russia's president orders sweeping reforms making it easier to run for political office and proposes a return to direct elections of regional governance in his annual address to the parliament. arab league observers arrive in syria as the conflict there reaches a bloody peak and international sanctions cause the living conditions to deteriorate. and tightening the noose on america's controversial death penalty the e.u. stems the flow of drugs used to kill u.s. death row inmates.

eight pm in moscow i met treasurer good to have you with us here on r t our top story it's time for a change in a russia this from president dmitri medvedev outlining a plan for widespread democratic reforms with the country's political system first in lyon artie's it. was listening to the annual state of the union address she has more. first and foremost make sure that that it promised that people's voices will become louder thanks to sweeping reforms of the country's political system political steps and was listening carefully to his address to the parliament as he sketched out the first steps which need to be taken he plans to bring those initiatives to the newly elected duma in the very near future in the last months of his presidency. 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 proportional representation in two hundred twenty five constituencies this will allow each territory to have the director representative in the parliament. well this wasn't as comfortable as usual for admission at that have to deliver these annual address mostly because he had to respond to the most recent events in the country protests and allegations which followed the december for parliamentary elections and claims that the elections had been had been raked early admission and that if had ordered a thorough investigation as a result of that fifty criminal cases had been filed for alleged violations during the elections the results of twenty one polling stations cancelled by the president stressed today that elections in any country are part of domestic affairs of that

country and the russian leadership would not allow any foreign interference but of . 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 we won't allow it. to prove a case is to draw society into the shady enterprises we want to interference from outside in our internal affairs russian these democracy not chaos. well this address looked more like a long to do list. should he become the country's next prime minister rather than a farewell address from him as a president he again emphasized the role of the enlarged open government as an instrument to get feedback from the people this government consists of russia's prominent figures from different areas of society it was with and he described it

today as and social elevator for the most creative and active ones and he also quoted eisenhower when he was talking about a model of democracy a suitable for russia it's not let the government do it for us he said but let us do it ourselves. a team of arab league peace monitors has arrived in syria as part of an ambitious plan to bring peace to the conflict torn nation arrival comes as the violence is reaching its peak with hundreds reportedly killed in recent days latest round of violence has drawn strong international reaction with turkey accusing president assad of turning the country into a bloodbath the u.s. has also renewed calls for him to step down and ordered the military off the streets or face more international measures syria is already suffering under a slew of economic and original sanctions but as is often the case because the ordinary people who are feeling the pain as artists are for ports. it's been nearly ten months since syria's uprising began the capital of damascus has remained

largely sheltered from the conflict in fact in the bustling sand say it seems like it's business as usual this one says it's in the winds of change have begun supply a little stronger the arab league sometimes tough economic sanctions they affect the way it's being felt even head in a poor area of damascus and his family is struggling to make ends meet his son he has learning difficulties for the beans for a living but he barely makes a hundred and fifty three in pounds a day three dollars to support him and his wife. no the fuel for his vending cart has become harder to get hold of with the economic sanctions driving the place up. there last products available and the prices are pushed higher there's been fights over again as we've been trying to manage by cutting back as much as we can sometimes when we can't afford it which is don't eat. the economic situation in syria was one of the areas president had been seen to be making some progress be it

. that for a population that it started seeing the results of economical pitchiness a. financial transactions. blackouts become the new. fifth they could be even the financial times the heads. because of the economic sanctions people. just in case 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 is hate the sanctions which the government has and when it came to ending the violence in the country was inside syria the name and many feel is every day people being punished economic sanctions still. taking. the one hit that must have become part of the daily life that many people here in syria and 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 to bring about any change. in the west of the conflict areas change can come a moment to seeing some parents of teeth families like. finding life under the sanctions increasingly desperate search a damascus. with a conflict in syria showing no sign of letting up for more perspective i'm joined by julie levesque from the center for research on globalization speculating on where the country may be headed. thank you for joining us so more than two hundred protesters reported killed in the last few days according to rights groups what do you make of this figure. appears we've lost her escape from their world get her back and speak with her as soon as possible but first coming up a little later we return to where the very first sparks of unrest ignited in north

africa and the middle east giving birth to the arab spring. i was very very timid and it was moments like that when you realize that the media in a place like tell someone something to another to change the narrative. our middle east correspondent discusses what it was like at the epicenter of events that shook the entire region this year the latest episode of our q special series testimony twenty eleven coming your way in a few minutes. with this is. to history in the making. testimony. ten stories that shaped two thousand and eleven on r.t. . the european union has restricted sales of drugs used in the u.s. to execute convicts more than forty inmates have been killed by lethal injection in the u.s. this year alone supporters of the move hope to disrupt supplies will cut that number but artie's ivor bennett explains that restrictions could make the situation

