parliamentary elections in russia draw to a close with voting in most of the country the focus is on whether the ruling united russia party receives the same overwhelming popular support it did four years ago we bring you special coverage here on our team. also iran's military forces say they have shot down an unmanned u.s. drone in the east of the country according to a state news agency. and in a roundup of the week's top headlines the u.n. human rights commission a pool for international intervention in syria but russia and china voted against the resolution saying foreign meddling only cause of more bloodshed.

it's eight pm here in moscow you're watching live from the russian capital from can . it's decision day for russia millions across the country's nine time zones have been having their say to decide the makeup of the lower house of parliament the state duma. now launching our special coverage of the state duma election day here. and now is in our special election coverage center in the heart of moscow over to you and a wonderful view behind you of the russian capital. it is indeed thank you bill as

the election process comes to a close here in russia and it's winding down we'll be updating you every hour on the very latest results bringing you reaction and in-depth analysis well polls have now closed almost everywhere across the country apart from just one region this is because russia of course has nine time zones so in the country's western most kaliningrad area people have about an hour left to make their decision now this is also when the first exit polls and official results are due in that's nine o'clock moscow time five pm g.m.t. well seven parties are running for seats in russia's state duma among them are united russia headed by the current prime minister vladimir putin and political oldtimer such as the communist party and the liberal democrats the main question of course is will united russia remain the main parliamentary force with a two thirds constitutional majority now the first preliminary results will be announced at the central election committee headquarters where r.t.

if you consider the gretsch over is standing by for us we can now wants to hurt you get through the committee has been monitoring this turnout throughout the day although there is no threshold for the election to be valid just how active have been russians have russians been coming out and picking the parliament this time around. the latest we received here at the headquarters of the central election committee is that a turnout in the elections for russia's state duma has almost reached fifty percent and this is preliminary information will be getting reports on the final turnout in less than an hour from now off to russia's western most city votes on its polling stations shut down meanwhile opposition parties have already claimed that there have been violations at several polling stations across the country have been also reports on one hungers hacker attacks and some newspapers and other groups websites for instance united russia claims its website was in filter. meanwhile

international observers who are working here at the central election committee say that no major violations have been registered during election procedures in different regions of russia all in all almost half a million up service from russia and across the world worked in nine time zones in different regions of the country on sunday. we also know that. the turnout as i've said is almost reached fifty percent service say that the vote was well organized and it was transparent and we know that there have been also video cameras installed at several polling stations now a few words about the vote itself russia uses a quarter list proportional electorate system in the state duma elections which means that it to be eligible at all to be eligible for any seats at all a party should get at least seven percent of the vote and if it breaks that barrier that means that it will get a number of seats proportionate to

a number of votes won but there is one exception to that these time and that is that if a party gets between five to six percent it will get one seat or one mandate in the lower house of the russian parliament in the state duma if it gets between six and seven percent may count on to mandate seats in the state duma and this of course this novelty is aimed at widening the representation of different political forces in the lower house of the russian palmetto also these time for the first time state duma deputies will be elected for for a five year term not as it was before for a four year term and the loan that was amended in two thousand and eight although they have been poles predicting ho many votes each party will receive were not allowed and they say you know to speculate on that before polling stations shut down and russia's westernmost bought in kaliningrad where people are still at the polling stations giving their votes to these or that party will be bringing you all the latest on that of course here from the central of the. committee must go with

where we are constantly monitoring the first exit polls as they'll be coming. that's right the last region to vote has about fifty five minutes laugh to make their choice and joining us shortly will be cross talk host peter labout to discuss the way russians parliamentary elections are going before that though let's bring you up to date on a developing story several dozens have been arrested in moscow as political parties both pro-government and opposition try to stage rallies on election day we can now cross live to our tease jacob griefs who's in central moscow for us take up election day rallies are a breach of the rules who exactly was rallying and how were they dispersed why didn't they wait until the blackout finished to come out onto the streets. but as you said actually these opposition protests will be somewhat lost on the ground sporadic in nature throughout the course of the day it will be more individuals than say. a movement as such the less the left front were detained it's just behind

