sure is that so much of. what you look like you have a real. continuity united russia is long gone when it's over the countries of the world politics you said undergo significant transformation want. to see vote counting is almost over in russia's parliamentary election the united russia party is in the lead winning the majority of seats in the lower house but still there isn't a big share of its previous popular support we've got the latest for you. moscow downgrades diplomatic ties with qatar after the russian ambassador to the country is assaulted by airport security with claims the incident could be linked to moscow's position on syria. and his global players need to decide the future of afghanistan pakistan whose role is key to stability in the region boycotts the events of the nato recent deadly air raid on one of its border posts.

welcome this is r t it's nine pm monday night here in moscow is kevin zero in with you this hour and our top story russians have had their say in who they want to see in parliament. with almost all ballots counted after sunday's parliamentary election four parties have made it into the country's lower house the state duma the ruling united russia party remains by far the largest group but it's been dealt a significant setback with a sharp fall in support of his paper all of his in central moscow. united russia taking the majority of the vote the communists coming in second in third place i

fear russia with the liberal democrats for now the rest of the parties that i haven't named there they failed to get the required percent of the votes in order to take a place in the duma united russia currently around forty nine percent of the vote they don't have and passed the all important fifty percent mark that's a psychological barrier to say that hof of the country is on side with them now even though they haven't passed the us mark due to the seats from the parties that fail to meet the threshold they were distributed between those four parties united russia actually have over fifty percent of the seats what this means is they can pass just about any law which they want to skits to me without having to form a coalition with one of the other parties so they don't need to form a coalition before we're hearing from united russia party leadership is that they are willing to form coalitions during this duma though they've said that it will depend on the individual issue at hand as well as the political party all parties

are making accusations of vote rigging intellectual fraud in this poll these range from people voting more than once to the use of invisible ink on some ballot papers but what we're hearing from international observers is that i think it pardon me what we have seen as well as we've seen protests and rallies on election day around the country though they were in cities like moscow and st petersburg we saw the biggest of these these rallies were. they were warned to particular political party or another others not just against political parties but also against the election as a whole know during these rallies in st petersburg and moscow what we we saw well around several several hundreds of arrests now the international observers who are looking at the election. some have suggested that they were. violations when it comes to the fairness of the election other international observers have said that those

accusations aren't particularly well founded the oversea has a long record of highly politicized election observations and of making politically inflammatory statements it would be very interesting to ask lee who is he when the true are the draft report of the image did it as it usually goes draw up a draft report before the election even too late because that is the usual practice in other words these this statement that we have now on monday morning may not therefore be based on actual observations by its observers president dmitri medvedev has said that any allegations in all allegations of electoral fraud will be investigated by russian law enforcement and anybody found guilty of infringements will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law well meantime several rallies have taken place all over moscow on monday in reaction to russia's parliamentary election supporters of the ruling united russia party have been praising the way the poll wed opposition have been protesting against it and

activists from smaller opposition groups gathered to protest what they see as an unfair election events been authorized by the authorities several dozen people have been detained because they were blocking traffic i get some international perspective on the newly elected duma talked to dr andrew c. could chin's a russian expert from the us space center for strategic and international studies dr frank surveyed on the program could see there united russia has lost the support has made of ten to twelve million people in the country compared to the previous election why do you think that happened. i think the russian electorate is changing and clearly a significant portion of the russian electorate is not satisfied as they were four years ago with the state of affairs and how the leading party and the ruling elite were were governing were governing russia. this is a very mediocre performance for united russia and i think suddenly russian politics

look quite a bit more interesting than they had for the past several years. technically nonetheless it does look like at the moment with the majority of votes counted the united russia will still be able to change laws without the support of other parties yet the same breath that says that the new pilot will be more about discussions what do you read into that. well i think it did to it looks in a sense this is a healthy sign that this is a it will be a more pluralistic duma the russian politics are becoming more popular pluralistic and competitive. this is a this is a positive development and i think it does make the presidential elections coming up in march more interesting as well to see what he expected he changes at the way you united russia what will it be listening to the electorate and trying to bring in more votes in future do you think and now the way the look of parliament has changed at it could that affect russia's relation to the country. well i think the

united russia and the existing government are going to have to listen more carefully to the russian electorate i think the russian the russian electorate the russian people are changing and this is principally i think a result of the increasing prosperity in the country and with prosperity people tend to tend to demand better governance less corruption better deliverance of social wealth wealth for goods better governance it's cetera so they're going to have to be more attentive to this in the future as to i don't expect that at this point that there will be significant changes in russian foreign policy as a result of the of the change in the duma but i think that you know one must be attuned to the possibility of you know more significant change and this as i said i think russian society is changing that's what this that's what this election reflects obviously the the ruling elites were not thrown out of power as they have

