this presidential election valid as over fifty percent of registered voters have cast their ballots and that was a half way throughout the voting day so quite a high tariff turnout not perhaps surprisingly enough the lowest order to voter turnout was here and the capital amends for opposition support is quite strong with the other belorussian regions showing quite a high voter turnout we do know that according to exit polls the incumbent bell russian president alexander lukashenko is already receiving nearly eighty percent of the votes with of the highest ranking of his opposition. competitors receiving just over six percent of the votes of course a huge gap that would certainly seem to prove almost everybody right because one of the most of course people believe the objects of the bush will win this presidential election two thousand i seen a number of persons most if it were of course in regards to opposition candidates they received free on air time very limited amount of money or time admittedly but

still it was a first for this country and there are a lection where opposition candidates did have a chance to talk to their how lecture at the hour through mass media outlets there were also some sanctioned anti-government protests that was also a first for the country so optimist do seem to say that this could be a political changes that it's on the real question poll was referring to when we spoke when he spoke to journalists a little earlier but skeptics of course already say that this has a very pragmatic reason behind it the european union has promised billions of euros to belarus should there be signs of a free and democratic election and democratic progress in the country and with minsk it very hard by the global financial crisis this incentive is definitely worth a lot at eight pm local time opposition leaders have promised to bring thousands of people to this very square at savva square square also personally seen some relative response and so. still networks where various groups have been set up with

already around two thousand and three hundred people confirming their attendance at these rallies the government of course has said that none of these meetings have been sanctioned and police will use it all and every necessary measure to disperse those protests opposition candidates have so far said that they're not planning to throw themselves at the barricades that they simply want to peacefully state their protest and voice their concerns about the legitimacy of this election everybody here of course the early waiting to see how that will turn out because of course the last presidential election there were serious clashes between protesters and police officers here and the capitol police are breaking down right a lot of protests quite seriously upright a heavy police presence as of course nobody wants to see a rerun of that event and everybody here waiting to see what will happen tonight after polling stations closed we will of course be monitoring everything that takes place here immense and bringing all the details. so exit polls are predicting

a comfortable victory for incumbent president because political expert and talk baseball of explains why that comes as little surprise is devoting part of the population that is very supportive of mr look at shanker the elder people of the working class those who don't vote for him simply don't go to polls so i think anyway he's supported by a plurality of the population but we're not. going to five percent as he claims or as his supporters claim but even if the election was totally free and fair even by the most strict western standards he would have gained more than fifty percent anyway members of the so-called opposition who were running for president this time told openly they were there to for people to vote. so there is no one candidate from the opposition there is a dispersal of candidates and people cannot find an alternative martin. the moscow

region is on security alert with more than four hundred people detained as part of attempts to prevent violence linked to ethnic tensions the rest follows a recent wave of clashes between russian nationalist groups minorities and police more than three thousand people have been detained in the last week tensions bowled over at an unsanctioned meeting eight days ago following the death of a football fan in a brawl with a native north corporations and turned into a ride with ethnic minorities and police attacks there was a repeat of the clashes on wednesday when extremist russian units of migrants from the north caucuses gather for a room of confrontation a man suspected of leading armrest in killing a model and is now in jail prison to be made very of authorities not to hesitate to use force to quell hate. clashes fighting vandalism and not just administrative violations but crimes lose who commit these crimes should be locked up rather than just told off the police should be using the

legal thought. to prevent extremism and incitement to this nick hatred what happened in moscow and in some of the russian cities has shown that order requires very efficient management i'd like to draw attention to the fact that inciting violence in our country is a crime. barack obama's democrats have beaten back a republican assault on one of the administration's key foreign policy achievements sen john mccain called for a new arms reduction treaty between moscow and washington to go back to the drawing board but his motion was voted down by the senate a bomber is urging the start treaty to be ratified as soon as possible saying it's critical for national security with unlikelihood of the deal getting through the senate before the end of the year when the republicans take up more seats look slim the strategic arms reduction treaty was signed by the end of it and barack obama in april and would slash the two country's nuclear arsenals by third but it won't come into force until ratified by both sides something moscow says it's been ready to do

for months max bergman from the center for american progress says the start treaty is too important to throw away. a confirms that the us russia relationship will remain on track i think the second thing is that it maintains the new core stability that we've had some see end of the cold war important to the start treaty maintains and monitoring and verification measures that allow both the u.s. and russia to check out what each other is doing in the nuclear arena and it enables progress to continue to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in the world so i think it's a vital treaty it's one of the priorities that the administration has set forth and it's too important for us national security for russian national security of a global national scale for this curity of the world for republicans in the senate to hold this hostage and i think they won't i think this will be the one piece of legislation that actually gets massive bipartisan support although you know nothing is certain until it's and there's still

