you're watching r.t. crowds of north koreans gathered at the start of the late leader's funeral but hopes of change under his successor are overshadowed by concerns of foreign nations one actually want to keep the status quo as we report this out. post mubarak egypt six to shape its international ties amid turmoil among certainty at home while its ousted leader trial finally resumes. and putin says he'd love to talk put there's no one to deal with the prime minister urges the opposition to get all denies so we can have a constructive dialogue with the government. hello

live from r t h q here in moscow it's kevin owen it is now midnight moscow time in our top story thousands of north koreans have been shown crying in the streets of pyongyang as they watched the funeral procession carrying their late leader kim jong il's youngest son and successor to lead the farewell ceremony which is expected to last for at least another day little is known of course about the heir kim jong but some are hoping his western education may see a more open country now however asia specialist dr tim beale thinks external influence will decide north korea's future as much as the next. as far as we know he was educated in switzerland long as you know. but i think that's grossly overestimating is freedom of action. in systems but also will mean you respect on the outside world and in respect to the americans so it is

not north korea since don't want to see americans who want to keep. constraint someone. it's like they want to contain china around different differently but it's all part of the same the same package so what kindle one can do is in many respects fairly limited. we will again we'll have to see but i don't really depends very much on the americans thought so for war correspondent eric margolis who thinks there's little chance of change in north korea because he thinks the military's excessive influence will prevail but it's good speculation that is his uncle is and some other members of the family are kind of pulling his strings but i think more important is the one point one million man north korean army for a father announced can draw forty guy well over

a year ago now it's the new policy of militarized north korea as it was insufficiently militarized. the whole country it's really as the quote frederick the great it's an army disguised as a country. and that's what's happened is great and the son military rule which to me says that it's unlikely there will be major western style reforms you because this means cutting spending on the military military so powerful it's well fed it has all the prerequisites and good position so does the communist party so that they will be a force against change rather than the fore. and i to manage to get some insight into the man a no holds the reins of north korea offering caught up with one of his former swiss school classmates his impressions of kim jong un or r t don't call me right now now while you're there as well you want to take part in our poll all about that all about north korea what do you think is going to happen next is the very question

that we're asking you this is what you're telling us a response that tonight more than half of you think nothing is going to change at all in the reclusive state as you can see there a fifth round about believe the new leader will hold little sway against an increase in the military might eight percent think may be more openness and freedom now in north korea slightly fewer of you believe the change at the top increase the chance of korean unification still a chance to have your voice heard at r.t. dot com. a tough period of post revolution uncertainty inside egypt isn't stopping the country from strengthening its international policy right now the foreign minister has been meeting his counterpart here in moscow where they've discussed the arab world turmoil and the frozen israeli palestinian peace talks could offer as our correspondent following that meeting. first of all this is agreed time for egypt to start we gaining some was positions on the international political stage since syria is in the spotlight the arab league has been able to

send observers into the country the organization's headquarters are in cairo so egypt is directly involved and of course syria was discussed at the meeting in moscow russian foreign minister said you know i would offer praise the fact that observers were finally allowed into syria at the same time both russia and egypt once again strongly criticized the boyles in the country but stood against any foreign military intervention egypt is also removed courtly to a regional where when it comes to the middle east peace process that was discussed at the meeting here as well but all of this comes as the situation in egypt itself is quite complicated i'm in the ongoing violent protests and the country being in the middle of the problem and she election with several islamist oriented to political parties taking court including the muslim brotherhood and the first round of the election showed that all of these parties combined managed to gather around

seventy percent of the vote so this is a good time for egypt to start regaining its international contacts. and the trial of egypt's ousted president resumed on wednesday to after three months of a break hosni mubarak's accused of corruption abuse in the killing of demonstrators during the january uprising in may face the death penalty if convicted egyptian genesis summer diet told this is an attempt to divert protests as attention in the battle against current leaders. well there is definitely a growing sense among especially among protesters that this trial is a mock trial basically designed to cool down the public opinion one of the reasons they are losing popularity is that the islamists like the mainly the muslim brotherhood did leave. because they're now move busy with the elections and the muslim brotherhood strategy now is to bring change through the parliament rather