been in other countries in europe and the middle east recently but it's a warning sign to mr putin has got to the government as well as to the united russia party. one thing that united russia got very very much right to do a lot of people steering the country through the global financial crisis over the last couple of days western nations then on the last edition about the opposition groups in russia why did they take that course. i'm sorry kevin i can you repeat the question but it's going to say one thing that united russia did very well was to guide russia through all the financial instability turbulence we've seen around the rest of the world of the last couple of years now the last western nations traditionally back the opposition groups in russia why did the western nations choose that path. well i don't think it's quite accurate to say the western nations of backed opposition groups in russia i think nations including the

united states want to see actions in russia and elsewhere undertaken under is fair and free conditions as possible and let the russian people decide about what what what is what is happening and what they want the other big issue no matter who's in charge of course all parties taking part in the election highlighting the issue of reducing russia's dependence new feature on natural resources what could the impact of that be for western countries in terms of the balance the global economy. well you know i think that the russian economy is you know for the foreseeable future is still going to be. dependent for the most to a great extent on the development of its natural resource base that's russia's comparative advantage the challenge for russia is how you do that the most efficient and effective way possible and then how the revenue from those from those industries are are developed are distributed is second secondly yes you want to see

greater diversification of development of other other industries but that has to be done pretty pretty carefully otherwise you may find you may be spending a lot of money on subsidies and. inefficient way which is not actually very economical so it's a it's a careful balance you want to have more diversified sources of wealth but the way you do that it's not easy especially when commodity prices around the world are relatively so high that makes the it that much more difficult for russia or any other country that's depended upon natural resources to diversify live from washington dr andrew c. coaches thank you very much my pleasure. now wealthy of course keep your finger on the pulse of developments as country continues in the russian parliamentary election we've got more reaction to come throughout the night you can also keep track of the latest facts figures analysis on a website. and

other news tonight russia's foreign ministry has downgraded relations with cats after an incident in which the russian ambassador to the country was assaulted by border security guards the envoys to leave the country soon thomas has got the story. down graded 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. ray 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 to libya it is along been the position of sergei lavrov the foreign minister here in russia saying they are is responsible in helping to arm the rebels in libya which is antagonize that situation further currently in syria it's long been the position of russia that if there are going to be diplomatic sanctions that 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. he's professor of political science university. good evening russia's outraged diplomat in effect.

could it have do you think without some kind of tacit approval from senior could tare authorities. we're saying here that russia is outraged at diplomat in effect. could this have happened without some kind of tacit approval from saying it could tolerate authorities. actually what happened today in. russia. could not be far from. it should be and. what happened with russian. anyhow what happened to the russians of today it is a violation surely to. state.

that diplomats are something against what qatar and all the international community for. them and so the next question is why why did this happen when russia holds a firm stance and it's not going to support any intervention in syria could that be the reason why qatar would want to spoil relations with russia do you think i think that qatar is not happy with russian rule in. middle east particularly. regarding the. syrian issue qatar is not happy at all with with the russian federation. in syria and qatar to try to dominate. it's to make it so that i'm in a meeting in the region it is a conflict between russia and foreign policy in the region and qatar and america

and the west. gallian says in the region because it was largo that carter was in the headlines again thinking where libya now we've heard reports that mercenaries from qatar were reportedly sent to fight alongside the rebels why is cats increasing its involvement in that area right now. look qatar is a very small country its population less than half million but qatar is a trying its best to have. such. a region but it's a couple it is political or military or economic bill it is in the region it's so small in that regard regarding to other. states or regarding to the great powers in the world like russia. states but russia is depending

on two things the first one. relation with the muslim brotherhood russia saudi qatar qatar has close relation with the muslim brotherhood they supported them since. more than a decade and its support is very clear in all the region in egypt in libya and tunisia. in palestine everywhere. second thing that qatar established. this broadcasting stablished broadcasting which is involved and al-jazeera and nobody can ignore that it affected our opinion and. best methods regarding all the issues in the. region particularly the palestinian that the police. issue so. it is of the state it is a very small a state but it's. just wrong according to the muslim brotherhood and we cannot

ignore that this could not be without the agreement from the west particularly from united states and great. change thanks for explaining that to a professor of political science if you are at university in gaza. that the two most powerful leaders but to share a single nickname mirco zafer there are occurring at. to try and hammer out a eurozone rescue plan between just the pair of them the french german leaders angela merkel and nicolas sarkozy pushing for a new treaty at a meeting in paris it could lead to the creation of a fiscal union for euro zone states or even the entire european union the plans already been described as an intervention in countries national budgets which would be strictly controlled by brussels as opposed to patrick young of the investment firm dva advisors he told me leaders is simply creating an illusion of action. everything greek has been devalued for the course of the last year it months well

