tonight from r t the russian prime minister is grilled by the people in his annual public q. and a as he defends the rights of protests legally and vows to work closely with the opposition in the future. prime minister putin says that he wants to see cameras installed in polling stations in an effort to stamp out electoral fraud join me in a few moments more on this plus all the key points from vladimir putin's board of our question and answer session. syrian activists say twenty seven state security officers have died at the hands of army defectors while foreign pressure on the countries drawing parallels now with the libyan invasion. moscow says only the

eurozone console of its own problems but it will help deal with the blocs debt crisis as president medvedev meets top technocrats in process. and stronger ties and ironing out differences when it comes to the energy sector between russia and the e.u. all join me for more details on that very shortly. good evening from a kevin owen here of moscow tonight it's eleven pm firs day night you're watching our top story from the recent parliamentary election to russia's foreign policy but in a putin's tackle the whole range of questions from the public including a number of tough topics the prime minister's annual televised q. and a with the nation lasted a record four and a half hours artie's paper all of this and. prime minister vladimir putin addressed the protesters who were unhappy with what they claim was electoral fraud taking

place during the parliamentary elections earlier this month now he said that they had the rights the constitutional right to protest but they must remain within the law now following those elections we saw videos posted online allegedly showing electoral fraud taking place now those videos went viral online were all over the internet speaking about the web as a medium he let me and said that the internet due to its nature could not be limited and said that even if it could be it wasn't the role of government to do so but he did say that technology should become a biggest part of the electoral process saying that web cams should be placed in polling booths to make sure that everybody can see exactly what happens there but if. i'm now asking the election commission to install web cameras at every polling station in the country and there are over ninety thousand of them these cameras should be on around the clock so that everyone can see what's happening at every

station i don't rule out any allegations of fraud. well looking ahead to the presidential elections which mr putin will stand in next year he laid out his manifesto saying that he wanted to to modernize russia's economy and to grow and develop democracy in the country he also had some words for one of his contenders in not in the presidential race mikhail prokhorov saying that he was a worthy and a strong contender but stopping short of saying that he would give the profit of his support of course not to me putin will be running against him going for that president george the job of president in march of next year you know one final point on the elections he did say that if the love got to be a putin saw that the people were not on side with him in the next election that he would remove himself from office that he would step down voluntarily if it looked like the people

weren't on the side of the well in forward a half hours when you're asking all the people in russia to put their questions to one of the men at the top as well you're going to get some great questions usually on earth some gems and say for half hours this time the longest that the prime minister has spoken for an address these questions this time out was no different what we what we heard was mr putin feeling a question about a ballot that had been spoiled during the parliamentary elections earlier this month and the ballot came from london and the whoever heard filled out ballots in or miss filled it in as it were had left a rather choice message for the pm on their ballot paper using some colorful language let's hear what he said. you didn't run in the parliamentary election your name wasn't on the party list and yet everyone seems to hold you responsible for the results well that's normal you're all of last magazine published a photo of a ballot had an obscene message addressed to you want it i would not want to voice it right now. why not go ahead. why don't you the rest is on broadcast

about. would you think of decided to it. yes i've seen i found it very amusing and i was even pleased because there's nothing new in your certitude i saw plenty of dirt thrown my way when i was president but i did not doubt myself then nor do i doubt my actions as far as i know the message or not but it was written in london and we knew very well why some russians live there why they don't want to come up with me but they're obscene message to me simply tells me how much they want to take that action but they can't while i mean i'm not i'm actually grateful to became voters just like an ostomy choice the prime minister was taking questions on foreign policy regarding the united states. russia wanted to improve their relationship with america and work together with the us however it was the united states which really didn't want to take their

relationship any further that they didn't want to deal with sovereign nations like russia that they had their own type of partner they wanted to work with. you know they made up their mind on afghanistan and but did they discuss the mission with their allies in advance they carried out their strike and then i started pulling in other forces saying it's not with us is against us need like to be allies with the united states you know what i see now is not a partnership sometimes i think america doesn't need allies i mean you need service in the west well staying stateside prime minister putin also heard some comments for us senator john mccain john mccain had said this would go the same way as colonel gadhafi you know this prompted a response from the prime minister saying that well perhaps john mccain it should spend too much time in the prisoner of war camp during the vietnam war and this had affected his mind. where.

