he's the longest serving russian leader since joseph stalin a lot of the putin wants to stay in power even longer a referendum on constitutional reforms could extend his rule so how will this shape the future of russia this is inside still. hello welcome to the program. vladimir putin was 1st elected as russia's president in 2020 years later he still had he served longer than any russian or soviet politician since the early 1950 s. and it could be on course to be one of his nation's longest serving leaders putin's opponents say he plans to never leave office constitutional reforms introduced in january will allow him to stay in power for another 26 year terms his current one and in 4 years russians have started voting in a weeklong referendum on the amendments but the state duma has already approved those changes to the constitution while also passing a law that says the reforms must have the public support its president putin says he'll consider running for a 5th term in 2024 he said this to the russian media if this doesn't happen then in about 2 years and i know this from personal

was part of the working group brought together by president putin to draft the proposed reforms. of the laws and meet that the current president has already been elected to the highest state post several times there is no recent the rest just a special provision in the text of the constitution that allows the current president to run for the next presidential election this provision largely guarantees that the states policy will not be radically changed after 2024 but the vote is largely symbolic the changes have already been passed by russia's parliament still critics say putin wants the people to give his plan the veneer of a ditch in the sea put in wants to be supported by people as a dictator the system situation for any kind of degree dictatorships such a direct direct line direct connection between the autocrats and the people are simply personal so social logical. there are fears the nationwide vote could increase the spread of coronavirus in a country that is still recording over $7000.00 new infections a day a ban on public events led to the arrest of hundreds of protest

or demanding an answer from russia, demanding an answer from putin, talking about the things that putin has done. when it comes to vladimir putin, this president just seems to think that he's the greatest thing going. i don't understand it and nobody understands it. we had a nice discussion today, but i think the american people deserve to know why doesn't the president question putin. why doesn't the president condemn what putin has done. why doesn't the president stand up for the united states. for god's sake, these are our soldiers. if we are not going to project them, what are we going to do? it kind of left me with no answer. didn't really come away knowing anything more than i knew before. it's just too bad. i think we will eventually get an answer because i think the american people will demand nothing less. thank you, steny. mr. hoyer: thank you. thank you, mr. engel. also want to say specifically, as i think all of you know, ms. spanberger and ms. slotkin have had direct involvement in the intelligence community. ms. slotkin worked in the white house for a number of years. ms.

putin is paying to kill american soldiers. donald trump still, still at that time, is trying to get vladimir putin invited back to the party at the g-7. the trump solution to their public relations problem, because that's all it is for them, it's not a problem about american soldiers and danger, it is a public relations problem for donald trump, the solution for the trump team was to claim that donald trump simply knew nothing about it and yesterday donald trump claimed that intelligence briefers, quote, did not report it to me or the vice president. so you have to ask yourself, is there any reason, any reason at all to believe donald trump? the same person who is claiming that he didn't know the video he retweeted had a trump supporter saying white power twice. obviously there is no reason to believe donald trump's denial that he knew about intelligence indicating russia is paying to kill american soldiers. donald trump denies that he was briefed on it. donald trump has decided that claiming to be a president who is totally i

>> i think putin is smart, tough.he's not faced with a serious adversary here. i think putin thinks he can play him like a fiddle. i don't think he's worried about donald trump. >> hi, everybody. welcome to moscow. >> in the years before he was president, donald trump brought his miss universe pageant to russia. >> of course, the big man on campus, donald trump. >> hoping that president putin would attend. through the years, his interest in russia and putin continued up to the 2016 election. >> i mean, he might be bad, he might be good, but he's a strong leader. >> but it was this comment on the campaign trail that raised questions. >> russia, if you're listening, i hope you're able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing. >> he essentially called on russia to hack into hillary clinton's emails. >> by the way, if they hacked, they probably have her 33,000 e-mails. i hope they do. >> since he took office, trump and putin have shared a complicated relationship. >> putin struck me as totally in control, calm, self-co

