chatting with that, toby, as soon as this week, we expected to start this on thursday, and this will be going on for a lengthy period of time. but here is the views of canyon president, mr. william root people like mackenzie and all other territories, and criminals do not belong to any religion. they belong to james. and that is where they should be. the red cross estimates that over 300 people were reported missing in that sheeka hola. area in cal leafy county and we expect that the death toll will arrive even more. 2 cases of those young kids who are under the age of 10 were fallen to have been ex fixated. and that really goes towards deliberate murder and taking of life than a messy ation or starvation might lead us. but indeed,

most of these cups were and they were found to have nothing in their stomach, according to kenya's chief pathologist. or just before we go here or not, you international, a quick reminder of the breaking news now coming out of russia, but against region where a freight train and around 20 cause it was pulling, have derailed. according to eye witnesses. several explosions were heard shortly before the incident. the stipend or russian railways blamed quote, external interference. emergency services are at the scene. we understand no casualties reported, but the moment we get the updates, we'll bring them straight to you or not you international. for the me time that is wrapping up this hours live broadcast from moscow. thank you very much for joining us here on the program. recoding in about a half an hour's time here. hope you can join us with hello and welcome to well to part one handshake. at a time that used to be the motor of citizen or peoples diplomacy and movement that

originated in the letter years of the cold war and is often credited with helping to bring it to an end. doesn't stand a chance nowadays when russia and western countries have cut their diplomatic changes to a historic minimum. well, to discuss that i'm now joined by dmitri la scott, is a lawyer, journalist, and activists from canada. demetrius good to see you. thank you. about coming on there. thank you so much for having me. now. i know you've been i here in russia for slightly less than a month. can i ask for a rough estimate of how many russian hands here have taken a over a 100 a bit from across the span of generations and political orientations and, and it's been a fascinating and i would say surprising experience, which now i know that you are a successful hoyer from canada, you made a name for yourself, i in the corporate world and that, you know it's, it's

a rather counter intuitive that a person of your professional path was spend time and money and but his own reputation. now both professional and personnel on the line in order to come to this country, the military defeat of which is still the state policy goal of your government might well, although yes it's true. my background is in securities law. i started on wall street and then became most curious class actions were that has little to do with my origin as a human being. i am the child of 2 greek immigrants, neither of whom had a high school education, who came from greece in the aftermath of the 2nd world war and the civil war in greece in the 1950s. so i have very humble origins and i have never forgotten that by the time i had practiced law for 25 years, i was economically secure. and i felt enormously grateful for that fact. and i had

to think hard about how i could compensate or give back for my extraordinary good fortune. and so i became an activist, a journalist, i don't do that as a living. it's more passion. and when this war erupted, and i became absolutely convinced that this was the most, and i hope i'm wrong, that this is the most dangerous moment. i think humanities ever confronted. not just because of the war, but because of the context. and this is happening climate crisis and so forth. i asked myself, how can i contribute? how can i do something, anything to try to diffuse the tension. and so i came to russia. now as far as i understand, this is your 1st time you just can train, you've been not only to moscow, but also to crimea in which the canadian government does not recognize as, as part of russia. and before asking about your impressions, i, i want to ask as a lawyer, do you think you will face any legal repercussions for traveling to that?

well, i shouldn't. as a lawyer, there's, have you checked? yes, of course. yes. i've, i've done nothing that, nope, that anybody could plausibly claim to be a violation of canadian law. nonetheless, the, the authorities don't often don't always act in accordance with the law. so there's, there's some possibility and i hope that this doesn't materialize, that people in positions of power will try to exploit that position in order to intimidate me and make an example of me and prevent others from following in my footsteps. i don't think that's going to happen, but it's not in the, it's a lot of possibilities. i exclude because i am roof the sticker. both of the political system operates in our country. and even if the government doesn't have a case against here, i mean, canada is home to a very large ukrainian diaspora and some of whom are direct descendants and die hard apologist of fine very

