doing the duma election fever strikes. the polling booth to choose who makes its apollo seven political parties are competing for seats in the refresh house for the next five years. the war of words between iran on the west as washington and the e.u. infuriated by tehran's on reaction to threats by choking off oil revenues. the u.n. human rights commission calls for an international intervention in syria sanctions continue to follow up on damascus over alleged civilian abuses by forces loyal to

president bashar al assad. and. one in egypt post revolution the election and frustration in the street many believe voices being. a very warm welcome to you this is the line from the heart of moscow with me rule received it's a big day for voting in the world's biggest country with people deciding on a fresh board of lawmakers for the lower house of parliament. following months of heated debates and politicking it's now up to the people to have passed say the main intrigue rests in the ruling united russia party and

whether it retains its overwhelming support among the population as its rivals pledge to offer up some tough competition the surf was more blue facing continuing here in the capital and across much of the country but of course russia has knowing times and say in some of the east region russia the closest place on the face of ready being counted that as he said here in the cash to pay to continuing we've seen president dmitri medvedev and his wife turning out told that they today prime minister putin has all say called his sons the head of the communist party considered the main opposition to the leading united russia party both a cost thing his state today and of the rest of the public still turning out see if any of the three thousand three hundred seventy four polling based around the capital most of them based in schools the people also able to call that they say railway station ever pulls out in hospitals as well but now it's not just in russia

but of course russians approved who are going to be able to call the favorite watching people and change polling base in countries such as she done in thailand people have been turning out to vote today in ukraine in russia itself in the most thought of the fall flowing parts of the country we've seen helicopters easily seen snow name avails to get possible polling base to the people who otherwise wouldn't have been able to cause that but we've been seeing some people turning out today all rain did to make it to those polling base anything to cost of course that all important day today now in a bid to. transparency concerns the russian election committee has. about half a million observers from competing parties and around seven hundred international lives but now the international the cut that so far there be no objections to the beating this. month the competing parties observers and some of the russian n.g.o.s

we have heard that have been a few minor violations that have taken place. we've been receiving some reports of small violations for example a t.v. crew lawsuit alleging to a polling station in moscow there's also been information of a hacker attack on a radio station in the to the region communist party activists who were reportedly calling on voters at the station to vote for their party threatening them with violence if they didn't and in the republic of chavez ship one party's campaign propaganda washington moved together with the others this is very thing continues of course an extremely important day the polls are going to be shouting at eight pm local time the focus will be counted it's going to be the first time in russia's modern history that the lawmakers will be taking their seats for a period of five years rather than the previous four years full hundred fifty seats up for grabs in the state duma seven political parties battling it out so when they

see my colleague also if we take you closer look at how some of those political parties lined up. this right here is the state duma the lower chamber of the russian parliament where laws are adopted and all bills are first reviewed and the term to mark comes from the russian too much meaning to think it was founded in one thousand nine hundred six but disregard the one nine hundred seventeen revolution however a did bounce back in one thousand nine hundred three when a new constitution was introduced and the upcoming election will determine the make . of the six do my since one thousand nine hundred three. or four hundred fifty seats up for grabs in the duma and the elected deputies will serve for five years well as it stands the stay do must be divided between for political parties. or for currently has three hundred fifteen seats it's the

biggest party in the duma it's followed by the communists with fifty seven seats and the liberal democrats forty seats and a fair russia has thirty eight. look at those parties in detail now the ruling united russia party has a constitutional majority in the current parliament and is led by prime minister vladimir putin and with the upcoming election of president dmitry medvedev will be at the top of the party's list of candidates for the party's representation in the duma is not only made up of career politicians but celebrities as well such as one of the most decorated gymnasts a two time olympic medalist. former n.h.l. star the salt as well as the first man to walk in space next a new york other party's platform essentially revolves around modernizing the economy uprooting corruption and add to radicalism however united russia is also often criticized as bureaucratic inefficient and to some extent blamed for political and economic stagnation. of the second in the

number of seats is the communist party headed by its unchallenged leader gennady zyuganov the communists are the biggest opposition force in the country constantly in second place and one of the most prominent deputies in this sector is on us of federal funds a nobel laureate in physics in two thousand and the communist party promises and not for the first time the nationalization of key industries they're often criticized for sticking to a platform that caters to one elderly constituency the still dreams of returning to the glory days of the soviet union. or another old timer of the russian the state duma. he's a leader of the liberal democratic. party of russia now it's often called a one a mad party is widely considered to be a show mad at his over his eccentric behavior and sometimes shocking political views for example he advocated forcibly retaking alaska from the u.s. and openly expressed his hatred of certain ethnic groups apart from that is it is often turned his words into action while on

