midnight here in the russian capital you're watching r.t. and the nato troops in northern kossovo have bulldozed a barricade that was set up by serbs near the border area and that's after all journalists were forced away barbed wire brought in along with a promise to shoot to kill anyone trying to cross it artie's an executive chef skiis sent this report. now the latest developments in the ongoing dispute at a border crossing between. is that the case for troops have brought in bulldozers and demolished the serbian barricades this was the closest barricade to the border post between kosovo and serbia. pushed men from the manmade barricade which was down close to the border crossing the k four troops have set up a perimeter and they say that should anyone try to break it should try to penetrate into the zone into the border crossing they will shoot to kill some of them are even pointing their weapons towards journalists towards the serbs who are stationed

here this particular checkpoint was in the spotlight of the major violence on tuesday with more than eleven men injured in those clashes has now been removed or under control of the k. four forces. now eleven men still remain in hospitals with different wounds despite that the k. four forces and nato claimed that they used only rubber bullets and tear gas grenades to pacify the crowd most of the people injured have gunshot wounds we managed to speak to the doctors in the hospital they confirmed this information to us that surgeries were performed on these men to remove bullets from their bodies some say this may ask you late into a serious violence in particular the russian foreign ministry has already expressed deep concerns over the situation saying that it could destabilize the things in the already stressed region the melting pot which is in the balkans and indeed everyone is watching how developments. political analyst aleksandr belgrade told us that

nato peacekeepers are more likely to revive the war than to bring peace. they've totally and openly stepped out of the un mandate and there really really now just like during one nine hundred ninety nine during the bombing when there were the air force for the albanian separatists are now acting as their infantry so this is what we have this is a clear breach of the u.n. charter and of the resolution twelve forty four all they're doing right now is that they are actually. destabilizing the situation there actually bringing conflict. everything was reasonably peaceful until they gave the green light for albanian special police forces to forcibly take the administrative border back in july and ever since then they've been giving them full support so they're encouraging actually the government to prishtina. headed by

a caution toci who is wanted for various charges from organ trafficking to drug trafficking and they're encouraging him to more violence that they're not a peace factor at all they're cold war and the stabilization. of art is a mix a better shot ski is continuing to monitor the situation in the region and you can of course read his latest updates from possible through our twitter stream and one of his latest post he says the serbs he's spoken to are determined to stay to the bitter and follow us on twitter right r.t. underscore calm. yourself we'll be following this story as it develops and be able to bring you all the latest updates as we get back from this. now russia as the president has been explaining why he's not a seeking a second term richard medvedev stress that he has but he might put it have common goals and that put tens huge popularity among russians will help achieve them should he return to the presidency next year and get his bid outlining his reasons

in an extensive russian media interview he's going to have has been a pouring over the answers. meeting with a different explained that this is a decision was made basing on two major aspects the first one is that him and prime minister vladimir putin share their views on most social economic and political policies and the second aspect according to the president is based simply on logic the reason we needed says that various polls show that he himself enjoys a positive approval rating among the voters but its prime minister vladimir putin who is truly the most popular political figure in the country and that's why it's of why though in order for the current policies to go on for. become the next president but you can move ahead of stressing that this was simply a recommendation and it's still going to be up to the people did decide who becomes

of russia's next leader whilst there will be other politicians from other parties who of course also to for in this election next march who were the choices made by the people and these are not me who would be true any politician and any political force may lose an election what you mean everything has been determined that the people decide who they should vote for whose popularity is greater this is what democracy is about the president also talked about another major recent political event which is the sacking of finance minister. the president now saying that this was a matter of political discipline and also perhaps that he couldn't just got bored on this position but me that he didn't stress it that due to the extremely high level and caliber of seafood him as an economist as a professional he will have no problem finding another job in order to serve his country in the future. how dmitri babich

a political analyst for the vienna news agency here in moscow says that this interview once again proves that the talk about any rift in the tandem was wrong from the start. billy's room most were mostly wishful thinking all the bottom of the opponents. of united russia inside russia and outside russia these people probably remember the times of nico gorbachev when there was a rift inside the boarded bureau which ultimately was one of the reasons of the collapse of the u.s.s.r. which in and madrid of seoul would happen to in late eighty s and i remember before coming to power mediated gave an interview where he basically said that russia will not survive another conflict inside the elites so from the very beginning i didn't believe that there was a serious rift. now you can watch the highlights of president medvedev his interview later this hour and of course you can also see the full conversation on our web site any time at r.t. dot com. international debt inspectors are having trouble visiting key ministries

