promises of a new beginning are made as russia's foreign minister meets his british counterpart to try to put the past behind them and work on common interests. practical steps towards improving a rocky relationship and what towards developing a stronger partnership i'm here in london to bring you more. russian security is back in the spotlight after fresh violence leaves five people dead in the country's troubled northern caucasus region. plus they're looking for a better future but are accused of ruining other people's lives in the process the debate over multiculturalism heats up as more migrants seek refuge in europe.

live from our studios here in central moscow this is r.t. with you twenty four hours a day the visit of russia's foreign minister to london has seen a promise of stronger future cooperation with the u.k. it's the first time visit since ties deteriorated following the death of the former federal security service agent and xander litvinenko in london in two thousand and six the u.k.'s foreign secretary said disagreements between russia and the u.k. should not stop them from working together. has more. we have seen a series of meetings today which have really focused on the positive points in what has become a rocky relationship between russia and the u.k. and because of that a lot of what was talked about were economic ties and trade ties of course trade between russia and the u.k. amounts to around seventeen billion dollars and russia is one of the u.k.'s most

important trading partners foreign minister lavrov outlined six priorities for improving the trade relationship he talked about finance he talked about working together in the nanotech sector energy efficiency of course one of the big projects coming up for us here is the lympics so cooperating on olympic infrastructure strengthening the small and medium business sector in russia and also improving the business environment in general they also talked a bit about modernizing communication links between london and moscow this is obviously a lover off first visit to london in this particular official capacity let's hear what he said about those communication ties that they're looking to improve through this it's my first visit to london an invitation if you could government symbolises and you can see of our relations based on partnership interest economic cooperation between our countries is on the rise since the strategic b.p. rosneft alliance is among the later examples we happy to look at the agreement on

establishing a direct line between the british prime minister and the kremlin it's an important new elements of our communications that's meant to take it to a more high to levels and taking that relationship to a more high tech level is really symptomatic of how important russia and the u.k. are as partners together talked about how important u.k. was its part in it with with the e.u. and also the partnership that it has in dialogue with nato and on improving european security and william hague the british foreign secretary also underlined the importance of that relationship let's hear him. countries continue to see patient steady improvement in relations it will take time giant leaps it is a very measured steps and this welcome visit is an important part of the steady improvement in relations which we initiated on our side when the coalition

government came into office. working practically relationship bilateral issues and on global issues it is undoubtedly on an improving trend but it does seem that in the past every attempt has been made to put this relationship back on track has been de railed in some way to stick something of that is new car doing the guardian correspondent who was refused entry to russia this month there was something wrong with his accreditation and that's why he wasn't allowed back into the country but of course that's not the only thing where really this relationship was the murder of alexander litvinenko in london in two thousand and six and the british law enforcement main suspect is under a new gulf war who is now a dealer deputy and it's against russia's constitution to extradite him that's something that the british have been calling for for some time now but it hasn't happened also there are forty people around about living here in the u.k. who are wanted for crimes in russia and so far refusal to extradite them as well

the most notable of his buddies but is of ski the russian tycoon and also. the former chechen leader and alongside the bilateral relationship that these two countries have and are trying to improve there's obviously that cooperation on the international stage and in terms of that they have issued a joint statement on afghanistan which talked about the transfer of power in afghanistan also talked about troop withdrawal setup assessing a sort of loose timetable for that and also the fight against the production of drugs in afghanistan which is a huge problem with russia in terms of transport routes now they also talked about iran and the new. nuclear issues russia has been an important negotiates with iran in terms of its nuclear program. said that well they've been introducing the sanctions iran since joining the nonproliferation treaty and also tried to become part of the i.a.e.a. . and will convince the world that iran has no hostile nuclear ambitions that it

does indeed wants a nuclear program in the domestic. there and still to come later in the program we take a look at who's suffering from the egyptian revolution which countries are doing with activists why washington is yet again being thrown into the mix. russia is taking new measures in its fight against terrorism in the special operation five militants were killed in the northern caucasus region three policemen died and three were injured in the ensuing gun battle. has this report. a number of terrorists were surrounded by a local law enforcement a gun battle ensued in which five militants were killed one is supposedly on the run and is being sought after as we speak in the gun battle and this of course is just the latest installment in the on go way battle against terrorism in russia

specifically in the volatile caucasus region one of the a suicide blast that was a detonated in a village in the republic of the guest on that was a car that was detonated by a suicide bomber he himself was in the car of course and died on location another suicide bomb that also took place in that same village in the guest on a woman who walked up to a military outpost and detonated a suicide belt with a bomb of course killing herself killing one. security officer and injuring many others russian authorities pacifically the russian president dmitry medvedev has ordered security forces to be stepped up a lot not just a notch on all major transport hubs in russia that's of course including airports train stations metro stations the investigation into moscow's airport bombing is still ongoing but we do know that authorities have now managed to confirm the

