crosstalk in ukraine i'm joined by my guest. in london he is a political consultant and foreign affairs analyst also in london we have alexander make your us he is the director and writer for the duran dot com and in sonoma california we crossed to john jordan he is a political strategist right gentlemen cross-talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want and i always appreciate it well one of my rules of my program is a week i go to the person that got up early is for this program and that goes to john good morning i hope you had your coffee my first question is what kind of game changer is this election in ukraine it's far from. but we have a comedian that won the largest number of votes and we'll talk about the people that weren't allowed to vote in this election as well go ahead john in sonoma. it is there are two primary factors of this campaign as you pointed out is the anti corruption message which is clearly resident the other piece of this which hasn't been talked about so much is language there are t

if you compare ukraine to russia and belarus, this is, ukraine is the only country in which democracy survives the 1990s. and ukrainians turn out to be much better at sending the politicians packing than electing the politicians they can trust. so it looks like that democracy works better, but the emphasis on the idea of really getting rid of someone who didn't, didn't meet the expectations of the electorate. so you have to start somewhere, if that's what is happening in ukraine. generally, when you look at the presidents since 1991, two of been it and actually survived until the end of their term. mr. yanukovych had to leave. only one of them was there for two terms, and again the second term really ended in a major scandal and mass protests. so we have now the second in poroshenko, the second person to actually serve the full term and didn't leave in disgrace. so that's, put that into the context. and regarding mr. zelenskiy, again, most of the observers look at that vote actually a protest vote. what is interesting from the historical perspective, if you look at this history betwee

in ukraine and. thought that the people who voted for the surge and for candidates this is to machine and mr boyd call are more likely to support him in the second round so i think it would be an upset a major upset if zelinsky doesn't win but the problem is it's all very well to say you know that he's this populist candidate who's winning because he is against things i think the problem is given the problems of ukraine what you need is not someone who is just you know a vote because he's a negative you need a somebody who has a sort of more transcendental there lety to take ukraine's problems moving forward has the political weight in wealth or ity to actually start to address them at this moment in time aren't far from sure that's pretty mildly there's a lenski is that person i'll get in are wait and see but you know are i have no great that he's going to be able to make much of an impression even if he wins yeah well ukranian some of their hopes have been dashed time and again ever since their ind

if you compare ukraine to russia ukraine is the only country in which democracy survived the 1990s, and ukrainians turnout to be much better at sending the politicians packing than electricking the politicians they can trust. it looks like the democracy works there, but the emphasis are on the idea of really getting rid of someone who didn't meet the expectations of the electorate. so you have to start somewhere, and that's what is happening in ukraine. generally when you look at the presidents, since 1991, two of them didn't actually survive until the end of their term. so, the early elections and of course -- only one of them was there for two terms, and again the second term can really end ended in a manager scanned scandal. now we have the second -- for the second president who served the full-term, and didn't live in disgrace. so that's putin he enters the context. and so mr. -- most of the observers look at that vote as really a -- vote. what is interesting from the historical perspective, if you look at this history between chu rnoble, churnoble is also the start of the politics.

who will do zielinski ukraine will have to find we we owe the war in the east of ukraine and i would say that even. he will have to have negotiations on this. issue this is very important issue to resolve the war in the east of you. over issue or is it simply that's what needs to be sorted out first yeah but you said about the hardliners we have hardliners ethnic nationalists we have even a neo nazi groups and you see what is interesting everybody both florida and zelinsky will have to get rid of the right wing extreme nationalists so we will have to overcome the period where there was fear when there was censorship in ukrainian t.v. in ukrainian press no people feel liberty they are ready to speak what they think it is a very important step forward later we will have to see the competition between different teams different tendencies who will try to influence mr zelinsky and here it will be very important to have it very positive sign from the west you see what happened there mr cool i'm sorry i'm sorry here we are running out of time i do want to come to our other guests first but

