a moscow rally in reaction to russia's parliamentary elections descends into an unauthorized march and scuffles with police. cutting back ties with qatar russia responds after its envoys beaten by security forces in doha apparently after kremlin criticism of its u.s. stance on the arab spring revolutions. on the road to ruin the entire eurozone credit ratings are on the block as leaders make a beeline to brussels for a last ditch attempt to salvage the currency. and in the business. of

parliament five years a year longer than the previous one find out why that might be good for business twenty that. with r t welcome to the program with the final results of russia's parliamentary elections still june the overall picture of a brand new board of no makers is already clipped the united russia party has secured the lead but the ruling group has seen a significant drop in popularity that cross live now to the trove of this election russia's taking a bit of a knock how does this change alignment of power in the parliament do you think. well with one hundred percent with almost one hundred percent of the votes counted the ruling party united russia has gone to just under fifty percent of the vote the

communists came in second or third place for russia and the liberal democrats are on the fourth place the other food party is taking part in the vote failed to get the needed her son to ensure a safe seat in the new duma well though not yet final but the results already indicate that the party which has crushingly dominated the country's politics for years is on track to lose its two thirds majority in the duma up for comparison in the two thousand and seven elections united russia got sixty four percent of the vote and these steinmetz failed to get the so-called constitutional majority two thirds of two thirds in the state duma now although they failed to pass that maku due to the policies which failed to meet the threshold of the seats all these parties outside us will be distributed between the winners and united russia will eventually get more than fifty percent of the seats which means that they'll be able to foster at all deals proposed by the cabinet and these they won't need to

form coalitions with any other party or parties however we're hearing from united russia's top brass that they're actually willing to form coalitions during this to lock. down the election results did attract some angry voices didn't it tell us more about the reaction on the street to go through. oh indeed on monday in the central moscow several thousand protesters gathered and vented that frustration with the duma vote police say that from seven hundred to two thousand people came to the rally and unlike other rallies of this time these rally was sanctioned by the authorities that protesters chanted russia needs new elections russia without. revolution shame police didn't intervene in the rally but one hundreds of protesters took to other streets in moscow and tried to disrupt traffic they

faced a police cordon some that resulted in hundreds of arrests a similar situation was inside that is broke on monday were also several thousand protesters want to the streets and they oppose the government some of the protesters. rallied in favor of the song that composition parties are the most the imagine has a muzzle that was a pro you naza russia rally taking place in mosco and that really want along smoothly without incidents i mean all international observers some international observers have been saying that there had been violations and election procedures others are saying that those by lesions were insignificant and that the vote should be considered legitimate and that the several locations aren't actually justified meanwhile present. on monday also commented on that and those accuse ations and said that any. any accusations of actual fraud would be investigated by russian law

enforcement and that those found guilty of an preachments would be prosecuted to the fullest extent. of the china thank you. love from the institute of world economy and international relations believes the moscow protest is deliberately flouted public order and that was a to get attention. the position was given their best square in downtown moscow even though the place they were given was better than the place of the supporters of their united russia the problem was that they wanted to or a block of the traffic in downtown most of which is a very congested walk to. election commission probably is the federal security service which absolutely paralyzes their congested traffic in downtown moscow where they were refused to do this because it was it was not permitted by the city of fishers the idea was to make a show of conflict with police and of course riot police had to stop it or russian

journalist he says when opposition groups start stirring up street trouble political mayhem can follow. the opposition has shown itself and that these are many disparate groups and actually some of the most charismatic quite scary so what we see is not only the rise of street politics but also. the segmentation of difference of a position of forces because from from what i see for on you tube and other social networks people react to it because sometimes. we are in a negative way to what is happening because. you know street politics. sometimes will be really scary and i think that russia's conservative public can read the beginning of sort of street politics as

