Answers by the German Foreign minister and defense minister as well since the shilton the informant soon it is over there is that one of the leading opposition figures in russia has been poisoned as specialized laborde 3 of the armed forces came to a clear conclusion and that aleksey never in the last poisoned with a substance from the north hes the victim for crime someone tried to shut him up. We demand an investigation into the poisoning of alex he now while we condemn this boys name and in the near future will hold consultations and how you can adequately respond to it would depend on russias response to the case alexina valley has been here in berlin for around 11 days since he was flown here from the city of square he was receiving initial treatment this was after he took seriously ill on a flight from siberia to moscow he was trying to initially there his supporters chartered a specific medical played a specialized medical plane to fly him here to live where hes been receiving treatment in the show. Its a hospital but when paramedics 1st arrived on the scene in russia after the plane was forced to make an Emergency Landing alexina valley was in severe distress. In the midst of the valley remains in a coma here and induced coma and birth medics have said theres no acute danger to his life but a keeping him in that coma in order to carry out the tests that have been done and also to keep on giving him treatment they have said that his condition has improved somewhat but this latest information of course this latest bombshell is coming from the russian from the German Government and german chancellor Angela Merkel saying alexina valley was poisoned by a nerve agent from the not a chalk family. So weve heard that there just now from the german chancellor what has been the official reaction coming from russia been so far the official word from the kremlin spokesperson Demeter Briscoe of is the hasnt been in touch we would expect to change of course when so good lets try of the Russian Ambassador to relays the information that he was told when he was summoned to the German Foreign ministry here in the german capital on wednesday afternoon we know from heiko mass the German Foreign minister that he was told in no Uncertain Terms that investigation has to be carried out into what happened to alexa in the valley and that they were looking to moscow looking to russia for help with that investigation to find out what happened to election of ali. Were not going to bring in live historian and International Affairs specialist John Loughlin for more on this germany has said it will inform the e. U. And nato on its findings in the of on the case but so far it hasnt sent anything to russia nor given any indication that it will even though this is an alleged crime that happened in russia what do you make of that. Im a long term skeptic of these allegations of poisoning theyve been going on for many years the 1st one that i became aware of was in 2004 when it was alleged that the ukrainian politician Viktor Yushchenko had been poised by russian agents poisoned and i was in particular a strong skeptic of the script file allegations where as you know and as your new as your viewers know it was also alleged that novacek was used at the time i found the allegations of the British Government completely incredible completely incredible and in particular the British Governments claim that only russia had a motive and only russia had a means to use novacek russia had neither motive and russia was definitely not the only country to have a means and therefore it is inevitable that im extremely skeptical when i hear the same word not be chock used in the context of novell me lets just think about it for a minute if this triple story was true which as i say ive always doubted but if we assume it was true and that russia tried to murder case cripple using novacek that attempt failed spectacularly he didnt die and everybody found out about it russia was roundly accused and it led to a massive diplomatic crisis and we really supposed to believe that russia has done the same thing again though with novelli who is the only opposition politician in russia that anyones ever heard of in the west youd have to be very very credible us to believe that such a thing is possible it is im afraid impossible that. That russian agents would try to do again the very thing which failed only 2 years ago and which led to a made major diplomatic crisis so i repeat im extremely skeptical about this and i note with great interest your viewers have just seen pictures of novelli arriving in an ambulance at the berlin hospital it was. It was written on that ambulance but in despair that means german army in other words he was picked up from the airport by the german army the tests have been carried out by the german army. This whole issue has been like the script all affair where the british army was on the spot immediately before anyone else this whole thing has been taken over as with the other poisonings by the western military and intelligence services. Now even before this announcement came today the German Foreign minister was saying i believe it was last week that sanctions would be introduced against russia if it was found to have poisoned violently as are saying its hard to believe that thats exactly what has happened there but it does seem that germany at least has already made up its mind about that how much of an appetite do you think there is in europe right now for a new sanctions war. I think that firstly are quite right to say theyve made up their minds because chancellor merkel just said someone was trying to shut me up or how does she know what the motive was if this was an attempted poisoning maybe theres a different motive made maybe. He has other enemies we know that he