in ukraine we will have to see the ukraine is in a bind it's indebtedness will have to be paid out over the next twenty years and to the more prosperous ukraine is the more it will have to pay to the people who have and institutions that have landed it money. the more last month it is the more it has the bat. that's right because it's basically the system the repayment schedule involves our person a group higher percentage of the g.d.p. as the g.d.p. rises until the entire sum is paid off and i know christine legarde was convicted in a french court but i thought she said the m.f. was changing not as much as some people would like i guess joe biden is in the news in the united states for his twenty twenty attempt at beating donald trump and his detractors are centered on the fact that there's a video evidence of him literally dragged manipulate ukraine with u.s. taxpayer dollars we have victoria nuland admission of five billion dollars of u.s. taxpayer money going to propaganda the soros company international and a source foundation hundred eighty million dollars from one nine hundred ni

and welcome as ukraine prepares for the final round of its presidential elections on sunday the court has ruled that the nationalize the nation of ukraine's biggest land up the vote bank was illegal the ruling has sent shock waves through the country's financial sector the fresh ruling is huge as a setback for incumbent president petro poroshenko in this weekend's presidential race. every third ukrainian has a bank account here it's the country's biggest lender the news that it might be returned to private ownership as unsettled the bank's customers. before the bank was nationalized in twenty sixteen it had piled up almost six billion dollars in debt the government bailed the bank out and nationalized it blaming fraudulent lending practices and money laundering by co-founder igor kohler moyse key and other bank owners. as the country goes to the polls president poroshenko has ramped up a scare campaign with the bank at its center. one of the holes in the plan of one of the oligarchy is to get the bank back in case i lose the election as you can see they can't wait and they have alread

bushido on ukraine and when he mad they ukrainian ambassador sort of the american ambassador in ukraine marriage of and of egypt meant that the united states kind of indorsed he spoke. you know mr selenski it's possible victory for russia maybe it will be easier to talk to mr zielinski because mr selenski is not a shame to speak russian in public please note that in your report that your shoulder tried before our discussion they ukrainian citizens who are on syrian your reporter's question you know when they didn't speak english they spoke russian you know russian is very widespread in ukraine so far shingles language polish it was a disaster here and tegan iced a lot of people in ukraine and that was reflected in an article for example by political magazine an american publication which criticized mr poroshenko for this kind of language policy so for russia he would be just a new face that we could talk to also probably yuri boyd the fourth cager date who is behind this war in their opinion polls since ukraine is not a free country i don't think we should believe all the polls he sudde

is now the head man in ukraine after absolutely to destroying ukraine's current leader petro poroshenko winning with more than seventy percent of the boat. but with ukraine occupying a very large part of the current political tensions between the united states and russia how does this political unknown fit into washington in moscow's future plans for the new country for the for ukraine whose border sits just four hundred ninety kilometers from moscow joining me now to discuss is former u.s. diplomat and foreign policy adviser to the senate jim joshua's jim thank you for coming up here appreciate it was nice to have you on i'm curious you know this is a pretty a that's. zelinsky won by a conservative all margin there and it really blew my mind so i think the first question on everyone's mind is who is this comedian zelinsky and where does he sit on the u.s. russia the tensions over the future of iraq ukraine like who is this guy i think that's what we're going to find out i mean i think the main thing we can say about him is he is that was the none of the above choice and was the look at

ukraine ukraine my first thought was you mean the american basket is not there anymore for the right because that's really who the president of ukraine is that the memory of each is that most people don't know that name is actually the president of ukraine you know i think the the direction of policy of trump hasn't changed anything in terms of direction of policy toward russia i don't think he can even if he wanted to and it's not going to get any better even after the mother reports that means ukraine is to a club to beat the russians with we're going to fight the russians to last ukrainian. why there's the linsky wants to go along with that or not he's going to be under a lot of pressure and the intelligence services the army there's a huge nato presence in that country from american advisors and other western powers i don't know how much independence he'll really have and look maybe doesn't want to change course on that maybe that's where he's coming from as well we just don't know you know we do we really don't know it's interesting i mean that would jim i got to say always a pl

