the crimea ones had a little less bite and the minsk a little more. it's an incentive to say, let's solve that one. that is one answer to your question, to get into specific policy change. it is not in isolation. there are other things we are doing as well to facilitate a resolution of the conflict in eastern ukraine, such as lifting a ban on arms sales to ukrainians, such as demonstrating there are no further gains to be made by russia, what they have got is what they've got. areing that the costs extensive, sanctions are part, but also the lack of relationship with the eu in u.s., cost of military observations -- operations, cost of casualties that are still happening. a high cost not much gain anything sanctions fit into that. is a degree of response or punishment. take crimea. i don't think anyone is saying the sanctions there because of crimea are going to cost russia to give up crimea right away, but we want them there as an indicator that going into another country and taking a territory and annexing it in calling it your own is simply not acce

during our talks and i know that the minsk accords exist and that's the only foundation. which we should use to continue to work on this crisis they were serious or violations of the ceasefire agreement last night so we need to figure out details of the un mission to this region our foreign minister should continue this work that would be a great success for stability in the situation in eastern ukraine. so that we could make some political steps who also discussed the role of the. gas transit through ukraine and to convince that. germany and minister of economy confirm that that after north stream two is finished the role of ukraine as a transit state will have to remain because it's a very it's a strategic point for us and germany's prepared to participate in that process. we are also looking at north stream to this new pipeline as an economic and commercial.

the minsk agreements are on the able. just need to be implemented an a peace keeping force that would actually provide security in the area and allow for the afwreemt to be implemented would be alewed and we're prepared to sort that. the question coming down to what does russia want to do. thus far, they've shown they wants to continue the con flick. i think part oof that is context ural. there's a will the of other bad stuff on with russia right now. syria, north korea, nuclear inf, air and sea space violations, so forth. the other is into elections, there might be a wait an see. i'm not confident russia is going to do much different. i think we are positioned the right way both to continue to put pressure for resolution and be prepared to execute a resolution if they cwe can get . >> crimea, sanctions stay. eastern ukraine until the elections. stay. steady as we go. let me take a step back. part of the u.s. sapgss package has been focused on the ruggen defense. it is now started to challenge even nato partners like turk

relatede minsk sanctions are different from the other sanctions. withdrawal --to withdraw we would be lifting those sanctions. not all of them and the russians know that. the crimea ones have less bite. the minsk one's a bit more. there is incentive to solve that one. that is the answer to your questions. to get a specific policy change. there are other things we are doing to facilitate a resolution of the conflict in eastern ukraine. such as lifting the ban of arms sales to the ukrainians. areing that the costs extensive, sanctions are a part of that but it is also part of a lack of relationship, cost of military operations, cost of that are happening there. there is a high cost and not much gain. together with that, the sanctions fit in with that. reason is the degree of response or punishment. take crimea. i do not think anyone who thinks that the sanctions there will cause russia to give up crimea right away. --want to have them there as because taking territory is simply not acceptable, and we will not agree to that this time. serves as a bit

other than one other than minsk negotiations and normandy for russia is prepared to support this format and to meet every level. with each and every of these meetings have to be very well prepared and have a positive outcome in any case a dialogue is always better than confrontation. so the theory. excluded as for syria i think we get it through the computer. to give more time to the i have just presented how i see the situation and the differences in the very procedure that we have been in that. developing with president putin and the mechanism of the ordination as for political aspects that we have to be talking about the people of the state the situation in syria after war with the peaceful share in the field the mystery we have then want to develop certain goals that you don't even know that we have outlined specially zones we don't collect live with the least double. so there we were finding i so and were trying to find that i had with all of these are told to me when i've been about footage will know at ohsu to have this long planned meeting in is rather significant this comes hou

the minsk agreements need to be complied with. and there is a way to eliminate ins tension starting first the areas of conflict and ultimately resolving crimea to the satisfaction of the international community. i think russia may be looking for an off ramp. third, russia can play constructive role in syria. let's play constructive role. has lost his assad legitimacy so let's figure out a way to move forward on a true peace process and let the syrian people choose their next leader. russia clearly will have some influence in that. we recognize that and are not trying to stop that. these are some of the issues i would like to have a conversation with mr. putin between our presidents but it has to start with a clear statement and understanding in a public way that the whole world knows what he did in attacking our country. it's night awesome -- it's not isolated. he is done it before. there are consequences. >> our ready for the november 6 elections? can we deter future interference? >> because of the reaction you saw in 20, mr. put

