Google Speech-to-Text API Automatic Transcription (Chirp). Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:07of of
00:00:09of
00:00:17The Russian capital comes under heavy Ukrainian drone attack
00:00:21of overnight, ahead
00:00:22of the third and final day of nationwide elections. Two people
00:00:26are killed in the Moscow region while
00:00:28a residential building and an oil room. were
00:00:30hit and that is my
00:00:34vote, one of tens of
00:00:36of millions being
00:00:37a cast around the don bass, but with every vote cast in the don
00:00:41bass, the people
00:00:43of the
00:00:43of donbas show that those threats, don't scare
00:00:47them. Russian citizens go to the polls across the
00:00:51country, even in areas facing daily shelling and threats from
00:00:54Kief. Generally speaking it is very difficult to
00:00:58intimidate me. is not in my nature. firstly, i don't recognize the
00:01:02landscate at all and i don't watch him on
00:01:05of tv. as for scammers, they've already left me alone. we have lived
00:01:08too long to be intimidated. US president Donald
00:01:12Trump announces Washington is going to take full control of Greenland's
00:01:16security and what he says is a landmark agreement with
00:01:20death.
00:01:26of it's a minute afternoon. Here
00:01:30in Moscow, Russia, and you're watching RT International. My name is
00:01:33of Donald Corder, it's great to have
00:01:34of you. Now we start with breaking news this hour.
00:01:38As elections are underway across Russia on the third and final day
00:01:42of voting, the nation's air defenses have repelled the heaviest
00:01:46of drone attack
00:01:48a of the war so far, involving 1,600 UAVs. The capital
00:01:52itself faced
00:01:53of a huge drone swarm according to the city's
00:01:55mayor. The most
00:01:58of massive enemy drone attack has been. repelled since yesterday,
00:02:01over 1,600 UAVs have been shot down across all
00:02:05sectors, including 450, while approaching
00:02:08Moscow. My thanks go to the air defense personnel for their
00:02:11selfless efforts. Nevertheless, few drones reached the Moscow oil
00:02:15refinery and one struck
00:02:17a residential
00:02:19of building. There were no fatalities. This unprecedented attack was
00:02:22clearly orchestrated to disrupt the elections. The enemy failed in
00:02:26this attempt. Well... to get more
00:02:30information on the situation, coming to us live from central Moscow is RT
00:02:34correspondent Isabella Blumberg. Bella, Kiev has carried
00:02:38out a large scale attack on the Moscow region and Moscow
00:02:41specifically overnight. What do we know so
00:02:43far?
00:02:47Thank you Donald, well overnight Moscow and the nearby region
00:02:51came under direct Ukrainian drone attack, and all of this
00:02:55is happening amid direct voting. We're seeing these parliamentary
00:02:59elections. unfold now the Moscow
00:03:01of region governor reports that air
00:03:03of defense systems managed to intercept 240
00:03:07drones in 17 different districts, but the numbers are even
00:03:11higher once you start to zoom out here, because Moscow's mayor says that
00:03:15around 450 drones were
00:03:18of intercepted, those aerial targets and drones were apparently headed to the
00:03:22Russian capital, now at the same time Russia's defense ministry has reported
00:03:26that they were able to intercept and destroy uh over 1,000
00:03:30100 airal attack aeral targets as well as drones
00:03:33over - over Russian territory. now in terms of casualties
00:03:37and damages, moscow and the surrounding region, two people
00:03:41have been killed and 20 others have been injured, three
00:03:44of them being children, and amid this drone
00:03:47of attack, the central electoral commission is reporting that apparently
00:03:51one of its staff members, woman working a polling station was also
00:03:55injured, and it's not just moscow and the nearby regions that are
00:03:59facing these attacks because we're also seeing drone attacks in the
00:04:03SMO zone, a Ukrainian attack, a Ukrainian attack hit a a
00:04:06school housing a polling station, this is in the Zaparogia
00:04:10region, thankfully no casualties have been reported there, but
00:04:14it doesn't
00:04:15in even stop that because another attack, a Ukrainian attack was
00:04:18reported attacking passenger bus in the haerson region
00:04:22killing two
00:04:23in people, one
