We also thank angola among the nine noncaucus members for their undying support and we also thank our brothers in egypt, the arab representative on the council for all efforts , exerted throughout this process. Let me all thank those who have applauded the adoption of resolution 2384 in this chamber, and the millions who have applauded in all corners of the globe, including, especially, in the state of palestine. Over the years, we have made constant appeals to the council to uphold its duties, units central goals and the premise of international law, insisting on the need for conservative action to confront israeli oppression of the Palestinian People and relentless colonization of our land under its halfcentury occupation. Our appeals have sought to alleviate the suffering of our defenseless population denied their rights, dignity and humanity. But, our appeals have also been calls for the council to contribute to the cause of peace for the longterm. Peace for palestine. Peace for israel, the middle east, and the rest of the world. We have not been alone in our appeals. Byy have been reflected Council Members themselves, and by the state, International Civil servants, and Civil Society that have come before the council, all imploring the council to act, including in specific to address the illegality of israeli settlement activities in occupied palestine, including East Jerusalem, and the origin of the two state solution based on the 1967 borders, and the process for a just, lasting, and comprehensive peace. That the council has finally chosen to act is significant. Let me repeat that the council has finally chosen to act is significant. After years of paralysis, the fact this resolution has been adopted with majority support overwhelming majority support. But this step requires vigilant followup if it is to be meaningful, to stem further deterioration in historys archives. Urgent efforts are needed to reverse the dangerous negative trends on the ground, and to advance our collective efforts to end Israeli Occupation that began in 1967, and achieved rights, and justice for the Palestinian People, including the palestinian refugees, leading to israelipalestinian peace and security, as well as the goal of israeli peace. Mr. President , there is no bashing, as repeatedly claimed by the israeli government. Not by palestine, not by the council, nor by any who have time and again urged the council to act in the interest of peace and security. Claims of bashing are beyond offensive, it shows that todays action may be too little too late. After years of following the law, to be trampled, and the situation to spiral downward todays resolution may rightly , be seen as a last attempt to preserve the two state solution and revive the path for peace, to keep the hope alive. For many, this seems virtually impossible at this point, as israels occupying power has been permitted to entrench its occupation and a one state reality with absolute impunity, at times even being rewarded for its violations. Against this backdrop, one Council Resolution in nearly eight years is not disproportionate. It is shameful, but todays vote rectifies this track record, and sets us on a new course. The facts are that the only bashing being done by israel. Of this council, you heard what he said, and of the entire u. N. System, you heard also what he said, of the charter and international law. R five decades, despite the resolution, israeli withdrawal from the territories it occupied in 1967, and all the resolutions thereafter, israel has persisted full force with its occupation, its illegal settlement and the war have fragmented our land, undermined our integrity and isolated jerusalem the heart and effect , of capital of our state de facto capital of our state. Of which the International Community has not recognized and continuous to reject. It has destroyed convictions in the rationality, feasibility, and fairness of the two state solution, as reflected in the growing negative sentiments among palestinians. Whether those besieged and inhumanely blockaded for nearly a decade in the gaza strip. All those in during the colonization and daily terror in the west bank, including in jerusalem. And those in the refugee camps across the region, whose patience in awaiting justice and a peaceful solution is now so frail. The audacious claims of bias, we say the only biased taking place is that against the law, against reason, and against the vision of two states as the most viable solution to this prolonged illegal occupation and disastrous conflict. We have heard it loud and clear in the gleeful boast from some israeli officials that, and i quote the two state solution is and i quote, there will state. Lestinian we witness it in the attempting to prevent the law, to a coveted to accommodate the on lawful and the pretext used to , colonnade our land and deepen occupation. We witness it in israels blatant contempt of the Global Demand to comply with its obligations under the law, as is expected of every single other state in the International Community, and to finally commit to the path of peace. But today, this council has said enough, and we thank you for that. Mr. President , this resolution represents a necessary step for addressing one of the most horrific aspects of the u. N. Agenda a 70year open wound, precluding peace