- 5/17/2025
After the first direct Russia-Ukraine talks in over 3 years, Moscow signals that a Putin-Zelensky summit is possible—but only if real progress follows the initial dialogue. 🇷🇺🤝🇺🇦
Meanwhile, in a rare moment of diplomacy, Sergey Lavrov and his U.S. counterpart hold a call, with Lavrov thanking Donald Trump for pressuring Kiev into direct talks. A massive POW exchange deal appears to be in the works. 📞✍️
🇷🇴 In Romania, just ahead of the presidential run-off, the euroskeptic frontrunner slams France and the EU for trying to "rob the people of their vote", accusing them of meddling in sovereign affairs.
🇮🇩 Over in Indonesia, Bill Gates’ foundation faces backlash as 2,000 citizens sign up for an experimental tuberculosis vaccine. Critics call it unethical, saying locals are being treated like “guinea pigs.” ⚠️
#RussiaUkraineTalks #PutinZelensky #PeaceTalks #Lavrov #DonaldTrump #POWExchange #RomaniaElection #Simion #EUInterference #Macron #BrusselsPolitics #BillGates #TuberculosisVaccine #Indonesia #VaccineEthics #Geopolitics #EasternEurope #USRussiaRelations #GlobalNews #BreakingNews
Meanwhile, in a rare moment of diplomacy, Sergey Lavrov and his U.S. counterpart hold a call, with Lavrov thanking Donald Trump for pressuring Kiev into direct talks. A massive POW exchange deal appears to be in the works. 📞✍️
🇷🇴 In Romania, just ahead of the presidential run-off, the euroskeptic frontrunner slams France and the EU for trying to "rob the people of their vote", accusing them of meddling in sovereign affairs.
🇮🇩 Over in Indonesia, Bill Gates’ foundation faces backlash as 2,000 citizens sign up for an experimental tuberculosis vaccine. Critics call it unethical, saying locals are being treated like “guinea pigs.” ⚠️
#RussiaUkraineTalks #PutinZelensky #PeaceTalks #Lavrov #DonaldTrump #POWExchange #RomaniaElection #Simion #EUInterference #Macron #BrusselsPolitics #BillGates #TuberculosisVaccine #Indonesia #VaccineEthics #Geopolitics #EasternEurope #USRussiaRelations #GlobalNews #BreakingNews
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NewsTranscript
00:00filtered as always. So to kick it off here on RT, Russia says that a face-to-face meeting
00:05between Vladimir Putin and Zelensky is possible, but certain issues have to be sorted out in
00:10advance. For example, like the legitimacy of Vladimir Zelensky, his presidential term
00:15expired last year. Now that comes as a follow-up on the first Russia-Ukraine direct talks in years
00:21that wrapped up in Istanbul this Friday. Since yesterday, many questions have been
00:27received on the topic of a possible meeting between Putin and Zelensky. Such a meeting is
00:32possible as a result of the work of delegations from both sides, upon reaching certain agreements
00:38between these delegations. But when signing documents that the delegations are to agree on,
00:43the main and fundamental thing for us remains who exactly will sign these documents from the
00:49Ukrainian side. Now, the first direct talks between Moscow and Kiev for the last three years were
00:55initially supposed to take place in Istanbul on Thursday. However, the team from Kiev apparently
00:59spent the day avoiding the meeting. Finally, though, the side sat down on Friday. Despite the
01:05hurdles, Russia's chief negotiator announced Moscow was satisfied with the talks and ready to plan for
01:11the next round. In general, we are satisfied with the result and are ready to continue contacts.
01:19In the coming days, there will be a large-scale exchange of prisoners, 1,000 for 1,000. The Ukrainian
01:24side has requested direct talks between the heads of state. We have taken this request into consideration.
01:31We have agreed that each side will present its vision of a possible future ceasefire and describe it in
01:37detail. After such a vision is presented, we believe we should, and this has also been agreed
01:42upon, continue our negotiations. Now, the Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman welcomed the outcome
01:47of the talks in Istanbul and the large-scale prisoner exchange plan. But that's after Ukraine sought to
01:54call out the Russian delegation's stance during negotiations as seemingly forgetting who actually
01:58put forward the idea for the swap in the first place.
