crimea from ukraine four years ago the list of disagreements is long with ukraine syria and russia's meddling in elections just start. she accepted the flowers but she didn't ease the sanctions over ukraine at their last meeting in russia the fact that angela merkel and bloodier putin are meeting for the second time in only three months shows a new interest to explore common ground despite fundamental differences some of that may lie in syria despite russia's role as president assad's ally. russia wants to have first a solution with us so that germany and the european union accepts that there will be a post war syria with assad and then moscow and syria also need some money money is also an important issue in balance plan to build a joint gas pipeline with russia critics say it threatens regional stability especially in ukraine. both have an interest of the pipeline will be built and we but we also know that mr trump already u.s. government with the next wave of saying sions also talk of north stream to. be pushing from prosser to guarantee a future role for ukraine and transferring

if we wait for russia to leave crimea to lift any sanctions. we may well be waiting until the end of time. perhaps there are some sanctions that we make cr counterproductive. -- see are counterproductive. i think even in the midst of adding more sanctions, we ought to consider whether it is productive to dialogue not have dialogue, even if you want to complain about election modeling. you would think that you would want to meet with the russian legislatures to talk about russian meddling. if we cut off dialogue between the legislatures in russia and here, i don't necessarily see that that is going to change their behavior, but it does block off the ability for us to have dialogue with russia from their foreign relations to our foreign relations. i would ask that the members of the committee at least think about it as a push is towards more sanctions, whether or not we ought to at least think about whether or not we want to prevent their legislators from traveling here, and then dated -- then they do the same. wasnew start treaty completed in 20

that was before crimea, that was before the invasion. that was before the obama administration levied sanctions against russia for its invasion of crimea. that was before, when the president ultimately went ahead and that is why russia is not part of the g7 today. it is also when we became aware that russia was interfering with our elections that the did pursue sanctions against the gru and the fsb. that is why they made a commitment confirming membership of georgia. i could go through a long list. i'm not sure that that type of comparison that you attempted to make is in our collective interests at the end of the day. i do want to ask you -- the president at the helsinki press conference announced the establishment of a high-level working group to include business and economic leaders from russia and the united states. i thought it was our policy to put economic pressure on the kremlin to stop attacking our elections. it is -- its illegal occupation of ukraine, war ties with syria. why are we promoting business ties with a regime that w

a bridge to crimea from the mainland. '')s ambivalence toward this end his strange p> does russia need the westtat all? other allies, countries that rely on its energy, india for example. >> absolutely. russia wask that barred -- russia was far and away the biggest provider of natural gas and oil in europe, the western european economies have an awful lot of mmney that russiaiaannot liveve without. plaaing a dangerous game and putin is dancing on the head of a pin. is trying to increase his power commercially. >> why is the eu so divided on issue?% >> look at countries like the former baltic soviet tates. 100% of their power comes from russia link spots. ththey don't want to deststabile by havingeconomy the power switch. germany imports 40% of its natural gas from russia. there are difficult arrangements where you might not agree with russian policy, but in terms of power that comes through energy the relationship has to be maintained. you cannot afford to kill that relationship. >> thank you for joining us. >> time to get a reminder of your top stories. the u.s. president implicated a

and the biggest bonnet walkout in crimea as history means four hundred flights grounded during the peak holiday season more than seventy thousand travelers are affected. do not ignitions is calling for an independent investigation into an ass strike that killed many children on a school bus in yemen there was strong international condemnation of test as attack by the saudi led coalition but spokesman for saudi arabia said the strike was sponsored for legitimate military action and it's a battle against the who the rebels most of those killed in the abstract were children under the age of fifteen. this is yemen doctors desperately fighting for the lives of children the school bus hit by an aerial strike. to say that they were on their way to a school summer camp. the devastation of the blasts showing just how powerful the strike was awful a lot about what the attack happened in the middle of the market and was aimed at the bus full of children. and our shops were open and people were going about their daily lives don't let any of those who died were just locals kids and shop owners. who'

