deledio head of the russia and balkans desk of the center for international studies also in moscow alexander solidere a member of the russian opposition and former chairman of open russia welcome to the program dimitri 1st of all what is pushing trying to say here is he saying that he wants to cling to power for other. well 1st i would like to tell you that it's not already it was not ready you're not signed the law because the war was basically bullshit at the referendum last year by serving your servant 1st and of the people who bought in the board i think the situation is misrepresented in a lot of the western media 1st they say that he has been running russia since the year although that's not exactly true because in 2008 yes it handed the reins of power to the medium and radio and then you have for example decided not what dusty u.n. role in 2011 was it was alternately holster that decision. was made a video of you know his way through and the result was going to conduct it was murder in a very very earliest you know and even this year or so. it was all been there all stories that's wha

all right let's bring in our guests in moscow alexander slow view of board member of open russia an opposition group in vancouver island michael busser q global affairs analyst and former spokesman for the organization for security and cooperation in europe or o s c e and back in moscow maria lipman senior associate at the institute for european russian and eurasian studies at george washington university a warm welcome to you all maria let me start with you today this move to ban all of all these political organizations to declare them extremist i mean not only supporters see this as an inevitability at this point right i mean that's why offices are in the process of being disbanded correct yes this is correct and i think the government is out to destroy. his organizations formal and informal and actually it is on a broad campaign to destroy anything and anyone who would dare is express open and vocal disloyalty to the regime it is not limited to the knob on himself and his organizations it goes much broader to some media outlets to lawyers to on non-governmental organizations and it seems th

moscow. the prison authorities in russia say alexander van has been transferred to a prison hospital it's about 90 kilometers away from the penal colony or colony where he's serving 2 and a half year sentence for parole violations now they say he's also receiving the vitamin therapy by his own consent the valley started his hunger strike on march 31st of this is now day 20 and since then he'd only been drinking water is via his wife visited him last week in prison she said he'd lost a lot of weight he had difficulty speaking he's suffering from spinal problems and he's on the weekend is our allies said his life was hanging by a thread and the valley supporters are also called for nationwide protests from on wednesday evening they were calling for 500000 people to sign a petition after which they would have these protests there just slightly short of that but because of these failing health they believe it's much more urgently needed to have these protests to bring attention to his circumstances the police service in russia today has warned people that they shouldn't attend those protests on wed

moscow operatives were involved. doctors for a jailed russian opposition leader alexander said he could quote die any moment based on medical tests received from the bombings representatives the 44 year old has been on hunger strike for 3. weeks and says he doesn't have access to independent medical care w. reporter federico baggio has been following the story federico welcome what has medical teams so worried. about his personal doctor and. his cardiologist they said they've been examining these latest blood test results which the. achieved through his lawyers who can actually visit him in prison and they say they found in his blood levels of potassium which are beyond the threshold that requires immediate treatment they say he's at risk of a cardiac attack or a kidney failure and that pretty much at any moment so they are extremely worried and they are demanding the possibility to see why did not go into hunger strike in the 1st place. he went into hunger strike about 3 weeks ago precisely for the same reason because the prison was denying hinder right to see his own doctors and now he's been jailed in february an

moscow. the prison authorities in russia say alexander valley has been transferred to a prison hospital it's about 90 kilometers away from the penal colony or colony where he's serving 2 and a half year sentence for parole violations they say he's also receiving a victim in therapy by his own consent the valley started his hunger strike on march 31st of this is now day 20 and since then he'd only been drinking water is via his wife visited him last week in prison she said he'd lost a lot of weight he had difficulty speaking he's suffering from spinal problems and he's on the weekend is our eyes said his life was hanging by a thread and a valley supporters are also called for 'd nationwide protests from on wednesday evening they were calling for 500000 people to sign a petition after which they would have these protests there just slightly short of that but because of an avowal knees failing health they believe it's much more urgently needed to have these protests to bring attention to his circumstances the police service in russia today has warned people that they shouldn't attend those prot

message a very clear and united message to of mosco that moscow is the aggressor and they stand in solidarity with ukraine thank you very much alexander are your opening statement referred to the call between biden and putin and which biden apparently offered to meet with putin sometime in the next couple of months so would you say this is mostly about testing the new u.s. president. i think it's a sincere wish of biden and probably and hopefully. to meet together looking each other into the eyes tackle the problems and try to discuss it because the russian side fully understands that the key for some kind of a stable relationship with. in the west and russia lies not in brussels not in berlin not in paris but in washington and in order to negotiate on the future of european security or he texture on everything you have to talk to the american president and biden also understands and i think he has a lot of support of consultants are telling him this don't drive russia into the arms of china the main adversary of the united states is china russia and here biden wants to tackle of course the problems with find out how far he can go in