00:04:24of them a woman working a local polling station
00:04:28there, now will the head
00:04:30of
00:04:31of of these
00:04:38Today, September 20th, as
00:04:40a result of a targeted drone attack a civilian bus in the Kson region,
00:04:44two people were killed. One
00:04:45of the victims was our colleague Olga
00:04:47of Petrovna Damiannenko, born in 1966, member
00:04:50of the precinct electoral commission for polling station number 220, in the
00:04:54lower Saragor district
00:04:55of the
00:04:56of Cerson
00:04:56of region. was member
00:04:58of the present electoral commission. 2023 and actively
00:05:01participated in the current election campaign for the state dumer elections,
00:05:05engaging with many of her neighbors, fellow citizens and compatriots while
00:05:09honestly, responsibly and bravely fulfilling her duties. She was
00:05:12involved in conducting early voting in the lower Saragor district the Kerson
00:05:16region. Her daughter, Elena Petrovna, is also member the precinct electoral
00:05:20commission. As I mentioned before, I will repeat it once more, despicable,
00:05:24cowardly bandera scum who are afraid to fight like men and truly engage
00:05:28in warfare, target our peaceful people, primarily women and children. I
00:05:32believe that shame will fall upon them, and each one them will be found. Our strong
00:05:35spirited colleagues continue to work. In
00:05:39Moscow itself, the mayor has reported that there have been no casualties,
00:05:43but that some drones managed to get through and target an oil
00:05:46refinery in Moscow, and some drones have managed to target
00:05:50residential buil building here as well. At the same time, Russia's
00:05:53Ministry of Defense reports that it targeted and destroyed Ukrainian
00:05:57military infrastructure, including warehouses and vessels in the
00:06:01Black Sea as well as the Kiev and Odessa regions. Again, I
00:06:05think it's important to note here that this, that Kiev is essentially
00:06:09ramping up these drone attacks as Russians are... heading to the
00:06:13polls today. Well, I wanted to ask you about that. It's the third
00:06:16and final day the State Duma elections. So what else can you say about
00:06:20what's been going on? Well,
00:06:24Donald, today, you know, across 11 time zones here in
00:06:28Russia, voters are heading to the polls to vote for the third and
00:06:31final day of Russia's parliamentary elections and according to the
00:06:35central electoral commission voter turnout has reached around
00:06:3947%. And it's quite important also to... to
00:06:42highlight here that this these are the first parliamentary elections we've seen since the
00:06:46start the special military operation which was launched back in February
00:06:502022 and for the first time in modern Russian
00:06:54history we're seeing citizens from the Doñatsk Lugansk People's
00:06:57Republic from Herson and Zaparoje cast their ballot as
00:07:01Russian citizens and so let's also break down how these
00:07:04parliamentary elections actually work because the state dooma
00:07:08itself is is considered the lower chamber the federal assembly.
00:07:13it consists of 400 400 seats and these elections are
00:07:17held every five years. 225 of those
00:07:20seats are distributed through party lists. now what that means is
00:07:24that citizens are able to elect a specific political party and
00:07:28225 seats are distributed through single mandate
00:07:32districts. now voters are able to cast the vote or the ballot and
00:07:35select a specific political candidate in their constituency
00:07:39or uh their district there as well, but for political
00:07:43party to be able to actually reach the state duma, it has to
00:07:47meet that 5% thresh hold. now Russian parliamentary
00:07:50elections uh start on September the 18th and
00:07:54finish today on September the 20th, so it gives voters three days to
00:07:57cast the ballot. In terms of who's actually in the
00:08:01race, there are currently 10 political parties on the federal ballot, the first one
00:08:05being United Russia, founded in 2001, and a party that has
00:08:09enjoyed constitutional majority for a while now. It's... also president
00:08:13Putin's party, then we have the communist party the Russian
00:08:16Federation, this is considered the oldest party on the federal
00:08:20ballot, and also it's the second largest faction in the duma.
