Last three hours youve been watching live from moscow as World Trade Center the annual president ial q. And a its a time when president putin feels questions for hours on end sometimes of many five hours in a myriad of different subjects domestic and international so much covered north korea relations with the u. S. Trump subsidies loans to local businesses even former georgian president saakashvili spotted scrambling around on the ukrainian roof last week and putins candid thoughts on the big bit of news that came up though of course the fact the putin is going to respond for elections next year is president. But we didnt know it wasnt going to be under the United Russia Party flag hes standing on his own as an independent candidate that was big news today our correspondent more ago it is ballistic game for the last three hours or so were going to let that carry on if there are any big issues that come up with it straight back into it more or just to let you know so much to sift through there i think the record as i was telling our audience then in the past was four hours forty minutes so a couple of hours of it to go yeah where do you want to start first in europe. Well theres theres no telling how long hell continue but for now he certainly appears to be going strong. There were as you said many issues that have been covered taxes about how cost of living in russia about health care about the conflict in syria the relations with ukraine and whats happening there indeed the ukrainian journalist came in and pitched a very loaded question to Vladimir Putin but there was also at the very beginning when. All attention was focused on blood to me a putin announcing that you know hell run for another term there was there was a small incident there where he mistook a side in among the audience that appeared to say bye bye. For. Something to make your question even clearer somebody is holding a poster reading putin by advice. Oh its not my boy its bob. It seems im already losing my sight. Seeing everyone is lost in translation just afraid of me but it actually says put in the by which is actually grandfather in touch. Well now that putin is officially writing for his next already questions being asked about the state of democracy in russia and by journalists came out and asked putin to his face well youre getting a little bored a veyron ing for president with without any real competition is what the president had to say to that. But william are you sure when people start comparing what the leaders of the opposition offer especially nonsystem opposition big doubts start to emerge thats a major issue for those who want to represent that system opposition they have to offer not a short lived and shrill agenda but a real one one for people to believe and hopefully it will arise and the sooner the better because theres also the matter of corruption and lawlessness in some respects in russia that has been a very very hot topic in russia for many many years now its vitally a putin said a lot has been done to tighten the screws and corrupt officials and to do away with you know shady practices to bring everything into the light of the central bank has been cracking down mercilessly and on banks and companies that have been waiting taxes and juking during the system but theres also the issue of lawlessness and corruption in the Law EnforcementAgency Agencies and you know some of russias most powerful agencies to be precise in Vladimir Putin knowledged that there is indeed that problem that he said that you know when we get rid of one group of corrupt officials the next group that comes in takes their place and begins to repeat the same corrupt corrupt practices you came up with an idea so far when you talk but he said why not institute a system whereby we root tates not only the military but the Law EnforcementAgency Officials as well. But im still not one solution i can think of to fight corruption in Law Enforcement is a rotation to the systems been employed by the army for decades for three years you serve in one place for another five somewhere else maybe we could introduce a system like that for Law Enforcement. Now theres much more we cant very well go over three hours a v. Talks when in a few minutes but out of what stood out was relations with the United States putin was asked by an american journalist from a. B. C. News i believe what he thought how he rated trumps performance so far to which putin replied hes in no position to rate trumps performance but he said the market the economy the businesses they obviously love trump and he said that hed like to see more done to restore relations to repair relations with russia but under stand a ball reasons that even if trump wanted to hed have some difficulty theres also a question about a potential arms race a new arms race between russia and the United States to which replied look at the numbers look at how much the United States spends on defense which is seven hundred billion dollars and russia forty six billion dollars russia spends fifteen times less on defense than the United States and you know theres no point competing with either me or putin said that well spend enough to make sure that were safe that we can defend ourselves again those are just some of the points that stood out and i think you know we should listen more theyll be a surprise or two in stock for us experience says well we dont want to miss that so we can let you get back to it well let you listen in and come back to us as and when anything more comes up we think maybe an hour or two more to go yes thanks maura is central moscow the. Other guy about the press conference some things being said lets go back i promise you this was this about those. Words my question is about competition in this upcoming election as you