listen to reduce life for a girl and back home and behind bars the curtains fiercest critics detained on his return to moscow and hold before a court election obama says his treatment makes a mockery of justice also coming up even tougher coronavirus restrictions could be on the way for germany just on to america has moved out the date for a meeting with health officials as 19 cases skyrocket and concerns are growing now

over the new and more infectious strains of the virus plus a nation on edge with just days or go until joe biden's inauguration washington d.c. is under an unprecedented level of security amid fears of right wing violence. thank you so much for your company we begin this broadcast in russia where the prominent opposition figure alexina volley has been jailed for 30 days at an impromptu court hearing held at a moscow police station while the mystery of ali was detained immediately on returning to russia yesterday while he's been in germany receiving treatment for a poison attack germany has joined many other countries in condemning the midst of

all these arrests a spokesman for german chance on the americal called it. all right let's take you now straight to moscow for the latest our correspondent emily sherwin is standing by what more have you learned. well we know the knee is now supposed to take stay in detention for 30 days but there may also be another trial a trial that was scheduled to take place next week where he could get further jail time after all the prison service here arrested him over a former embezzlement charge they're asking for his suspended sentence to be turned into real jail time so we could see him kind of end up behind bars for longer what we've heard today from that court that impromptu court was rather strange or at least unusual instead of taking i need to court the court was kind of brought to

him he was tried directly in the detention center and the himself said that he basically found out 5 minutes before the trial was going to take place he was brought there from his prison cell his lawyers said that they didn't know that the trial was taking place until just before it started now viney himself has really condemned what's been happening today he has said that it makes a mockery of the rule of law in russia and he says that what we're seeing today and also what we saw yesterday where his flight was kind of redirected to another airport and so on that that all shows that the man in the kremlin as he says is afraid of him now as you know emily midst of all these arrests has attracted international condemnation is that going to make any difference. well that's the question i think that here in moscow the kremlin has gotten used to

words of condemnation since kind of the annexation of crimea a few years ago we've been hearing that here in russia fairly often sanctions almost are a bit of a routine so it would have to be a kind of really hard hitting measures to actually make a difference and really hit home here in russia for example if germany counseled the north stream to pipeline project which is a pipeline connecting russia to through the baltic sea to germany to bring oil and gas that could be a hard hitting measure but so far it seems unlikely from what we've been hearing from the kremlin that it will change course and that will make any difference to to the way that i think say nobody is being treated for example sit today gave lover off the foreign ministry here in russia said that the western reactions that we've been seeing from politicians are just their way of distracting from what he says is

the deterioration of liberal values in their countries now what role emily in conclusion can mr ball play now. well people were kind of asking you know why did he come back to russia at all if he was in danger of 1st of all being arrested because the prison service had already put him on a wanted list even before he came back to russia and also if as he says the kremlin could have been behind his poisoning that's what now finally has been insisting so why put yourself in that danger well not only says that he never planned to leave russia at all he always planned to come back in fact he only ended up in germany because he was poisoned and was in a coma when he was brought there that's what he's been saying he's been saying he's not afraid and it's very clear that he sort of sees his role here and that he perhaps is afraid of becoming irrelevant if he if he if you haven't returned back

he could have become irrelevant here this year there are duma elections parliamentary elections and i like seeing the vine me has been leading the charge calling for people to vote strategically for the candidate most likely to a beach the kremlin's united russia party and i think that he definitely sees it as important to lead the charge from russia here even if it means that he has to do it from prison correspondence and sure when reporting from moscow russia thank you. and as we have a mention of ali's arrest has prompted massive international condemnation u.s. secretary of state mike pompei o called it the latest in a series of russian attempts to silence no volley meanwhile the e.u.'s foreign affairs chief joseph burrell called on russian authorities to respect misson of all these rights and release him immediately and german foreign minister heikal mosse

reiterating that call he said of all these arrest was completely in comprehensible all right well let's see if those words of condemnation will be turned into words of action or rather turn into action want to turn out to your going heart he is a foreign policy spokesman for chance on america's ruling conserve is a very good day sir great to have you a with us what are the german government's options when it comes to russia. if as i would like to say that. the trip back of nobody back to russia is not only a brave but very patriotic move of nobody he shows to the people in russia and or over the road he is a russian patriot he wants to change the political situation in its country and therefore he wants to go back and he is now back in russia with or consequences this is something that impresses very much not only people in russia but all over the hurt and the 2nd i would like to mention is the treatment of not by any in the