putin. i don't understand what it is with the president's infatuation with putin. if you just look at the facts and you say, okay, what happened? it comes into question the fact that there was about to put on american troops. if that is a something to go crazy about, then i don't know what is. but instead of the president apparently telling putin how upset we are and how we're not going to stand for this, we get nothing. we get perhaps the president know something, perhaps he doesn't know something, perhaps he was reacting in a certain way, perretti doesn't or didn't. it just makes a sensible at a a think anybody, any fair-minded person who looks and sees what we're dealing with will scratch their heads and say, , why isn't the president condemning putin or at least questioning what happened, or demanding an answer from russia, demanding an answer from putin, talking about the things putin has done? when it comes to vladimir putin, this president just seems to think that he is the greatest t

and would he tell putin what they knew. now it is in the public domain, so putin knows anyway. for the allies with us together in afghanistan to be briefed on this and not the congress of the united states, or as he says, the president of the united states, it is highly questionable. my first reaction when i heard it is my goodness, i hope this isn't true, that our troops are in further danger because of putin. it is dangerous enough in afghanistan, i can tell you that, without putin jekting hin his bounty into it. if he did, the american people should know about it, and if he did, if they had intelligence about it, they should have informed the president in a way that he would understand and that he would keep highly confidential. maybe they feared he would not. that's why we have to see if he weren't briefed what the notes are of the briefer to the president, so they can't say well, they told me this and didn't tell me that part of it. this is as serious as it gets. our men and women in uniform, they're willing to do so much for our country, but we cannot put them at a disadv

and so for putin, this is two things. one, it's just a chance to hit america any way he can, even if it's counterproductive to russia, because he hates us so much. for him, it's payback. for troops on the ground, it's a real threat. and you ask yourself, why would putin take such a grave risk for such small stakes. and the answer is, because he's vladamir putin. >> i appreciate your nuance about the fact that it's ugly and horrific and dastardly. we can run through the words what this may be. but from a military perspective, you don't see this as something to go to war on this alone, yet you're laying out the concerns you have. when you get to the geopolitics, your view on the trump/putin relationship here, the president has often complained that this just comes up, and he blames others. this reporting suggests that he can't blame bob mueller, scam pain meetings or anything else. this is real world stuff that putin is doing. according to reporting that trump is out of the loop on or worse, briefed and didn't care. april,

thank you so much for joining us will putin give the people support. well thanks for having me i think it's early to say i mean it's only the 1st day of a prolonged procedure off actually voting and actually did the voting procedure has been specifically tailored for it is a pledge as it's not even a referendum or a vote according to the constitution were. the electoral or good legislation but and i talked rule that many say well actually make it much more harder to assess for service to actually gain each in the in the results of the vote let's have a look at the broader perspective why is this constitutional amendment so important for the future of russia and its role in the world. well generally we know that term limits nimitz they are very important for presidents in democracies and as soon as kind of the the end of the 2nd term approaches the elites and but also the the incumbent they usually tend to get nervous so do you they just start to think what we need to do with or the elite needs to do about the kind of the term limit and actually putin s

it was january when president putin stuff. in russia by proposing changes to the country's foundational law the constitution within hours the entire government had resigned the current constitution dates back to $993.00 to western backed president boris yeltsin built from the debut of the communist soviet era yeltsin's constitution created what would be criticized as a hyper presidential system the president called all the shots and it was forged in bloodshed as a hostile communist control parliament trying to impeach yeltsin he resorted to the military to keep in power. 187 people were killed that autumn. one of the most important proposals today is to end that hyper presidential system while keeping the fundamentals of the constitution intact so what powers does the president currently have only he alone can nominate the prime minister and other cabinet members parliament just gives a formal green light to the candidates the proposal would flip that giving parliament the final say on who serves in government and the presiden

if trump refuses to hold putin accountable for funding terrorism against u.s. troops in afghanistan then congress must again step up i expect the trumpet ministration to take such allegations seriously and inform congress immediately as to the reliability of these news reports the stories taking jabs at trump amid reports he's about to take another step towards ending the catastrophic 2 decades long invasion russia's foreign ministry has dismissed the allegations as fake pointing out that more school has all along been trying to mediate the conflict and have the united states and the taliban in fact sign a peace deal the simple this information clearly illustrates the intellectual abilities propagandists among american intelligence who have to come up with such nonsense instead of inventing something more reliable however what else can we expect from intelligence which miserably failed in the 20 year war in afghanistan it's russia collusion 2.0 as if that has ever been worth anything more but a house impeachment but left trump unfazed by hey maybe at least robe