02:02Putting aside all the Russian nonsense, pseudo-historical statements, provocations, and so on, the bottom
02:09line is that it's been agreed that 1,000 of our people will return home. That's 1,000 happy
02:16families. Even just for that, it all made sense.
02:20All this was proposed by Russia, the Russian president, and then implemented by a delegation
02:26authorized by our head of state, which Zelensky mocked throughout the day.
02:30If we put aside the insults and name-calling that have become the norm for the Kiev regime,
02:37it turns out that Russia's proposal makes sense, according to the Ukrainian foreign minister.
02:42The main thing is that the citizens of Ukraine should not allow the NATO advisers to lead themselves
02:49off the true path of settlement into the ravine of other people's interests again.
02:54And amid Trump's efforts to find peace, the Russian foreign minister held a phone call
02:59with his American counterpart, exchanging views on the results of the Russian-Ukrainian talks
03:04in Istanbul. Sergei Lavrov highlighted the role of Washington, which pushed Kiev to resume
03:09the talks. But earlier, Donald Trump said only a face-to-face meeting between him and Putin
03:14will yield any real results. While the U.S. president highlighted all the money the Biden administration
03:20splash on Kiev. What bothered me, I hated to see the way it was, you know, excuse me, pissed
03:28away. I hated to see that checks were set for $60 billion. Every time Zelensky, I think he's
03:36the greatest salesman in the world, far better than me. Zelensky, he comes to Washington, he
03:43walks out with $100 billion every time he came, $100 billion, $100 billion. Now his abilities
03:48were shrinking because the last time I only got $60 billion. And I always said he doesn't
03:51have the cards, and he doesn't have the cards. And, you know, I'm being honest, he doesn't
03:55have the cards. You're dealing with a massive army, and you're dealing with somebody that's
04:00brave, that had great equipment.
04:02Well, my colleague, Nihie Aaron, who's been covering the talks from our studio in Istanbul,
04:06she was speaking with veteran Ukrainian diplomat Andrei Teloshenko, also a former advisor to the
04:11country's prosecutor general. Now he says that in order to get a real breakthrough and reach
04:16peace, the Russian and American leaders really have no choice. They have to meet face to face.
04:22I think Putin-Trump meeting will happen first, maybe not even one, then Zelensky will come
04:27second. Because this is, this meeting in Istanbul that happened yesterday, it's a footstep towards
04:36the bigger picture, towards the dialogue between Moscow and Washington, which was ruined throughout
04:42the former administration, Biden administration. It was undermined by the Obama administration,
04:47the first Trump's first term. And now it's getting back on track. And these countries are talking
04:53between each other. Ukraine is just in the middle of all this. It's a side dish. It's going to be put
04:57onto the table at one point, again, to be discussed. But what is going on in between right now
05:03with Moscow and Washington is the main step that is going to lead to these peace talks happening. And maybe
05:10one day Zelensky meeting Putin, or maybe it will not even lead to that. Maybe there's going to be
05:15something different in Ukraine that will be agreed upon with Washington and Moscow together that will lead
05:22to more and faster peace without even Zelensky being in place as the president of Ukraine, even though he's not a
05:29legitimate president by the Constitution of Ukraine today. Speaking yesterday, the French president said
05:35that the talks between Trump and Putin could happen in the next days or hours. We assume he's making it
05:41meaning a telephone call, not face to face. And I'm paraphrasing what he said now. He said,
05:46we need to be careful. Why is he having this seemingly panicked response to a potential talk between Trump and
05:54Putin? Even the talk that happened yesterday between Zelensky and Trump led them to understand that
06:00the Trump is not going to go their path. Trump is not going to go to the war monitoring path of with
06:06Europe. Trump is not going to support Europe in the process of financing the key regime, the boots on
06:12the ground and military wise, anything that's concerned with war. So there are now understanding that
06:18the reality for Europe is going to change. What are the European leaders going to tell to their population?