in our region with farreaching consequences, not the least of which is fueling the anger and despair that injustice breeds, especially among youth that future sident or present and future, and undeniably fueling much of the radicalism and extremism plaguing our region and the world. The Security CouncilMust Stand Firm by this decision, stand by the law, and stand by the right side of history. It should not be thought that by negative threats or spin. The council is doing the right thing. By adopting 2334. We hope this global call for settlement activities will serve to compel compliance with the law, deescalate sanctions, bring an end to the violence, including all acts of terror, provocation, and excitement, and reversencitement, and the negative trend on the ground. This is vital to salvaging the prospect of peace. Led by responsible action by the council, including followup of the reports requested by the secretarygeneral under the resolution implementation, we hope the coming period will be one of serious effort to set the horizon,r a credible and Health Partners advance toward peaceful solution. Here, we recognize fully the arab states efforts in the context of the arab peace initiative, which remains a cornerstone for peace, as well as the efforts of france, and the quartet egypt, and the Russian Federation and hope that these collective efforts, with international support, will come to fulfillment. We will remain firm in our belief that peace the central purpose of this organization, is more than worthy of both International Legislation and action. We encourage intense efforts to achieve, without delay, an end to the Israeli Occupation that began in and a comprehensive, 1967. Just, and lasting peace based on the relevant u. N. Resolutions, including the principle of land for peace, arab peace initiative, and quartet roadmap, whereby the Palestinian People will realize their rights and justice, including a just solution for the palestine refugees on the basis of resolution 194 and can finally live in freedom and dignity, exercising their in alienable right to serve in their sovereign state of palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital living side by side with , israel in peace with secure and recognized borders. And happy holidays to all. I thank you very much, mr. President. Thank you for your statement. Before the meeting closes, i would like to express the sincere appreciation to the delegation of spain to the members of the council especially my colleagues, the , permanent representative, the respective staffs and teams, and also to the secretary of the council for all the support they have given us. It has been a very busy month, and it would not have been possible to have these results without the contribution of the delegations, the representatives of the secretariat, the interpreters, sound engineers, as well as Security Officers that kept the council safe day after day. As this could be the last Public Meeting of the Security Council for december, 2016, i would like on behalf of the council to express the sincere appreciation of the council to the five outgoing members angola, spain, following the spanish in alphabetical order, especially, malaysia, new zealand, and the republic of venezuela. I wish to commend their hard work and contributions during their term on the Security Council from 2015 to 2016. Thank you very much. There are no further speakers on my list. The meeting is adjourned. Several lawmakers have a voice disapproval about the u. S. Declining to use its veto power of the un Security Council meeting. In a statement while paul ryan said, this is absolutely shameful. The vote is a bloated piece that sets a dangerous president for efforts to isolate and demonize israel. A republican government will work to reverse the damage done by this administration and rebuild our alliance with israel. And Incoming Senate minority says, itarles schumer is extremely frustrating, disappointing and confounding that the administration has failed to veto this resolution. Whatever ones views are on settlement, the u. N. Is the wrong forum to settle these issues. And from president elect trump, who writes, as for the u. N. , things will be different after january 20. Follow the transition of government on cspan as president elect donald trump selects his cabinet and republicans in democrats prepare for the next congress, we will take you to key events without interruption. Atch on cspan, ondemand cspan. Org, or listen on our free radio app. Conference innews moscow, Vladimir Putin criticized the Obama Administration and Democratic Party for accusing russia of interfering with the u. S. Elections. He also spoke about the war in Syria Nuclear weapons, and the , russian economy. This is a portion of the event that lasted nearly four hours. We are the oldest publication in the country 92 years old, and we have seen a lot over time. We are very concerned, and it seems sometimes it we are more concerned than some officials. So, after the two reports, some officials were fired, or, lets say transferred. So, after all these decisions and measures, can we say that the situation is improving, or is it not enough yet . Wada,other question about do you think it can be reformed, or will some other organization substitute it . It is not just a question of support. We see a