dozens of new civilian deaths are reported in syria as the arab league gears up to monitor the implementation of a peace plan but hundreds of mercenaries from abroad are now allegedly fighting for regime change there too. shifting to the east pakistan with an eye on the future forges fresh ties with china after last month's deadly drone attack shattered it's already tense relations with the u.s. . and a blessing or a curse it's twenty years since the fall of the u.s.s.r. were opinion still split about whether breaking up the union was the best choice for its people.

live in direct from moscow we're watching r t you're most welcome my name's kevin zero in and it's just after midnight here now activists in syria claim twenty seven civilians have been killed by government troops over the last day it comes as the primary team of arab league observers is due to arrive in the country their mission is to implement a peace plan intended to ensure the regime ends its crackdown on the opposition damascus tonight is committing atrocities saying it's fighting an armed insurgency orchestrated from abroad backing up that claim hundreds of fighters from post gadhafi libya have allegedly flocked to help bring revolution the president the sand dollar libyans are now openly voicing their support for the syrian uprising as of his exam a boy found. a butcher and i doubt me the owner of this keep up shop in tripoli still undecided what's the most fitting term for syria's bashar al assad. shallots it is economic the biggest game in the world but the syria. other

syria. you can make it a lot of people here. out of solidarity with their arab brothers the owners of the shop have even put on display the syrian rebels tricolor but they're very firm on where the revolutionary support should be and we don't want syria and its soldiers we have. and our people such as syria these are just. on the subject we have we have enough but i think we want to leave. in less than three months libyan rebels have gone from being celebrated as liberators to being called occupiers tripoli residents rally almost every week calling on the armed militia to leave and for some of these young man who looked on adrenaline and willing to part with their rifles syria seems like the next logical destination. i don't know what we're all ready to join the syrian revolution and

with the help of allah we will make sure that what happened in libya will repeat itself in syria. libyan mother over the portraits of shady bar i now ubiquitous on the streets of tripoli some rebels even styling themselves to resemble the famous revolutionary. with the help of allah we can all belong to give aren't fighting for peace and freedom around the world. and it seems that che guevara's a dia of exporting revolutions have gotten a second birth in the middle east the arab spring has created a buoyant marketplace for soldiers of fortune they move from one revolution to another motivated by personal gain some by conviction are theirs by the venture if i put out a vision of freedom and for now it is the freedom to live by the gun. as a romantic and spontaneous as it may appear aiding the syrian uprising with

mercenaries may not be such a genuine move video women and children in syria gunned down by snipers are inbound on you tube while it's still unclear who is pulling the trigger there are terrorists who are shooting at civilians men women and children blind terrorism random killing simply for the purpose of destabilizing the country or from libya or from. pakistan foreign fighters have been brought in here by the cia and the other western services. one man's terrorist could easily be anonymous freedom fighter but for the united states it's now. a big hiking but hodge one of the leaders of chippewa a militia was once on the cia most wanted list today he's the face of the democratic leader who according to artist or says not a group of several hundred li been rebels to syria just last month. we can do in to

support the syrian people because we they are facing this situation before. it comes to be would. be would have to give i think. the use of soldiers of fortune is hardly new in this troubled region middle eastern rulers hard them for centuries a save cars against their own populations and it now looks like the history of mercenary. then the middle east has got to its new and no less bloody chapter in the we are at sea tripoli. come your way this disastrous chain reaction. suddenly there was there was panic cause outside of the car about to film the stand . and the police and the emergency workers suddenly just like the sounds it. was all inject release but i could understand there was the you could see the fear and it can also they were shouting tsunami literally yelling in my face to get back

into the car one of our team of international correspondents i have a band that looks back at the risks he had to take while reporting from the ravaged by the war power of nature. but his star facing a crisis in its relations with the us appears to be seeking more support from another powerful ally china ties with america have been all but severed following last month's deadly drone attack by the us military and this year's raid to kill osama bin loved without islam knowledge the pakistani president's no firming up his country's friendship with beijing holding talks with chinese officials last week just have changed professor of political science at hong kong city university says the two countries have an important cooperate of partnership that allows pakistan to counterbalance its relationship with the united states. has been between spece for the history of the people's republic of china increasingly pakistan.