radical ukrainian nationalists and nab se collaborators. i wonder if it's save to do something like that at a time when people have actually been not only intimidated by assassinated because of standing against the ukranian authorities are, you know, western authorities who support them well in canada that it's true that there is a very large or ukrainian cane and community, i know some people in that community who are committed to peace and who are, who do not identify it all with the establishment of that community. but it's true that as a whole, and particularly at the elite level of that community, i'm talking particularly both ukrainian, creating congress. they are quite right wing and create quite militaristic interview. up until now there's is not not been to my knowledge, any acts of violence against people who have opposed what i regard as a proxy war. but what i'm more concerned about his reputational assassination, and not from ukrainians, but from the mainstream media and the political class. as

a matter of fact, on monday of this week, the flagship newspaper of canada's largest newspaper publisher, the newspapers called the national post, published a front page story about me, basically smearing me and accusing me of having come to rush in order to whitewash the crimes of its government and fortunately because of my painful experience with the media in the past, i record the entire conversation and posted it on my my website and invited people to decide for themselves whether or not that's what i have to do. you think it makes sense to pursue them, not only in the, in the course of public opinion, but actually see you down for saying what they said about. i've actually had occasion to do that. but because of criticism that i leveled against supporters of israel in our country, i was accused of being a supporter of terrorism in 2017, by a very, very strident pro is a real group, and i sued them for defamation. and ultimately the case settled and they retracted their statements and paid some compensation. but i also know as a,

somebody has experience with defamation law that the candidates it's, it's a difficult path to recover compensation and its mission action. and i don't understand why the government is tried to strike a balance between free speech and protecting reputations. so i am very, very hesitant about using the course of law to protect my reputation. i'd rather do that by means of debate. now, returning to the means of debate, how was crimea, when did you expect to find there, and what did you find there in actuality? well, 1st of all, i didn't know that that the crimea was so beautiful. it reminded me very much of the south of greece, where i now have a home in coloma, any connections or i didn't know that either. and i visited the community or the ruins of chil, any source in serviceable. so, so the beauty of it was a surprise to me, the fact that the war was now i spent a fair bit of time in delta. i didn't really see any overt signs of the war there

on that. but, but at the same time you could tell that people were somber and that it wasn't at all the festive environment. i think people obviously are very conscious of the war when i would just have us to pull there was actually an attack. i don't, i don't know exactly what happened, but the air defense systems were activated. and then i went to the north of crimea to the board of hassan and visited refugee center. and there the, i felt the proximity of the war much more. there was military equipment everywhere, a high school or state of alert security and the refugee center workers that i spoke to. didnt want their faces to be exposed to the camera. so there, you know, i felt as i say that the proximity of war more. but i never got closer than 50 kilometers to the front line and having see what i've seen, i can't imagine how difficult it is to actually live in close proximity to from large. so okay, and i'm sure it's a even more difficult for, for the people on the other side, a in ukraine or especially in keith and those areas where there's,

we're still going on now on the ukrainian government definition of victory still includes re taking crimea. i understand you are not the military specialist, but having been there, do you think that's a realistic expectation? either in strategic terms or in terms of heart in mind because i'm sure you've spoken to people. yes. yes, i don't think it's remotely realistic and either set. i did not speak to a single individual there who expressed a desire to see crimea reunited with ukraine. i spoke to many people who were passionately opposed to that idea and declared their determination to offer themselves up in resistance if that were actually attempted in terms of the military reality. you're quite right. i'm not a military specialist. but i learned as i approached the border with cad son, that through the, the only let the only connection between from a land perspective, between crimea and for san are to very narrow poland peninsulas. and we travel

through one of them. and there were several lines of defense, anti tank obstacles, extensive trench works. they were wide open, there was no tree cover at all. there were 2 large bodies of water on either side. and it was apparent to me as a lay person, but any attempt to enter the peninsula through his 2 narrow quarters of land would be disastrous. i think. and it's, you know, i don't need to rely only upon my own judgment. as li person, american military officials have begun to acknowledge openly that this is a pipe dream and i think that it would be suicidal. both from a political perspective and moral. we're from a military perspective for the credit of the crane and government to attempt to retake korea. why do you think the ukranian government gsa continuing to press that pipe idea my to think they need? well, i think i spoke to a gentleman that his name was said to go to batch off who, who i understand no relation to the child or the former presence of it. you know,