penal colony and charges you plan terrorist attacks on the crimean peninsula russia of course annexed crimea and twenty four team sent off calls the charges against him and dozens of other ukrainian prisoners political social media posed by sense of family and lawyer quote the filmmakers saying the end is near let's get more now about all expense off and his imprisonment in russia from ukraine's capital kiev i'm joined by correspondent david stern and from moscow by your shadow good morning to both of you yuri if we could start with you what about sense of health there are conflicting reports that he could be close to death. well the last time although insults lawyer. met him wasn't tuesday this week. says w. russian service as insults that was in a good mood but his physical condition was a very bad. place near to the north pole here in russia is currently imprisoned it has been extremely hot to brine forty degrees celsius and that heat has been very bad for us and so it's condition in fact it has significantly worse and his condition he's grown to a halt the disease has gotten worse and no

our sanctions list until crimea is returned to ukraine. i myself as an sanctioned by the russian government. i would be happy to meet with the duma when each of the goals of that law are accomplished. until then, i will stay from moscow. the administration points to his record while ignoring the president damaging rhetoric on russian policy. that said, i was pleased that secretary pompeo committed to work with us on new sanctions , outlining my bill with many on this committee. i'd like to hear in detail pacific provisions of the defending american security from kremlin aggression act of 2018 that you commit to working toward. i want your views on how these measures could impact the kremlin's decision-making calculus and how the sanctions bill would impact the intended target. the bill recognizes our efforts today have been insufficient and includes tough measures which we recognize have implications for us companies and our allies. however, do we believe it is acceptable or in our national interest for us companies or those of our allies

ongoing fight against russian backed separatists in the country's east as well as the annexation of crimea which ukraine and frankly the majority of countries in the world have not. recognized so there is a great deal of concern here about what the condition actually is ok david now since all serving in this twenty year sentence or what the kremlin says were arson attacks in crimea crimea a sense also has his imprisonment is politically motivated is he a political threat to the kremlin. well it's difficult to say i mean it's obvious the kremlin views it that that way but the view here in kiev is no that he poses absolutely no threat he's a crimean who kept his ukrainian citizenship as i said he's been a very outspoken critic. of the annexation what he seems to be is one of many people who the kremlin feel is a threat a sense of a hunger strike is to release is to try to force you russians to release him and sixty four other people who he says and that ukrainians say have been jailed simply for objecting to russia's actions in ukraine. back to moscow there's been a lot of high profile file

it may be we do not give a damn about crimea. not too many people, from my standpoint, not enough people care about crimea. what about love via? what up -- what about latvia -- what about latvia? what about lithuania? would if china invades taiwan tomorrow? would that be ok? where do we draw the line? this is where we see the challenges spiral out of control. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. -- spiral out of control. host:republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. caller: i was interested to hear on your take how president trump pointed out the cyber activities of nato were lacking and i want to applaud the president for saying those things. i would like to hear what you have to say about how bad nato defenses and cyber where that is going now. i wish i could say it is with cyberhat is bad defenses. the collar highlight a challenge that none of us have faced. i would include the united states in that. we were talking with cyber defense

probably months before crimea was invaded. and that yet for the entire period of time under the prior administration, there was not enough action to make exxon take pause as to whether or not it made sense to do that. this administration has. so i think if we look at some of the economic fundamentals movement in the gdp, the sorts of foreign direct engagement, those are going to the very helpful for us to have and kind of map that to actions that you all have taken. you may not be able to drive direct causation, but that would be helpful to show. and i think we're seeing trends move in the right direction. i don't know if you have information you can provide with that or whether or not that could actually be provided publicly at some point. >> senator, we would be happy to provide that publicly. there's no, or to you personally, there's no question to see the kind of trim lines. there's no question that the sanctions are -- or the fact that we have actually gone after some of these very significant entities, oligarchs -- >> i