worse. they've tried hanging electrocution and most recently the 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 in the u.s. allies on european drugs for use of executions and without them they're going to be stuck and lives will be saved specifically execution drugs are 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 n 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 u.s. manufacturers ceased production last year american prisons though found an alternative source right here in west london that is fairly unassuming driving school buildings also shared by dream farmer a british firm exporting british drugs to 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 how 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 being killed being tortured to death following a report danish manufacturer imposed their own restrictions to prevent printed bottles misuse the new e.u. embargo covers eight barbiturates in total including painted barber tell 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. we can quickly have a quick procedure to add those to the list without in a way to have a year aside from lethal injection other methods like hanging and firing squad

a still sanctioned in the us 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. either bennett's artsy london. garden are scared feed back up and i'm joined now by julia roberts from the center for research on globalization speculating on where the situation in syria may be headed thank you for being with us again so more than two hundred protesters reported killed in a few days according to rights groups what do you make of that figure. well the problem is with these figures that they always come from activists and right groups and human rights groups. but we don't know exactly where they filmed and and the research i've done. i've discovered that it always comes well mostly comes from one of. the local coordination committees in syria and we don't know

really who the people are. and we don't know where they get their figures and the problems that i see is that the figures to get. the death count even in the new when they get down from war and you don't really know who they are so i'm just saying that even that you want he said not corroborate converge on i mean. the figures so i'm not saying that they're not true but they need to be corroborated but at the same time we've got the rights groups saying this is the figures and then of course we have the assad regime saying that these are the figures that they see where do you think the truth can lie because certainly the assad government will try to put the picture in its favor with them yeah absolutely i think on the book but they're going to use that tactic the problem that i have is like i said in the u.n. report the one from amber where they claimed that there was

a thousand three hundred people who were were forty been killed they could not verify one there's been a list of military men and i get into need. a lot and i mean the human rights groups they don't they don't give us lists with names or anything i mean it's really hard to verify the number i'm not saying that there was no one has until we don't know who has been killed and we don't know who has killed them you know there is a like something like seventeen thousand armed. men. or from the international and something. that one of the said thought there seventeen thousand men that are are. these people i mean who is arming these people and the media we don't hear about these people all we hear is that the government forces are cracking down on peaceful protesters and that if there is seventy of our men

among the protesters it's the longer these before so in the midst of all this we've got the first group of observers are arriving in syria do you think the arab league's presence there will do anything to finally ease this tension. i'm not sure i mean i want to thank you. i mean the arab league leaders are not models. just beginning they've shown their their willingness. for the regime change. and they're back in washington and washington we know that syria. is on the military broken out of the pentagon and in there for a long time and i mean what is the part of the general who is general has confirmed that syria was a military. and as well and iran oh i'm not very very positive i don't think there's any change so is that what will finally

bring about change in your assessment. well that's a really good question. i'm not sure i can answer that then you know just when you know what went on. i don't know really and honestly i think you will see what happened although i don't think the fact that there is a there or is there is going to change anything to the situation right now which is there is a willingness from western countries and western backgrounds even when you are making change in syria so then let's turn to the pressure that's being applied right now the sanctions the u.s. has upped its rhetoric saying that assad can't be trusted doesn't deserve power and must step down if not he faces additional measures but nine months since the conflict started what effect do you think the sanctions have actually had. well i haven't really but i mean it's always the people who end up paying close attention i mean and. you know. it's really the people it's

not the regime i think it's actually like the sanctions in iraq for example. for other people for the iraqi people and the iraqi children i mean there is a lot of people who died. and it's not really a regime that i think people i don't think it does any good and even when it comes to sanctions there's never been anything. against israel there's been a lot of luck that resolution by the general assembly in the u.n. is never a sanction so there is clearly. there is by. all right we have to leave it there julie levesque from the center for research on globalization thanks for your time. a wave of synchronized bombings has torn through the iraqi capital killing at least sixty three people wounding nearly two hundred ambulances could be heard a racing back and forth as massive plumes of smoke rose above the capital authorities

say at least fourteen devices went off throughout the city ranging from car bombs to hidden explosives while no one's taking responsibility the bombings come as tensions between shia and sunni muslims is reaching a boiling point it's also been less than a week since u.s. forces withdrew from the country behind an air of uncertainty middle east blogger karl shohreh thinks the dirty politics and broken promises could be the root of iraq's predicament. although we've been told in the past few years that american success in restoring security establishment a stable political order as thousand issuing a statement political or very before the last american soldier has actually left there are. in the process of completely raveling. so what we see now is due to kind of course of the prospects either a short bout of violence that hopefully common sense would prevail and there would be a return for a political solution or a complete breakdown which of the moment. sounds more and more plausible in which

those who don't have the political power and authority left to them by the kind of previous american average went in there by people who played the sectarian card for political gain to kind of just in for a space but that process is by far isn't over determined at this moment the iraqi people can and can still play their part and we've seen examples all across the middle east in order to kind of stop this cynical. conflict for power and kind of contain iraq from descending further into chaos. time now to continue our look back at the last twelve months with our teens ten reports on the events that shaped two thousand and eleven today egypt a country where a million man uprising became a springboard for a tide of riots and protests artie's polis leader shares what she went through reporting at the center of the arab spring.