probably know are running. Here is a journalist or youve cheated on everyone in europe. I did it for president no i came here as a journalist t. V. Arraign because on fortunately as of today this is the only opportunity to ask you a question because you do not participate in debates my question is about competition in the election your press secretary mitri peskov has said that our opposition is not mature enough and you said yesterday well i shouldnt produce competitors for myself i think we are mature enough you dont have to train anybody you know path to raise anybody we are all hearing about the problem is that opposition candidates are not allowed to run they just create problems for them and i can tell you from my experience for example there is alex enough candidate who has been. Conducting a Campaign Running a campaign for a year and then. He went to the European Court. And we said that the case against him was fabricated and the Russian Federation has to recognize this ruling by the European Court still he was not allowed to run even though the Constitutional Court ruled that he should be allowed to run the same applies to me after i declared it is extremely difficult to rent a room a whole. Anywhere people refuse to let you use their facilities even if you agree to pay them because theyre afraid people know that to be an Opposition Leader in russia means youll get killed or jailed or Something Like that will happen to you so my question to you is why is that why are why is the kremlin so much afraid of competition. Competition and an able bodied opposition figures actually replies. Question a little earlier and it does mean that there are no mature people the meaning of my our reply is that the opposition needs to have a platform listed by positive ideas that are clear to everyone you say you are against everyone is it a positive agenda. What is what are your proposals what do you. Have in mind to resolve the issues that were just discussing ask for the people that you mentioned. So when asked a question on ukraine. Do you want dozens of mr saakashvili is running around in our streets those you mentioned are the same as mr sarkozy. Just of the russian edition of mr sarkozy. So you warms those to mr secretary lees destabilizing the situation the country. What do you want us moving from one bidar type revolution from one my done style coup detat of to another one do you want to see a repeat of that here in russia which im sure that the vast majority of russians dont want that and wont accept this. Wont allow this to happen. Competition shouldnt be and we will have. Competitive environment but it is just you know the degree of radicalism and. Do you remember what happened to occupy wall street movements in the u. S. Where is the occupy wall street movement. You know occupy wall street consisted of mr saakashvili or of those that you just mentioned which is a democracy are no. Very serious matter we need to do. Informed debate about it but i can assure you the government has not been afraid of anyone or anything but the government should not look like a bearded man who is. Trying to pluck cabbage out of heres. A lazy were looking at how the government is transforming into a. Dark puddle. Where they go catch the. Golden fish thats something thats happens there thats happening here its thats happening today in ukraine we dont want to repeat what is happening in ukraine here in russia that. Youve been and weve been doing this for three hours. Now. Is that. Im from milan and there id like to ask you about a problem this is not a question i would like to mention this problem to you there is a ban on fishing for. Cisco and all those people are now unemployed and can you imagine being in siberia northern siberia on the way all right because kay will lead to further get. There when she came on we want to hear what she said she had concerns about running as an opposition candidate you. Well as we did putins answer there but when things like that come up parts of it we think we more relevant to what youre interested in like that well go back to it and forwards over the next coming hours we think this q. And a is going to run for an hour or two more yet now listening in joe lauria journalist north for the wall street journal correspondent hey there sort of keep you hanging around you live in all of the international youre talking to kevin now in thanks for your time today first off from where you are looking in cairo egypt how important are these kind of briefings for the press and for the public because its the its the presses turn to day was the question but the public listening in this is televised on a lot of the channels here in russia how big a deal is it to people want this kind of thing. Well they should mean its unusual for a head of state to sit down for three four hours and take questions from domestic and foreign correspondents if you added up all the hours that an american president typically. Gives press conferences im sure doesnt add up to four hours in a year so its a very good thing its a welcome thing i think and hes openly taking questions including that last one from from a candidate who wants to run against him so yes its a good thing president putin didnt comment too much on his forthcoming Election Campaign i suppose its because that was enough for him to do it all did you expect him to say more about it. No i guess not. He did want to turn it into a Campaign Event its a press conference about a wide range of issues the ones that i focus on most of course are the Foreign Policy issues and there were two main ones about me about north korea and the question by the a. B. C. Correspondent about russia gate and if you look at the question itself if we analyze that question he talked about a large number of contacts