find out what's really happening to the global economy is a report on. russia's parliamentary election the united russia party is in the lead to winning the majority of seats in the lower house but still losing a big share of its previous popular support we bring you up to date with the latest . moscow downgrades diplomatic ties with qatar after the russian ambassador to the country's assaulted by airport security claims the incident could be linked to moscow's position on syria. and its global players made to decide the future of afghanistan and pakistan who throws key for stability in the region boycotts the event of a nato recent deadly raid on one of its border. welcome

this is r t it's midnight here in moscow my name's kevin owen with you this top story russians have had their say and 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 a big deal a significant setback with a sharp fall in support peter all of us in central moscow. united russia taking the majority of the vote the communists coming in second and third place i fear russia with the liberal democrats now the rest of the parties that i haven't named there

they failed to get the required percent of the vote 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 half 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 failed to meet the threshold they were distributed between those four parties united russia actually have over fifty percent of the seats we're hearing from united russia party leadership is that they are willing to form coalitions jury this duma will 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 we've seen protests and rallies on election day around the country know they were in cities like moscow and st petersburg we saw

the biggest of these these rallies were suddenly in me were 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 hundred 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 on particularly well founded the o.e.c.d. has a long record of highly politicized election observations and of making politically inflammatory statements it would be very interesting to ask leo as he when the true of the draft report on the net. did it as it usually goes draw up a draft report before the election even to please 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 our locations 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 peter all of a number of rallies have taken place all across moscow on monday in reaction to russia's parliamentary election supporters of the ruling united russia party of big praising the way the poll when rival political groups have been protesting against it about five thousand activists from smaller opposition parties gathered to protest what they see as an unfair election several dozen people were detained as the amount of people gathered was above approved limits and protesters were blamed for blocking traffic in the busy city center. because we're getting plenty of international perspective on the election here on r t with united russia having lost the support of ten to twelve million people this time around some european

analysts believe that despite that the party will still be able to ensure stability something that russia's foreign partners are looking for in their relations with the country. a lot of things that positively was sure the said about them has been pressed over the rationalizations that are going in the direction of people who believe that there are bridges that everything will stay in russia that this the ability will be there and with their local team europe for their fire and the present a legend sixty years of the russia which we know off hand in support of the force not on the tool or on the kind of energy dialogue g alliance with russia or of the european union who are getting more of the pendant on the experts importance of gas from outside but service of the recent developments of the interesting and china or of the year or as the helps of assistance and overcoming the crisis of the leafs of the european union this now so we have to take a fresh look at the national economy of the possibility of the essence of russia

which russia can offer the european union to solve its all crisis and this will be an interesting theme and is the subject of the best of political operation in the couple of months the car will help you keep your finger on the pulse of developments says candy continues in the russian parliamentary election you can track all the latest facts figures and analysis on our website dot com. good morning has now russia's foreign ministries downgraded relations with qatar after an instant in which the russian ambassador to the country was assaulted by border security guards the envoys to leave the country soon now to sean thomas reports. 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 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 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. is not happy with what they believe are actions in instigating and antagonizing efforts in the arab spring in fact if you go back. it is a long position of sergey lavrov the foreign minister here in russia saying. is responsible in helping to arm the rebels in libya which is antagonize that situation. in syria 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 the latest development is just furthering those tensions. to the independent. intentionally souring relations with russia. there is no way that something something like that could not have taken place without the people involved having known exactly what they were doing and it really is an egregious affront to all diplomatic relations so one has to imagine that this is a major diplomatic incident and not one that will be smoothed over and very easily one sees in the recent recent events especially over the last several months as qatar has become the head the rotational head of the arab league one has seen them taking on a much more prominent role in the region they were instrumental apparently in getting syria. kicked out of the arab league and just as they were instrumental in

getting libya kicked out shortly before the arab league decided that humanitarian intervention was in order for libya so it is it seems like. qatar has been coming into its own recently and taking on more of an aggressive stance in general and i think we can see this is an extension of that general policy. egyptians are heading back to the polls for the second round of their post revolution parliamentary election there is a missive taken overwhelming lead after the opening round with the muslim brotherhood's freedom and justice party reportedly winning forty percent of the vote the future of egypt depends on who the brotherhood chooses to align with now according to the spire from the center for global research in international affairs . 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 we'll 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 win those elections too should an islamist president