identity of the suicide bomber and facts are coming out as soon as the identity of the suicide bomber was established the authorities or so now gathering more and more information not only about the man himself but also about all of his accomplices who helped him put together the detonating device that actually made him if so make sure that he got to the airport that he detonated that device everyone and anyone of course who came into contact with the so side is now under even further scrutiny from the security forces the president ordering heavier police presence. and a lot more devices such as metal detectors to be implemented on train stations for control to be doubled at airports and that of course is being implemented as we speak the fall the fact of those measures is of course yet to take place as it is quite a serious amount of work for the security forces. that was artie's correspondent

katrina reporting. the controversial debate over multiculturalism in europe has now taken a new twist as more migrants flee their troubled countries in search of stability and security europe is giving them the cold shoulder more than five thousand arrived in italy in the past week and its interior minister warns they could jeopardize the institutional and social structures of the continent it comes on the back of harsh criticism of multiculturalism by some western european leaders a free speech activist in austria who described it as a failure has gone on trial for speaking out against religious groups though the charges of inciting hatred and violence were dropped she was found guilty of denigrating religious symbols elizabeth somebody to call for is appealing the case and claims she should not be prosecuted for speaking out on. whites some afraid to speak while others aren't. it was just a night of a european citizen peacefully debating islam with a muslim is nothing unusual in

a multicultural country like france but it's a topic not always discussed in such gentle fashion and i advise you not to burn the koran about your reading. mark studying what islam. with learning how to play. you know your enemy elizabeth's supper to channel has been on trial in a vienna court on charges of making what is described as a hate speech against islam a left wing all strand magazine recorded and published a speech at one of his seminars lending who are you. i have nothing against people who want to practice their faith. but i would like them to do this in the privacy of their own homes your ideas she says are nothing new and when europe's political elite express them they are not prosecuted for the same views multiculturalism has failed this is nothing new and my group and i have been saying this for years now

all of a sudden. and others come out of hiding and agree with us i don't know why but elizabeth subject wolf opponents say she crossed the line here a speech is upgrade not only the muslim community but also made. it's not a matter of free speech that i can spread hatred about large groups of society you know we have to respect individuals in our society and we have to ask them to integrate and we have to help them to integrate yet european leaders such as german chancellor angela merkel french president nicolas sarkozy and british prime minister david cameron say multiculturalism in europe isn't working there are huge muslim communities but frequently such as in all strata they leave in their own areas. physical sign of non integration there is districts in vienna is known as the little people here speak their native language they prepare their national

dishes and wear the clothes which they are used to and this is exactly what hell is about subject wall found here a fellow like sounds taking a stance against self segregation at top which was once taboo is now at the top of the european political agenda with multiculturalism now open to multi criticism from some of the continent's most influential political leaders we've yet to see how their views might fully influence debate on the ground and the future shape of the euro exceeding the church of our team from vienna. a little later we get a glimpse into the future of a major sporting event it's a taste of what carmen russia as a city of sochi as the host of the twenty fourteen winter olympics puts a brand new slate to the test. in the wake of the egyptian revolution activists in the middle east turning up the heat on their

government's response to broken out across the region thousands are rallying in yemen and in bahrain where two demonstrators have been killed two activists were also killed in clashes with police in the iranian capital on monday the protest in tehran took place just a day after the u.s. state department began inspiring iran's opposition with twitter messages in farsi it's the first such rot in the country for over a year on tuesday iranian m.p.'s called for the opposition leaders to be tried and executed u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton says washington clearly and directly supports the protesters of all we can of course live to argentina and talk to author researcher adrian thanks very much for joining us live here on our experts say that iran is maintaining tight control over the demonstrations at the moment and the opposition leaders lives are now in danger in fact to activists were hanged in the country just last month what exactly is washington hoping to achieve by supporting the protests there in iran. well clearly a good evening before i think clearly the united states has to accept it has always

accepted that its major failure in the region in the middle east was the fall of the rand from their point of view in one nine hundred seventy nine to one told the khomeini and the revolution that brought him back to power took place let's not forget that iran was clearly in american hands since one nine hundred fifty three when the cia ousted president most of it. most of it and so clearly the united states will support anything that will promote what they want to call regime change in iran especially considering that it ran is such a powerful country from the point of view not only of its potential military and also its potential with oil but also its potential as being a theocracy we are in the slammy world the dollar is based in tehran hold great sway over for literally hundreds of millions of muslims so whatever happens in ran is far more important than even look what happened with saddam hussein in