bushido on ukraine and when he mad they ukrainian ambassador sort of the american ambassador in ukraine marriage of and of egypt meant that the united states kind of indorsed he's possible victory you know mr selenski it's possible victory for russia maybe it will be easier to talk to mr zielinski because mr selenski is not a shame to speak russian in public please note that in your report that your shoulder tried before our discussion they ukrainian citizens who are on syrian your reporter's question you know when they didn't speak english they spoke russian you know russian is very widespread in ukraine so far shingles language polish it was a disaster here and tegan iced a lot of people in ukraine and that was reflected in an article for example by political magazine an american public asian which criticized mr poroshenko for this kind of language policy so for russia he would be just a new face that we could talk to also probably yuri boyd the fourth cager date who is behind this war in their opinion polls since ukraine is not a free country i don't think we should believe all that

but ukraine's twenty fourteen association agreement with the e.u. has helped the country's reputation it with a view to a level of trust towards ukraine has increased before many international companies wouldn't consider working with us but now they are much more open to doing business with us he associates and agreements is a signal that the country is moving in the right direction but of course what is it the ukraine brings to the table in the its competitors in other parts of the world . but if it will create what's unique about ukrainians is that we are always living through a crisis constantly having to solve problems just to survive our engineers brains are used to problem solving that affects how they work for the better. player why not boycott it but too many of and i exist programmers have returned to ukraine after working and studying in europe in america. back in ukraine they can still make comparable money working for international clients while enjoying a far lower cost of living and taxes a reverse brain drain the rest of the country c

bushido on ukraine and when he mad they ukrainian ambassador sorry the american ambassador in ukraine marriage of and of egypt meant that the united states kind of indorsed he's possible victory you know mr selenski it's possible victory for russia maybe it will be easier to talk to mr zielinski because mr selenski is not a shame to speak russian in public please note that in your report that your shoulder tried before our discussion they ukrainian citizens who are on syrian your reporter's question you know when they didn't speak english they spoke russian you know russian is very widespread in ukraine so far shingles language polish it was a disaster here and tegan iced a lot of people in ukraine and that was reflected in an article for example by political magazine an american public asian which criticized mr poroshenko for this kind of language policy so for russia he would be just a new face that we could talk to also probably yuri boyd the fourth cager date who is behind this war in their opinion polls since ukraine is not a free country i don't think we should believe all that

star search for ukraine's leading role that pulsate com a comic actor. lansky has secured a massive lead over incumbent president petro poroshenko as voters send a stock prices so the countries are moving clocks. in. a series of deadly explosions and blanco reportedly killed at least two hundred seventy people and injured hundreds more the targets were hotels and churches as the island's christian minority was celebrating easter sunday. and in the weeks main stories. there was no collusion between donald trump and russia as the report finally publishes its conclusions. i want you know we can hear a lot international with me. it's our highlights from the last seven days and all the latest up to date stories welcome to the program from winning a view is to winning voters exit polls in ukraine suggest a political newcomer known only for playing a president in a t.v. sitcom is in line to get the job for real the lot of. appears to have secured an assailable lead over incumbent petro poroshenko who has already conceded defeat across the election for us is. no

he says he himself is in favor of ukraine joining both the e.u. and nato but that he would put that to the people in the referendum in a way that's slightly academic question because the showing no indication that it's in a hurry to offer ukraine a perspective of membership in the near or medium but definitely no sign that he's pulling away from that aspiration to head west and somehow draw close to moscow all right well let's talk about moscow he has no real political experience is he someone who can deal with the kremlin. well that was definitely. in this election campaign that the un experience selenski would be easy praise for the kremlin machinations and that he would not be able to stand up to russia that was something that petro poroshenko campaigned on but seemingly didn't really appeal to ukrainian voters he is in no hurry to show himself being a friend of the kremlin there were other candidates who during his campaign travel to moscow and basically got the blessing of the kremlin that didn't pay off at the ballot box he is someone who in