last month beginning with suppose an ing and now ending with that arrest and. is showing that the lip service of putting that russia is a democracy and state of rule of law is only lip service and a legend the reality is like in the traditional dictatorship and this is what is now with the bill for people of what i think the council of europe should now technical this is a topic and to discuss how we can increase pressure on russia and not only european union but also the council of europe which is responsible for the human rights in your piece in europe as a whole mr heartly you just described russian government as a traditional dictatorship or at least the leader of lattimer putin does that mean that at the time has come now for germany to ditch the north stay until pipeline with russia considering that description that you just gave. i think we have to think about what we as european union as

a whole can do to increase pressure on russia to make sure that nobody's treatment comes to an end he. asked for immediate release of the 2nd question is what other right steps to do that if we have a discussion on wall street when germany i'm not in favor of that project but i think that this project by the way is up to today also necronomicon failure and we don't need to this pipeline to make sure that europe has enough gas in the future and therefore i would would be a joke of history if now germany or other european states might. start that project and maybe paid potentially have to pay compensation to the company said i engaged in this project which is economically a failure from my point if you and those who are driving this project has to face this failure and who is are responsible for the deficit they will have with this

project therefore for me nor speak to it's only a symbol the more important question is how many russian gas should be except in european union gas net is there a need for making it more diverse and more independent from russian gas and this debate should be done in europe and therefore the question not the question of the pipe which is who through whom the gas might come to europe but the question of the russian gas as a whole should be more interesting but we will have to stick to it i think in the next months as sir i just want to make sure so are you telling us that the ground is shifting when it comes in terms of a considering this pipe reconsidering rethinking this pipeline i mean how much support exactly is there among the rank and file the suit you and the german government in general for this controversial project because many in the e.u.

and you know the us are not a fan. this is because it's a symbol for our relations are russia we have russian gas and european german and european nets since the seventy's we have had this debate on in the dependence of germany on russian gas the 17th and we came to an assessment that having close economic relations even by. importing gas is helpful to to. overcome political controversies and by the way a u.s. is importing a lot of oil from from russia and there are some new contracts for the next years to have more oil from russia in the future and us therefore we have to see is it more ational i think the question needs to be how many gas short we accept in the european union gas nets to be not too much depending on russian gas and if

this question led to a result that we don't need more gas new pipes from russia but maybe from other places this might be a result but not to be too is a private project and those are those who are invested in that boat checked have also to to care for the economic risks of this investment you have a heart for in a policy spokesman for germany's ruling can service thank you sir for your time. i have to say now with some of the other news from around the globe. more than 20 c. food trucks have parked on words near the u.k. parliament in protest protesting problems in getting their produce to the european union on many fishermen have been unable to export to the e.u. because of the extra documentation required after brags that while the government has said post regs it needing problems should be resolved shortly.

rescuers in china say that the 12 miners trapped in a gold mine are still alive but another 10 are unaccounted for the miners have been stuck underground for more than a week after an explosion on monday footage from state television showed a note being passed through a rescue shaft with the request don't stop trying to reach us. brazil has kicked off its nationwide mass vaccination program against the corona virus a 54 year old nurse in sao paolo became the 1st person to receive the chinese sign over after it and the astra zeneca vaccine was approved for emergency use brazil's over 900 death toll stands at over 209000 that's 2nd only to the us. shows the ugly american is due to meet with germany state premiers on tuesday to

discuss tightening 1000 restrictions young the month of january although infection rates have improved slightly they are not declining as quickly as was hoped told according to the germany's robert costa institute december saw a spike in corona virus cases which peaks at before the holidays well the numbers then went down and well going into the new year but around january 9th they were again while they now appear to be on a downward trend but the country isn't breathing a sigh of relief. just yet there are concerns now that new covert 19 variants are more transmissible then the 1st in germany southern state of the area certified. s p s s t 2 masks are now mandatory on public transport germany hopes that a new round of even stricter measures will bring down the stubborn spread of infections. and other bleak and wintry week in berlin the streets are mostly empty

and many who do need to go out we are a mosque seems to be helping there's been a slight drop in covert 19 infections but it's not enough the government is preparing to tighten restrictions on berlin is saying that's a good thing. i think being strict to make sense and i'm hoping this will finally bring it all to an end. honestly it'd be great if people just realize that it's not getting any better and that they should stay at home. i really hope that we realize that we'll have to put up with these restrictions until at least the summer. the government he said to want to stop office workers from commuting and push them into working from home more that's partly because travelling on public transport poses a particularly high in fiction risk politicians and health authorities are also extremely war read about the trade by covert.