he is a journalist now a military corresponded. i met him in sebastopol and he said, you know, it's well understood that he who controls crimea controls taxi. so i imagine you know that this is a matter of strategic importance to the ukranian government. there's obviously a tremendous of utility and controlling for mia geopolitically. i think there's also a tremendous amount of prestige attached to it. and that the, the, they feel that if they could retake it, that that would be a resounding victory for the state of ukraine. but again, this is i think highly are responsible and something that they should have in the, in the interest of peace and the safety and security of their own people. because even if they retook crimea, that would probably result in lasting instability within ukraine. of course, there is a huge elephant in the room here, and this is the, the position of western countries that are funding this war. and that i'm sure i agree with the assessment of your journalist friend. though whoever controls crimea

controls the black sea because that that issue, that strategic issue was very much discussed when the in the comics government was top of back in 2014. and the ukranian authority started talking about evicting the, the russian fleet. from there, i wonder how do you understand the genesis of this whole conflict the way when does it start for you? but well, i think it's been in the making for decades. i think there have been attempts by the west, although they were unsuccessful and very covert from it for a long time to create instability and division within the relationship between ukraine and russia. that goes all the way back to the 1950s. frankly, when the united states government was covertly funding and supporting and trying to invigorate ultra nationalism and ukraine. but i think the really pivotal of pivotal event was the overthrow of general coverage for sure. you had a president who was, he was democratically elected. whatever's flaws may have been and he was certainly

not a perfect leader. well, he didn't have that parents of justice justin to they'll by that just know also has some very questionable, a governing scale to i couldn't agree more. i couldn't agree more. but in any of it, he was democratically elected in his support became as i understand, principally from the southeast of ukraine in korea. and she, everybody refers to him as a puppet to the potent government. i think he was simply doing the responsible thing and tried to maintain good relations with russia, which was what a supporters wanted when he was overthrown effectively, what happened was the vote of the ukrainians who supported him was stolen from them . and this just re cascaded into one tragedy after another, culminating in open warfare between ukraine, russia. to me, that was the pivotal event. can i ask you something because you mentioned the early 19th just when the american authorities are stoking a ukrainian nationalism and the soviet union. and at that time, the canadian authorities, as well as the american authorities, were giving

a refuge, eagerly healed the nazi collaborators, ukrainian nationalist. and it's hard for us to understand that why something like that would it would be happening because having traveled to the united states having been to canada, having been see a great many times, we're not that much different. why do you think it's so easy for the west then consequentially for ukraine to demonize this country. and it's people because i mean, we have our flaws, but we are not much worse than you who i wouldn't say you're worse at all. i mean, we're all human beings in the my interaction with russian sir has convinced me. and admittedly, i'm to your expert in russia. but that does that. they're very decent people. and if you get to know them, they're very warm and generous people. and i wish that i could, you know, bring thousands of canadians overture with me in order to enable them to interact personally with the russian people. i think it's very important when we talk about

the conflict between our countries to distinguish between people to people, relations, and government government relations. the government of canada does not represent as you've, since the implied yourself. i think the will of the people. so for example, a recent poll in february showed that only 32 percent of the population support the transfer of weapons to cri. at this stage. they've had enough only 32 percent. every single member of parliament, as far as i know, some 3338 parliamentarians and canada support publicly the transfer of weapons to ukraine. so what is happening at the elite level at the political level is effectively canada has outsourced its foreign policy to washington. and washington's agenda is one of global hegemony. washington will not tolerate, and i think they're not even, they're not even a subtle about this. you know, they, they will not tolerate a global rival. and russia is perceived as a country that has both potentially powerful rival and also determined with the

current government not to submit to the will of the americans. and then you have time to be ourselves. i mean, yeah, he read it, we, we don't want to impose our will in the canadians, but we want the right to leave on our land as we please. dmitri, because it's my studio. i take my right, you a call for a short break with just a few minutes stating, ah, ah, ah, welcome back to well, to point to me, dmitri less congress, lawyer and journalist and activists from canada. dmitri, just before the break here, you mentioned that the only 32 percent of the canadian public support army ukraine