06:23With this war ending and everybody's the truth is going to start coming out that this war could have been
06:28evaded. We could have not had this war and we could have had peace. Europe could have been more
06:33prosperous. People not have paid for gas prices for electricity prices three times as much. Businesses
06:38will not go down in Europe. So they are now facing the truth in Europe and what to do next. And that's
06:44what they're so in a panic mode. They're losing their basically contracts on the military industrial complex,
06:50which is backing these leaders in Europe, Macron, the banking sector, and Mertz,
06:55the Councilor Mertz from the BlackRock. So this is what the reality of the world is changing. The world
07:01is changing in a shift where America is now understanding that Russia is another power that
07:07you have to respect, you have to deal with. And Europe has not become a power. It becomes something
07:13in between that it will have to come back on its stage at one point. But now it's not their time.
07:19Well, as the whole rhetoric keeps pouring out of Europe, EU leaders accused Moscow of an
07:24unwillingness to put an end to the war, claiming Russia's just playing for time. But that comes as
07:29Europe wasn't even involved in the talk. So it's totally left out hanging in the wind, but they didn't
07:36miss the opportunity to make another dig at Russia. Russia shows it does not want peace and is merely
07:43trying to buy time by continuing the war. The Russian position is clearly unacceptable
07:48and not for the first time. Russia had a good opportunity to hold initial talks on a peace
07:53agreement with a prior ceasefire agreement. We are very disappointed that this did not take place.
07:59Well, Myanmar's prime minister said that Europe's continued supply of weapons to Kyiv only impedes any
08:04possible resolution and could actually lead to something far worse. His comments came while
08:09talking to us. You also spoke about, for example, the lasting impact of World War II, Trump's tariff
08:15policies, the multipolar world. And you can watch it all day here on RT, but for now, a small clip.
08:23In your opinion, why do the European Union and United Kingdom continue to finance Kyiv and supply
08:29weapons to Ukraine when Washington gives them the opportunity to resolve this conflict through
08:33diplomacy? What do you think the European Union and the United Kingdom can achieve through diplomatic
08:38channels? War should always be avoided. Conflicts are best resolved amicably, through dialogue.
08:49Negotiations are the optimal path. Escalation thrives on external support. Without it, conflicts lose their
08:56momentum. Some nations face problems, and when conflicts arise, they fuel them, supplying arms,
09:02funds, provisions and other resources. This perpetuates violence. The solution is simple. Cease such support.
09:11Political solutions must prevail. This is how it should be. You asked about the EU's objectives in this
09:18conflict. What is their end game? They seek to prolong hostilities until they erupt into a full-scale war.
09:24This warrants serious consideration. In truth, conflict prevention requires decisive action.
09:31We must refrain from supporting this conflict. Focus on negotiations. Examine the root causes. Why did
09:37this happen? Why did this crisis emerge? History holds answers. Analyzing developments over the past two
09:44decades reveals the origins of the Russia-Ukraine issue. We need to look at it from the right angle and take
09:51action. Then this problem is solvable. So as Romania is heading out to the polls this Sunday for a
09:59second and very decisive round of its presidential election, the front-runner has accused France of
10:05attempting to undermine the vote. A presidential candidate, Giorgio Simeone, denounced the invalidation of the
10:112024 election results saying Paris pressured the nation's top court. Our correspondent picks up the
10:18story. Here is Charlotte Dubinsky. The Romanian election is already underway. And while the polling
10:26stations here in Bucharest and the rest of Romania won't open until Sunday, Romanians abroad are already
10:33making their voices heard. And their vote could decide and sway this election. Some 5 million Romanians
10:42live overseas. That's around 20 percent of the population. And of those as expected, more than 3 million will
10:49cast a ballot. In the first round two weeks ago, more than 60 percent of those living abroad voted for George
10:57Simeone. Romanians in France, Germany and Italy deciding that things aren't quite so rosy in the West as
11:05some would like you to believe, rejecting the narrative put forward by the pro-Brussels groups.
