russia holds its breath for the final parliamentary election results for the ruling united russia party and losing its overall majority but still coming out on top of the latest figures and in-depth analysis coming right up. iran claims of shot down a u.s. spy dragging along its eastern border use of unmanned american aircraft over the country's being seen as a greatest evidence of washington's efforts to destabilize regimes beyond its influence. russia is concerned the u.s. plans to build military bases in afghanistan despite the planned twenty four thousand withdraw that's just before conference where the international community

is set to decide the country's future. broadcasting live twenty four hours a day this is r.t. . going to start at the moment of truth for russia's ruling party with almost all of votes counted in the parliamentary election united russia is set to lose the majority held in the previous duma but will still stay the biggest party by far for more let's cross live now to r.t. sara first who's in central moscow with more on this sara the counting is a continuing but what's the latest you have. ninety six percent of the votes have now being counted and this is how the figures stand at the moment united russia has

just under fifty percent the communist party have just under twenty percent fair russia starting at around thirteen percent and the liberal democratic policy at eleven percent now is proportional representation in the lower house of parliament that means that these full parties to deposit the seven percent threshold the number seats that they will get in the diva correspond directly to the percentage of the national vote is why this figure is poor since the russian election committee has actually released early numbers of what the seats in the team a kid play outside and the need to make it look like this united russia with two hundred thirty eight seats the communist party with ninety two seats sarah she was sixty four states and the liberal democratic party with fifty six seats now you can see old a united russia in the lead it has lost its majority compare that to four years ago

when it had sixty four percent of the vote that gave it three hundred and fifteen seats in the stadium a full hundred fifty seats in take two they don't need a three hundred to get a majority so it does seem that they've they've lost the majority we've seen a lot of public support playing out in the fading biggest prize you heard to say the united russia party has lost almost fifty percent how is that playing out to the leadership. well it means the worst the for united russia were able to impose their will on the legislators to very easily apostates lose three that they wanted to now as any changes to the constitution they going to have to get the support of these opposition parties and it's going to look like they'll be needing to make coalition agreements with those parties as time goes on as the president medvedev has acknowledged. this policy has assume say well the policy represents almost fifty percent of the population and this is the result

of the time expressing process but taken into account on the flanks make amends they have to form coalitions with other parties of the various issues and this is one power limits and democracy is all about and the leaders of other parties said that they are ready for that which in stool. now there were three other parties that failed to make that seven percent this year in the elections had the parties got five percent they would have got one seat in the team or had to go between six and seven percent they'd have got two seats but the closest candidate was you blue because they had three percent say fully very first you know that policy a player could have actually said they're going to contest the election results we have seen some criticisms about the election process for observers from the opposing parties but there was a huge monitoring system going on as the voting took place yesterday seven hundred international observers in a major complaints of violations and that is the electoral commission has said that

despite a very vocal opposition saying about problems with the election process they actually didn't have that many. that many complaints registered so the election process seeming to go quite smoothly of course a lot of calls the change you see weeks heated debate and we're getting those final figures now it does seem that there has been a change certainly in the political balance that we're going to see in the lower house of parliament the stadium. ok for now surface thank you for that. but we also spoke to prime minister vladimir putin spokesman to be to pursue for about his piece of election results so far he told us that while the financial crisis has taken its toll not to rush to mange the country's foremost political force. this resolve departed to continue its politics to continue its line for the whole country to take a significant portion in creation of the new government and so on and so forth here

has to be considered as a victory of the party and we have to remember that this party was a ruling party in the country during a very harsh and very tough period during the last four years it was a period with unbelievable climate crisis on the part of managed to minimize the consequences of this crisis for the population well certainly working party cannot satisfy everyone in this country and its way obviously it has lost some percentage some percentage but again i repeat it proved to be the leading political power in the country becoming clear as a result build to a fuller picture the opposition parties have made some of the biggest to gains in years and that according to political science professor hardline got it's bound to influence how the conduct of elections in russia is viewed internationally the election. to reshape some of the russian elections is an

electoral process it is simply manipulated completely with the ruling party having lost. to the only does looks great then it has been expected by the question how is the image so whole building is very were you have international relations and i think that russia will build on. and as we near a final tally for the vote let's get more opinion on how it could influence russians political direction we're now joined live here in the steve by political analyst. thank you for joining us hanno party has really taken a bit of a hammering compared to previous elections has it come to this well i mean if you take percentage there is not much of a beating because the steel will have two hundred thirty eight seats in four hundred fifty seats in the parliament so they still have the absolute majority but if you count the votes in two thousand and seven forty five million voters almost