come to power in egypt that we could be looking at a very new situation with regard to this vote it does depend very much on who the muslim brothers who will have the controlling presence in the parliament choose to align if they choose to ally with the. feet party which of course did unexpectedly well winning around twenty percent 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. still ahead for this hour on our table british m.p.'s teaming up to make extradition policy with the us a level playing field. we need to make sure that we are being equal and we are being fair to our citizens and that is not the case of the boat outrage with a controversial treaty that allows any british citizen to be handed over to washington even without any evidence being shown europe or. next the eaves to most powerful leaders but they share a single nickname for their recurring attempts to try and hammer out a eurozone rescue plan between just the pair of them the french and german leaders

are pushing for a new e.u. treaty at a meeting in paris could lead to the creation of a fiscal union for euro zone states recently and tied a european union the plans already been described as an intervention in country's national budgets which will be strictly controlled by brussels despite the fact for young of the investment firm d.v. advisors he says easily does a simply creating an illusion of action. everything greek has been devalued for the course of the last year or 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're 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 me here here 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 off for what they've done in the euro so what do we find nearly a decade later well we've got you know this physicist 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 has changed no one wants to obey the rules and france and germany are trying to dictate on the rest of europe how the should run their economies under sensually coral's of them have their own domestic political difficulties that are causing problems. they're going to websites a place to go for many more stories from us to check out a couple online for you right now stadium storm thousands of sports fans of the

u.s. state of oklahoma rush out of the pitch to celebrate victory but as you can see there and of course in such a crush and also tearing down the goalpost couple pictures online and a world war two more than six decades after it ended find out about the forty five thousand people evacuated from a german city as experts work to defuse two bombs a massive one point a ton british explosives and a small american. the future of afghanistan has been at stake at a conference in germany with delegates from key countries attending except one crucial one pakistan has boycotted 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 got his gun off brings you up today this is the second such conference being held in 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 the situation in ganesan in general is still very complicated there is the taliban threat. drug trafficking very poor living conditions for the locals who are also increasingly tired and often even angered by foreign military 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 it's suspended the transit of supplies for the airlines

through its territory this ports washington in a really difficult position since it will have to look for other partners in the region called helen a columnist at foreign policy in focus magazine thinks the u.s. is playing a dangerous and reckless game in its policy for the region. the attack itself it's hard to see that as an accident because of the way that it took place and then the response of washington afterwards i think what's happened is that the united states has made some decisions about its strategy in the region both in central asia and in the south in south asia that essentially is going to cut pakistan out of the formula and i don't think united states cure is very much what's going to happen after withdraws its troops in two thousand and fourteen and i think they would rather not withdraw their troops which is the nub of the problem because just on november second russia china iran and pakistan had

a meeting in istanbul which they all agreed that they would pressure the united states not to leave troops in afghanistan and i find it very difficult to imagine it is fallout in relations between pakistan and the united states is not somehow try to that position i think this i think this chessboard is much broader than we than we imagine it to be and that it includes really multiple zones some of them world wide. elsewhere around the world tonight barricades have been set up by pro-democracy protesters in syria blocking a roadway leading to activists say the piles of gravel and burning deborah to show their position to the deployment of state security forces in the region it comes as damascus agreed to an arab league request to allow observers into the country as part of a peace plan that's been a key demand which the league has repeatedly pushed for. wiki leaks founder julian sanchez that won the right to have his case against extradition to sweden heard by

the u.k. supreme court now he lost the high court battle last month to hold his removal for questioning over alleged sex offenses a son says his case is politically motivated and is linked with the release of thousands of classified u.s. diplomatic cables to whistleblower. now as a fortnight in which to formally lodge an appeal being a stay in britain certain to stretch into twenty twelve. week after being extradited to the netherlands for brive rico state of law was appeared at the international criminal court he became the first former head of state to face judges at the court prosecutors say around three thousand people died in the violence that followed by was released to concede electoral defeat last year but has been charged with crimes against humanity including rape and. british m.p.'s are staging a debate seeking we're going to go see a show of what they see as a biased extradition treaty with the united states agreed in the chaotic aftermath of nine eleven it allows washington to demand the extradition of any u.k.

citizen without evidence of any crime and britain's bound to comply but it's not easy either bennett reports from london next patience is running low. 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 us to take people from the u.k. than 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 a parliamentary vote and what they called an injustice was a mistake in the first place despite its treaties 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 of 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 seeing 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 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 on one of their most wanted is so vengeful there you think uses some of the widen it is so over the top they left him one is entering it three and a half years after the arrest if gary was this latest 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 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. next is international pressure mounts on syria parties over bernard talks to all of britain's foremost journalist jonathan steele of the guardian newspaper for his take on possible solutions to the country's ongoing political crisis. i'm joined by jonathan steele former chief correspondent of the guardian newspaper now a commentator on international affairs jonathan thanks for speaking to r.t.

