Google Speech-to-Text API Automatic Transcription (Chirp). Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:00the race for 450
00:00:04of of seats, who will fail and who will
00:00:06prevail?
00:00:18a the Russian capital comes under heavy Ukrainian drone
00:00:22attack
00:00:26of of overnight, ahead of of the third and final day of nationwide elections. two people are killed in the Moscow region while residential
00:00:30building and
00:00:31a an oil refinery were
00:00:37of of hit, and that is my vote, one of tens of millions being cast around the
00:00:41donbas, but with every vote cast in the
00:00:44donbas, the people
00:00:46of the Donbas show, but those threats don't
00:00:50scare them. Russian citizens go to the polls all
00:00:54across the country, even in areas
00:00:56of facing daily shelling and threats from Kief.
00:01:00Generally speaking,
00:01:03of it is very difficult to intimidate me, it's just not in my nature. Firstly, I don't recognize the landscate at
00:01:06all, and I don't watch him on TV. As for scammers, they've already
00:01:10left me alone. We have lived too long to be
00:01:13intimidated. Kim is struggling with severe lack
00:01:17of money. Vladimir Zelensky reveals an astronomic budget
00:01:20deficit, forcing him once again to take to his begging bowl to the
00:01:24country's western
00:01:25sponsors.
00:01:30of
00:01:45hour with breaking news as elections
00:01:47of are underway across Russia on the third and final day of voting.
00:01:51The nation's air defenses have repelled the heaviest drone attack
00:01:54of the war so far, involving 1,600
00:01:58of UAVs. The capital itself. huge drone swarm,
00:02:01according to the city's mayor. The most massive
00:02:05enemy drone attack has been repelled since yesterday. Over
00:02:081,600 UAVs have been
00:02:11of shot of down across all sectors, including 450 while
00:02:14approaching
00:02:16of Moscow. My thanks go to the air defense personnel for their selfless efforts.
00:02:20Nevertheless, few drones reached the Moscow Oil refinery and one
00:02:24struck
00:02:24a residential building. There were no fatalities, this
00:02:27unprecedented attack was... orchestrated to disrupt the
00:02:31elections, the enemy failed in this
00:02:33attempt.
00:02:35of well in
00:02:36of to get more on this story now, we're going to cross live to RT's Isabella Blumberg. Bella,
00:02:40Keyev's carried out a large scale attack on Moscow and the Moscow
00:02:44region overnight, as we heard from mayor Sabanan. what else do we know
00:02:48so
00:02:49of of
00:02:50of far? thank you, Donald, as you've mentioned,
00:02:54in overnight Moscow and the surrounding regions came under
00:02:58serious drone attacker Ukrain. union drone attack and this is
00:03:01all happening in the
00:03:03of middle of elections now uh Russia's regional mayor says that
00:03:06since yesterday more than 1,600
00:03:10drones were intercepted uh across various
00:03:14defense lines including 450 are headed
00:03:17to Moscow. At the same time Russia's Ministry
00:03:21of Defense reports that over 1, 100 drones have
00:03:25also been
00:03:26of intercepted including aerial targets there as well. Now in the... Moscow
00:03:30region two people have been killed with several others
00:03:33wounded and the attack also uh led to a temporary
00:03:37restriction as we know here in Moscow to those airports. Another person
00:03:41was killed in the uh Zoova district after a private
00:03:45house caught fire from drone debris. Now Russia's Mod
00:03:49has responded and says that it also struck um it
00:03:52struck back overnight to targeting logistics centers,
00:03:56ports, warehouses in Ukraine as well as cargos used.
00:04:00to transport a Ukrainian uh military
00:04:03infrastructure and components. In the Kief region a
00:04:07warehouse also belonging to the company Firepoint was
00:04:10targeted. It also was storing components used for
00:04:13long-range drones. In the Odessa region strikes hit a cargo
00:04:17ship that had delivered military supplies and logistics center north
00:04:21of the city used for storing and distributing military cargo.