. and it's so you can argue that it, sir, and relatively low level of passive support. but you know, people, people's opinions change depending on what media trying to shape within narratives . and i want to quote candidates deputy prime minister christian breeland, who said about a year ago when this contract wasn't its opening stages, that the world's democracies can be safe. only once the russian tyrant and his armies are entirely one question. what do you think would be the cost of such safety for the canadian society? because if miss freeland wants to vanquish the russian army, she will have to, you know, put in more than just wars. the cold cost will be incalculable and possibly the ultimate cost, which is nuclear war. i don't think the government just by what said in the west,

i don't think the government of russia has any desire to use euclid weapons, but their policy, as is the policy of every nuclear powers. if existentially threaten, they will consider nothing substantially, threatening them in your country, sending weapons to my country. and those weapons being used not only to kill soldiers, but the ukraine use use as parent tactics a lot. there were, they have been several terrorist attacks in premier and in some russia cities, so indirectly, the west is supporting terrorists. absolutely. and you know, into poll, i'll also warn the head of interpol a few months ago that these weapons are ultimately going to end up in the hands of criminal organizations. just last week, the paris. so the french authorities arrested to alter nationalists who returned from ukraine with prohibited weapons in france. so you have that issue, you have the issue of the economic, the stabilization. i think it's quite clear from the there was an excellent article by james galbraith and economists united states recently which showed that the

sanctions are doing more damage to the west than they are to russia. so you also have, i think just growing and pull political instability from the economic impacts of this there's a range, ways in which this war will ultimately de stabilize the west. well, i think it's already doing that, and i want to mention to other prominent american political voices, richard carson, charles captain to big names and polish i circles who recently published an article in foreign policy, calling for the united states to change its tactics and not allow ukraine to define the goals of this campaign. now, if the americans withdraw and they have a track record of simply abandoning that. now, if they do that for electoral political, economic, whatever reasons, what do you think the canadian authorities are going to do? do you think they will continue sticking for when you crank to say no, i would be astonished if they do that. first of all, the appetite, if the american stopped supporting this travesty, i think the public,

whatever public sport exists for it will operate immediately. but i think that the canadian government understands perfectly well that the only way this war can be sustained is by massive support from united states. if that goes away, canada will become a bit player and will be forced to withdraw. well, i guess that's where the citizens, citizen diplomacy can play a role, especially given that the right now the exchanges between our countries are almost frozen, especially between canada and russia. and the whole movement itself originated back in the seventy's, in the eighty's. when athletes are 2 business man started, you know, coming from the west to russia and vice versa. and i remember the 2nd time the west supported this moment, the thinking that it was a nice soft power to why do you think there's so much a position to it now? because as a russian, i can go to canada right now. i cannot get a visa,

my credit cards don't work there. so why do you think western authorities are not welcoming thinks that they do, for example? well, because interaction results in revelation of the truth when you actually interact with the so called enemy, you realize what in fact is going on. it's very easy in canada because so few people have actually ever been to russia or for example to china, to misrepresent what's going on there. because they don't. and probably never will have the opportunity for direct interaction with russians or chinese in their own country. and so they lie relentlessly of hope it's, it's, it's actually quite astonishing and they get away with it, frankly. and you know, going back to that pool, where's 32 percent? what one imagines how low the number would be if people were actually being true, told the truth about this conflict. so i think they're trying to sever relationships with direct people to people relationships in order to be able to sustain the propaganda narrative. and i know, i say, you know, when, when the immediately band r t, i come here to days to speak to you accent as a,

as an act of defiance. because i cannot object strongly enough to the idea of depriving people of access to russian media even if they are government funded, even if they have a pro government perspective. so to ours, that isn't just the media, you know, our, on, on some level i can understand that i approve of that, but i understand why they would c r t as sort of as a propaganda tool. because we do, i express often the position of the russian government we, we do, i make distinctions between an, in a news and opinions and we tried to be transparent, but it's politics after all. but when they tried to ban russian culture, classical russian culture, i mean, things that were started in american, a western universities for decades. this is something dad than defies any critical thinking. yes, it amounts really to rest of phobia and right racism to be perfectly blunt about it