11:13Their vote is a protest vote against the traditional parties, which are seen as corrupt.
11:19George Simeone knows their support is crucial, so much so that instead of spending the last few days
11:26campaigning here in Romania, he's been on a whirlwind tour of European countries. He's been to Poland,
11:33Belgium, France and Italy. He's partly trying to reassure them that despite what the media in the West
11:41is saying, that he's anti-EU, that he's anti-NATO, and that if he wins this election, he will take
11:48Romania out of both institutions. And by the way, that is fake news. George Simeone wants them to know
11:55that there is only one thing on his mind, and that is putting his country and its people first.
12:03We are not against EU and NATO, how many lied. We are part of the European Conservatives and Reformists,
12:11the party of Giorgia Meloni, of Matteo Moraviecki, and I will be an example of pro-European, pro-NATO
12:21president, fighting for the interests of the Romanian nation.
12:25Simeone is also on the warpath with EU leaders who are trying to smear him. In France, he said
12:32President Macron was a leader with dictatorial tendencies.
12:36I love France and the French people, but I don't like Emmanuel Macron's dictatorial tendencies.
12:46France got involved in the Romanian elections. The French ambassador to Romania spoke with the
12:53president of the Constitutional Court, who annulled the elections in Romania. The French ambassador has
12:59been traveling through all regions of the country in recent weeks to convince business people to
13:04support my opponent, the mayor of Bucharest. So you heard earlier that one of the reasons
13:11Romanians abroad are rejecting the status quo is the issue of corruption. And it is a massive issue
13:18in Romania. In fact, this is one of the most corrupt countries in the EU. And while you might think
13:25corruption is about top slicing money from funds, it can actually be much more deadly.
13:32Less than two years ago, this explosion at an illegal gas station killed several people.
13:45Dozens more were injured. The gas station had lost its operating license in 2020 due to a lack of
13:52compliance with safety regulations. But instead of shutting it down, it continued to operate. The
13:57authorities knew but were unable to do anything due to corruption. One of the owners was apparently the
14:03son of an influential politician. Since Romania joined the EU, billions upon billions of euros have
14:12flooded into the country. But look around and it's hard to see where that money has been spent. There's a
14:19reason for that. Much of the money hasn't gone on improving the country. It's gone into the pockets
14:25of organized criminals. According to an anti-corruption group in Romania, Europe's own anti-fraud office
14:32suggests as much as 50 percent of funds allocated were skimmed. According to a 2022 NDA report,
14:40the number of criminal fraud cases is high, with the department registering 590 new cases concerning EU funds
14:47at an estimated value of 25 million dollars. Bribes are a common component of these cases,
14:53sometimes with the bribe negotiated as a percentage of up to 50 percent of the amount obtained.
14:59While the EU has threatened to suspend some payments to Romania, the reality is over the past 10 years,
15:05it hasn't done too much. Whereas over in Hungary, where the EU doesn't like the politics, the country is
15:13constantly being threatened and those threats are being actioned upon. That was a first and yet
15:19Romania has largely got off scot-free. But that could all change in the next few days if the wrong
15:27person, that is the wrong person for Brussels, is elected by the Romanian people. And the polls show
15:34that things are tight, that the George Simeon is likely to break through. But that's maybe not where
15:41the saga is going to end. And that's because many of his supporters feel that if Simeon does win,
15:47that something will be done to ensure that he doesn't become president, whether that's annulling
15:53the elections or saying that he shouldn't have stood and barred in the first place,
15:57like Carlin Georgescu. What is clear is that Brussels is keeping a very close eye
16:05on what's happening here. Jola Dubinsky for RT in Bucharest, Romania.
16:13Bill Gates and what many critics have called his mission to try and control humanity. He's back
16:18it again. At this time, he's got 2000 Indonesians agreeing to take part in the next stage of an
16:23experimental tuberculosis vaccine trial being funded by his foundation. And with that,
16:30there's growing concern this new jab could potentially do more harm than good, you know,
16:34given his foundation's very checkered history. Well, rightly so. It sparked angry reaction online.