a lighter note says resting chopping i'm excited and was elected as a united russia deputy there's been no more pools in the state. fair russia is headed by he said again and as the name implies its platform is based on the principles of fairness freedom calling for the proper functioning of a welfare state. this is the usual working place of the deputy no bells and whistles just a mike and a device with which to vote but not all deputies are interested in the daily debates over bills last year a huge scandal emerge when it came to light that some deputies consistently missed sessions and simply asked their party colleagues to vote in their absence now only after public criticism from the president if they returned to work now despite the shortcomings of russia's politicians there are still hopes that the country will be able to put together the kind of polling that it needs to address its people's demands and navigate russia's future so who exactly will be filling these four

hundred fifty seats of the state duma it won't be long now till we find out. not even being in space means you can cost your vote special arrangements were made for two russian cosmonauts aboard the international space station to make sure they weren't left out on election day a secure line provided by the american colony meant they were able to cast the vote through a proxy delegate the big decision day remains in sharp focus here on old day we're bringing you live coverage of russia's parliamentary election all the way through to the to stay with us for the results the reaction of course the in-depth analysis as well. closes. the people prepare to speak. in duma election eleven. in-depth coverage of those won the hearts and minds of the russian people on our

team. now are still to come in today's review of the week's news our old ties strained to the limit. pulled out of crucial u.s. and back talks on the future of afghanistan further widening the. deadly nato air strike on pakistan's border. hold its breath as the french and german leaders get together to brew up a new cure for the blocks financial agony of the people continue to protest against austerity. now ten minutes past the hour here in moscow it's been one of the most tense weeks yet in iran's continuing drama as western nations unleash yet more sanctions or greater restrictions and even more rhetoric on the middle east nation it all began with britain's decision to levy fresh measures against iran as punishment for what israel and others believed to be a covert nuclear program it sparked outrage among the iranian public. stormed the

british embassy in tehran the u.k.'s reaction was to shut down its diplomatic mission along with other e.u. nations and some twenty four iranian diplomats were expelled from london they then returned home as heroes the u.s. hasn't been quiet on the issue either with washington preparing its own crippling sanctions against iran's central bank but political analyst chris bambery believes provoking the islamic state would have disastrous consequences. as the sanctions against iran talk of some military strike against iran over this you could we should remember that. runs very deep in people's memories of when for instance. three to overthrow a democratically elected government which had nationalized american oil interests and installed the shah of iran and the nationalism is runs very deep and really is who maybe no enthusiasm present. many the mood around against any notion of

sanctions against iran or indeed a british american need to strike against the right to see america and britain between them have enough weapons to destroy the world many times over make sure nuclear weapons it does not have rankles deeply around the americans and the bruce do have plans for eventually a military strike is whether or not the kind of and i think those people who are committed to peace and don't want to see you know war should be concerned about this and should be pressure in washington london paris to stop any talk of for the sanctions or any talk of a military strike against iran. watching the weekly here at hearts he at the un's high commissioner for human rights has called for an international intervention in syria to protect civilians from president assad's forces she cited the number of protesters and rebel fighters allegedly killed by pro-government forces since the civil conflict began assad's rule was also condemned by the u.n.

but a resolution that could have paved the way for military intervention was blocked by russia and china they believe the u.n. continues to ignore reports of atrocities committed by opposition fighters and warned that foreign meddling may just worsen the situation meanwhile if sanctions continue to pile up on damascus but political analyst. questions are just who the sanctions are really aimed at these sanctions are meaningless. i think they're meaningless and on every level on the level on the economic level and on the security lap and it will not stop the violence western powers particularly the united states now to use these sanctions and want to use the decisions of the arab league for their own purposes to put pressure on syria to put pressure not for the syrian regime to stop the killing as they put it no they what they want is to weaken the syrian regime and to weaken the alliance between syria iran and lebanon

i don't think that they they. so much for for syrian blood in libya more than one hundred thousand people were killed by nato bombings and the country was devastated the nobody said anyone so i can't actually believe that they're now searching about three thousand syrians when they are not actually what it about more than one hundred thousand libyans it has nothing to do with stopping the violence on the contrary they're feeding the violence. quarter past the hour here in the russian capital islamic party so it reportedly taken an overwhelming lead in the opening round of egypt's first parliamentary election of this of course since the for the fall of former president hosni mubarak the muslim brotherhood's freedom and justice party gained forty percent of the vote with the fundamentalist party claiming around twenty five percent however the results are not final as most parties are set to go through to further election rounds over the next pair of months but as artie's policy of reports from cairo many in the streets feel their