me outside of the credible zone manners square a few of the numbers to tell you by police basically using this tactic with puzzling these protesters towards the nearest metro station is something they employed as well on the cheap so yes we were loyal to united russia and a few of them it was these arrests it is they express support for the government this is the scene around the catsuit throughout the course of the day such as oscar thirty war bans movement sure she's. going to say release of their members to tell you by police as you mentioned the reason the police are using these tactics is because that present is still the day of silence whereby such opinions can't be voiced in such a publics stage in case they sway people ahead of the end of polling. right artie's jacob grieve standing by in central moscow as people have been arrested after protesting in on sanctions protests i want to. to talk more about

the details of this what it means joining me is peter lavelle host of cross thanks for coming out tonight it's a busy day this is the first time a party can gain five to seven percent of the vote which is lower than the threshold it was talking about that and they can still get one or two seats in the parliament is this going to give russia a better balance when you can talk about the outcome of a little bit of time i certainly hope so i'd like the more parties to better unlike a decade ago when they had too many parties now we think they have too few so hopefully will balance out in the next parliamentary election cycle that will see the threshold lowered to five percent so between now and then i think we'll see more parties i want to talk a little bit more about that the threshold being lowered we're not hearing a lot of western or mainstream media talk about why because they've decided that russia is election cycle is a fraud from the beginning which you know i've read just numerous articles about it is very little knowledge there and it's very prejudicial ok people are going to the polls we can't mention

a lot of numbers but over the last few years we have public opinion polls exit polls in the final outcome are almost always the same so ok there were irregularities where aren't they regularly if you were in egypt ok and there is florida two thousand and so everybody has their issues when they have their own democratic process. is still very new it's developing in the new and different rules everything every time around so i think that's a legitimate thing to look at and people are actually reacting to it this is the first time that the duma will be in in in office for five years instead of the four year term how is this going to change the do you think it cuts both ways sometimes it can be too long and sometimes it can be too short here i mean i can answer that question to you tomorrow when we have the outcome when we'll see what the what kind of parties are actually be sitting there like you said you can cut both ways rush of course you mention this is criticised for a lack of variety in its political arena but let's take the us the two party system there you have tons of people. complaining one point five four my opinion ok

nevertheless you have people there complaining about the system people here complaining about the system isn't there something always to complain about there's always going to complain about all i would point out over the last year six governments in europe in the european the eurozone here ok one of the parties in power right now i want to be very careful in talking about them they will get less than what we explained what they have currently ok this is what is expected ok but you know when you consider the economic crisis in the world russia has weathered it pretty well the government's done pretty well and maybe some parties are given some credit for that but we don't we when you look at this here the people are looking at it is a referendum on the present ok and we'll see what that decision is in a few hours interesting point you made a lot of governments pushed out of power by the economic crisis in europe but i have to say about well you know i think it's there's more stability here than people want to give it credit for ok now i think you know if we had a much longer conversation and you will be on cross talk tomorrow we can talk about

some of the nuances that maybe they can be instituted in the future but this is a work in progress ok we see a lot of people the occupy movement in the united states people out of the political system people are participating here the political system i like to add that countries like egypt are trying to replicate well when when when when when you see presidential elections will see the parliament has i mean all right peter of the host of cross talk always a pleasure to speak to you especially about russian politics will be able to get more details i want to say that after the polls are closed that will happen within the hour we continue to monitor the developments live from our special studio here in central moscow as the central election committee is set to release those first results like i said in less than an hour so stay with us and join us for our extended coverage of the election day at the top of next hour here on r.t. . complete closes. the people prepare to

speak. in duma election eleven. in-depth coverage of who has won the hearts and minds of the russian people are to. now let's turn to some news that shaped the past seven days in our weekly update and the latest news from around the world but of course as and he says we'll be continuing our special election coverage with the first exit polls and preliminary results in the next hour here on. iranian forces have shot down an american unmanned drone in the east of the country that's according to iran's state news agency the aircraft used for spying was reportedly down with minimum damage and seized by iranian authorities well to discuss the tense situation around the islamic republic i'm now joined live from chicago by steven lemon who is a radio host and independent blogger steven it's reported the aircraft carried no weapons so it does look like that its main purpose was reconnaissance what do you think it was up to what was it looking for. well it's

