e.u. association agreement and the next elections that would some. how commit ukraine irreversibly to the eurasian union and that is why all of us i don't have time here i want to go back to belfast here one of the things i think is very interesting is that this thing will be signed but it will sign it and you know what all the pain that will come thereafter will be blamed on russia what do you bet. well if they want to be a pittance economic adviser. described it as economic suicide and i would i would agree with his prognosis but what i what i want to get back to you peter is what's what does all this emphasis on our perspective on russia what can russia do you know the western media commentators are all asking for for russia to do something or to prove something i think the question is what is the u.s. what is washington european allies doing about this they are the ones who have escalated this crisis they have instigated the crisis they have escalated they are escalating the crisis they are they are continuing discreet the crisis yet all the onus

e.u. association pact they're signing they want to sign up with nato on what monday or authority have they got poroshenko with an election with only forty five percent of the electorate in large parts of the country didn't even vote ok our star is who he was let me go let me go to jonathan here and let me go to jonathan here why the association agreement so fast i mean this is something that i really am puzzled by they mean they want it done immediately i mean wouldn't it be better to get a consensus on the ground i mean this all started you know back in november that there were people that wanted you know which isn't it he didn't dismiss it he did city didn't want to sign it that that time and then we all know the events that have happened but why is the e.u. pushing so fast so hard to get this sign because if you read the fine print jonathan there's a lot of pain ahead well actually let's not forget that the political side of this agreement was already signed soon after the crew in february so this is that you can only exciting. sort of the big question you're asking now should have been

ukraine's struggles with a ceasefire the regime in kiev says it is committed to an association agreement with the e.u. the impact of which could be truly painful for the ukrainian people dividing ukraine continues. to cross-talk the crisis in ukraine i'm joined by my guest fenian cunningham in belfast he's an independent journalist who's written extensively on international affairs most recently on the situation in ukraine in london we have jonathan steele he's an international affairs commentator writing mainly for the guardian and here in moscow we cross the marks of all that he is a senior lecturer in researcher at moscow state university right gentlemen cross-talk roles in fact that means you can jump in anytime you want and i very much encourage you jonathan in london if i can go to you first president putin says he wants a ceasefire in eastern ukraine present president poroshenko in ukraine says he wants a ceasefire to continue a new crane there is no cease fire in ukraine all the while care of is bent on signing an association agreement with the european union which was very unpopular with mr

e.u. association agreement. last cause war in some points in part of his plan could lead to greater bloodshed rather than resolve the crisis we dig deeper into the online. this is the f. thirty five stealth fighter jet america's most advanced than most expensive war plane and it's just been given yet another boost in a new defense spending bill dollars despite the pentagon having already shelled out almost four hundred billion dollars on its development and to cover the cost the planes now being tied to foreign buyers as artie's. explains. the f. thirty five stealth fighter jet is the crime to look ram of military planes. and the pentagon's most expensive conventional weapons program it's a game changer the world's only fifth generation fighter jet is manufactured by lockheed martin combining state of the art technology with highly advanced avionics and maneuverability the pentagon plans to buy nearly twenty five hundred f. thirty five but delays and cost increases have left u.s. lawmakers frustrated over the th

e.u. association agreement months of military action has forced tens of thousands to flee to neighboring russia hundreds queue at the border seeking shelter in refugee camps you can hear some of their stories on our t.v. dot com. meet the world's most expensive weapon their four hundred billion dollar f. thirty five an aircraft whose price tag just went even higher thanks to additional funding plagued by delays must've cost overruns and bloating red tape that jets left even its top boxers somewhat underwhelmed and to cover the price the plane's not being tied to foreign buyers artie's port has more. the f. thirty five stealth fighter jet is the crime to look ram of military planes. and the pentagon's most expensive conventional weapons program it's a game changer the f. thirty five fighter jet is manufactured by lockheed martin combining state of the art technology with highly advanced avionics and maneuverability the pentagon plans to buy nearly twenty five hundred f. thirty five c. but delays and cost increases have left u.s. lawmakers frustrated over the three hundred eighty five billion dol

e.u. association agreement let's talk about. talks being held with kiev appointed authorities in the eastern region so mean it's proving to be very constructive them ignoring the antigovernment of movement leaders the or is it. it is a little bit of orwellian double speak to call this a peace plan and i'm a little disappointed that any russian media network with a peace plan without at least putting it in quotes ok peace by definition is negotiated and poor shango has already declared that there will be no negotiation with the political. militant leaders on the ground in the eastern ukraine so this is not a peace plan this is an ultimatum a demand for the unconditional surrender under promise of extermination ok so let's talk about the plan it includes a decentralization of power early elections protection of the russian language i mean isn't this going to appease the very end to government activists who are looking for war right now so even three months ago this would not have satisfy these agreements the promises that there gu