Political Action here. Do you think there is one . President putin first of all, we have never had a doping program in russia this is just impossible, unthinkable. We would never do anything like that. There is no Government Support program for doping in russia. That is number one. Number two, like any other country, we have problems and we should do our best to fight it. We should work very closely with the International Olympic committee, Work Together with wada and other international bodies. And we will definitely do that. I hope that the changes that are currently taking place and it is not just some personnel decisions you mentioned. There are structural changes as well. I hope those changes will help us address the situation and the investigative committee. The Prosecution Service are investigating everything related to doping, and this investigation will be carried out to the end. You mentioned some informers that fled to some other countries and they report. I do not even remember the name of this person who fled the guy who was chief of our antidoping agency. What was his previous work . He used to work in canada, and what he did later, he came to russia, and he was appointed to a high position. And he used this to bring all sorts of bad things into russia. I think when he crossed the border in canada or the u. S. , he brought some bad substances into russia. You know there is very strict control of the border, but somehow he was able to bring all of those banned substances into russia. I dont believe the authorities there were unaware of this, and he forced our athletes to take those substances, and when some swimmers refused to take them, he punished them. He found a way to penalize them. Then he fled to other countries, he has a nice life there, and he now complains about russia, hoping they will provide nice conditions for him there. And definitely for some time he will have a nice life there, but then they will just forget him and kick him out. That is what happens. I think he had some patrons there, they waited for the right time to come, and then they attacked russia. That does not mean we do not have problems with doping we should fight them, and take care of our athletes, their health. You also asked about wada. It is not up to me to comment on its performance. It is up to the ioc to do that, but i strongly believe that any antidoping agency, including wada, should be transparent, clear, should be verifiable, and we should know about the results of their work. What i mean is that the International Athletic community should know who was tested, what the results were, and what action was taken in order to punish those guilty what has been done to prevent this from happening in the future . Are these security issues, why are they so secretive . Why do they keep those things under wraps . We all want transparency, right, so it is absolutely necessary to be transparent in these matters. I fully agree with the world known athletes that commented on the recent decisions to move international competitions. They say, do they really mean they did not know about this before . Of course there is a political aspect to it. Sports should be separated from politics from geopolitics, because sports should bring people together instead of dividing them. Colleagues from mr. Putin, i want to ask you how the problem of original loan debt is solved . My second question is will there be whether the provinces are going to be granted more power over finances . So, our province is in debt. It is 6 . So, are you going to support the provinces that have good financial policy and do not take loans . President putin the Government Supports all the different provinces. The donor regions, we help them to stay this way, like moscow moscow province. We do want to. Weve invested a lot in the infrastructure in moscow and the moscow area. In transport, for example. And we do the same with other places like st. Petersburg. Just recently, we launched a new road there that will be very helpful for the entire northwestern part of russia. And there are other examples in other parts of russia. You asked about public debt. This is a very serious issue. The debt of a certain province should not exceed 50 of its internal revenue. And the situation is quite positive. It means the government has a very proper balanced financial policy. A budgetary policy. There are only five provinces in russia that have violated this rule. Require of course special support special , attention. But on the whole, i have to say that this is a serious issue. The debt of russia is over 2 trillion rubles. Even though the government takes necessary steps to address this problem, this year for example, we have allocated 380 billion toles, providing loans refinance this debt, drawing the , the from commercial banks finance ministry loans, which have lower interest rates, 0 interest rates. We will continue this work in the future. And next year, we have allocated sufficient funds. Lets go to the bbc. Here in the center please. Thank you. I would like to ask the question in english. Steve rosenberg, bbc news. Mr. President , your country has been accused of statesponsored hacking with the aim of influencing the results of the u. S. President ial election. President obama has hinted strongly that he thinks you are behind that. He said, not