votes will carry little weight and their ongoing troubled country. long queues voted stained fingers and a record turnout over a sign of political interest in a country where decades of dictatorship has missed little appetite for the power of the ballot the faces of the small down of one for most of the street corner and wanting to are excited to be voting in a real mix and these same meaning holds nothing but false. iran to boot but i just tried. i wrote to meet you down. there are tens of thousands like mr mohammed young unemployed and frustrated they think it doesn't matter who they vote for because the military will still make all the important decisions the problem is you know what are they actually going to produce a parliament that cannot appoint ministers that cannot appoint a government whose constitution whatever it turns out to be is going to be guarded

by the army many in egypt say they will continue to camp out on top here square the center of the revolution and in front of the parliament building youth movement leaders like dravot are protesting what they see as an empty vote of no democratic mandate who will be here. we will not go inside your office we have to stop you and you have to go and we do it all. two more rounds of voting still need to take place but a strong showing of the muslim brotherhood leaves little doubt that the islamic parties will have a significant majority in parliament for what it's worth although claims of a record sixty two percent turnout is already being questioned after a series of irregularities were reported the country's only female candidate for the presidency is not surprised. monitoring the election just took the lead to their mistakes and. we have no

way for democracy but the west has been quick to praise the election as an important step towards change although the americans are beginning to say well no the army must go back to barracks deep down they'll be perfectly happy to keep the army where it is of egypt if you give one point three billion dollars a year to the egyptian army which the americans do you wish you are expected to do what it wants which leaves little room for the people to get what they want sitting the stage for more to hear turmoil policy r.t. . this is the weekly here on r.t. now europe is poised for another meeting between the german and french leaders that is set for this monday it could push the eurozone towards a fiscal union a potential cure offered by angle of merkel for the financial agony still gripping the continent belgium and greece saw massive strikes as people fought against new measures to stop the current financial rollercoaster the european central bank

meantime it's been pumping money into the blocks financial institutions to compensate for investors pulling out their funds earlier the e.u. monetary affairs chief warned that the eurozone has no more than ten days to contain the crisis of a giant german chancellor insists that the process will take years but your hand of an over to felt the editor in chief of the trends and magazines says europe is just not ready for the changes needed to contain this crisis you can't have a functioning monetary union without a political union that's a choice you have to make and you can't have one without the other that has been very much proven now in the last two years of crisis what we do lack is political authority the member countries of the eurozone will have to give up a large part of their sovereignity in terms of economic budgetary social and financial policies and it is almost in thinkable if you look at the major countries

i'm talking about france i'm talking about germany the two most important countries that they are prepared at this moment to accept that a lot of the social economic financial policies of the countries will be decided not in peru or paris or berlin but in brussels you can agree amongst each other i mean for example the seventeen members of the euro zone that certain kind of budgetary powers or even powers with respect to social or financial policies are given to brussels but the big question is if then brussels takes of this roster sponsibility how much really biting and automatic power will it have to make sure that everybody respects those rules. twenty minutes past the hour now here in moscow the occupy crackdown in the u.s. continues shut down yet another camp this time in the city of portland. commands keep on in the shotgun box are now closed you may freely press to the

north and the west. no you do so on subject you do it all out police in a ride made a number of arrests but officers refused to specify how many were detained and this is the second time in less than a month the police have dismantled the occupy movement headquarters in portland protesters have vowed to establish a new plan made a little bit harder by a new that just lation bombing overnight stays in public parks and as often as a marina porton i reports the movements message is beginning to resonate even with those whose job it is to silence or. occupy wall street has become an undeniable american household name. and police crackdowns against the democratic movement have become something of the norm not so normal is seeing one side endorse the other. retired philadelphia police captain gray lewis

became the game changer on nov seventeenth arrested while demonstrating with occupy protesters on the streets of new york city the twenty four year veteran was held in police custody for eleven hours and received one comment from a new york cop nobody spoke to me this one individual said that i had the testicles of an elephant although all of america's police force is part of the ninety nine percent captain lewis says cops secretly supporting o.-w. west's face dire consequences by going public tremendous fear of losing their job being disciplined being fired and then what do they do everybody in the ninety nine percent has that fear and police officers also they cannot risk they have children they have one what would they do once you're fired there are no jobs available the nighttime raid on zuccotti park and subsequent arrest of of dozens. analysts covering the story are among many reasons captain lewis says he temporarily