e.u. association agreement is signed on the twenty seventh on the twenty eighth we will see a new escalation of forces a new escalation a new level of violence and they believe that they can solve this via military diplomatic means especially since the threat of russian intervention seems to be pulled back once again or you call it a concession i'm not sure i agree with that but let's say it is a concession why are we seeing so little reaction then from the last isn't this what they essentially wanted. there are some people who make the argument that the west would like to war russia into intervening in eastern ukraine i certainly i do not agree with that assessment certainly on the part of the european union and i don't think on the part of the united states as well they would like russia to roll over do exactly what they are doing and accept a fait accompli where the ukraine is absorbed in total into the western geo political and economic orbit and that any future russian your asian economic union is limited in its scope and geopolitical reach right marks a lot of with us in the now it's n

e.u. association agreement. a months long military offensive has forced tens of thousands to flee to neighboring russia hundreds queue on the border to take shelter in refugee camps and you can hear some of their stories on our t. dot com. this is the f. thirty five stealth fighter jet america's most advanced and expensive war plane and it's just been given yet another boost in a new defense spending bill that is despite the pentagon having shelled almost four hundred billion dollars on this development already to cover the cost the planes are being tied it to foreign buyers are portnoy explains. the f. thirty five stealth fighter jet is the crandell a crime of military planes. and the pentagon's most expensive conventional weapons program it's a game changer the f. thirty five fighter jet is manufactured by lockheed martin combining state of the art technology with highly advanced avionics and maneuverability the pentagon plans to buy nearly twenty five hundred f. thirty five but delays and cost increases have

e.u. association agreement and we got more details from one of the report's authors. the point is here with respect to the e.u. that press ukraine for making a decision between russia and the e.u. and didn't ask or politically for. us inside ukraine so how the ukrainians we're in favor of this agreement. so the e.u. approach this whole issue is. packed with pretty. good feel that this is a. political that you didn't see into account so in that respect that played a role in the young government trying to put her actually a premium on regime change and said you know those good money will replace the incumbent president. now there have been several cases of russian journalist being barred from entering a crane for no apparent reason now it looks like parliamentarians are literally pushing reporters out themselves journalists from the russian state t.v. channel receive found themselves being kicked out by the head of the cranes radical party and here's what one of them told us. shouldn't the creation of papers going to be going to bring it on itself. the document from my h

e.u. association agreement while we got more details from one of the report's authors point this year with respect to the you that press ukraine for making a decision between russia and the e.u. and didn't ask or get political or. us inside ukraine so how needy or the ukrainians we're in favor of this agreement but more so the e.u. approach this whole issue is. part of pretty. you. didn't take the necessary of the political that you didn't see into it so in that respect that played a role in where the young government is trying to put actually a premium on regime change and said you know those good money will replace your incumbent president. now there have been several cases of russian journalists being barred from entering ukraine for no apparent reason now it looks like parliament members are literally pushing reporters out themselves and this is official video from the leader of ukraine's radical party he's arguing with a journalist from russia's state t.v. channel receiver he asked to see the papers permitting them to fell in the building and tried to tear them up and here he is kicki

e.u. economic association agreement with spain's former foreign minister on a missile as they are reading did have been somewhat passionate left who cooled down a little bit i know that you've recently written a very interesting piece that was entitled both ukraine and europe must put their house in order and i think the main reason why so many ukrainians wanted to sign these economic association agreement with europe was precisely so that europe housed them put that house in order but in your article you actually suggest that for the time being europe and ukraine should go not separate ways but at least in parallel the ukrainians shouldn't think about. joining the e.u. that it would be a tactical mistake isn't that actually a betrayal of those very people those people who died on my dime dreaming about the blue flag the stars because clearly they had in mind not just european values but european living style. there you know first of all let me just make a comment you dick described both of us especially that i can be personally you know spain is about passion but honestly nothing compare

dollars in trade global financial trade financial market expert patrick young believes the association deal with the e.u. is a grave mistake. ukraine which last year was in a catastrophic position how it's signed a free trade association this year is going to associate with the european union are the point when it's on the brink already of economic disaster this is a catastrophic move for the ukrainian economy the only winners i do this are a few sadly deluded egos whether they're in brussels whether they're in washington who believe some horror that they've achieved a great geopolitical victory for the people of ukraine there are no jobs to be hard here there's only going to be job losses there is no economic growth to be hired by suddenly having western european good job a new course all to your marketplace this is a disaster it's a very very tragic day for the people of ukraine who want to improve their economic outlook and a new step towards peace in ukraine present pershing go in the self-proclaimed east and republics have extended their ceasefire until monday just hours before it was set to expire