between. Campaign officials and russian. Government officials and that to those Campaign Officials had. Been prosecuted for a lie now one of them was michael flynn. Was tapped by the n. S. A. The transcript was given the f. B. I. The f. B. I. Went in to talk to him with that transcript he didnt give correct answers thats against the war in the u. S. A lot of the f. B. I. But what was he hiding he met with the Russian Ambassador and he did not say were going to leave to lift russian sanctions on russia in exchange for something in fact he asked only asked the Russian Ambassador not to retaliate harshly against the u. S. And then he asked direction basswood not to vote to try to veto this resolution on israeli settlements at the u. N. Security council and that was at the behest of the Israeli Government so maybe thats why he didnt want to talk about that because there was collusion perhaps with the Israeli Government not with russia and the other one that was this George Papadopoulos low level official who lied about a meeting that he had with a professor who claimed that he had email that you want to get my piller client and those emails never materialized and in fact. The doesnt speak about him so much you know a little email to show laureate of the art of the im sort of mentioned twelve years which is what were going to go by it was a forward to see it in knowing it ok lets go back and see whats being said now so the important i really. Thank you mr prescott my name is. And like mr peskov said represent the russia to the Television Network i mean i wanted to ask you about your personal contacts with donald trump but youve mentioned this subject twice i would like to clarify something briefly. If. The singular and plural form of you in english language would you be. Using singular you would you be on the first name basis with trump by now then my second question is. Sanctions and counter sanctions how far all. You were ready to go and how does this affect the situation with the freedom of media in the russia and one more question very briefly today i mean could a gun there was a trial where a. Farmer who has many children was tried for putting a g. P. S. Tracker on hes cow. And he and his name is again hes watching this press conference even though this case is still in court as far as i know last year over two hundred people who are. Sentenced to prison what he ordered g. P. S. Tracker in china and put it on hes caught out truck. So that it doesnt get lost is it banned if there is an article in the criminal code or i didnt even know that this. Provision in criminal code ill definitely look into a sense of the look into the destiny of those people its the first time im sure ive heard the g. P. S. Trackers to cats i dont understand whats the problem is all about did you have to pay for it since he didnt pay. I need to look into it lets just look at it now back to your the first part of your question. We are on good terms with this to try but we called each other by the name. Well i think we would use the what you refer to as a singular. Singular form which we need to maintain business contacts we need two main two telephone conversations we arent trusted by our people to leave the country so gradually he would have more and more opportunities to improve ties with russia. And hope that. He will. Definitely fulfill his promise. And that was one of his promises. Thank you very much. Iraqi kurdistan i have a bar i always going to leave it there are of course our marty i ask a question about relations with donald trump you heard the answer so once again that the q. And a with putin and the press continues its likely to go on for an hour or so yet again. Forward and all recorded behind the scenes if thing else important comes up. They say look some other news now today the leaders of muslim nations are calling on the International Community to recognize East Jerusalem as the palestinian capital the organization of islamic cooperation met in response to the u. S. President heavily criticized move to recognize the city is israels capital. It was the u. S. Decision on your russo them because of its great piracy against the historical and permanent rights of the palace is important i want to point out to ignore some of the distortions and see the United States the solution to recognize jerusalem as the capital of israel is a dangerous one it will threaten security and stability and frustrates efforts to resume the Peace Process the president is committed to this Peace Process as committed as he has ever been born yet as i mean every possible step must be taken sick prevent the implementation of this illegal action by the u. S. Administration however there is one question that sticks out here what factors and no limits made it possible for the u. S. President s trinidad to take such an outrageous act that type of rhetoric that we heard has prevented peace in the past and its not necessarily surprising to us well next nicaea and explains how recognizing jerusalem is israels capital is affected Donald Trumps global reputation. How much time do you think donald trump spent considering his move to recognize jerusalem as the capital of israel a decision which doesnt directly affect anyone apart from the u. S. And its ally but as tremors across the world in ways that washington perhaps didnt see coming the u. S. Loses its starring role in the middle east Peace Process in one swoop the president wait farewell to any hope that the United States can broker a diplomatic solution in the holy land from now on america is unwarranted in the Peace Process. From now on american mediation between israel and palestine is out of the question this process is over. The United States chosen to lose its competency as mediator qualifies itself from play in a peaceful