expected chinese spy balloon. that balloon is the size of 3 buses and it was spotted over montana and montana of course home to several sensitive nuclear sites . the balloon was spotted floating in the u. s. states of montana. yes, republican congresswoman green has called on biden to shoot the balloon down because he said so he sets of decided not to start seeing a risk of debris falling on people. china's also re artists in the boonies in fights, a weather device, and i regret the unintended entry into u. s. as space, the pentagon said that the balloon could gather no more in sell than chinese satellites. quote, no idea what it is. first, our best assessment at the moment is that whatever the surveillance payload is on this balloon, it does not create significant value added over and above what china is likely able to collect through things like satellites in low earth orbit. intriguing a story that well, that's how the world is looking at 5 30 pm, moscow time on pizza scott's. i'll be back again with another look at today's biggest stories at the top of the hour. thanks for watching.

ah ah hello and welcome to cross stock. we're all things considered. i'm peter labelle for over a century and a half. the german question has been hotly debated during that time. germany was at the center of 2 world wars and the cold war. now it appears berlin and its abandoning its post hitler policy of pacifism and non intervention. and again, russia is the enemy. ah,

to discuss these issues and more, i'm joined by my guests. matthew eric in montreal. he's a senior fellow at the american university in moscow and director of the rising tide foundation of canada. in munich. we have ralph new meyer. he is chairman of the council for constitution and sovereignty. and in belgrade we have stephen guides. he is a research associate at belgrade institute for european studies. are gentleman cross type roles and in fact that means he can jump in anytime you want. and i would appreciate it. lets goes throughout the 1st round of my introduction. i didn't, i don't want to be too extreme here, but it seems there's a major shift going on in german foreign policy since the end of the cold war. and the, the pinnacle i think the most well known foreign policy trajectory of germany in the postwar years was os poet teak specifically, which is meaning basically essentially having some form of reconciliation with the soviet union. then later russia that appears now to be completely off the agenda

since the foreign minister of germany better. bob says that we are in war with russia boss. yeah, it is terrible. what they're saying and also doing by committing to send arms in to a conflict. it is actually a departure as you just said. it's a departure from a post $945.00 agreement with the word we as a always a banging on it's we are not fully supper. and so i'm in the us. americans are still very active and ramstein air base and they do tell us what they want from us actually. so it's not entirely be determined decision, but i agree with you. it's a break with our post world war 2 position in this. and i'm definitely opposing that to as many other dram it's do, i mean we want to have peace with everyone and that stuff so clear, you ostrom,

population, 80 or 90 percent, would really say no, we don't want to have annual with nobody. okay. we may want to defend 2 will right here and there. that's what we have done in somalia and other places in molly. at least that's what we were being joke, but, but to go to ukraine and send arms into a conflict and have the conflict with the russian federation. the majority of drugs was and not, well, is it go to bell based, steven? it's, it's, you know, it to make it the of the point even more clear when the unification of germany was happening in the, in the soviet union under a boat of a child. gave it a green light, which surprised a lot of people because there were reservations in western europe, not in the east year, but there was as a declaration of a united germany, the germany would be a force for peace in stability. it seems to me that they have walked away from that . okay. and then when we hear the german chancellor talk about re militarization,

a lot of people in the east are wondering what did we agree to or the real universe asian of germany. go ahead. your thoughts, unfortunately, even during these 1st years, also the cold war during health call. and mr. again shudder. germany did the stabilize the east of europe. unfortunately, by recognizing the at the time legal, national, florine and creation from florida. and i think that opened the door as box as far as for the german stance. it is becoming more and more clear to everyone. everybody what was clear, baby to certain people that were cold lunatics and that germany isn't occupied country. that basically the 4 occupations dissolves, i've actually turned into 2 of your patients, all these they're in western germany and then what happened with the fall of the berlin wall, a whole germany was occupied by the americans. and now we see that because i just

