vote counting is always in russia's parliamentary election the united russia party is in the lead winning of the georgia scenes in the house but still losing a big share of its previous popular support was. labeled players meet today or strongly the future although pahlka stalin whose role is key to stability in the region boycotts the events of the nato as we said deadly air raid on one of its border posts. gyptian the backing of polling stations for the second round of the country's parliamentary election after admitting stage which saw a win by these limits.

and all in line with international news twenty four hours a day this is our city. russians have had their say in who they want to see in parliament with almost all ballots now counted after sunday's election four parties have made it into the country's lower house the state the ruling united russia party remains by far the largest group but has been dealt a significant setback with a sharp fall in support sarah ferguson central moscow for us with the latest now say makeup of the parliament has changed so how does it look at the moment. well

the figures as it stands at the moment have united russia with just under fifty percent of the vote the communist party just under twenty percent but that russia with around thirteen percent in the live go democratic party with about eleven percent of the stadium a proportional representation which means that the seats that the parties get correspond directly to the percentage of the votes is why these figures are so important and now the election committee is actually given early results what would the allocation of seats in the duma could look like at the moment the need to make up could have united russia with two hundred and thirty eight states that the communist party with ninety two seats that russia with sixty four states and the liberal democratic party with fifty six states now there were major the votes and still have to be counted it was a united russia has retained its lead you can see that it lost to save rule

a parliamentary majority that it enjoyed the last four years you can pad the biggest back then they had sixty four percent of the vote and that gave them three hundred fifteen fate as four hundred fifty seats in total in the dba they would have needed three hundred seats at this time to have a majority there also would have been some seats available for the parties had they been able to reach the five to six the third margin threshold of the none of the parties to the closest thing you blew because they came in about three percent a fully faucheux and there's remaining face to face allocated amongst the policies of it of course that is going to bring about some changes in the political balance in the stadium of. sound and there's been reports of violations during the very well what do you know about. well of course the election protests was monitored extremely closely yesterday throughout the day and around the country around hasa million of service from competing parties and around seven hundred

international observers now they've been given that the by. today as the mixed messages was they said that the election process i was certainly well organized i went ahead smoothly that had the criticisms that the reports of violations removed the parties in the process we can hear now from john looking from the institute for democracy and corporation giving his take on the election process. is a long record of highly politicized election observations and of making politically inflammatory statements it would be very interesting to ask you if she when they drew up the draft report on the elections did it as it usually goes drew up a draft report before the election even took place because that is the usual practice in other words these statements that we have now on monday morning may not therefore be based on actual observations bites observers. that person if they did that all those allegations will be looked into. as we said the mix mixed feedback

that from those international monitors the still remaining to be counted you can already see that lost support for the ruling party to make elation as to the reasons that that some people saying simply that a party that's being imposed the so long ok lead to political and economic stagnation but admit those schools the change of of course we see other results in asia lowly was also some of the. biggest and certainly looks like there will be some changes in the stadium or in the political balances in the makeup of the lower house of parliament like a ceremony thanks but also there with the latest on the election results for us are from central moscow. political analyst told r.t. despite an apparent plunge in popularity united russia wolf to be able to carry out its reforms which will most likely be liberal ones. 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 a least ten or eleven million less not all the votes are counted so maybe that figure will reach twelve media so there are twelve million disillusioned people that i'm not sure they've ordered for either party so a lot of them probably just didn't come to a halt it's one of the paradox of people who have all to. actually ended up supporting united russia but i don't view it as very absurd because actually the economic suggestions of liberals are fulfilled by united russia look at the people who advise united russia on economy all of them are diehard. economists. who are helping you to keep your finger on the pulse of developments is counting continues in the russian parliamentary elections later in the day we expect the announcement of official preliminary results and comment from international observers in you can also try these latest figures yourself on our web site that's

dot com. other news now and russia's foreign ministry has downgraded relations with qatar following an incident in which the russian ambassador to the country was assaulted by border security guards then boys to leave the country seeing sean thomas has the details. down upgraded relations with qatar this comes after an incident in the doha airport on the twenty ninth of november when the ambassador with two of his colleagues were trying to pass through security with a parcel of diplomatic mail now that parcel is expected to go through without any problems but they tried to x. rated which is against diplomatic normalcy the security forces tried to take this package away from the diplomats which caused harm to the diplomats the ambassador

and two of the people traveling with him now the ambassador is in hospital and is expected to make it back to here and soon as he has recovered from the attack it is no secret that moscow is not happy with what they believe are actions in instigating and in antagonizing efforts in the arab spring in fact if you go back a tool libya it is along been the position of sergei lavrov the foreign minister here in russia saying that guitar is responsible in helping to arm the rebels in libya which is antagonize that situation further currently in syria it's a long been the position of russia that if there are going to be diplomatic sanctions they have to be across the board to both the government and the rebels so there's been a long tension between russia and qatar this latest development is just furthering those tensions. and ahead this hour on british m.p.'s teaming up to make.