process the turkish president Takes Center Stage in the regional resistance to both the u. S. And israel an extraordinary all muslim nation summit is hosted in istanbul by president who wasted no time in calling trumps decision no and void and branding israel a state of terror. You back in this country this israel. Patient and terrorism is that what you are defending even more violence and a possible third intifada from nine hundred eighty seven to ninety one and two thousand to two thousand and five the region thought to deadly palestinian uprisings against the Israeli Occupation known as the into fargas now we could be on the verge of a third slaughter in the name of allah firstly how mass is called on the Palestinian People to face the Israeli Occupation and adopt the blessid into father against that and the hateful and racist recognition of jerusalem into america river. Says its decision the Palestinian People were involved in a continuous battle and into fodder against the Israeli Occupation and we are calling for it to be escalated in the west bank occupied jerusalem and the gaza strip against the occupation zone a little over a week since trump announced his decision and the tide has turned to a tsunami of potential Natural Disaster no one was ready for i do think we will see more of what weve been seeing so far and whether were with the rock throwing and demonstrations and unfortunately something people being killed whether this results in a in a another what they call third intifada i dont think we have any way of knowing if theres anything that may happen its its somewhat counter intuitive i think it will be taken by most of the regional countries and also by the europeans as indication that they cant trust the United States they dont trust American Leadership and it away in the in the guise of reasserting American Leadership i think mr trump has actually made us more irrelevant to developments in the region and in some ways has lessened american influence in the region where despite International Backlash over drums decision the u. S. Secretary of state though says it could take years for any concrete actions to follow in the American Embassy to israel can stay in tel aviv till the end the drums presidency however the tensions in the region have been escalating quickly with the sides resorting to full supreme well reported over the last couple of days Israeli Forces say overnight they into said to two rockets fired from gaza meantime clashes in the contested city as well as in the west bank have been raging for a week now. It destroyed the p. C. Destroyed like this for syrian christians the same month in seventeen. I think thats a given give it give for the war to then give nothing in the story. Was was. I think doesnt know what is going on and i think hes just it if you dont know it doesnt understand the depth off the problem that he has just created. Because he. Was. We leave take a break thanks for watching us twenty six minutes past three. President ial a press conference still ongoing at the World Trade Center of moscow you can continue to follow in full is stephen right now at r. T. Dot com kevin irwin as a site should all be back in around thirty minutes time as the news continues programs continue right after this break. You know when you dont. Seem. To know. That. You speak french. Join me every thursday on the alex im im sure and ill be speaking to us from the world of politics or. Im sure ill see you there. The problem in this new reality is there will be no resting in peace there is no death anymore people will pay to make sure that their death is final that their death is complete that all their d. N. A. s scars. Greetings and salutation this week despite the loss of alleged underage girl harasser in the truly terrible in the saddle roy moore republicans and President Trump are continuing to forge their Christmas Gift the Corporate Power known as tax reform down the throats of u. S. Citizens and while the democrats republicans pat themselves on their armani suit and backs toasting champagne over their respective wins u. S. Citizens continue to lose this week the boston globe put out a startling headline blaring that was no typo the median net worth of black bostonians really is eight dollars and boston is not the exception to the rule in fact according to a recent report by prosperity now in the institute for policy studies black americans median wealth is expected to fall to zero you heard me zero by two thousand and fifty three and if that wasnt wasnt enough just a week before the boston globe story a headline in the guardian asked the question why are americas farmers killing themselves in record numbers yes according to a study conducted last year the centers for Disease Control and prevention found that the suicide rate for Agricultural Workers in seventeen states was nearly five times higher when compared to the general population. But now experts fear the c. D. C. s numbers may actually be wrong the suicide numbers may end bagby higher because the original study left out some major agricultural states like iowa for example and its been revealed that an unknown number of farmers have been disguising their suicides as farm accidents in order to collect insurance payouts i looked at the bill salesman two distinctly different segments of the population one a little city one a Little Country but both suffering an awful lot this is the reality that many of the current political leaders of the United States continue to ignore in their never ending quest to appease big money corporate donors and when futile partisan fights for political power now lets start watching the hawks. Thats. The bottom six. With the like you that i got. This. Week so. Low that everyone is watching the hawks i am to roll but for that