the lethal injection hits a stumbling block as the drugs of supply lines cut by the e.u. . live from the heart of moscow this is our. research a welcome to the program russia needs democracy but not chaos the words of president dmitri medvedev finesse annual address to parliament he said he has heard the voices calling for change and presented a concrete plan for reforming the political system in russia let's get more on this marty. joining us live now from inside the kremlin give us more detail about what exactly what were the reforms that dimitri medvedev was proposing in his address that we just heard people's voices will become louder admission that they promised thanks just sweeping reforms of the country's political system and political

establishment was actually listening very carefully to the president's. plans and mission and that is deeds catch are the first steps which need to be taken should he understand his next prime minister. so. my proposals are to introduce direct elections for russia's regional heads to simplify the registration of political parties to remove the need to gather signatures to take part in federal and regional parliamentary elections to cut the number of signatures needed to take part in the presidential election i also suggest changing the system for the parliamentary election i suggest introducing a proportional representation in two hundred twenty five constituencies this will allow each territory to have the director representative in the parliament. while this address of the nation that is for them while as the president was.

unconventional in a way because he had to address the most recent developments in the country following the december or holman trail auctions in particular he responded to protests of opposition and claims that the election had been rigged and its results should be cancelled this is what makes him the best except. for our. people's right to express their opinion by all means is guaranteed attempts to manipulate the people of russia deceive them to instigate social to school aren't acceptable we won't allow extremists to prove a case is to draw society into the shady enterprises we won't allow interference from outside in our internal affairs russia needs democracy not chaos. because of those who had expected that these final address of matrona that it would look like a farewell speech were disappointed it was rather a long to do list in particular the president was also speaking about the feedback

between the leadership of the country the government and the people and he said that he supported the idea of the large open government which he was and he initiated and said that it's a certain elevator for the most talented the most active people of the country to take part in real politics here he even quoted eisenhower the motto of real democracy is not let the government do it for us but let us do it ourselves for a base as possible in this country are now joined by political analyst and state duma deputy which is love my love thank you very much but this love new kind of i'm sorry thank you very much for joining us submission is that it was speaking stands to me today about plans for political reforms in the country how likely is it that this will be implemented so well it will be implemented at least everything presidents in the annual address is because. starting today. the lawmakers will work with the government officials

to write the laws which would it embody the proposals of the president and then the state duma and the council of the federation will have to make their reforms. since the united russia still has a majority there there are good chances for passage of those proposals now also in response to mouth to protests following the december fourth although i don't think it has to do with the protests it has to do with the need to strengthen their political system and actually the proposals of this summit believe are not exactly accurate. and there will be a. devil in the detail soon because force the direct election of the governors is a very big change it will be returned to the ball this is all right just for a few years in the late ninety's and beginning of momofuku two thousand coming up

but you know. the message. of the selection of cannabis was not specified and that is something which the legislative legislative side. maybe you propose to leave. proportional system you don't just for the election of older members but also regional proportional system awful to first show that shouldn't be done that this is something you wish the legislators to have to really decide then the registration of all political party is the criteria such that even al qaeda can be you know registered to to to participate in the election which is which is a sham out in the case so of course there's much work for the legislators. to it while implementing the proposal so president i think the president of the. with

more implants making it easier for him to make it to the police office let him or put him becomes russia's next president and mission with better becomes russia's next prime minister thank you very much for that. neat enough russian statement deputy and political analysts topple over the state of the union address the president reaching at that. over the life in the kremlin thank you. as we've just heard dimitri medvedev said russia will not tolerate interference in its internal affairs. the chairman of the foreign affairs committee says that any sovereign country in the world would react in the same way you can hardly find any country in the world the way it should be easily into fear that we should be easily there any interference it is the mistake of fear that i think his message was very straightforward the media that was very articulate the i think said a very important thing russia is a sovereign state it's

a democratic sovereign state for the first started out with history that we are not the second edition over the employer were the stars we were one of the bolsheviks there see and it's not the solution to the more than the sovereign state will never tolerate or the difference. now eight minutes past the hour here in moscow arab league observers are due to arrive in syria on thursday as part of a plan to hold the violence in the country that's after one of the bloodiest weeks since the beginning of the unrest now dating back nine months activists say more than two hundred people have been killed in just the last few days alone the u.s. meantime has renewed its call for president assad to step down warning of new international measures unless it would appear he forces from syria is already suffering under a set of sanctions unders artie's south of course it's the ordinary people who are feeling the pain. it's been nearly ten months since syria's uprising began the