want to remind you what i mentioned this, this name so many times i think i should get a scholarship produced or something. friedman because he said repeatedly in 2014 and 15 that the americans wants what the germans don't want. they want to that for the germans to get armed, turn their peaceful industry into military industry and go to the east and what he explicitly sat in belgrade and 2014 was if i was a german, i would never want that for my country, but i'm american and the geopolitical goals of the united states are similar to those of great britain in the past. it is to confront the 2 most logical allies, which is germany and russia. and then again, what happened with the, with the north stream? i mean, i hear this, this really loud silence from berlin. nobody is asking about the serious investigation. while before this happened, we've, he,

we heard both exhort renewal and, and president by himself saying that more or less they were the 1st thing that they will do troy the north theme. now it is destroyed and nobody's talking about it anymore. yeah. yeah. now matthew, in my 1st questions are out here, i talked about june and german unification. and the deal was we know this from the documents. is that okay? a united germany will be part of nature, but not a one step further to the east. but it's really quite interesting is that the german question is, is again, a tim fronting us because that was the 1st nato expansion was the unification of germany. that said, the precedent be, keep moving further east. go ahead, matthew. know that that's absolutely right. and that that was, i think in many ways as the idea of the pandora's box was already brought up. certainly the path towards our own, an elite or germany, germany's sacrifice and annihilation ultimately. and i think that germany is,

and many germans and many politicians, though they're not loud enough, are beginning to speak up about the fact that they recognize that they're being served as sacrificial tools in any ways. very similar to the type of approach that was seen taken it, leading up to world war 2. when of course, you know, looking at b, b can hidden, hidden history of world war 2, we find the hand of anglo and american industrialists banking behind the growth of the hitler machine originally designed was to just go straight on, destroy russia, and have them destroyed each other, but ultimately that was not what hitler did. he did other things instead and broke from the script. that being said, he was still being manipulated by foreign forces. it wasn't a sovereign entity. and just like today it's not a sovereign entity. and it's part of a broader a program that involves do rehabilitation of nazi up nazi history, pro nazi history that tries to paint russia the point of that point. it's very

interesting to me go to ralph here because, you know, we have, we have at least a better bach, who is the most militaristic and aggressive foreign minister. since ribbon trump. okay. who brought this up here? because the, the, the, the supporting of ukraine in the whole tank debate is that it's supporting the regime in care of that has nazi and near neo nazi fascist stick elements to it. this is well, no, this is not a hidden history here. this is a bad look for germany. okay. considering what happened in the middle of the last century? ralph? yes, exactly. peter and i agree with everyone here on this. what has been said now germany has broken the cease fire of 9th of may. $945.00 because to the, to plus for treaty or it was called the treaty of settlement for germany. it's not a peace treaty. so we are still stuck with the potsdam agreement from 1945,

which is actually just a cease fire agreement. and we have never had our full over entity since that time . so what is now happening? i mean, the end of 2 plus the foreign trade from $990.00, allowing us to be unified. we promised that the united germany would only of piece come from its solder, and it's very strict under article 5 of the nato treaty that we can only participate in military actual defend lay to territory, which ukraine certainly has not yet. i say yet at this stage, and also we are bound by the 2 plus for treaty under international people's law. that we only use our military according to the un charter chapter 7. which did allow us to go to places where it was a un resolution. but for instance,

and the cause of all war, it was already not so because of the war has had no un mandate, no resolution by the un security comes. so here we go, we have broken it now. a 2nd time after 1945 that we are becoming party in an armed conflict. and when people are due in my country that this is not that we are not a party to the war. because we only send arms and educate soldiers. no, no, it is, and that is prohibited. what happens with germany is being set up to go to our guest. and belgrade stephen is that you know, of fighting to fighting russia to the last ukrainian or they throwing in the germans now or the germans. also, you know, the 2nd tier because you know, what is the downside for the united states and all of this very, very good. ok, actually this is accomplished down the cheap the way when you in the,