us a level playing field. equal. the case of the. wager with the. u.k. . among. business program and in minutes. time to find out how russia's elections result may back the country's economy. egyptians are having a balance in the polls for the second round of their post revolution a parliamentary election islam is parties have taken and they were well need to after the opening round with the muslim brotherhood freedom and justice party reportedly winning a summit forty percent of the vote for more now on what this means for egypt and others let's start to transpire from the center for global research in

international affairs and a columnist for the jerusalem post about something without a spine out of the first round of voting as you just say the muslim brotherhood claimed the largest percentage of the votes was this expected. yes it was expected as i think many of the most prescient analysts at least of the middle east and that goes for in the region itself in israel and also in the west saw very clearly that the muslim brothers were likely to do well in these elections had advances precisely for a couple of reasons firstly because they were the most well organized force on the ground organize not just in the cities but also in the rural areas right the way down to the small villages and communities no other political party could match that firstly and secondly because we have the track record now that when free elections are held in the arabic speaking world at the current time islamist parties tend seven advances tend to do well so i think for both of those reasons it was quite predictable that it was to brothers would do well it was predicted in certain areas other analysts i think had some more fanciful and optimistic hopes

and suggestions but i think people look in the situation clearly in the face could see is going to happen and indeed their predictions have been realized in reality so with islam this party is most likely to come to power in egypt how do you think this will affect the country's relationship with its neighbors in the region including of course israel. well with regard to israel i think it's clear that we are in the middle of a process right at the moment we don't know what it's going to look like when the dust finally settles because of course even when the parliamentary elections are concluded and as you correctly in your report correctly pointed out this is only stage one in them even when the parliamentary elections are concluded the egyptian parliament will have no control has no control over egyptian foreign or security policy so the muslim brothers even if they control the parliament together with the salafist perhaps or whoever they choose to ally with won't be able to impact on foreign policy for a while yet will have to wait till the presidential elections which of course do in

the summer of next year into two thousand and twelve at that point should the islamists the muslim brothers when those elections too should an islamist president come to power in egypt then i think we could be looking at a very new situation and then i generally think from an israeli point of view we could be into a whole new situation having said that even a muslim brothers president even the brothers parliament will still be faced with a very key and the economic problems of egypt which may well preclude a complete turnaround in egyptian foreign policy we don't quite know just how realistic or unrealistic or ideological a muslim brothers control of egypt will be so we're probably going to find out we're certainly going to have to wait and see let's talk about some of these internal problems egyptians are calling for a new form of more open government after decades of miniature control what can they expecting think in terms of changes if any after their state. well with regard to this vote it does depend very much on who the muslim brothers who will have the control the controlling presence in the parliament choose to

align with if they choose to ally with the. party which of course did unexpectedly well winning around twenty percent of the of the vote if they choose to ally with them then i think we secular egyptians that is to say will have a great deal to be concerned about because then i think we could very well see an attempt to begin to implement sharia law in all sorts of areas of life on the other hand the muslim brothers as they suggested they may do choose to ally with liberal forces in the parliament allowing the. extremism is to become the opposition then this process will be much slower and more nuanced but i do think that we should be very careful about taking too seriously the more soothing statements that are coming out of the most and brotherhood at the moment it is a very clearly ideological movement that has the desire to implement sharia law as the basis of the state in the medium or long term or short term depending on what's possible so the long term is clear the short term will depend on the tactical decisions taken by the brothers through the choose to align international media

basically in the west and create to say that this fact has been transparent but there have also been a large number of claims of violations from party then egypt want to make affairs. well i think we really have to wait and see as we only only yesterday do we have the official results being being announced so i think we have to wait and see and examine the evidence as it comes in but certainly in a vase and very poor and difficult to control and poorly governed country and society such as egypt it is an immensely difficult thing to organize a genuinely transparent election there is no deep culture of democracy in the sense there's no real experience with free elections in the past and there are many ideological parties who commitment to democracy is i would say quite thin or very thin indeed which means given that reality it should not be at all surprising if we go on to discover new evidence emerges of serious electoral malpractise and that this. is arthur spier from the global recession international fair center and

a columnist and post many thanks for speaking to us here on. the future course of afghanistan is being debated at a conference in germany with delegates from king countries attending except one crucial one pakistan is boycotting it in the latest sign of a deepening crisis in its relations with the u.s. when it follows the recent deadly nato air raid on a pakistani border pace which killed twenty four of its soldiers on tuesday got a person off reports. some of the key political figures like u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton and russia's foreign minister said go after all are taking part this is the second such conference being held in germany the first one happened exactly ten years ago back then the delegates were working on the rebuilding of the honest and we storing peace in the country building democratic institutions and so on and unfortunately ten years later some of these issues still