he's saying he was. a pardon for. two if he were to admit his guilt and it was of course if let me a putin became president in that election in march all of this coming in well a momma's session from the prime minister four and a half hours how long you spoke for piecing is previous record by around five minutes peter all of a reporter syrian activists say twenty seven state security officers have been killed by army defectors in the southern province of god are meanwhile human rights watch has released a report naming dozens of syrian officials it claims are responsible for the violent crackdown on protesters political analyst chris bambery told me syria's now in danger of repeating the libyan scenario. i think there must be worries the increasing call for foreign intervention in syria not least in the syrian national council a body which is based in the country and outside the country i have to say that

many of those forces demonstrating in the regime did not share our demands for foreign intervention or indeed for nor strikes on what is happening in syria now is that what as a popular revolution other forces are moving in to try and take that all for and use it for its own ends in the syrian national council this body of the sea which is both in the country and say the country is no seeing and if it would several tries iraq it was severed ties to hamas and hezbollah it would treat russia as a special relationship i don't think that sounds very very good by the way and it would strengthen ties with qatar saudi arabia and other gulf states and with america and france now would seem to me an agenda to be joyous the years of people in paris. in washington and in soda and saudi arabia and i think there is a developing difference here between for the people who have been organizing the peaceful demonstrations the uprising if you like inside syria on the grown to many

forces there the people in the grown by and watch are opposing as i understand it foreign intervention people have been organizing the demonstrations have not come up with a demand for western intervention this is coming i think that extraneous to the movement and i think it's something which should be a pause and indeed those forces are opposing it and indeed they have said they are against the violent overthrow of the outside regime they want to see it toppled by peaceful means and i think has to be applauded in that situation they don't want syria to go down the road of syria's civil war. on the travels bit later in the program would dearly time in fact when it would take you fifteen hundred year old fortress in russia is going to ensure the city's beautiful place nestled between majestic mountains and serene and see we gauge the person's life or at least it's more that way. to news now the eurozone still faces a bleak outlook with the prospect of a winter recession in spite of the efforts of politicians to try to come up with solutions to somebody in brussels president medvedev has offered russia's help

along with closer energy ties saying moscow's hopeful of seeing the e.u. overcoming its troubles these tests are still is across the latest. the euro zone problem has been on the top the agenda and russia russia's role possibly in trying to help the eurozone nations one of the ideas put forth is russia contributing a certain amount to the international monetary fund and the amount has not been specified by a president medvedev although there have been talk that it's in the vicinity of around ten billion dollars and you know there is the option also the contributing to the f.s.f. or even russia would prefer to contribute to the international monetary fund and again both sides reiterate the importance of this partnership russia in particular because the e.u. comprises about more than half of the foreign trade between the two countries and its foreign reserves are also a euro so it does see its interest in trying to support the country in the countries in overcoming the crisis that are in right now both sides did admit to

and reiterate the ties between the two countries saying appraising the successor to be a nordstrom project and they say baby could be will expect continued continued exchanges especially in the energy sector although they did mention that there are difficulties as well particularly in relation to the third energy package which is a legislation of the e.u. that requires the separation of the transportation delivery and sale of gas which does become a point of contention because one of russia's russia's biggest company gazprom is in charge of all those all those processes and it would it would definitely impact the way they operate in terms of gas a live reason the e.u. although the e.u. said well they're willing to talk about and continue negotiations on how to add more flexibility so that they would take into consideration of russia's interests now another thing relation to creative business is of course the accession of russia to the w t o no this will provide more liberalization definitely lower import tariffs for russia certainly the e.u. will play a very big role considering that seventy five percent of investment in russia is

coming from the e.u. so to morrow the they will rubberstamp be w t o accession and then russia has to wrap. five benteke we met so well a lot of business and trade talks happening here in brussels between the two sides . reporting online for us tonight let's take a look at a couple stories we've got lined up for you right now. and iran becomes the target of a series of bombings and assassinations read the reviews and reviews of one expert who calls the so-called rogue state court sorry again tries again to believe the so-called rogue state could just be the latest victim of the world's real axis of evil it does make sense i can tell you when you see the line also of moscow accuses the e.u. of overstepping its powers by blocking a russian humanitarian aid convoy taking food and supplies to kosovo. pakistan is reportedly considering imposing a tax on the u.s. and nato supplies going to afghanistan through its territory the route was shut

down last month after a cross border nato air strike killed twenty four pakistani soldiers relations between washington and islamabad hit a new low after the incident author and journalist webster tarpley told me the u.s. is only interested in destabilizing the situation further. do you want to go back to how did this start is about ten years ago there was an ultimatum delivered in the wake of nine eleven by colin powell and richard armitage to the pakistani government and they said if you don't give us transit rights across pakistan we will bomb you back into the stone age so this is not an alliance this is not friendship this is the united states having gone in there and the goal of the u.s. presence had very little to do with terrorism but rather had to do with promoting the break up of pakistan if you just look at the map pakistan is wedged in there between iran on the one side india and china in some ways it's the hub of the world and the goal of the u.s. has always been to take a civil war in afghanistan if you were exported into pakistan big question is what