forty five million voted for united russia now it is at least ten or eleven really in this model the votes are counted so maybe the people will reach will need so there are twelve million disillusioned people i'm not sure the vaulted for either party so a lot of them probably just didn't come to vote so that shows some disillusionment but i don't think united russia will have problem in you know pushing through with the economic woes in the social laws that it wants to push through and i'm sure that almost all of them will be and how does this bode for mr putin's presidential attempt to bid next year well that's what i want to see you know actually united russia is conducted a lot of reforms that the west would like or the western advise us would like russia to conduct such as in the pension system people walk along during their lifetime you know me social benefits more targeted this is already but already it

all belongs to the night aggression so i'm sure these reforms will be continued and that's why i also took a beating none of them took more than three or four percent of the vote but i think all these liberal reforms will be postponed until mr porton rounds for president in march next year he will not. want to disillusion he's a conservative electorate talking over reforms these elections also saw the introduction of some new loans designed designed at least to help some the smaller parties get seats in parliament how effective has it actually that he didn't have any effect at all because basically anonyma their liberal party is now the small party has made it to five percent according to the new legislation if you have five percent you can put one deputy the duma there didn't happen none of these parties nearly scored five percent so if that didn't happen does this election next to change anything well i think. change very important thing now united russia doesn't

have a constitutional majority so it will not be able to change the political system of the country simple hand it will need the support or other parties but i'm not sure that will contribute to democracy because for example united russia floated a deal of you know returning back to a system when we had. a so-called single mandate elections when people actually knew who they voted for not just voted for party lists this is actually a democratic measure that would allow some of the non-systemic opposition trying to get into the duma but i'm sure this move will be supported by the opposition parties which are interested in maintaining the system the system that we have no proportional representation i mean this all said i mean after ten years in power united russia still got nearly fifty percent of the vote is not quite good really well i think it shows that people don't really see real turn interests.

of the east you know a lot of the border go to communist party or to fair russia a lot of it is just broader store people do not believe that these bodies will rule them they just wanted to send a signal to an attraction and the sort of technical votes some of the votes the party that didn't make it to the demon are being reassigned to the. parties that did so how does that help things then well it's one of the paradox of people who. actually ended up supporting united russia but i don't view it as very absurd because actually they can all make suggestions of liberals are fulfilled by you like that russia at the people who advise united russia on economy all of them are diehard. economists ok to me to bob thank you very much for your insights here today on the team. well we're hoping you are to keep your finger on the pulse of developments as counting continues in the russian parliamentary elections and later

in the day we expect the announcement of official preliminary results and comments from international observers well you can also track the latest figures on our web site that's a r.t. dot com. but other news now iran says its forces have shot down an unmanned american spy drone in the east of the country the aircraft was recovered on the ground largely undamaged authorities have promised that operations against in shooting drones will continue and may not be limited to iranian borders american radio host and independent longest even then says the highly volatile situation in the region has brought the world to the edge of global war fare. it is not libya iran is a country powerful military it's going to affect it weapons it's going to weapons they can reach us bases in the region they can reach israel iran is very blunt

if the terrorists use real america. or it will fire a banner it attack is. it going to tell you which peace you know sure it will do it we're talking about something very serious we're talking about the possibility of a general war here i give it a name we're award three on the author and journalist ashton a ten c. believes that the instant is a clear breach of international law this is an arche one seventy advanced stealth reconnaissance drone which what i'm hearing is said they lost it over afghanistan last week others are saying the iranians must be busily looking at this advanced drone and what a great way of. creating technology transfer this is an incredibly serious event and it's of course against international law the united states yet again breaking

international law with these drones it's interesting that even some neo conservatives are criticizing obama saying while we're talking about nuclear facilities iran is thinking about a much bigger game and this is really about influence within the entire region that egypt is a big loss to the united states after the fall of the u.s. back to data will barak from the atlantic to the indian oceans and of course even greece backing some oil sanctions against syria against iran this is a case of the western media feeding loads of people the idea that these countries are isolated when in fact the world is now changing. still to come on the program transatlantic tempers flare up the british parliament takes action with these really go over a one sided extradition policy at least its citizens are politically driven american justice system. a crucial conference on the future of

