A lot of move within russia today is this day one of the voting of the 2020 full president ial election. And before we joined nazis, mike a caught you at our election studio 1st. We have breaking news from russia. Is western regions as we understand now, the numbers coming in, but at least for people whove been wounded off the Ukrainian Forces shelled, polling stations in the southern region. Its according to the original governor. The governor has said that the ukrainian strikes will not stop the voting process, and the russian president has vowed, the strikes will not go on punched this is, this is, im actually sitting here as we know today in our country, in accordance with the russian constitution. President ial elections have begun in an attempt to disrupt the voting process and intimidate people, at least in the border areas with ukraine. The key of neo nazi regime is trying to carry out a series of criminal and demonstrative armed acts. This primarily involves targeting peaceful settlements on russian territory. Approximately 95 percent of the enemies missiles and projectiles are destroyed by our air defense forces. Nevertheless, unfortunately, there are casualties among civilians. All of them and their families will, of course, receive all necessary assistance and support these attacks by the enemy will not go on punished. Several following stations think of some region were shielded by Ukrainian Army in the fields. They are fresh president ial elections filler these day the city of bills or was shell stand ariel targets according to the local authorities, were into something by russian and defense systems. But unfortunately, one person is dead and 2 wounded as a result of the attack attacks on the region, every simply intensified significantly. You create a new milford Intelligence Units have tried to seize, try to capture few really just one of the territory refresher. Here in Boulder Creek and russian minister of defense can dont says all of the attacks were without an estimate. The number of moses at 15 hundreds, one of these attacks happened as russia rules in the free days of president ial elections. We are in bills are 10, belle grove is one of the board is own regents the city of bells, which is going to the full and station people here are willing to express their, their, their feelings and their concerns about the future. Feel that these day and denounce you, creating more risk focused, has huge residential building 3 children died in the attack. Well, this is all take international. So good to have you joining us today. 5 ok, special coverage, continuing. Now the president ial election is its day one today. People hitting the polls across the Biggest Country in the world thats across live. Now to watch judy are in the very heart of the russian capital to get all the latest updates with all these mike a quite you the and i welcome you to us to do a ride here in the heart of moscow. I am michael, quite yeah. Weve been following the development of the election. People have been cutting out very enthusiastic with casting the ballot. So the who to lead the country in the next 6 years. And thats the big question. Only russians only eligible voters can answer right now. Russia is the Biggest Country in the world with 11 time zones, and weve been talking about this. So as part of the countries waking up to vote, i know the part is still sleeping and then the cycle goes on and on. But we told you that russia is making History Today with this election because it is the 1st time that election in russia is putting a few days starting today, friday, and will end on sunday, the 17th of may. And what about it . Is it a lot of people happy that russia is entrenching democracy gradually . Thats also the issue of the voting this time around. For those who dont have the opportunity to be at the pulling units, they have the opportunity to vote electronically so long. You are more than 18 years or youre 18 years and above you are eligible to vote. So long as youre not in prison from criminal activity. You are eligible to cost you a balance. So our reporters are all over the place and they are bringing us up to speed with the election. Of course, we have experts not on the lease as well, who will be giving us expert advice of what they think about this election as it is recalled in the 2018 president ial election. The voter turnout was 65. 00 about 65 percent. So this time around on the 1st the off election so far from the fed goes with getting from us already. We are recording 46 percent. So fine voting is still ongoing, but we wait to see how the technology is going to be on. There are issues that russians are looking at this elect since, especially when it comes to Foreign Relations and the likelihood and standards of living back home. These are some of the issues that are touching the weight. Thats the whole thing, but slightly let me cross this time around to our correspondent. Your group has cut off and he will bring us up to speed from where he is on what is going on. So if i get going, its good to have you done me, right . Can you bring us up to speed . What did you see so far today . The, what is the mood like from the voting process that you have seen . Or mike, i think, despite any attempts to obstruct the voting process, like you just saw in