capital of damascus has remained largely sheltered from the conflict. in the bustling sun so it seems like it's business as usual but as one says sets in the winds of change have begun to flow a little stronger the arab league's impose tough economic sanctions the effects of which have been felt even head in a poor area in the damascus interacts and her family struggling to make ends meet. has learning difficulties for the beans for a living but he barely makes a hundred and fifty syrian pounds a day three dollars to support him and he's white. and now the fuel for his vending cart has become harder to get hold of with the economic sanctions driving by ice up . there last products available and the prices are pushed higher there's been fights over gas we've been trying to manage by cutting back as much as we can but sometimes when we can't afford it which is don't eat the economic situation in

syria was one of the areas president if that had been seen to be making progress be it slowly for a population that it started seeing the results of economic opportunity and blocked financial transactions. and our blackouts become the new. because of the economic sanctions people rushed to stockpile fuel and gas just taste people are a little bit afraid of the fact that water or gas might run out this is why you see these queues this in place by the arab league it was fake the sanctions were full for the government hand when it came to ending the violence in the country because inside syria at the moment many feel it every day people are looking to know. that they could be even darker financial times ahead share prices in our stock market significance of change. down affected by

some lows for example of the use of the capital of. private banks in syria the increase of interest rate of the banks and affected in directly on the decision of the investors. from the arab league will be paving the way for an observer mission to at the end of the month. position they remain skeptical about whether that to bring about any change those calls up in the west of the conflict areas change can come a moment tesing some parents of two three families like. finding life under the sanctions increasingly desperate search. damascus. meantime a new york based political analyst eva golinger says the situation in syria is not as clear cut as the western media tries to portray it as most of the international

media with the exception of a few stations have ignored the fact that the bashar al assad government is fighting armed groups internally and its country groups that have been armed again by outside forces and they've instead tried to portray it as civilians peaceful civilians protesting for change in their country who are being massacred by the government this is an incredibly dangerous manipulation of fact that's occurring and and that we've seen in other countries like the case of libya that's been used to justify outside aggression military action and war and and political assassination of a head of state so i think that again this is an attempt to try to garner support from public opinion try to alter the perception of what's taking place in the country and also to get the support from other countries onboard and for those countries and their governments to be out to justify their actions to the people of their nations i think that again we have to be very cautious about the information

that's coming out of syria about what's going on in that there's no question that they're armed groups that are fighting against the government and that any government in any country in the world has the absolute right to defend itself against armed militia inside its own country we've seen it in the case of the u.s. we've seen it in the case of other countries throughout europe and it's happening in the case of syria and a little bit later this hour here on r.t. we return to the place where the unrest and that shook the arab world started as we look back at the landmark events of two thousand and eleven through the eyes of our correspondents who witnessed and covered them. i was very very frightened and it was moments like that when you realize that the mood in a place like toughness from one second to another changed dramatically from the dangers of being a female journalist reporting from the frontline to the frustrated hopes of projections all in the second part of our special series coming your way here on our t.v. in just a few minutes. witnesses. to

history in the making. testimony. ten stories that shaped two thousand and eleven on r.t. r t is coming to life from moscow the european union has imposed tough new restrictions on the sale of drugs used to execute people in the united states the move that's unlikely to worsen an already short supply across the atlantic is fighting capital punishment and some of his controversial methods but there are fears that intrepid states may find a way around the controls as artie's reports. they've tried hanging electrocution and most recently a drug used to euthanize animals but now american jails will find it much harder to kill prisoners on death row the main supply line for its lethal injections has been cut off after the e.u.