has a certain strategic value to china certainly as for your no pakistan's relations with the united states are in difficulties because of the nato attack on military outposts last month washington d.c. we feel has to deliver the kind of policy demanded by the pakistani government and the same time it is very significant. chinese diplomat when he was in pakistan he met the president the prime minister the army chief of staff arguably the most powerful soldier in pakistan as well as the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and the head of the into services intelligence so it seems that china would be would have been ours to give more military aid to pakistan to balance against the weakening ties between pakistan and the united states and it's also possible

that time number they play a certain mediating role between the military and the government and certainly tensions between the tool have been high in the recent year also. it was a day to celebrate for so and want to commiserate for others it's twenty years since the soviet union was dissolved the fall of communist rule ended the cold war and created more than a dozen new nations but it also spot economic hardship and regional conflict that is a country approach over reports. even today many generate their own explanations for the fall of a global goliath but some putting it down to the role of just a few. i'll give you two reasons gorbachev and. the nineteen ninety one august coup was a turning point in the country's history with images of yeltsin standing on a tank creating a new hero yet for most here even that wasn't seen as causing a fiedel crack in the soviet union it was all very sudden and shocking

i mean there were people here even months before who were showing us that this was going to go on forever so all the billions and billions and billions that the u.s. and put into intelligence and forecasting all proved to be completely useless the collapse of the soviet union was not so much a revolution rather it was a peaceful divorce of former republics longing for independence but the breakup led to long lasting and painful consequences pushing your savings goal so use the collapse of the soviet union is the biggest geopolitical disaster of the twentieth century. and in that assessment let him or putin is not alone older many russians began enjoying freedoms never imagined in the u.s.s.r. sixty percent still believe the collapse did more harm than good twenty years on russians still seem undecided over how to treat of the legacy of the u.s.s.r.

in moscow most soviet names have long been a race from the streets and people's memories but some symbols of the past stand out so rigidly it can feel like those two decades. it's never happened this morning amanda worker and so took six years some thirty million dollars to restore out of and the government would consider taking down what is among the most famous unofficial symbols of the u.s.s.r. . a strong worker and a portly collective farmer were a symbol of crisp air a chance to billeted in a country with a planned economy everyone knew they would be provided with their metaphorical hammer and sickle and knew exactly how much to produce with them nineteen ninety one changed all that the post soviet economies were shattered their deficits skyrocketed production plunged and it took them years to get back on their feet in the last years of soviet union there was a possibility before for you to continue with for terror and political regime but

to liberalize the economy in the market in the same way as the charge. but among the political elite many didn't want to support the drive to modernize and in turn save the union instead they wanted to destroy it and during that descent many republics were plunged into ethnic violence after gaining independence or before when it was clear the union was falling apart it seems for you have a national minority started dragging the blanket to their side but there was at that time that georgia forcefully included self-assertive and of into its territories similar ethnic clashes between armenia and azerbaijan claimed the lives of over thirty thousand people one thousand people were killed in the transnistria conflict russia remains on a peacekeeping mission there at least a thousand people were killed in a post breakup clashes between georgia and south the search here and over one hundred thousand word displaced into g q stan the consequences were the worst sixty

thousand killed and over a million people displaced even mostly with self didn't feel secure. after the fall of the girl in the world brits a sigh of relief but it didn't last long when nato set about creating a new wall made of me sells the line steadily moved towards russia incorporating former soviet republics but leaving most out of europe's new security framework the west broke a number of promises to russia often russia could have expected that there wouldn't be a nato expansion that. russia itself would perhaps even join nato or become . a new system of european. collective security the feel of the year ceasar put an end to the cold war era forever a fundamental shift in global geopolitics with just

a few now calling the shots and without a powerful counterweight today's world remains far from secure sixteen grandchildren are teen. twenty years old we're asking what do you think about a rose interested in your opinion what do you think the collapse of the u.s.s.r. meant for the world we're asking that it r.t. dot com this is what you're telling me forty one percent of you say quote it would have been good if nato would collapse with it what is free of you're telling us it left the u.s. and its also the view that communism often hope for a better future is coming next with fourteen percent eleven percent take the view saying we're better off without quote the evil empire the chance to rule set out there is well i want to check out these stories we've got online for you how flashing dollar bills could give you a bad reputation the latest security advice in the united states says that paying with cash could brand you a terrorist suspect plus. every drop

fest of seeing their performance of russian carols classical favorites folk songs of the cabin he said from washington played by russia's renowned for the. now to continue our series looking back at some of the major events of twenty eleven through the eyes of our own correspondents who covered the today we're focusing on japan's earthquake and tsunami that killed over ten thousand and caused explosions at the fukushima nuclear plant artie's over bennett reflects on his experience reporting from japan in the hours after the tragedy. covering the earthquake and tsunami in japan was very difficult because i was actually on my own the cameraman and producing even visas so they had to wait i went with a flip camera a laptop when i was there i got

