economically and move toward the fair and free elections that are currently scheduled to take place in may. there have been some reports that president putin is pausing for a moment and reflecting on what s happened. earlier today, the kremlin reported putin ordered tens of thousands of russian troops participating in military exercises to return to their bases. moscow has denied the military exercises were linked to the situation in the ukraine, so it s unclear if putins move was an attempt to deescalate the situation. putin won t take responsibility, putin repeated the claim that troops spotted in ukraine wearing unmarked uniforms are not russian forces but local self-defense groups. putin said, russian russia reserves right to use all means nose protect russian in the ukraine and military force would be a last resort. putin also warned that, western
well, there is i think a collective leadership. the speaker has been elected. and by the ukrainian constitution. and ukraine just adopted a return to its 2004 constitution where the presidential powers are limited. in the absence of a president the speaker fulfills the role of the president as the acting president until elections which are to be convened within 60 to 90 days and they will be on may 25th. so there is an orderly transition. there is not a full consolidation of authority. but the interesting thing is there is no serious challenge to authority. there are a lot of people who have been part of these protests and self-defense groups protecting protesters from government violence who are, you know, patrolling streets and working in some places with the local police, in some places the police have disappeared because they were part of the repressive mechanism, but basically there s no one systematically capable of challenging the people in power. and certainly the military is
and self-defense groups protecting protesters from government violence who are, you know, patrolling streets and working in some places with the local police, in some places the police have disappeared because they were part of the repressive mechanism, but basically there s no one systematically capable of challenging the people in power. and certainly the military is on board. the security service has a new leader. there s a new minister of the interior. he has purged all the intermediate people who were associated with the violence. and a new chain of command is being put together. so it is a little bit of a, you know, transitional and bumpy ride. but they are well on the path after such a turbulent period and the collapse of an entire system which had ruled as a very authoritarian and tightly controlled system. we re moving toward the consolidation of power of these people. and i think one thing i want to point out is that yes, western europe and europe and the united states have r
street. there s lots of people going down there. they re bringing, you know, more food, more supplies, there s more guys signing up to join these barricade self-defense groups. their feeling is that today want yang coe slip to step down. that s it. today think this agreement mean they think this agreement means nothing to them, and they re not leaving anytime soon. martha: what about on the other side? how have the police reacted, how have the government forces reacted to this? are they showing signs of backing down? reporter: well, at this point it s, we re unclear on that. i mean, they whether or not if violence happens again, it s still to be determined if some of the police may say because the parliament today passed a sort of referendum or a memorandum that says stop in this anti-terrorism operation that s been going on so that they, the police, can t use guns. but, you know, they could get orders otherwise.
recently, the largely tutsi rwandan backed m-23 has been active in the area around goma. but the mostly huto is also here. they can also refer to self-defense groups or specifically entities. some groups like the frpi are principally defending a stake in a resource like gold and others are mainly interested in fighting with a particular enemy. in their case, they have a beef with the fdlr. lots of other organizations controlling territory who haven t come up with a name or a cool acronym yet. this is only a fraction of the rebel groups in a single area of the congo. be advised, this map was hopelessly outdated before we even got here. it s all these variables kind of knotted into one big mess. these are the reasons why media has a difficult time, why the western world doesn t hear much about congo, because how can you sum it up in a three-minute report? but for us, goma is just a stopover on the way to the congo river.