Our top team of year end reviewers are alexander nekrassov, a russian writer and former kremlin adviser, janet daley of the sunday telegraph, Mina Al Oraibi who is an iraqi journalist. And Thomas Kielinger of die welt. Well, in britain, across europe and in the United States it has been a tumultuous year. The brexit vote, Donald Trumps victory, political turmoil in france, italy and elsewhere. All have shown countries divided within themselves. Scotland, post Industrial Areas of Northern England and the prosperous parts of london at times appeared to regard each other as incomprehensible. Trump and clinton voters often seemed to belong notjust to different states but different visions of the United States. How significant has 2016 been in terms of these Major Political events . The deep social and cultural divisions between so called Populist Movements and their critics. I mean, that has been the story of most of the big democracies. Really big divisions, hasnt it . Yes, and your word, incomprehensible. Clintons word, despicable might be more to the point. Deplorable. I beg your pardon. And irredeemable, that was a particularly awful word to use. There is something in common in all these, the Populist Movements in europe, and the divisions in america. And that is a sense that a huge swathe of the population, the majority in the case of the United States, in electoral terms anyway, feels that they are completely left out of the discussion. They are completely left out of the dialogue and this is a much bigger problem than just the immediate electoral consequences. This is a post industrial problem. The people who have been left behind by the globalisation of the economy and particularly the globalisation of labour, which is to say, kind of, nomadic tribes of labour. Particularly young potential employment moving around the world at the behest of global interest has left indigenous populations, Working Class populations feeling completely unrepresented. The thing about that is. It is a story of 2016 but it has been in the making for decades actually. And we have not noticed it. Journalists, elites, others. For decades and more acutely in the making since the financial crisis which ushered in an era of austerity which made those left out millions even more left out. Im glad you mentioned the economy. From part of the Social Cleavage has to do with the economy. People feel. It was called the left out millions. I came across a funny, rather unsettling statistic the other day. Illustrates your point. The american ceos in 1965 earned about 20 times as much as their average employee but now it is 296 times. If you look at it from a productivity point view, productivity since 48 grew by 96 and wages went up similarly. Productivity since 1973 has gone 71 but wages have only increased by 11 . There is a big discrepancy. Economic fortunes, which people rise up against. Theyre not going to take it anymore. It is to do with the importing of cheap labour and the mobility of cheap labour. Almost insoluble in the present frame of reference. I cant see a political solution to that. Partly it is labour but partly it is automation. There was a statistic also that in the us, of the jobs that were lost, four out of five were due to automation. Rather than actually cheap labour. Unfortunately, very few people talk about that because nobody wants to push back against technological advances and you can understand why. This problem will continue to increase as long as we dont hold companies to account. And rather say, yes, we have issues to do with migration and shifts, but it is to do with Technological Advancement and the way the economy is changing. Cheap labour and robots and the indigenous Working Classes of these countries have been squeezed out. We will see Uber Uberised the drivers may lose theirjobs within a decade. They have said they are looking at automatic drivers in san francisco. The whole discussion, illegal, legal . So forth. I want to go back to the point you started with, the idea of populism. Looking back over 2016. An mp was killed in the uk in broad daylight. Jo cox. The First Time Since 1990. And i think because we are based out of london, the uk, the reflection about the violence towards populism, i think it is a good thing that people feel that they can use elections to make their voice heard. Because if they cannot, they will resort to violent means. And i really do think this was a Turning Point in the case of the uk in 2016, is that weve had an mp killed. And the year of terrorism in various ways. Well come onto that. In terms of populism, that is also going to be the story of next year, isnt it . I think, first of all, that this year will be remembered for the deep, deep crisis of liberalism which came to a head. We are witnessing the crumbling of liberalism and neoliberalism with all the consequences, cultural, economic, fiscal, everything. And when we talk about the economy, weve entered the stage of virtual economy. And this stage is not accepted by people. You were talking about uber. Uber is a virtual economy company. It does not create anything, it destroys. Just like many online companies. The people have rebelled against the dominant role of the middleman. The middleman rules in the virtual economy. Not creators. Production companies. That is why were seeing this impact of the financial crash which is not gone away. It is still here. And it is clashing with this virtual economy, pushing people out ofjobs. Making them basically slave labour because, lets face it, what is a zero hour contract . It is slave labour in a developed nation. I find it remarkable that some people say, well, it is a flexible way of working. It is not. It is basically the dominance of slave labour over the new relations. I dont think