. i saw a report yesterday. the russian tennis player was prevented from taking a flight to a tournament on polish airlines simply because she was russian. i think it gives his insane. i mean, why, even if you believe that 100 percent the narrative of the west about the legality of this war, why should she be held prejudiced? pray, virtue for nationality. it's an effort to demonize all things russian. now, one of the pioneers of citizen diploma sisters assist robert fuller, who traveled frequently to the soviet union back in the seventy's and eighty's. believe that this is something that sort of a form of personal responsibility that this is something that people can bring to the world. and he applied it not only to the soviet union, but also to, to many other countries. i one day if you have any goals or ambitions or wishes

to travel to some other places that there was describes as the actions of well have you been to iran? have you been to syria? no matter of fact, i resolve last year to visit within the next one to 2 years. every official enemy of the west that would take me to china. and i specifically want to visit the province of jin chang because the west alleges that the genocide is occurring there . i want to go to iraq within the next year. i've already been to venezuela, covered the attempt to overthrow the government and medulla. so that one's that, that, that initiatives been take care of, but yeah i, this is a part of a broader project which i am personally able to undertake. i'm very fortunate to do that to try to open the eyes of the west to the official enemies of the west. what kind of feedback you are getting from people who follow you on social media or in inviting sharply divergent reactions to show would you say, oh, there are people who are extraordinarily supportive people who've come out of the

woodwork and some of them i identify as eco socialist, some people who would normally be my political opponents of privately communicated to me that they're very, very impressed by this initiative. then you have people who are sort of what they don't know what to make of it. and they want to have a good faith conversation and try to understand why i've done this. and then there are people who are, just as i say, engaging and open reputational assassination. and that's been quite a, that's been the most difficult part of this whole thing. now, one of prominent russian oriental is the reason they suggested that at the core of this conflict, or at least one of the reasons for this conflict is the fact that russia and the west see social progress in very different terms. for, for the west it's all about, you know, expression of liberties and some abstract ideas. and that's perhaps perhaps a consequence of predict comfortable lives that you guys have had over the last couple of decades for russia, for china, for venezuela,

for many of those countries. it's much more about access to social infrastructure and giving people our basic social services and ensuring you know, some bread and butter issues. i wonder if there is any truth to that as far as you are concerned. and what does it take for a westerner to sort of take off the san judge code, leave it behind, and try to look at the society the way days without applying all those judge and mental and frameworks of how things are supposed to be, you know, having i guess the basic compassion for, for the country and the people and see how, how far they have progressed from, let's say, 10 years ago. well, you know, this notion of western exceptionalism is so indoctrinated into the population of the quest that it's very difficult for them to grasp that maybe people don't attach the same importance to material benefits and well being as they do. one of the

things that struck me about co, russian, i know there's a large proportion of people here who don't really, they're not avid or orthodox russians, but the level of spirituality among the russian people has quite impressed me. i drew up in the greek orthodox church. i'm not a religious man. ah. so seen this level of commitment to orthodoxy is a little bit unusual for me. and i said that's made a big impression on me. the 1st 2 days i was here, i spoke with a russian living in moscow now is how high school teacher and he, he actually did a ph. d. had oxford in spanish literature, of all things came back to moscow and he recounted to me what the russian people went through with the collapse of the soviet union, the ninety's and how terrible that was. and how things of that is that the stability that has in the cohesion level of social cohesion that has developed in the 20 years since. and he said, you know, for russians that matters a great deal more than profits. a great deal more than, you know, the latest is most from your apple, his store and has made it be difficult for you to comprehend. but we just have

a different value set and base to what i've seen. i think that's, that's true. and we as the western, this is why say, i think personal interaction so important people could actually meet russians living in russia who don't necessarily agree with the western narrative about their country. they would understand that their values are not quite the same as our values. well, to make sure we have to live in there, but it's been a fascinating conversation. thanks very much for that. then. good luck on your journey. thank you so much for pictures and thank you for watching hope to hear again, honeywell to part with me

a headlines right now and out the international and explosive device course is a freight train derailed in rush was a brilliant region. it's very close to the ukranian border. a miss alla time on the israeli. a city of dead or near the gods border. leave several people with violet clashes are opting to the west bank over the debt to the palestinian man on a hunger strike in his riley custody. he speaks with.