russias new regions or some of the incidents that have taken place at some of the polling stations in, you know, the regions of russia and millions of people have already cast their ballots, and this is only the 1st day of the election. Like you said, this is the 1st time that russia is holding a president ial election, which will last for 3 days. And thats, of course, done in order to provide everyone with an opportunity to be able to cast their ballots at the system was tested earlier during other elections, off officials of the lower levels and has proven to be quite effective in boosting the will return out numbers the latest figures coming from the ex or committee are that the uh, the latest will return out is about 26 percent, but hey, its friday. Its a work day. The whole weekend is still ahead of us. So i think its quite likely that these figures will increase. Plus, this is also the 1st president ial election in which the russians are able to vote for the next president online. So those who arent physically able to come to bowling stations are also able to place their ballots. Also, this is good news for whole those into verse out there. A take a listen to what some of those who didnt met and managed to come to the polls, had to say we expect some more development, the same prosperity in the country and the everything we would turn out better for our people. The faith of our country is being decided for 6 years. The president is elected for 6 years, our entire system, the structures of governing bodies and our life in general is being decided. Everyone should come and vote over to collections our life. The president and the people are united. Our victory depends on the president and the people. I believe that elections are mandatory. I think that this is one of the most important events for every person, for the citizens of our country. We must take part because the future of russia depends on our voice. We all love us citizens of russia. I think that the clergy is the advance layer of our society, so we must actively take part in these events. For some young russians, this is the 1st time that i be yet to take part in the president ial election and for others. Of course, its not. Weve seen some veterans of the great picture of the core uh, casting their ballast with you and seeing the russian numbers of the crew of the International Space station cast their ballots in the 0 gravity though there was also this. The interesting incident in one of the point stations where a robot came to, uh, try to take part in the election, but obviously its a machine was denied to do so. The representatives of deal with the whole community said that it didnt have a human id have, but if the at some point in the future, robots would have the same rights as humans and as russian citizens, then they wouldnt have a problem with them taking place. And taking part in the election as well. But i think thats just a humorous no way. And others humorous and creative way to persuade more people to take part in the election. Because we are talking about the next 6 years of russias political life. I believe that the robots have to wait for his own time to catch the ballads when the elections, when the laws are made to accommodate robots in voting. Now you go let the show with us apart from the robot that came where they all the incidence of the pulling units in aust patients where you have visited unfortunately, several troubling incidents have been reported in the different parts of the country authorities already in our already investigating them and several criminal investigations are being conducted uh, a few people actually forward ink into the bad boxes. One woman tried setting up holding station on fire by throwing a mazda of cocktail in it, but thankfully, no one was injured in that incident. And about the boxes werent damaged as well. But we have heard now from the head of the aisle girl committee, all up on zillow, who said that this is quite a serious offense. Still from those who are detained from the, from their explanations. It follows that this is coming from abroad. This means some kind of scheme, a connection. These elements of federalism. A, they admit that they do this for money, but they said they will be level that this is just betty hooliganism. This is section 141 of the criminal code up to 5 years in prison. This is not ordinary simple hooliganism. Im being told by the studio now that the president incumbent president vladimir important has also cast a is a balance and apparently voted online. Possibly again, setting an example for other as to choose that type of voting system. If they dont have an opportunity to physically go to fall in stations. Now talking about International Attention to these, this president ial election, then a 106 countries sent their observers to russia to monitor the vote. I think all in all about 200000 people, including russian citizens and no foreigners are monitoring this election. Lets listen to what some of the foreign observers, the, what they had to say, and shes very friendly people and very, very happy to vote for most of them to read. I expected you to be upbeat, to be, to these process. You selection that you like to watch and discover these, but it was very peacefully, peacefully and then no interruption. My