a ways to go but i think i think we feel confident that this is actually going to get ratified in the next few days. still ahead here on r.t. blasting off for the holidays. the bike is the start of. the rocket blasts off from the cars been throwing objects that. catch the action in a couple of minutes here on r.t. . first this week saw another spate of unrest and street protests across europe amid government attempts to tackle the economic worries you so much in brussels a permanent fund was agreed upon to bail out euro zone countries that are at risk of bankruptcy thousands of people continue to take to the streets all over europe protesting tough spending cuts and other general strike you rescored public transport disruption and closed schools banks and courts demonstrations were staged by trade unions all across the continent czech republic to spain ireland one of the

country's worst hit by the crisis has already had to apply for a bailout musician turned political activist jim kor from the band of course believes his home country needs to abandon the euro. what we're actually experience here i believe is a top down engineer financial crash an implosion of the world economy by design designed so as to effect a corporate takeover not just our own country but many other countries around europe were having to submit to draconian welfare has cut started going to impoverish the irish people more those people people in this country are afraid to put on the heating because they don't know where the money is going to come from this is absolutely dreadful the irish people are being made to pay for the sins the contrived sins of relief international bankers were to situation would get thirty four billion of taxpayer money was prompted to model that bottomless pit known as i do our spike it recently came out who the bondholders where we bailed out probably the richest family in the world the rothschilds we bailed out goldman sachs i mean this is just unbelievable this is robin hood in reverse we've got you know this is

the poor in the middle class bailing out the super rich we can't solve our debt problems. overnight if we want at all timothy the solution is the root cause of the problem is no we're not printing our own debt free money that's all we need to do like abraham lincoln's greenbacks we need to get back to printing our own debt money we need to get out get out of the e.u. and back into european economic area where we can set our own monetary policy and not be dictated by brussels in terms of monetary policy that is set up to. germany and france to detrimental to go to countries in the that's a good thing anderson as soon as the e.u. and the euro is it should be confined confined to the dustbin of history and soon jim kor there now to some other world news this hour here on r.t. suicide attacks have targeted military bases in two afghan cities leaving thirty members of the security forces dead in the northern city of conducing shoot up again when gunmen stormed an army recruitment center and military brass outside

another recruitment center the main one of the country was then ambushed in a separate incident on the outskirts of kabul the taliban has claimed responsibility for the attacks in which five assailants were also. secretary-general ban ki moon has rejected the man from the disputed ivory coast government that un peacekeepers should leave the country becoming president laurent gbagbo accuse the un of arming his rival and son you would torrent both candidates claim victory in last month's election sparking fears of another civil war after scores died in clashes among their supporters the us france and the african union of backing. refuses to step down. thousands of stranded at airports across europe are severe winter weather continues to disrupt travel hundreds of flights are canceled at london's international airport see throwing gatwick due to the amount of snow france italy and the netherlands are also reporting problems germany at least two people were killed in traffic accidents caused by the conditions because they say the arctic temperatures are

predicted to last on christmas. up earlier this week prime minister vladimir putin set the record straight on a number of issues as he held his annual q. and a session with the russian public over a million questions were sent in and putin spent for the whole files during the live t.v. broadcast to answer as many as possible well it is the telling of about followed the nationwide event. not quite truth or dare and he's annual q. and a session the russian prime minister wasn't given a choice and some of the questions were rather daring like the one about former oil tycoon mikhail khodorkovsky who is currently serving an eight year term in prison for fraud and tax evasion it was a question that got put in going it was just like a character in a famous russian movie i'm sure that a thief places in prison because he's accused of stealing tax evasion and fraud with the new charges he faces is about stealing hundreds of billions for his

company security chief is in prison for murder they didn't like the manner of nifty so they killed him then there was another woman in moscow who refused to sell her little stool to them and they killed her when they didn't like the hitman they hired he's dead as well. another story spot was the issue of recent ethnic clashes between russian vaticanus and people from the north caucuses that the government failed to prevent the prime minister said nationalism is a common disease. radicalism is like a virus if society weakens the means system goes down diseases start to spread but if society is mature in these bugs of radicalism and extremism simply lie dormant it can cause any damage but you. russians domestic worries you can everything from social security and police reform to real estate prices and if you foreign policy issues were touched upon as well such as the recent spying many that has spread across the atlantic is it

a bit better than yes i mean we don't need to use special squads to punish traitors . i can assure you all of them will full of the perch themselves they can take their thirty pieces of silver but it will stick in their throats the video conference was held in a rather chatty and upbeat marriage in the form it was introduced by bush and when he was still president back in two thousand and one and then become a prime minister he's continued the tradition of the annual informal discussions with the public and as ever he likes a good joke politics mixed with a little ironic humor at all but i will country when you presume it good oversleeping. we sleep in turns to worry everything is under control. now that explains why most go is a city that never sleeps after an exhausting q. and a session of four and a half hours russian prime minister vladimir putin can now go and rest as russians now know they will still have their backs covered by look at r.t.