in greece because angry workers are occupying them and their latest anti a sturdy protest delegation is a nothingness to decide whether greece is fit enough for another slice of the bailout the government's last chance to evade a collapse near the smart decision was suspended earlier over doubts that the country is doing enough to reduce its enormous debt leaders have pushed through pension cuts and extra taxes to try and please their creditors but the public remains convinced that the relentless a steady policy is only making things worse largely sara furthur reports now from athens. greece has been the poster child of the euro crisis with germany voting to expand the bailout fund the country look that's to get that much needed cash injection help come with some condition here in greece the people say the price that being made to pay them the new high earning the. deadline day for the first to

be hit with the greek government special tax is one of the measures they put in place to try to secure the next tranche of money the country needs to avoid bankruptcy the extra tax which is about another three percent from people. supposed to help plug some of the massive deficit in the budget now after more than a year's salary cuts and rises in living calls people here breaking point the last two years. from the opposition movement in title pay he tells me how the movement's expanded rapidly in recent months as more and more people hit that. financial wall before the people most of the people were not playing because they wanted to protest against the unjust situation no there are thousands and dozens of people who will

not pay because in most people's desperation has become increasingly evident on the streets of greece the violence is repeatedly play can out between riot place protest as she sticks to even more clashes this parliament and feted in yet another measure in the fall of any property tax where organizing all the various czars to put goodies on there are. just for political reasons and bricks do not need i.m.f. many people in greece now question just here it is the thing control unfortunately very very a leaders in your resume are the bankers. is mr from european central bank bankers. shareholders are being. called again and again and again are the. taxpayers in the euro zone despite germany

having baited positively to expand the size and power of the european pan out fund where the critics are questioning whether that will be enough insights now turn to the many challenges you still faces the problem will move from greece and will start talking to other european countries then the german banks to be. sure even germany about the. european you know. will be affected it will find a solution to not just for greece but for all the european union countries with past measures failing to have the facts in its political leaders continue to struggle to convince the public the truth. still hangs in the balance that these protests. continue many people hit the greece is a country now at risk of having not only

a financial but it democratic deficit as well sir. outside the parliament building in athens now thousands of civilians are trying to flee the city of sirte in libya where fierce fighting between pro and anti gadhafi forces continues on friday former rebels launched a barrage of rockets at the colonel's home city and i saw that me sooty from the red cross in tripoli told r.t. the fighting in the dark corridors of essential are forcing people to leave. by the situation in search we have heard accounts of i.d.p.'s about. water and electricity being cut of and a lot of difficulties with the with the water supplies with with the access to food and access to medical supplies and medical health services we have not been able to have the guarantees from all the sides all the parties to the conflict so we have no idea of what's going on right now in the city of sirte

unfortunately what we do know is that there are a lot of i.d.p.'s coming out people are fleeing from the city of sirte passing through bridge and many of these id pieces have choosing to remain around as closely as possible to a hometown they are living in difficult conditions there are a lot of children and women also pregnant women who have difficult access to medical care so the situation is dire we're very concerned especially about their health situation right now let's get more reaction now from robert perry who's the editor of the pioneering internet investigative magazine consortium news joining us live from with us mr perry from what we're hearing on the ground it sounds like there's a full scale humanitarian crisis unfolding do you think that there's a sense of urgency or lack there of do you think it's commensurate with the gravity

of the situation on the ground. well it seems to be there to then we have a situation where the united states and nato wanted to have this outcome that is they wanted to have gadhafi driven from power this is always about regime change even though the excuse that was provided at the very beginning was protect civilians clearly there many civilians not be protected ok where they get the nato said that they were coming in to protect civilians but essentially it's a military operation and people die in such circumstances where do we draw the line of what are your thoughts on that with the number of casualties rising there right now in certain specially well it seems that the goal now is to simply wipe out what's left of gadhafi forces and to bring the country under the control of the former rebels who are now recognized as the official government of libya in other words the people of the city this is really invented to be on the side of gadhafi are not going to be protected they're going to be punished how far they go with

that it's unclear it may be efforts to negotiate some final surrender but clearly there's a great deal of suffering going on in these civilians are not being protected ok are you are saying at it indeed the m.t.c. the national transitional council is the recognized death already there in libya right now but also the u.s. and its allies have been looking closer at the end to get off the leaders that they have previously back unconditionally there so they're saying that they're fearing extremism is true extremism a rather is it too late right now for that. well that was something that some of us were trying to point out and report on earlier there was a general refusal to deal with that issue in the in the in the american press corps in the early days because there was sort of widespread support in the end of the effort to get rid of gadhafi so the people who were involved were not being looked at very closely but there is evidence even going back to the very beginning that