a sign that they should mobilize finally behind the leader. well we're helping you keep track of developments in russia's parliamentary elections you can get the latest facts figures and analysis on our web site at r.t. dot com. other news now in russia is scaling back its relations with qatar following an attack on its envoy in doha the assault is being linked to moscow's criticism against qatar u.s. backed position on the unrest in syria is gonna chicken reports with washington's weight behind it qatar feels it can get away with anything. a small country with gigantic ambitions qatar with a population of less than two million people embarks on an aggressive plan to shape the air war old playing in tune with washington's policies in the region could

target gain diplomatic weight it never had before they could tyreese feel as if they've got enormous backing and that they've become sort of larger than life as a factor in the politics of the region they're currently the chairman of the arab league and they've used that position to press for the most aggressive kind of action against syria could target became the first gulf nation to close its embassy in syria in july qatar is also reportedly funneling syrian rebels with weapons as it did in libya. the country's cheerleading rolling revolutions in the middle east and north africa has earned qatar cheers and applause in the west or is not only supported diplomatically but is also support of military. and we are for the partnership between our two countries is a model everyone's beginning to notice casa the u.s.

went from once branding the qatar funded al-jazeera a terrorist channel to openly praising al-jazeera al-jazeera has played a key and leading role but qatar has come under increasing criticism from russia for its aggressive involvement in the affairs of other countries in the region last week a daughter airport the washing ambassador to qatar with two other russian embassy officials were physically assaulted by qatari customs and security officers when they made an attempt to confiscate the russian's diplomatic bag because of the incident moscow has downgraded formal relations with qatar they get a sense that anything that they do to really stick a finger in. russia or any of the other bric countries will be applauded in certain circles in the west and rewarded so yeah i think it's all and it's all about that sense that you know they're in the front and russia is not fall into one

around this syria issue these event took place on the same day as russia's foreign ministry criticized qatar for supplying weapons to libyan rebels in violation of a un arms embargo the us which has a military base in the country has qataris backing for its ventures in the region with syria now in play washington is betting high on doha qatar has been put forward as the arab face on this bullying operation tiny qatar empowered by the us is now playing big striving to shape the turbulent region in its favor the incident at the airport with russian diplomats shows what happens when someone gets in their way i'm going to check out reporting from washington r.t. . meanwhile hawkish lawmakers in washington are calling for a review of relations with another ally pakistan they accuse islamabad of supporting terrorist organizations following its freezing corporation that was

triggered by a deadly nato attack on pakistan's border foreign policy. thinks america is planning to leave pakistan by the wayside. 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 care is very much what's going to happen after withdraws its troops in two thousand and fourteen and i think they would rather not do with draw other 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 if this fallout in relations between pakistan and the united states is not somehow

try to that position another area of u.s. interests does face increasing to fanatic isolation iran is a warning against washington back sanctions over its nuclear program which will target its own exports it says they may more than double fuel prices from the from the national iranian american council such sanctions will only choke already stopping western economies. these are saying that. this is the sponsors that actually acknowledge ok this is going to raise gas prices a little bit here in the u.s. it might in my you know take away some jobs here in the u.s. but it's so important that we need to do it even though we've never seen these sanctions actually work meanwhile in europe they've talked about imposing similar same sions actually imposing an embargo on iranian oil exports so that europe would be able to purchase those and it looked like they were going to go through with it until spain italy greece said now hold on we're teetering right now if you actually

raise gas prices here if you cut off our oil imports from iran we're going to go under that's going to create far more damage. then than we could expect from actually pursuing a different course with iran focused on a way out of this sort of escalating confrontation. and more towards diplomacy than just pressure for pressures sake. well you can get the news whatever you want to r.t. dot com including japan's i've watched an expensive super costs must eat ferraris two mercedes and one lamborghini written off what's going to be the world's costliest car crash thankfully no serious injuries because the footage online. and the voyage of russia's martian rover is over before it started the two hundred million dollars probe begins breaking up after being stuck for a month trying to leave earth's orbit the details of that party.