has business enemies how does she know that the motive was to shut him up we dont know that the family has been prominent at least in western eyes for for a decade why would it why is it necessary to shut him up no he doesnt represent the Political Force in russia at all. Is there an appetite for sanctions i think youve asked once again exactly the right question here the issue is not streamed to. Only shortly before the novell ne incident chancellor merkel had said once again and in the teeth of very strong american opposition. That she wanted to see the north stream 2 gas line completed and the german Political Class and Business Class is as i understand it massively in favor of the completion of that project against american pressure. Im afraid that im a bit of a conspiracy theorist perhaps but i think that it is remarkable that this incident which as i say is completely incredible its incredible that russia should have a tried tried to use not be choked 2 years after scribal that this incident should intervene just as the north stream to gas pipeline is on the verge of completion and thats why youre right to ask about sanctions because obviously the political pressure now is immense for germany to step back at the last minute from completing the pipeline. Now and ive only does have a significant following here and russia but at the same time he also has his fair share of enemies hes targeted a large number of officials businessmen and all of the likes in his Anti Corruption investigations that he posted videos on you tube about and hes been doing that for almost a decade now if there was an attempt on his life why should suspicion immediately fall on the kremlin. Well i dont think it should because it doesnt make sense to me youve said in your question and i said it earlier he has been campaigning for a decade. You say that he has a lot of support im not sure that thats true i mean he stood for mayor of moscow a few years ago and received a few 100000 votes in a city of 15000000 people thats not what i call a high level of support you would expect him to receive many millions of votes in moscow which is after all a relatively liberal city he doesnt have any Party Structure he has a presence only online and only as a blogger hes often referred to as a blogger. He didnt run in the last president ial elections you know where where does one finish the list to say that this man is a threat to the regime in russia or that the regime in russia would try to kill him is he is im afraid to say incredible i just dont believe it maybe im wrong maybe im being naive and maybe there will be proof one day to prove me wrong but right now today within minutes of the announcement by the German Authorities my reaction is one of skepticism germany either way has already said that theyre going to consult with the e. U. And their nato partan a dope partners on a joint response to this situation and what do you think thats going to look at and why that scope. Well again its like this cripple if it is immediately the russian state is immediately blamed and the issue which is an issue of criminal investigation if indeed it was a crime as chancellor merkel says is immediately put on to the geopolitical level in your report you said it was the German Defense minister and the German Foreign minister who made a statement that shows that theyve already decided that russia as a state is guilty and thats. Well i think that you know one has to ask why as you did indeed in your previous question why is this happening now well ive given you the reader and the viewers and elements of an answer its happening now it might be happening now because of the imminent completion of this very important gas pipeline which as we know if it were to be completed would not only of course increase russian sales of gas to europe bypassing. Countries like poland and ukraine but would also compete with american liquid natural and natural gas imports so my suspicions my skepticism is only aggravated by the fact that the German Authorities have not only immediately blamed the russian state by saying that someone was trying to shut me up on the up. And secondly by the fact that as you said your question theyve immediately put this on the level of diplomacy and sanctions and e. U. And nato and so on and i just want to add one last element this novacek that the British Government 1st told us about in 2018 was supposed to be military grade they said military grade chemical or nerve agent a military grade chemical or nerve agent is something that is designed to kill large numbers of people very quickly we are supposed to believe that this was administered in an airplane nobody else in the airplane was even sick as far as we know let alone died novelli hasnt died and yet were being told this is a military. Chemical weapon what kind of weapon is it that doesnt kill anyone i mean none of this thats out. Exactly theoretically that would have either had to have been administered on the plane or in the airport itself both highly Populated Areas and yet we have heard nothing about that as of now are we also supposed to ignore the fact that russian doctors and on the square of only was being treated before he was airlifted to berlin the fact that they said that they had run tests and nothing came back for any sort of toxic poisons. Yes well i mean im not a doctor and i you know i. Cant. Know you know the validity or otherwise of the diagnosis but lets not forget that novell his wife as soon as this incident occurred immediately accused the russian state of trying to poison her husband and immediately demanded that he be transferred to germany where indeed as i say he has been looked after by the german army so we could see from the very go from the very word go that novell the wife another way he and his