we made it clear that we insisted upon sanctions being imposed unless russia complied with the minsk agreement. it's pretty simple, easy way, comply with that agreement. we didn't think that was too much to ask and yet, russia still has not complied with the minsk agreement. so we were able to get the europeans to work with us. they're obviously much closer to russia than we are from the point of view of their economy so it was extremely important to get the -- europe's cooperation in dealing with that. our purpose for using these tools is, yes, to change russia behavior. we want and we'll never recognize russia's annex asian of crimea, the part of ukraine. we'll make that clear and president trump's going to make that clear. so, part of it is to make it clear what our policy is. our policy is to get russia stopping to interfere with the sovereignty of other countries, but it's also to change their calculation. now, we go back in history as to what was the motivating cause for russia's incursion into maldova, but they didn't pay a heavy price for incursion into maldova. we could then

on ukraine, just like germany, we believe the minsk agreement should be fully implemented even if we don't see eye-to-eye as to how these agreements should be implemented but it would be important to implement the agreements between the leaders of russia, germany, ukraine and france, the agreement that was reached about the so-called formula that needs to be put on paper. this has to do with the special status and other agreements that we have reached in berlin on october 16 between the leaders disengagingtries on at the -- icularly [inaudible] >> the reintegration bill, the bill that was passed and signed into law without mentioning the minsk agreements. we also touched on the situation in syria. we noted that our positions are close, both our countries believe there is no alternative to resolution 2254. it is up to the people of syria themselves, all the religious groups to decide the future of their country and the international community should support them with the united nations playing the leading role. we also pointed out that air strikes launched by the u.s., the united king

that the are going to carve a conflict needs to be resolved within the framework of the always the minsk group and one of the principles of the always siemens group is the. right to for self-determination so again like i said there's really nothing there about can we have time for just one question and it may come across as lame to you but the police indulge me we've talked every speech we've discussed the recent changes in passions appearance his recent efforts to look more like a military man despite him never having taken part in any active combat and some of the observers suggested that he deliberately tries to look like the armenian hero from those early clashes in there go on the kind of bomb month it baby they only look like an identical twins at this point even you know with the bandage on the same on the same hand is that just a coincidence or is that also a clever use of political technology because somebody accused him of trying to appeal to that militaristic or nationalistic filling on the part of many armenians many armenians do feel entitled to not go in the car back so the

yes and no on ukraine both leaders were leaving they both spoke of the importance of keeping to the minsk peace process and also of continuing talks in the normandy format so that's with ukraine russia france and germany on syria you could sense that there are some differences in talks about the importance of. the fact that there are different different opinions between alluded to leaders when it comes to weapons and that it was important to find out who is behind chemical weapons attacks in syria after all france joined the u.s. and the u.k. after a suspected chemical weapons attack in april and they attacked syrian government targets there and putin condemned those attacks at the time very strongly so that was certainly a reference to a difference of opinion between the two sides but in general the tone was very much conciliatory mcallen talked a lot lot about historical ties cultural ties and they've both talked about economic ties as well and also michael i found it interesting referred to putin in the opening statements with an informal two so really kind of signaling that that the t

motion the back in minsk agreement. they well work on the peace process.nd there will be a new pipeline to the russia to germany baltic state. ,any european countries including ukraine, are against that project. one wonders how much room for negotiation does angela merkel really have? and if bladder putin as the -- vladimir putin has the upper hand? provocatione mean a thursday? isorter: again, that visit understood as a provocation for thatest and it is expected merkel will address the serious situation with putin. she has strong doubts that russia would support bashar al-assad much longer, but yesterday's visit in russia proved otherwise. one optimistic note for today's meeting between angela merkel and putin is both germany and russia seemed to see eye to eye on at least one point and that is the salvation of the iran nuclear deal. much, thank you so reporting live there from berlin. european leaders wrapped up two ons of talks in sofia thursday, pledging their commitment to the iran nuclear deal, despite u.s. sanctions. washington has reimposed its ban

same as the commitment, the commitment of both sides towards a full and complete agreement of the minskgreement. there has not been any progress whatsoever. leila: this might be a confidence building measure but we will have to see if it materializes. also high on the agenda is iran nuclear deal. both sides are signatories to the deal, continue to support the deal, so will they keep the iran nuclear deal alive? johannes: that depends on the iranians, but as you outline through the european powers, germany, france and the u.k., as well as the russians of course, they want to maintain the agreement, and it depends on whether the europeans and russia can persuade the iranians to stick to the agreement. leila: the other thing i don't see eye to eye on is syria. -- they don't see eye to eye on is syria. johannes: the difference is quite apparent because putin is quite intent on keeping assad in power. that surfaced at the meeting in sochi that russia would like germany to take a substantial role in the reconstruction of syria. so in other words it is ironic that russia is responsible for lar