now the recently been approached by the king of jordan to spearhead a diplomatic offensive against assad william hague the foreign secretary is now met with opposition leaders is this the preamble to another libyan start intervention. it could be i mean we can't be sure and i think it's dangerous it might be i mean they're trying to be hague's message to the opposition is to get your act together unite on a common platform in other words to turn yourself much more like the libyan opposition who the government also talked to and then eventually recognized as the official government of libya so i think it is the first stage to trying to recognize the opposition what must the opposition now do to gain recognition as their militarization made it easier to achieve that well i think the unity thing which was going on about is what they want they want to sort of feel as united platform so they know who they're dealing with they don't want a lot of different competing groups but the question is what will the platform be is it going to be a very hardline platform that keeps repeating that assad must go or would it be

a platform that says we need dialogue and and a transition which is peaceful rather than civil war and armed struggle like in libya so that's very important. the the other thing is is whether they will try the tactic of saying we have to protect civilians you know the benghazi syndrome if they could say the city of hama. needs protection. you know it could have a no fly zone over that city and then the again the thin end of the wedge which would move to becoming full scale support for one side and civil war the trouble is of course that hama and homs the two cities that have the most fighting are not on the sea because it was on the coast in libya that made it much easier to have a no fly zone and then to start bringing in ships bringing weapons and supplies and all the rest of it more difficult in syria unless they nominate one of the coastal

cities or the mediterranean and the safe zone but it's a bit unlikely at the moment because those cities been relatively quiet in this uprising the arab league's already suspended syria and recently said that three deals made and that's now passed these attempts were portrayed as last ditch a tense that conventional diplomacy but could they not do more to mediate isn't that their role. yes i mean very keep saying that assad should have dialogue with the opposition but the opposition including the people that hague was meeting in london this week. are getting stuck they just simply say assad must go and that's also the line of the british government of the french government and the u.s. government i mean they should be putting the same pressure on the opposition to enter a dialogue as they're putting on the government in damascus i mean it's ridiculous to say one side will start talking who's going to talk to if the other side refuses they seem to be siding with the sounds opponents they want why do you think that is well i think they've decided that. it's

a lost cause in the sense that they don't like his links to hezbollah in lebanon they don't like the fact that he is sort of in the front line of. opposition to israel you know jordan and egypt have their treaties with with his old syria as the only country with a sort of long border. with israel it is not sort of peace at the moment and so they don't like that and syria has quite good relations with iran. so they've decided i think that it's almost like a proxy war against iran if you can topple assad it's like it's considered to be a sort of proxy of blow against the government in iran so it is the fear of iran really outweigh any concern of syria descending into civil war well i'm not even sure it's fear. are they really afraid of iran i think it's more that they want to undermine the regime in iran and i think i think it's hostility to iran i would say rather than fear of because what is there to be afraid of with iran you know the

only thing is this question of nuclear weapons which is still a long way down the line before iran would have a deliverable nuclear weapon it's first got to create the warheads on the weapons if it's building them and then it's got to have the delivery system that could transport these things safely and you know drop them. position and father the right target. which is some way off so there's no reason to be really afraid of iran on the other hand they present a status certainly committed some terrible atrocities against his own people is that initial crackdown not to blame for the current situation well i think that's why you need mediation i mean assad has made terrible mistakes and a lot of people have been killed by the security forces and obviously the families and friends of those people you know if you explain your anger and they just want to disappear. so you can see why it's difficult but that's why you need mediation just to invite people say come to my office and we'll sit down and we'll talk about

things it may be too late for that because there's so much suspicion so that's why the arab league ideally should be the mediators coming in and meeting each side separately pabst initially said what are you willing to give concessions to move. to comp some point they want to come. together but may need outside mediation ideally by the arab and if not by the united nations but i think one of the things that should be on the table is immunity for us so he's not going to give up power peacefully when he sees what's happened to mubarak. prison or house arrest in his case hospital arrest because he's ill trial or the gadhafi precedent which is to be lynched in the street on you tube. you know that's not so you need immunity and actually we've got a very good model in yemen they've agreed to signed a deal which the arabs brokered the saudi arabians brokered whereby president saleh

has now given up power. immunity for his family and himself under transition to a new elections within the next few months both parliament and for president it's a very good model now why can't the saudis who did that with yemen do the same thing for syria what have countries like the u.k. france america got to gain with syria here there's no oil wealth is it purely it's pretty thick location or is the iran question is the ante very near and thing on the feeling that the. unreliable on the israeli question. that he's sort of they've had intermittent talks with assad but. they've never reached a peace agreement is not just because the israeli line is also very are hot and so both sides of the two possible to agree jonathan stay on thank you.