00:08:24Then we have a just Russia for truth, and Paul suggests that they will be able to meet
00:08:28that 5% threshold during these elections as well. And we have the
00:08:32Liberal Democratic Party of Russia currently chaired by Leonid Slotski
00:08:35after the death of its former charismatic leader
00:08:38Vladimir um Vladimir Jeronovski back in 2021.
00:08:42and of course we also have a relatively new party on the scene here, this
00:08:46is uh new people founded in 2020, and curiously this
00:08:50political party managed to get through to the duma back in
00:08:532021, so it'l be interesting to monitor that whether they'll be able
00:08:57to actually you know gonna more than 5% the vote during these
00:09:00elections as well, but at the same time there are also non-parliamentary parties on the
00:09:04ballot uh, for example the pensionist party, the communists of russia, the
00:09:08greens, rodina and also the party of direct.
00:09:13so to wrap up here, poll polling stations across Russia
00:09:16close at 8 p.m. local time, according to Russia's
00:09:20western regions, so we will be of course monitoring all these developments and
00:09:24bringing you the details. All right, RT correspondent Isabella Blomberg,
00:09:28thanks for break breaking down the elections for
00:09:30us. Now
00:09:33the crucial vote is also taking place in territories that are coming
00:09:37under daily attack, but despite the threat posed by Ukraine, people
00:09:40say that they are determined. to have their voices heard, the head the Danetz
00:09:44People's Republic has cast his vote a local polling station,
00:09:48noting that he met quite a few people who wanted to vote in their
00:09:52first ever state duma election. RT's Murad Gazdiev
00:09:55reports on how the vote is being held under wartime
00:09:58conditions. across two continents
00:10:02and 11 time zones under ceaseless threat of
00:10:06attack, russians vote for their new
00:10:09parliament.
00:10:20In there millions, despite constant threats from
00:10:24Ukraine. threats of prosecution and
00:10:27persecution just for booting, attacks on
00:10:31pouling stations, fakes and Ukrainian
00:10:34propaganda. Yesterday and the day before,
00:10:38leaflets were dropped by drones across most of our region,
00:10:41containing calls to block the electoral process and urging
00:10:45people not to participate in the elections. Every day we are
00:10:49seeing a steady stream of two or three disinformation campaigns coming
00:10:53from the Ukrainian side, along with deep fakes and forged
00:10:56administrative documents, yet few are
00:10:59afraid, people are used to drones and
00:11:03missiles, verbal threats no longer carry
00:11:07the same weight. tell me, have you been intimidated?
00:11:10did Zelensky threaten you saying you shouldn't go to these
00:11:13elections? in no way, he can't do
00:11:16anything. of course not, generally speaking, it
00:11:20is very difficult to intimidate me, it's just not in my
00:11:23nature. forbid, firstly, I don't recognize the
00:11:27landscate all, and I don't watch him on TV. As for scammers,
00:11:31they've already left me alone. We have lived too long to be
00:11:34intimidated. And that
00:11:38is my vote, one of tens of millions being cast
00:11:42around the Don
00:11:43Bas in an environment where people are actively being
00:11:46threatened, where electoral officials are
00:11:50receiving death threats, their families, their
00:11:53children, but with every... cast in the don
00:11:56bass, the people the Dumbas show
00:12:00that those threats don't scare them, not even
00:12:04strongly worded statements and condemnation
00:12:08could stop these elections. At today's meeting, the central
00:12:11electoral commission adopted resolution declaring that the organization and
00:12:15conduct of elections for deputies to the state Duma the Russian Federation
00:12:19in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine are illegitimate. It
00:12:23is, of course, I forbids
00:12:27Ukrainians from
00:12:28that Ukraine voting in these Russian elections, because
00:12:32neither does it allow Ukrainians themselves any elections,
00:12:35they're too dangerous, says the former president of
00:12:39Ukraine. Elections as such are huge
00:12:43risk, elections right now are a tsunami which could split
00:12:46Ukraine, again the irony Ukraine professes
00:12:50to be fighting for freedom and democracy, but says
00:12:53elections are too.
