ambassador to ukraine. she says ukraine has steadily been turning westward, seeking closer ties with nato and the european union. tension reached a boiling point when ukraine's pro-russian president, viktor yanukovych, turned his back on a western trade pact in 2013, and pro- european protesters took to the maidan, kiev's main square. the protests were pro-european, anti-corruption and overwhelmingly peaceful. they braved months of cold and brutal police crackdowns that claimed dozens of lives. eventually, after three months, president yanukovych fled to russia. the pro-european protesters had won. >> i think the russians were angry over this. and so, the first move that we saw was the infamous little green men in crimea, a part of ukraine. men arriving in uniform, in green uniforms, but no identification, and they denied sort of that they were anything but people of crimea. and within a matter of days, really, crimea was taken over by russian forces. so, when a part of europe is attacked, that is not good

stagnating ukraine has ukraine has become the poorest per capita g.d.p. per capita country in europe and on the strength of that you tell them they're all crooks and as a result this is a result of this corrupt at least i wouldn't stand up and then of course i notice you have president owning becoming part and to because all that goes on electricity monopoly then you raise a selected prices and there's nothing in there and you knew this before you did on the job so look no new this you know but you know he was a lonely guy you knew he hadn't sold your chocolate business good even though he promised to do this while you had no illusions or you should have had no illusions about what she was getting into you gave in eighteen months and you call the movie wrong you throw up your hands and then you walk out and not think is that when we started we both believed that he had the unique chance to become somebody else yes he had pulled this corrupt cross of connection but on the other hand people came to mend it and we believe in this and he started quite well he

ukraine. this hard future office has registered over fifteen hundred companies so the people who work here just run a post box service. with the director secretary and address all being proxies finding out who really owns a company can be almost impossible. if you own something in your own name then you can just look on the company register on the property register and said that he got all of his house. but if i own that house in a company a british company and if my british company is owned by that's a separate company that my cypriot companies are owned by let's say panamanian company and if my plan your company is owned by a nevus company. then if you want to find out who owns this house you have to go to every one of those jurisdictions and asked them. who owns that company. and oh. hello i wanted to ask about a couple of companies. fin co resources. think all resources feature is in the files. it's know many directors were also involved in the magnitsky scandal. a lot being citizen called

the ukraine russia relationship has been so important for so many years and the fact that the ukraine and russia have a very long border and the crimea issue that the u.s. keeps raising over and over again as if crimea was the fifty first state of the united states or something like that but if he planned to go in through back in two thousand and fourteen the real plan it would have been to take you create into nato and then that would have meant that create the crimea naval base would have then become a u.s. . russian base would have become a nato base a u.s. based and in fact against to be used against russia so if we look at the entire situation at the bigger picture washington and key have have both accused russia of contributing to the violence in eastern ukraine but there is such a thing as the agreements has ukraine as a government done anything to carry out their obligations under the minsk peace accords that they signed back in two thousand and fifteen no and i think it's just a completely one sided representation by the u.s. and by the ukrainian government and we have to rem

in ukraine has ukraine has become the poorest per capita g.d.p. per capita country in europe and on the strength of that you tell them they're all crooks and there's a reason this is a result of this corrupt at least i wouldn't stand up and millions coroners you have president owning becoming part and we haven't sold you a chocolate business go even though he promised to do this well you have no illusions or you should have had no illusions about what you were getting into you gave in eighteen months and you called a movie ross you throw up your hands and then you walk out and not think is that when we started we both believe that he had the unique chance to become somebody else yes he had all this corrupt background sort of connections but on the other hand people came to mend it and we believe in this and he started quite well he brought some quite some young people he allowed us to have some autonomy he allowed us to create an enchanter corruption bureau he allowed to have transparent purchases their second kid allowed us to create a national t