message a very clear and united message to its mosco that moscow is the aggressor and they stand in solidarity with ukraine thank you very much alexander your opening statement referred to the call between biden and put in which biden apparently offered to meet with putin sometime in the next couple of months so would you say this is mostly about testing the new u.s. president. i think it's a sincere wish of biden and probably and hopefully putin to meet together looking at each other into the eyes tackle the problems and try to discuss it because the russian side fully understands that the key for some kind of a stable relationship with. in the west and russia lies not in brussels not in berlin not in paris but in washington and in order to negotiate on the future of european security architecture on everything you have to talk to the american president and biden also understands and i think he has a lot of support of consultants are telling him this don't drive russia into the arms of china the main adversary of the united states is china russia and here biden wants to tackle of course the problems was in find out how far he can go i

message a very clear and united message to of moscow that moscow is the aggressor and they stand in solidarity with ukraine thank you very much alexander your opening statement referred to the call between biden and put in which biden apparently offered to meet with putin sometime in the next couple of months so would you say this is mostly about testing the new u.s. president. i think it's a sincere wish of biden and probably and hopefully. to meet together looking each other into the eyes tackle the problems and try to discuss it because the russian side fully understands that the key for some kind of a stable relations but. in the west and russia lies not in brussels not in berlin not in paris but in washington and in order to negotiate on the future of european security architecture on everything you have to talk to the american president and biden also understands and i think she has a lot of support of consultants who are telling him this don't drive russia into the arms of china the main adversary of the united states is china not russia and here biden wants to tackle of course the problems with find out how far he can go in ord

message a very clear and united message to its most co that moscow is the aggressor and they stand in solidarity with ukraine thank you very much alexander your opening statement referred to the call between biden and put in which biden apparently offered to meet with putin sometime in the next couple of months so would you say this is mostly about testing the new u.s. president. i think it's a sincere wish of biden and probably and hopefully. to meet together looking each other into the eyes tackle the problems and try to discolor it because the russian side fully understands that the key for some kind of stable relations but. in the west and russia lies not in brussels not in berlin not in paris but in washington and in order to negotiate on the future of european security or he texture on everything you have to talk to the american president and biden also understands and i think he has a lot of support of consultants who are telling him this don't drive russia into the arms of china the main adversary of the united states is china russia and here biden wants to tackle of course the problems with putin find out how far he can go in or

kremlin triggers an escalation then blames the west but moscow is the aggressor and there must be consequences and i'm very glad to welcome alexander our he's an author and analyst who also does political consulting for russian firms including. he says the phone call between presidents biden and putin helped to deescalate the crisis and avoid a possible full blown conflict and joining us virtually from d.w. is gone bureau is my colleague roman gonchar franco he's an editor in the russian department and was born in the ukraine region of what was then the soviet union he says russia is using bullying tactics to press ahead with its creeping on the sation of donbass ukraine must stay calm. so let me begin by asking all 3 of you whether you think this is mostly just saber rattling or indeed something more and because in a donkey that your opening statements certainly suggest you see a very real danger of a russian offensive well not necessarily i think it's saber wrestling and it's yeah directed for impressing the west it's a signal to the west and 2 presidents a lansky from ukraine and it's. i think russia's try. to build up the stake

detention happened in moscow and these 2 are believed to assimilate the ball russian president alexander lukashenko and possibly even members of his family during victory day celebrations that are upcoming the bell russian president almost instantly blamed the u.s. for it for orchestrating this attempt but washington has denied any involvement now you may wonder what does frog have to do with all this what we have to. understand that the czech republic is a close u.s. ally in eastern europe it's a member of nato not with a central role but still and russian officials very often have blamed washington for using some eastern european countries the czech republic in particular asked puppets of the assumption by the russian foreign ministry is that washington could be pressuring these countries into making political moves against russia to demonize it so that is the message coming out of moscow in the meantime the u.s. state department has already said that they are expressing full support for the move that's been made by prague. but you're saying with the situation increasingly tense some e

so this is a stretch of strategy used by moscow and not only now and on bass but it has been used before in georgia with a posse and south. in february alexander president selenski took measures to silence 3 pro russian broadcasters in ukraine and also to sanction the oligarchy who owns them that all of our captains to have close ties to put in is the russian troop buildup partly a message to selenski that he went too far in essentially trying to shut down russian propaganda machines i think the message is more to the west no nato crane as i said before but indeed i think it's a big mistake of it to close down the. 3 television stations will broadcast in russia because still in eastern ukraine and more people live in eastern ukraine than in the west of the korean train i mean they tend to listen also to russian programs and that steers more tension inside of the country than than brings the escalation so i hope that this mistake somehow will be taken back and what i think it's tremendously important is that approach and meet because they. form a different format or in the minsk format this meetings with the germans and french they didn't mater