theyey both spoke of the importance of keeping to the minsk peace process and keeping toalks in the normandyormat, with ukraine, russia france and germany. on syria, you can sense that there are differences. macron talked about the importance of, or ththe fact tht they are of different opinions, between the two leaders, when it comes to weapons, and that it was important to find out who was behind chemical weapons attacks in syria. after all, france joined the u.s. and the u.k. after a suspected chemical weapons attack in april, and they attacked syrian government targets there. putin condemned those attacks at the time very strongly, so that was certainly a reference to a difference of opinion between the two sides. but in general, the tone was very conciliatory, macron talked a lot about historical ties, cultural ties, and they both talked about economic ties. and mccrone, i found it interesting, he referred to putin in the opening statements with an informal tu, kind of singling -- kind of signaling that the two sides are looking to deepen their partnership. brent: emily sherwin in moscow

as with the commitment the commitment by both sides to the full and complete implementation of the minsk to an agreement there to has not been any progress whatsoever right ok so this might be confidence building measure but we'll have to see if it materializes into something concrete also high on the agenda of course is the iran nuclear deal both sides are signatories to the deal but support continued to support the deal so do you think that they will keep the new. clear iran nuclear deal alive well that depends very much on the iranians but there's a joint position as you just outlined the three european powers germany france and the u.k. as well as the russian of course as china they want to maintain the agreement and it depends very much on whether or not the europeans and russia can persuade the iranians to a stick to the agreement so the other thing that they don't see eye to eye on is of course syria do you see them reaching an agreement on that there again though the differences are quite quite apparent to me because putin is the quite intent on the keeping assad in power and of

as with the commitment the commitment by both sides to the full and complete implementation of the minsk to an agreement there to has not been any progress whatsoever right ok so this might be confidence building measure but we'll have to see if that materializes into something concrete also high on the agenda of course is the iran nuclear deal both sides are signatories to the deal but support continued to support the deal so do you think that they will keep the nuclear. the iran nuclear deal alive well that depends very much on the iranians a but there's a joint position as you just outlined the three european powers germany france and the u.k. as well as the russian of course china they want to maintain the agreement and it depends very much on whether or not the europeans and russia can persuade the iranians to stick to the agreement so the other thing that they don't see eye to eye on is of course syria do you see them reaching an agreement on that well there again the differences are quite quite apparent to me because putin is the quite intent on the keeping assad in power and of c

and as president putin has said the only way out of this situation you can make is to implement the minsk agreement the beast with the feel of your own home and normal the next few weeks. with the others you will be working groups which will be organized so the people that have a history and i hope that we can also give you a little bit achieve some positive results as for bilateral relations we have discussed this and as president putin has said we're discussing the i think activities and the risks. you know your existing in this cyber space i mean cyber attacks that are middle level and we have agreed to create a new mechanism that politically to need tools like getting change information believe it really there and to work on specific situations of a moment that may arise of a conduct work which would allow us to create a joint guidelines on behavior in cyberspace among us if you don't know right now we have a very dynamic that it will lessen shipping with them in regard to economy mr president putin has reminded us of that and because russia is our major investment partner economic pa

minsk. there is not interim they don't even mentioning i mean they they say if you don't want to get into this at this point there is a series of steps to be taken by all sides. i think it's very important for two shows away and then to process stuff and if the treatment the unfair treatment you're talking about is linked to a political situation which i find quite different from zero rest of the issue of trade what i meant by unfair treatment is not only sanctions related to the ukrainian case for example i'm sure you know that one of our biggest companies who saw it was just sanctioned by the americans and nobody actually knows what for i mean it's supposedly related to their latched interference in the elections but those reasons have never been really laid out i think this accumulation on sanctions on russia is not exactly a good idea frankly i think the hysteria thing on going back to the cold war is not a good idea and we should deescalate all this but whether there was an interference

maintain that are going to carve out conflict needs to be resolved within the framework of the always the minsk group and one of the principles of the always siemens group is the. right for self-determination so again like i said there's really nothing there about can we have time for just one question and it may come across as lame to you but please indulge me we've talk every speech we've discussed the recent changes in passions appearance his recent efforts to look more like a military man despite him never having taken part in any active combat and some of the observers suggested that he deliberately tries to look like the armenian hero from those early clashes in there go on the kind of bomb. they they all know they look like an identical twins at this point even you know with the bandage on the same on the same hand is that just a coincidence or is that also a clever use of political technology because somebody accused him of trying to appeal to that militaristic or nationalistic feeling on on the part of many armenians many armenians do feel entitled to not go in the car back so they had

