crowds of north koreans gather at the start of their late leader's funeral but hopes of change and the his successor overshadowed by concerns of foreign nations might actually want to keep the status quo. post for barack egypt seeks to shape its international ties amid turmoil of uncertainty at home while his ousted leader is trial finally resumes. and putin says he'd love to talk but there's no the deal with the prime minister urges the opposition to get organized so it can have a constructive dialogue with the government. hello

one i am here in moscow you're watching r t live with me kevin owen and our top story thousands of north koreans have been shown crying on the streets of pyongyang as they watched the funeral procession carrying their late leader kim jong il's youngest son and successor lives a farewell ceremony which is expected to last for at least another day little is known of the egg kim jong il but some hoping his western education is sort of more open comfort now however age especially as dr bill things external influence of the cycle stories feature as much as the next kid. as far as we know he was educated above the education switzerland long as you know and i have no say but i think that's grossly overestimating is freedom of action. to the north korean system but also a leak in respect to the outside world and live in respect to the americans so. it

is not north korea and since don't want to open up that see americans who want to keep it. constrained somewhat like they want to contain china iran do something differently but it's all part of the same the same package so what kindo 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 forced to walk or support their margolis who thinks there's little chance of change in north korea because of the military's excessive influence. 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 the father announced kim jong il forty guy well or year ago now it's the new policy of militarized career as it was insufficient and 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 happening to this great and the some military rule which to me says that it's unlikely there will be major western style reforms 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 for. well we managed to get some insight into the man who no holds the reins in north korea after we caught up with one of these former swiss school classmates his impressions of kim jong il in iran r.t. dot com right now if you'd like to take a look if you're interested also we're asking what do you think is going to happen next in north korea it is the subject of a vote tonight this is what you're telling it so it's been panning out there sixty five percent is the main thing about most of you they're thinking that nothing at

all is going to change in the reclusive state looking the other figures about a fifth of yet twenty percent believe the new leader will hold little sway against an increasingly mighty military echoing what one of our guests for their only eight percent say there is going to be more openness and freedom in north korea now and slightly fewer seven percent believe the change at the top will increase the chance of korean unification ending on a positive thought just of your say r t v dot com. a tough period of post revolution uncertainty inside egypt isn't stopping the country from strengthening its international policy the foreign ministers meeting his counterpart here in moscow where they discussed the arab world turmoil and the frozen israeli palestinian peace talks artes of corpus can off followed that meeting. first of all this is a great time for egypt to start we gaining some was positions on the international political stage and 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 in of course syria was discussed at the meeting in moscow russian foreign minister said eleven off praise the fact that observers were finally allowed into syria at the same time both russia and egypt once again strongly criticized the violence in the country but stood against any foreign military intervention egypt is also we poured into 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 after a three month break hosni mubarak's accused of corruption abuse of the killing of demonstrators during the january uprising and may face the death penalty if convicted egyptian journalist osama diab told us is an attempt he thinks to divert protesters attention from their battle against the currently is. 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 there is. mainly that mr brotherhood did leave did leave the square because they're now moved busy with the elections and the muslim brotherhood strategy now is to bring change through the parliament for other than through the street at least quest quieter now so who really remains in the

square now is activists with a more socialist tendency almost more socialist agenda who did not do very well in the elections and they see they still perceive the street. the main lobbying. platform they had of the arab league observers mission in syria has described the situation in the restive city of homs as reassuring so far and just to warn you some of the images you can see. the flash point city of homs was the monitors first stop to investigate the government's response to the encouraging. opposition reports so suggests that the six people killed in one syrian town but a force of wednesday london based middle east expert told me he thinks the observers findings are unlikely to prove the situation. obviously the syrians let in the monitors to show that they're not. all thinking they'd find nothing but

believe has been one of the most amazing in the arab world for a long long trying doing nothing. doing nothing to prevent the war on iraq and now it's being used as a name shield by the west so i don't take the arab league as such too seriously so we shall see what happens of it. earlier i spoke exclusively to russia's u.n. ambassador who said the assad regime should stop using force against its own people but the tally check it believes the country has no chance of carrying out promised reforms during a civil war that's packed with extremists we believe that there has been there been some extremely troubling reports coming out of syria about excessive use of force by those already is but also telling everybody must put pressure on. the destructive elements of the of the opposition or various destructive elements

which may have found their way into syria that they are a while and acts are not going to be condoned by the international community this is a this is a key to finding a peaceful way out of the situation some reforms were announced. some of them we have pretty far reaching like changing the constitution and getting rid of the political monopoly of one party even under normal circumstances in any country forms of such magnitude are not easy to implement all that in a situation where. there is an armed conflict being encouraged from various quarters one would see weapons being moved. illegally into syria all that of course becomes a separate conversation if you'd like to see more i can let you know awful exclusive interview with russia's u.n. ambassadors now stripping on our web site of managed to quiz the gentleman for about half an hour earlier on yesterday but the major international stories of twenty eleven and how he thinks they're going to develop into twenty twelve is an

interesting chat for talley's chickens thoughts about the arab spring iran's nuclear program mideast it's all on the radar dot com. here in a few minutes the year the money and the patience run out in greece. to try to force eventually to take us to sort of a became database island sort of mid sentence just thinking oh my god i just can't breathe anymore. shortly our correspondence personal reflections from greece as we continue looking back at the events that shaped twenty eleven. or oil prices have surged after iran's threaten to block shipments through one of the world's busiest waterways if you western sanctions cripple its own exports and the country's navy commander says the cut off will be easy to inflict iran is currently conducting a huge war gave me the crucial homo's straits with some cutting edge torpedoes an unmanned aircraft taking part in it now the drill spans the largest area of