i chaired it then we started the crisis in around ukraine so i'm very familiar of it this institution i'm familiar with its processes you're familiar with the challenges to. your fan talk about the restoration of trust as the key to the effectiveness but what makes you believe that the organizations they call theirs have reached a point when they valued that trust over their immediate policy objectives. look i think one of if not the key challenge it in your atlantic and your asian security these days is this historic deficit of trust between stakeholders and basically be neat. form. for inclusive style the need to place very can gradually rebuild trust among the key stakeholders and i think this takes us innovate a bit back to your actions off to see you see the need was create to manage these very difficult east este relations story in the cold war now those are difficult relations deteriorated even further in ukraine and i know that you made your crane the first country that you visited in your official capacity this is also was the place where the trust or whatever had been left o

returning military hardware we sent a few trains from the crimea to ukraine and the ukraine raised this issue. a number of times getting their military hardware from the crimea back i would like to take this opportunity to mention that we are ready to continue this process we are ready to. handle were. warships tanks armor and aircraft that used to being in the crimea to ukraine and of course it's in poor shape but that's not our problem we're talking about dozens of warships and dozens of. fighter jets there with the warships i think it would be better for. the ukrainian serious men to just come and pick them up and we would be willing to help them transport to those ships to death. and also there is a lot of ammunition. but our military experts believe that this. munition dumps should not be moved they shewed be destroyed where they are and we would invite ukrainian military specialists to participate in. dismantling and destroying those munitions so these are just some initial steps despite all the difficulties between russia and ukraine. last year a significantly. this is a good sig

once we have sorted out the current crisis in or around ukraine. i think there is absolutely no way. around doing doing that you often point out that you believe that there is no way around and agreement and yet i'm sure you know that many in your crane believe that that deal was reached under duress and therefore should not be implemented i know you met present pressure cooker recently i wonder if you have any ideas on how to incentivize him to publicly accept the validity of the minsk ignorance which he cannot afford to do or hasn't done publicly within the ukrainian environment or perhaps to incentivize them to look for other alternative solutions look i think this is a conflict that is extremely expensive. to all sides all sides would profit from implementing. grievance and i think the trick is. this is a complex set of security and politically related prohibitions and we need to. agree on a road map on how to proceed in implementing them. i think once of course the more progress we make in stop issuing a sustainable cease fire. it's easier it

the quashing of th pole, and the most recent aggressions against georgia and ukraine. the berlin in cuban crisis of half a century ago and the egregious interference in our election last year. it is therefore understandable, but also consequential. the strong emotions have often played an important role in how u.s. leaders and the american public have conceptualized our steps of a rational and objective natural -- national interest vis-a-vis russia. it is integral to all thinking. emotions come into play strongly when we appraise something as important. this does not mean that emotions determine policy. rather that emotion is used respective, unavoidably, to influence ideas. roosevelt in effect offered stalin a strategic deal. he was willing to accept soviet .omination in eastern europe in addition to this political possessedfdr, who enormous self-confidence, acted on his hunch that stalin suffered an inferiority complex. roosevelt tried to play up to pride and fear of humiliation. quite different was harry truman. only days after he became ,resident a barbarian invasi

and joined the alliance people in ukraine wanted to make what that same choice ukraine's the only country in the world where people have died with the e.u. flag and there he answer is russia is in the ukraine the answer is russia is occupying crimea that the answer from the russian side rather was in east germany also and they're gone so you compare this sure show up actually i'm actually optimistic if we can all stick together. you know time is not in russia's favor you said that russia could conquer the baltic states vote quicker then we could get there to defend them quote hand if this is true it means that these states are not sufficiently protected by the united states or the later so i think that was about two and a half years ago when i said that but. i would not say the same thing today in the main reason i would say that is the alliance rapid deployment of enhanced for presence better words in less than a year from the warsaw summit in july last year less than a year germany led a battle group german led bellaver deployed to lithuania canada back on the continent of europe for th

