mr. lavrov, not much has transpired so far about what moscow and mr.in, specifically, he is the plain decision maker, whether they are going to push forward with some pressure on assad to where negotiate seriously about political transition. >> are we turning the tide in syria? stay with up. it's "inside story." >> [chanting] yes we can! >> an historic election. >> you and i, we're going to change this county, and we will change the world. >> monumental decisions. >> mr. president, there's a one and three chance of a second great depression. >> first-hand accounts from the people who were there. >> their opinion was shocking. >> the challenges. >> he said, "i am president of the united states and i can't make anything happen." >> the realities. >> he stood up and said, "that's it, i'm finished." >> welcome back to "inside story." we're talking about the situation unfolding in syria and the possibility of peace talks leading to permanent ceasefire. i'm talking to rhonda swim and kurt voal kerr. there was a surprising move by the russians to draw down so

mr. lavrov, not much has transpired so far about what moscow and mr.in, specifically, he is the plain decision maker, whether they are going to push forward with some pressure on assad to where negotiate seriously about political transition. >> are we turning the tide in syria? stay with up. it's "inside story." >> al jazeera america - proud of telling your stories. >> i wanted to dance, and eventually i started leaving the gangs in the street alone. >> we're pushing the envelope with out science every day, we can save species. >> i'm walking you guys! >> all i wanted to see was her walk. it was amazing. >> these were emotions that i had been dreaming about for so long. >> getting to the heart of the matter. proud to tell your stories. al jazeera america. >> welcome back to "inside story." we're talking about the situation unfolding in syria and the possibility of peace talks leading to permanent ceasefire. i'm talking to rhonda swim and kurt voal kerr. there was a surprising move by the russians to draw down some of their air force sent into syria and

mr. lavrov, not much has transpired so far about what moscow and mr.in, specifically, he is the plain decision maker, whether they are going to push forward with some pressure on assad to where negotiate seriously about political transition. >> are we turning the tide in syria? stay with up. it's "inside story." >> the only live national news show at 11:00 eastern. >> we start with breaking news. >> let's take a closer look. >> welcome back to "inside story." we're talking about the situation unfolding in syria and the possibility of peace talks leading to permanent ceasefire. i'm talking to rhonda swim and kurt voal kerr. there was a surprising move by the russians to draw down some of their air force sent into syria and participating in a bombing campaign throughout syria. why did the russians do that, it took everybody by surprise, we're not expecting putin the do this. >> we don't know what that means just because they said it, we don't know what they mean in practice. they wanted to bolster the assad regime, the assad regime was on its heels. they

. >> we always need some help from mr kerry and mr lavrov because they've been proving in the past, and i hope in the future they prove it, that when they have a common understanding it helps enormously the process. >> reporter: it's clear from what we're hearing from officials and diplomats that the opposition certainly do have plans unlike the government that they're putting forward on the future of syria. staffan de mistura put to both sides a questionnaire, 29 questions, about political transition in syria. my understanding is so far the government have not given in their questionnaire. the opposition, though, have, but i've managed to read that document. what's clear to he is that they don't want to fall into the mistakes that were made when sudam hussein was forced from power by the u.s. they want to keep a lot of syrian government in place, removing just key individuals and keeping much of the existing government in damascus in place. the only exception is the security sector and it's clear there that they want their new governing body to have a chairman who will take the role in

that's why, i think, mr staffan de mistura earlier this week said to me "i always need the help of mr lavrov and mr kerry because they are the architects of this process, the guarantors of the process", and the only people that can push the syrian government, and it is the syrian government not engaging on this issue of political transition, are the russians. i'm sure that's at the very center of what they are talking about right now in has co. what pressure the russians are prepared to put on the syrian government. clearly there is already pressure. the start of that russian pull-out, i think, put pressure on the syrian government, but despite that they're not only not refusing to talk about bashar al-assad and the role of bashar al-assad, they're refusing to talk about the whole idea of transition. whenever it has come up in the meeting, the delegation has wanted to talk about other things, it has wanted to talk about the agenda, about broad principles. we then had had the brussels attack and the wider situation of terrorism or what it called terrorism in syria. in this round of talks they