16:40Locals are claiming they're simply being used as guinea pigs.
16:45Screening people to be forced to become TB vaccine guinea pigs.
16:49Why don't other countries want their people to be used as guinea pigs? Only poor countries are targeted.
16:54Indonesia became a vaccine testing ground and its people were used as guinea pigs. It's sad.
16:59Before they came to power, they pounded the table to fight foreigners. Fiery speeches,
17:05claiming not to be a lackey of other nations. But now suddenly, Indonesia wants to be used as a
17:11guinea pig for a TB vaccine made by Bill Gates. Well, the concerns over experimental vaccine trials are
17:19not just being voiced in Indonesia, for example. As our correspondent explains, she's been looking into
17:24the past of Bill Gates and his foundations, a questionable campaign across Africa. Here is a
17:28Nollivuo Kungay. When you have as much money as the Gates Foundation, it turns out you can buy your
17:35way into some pretty powerful places. As a philanthropist, Gates is supposedly helping the
17:41people of Africa and other developing nations. But the reality looks different. We need to understand the
17:48real reason why USAID is in Africa. When you look at it on paper, it all looks really good. But they're
17:55actually wolf in sheep's clothing. For over 25 years, Gates and USAID have been partners in several high
18:05profile global health and development initiatives. Their collaborations have spanned across infectious
18:11diseases, vaccines, agriculture and food security. But their strategic influence has raised concerns
18:17about the real impact of their work, especially in developing countries. Gates, now part of a global
18:25philanthropic coalition, is set to focus on sustainability and local ownership, partnering with African countries
18:31such as Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Lesotho, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe. And this,
18:40despite the fact that for years, there have been concerns around Bill Gates allegedly trying to
18:45depopulate the world, particularly Africa, back in the east of Africa, where in 2014, Kenya's Catholic
18:53Doctors Association accused the World Health Organization and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
18:58of chemically sterilizing millions of unwilling Kenyan women with a phony tetanus vaccine campaign.
19:05The Catholic Church advises all Kenyans not to participate in the vaccination program.
19:13Is there a tetanus crisis in Kenya? If this is so, why has it not been declared? Why has the
19:21campaign left out girls below 14 and yet girls between 13 and nine years become pregnant if what they are
19:30worried about is neonatal tetanus? Why have they left out boys and men knowing they are all prone to
19:39tetanus even more than women? So is Bill Gates really creating vaccines to cause human infertility
19:46and destroy the ability to reproduce? We need to meet a new constraint. So you've got a thing on the left,
19:52CO2 that you want to get to zero and that's going to be based on the number of people. First we've got
19:58population. Now the world today has 6.8 billion people. That's headed up to about 9 billion. Now if
20:05we do a really great job on new vaccines, healthcare, reproductive health services, we could lower that
20:12by perhaps 10 or 15 percent. And that apparently answers our question because really what else does
20:19Bill Gates is innovating to zero formula mean? U.S. health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says
20:25anyone defending Bill Gates World Health Organization's global vaccine program needs to
20:31first look at the damage study which shows that the DTP vaccine supported by Gates caused higher
20:37mortality rates among African children, particularly girls. The most popular vaccine in the world is the
20:44DTP vaccine, diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis. We got rid of it in this country because it was causing
20:50injuries, brain injuries, severe brain injuries or death to one in every 300 children. But we give it to 161
20:58million African children a year. So Bill Gates asked the Danish government to support that program and said
21:05it saved 30 million lives. The Danish government said show us the data. He wasn't able to. So they went to
21:13Africa and did their own studies. They found that girls who got the DTP were dying at 10 times the
21:20rate of unvaccinated girls. These girls were not dying of diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis. The vaccine
21:26had protected them against those. But it had also ruined their immune systems. And they were unable to
21:33defend themselves against other just minor diseases. But none of this seems to matter to Gates. In fact,
21:39experts say, along with using his philanthropy to influence the World Health Organization,
21:44UNICEF, Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunization, and the Programme for Appropriate Technology Health,