anecdotal, you know, uh, perception is that people feel excited about, i guess the voter turnout so far as the very good with early voting something over 50 percent. Well, that says something, you know, people are lined up here at 7 am to vote, even though it didnt open till 8. So that says something, you can, i dont want to draw to be lucians because that wouldnt be fair and i tried it from there. But i certainly did. Things are not as the west right now in contrast to these comments, id like to share with you some of the comments that are now coming out of the western countries. Many officials were, were many officials earlier said that they wont be able, they wont be paying any attention to the president ial election in russia, calling it is jammed or illegitimate. And now it seems that some of these officials are basically just forced to start making a funny attempt to sort of criticize this whole situation with just to give you an example of a sarcastic comments coming out of from the president of the european council, whos already congratulated vladimir important on his landslide victory. This is a good quote of course. Uh saying uh no opposition. No freedom, no choice. Uh, what was that he rode on uh x, formerly known of course as twitter or there is this common is coming from a uh, uh, analyst with a you a few and far womens who said that the recent changes to rush is they like throw laws, make it virtually impossible to conduct any meaningful monitoring and have significantly restricted the role of the media. Well, i think im judging by the fact that a 106 countries did send the observers were now a monitoring the selection. I think these countries would in fact, disagree all right, after this we hear that the president has cast as follows, using the building option, which is open to all russians. But how about the other candidates . You go is a korea, if any of them has developed yet so far we havent seen that any other candidates cast their ballots, but i do think they have a lot on their hands. And plus theres still lots of time to do so of course theres still saturday and sunday, so im sure well be seeing them taking part in the vote as well. But we have seen many senior russian officials, including uh, ford minnes, elaborate defense minister showing go uh, cast their ballots. Uh the heads of the russians regents including the new regions. So basically all of them are setting an example for all the other russian citizens. Also to take part in this election, the full right we have to living here. Now thank you very much. Do you go a piece good enough for bringing us up to speed without a pull that to go correspondent that now the spot be evidence off. And so as the, as in videos, pictures going viral, people coming out and turning out to express themselves with the ballot vote, not everyone she has in the enthusiasm and im talking about the United States department of state. They dont share in the enthusiasm the russians. I, sherry, as the poor out the cost be about the United States condemns russia has continued efforts to undermine ukraine, sovereignty territorial integrity and political independence through sham elections, held unoccupied ukrainian territories. The United States does not, and will never recognize the legitimacy or outcome of these sam elections held in sovereign ukraine as part of russias president ial elections. To be clear, lou, hans, dont yet separate reesa. Her song and crimea are ukraine. And the results of these potemkin cell exercises will be dictated by moscow and cannot reflect the free will. The citizens of ukraine were being compelled to vote in the height of its president ial election. Russia had one message to the west. Dont metal look up lou, we have sent accumulating a lot of materials about how the European Union embassies in moscow or preparing for our president ial elections. What intervention mechanisms can supporting projects for our non systematic composition . Is our being prepared in general. Things that embassies have no right to do. Having collected such information, we invited all the ambassadors of the European Union to a meeting with me, which i wanted to tell them. We simply advise them in good faith. Not to do this 2 days before the scheduled meetings. They sent us a note saying they had decided not to come. Can you imagine relations with states at the diplomatic level whos in passengers are afraid to come to a meeting with the minister of a country to which they are accredited . Where has that been seen . Thats the manners of the sworn partners. This might sound out of place to some given the 2016 russia collusion hysteria in the us when the roles were reversed. But it makes perfect sense to those who Pay Attention to americas intelligence routine overseas. Weve been doing this kind of thing since the c i a was created in 1947. Weve used posters, pamphlets, mailers, banners, you name it. We planted false information in for a newspapers. Weve used what the british call king georges cavalry, suitcases of cash, and the russian battlefield in this war for the hearts and minds actually saw one of the biggest victories of the c. I a, it all started like this. It doesnt take collusion from the trunk campaign, right . For russian active measures to mess with our elections, which we messed with the