remain and probably one of the most troubling ones is still security especially in light of the alliance of plans to start pulling its forces out in twenty fourteen it's widely believed that afghanistan on its own can provide security to straighten and ganesan in general is still very complicated there's the taliban threat their drug trafficking very poor living conditions for the locals who are also increasingly tired and often even angered by foreign military presence by this town is a very important country in the region is the key port of washington or at least it used to be it's also right there next to afghanistan 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 for more on the situation here's a report by my colleague. on the. 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 islamic bought cut off one of the alliances major supply routes to again he says that. i would like to extend my most sincere condolences. but to pakistan washington's condolences were not enough he 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's stand running nato relies more on its other major supply route coming from the more. here it is the northern distribution network you see all these blue lines and here is the route that pakistan shut down now the northern supply network was started when

russia agreed to provide its territory and air space for transit of not only thought 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 on 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 as being key to nato operations that. i set down with professor michael lee hoss 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. to pakistanis but it's more vulnerable to russia i mean if russia were to withdraw its permission for us to use

its rewards 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. 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 the refuse any leverage it has to be heard by its partner but even the mere possibility 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. . but we have already you know a debate on afghanistan right here on aussie they stay the ten years of american presence that has achieved them what's ahead when they to leave it's the focus of our cross talk show has a preview. on almost any. parameter you want to charge it things have got worse for the afghan people over the last ten years the infrastructure is on the differences and so i've got to justify it if you're if you're metrics have to i'm not going to nation is what i'm trying to you're not according to the reuters poll which shows that afghanistan is the most dangerous country in the world for women. of the sort of logical problems that polling cows in countries with poor infrastructure but the

objective was very exactly although exactly so it's very hard to find it's true you're right it's very hard to get any facts in afghanistan because the country's too dangerous for anyone to go out of kabul. and b. the infrastructure is indeed destroyed. now british m.p.'s are stating a debate seeking the urgent renegotiation of what they see as a biased extradition treaty with the us agreed in the chaotic aftermath of nine eleven it allows washington to demand the extradition of any u.k. thought is that without evidence of any crime and britain is bound to comply but as i have a better reports from london patience is running. 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. feeling 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.

has 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 aren't 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 use and no 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 his. mother should be tried in the u.k. on medical grounds but america's not giving up one of their most wanted is so vengeful. you think uses some of the large and it is so over the top they left him

one is internet 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 are 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 u.s. can still get their man the coalition government promised to change this while in opposition there was their chance to deliver on the bennett r.t. london. interview and sport is still ahead this hour about when we have our top stories in just a few minutes before that it's going to business round up with media.

hello and a very warm welcome to the program and russia's parliamentary elections also the focus of the preparedness program and as we've been reporting united russia will face a beefed up opposition in the new parliament this may lead to changes in economic policy as charles robertson from the nation's capital explains. that depends on how they interpret these results you have the big shift coming to support up to around twenty percent a mere doubling there's two ways to interpret that one it's a protest vote it's a vote for an opposition party that's always been against the kremlin through the ninety's and the two thousand is. if they interpret it that way then the government should continue reform should be trying to do its best to boost growth and money would best spend then by putting it into infrastructure projects for example and reining back some of the huge increases they've already done on pensions and social spending if however they see this is

a positive vote for the communist party opposed to vote for war social spending and the threat. from the markets perception the threat will be higher spending by the government will start to raise interest rates for what the government has to pay. let's have a look at the markets now oil is trading high on speculation that tensions 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 and another boost is coming from europe where a new the challenge prime minister mario monti plans to spend thirty billion euros on a sweeping austerity package. european markets are quite a bit in late morning trade with banking shares in the lead the footsie and the dexa gaining more than half a percent this hour investors are looking ahead to a meeting between french president nicolas sarkozy and german chancellor angela merkel to prepare for a key european summit later in the week. on the russian markets posting modest

gains this solved my six is flat but the r.t.s. is gaining point four percent that's not have a look at some of the individual share moves in the mice it's most oil majors are on the rise supported by stronger crude oil gaining points seventy percent of gas from the flight the company has finalized belorussians. gas pipeline or brighter. and they're all cyclical is gaming point eight percent the sound. hole russia is the largest country in the world and is home to the second biggest railway system after that of the united states but the lack of high speed trains means the railways is no alternative to flying speaking and frost the head of russian railways like to me corn has invited foreign railway giants to help change the situation. we're going to hold a tender in building the country's first high speed rail road the next year but it's an absolutely new project russia will foresee a lot of problems and that's why we're just incorporating with companies who know

how to build and manage high speed rail ways but if we offer opportunities which are not found anywhere in the world is there going to be thousands of kilometers of high speed routes. that's it for now york to date but you can always find more stores in our website that's our two dot com slash business. thank.

you. if. the. wealthy british style. is the time to write something. like that.