Google Speech-to-Text API Automatic Transcription (Chirp). Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:00that
00:00:00you know for them it feels like it's the end
00:00:02of the world and for me i felt like it was the beginning of
00:00:06something
00:00:07of great.
00:00:11in
00:00:17a day
00:00:21two
00:00:25of of the state Duma of Elections officially wraps up across of Russia with voter turnout
00:00:26of nearing 45%. We're here to bring you our special. average
00:00:30is the world's biggest country, has its democratic
00:00:34say, and really, no
00:00:37of excuse not
00:00:39to vote. Russians get to cast their ballots without even coming to a
00:00:42in polling of station, giving low
00:00:45of mobility citizens and equal opportunity to take part in
00:00:48elections. They brought the ballot box right here to
00:00:51me, I dropped my ballot in and I was done, I'm very happy with how it
00:00:55went.
00:00:56You don't have to walk far at all, it's so convenient.
00:01:01and in other news, the Kremlin warns that Washington's new sanctions could
00:01:05have negative impact on efforts to end the Ukraine
00:01:08conflict, that's after Donald Trump is given the right to impose
00:01:12100% tariffs on countries purchasing Russian
00:01:16energy like China and
00:01:18India.
00:01:27You're watching RC International News and updates. from all over the world, my name is
00:01:31Igdanov and I will be your host for this hour.
00:01:35in now it's the second day
00:01:37of the nationwide stay duma elections and it has ended
00:01:41across all of Russia's regions, which means there's just
00:01:45one to go before results start pouring in either late on
00:01:48Sunday or already on the Monday night. RT's been keeping
00:01:52a close eye on the polls with our special coverage bringing you all the
00:01:56latest updates.
00:02:08of Now the
00:02:10of scale
00:02:10of the parliamentary elections is truly massive for the lack of better word with voter
00:02:14turnout coming close to 45% on day
00:02:18two out of three already. Russian nationals are exercising their
00:02:22constitutional right and casting their votes which will define
00:02:25Russia's future for the next five years. In Russia's new
00:02:30regions more than 4 million residents have voted early elections, but
00:02:34the
00:02:34in process is still ongoing. in the frontline Danetsk and lugansk
00:02:38republics, you can see people have been heading to the polls all these
00:02:42two
00:02:42of days to cast their ballots. turn out in Denetsk is close to
00:02:4680%, while 67% of voters in
00:02:49Lugansk also have had their democratic say, that's well above
00:02:53average across the country. the chairman
00:02:56of the denets collections committee says Ukrainian provocation
00:03:03a
00:03:04of These elections have been marked
00:03:07a by intense hostile scrutiny from our adversaries. It seems to unsettle them
00:03:11that we vote, that we elect deputies, and that we choose our representatives for the
00:03:15national parliament, the state Duma. We faced a wide range of
00:03:20of challenges from fake letters and documents perportedly from the election
00:03:23of commission, demanding various information from our local polling station
00:03:26commissions
00:03:27of to actual threats and drone activity.
00:03:29There were instances. where our colleagues, members
00:03:31of the local commissions had to take
00:03:34in of cover from drones or alter their roots. These issues frequently erose during voter outreach, such
00:03:38as door-to-door visits and
00:03:40of during early voting, when our colleagues went out to residential courtyards to ensure
00:03:43every voter had the chance to cast his or her ballot. They monitored
00:03:47people and tried to
00:03:48of disrupt the process, but thank God, everything is fine, and the elections are
00:03:52proceeding. I believe the character of our people plays major role here, our
00:03:56determination and our resolve to see task through to the end, regardless of...
00:04:03well the voting there does come amid unrelenting
00:04:07threat of Ukrainian strikes and that's including in
00:04:10of one
00:04:10of the most iconic regions of Russia Crimea too it has been
00:04:14participating and deciding the future as well, having
00:04:18a joined Russia in well 12 years ago, it's the third
00:04:22federal election
00:04:23of of process for the peninsula's residents. They say participating in
00:04:27the vote is one
00:04:28of the
00:04:28of most important duties
00:04:29for patr'.
00:04:33of
00:04:46of
00:05:01It's about my grandchildren's future. We were born here,
00:05:04of I started my family here. My husband was an officer, but sadly
00:05:08he died in the special military
00:05:10of operation. a My son is an officer and... "my daughter is here too.