a spy plane bill these drones patrol you were supporters reconnaissance spying he's been doing it in america for some time he's doing it in many other countries he's been spying on iran for a long time person cement hundred seventy s. bill america instead of running on a war with the. b.b.c. we wanted to change the regime to make it subservient to you which interest in revenues the as the as the khorasan notion that it believes it is the right to his own sovereignty to run its own government to conduct its overthe years it doesn't have to answer don't want to washington disagrees do you realize the conflict in by the way going back and years america as head ground forces you know ran the washington post over a year ago reported that u.s.

special forces are discords is what they are you were special forces are deployed to one hundred twenty or more countries around the world that's about two thirds of them you can bench of it or it is one of. stephen clearly a lot of pressure on iran a moment we know that's course that the drone was on and it didn't carry any weapons but there's a lot of talk that a strike on iran is possible and could this just be the start of the build up to that. well they want to get all the information so spying of course is to get intelligence preparatory to doing whatever it is that you may have been might indeed a merry what's key bill is america as some years especially since the bush here's what they call a grade a middle east project the project is total dominance or the region

north africa the middle east central asia to russia's borders russia of course is being surrounded with you which military bases china is well this is part of america's game but in trying to eliminate countries that are not in america's orbit so lose the war in libya syria is being targeted the libyan model is being ripped like a didn't syria so far short of nato bombing if syria is dealing from a rare and already is next you could be an insurgency in iran the same as in libya hussein was and syria very possibly conflict so therefore how will to iran respond not only to this latest drone incident but also of course the latest pressure via sanctions what sort of reaction can we expect well they are not too happy about it and there are many comics like they are very heavily iran is not libya and iran is

a big country could have powerful military could affect it weapons is going to weapons that can reach us pieces in the region they can reach israel iran has been very blunt saying if it's a terrorist but used very ill by america it will respond it will fire back it could attack is really cities you could attack u.s. bases and i'm sure you'll do it we're talking about something very serious bill we're talking about the possibility well it's. general war dear i'd given him a name were award three just briefly steven split a lot of pressure and concern about iran's nuclear ambitions what if iran was to cooperate now and allow inspectors in and to come clean and it's all very clear that isn't developing a nuclear weapon would that not diffuse everything and we wouldn't see that's in our developing that you're talking about here i honestly don't know

a country anywhere in the world it's been more cooperative with the i.a.e.a. inspectors in iran nobody found anything when lo how much already was the was the director i.e. your rector until november two thousand well. you know although the middle of place called a rare and actually developing a nuclear weapon i really missed out of you know he wanted no part of it no nuclear weapons development. and yet. no use finding something real in the inspectors and here i'm looking at the same information completely discounted place discounted here is no evidence whatever has a nuclear weapons program what about israel's nuclear weapons program inspectors in the air bill know that all israel is nuclear armed and dangerous anybody can go

just about it nobody nobody in washington nobody in the west israel is a script israel has threatened to use its nuclear weapons if. i don't think it really has nuclear weapons and has certainly been not pretty use them well let's have a little bit of truth in what's going on stephen lemon live in chicago thank you very much indeed for your thoughts thank you bill. syria has reportedly accepted the arab league's plan to send a mission of foreign observers into the country this comes in the wake of sustained . forum pressure on damascus with the un's high commissioner for human rights calling for international intervention she said four thousand people have been killed since the clashes began almost nine months ago all of a series ambassador to the u.n. responded by warning that the solution to the crisis can't come from abroad and resolution that could have paved the way for military intervention in syria was blocked by russia and china they believe the u.n. continues to ignore reports of atrocities committed by opposition fighters and

think that foreign meddling would only make the situation worse political analyst dr hisham garcia questions just the sanctions that have been imposed are aimed at. these sanctions are meaningless actually 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 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 you know what they want to weaken the syrian regime and to weaken the alliance between syria iran and lebanon i don't think they they. so much for syrian blood in libya more than one hundred thousand people were killed by nato bombings and the come through was devastated that nobody said anyone so i