the eastern part of libya was a hotbed of islamic radicalism some of these people have been connected to al qaeda one of the al qaeda leaders who was killed recently it was a libyan and he came from this general area and now we know that one of the leaders of the rebel forces that took tripoli was also considered very close to al qaeda and was indeed detained by the united states for some time before he was allowed to go free so it appears that the people with the guns on the side of the libyan rebels are now the government are people who have this very mixed background and it's not clear how that works out when you get down to the point of once the country's under the control of this of this force which side of this force will will be predominant ok all thanks very much for your analysis that i'm a survivor parable editor of the pioneering internet that's at it magazine consortium who is talking to us live for us thanks very much thank you. well i'll

be updating you on the main stories again in a few minutes but for now here in our explains why he's stepping aside from next year's presidential election. mr president last week a major and long awaited event happened in politics at the united russia convention you suggested that let him or putin should run for president what was the primary

motive behind your decision usually presidents see korea elections you're a politician and politicians are ambitious people what was your ambition in making this decision. but your global man be my biggest ambition is to be useful to my country and my people this may sound a bit pretentious but it's true unless you have this ambition you shouldn't go into politics but you should focus on something else instead of politics or government service we both belong to the same political force both lady mia putin and dmitri medvedev were nominated for the presidency first him then me under the current model of power by the united russia party. was number one in the united russia slate and yours truly is this time. so we really represent the same political force we belong to the same political force and the views are very close so sharing the same views should we compete against each other should we argue and fight with each

other i've read a few pieces by political analysts that basically say why don't they go into the political arena and vow to fight each other to the end why don't they have an open rivalry but that's not the way it happens anywhere in the world people who represent the same political force always decide between themselves who will run for this or that office in some countries they use primaries for this purpose we don't have much experience with primaries you're on a ship although we have seen positive examples in some countries the decision is made simply by at a party convention or by the leaders themselves can you imagine barack obama competing not hillary clinton which you may remember that they both saw the nomination that would be impossible they both belong to the democratic party and their decision was based on who would get better results and this was also how we made our decision. of course it's nice to know that people trust me as president and that my approval rating is quite high on the current circumstances. i also know

the prime minister putin undoubtedly remains the most popular politician in our country at this point somehow people tend to forget about that what we are after is a political result we want to win the elections with the parliamentary election in december and the presidential election on a march not just to satisfy our ambition is it what it every responsible person should have an ambition to serve their country i strongly believe that that's where you stand and that unless. speaking of your plans for two thousand and twelve you've had quite a few interviews in recent months or you hinted that you did not rule out the possibility of running for office why was that what did you genuinely feel this way at the time or you simply didn't want to break the news or the decision you made together with putin as head of the time. the ship it did not let me tell you and of course all our people absolutely frankly we are dealing with practical politics and practical governance issues everything may change in his life. putin and myself are

holding the top two posts that of president and prime minister and we must basically be a backup for each other because we're ordinary people after all therefore when i said i did not rule out such a possibility naturally i was not cheating anyone what life could have taken an unexpected term but we did have a certain understanding between us what it sees mr president now a few words that bar the united russia convention as it astounded me first but a huge number of participants which i'm sure we are learning from our foreign colleagues exactly it looks foreign to me with all the cameras banners and flags at the same time the atmosphere was very warm friendly and i would even say intimate then to crown it all to a very respected figures appeared and said they had agreed on how to distribute two top jobs in the government between there are many people watched theirs and said it has all been decided already well spent money on the elections was the point over their actions if everything has been decided just because well that's how it got

here slimness english was first of all i agree that the atmosphere of the convention was very warm now about those ideas you mention that i consider them absolutely irresponsible misleading and even provocative what are you talking about the election campaign has just started so let's ask ourselves a simple question what if our people reject us with medvedev and putin what will happen to these decisions by the convention these decisions are merely the parties recommendation to vote for those people that's all what you mean everything has been determined let's imagine for a second that we've reached an agreement with these ugandan of the deme is it and of ski said again that on off and others that they will not run whereas we the big time politicians will come would have really been an imitation not liked by. they will they will take part in the elections both in december and march they will take part in the state duma election and they also have presidential ambitions so let the people decide who they should vote for whose popularity is greater but only our