in the broad scheme of things here is a sacrifice ukraine, divide russia and the, and the germans are, are, are volunteering right behind the ukrainians here. go ahead and bel, good. actually i think that also there is a broader plan to sacrifice all nathan nathan eastern members 1st. so the baltic strict states, unfortunately, many people are eager to go to war with russia. they're laura, i don't know. this is, this is reviewed. very my friends. i lived in poland for 10 years. i under the snow and the mind said, but i recognize that he go, that he's well being and another think i, i happy to atlanta benefit was mentioned here because the greens have something about going into, into, into war. you know, into war ventures because it was your fish in 1099 from the green bar. the leader at the time who was the strongest advocate of bombing of the nato russia against

serbia. montenegro or u. e. federal republic of yugoslavia as it was called back then i also would like to remind her to remind you actually to recommend everybody there is a wonderful book and a movie. it is golden german eddie. see that adopt look was back and it is about cooper waking up in 2014 in the middle of berlin. film film is brilliant, but what he wanted wanted he says that he doesn't like the a of the, he does like the neo nazis. he's daryl amateur is the only party that she respects are the greens and i thought that the author of robin, you thumping in advance. so now when we hear, i'm ellena bedroom saying that we are in war now that the greens are actually the greatest advocates all of coal mining. they forgot about glass. i an all the agenda for 2 years ago. ah, we can see why the author of the film. i really had this in line. well, it's, it's,

it's, it's very interesting because it's the most hypocritical party in the world, maybe right after the there were the democratic party in the united states here. but i mean, after, after decades of anti war, i remembered in the 1980s. i mean, i was there signatures, bang. okay. and, and then once i go into power, there, a whole green agenda seems to go to the wayside here. it's really quite remarkable, gentlemen, i have to jump in here. we're going to go to a hard break. and after that hard break, we'll continue our discussion on germany state with our team. ah, ah, ah ah,

ah. the the news welcome back across stuff where all things are consider 9. peter labelle. this is the home addition to remind you we're discussing some real news the the

right, let's go back to one trail. matthew, what is the issue of sovereignty here? because, you know, we're an elite, a better boss. the 3rd time she's been mentioned in our gathering here. mean, she seems to be the perfect creature of washington. i mean, she's famously said just recently, she doesn't care what her voters think about, you know, ukraine. she's going to decide herself here. i mean, obviously the social democrats, the united states, been anglo powers of never like social democrats in, in germany. they don't like us polity. but emily to bear boss is the perfect trojan horse for them. ok. and remarkably, she's in the green party here and she seems very comfortable of having sovereign choices. we're a country made by others, your thoughts? yes, i think the, the croatian president, need a very strong counseling. said i, i heard very announcing that were all or were that germany wants to go towards

russia? well, good luck on that. it didn't look good the 1st time around. i hope it works out better, but it doesn't look good. and i think that overall, what is happening, if anything, on a positive side is that the population is being pushed to the brink right now where we need more of an activist poppy relation and more of an activist participation or intervention within the business and military community of people who, who recognize that they're about to not only repeat history but now with nuclear weapons packed into the formula. so we have people like sarah bugging act. we've been doing some very interesting things and attracting a lot of support from both the right and the left. a like people who would normally never get together and have any common agreements with any single points but are but are in a chord that there isn't no voice. it is a vacuum of leadership con for piece, and she's doing it and call calling for potentially setting up a new party around this idea as well. so for the delay, a party who's been the only one to speak up against this war policy. but i think

that this whole idea of, of having a disdain for populism makes bareback really a gym, a wet dream of a gym, for technocratic managers who love to have the little detached him compassionate free puppets who are so ideologically committed to a certain world view. that they can't see, don't care about the pain that they're doing to real people. you're bringing up a really good point there. let me go to run back to ralph. here. you're, you're in germany. you're in munich. we hear the german chance are talking about a form of bree militarization, but his government keeps up happy. going over its own red lines, obviously in service of london in washington here. but i mean the sri military. what yo, german, people want to go into the a new better mark. i mean, it is that does that exist?