00:05:14i have three grandchildren, so i want to vote for their
00:05:17future. i want my
00:05:21family, my children and grandchildren to live a different kind of state, one
00:05:25that is more secure and
00:05:26powerful. well, by any measure,
00:05:30it's no trivial undertaking, organizing over
00:05:33111 million voters spread across
00:05:3689 regions as well as the two million more located
00:05:40abroad, from vladiv stocken." the east to Siberia, then
00:05:44Moscow, and to Kaliningrad in the west. The
00:05:47electorate is spread across 11 time zones. All that
00:05:51means that each day of Russia's parliamentary voting
00:05:55process takes up the better part the
00:05:5824-hour day. Here's a breakdown of how the
00:06:01world's biggest country is handling the election
00:06:04process.
00:08:00Well with the second day of voting wrapped up, Art is taking a deep dive into
00:08:04the country's elections and our correspondent Umai Maid Shah has been
00:08:08covering all the action from just outside the Kremlin walls in
00:08:11Moscow. the police stations have officially closed as
00:08:15the second day the parliamentary elections here in Russia
00:08:19came to closure which turn out nearing
00:08:2245%. now we have over 90,000
00:08:26polling stations all throughout the country, citizens are also
00:08:30able to cast their ballots online. of course, tomorrow is the big day,
00:08:34it is the final day of voting and later
00:08:37tomorrow evening will finally be able to hear the uh preliminary
00:08:41results of of this election, so I will be taking
00:08:44you through just a quick reminder of um how all of
00:08:48this process works, so
00:08:50the state Duma elections or the parliamentary elections here in Russia are held
00:08:54every five years with over 450 deputies
00:08:58elected to the state Duma, the lower chamber the federal
00:09:01assembly. The system here is as follows: so we have
00:09:04225 seats that are elected through party
00:09:08lists and the other 225 are elected
00:09:11in single. constituency, so in practice vaters here
00:09:15cast two ballots, and to enter the duma through a uh
00:09:19the the party list, a party needs to have at least
00:09:225% the vote. in Russia, we have
00:09:2510 parties that are in the federal list. let's start off with the United
00:09:29Arassia party, the
00:09:31dinaya yasi, the party that has held constitutional super majority over two
00:09:35thirds the seats since 2016. we
00:09:38also have the communist party the Russian Federation, now this is...
00:09:43uh largely considered to be the biggest opposition party
00:09:46in the parliament and it is also the oldest
00:09:50in the ballot. we also have the noviludi party
00:09:54or the new people party, this is probably the youngest party
00:09:58here, it has it was created in 2020 and
00:10:01officially got itself involved in the state duma in
00:10:052021. we have a just rusha party and others
00:10:09such as direct democracy party, the greens, rodina, uh
00:10:12pensioners party and a communists of Russia. now it
00:10:16is worth uh mentioning here that this is the first
00:10:20time uh citizens, Russian citizens the
00:10:24Daniet. Zaparoji and Herson
00:10:27regions are finally able to cast their ballots
00:10:31in these parliamentary elections. On top of that, Russia has also
00:10:35opened over 300 polling stations in over
00:10:38150 countries uh in order for its uh
00:10:41citizens abroad to be able to vote as well. It's also worth
00:10:45mentioning that this is the first parliamentary election to take place
00:10:49since the start the special military operation in
00:10:522022. Now more on. this and to discuss this further,
00:10:56I am joined by our guest here in the studio,
00:11:00Joseph Trutzman uh, who is the host the Russia upclose
00:11:03podcast. Thank you so much for joining us, thank you very much for having me. I would like to start
00:11:07off with the fact that this is the second uh voting day and now we
00:11:11hear that the turnout is closing to
00:11:1345%. What are your thoughts on that? I
00:11:16expect to have a really good follow-up uh tomorrow and a
00:11:20really strong finish for participation. I think it's going to be quite high like the
00:11:24last. elections were also very high as well, we also had
00:11:28observers uh here from from 130
00:11:32countries actually that have arrived in Russia and they're monitoring the
00:11:34elections uh now uh western media outlets are
00:11:38already claiming that these elections are legitimate, what would it
00:11:42take for an election to essentially meet western expectations in
00:11:46your opinion? well I don't think that there's anything that uh
00:11:50could convince western uh oligarchies if you will
00:11:54to uh... uh say that they are legitimate, it's not in their