people can make a final decision by voting for a candidate or a political force or turning them down this is what democracy is about yes democracy still mr president many people felt like everything has been decided that it is that they were only bored for a few hours until it's equal doing with cell how much of good is resignation was a matter of discipline it was like and how much of it was his differences did you really have serious differences with the finance minister she was to put the situation with mr cooder it is a matter of discipline in government service that's all there is to it but you know we don't have a coalition government aggression but yet we are a presidential republic it's not a parliamentary one with girls our government is the president's government it implements the president's policies but if you don't agree you should step down because that's the only way it can be it's a tough rule but i'm very strong about it and i will insist on it in the future and i'm sure that whoever is the head of state and future they will follow the same

principles as for mr cooder and it seems to me that perhaps he stayed a bit too long in his job and was bored so in fact he came to see me in february or march and said he was aware that it made no sense for him to work in the future government because he'd been finance minister for a very long time naturally he knew nothing about our understanding with mr putin and the recommendations we were going to give at the conventions does he did not have any illusion that's why his remarks amazed me anyway the decision has been made that's for alexi good or in future he's a good professional with a lot of experience so he will find a good job and a way to be useful to the state. which of we mr president you are the only person at the top of the united russia federalists how much are you personally going to be involved in complaining who else or what else will united russia u.s. for its complain and do you expect tough competition during this campaign it is that no one is accusing that i should indeed i am of the top of the united russia

list which the party asked me to do this and it's a serious choice for me at the same time let me remind you that i am still president i have a lot of responsibilities both domestically and internationally person actually are not going to take a vacation and i will not occupy myself with any special campaign activities i will be performing my duties of the same time i'm sure there will be tough competition competition will be tough but hopefully proper and we have the necessary legal mechanisms to ensure that we can use. the speaking of society mr president elect he quit his dismissal or the united russia convention all of that didn't go down well with the russian goes here as an active internet user do you feel any pressure from the global sphere have you applied to any of the comments posted to your account lately or would you like to apply to them right now. is what you're you know if i literally felt the pressure it would be very difficult for me to work

as president of the same time you're right to say i pay a lot of attention to the internet but there are people who start saying that's terrible democracy is over and then there are people who cheer and say finally you should be even tougher on them i think the fact that the internet the blogosphere the social networks react to politics is a good thing it means there's a vivid feedback to what we're doing reactions vary but this difference of opinions is one of the elements of direct democracy the modern twenty first century democracy of course internet polls and their results are not legally binding for governments nor do they accurately reflect all public opinion it's great that they're all. different opinions and i believe that the authorities should react to what's going on in the blogosphere without giving in to its pressure of course the government should be up to date and it should pay attention to opinions expressed including those expressed by the internet it's a must for any politician of any level in the world today she wished. ever to know

mr president he noticed one alarming trend with our society lately namely that the public has been turning its back on politics turning its back on the government and no matter how successful some individual companies or managers could be there is a distinct feeling that some people have been in their jobs for too long what needs to be done for new strong individuals to appear in this country because obviously that you demand does exist shelob. first let me say a few words about the weariness i've been thinking about it quite a lot mr dougherty of you must remember how our people myself included perhaps you too although you're a long time media professional used to watch news bulletins in the early one nine hundred ninety s. we were glued to the screens hours of political broadcasting overshadowed everything any movies or t.v. series i think that's a clear sign of poor living standards the better our life is the less attention people will pay to them because they are more or less happy with their life however they should not become indifferent they should go to the polls and vote for this or

that political force this is the constitutional duty if you will of every citizen who is not indifferent to the destiny of their own country their homeland now what concerns the need for the new faces you were talking about i'm fully with you on this it's not only about stagnation stagnation is always dangerous and may lead to very bad consequences what's crucial is that those in power should eventually muster up enough strength to leave it to somebody else such changes should not happen abruptly with everyone resigning at once waving their hands in farewell with putin and me saying goodbye where off there must be continuity. we must know who succeeds us at the helm of the state however there must be a renewal and a very serious one and if i become in charge of forming a new government it will be a totally reshaped government a government that will feature fresh faces this is what i believe to be of paramount importance. to mr meant that if thank you for the scene for you

but it's thank you.

welcome back you're watching our t.n.t. here's a recap of the main stories we're covering for you today nato reportedly bulldozer's the serbian roadblock at the border with northern costco it follows a new study shoot to kill policy was in force near the disputed checkpoint as anger there reached new heights. dimitri medvedev has said both he and the putin would have stood for the same goals if running for the presidency but their popularity among russians makes him a better candidate he's explained why he withdrew from the race in an interview to russian media. and greeks are bracing themselves for yet more caught some higher taxes of the latest round of government of the measures to try.