lecture. The funny thing, the thing is i was sent in 1994 to russia by the Clinton Administration to get involved in their elections and seeking what outcome and from the other re election of Boris Yeltsin versus hilton inherited the shambles of the soviet union. Which modern russia used to be in the early ninetys. He didnt do much for the country during his 1st tenure, the country. So a bloody coup attempt suffered from monstrous terrorist attacks. Organized crime, flourished. The economy was in ruins and the population was stricken with rum punch poverty. But all that didnt matter to washington for them, yeltons keep freight and achievement was hes absolute, a dollar fee and salvage you to the us. So when the polls showed he was likely to lose to his communist tribal in the 1996 election, it was time to take action for none other than the american president himself. No one will be able to succeed except to myself and youve gone off. All others will get no more than 10 percent, but they can add the votes to his or subtract them from mine. So now i have to work with full candidates and make them favorable to me, especially if we go to a 2nd round. I have said firmly the task of winning in the 1st round. So i would ask you not to embrace, youve gone off in advance. You dont have to worry about that. We spend 50 years working for the other result. Soon off to 3 americans landed in russian, 3 and footprint does in the business of the most cutting edge, most markets innovation of the time, flat screen tvs or so was the legend. In reality, they were Political Science heavy weights on admission to tip the scales in yeltons favor the communists had to lose faces. Dont approve of the job. Yeltsin is doing 17 things well get any better. I prefer the communist approach. There exist any one very simple strategy, the winning 1st become the only alternative to the communist and 2nd, make the people say that the communist must be stopped. Total costs. The u. S. Administration displayed a very little understanding of this at all costs or that the agents were each pay 250000. 00 and basically had a blank check to cover any additional expenses. But given yeltons public support, the task at hand was truly got again joined. In the us, you would advise a pull with those kinds of numbers to get another occupation to get americas favorite sons rating out of the got to event president clinton was ready to spare no expense. Ill check on this with the i m s and with some of our friends and see what can be done. I think this is the only way it can be done. But let me clarify this. I had understood that you would get about 1000000000. 00 from the i m. S before the election. No, no, only 300000000. 00. Ill check. Ok. Apparently it was president clinton to convinced his russian counterpart to appear in a campaign video. And when the 1st Election Results came in, the 3 american political scientists actually sat in the Election Commission building the kid. They did it. It worked, at least for a while. Now russia is in a fight against a us dominated world order. And this time, washington doesnt have the yeltsin way out. Now the 1st phase of the election started on friday early on friday. And well secondly wrap up on the sunday and everyones looking forward to it with all the enthusiasm so far it is 27 percent turnout. And were looking at how it is going to be to be 5, a 5, a 5 and quicker in the coming days. As people trip out the cost of the ballot for who they want to read in the country through the next 6 years. And those are official if it goes from the central Election Commission. Now there are 4 candidates in this president ial election so far. We have the incumbent president brought them to put in who is a standing as an independent candidate. And we have all the candidates as well who are members of the parliament, all standing of their current, national lo make as representing 3 different political parties. Right from here we will simply be bringing you up to speed with everything that is going on across b 11 time zones and the Biggest Country in the whole world dont go away. Stay with us. And the president ial election coverage. The the no, i thought was mike a quick chat from a special studio, the very heart of most goober right now about to the all to huge enough from other ship. And thats a lot more about the election on the, i guess ramifications on the implement implications. Earlier as moose, and now joining us in international consult, and also i think its fair to say a geostrategic consultant as well. Its great to get you on the program. I will always love the chance to pick your brain. Talk about folks out to meet with this some countries that for example, of america, no surprise, already rejecting the results of the elections in russias new regions on the very same day. They began why . Just think that roy at one thank you for, for having me. I think we know, i mean from the get go, i mean the dates back uh that probably even, even before back in the ninetys, maybe even before, but definitely 2008 onward. The whole plan to, for, for basically bringing nato into a, into ukraine, which is the reason for the conflict the right now, the expansionism are one of the primary reasons and this is, it has not been going project. Ukraine has not been going well for the us and