00:11:58best interest to give any legitimacy to Russia anything that Russia
00:12:01does, um, and this is really the problem, it's aor
00:12:05horribly ironic, and it's tremendous gas lighting on their part, because
00:12:08as we've even seen just in this past year what's happened in Europe where people can win
00:12:12elections and then we just decide, no, we didn't like the result of that election, and we're just
00:12:16going to take it away from you, so if you can't fake it, then you can just unilaterally take
00:12:20it away from a country that belongs to the EU as an example, so it's
00:12:24it's... kind of ridiculous statement, it's just meant to again
00:12:28to continually uh push and
00:12:31aggravate uh Russia, Russian people and whatnot, but at the end
00:12:35the day it really doesn't matter what they have to say about it. Considering you're
00:12:39American, I would like to ask you a question about the differences in
00:12:43the electoral process between the US and and Russia,
00:12:47you know when it comes to democratic process, the
00:12:50transparency, what's your opinion on that, well
00:12:53you there is... very good question itself, um, you
00:12:57know, it's fascinating living a country that has 10
00:13:01parties a ballot, like the we're pretty pretty used to
00:13:05a binary, you some states will actually
00:13:08get a libertarian uh party on
00:13:10the on the ballot, but
00:13:11you know, pretty much everybody understands, it's either the
00:13:14democrats or the Republicans. It should be very interesting to see actually
00:13:18what's happens in this next presidential election, if this uh America
00:13:22first uh party gets off the ground. "we'll see what
00:13:26happens, um, but you know, it's it's one thing for a western
00:13:30country to talk about a place where they don't believe in their elections at all, yet
00:13:34Russia happens to have 10 parties, I think that is actually a big deal that there's that much
00:13:37representation to show the spectrum of opinions that
00:13:41exist in Russia, so I think that's at least important that they are
00:13:45recognized and understood that there are all all all these. Well,
00:13:49Joseph Schutzman, thank you so much for your time, that was Joseph Schutzman, Russia
00:13:53upclose podcast host, thank you so much." We are very excited to hear
00:13:57the outcome the election and that is coming up tomorrow,
00:14:00later in
00:14:01the evening. Well, with a significant portion the
00:14:05ballots being cast online, international observers from some African
00:14:09states expressed that they actually would be happy to adopt the
00:14:12very same voting technologies that Russia has already
00:14:15implemented. I was very amazed by
00:14:19the time and the time frame that was
00:14:23taken to establish the... digital voting, which
00:14:27I believe that it's something that can work for us. In South Africa on the
00:14:314th of November, we are having local government election, how we were
00:14:35introduced in this technology, which Moscow is well
00:14:39advancing it, we have seen the level of development and the
00:14:42transformation Russia has made in terms of electoral
00:14:45democracy, we have seen the level of transparency, the
00:14:49voters, the the the freedom which the
00:14:53voters have to have their choices. made and also the level
00:14:57of dictalization uh the election process, we have lessons to
00:15:00pick from here to take back home, but either way we are
00:15:04also seeing the future of democracy into dictor
00:15:07elections. well, the actual turnout of voters
00:15:11who applied for the ability to cast their ballots online has
00:15:15reached 80%. that's according to the date data from
00:15:19remote electronic voting portal. now the ongoing parliamentary
00:15:22elections are pro providing a number. ways for citizens to
00:15:26participate, artis, she tried one of
00:15:30those and then interviewed those people who preferred
00:15:33different one here in Russia,
00:15:37do my elections are now underway nationwide. the voting process
00:15:41taking place over the course of three days will determine the composition the
00:15:45lower house of parliament. 450 deputies will be elected to
00:15:49five-year term and there are multiple ways for people to take part
00:15:52in the election. first let's take closer look at remote electronic
00:15:56voting available in numerous russian regions. residents the Russian
00:16:00capital are able to cast their vote on the official portal the moscow
00:16:04mayor and moscow government (mos.ru) so
00:16:08this is where I will be casting my vote today. The platform is
00:16:12easy to navigate, ensuring the process is simple from start to
00:16:16finish. Here I'm presented with digital versions the two
00:16:20paper ballots I would otherwise receive a polling station.