because one of the things, the speech that the champs are made recently, which got almost no coverage at all. but you know, expanding nature to the life with mal dover, armenia, presumably though it would be the troops because the french don't want to get in the military. the italians doubt the germans, delta spaniards, the, the portuguese, the. but may we get these wild opens to do? it bores very much like ukraine is taken on the market position of, you know, we're going to die for nato. ok, i mean, i, you know, i can hear the rhetoric and i see the pressure from washington. but i mean, are there going to be hundreds of thousands of young german men and women that want to join the military? now definitely not. and i must say it also would be absolutely illegal to, to do so. i mean, we have article $26.00 of our basic law, which is the poster $945.00 constitution that prohibits us to, to go into any war and to, to participate,

and any war without defending own territory or nato territory. but of course, that you mentioned that we have nato expand again into territories that far beyond that. and of course you would press and who would go there and actually fight fight for, for the course. but i don't see in germany any mood to go to war. i mean there's, well, the opinion polls always say 46 to 42 percent in favor. i'm not in favor of sending some arms or helmets to your great know the tanks. it's already 48 percent to say no to that. so we are getting closer and closer, the probably even more people would say when the comes to fighter jets steps the next step of escalation, but probably 6070 percent will immediately say no. that would refute that. at the moment it's not a top route. i mean, the tell me and my guess and my audience here,

just public opinion count in germany. no, it doesn't really. and that's the problem. that's why i'm banging on it and our spacious that i'm giving here in germany. and i draw more and more support as, as it was just said that sarah barton connect, she's also doing that. you know, we are the new piece movement now, and we attract more and more people from the center of politics and drought. and not only d using fringes of the far left and, and to far right. no, it is coming to the normal people in the streets who say, no, we don't want to have and he works especially not with russia because i mean, people know what it would mean and we, we don't want that. and i said recently and his speech, i said, trans flush, all shirts damned and front of us and tell us about the consequences of what he's doing there. and if he's being carried again over a red tape that the mainstream media put there out for him to,

to say yes to fighter jet, he should explain to us that yes, this could mean also bumping of parts of germany. and that is the result that we don't want to see. yeah. how can i made the stephen? you know, we go with all the way back to january of last year. did you have any idea that we'd be talking about this, you know, 1011 months later talking about, you know, a people preparing for the possibility of accomplish a nato russia conflict? did that ever enter your mind 11 months ago? actually, it kind of did, i might have you ever since 2014, if not even ever since 2008 offer 2 drawers in conflict we've been we've seen this poker game while the west is constantly raising the stakes while russia falling. maybe this is actually quite risky from the russian side because it was never proactive. it was actually even february 22. although this might sound crazy. was

a reaction because there was a build up in that and he certainly did ukraine. there was a gratian prime minister on the blank, which was so many times that they want to share their experience. all basically, it's about expelling serbs from today's grace from from republic subscribing up. in $95.00, it was repeatedly sad and they were giving practical knowledge to ukrainians. how to do that with dom bus. and once russia, i mean russia bad at b r blood spaces was russia made them interesting in february, then all hell broke out as if this came out of nowhere. really but going back to germany, i think that now one going to washington are trying to compensate some of the foreign policy. they're trying to give germany some kind of a small reward. and this is the, the german behavior,

the germ of demo frank behavior in the balkans. now fred ross and germany came with the so called plan for gospel, which basically says the serbia should recognize the legal sessional goal. so i'm, i don't hear and, or by the way, say, you know, no, do it's closest ally of the security council, which is russia by imposing sanctions against russia. so again, germany is used as a tool not of its own foreign policy, but of american foreign policy. while it is supposed to think that it is proactive in the bulk of it is not proactive in, in, in the ease. while it is possibly being bullied natalie by washington in london, but also they have in war so, and even the baltic states. so this is really a very sorry scenario in which made so let's face it landed in washington, our re occupying europe. and not only was through europe or because western europe is doing this. reluctantly, i'm talking about barrison and berlin. while eastern europe like move walkers are