a satellite phone and so on the road i was trying to do live stream of or i could set up a satellite phone trying get a link. and when i actually got there that was when i fully understood the full force of the tsunami i didn't i didn't appreciate that until i actually saw the sea of the every lengths. and i remember actually one point standing up that the lamp to want on for a boat being perched on a on a on a road and just being dumped by the tsunami. and i was quite a surreal experience definitely. to begin with a very strange if you're in a building suddenly. you feel yourself shaking slightly and it's difficult to walk in a straight line for about thirty seconds and gradually these three days i actually got used to the tremors the strange as that sounds and suddenly there was there was panic i was outside of the car about to film a sound. and the police and the emergency workers saw me just

a sound saying. it was all in jack things but i could understand it was the you can see the fear and panic and also they were shouting in tsunami literally yelling in my face to get back into the car is no news crew there shouting at them to get back into the garden and go in and as fast as possible because there was this. and there's a threat of another that another tsunami there's been a tremor the tide proceeded and they thought another tsunami was coming so and then in those moments when. racing inland as fast as we could weaving our way in between all the day every. member looking around and thinking hang on a minute there's no shelter here. what it was he was destroyed in the previous tsunami and there's no high ground and the only way we're going to be safe is to actually. beat the water. i had

to take a taxi to sendai from tokyo to about ten hours because all the transport links were down arrived in the middle of the nights no hotels were open the only place to stay was actually a relief center and this was inside the local government offices and no people there who just lost everything all they had were the clothes on their bank whatever positions they had with them at the time the earthquake struck and clearly their houses have been destroyed and they will all they had been in the relief center was was a cardboard sheet of cardboard to lie on and i spend one not one night there i was pretty unbearable because it was very cold and there's very little food around one there were rations but the wood all they had was just a cucumber and a slice of bread so that was that was one meal actually. on top of this was also the fear of radiation because the situation to push him was just going from bad to worse and i was always in my mind it was

a very real fear you can see. amongst everyone else also. there wasn't any visible panic scene like it was in japanese culture to panic and such but more there was certainly fear this is a town of our war i around halfway between tokyo and fukushima i'm still one hundred fifty kilometers south of the nuclear power plant but already the radiation levels here over double that of those in tokyo were going to make meeting one young fan. one young couple with a newly born baby actually just. i think a week old or so spain born a couple of days before the before the earthquake and. the mother wasn't particularly well some of the she was very weak and obviously she wanted to stay put there from sendai but they had left they just didn't trust what the government was saying that this is situation in fukushima was under control and they just

wanted to get out they were heading heading to a kid by whatever means possible. and then suddenly the tempo changed when there was a third explosion and then the fourth explosion and different reactors in in fukushima one morning the happening very quick succession and suddenly. everyone was very scared. so all the news crews were. to suddenly packed up and left and that really difficult for me was i was on my own i didn't have anyone else to consult. and i just realized at that point ok i'm going to get out this is the start of japan's ravaged east coast norene like by that their bridges lie strewn all over the place here a wall collapsed over here ours is a fall and down such as the force of the tsunami this is also the point where we don't turn back because the dog account is reading the highest it has done all day one point zero four microsleep it's plain how obviously when i left japan. i feel

great relief because kareena story being very stressful i barely eat in numberless legs but the story for me wasn't over though until when i was back in moscow. the next day i had to get to the hospital rooms checked for radiation and thankfully i was clear. every day into the new year will bring in more personal reflections from our correspondents on the events that molded the news of twenty eleven those stories that they brought to you if you want to catch more of them as well there on our website r.t. dot com. will do it in brief now a suicide attack has killed at least seven in iraq and injured thirty two others by detonating a car bomb in the middle of the morning rush hour the bomber drove his vehicle into a security checkpoint outside the interior ministry five policemen are among the dead no words claimed responsibility yet but suicide attacks are all hallmarks of al qaeda in iraq it follows a series of bombings that killed at least seventy two people last week just a few days after u.s.