00:16:24The first digital ballot allows me to cast my vote for a political party of my
00:16:27choosing. The second presents me with a list of candidates and
00:16:31I am to select one of those candidates whom I would like to represent my
00:16:35individual constituency in the... doomer
00:16:38and my vote has been securely sent. now let's take to the
00:16:42polling station and see what the process is like for those who choose to
00:16:46vote in person. the Russian capital alone consists of
00:16:5016 single member constituencies with over 7 million
00:16:53800 registered voters. here to exercise your constitutional
00:16:57right to vote, all you need is your passport. once the voter
00:17:01receives their ballots, they head right to the voting booth, make their choice and
00:17:05drop it into the ballot box. alternatively people can choose to vote through
00:17:09a specialized terminal, after an identity check, an anonymized electronic
00:17:13ballot appears on the terminal screen, allowing the voter to make their
00:17:16choice. decided to try the electronic voting and
00:17:20found it to be very fast and easy. this polling station is
00:17:24wonderful, everything is fast, everything. the charming girls
00:17:27helped me with what was slightly unclear to me, they were very
00:17:31kind,
00:18:07unable to do so due to health reasons or other circumstances can vote from
00:18:11home, and those receiving medical treatment at hospitals are able
00:18:15to exercise their right to vote, just the sim. All
00:18:19patients were notified that they could vote in their hospital beds while
00:18:22receiving treatment. The different ways to vote were explained to them
00:18:26in simple, easy to understand terms. Those opted for
00:18:30traditional voting or used a mobile electronic voting terminal were added
00:18:34to a list which was subsequently handed over.
00:18:46of which we are
00:18:49election commission, members, to guarantee that every patient can exercise their right to vote in the state
00:18:53Duma elections. They may submit a verbal or written request to vote
00:18:57outside the polling station. This is precisely the task we are
00:19:00carrying out. Hospital patients noted the
00:19:04convenience the election process at the facility.
00:19:07notified me in advance that i would have the opportunity to vote. of course i
00:19:11agreed. they brought the ballet box right here to me. i dropped my ballet
00:19:15in and i was done. i'm very happy with how it went. you don't have to
00:19:19walk far at all. it's so convenient. they help you and even offer to
00:19:23let you vote right by your bed. so it's really easy and great to be
00:19:27able to vote in the hospital from your bedside. i'm extremely happy with the
00:19:31voting process. everything was brought to me exactly as requested and i just
00:19:35dropped my ballet into the box. everything was. I'm very
00:19:38pleased. Whether online or in person, a paper ballot or through a
00:19:42specialized terminal, every vote counts. Convenience and
00:19:46simplicity make for smooth election process, and as it will soon
00:19:50move into its next and final stage, the nation awaits the election
00:19:54results. RT reporting from
00:19:56Moscow. All and things are not over
00:20:00yet. In fact, they're entering the final home stretch. One more day of
00:20:04voting is still to come before we know who will be. representing this
00:20:08vast country in parliament for the next five years. when it comes
00:20:12to all the latest updates, RT has you covered all weekend
00:20:16long.