putin doesn't want that. the one thing putin doesn't want to have is on russian television, russian troops coming home in body bags. the foreign wars are unpopular, controversial in russia against the backdrop of the economy doing badly, against the backdrop of covid-19. why would he do that, either he thought the united states would not retaliate or this would be the last nail in the coffin to get the united states out of afghanistan, which we've seen happening anyway with a unilateral withdrawal. but he may have said this is so good, i may have take some risk to this. but i think we should raise the risk and that will get him to backoff. >> you said that putin might have assumed there would be no response to this, that's exactly what's happened according to all reports. they -- the nsc got this information in march, have been looking for policy approaches to respond and the president's -- and the white house has done nothing. general mccaffrey, let me ask you what would the proper response be to learning th

and putin's attempt to stay in power russians are being urged to vote on constitutional amendments that allowed president putin to rule for 2 more terms critics say it's a champagne that making clinton president for life. i'm all in is of welcome to the program we begin with the future of europe after the pandemic that was the subject today as german chancellor angela merkel and french president emmanuel not call met mazen back palace near berlin it was their 1st face to face meeting since the pandemic hit back in march the 2 leaders were eager to show they stand shoulder to shoulder on a multi 1000000000 euro plan they say is crucial to guaranteeing the e.u.'s future . the greeting was distanced because of coronavirus but bull nonetheless it is not by chance that the man who is the 1st. foreign leader to meet with chancellor merkel since the virus crisis began the pair are spearheading a $500000000000.00 euro proposal for rebuilding europe's economy ofter the pandemic these are 2 leaders who want to work together and be the driving force for europe. going on that we understand that eur

s emily sure one takes a look at putin's bid to remain in power. for accessible health care for a strong stable russia for family values the flyers read the so-called volunteers for the constitution in the moscow region are working with russia's electoral commission they've been. asked by the author words to inform citizens about what's at stake in the vote including about an amendment that could keep president vladimir putin and power the volunteers insist their messaging is completely neutral and that's. our job is to get people to the ballot box so that they can make whatever choice they want we want people to come and vote for them to know that their opinion makes a difference rather than thinking this vote has been a daughter decided in advance so why bother i personally think our country is on the right path and that path depends on our garrincha our leader so i think it's important that one of the amendments could give an opportunity to the man who put our country back on its feet. could turn himself is absent from the information banners ar

now underway across russia across 97000 polling stations set up for this vote and you know vladimir putin he never misses an opportunity to remind everyone how the world is changing how quickly it's changing and how important it is for russia to stay ahead of the curve these obviously these changes what the government of visions paving the path for russia to stay ahead of that curve. tell you how important how much is at stake here. the fact that they're holding them now just as russia begins to emerge from the quote of ours pandemic restrictions have been lifted across the country nevertheless there are hotspots where the situation is east still severe which is why there are so many mechanisms in procedures now in place to guarantee that this would ease primarily safe to minimize the potential transmissions and infections to the lowest possible and there's all sorts of long distance routing there's in-house moves and there's also for the 1st time online voting mass online voting people can register via move all apps and vote a 1000000 people have registered so far though a number of appl

cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it that is the message from russian president vladimir putin in a detailed u.s. article highlighting the lessons from world war 2. and last but not least china is moving ahead with prosecuting 2 canadians on spying charges details in a full reporter straight ahead all right it's time to extend these i knew. we start this hour with breaking news one of the 3 little bill police officers involved in the shooting death of briana taylor will soon be fired the mayor announced that the metro police is initiating the terminations of officer brett hankinson he's accused of blindly firing 10 rounds into taylor's apartment which resulted in her death 26 year old taylor and e.m.t. worker was shot by officers inside her residence on march 13th as they entered to serve a no knock warrant this comes as the nation continues to protest for police reform and to push forward. black lives matter movement. and today is juneteenth day marking the historic day in $865.00 when all slaves were set free americans are celebrating with rallies taking place across the whol