00:04:25Now despite this attack Donald, I mean polling stations
00:04:29remain open. and people are still heading to the polls to cast
00:04:33their vote. well, this also comes uh
00:04:36during the third and final day
00:04:38of the state Duma
00:04:39of elections. as you mentioned, people are trying to cast their votes right now, they kicked off in
00:04:43Russia. can you bring us more details about these
00:04:45elections? absolutely,
00:04:49Donald, because today across Russia's
00:04:51a 11 different time zones, voters are heading to the polls to
00:04:55vote on the third and final day of Russia's parliamentary
00:04:59elections. Now polling stations are open
00:05:01nationwide with the central electoral commission
00:05:05reporting that voter turnout has reached almost
00:05:0845%. It's also important to highlight here that these are the
00:05:12first... elections, parliamentary elections uh taking place since the start
00:05:15the special military operation which was launched back in February
00:05:192022. And for the first time in modern Russian history
00:05:23we're seeing citizens in the Donatz Lugansk People's Republic in
00:05:26Zaparoja and Herson cast their vote as a Russian
00:05:30citizens. Let me also break down how these parliamentary elections
00:05:33actually take place. The State Duma is the lower House the Federal
00:05:37Assembly consists of 450 seats. These elections, as
00:05:41we know, take place. every five years, 225 of those
00:05:45seats are selected through party list, which means voters can head to the polls and
00:05:49vote for a specific political party, then the other
00:05:52225 seats are determined through
00:05:56um determined through uh single mandate districts. now
00:06:00what this means is that voters are able to vote for a specific
00:06:04candidate in their constituency and their district, but for a
00:06:07political party to actually get through to the duma, they have to meet
00:06:11this 5% threshold they have to collect or gana
00:06:145% the vote. now we know that Russian elections run for three
00:06:18days rather than one day, starting on September the 18th and
00:06:22finishing today on Sunday September 20th. in terms of
00:06:25who's actually in the race, there are currently 10 political
00:06:29parties on the federal ballot. the first one being United Russia,
00:06:32this party founded in 2001, a party that
00:06:36also enjoys constitutional majority and it's president Putin's
00:06:40political party. then we have the... communist party the Russian Federation, it's
00:06:44considered the oldest on the ballot and is considered
00:06:48major opposition force within the state Duma. Then we have a
00:06:52just Russia for truth, this um poll suggests that this party will be
00:06:56able to meet the 5% threshold for this parliamentary election,
00:07:00and we of course have the Liberal Democratic Party of
00:07:03Russia uh now they're heading to these elections with new chairman Leonid
00:07:07Slotski after its former leader Vladimirsky passed away back in
00:07:102022 and and we also have new party
00:07:14here on the scene, um, new people, this is a party that was
00:07:18founded in 2020, and curiously it managed to get through
00:07:22the parliamentary elections back in 2021, so it will be quite interesting to
00:07:26see whether they will be able to meet that 5% threshold this year as well, and then of
00:07:29course we have the five major non-parliamentary parties, this includes the pensionist
00:07:33party, the communists of russia, rodina, the greens and
00:07:37the party of direct democracy. now to wrap up, we know that
00:07:41polling stations are set to close at 8 p.m. uh
00:07:45local time across Russia's western regions,
00:07:47so we will be closely watching these polls and bringing you the latest
00:07:51as they come in, but to also discuss this vote
00:07:55further, I'm joined by by Vladimir Aleinik a
00:07:59former Ukrainian MP and also member the council of
00:08:03the international public movement, the other Ukraine. by the
00:08:07way, thank you so much for joining us and welcome back. so as
00:08:11I've mentioned previously, these are...
00:08:50I've heard some negative assessments with respect
00:08:54to certain candidates, but I have never heard
00:08:58any complaints that
00:09:01someone was not given an opportunity or the
00:09:04conditions to vote, I've never heard that,
00:09:08everyone can vote.