need yaltor >> we always need help from mr kerry and mr lavrov because they've proved in the past, and i hope that they prove in the future, that when they have a common understanding, it helps enormously the process >>> we're also having the humanitarian task force meeting. what are they discussing it? >> that's one of the things that going on in parallel with the talks, is we have a cessation of hostilities that's now been in place for three and a half weeks, and we have this effort to get to besieged communities and get aid to besieged communities. the latest we have from the u.n. is that there are errors they're not reaching-- areas that they're not reaching which are being besieged by the government side. again, pressure on the government delegation. i can tell you the opposition delegation are saying in addition to those six there are other areas that are starting to be besieged by the government since these talks started. i think when we hear from the u.n. and in case from the humanitarian adviser to this process, it will be interesting to see whether he calls out the government

kremlin, they changed their language in some of the communiques to bring it into line with what lavrov was saying. mr putin gets a seat at the big table. how does that need into the peace process? >> at the end of the day there is cooperation. there is russian-american cooperation on the ground. we were both on air on that day when it was announced the cessation of hostilities. he was announcing it from jordan, a country which was supposed to put the list of terrorist groups in syria. there is some sort of agreement between the russians and the americans. you talk to anyone in the open silgs and they will tell you they are worried and that the world has abandoned them. no doubt we are at least over the past five years many turning points, but this is different. we've seen military gains on the ground as well as a real push by the international community to try to find some sort of political settlement in syria >>> thank you. three refugees have died wading across the river trying to get into macedonia. hundreds made the attempt and many of them are being held by the police there. the group had abando

mr. steinmeyer -- steinmeier met with their gay lab rob, discussing -- met with sergey lavrov, and they wereing about the fate of nadiya savchenko. the minsk cease-fire agreement contains a phrase about soldiers, but relations between kiev and moscow are at rock-bottom, and savchenko's conviction could prove to be a diplomatic nightmare for both nations. reporter: she is hailed as a hero. the government says they will do all they can to free her. the court sentenced her to 22 years in prison. within minutes of the announcement, a message from the president left janco -- president lepchenko appeared. they were detained in 2015. soldiers from both sides are frequently captured by the opposition along the ukrainian front. last year, the red cross was able to visit more than 600 detainees from pro-russian separatist areas. they were denied access to soldiers in jails run by the rebels. meanwhile, the gradual process of prisoner exchange is underway. last week, the ukrainian soldier and two other prisoners were freed after hundreds of days jailed by pro-russian rebels. >> it was a nightmare. the

mr. kerry was in moscow and he had four hour speech with lavrov and four hour meeting with putin, and thequestion was discussed in the meetings. and finally it was a proposition by russian government they say we exchange for total amnesty for all rebels and fight eers a yesterday i read that the american government wouldn't accept it. it's very strange because russia talks with the united states about -- not with the ukrainian government. because actually the russian bsh putin's position it's my own personal opinion that putin's position that ukraine is not an abandoned state. it's manipulated. so he prefers talk with the united states. united states officials not with ukraine. okay. that's the problem of due process because i know the bjude refused all the documents and phone printings, phone number printings and so on. that's the first part. the second problem is the recent russian constitutional courts, you know, what is more important the judgments of the european court or international legislation and the constitutional court ruled that could reverse in of the courts judgment if it c

mr. lavrov. after decimating opponents of assad's regime with its bombing, russia has now made a joint statement with the u.s. that it will agree to a cessation of hostilities february 27th. to moo the only thing rush why has been consistent with is failing to keep its word. what consequences, specifically what consequences do you support imposing upon russia if it violates the cease-fire agreement and it is just a smokescreen or some kind of a charade? >> well, in answer to the question, what does john kerry think he could achieve -- >> and the consequences for russia if they do violate. >> right. my job and the job of everybody in the state department is to try to -- you know, war is the absence of failure of diplomacy. our job is to try to see if there is a way to bring this to an end. i can't -- i'm not sitting here naively vouching for the fact this is going to work but the all the it i have is i sit in my office, go visit a bunch of countries while the war wages on and nobody makes an effor