troops. international communities condemned sunday's bomb attacks in nigeria which claimed at least thirty nine lives including children the series of blasts took place outside churches and targeted worshipers during christmas day prayers the militant islamist group boko haram said it carried out the attacks the group wants to impose islamic sharia law cross the country which is split almost equally between christians and muslims. south korea's former first lady. heading a morning delegation to north korea to pay respects to the late leader kim jong il they've made youngest son kim jong un who's been named his successor now the groups in pyongyang as part of a two day visit but they're not representing the government the host said in a statement she hoped the trip would help improve relations between the two countries which are still technically at war the north korean leader died from a heart attack almost ten days ago. those who reported earlier twenty years ago the world's largest country ceased to exist next then we talked to

a man with inside knowledge who witnessed the unraveling of the soviet union firsthand. do you perhaps recall saying once that you do not understand what stopped the

president of the u.s.s.r. mikhail gorbachev from using military force in order to prevent the signing of the treaty enforcing the dissolution of the u.s.s.r. in one thousand nine hundred one do you think that the u.s.s.r. should have been preserved at any cost. you see i don't even think there was any need for military force what could have been done that's my opinion while others may have theirs but i think that the better russian military district could have been given an order to encircle the three leaders passing their time in bolivia sky pusha drunk and groggy on their legs just about to sign off these documents that they were jotting down on the spot and simply take them to their homes instead of arresting them and just take away these papers but this was not the key thing the key thing was and it was brought to gorbachev attention and i did tell him about it too in the presence of others that one should have started with an economic treaty if we had signed a treaty establishing a single economic space i think it would have been

a step towards preserving an upgraded modernized soviet union which could have freed itself from the dark. part of its legacy gorbachev gave a public response the next day after we had made the suggestions to him he said he didn't think an economic treaty should be signed first because he was sure it would jeopardize the signing of the political treaty which he thought had been pre-agreed one thing that wasn't considered properly was that once a single economic space is in place relevant supranational political structures will develop that's inevitable that's why we should have started with an economic treaty and many in fact were ready to go along with that even the baltic states were ready to go along with the idea of preserving a single economic space. if we look back at history any large inquiry disorder sooner or later do you think that having a single economics piece would have been enough to avert dissolution. of course it

wouldn't have been enough to put it would have been a huge contribution to averting dissolution and you see we can't really compare that situation with today for instance as they are completely different and that's because back then in the soviet union everything was centralized and existed as a single system and no one gained anything through dissolution no one did perhaps russia benefited a little more than others because it's larger and stronger and has a more developed economy put on a large scale no one gained anything that's beyond question by now the republics have evolved into sovereign states which have come a long way and developed a connections and relations with other states in the west and with china and so long those it's a completely different picture but even today creating a single economic space if it's done properly full scale and we currently have agreements with bella loosen kazakhstan pertaining to that and it's also possible that kyrgyzstan will join in if it all goes well it will be one of the pillars of

securing integrity and preventing any dissolution for them where they were just the ones that. it's possible to restore something similar to the soviet union through your asian economic community which comprises several core soviet republics. no i don't think of it as anything similar to the soviet union there's nothing today the can be similar to the soviet union in any way but integration is one of the driving forces of globalization and it's taking effect everywhere we go along with these forces and today we can say that the trans nationalisation tendency in business as well as integration process is at stake levels are the driving forces of today's reality so if we succeed in going along with them if we take over these forums and promote our agenda through them and this agenda will not differ much from that of the west we will additionally focus more on the national interests of each state i think it will be a great advantage no solution as you pointed out it is

a well known fact that economic problems were the primary contributing factor to the us the stars dissolution today it will look at the us and the e.u. shaken by a purple economic crisis can we expect an up or america to discourse at some point too similar to the way the u.s.s.r. did it and you know no i don't think so of course some serious impact is inevitable in the case of europe i recall a talk i had with a person i deeply respect former chancellor schmidt of west germany he is now ninety two or ninety three he's still a totally bright person i had an insightful conversation with him last year you know he said the events in the eurozone would have an impact he believes it could on the one hand lead to a deeper integration of a number of states within the e.u. in terms of foreign policy defense under the issues on the other hand the old timers of the union or who have complied with the requirements would have a different attitude to those who joined the union just recently. and here's the

final question on the u.s.s.r. promoted a certain ideology any strong state needs to have an ideology to give. russia has come up with some of its own. i used to go to now suddenly once they cooled a national idea has not been articulated yes well going we all work to make people's lives better and safer the demographic situation needs improving the economic model needs an overhaul sure because the one that was in place before the two thousand and eight crisis will not work in the future these challenges are evident was good and taken together your mortgage if they represent russia's national idea. thank you you're welcome. the least explain korea's. touched.

surrounded by steve. case paintings on display for thousands of years. more news today. again flared up. these are the images. from the streets.