wanted in ukraine and sanctioned in the u.s. and europe he travels under armed guard in a multi car convoy rarely appearing in public. we tracked down his former chauffeurs and they revealed his regular meetings with the russian government we often drive into the ministry of economic development the ministry of natural resources the national space agency also the russian presidential administration and state oil and gas firms. aside from frozen assets ukraine's intelligence agency says could change those trading oil gas and coal in the conflict zones of eastern ukraine fueling corruption and conflict in a country that was once his own. go didn't respond to our request for comment will jordan al-jazeera. all right let's speak to. who's a russia and ukraine analyst the global insight she's joining us live from london. all of this complex web of allegations of fraud corruption and an outright theft what stands out for you. what stands out is that ukraine is it is still tackling the biggest issue that it has had since the collapse o

it is almost two times cheaper than the ukraine. let's take the defense -- take the defense sector of russia. we have been severely sanctioned. the only purpose, and it is clear for me, is to prevent our defense sector from growing. you need to have a level playing field, instead of banning or pushing countries to not to buy russian weapons. have ae media, you biased attitude to rt, sputnik, and in france, we have seen the same. russian journalists and russian media have been banned. just recently, the french president said they need to introduce rules to fight fake news. but there will be one regulated -- regulator that will define what is fake news and what is not fake news. and there will be no dialogue on that. take sports. there have been multiple events ahead of the upcoming olympics, there have been measures taken against russian athletes. i have no doubt in our -- and as much asnt said there have been incidents where athletes have used illegal substances, there have never been cases before when collective punishment has been

wanted in ukraine and sanctioned in the u.s. and europe he travels under armed guard in a multi car convoy rarely appearing in public. we tracked down his former chauffeurs and they revealed his regular meetings with the russian government we often drive into the ministry of economic development the ministry of natural resources the national space agency. also the russian presidential administration and state oil and gas firms. aside from frozen assets ukraine's intelligence agency says katrinka is trading oil gas and coal in the conflict zones of eastern ukraine fueling corruption and conflict in a country that was once. didn't respond to our request for comment well jordan al-jazeera. menage of origin is in russia and ukraine analysts said the i. will incite she says this report further highlights how entrenched corruption continues to be in ukrainian politics or option is not just an economic issue especially for ukraine it's a national security matter and this is for two reasons the country is a standoff with russia it is a

promise comes out of price a reporter takes a closer look at the evangelist trying to gain a following in ukraine and germany. i'm brian thomas welcome to the show colonial lawmakers in spain are due to vote in a new regional government today but there is some doubt over whether that vote will even take place it all depends on this man the separatist leader carlos. now he was removed as catalog president by the central government in madrid following an independence referendum is now living in exile in the belgian capital and is wanted by spanish police push for months seeking reelection but most. present physically for that vote will he return that is the big question right now will speak to our correspondent in barcelona but first this report on what's shaping up to be the same day in catalonia. this is the man at the center of the dispute catalonia as ex-president cutlass pushed a months he's been living in exile in brussels since madrid imposed direct rule on the region after the short lived catalan declaration of independence last year pushed to months apparently acquired a taste for belgian

ukraine. -- did not blowup up in the face of what is a great opportunity for ukraine. it is really, really, really hard to get out of the system. i think there are at least 100 years of history and beyond in russia that made it difficult to actually set up these institutions. everyone in this room i assume knows -- last month, this administration published its first national security strategy. among other things, it calls for the united states to rethink the policies of the past two decades when it came to several countries, china and russia. but focus on russia. policies ande based on the assumption that engagement with russia and global governance would turn into a benign actor and a trustworthy party. the national security strategy said that this premise has turned out to be false. do you agree with the national security strategy? think that the premise of engagement with russia is destined to fail. especially if you look over the long run. increaseave seen is an of russia acting out. think