when russia annexed crimea when we have conflicts in ukraine and a military presence and activities at our doorstep in the baltic sea we have to make our army ready. and that's why we need general military conscription. in militarily neutral sweden a return to conscription is taken rather lightly. but so when i don't believe in a professional army everyone should be involved because i did military service years ago and found it good how much the fish you have to defend your country i think it's good that girls and boys learn something before they take on further study thing and i bet yesterday. besides learning how to use weapons the young people also learned things they may not have learned at home. let's go my kid and we teach them how to make their beds and how to take care of each other so that's very different from today's culture discipline so here we are into vigils where a group get a band and the group is set to get larger sweden's army aims to increase the number it calls up in the near future. joining me here at the big table tonight is patrick or he is a member of the germa

between french president and russian leader vladimir putin and that's from a source in mr office the crimea born since all has been on a hunger strike in a russian prison since may and he is said to be gravely ill since op was sentenced in twenty fifteen by a russian court to twenty years in a penal colony for planning terrorist attacks on the crimean peninsula russia annexed crimea in two thousand and fourteen cents off calls the charges against him and sixty four other ukrainian prisoners political social media posed by since all this family and lawyer quote the filmmaker is saying the end is near. some huge football transfer from your league club to chelsea have signed goalkeeper . atlantico bilbao for eighteen million euros makes the twenty three year old the most expensive goalkeeper in the history of the sport made fifty three appearances in spain's the league for bilbao and have signed a seven year contract with chelsea. in terms of the price is just the price. i'm going to be myself the same way i've always been that i will do my best for the club without thinking about the label of

when russia annexed crimea when we have conflicts in ukraine and the military presence and activities at our doorstep in the baltic sea we have to make me ready. and that's why we need general military conscription. in militarily neutral sweden a return to conscription is taken rather likely muscular south but true i don't believe in a professional army everyone should be involved because i did military service years ago and sounded good oh you know how much the fish you have to defend your country i think it's good that girls and boys learn something before they take on further study and said nothing and i bet yesterday. besides learning how to use weapons the young people also learned things they may not have learned at home. so let's go right to them we teach them how to make their beds and how to take care of each other so that's very different from today's culture discipline so here we are in individuals where a group get a band and the group is set to get larger sweden's army aims to increase the number it calls up in the near future. one of the me two movements leading voices i

serving a twenty year sentence after being convicted three years ago of arson attacks in his native crimea sense of was a fierce critic of moscow's occupation of the finances in two thousand and fourteen and missed international courts and sobs case a show trial and destinations have campaigned for his release since office lawyers said that since starting the hunger strike at me his condition has rapidly deteriorated. for more on the story let's bring in pulling up a cover levi's she's eurasia programs director at america well complete now you are currently in russia what can you tell us about the health of your leg sense of well the last thing we heard about this house was from. her and she said that's just false is very. it's i mean it's only she's very weak also recently another human rights defender. is always a bit of a visit here middle in love it now that she is always very low and he gets tired very quickly which is which is understandable being on behind the straight or hundred. now with his hunger strike sense of his demanding the release of around seventy ukrainian political pri

anyone entering crimea from russian territory as did h.p. baxter and his band mates is breaking ukrainian law now ukraine has opened legal proceedings against them they could face up to eight years in prison. just says they weren't aware they were breaking any laws they just wanted to visit their fans . everything from the vibrant world of pop music on facebook and music. stories stars and the latest from the music scene. join us in the universe of pop on facebook send us a message we love hearing from. massive coup in two thousand and seven when i knocked a donor off the top of the british album charts with their album jumping all over the world. here's the title track. live. let's take a closer look now at scooter's incredible success the group of landed more than twenty top ten singles in germany alone and stormed the charts in several other countries to their secret. lives cases first international hits was rebel yell it became an anthem of the rave generation. in fact it's a cover of a hit from the eighty's by billy idol. because of the

crimea a sense also as his imprisonment is politically motivated is he a political threat to the kremlin. well it's difficult to say i mean it's obvious the kremlin views it that that way but the view here in kiev is no that he poses absolutely no threat he's a crimean who kept his ukrainian citizenship as i said he's been a very outspoken critic. of the annexation what he seems to be is one of many people who the kremlin feel is a threat a sense of a hunger strike is to release is to try to force russians to release him and sixty four other people who he says and the ukrainians say have been jailed simply for objecting to russia's actions in ukraine. back to moscow this been a lot of high profile file support for send solves calls french president mccraw and as we've been reporting today will be talking with them celebrities like johnny depp steven king the writer will international pressure have any bearing in this case. well look for the crown this in self case is absolutely clear here is the treatment he has a serious criminal in russia president who has repeatedly stressed in the pa