well people inside ukraine and outside ukraine couldn't stop wondering what his first move you're going to be when it comes to how he's going to deal with russia and what's his plan for the war in ukraine's east and what we did we hear from him at his first press conference as essentially the president alike were the usual words like the minsk agreements or the normandy format this is when the president or top diplomats of russia and ukraine get together with the leaders of france and germany but i have to say that vladimir is a lens he says that it is time to end the war now porsche and cold couldn't do it in five years and pointing that out was one of mr zilinskas best weapons during the campaign so lets his message is human lives we have to think about now and that's why it is time to. urgently but to what extent that would be correctly communicating with vladimir putin the president of russia for example mr selenski didn't elaborate on that when he was talking to the journalists he fell short of it although he did mention that he wants to start a new information war and that's how h

plus exit polls are showing comedians a lot of years of lenski has won a landslide victory in ukraine's presidential runoff race he played a president on television now he's the real thing incumbent petro poroshenko has conceded. i'm calm assman thanks for joining us we begin in sri lanka following a devastating wave of easter sunday bombings that killed at least two hundred seven people and wounded more than four hundred and fifty world leaders have condemned the coordinated attacks the targeted luxury hotels and churches where abortion purse had gathered for easter services police say thirty five foreign nationals are among the dead most of the eight bombings appear to have been suicide attacks the government is blaming but just extremists and made several arrests but no group has claimed responsibility so far. so hospital in the capital colombo was overwhelmed people brought in victims any way they could to. outside shock and disbelief at the scale of the violence. no one expected easter sunday to end in this way but the explosion and then the roof fell on us we took the children and

ukraine is going into the final round of its presidential election many of craniums are still struggling to make ends meet but we'll show you one of the few economic sectors that keeps people from looking abroad for better opportunities also coming to the united states is piling the pressure on cuba as it struggles to cope with problems relating to allies venezuela and sleeping near the office all young professionals in the uk are dealing with high rents and long term. good to have you with us ukrainians go to the polls on sunday in the final round of the country's presidential election corruption and long low living standards are among the defining issues now as real incomes fell in recent years millions of people voted with their feet looking for work in the european union one industry that's bucking that trend is i t allowing young ukrainians to earn european wages while staying at home. it's not hard to understand why millions of tourists make their way to libya and western ukraine every year expires in kabul streets a less than an hour's drive from the polish border and low cost fli

has in terms of membership of nato ukraine e.u. rather no one making ukrainian president he promises for now but i think what these elections really have shown is that after five years of war with russia conflict with russia in crimea being russia's best friend really doesn't bring any doesn't bring any benefits at the ballot box here there is very little room for him to make friends with the kremlin all right a correspondent economy. is always thank you very much. zelinsky has been cold the king of the disrupter the effective use of social media no doubt helped him ascend to the highest office in ukraine here to talk about how he went about it is why you're swayed from our social media desk it's good to see you by so i mean let's talk about. his formula for success what did he do that was so different well it's really everything is different about this guy as you said he was an actor we have shots of his former acting career and this is really a life imitating art imitating life sort of thing because he played the fictional presid

you for not returning to the soviet union you know for the last five compared five so it was for ukraine the chocolate billionaire versus the comedy king we'll be watching the second round closely as will the european union ukraine is stuck in the middle geographically divided by conflict its economy in the doldrums and anticorruption reforms failing to take hold neither candidate has ready answers. back at h.q. and this man former finance minister alexander downer look could provide the experience the candidate lacks something like an act of blind faith though isn't it to support a man with no political background or experience whatsoever why should people do. well that's a good question right is it just maybe because they trust him more than the alternatives that's it. and they. blindly want to actually saying that we don't want. a continuation of foreign forces you know with what we don't want people don't trust running the country so this is the shiny new look of politics in ukraine and younger voters in particular will surely have many hard to like to five all of them is immense his