slaves get paid normally. It is Casual Labour underanotherterm. Casual labour was made illegal in effect in this country and the zero hours contract isjust the reinvention of Casual Labour. Some talk of wage slaves, though, dont they . That is metaphorical. The point is, the crisis of what youre describing as Productive Labour is the crisis of manufacturing. Manufacturing is now being done by robots, basically. And will be done more by robots in the future. There is no point in trying to hold that back. That is the future. What happens to all those people, miners, steelworkers, car manufacturers, who cant actually be taught to be Computer Coders in the future . This is a cultural, political, social, economic crisis. It is a slow moving one but a crisis nonetheless. The other aspect, you touched on our political discourse on both sides of the atlantic that has become extremely nasty. People who vote one way are called remoaners, others are called leftards. The kind of things people say about other people they disagree with is quite nasty and on the fringes of that we get various kinds of terrorism including in germany this week. We have this cleavage. Society nowadays are falling into binary templates. Each yes, no. Each other accusing each other of deplorable attitudes and so on, that is going to be with us for some time. I wonder whether we should call it populism. The Populist Uprising against the old order comes from deep social inequalities. Economic equalities and if On Top Of The World were discussing. Governments also continue with austerity, cutting back public services, youve got a revolution in the making. People ask, what does the government do for me . Already asking. Absolutely. Theresa may next year, other than brexit, has a huge problem on her hands, how to get britain working again and how to get people to earn a living wage. A living wage that can pay your costs and your bills. That is the biggest problem. In addition to that, the rising levels of Youth Unemployment that we now almost take granted. The fact that spain has stumbled in trying to form a government or have policy that actually functions, has Youth Unemployment of about 25 . This acceptance that oh, we have these young people and they can either be on casual hours, flexi time, whatever, most of the time this is just disguised unemployment. That needs a solution, because after the financial crisis, banks were seen as Too Big To Fail but not communities. Communities is a crucial word because communities used to be built around a local workplace the local coal mine, local steelworks, the local automotive plant, and it is notjust the job that has lost, it is the whole sense of the continuity. Virtual economy. I was talking about the fact that we have Manufacturing Companies basically going down, losing markets and so on. And yet the stock on the Stock Exchange is going up. Why . Because governments pump new printed money into markets. Not into the economy. That is the virtual economy. That is what i was talking about. Share price goes up. The governments are supporting the markets, not the economy. That is such a crucial mistake of a virtual economy and as regards the online companies, they are basically destroying the economy. They are not creating the economy. I would not say all of them. 0nline companies can create wealth. Just because you cannot manufacture things does not mean that you do not create wealth. You can create new kinds of transactions and communications. The problem is, in this Economy Britain is now 70 a Service Economy. The Service Economy generally does not produce anything. Neitherjobs, nor wealth, nor anything. That is important. But it does generate wealth. We have to take into account that now you have millennials who do not want to keep the same job for 30 years. Just because their father did a particularjob. Their mother. We have to accept that there are those changes but the key issue is what thomas raised. Wealth gaps are increasing. People at the very top continue to make more money. This is about being liberated, you dont have to be a coal miner because your father was. There are people who wanted to be coal miners and they do not have the possibility any longer. Continuity. The fathers expecting the son to follow them down the pits or whatever. The choices, you have to become a nomadic international bit of the labour force that is being flung All Over The World at the behest of capital enterprises. That breakdown of community is very serious. Lets move on because the wars and divisions in syria, yemen and iraq are all fuelled by very serious local resentments but also by something which is intractable. The rivalry between saudi arabia and iran plus other powers exerting considerable influence. Can we say that 2016 has proved to be a good year for iran . A nuclear deal with the United States, expanding influence in iraq and the consolidation of the assad regime in damascus. It has been a good year for tehran, hasnt it . I think 2015 was even a better year. They struck the deal then and was very little heat on iran on what was happening in syria, iraq. With the 0bama presidency ending there will be much tougher questions. Donald trump suggesting 2017 is not going to be comfortable for iran. Indeed. But also, in 2016 iran lost at least 1,000 soldiers in syria. They are losing many in iraq also. It is good for the reigning regime in terms of politically, for sure, they come out stronger in the region than others. Turkey had an attempted coup on the presidency. So forth. Come out stronger in the region. Challenges rose. Domestically there are key problems because the economy is not picking up as fast as they promised people out of the nuclear deal. And there are deep divisions that we will see rising in 2017 as