crimea, ukraine, syria, chemical weapons, meddling in american elections. i want to bring, i hate to do t by want to bring the russian economy to its knees. how would you do that? >> senator, i'm afraid i'm not enough of an economist to have a real crisp off-the-cuff answer for you. i certainly would hope and expect that we would approach any challenge th the president gives us with the kind -- >> i'm going to interrupt. i'm going to keep come sounds like you are not going to answer, so no offense so keep moving. mr. krebs? >> i would have to defer to the other exper experts. we are focused on defending -- >> that's there. i appreciate your canvas. ms. mandelker? >> senator, were we to have any conversation along those lines of course we would want to consider what those global ramifications would be taking those kinds of actions. as of already mention speedy let's put the global ramifications to the side for a moment though. your task is to bring the economy to its knees. how would you do that? >> i don't think you can have a discussion about how to bring

but of course contacts have dropped off a lot since two thousand and fourteen when russia annexed crimea and so i think in a world in particular in which president trump has to the change the calculus of a lot of foreign policy issues you know maybe russia and germany feel the need to talkies greater than ever so also one of the things that impressed me was proposing was for europe to open its while us and help rebuild syria do you think he's going to get his wish yeah i mean that to me putin was saying yesterday that you know the reconstruction of syria is the next phase and of course the fighting there hasn't fully stopped yet. he was hinting that it's in europe's interest to pay op he was even talking about the possibility that syrian refugees could start to return back home from europe as well as from the middle eastern countries e.g. course i think he's getting ahead of himself a little bit of the same time there's the prospect of a summit with russia and turkey and germany and france you know as another way of moving forward on paste. and america says she's open to all those ideas

he would look into recognizing crimea as being part of russia. he beat up on nato and he never said a word about issues like democracy or human rights in russia or for that matter anywhere else in the world. whereas candidate clinton had the exact opposite view on all those issues. it's pretty rational from my point of few that putin would want trump. they're disappointed in what trump has delivered so far. by and large, trump has continued the policies of the obama administration, and at times even become more confrontational. for instance, sending lethal weapons to ukraine, something that the obama administration didn't do. the way i read putin and the way i read the russian news, they're still holding out the possibility that the good czar, trump, will overcome the bad boyars, that's a metaphor from the imperial russia days. the czar was always good, the princes were always bad. they talk about it that way. they talk about trump having the right instincts on russia, but the deep state having the wrong instincts. they keep hoping the possibilit

the issue of ukraine of course russia and the west have been at loggerheads over the annexation of crimea and the progression separatist continuing to battle the ukrainian army in the east of the country is there any chance of a resolution here can merican actually send a u n troop u n mission to the region but as usual it's always it always comes down to the details russia doesn't really want you and troops to control the border area but germany is pressing for this we are no longer talking about the conflict in crimea of course that led to a frozen conflict between germany and russia this is about finding a solution in eastern ukraine and we'll see just how much progress they can make in these talks now. do stand by we will be coming back to you shortly a quick reminder for our viewers if you're just joining us now we're waiting for a statement by american blood emir poutine who will be speaking to the press before their bilateral meeting here in germany just north of berlin and we'll be bringing you their statements live when they do take place now i would like to go to our corresponde

and its allies listing a few examples including the occupation of crimea subverting western democracy its neighboring the assad regime just to name a few now in the statement to the treasury department also reiterated how well they're saying that they go away saying quote the treasury's russia sanctions program is among our most effective and impactful since january twenty seventh this administration has sanctioned two hundred seventeen russian related individuals and entities for a broad range of activities check out what else was the bread and brazenness of russia's malign conduct demands a firm and vigorous response our actions are imposing an unprecedented level of financial pressure on those supporting the kremlin's malign agenda and on the sectors of the russian economy though russia's malign activities continue its adventurism undoubtedly has been checked by the knowledge that we can bring even more economic pain to bear using our powerful range of authorities and that we will not hesitate to do so if its conduct does not demonstrably and significantly change now while these sa