international waters the country's ever used for such maneuvers this is the u.s. is also maintaining a naval presence in the persian gulf and says it won't allow passage to be blocked political analyst chris bambery told us he believes the west's putting world peace on the line right now with its stubbornness about sanctions. that americans could probably force using the military which in the gulf could probably force open the straits of hormuz but that would mean war with iran and that would be a huge huge escalation and would threaten world peace and therefore i think the iranians are really challenging the americans sensing the american weakness we know that both from british sources that there are plans to attack iran and israel is egging on america to attack iran over the question of its nuclear program but i think again in a comparison with iraq in two thousand and three iran is in a much stronger position iranian nationalism should not be should not be

underestimated even opponents armitage about would rally to support iran's given britain and america's history in iran and there's a long history of unfortunate british or american intervention in iraq so i think we're witnessing quite a dangerous escalation and it's the sanctions which the west the talk of the importance of iran which is responsible for that situation developing i think we should be clear about that is the west who've racked up this situation every step that they were putin says he's open for talks with the opposition which organize the parliamentary protest rallies but he says there's no one to talk to the problem reaffirmed there is a need for dialogue insisting there's always been the channel between him and his rivals parties or in english that takes up the story. 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 for at this point according to 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 order 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 any kind of extremism and there are a lot of different leaders in the opposition but they have to formulate a unified plan for a single out of 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 the rally on his own he also said that at the best president he would give to the russian people for new years would be fair 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 it's russia's state duma tens of thousands of people came out on

the streets protesting what they believe were fair elections. across the changes in russia's political world as you expect to bring online with us at our home we have other kinds of movers and shakers there as well to tell you about a hollywood blockbuster about an important clue doesn't sound interesting until you read all no ordinary money here it's about the power the scandal of one of the big stories this year that sent the former i.m.f. chief into the tabloids more online. and how the cia taps into your tweets we look at why it's plowed through millions of best jews a day on the social networks. the people greece will be glad to see the back of twenty eleven

a year of cuts vilification by other european nations to bring them to the brink of collapse sarah first reported from the very thick of it from the start she now shares her firsthand impressions in our continuing series reflecting the years of the change the world. i think in two thousand and eleven we really sort of felt the world shift and. we saw people's protests nathan sort of spread around the world and greece is certainly for me very much on the front line. and it became really the sort of pace to child the financial crisis it turned into a political crisis 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 i remember in the morning. they call in a very very close to central square at the euro is saying crisis rumbles own grief has once again found itself the focus of international attention and it seems like everyone had an opinion about that yea i remember going off and finishing to. coming back and getting a phone call to say that we needed to do another one and 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. 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 abrupt 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 on the. side of one of the streets as all the riot police. and these guys just came down you know the people sort of running at them and throwing rocks and metal and. it was absolutely. going off in different parts in time and everyone was just sort of running around very very lowest 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 sense of and i remember just saying just keep filming this just keep filming it and they made it very hard to. even think that if it was even a difficult time that. bad. as we. the people. who were trying to reports and eventually did take us they sort of a became time and sort of mid-sentence just thinking oh my god i just can't breathe anymore. and i

remember being the fifth in the car and getting caught in the middle of the take gas and just thinking oh it's just. this thing coughing and spluttering in. i remember being in virus about. then we realized that it only see that clip quite a lot of people's attention. 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 with paul said you know this is a problem that greece is having is a great problem and we were all sort of witnessing what was going on and i think when we were increased we realized very very quickly that it wasn't just. something that was going to face everyone. right from the very beginning we wanted to see. 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 may lose everything that we know in this country you don't know what. you can plan your life 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 talking to. him that's amazing people i mean every single time i've gone back they just say welcoming. you're very true and so then i will continue to bring you more personal reflections from our team of correspondents world waters the reporter who dogged the headlines of the year that we're just leaving if you missed any of it you joined the series as well with more culturally more. next the newly

elected deputies of russia's lower house of parliament to be gathering for their very first sessions to father if the fresh faces were over the changes are to you know talk to the man in charge of the duma's foreign relations committee. i'm joined today by lexi push the newly appointed chairman of foreign affairs and

the russian parliament say 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 to be i have 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. 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 images 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 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 for resets but i think that it's time to reset the reset the reasons. crisis. as stated. when iraq obama came into power and when russia responded positively to. the hillary clinton

were offered sort of a lover all during that meeting in february two thousand and nine. and 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 by 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 the russian worries on this score going summits where intermediate if. nato leaders in the member. was declared. a success but it was maybe a success in p.r.

relations i mean. the spirit of the summit was positive but the results of the summit with winnie. 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 all with. bilateral relations 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 of from the right sometimes from far right positions and basically hold those positions or. to russia to be an architect of the reset policy is considered

to be by the some of the republican candidates is 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. pay no attention for the election times and as we know all this is a 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 russia you know solutions i think that in russia too the reason lot of disappointment with the reset russian. parliament or it's also the russian population is of the union that 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 to go to

support for those their policies in the framework of the reset now. what have we got in return the admission of russia in there will you go basically i don't think it's really a kind of payoff because those elections have been going on for almost twenty years and i seem russia was doomed to be inside the w t o 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 jal so i not very optimistic about the prospects of the reset in the electoral both in the united states and russia. like to thank you for joining us it's been a pleasure. exit

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