slaps new restrictions on drug exports i really think this will make a difference and we will see the effects of this this control order in the coming months that the the u.s. relies on european drugs for use in executions and without them they're going to be stuck and lives will be saved specific execution drugs aren't made in the e.u. but several american states have been importing sedatives instead drugs designed to help being used to hurt. exports of drugs like sodium thiopental will now be controlled to stop the use in a three part lethal cocktail the interstate it was being used to put the condemned inmate to sleep as another drug paralyzed before the final heart stopper was administered without that initial numbing stage lethal injections are unconstitutional under u.s. law the usual supply for these drugs has been dwindling since the only u.s. manufacturer ceased production last year american prisons though found an

alternative source right here in west london at this fairly unassuming driving school buildings also shared by dream farmer a british firm exporting british drugs the u.s. prisons to kill people the u.k. government soon found out and banned its use so american prisons searched elsewhere r.t. reported in may now some states have begun using pen to baba told a drug normally used to put pets to sleep that's never been tested for human executions its primary use for humans is to treat epilepsy but it has no pain killing properties many feel its use on death throes tantamount to torture this can cause excruciating pain if something goes wrong and because we have no tests we cannot guarantee that nothing will get around to people at risk of not just being killed being tortured to death following a report danish manufacturer impose their own restrictions to prevent printed barber tools misuse the new e.u.

embargo covers eight barbiturates in total including painted by us stop poles will eventually run dry but many fear it's only a matter of time before prisons try again with something else unfortunately the death merchants in the us can sometimes be creative in terms of what they put to use in order to put people to death and so i think what we need is a clause which said if other drugs should appear on the market and we discover the u.s. is misuse. we can quickly have a quick. aside from lethal injection other methods like hanging in firing squad and still sanctioned in the us but now rarely used these new restrictions may not choke off the drug supply completely but it will certainly tighten the noose on america's controversial death penalty. london. despite going gently with american prisoners britons pulling no punches with the

violence. instead of a rubber one the report says police could have used live ammunition against arsonists during the riots in this past summer. interspace a russian soyuz rocket has been successfully launched from the baikonur cosmodrome with an international crew of three. find out what they'll be doing at the final frontier. and it's good to have you with us today here on r.t. now it is time for our special series of first hand reports on events that marked two thousand and eleven the egyptian revolution did not just change the course of

the country's history but spearheaded the arab spring and the wave of protests that swept all across the middle east. reporting from there and show us what never made it into her life news reports. i think my biggest impression from covering the egyptian story this year is the sense of betrayal and anger that people in egypt still have when i was there back in january when the revolution started talking to protesters they beat general consensus and really this is what people were saying to me was that they thought that they were part of the street they were creating a new country and a new future for egypt. going back again in november when the second resolution happened all the second part of the first revolution depending who you talk to those same protesters told me that they felt that the trust that they had placed in

the army had been misplaced there are hundreds of it wasn't people who lost on arriving here in times square as you can see many of them heeding quite. occupation it was dangerous covering the egypt story as a journalist and i think it was even more dangerous to cover not as a foreign journalist i remember when we go back and say do we we kept a very low profile we tried not to go too much into the crowd in tahrir square we took all kinds of signage that we had on us that said we were journalists i mean of course a con tied to camera so by and large you don't want to do more attention to you than is necessary the offices from which we were for cost and we took off all the signs that said that we were media because this was also was inciting anger and frustration among the people. people often ask me if being a woman is an advantage or disadvantage to going to dangerous areas as a journalist most of the time that is an advantage because we find that people have

to shake things mode with you i'm talking here men and women because you're a woman or at least we think perhaps in a male colleague but i do feel frightened being a woman in tough experience that people. they believe in the simply replaced with one thing takes money marbury one not one i can tell me that anything i look for tough is square i walk through female colleagues whether it was an egyptian camera man away russian cameramen and i always felt much safer putting my arm through his but people would still want possibly brush up squeeze a part of my body and look at me with this kind of leering that leaves you feel very frightened and very vulnerable as a woman. back in february when the police were taken off the streets there was a real sense of completeness most in cairo and i remember doing a lot of reports of my talks it was. very i mean i'm not out and i'm not a. yes i am certain that night i had to move back to the hotel because there was