in two thousand and fifteen on terrorism charges the trial linked to the russian and exhaustion of crimea has been condemned by the e.u. as a breach of international law however analyst maria lipman told me he doesn't have many legal avenues open to him since off was sentenced to a very long time up in prison and put in has reiterated that a sense of is a terrorist so there is no way back there is no record no way to recognize anybody maybe a mistake and that he was arrested tried and sentenced unfairly. for months there's been talk of a prisoner swap with ukraine though nothing concrete has happened that's or a pardon is his best hope the kremlin says he would have to oscar a pardon first something sense of refuses to do meanwhile he's slowly starving himself to death i can body and land rights activists has been freed from prison after receiving a royal pardon spent two years and jail she was arrested in two thousand and sixteen for protesting against the force from move all of thousands of people in the capital and in mars later on sochi says it's up to bangladesh to repatriate more th

in two thousand and fifteen on terrorism charges the trial linked to the russian and exhaustion of crimea has been condemned by the e.u. is a breach of international law however analyst maria lipman told me he doesn't have many legal avenues open to him since off was sentenced to a very long time of imprisonment putin has reiterated that a sense of is a terrorist so there is no way back there is no record no way to recognize anybody merely a mistake and that he was arrested tried and sentenced unfairly for months there's been talk of a prisoner swap with ukraine though nothing concrete has happened that's or a pardon is his best hope though the kremlin says he would have to ask for a pardon first something sense of refuses to do meanwhile he's slowly starving himself to death ok more now on the breaking news coming out of new york we have been telling you about president donald trump's former personal lawyer michael cohen is set to be entering a plea with federal prosecutors kristen salumi is live for us in new york gathering the latest on that he's expected to make a court appearance sho

choose first would you choose the russians and in terms ukraine and crimea a very complicated story in russia's own backyard were america need to have intervened causing deep suspicion of what the west is doing there. with regard to this case chris it all seems to hinge on where this batch of navi talk came from and russia is now calling on britain to publicize its own work on manufacturing navi chalk substances do you think the u.k. would go as fast or reveal that i suspect they will not do the british military and intelligence establishment of always been very very careful to keep what they were doing at porton down elsewhere under under a cork very very careful indeed in fact that the idea that britain might have chemical weapons would of course be unethical given britain's constant statements on this and attacking other states for using it so i speak we're not going to get really to the bottom of what's going on here and just as we're not going to get to the bottom of what is happening with this investigation i mean we know this is though been going on for a long long time and it s

germany on saturday these will be the country's first bilateral talks in germany since russia annexed crimea from ukraine four years ago the list of disagreements is along with ukraine syria and russia's meddling in elections just to start. she accepted the flowers but she didn't ease the sanctions over ukraine at their last meeting in russia the fact that angela merkel of letting a treat in our meeting for the second time in only three months says a new interest to explore common ground despite fundamental differences some of that may lie in syria despite russia's role as president assad's ally. russia wants to have first a solution with us so that germany and the european union accepts that there will be a post war syria with assad and then moscow and syria also need some money money is also an important issue in balance plan to build a joint gas pipeline with russia critics say it threatens regional stability especially in ukraine. both have an interest at the pipeline will be built and we also know that mr trump already u.s. government with the next wave of saying sions also target not s

and russian leader vladimir putin that from a source in micros office the crimea born since song has been on the hunger strike in a russian prison since may and is said to be gravely ill since all was sentenced in twenty fifteen by a russian court in twenty years in a penal colony for planning terrorist attacks on the crimean peninsula russia annexed crimea in two thousand and fourteen cents of calls the charges against him and sixty four other ukrainian prisoners political social media posed by sense of family and lawyer the filmmaker is saying quote the end is near. our business news now germany's making it more difficult for foreign investors to snap domestic companies crystal that's right brant and one target is there in particular and that target is china on its quest to become an even stronger economic powerhouse beijing has for years been buying foreign companies mostly market leaders in ten different key industry sectors like robotics or pharmaceuticals now countries such as germany and the united states see there and thus through advantages at risk and are tightening regulat