iraq well we've seen it in tunisia we've seen it in egypt we see a regime change in iran. i very much doubt and i think that the united states is showing that it has its geo political stands in the long run fails they have installed puppet governments throughout the whole region very very much specifically in egypt with have to the assassination of president sadat with the full the support to hosni mubarak who is now gone and i think that we have to understand that what the united states now i believe is trying to achieve is a way to promote change in a way that will facilitate things for them there's one point i think is worth making here we shouldn't think so much in terms of the united states does this or the united states does that but rather the power of a global power structure that is entrenched inside the united states but is not working in the national interest of the people of the united states and that has other very very specific interests which might even go against the national

interest of the united states of america a case of an unflinching in unconditional support for the political interests of the state of israel which normally go against the very interest of the people of the united states i think we have to be very careful when we speak of the united states not as american i mean as washington not even as obama or bush before him but rather of what we have to be very very keen to understand what are the political objectives and interests of the global power structure which is presently promoting world government gradually and which is entrenched in the united states and to a great extent also in london and in the major capitals of europe and even in my country origin to what you have that can we talk about where you are at the moment south america you qualify the fact about global powers behind this not necessarily the u.s. but without a doubt many are saying the u.s. was very much influential in the change of regimes which we've seen in latin america in the past do you think you could draw any comparisons to what happened

there in latin america the likes of nicaragua indeed even cheney had in argentina. to what's happening in the middle east now definitely but that would go that would take us back a little bit to what used to be the bipolar world where you had america and its allies and so we do need former soviet union it's our allies so naturally south america left not latin america as a whole was always seen as the united states backyard in a way politically and militarily and economically we were so america would always promote very direct we had requests to go for example military coups in chile argentina in brazil throughout the region because they felt it was not more trustworthy to have a military general in charge of argentina or to your brazil rather than promote democratic elections however with the demise of the soviet union of the former soviet union things changed very much so it is no surprise in our region to suggest seeing simultaneously many military coups in the fifty's and the sixty's and even the seventy's and then simultaneously all of our countries being forced back into

so-called democracy because with the demise of the united states if you look at it from the point of view of the global power structures i was always saying that operate to rid of soon from the from america the council on foreign relations the trilateral commission in the in britain the royal institute of international affairs the tempest institute the building for a conference on war and vicious stands though the best instrument they have to control the country is so-called democracy because although they call it democracy it is basically a vote counting system handled by the mass media the guy who wins whether it be a president or prime minister or a senator or a deputy is the one accounting with all the support of the money power whether it be for his campaign for media in t.v. time and so forth so for example in the country of origin tina democracy is the best way they have to control the country against the people's interest and i think when they hear that they are promoting democracy in egypt i tremble for the

egyptians because it was going to be a democracy when the brand as it was promoted in argentina horror. or or no sort of throughout latin america it will only help to support the long term objectives of this global power structure operated from europe and from the united states and not the actual interest of we the people to save in a vertical local and generalized manner ok democracy is one thing what about stability being another tony blair was saying that he hopes what we see in egypt will spark maybe a wave of democratic democratic movement throughout the middle east you're saying what the outcome was there in south america but nevertheless all we're going to see stability or as some people are saying it's going to lead to further chaos what's your prediction finally for the middle east region i will probably say it will lead to further chaos because there are too many interests in not seeing stability throughout the middle east you see stability in the middle east as a special and then let's take the i am war so to speak is very much geared on what happens with israel so as long as the state of israel is there and giving

unconditional support by the united states we even have the tools council on foreign relations academics and university professor stephen walt from harvard university john mayer's hyman from chicago university writing a six hundred page book called us foreign policy in the israel lobby where he shows as i was saying a few minutes before the national interest of the united states comes second after the national interest of the state of israel within washington post structure so until that is resolved there can be no stability in the region so mubarak was very much pro israel probably the rejean that is what will be coming whether it be through democratic elections or whatever will also be very much pro israel but until the time comes when the problem of israel is addressed very very straightforward it will be very difficult to find stability give when leave it there thank you very much indeed agents live from argentina thanks for being with us and. thank you. well let's have a quick look at some other world news in turkey around two hundred kurdish

protesters have clashed with police the demonstration marked the twelfth anniversary of the capture of a prominent kurdish rebel leader protesters hold rocks and far bombs at police and twelve cities and towns and demands for the release of a donor who was sentenced to life imprisonment for treason at least thirty demonstrators were detained. a senior official of south sudan's ruling party has accused the north of backing rebel attacks which killed some two hundred people last week the death toll is twice that of earlier estimates with most victims being civilians with children among them the u.n. secretary general called on both sides to immediately implement a cease fire agreement this comes one month on from southern sudan voting to secede from the north this british judge ruled the july. italian judges given the go ahead for the trial of prime minister silvio berlusconi he's facing charges he paid for sex with a significant number of young women including a seventeen year old girl and used his influence to cover it up but ask only as