poroshenko or to zielinski ukraine will have to find when we're out of the war in the east of ukraine and i would say that even the person that had done he will have to have negotiations on resolving this issue this is very important issue to resolve the war in the east of ukraine is. over arching issue it's simply that's what needs to be sorted out first yes but you said about the hardliners we have hardliners ethnic nationalists we have even been you'll not see groups and you see what is interesting everybody both lauriston go and zielinski we'll have to get rid of the right wing extreme nationalists so we will have to overcome the period where there was fear where there was censorship in ukrainian t.v. in ukrainian press no people feel liberty they are ready to speak out what they think it is a very important step forward later we. we'll have to see the competition between different teams different tendencies who will try to influence mr zelinsky and here it will be very important to have it very pause if you sign from the west you see what happened there mr poole i'm sorry i'm sor

how is the political world in ukraine reacting to that big victory. what we heard from solecki himself at the beginning he was very brief is that something that's been a characteristic of all his campaign a kind of reluctance to engage with journalists he just thanked his team and his family he came to the stage once more and again he was pretty if they sit when it came to talking about who he would make his advisors who would be in his government how he would make that work. ask a pitch for shake a well he very soon can conceded defeat i guess the polls also of such a did that the caption of the two candidates is so pronounced that there isn't much chance even if those polls are quite hundred percent accurate that gap can still be closed he we understand holds alecky and congratulations on his win let's have a look at what's actually pushing that say. he said to you next month i will leave my post as president of the country. this is what was decided by the majority of ukrainians faves. and i accept this decision because of his i will leave the offic

ever since i've been covering ukraine it's been divided. between east and west and that line has sort of moved further and further towards the east but i felt this time i was both in the west in vive and the furthest east i went was too hard to give. in both places i felt that there was a focus on the future of ukraine which was less dependent on. europe in a way. because we've seen all those pictures from five years ago where there were european flags everywhere and europe was seen as the future and europe is still seen as the future but it seems to me that the focus at the moment is very much more on ukraine and this is something that. managed to tap into well yeah i mean at the same time mary i mean it was an absolute disaster i mean it wasn't difficult to go i think i mean even with all of his administrative resources which i know people like him use lavishly for their own advantage let me go let me go to case in amsterdam i mean what really made so i mean ski different than anyone else particularly puerto shankar was the stress on anti

star and political newcomer to mr lynskey secures a landslide victory in ukraine's presidential election also to come this hour the death toll soars in almost three hundred people after a series of bombs rocked the country's easter celebration more than twenty people have now been arrested and the king of bahrain reinstate the citizenship of more than five hundred people after an outcry from human rights defenders however the problematic situation in the country receives little attention from the u.s. a long term ally of washington. over the welcome just day here in moscow watching r.t. international now a total political outsider famous for playing a president in a t.v. drama acting for the real thing after winning ukraine's presidential election with most votes now counted lenski has secured a landslide win over the incumbent petro poroshenko so let's get more details now and talk to r.t. is political talk show host parks on the boy hello oxana looks to talk about clearly the people of ukraine a voted for change how much change can make spec do you think this new president well i think

zalensky takes the lead in the first round of ukraine's presidential vote and tells cb kbrks c it does not want war with russia. >> this is a diplomatic way. we don't want war. >> the lira slides as the turkish election board says the main opposition candidate has the edge in istanbul after president'ser preside president'serduwan. >>> european markets are following asia higher in early trade, the stock 600 up to the tune of 0.95%. sentiment overall being boosted in large part by those stronger nan expe than expected pmi numbers. we saw unexpected growth in the month of march in official and vacation manufacturing pmis, providing a nice boost to european stocks as well. green across the board as you can see. the dax leading the way up 1.25%. we also had that euro zone pmi data at the top we've got basic resources in autos as you would expect given that we had that strong data out of china and also some encouraging words and sentiment around the china/u.s. trade war, potential sign of deescalation there on the chinese front. >> as you say, healthy start to the day despite manufacturing