look at crimea. they wrote a report on russians use of hybrid warfare. i do not agree with the phrase hybrid warfare, but what they documented in the analysis, think about this, those who do not understand paint crimea as the ukrainian government negotiate with the eu, and suddenly flat had to do. it is documented in the open source, russia's operation to take crimea was cracked for about 9-10 years before they deploy the men. they were co-opting, writing, and otherwise subverting he offices of the defense ministry, the interior ministry, and ukrainian politicians for almost a decade to make it possible for them to swoop in. that is our regular -- i rregular. if you look at what china is doing, you can download the whole book. two senior colonels in the chinese system. they wrote the book unrestricted warfare. warfare is theirare guide on how you take down. if you are david, have you take down the line. they have written a boat with a -- book with it. you have to be careful with chinese open source publications, but amongst the propaganda is interesting

or so but what about the ukraine what's about the crime crimea crisis what's about syria what's your opinion about vladimir putin and his policies. for the reporting obviously want to be very strong men. there and. now for example for crimean or absolutely it's unacceptable and country can just decide to take this is my part. to the to the international rules and values for syria we condemn them for us yeah russian behavior in the korean for for syria for example and what we can do together with with russia we have to work together with russia on european level not on the also on bilateral able to tackle for example terrorism to try to solve the crisis in syria. north korea but you are very dependent very depend on the russia yes yes russia guests no less one hundred percent right more than one color can not only around ninety two let's talk about its dependence of russia guests but we work on the versity and what what i. what actually happened i saw could have a little bit more about to get supplies we stopped our stream and some of the member states develop our streams to solve and

understand why it's even on the agenda between these two leaders but putin has won this surely he's got crimea he's never giving it back well you know wonder he's in the what is on the agenda is that. at present there has been talked about is a you knighted nations peacekeeping mission and his or her just a few days ago from the the german foreign minister it is a question of whether it will take place but of course this is again the questions matter namely the details of such a mission very much in dispute and what it can possibly achieve is another question rebels will see how they get on that tomorrow for another round of out of might thank you so much for joining t.w. welcome. hundreds of google employees assigns a joint letter protesting about the company's reported plans to build a sensor friendly search engine to get back into the chinese market google withdrew its search engine for china eight years ago due to censorship and hacking according to reports more than fourteen hundred employees signed up to the protest which is circulating on the country's internal communication system the

it may be we do not give a damn about crimea. not too many people, from my standpoint, not enough people care about crimea. what about love via? what up -- what about latvia -- what about latvia? what about lithuania? would if china invades taiwan tomorrow? would that be ok? where do we draw the line? this is where we see the challenges spiral out of control. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. -- spiral out of control. host:republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. caller: i was interested to hear on your take how president trump pointed out the cyber activities of nato were lacking and i want to applaud the president for saying those things. i would like to hear what you have to say about how bad nato defenses and cyber where that is going now. i wish i could say it is with cyberhat is bad defenses. the collar highlight a challenge that none of us have faced. i would include the united states in that. we were talking with cyber defense

selectionatural process in crimea. andgroup was one in ukraine and 2015, weo 2014 will see that the wagner group [indiscernible] the quality off personnel was not that high and the most interesting thing here is that the cossacks who comprised a sizable part of this group. point number two, russian pmc's are private armies. a -- if we take a look at how pmc's happen operating in russia, we will see that they are capable sometimes a performing military operations of a relatively high sophistication. sometime it was said that one guard took an offensive operations and this contradict with how [indiscernible] how they operate. point number >> number three, the controlled command structure in many ways is established in the regular armed forces area -- forces. there is room for additional resources but there are a lot of obstacles for the research. there is not much information available, unfortunately. point number four, the most interesting and intriguing point, which boils down to a simple question. who owns the wagner