the euro's time is almost up so says one of the big three credit rating agencies as he prepares for a mass euro zone debt downgrade standard and poor's announcement shook international markets and investors cutting and running on european holdings especially worrying for them this time is that even germany seen as the news backbone isn't being spread the agency justified its decision by pointing out the blocks consistent failure to stand its debts is nations that bond interest rates rocket but all is not yet lost movie leaders gathering in brussels on thursday for what expected to be their last chance to come up with a definitive solution. has this report. the euro zone crisis has been good fodder for cartoonists but it's no laughing matter for major rescue

packages numerous unpopular sturdy measures two years and hundreds of billions of euros in bailouts later it's still in need of a shot for the elusive big bazooka solution hopes are high that december ninth e.u. summit will finally be a decisive day for the future german chancellor angela merkel is pushing for a treaty change with a fiscal union as the end goal she wants brussels to have veto powers over national budget plans that breach e.u. limits automatic sanctions for debt violators a date court for repeat offenders. in a word merkel wants to impose discipline french president nicolas sarkozy is generally on the same page but is resisting giving more powers to brussels. whoever pays the piper gets to call the june germany pace we've all of you in the euro zone want to keep the single card safe you must be prepared for that you must be

prepared for giving up your fiscal sovereignty perhaps maybe you can even save some public money by distorting your national finance ministries but this german m.e.p. begs to differ but what is the sovereignty for germany at the moment paying billions and billions of risk there's no sovereignty we are forced to do this because the euro is a reality so basically regaining sovereignty by sharing it on the european level is what the whole operation is about. while germany may be for greater fiscal integration it's dead set against the euro bond idea for fuel country sharing debt and idea pushed by the european commission albeit renaming it stability bonds in effect italy's debt interest rates for example would go down from its worrying six to seven percent level while germany's would go up merkel's response is a resounding no germany won't let the deficit sinners off the hook by taking on

their debt if sarkozy ever got his way he'd like the european central bank to act as a lender of last resort but again merkel said no she won't let the e.c.b. swoop in to save the day at least not until countries learn to keep their finances in check but it's widely seen that the e.c.b. will have to expand its role one way or another and is already considering it and what have other e.u. members who don't use the euro the idea of a two tier europe or the euro zone and the rest doesn't sit well with a major economy like the u.k. that's actually the. euro is successful because a lot of our trade depends on it but on the other hand to us if there's a group a central group which are in the euro as another group which is not who makes up the rules which control the single market. it appears that any plan agreed upon will have to have germany's backing merkel dismissed the idea of germany dominated europe as absurd although that's how it's perceived for better or for worse.

r.t. brussels. from the onset of the euro crisis discussions have been rife about who's to blame for the reckless borrowing that started it all from populist leaders to profit addicted banks feet of escape having the finger pointed at them petition you m.p. called free bloom believes the responsibility lies squarely with germany and france the first people to break the rules i think was in two thousand and three with the french and the germans by breaking the maastricht treaty sixty percent of g.d.p. rule so they've been breaking the rules everybody's people breaking the rules they continue to break the rules so the whole thing is a complete shambles and they're trying to strap sell it it's all over it but it's not working the thing is we are now what we're seeing the end game it's over. if the euro had been a hole so they would have shot it under professional economists i've been thirty five years of professional economists this isn't about politics this is be about economics and i've never known in the history of the world politics beat economics

that water doesn't flow uphill that's long and short of it forget my politics it doesn't really matter the long and short of it is this project is doomed to failure it was always student of failure and moreover i would have the people responsible i would have the reigned i would have a fiscal crimes tribunals i would like to see some of these people sent to prison. various smiting attempts in europe to harmonize its finances market on the run it has to ride some international investors are making record profits from the chaos the ethics of that time and discussions and kaiser report on there that there are some thirty g.m.t. . bank breaks the law they change the law if the government is failing to do what they were elected to do they change the definition of what it is they're supposed to be doing or they change the statistics that they are reporting to somehow reflect them in a better light because this is how in fact they make money they probe the globe's