that killed 2 people moscow in turn has accused prague of engaging in tricks as it calls them and says there will be diplomatic consequences. doctors for jailed russian descent alexander valley say he could be close to death based on medical tests received from his representatives the 44 year old is on hunger strike he says authorities aren't letting his doctors treat him for back pain and numbness in his legs. prince philip queen elizabeth's husband for more than 7 decades has been laid to rest he died last week at the age of 99 the ceremony took place under strict social distancing rules at windsor castle near london the prince himself helped plan the funeral and reflected his lifelong ties with the armed forces. a funeral for a man who gave almost a century of service to his country and to solve room. for loops coffin was carried to st george's chapel in windsor castle draped by his personal standards and adorned with his naval cap and sword. only 30 close friends and family members could attend to 2 coronavirus restrictions . it was philip's devotion to service the provider to theme to the funeral ceremony . we have been inspired by his on wavering loyalty to our

of the kremlin critic alexei and of on the we're going to speak to alexander who is an independent politician he's joining us from moscow thanks for speaking to us on al-jazeera so the latest news we're getting out of moscow is that state media is reporting that not only has now been transferred to a hospital from 4 prisoners just briefly are you hearing anything new on his health or the situation well unfortunately the only thing we all hear is that the condition is getting worse and worse he really. did die. saying that he's hard to make up the moment because. i mean his body functioning he would live for and not at all. horrible of course right and that is something the government of course disputes when it says that his health is in fact satisfactory but the message on xander from the international community has really been loud and clear which is given advani the medical aid he needs and to not let him die so is are authorities in russia now feeling the pressure from the international community. well i think even if they feel this pressure i'm not sure that they do care about it until something personal for them ha

moscow was involved in a weapons depot explosion in 2014. separately, czech police have said they are searching for two men carrying passports in the name of alexanderan boshirov. those were aliases used by these two russian military intelligence officers. they were charged by british prosecutors with the attempted murder on british soil of russian spy sergei skripal. the so—called salisbury poisonings prompted the biggest wave of diplomatic expulsions between moscow and the west since the cold war. president biden is drawing criticism for backtracking on a pledge to increase the number of refugees allowed into the united states. immigration is a thorny political issue in the us and the approach has varied from administration to administration. in 2016, the final year of the 0bama administration, 85,000 refugees were granted entry. this was slashed under former president donald trump, a historically low limit was set on the number of refugees with 15,000 allowed in per year. president biden has sought to distance himself from the hardline stance of the former administation. he planned to raise the number of refugees allowed in to 62,500 per year. in

moscow was involved in a weapons depot explosion in 2014. separately, czech police have said they are searching for two men carrying passports in the name of alexandernd the acting foreign minister appeared at a specially scheduled news conference with the stunning news that they are expelling 18 diplomats from the russian embassy in prague and that was because, in the prime minister and's words, clear evidence of the involvement of the russian intelligence services at an explosion at an ammunition is dumped into thousand 1a. within a few minutes of that announcement there came even more extraordinary news when the czech police tweeted image of two men that they want to speak to in regards this attack in 2014, this explosion. those two men are the same names and photos as the two suspected agents who were alleged to have been behind the 2018 number chuck poisonings in salisbury in the uk. so, an extraordinary course of events deceiving in prague unfolding extremely quickly with far—reaching consequences for relations between the czech republic and russia. tell us more about those potential consequences. it comes at a delicate time. the interior mini

activity of jailed kremlin critic alexander valleys and to corruption foundation and its regional networks according to a statement bonneville news group state prosecutors in moscow requested the suspension pending a decision to designate the vollies opposition group as extremists this nationwide suspension do is another blow to the kremlin but its movement. now let's cross over to do that we have correspondents around in moscow and what consequences does this . well it basically suspends the work of all these anti-corruption foundation in the broader russian federation moving forward and if the designation as an extremist organization is upheld it would basically bring them in line with extremist groups like far right groups terrorist organizations or neo nazi groups they would effectively banned their symbols banned their work and would also place criminal penalties on people working within the organization now the higher ups in the organization could face multi-year jail terms with them for if they continue to work for the anti-corruption foundation and i think even more chilling than that people out there at the grassroots level the ground level could also be

moscow. writer al-jazeera as roy chalons now has more on the sas suspects behind the 2nd inning insult spree in 2018. all the rest of alexander picture of our assumes not to be their real names they will be identities familiar with many people in the united kingdom because they are the russian agents that british intelligence said were behind the script of poisonings in 2018 and since that time further investigations from citizen journalist outfits like belling cats and other western intelligence services believe that they were members of a particular units of russian military intelligence g.r.u. and this unit was called unit 29155 unit 252-9155 is believed to have been responsible for a whole swathe of incidents across europe spanning many many years going back perhaps as part as long as a decade essentially taking out dirty work for the russian government up to and including what the russians call wet jobs in the senshi killings now these include a destabilization campaign in moldova an attempted coup in montenegro the poisoning of a ball carrier in arms dealer and now the czechs say they were behind the explosions of arms