00:13:03He's holding elections in September,
00:13:05he needs a united society that will support his United Russia.
00:13:08Zelensky, on the other hand, doesn't need his society
00:13:12support, his term expired two years ago
00:13:16and no one can do anything about it. He already
00:13:20controls all Ukrainian media, all newspapers and
00:13:24online. publications full spectrum
00:13:27propaganda, anyone who criticizes him can be
00:13:31sanctioned, Ukrainian or otherwise, else
00:13:35sent a one way trip to the frontlines,
00:13:39so elections, you want elections as ready to do it tomorrow, but
00:13:42if we have the war, it's you can't do it, what
00:13:46elections, how to make elections with the 9 million people who are
00:13:49abroad, and what to do with the people who are
00:13:53temporary or... in temporal occupied
00:13:57territories. Europe, of course, will bend over backwards
00:14:00to accommodate Zelensky. Kaya Calas, the
00:14:04EU's diplomatic figure head, is never one to
00:14:08overthink it. Simple and cliche is her
00:14:11style. Putin hasn't had elections or Russia hasn't had
00:14:15elections in 25 years. Zelensky is
00:14:19elected leader, elected in
00:14:21the free and fair elections and of course during the wartime. you
00:14:25can't have elections, Zelensky's corrupt ministers, his
00:14:29army heads simply don't mind, so long
00:14:32as the EU supports Zelensky, the aid money
00:14:36pores in and it can be divided up and
00:14:40shared around between friends, the only concern
00:14:44is the people of Ukraine forced brutally
00:14:48to fight a war, they don't want to fight in by a
00:14:51president, they don't want, blasted by...
00:14:55propaganda they don't agree with, and there's
00:14:58nothing they can do about it, but
00:15:01daydream. We must find legal, safe and realistic mechanism
00:15:05that will allow Ukraine to restore a full-fledged democratic process
00:15:08even under the conditions of a prolonged war. This is
00:15:12difficult. We must guarantee the right to vote for our military, for millions of
00:15:16Ukrainians abroad, and for those
00:15:17in the frontline regions. We must ensure the security the electoral
00:15:21process, the independence of institutions
00:15:24and trust. the results, if Russia could do it, then so
00:15:28could Ukraine, and the only thing stopping elections in
00:15:32Ukraine is the former president, one
00:15:35Zelensky who just doesn't.
00:15:44citizens the most remote corners the country have also had the
00:15:48opportunity to have their say in these elections, as the Russian
00:15:52aerospace company bureau 1440 has
00:15:55provided residence of a small settlement in the country's far
00:15:59north with access to remote electronic voting. It's
00:16:03become possible with the use of a low-earth orbit satellite network
00:16:06a generation of satellite communications, the
00:16:10company noted that such cases allow for the testing the service
00:16:14in real conditions and in the arctic for future
00:16:17needs. well
00:16:21to get more on the story, we're also joined live by international lawyer Arnold
00:16:25Devily. Arnold, always a pleasure having you on the program. First
00:16:29of all, I want to start generally with what we've been talking about
00:16:32here. The Moscow's mayor has said that the capital
00:16:36has seen the... drone attack since the beginning
00:16:39of this, since the beginning of Russia's special military operation, this war
00:16:43going on, and also he said that it's clearly to disrupt the
00:16:47elections, what's your reaction to
00:16:48this?