00:09:12the arguments presented by the west,
00:09:16arguments by Zelensky saying how can we
00:09:20vote when people are on the frontlines? well, it's
00:09:24refuted by the fact that Russian soldiers, Russian servicemen are
00:09:27voting, while they are on the
00:09:30frontline, yes, there is certain uh rotations
00:09:34taking place, and the servicemen are allowed to
00:09:37vote, while in Ukraine this is not allowed, people are
00:09:41basically
00:10:12that on the territory of Russia
00:10:15e to 10 million
00:10:19Ukrainians reside, and they have the right to vote
00:10:23as well.
00:10:55justifications for
00:10:55that.
00:10:59Russian authorities say that the west is actively seeking to
00:11:03undermine these parliamentary elections through you misinformation
00:11:06campaigns as well as provocations at
00:11:10polling stations. What do you think the goal is from these, I
00:11:14guess attempts at
00:11:15interference?
00:11:55the party of communists, why are they no
00:11:58longer part of Ukraine's political life?
00:12:02many the people who supported this parties uh would say they
00:12:06stand for peace, so so this is
00:12:09this information campaign, now
00:12:12also when we hear
00:12:16statements by for example president trump when he said
00:12:20that he will pay $5 to every citizen if
00:12:24his party wins. parliamentary, the congress
00:12:26elections, if President
00:12:30Putin said something like that, he would be called
00:12:33absolutely illegitimate, going against all democratic values,
00:12:37trying to buy votes, and so the next part
00:12:41is of course the actual physical diversions, the drones
00:12:45and missiles coming at russia to try to disrupt the elections
00:12:49and the west supports that also for
00:12:53the first time history. an entire language is banned
00:12:56a country, i'm talking about ukraine, imagine trying to
00:13:00ban german language somewhere in
00:13:02Europe. in fact in the
00:13:06Ukrainian constitution, article 10, it says
00:13:10that the Russian language is an official
00:13:14language the country, it cannot be prohibited, it cannot be banned, or an entire
00:13:18church for example is banned, the Russian orthodox church is banned in
00:13:21Ukraine, things like that didn't even...
00:13:35can can be actually brought to
00:13:39participate in the war, they can be uh
00:13:42put to the frontlines, while Ukrainian
00:13:46priests cannot be done, so basically
00:13:50they're destroying orthodoxy, Russian orthodoxy in
00:13:53Ukraine.
00:14:25Of course we must go to vote, because the authorities must hear
00:14:29what we have to say and change
00:14:31the things to the
00:14:32better.
00:14:36Amid these elections, European leaders continue to toe this
00:14:40narrative that Russia is waging a war on Europe
00:14:44non-stop, we this every single day
00:14:46in in western media, why what lies behind such statements
00:14:50specifically during this voting
00:14:51period?
00:16:07were killed while liberating Poland, if we just stopped
00:16:11at the borders the Soviet Union, if we just
00:16:15signed a peace back, in just a couple of years
00:16:18Hitlers would have had nuclear weapons and he would have restarted that
00:16:22war, it would would have been horrible, so we don't
00:16:26want to invade Europe, but if you start a war
00:16:29against us, then you will receive some
00:16:32payback, we're
00:16:36also seeing the voting process. kind of in
00:16:39Russia's regions in the special military operation zone, abroad, even
00:16:43in space, but what does this say about Moscow's approach to these elections
00:16:47and how do Russian themselves see all of
00:16:50this?