much happens in russia without Vladimir Putin. And president obama revealed that he told you personally to cut it out. So what did you tell him in response . And can you confirm that you were warned by washington not to tamper with americas election . In a message by the socalled red phone, the crisis line between your two countries. And coming back to the point about Donald Trumps tweet. Are you not concerned there was is a danger of a new arms race . Thank you. President putin a new arms race. Conditions for a new arms race were created when the u. S. With the true from the abm treaty. This is obvious. When you have one party unilaterally withdrawing from the treaty and they say they are going to create a nuclear umbrella, the other party has to create a similar umbrella. And we are not sure if we want to do that. At least at this point, we do not think this program can be effective. Or the other option is to create capabilities for penetrating Missile Defense and to renew the Nuclear Strike capabilities. This is what we have been doing. This is not something we did. Thisd to respond to challenge and we have made quite substantial progress with that. Yes, that is true. We have been doing that. It is quite effective and we still stay within the framework. We do not violate anything. With allarent in line our obligations as to the number of warheads. Recently, we went to Nuclear Sites and monitored the way that we reduced nuclear warheads. Do you remember that . And keeping our relationship like that the u. S. Withdrew from , the treaty. It was not us. They did it. Our we have improved nuclear triad, our Nuclear Defense our missile capabilities. This system is much more effective. That is true. And perhaps this is why we are salacious tore enhance their Nuclear Capabilities as well. We are aware of that. They have been doing that, anyway. For example, technical Nuclear Weapons in europe, including your country, the united kingdom, they had been going on and i hope that your audience are aware of that. Turkey, the u. K. , the netherlands. Americans are upgrading weapons deployed there. Somebodys simulating a new arms race, it is not us. I would like to emphasize this is more for domestic consumptions. I would like to say, we will never join an arms race, and we will never spend the resources that we cant afford. At the beginning, earlier, i said that in 2011, we spent 2. 7 over gdp on defense. Of our gdp on defense. It was 4. 7 , then 3. 3 . And we will keep it like that, because we have done everything we need. We are taking care of our basic needs, modernizing our weaponry. , by 2021, 70 of our weapons will be modern weapons. Currently, it is 60 with nuclear forces, so we are happy with this situation. We just proceed according to plan. Now you mentioned tampering and , my conversation with president obama. You may have noticed, i never revealed the contents of our conversations oneonone. You mentioned tampering. To yourready mentioned colleague from the United States losers always look for ways to , accuse somebody else. They should look at themselves first. And they always forget the most important thing. And the most important thing, i say some lets hackers hacked the Democratic Party emails. Some hackers did it. Ok. Like the president elect said, who knows who those hackers were . Maybe they were not in russia. Maybe they were in other countries. Guy lyingas just some on his sofa, on a couch. It is easy for them to blame it on some other country. That is not the most important thing though. The most support they is what was revealed. It is not like they invented something. Withthey came up information, no. True information was revealed. The truth came out. By the time that after the revealed how the Democratic Party has been manipulating Public Opinion in favor of one candidate against the other candidate, against mr. Sanders. Partyad of the democratic leadership resigned and this indicates this was true. This was actually true. Instead of apologizing and promising never to do that again, what they did is they started looking for people that hacked into their emails. That is not really important, right . As for my private conversation, my conversation oneonone with president obama, i never revealed the content of those conversations. I know that there were reports that it was his advisor, his helper who revealed the content of the conversation. Helper youk to my , can talk to him about that. We have a question about the environment. The environment is really important. Lets go to that question now. Thank you for this opportunity to ask the question. I like to wish you a happy new year. To you and everyone in this room and in the country. So, my question is about environments. 