supporters it mediately wanted to get him out of russia and put him in the hands of someone else well ok you could say that the russian state controls the hospital in omsk if you want. I have to remind your viewers d that as far as i know there were d there were no Russian Military doctors in the hospital where is there a German Military doctors in the berlin hospital thats treating him so you know i might my feeling is that as with the mh 17 case which has been run by the Dutch Secret Service is the investigation there being run by the Dutch Secret Services as with the scriptural affair which was taken control of immediately by the british army and by the British Intelligence services so we see the pattern repeating itself in this incident with alex in the valley. Weve already touched on sanctions and you fairly brought up the risk that there is right now being post towards the north stream to pipeline project how far do you think that any sort of International Reaction could escalate to. Well i suppose thats what chancellor merkel and her government are trying to decide no i mean they are i repeat the timing is the timing of this event whether or not by coincidence is that germany has set herself strongly against the american extraterritorial sanctions which are directed to get in front of him or in the north stream project so germany if germany were to join in these sanctions that were to withdraw from north stream that would be an immense loss of face. For chancellor merkel who as i say only a few days ago repeated her opposition to the extraterritorial american sanctions and repeated her commitment to building the gas pipeline so i expect that this event has put the German Government into a state of crisis because it is as if the German Government were being forced to do something that essentially it doesnt want to do the russians have asked for all the information on the bombings case and the results to be sent to moscow so that they can look at them do you expect a germy to go ahead and comply with that request and also do you think it strange at all that there was no communication whatsoever before the statement was just put out there. Well no i dont expect that the germans will do as the russians asked because again on past form thats not whats happening when the strip whole event took place in 2018 russian is the Russian Embassy in london for example repeatedly asked for D Information or samples and so on asked to be involved in the investigation and was repeatedly pushed aside the same goes for the mh 17 investigation in the netherlands into the shooting down of the malaysian airliner over ukraine in 2014 russia has always been excluded from that as well so no i suspect that germany has will not do as its been asked and that on the contrary it will do what it already has done which is to rush to conclusions and therefore to create a diplomatic situation from which it will be impossible to get out or does that mean were just going to see another situation where the finger has already been pointed at the accusations have already been laid out there and whether or not there is actual concrete proof saying that the kremlin did do this thats just what everyones going to believe. Well yes i do think thats whats going to happen you know i dont believe these things many of our viewers dont believe them either but im afraid of a very large section of the population in the west that does believe this so yes i think that the finger has been pointed you cant deny that chancellor merkel said it was a crime she said that the motive was to shut him up as for the evidence. The the German Military authorities who have conducted these tests say that there is no doubt that he was poisoned by. The british porton down the head of porton down which is the british. Military installation which deals with chemical weapons which was 8 which is 8 miles away from where case crippled was found by the way in salt spray said at the time of the script that there was no ringback way of knowing where the chemicals that they allegedly found in scripture blood came from there was no way of identifying it you cant trace the origin its not like Radioactive Material so as for these proofs im not quite sure even if not the truck were to be proved whatever that means that that would be the sufficient proof to point the finger at russia i just think that all these things these stories are concocted. And and put out into the public sphere unfortunately because people by and large do believe them and i regret that weve been speaking with historian and International Affairs specialist on laughlin thank you for your time and your comments of q. And other areas facebook has announced a radical change to its terms of service is or is have started receiving notification saying the social media giant will start removing or blocking any content that could expose the company to legal action. We can also remove or restrict access to content services or information if we determine that doing so is reasonably necessary to avoid or mitigate adverse legal regulatory impacts to facebook disturbing near addition to facebook terms of service that could be used to justify online censorship but with the governments using restrictive National Laws to order social media platforms to censor information critical of the government or more narky in violation of online freedom facebooks terms of Service Update translated to plain english will remove content not because it is incorrect misleading illegal or spreads dangerous misinformation but because removing it might help prevent us from getting caught allowing it did you see the new facebook tens of said this smells like election interference and censorship to me. As you just heard theres already been a Strong Negative reaction to the new rules whic