the war in eastern ukraine, more than 10,000 people have died. now entering its fourth year, this has become one of the longest conflicts in modern european history. there is no end in sight to the hostilities, after separatist rebels, backed by russia, took over ukraine's donbass region. hundreds of thousands of families were split up, stranded on opposite sides of the new border. with destruction all around, one familiar smell of peace time. but life for many here is anything but normal. i'm lucy ash and i'm in the town of marinka, where a bakery is providing comfort and hope amidst the trauma of war. marinka lies on the ukrainian side of the frontline. before the conflict, nearly 10,000 people lived here. there is only half that number now. factories and coal mines have come to a standstill. in a war zone, jobs are hard to find. but for those trapped here, daily life must somehow go on. i have come to meet 0leg tkachenko, a local pastor who, against the odds, has started a small business here. he converted this old supermarket, damaged in the

of course, we will also continue working on ukraine. a problem which can only be resolved by the package of measures adopted in february, 2015. of course, we have a very important political event coming up. the presidential election. our embassy's consulates and cultural centers abroad will do everything necessary for russian people, currently abroad, to be able to vote conveniently. i will stop here and now i will start our an active part of our conversation. reporter: as he might know, the media publishes the rating of top words -- the top 10 words of the previous year. what would be your rating? minister lavrov: well, for the fear of being misunderstood, i will not talk about specific words. as far as stories are concerned, it is. -- it is syria. this is a problem where many interests of many players converge. like i said, we do our best. there is this initiative of syrians in congress. we do our best to harmonize the interest of all the syrian parties and all the external players that can influence the situation. all those who would

and ukraine. and in the recent months we saw serious escalation because of the threats coming from washington. threats to solve the nuclear issue on the korean peninsula through the use of force. we heard similar threats regarding afghanistan. again using force to solve the problem and of course the statements intended to disrupt joint comprehensive plan on the iranian nuclear program. further destabilizes the situation. unfortunately our u.s. partners and their allies still want to condu conduct affairs through dictating and ultimate uums and they are unwilling to listen to other centers of international politics. and they refuse to acknowledge the merging multipolar world. the methods they use to deter their arrivals, are for a large part, from the deployment of the global missile defense system, unilateral, territorial application, of its laws and, like i said, threats to resolve international issues based on their own scenario, including even the use of brutal military force as a result we see

the ball in eastern ukraine, more than 10,000 people have died. now this has become one of the longest conflicts in modern european history. there is no end in sight to the her still tea rs there is no end in sight to the her still tears after separatist rebels backed by russia took over ukraine's donbass region. hundreds of families we re donbass region. hundreds of families were split up, stranded on opposite sides of the border. with destruction all around, one familiar smell of peace time. but life to many here is anything but normal. i lucy ash and i in the town of maryinka, were a bakery is providing hope that missed the trauma of war. —— among. maryinka lies on the ukrainian side of the frontline. before the conflict, nearly 10,000 people lived here. there is only half that number 110w. here. there is only half that number now. factories and coal mines have come to a standstill, in a war zone, jobs are hard to find. but for those trapped here, daily life must somehow won. —— go trapped here, daily life must somehow won. —— go on

i got ukraine. i remember going, convincing our team, that we should be providing for loan guarantees. to try to guess the 13th time, i was supposed to announce in kiev that there was another billion-dollar loan guaranty. i got the commitment that they would take action against the state prosecutor and they did not. they were walking out of the press conference, we are not going to give you the billion dollars. they said you have no authority. you are not the president. i said, call him. [laughter] you are not getting the billion dollars. i'm leaving in six hours. the prosecutor is not fired, you are not getting the money. son of a bitch, he got fired. [laughter] they put in place of someone who was solid at the time. they made some genuine, substantial changes institutionally and with people but one of the three institutions, there is now backsliding. they had made that commitment that they would not do that, when we left, i spent a lot of time as did mike because this was his territory as well. pe