2017 is going to become the year of environments. And you signed a decree, there will be a meeting concerning the Environmental Development of russia for future generations. And it is the first time it is worded this way. For future generations. Thinke official do you there will not be a reason why the upcoming environmental year is going to be i have a newspaper, 2013 was also announced as a year of environments. But it was ruined, it was a failure. And you admitted that. President putin you cant me. Caught me. So i have some specific suggestions. I have a lot of experience. This meeting will take place on december 27, maybe i can attend it . So maybe russian embassies and other countries should have some environmental departments that way deal with Environmental Policies in the world because the west is not taking care of environmental problems right now. They are busy with other things. Like wars. But russia on the contrary, is paying more and more attention. And the most important thing, we need to change the media policy. So that it talks more about the environment at the forefront, somese we have entertainment shows about if we change the mindset, then we wont have to deal with corruption and other problems, Peoples Mental Health would be much better. That is my question. Utin you said that we failed in 2013, but you said that we did a lot to help nature. And to criticize western partners. I dont quite agree with what you say about western countries the United States and europe. , i dont think they care less about the environment now. And i can just give you this example. What the french president did for the paris treaty, you know. Emissions reductions, what france did was tremendous. And they were quite successful with it. It was not easy, but we have agreed to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions. And you know that meant that russia made some serious commitments and they fully respect those. I do not know about other countries its hard to tell at , this point because we need to consider ways to implement those agreements. But we are ready for this work. We need to consider the technological aspect of those agreements. How those paris agreements will be implemented. And we are certainly going to do that. As for domestic policies, Environment Protection has always been very important for us. And we will continue to care about environments. We want to pass on to future generations our environment in a very proper shape. I care a lot about pollution, landfills. Just recently we had a meeting with the popular front activists and we discussed these issues in much detail. I will not go into the details right now, but there is a Government Program for that and we will do that. And for forest preservation. This is a serious issue as well. We will certainly have to change some of the regulations to address these problems. Of course, the Wood ProcessingIndustry Needs resources and we have to consider that as well, but it is equally important. To care about the forest, to preserve them. Because otherwise, if we do not parksbout our forests and properly, we will have nothing left in our cities. Cheaper andt is wood ino get would those areas because we have roads and infrastructure. But we have to consider carefully organizations like yours. Environmentalto media and those people that go to these sites and are not afraid of anything. I encourage you to continue with this work and i invite you to join the state council. Please note we want this person to join the council in november. And we have another question on pensions. Lets talk about that now. Good afternoon. My question is this. Some of our citizens retired early. But there have been more and more cases of teachers and doctors having to go to court. To protect their right of earlier retirements. What do pensioners expect next year . President putin just recently, in the 1990s and 1980s, the level of tension was not based on your labor history and people would always the same amount of money for their pension. And many pointed out that this was not fair. We made serious changes in the system. What is the point of those changes . Currently, our system is based on three pillars. What kind of salary you had before you retired. The age at which you started to get pension. Figures is what the Pension System is based on and this will remain unchanged. We will continue to work with these three key fundamental factors as we reform our pensions. You ask about earlier retirement. This is one of the issues that requires special attention. We need to analyze the situation properly. We have a lot of people that retire early. I do not want to anticipate anything right now and tell you about our plan reforms. I will mention one thing. Before changing anything, we have to discuss this publicly and openly. And we will only make those decisions after we carefully consider the situation. In the nearest future, i can tell you just like we planned earlier this year, the rublesill pay out 5000 to every pensioner regardless of how much of a get regularly. That includes military pensioners, actually, for many rublesers, this 5000 will be more than what they receive at the end of the year. And next year, we have funds in our budget to index. Index pensions for retirees for per 2016. As so we will go back to regular indexations and those pensions will be indexed as well. My question is about the ukraine. The ukrainian crisis is frozen now. Theeems that the parties, conflicts have stopped listening , to each other. How do you change things . Are these meetings that you have with the leaders of ukraine, france and germany changing anything . So, there wasn another question of ukraine and i will respond to both questions. This is the ukrainian journalist that has been working in moscow for a long time. Im not sure you can answer both of our questions. Recently, russia has a lot of ukrainian citizens arrested. The problem is, the cases against