, as we saw it, it's not the 1st time i've dipped myself in the waters. it's the 6th time. there are always emergency workers here. every one helps, almost identical. what's my youngest son and i try to dip ourselves in the waters every year? i think this is a very important holiday for orthodox christians. it's a symbol of our faith. the russian director was in my earlier saying it's not that cold, it's only minus 5,