can't actually believe that there. are three thousand syrians when they are not actually what it's about more than one hundred thousand plebeians it has nothing to do with stopping violence on the contrary they're feeding the bodies we can't expect the syrian government and the syrian army to end the violence if the other if the gangs do not stop atrocities against the syrian armed forces. you know with r.t. we're live here in moscow with twenty four hours a day still ahead for you this hour as police continue to crack down on anti corporate protesters some officers are changing sides we meet one of them who explains why he joined the chorus of those unhappy with current economic policies. egypt's state newspaper is reporting islamist parties have taken an overwhelmingly in the opening round of the country's first post revolution parliamentary elections the muslim brotherhood's freedom and justice party reportedly gained forty percent

of the vote with the fundamentalist al-noor party sort of claimed around twenty five percent whatever the results aren't final as most parties are set to go through to further election round. over the next two months but it's all just paula slow reports from caro many in the streets feel their votes will carry little weight. long choose to stay fingers and wait for turn out over a sign of political interest in a country where decades of dictatorship has left little appetite for the power of the ballot the faces of candidates now down to one for most of the street corner and wanting to sons are excited to be voting in the real him next and these say maybe hold nothing but false. i ran to you but i just tried. to mean you down with me. 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 be the problem is you know what or that she 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 toughness square the center of the revolution and in front of the parliament building youth movement leaders like dravot are protesting of what they see as an intern vote offering no democratic mandate and will be here. to make sure you will not go inside your office we have to stop you and you have to go now and we do want to do. two more rounds of voting still need to take place but the strong showing of the muslim brotherhood leaves little doubt that the islamist 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 to correlate their mistakes and their frauds 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 in egypt and if you give one point three billion dollars a year to the egyptian army which the americans do you wish you expected to do what it was which nice little room for the people to get what they want sitting the stage for to hear turmoil r.t. . paula continues to monitor the situation there in egypt and you can follow up dates on twitter and in one of our latest tweets she reports on the word circulating around here that those who attacked female journalists were planted by

the regime to make protesters know. you can follow his personal feed for more updates and insights or you can read the tweets at all t. underscore. police and give a rested more than a dozen occupy protesters shutting down their camp in the u.s. city of portland police overnight stays at parks where tents have been set up but some activists refused to go demonstrations accuse officers of using tough tactics against a peaceful rally pushing people to the ground teenage protester claims an officer hit him in the face with a riot stick police action came as part of a wave to dismantle occupy headquarters across the u.s. in the past few weeks because all of these merida portnoy reports the movement's message is beginning to resonate even with those whose job it is to control nick. i 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 ray 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 ws face dire consequences by going public tremendous fear of losing their job being disciplined being fired and then what do do they. 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 in the nighttime raid on zuccotti park and subsequent arrest of dozens of journalists covering the

story are among many reasons captain lewis says he temporarily transplanted to manhattan that's 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 octave cop who's gone on record with his support but totally agree with occupy wall street even to understand what i can broker i am a part of the ninety nine percent but most poor 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 on wavering support for the occupy movement standing roughly ten or fifteen feet away from him a group of new york city police officers yes they're here 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 if you question i said do you know the risk you're taking and he was so brave they 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 place involved realizing that we're all victims of corporate america and that corporate america has got to be stopped during a port niamh r.t. new york. coming up to twenty eight minutes past the hour hand russian capital i'll

be back with all main developments some headlines very shortly. as russians pick for parliament who are the main contenders in the race for duma seats party leader gennady zyuganov types the achievements of communism from before his time but he's criticized for his rebel small with the russian orthodox church

current campaign slogan the politics of the majority is made to when we return the motherland stolen from us priorities free education and housing pushing illegal immigration and introducing ethnicity stamps in passports party success story second in all presidential elections since the end of the u.s.s.r. criticized for exploiting soviet nostalgia with pensioners and a discontented industrial working class no no brought for its red flag with the hammer and sickle the communist party of the russian federation duma election two thousand and eleven on r.t.e. . wealthy british style. that's not on time and time.