strongly denied the allegations you know faces three years in prison if found guilty of paying minors for sex and from six to twelve years for abuse of power trying to shuttle to begin in early april and will be heard by a panel of three judges all of them women. and the nasa spacecraft stardust started beaming back the first pictures of a comet it's flowing past encounter will give scientists unique information on how these great balls of ice and rock change over time the craft is taking more than seventy high resolution images is the first time the same comet has been viewed by two different spacecraft six years ago another nasa probe unleashed a projectile that carved out a crater on the space object. one of the winter olympics in the russian resort of sochi may be years away but the city is already gearing up for the ground event training runs for the old plain skiing european cup of kicked off one of the brand new slopes and that'll be the scene of the games in twenty fourteen dennis blots is there for us. the resort is situated in the cross napoli on the mountain

range about forty kilometers away from the central part of the city and it will be connected with the olympic village near the coast by high speed rail way and highway now what we see here today is one of the first field tests of the sporting facilities before the actual games to see how they perform under live conditions even though the olympics are three years away russian and european athletes already are getting a chance to test some of this key piece now during the two thousand and eleven alpine european cup and also domestic competitions while the mountains are covered in snow now there were plenty of nerves beforehand organizers were very concerned about the weather since just a few weeks ago it was raining here in the mountains and everyone was waiting anxiously for the snow to fall and as you can see their prayers were heard and the steep mountain slopes are now in excellent condition for ski but if the weather fails to deliver enough snow there is always a plan b.

in the form of recently installed snow making machines to ensure there's plenty for competition what we see here today is the initial stage of the alpine european man's cup the skiers are having a training day this tuesday and the main part of the competition will be held during the coming days a total of seventy four test events will be held in sochi before the two thousand and fourteen winter games twenty nine of them international competitions it's the start of serious testing of the olympic infrastructure not just the venues but also roads bridges tunnels and power lines the construction of most venues is still under way although the organizers say it's answering the final stages and it's over the most difficult initial phase the organizers among them members of the russian government sports industry pros and construction companies will use feedback from these events to fine tune preparations for the olympics themselves. well that

brings up today for the moment to come up to twenty five minutes past the hour i'll be back with some of the news and five minutes after before that i should say business is next with dmitri stay with us. thanks very much bill hello and welcome to business moscow's chances of becoming a global financial center could be hampered if d.t.b. bank acquires bank of moscow without a tender that's according to presidential way that categorical bt wants to buy out one hundred percent of one of russia's top five banks in the first half of this year bank of moscow's biggest shareholder the moscow city government estimates the bank to be worth six billion dollars decided to sell its stake in the bank in late twenty ten after the previous mayor of moscow. lost his position some minority shareholders say the bank could be worth up to nine and a half billion dollars. staying with the sector the british banking giant barclays

is planning to sell its russian retail door served by the end of the year ahead of its russian divisions as the company plans to focus more on its investment business in russia barclays bank of the russian market for the second time back in two thousand and eight but as acquired russian land the expo banked for seven hundred eighteen million dollars previously barclays quit russia after the default in one thousand nine hundred eight carrying a loss of around four hundred billion dollars but its number that's offered me the credit securities believes that this move only shows that competition in russian banking sector has continued to grow. the competition in the rusher is intensifying . to be really successful banking russia any kind of bank for a local bank has to have. good scale has to have a presence and. misting can. scale back maybe half

a year ago. retail business outside of moscow. deutsche of birth has agreed to buy and why is the zero next for nine point five billion dollars the long awaited deal will create the world's largest owner of equities and derivatives markets the frankfurt based course will control sixty percent of the news corp second to be figures on the u.s. markets now then they opened lower others still pretty much in negative territory as retail sales in january only point three percent that's haul for and they said expected and this is bearing worries about the pace of recovery of the world's largest probably due to bad weather conditions and winter. gloom is limiting gains on the european markets which closed just a few minutes ago footsie is down point four percent of the close however the banking stocks are stronger with barclays in the lead up four point two percent at the close as its earnings reports beat expectations close or not. and there was a change of direction on russia's markets throughout the day indices ended the

session point seven percent down investors are not finding reasons for growth easily enough to see we are going to climb a buying opportunity yet some of the stocks now come mas was an outstanding performance of the day it was up six percent after us technology corp suggested the russian judge maker should unite with the russian rival mers into one company. and on tuesday russia's stock markets were highlighted by the release of inflation data from china and the u.k. the if you can from financial corp really explains why these figures are very important for the russian equity platforms. the first things that we should highlight for sure is the all important inflation number in china which came at four point one percent or a little bit below the consensus expectations it is a very important number for russia because of potential above trend inflation in china means

a potential increased risk of aggressive tightening on behalf of the chinese central bank which means in china potential slowdown in china and a potential decrease in raw materials demand in china which is clearly negative for russia. back in one i was a time when the headlines are next we're going.