00:17:01I hope and I believe that that Russian people
00:17:05know what the... wants to do, it wants to
00:17:08shatter our faith in our common
00:17:10victory, and it wants to
00:17:13install pupet regime in Russia, the same as they
00:17:17have done in Ukraine, remember what
00:17:21Trump said, we will come any time to
00:17:24Ukraine and take whatever we need, any minerals or
00:17:28whatever, so it's sovereignty and defending
00:17:32one sovereignty is very
00:17:33important,
00:17:37very
00:17:45she difficult said it's now, but this is the cost of sovereignty, it's the
00:17:49cost of being independent, that's why they realize
00:17:53it is important to vote right now, your vote, your
00:17:56voice is a weapon as well, and you must be very thoughtful when
00:18:00using this weapon to defeat your enemy, the
00:18:03nazis. All right, we
00:18:07have to leave it that, that was Vladimir Alenic, a former Ukrainian
00:18:11MP and member the Council the International Public
00:18:15Movement, the other Ukraine. Thank you so much for joining
00:18:18us. All right, throwing it back to you, Donald. Right,
00:18:22Isabella Blomberg, thanks lot for bringing us that interesting discussion with our expert guest
00:18:25in central Moscow. Now, the crucial
00:18:29vote is also taking place in territories that are coming under
00:18:33daily attack, but despite the threat posed by Ukraine, people say that they
00:18:37are... are determined for their voices to be heard. The head the Danetsk
00:18:41People's Republic has casted his vote a local polling station, noting
00:18:44that he met quite a few people who wanted to vote in their
00:18:48first state Duma election ever. RTS Murad Gazdiav reports on how
00:18:52the vote is being held under wartime
00:18:54conditions. Across two continents
00:18:58and 11 time zones, under ceaseless threat of
00:19:01attack, Russians vote for their new
00:19:04parliament.
00:19:16In their millions, despite constant threats from
00:19:19Ukraine, threats of prosecution and
00:19:23persecution, just for voting, attacks on
00:19:27polling stations, fakes and Ukrainian
00:19:30propaganda. Yesterday and the day before,
00:19:33leaflets were dropped by drones across most of our region.
00:19:37containing calls to block the electoral process and urging
00:19:41people not to participate in the elections. every day we are
00:19:45seeing a steady stream of two or three disinformation campaigns coming
00:19:48from the Ukrainian side, along with deep fakes and forged
00:19:52administrative documents. yet few are
00:19:55afraid. people are used to drones and
00:19:58missiles, verbal threats no longer
00:20:02carry the same weight. tell me, have you been in
00:20:05intimidated? did Zelensky. threaten you saying you shouldn't go to these
00:20:09elections, in no way, he can't do
00:20:12anything, of course not, generally speaking,
00:20:16it is very difficult to intimidate me, it's just not in my nature,
00:20:20god forbid, firstly, i don't recognize the landscate all and i
00:20:24don't watch him on tv, as for scammers, they've already left me
00:20:27alone, we have lived too long to be
00:20:30intimidated, and that
00:20:33is my vote, one of tens of millions being car
00:20:37around the donbas an environment where people are
00:20:41actively being threatened, where electoral
00:20:44officials receiving death threats, their families, their
00:20:48children. but with every vote cast in the
00:20:51donbas, the people the donbas
00:20:54show that those threats don't scare
00:20:58them, not even strongly worded statements
00:21:01and condemnation could stop these
00:21:04elections. At today's meeting, the central electoral commission
00:21:08adopted resolution declaring that the organization and conduct of elections
00:21:12for deputies to the state Duma the Russian Federation in the temporarily
00:21:16occupied territories of Ukraine are illegitimate. It is, of course.
00:21:20It's ironic that Ukraine forbids Ukrainians from
00:21:23voting in these Russian elections, because
00:21:27neither does it allow Ukrainians themselves any elections.
00:21:31They're too dangerous, says the former president of
00:21:35Ukraine. Elections as such are huge
00:21:38risk. Elections right now are a tsunami which could split
00:21:42Ukraine. Again, the irony: Ukraine
00:21:45professes to be fighting for freedom and democracy, but says
00:21:49elections. are too dangerous. Russia, which kier
00:21:53accuses of aggression and tyrany, holds elections even
00:21:57in war. He's holding elections in September. He needs
00:22:01a united society that will support his United Russia.
