from. t.v. dot com. russia's president orders sweeping reforms making it easier to run for political office proposes a return to direct elections for regional governments in his annual address to the . arab league observers are due in syria to help stop the bloodshed even if sanctions imposed by the organization leave people and not the government feeling the pinch. in the us. for us attacks on without them they're going to be stopped and. america's controversial practice of death by lethal injection hits a stumbling block as the drug supply line is cut by the e.u.

. now just after three pm on a thursday here in moscow you're watching live with me. russia needs democracy not chaos that's the words of president dmitri medvedev and his annual address to parliament he said he's heard the voices calling for change and presented a concrete plan for reform of the political system inside russia. and now has more from the kremlin. people's voices will become louder niche and promised thanks to sweeping reforms of the country's political system and political establishment was actually listening very carefully to the president's own goal we reform plans and mission and that is deeds catch all the first steps should go a pregnant. my proposals are to introduce direct elections to 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 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 nation that his for then why now as the president was unconventional in a way because he had to address the most recent developments in the country following the december or parliamentary elections in particular he responded to the protests of opposition and claims that the election had been rigged and its results should be cancelled this is what mission is that it said but i. have seen people's

right to express their opinion by all means is guaranteed attempts to manipulate the people of russia deceive them to instigate social discord are acceptable but we won't allow extremists so provocator is to draw society into the shady enterprises we won't allow interference from outside in our internal affairs russia needs democracy not chaos. here and even quoted eisenhower the motto of real democracy is not let the government do it for us but let us do it ourselves. waiting right there let's get more details on medvedev the dress with political analyst. joining me here in the studio good to see you. announced these reforms that he says will make it easier for more people to have their political voices heard will these reforms do such a task oh. there isn't speech and they all need qualifications so i think you

should wait until maybe the end of that the to find out what exactly he meant it was basically he said that we show. for the go yes we will see what he meant because prime minister putin just a day before said that there would be the actions but this is will be suggested by what he called part yes which was on the local elections and approved by the president so we'll see. exactly what we can say now is as he did say though and i do have the direct translation of what you mentioned here and among other things that you just mentioned. suggesting the need to remove the need to gather signatures to take part in federal and a regional parliamentary elections to cut the number of signatures needed to take part in a presidential election and also suggesting introducing a proportional representation in two hundred twenty five constituencies understand we already have a form of proportional representation in the government now but these steps if i

may just ask you these steps that they come on the backdrop of public discontent as you know we've had several weeks of protests here in central moscow do you think these announced reforms are a reaction to the protests or were they already in the planning i think they were in the planing and they wouldn't say that there were several weeks of protests you know just a day or four thousand people gathered in the center of moscow and demanded more of course i wouldn't call it several weeks of protests but you said you say forty thousand people gathered because there has been a lot of confusion we've had some western networks saying fifty to one hundred thousand all men on the ground our correspondent set up. twenty thousand now you're saying forty thousand still a bit of confusion about all the ways of that in the media and c.t.o. way more score even fifty thousand is not very impressive because it's. around two or three percent of the people which are even so basically we would see what he

meant because with these single men they can you know it's not quite clear because the new speaker of the russian said that they indeed will represent these two hundred twenty five constituencies but again the cadence will be nominated by the party yes that's right the candidates nominated by the party certainly again there is that field. of prime minister called it l.o.l. in the body of the establishment to feel there are a lot of people who they may concede a dangerous understand minustah let's talk about this as mediated last address as the country's president what kind of legacy is he leaving behind but i think he leaves a pretty good legacy because even if we had concrete facts you know russia joint will trade organization there will be a lot of problems but it's a step in the right between it's been a long time coming up that. he leaves a different society than the one that he took when he became president now we have

people who do require more freedom i think that these measures that he mentioned during his speech you know. for us they are. not very logical as they are they still reflect the desire for greater freedom for great to freedom from a well to do part of the population and i think that's a very good development his balance in general will be a positive one it's a positive legacy as you say but briefly if we can just briefly touch down on this one of the continued bones of contention between a mosque in washington d.c. the european missile defense program here some people are saying. that maybe it maybe it has been perhaps a bit too diplomatic with the obama administration with their son perhaps the next generation of leaders in russia people need a stronger leader with medvedev hoping to become prime minister after he steps down for the presidency do you think you'll have any authority to play on well i think he will not try to russian foreign policy as prime minister we will see what kind