than through the street. so who really remains in the square now is activists with the moves socialist tendency. who did not do very well in the elections and they see they still perceive the street. the main lobbying. platform. well of the arab league observers mission in syria has described the situation in the rest of city of homs is reassuring so far just to warn you some these images we've got here are graphic the flashpoint city of homs was the monitors first stop to investigate the government's response to the anti regime on grass opposition reports meanwhile suggest that at least six people were killed in one syrian town but supposin forces only wednesday we'll talk more about this latest progress and today fergus hodgson the policy advisor for the future of freedom foundation is in north carolina united states for us and joins us now on the line vice. good to see retards and thanks for being with us given that any arab

league's already putting pressure on the assad regime how do you assess its impartiality and his fact finding mission there so far. everyone has vested interest in in this situation all its own but all the parties that are being vocal about it we can assume that they close the action more understanding of it so. they are better situated to assess that in other international players so. they're not perfect but at least they're in a position in most not perfect because the criticism is the there's a worry that they're not impartial enough right that the reason is just that they to me the people who many of the nations within the arab states to do not want to be if there are fears intervene within so. likely or could be more likely to. give you information that would go against intervention in syria because they don't want that sort of intervention on themselves i mean as i just reported the head of

the arab league observers mission describe the situation in in homs where we saw an awful lot of violence lately one reassuring so far but the tanks are only pulled out yesterday just a couple of hours before those observers got there and it is it plausible that it could have come down so much in such a short time. well there's a good question. we have held strong this. syrian government be in terms of closing down all activities at that time. what i've just received there are new reports out that that quelling the violence is not being successful but i want to point out that the arab league is bringing five hundred people they only get fifty days or so i don't know how you can conceal anything from five hundred people over four months month period of time so it will provide a greater degree of transparency so even if they could quote in the short term and i doubt that they can keep it contained in such

a large investigation. and i guess the same goes for the worry that the opposition activists have that observers are going to be shown the real truth taken to the real places where the action is so to speak that they're not going to give in a completely free reign is that the worry or you think this investigation will be sufficient and big enough to counter any of that if it were to happen oh sure sure it's a worry but it's better than nothing i mean right now there is such limited media access that it is getting much more transparency and again i just want to say that it's five hundred people that are coming that's it's a large group that would have to be controlled and when it mean when you have the syrian government makes a actions to. constrain or hide things from that group they will undermine the very effort that make themselves look foolish and we know that they are under great pressure from out from international from other medical officials and face some kind of. intervention so they say it is in the interest to make this arab league

investigation transparent and up with a clear outcome as well know russia's word of a terrorist group centering syria to fight the regime with us the case and present the side pulls out the troops is being demanded who then can stop the extremists on the street. well i don't think they're going to he's going to allow that to happen . that would require much i don't see that happening we what we can say you can call the troops but what are you going to do with people of foreign upon policeman now i can see that. and i. mean how much of a worry do you think it is that extremists are coming in there causing trouble i begin to grieve of course so i mean. all of this as it has received so much coverage in the in the western media the syrian syrian officials at least of claim that two thousand military and policemen have been killed so that's a huge. concern syrian leaders agreed to free didn't pay seven hundred fifty five

anti government attorneys it was one of the conditions of the arab peace plan. do you think they happily agreed to that step or i mean you know is it i guess it was a sign of goodwill do you think to start with a good sign exactly that's not good but any international still claims that fifteen thousand people going to change so it's obviously not. still plenty more that could be and we don't know exactly who is being detained or what but it's still a very bleak picture so yes it is a sense of goodwill but there's plenty more that could be done in that regard thanks ever so much with the program for policy adviser the future of freedom foundation based in the u.s. like thank you here in just a few minutes the year the money in the pay should run out to greece. to take us to sort of a the case of the time and sort of mid sentence just thinking oh my god i just can't breathe anymore. surely our correspondence personal reflections from greece's r.t.