ukrainian citizens is politically motivated and i would ask you to free i would like to be more specific now. You often say you had to protect the russian speaking population. And last year, you said you never concealed the fact that you sent people to solve issues, so please tell me where this is written in the minsk agreement . When you retire, russians will stay occupied in ukraine. Thank you for your comments. President putin it would be great if the Ukrainian Army would not be considered as occupants in donbass. That is what you should focus on. The Ukrainian Army should not be considered occupants. Prisoners, weing do everything so that prisoners captured by both sides would be exchanged. And more people would be exchanged, the better. President paris henken pereshenko once said there should be in all for all exchange. I agree with that. But it turns out that there are some details and reservations representatives are not satisfied with. That means all those that have been captured are considered to be held a legally. Illegally. But there is a significant number of individuals that are kept in ukraines prisons. And that those ukraines authorities consider it legally held and they do not want to include those, put them on the list. So the all for all exchange, you need an amnesty law and release all of them, otherwise it would be difficult to find a consensus. As for journalists and directors. Journalists and directors have to do what their profession tells them to do. As for the service men of ukraines army, which were captured. From the military intelligence of ukraine, nobody tortured them. No one beat them up. They confessed and it is very easy to check whether they are actually officers of the Ukrainian Military on payroll. They give not just to the full context, they give the name of the units, the name and rank of their commanders. The tasks they were given, the contacts on the territory of russia and on the territory of crimea, they released all of that information. They revealed all that. And every piece of information corroborates the other. So this practice needs to be stopped. If they have this political will, it will be easier to resolve other political issues. Getting back to journalists and film directors. No one has a desire to keep journalists, if they are really journalists. But what do we have to do if a film director, and that has been proven in court, was preparing to stage a terror act . Should we release him to keep release him just because he is a tv director . Keepd we release them, but the military officers . In what way is he different from the military officers . If we release those, others would come tomorrow. We just needed to agree that you have to put a lid on it. It has to be stopped. Perhaps we should think about amnesty law. Wasas he really said, it difficult to align those two questions. The minsk agreement, the and 4 group, your opinion on the possibility of a visa free regime between ukraine and the eu . As for theutin group, it has not been extremely efficient. And regrettably, its activities have not been as desirable. Good but we dont have any other alternatives. I believe we need to continue working within this framework. If we lose this tool, the situation would degrade very quickly. As for the visa free regime between ukraine and the eu, i fully support this. Furthermore, i believe that it is a remnant of the past. A remnant of the cold war and we need to get rid of it as soon as possible. If ukrainian citizens will be eligible for visa free travel to europe, that will be the right step forward. , well, thist i know will be in opportunity to get a visa without the right to work, but will that increase the inflow of Migrant Workers to europe . Yes. According to unconfirmed data, we have about 3 million ukrainian workers in russia. And if there is a visa regime in europe, some people from russia will be moving to europe. And ukrainians. Then we will have serious pressure on the labor market. But if the right to work will not be given, people will come to europe and face a lot of challenges. They would have to work you legally. They would only be allowed to come for threemonth, work, then go back to ukraine, then go back to the eu. It means they would not be socially protected, they will not enjoy social benefits, and they would be exploited to the fullest extent. So if you allow visa free travel, you need to allow the right to work. Lets have turkey. And then channel one. After turkey. Mr. Putin, russia and turkey managed to resolve one of the issues in the syrian conflict without the support of the west i mean aleppo. So there is potential there. In the future, will ankara and moscow be able to use this potential . Will iran, turkey and russia be able to stand against the games being played in the middle east . So, this alliance, will it be able to play a key role in the resolution of the syrian conflict . And the second question in october 2015, you made some agreements with erdogan about syria and the russian plane was downed. And then, normalization started and then there was a coup attempt. So now turkey and russia are , cooperating with aleppo. The Russian Ambassador was in ankara. Do you think this was a coincidence . President putin lets start with the last part, with the tragedy that took place recently. The assassination of our