russia -- a wreck sir -- a russia expert said while putin wants to push the vote for now. >> putin said it himself, if h e did not start the process now by giving himself the possibility to actually get reelected, even once more or two times in 2024, that would've started uncecertainty among the elite. the elite would have started to look for a successor, so he argues, i need to create stability in me that is the main background of the kind of -- of the constitutional report. >> should the report pass, putin could remain russia's president until he -- until he is 83. >> the formula one chairman is donating $1 million to set up a new foundation as part of an initiative to increase diversity in the sport. the foundation were primarily finance internships and apprenticeships for underrepresented groups. the plan also aims to promote driver diversity. this poor's first blackck champn has been critical about the lack of diversity. we have all heard stories about small-scale minors striking gold and getting rich. the latest tale is about a man in tanzania who struck tanzania, one of the rares

change nothing russians are being urged to vote on constitutional amendments that could allow president putin to room for 2 more terms critics say it's a sham aimed at keeping cool shit in power for life. i'm brink off it's good to have you with us we begin tonight with the future of europe after the pandemic that was the subject today is german chancellor angela merkel and french president emmanuel make wrong met and misa big palace near berlin it was their 1st face to face since the pandemic hit back in march now the 2 were eager to show that they stand shoulder to shoulder on their multibillion euro plan that they say is crucial to guaranteeing the future of the european union. the greeting was distanced because of coronavirus but nonetheless it is not by chance that the man who is the 1st foreign leader to meet with chancellor merkel since the virus crisis began the pair spearheading a 500000000000 euro proposal for rebuilding europe's economy off to the pandemic these are 2 leaders who want to work together and be the driving force for europe. we understand that europe is not united near

why president putin wants to push the boat through now. actually putin said it himself if he didn't kind of start his process not by giving himself the possibility to actually get real liked it even once more or even 2 times in $20.00 to $24.00 that would have started uncertainty among among the lead they would have started to look for a successor so he argues i need to create stability and that's sort of the main backdrop of. of the kind of the whole constitutional reform. should the vote pass putin could remain russia's president until the age of 83 marking nearly 4 decades of what critics call almost absolute rule. so football news now liverpool have been crowned premier league champions clinching their 1st english league title in 30 years after beating crystal palace 4 near long wednesday they simply needed their closest rivals manchester city to lose or draw and city doing drop points in london when they face chelsea liverpool victory makes yogen klopp the 1st german coach to win an english title. football's world governing body for h

now the only thing putin needs is the approval of the russian people. through this with. us from a german institute for international and security affairs he's an expert on eastern europe and russia are welcome to doubly so president putin has russia's institutions behind him this votes not legally binding and it's not a referendum so why did insist on it happening. well thanks for having me i mean it's a great question because as you mentioned the procedure was kind of the and heart procedure that was specifically devised for his plebiscite and i would argue there are several aspects or pheasants that make it really important to putin himself and i think i mean many people speak of all that summation and it is certainly true. but we can also good due to defect of parliament and regions and so on the other institution got so weak that the only way he actually can. kind of his constitution form as a kind of substitute but there are other constituencies are really important besides kind of the population i would argue it's also really important for putin himself to actually

donald trump is parroting vladimir putin. and vladimir putin's propaganda chiefs. so here we are again with donald trump taking the word of an ex-kgb officer who said the collapse of the soviet con sum was a tragedy. he's taking vladimir putin's words over the words of his own intel chiefs. willie, that's where we still are in late 2020, and it doesn't matter to him that young american troops have had bounties put on their heads and that the intelligence community has known about this now since 2019, and they were pushing the white house to do something in march of 2020. >> yeah, it's bad enough the initial reports that say it was march of this year. now the ap is reporting last night in march of 2019 the president was briefed in the president's daily briefing about this attempt by the russian intelligence services to use taliban-linked militants to kill american troops. the president, the white house had nowhere to go from the corner they painted themselves in. they said pointedly and clearly and flatly that the president was not briefed on this. you can believe t

the russians have begun voting on constitutional changes that would allow president putin to stay in office until 2036 the president proposed the changes in january and they have already been accepted by both houses of parliament and the constitutional court despite this mr putin has insisted the changes be ports to a ballot the vote which is not legally binding will take a week to complete it was originally planned for april 21st but was postponed because of the coronavirus epidemic. a massive surprise during the state of the nation address in january russian president vladimir putin stumped the country with his plan for constitutional reform. proposal envisages strengthening the role of the state council as well as expanding powers for parliament and creating new entrants hurdles for presidential candidates the reform would also allow putin to stay in office until 2036. years the speed with which the changes were rushed through parliament position and much the duma passed the reform and the constitutional court also gave green light now the only thing putin needs is the approval of