where where is all of this going the pakistanis are becoming more militant which is perfectly understandable right we have a we have a manic here in washington i guess you can call it a psychosis of destabilization it's like the the year of the dupes may be ending and they've got to export destabilisation to as many countries as they can interesting is that the pakistanis say that they have a surface to air missile system along the border with afghanistan so that if the u.s. tries to come over with helicopters and essentially take possession of the pakistani nuclear deterrent the pakistanis now say that they would be able to fight back against that. tarpley terror suspects in america could be held in prison indefinitely without charge or trial that's if the senate passes a controversial bill already signed off by the white house and the house of

representatives it could be the military being able to take alleged terrorists into custody virtually without question critics say it would be a stark violation of human rights the white house initially objected to the bill but then it later changed its mind to a glazier from antiwar dot com thinks the administration's indulging in smoke could mirror. these provisions mandating military custody amounted to a restriction of the president's authority but in truth it's reasonable to assume that a veto threat was mere political theater because senator carl levin one of the provisions primary authors revealed during senate debate that it was the obama administration itself who requested the inclusion of language mandating military detentions including u.s. citizens in that language so you could say the ministration never really changed minds it was just sort of doing it for public consumption the bill merely codified into law this status quo i mean that is to say the government has already assumed

that they have the power to detain u.s. citizens definitely without trial and that's what guantanamo bay is essentially the targeted assassination of. u.s. citizen and law are all lochley proves again that the government has already in every practical sense dismissed due process rights for americans the senate already passed a version of this bill and the vote was ninety three to seven so only seven senators ject to the literal if this aeration of the fifth amendment it's expected to pass the senate it's already passed the house and obama is expected to sign it before the end of that week. taken around the world for more news in brief french courts found ex president jacques chirac guilty of dying in funds and abusing public confidence in the charges date back to his term as mayor of paris he was convicted of paying ghost salaries to former party members for municipal jobs that didn't exist she wasn't in court to hear the verdict because of

his poor health condition he's been given a two year suspended sentence with. the american flags being lowered in baghdad in a ceremony marking the war's end in iraq and the withdrawal of u.s. troops a small contingent of u.s. soldiers remains in baghdad but will soon leave after the ceremony america claims to have left behind a stable country that many worry the military pullout will provoke even more terrorist attacks now over ten thousand iraqis have been killed since the american military is over. and you kind of both like alcohol killed over one hundred people in the state of west bengal in india many low income workers fell ill on tuesday after drinking the liquid which was laced with methanol a chemical commonly used in antifreeze with hundreds more in the hospital many fear the death toll is set to rise seven people have been arrested in connection with the manufacture and distribution of them like i was mentioned earlier tom take a trip back now thousands of years in time as we visit one of russia's oldest

cities. this is where it is on the map people have lived in for more than five thousand years a fortress with a tempestuous history many battles have been lost for control of this prize because of its strategic position it's on an ancient trade route today though the only armies advancing on the imposing at a fists of russia's southernmost city of for the tourists rather those hostile invaders. for many centuries the city developed between two natural walls the mountains and the sea on a strip of land just three kilometers long over the years different nations gave the city different names but all were connected to the word the reason perhaps is that a band stood on the silk road enclosed by strong walls reaching to the sea and the

watch towers. in the years gone by it was never this easy to get to the night in call a fortress then armies would do battle storming the walls to get inside it has become a second home. he's the key keeper of one of the most beautiful cons castles in the region very near the north and it will almost forty years of my life i spent here all members of my family works here this is a tradition for this everything here is special for me i want to save every piece of it for the future and the younger generation of dagestani man is following in his footsteps average day a local historian meets dozens of tourists and tells the story of not in color some with. what you see from here is the old part of data bint we call it this is the oldest city in russia in the past caravans used to come to the gates of this fortress they paid a toll and only after that could they continue their journey to the north. this

place guarded one of the strategic passes on the silk route and was used well into the nineteenth century however a large portion of the fortress was destroyed in the nine hundred twenty s. during the russian civil war this is what's left of what was once one of the most violent punishments in the caucasus the criminals were thrown into this post and the ground and left to die there from hunger new criminals were thrown their own a regular basis but none of the bodies were after remove not even cost guns on the whole i speak in the city and overlooks the caspian sea too long walls enclosed all part of their bent and lead to the sea the locals are not only trying to preserve buildings but also their traditions for centuries dagestani man were known for their horsemanship they raised horses and sold them to the caravans coming to the city but now that age old tradition is being challenged by