continues looking back at the events that shaped the year that we're just about saying goodbye to twenty eleven. but ima putin says he's open for talks with the opposition which organize the parliamentary protest rallies but there's no one to talk to the premier reaffirm that there is a need for a dialogue insisting there's always been a channel open between him and his rivals when it takes up the story the russian prime minister meeting with journalists earlier today when responding to their questions about the possible dialogue with the opposition he said that he is actually ready for that except at this point according to logic which in their opposition forces do not have any concrete programs or any leaders and their motivation is not quite clear so it's really hard for them to understand in what form of the dialogue should take place. we've never been against dialogue with the opposition because we're in constant talks with them we're only against one thing and i am personally against it and that's any kind of extremism any there are

a lot of different leaders in the opposition but they have to formulate a unified platform a single out a position so that we can actually understand what these people want. he also mentioned that seeing his own close close people close to him and his relatives sometimes interacting with certain authorities that he sometimes wants to go out and participate in a rally on his own he also said that the best president he would give to the russian people for new year's would be fair and free presidential elections in twenty twelve of course all of this comes just days after a monumental rally which was held in the square in the aftermath of the problem entry elections is russia's state duma tens of thousands of people came out on the streets protesting what they believed were unfair elections the people of greece will be glad to see the back of twenty eleven a year of cuts riots and vilification by other european nations for bringing them to the brink of collapse first reported for the very thick of it from the start now

she shares again her firsthand impressions of our continuing series reflecting the years events that change the world. i think in two thousand and eleven we really sort of felt the world shift and it's likely we saw people's protests nathan sort of spread around the world and greece is certainly for me very much on the front line of the fight and it became really the sort of the child the financial crisis it turned into a political crisis to became a social crisis and yet this does a saying that if you're a hammer everything looks like a nail if you push people into a corner then they're going to come out fighting and i think increased that was exactly what happened. the

first time in. reporting and they had a protest planned there remember in the morning. it was just off the corner syntagma very very close to central square as the year i think crisis rumbles on greece's once again found itself the focus of international attention and it seems like everyone had an opinion about it that you each other and going off and finishing to. getting a phone call to say that we need to do another one and at that exact moment we could hit the noises that we just like popping sounds it's a take us going off on the other corner syntagma. almost immediately you just get a huge surge of people coming policy i mean you can barely me. this is a really intense experience and you sort of when you're right in the center of it i can tell you what it's like to be around people. that. angry that they feel to

a point where they're having to turn outs and these sort of clashes abroad i mean it's really scary because it's not just. a small hall cool. these people you know old people young people completely normal families that are turning up that have just reached the point where they don't know what to do anymore. we literally found ourselves. the center. just side of one of the streets as the riot police started pushing back late at the anarchists these guys just went back into the people sort of running at them and throwing rocks and metal and it was just it was absolutely i was going off in different parts in time everyone was just sort of running around thinking very very you know it's and we were just stunned to be honest i mean it just going from one hundred in the space of sort of twenty minutes and we found ourselves right in the century and i

remember just saying just keep filming this just keep filming it and that made it very hard to even think that it was either a difficult time that. bad. as we. the people. who were trying to reports and eventually to take us they sort of a became both of us arm and sort of mid-sentence just thinking oh my god i just can't breathe anymore. and i remember seeing the fishes in the car and getting caught in the middle of the take us and just thinking oh that's just the thing coughing and

spluttering in. do you remember being quite embarrassed about that but then we realized that it obviously that clip caught a lot of people's attention and. and i think it actually felt good that it was striking a chord with a lot of people because at that time still there was very much a sense in europe in the way it was being reported that you know this is a problem that greece is having its a great problem and we were all sort of witnessing what was going on there and i think when we were increased we realized very very quickly that it wasn't just a greek problem and this is something that was going to face everyone. right from the very beginning we wanted the. story from a different angle we were much more interested in getting the social side of what was going on right now there's a chance you might lose everything that we know in this country you don't know what