wanted in ukraine and sanctioned in the u.s. and europe he travels under armed guard in a multi car convoy rarely appearing in public. we tracked down his former chauffeurs and they revealed his regular meetings with the russian government we often drive into the ministry of economic development the ministry of natural resources the national space agency also the russian presidential administration and state oil and gas firms. aside from frozen assets ukraine's intelligence agencies. says good chink is trading oil gas and coal in the conflict zones of eastern ukraine fueling corruption and conflict in a country that was once his own. go didn't respond to our request for comment will jordan al-jazeera want to take this on we can speak to mark hayes who is in the money laundering campaign lead it with a charity global witness and joins us now from washington d.c. welcome to the program what we've been seeing that makes you wonder how deep this corruption problem is not only within ukraine but also across the region yes i think tha

can you focus on specific their work in ukraine? do they try to check the ground and then just spread it to other countries, and cyber backup, please. >> yes, as i think is -- you will be a target. yes? phishing? >> what kind of an attack. >> phishing attack? >> guest: no, they just corrected and i watched the story, and it's interesting because we did some project and national endowment for democracy and it was like at the beginning of the revolution but it had nothing to do with this. it was a year withit started. had nothing to do but they tried to connect is as we were the net was behind financial of our organization and we were among those who organized -- well, it's a way that is famous but still. >> basically they broke -- >> they kicked -- they broke it and used this mail so it was interpreted in their understanding it was felt, of course, but like basic -- >> thank you. >> yeah. cyber beckett is famous part of russian, i think. they hacked a lot of ukrainian journalists and some reporter whos -- reporters who work in -- i t

and theses on russia other focuses on ukraine. today's event, all you need to know about russian hackers. we are pleased to have a speaker who is here with us for a few months as an expert at the canon institute and an eight investigative journalist -- and an investigative journalist based in moscow, russia. at theted his career biggest russian news website at the time. after the editor in chief was fired by the publisher on political grounds he left of the publication along with most of its reporters and editors. focuses of his reporting on the refugee writess in russia, lgbt in russia, cyber security, and the islamic state. he got the gq award in journalism for his reporting about isis. his works have been cited in the new york times, the new yorker, and other respected western publications. he was also the recipient of the most prestigious award in russian journalism today. the founder of the award also happens to be a fellow at canon. we are pleased we have such a strong representation of russian independent journalists. >> th

i got ukraine. i remember going over, convincing our team that we should be providing for loan guarantees. 12th, 13th time to kiev, and i was supposed to announce in kiev that there was another billion-dollar loan guaranty. i got the commits in -- commitment from poroshenko that they would take action against the state prosecutor and they did not. they were walking out of the press conference, we are not going to give you the billion dollars. they said you have no authority. you are not the president. the president said -- i said, call him. [laughter] i'm telling you, you are not getting the billion dollars. you're not getting it and i think i'm leaving in six hours. if prosecutor is not fired, you are not getting the money. well, son of a bitch, he got fired. [laughter] and they put in place someone who was solid, at the time. so they made some genuine, substantial changes institutionally and with people, but one of the three institutions, there is now some backsliding. yes, and they had made that

in the carpathians of ukraine, many people believe in the supernatural powers of soothsayers and folk healers, of whom they call molfars. the tradition is deeply rooted in the region. they heal, predict the future, and are even consulted on political matters. our reporter met one of them, magdalena, and felt surprisingly enchanted. reporter: the landscape around the settlement of verkhovyna in the carpathians is remote and magical. so it's perhaps understandable that the region is associated with magic. this is magdalena mochiovski. she is a molfarka, as the female molfar are known. she personifies the secret knowledge of her homeland. >> you can't become a molfar, you have to be born one. molfars have sacred knowledge that is passed down for generations. reporter: people here have always been religious. there are 40 churches for some 30,000 people, and their faith predates christianity. magdalena shows us the tools of her trade. a nail pendulum, a dull knife, and herbs. she says she can use these things to heal people. oracle bones are used to foretell the future. they come from rabb