transplanted to manhattan that's as close to a dictatorship when you exclude the media. as with dictators around the world and that is very scary brutal scare tactics such as pepper spray the tongs and flash grenades canisters have been used against occupy camps throughout the us oakland california resembles something of an urban war zone this fall leaving a war vet in critical condition and the eyes of an eighty four year old burning from tear gas oakland police officer fred chavez is the only active cop who's gone on record with his support like i totally agree with occupy wall street even to an extent what i can broker i am a part of the ninety nine percent for the most part people are peaceful and i want to see change many believe the biggest change could calm when or if u.s. law enforcement officials stop suppressing the right to assemble and begin supporting it despite his arrest captain lewis is back at zuccotti park showing

unwavering support for the occupy movement standing roughly ten or fifteen feet away from him a group of new york city police officers yes there we are securing the area but some are beginning to show a little interest for the first time i had an officer break ranks yesterday at the barricade line a white officer named officer murray and introduced himself and he started asking if you question i said do you know the risk you're taking and he was so brave that you said this is still america and until a supervisor ordered ordered me back to the line i'm going to talk with you i hope to get mainstream america involved the players involved realizing that we're all victims of corporate america and that corporate america has got to be stopped marina port r.t. new york. it's good to have you with us on this sunday here on arts he pakistan has ruled out taking part in a u.s. backed conference on the future of afghanistan next week but the decision was just

one of his live about their reactions to a recent nato air strike that killed twenty four pakistani soldiers the air raid brought their already tense relations to a new nato supply routes through pakistan was shut off of islam about officials said washington must make amends political scientist crowfoot thinks that the countries people will actually benefit by distancing themselves from american support and american interests. because the pakistanis receive a significant amount of. cash from the us pakistanis have a lot to lose in the us subsidy of pakistan unchecked enabled the pakistanis to increase their own military spending quite substantially and also subsidizes their the security services their secrets or security services and intelligence services and essentially run much of the country and the us aid were for some reason.

this pakistani people would probably feel more secure since the pakistani military has been engaged in training insurgents and watch a stand in serious student unit causing an enormous number of civilian casualties while another sign that washington is rapidly losing trust in the middle east comes from career start where the newly elected president has called on the us to leave a military base that it's been operating in the country since two thousand and one and it's not his office on a boy who found out the kid has a government is also paying a little more attention to some of its own people's demands. they call it operation enduring misery several times a day u.s. military planes takeoff from an airport near the characters capital bishkek there and generating a lot of anger and mung the locals that's why there's it's so noisy here i can barely sleep back in soviet times the village of brahma there was famous across kyrgyzstan for years gigantic whatever melons but ever since the americans landed

here ten years ago locals say the quality of their crops has been steadily declining like most of his neighbors further nicholai which is convinced americans a dumping fuel on the fields surrounding the base which is commanders deny. i wish the u.s. planes come and go several times a day i know there should be the noise is disturbing but i sort of got used to what's really bad is that they're killing nature the fields and the crops and people's health is getting worse through the congress airbase represents the shortest and the most efficient route to deliver you supplies and servicemen into afghanistan nicknamed the gateway to your house it's the last safe stop on the way to combat but for the residents here getting rid of the base is a battle in its own right but i mean you can't have seems we're going to america has so many enemies it's forty wars in afghanistan iraq libya but its enemies want

to attack us all in. one form or kick is press than sunday americans and the vixen noticed only to negotiate a three fold lease increase a few months later the following year by key was ousted from office on allegations of corruption some related to payments from the u.s. base mistrust and even has still it's a bit in the locals and u.s. troops abroad are hardly anything new many countries are hosting american bases despite sometimes very strong objections of the indigenous population but here in kyrgyzstan by it. so politically charged that it has already shown the power of making or breaking once presidency yet america's presence in the region has its legal benefits to military gear in accessories have long found their way to bishkek it's bizarre as thanks to a shady network of buyers and sellers secondhand to use military uniform is held in a very high regard here the owner of this business who doesn't want us to share his

face says he usually gets it from american troops on the ground for a couple hundred bucks and he sells it to a wide range of clients many of whom come from all over the former soviet union according to the bases commanders them miracles do try to be nice in addition to sixty million dollars a year for the least use personnel in kyrgyzstan have done volunteer work and raised money to renovate the local school and the locals are appreciative they say they have nothing against the americans per se except that they have long outstayed their welcome. artsy because the. and all of these special report exploring the soldiers a struggle with morality over killing in combat that's coming your way shortly here . after a recap of our top story. wealthy

british style.