. you karma you can't blame your lights i hope for everybody to be calm and. try to get out of the crisis if that was what was always important to us it is getting. the people increase getting their opinion across because i think a lot of their voices really have got lost in the whole political economic talk kind of forget what it's all about which is about you know the people who were there and you're talking to. the lucky in that's amazing people i mean every single time i've gone back there just a welcoming. well a year in spain well we'll continue to bring you more personal reflections from our team of correspondents worldwide as they reported on the headlines of twenty eleven if you missed out even there online as well at r.t. dot com. ok it's now just a tad after twenty past midnight here in moscow next thing elected deputies in

russia's lower house of parliament been gathering for the very first sessions of the find that if the fresh faces will herald any changes party talks to the man now in charge of the duma's foreign relations committee for next have it. to. you. i'm joined today by lexi push the newly appointed chairman of foreign affairs and the russian parliament alexei thank you for being with us you come from

a background in television what do you think that you're going to bring to this position that other people lack. well my big ground is larger than life but he. started my career as a diplomats in the united nations in geneva i was part of the russian delegation. soviet legation of. the committee on does armaments basically i never left the field of foreign policy studies so i would not say that i'm new to the area. it's a person like me can bring i think during my work on t.v. i got a pretty accurate. feeling of. what the russian population and the russian citizens. think of russian foreign policy

what kind of foreign policy they would like to. and. what image they have of their own country of themselves and how they place russia and themselves on the global scene i think it's very important that a nation. foreign policy matches the. image that the population would like to have of the foreign policy do you think that there's still a future for the reset and not reload policy promoted by barack president barack obama well i think that there may be a future. but i think that it's time to reset the reset the reasons. crisis a preset call to say. as stated. when the iraq obama came into power and when russia responded positively to. hillary clinton

offered. a love for during that meeting in february. my feeling is that a number of contradictions have accumulated since that time and the. biggest contradiction is the issue of the a.b.m. american a.b.m. system in europe. very tough statement which was made but me to me do it underscore . and we should mention the number of kontum measures that russia may take if the a.b.m. system is placed by the united states and europe without taking into account russian worries on this score going summits where mid-term inventive. nato leaders in the vendor last year was declared. a success but it was maybe a success in p.r. relations i mean. some of the spirit of the subject was positive but the results of

the summit with neal basically we. russia offered a certain plan which could have mean a compromise between russia and nato on the a.b.m. issue but this plan this suggestion was not accepted by nato do you think that both with russia and the u.s. having presidential elections and twenty twelve do you think that there's going to be some sort of impact on bilateral relations with that outcome. by letter alicia and especially such complicated relations as relations between russia and the united states and my feeling is that these elections will not be an exception and the effect will be negative the republicans taking a bomb from the right sometimes from fall. right positions and basically all those positions are quite interesting to be an architect of the reset policy is considered to be by the some of the republican candidates as

a sin so what kind of resent can we have. in these conditions i mean the administration will have to be sensitive to this attacks they cannot just you know pay no attention for these election times and as we know all this is of being modeled after the requirements of the electoral campaign obama cannot be insensitive to this criticism so i think we are in for a very hard year in russian you know solutions i think that in russia too the reason lot of disappointment with the reset russian. parliament or it's also russian population is of the russia has given more to the united states than it has received from the united states we made a number of steps which were quite important for the united states and the gotoh support for those their policies in the framework of the resets now what have you

got in return the admission of russia in their will you to zero basically i don't think it's really kind of pay off because those elections have been going on for almost twenty years and i seem russia was doomed to be signed a w two zero it was just a question a matter of time and when hillary clinton decided that it is. affordable for the u.s. administration to attack. russia on the results of the election this has just shown that all this state of reset between moscow and washington is extremely for john so i not very optimistic about the prospects of the reset in the electoral both in the united states and russia alexei pushkov i'd like to thank you for joining us it's been a pleasure. it's

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politically. more news today voss says once again flared up. in these.