00:22:04Zelensky, on the other hand, doesn't need his society
00:22:08support. His term expired two years ago,
00:22:12and no one can do anything about it. He already
00:22:16controls all Ukrainian media, all newspapers and
00:22:20online publications, full spectrum
00:22:23propaganda, anyone who criticizes him can be
00:22:27sanctioned, Ukrainian or otherwise, else
00:22:30sent a one way trip to the front lines,
00:22:34so elections, you want ready to do it tomorrow, but
00:22:38if we have the war, it's you can't do it, what
00:22:41elections, how to make elections with the 9 million people who are
00:22:45abroad, and what to do with the people who are
00:22:48temporary? or live in temporal occupied
00:22:52territories. Europe, of course, will bend over backwards
00:22:56to accommodate Zelensky. Kaya Calas, the
00:23:00EU's diplomatic figure head, is never one to
00:23:04overthink it. Simple and cliche is her
00:23:07style. Putin hasn't had elections or Russia hasn't had
00:23:11elections in 25 years. Zelensky is
00:23:14elected leader, elected in the free and fair elections
00:23:18and of course during award time, you can't have elections,
00:23:21Zelensky's corrupt ministers, his army heads
00:23:25simply don't mind, so long as the EU
00:23:29supports Zelensky, the aid money pours
00:23:33in
00:23:33and it can be divided up and shared around between
00:23:37friends. The only concern is the people of
00:23:41Ukraine, forced brutally to fight a war they
00:23:45don't want to fight in, by a president, they don't
00:23:49want blood. usted by propaganda, they don't agree
00:23:52with, and there's nothing they can do about it,
00:23:56but daydream. We must find legal, safe and realistic
00:24:00mechanism that will allow Ukraine to restore a full-fledged democratic process
00:24:04even under the conditions of a prolonged war. This is
00:24:07difficult. We must guarantee the right to vote for our military, for millions of
00:24:11Ukrainians abroad, and for those in the front-line regions. We
00:24:15must ensure the security the electoral process, the independence of
00:24:19institutions. and trust in the results, if Russia could do
00:24:22it, then so could Ukraine, and the only thing
00:24:26stopping elections in Ukraine is the former president,
00:24:30one Zelensky who just doesn't want
00:24:34to leave. Murad Gazdev, Arti from
00:24:38Donietsk. Well, it might be the last day of voting, but
00:24:41there's still quite a ways to go before we know who will represent
00:24:45this vast country in parliament for the next five years. The first
00:24:49parliamentary result. will be available tonight after 9 pm moscow time,
00:24:53but the final figures will not officially confirmed
00:25:12And as Russia is choosing its future, Ukraine continues to struggle
00:25:16with severe money problems. This time, Vladimir Zelensky has complained. to
00:25:20his western allies that Kiev's deficit has reached its
00:25:23peak and he's now begging for more financial
00:25:26aid. Yesterday I spoke with the president the
00:25:29European Commission Ursila Vonder Lion. She and I will meet
00:25:33soon. We are preparing some proposals to address the deficit, the
00:25:37one I was talking about, the astronomic one. We will
00:25:40nonetheless find resolution. I already know that. Some things
00:25:44have already agreed upon. Vladimir Zelensky is complaining to
00:25:48his western patrons and he searches for money yet again,
00:25:52astronomic deficit, but he says it can all be
00:25:55resolved. Ukraine is now falling shured by some 27
00:25:59billion US dollars, and it has other... choice, but to tighten
00:26:03its grip on the state budget, strict austerity measures are in
00:26:07place, the economy is in survival mode, and of course, the
00:26:11desperate need for foreign aid is obvious, even if it's
00:26:14conditional. The situation with state finances is approaching a
00:26:17critical point. I urge all members of parliament to pass the necessary
00:26:21bills as soon as possible, as they are crucial for receiving international
00:26:25financial assistance. Ukraine risks losing a significant portion the
00:26:29$29.5 billion dollars in planned international.