a woman. when it's your religion was at the beginning no one understood me all my brothers were who was mine but i was forbidden to follow them because i'm a woman it took me years to become what time now after just a few hours in deadband he can feel the history coursing through the veins of the narrow streets and if you concentrate hard enough you can almost hear the clatter of horses answering the old gates of the city but the republic is also famed for its athletic and linguistic diversity being home for more than thirty languages and to discuss this more i am now joined by a small refer to dave hayden thank you very much for joining me today pleasure a so i've heard that you come a long way from the states to this region of pakistan so what prachi over here a jury really. you know as you mentioned august on is the most that ethnically one of the the most ethnically complicated regions in the entire world and it's

actually for a long time been my passion my dream to come here to study. here and really a goal of mine is to introduce dr ston to thank you sunny so considered to be one of the most dangerous places in russia maybe and what do you think about it so you think it's safe enough to stay here. yeah i do think it's safe enough to be or fact i'm here with my wife and my three little children my my oldest daughter and my and my oldest son they they both go to law school. yes it is dangerous at times a fact right here but we're standing right right here that was a special operation a couple years ago were when i was sitting inside this cafe so i understand the dangers i mean i know where you live and dogs on long enough will you know see things here about things but you know you have to take a look at it from a comprehensive perspective. no there's dangerous places all over the world and

really when you when you look closer. at the situation here the dynamics you find that things like petty thievery things like violent crimes and armed robbery and rape these things are very rare here very rare you know versus a place like moscow and you know the chance to raise my kids with such probably strong family values as i get to do here and august but to me that it's worth it there are some dangers but it's a good place the people are incredible you are thank you very makes now was said dave hate me and this no go for that boy here in the street an update just on and meanwhile our team continues to bring you the latest picture of life down here in russia's north caucasus and the republic of dagestan yeah thanks indeed until going to revelation short of my skies reveals some of the secrets the wall street bankers would rather you didn't know always a good watch the first of it's going to cross the business with kareen it's not.

welcome to business here and thanks for joining me capital is still flying out of russia flow reach ten billion dollars in the vendor forcing the central bank to once again raise the forecast for the whole year to an estimated eighty five billion dollars that's more than double last year's total. capital says cash is down to lack of structural improvements the fundamental reason for a sustained difficult call for free is that roughly equal to the russian economy can buy just hold it is much more near the camp and that you never saw so fixed exchange rate with a flexible exchange rate or the capital flight believes it has become important for later. going to going to the development and the disappearance precludes bubble from developing bought another also means that there are options to invest also the brush from which are better than options to the side of fashion. because bubble so no longer a very good option right so it's means the structure of the russian economy because of the labor market there's because i wasn't going to play with the asians are able

to you but just look at the well it continues to generate all this critical through saving expensive oil. that's a look at the markets now european stocks traded in the black on thursday finishing just under a percent higher stocks rose as a solid spanish debt all nervousness so the debt crisis also encouraging data every jews jitters a recession on russian equity markets close in the block on the back of those gains in europe after a choppy trading yes i'm isaac's and it over want to have percent higher let's have a look at some individual channels on the markets energy stocks boosted the indices on the high oil price and it almost one percent on the black gas giant gazprom finished over three and a half percent higher banking stocks were also on the rise with spare bank pushing almost two percent as well. after a roughly year trading on the hong kong stock exchange shares of the russian. have fallen. all time low they closed at four point eight nine hong kong dollars half

the initial list price the company has been hit by falling demand and prices other medium. catch dr bellair was is getting a one million dollar loan from russia and c.i.s. partners the money will go to fertilize the make. a key business for the country the government has put up fifty percent of the nafta an oil refinery as collateral for the deal. and japanese carmakers subaru is considering setting up an assembly plant in role sun if the pot goes through thirty thousand cars a year will roll off the production line the final decision depends on import tariffs for spare parts is now negotiating this with the russian government. so from all business desk this hour but you can always find most stories in our website called.

wealthy british style. is not on the type of. market so why not come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into cars a report on our.

move. to use. if. the close up team has been on the black sea. for future developments depends on the good way. area

first place to many flights champions and the most ambitious. has ruined the lives of many innocent families across the region. but the oldest city in russia is for. more than five thousand years. to. russia close up on our t.v. .