going into, into the fire. when the new axis is washington, london, want your. it's that they get it to. it's a washington london. warsaw kia, that's it here. matthew b, me the, i find it so disappointing, but i fully expected it is that we have these leads and this is obviously an agenda . how it gets doesn't have popular deep, popular support. but they're, they're looking at big 3 defeat, they're looking at as a binary. and i want to go back to something that, that ralph was saying, but they don't want piece, see, they want a military outcome. but if you were approach it discursive way in a very how did, how can we get peace then that goes back to what the russians proposed december 2021 is saying, we need a new european security architecture. and that is, i have very bad german for bowden. go ahead, man. and i absolutely, and we that,

that is absolutely what is needed in a, it is in my, in my mind, it kindles the memory of the recall of chords that were nic, negotiated by vaulted up the top and how a 922 after world war 2 in response to the impossibility of paying the draconian or the be impossible oversight, debt repayments and happened how had very good relations with a network of diplomats within russia. the newly formed bolshevik russia that recognized, okay, we all lead industrialization. we only growth of development need when, when the language of the text is very strong, you are the american president at the time of an enemy of the league of nations was sabotaging that 1st attempt at a one world government. warren harding, who later died of oysters, also making short to, to settle bilateral treaties with russia, with russia, with germany, with austria. so you had a whole network of pro industrialist pro nationalist leaders of century ago. recent resisting this idea of a great reset of world civilization around this whole,

you know, london centered league of nations operation, which were, i mean, i took a lot of parallels to what's being done today. and i think that and it totally added to me the point that the real issue at stake right now is the fight over the multi polar organ system, which is coming online very quickly in germany being one of the only by or one of the most by able units in europe that has a productive middle shot and a capacity to contribute actual works of productivity construction, bridge building between east and west and north. how that goes back to the of the, in the german question here, ralph, we're almost out of time, is the adage, keep the russians out, the germans down, and the americans in this is that, is that the modus operandi? 2015 seconds. go ahead. now i do believe that, and you saw that with the bombing of the pipeline that they can dictate to us how did one that i was into chancellor's office a week before the bombing of the pipeline said,

please sign the monitoring agreement. if you don't do it, i do it, he didn't do it and then they bombed it. so someone must have run up washington and say we got a problem here and we have to get rid of that. that's the way it goes. and the, and the rest is history, but of course it's one of those things that we will never know because the people in power don't want any of us to know as all the time we have. i want to thank my guest, montreal, music and, and bell later when like our viewers for watching us here. darky. see you next. i'm remember, possibles. ah, i'm willing of them. i saw booty. toria know cranium. t doria. soon enough id. she ship a doctor. lean that she put a control in, put you on board, so you should. she'll go did etivia them awarded by like the system really be near them? did not sing the vice president of missy leon. yeah. well, we can do blue. uh huh. channels, actually, jim's out arkell room dish,

but i'll let you do a buffer leona. oh crazy. that's a very strong moderate date. my subway, but just dory finished on a sal if she have a lease, get us push on the ship that just figured i needed his daughter to take him or what does him? i need a you put in school so that he has a similar one. they reached over the course and you can actually reach who couldn't, she had not turned the usual go to work. you don't feel good global. i'm saying years about how she took on the job is to broadview nestle pretty weakly, to take a picture, go double play, you have to go. so good. i'm happy with

ah, yes, for public authorities say russian troops of nearly and so called the ukrainian helps out with intense fighting in the area, continues the documents claim a british intelligence project by don't palestinian refugees using a group of previously alleged to have provided forms to al qaeda aquino, foster molly forces joined together to counter the ongoing threat as a result of the mid construction at friends for, for the failure to tackle. listen to this in the region. a situation that really saddens us. it's awful that armed men can cowardly attack unarmed civilians with.