afghanistan is taking place in germany international gathering will be attended by the representatives of several countries and organizations and president hamid karzai himself will take the chair i will artie's he will piss me off is following the event for us and he also what's on the table for today's conference. well it's really hard to underestimate the significance of these of this conference since eighty eight countries are taking part seventeen international organizations nearly a thousand delegates including some of the key political figures in the world like your secretary of state hillary clinton and russia's foreign minister sergey this is the second such conference being held in the first one happened exactly a year ago ten years ago rather and back then the delegates were working on ways to rebuild afghanistan we store peace in the country build democratic institutions and so on and unfortunately ten years after some of these issues still remain and

probably the most troubling one is a security especially in light of the alliance has plans to start withdrawing its troops in twenty fourteen now is why we believe that afghanistan at the moment is still incapable of providing security on its own now another troubling factor for some of the players in the region including russia is washington's plan in force to increase its military presence in the country after the alliance pulls its forces out and really not clear how these two plans how these two ideas can work together but the situation in afghanistan in general is quite complicated. still got the taliban threat drug trafficking very poor living conditions for the walls who are also increasingly tired and sometimes even angered by foreign military presence in the country so a lot of issues are on the table definitely at this conference and we understand

that pakistan one of america's key partners in the afghan campaign says it will be attending. pakistan is a very important country in the region like you said it is the key partner of washington or at least it used to be the keep keep order by this time it's also right there next to a ghana. and it's not taking part in this conference after an attack by the allied forces on its military post on the pakistani afghani border just over a week ago in this attack twenty four five to study soldiers died over a dozen others were injured and pakistan said that it's now revising the ways it's going to cooperate and work with washington it said it's not taking part in the conference and most importantly it's suspended the transit of supplies for the airlines through its territory this post washington in the wee difficult position since it will have to look for other partners in the region and perhaps will have to increase its cooperation with russia which is providing an airport door through

its territory for these supplies but for more on the situation here's a report by my colleague. supplies are would keep a war running nato actions have put all operations in afghanistan in danger after attack that killed twenty four pakistani soldiers islam about cut off one of the alliances major supply routes to again is that. i would like to extend my most sincere condolences. to pakistan washington's condolences were not enough to repeated incursions by the u.s. military in pakistan really left no choice and also the humiliation that the pakistani military faced in front of its own soldiers and the pakistani people left no choice before the government this time but you cut off the supply line good relations between the u.s. and pakistan as unstable as ever in order to keep the warring of ghana stand

running nato relies more on its other major supply route coming from the north. here it is the north and distribution network you see all these blue lines and here is the route that pakistan shut down now the northern supply network with thought it was. so greed to provide his territory and airspace for transit of non-lethal supplies to nato troops in afghanistan it proved to be a very reliable route more reliable than pakistan now it accounts for half of nato as non-lethal supplies and trucks railroads and by air supplies travel through russian territory from europe and from russia's far east all the way to afghanistan and the reliance on this route is set to expand in the last three years russia's cooperation on of ganesan is being key to need to offer a chanst thank you sit down with professor michael lee hans who stressed he was speaking in a personal capacity the u.s.

has a very tenuous kind of placement. afghanistan and it is highly vulnerable it's highly vulnerable. pakistanis but it's more vulnerable to russia i mean if russia were to withdraw its permission for us to use its rail lines we would be in a very difficult position in afghanistan the northern supply network could now be in danger because of a failure in diplomacy moscow says because washington turned down all of its proposals on the missile defense issue russia might have to resort to other arguments including its cooperation with nato on afghanistan but. their processes which are critically important for russia which are about russia's national security one of them is nato expansion into russian borders and the fact that washington goes ahead with a robust missile shield program in europe without taking into consideration russia's concerns gives moscow to refuse any leverage it has to be heard by its

partner but even the mere hoss ability that russia could cut off the northern supply route threatens the viability of all western operations in afghanistan nato risks leaving almost one hundred forty thousand of its troops in afghanistan without vital supplies if diplomacy doesn't win the day with pakistan it's about people there being fed up with russia it's about their national security if washington does not seriously address the concerns of its partners even the best partnerships can fade i'm going to check our reporting from washington r.t. . dozens of a british m.p.'s across the political divide have united in london are staging a debate today what are they see as a one sided extradition treaty with the us drawn up in the chaotic aftermath of nine eleven from the house of washington to demand the extradition of any u.k. citizen without proof of any crime and britain is obliged to comply with other better reports patience is wearing thin. all take and no give that's the growing