of prime minister he will be that will be a tough job because he never actually ran you know so it will be for him but as for foreign states i think the russian border issue will stay the same because we come with you much of a choice russia wants to be friends with the united states russia wants to be friends with europe but russia is not to be replaced and to be basically intimidated by american so by europeans so russian foreign policy will all this between friendship and you know the readiness to found its own interest there are certain limits beyond which not even going to be called reach of average or political analyst always a pleasure thank you very much. r.t. is coming to you live from the heart of moscow another key focus address was of course on economic reform let's turn to current account now from the the r.t. business desk and see what you can give us lower in business we'll be looking at

maybe it is economic achievements and what goals are set for the next president so join me in ten minutes for. for a look on that and we'll talk to our analysts about what's what's in store next year. in about thirteen minutes now as it's ten past the hour here in moscow arab league observers are due to arrive in syria on thursday as part of a plan to halt violence in the country it's after one of the bloodiest weeks since the beginning of the unrest nine months ago activists say more than two hundred have been killed in just the last few days the u.s. has meantime renewed. it's cool for president assad to step down warning of new measures russian withdrawal. from the streets of syria is already suffering sometimes. 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 as one says the winds of change have begun to flow a little stronger the arab league's imposed tough economic sanctions the effects of which have been felt even head in a poor area in the suburbs of damascus interacts and her family struggling to make ends meet her son here has learning difficulties fava beans for a living but he barely makes one hundred fifty syrian pounds a day three dollars to support him and his wife and now the fuel for his vending cart has become harder to get hold of with the economic sanctions driving by myself on the beat and there are less 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. economic situation

in syria was one of the areas president assad had been seen to be making for progress be it. for a population that it started seeing the results of economic opportunities a lot financial transactions. had blackouts to come. because of the economic sanctions people rushed to stockpile fuel of 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 the government had and when it came to ending the violence in the country was inside syria the name and many feel it every day people being punished. they could be even. the heads of the share prices in our stock market sicker things to change. down affected by some

lows for example of the three years of the capital of. 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 at the end of the month. position they remain skeptical about whether that too will bring about any change. in the west of the conflict areas changed tesing some periods of t.v. families like finding life under the sanctions increasingly desperate search. damascus. we return to the place where the. world began as we look back at the landmark events of two thousand. through the eyes of our correspondents who witnessed.

the european union tough new restrictions on the sale of drugs used to execute people in the united states the move. short supply across the atlantic. and some of its controversial methods. around the.

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 their use in a three part lethal cocktail the in

a static 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 us manufacturers 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 us 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 how some states have begun using pen to bob 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 can't guarantee that nothing will get around to people at risk of not just being killed being tortured to death following our 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 stockpiles 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. those we can quickly have a quick procedure to add those to the list that you know wait another year aside from lethal injection other methods like hanging and firing squad are still

sanctioned in the u.s. but in 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. by the bennetts artsy london in a minute's time here on r.t. its career with the business but for now it's time for our special series a firsthand report on the 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 policy i was reporting from there and shares what never actually made it into her life news reports. i think my biggest impression from covering the egyptian story this is the status of betrayal and anger that people in egypt still have when i was there back in

january when the revolution started talking to protest as they the general consensus and really this is what people were saying to me was that they felt that they were part of the street they were creating a new time seat and a new future for egypt. going back again in november when these a conversion happened all the second part of the first revolution depending on 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 thousands of people who are still not right now in times square as you can see many of them feeding. me and occupation it was dangerous covering the egypt stories of journalists and i think it was even more dangerous because when that as a foreign journalist i remember when we come save you we we kept a very low profile we tried not to go too much into the crowd in tough to 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 the attention she knew that is necessary the offices from which we were for cost and we took all the signs that say 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 help shape things move with you and i'm talking here men and women because you're a woman and you laced with me perhaps in a male colleague but i did feel frightened being a woman in tough experience that people. they may even need to be replaced by dictator hosni mubarak but not many i can tell me that anything i'd look for toughness square i walked with a male target whether it was an egyptian temperamentally russian cameramen and i always felt much safer putting my arm through his but people would still want

possibly brush 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 at night. i cannot. guess and certainly at 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 soon walking past apartment buildings and seen 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 wish that they were going to protect their apartments following 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 seriously particularly i was very frightened we were standing on the outskirts of toughness square i was talking to a group called people and as always have to just speak to one person and then everybody comes to see what's happening and and people 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 temporary and in the moment and that's and that's the scary part is that these things happen in a moment in a moment in time to move change and people started yelling and shouting not that they just wanted their voices to be heard but that they actually wanted to appear to us as journalists and the commandant i was working with understood and needed. what was happening he started screaming for me to get into the car i remember to drive it because we had to drive to that had been allocated to us came screeching down the road on him looking to push the crowd and the journalist who did the coming man 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 toughness square from one second to another can change dramatically. and i don't even know if the word revolution is the one would 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 of hopes of not being realized is poll 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.