00:26:33This is critically needed resource for balancing the state budget, funding social
00:26:37programs, and most importantly the needs the defense forces.
00:26:41Funding the conflict for another year doesn't come without tough decisions.
00:26:45With outside funding delayed, the country's economy is in
00:26:48jepathy. This week the screws have been tightened even
00:26:51more. Starting today in Ukraine only social spending,
00:26:55salaries for public sector employees and the maintenance the military are being
00:26:59funded. There is very little money left in the budget. In reality,
00:27:03this means cutting off funding for infrastructure projects. Let's take
00:27:07a look within a Ukrainian group of companies after Strada, which
00:27:11normally focuses on the construction and restoration of roads,
00:27:15bridges and metro lines. The conglomerate says all its
00:27:18infrastructure projects across Ukraine have come to halt. The
00:27:22reason, the government has abruptly cut funding on all capital
00:27:25expenditures. All these programs intended to benefit the general
00:27:29population are now on pores and their...
00:27:34Today the state, without any warnings, any discussion or
00:27:38dialogue, stopped funding all capital expenditures on the same
00:27:41day, salaries of entire sectors the economy, interest rates on
00:27:45loans, payments to suppliers, this is definitely the main headache, not
00:27:49the deputies or the ministry of finance, they have their own business plan
00:27:53and we are simply being presented with the facts. In this regard, Autostrada is
00:27:57forced to stop work on all objects. The suspension these massive
00:28:01state budget allocation. is heavy blow and is very likely to
00:28:05cripple critical sectors. the result of this decision will be the
00:28:09cessation of energy protection, the implementation of
00:28:12sustainability plans, the completion of started facilities, and
00:28:16accordingly, the cessation of entire sectors the
00:28:19economy. and what about the Ukrainian lawmakers? as the country
00:28:23plunges deeper and deeper into financial crisis, the
00:28:26Ukrainian parliament is yet again a break, this one to
00:28:30last some 26 days. while Brussel says no more
00:28:34funding until reforms are carried out. We have
00:28:37already mobilized nearly 15 billion euros for Ukraine this year. More is
00:28:41coming. We discussed the reforms needed in the Rada to unlock further funding
00:28:45and to keep Ukraine moving forward its path to our union. The EU's
00:28:49lack of eagerness to send more money to Kiev doesn't come as a
00:28:52surprise. Ukraine says the $27 billion dollars
00:28:56it's lacking is due to rising military costs and stored
00:29:00legislation as well as delays in financing from its western
00:29:03bankers, but those explanations have raised questions in the
00:29:07EU. There was a loan that was essentially paid out of pocket by the European countries,
00:29:11they agreed this is going to be two years, we heard the president of Ukraine saying the
00:29:15payments will have to be accelerated, there's now an open question about
00:29:19upfront uh payments, is that something that you think is
00:29:22justified, and do you worry what was budgeted for two
00:29:25years? may not last more than year? uh, well
00:29:29uh, first of all we need to uh find about exactly
00:29:33these additional financing needs and then discuss
00:29:37with authorities how we are financing them. there are still
00:29:41open questions. in 2027, according to its finance
00:29:45ministry, the total volume of outlays in the draft state budget of
00:29:48Ukraine will amount to over $163
00:29:52billion dollars. that surpasses the amended
00:29:552026 plan by 19 billion US dollars or
00:29:5913.5%. all while state. revenues aren't growing at
00:30:03the same pace, and this means the necessity for international
00:30:07support is only expected to increase. The need for
00:30:11international support in 2027 will be $52.6
00:30:15billion dollars. We plan to attract funds from the European Union,
00:30:18G7 countries through ERA financing, the International
00:30:22Monetary Fund, the World Bank, Great Britain and other international
00:30:26partners. Ukraine has been consistent in running ever
00:30:29growing state budget deficit. The country. economy is being
00:30:33pushed ever closer to the brink of collapse, which is now as
00:30:37evident as ever with crucial civilian infrastructure projects
00:30:41simply