financial orifices and they root out all the detritus that they find there as collateral for five hundred trillion dollars worth of anus collateralized j.p. morgan strength or bonds which are the basis for jamie diamond's christmas bonus happy christmas you ain't is digging loser. to the heart of the e.u. there's one place that's long been struggling to achieve a much talked about unity until now belgium finally has a new government to recuperate. in two days of its. socialist leader leave to take charge of the new coalition to some reforms and cuts to benson's between the economy last government's quittin twenty turn the boat into a zone of ten of the speeds. ivory coast's deposed

president has appeared in the hague on war crimes charges. plunged the country to civil war after a few seem to accept defeat in last year's election resulting in around three thousand deaths one he accepted when interventional took power after french and u.n. forces moved in there was plenty of evidence last week is the first ever x. head of state to appear at the tribunals. a series of bomb blasts of torn through crowds of pilgrims in central iraq killing up to thirty three people mostly women and children more than eighty others were injured as they gathered during a religious festival the violence comes amid concerns over the future of iraqi security once nato was through with its troops in a week's time. now the pristine tropical forests of the amazon in the renowned as the lungs of our planet but as we'll hear later today all that is that risk with the relentless march of energy giants in the hunt for oil.

but spotlight shortly the i left in moscow explains how europe's turbulent reverberates through its neighbors but get this out is business news first with natasha. almost twenty three minutes past the hour you would business on r t a new russian parliament has been chosen but many of the challenges remain the same and number of these a long term project such as building infrastructure privatization due to changes in the constitution this dual will sit for five years rather than four barris from business new europe thinks the extra time will help get things done. all of the problems that russia faces have to do with long term planning and you know massive amounts of or for rebuilding restructuring investment what have you and this sense it's not like a western democracy and so given that what needs to be done is actually pretty obvious i mean you need to invest in the education system you need to invest into

infrastructure to power it's a rail transport you know all these things it's very obvious what needs to be done and so in that sense having a government that's in power a little bit longer. which can concentrate in the job in hands is probably a positive thing. but the new parliament now formed many in russia waiting for the privatization program to get back on the priority list bruce bowers from verna capital says the government has done a good job so far to encourage investors to inject some cash into the state owned companies the government for several years has been making an effort to improve transparency to improve governance companies but now you're actually seeing the fruits of that effort so last last week when gazprom announced its dividends were higher than expected of you know almost two hundred billion rubles gas from as dividend yield of almost five percent that's higher than exxon time chevron and opec and petrobras successor so the government is actually taking you know very

dramatic steps to pay you to be a minority shareholder and then you see increasing transparency in dividend payouts from a host of other state owned companies so you know the general story is that the government's efforts to improve corporate governance among state and companies are now rewarding you substantially as a minority shareholder so that's you know that we keep an eye on. and let's time now to have a look at the markets crude prices are in the red as the euro retreated against the dollar down south to standard and poor's placed most of the eurozone economies on a watch for a possible downgrade in the next ninety days the light sweet is currently trading at one hundred and a half dollars a barrel brant is a one hundred nine dollars. asian indices a widening their losses in the wake of the us and p. warning banking stocks are among the main losers in hong kong with bank of china down almost three percent while h.s.b.c.

is declining one percent that's after the lender received a large fine by the u.k. regulators over the sales of some securities to the elderly bucking the general trend there tokyo licit shares of citi group they rallied five percent tracking citigroup's have to gains on wall street overnight. and less than one hour ahead of the opening bell here in moscow the russian markets finished monday's trading session in the block both m i six and the r.t.s. games about point eight percent at the close. russia's insurance companies seem to be resilient against the global economic downturn research by consultants all over why even shows that most insurers expect their business to have grown thirteen percent this year and up to twenty percent next year they also forecast more consolidation as a result of new capital requirements reducing the number of insurance firms from

more than five hundred seventy to about two hundred within four years. russia's biggest mobile phone retailer euro set is planning to buy one of its main rivals telecom commerce on daily says the seventy million dollars deal would help if you will set out five hundred twenty stores to exchange the total number of outlets would then be five thousand. and that's all from the business team this hour i'll be back with an update in about fifteen minutes to see about.

down the official t. allocation. i pod touch from the q snaps to. john.