moscow while the fate of be called khodorkovsky was touched upon in that q. and a session this week a moscow court delayed its verdict in the second trial of the former oil tycoon the decision of been due to be announced on wednesday but was postponed by the court until the twenty seventh of december the former you cost c.e.o. was arrested in two thousand and three and is currently serving an eight year jail term for fraud and tax evasion in the latest trial he faces charges over the theft of billions of barrels of oil from his company and laundering the proceeds if found guilty he'll face a prison sentence of up to fourteen years but if the court clears critical of the latest charges he will be released next year the forty seven year old made his fortune during the turbulent ninety's through the privatization of state assets which made him russia's richest man. well coming up in the program links to secret detention centers and organ trafficking just some of the accusations against kosovars prime minister find out who's behind them what he has to say about it and why some serbs say the revelations are not surprising. the u.n.

security council is gathered for an emergency meeting to discuss the increasing tension on the korean peninsula south korea says it will go ahead with military exercises on its shared border with the north despite a promise from pyongyang that it will respond forcefully the drills are to take place in the coming few days on a south korean island shelled by the north a month ago four people were killed in the november assault but this time pyongyang warns it will strike even harder on the russian side which says it's deeply worried by the crisis called for the u.n. meeting china backs russia's call to restrain south korea but the u.s. maintains seoul has the right to hold the military drill political analysts ruediger frank says russia is best placed to act as a mediator in the korean conflict. russia is the only country that does have. box nor specific interest. which actually there's a difference between russia and the european union russia can actually be

a trustworthy and reliable mediator and neutral broker the interest that russia. is stability there is a situation emerging that might move toward the. careers but also china us will have a negative effect on. the region and on russia and hands russia's major preoccupation is actually maintaining peace. u.s. officials claim the war effort in afghanistan is on track and making progress but back on american soil it's a message fewer people are willing to believe that he's going to let some who say the was costing the u.s. to do any. at the same time as obama was trying to put a good face on the war in afghanistan we are on track to achieve our goals hundreds of people were marching outside the white house calling those announced ghouls

lives which benefit just selected few years ago none of well think of the overall giants of the defense launch not know if they were going in the only language they understand and shutting down. whenever we're doing here today we're going to continue to do it will be more and more over. the u.s. says it will take its forces out of afghanistan by twenty fourteen but many people believe that they had line could be stretched indefinitely it will take time to ultimately defeat al qaida it's been a year since obama stepped up efforts in afghanistan by adding thirty thousand troops to the existing contingent there it's also been the deadliest year for the u.s. forces there with casualties almost doubled in many places the gains we've made are still fragile and reversible but there is no question we are clearing more areas from taliban control and more or reclaiming their communities you hear a different message from veterans like man who fought in afghanistan having been

there myself i can tell you the u.s. army is not a liberating force it is not a nation building for some it is a destructive force the mission statement is to engage and destroy the enemies of the us and in close combat period there's nothing in there about bringing food for people a record sixty percent of americans say the almost ten year old war in afghanistan is not being worth fighting both in terms of lives and dollars a new price that was announced for the war this year one point two trillion dollars we could have universal health care for every working person in this country if one tenth of what has been spent on the war was spent on working people you know we could do it we could have saved their infrastructure in iraq and afghanistan if one tenth of what we spend on destruction has been spent on. construction. what about security people here don't seem to feel safer either i believe that our presence there and in all the interventions that we've had across time in other

countries only serves to make the world a lot less stable i think we're creating a lot more violence i think there are more if you would check this year compared to last year the number of taliban for example i think is increased. knowingly getting arrested in front of the white house could hardly help and wars but these protesters hope if they shout louder no. someone could hear them the wars that america has been fighting they've taken trillions of dollars out of u.s. taxpayers pockets and apparently they will continue to do so and people who came here protesting outside the white house and hoping the president will see them from his windows are saying they don't buy into the argument the war on terror any more than a check on our team washington d.c. . because of his prime minister touchy is facing questions over reports for the council of europe which claims he was involved with a group that killed prisoners in the late ninety's to sell their organs there are