the americans have been lusting after ukraine shoot ukraine joining nato then of course russia will be and circles on its western borders and nato aircraft operate in for ukraine could reach moscow in twenty twenty five minutes so that is a very very explicit five five minutes medical oh no it's just there i feel condor thought of while miles away from waffle of missile say it would take them on three minutes so this is the reason why russia said it was a rather line nato membership for ukraine and this is precisely the reason why they agreed and resonator shank leaning toward it if they're going to take lucia the argument nato always makes is that these are sovereign countries and they have the right to be in military alliances but if the flipside of that is looking at it from russia's point of view is that your expansion is creating instability and a threat to our security they never look at the how the the country that is being targeted how they see things they used to do that during the cold war don't do it anymore. well if if their sole concern to the country is being free to choo

no did the geographic distribution of the votes traditionally or historically in ukraine the west is far more active in voting but i think this time around it's pretty even the with the east how do you interpret that. i think this is a very important issue as i must push for kenya politics and i actually thought by this edition dr this will haitian and publish books and many articles and papers on this topic of his own political divisions in the u.k. and the last round of elections in ukraine shows again the basic divisions in support for different politicians but also significant change in the. of what their participation in different lesions so let's measure the climate less than you think compatriots than you can compare to previous elections and i since this can be out there but they show the fact that a lot of ukrainians from western part of u.k. moved to as a count this in particular poland and the czech republic because of that mickey says because of lack of jobs and a lack of employment like a few come in the after after this. the new government came to power so this is like

we do know that from his comedy he presents ukraine asa from his comedy he presents ukraine as a placeoth victims of corruption and complicit in corruption, and to a large extent there seems to be a message that has resonated with a lot of ukrainians. whether it can translate to a wilful public engagement among ukrainians and a greater adeptness on the part of the government to engage the public to try to move the fight forward in a way that feels inclusive again, it is anybody‘s gas. thank you very much. -- guess. now it's time to get all the latest from the bbc sports centre. hello, i'm marc edwards and this is your monday sport briefing. the english premier league title race has had more twists and turns than a particularly twisty rollercoaster. the lead at the top has now changed an amazing nine times since march 10th, but liverpool are back in pole position thanks to a 2—0 win away at cardiff. the result sees them go two points clear of manchester city, who have a game in hand. goals from gini winaldum and james milner means jurgen klopp's team pile the pressure on city ahead of t

elsewhere comedian selenski leads the polls in the first round of ukraine's presidential elections so far he's taken thirty percent of the book. a good morning is just so they tell your mother the first of april low for moscow with me kevin i would hope you stay with me for the next thirty minutes or so first that the internet needs more regulation and government should play an active role in policing it says facebook c.e.o. mark zuckerberg he wants rules to cover areas like harmful content election integrity and privacy a senior correspondent reports. who would have thought that it could come to this face book begging governments to tame the wild wild web to police censor and control it to think it all began innocently people want to go on the internet check out their friend someone at the website that offers that i'm talking about taking the entire social experience of college and putting it online it was so simple then a place for teenagers to share their relationship status for friends to share pictures announce parties keep in touch but somewhere along the line facebook group dar

peacekeepers arriving in ukraine. before the elections and ukraine then president poroshenko said that this could be solved an agreement could be reached on us peace peacekeepers arriving to ukraine as early as may we're doing it this year do you think that idea is still feasible that i always. defend the position if peace operation or un peace operation even such as the joint un always see. if these allows this to get out of the political support. demeans agreements go for it go for it. what we have seen is the proposals in operation the for so masterfully. from a very simple. peacekeeping operation. very traditional if you sign. a comprehensive. peace operation. i write a figure of twenty thousand. men. and as long as the half. concepts that differ so widely will not half as basis to negotiate the u.n. security council resolution so basically as long as there is not more of a common understanding of the scope of such an operation. to fly so i want to get your point of the on how that shit sort of take place russia w