i think my biggest impression from covering the egyptian story this is the status of betrayal and the anger that people in egypt still have there are hundreds of thousands of people who lost on arriving in times square as you can see many of them heating oil and occupation it was dangerous covering the egypt story as a journalist and i think it was even more dangerous because when that as a foreign journalist i remember when we gave them safe we we kept a very low profile we tried not to go too much into the quality 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 to them is necessarily the offices from which we go for cost and we took off all the science 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 and i'm talking to men and women because you're a woman or at least i think perhaps in a male colleague but i do feel frightened being a woman in tough experience that people. may believe it needs to be replaced. by barry would not i can tell me that anything i'd look for toughness square i want to female twenty whether it was an egyptian cameramen 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. since i can perceive the oneness notice in cairo and i remember doing

a lot of reports at night. i am not. married. 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 looking 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 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. there is one is there to i was very frightened and we were standing on the outskirts of tackle square i was talking to a group of people and as always have to speak to one person and then everybody comes to see what's happening and and people really really angry 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 when people started yelling and shouting not that they just wanted their voices to be heard but that the ex wanted to protest as journalists and the camera man that i was working with understood immediately ruff was happening he started screaming for me to get into the cockpit i remember the drive that because we had a driver that had been allocated to us came screeching down the road i mean looking pushed the crowd and the journalist did the kemah and was pushing into the comedy getting into the car he kind of flung himself in off to me in the crowd was banging on the cot as we sped away. and i don't even know if the word revolution is there why would but i don't think the revolution in egypt is over we've. just to save perhaps the same evolution of two revolutions but again the anger the frustration

the disappointment of hopes of not being realized is palpable on the streets of cairo if you will 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 and certainty that is sweeping the middle east there is a sense things are changing in another sense of no one not knowing exactly where and how and what ultimately these changes will bring. and archie's got more reports coming your way that you can catch every day until the new year that's more memories of two thousand and eleven for you to experience right here on our team so don't miss it there's news coming up next with dmitri stay with us. thanks matt economic achievements are high on present a bit of the gender and in the spotlight of his address to the federal state with

his turn as president coming to an end he pointed out that the russian economy has managed to grow faster than spears despite the global slowdown. of the lead 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 to the most developed countries we keep government debt at a very low level. abilities russia has become the world's sixth largest economy. the rest of president read of speech centered around the top economic priorities for the coming years and these include integration boosting competition and increasing the role of small business now economists jacob knell for morgan stanley russia believes may develop speech echoes recent statements by prime minister vladimir putin. what i see is a combined effort by both of them to articulate

a economic and political reform program you i think that if we think back to earlier in the year when you had a debate between medvedev who was talking about a program of reform and modernization and putin who is putting more stress on stability i think that we can now see what the choice of the leadership is and that is to go for a program of modernization short the impact of these reforms may be somewhat negative because we may see acceleration capital outflows in companies who may have an increase in uncertainty but in the medium term if these reforms are implemented i think that they. should improve russia's growth prospects and make the realization of the top line objectives of the reform program which are twenty five percent of g.d.p. in investment and six to seven percent growth rate that much more realizable. price take a look at the markets now and oil is going up even further ninety nine dollars seventy

cents for lights we just i'm not sure where from one hundred dollars a sharp drop in the u.s. crude stockpiles is overshadowing persistent worries that the eurozone debt crisis could global world demand and brenda's are also over sixty cents. u.s. stocks are also higher that after yet another decline in jobless claims visit these are signs that the u.s. economy is coming out of the crisis now jones is up by a quarter of a percent nasdaq by half a percent. european stock markets are also positive banks and miners they're the biggest gainers forty one percent the dax point nine percent that's fine take a look at the closing picture in russia where the mice and the r.t.s. managed to secure gains at the final seconds of trading while they were down for most of the day especially my six the. yes is up one percent my socks up by just a not reflecting a difference in the ruble currency exchange rate. what was moving the my

sex gazprom among energy shares was again up point six percent d.t.b. continued its decline after a sharp drop the previous day and after val's was gaining for others assertion but then dropped as it revealed its latest model lot of around. the podium of the global oil majors as witnessed a reshuffle as russia's ross neff became the biggest oil producer among public companies during the first nine months of the year it has produced one point six million tons more oil than its previous leader exxon mobil and the save the output of the us firm was hit by arab revolutions which led to an eighteen percent loss of its oil production in the region meanwhile ross nafta raised its output by two and a half percent and twenty eleven hopes to increase it by another one point two percent next year it's also planning to boost investment by thirty five percent in order to upgrade its reforms. so for now the headlines are next.