feeling in britain's parliament against america's controversial extradition treaty it was signed in two thousand and three in the post nine eleven tannic and makes it far easier for the u.s. to take people from the u.k. from the other way around now forty five m.p.'s from the three main parties have crossed the political divide and joined forces they finally forced a debate and parliamentary vote and what they called an injustice was a mistake in the first person in history i think it was a mistake it's not a level playing field even with a partner like america we need to make sure that we of being equal and we are being fair to our citizens and that is not the case at the moment britain must present evidence for any extradition but america doesn't need to a long awaited independent inquiry recently ruled this relationship was balanced but the numbers suggest otherwise one hundred twenty three people have been

surrendered to america under the treaty since two thousand and four only fifty four have gone the other way america's ambassador to the u.k. branded these figures myths and in accuracies but they were figures he's embassy refused to reveal he's even accused m.p.'s of willfully distorting the facts in the run up to this crunch vote in parliament that could shift the balance but m.p.'s are backing down joining a battle some have fought since the treaty was signed i think you know the scene how many injustices have been caused because of it it was meant to be for terrorists offenses it wasn't meant to be for the ken things they're using janice's is gary mckinnon a mainstay on america's extradition wish list he was arrested ten years ago after hacking into pentagon files he says he was merely searching for u.f.o.'s gary has asperger's syndrome and according to. mother should be tried in the u.k.

on medical grounds but america's not giving up on one of their most wanted is so vengeful. you think it was a some of the why didn't it is so over the top they left him one has entered it three and a half years after the arrest if gandhi was the slightest threat that wouldn't have been done but it's very much i think he embarrassed them and because of that they were very angry at him there were nine cases currently fighting extradition to america richard o'dwyer is the latest he's wanted on copyright charges for creating a search engine for pirated content it's not even considered a crime in the u.k. but at the moment that doesn't matter the us can still get their man the coalition government promised to change this while in opposition now is their chance to deliver either bennett r.t. london. it's cross over to our business desk and join the tasha.

it's twenty four minutes past noon here in moscow you're watching business are cheap if the euro were based on the strength of the greek economy you would be worth less than one dollar according to the single currency is more than thirty percent overvalued when measured against greece's financial health by contrast burbank's says the euro is undervalued by about five percent germany and france given them a competitive advantage analysts say to resolve the situation and level the playing field it would be easier to allow inflation in france and germany rather than a deflation in groups. analysts check out the markets or oil is trading higher and speculation of the tension in the middle east will curb supplies iran says oil could reach two hundred fifty dollars a barrel if it sees more pressure on its nuclear program another boost is coming from europe where the new italian prime minister mario monti plans to spend thirty

billion euro on a sweeping austerity. and european markets opened the hire on monday with banking shares in the lead investors looking ahead to a meeting between french president nicolas sarkozy and german chancellor angela merkel to prepare for it t european summit with. the russian markets opened lower but have managed to bounce back they're now trading in positive territory the r.t.s. is putting on a quarter percent the bisects is up roughly the same as our. analysts see some individual share moves on the my six most oil majors are on the rise supported by stronger crude oil is gaining roughly point six percent gazprom is up to the company's finalized its acquisition of bell russian gas pipeline operator beltran's gods but a steel maker m.k. is down the company has posted fifty eight million dollars of net loss for the first five months of the year. looking ahead to the trading week experts see two

main events the first is the european central bank's meeting on thursday followed by the e.u. summit on friday that you should provide a clear picture of how the block is coping with the debt crisis. the capital says he expects the market russia to remain positive in the first half of the week but the focus on the energy sector oil gas sector since oil prices quite high it's. one hundred ten on the back of the. news about. iran although once. arrives back on the market and it's we see market we think that high beta names like metals and mining sector like electrical duty sector would be better in every market would be slightly positive to this year's a meeting after such to be in for ali they'll be some retracement. not that big but more or less that would be that would be positive. russia is the largest country in

the world and is home to the second biggest railway system but the lack of high speed trains means the railways no real alternative to flying speaking of france the head of russian railways like him or you couldn't has invited foreign railway giles to help change the situation. we're going to hold the tender in building the country's first. next year it's an absolutely new project for russia we foresee a lot of problems and that's why we're incorporating with companies who know how to build and manage high speed railways but we offer opportunities which are not found anywhere in the world they're going to build thousands of kilometers of high speed . and that's all we have time for in this edition of business i'll be back in about thirty minutes.