a curfew and there were no cars on the street and it was almost sunil walking past apartment buildings and seeing people coming in front of the apartment buildings that had formed a kind of nightwatch group and you had people in their eighty's and their ninety's standing there with literally a kitchen knife or a kitchen broom and with that they were going to protect their apartments farm these gangs that were patrolling the streets of cairo they were trying to steal what they could because as i say there were no police around this is your friend as if. there was one going to go to a particular where i was very frightened and we were standing on the outskirts of tusker square i was talking to a group of people and as always have to just speak to one person and then everybody comes to see what's happening and and people will be in the waiting room so it's not that they are listening to what's being said often they just want to get a voice is exposed on the camera and in the moment and that's and that's the scary part is that these things happen in a moment in

a moment the entire move changed and people started yelling and shouting not that they just wanted their voices to be heard but that it actually wanted to hear to us as journalists and the injection cameramen that i was working with understood and needed. what was happening he started screaming for me to get into the car i remember the driver because we had to drive it that had been allocated to us came screeching down the road i remember being pushed ma the crowd and the journalist who did the camera and was pushing me into the comedy getting into the car he kind of flung himself in off to me in the car was banging on the car as we sped away i was very very frightened and it was moments like that when you realize that the mood in a place like tucker square from one second to another can change dramatically. and i don't even know if the word revolution is the one word but i don't think the revolution in egypt is over we've witnessed to say sizzles perhaps the same revolution or two revolutions but again the anger the frustration the

disappointment the sense of hopes of not being realized is whole people on the streets of cairo every week when there is a sense that this country is nowhere near where people had hoped and dreamed it would be back in february and i think this is the general uncertainty that is sweeping the middle east there is a sense that things are changing but another sense of no one not knowing exactly where and how and what ultimately these changes will bring. i'll be back with our top stories here in our three hundred a few minutes after corrina the latest from the world. thank you rory hello and welcome to a business here on r.t. economic achievements are high on the president medvedev agenda that was the key focus and his address to russia's federal some real birthday well this turn as president coming to an end he pointed out that the russian economy has managed to

grow faster than its peers despite the global slowdown. successfully a become the most difficult period of global economic instability and his return to pre-crisis growth levels to me is growing by around four percent which is still the most developed countries we keep government it's a very little. ability russia has become the world's. economy. but look at the markets now oil is. trading over ninety nine dollars a barrel sharp drop in u.s. crude stocks overshadowed persistent worries that the eurozone debt crisis would curtail global world demand brant is trading at over one hundred eight dollars about european stock markets jump on thursday as banks recapture some ground lost the pride to a previous day we saw stocks and investors are positive ahead of us data later in the day buckley's is leading up to forty up over two percent among other banks that

are gaining are being prepared by commerzbank that's up two point eight percent of attacks right here in russia stocks are high and afternoon trades at the r.t.s. is up just under a percentage wise x. is gaining over a quarter of a percent this hour let's take a look at some individual shareholders some eyes are blue chips are mixed gas giant gazprom is up point nine percent while beating the bank it's like being in the red and comic after bass is gaining as well the company launched sales of its latest model like craft. the thing with the auto industry italian carmaker fiat has decided to build its own plant in russia with a deal expected to be signed in the country's leningrad region next year analysts say its initial production capacity will be around one hundred thousand cars a year earlier plan to create a joint venture with local comic us dollars but the plan fell for. bureaucratic acrimony could leave russians without low alcohol beverages next year

starting from two thousand and twelve every thread used for important items must have a new excise stamp but it's yet unclear how this will be put into practice market players say they will have to put a cork in production if the government fails to approve the norms by the end of the year some producers have warned they will run out of warehouse alcohol by march the podium while the global oil majors has witnessed a reshuffle. became the biggest opera douceur among public companies during the first nine months of the year it has produced one point six million tons more oil than the previous leader american exxon mobil analysts say the output of the u.s. drone was hit by the arab revolutions which led to an eighteen percent loss of its oil production in the region. they have to increase its output by two point seven percent where the majority of its oil deposits located in russia ok in the next

hour we'll be discussing president medvedev speech but join us in about fifteen minutes from now. wealthy british style. is not on the title of.

markets why not come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike's concert for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into cars a report on our. news today violence is once again flared up the film these are the images the world

has been seeing from the streets of canada. showing corporations are on the day. if you're just joining us a very. sweeping political reform during his state of the union speech. and suggested. syria as part of a deal.