e.u. association agreement we got more details from one of the report's authors. the point is here with respect to the you that press ukraine for making it official between russia and the e.u. and didn't ask or get political or. e.u. as the asian inside ukraine so how neatly are the ukrainians here in favor of this agreement. so the e.u. approach this whole issue is with the bureaucratic path. of peel and. the neck of the political that you didn't see in two or so in that respect that played a role in when the young government trying it would actually a premium on regime change and said you know those money will replace the incumbent president but in several cases two russian journalists being barred from entering ukraine for no apparent reason though it looks like kim's parliamentarians are literally pushing reporters out themselves journalists from the russian state t.v. channel or sierra found themselves being kicked by the head of ukraine's radical party here's what one of them told us. i showed him the critic papers given to me by the ukrainian parliament itse

as ukraine struggles with a ceasefire the regime in kiev says it is committed to an association agreement with the e.u. the impact of which could be truly painful for the ukrainian people dividing ukraine continues to. choose your language. ok we can we know if you're going to stay still some of the. troops could use the consensus here to. choose the opinions that you figure a cool. choose to stories could impact the. true spirit access to. these. economic ups and downs in the final months day. sang i and the rest because i meet a cute little being a briefly on a. welcome back to the program maintaining a royal family doesn't usually come cheap with palaces a la porte world tours and high level security arrangements it's not surprising the price tag is a high one but do commoners really know what they're paying for. takes a look at whether britons are getting good value for money or not. over eighty percent of brits believe the royal family brings in a significant amount of revenue for the country each year some five hundred million pounds according to the case national tourism agency but those have b

as ukraine struggles with a ceasefire the regime in kiev says it is committed to an association agreement with the e.u. the impact of which could be truly painful for the ukrainian people dividing ukraine continues. right on the scene. first street. and i think picture. on our reporter's twitter. instagram. to be in the know. on mom. but. i would like to do that you know the price is the only industry specifically mentioned in the constitution and. that's because a free and open process is critical to our democracy albums. in fact the single biggest threat facing our nation today is the corporate takeover of our government and our cynical we've been hijacked right handful of transnational corporations that will profit by destroying what our founding fathers once told just by job market and on this show we reveal the big picture of what's actually going on in the world if we go beyond identifying the problem. rational debate and real discussion critical issues facing america. ready to join the movement then walk away from the big. economic record take for. peace in our life and our. one thing if the re

seek reelection that was as we all know the decision of his government not to sign the association agreement with the e.u. so there was a trigger it was a different one this time it produced an outpouring on the streets of the capital city and then what's really different though is that this took quite a violent turn it's different at least for. ukraine and care here to stun had to violent. revolutions or overthrows the second one of which doesn't have a name either actually the overthrow buckey of in two thousand and twenty ten is doesn't have a name now in the western uprising so i usually pre-trained as people struggling for democracy and you mentioned the political trigger that is that was common in georgia and ukraine. also to some extent in that kurdistan at least and they and the first revolution but i wonder if you really believe that people. are motivated by political thinking rather than economic thinking which is usually the case in most of its base economic grievances but it seems to have been a mix of kind of snowball of many different things so there was there is economic prostration in ukr

somewhat surprising given that ukraine is now looking west and plans to sign an association with the e.u. so the price three hundred or so people go is offering to fix that price for at least a year prime minister gets nukes been there before back in two thousand. when she and president put an agreed on roughly the same price that russia is offering today yet now he's accusing moscow of using gas as a political tool. and then this political weapon is in the hands of the russian government and if gas is a good use it typically is all across the world then that trade is based on a contract and not based on whether russia likes the ukrainian government or not so ukraine wants to squeeze the price to the lowest rate despite the fact that it still owes a whopping four billion dollars gas from the chairman is far from impressed by his bargaining tactics but he says the strategy of the ukrainian side is outright blackmail from the start they took no constructive steps made no compromises and apparently want to be maximally aggravate our gas relationship and of course in limbo too in two thousan

e.u. association agreement well let's now talk to one of the authors of the report andreas han among.countries thank you so much for joining us here on r.t. well very interesting finding here i mean whether researchers are right or not that this is are or choice alone could have triggered a revolution but what is your take yes to the catalyst of unrest in the ukraine there are multiple factors most of all they are all over domestic nature but the point is here with respect to the. press you are making a decision but for what you are or religious political or. e.u. and the asian thank you so how do you know ukraine. you have the whole north you approach this whole issue in europe ready freddy. the very political. so in that respect a great role and when the government didn't sign it would actually a premium on regime change and said you know those money will replace your president well you know many u.s. and european officials openly supported the opposition during the protests and could this also be a factor or the reason why the unrest ended up violent. because part of the opposition