00:20:28well to other news now, and well, negative impact on the
00:20:32Ukraine settlement. that's how the Kremlin has described Donald Trump
00:20:36decision to sign a... sweeping sanctions package into law,
00:20:40allowing Washington to impose 100% tariffs nations
00:20:44buying Russian oil and gas. The legislation honors late
00:20:48Republican senator and infamous Warhawk Lincy Graham. These
00:20:52measures will evidently target Moscow's biggest trade partners, China
00:20:56and India. What led to this and what could become
00:21:00the result of this is something that artis Anastasia
00:21:03Valodina has explained. From what we know so
00:21:07far is that Donald Trump has signed the law, which basically uh
00:21:11means um the U.S. is extending its sanctions against
00:21:14Iran, but at the same time um the law also and the
00:21:18sanctions are targeting. Russia as well, because the law in fact is
00:21:22called Linti O'Gram sanctioning Russia and Iran
00:21:26act of 2026, so that law um
00:21:29earlier passed the House of Representatives um a
00:21:33bipartisan 262 to
00:21:36159 vote, and we'll get deeper into
00:21:40what that actually means and why is this so important and so much talked
00:21:43about recently, but for now let's take a listen to what the Kremlin
00:21:47spokesperson had to say just before the law. had been
00:21:50signed, we are monitoring the
00:21:54progress of this document, it falls under the category of unfriendly actions and
00:21:58additional sanctions from the US will complicate efforts to find a peaceful
00:22:01settlement in Ukraine. now what is the real
00:22:05fallout of this bill? well, the biggest fallout in all of this is that
00:22:09basically despite uh the factum well and that the
00:22:13bill is actually called the law Russia and Aron sanctions, the
00:22:17law actually targets countries that trade. with
00:22:20Russia and primarily we know the biggest traders are um
00:22:24India and China uh and to be precise um the
00:22:28law targets countries that buy russian energy um
00:22:32and the law basically allows to impose and here's the catch actually the law allows
00:22:36to impose uh up to 100% tariffs on those who
00:22:40buy russian oil and of course primarily that is
00:22:43India and China and to give a little more depth
00:22:46into uh why this is so important let's have look at
00:22:50statistics, so just last month China bought half
00:22:54of Russian oil exports, so an enormous amount, and with
00:22:58India was, well, India was close behind with 37%
00:23:01of Moscow supplies, Russian gas is also crucial in
00:23:05all of this, because Beijing makes nearly a third of all
00:23:09purchases, so basically India and China are now
00:23:13at crossroads and have to choose, they either uh keep
00:23:16buying Russian energy a relatively good price. or they lose
00:23:20access to the US market because Washington is basically
00:23:24using tariffs as leverage uh to discourage new Delhi and
00:23:28Beijing from buying Russian energy uh and
00:23:32one the US senators actually didn't even mince his words about
00:23:36that to Vladimir Putin, we
00:23:38have your number, your economy is reeling, we're going to
00:23:42throttle your war machine, China and India
00:23:46to you, you better clean up your act, it doesn't.
00:23:50come as a surprise uh why we've heard just such reaction from the
00:23:53Kremland spokesperson Dmitri Peskoff just earlier because um
00:23:57as we recall on one important point just around two weeks ago uh
00:24:01Donald Trump personally sent his envoice to Russia then they travel to
00:24:05Kiev Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to negotiate the Ukraine
00:24:09crisis to find a solution uh but um so
00:24:13the timing raises lot of questions why does this come uh just two
00:24:17weeks after the US tried its best in trying to to settle the conflict in
00:24:21Ukraine uh, but um, the law, anyhow, has now been
00:24:24signed, it will primarily affect India and China, but
00:24:28nevertheless it will also affect Russia. now,
00:24:31in all of this, what has been the reaction of China and
00:24:35India, if any? well, we know the Washington is basically
00:24:38turning up the heat on Russia's biggest oil bias uh, but
00:24:42India and China are sending very clear message
00:24:46that national interests come first, let's listen in.
00:24:50China consistently opposes unilateral sanctions that lack UN
00:24:54authorization or a basis in international law, and opposes
00:24:58the imposition of so-called secondary sanctions on other countries based on
00:25:01their dealings with third parties. China has always conducted normal
00:25:05economic and trade cooperation with countries around the world on the basis of
00:25:09equality and mutual benefit. Such cooperation neither targets third
00:25:13parties nor is subject to interference or coersion by them. India
00:25:17remains firmly committed to ensuring energy security for. 1.4
00:25:21billion people, it will continue to do so through diversified sourcing
00:25:25and on the basis of evolving market dynamics. The Indian side has also made
00:25:29clear its determination to take all necessary measures to protect its trade and