democracy as we all know is an instant greek world and that too has been quite clearly devalued over the course of this agreement i mean we are seeing here a curious kind of i mean france and germany are basically saying we know best we know how the euro zone should be run and this is what should happen but might be a reasonable idea if their own may hear your had actually been exemplary but for those who look back say a decade we used to have a thing called the stability and growth pact and the stability and growth pact that any person who has a budget deficit of more than three percent of g.d.p. will be strictly strictly told of what they've done in the euro so what do we find nearly a decade later well we've got you know this business has turned girl wonder politician markey and her chair while i was sarky running around saying well what we've

decided is if you run a thirty percent g.d.p. deficit you're going to find yourself in deep trouble nothing's changed no one wants to obey the rules and france and germany are trying to dictate on the rest of europe how this should run their economies under sensually coral's of them have their own domestic political difficulties that are causing problems but now we get our web sites the place to go for many more stories to see we've got lined up for you right now the state here of storm thousands of sports fans in the u.s. state of oklahoma rushing to the pitch to celebrate a victory but at the causing a crush and also tearing down the goalpost. more pictures of lines and i'm also a world war two so after more than six decades after the end they find out about the forty five thousand people evacuated from the german city as experts work to defuse two massive bombs the first one point a tell the british explosives the other a small. the american one again we got the details online called the.

future of afghanistan is at stake at a conference in germany with delegates from key countries attending except one crucial one pakistan is boycotting it in the latest sign of a deepening crisis in its relations with the us it follows the recent deadly nato air raid on a pakistani border post which killed twenty four of its soldiers and he's a gold has gone 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 afghanistan 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's plans to start pulling its forces out in twenty fourteen

it's widely believed that afghanistan on its own can provide security and ganesan in general is still very complicated there is the taliban threat the drug trafficking very poor living conditions for the locals who are also increasingly tired and often even angered by foreign presence pakistan is a very important country in the region is the key partner 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 law 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 whose relations between the u.s. and pakistan as unstable as ever in order to keep the war in afghanistan running mate or relies more on its other major supply route coming from the north. 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 his 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 there. i 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. in 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 of surveillance we would be in a very difficult position in afghanistan the northern supply now work 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 right to use 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.

. just had she got a special report sniper tried the plight of a virgin forest region in the amazon were all giants illegally dumped huge amounts of toxic waste were interesting a thirty minutes coming up for you over you stay with us for that software business right now with you. hello and a very warm welcome to the program and as we've been reporting on the channel sunday's election has shifted the balance of power in the russian parliament a united russia will still be the biggest party but with a much reduced majority here of environments from very much as the measurement says this could have a positive impact on russia's investment climate. if you have a. constitutional majority not only change the laws you can also change the constitution then you have to rely on one person's will and i think no not having a constitutional majority is good it gives the first checks and balances good news

on the other hand we avoid the situation of the ninety's of the ninety's president and lost his elections in the december of ninety three when he could no longer control parliament now the united russia still is a majority it still can pass the laws that are needed but i think this is the last chance and i think they must understand within five years if they do not satisfy the intelligentsia the people they need to modernize the country will be a challenge therefore i'm hopeful that putin two point zero will be aggressive and as reformist as the putin in his first term. let's have a look at how the markets saw performing this our 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 with pursues more pressure on its nuclear program european markets were higher on monday as the italian government agreed to a new package of budgetary measures and the french and german leaders are set to meet later this week for the debt crisis talks. the russian markets this monday's

trading session in the blood both my six and the r.t.s. gained about point eight percent at the close let's have a look at some of the individual shares in the might is its most oil may just more on the rise supported by stronger crude oil gained one point three percent from finished high more than half a percent the company has finalized its acquisition of a russian gas pipeline right about trans gas last nickel rose two percent now burst from their new capital looks at some of the other highlights of the day straight. i think the one that was most unexpected for us was that no it was about three and a half percent and nobody is really you know a play on the oil price and the fact that your prices up would seem to know take you down substantially too surprising for a. i think another thing that's interesting you know just to keep in mind is in the banking system in russia you know the banking system is actually quite well insulated from the european crisis and today you see good performance from the two

big banks of spare bank and beauty and i think that's driven by the fact that people realize you know russia and europe are kind of separate and not really there's no contagion into russia from europe. and in economic news the services sector in russia is growing up the fastest space for five months h.s.b.c.'s purchasing managers index came in at fifty four point eight. and expression is made me being driven by new orders. that's at the mo you're up to date but you can always find more stories that are to dot com slash.

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