frustration about corruption and many ukrainians rightly or wrongly thought that this association agreement with the e.u. was going to mark a kind of symbolic break with the past we had down the different road things would get better. some of this was probably naive actually i have no problem with that but in any case people felt that they felt and not produce the first wave of protests but keep in mind that. it was rather limited and it seems to have passed a peak but that's when the ana coaches government they despair a big mistake at this point when things were kind of quiet and down cracking down on that march. need to develop a theory that it was and that seemed to really turn things around towards the dispiriting. protest against the government itself and against him remaining in office so this was clearly not planned by anybody but once it got going it acquired a certain life of its own when he saved wasn't planned by anybody. i think it was in this time that many people in russia take that with a considerable degree of skepticism what do you think is the role of the outside actress and i mean th

wars is that it's a play for time because in a couple of days supposed to sign the association agreement with the e.u. at which point the position of the junta and pushing it would be incredibly strengthened and then they can impose demands from from what they see as a position of strength and they wouldn't have to have the european diplomacy behind this is what i think this is the ploy i think this is what they're stalling for think so ok or jump in i really don't think the association agreement this is the economic chapter of the association agreement and it means very little other than the end of eastern ukrainian industry which cannot conceivably compete with the german. i think porsche inc is his his means are limited at this point his army is ragtag yes they can kill a lot of people but there is another problem which is that ukraine cannot as an economic entity cannot be solved without russian participation take the example of the reunification of germany and this cost hundreds of billions of dollars and it's costing it still today and there was only one country which could and was willing to m

says ukraine struggles with a ceasefire the regime in kiev says it is committed to an association agreement with the e.u. the impact of which could be truly painful for the ukrainian people dividing ukraine continues to. cut. thirteen minutes into the hour welcome back now maintaining a royal family doesn't usually come cheap with palaces elaborate world tours and high level security arrangements it's not surprising the price tag is high but do commoners really know what they're paying i for. christopher out of takes a look at whether britons are getting good value for money or not. over eighty percent of brits believe the royal family brings in a significant amount of revenue for the country each year some five hundred million pounds according to the case national tourism agency but those have been campaigning for the abolition of the monarchy believe that figure is incorrect and they're ready to show british taxpayers just how much of their money really goes towards funding live oils their public group claims the estimated annual cost of the monarchy is almost three hundred million pounds which is aro

like it to be in nato although what they're most concerned with at the moment is the association agreement with the e.u. and bring much much closer into the new community if you like and this of course has very very dangerous implications for the reasons that we've discussed today is a country that is very divided the role sorts of different interests of course part of the. association is privatization and mrs being proposed for the many of the coal mines in the east and so on now of course people in ukraine in the same as they would in many other countries in europe don't like this and don't like it happening so it's tied up with war is tied up with if you like an economic offensive which has been going on. since two thousand and eight and it either i think we are heading north towards an immediate war although that may be the case in ukraine i agree that there isn't a particularly optimistic outlook here but if you look in five or ten years' time i think we can be talking about the prospect unfortunately of more conflict and wars in in this part of the world you know it in washington it's quite inter

seek reelection that was as we all know the decision of his government not to sign the association agreement with the e.u. so there was a trigger it was a different one this time it produced an outpouring on the streets of the capital city and then what's really different though is that this took quite a violent turn it's different at least for. ukraine new kid who just on had to violent. revolutions or overthrows the second one of which doesn't have a name either actually the overthrow buckey of in two thousand and twenty ten his doesn't have.

explains somewhat surprising given that ukraine is now looking west and plans to sign an association agreement with the e.u. so the price of three hundred eighty five dollars is at a market level reasonable mosco is offering to fix that price for at least a year but that's not enough for prime minister gets a nuke who wants to squeeze the prize to its lowest and that's despite the fact that ukraine still owes a whopping four billion dollars if gas is a political weapon then this political weapon is in the hands of the russian government and if gas is a good as it typically is all across the world then that trade is based on a contract and not based on whether russia likes the ukrainian government or not interestingly the current energy minister yatsenyuk scavenge was in that so. imposed back in two thousand and nine when you let him go advise him of what's in agreed on roughly the same price which russia is offering today gazprom chairman is far from being impressed by kiev's bargaining tactics. the strategy of the ukrainian side is outright blackmail from the start they took new constructive steps may do

like it to be in nato although what they're most concerned with at the moment is the association agreement with the e.u. much much closer into the new community if you like and this of course has very very dangerous implications for the reasons that we've discussed and is a country that is very divided the role sorts of different interests of course part of the. association is privatisation and mrs being proposed for the many of the coal mines in the east and so on now of course people in ukraine in the same as they would in many other countries in europe don't like this and don't like it happening so it's tied up with war is tied up with that if you like an economic offensive which has been going on. two thousand and eight and it either i think we are heading north towards an immediate war although that may be the case in the ukraine i agree that the reason a particularly optimistic outlook here but if you look in five or ten years' time i think we can be talking about the prospect unfortunately of more conflict and wars in in this part of the world you know and in washington it's quite interesting be