definitely not the. And they dont even recognize crimea as being a part of russia. But, but definitely these other for new regions is not fitting into the political ambitions or objectives. And definitely does not fit into a success store for project ukraine. So its no surprise that one, even though weve talked about you here in the us talk about Self Determination and or anything like that. Weve got kosovo as a primary example. Um as well as other areas the it, its an exception, its an exception of that doesnt go the way they want. And so they didnt recognize that referendums that were held in the, in different regions. So is the, exactly. So if its not a part of that plan that just gonna lambasted theyre going to condemn it because well, it didnt work out for that. Now i would say if it didnt work out for their agenda, i mean, let me ask you this early. If i can, im going to come across as a bit of a devils advocate here, but i mean, look, you know, i mean, let me ask you this. All right, so does washington actually have the moral authority to the heck to other states on democracy while its been prosecuting its own president ial candidates . I mean, donald trump much earl, you know, theres the moral authority is one that weve had deviations all along, but definitely the last 3 years have been horrible. And weve got basically law fair going on to eliminate the leading candidate out there right now. I mean, weve got efforts going on in different states from move the movements on the ballot, which basically the Supreme Court kind of squash that and weve got unbelievable, very, very flight. The charges put across, i think what a 10797 or a 100 and some different charges a across 4 different cases. Maybe more that will come up against donald trump. So its, its very questionable and definitely, uh, does not speak highly of our own internal process here. Yeah. You know, the mean time, of course, are you guys that lensky has canceled the president ial elections there . I think washington cold at some sort of a democratic strategic something around the, i mean they were very, very supportive of that. And here in the new russian regions, elections, all of the polling stations, all of that, the civilians of voting and already the Us State Department condemning it or as a shot. How do you think the people in our new regions feel when the Us State Department essentially flips them . The bud . I think its a, its this probably a split feeling, but i would say the majority of it really doesnt, dont care about what the us perspective is. Mean, lets face it. Ukraine is not a democracy. There is no, no election. This election has been cancelled all the opposition party, so in band all the media has been enrolled into the government to have any opposition. Media has been shut down if even speak against the government here arrested. 81 year old got arrested for checking a light get a box which is critical to government. So yeah, us, uh our, uh, our reputation on this is, is down and i think the people in these regions are, honestly, i think a lot of them and, and i know it doesnt speak for everyone, but i think a lot of them are, are positive in this direction, theyre looking forward to the end of the conflict, then looking forward as being part of russia. Well said, always a straight shooter, earl and harassments, an International Consultant joining us here live on all to you, to national all the way from washington. Thanks earl, looking forward to seeing you soon and just quickly before we run out of the program here, the is there any problem . Interesting videos approve the idea of supply and what looks like is going to be a massive ground incursion into the southern gas and city of what i saw. A few more details here with me please. Bureau chief, the prime ministers office, announced that gave its approval for a ground defensive and rough fun. And as a software up to 1500000 palestinians currently find refuge. Most of them internally displaced from the facilities in the north. It is not clear exactly when the operation might kick off, but we hear from the i d ask, but preparations are in full swing, is really pushes for the invasion a size to finish with the militants. The adf already killed around 13000 miles 5 years. But at least 5000 others. According to ero, i still reported late in the gaza strip and most of them probably hiding somewhere in the south. Israel also claims the right dozens of tunnels and gather the south. But the length of the street with sewing nice for which is really believes, have mass smuggles no tons, money, and weapons. So israel says it needs to be destroyed. There are 2 major problems with a rough fall offensive. The 1st is where exactly to evacuate all those poor gallons from the junction board. Here is where i was planning to establish so cold humanitarian islands in the center of the street, packed with food, walter medications, and tense, but a 1500000 people will. There be enough space and supplies for that be fine thing. So continues, there is so unclear how could these really provide security for all these palestinians . Another issue is the lack of international support. Pedros biggest ally, the u. S. Has repeatedly said it would not back such and im slaughter especially if its real doesnt present a solid plan on where to really