we gear up to elections. I would say, however, that for irans long term prosperity they need stability in their region and definitely that has not come about this year. A good year for putin. Almost everybody agrees. It is a good year for putin in the sense that Hillary Clinton did not win the election. Lets put it this way. I think there is some potential in trump working with putin and maybe the middle east will benefit from that. Because we had a situation that was absolutely impossible to have a proper good impact on the middle east when america basically had a stand off with russia. Now, as regards putins future, we might say this year was good for him. I think he will face enormous challenges next year on the basis of this year because the economy is not doing well in russia. And whatever happens in syria, whatever happens All Over The World, for putin, the main crunch will be solving the ukraine crisis and the economy. And the signs are not good for both. I am always shocked when i hear it has been a good year for putin. And i think that refusal to work in a positive way and constructive way for an end is the biggest blame that i can attach to putin. This game, in order to safeguard his influence in the area, and iran also is part of that. Putin has done the grand slam this year. He has become what Forbes Magazine described as the most powerful man on the planet for the third year running. Hes now the chief actor in the middle east because america simply backed away because there was no leadership from the west to give him a contest. And so now he perhaps is stuck. I think he has wedged himself into a position of tremendous power in the region but in trouble at home. Still stuck with the fact that his economy is absolutely dependent on the oil price but diverting attention from the economic problems at home by this new imperial move abroad. Can i suggest one of the reasons 2017 could be a good year for putin is that the eu is in absolute disarray, isnt it . Good news . I dont think he benefits because russia does need a strong european union, strong europe, for trade. Le pen . Why does russia back Marine Le Pen . I dont think russia backs le pen. She has no chance of winning. Why would they back a loser . All this talk of russia supporting right wing movements, it has got nothing to do with the real politics of what is going on. They are supporting erdogan. Theyre very keen, in spite of the terrorist incidents, to get turkey on side to pull turkey away from the nato Sphere Of Influence and to get a foothold. Erdogan is going conveniently in the russian direction and becoming less interested in human rights, more dictatorial, playing into putins hands. Do you actually believe that russia thinks that a nato member would become a close friend of moscow . They are behaving as if they do. I think it is more tactical. Tactical move from erdogan to appear closer. Everybody is playing tactics. He does not have any intention of ever leaving nato, but at the same time he realises in the middle east. Because of the disengagement. It was standing back, taking a step forward, taking two steps back and confusing their allies in the region and that has been one of the issues. Iran had a better year than arab allies that banked on the us because at least for iran there was much more clarity. Talking about good and bad years i would suggest it has been a very bad year for the european union. This is what i meant to say when you are talking, asking alexander about the interests of putin and a weaker europe. The weaknesses in europe also stem from the unsolved problem in the middle east. Putin is causing ever more refugees to be shipped and migrate to other parts of europe which would increase instability in the west. Actually, it leads onto the last question as to whether or not there is a cold war in europe . I do not see another. The west is far too weak to present a solid front that it used to have. It is struggling to come to terms with its own crisis. 2017 will not see the end of that. The case for a cold war. We discussed this before. For there being some kind of new cold war in this continent of ours, is ukraine, which you have pointed out is a matter of great sensitivity to russia. As you know, the baltic nations, sweden for example is reinforcing islands in the baltic that they withdrew troops from 25 years ago. It is doing extraordinary things. Real sensitivities in the Baltic States as well so how do you see the relations between putin and the west, particularly nato . Relations between putin and the west will be terrible because nato is not only closing to the borders, it is actually increasing Military Presence right on the border and anyone who knows the real situation in europe would laugh at the assumption that russia is planning to attack the baltics or poland or anybody else in europe. Hadnt russian generals thought aloud about the possibility of, im quoting here, a limited Nuclear Award in europe not to be unthinkable . When nato is moving troops to the russian border, of course there will be noises made about Nuclear Weapons and so 011. But the point of the matter is that the west has crossed the line in ukraine. This was going to. The west has crossed the line . Of course it does russia has annexed crimea excuse me, it has encouraged a coup, basically, in kiev. And suddenly we see history been divided. We are told. Crimea was annexed. We forget what happened in kiev 2014. It elected a government. You dont have governments being overthrown in europe, elected governments, and then everybody says, well, it isjust popular uprising, when it was funded and encouraged by western governments. I would leave that to history to determine who is behind the development in ukraine. I am more worried about Western Europ