why in ukraine? because, harriet explains, like ghana, it's a country striving for democracy. ♪ >> they're learning a valuable lesson, because the problems here are also happening in most of african countries. and then, they can learn that people stood and fought for democracy. >> the youth don't give up in ukraine. they're always there for their country. but whilst in ghana our youth are always living their holidays to do whatever they like. it shouldn't be so. >> ukrainian law requires that they return to ghana after their studies. that's important for harriet. that was her intention when she moved to dusseldorf in 2002. ♪ she worked as a cleaning lady and sent her savings back to ghana, to build an orphanage. she looked around for sponsors and donors and founded the "african angel association." at first, the children and students didn't know that harriet was cleaning restrooms in dusseldorf to finance their education. >> i didn't know what to say, because i wasn't going to school, and for some

doesn't care that much about but to bring the ukraine into nato as well which would pose a very great threat to russia if that were to take place considering that the i'm going to it's expressed from washington and from the nato headquarters is so prevalent so we can't really distinguish between or draw some sharp line between often said in defense of weaponry in this case it's all the offensive and defensive weaponry both necessary for any modern armed forces. in was a word we heard a lot in two thousand and seventeen well here is another story of alleged collusion this time though the characters are a little bit different wiki leaks has published an e-mail apparently showing that the new york times was providing the state department and hillary clinton with advanced warnings about potentially damaging stories to kill a mountain has commentary. now a new e-mail published by wiki leaks seems to show cooperation between new york times reporter scott shane and the press secretary of hillary clinton when she was secretary of state now we remember back in two thousand and ten in two thous

under pressure, the ukraine police service has arrested a man. at the funeral there was deep scepticism about whether justice would eventually be done. people understand that the judicial system is not about people. we understand it is about corruption, firstly, because all of these judges, for 25 yea rs, have because all of these judges, for 25 years, have been corrupt. the whole system is corrupt. having fought, and it seems died to getjustice for her sister, the murder of this woman is now a public test case as to whether the ukraine is really changing. heavy snow aross the alps has cut off towns and villages, and raised the avalanche risk level to maximum in some areas. tourists are being airlifted out of zermatt, one of switzerland's most popular ski resorts. around 13,000 people are stranded there due to the conditions. imogen foukes reports from geneva. so much snow, literally tonnes of it. its sheer weight forces it down to the valleys. this was the scene in switzerland. no one was hurt here, but the avalanche risk is the highest it's bee

issueed to but one other on the floor, which is ukraine. this administration, unlike the administration you worked with, provided unlimited defense articles to ukraine to think that was a wise decision and more broadly, do you see any scope for any sort of deal on eastern ukraine? vice president biden: the answer is yes, i think it was a wise decision, but i was pushing that we left.ears before the reason is, the more you up the ante, the cost to russia for their aggression -- and as you all now and as you know better than everybody, the one big lie going on about ukraine and the rest of russia is no russian soldiers are engaged, they are not dying. nobody backs are coming home, etc.. overwhelming is opposition for engagement in ukraine in a military sense. do i think there is potential to be able to be solved, but it takes two things. one of those things is missing. i and desperately concerned about the backsliding on the corruption. i will give you one concrete example -- i thei, but that was assignment i was given. i remember going over,

wanted in ukraine and sanctioned in the u.s. and europe he travels under armed guard in a multi car convoy rarely appearing in public. we tracked down his former chauffeurs and they revealed his regular meetings with the russian government we often drive into the ministry of economic development the ministry of natural resources the national space agency. also the russian presidential administration and state oil and gas firms. aside from frozen assets ukraine's intelligence agency says could change those trading oil gas and coal in the conflict zones of eastern ukraine fueling corruption and conflict in a country that was once his own. didn't respond to our request for comment will jordan al-jazeera and you can see the full investigation called the oligarchs on sunday at eight pm g.m.t. followed by these times you can also see the program as well as documents online at al-jazeera dot com slash the oligarchs nigeria is speeding up the process of bringing its citizens home from libya after allegations of exploitation and abuse th