and dimitri simes, president of the center for the national interest, a foreign policy think tank. michele dunne, let me start with you. what is going on? how serious is this diplomat conflict between the u.s. and the russians? >> well, there's been a lot of tension, of course, beeen e united states and for some time now over syria, and i think that the escalating situation within syria itself, even with the past couple of weeks, we've seen the level of brutality, the brutality against women and children, and the weapons being used. i mean, we're seeing now helicopter gunships used against civilian populations, bombardment of civilian populations, accompanied by atrocities by militias. all of this, i think, is putting the united states under extreme pressure and this is one of the reasons i believe secretary clinton called out the russians and said you're contributing to this by giving the syrians these kind of weapons. >> brown: dimitri simes, i see you've joined us. thanks for getting through the traffic to us. what do you make of what's going on with the russians and the u.s.? w

doubt he's put her on her reporting right there as i promised a few moments ago now time for dimitri. simes our good to see you again dimitri suddenly we're hearing that while we're seeing the credit ratings around the world being slashed to shore same most notably in europe russia though seems to remain stable that's right step forward has just kept the rating that russia receives for its credit in foreign currency is stable at triple be a level that it's pretty much got used to in the past year and the outlook is pretty stable and that's obviously very good news which has been keeping investor moves up and business out he caught up with the chief economist for russian c.i.s. with the bank of america merrill lynch letting out of school system to what you say . of course i haven't heard of two other countries russia is much more protected against the potential adept quality of their viability on the markets and of course it is stable outlook is also a good development and basically just reiterate the best going great breaking for russia is always a good thing to have in the going to run amu

pictures of the closing picture for the russian market for you at the top of the hour all right dimitri simes for that now after a short break here on r.t. will bring your expert opinion and a lot more photos what about the current tensions between iran and israel that follows one of our top stories with me kevin our next. her to . the beasts to focus. on a. few . to. the be. excellent. food. today. games lead up to full these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada the first showing up for a show the day the big. hello my name is kevin are you watching our t.v. from moscow and these are our top stories al qaeda is number two voices backing for syrian rebels over their fight against the government in a new video that's been released just a week after washington played he'd been killed. there's growing condemnation of polish hooligans after russian football fans your year of twenty twelve in warsaw it led to bloody clashes and the arrests of around one hundred fifty locals. and while julio awaits britain supreme court decision on whether it will reopen his extraditi