could vladimir putin stay in office until 2036? changes which would allow him to do so. if the public back the measures, mr putin could rule for another 16 years. voting began this morning. because of the coronavirus outbreak, it will continue into july. the pandemic seems to have had an effect on mr putin's popularity, as our moscow correspondent sarah rainsford explains. coronavirus hasn't helped with that at all. certainly some of the independent polling here has suggested that mr putin's approval rating is down to around 59%, which of course in a western democracy might not sound too bad, but it's not great for vladimir putin. and i think he's aware that things aren't going to get better here, particularly economically. the impact of coronavirus and oil prices are all having an effect, notjust on the economy but on the public mood. so i think that's why the kremlin's so keen for this vote to happen now. otherwise you might wonder why on earth hold a vote in the middle of a pandemic. mr putin already postponed this vote from apr

he wants to be putin's friend.e won't listen to his intelligence even about what they did in 2016. and this unfortunately, tragically, is an esclaratory step on behalf of putin. >> jeremy bash, gina haspel has finally spoken out and two intelligence officials i spoke to said she needed to. there are times when staying quiet and serving this president and trying to protect her analysts in an extraordinary position between the durham investigation into the origins of the russia probe and all the other pressures trump places on the intelligence community. she usually gets a pass from her former colleagues. not this time. her statement was curious, though. this red meat she seemed to throw into the trough about leakers and then there was this seeming articulation of what intel is and why it matters. what did you see in the haspel statement last night? >> well, i saw a director of cia who was trying to make clear, although not saying explicitly that, yes, we told the president. she said it was shared broadly speaking wi

why is putin in a rush to get this done? [indiscernible] askingcan hear me, i was why vladimir putin was in a rush to see this vote through? it seems like we have some technical issues with rob parsons. we will try to get him back later in the program. prosecutors in and stutumble hae issued warrants for the detention of 180 milititary personnel, accused of having links with -- who was suspected of being part of the failed coup in 2016. nearly 130,000 have been dismissed from their jobs. the lockdown in france has been relaxed further from today. travel restrictions within the country have been lifted, and bars and restaurants are reopening, but in the capital of paris s only establishmentwiwith outdoor seatating areas aree alallowed to reopen. earlier i spoke to france 24 -- honest people are about --outut and abouout on daynene. >> there are a few people out on the terracaces of the cafes and restaurants in the center of lais near the de placee republic, near where i am. the tables are not as close together as they usually

now the only thing putin needs is the approval of the russian people. while they double crossed one of the militia and is joining enough from oscar i mean tell us a little bit more about the vote what's really at stake here. well these amendments cover a huge range of topics actually and many of them are are are rather popular they're being kind of advertised across moscow on big banners for example there is an amendment that states that marriage can only be between a man and a woman and there's an amendment saying that politicians here in russia cannot have a dual citizenship but they are amendments that give kind of social guarantees on pensions on medical care and so on and for example today to meet the need v.d.'s the former president he voted this morning and he said that social guarantees are particularly important during the pandemic so that really is what the all sorties here and state t.v. as well are emphasizing but of course there's also this amendment which allows bloody near putin the president to stay in power he could run again in 2024 be

the existing rules say putin must stand aside in 4 years time after his 2nd consecutive term albeit his 4th mandate in total m.p.'s are pushing a proposal to 0 out his term count a reset button for an updated constitution i propose to add to the new constitution that the current president like any other citizen would have the right to be elected to the post of head of the state that would mean putin could run again in 2024 and in 2030 if he wants to rewind back to january and why putin said he wanted to change the constitution he says it's to develop a welfare state. the reason for these amendments is to ensure the further development of russia as a state governed by the rule of law is to increase the efficiency of institutions in our country with that in mind there are more than $140.00 amendments one guarantees that the minimum wage will not be lower than the cost of living another secures an annual adjustment to improve the real value of pensions and allowances there would also be tougher requirements for civil servants such as banning key officials from having foreign citizenshi