00:16:52well, thank
00:16:53you for having me, I would definitely echo what the mayor
00:16:56says, obviously this is all time to
00:17:00inflict as much disruption as possible in the minds the K
00:17:04regime by sending the message to the Russian. public
00:17:08that their leaders are able to protect them and that in this
00:17:12far as being able to exercise their constitutional rights to vote for
00:17:16their leaders, they're not going to
00:17:19be safely allowed to do so. well,
00:17:23another thing that's going on here of course is Ukraine constantly
00:17:27targeting Russia's energy infrastructure, Moscow's oil
00:17:30refinery was once again hit, and this is despite the fact that US
00:17:34president Donald Trump has continually tried to... explain to kiev that
00:17:38that's not something they should be doing, what do
00:17:40you think's going on here? is Zelensky just uh basically defying
00:17:44openly Washington in this case or is something else going on
00:17:48here? well chances are that
00:17:52Zelansky has been receiving information bearing on the
00:17:55outcome the upcoming mid-term elections and so he
00:17:59somewhat feels that President Trump will be considerably
00:18:03weakened in the wake of those elections
00:18:05and uh he looks at him as a lame duck
00:18:09uh the idea initially after the uh
00:18:13uh landslide victory of President Trump in November
00:18:172024 was uh somewhat to get
00:18:20along uh without trying to substantially
00:18:24alter the current configuration and play for time
00:18:28and uh you know I must admit that myself that uh
00:18:31Zelensky has been able to do just that and to the extent Trump
00:18:35might have been suede. to uh reinig on some the
00:18:39promises that he made during the campaign i he put an end to the forever wars
00:18:43and solved the ukrainian conflict um you know
00:18:47he looks like a land dog politically and zelensky
00:18:49knows it so
00:18:51I guess you know whatever Trump says does not carry as much weight
00:18:55as it used to, he has no political capital to speak up
00:18:58anymore. well it seems like these Russian elections going
00:19:02on have revealed something pretty significant not about Russia but
00:19:06about Ukraine. because for the longest time, Zelensky has been justifying
00:19:10not having wartime elections with all different types
00:19:14of things, saying that there are millions of Ukrainians abroad, that
00:19:18uh soldiers aren't going to be able to vote, etc., etc.,
00:19:22and yet we're seeing Russian are
00:19:24wartime voting, elections, Russian we've
00:19:25soldiers seen plenty of Russians abroad vote in these elections,
00:19:29we've even seen Russians vote on the international space station, so what
00:19:33do you how do you think uh Zelensky's justification for not holding?
00:19:37elections holds up when we're seeing this happen in Russia
00:19:41essentially,
00:19:45well first off, I mean I was in Syria back in 2021 when
00:19:49elections were held in that war reacked
00:19:52country and whatever Zelensky is saying does not
00:19:56carry water to the extent in the context of
00:19:59negotiation between Kiev and
00:20:02Moscow it would behove the
00:20:05process. the process is concern to be
00:20:09able to communicate with a duely
00:20:12elected president of what's left of
00:20:16Ukraine uh there would be no problem, something
00:20:20could be arranged with Moscow so as
00:20:23to create some one the law sess fire during
00:20:27the elections and so that
00:20:30you know the constitution calls for the head
00:20:33the radar the parliament to serve as inter president.
00:20:37so this would be the first step then we could like i said sit
00:20:41down negotiate the logistics of how this process would
00:20:45take place, but as your report mentioned
00:20:49zelensky. has no intention to vacate the
00:20:52position, he has established iron grip on
00:20:56on the presidency, even though he's not
00:20:59legitimate anymore, he basically
00:21:03counts on receiving the money that the EU is
00:21:07providing him and divided up with some of his
00:21:11colleagues, and so this explains a lot as to
00:21:14why he doesn't want to you know leave the
00:21:18office. Well, Arnad, there's a bit of a
00:21:22an ongoing pattern here when it comes to these UAVs and missiles
00:21:26that are being used to hit Russian territory. I mean Zelensky has
00:21:29even said that they're uh funded by the West, many
00:21:33them, they're co-produced with
00:21:35the with western companies. I was recently with Vladimir Putin actually uh
00:21:39in Kurgizstan at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit. I
00:21:43asked him, does that make uh British weapons
00:21:47production facilities, for example, legitimate? targets, he told me that's a
00:21:51military secret, what do you think is going to be the case with
00:21:54that?