00:25:32economic interests. After Washington launched its war
00:25:36against Iran earlier this year, it has of course triggered
00:25:40an unprecedented disruption to the uh oil fuel markets
00:25:44and just generally sparking a worldwide
00:25:48crisis um never. less of course these new sanctions will
00:25:52of course uh will rub off on all the countries
00:25:55worldwide but primarily in fact India and
00:25:58China. Well, we discussed these developments in depth. with our
00:26:02guests who say that neither Beijing nor New Delhi will
00:26:06sacrifice their sovereign economic ties with Russia to serve
00:26:09narrow American interests, I think
00:26:13definitely they will damage New Delhi's relations
00:26:17with Washington, for me
00:26:19I see this as hostile action
00:26:22because for India uses for
00:26:2650% their energy needs are
00:26:29currently supplied by Russia. and given the
00:26:33fact that the straights of hormose and the red sea are almost
00:26:37closed, this makes it even more
00:26:40important the supply from Russia. India is very used to
00:26:44refining Rush the supplies for Russian crude and
00:26:48also use it for their
00:26:50own industry, their
00:26:51own development and to re-export it,
00:26:54including to to Europe and even the
00:26:57diesel back in some cases to Russia, because it's
00:27:01cheaper to... clean it up in Indian factories,
00:27:05but for the US, they only look at their own very
00:27:08narrow interest. There is a
00:27:12possibility, Washington is trying to pressure the Chinese side,
00:27:16you know, like if you don't do this, we will impose one% sanctions on
00:27:19your exports as a way basically to leverage
00:27:23against the Chinese side, to pressure the Chinese side to make more
00:27:27concessions public, that's a trade off on certain issues,
00:27:30certain topics, China. not going to back off
00:27:34from doing business with Russia, that's in the interest of Russia, in
00:27:38interest of China, that's simply business as, legitimate business
00:27:42between Moscow, it has nothing to do with Washington, has nothing to do
00:27:46with the Europeans, so that's the way to go, I think the
00:27:49message has been very clear from Beijing, if people are being
00:27:53pragmatic, being realistic, it's just
00:27:56impossible to cut the Russian energy
00:28:00off entirely from global energy market,
00:28:04because the supply is there, I'm not sure President Trump is
00:28:08going to do what some the senators you
00:28:12know like to to to happen to Russia, to
00:28:16China to India, because it also offerts the consumers
00:28:19inside the US, well
00:28:23over to Gaza now where one Palestinian has reportedly being killed
00:28:27with several others wounded in new Israeli attack, according to
00:28:31local media and israi drone struck vehicle driven by a civilian in
00:28:35the Sheikh Ridwan neighborhood of Gaza City. The assault
00:28:39carried caused the card to catch fire prompting local
00:28:42residents to attempt to put out the flames. This latest assault
00:28:46comes amid the regular destruction of civilian infrastructure, including
00:28:50residential buildings in the enclave. That's as locals
00:28:54struggle to just survive in terrible conditions. For
00:28:58instance, here footage shows the consequences of
00:29:01Israel's. presence in the region, demolished houses and civilian
00:29:05infrastructure, leaving mostly debris and ruins as far
00:29:09as the eye can see. some locals say that the humanitarian
00:29:13crisis resulting from the Gaza war has made residential
00:29:17areas high risk
00:29:18zones. these towers are
00:29:22like ticking time bombs, meaning they could explode and collapse any
00:29:26moment,
00:29:30صاروا الاولاد عندي بالليل. night, my son started checking on each
00:29:34other, the girls were terrified and my wife was a state of panic
00:29:38asking me repeatedly, is it possible that the tower collapsed,
00:29:41michelle? I replied, we put our trust in
00:29:44God. Ultimately, we're as good as
00:29:48dead, and have lost all our love for life. We've had enough,
00:29:52ultimately we see ourselves dying slow
00:29:54death. Well, Gazans are facing
00:29:57regular attempts to drive them off their own lands and that's
00:30:01as Israel's. national security minister sees Palestinian
00:30:05territories as nothing but real estate and openly
00:30:09calls for locals to just leave their homes voluntarily. Just a quick
00:30:13warning, up next we're going to show some distressing
00:30:15images. is a real estate
00:30:19arena. I want to refugee to leave voluntarily. I don't want to send them
00:30:23anywhere. The conditions are not good there for some them, correct? I have no problem
00:30:27with this. I'm humanitarian, okay? I'm doing them a favor. I'm getting them
00:30:31out of here. I want them to say. to the world, look, there's a
00:30:33solution. well, amid such statements from ben and other
00:30:37Israeli top officials, Washington remains silent, but if someone
00:30:41tries to speak out against Israeli actions, that's when the United States is
00:30:45very quick to shut those voices down, quite possibly one the world's
00:30:49most famous journalists, Tucker Carson, addressed exactly this
00:30:53as the...