we have the minsk award -- a matters- a court -- on of cybersecurity and the economic -- economy, and that is what we have been doing together. we have very specific action. i am sure you notice we signed about 50 agreements, very important ones. we agreed to work together in order to develop and put together a single charter within which we will be able to resolve different disputes. that is a very important point as well. we have been able to exchange some humorous words, certainly. has an understanding between russia and the european decade,d in the past more precisely we are talking about the european union, russia, and france, which is always pursuing independent policy, which has a very strong army, which is a clear-cut foreign policy. i suspect france can act in an optimal way in order to build and think more about this architecture. geopolitically in terms of security and in the economic, in terms of cyberspace, to build certain lines of force in certain commonality. the common language, if i may say so, i would insist that will be very important and very useful for the stabil

there and see people enjoying conditions on the walk we've got fine weather in geneva and even over in minsk we've had plenty of sunshine of last twenty four hours and to top it all off today is a national holiday in the u.k. still enjoying fine weather conditions there although been having a field day with this off they're talking about traffic jams people complain about queues on the roads and general rush to get out and enjoy that fine weather while it last well it will last for the day or so but we will find colder weather pushing as that cold front begins to drift in from the northwest but for many parts it continues to be draw and find an exception though is down around the bay of general we've got this little area of low pressure that will trough doesn't look much on our analysis charts but it's commute some very severe thunderstorms around this region into the far southeast of france into parts of switzerland that area of low pressure begin to weaken that front will make some progress in across the u.k. as we head through into choose day and an area of low pressure will give some ver

the situation in eastern ukraine and they have been specifically pegged to the implementation of the minsk agreement so that is the precondition in order to get rid of those sanctions however obviously if germany and russia do continue these common goals when it comes to iran it might change at least the general environment when it comes to the relationship between germany the e.u. and then russia on the other hand as well thomas as ever thanks very much for and so is thomas sparrow for us there. now if you look at some of the other stories making the news this morning u.s. president down from north korean leader kim jong un will be holding their much anticipated summit on june twelfth in singapore that's been confirmed from revealed the place and time in a tweet the two leaders will discuss reading the korean peninsula of nuclear weapons and normalizing relations between the two longtime enemies in south korea one man is dead two others wounded during an attack on a mosque eye witnesses say a number of attackers slipped were first roads in and fled the scene it is still unclear why they a

political solution we can do it on military terms we do this and various formats we try to build the minsk the green meant wish life again even though it's a bit frustrating to see that every night. that. i have been very porting violations over and over again i would like to thank them because for many many years they have worked in this difficult position thanks a lot to them. germany. has always followed a natural park approach we know that we can only solve these problems by working together by finding political solutions and. by seeking followers to force you but only as a last resort military force alone will not be able to solve the problem so it's symbolic for our coalition agreement to say more development expenses and more cost. increasing both items to show that networking approach is central of importance to this government's. listing of. but we need to abide to obligations on all sides so our quota obligation has to be met on the one hand. and the whales targets nato targets and need to be met on the other hand also and we fixed and the coalition agreement also. federal financ

lifted or softened but that doesn't seem likely to happen unless there is some progress made on the minsk peace process that's certainly the german position there also has been some political wrangling about the north stream to project which is the gas pipeline that's supposed to run through the baltic sea from russia to germany and ahead of this meeting here today we saw the minister of economic affairs from germany visiting russia as well trying to kind of get get through the details he visited the ukraine as well to push forward on the deal and many brief appeared to be seeing a recalibration off relations not so much she mocked a new and different tone in relations between germany and russia given the ties with the u.s. of this time quite difficult. well and rita it's hard to know obviously there are some big stumbling blocks the main one still being ukraine the annexation of the crimean peninsula certainly still looms large over german russian relations and putin doesn't seem to be backing down . in fact rather the opposite this week we saw putin opening a bridge connecting the crime

do you think there will be some changes toward the ukraine negotiations and the minsk agreement? potentially peace keeping operation, that sometimes when there is a resetting, we have six years. is there more room do you think for foreign policy engagement and improvement in ukraine? >> well, what i would say is we put in place even before we really ran into the election period i think a fairly clear and sound approach from the west. we had sanctions in place and the prospect of increasing sanctions and ukraine's defense capabilities, support for ukraine financially through the imf pushing ukraine, trying to be successful. demonstrating russia is not going to get anymore out of this conflict than it has already done and the costs are going to be high and increasing. you got that lined up. and then offer a way forward. if you want to resolve this, we are ready to resolve this. the minsk agreements are on the table and peace keeping force that would provide security in the area and allow for the minsk agreement to be implemented would be a way to do that and we are prepared to supp