00:21:57well, it's, I'm going to be talking from legal perspective,
00:22:01basically the European Union as a
00:22:05whole, Britain in particular, but not only,
00:22:09Germany and France, are
00:22:13providing material support, they are abating the Ukrainian war
00:22:17effort so to speak, so we had a situation, but but
00:22:20for this substantial material support, whether it's
00:22:24about providing targeting information, whether it's about
00:22:27building the very draws that are being then sent on
00:22:31civilian targets in within the Russian
00:22:35Federation, which is violation the Geneva Convention is less to say,
00:22:39this de facto if not dejury makes those
00:22:42countries covly joint, and this is actually where the
00:22:46situation gets extremely dangerous because "thanks
00:22:50god we have a uh russian president who is extremely
00:22:54patient who understands that the going strategy is what's being
00:22:58exerted upon him and he knows that you know once you go down
00:23:02that way it's hard to actually pull the horses
00:23:06so you know this is the situation right now but there's only that much the russian
00:23:09president can uh uh you know
00:23:13take into account was out
00:23:15at some point uh retaliating and so you know right now we can only
00:23:19pray" that you know
00:23:21the
00:23:24patience of prevents us from diving into oblivion as it
00:23:28were, world war th, whatever you want
00:23:29to call it. All right, international lawyer, Arnaud Devolet, always
00:23:33a pleasure having your perspective here on the program. Thank you very
00:23:37much. Thank you. Now, it may be
00:23:40the last day of voting, but there's still a long way to go before we actually
00:23:44know who's going to represent this vast country in parliament for the
00:23:48next five years. The... First preliminary results are expected to be
00:23:52available tonight after 9 p.m. Moscow time, but the final
00:23:56figures will not be officially confirmed until October
00:23:595th, but throughout that entire time, make sure to stay tuned to RT
00:24:03International for the latest
00:24:04updates.
00:24:17Now another news, Donald Trump has announced the US is going to take
00:24:20full control of Greenland security after entering into an
00:24:24agreement with Denmark. The American president claimed the deal is
00:24:28permanent and will also give Washington approval over foreign
00:24:31investment in the vast territory.
00:24:35I'm pleased to announce that the United States of America has entered into an
00:24:39agreement with the Kingdom of Denmark and Greenland that gives the
00:24:42United States permanent control over security and all other needs
00:24:46in Greenland, completely addressing all of our many US.
00:24:50concerns, there will be no cost to the United
00:24:52States. now the American president claimed that the deal
00:24:56is permanent and will also give Washington approval over foreign
00:25:00investment in the vast territory. the island is also
00:25:03apparently going to welcome a large us military
00:25:07presence, and the Danish Prime Minister's office has confirmed that
00:25:10deal to quote strengthen security in the Arctic,
00:25:14and quote, will be signed next week. earlier this year, Trump
00:25:18emphasized that the US has to... control the island in order
00:25:21to counter Chinese and Russian influence in the region. It
00:25:25all comes ahead of next week's much anticipated US-China summit
00:25:29with many experts suggesting that the timing of Trump's
00:25:33announcement may be intended to be power play. Despite
00:25:36Washington's concerns about China's presence in the Arctic, Beijing has
00:25:40virtually no foothold in Greenland, focusing instead on
00:25:44collaborating with Moscow in Arctic areas. RC
00:25:48contributor Carl Jj believes that For Washington it's about
00:25:51posturing, but for Greenland, it's about
00:25:53weakness. In preparation
00:25:57for Chijinpins coming visit to United
00:26:00States, United. "Washington has been doing lot
00:26:04of posturing right, the they're threatening to levy additional
00:26:08sanctions over China's purchase of Iranian
00:26:11oil, and and they also explicitly
00:26:15said the whole Greenland deal is aimed toward China
00:26:18to exclude China from owning the rare
00:26:22earth uh mines in in in in
00:26:26Greenland, again this this should really be
00:26:30left to the people of Greenland. or even government of
00:26:34Denmark to decide, we shouldn't be let up to United
00:26:38States, but again,
00:26:41unfortunately the leaders of Denmark have no spine and they
00:26:45could just could not say no to US.
00:26:49Well, that's all for this hour, but make sure to stay with us, we're going to be back here with more
00:26:53news in just about 30 minutes on RT International, see you
00:26:56then.