21:51Gates also finances private pharmaceutical companies that produce vaccines and a vast network of front
21:58groups with the pharmaceutical industry and use Gates' wealth and influence to stifle dissent and enforce
22:04compliance. Critics have even complained about the major role the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
22:10plays in funding the World Health Organization. But who else can the agency run to? He gives the money,
22:16gets tax deductions for giving the money to the WHO. He gains control of the WHO. The WHO pays for
22:25finance the health ministries in virtually every country in Africa. So he can then say, as a condition of
22:33getting that money, this is what WHO does. As a condition to get that money, you have to show that
22:39you vaccinated a certain percentage of your population. It's a milestone. And the vaccines that they're buying
22:47are owned by companies that Gates own. Remember the two cases of paralysis in children in Sudan,
22:55one in Saad-Dafur state and the other in Qedera state, where both children were vaccinated and the paralysis was
23:01caused by a circulating vaccine derived polio virus type 2. The oral polio vaccine is being pushed on
23:09the African population by the global polio eradication initiative, a consortium which is supported and
23:15funded by Gates. And how can we forget about the Nigerian government's report concluding that Pfizer
23:21undertook an illegal trial of an unregistered drug when the company enrolled nearly 100 Nigerian children with
23:27meningitis in a trial testing its antibiotic, Tova-flaxacin, against ceftriaxin during a 1996
23:35meningitis epidemic. The same Pfizer the Gates Foundation had invested billions of dollars into
23:41for their development of contraceptives. More than 100,000 cases and over 11,000 deaths and the US
23:48court dismissed the lawsuit initially. A settlement was later reached with the Cardinal state government
23:54and some families were compensated, but some are still dealing with the ramifications.
23:59It damaged my organs, my hormones. Every year, I will breath. My leg will breath. I will not grow again.
24:07Pfizer was administered on me and then afterward, I couldn't move my legs. Two days after,
24:13the other one also shrunk and dried up. Thousands of news stories from across Africa have profiled the
24:19Gates' generosity over the last two decades. Every day, headlines remind us of their private foundations
24:25as largest. A million dollars here, a billion dollars there. The one-sided storytelling about
24:31Gates' esophilist philanthropy has created a dangerous mythology that misunderstands who Gates really is
24:37and what he is actually doing. That is constantly damaging developing countries.
24:42With the message of free Palestine and free Gaza, people gathered this Saturday in the Swiss capital
24:50to commemorate Nabka Day. This year marks the 77th anniversary of the mass expulsion of Palestinians
24:57during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. But today, the assault on Gaza continues and the number of displaced
25:03has grown dramatically. The message in Geneva is that history is repeating itself. As the protesters say,
25:09the Swiss are an accomplice to genocide. But they're urging politicians to boycott Israel in order to
25:15end the war on the enclave. This as over 53,000 Palestinians have been killed and many are still
25:21buried in the rubble amid relentless IDF attacks since October 2023.
25:29All right, before we wrap up this hour's program here on RT International,
25:32the closer cooperation with Muslim countries, it's a key objective of Russia,
25:36and Afghanistan's got a big role to play. Last month, the Taliban was removed from Moscow's list
25:41of terrorist organizations. And the group is also a guest at an international economic forum
25:45underway this week in Russia called Russia Islamic World. It's running through Sunday in the city of
25:51Kazan. And on the sidelines of the event, we spoke exclusively with the Afghan Minister of Industry
25:56and Trade about the bilateral prospects. I would like to thank the Russian Supreme Court,
26:03the Russian federal government, and all the people who supported Afghanistan that they removed the
26:09country from the blacklist. I am sure our relations will get better because Afghanistan and its policy is
26:17balanced. We want to have friendship with all the countries, especially the regional ones. Here,
26:23in Kazan, we discussed issues related to transit, exports and imports, as well as trade. We hope that
26:31we will be able to increase our trade between Russia and Afghanistan. The Afghans are in need of
26:37Russia's exports, and some of our products can be welcomed on the Russian market. We are hopeful that
26:43the private sector and the government of Russia will support the production of Afghan products.
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