we have more and also use our two thousand and eleven a retrospective all the way through december thirty first here with us up. the business. thank you rory hello and welcome to. our economic achievements a high on president medvedev agenda that was the key focus in his address to russia's federal assembly today with his 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. but i believe in the russia has successfully overcome the most difficult period of global economic instability and has returned to pre-crisis growth levels our economy is growing by around four percent which is faster than most developed countries we keep government debt at a very low level and meet all our liabilities russia has become the world's sixth

largest economy. now the rest of president medvedev speech centered around top priorities in the country's economic policy for the coming years these included economic integration boosting competition and increasing the role of small business now discuss these challenges are now joined by jacob knell chief economist morgan stanley rochelle thank you again very kindly nice to see you ok so political liberalization was the key message that made it through it made a good speech but what effect will it have on business on the business climate in general you know i think an investment climate yeah i think it's it's a sort of secondary importance actually for business what business really wants what's good for the investment climate is to billet see predictability. to secure decent returns at relatively low risk and political liberalization can be important if that means that political risks are somehow integrated into the political process and there isn't a significant risk of some kind of regime challenge like you saw in the arab world

earlier this year but i think that the risks of such a challenge in russia although perhaps they've increased in some people's minds in the last few weeks are quite small because russia has full employment it's actually got accelerating growth in the second half of this year. and it also has a. declining population of young men because of the collapse in the birth rate in the early one nine hundred ninety s. so russia actually faces a labor shortage unlike the labor surplus you have in the arab countries which means lots of young men without without a decent job so i think that the subjective reasons why it's much less likely that there will be some kind of russian spring but political liberalization is probably helpful although of secondary importance in so far as it means that protests and issues get dealt with within the political process rather than by some kind of

confrontation and they will to me the most important. the most important subject that that he stressed was corruption fighting corruption i heard that from prime minister putin several days ago where he said that there should be no tax office in our taxes should be paid in this country business should not put their money offshore where is the link between those two i mean right now it's very interesting i mean i think if you think about earlier this year you had this apparent dispute toward disagreement between putin and medvedev where medvedev was advocating a policy of progress of modernization and putin was saying well fine but we also need stability and so people saw a difference between their positions now i think in the united russia congress in september where putin's candidacy for president was announced he threw himself behind some of the key top line messages in the modernization agenda raising investment of twenty five percent of g.d.p. and increasing the growth rate to six or seven percent a year which requires serious structural reform. but what i think we're seeing now

as part of the reaction of the leadership to the fall in united russia votes and then says lehman stands a street protests here and perhaps to the slogan party of thieves and swindlers that the opposition often years is an acceleration of the reform program the modernization program i think and putin's actually led the way i mean he actually indicated in his telephone thought on friday that he was. the selection of governors that he would allow vote. level but most importantly on monday i think he was unprecedentedly open about the scale of corruption in one key sectors of the power sector and in commissioning a port on related party transactions on the use of offshore structures and the state officials that are in these companies all state owned companies by meade february i think that we have a very high likelihood that some serious action will be taken before the elections

because a good thing. something will be something will happen and i think it was quite significant and i think that medvedev salesman's today putin's talk about new industrialization and associated tax and economic reforms yesterday all part of a step by step development of a new reforming presidential program which i think we'll see in its full glory in towards the end of january but what do you think could be the long term and short term effects of all these proposed ideas so short term it's probably not going to be that positive we may see an acceleration in capital outflows an increase in uncertainty at a company level because managements of being changed and among investors because they're not sure where we're going to end up who's going to be the government what the direction of policy is going to be but i think in the medium to. leadership is tackling the key issues that face the country and the things that need to be tackled to improve the investment climate and raise the growth rate so medium term is very positive but you also mentioned about you also talk about economic

integration meaning bella was kazakhstan and also meeting w t o yeah you know how important that i mean it's also big i think is a very very important for what i like russia becoming integrated in the global economy in a range of sectors not just as a provider reform materials is extremely important for developing a diversified economy and that's what russia needs ok ok thank you very much i can thanks for coming to the program. well that's all we have time for but join us in less than one hour for more here on business r.t. . wealthy british science. is no time to. market wine.