also reports that western governments knew about the allegations but been turning a blind gone to them for years on his habits. this sterling has never spoken to the media before he's been too angry his brother went missing in the summer of one thousand nine hundred ninety eight and no one has helped to find him while he went to work as usual with his friends to the barrage of it's mine and that was it i never saw him again we went to the police and everyone else we can think of after the war i thought there'd be an exchange of prisoners and hundreds of our binion's were freed but so many serbs are still missing now after twelve years i've lost all the international officials here didn't do anything when the easily could have his brother is one of the near two thousand four hundred people who went missing both during and after the late ninety's kosovo war and are still unaccounted for and allegations leveled against senior members of the kosovo liberation army including

the prime minister has since had she and a council of europe report it will not help to ease the minds of men like this one in the report claims missed attach these links to organized crime date back to when his the needs a group became the dominant factor within the k.l.a. and the alleged decision of western powers to largely ignore its activity in the hope of establishing some form of short term stability in the region allow tetchy and his followers to assume positions of political power with them kosovo in the years following the war. everybody including western countries knew all about these allegations for years but we wanted to keep them hidden the only. other was in charge here interest the e.u. is ruled of law mission in kosovo says it will now launch its own probe into the allegations in general unix takes a legal actions on war crimes and other serious crimes very seriously should be

sufficient evidence. should we be responsible for doing with them we will certainly look into the issue. mr hashem she has dismissed the reports is baseless and defamatory and has threatened to sue it's another shocking twist in the history of this already troubled region naysay randy e.u. peace keeping in police cars stand guard twenty four hours a day each side of this bridge that divides the serbian and albanian parts of the town of meet the wreath said ten years after the end of the cost of unworn ethnic divisions here still run very deep bass with the release of this report people are now saying that they feel abandoned and let down by the international community here supposedly charged with protecting them all these he is less a bit. well still ahead for you on the program for the frost visits the kremlin central business treat a lot up the heart of moscow getting the first and we'll hear a lot too in just

a few minutes. before the new crew members of the international space station and making themselves at home for the last almost six months the soyuz craft carrying three astronauts successfully docked with us on friday the crew brought seasonal gifts to those currently on board the station all of it was out but i can order cosmodrome in kazakhstan for the blastoff. over my shoulder you'd be able to see these so use t.n.a. twenty rockets now be blasting off sending cosmonaut the meat recall that you have and astronauts apollo nespoli from the european space agency and katherine coleman from nasa into space now this is the product of two years of very intense training in the trio of the spending six months on board the international space station while they're up there they'll be carrying out a number of experiments and continuing the work in space that the international space station carries out now i think. oh it's the stuff behind me i'll let you get

on with that. but you know is the story still twenty rocket blasts off from the cosmodrome in kazakhstan sending them a three continents you have paolo nespoli and katherine coleman off to the international space station. what i forgot to log on to our website is on t.v. dot com more stories for you that might catch your eye though at the moment the singer dancer an entertainer. told pti about his international roots and the sky rocketing career. and. can sometimes feel like galleries but this time. next edition here in moscow it's all right up until christmas and you can get the details on that and the other stories we've got.

it takes pride of place at the heart of russia's capital over the festive season a century old christmas tree was delivered this week to the kremlin's cathedral square where it will stand tall for the next three weeks this year the tree was blessed by a russian orthodox priest for the first time decorated with thousands of russian lights and ornaments christmas trees have been back in use at the kremlin for nearly fifteen years now when president boris yeltsin revived the revolutionary tradition this year's event was accompanied by a theatrical show to be a visit from. the rabbit of the coming year according to the chinese. when our interview is coming up very shortly followed by the latest from the world of sports recap of the week's top stories with me in just

a few minutes stay with us. i am nature and discover its beauty. least. communicate with the wild and let.

test yourself and become free. to. see what nature can give you the. world. bringing you the latest in science and technology from around russia. we've gone to the future and covered. fifty. five. india is. the gateway to

the grand imperial truly. treat. headlines in the week's top stories now here on r.t. less than the. presidential elections the country's incumbent leader was the clear favorite to win. three consecutive terms adding up to sixteen years in power. between russian nationalists and groups in the caucuses forces moscow authorities to take preventative security measures to avoid a new wave of clashes hundreds. more than two thousand this week as a result of isolated clashes in various parts of the city. was off limits as

prime minister took the hot seat for his annual a session with the public nationalism and justice were among the issues that came up and before long discussion. included social security reform and property prices. and europeans speak out against their governments and the methods used to deal with . the single currency is increasingly being seen as the root of the problem. to rescue failing economies. one of us being also the west bank and gaza strip an independent palestinian state even without a peace deal with israel this comes on the back of stalled negotiations after the jewish state resumed settlement building spoke to rabbi andrew baker who said no solution regarding a palestinian state can exclude israel and that. is on the right next.